After He Zhiyuan returned from Shijiu Qianhu, he was ready to leave for Luoquanzhuang Coal Mine. He hasn't been there since the Chinese New Year. However, the technicians of the steam engine workshop have been there many times, and more than a dozen steam pumps have been installed.

However, this time he went to Luoquanzhuang, he took his family and coachman to Luoquanzhuang alone, Yan Jihai, an apprentice, had already gone to the experimental field, and now he is busy observing the flowering and pollination of wheat in the experimental field.

Because the section of the road from the cross road to the west to Luoquanzhuang is being built with cement roads, the road is extremely difficult, so it took a whole day to reach Luoquanzhuang.

In less than half a year, today's Luoquanzhuang Coal Mine has undergone great changes. First of all, a miners' dormitory and canteen were built in the valley of the Black Rock Mountain, as well as a bathhouse for the miners. To a large extent, the problems of the miners' livelihood were solved. Secondly, the construction of a cement road began in full swing on the road from Luoquanzhuang to Heishi Mountain. In this way, the problem of coal transportation in the Black Rock Mountain was solved.

Most of the coal kilns in Blackstone Mountain have now been bought by He Zhiyuan, and after the technicians just installed the steam pumping machine to drain the water, the kiln owners who bought the coal kilns that were abandoned due to water seepage regretted it. However, they all reacted immediately, and went to coal mines in Yishan County and Yanzhou to buy large quantities of such abandoned coal kilns. In just two months, the two other waste coal was sold out. At the same time, these coal kiln owners began to inquire about Mine Manager Yin and Shopkeeper Sun; Buying this kind of steam pump, they can't be the master, so they have to tell them that this matter can only be determined after He Gongzi comes.

After He Zhiyuan came to the coal mine, he immediately gathered Mine Manager Yin and Shopkeeper Sun together to listen to their reports.

Mine Chief Yin first said to He Zhiyuan: "He Gongzi, the number of people has been increasing in the past two months, and there are currently more than 5,000 miners and 26 pumping machines installed. However, during this time, miners were mainly organized to build roads, build houses, and repair coal kilns, so the coal production was not very high. ”

"It doesn't matter, sharpening knives is not wrong for woodcutters, these investments are worth it." He Zhiyuan said to Mine Manager Yin.

Shopkeeper Sun continued: "Mr. He, recently, many kiln owners have come to inquire about the price of pumping machines and want to buy a few pumping machines. ”

"Now it can be sold to the outside world, but the output is not high, only a dozen units a month. A pumping machine plus the door installation cost is 3,000 taels of silver. He Zhiyuan replied.

"Three thousand taels of silver?" Shopkeeper Sun was a little surprised when he heard this price and asked: "Is this price too high, and the profit of a small coal kiln for a year.

"It's not expensive at all, it's made of the best quality steel, and the machines are state-of-the-art. And a single pumping machine can bring an abandoned coal kiln back to life, and then spend a small amount of installation money to bring another coal kiln back to life. Compared with the profit brought to the kiln owner, three thousand taels of silver is really not much. He Zhiyuan shook his head and said, and then said to the two of them: "If they are too expensive, you can tell them what I just said, I believe they can calculate this account." ”

In fact, the manufacturing cost of this steam pumping machine is about 300 taels of silver, and the installation cost will not exceed 350 taels. But in this era, this kind of pumping machine is a high-tech product, high-tech products must be invested in research and development costs, in order to develop a steam engine, He Zhiyuan has invested no less than 100,000 taels of silver in the Institute of Physics, this is just beginning to launch products, do not set the price a little higher, how to recover the cost of research and development? Moreover, now he is not worried about not being able to sell, even if the coal mine is not bought, the owners of copper, tin and iron ore will buy it in the future, because there is also water seepage in these mines, and it is not easy to find a copper mine and tin mine, and it will not give up because of water seepage, so it is generally pumped in by manpower or animal power, which is inefficient and costly. If they knew there was such a pump, they would have bought it, no matter how expensive it was.

After the two reported the situation in the coal mine, He Zhiyuan asked Mine Manager Yin: "Mine Manager Yin, what is the situation with your son now, didn't he say that he would go to Hejia Town after the Spring Festival?" ”

Mine Chief Yin hurriedly thanked and explained, "Thank you Gongzi He for your concern." When Inuko heard that it was Childe who rescued him from prison, he said that he must give you a big gift first. Since the Spring Festival, I have been looking for ore veins in the depths of Blackstone Mountain with the two of them, and I haven't seen him for more than ten days. He said that if he couldn't find a big high-quality coal mine, he wouldn't come to see He Gongzi. ”

He Zhiyuan thought to himself that this child was not only stubborn but also very ambitious, if he did not have this kind of ambition and perseverance to find mineral veins in the wild mountains and wilderness, it would be difficult to persevere. Thinking of this, he said to Mine Chief Yin: "Since he is so determined, let him try, but pay attention to safety, and bring more people every time he enters the mountain." ”

The next day, He Zhiyuan, accompanied by Mine Manager Yin, came to the abandoned coal kiln that was being repaired and reinforced. Halfway up a hill, there are a dozen coal kilns in a row. Today, a steam pumping machine has been erected next to these coal kilns, just like the oil production equipment of oil wells in later generations, and the chimney next to it is still emitting black smoke.

