In the eastern part of North America, there is a huge mountain range about a few hundred miles from the east coast.

This mountain range runs north and south, with a length of roughly seven or eight thousand miles, and a width ranging from hundreds to thousands of miles.

Pengbin is now detecting coal mines in the southeast of this mountain range.

To be honest, he didn't know how big this open-pit coal mine was. There are not many ways to detect coal mines at this moment. Basically, he just looked at it with his eyes and used hoes and shovels to dig.

Of course, it is impossible to dig when you catch a mountain. A big mountain is enough for them to dig for a lifetime, not to mention that this is a vast mountain.

So how to determine the scope of this open-pit coal mine?

The biggest external feature of coal mines is that they have no vegetation.

However, this cannot be generalized, because there is no vegetation in many places, not because there is coal underneath, and there are flowers, plants and trees on it in many places with coal mines.

This mainly depends on the depth of the coal seam. If the coal seam is more than ten meters deep or dozens of meters below the ground, and is covered with fertile soil, it is not impossible to grow dense forests.

In short, coal mines are not so easy to explore. Peng Bin could only find a barren mountain based on the only appearance of no vegetation and take people up to take a look.

There was no coal on the surface of this barren mountain. At least, they found no coal on the ground from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain.

However, Peng Bin was not discouraged.

He felt that there was still possible coal underneath, because the mountain was covered with strata, that is, shale, not sand, rock, or round stone.

If it is sand, rock, or round stone, then the hope is not very big, and the strata is still very promising.

As for why, this is also based on some reason.

Because coal is basically layer by layer, and most open-pit coal mines are rolling with earth dragons, which means that the coal seams under the ground are squeezed up during earthquakes.

In this case, most of the coals are sandwiched, not sand, rock or round stone.

Of course, this is not accurate. Sometimes the coal is still soil in the middle.

After climbing to the top of the mountain, Pengbin raised his telescope and carefully glanced at the surrounding landforms, and felt more at ease.

Because the landform here looks like the bulge squeezed out by the earth dragon after it rolls.

In other words, this barren mountain should be almost the same as the open-pit coal mine below, but the barren mountain was squeezed and raised by the ground dragon.

He thought about it carefully, discussed with his subordinates for a while, and then ordered decisively: "Distract and dig down."

When Qin Yiming heard this, he waved his hand without hesitation. Hundreds of strong soldiers of the Shenwu Camp scattered, swung their hoes and shovels and digged them.

Fortunately, the mountain is shale and it is quite weathered, so it is not that difficult to dig.

If it is sand or gravel or rock, it will be difficult to dig.

After hundreds of strong spirits and digging less than a cup of tea, someone suddenly exclaimed: "Sir, this is black below."

Upon hearing this, Peng Bin rushed over and saw that there was indeed black coal below.

It's only less than a foot deep!

Immediately afterwards, many people exclaimed: "Sir, this is the same below!"

No need to think about it, there are coal seams under this mountain!

As for why the coal seams on this mountain are buried shallower than the coal seams below, it is roughly because the soil on the mountain is washed down by the water flow and accumulated to the bottom of the mountain.

In other words, there are coal seams under the layers of stones on this mountain, and the thickness of this layer of stone is less than one foot.

Gu Ju

Thinking of this, Peng Bin couldn't help but squat down, picked up a layer of stone and looked carefully, then stood up and said to Qin Yiming: "General Qin, the soldiers scattered around and went to the surrounding hillside to see if anyone with such stones would dig down to see if the coal could be dug."

This is simple.

Qin Yiming immediately ran down the mountain and ordered several generals to pick up a pile of such stones and distribute them. Soon, nearly 10,000 soldiers of the Shenji Camp carried hoes and shovels and other tools, and took samples of stones to disperse around.

Peng Bin thought about it and took several officials and hundreds of strong Shenwu Camp soldiers to the place where they discovered coal at the foot of the mountain. He directly ordered people to open a pit several meters in radius and dig it hard.

This coal seam also depends on the thickness. If it is only a few feet deep or one or two feet deep, the reserves will not be very large.

Seeing this, Qin Yiming simply ordered the navy soldiers who brought them over to move the tents on the boat and set up a camp on the spot.

He and Peng Bin and several other officials from the Ministry of Works were spreading out the map and waiting in the tent.

Not long after, a man ran to the tent with coal and said excitedly: "Report, General, we found a coal mountain."

Qin Yiming pointed directly at the map on the table and said, "Location."

The man quickly lowered his head, looked at the map carefully, and then pointed to a point on the map and said, "It's roughly here."

Peng Bin nodded slightly, then picked up the pen and marked it.

Qin Yiming waved without hesitation: "Try again."

This exploration took one day. Tens of thousands of soldiers from the Shenwu Camp searched dozens of miles in a radius, and a vein extending faintly along the north-south direction gradually emerged in front of them.

The hundreds of strong and strong digging holes in the camp were dug several feet deep, and there were still black coal below.

How big is this open-pit coal mine?

They haven't figured it out yet.

Because they only found the margin of the east side of the open-pit coal mine, and they did not find the margin of the south side, north side and west side. Moreover, they did not find the thickness of the coal seam.

What to do next?

The next morning, Qin Yiming, Peng Bin and several officials from the Ministry of Works gathered in the commander's tent.

At this time, they were all so excited that they even rubbed their hands excitedly because the open-pit coal mine was so big that it exceeded their expectations.

This may be a super-large coal mine with a width of dozens of miles and a north-south direction extending hundreds of miles!

Moreover, this is an open-pit coal mine, just dig directly from the ground or hillside. There is all coal underneath, and I don’t know how thick it is.

Now, they don’t know how wide, long and thick this open-pit coal mine is.

Peng Bin stared at the map and thought about it carefully for a while, then discussed with Qin Yiming: "General Qin, why not, we will divide these tens of thousands of people into four groups, and you and I will take a thousand people here to explore how thick the coal seam is, while the other people are divided into three groups. The three officials under my jurisdiction will take them to the south, north and west respectively to see how long and wide the ore veins are."

Qin Yiming naturally had no objection. He came to help, and Peng Bin was in charge. People said that he would do whatever he wanted.

Soon, the three heads of the Ministry of Works each set off with 3,000 troops, and the camp with tens of thousands of people was demolished to the tents of more than a thousand people.

Peng Bin took Qin Yiming out of the handsome tent, looked at the big pit in the middle of the camp, and frowned.

It was only one night, and the water in the pit was almost half a person deep.

It seems that it is impossible to dig from here.

Next to this is a river. If you dig further down, a large well will probably be dug out. How can you continue to dig down then?

He frowned and pondered for a while, then discussed to Qin Yiming: "General Qin, I'm afraid I can't dig here anymore. Otherwise, we can move the camp to the hillside far away from the river and try it."
Chapter completed!