Chen Lin said with a bitter face: "I think we can take 70% to 80%."
The main problem now is the same as in other state capitals, mainly lack of manpower.
The cultivated land under Kongxia is so large that it cannot be harvested in one autumn harvest season. Even 70% to 80% harvest is considered too much.
Song Yang nodded and said: "Seventy to eighty percent... Let's make a conservative estimate and estimate it at 50%. This way we still have 800,000 shi of food."
"There are 600,000 to 70,000 people in Fengzhou, but they only consume 200,000 stone grains a year. The overall situation is still very good."
"The autumn harvest is about to begin. We must harvest as much as we can. You will still have to bear the consumption in Yuezhou."
"Food is the foundation of the people. Try to get more food so that you can absorb the refugees in the future."
"The autumn harvest is a top priority. I hope Mr. Chen will pay more attention to it."
Chen Lin stood up and said seriously:
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, my subordinates will step up their supervision and start collecting the mature plots in the next few days."
Food is still the most fundamental factor in development, so Song Yang cannot help but ignore it.
Fengzhou is too far away from Jiangzhou, so it is impossible to take care of everything.
We can only let Chen Lin and others manage it themselves.
The situation in the following counties is reported by Chen Lin.
Even Xiao Fugui has only been here for a short period of time, so he doesn’t know much.
The five counties of Dayong, Cili, Shimen, Linfeng, Anxiang, along the Fengshui River and the capital city of Fengyang are the current main gathering place for the people of Fengzhou.
There used to be a mulberry plant in the far west, but the mulberry plant was almost destroyed by the sky fire and nothing was left.
The people were walking around dying, and the entire county was almost abandoned.
After listening to the report, it was already late at night.
After sending Chen Lin and Xiao Fugui away, Song Yang leaned on his chair and began to think deeply.
"What is the prince thinking?"
Tong Qian followed him all the way, originally worried that Song Yang would go to the battlefield, but Song Yang didn't need to charge personally, and the girl became a support staff.
"I'm thinking, there is still a shortage of people under my command. In a place as big as Fengzhou, there is only one Chen Lin. What if there are places farther away in the future?"
"Your Majesty, wasn't Fengzhou gradually becoming stable before we came here?"
"Well... you have clearly seen that I have fallen into a misunderstanding just now and feel that I have to intervene in everything. Haha..."
…
Early the next morning, Xiao Fugui had already found the three most experienced miners to come out.
The coal mine is located two or three miles west of Fengyang.
After walking along the path beside Fengshui River for about half an hour, I saw a small hillside appearing in front of me.
"Your Majesty, the coal mine is behind that hillside." The little rich man pointed out diligently.
Song Yang looked over there and could see Wang Yongning standing on the top of the mountain.
This guy had already come and stood in front of me.
After walking for a while and around the hill, I saw a mine pit.
The mine is not big, and no one works in it.
Coal is not the main fuel in the first place, and this coal mine is even opened mainly for the iron sulfate in it.
Of course, the iron content of this mine is not high, and the government does not pay attention to it at all.
"Your Majesty, the dust here is a bit heavy..." Xiao Fugui said sheepishly.
Song Yang saw that the ground had been swept, but there was still some soot.
"No problem, I just want to take a look." Song Yang waved his hand.
"Master Zhang, how many people worked in this coal mine in the past? How much coal can be produced every day?" Song Yang looked at the three middle-aged men.
These three people are all absentees, and the leader among them is Zhang Zhen.
"Your Majesty, in the past, there were only about twenty people working at most, and three or four cars of coal were produced every day, about a thousand kilograms."
"Our mine mainly mines pyrite, but the output is too low. We can dig a car of iron ore in a day, but the iron ingots that come out in the end may not amount to dozens of kilograms."
Zhang Zhen answered truthfully that they did not realize the importance of coal.
Coking coal ironmaking has not yet been applied in Daqian, and the utilization of coal is still in the initial stage of exploration.
"In the future, we will allocate fifty people to the mine and focus on digging coal." Song Yang turned to look at Xiao Fugui and said.
"It's the prince." Xiao Fugui responded.
Zhang Zhen asked with some confusion: "Your Majesty, although this thing can be burned, the smoke it produces is poisonous, and it is really not suitable to be used as fuel."
"The calorific value of coal is much higher than that of firewood. Coal can be made into coke, which can be used to smelt steel, and the effect is much better than charcoal." Song Yang explained.
With that said, Song Yang walked towards the mine.
"My lord, be careful, it may be poisonous." Chen Lin hurriedly tried to dissuade him.
Song Yang waved his hand and said: "What kind of poison is there? The poison in this open-air mine can be ignored. Poisoning incidents in the past should have happened in the mine."
As he spoke, he looked at Zhang Zhen, who nodded and said, "Yes, there was a mine there before, but there were several poisonings and the mine was abandoned."
In this era, air supply conditions are lacking, and the sulfide gas in the mine will be difficult to discharge, easily causing sulfide poisoning.
Song Rang told Zhang Zhen and the others to just mine in the mines from now on. Anyway, the conditions are not right for the time being to open the mines, and the consumption is not particularly large.
"The quality of this coal is pretty good."
Song Yang walked to the coal seam, which was only three to five meters underground. It was not hidden deep and was much easier to mine.
After twisting some coal and checking it, the quality of the coal was crystal clear, at least the grade of medium coal.
"If the coal washing process can be added, the quality of this coal can be improved, maybe it can reach the level of clean coal." Song Yang picked up a few pieces of ore and looked at it, and finally came to a conclusion.
"Washing coal?" Zhang Zhen was confused. He had never heard that ore also had to be washed.
"This is a process of screening clean coal. Do you think there is any difference between this kind of coal and this kind of coal? Which one is better?" Song Yang asked, pointing to two pieces of coal ore on the ground.
Zhang Zhen looked down and saw the difference at a glance. He pointed at one piece and said, "This kind of black and shiny one is easier to ignite."
Song Yang smiled and said: "Yes, this coal is also divided into three, six or nine grades."
"The best ones are like this, which can be called clean coal, and this kind is called medium coal. The last one can actually only be called gangue."
"The purer the coal, the higher the calorific value, and the better the smelting effect."
"So your task is to mine more of this coal. In addition to hand selection, you can also wash the coal."
Song Yang started on-site science popularization and told the workers about the recommended process of coal washing.
At this stage, it is not possible to use machines to wash coal. Manual coal washing can also remove some ash in coal.
However, adding the coal washing step can make the coal purer to some extent.
"This is what the coal washing pool looks like. After it is opened, water trucks will pump water from Fengshui to wash the coal."
"Don't discharge the coal washing water into Fengshui River. Dig a small channel and drain it to the bottom of the valley in the back mountain for the time being."
Song Yang knew that coal washing would definitely cause pollution, and it would be troublesome to deal with the wastewater in that era, let alone now.
But the most important goal at this stage is development, and the environment must be sacrificed a little.