Zhang Mingliang was full of worries and kept thinking about whether there would be new news coming from the Marquis' Mansion, whether the Marquis of Nan'an could turn the danger into safety and lead the army to drive away the thieves. He couldn't help but wonder if there would be the worst news coming. Before the pirates arrived, if the Marquis of Nan'an could not afford to get sick, it would be completely over.

The crowd kept walking in the sea of ​​grass, from afternoon to evening, and walked about forty miles. During this period, they encountered several indigenous people. This was not common in the south before. The plains in the south were too large, and the indigenous people on the island were only about 100,000. The mountainous areas in the south were not as high as the north. Yushan was a snow-covered mountain with snow all year round. Many indigenous people were also active in the semi-plain.

The south is mostly in the mountains, and there are small basins in the mountains that are suitable for farming. However, because the entire island is too large and the development of indigenous civilization is too low-end, most of the alpine people still make a living by hunting, and exchange deer skin and sand gold for some food and necessities. Only women are not suitable for hunting, they will plant some buckwheat and sorghum in the basins in the mountains, but they have no experience or level of farming and just throw seeds, but the harvest is also good because the climate of Dongfan Island is so good. However, in the eyes of the Han people, this harvest is completely ruining the fertile land and seeds.

In the north, many indigenous people farm in the basin. Their community is not small, but they are almost abandoned. There are only a few rice ears, sorghum stalks, and buckwheat poles. It can be seen that some places have been farmed.

For some soldiers and craftsmen such as Zhang Zhong, this way of arable land is a waste of resources. They admired that on Fujian Road, no matter which military prefecture, these good plots and good fields near the water can produce high-yield crops. These soils can be used to produce oil. Moreover, there is a better place in the central part than in the south. The land here is almost all paddy fields. No matter which road or military prefecture is in the Great Wei Dynasty, the price of paddy fields is many times higher than that of dry fields, because dry fields are difficult to cultivate, which requires multiple times of energy, and the harvest is far less than that of paddy fields.

In the south, the Hou Mansion opened a large number of land acres, which was much faster than the Ming Zheng in another time and space. Zheng Chenggong had the help of capable officials such as Chen Yonghua, and brought a large number of royal families and civil and military officials in the Southern Ming Dynasty, allowing them to enclose land and cultivate land, and there were many official households and land. In addition, they moved to Zhangzhou and Quanzhou to immigrate to settle down. However, when the Ming and Zheng ended, the island had a population of only more than 200,000 people, and the cultivated land was only hundreds of thousands of acres. This efficiency and speed were too slow.

In the development of the central and northern regions, Xu Zixian's plan is to focus on the central regions, which is actually related to the changes in Jianzhou.

There are a large number of miners in Jianzhou unemployed and the place is in chaos. Wang Yue actually wanted to reshuffle the mining iron industry and support the agents he believed in. This is why he forced Tingzhou merchants. Zhang Mingliang was a disaster. But Wang Yue was very optimistic and the Jianzhou side became more and more chaotic. Now it is not only Wang Yue blocking Nan'an and not trading iron tools with Nan'an Hou Mansion, but foreign merchants came to Jianzhou with money, and they also found it difficult to find qualified iron merchants to trade.

Fujian Railway sells the world, accounting for about 30% of the national iron industry, with Fujian accounting for 30% to 40% of the world, and most of them are high-quality iron at high prices. This share says everything.

Jianzhou accounts for 60% to 70% of Fujian Railways. The chaos in Jianzhou's iron industry has affected the overall situation of the world. That is, the court is indulging in the Northern Expedition. The two governments and the three departments are not concerned about this matter now, and the iron tools have long been reserved. Otherwise, Wang Yue should have been replaced just because he had such a big mess.

Xu Zi first wanted to develop the central area, not because he was interested in the basin plain here. There was still a lot of land in the south that had not been developed. Almost all the plain areas of 5,000 square kilometers could be developed into arable land. With the Dongfan population of less than 100,000 people, there was still a lot of surplus in the areas where it could be developed, so there was no need to rush to develop in the central area.

In fact, until the middle of the Qing Dynasty, there were scattered forts in the central and northern regions, and only more than 10,000 acres of land were developed.

Later, the population surged to more than three million. With Dajiaxi as the center, the Taiwan Prefecture was established, Taipei Prefecture was established in the north, and counties were established, and the northern and central areas were gradually developed.

