Chapter 2849
Bai Kesi actually only said half of what he said, and the other half was stuffy in his stomach. Even when talking to his son, Bai Kesi did not express all his thoughts. After all, there are some operations under the table that are not suitable for young people who lack experience to know.
In fact, Bai Kesi had already determined that Chen Yixin had a plan for a long time. The reason why he did not propose it during the inspection of the Denglai area was to wait for them to arrive in Liaodong before discussing it. The purpose was to let them see the actual situation here first. , in order to enhance the persuasiveness so that the Executive Committee agrees to some development strategies of the Northern Region.
Haihan has a large number of valuable mineral deposits that can be developed in the jurisdiction of Liaodong, and has the basic conditions for establishing an industrial system. However, the shortage of labor force will obviously restrict this development direction, so it will obtain population from neighboring countries, mainly the Ming Dynasty. It becomes the best solution to the problem.
In order to achieve this goal, exerting military pressure on the target will inevitably be one of the methods that the Northern Region will adopt. To achieve this, the size of the existing armed forces in the Northern Region is inevitably a bit stretched, so military expansion and preparations for war will naturally be included in the agenda.
Expanding the army and building industry are two plans that Chen Yixin had proposed earlier. The population needs of the Liaodong region naturally connect these two plans. This is of course not a coincidence. Bai Kesi believes that this is Chen Yixin's overall plan.
The young man who followed Wang Tom, Qian Tiandun and others in the past is now a high-ranking official in charge of the northern region, with tens of thousands of soldiers under his command. Several neighboring countries also have to look at his face. It is no exaggeration to say that even if he divides the territory and establishes himself as king now, he will be strong enough to gain a foothold in the area from Liaodong Peninsula to Shandong Peninsula. If it is strengthened in terms of military and industry, the independence of the northern region will inevitably grow further.
Bai Kesi does not doubt Chen Yixin's loyalty to the country, but if the Northern Region wants to have wind, rain, money, food and arms, will there be a risk of losing control in the future? That is something the executive committee must consider. question.
It's just that this kind of consideration is not enough for outsiders, and it is impossible to clarify it to Chen Yixin. Bai Kesi can only make judgments based on the limited information he has. However, the inspection trip is still in progress at this time, so there is no need for Baikes to rush to a conclusion.
After resting for a day in Haicheng, the group continued to set off. One hundred and twenty miles to the northwest is Liaoyang City, an important town in Liaodong.
Liaoyang is one of the oldest cities in the Liaodong region. As early as the Warring States Period, it was designated as the seat of Liaodong County by the State of Yan. In subsequent dynasties, Liaoyang has always been a regional central city. The Andong Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty, the Liaoyang Province of the Yuan Dynasty, and the Liaodong Commandery Division of the Ming Dynasty all set their administrative offices in Liaoyang City.
Liaoyang is of extraordinary significance to Haihan. The underground here contains rich mineral resources. Coal and iron mines do not even need to be explored. They are all ready-made. Its reserves are enough to support the production needs of a large-scale coal-iron composite industry. . Especially in the Anshan area south of Liaoyang City, the iron ore reserves are the largest under Haihan's rule, enough to be mined for hundreds of years.
On the way to Liaoyang, the group first visited an iron ore mine in Anshan. However, the mining conditions here are significantly different from those in the Denglai area of Shandong. Whether it is the number of miners, mining machinery, or mining methods and scale, they are much worse than those in Shandong.
As far as the eye can see, most of the operating areas in the mine are mined and transported manually by miners, and there are not even many mules and horses. The efficiency of its operation can be imagined.
"This mine has been mined during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but ironically, the production capacity after we took over is not as good as before. You have also seen the reason. There used to be more than 3,000 miners here all year round. , Now there are less than a thousand, and there is a lack of mining equipment, so the production capacity can be imagined." Liu Shang introduced the situation of this mine to everyone, with regret and unwillingness in his tone, obviously concerned about the production situation of the mine. Not satisfied: "The mining conditions of the iron mines we operate in the Datong River Basin in North Korea are much better than here!"
In fact, this analogy is not very fair. As early as 1637, Haihan took advantage of the opportunity to aid Korea to fight against the Qing Dynasty and began to take over the Datong River area in northern Korea. After repelling the Qing army, he immediately began to exploit the local coal and iron deposits. The mining started more than ten years before Haihan took over the place, so it is not surprising that there is a gap in the production capacity of the mine.
However, Liu Shang's purpose of using this example is obviously to highlight that the main reason for the unsatisfactory local iron ore production situation is the labor shortage, and deliberately blur the differences in the production environment between the two places.
This kind of deliberate cry of suffering will definitely not scare Bai Kesi who knows the inside story, but it can touch the young people who come here for the first time.
Bai Letong responded: "The Liaodong coal-iron composite industry planned by the Northern Region should not be feasible with such a production level, right? It seems that we still have to try to solve the demand for labor as soon as possible."
Ning Zijing also added: "There are also mining machinery and equipment required for production. It seems that we have to find ways to supplement them. Relying on manpower alone, the mining efficiency is too low."
They are used to seeing the mines in Haihan that use construction machinery for mining, and they always feel that this is the normal way of operation. However, they do not know that in this era, almost all places except Haihan use this method of manual mining. Although manual mining is inefficient, it is not without merit.
Although Haihan's mining method is more efficient, in addition to the technical requirements, the economic investment is also huge, and the preparation period is much longer than manual mining. Just so many large mining machines have to be transported to the mine. It takes several months to formulate a mining plan and complete installation and commissioning. As long as the labor force is in place, manual mining can start in just a few days. Compared with expensive mechanical equipment, the cost of using labor is also very low.
Even if Haihan masters advanced mining engineering technology, the specific mining method must weigh the return on input and output before making corresponding decisions. Not every mine can use a large number of mining engineering machinery to mine like the places Bai Letong and others have been to.
For example, the tin mines mined by Haihan on Bangka Island and Belitung Island in the South China Sea in his early years were far away from Sanya, and there were relatively few mining equipment at that time, and the value of the minerals produced was also relatively limited. Therefore, for a long time During this period, local mining operations were carried out manually.
As for the mining method used in the mines in Liaodong, it can only be determined after comprehensive consideration of various objective conditions. But one thing is certain, the Northern Region certainly does not have any funding problems, as can be seen from the operation of the mines in the Denglai region. The reason why the gap between the two places is so obvious, Bai Kesi even suspected that Chen Yixin did it intentionally. The purpose was to highlight the population shortcomings of the Liaodong region and then prompt the Executive Committee to approve the northern region's population expansion plan.
(End of chapter)