Chapter 2850
Despite the low mining efficiency, the rich iron ore resources near Anshan still impressed Baikes and his party. According to Chen Yixin, if you dig a hole at the foot of the mountain and dig a few feet down, you will be able to see the veins of iron ore. And any mineral vein here would take hundreds or more years to dig out.
Although the grade of the ore here is average, the veins are concentrated and the reserves are large, and the sulfur and phosphorus content are low. Mining and beneficiation are relatively easy, so the development cost is relatively low. There are also coal mines being mined in Liaoyang, which can supply the needs for ore smelting and metal processing nearby. Coal and iron resources are so concentrated that if a large industrial base is not built here, it will be a waste of resources.
After visiting two iron ore mines under mining, Chen Yixin took everyone to see a nearby industrial base under construction.
Similar to the layout of several existing coal-iron composite industrial bases in Haihan, it also has the smelting industry as its core, supplemented by various downstream industries. Several blast furnaces have been built on the plain, with a series of work sheds and several hill-like ore piles nearby. There are many places in the distance where foundations are being excavated, and it seems that they are preparing to build factory buildings.
"The planning of the industrial zone has been completed, and construction is currently underway. The biggest problem, as you have seen, is that there are not enough manpower." Chen Yixin pointed to the construction site covering an area of several thousand acres and said: " There are a lot of job opportunities. As long as there is enough labor force, it will become the largest coal and iron industry base in the north within two or three years. It is only a matter of time before the production scale exceeds that of the Datong River. "
This industrial zone will bring thousands of jobs to the local area right from the construction stage. After it is put into operation, Liaoyang City will gradually transform from a traditional regional administrative center into the first heavy industrial city in Liaodong region.
Although the construction progress here is still at the beginning stage, Chen Yixin's ambitions in developing industry can already be seen. These industrial projects not only require huge investment, but also have a long construction period and cannot achieve profitability in the short term. However, the development effects they bring to this region after completion can last at least a hundred years, enough to benefit several generations.
Now everything is ready, all we need is Dongfeng. As long as enough labor is introduced here, even if there are fewer mechanical equipment and the production technology is a little backward, it will be enough to make this place run and produce a large amount of steel, providing the necessary conditions for the development of industry in the northern region.
Compared with the elderly who have personally experienced the process of founding the country, the younger generation is obviously more susceptible to the grand development plan. They soon became supporters of the industrialization process in the northern region and believed that the development route planned by Chen Yixin was the best solution. plan.
After arriving in Liaoyang City, several young people continued to discuss Anshan Industrial Base with unabated enthusiasm, which even greatly overshadowed their novelty of the historical ancient city of Liaoyang.
In fact, Liaoyang City still has some places worth visiting. First of all, the structure of this city is very different from ordinary cities. The average city in this era was basically in the shape of a "k", but Liaoyang City was an exception. It was connected by two cities in the north and south. When viewed from the air, it looked like a "sun".
The two cities are larger in the south and smaller in the north. The area of the south city is about twice that of the north city. There are six gates in the south city and three gates in the north city. The city wall is three feet high, the city perimeter is twenty-four miles, and there is a moat outside the city. Various local government offices are concentrated in Nancheng.
Under the command of Nurhaci, the Later Jin Army captured Liaoyang as early as 1621, and then moved the capital here from Hetuala in the north. However, Liaoyang did not serve as the capital of the Later Jin Dynasty for too long. Only four years later, Nurhachi ordered the capital to be moved back to Shenyang in the north. But even so, the Later Jin Dynasty and even the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which later changed its name, attached great importance to Liaoyang City, carried out large-scale renovation and reinforcement of the city defense, and operated it as a fortress outside Shenyang. Therefore, when the Haihan Army attacked here a few years ago, it still took a lot of effort to conquer the city.
Although the Haihan Army attacked fiercely at that time, it was still very troublesome for such a well-defended fortified city. The large-scale bombardment lasted for several days before finally breaking through Liaoyang City. According to post-war statistics, the Haihan Army fired more than 3,000 artillery shells at Liaoyang City during the siege, which shows how fierce the battle was at that time.
Moreover, due to the special structural layout of Liaoyang City, it was quite difficult for the Haihan Army to clear out the remaining defenders in the city after they breached the city. The time it took to capture this place was far longer than that of places such as Gaizhou and Haizhou.
However, Haihan did not intend to continue to operate this place as a military fortress, so he did not repair the damaged city defenses after the war, and even demolished a large section of the damaged city wall to widen the roads in and out of the city.
There is nothing wrong with this arrangement. After all, Liaoyang will be positioned as a heavy industry center in the future. It is still several hundred miles away from the northern border. Haihan and Manchu have already attacked and defended the foreign position. There is indeed no need to stock up troops here.
From the north of Liaoyang to Shenyang, it is an open plain. It used to be thousands of miles of fertile land. However, because the Manchu Qing Dynasty moved all the people away when they retreated north, most of the fertile land here has been abandoned because no one is cultivating it. This has also changed from This aspect once again confirms the current situation of severe labor shortage in Liaodong region.
"If the Liaohe Plain west of the line from Gaizhou to Shenyang is used for farming and growing grain, it can easily feed millions of people. Everything in Liaodong is good, but the population is too small. Without labor, no matter how good the industry is, it will only be slow. Development.”
Chen Yixin reminded Bai Kesi and his party all the time that only by solving the population problem in Liaodong can this product-rich region enter the normal development stage and create wealth for the country. But what Baikes has to weigh is not just the population issue. The associated reactions are what he needs to seriously consider.
The official roads between Liaoyang and Shenyang were extremely well maintained, and it is said that most of the credit for this must go to the Manchus. In order to ensure the efficiency of transporting materials and personnel between the two places, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties carried out extensive renovations on the hundreds of miles of official roads, which basically did not have to be hardened.
The transportation plan of the Northern Region does not stop there. In addition to the original official roads, Chen Yixin also plans to build a freight railway between Shenyang and Liaoyang so that the coal and iron produced near Shenyang can also be transported to Liaoyang for processing. Processing operations. You must know that the coal and iron mineral resources near Shenyang are no less than those in Liaoyang.
However, this large-scale project with far-reaching impact is currently facing the same problem as other planned projects - to start building this railway, at least several thousand people must be gathered first, but for the northern region, this can be It is much more difficult than preparing the funds required for the project.
(End of chapter)