Xu Zixian's training plan was not only for the army, but also for the points set up in the central part of the army to have a place to settle down. Instead, it will gradually build military forts, villages, set up hundreds of households, and move the people to open up land and settle down here.

And the more important idea is to dig coal here

Mine and iron ore, build your own iron industry.

This is the top priority!

The coal reserves in Dongfan are quite high. Although there is a low level of bituminous coal, the quantity is sufficient for a large-scale development for decades. The iron ore reserves are not large, and the iron ore quality is also very average. However, with the current development and casting level, it is enough.

The most important thing is that there are several large coal mines in the central and northern part of the Dongfan. The first modern coal mine in the Dongfan was in the central part and was mined for a long time.

As for iron ore, there is also an iron ore in the mountains from the central to the northern region. It is not large in scale, but the advantage is that it is shallow veins. The ore quality is poor, and it can also be solved by better smelting technology. Xu Zixian is quite confident about this.

Now Zhang Mingliang and his group came out to determine the location of the iron ore and coal mines, determine the distance range, calculate the cost, manpower required, and everything.

In the evening, people camped in the grass from the depths, soldiers were responsible for setting up tents, and craftsmen, Zhang Mingliang and others set up a piece of open space, boiled water and boiled dry food, and everyone exchanged greetings and chatted.

If everything is normal, people will be full of confidence and will be very interested, but Zhang Mingliang is full of worries, Zhang Zhong and others are also quite depressed. Everyone is worried about situations hundreds of miles away. Under such pressure, except for the motivation to do serious things, there is no other thought.

Before dark, Sun Rulan sent some cavalry to the surrounding sergeants to determine the rotating personnel and cordons. Although the natives were gentle, they were better to be cautious.

After dawn, I continued walking. Zhang Mingliang felt that if there was a coal mine beyond this distance, the cost of excavation would be too high.

Fortunately, at the end of the Chen Dynasty, people clearly saw the place where Coal Mountain is.

It is a coal mountain. The large number of black ore layers are quite clear, with almost no plants and trees. The upper layer of the coal mine is only shallow soil layer. In some cracks, people can clearly see where the ore layer is located.

It is indeed not a high-quality coal stone. Compared with some coals in the north, the coal seams here are relatively loose and have different colors and shades. It is obviously a poor bituminous coal.

In fact, the anthracite reserves in the entire China are quite average, and it can even be said to be extremely small.

Not far from Yingzhou and across from the river, the coal mines there are also amazing reserves, and there are quite a wealth of high-quality anthracite.

Strangely, there are also a large number of high-quality anthracite mines on the Mongolian grasslands in the north. In later generations, these two places became two important places for China to import high-quality coal.

Zhang Mingliang reached his hand to the coal seam and tried to stir it. He felt that the pressure in the mineral seam was not too high. He grabbed his hand and had already grabbed a handful of black coal gravel.

"Very time." Zhang Mingliang said to Sun Rulan and others who looked expectant: "It's almost lignite. This coal is too impurities, so it's almost impossible to use it for iron smelting."

"Is there no good way?"

"It can only be used to make water, fire and charcoal, but there are some mine owners from the Fa Jingshi and Hedong Road, but they are not passed on." Zhang Mingliang looked worried, opened his palms, and the black-grained coal stones fell down and fell on the ground.

"The king and the king will have a solution," Sun Rulan smiled and said, "At that time, the king and the king had explained that there were two coal mines from the central to the northeast and southeast, so there were rumors that there were two coal mines. To be honest, we have seen the southeast. The mine vein layer should be deeper, but we just can't be sure which side of the coal is better. Since they are all inferior, we naturally choose one that is easy to build roads and closer."

"Is this in front of you?"

"Yes." Sun Rulan said: "This mine is two and a half days away from the port, and it is mostly hilly and mountainous. Mr. Zhang should have found that we walk at the speed of people and ordinary men or rushing big trucks. It is only forty miles a day. In fact, if the road is repaired, it is not too difficult to walk seventy or eighty miles a day. If it is eighty miles a day, it is actually only a day and a half distance, which is not too far."

"You've explored it earlier?"

"As early as a month ago, we were ordered to start doing this." Sun Rulan's face was a little dark, and he said, "At that time, Junhou was in a very high mood and seemed to have said some very happy words."

