As soon as the bowl came up, he poured cold water on Shen Bing:
"General, although your Majesty sent us to prospect for mines, after preliminary inquiries, the common people think that the possibility of finding mines in Yunzhong County is not high."
Shen Bing asked doubtfully:
"Why?"
Bo replied:
"It's just because most of the mineral veins are located in deep mountains, but Yunzhong County is located in the plains, and the mountain ranges in the north and west are controlled by the Xiongnu..."
After thinking about it for a while, Shen Bing understood what Bo meant.
The mountains Bo refers to are the Daqing Mountains of Yinshan Mountain in the north and the Langshan Mountains and Helan Mountains in the west.
The former has always been the sphere of influence of the Xiongnu... Even during Li Mu's period, it did not reach the Yinshan Mountains. It was not until Meng Tian sent troops that the Xiongnu controlled that area.
The latter is the surrounding areas of Houtao and Xitao that were abandoned by Shen Bing.
As for Yunzhong County, it is indeed as Bo said, a large area of plains is empty all the way, and there is even a desert south of the Yellow River.
But Shen Bing still didn't understand.
"I dare to ask my father-in-law." Shen Bing asked in confusion: "Why does prospecting need to be done in the deep mountains?"
Bo was confused:
“If we don’t explore in the deep mountains, where can we explore?”
Shen Bing was stunned by the question.
It was only later that Shen Bing figured out this problem.
This is actually the gap between modern people and ancient people's understanding of copper, iron and tin mines, and this is even true for nephrite mines.
Modern people know that minerals such as copper, iron, and tin are not necessarily found only in deep mountains, including nephrite ores (coal).
But the reason why modern people know this is because of modern and more advanced prospecting equipment and theoretical foundations, such as drilling holes to drill out soil and rocks from deep under the earth's surface and then analyzing their composition.
There was no such equipment in ancient times, so prospecting couldn't just find a piece of land and dig down!
Unless you are like Shen Bing who knows that there are coal mines in the bend of the river and digs them accurately, you will be exhausted and unable to find the iron mines.
Therefore, what was called "prospecting" in ancient times is actually more of "looking for minerals".
That means going to the deep mountains to find exposed iron ore.
This does not require any skills or knowledge, just the ability to recognize iron ore.
As for why we have to search deep in the mountains, it is because there are usually exposed ores only in the mountains... The exposed soil layers are discovered due to landslides and collapses. It is very difficult and rare to find exposed ores on the plains.
Therefore, the 37 iron ore deposits clearly recorded during the Warring States Period were all "iron-producing mountains", and nirvana was also found on the mountain.
So people in ancient times took it for granted that these minerals were grown in mountains and had to be found in the mountains.
Hence the saying of Bo... There is no mountain in Yunzhong County, so how can one find a mine?
But this is really a problem.
Shen Bing had a rough idea of the area covered by coal mines and Shanxi was a major mining province, so it was relatively easy to dig coal.
Now that we are looking for copper, tin, and iron ore and we don’t have the equipment, do we really have to let the soldiers dig all over the ground with hoe after hoe?
Or should we wait until Yinshan is conquered or Houtao Xitao is recovered before considering the mine issue?
After thinking about it, Shen Bing said:
"If you want to go deep into the mountains... Yunzhong County really doesn't have one."
"But I wonder if my father-in-law can explore for minerals along the river?"
Bo looked confused:
"Prospecting along the river? The common people have never heard of this method of prospecting..."
Shen Bingze replied:
"I might as well give it a try."
"Shen Bing will make old materials to pay for the expenses, and if he finds minerals, he will be rewarded heavily!"
Bo nodded and agreed without thinking much.
What Bo and the others want is not the mine, the mine is meaningless to them, they just want the reward.
As long as the remuneration is adequate, they are willing to go prospecting in the desert.
Shen Bing confessed again:
"Especially around the bends in the river."
"Potentially covered by shallow silt."
"If ore is found somewhere in the river, the mine may not be nearby. It may be washed there from upstream!"
Bo nodded half-confidently and half-underlyingly.
Shen Bing is actually treating a dead horse as a live doctor.
Since in ancient times, prospecting could only be limited to exposed ores on the surface due to equipment limitations, then apart from the possible exposed ore veins on the mountains, there were river channels.
The river channel is actually a deep trench dug by the river... It should have been flat originally, but due to long-term erosion by the river water, the river channel has become deeper and deeper, and the two banks have become prominent.
Of course, there are exceptions. For example, the Yellow River contains a lot of sand, and the soil it brings will cover the ground layer by layer, resulting in the layer getting higher and higher.
But the Yellow River in the Hetao area is different from the Yellow River downstream.
The Yellow River in the Hetao area only partially passes through the Loess Plateau... It passes through a short section of the Loess Plateau near Xitao, and then goes south to the vicinity of Yunzhong County and reaches a large section of the Loess Plateau at the third corner of the "ji" shape. Therefore, the sand content Big increase.
Therefore, the sediment content of the Yellow River in Yunzhong County is not high.
However, whether you can find an open-pit mine still depends on luck. If you can't find it, you can only wait until the back cover is recovered.
Both paper and iron are too sensitive to the lifeblood of the country and cannot be produced for the time being.
So only textiles were left.
There is no problem with textiles, and the industrialization of almost all countries started with textiles.
There is no other reason.
Textile is to solve the problem of "clothing" in "clothing, food, housing and transportation".
It is not without reason that the ancients ranked "clothing" first.
Because "clothing" solves the problem of "warmth" in "food and clothing", this is especially important in the cold north.
However, the process of making clothes in ancient times was cumbersome and time-consuming: ramie had to be grown first, then peeled and soaked to extract its fibers and spun into twine, then the twine was woven into cloth, and finally the cloth could be made into clothing.
As mentioned before, women in ancient times did not know how to work and only stayed at home to do housework.
But the housework in ancient times was extremely heavy, and just pounding rice, weaving, and making clothes was almost a tiring day from dawn to dusk.
If the "clothing" problem is not solved, it is impossible to liberate the labor force: almost everyone's time and energy are spent on eating and clothing. If these two are not solved, even survival will be a problem. How can we work in factories?
This is the advantage of the textile industry. It not only solves the basic survival problem of "wearing" and liberates a large number of labor forces, but at the same time, industrialized production greatly improves production efficiency.
The more important point is... the textile industry is much simpler than large machine production. It only requires water power in the early stage.
The production of other machines requires a steam engine first.
So there is no doubt that Shen Bing will focus on the textile industry for commercial production in key industrial zones.
So waterwheels were made one after another... At first, Hui and others thought that these waterwheels were still used for pounding rice.
What they don't know is that rice pounding workshops don't need to be placed in industrial zones.
First, the rice pounding workshop can be placed in the city without polluting the water source.
Secondly, rice pounding workshops are more suitable to be dispersed in the city for the convenience of the people.