On May 28th, the midsummer sun seemed to be drying out everything on the earth. Han Jinxin sat on the edge of a small river in Changhua County, Qiongzhou Prefecture, looking at the winding Gongyang River and wiping his head.
of sweat.
Han Jinxin is leading a team to search for Shilu iron ore in Qiongzhou Prefecture.
Shilu Iron Mine is located in the west of Hainan Island and is the highest-grade iron ore in Asia. The average grade is 51.2% and the highest is 69%. What’s even more valuable is that the ore is all open-pit veins and is extremely easy to mine.
The ore in Shilu Iron Mine has very few impurities, and after a little smelting, it becomes high-quality pig iron. Using the pig iron smelted from the iron ore here to make steel not only saves time and effort, but also improves the quality of steel. Later generations of Chinese steel
The factory does not mine domestic low-grade iron ore and desperately imports iron ore from Australia and Brazil because high-grade iron ore can bring twice the result with half the effort.
One of Han Jinxin's subordinates handed Han Jinxin a clean towel. Han Jinxin took it and wiped it on his head. In Qiongzhou Prefecture, especially in summer like this, small things such as handkerchiefs are no longer enough.
Use a towel to wipe sweat cleanly.
Another of Han Jinxin's subordinates did not have a towel to use. He wiped the sweat on his forehead with his hand and said: "Chief Soldier, you can just leave the prospecting to us. Why does the Chief Soldier have to go there personally?"
If the commander-in-chief is exhausted, we really can't afford it."
Han Jinxin sat on the stone, raised his hands and saluted in the direction of Tianjin, and said: "The Duke of Guo is concerned about the Shilu Iron Mine and has come to see me twice in two days. He asked me to send a capable manpower to look for it. The so-called "Shi Jun"
Lu, the matter of loyalty to the emperor. Since the Duke of Guo attaches so much importance to it, I, Han Jinxin, cannot neglect it, so I might as well lead a team to look for it myself!"
"The Duke of Guo said that the Shilu Iron Mine has 300 million tons of iron ore, which is enough for us to mine for a lifetime. Now the Duke of Guo has organized the iron smelters near the capital to set up an iron-making blast furnace in Tianjin. It will take less than a month.
The blast furnace is about to be erected. The pig iron produced by the blast furnace will be directly supplied to the converter of the Grand Duke for steel making, and the iron ore in Shilu will be put into the boiler and started!"
"I remember that when I, Han Jinxin, almost starved to death in Jingbianfang, it was the Duke of Guo who took me in. Today, I, Han Jinxin, can shed a little sweat for the Duke of Guo. It is my honor, Han Jinxin."
The dozen or so secret guards following Han Jinxin heard Han Jinxin's loyal words, and they all sighed that the Commander-in-Chief was truly loyal.
The prince of the country paid great attention to the prospecting this time, and the chief military officer personally led the team. The five hundred secret guards were divided into eighty groups and searched vigorously in the mountains of Changhua County. It was expected that it would not take long to find the open-air Shilu Iron.
mine.
Han Jinxin was resting there when he suddenly saw a secret guard captain wearing a flying fish suit running not far away.
After the development of Li Zhi's secret guards over the years, many of them were on Li Zhi's merit list. In the emperor's repeated rewards, many people were rewarded by the emperor with flying fish suits. Clothing like flying fish suits only cost the emperor
Once a reward is given, the recipient can make several of them and wear them. Therefore, many captains under Han Jinxin wear Feiyu uniforms every day.
The secret guard captain ran to Han Jinxin with a smile on his face. He raised his hands and said to Han Jinxin: "Chief soldier, our fifty-seventh group discovered a dozen Han people in front of us secretly digging iron ore in the mountains. According to the miners,
The ore they illegally mined is of excellent quality and can be easily sold outside. It is probably the Shilu iron ore vein that Mr. Guo mentioned!"
Han Jinxin squinted his eyes and smiled and said: "Okay, if it is really Shilu Iron Mine, there will be many rewards!"
####
Outside Fanjiazhuang City, an experimental railway was erected on a wasteland. This railway was laid with crucible steel rails and was used to test the basic structure of the train.
Both sides of the railway were lined with people watching the excitement. The news that the Duke was going to test the railway this afternoon had spread throughout Fanjiazhuang a few days ago, and the people all knew that there was a three-mile-long "railway" in the wilderness south of Fanjiazhuang. Today it is officially
The people who experimented with railway cargo loading regarded this novelty as an interesting thing and invited their friends and companions to watch it.