Xu Zixian was very interested, which was something that could be seen by Sun Rulan, a rude person.

Of course, Xu Zixian's interest would be very high, which is not very obvious? Wang Yue's 25-year-old scholar messed up Jianzhou. In the end, he always felt that he had suffered a loss, either making money or trying to go to a higher position. Wang Yue was honest and dedicated in the first half of his life. When he was a censor, he was famous for his integrity and courage. Now he is over 60 years old. If he wants to be shamed, he can consider resigning.

But at this moment, this old official suddenly felt that he would lose everything. It would be better to take advantage of his power and do something he had previously refused to do or dared not do.

Since the center has lost its prestige, why can't it be the princes facing south?

The worst thing is that it should make a big profit. As for local chaos and people’s lives, who should care about it?

In the chaos in Jianzhou, a large number of mines were closed and iron plants were closed. Jianzhou iron industry was destroyed almost instantly.

Xu Zixian also came to a conclusion from this matter: without the power of resistance, any industry, whether it is a worker, a businessman, or a mine, seems to be prosperous and sprouting everywhere, but in fact, as long as the power is taken, everything will be done.

This is also the reason why he tried to promote the local promotion club. Xu Zixian could do more than ten years to fix these promotions. When he left this world in the future, he hoped to leave a balance between each other, hedging, and knowing that compromise and talks could also solve troubles and problems, rather than the current situation, which seems prosperous but is actually built on the sand pile. If there is a slight change, everything will be done.

Of course, the current situation is that we can smelify iron in the Dongfan. Even if the coal and iron reserves are average, this is generally relatively speaking.

For example, the Dongfan claimed that the gold reserves were the largest, and the indigenous people often found sand gold in the mountains, which was also one of the important sources of income for the indigenous people.

But at most, this is relatively common. The reserves of several million tons are worth mentioning in the future world. There are more than one billion tons of gold reserves in the world. Of course, this reserve contains various other metals, such as silver-copper and gold mixtures. This is the case with Taiwan's sand gold mines.

Iron ore is more than 2 million tons, which is indeed very few than gold ore. It is not worth mentioning in the world. In some large iron ore in later generations, one mine reaches the iron reserves of the entire island.

Compared with the reserves of gold, copper, coal and iron, there are too few, but more than 2 million tons are concentrated in several mines, and one mine has a reserve of hundreds of thousands of tons, and the relatively easy-to-mine shallow ore veins are also more than 100,000 tons. Converted to iron to be mined by Nan'an Hou Mansion, it is enough to smelve iron tools that have been smelted for decades.

Zhang Mingliang thought and said with some surprise: "Then have you found iron ore too?"

"Finished." Sun Rulan smiled and said, "It's strange that the two mines are very close to each other. Walking from here to the northeast for another one and a half days, it is the iron ore mine area. There are dozens of miles of easy mining in half the mountain and half hills. We found quite a lot of iron ore. This time we called Zhang Zhong Dajiang, which is to assess the distance between coal and iron ore, demarcate the area, build blast furnaces in the iron ore area, build charcoal furnaces here, and also lead the stream to the two mines and build living areas. The two mines must be connected by roads and build roads all the way to the port area."

Sun Rulan smiled and said, "What Mr. Zhang has to do is to determine multiple coal mine veins, as well as iron ore veins. We must determine areas with rich reserves and easy to mine. Now that everything is at the beginning, we cannot invest too much manpower, and we cannot dig deep wells to mine. That is too time-consuming and labor-intensive. At least within one or two years, Junhou's idea is to speed up coking coal and iron smelting, and to grab the market. We cannot let Beitie take advantage of the chaos in Jianzhou."

The Jianzhou Rebellion led to a sharp drop in the production of Fujian iron, and many miners were unable to eat and wear food and clothing.

Of course this is a matter of Jianzhou and an opportunity for the Dongfan.

Xu Zixian already had some plans to attract a large number of miners to the Dongfan side. This is a rare opportunity. The miners work very hard and their income is relatively high. If there is no trouble, it will be relatively difficult to attract experienced middle-aged miners based on the current conditions of the Dongfan.

Now, it's quite easy.

"I roughly understand what Junhou means." Zhang Mingliang smiled bitterly.

What Xu Zi has to do now happens to be a very expert thing about Zhang Mingliang, which is also a reward for Dongfan to protect him.
Chapter completed!