Chapter 181 Discovery of coal mines

Author: Lin Quan Hermit

Chapter 181 Discovery of coal mines

Less than two months after obtaining the new fief, the territory's minerals have not been surveyed.

During this period, Richard sent more than a dozen groups of surveyors to search for various ores on a large scale within the territory. From clay ore, to lime ore, to various metal ore, explorers slept in the open air and finally made some discoveries and drew various mineral resources on a simple map.

Because of the arduous conditions and the threshold is not low, the salary of mineral exploration personnel is high, reaching eight silver coins per month, which can be comparable to that of He'an Primary School teachers.

After two months of exploration, rough minerals in the territory have been discovered.

The first one to find was the clay mine, which is not far from Bingzhan Fort.

Richard was preparing to melt the snow and built a second brick kiln near the clay mine to speed up the development of the Haaland Valley.

It is inconvenient to build the territory without bricks. Although it is located in the mountainous area, Richard does not have so much manpower to build a quarry.

After the new brick kiln factory is completed, it does not require the transportation capacity to transport bricks from dozens of kilometers away.

After burning bricks for six years, there are already many technicians in the brick kiln factory. Some of them can be drawn from them to build the racks of the new brick kiln factory.

Now that the construction of a second brick kiln factory is not required to take the lead in working and demonstration.

Then lime mine was discovered, which could produce primitive cement. This kind of earthen kiln was built in Haaland territory, and Richard did not need to be used for multiple traffic.

The third one was discovered in a coal mine with scarce territory. After hearing about the discovery of the coal mine, Richard was so excited that he didn't even have time to wear his shoes.

He immediately wrote a letter to the exploration personnel, held a celebration banquet at the Bingzhan Fort, and distributed a gold coin allowance to the prospecting personnel.

The coal mine is fifteen kilometers away from Bingzhan Fort. Richard personally visited the coal mine and found that it is of high quality and is typical bituminous coal with high carbon content and high calorific value, which can be used to smel coke.

If coke can be produced on a large scale, the steelmaking process will also develop rapidly.

Besides, coal is mined and can be used to keep warm in winter.

If the people burn coal in winter, they can reduce the deforestation of trees, prevent soil erosion, and avoid mountain torrents.

Richard has been in the Morning Continent for more than ten years and rarely saw anyone burning coal in the Kingdom of Grant. Perhaps humans in other areas have used coal resources on a large scale.

According to Richard's observation, there are few open-pit coal mines in northern Xinjiang.

This time, shallow coal mines that are easy to mine are found in the territory, which is actually very rare.

Because the miners in the territory did not have the experience of mining coal mines, Richard was a little worried and followed the miners and stayed in the coal mine for several days.

It is best to mine coal mines on the surface, just use hammer and steel brazing to dig.

The coal mine was found on the hillside. If you want to transport the coal, you need to build a kilometer of road.

After Richard and surveyed the terrain, he decided to use wooden tracks to transport coal.

The territory can now produce some steel, and use hydraulic forging hammers to make the steel into thin steel plates. After the thin steel plate is cut, the steel plates are nailed onto the wood track.

Relying on the power of downhill inertia, coal is loaded on a wooden bucket truck, and coal can be easily transported to the bottom of the mountain along the track.

There is a small river at the foot of the mountain that can pass through small boats. This river is a tributary of the Powell River, and coal can be transported to Fort William through the river.

After coal mining, the territory will also have a new source of income.

Richard's specified price for coal is very cheap, only twice that of wood.

The market price of a thousand kilograms of wood is about one silver coin. It can't be burned for ten days when it was the coldest in northern Xinjiang.

A relatively wealthy family burns more than one gold coin in a winter, and more than twenty big trees need to be cut down to keep warm.

Coal of the same quality has much higher calories than wood. It can be burned overnight by three kilograms of coal in the kang.

For ordinary families, one ton of coal can survive the winter.

The price of coal per ton is only four silver coins, which is equivalent to an ordinary person working for a month.

Most families can accept such a price.

There are now about 10,000 free people in Haaland territory. Because Richard's tax revenue is low, these free people have some money in their hands.

There are about 2,400 free residents in the territory. If these more than 2,000 free residents purchase coal, the output value of the coal mine will reach 800 gold coins, and the net profit will exceed 500 gold coins, which will already have a lot of money.

Moreover, many contract slaves fulfill their contracts every year. As the territory's population increases, consumption increases, coal mines increase production, and coal income will become higher and higher.

The development of coal mining industry will also bring about the development of coal chemical industry.

After a brief calculation, Richard found that the coal mine had a lot of reserves, and this hill was almost a coal mountain.

The shallow coal seams alone exceed tens of millions of tons.

According to the current mining volume of Haaland Territory, this coal mine can last for a hundred years.

The abundant materials in the territory will promote the development of the territory's economy.

Now even if Richard has no cash or gold coins, he can still distribute grain, brown sugar, liquor, coal and other materials to the soldiers and make peace for a period of time.

In the future, Richard will distribute food and coal for the pensions in the territory.

No gold and silver mines have been discovered in Haaland's territory, nor have they become hereditary Counts, nor have the right to mint coins.

Due to the insufficient number of gold coins, deflation has occurred in the territory. Many free people even have the habit of bartering trading among them.

Now there are still many contract slaves and few free people.

If there are too many free people, they will have the habit of hiding coins to save money, and then the shortage of currency will become more serious.

To solve deflation, we need to activate the economy, provide more commodities, increase the income of free people, and cultivate consumption habits.

After discovering the coal mine, even when winter comes, the mining of the coal mine cannot be stopped.

Coal is a necessary daily necessity in winter, and it can be exchanged for money after mining coal.

Even though he has such a big stall now, Richard is still short of money.

No matter how many gold coins flow into Richard's hands, they will be spent quickly. Although there are more and more supplies and stronger strength, Richard feels that he is getting short of money.

A few months after the war, the Haaland Territory was preparing for war.

Richard made another thirty pieces of snake scale armor, equipped it in the third squadron, and at the same time, he made ten pieces of brute force armor, equipped it in the first squadron.

Now the first squadron has twenty pieces of brute force armor, sixty pieces of snake scale armor, and seventy pieces of iron armor. The quality of the equipment exceeds that of the first squadron of the North Legion, and is enough to be comparable to the royal guards.

The first squadron fought a lot of hard battles, with great casualties. There were only a dozen veterans who joined the army six years ago. Because of the continuous recruitment of veterans, the soldiers in this squadron have high quality. Now there are eight professionals, forty-three high-level students, and the remaining soldiers are basically medium-level students.

The armor-wearing rate is 100%, and the enchanted armor-wearing rate is also more than 50%, which is the iron fist in Richard's hand.

Second and third squadrons are also the main squadron, and their supplementary strength is second only to the first squadron and are preferred over Richard's guard squadron.

These three main squadrons are second only to the Warcraft Cavalry in Haaland territory and are the backbone of the territory.
Chapter completed!