The people on both sides of the railway looked at the railway and chattered.
Some girls who usually don't show up in public also took the opportunity to come out for some air. There were often more than a dozen girls standing together, laughing and joking as if they were attending a temple fair or watching the lanterns during the Lantern Festival.
Many young people who were thinking about finding a wife looked at those pretty girls with wide eyes and did not miss the opportunity to see the girl's appearance clearly.
In this era, many men and women have never met each other before getting married. Sometimes the matchmaker makes fantastic claims, but in the end, he ends up marrying an ugly girl. The opportunity to look at girls like this is like a businessman who can first pay before agreeing to pay.
Inspection is really rare.
As more and more people watched the excitement, many melon sellers also found business opportunities and started selling melons on both sides of the railway tracks. The weather was very hot at this time, and the people in Fanjiazhuang were indeed wealthy. These melon sellers
The business of the vendors was surprisingly good. Many vendors sold out of watermelons in one fell swoop and hurriedly went to the countryside to purchase more.
Everyone waited for a while and finally arrived at the test vehicle at four o'clock in the afternoon. They saw only six carriages loaded with rice and noodles driving over. One of them had wooden wheels, and the other five were equipped with strange steel wheels.
The carriage stopped at the end of the railway. The wooden-wheeled carriage stopped on a dirt road next to the railway. There were two strong horses in front of the carriage. The bodies of the five steel-wheeled carriages were separated from the horses one by one, and all were connected end to end.
It was pushed down on the railway track. In front of these five carriages, there were also two strong horses.
The people immediately started talking.
"This is comparing a five-car carriage on a railway with a one-car carriage on a dirt road!"
"Can a horse-drawn carriage on this railway outrun you?"
"This is impossible! The rice noodles in the carriage seem to be very heavy. Can two horses pull five carriages?"
Some idle citizens even started gambling. There was a teahouse owner sitting at the banker, and dozens of people who liked gambling gathered around him. The gamblers piled money on the dirt floor in front of the banker, while the teahouse owner kept accounts.
He shouted: "The banker bets on the railway carriage to win, come and bet if you don't accept! Bet on one and lose one, bet on it and let go, bet and accept defeat!"
The people discussed for a while, and then Li Zhi came over from the Duke's Mansion and stood on a small artificial platform in the middle of the railway with his bodyguard.
After Li Zhi sat down on the chair on the small platform, a guard near the carriage took out a gun and fired a shot into the sky.
The competition has begun.
Hearing the gunshots, the carriage on the dirt road rushed out first. Although it was carrying three thousand kilograms of rice noodles, the two-horse carriage on the dirt road showed no sign of weakness and ran more than ten kilometers high, passing by in an instant.
A railway carriage with five heavy carriages.
Next to the tea house owner's gambling bureau, several gamblers who had won by betting on a dirt carriage shouted with joy and shouted at the dirt carriage: "Quick! Fast! Faster!"
The carriages on the dirt road seemed to hear the shouts of these gamblers, and rushed forward with a roar, using all their strength.
However, to the disappointment of these gamblers, the lead of the dirt-road carriages only lasted for a while before being overtaken by the carriages on the railway.
Although there are five carriages on the back, the rails are very smooth, and the friction between the smooth iron wheels and the rails is extremely small. Although it is more difficult to add it up, once it is added up, the horsepower required is extremely small, so it can continue
The railway carriage pulling five carriages ran faster and faster. In the first half of the railway, it passed the dirt carriage 400 meters away.
After running to the back, amidst the exclamations of the people, the two big horses on the railway galloped wildly, reaching a speed of at least thirty kilometers per hour, leaving the carriages on the dirt road far behind.
The people all supported the new Ming Dynasty of Jin Guogong Li Zhi. Although it was a bit incredible, when they saw the railway carriage winning, the people on both sides of the railway cheered thunderously.
The teahouse owner sitting in the village laughed loudly, put all the money on the ground into his sleeves, and said with a smile: "I accept it! I accept it!"
The losing gamblers looked at the teahouse owner, speechless.
Until the carriage stopped at the end, the people were still unsatisfied and stood on both sides of the railway, refusing to leave.
Li Zhi looked at the people in Fanjiazhuang who liked to watch the excitement, waved his hand and said: "Drag another five carriages, and compete with the ten-carriage railway carriage and the dirt road carriage!