Moreover, a pulley block is erected on each kiln, and the coal in the coal kiln can be easily lifted to the ground with little effort, and then the coal can be transported to the coal yard in the upper waist. This saves a lot of effort.

Halfway up the mountain, a top-down cement slide is being built, along which coal from the coal yard can be easily transported to the coal yard in the valley, where it can be loaded and transported. In this way, it saves the coal bearer to carry it down the mountain.

All of these were built according to He Zhiyuan's idea and the Yin mine manager organized the workers, which greatly saved labor and the cost of manpower.

"Now the original three coal kilns also use pulleys and cement slides, which alone save nearly half of the miners, and the efficiency has not decreased at all," said Yin, the mine manager. He Gongzi's two whimsical ideas alone saved a lot of money for the coal mine. The original plan was to use the coal mine for tens of thousands of people, but now only 6,000 people are enough. ”

He Zhiyuan said with a smile: "This is just the beginning, and in the future, the coal mine will adopt more scientific methods, which will make it easier to work with less effort and more convenient, and the production efficiency will be higher." ”

After taking a turn in the coal mine in the morning, He Zhiyuan found that all the coal kilns were being repaired and renovated according to his ideas, and all the work was progressing in an orderly manner, so he didn't need to worry about it anymore, so he hurriedly ended the inspection and returned to the miners' living area at the foot of the mountain.

The miners' living quarters are now like a large village, with more than 80 courtyards, each with ten rooms, and eight miners living in each house, and more than 6,000 miners living in this living quarter. In addition to the residential area, there is also a public bath where miners can bathe for free after each work. In addition, in this living area, there is also a canteen, which can accommodate 2,000 people to eat together, and the meals in the canteen are almost all meat, and the steamed rice is all free. In order to avoid waste, only a nominal penny is charged for each dish.

Now the conditions of these miners' residence, life, food, work and other aspects have been greatly improved compared with last year, it can be said that last year, the treatment of these miners was not as good as that of dogs, and now the miners work and live with dignity, and their wages have been doubled, and they no longer think about escaping. There are even many people who take the initiative to find connections and find ways to work here.

At noon, He Zhiyuan went to the public canteen accompanied by Mine Chief Yin. At this time, many miners were eating in the canteen, and He Zhiyuan proposed: "Today at noon, let's eat at this time." ”

Mine Chief Yin looked embarrassed and said, "Gongzi He, this is where the miners eat, and the food tastes ......."

"In Hejia Town, I often eat in the canteen, and when I get here, I can eat in the canteen. If you don't have that confidence, how can you improve the food of the miners? These miners are engaged in heavy physical labor and must not be stingy with food! He Zhiyuan said solemnly.

Mine Chief Yin hurriedly nodded in agreement, and said yes again and again.

As soon as Mine Manager Yin and He Zhiyuan entered the canteen, many miners who knew Mine Manager Yin greeted him one after another. Mine Chief Yin greeted the miners and came to the window to eat, and the two of them each made a meal, and sat together and ate with laughter.

He Zhiyuan This is the first time he has come here since the Chinese New Year, so most of the miners do not know He Zhiyuan, and they have speculated about He Zhiyuan's identity. After a while, as more and more miners came to dine, someone recognized He Zhiyuan's identity.

At this time, the miner walked up to He Zhiyuan and saluted respectfully: "Meet He Gongzi!" The villain's name is Cai Youliang, who is from Chaoyi, Shaanxi, and has seen He Gongzi in Hejia Town. ”

As soon as He Zhiyuan heard the accent, he knew that this was a disaster victim from Shaanxi, and he pointed to the seat next to him and said to Cai Youliang: "Since we know each other, let's sit down and eat together." ”

After Cai Youliang sat down, He Zhiyuan continued to ask: "How is it, are you still satisfied with the work here?" Is it customary to live? ”

As soon as He Zhiyuan asked, Cai Youliang said endlessly: "Oh, it's so good here, at first I thought that being a miner in the coal mine must be dirty and tired, and the salary is low, but only here did I know that He Gongzi's coal mine conditions are so good." Not only is the salary high, but the work in the mine is not so tiring. And this place to eat and sleep is better than the officials of the government, where is this to suffer, it is clearly to enjoy happiness! ”

He Zhiyuan nodded with satisfaction after hearing this, and then asked, "How long have you been here?" Have you ever been home? ”

"I've been here for more than two months and haven't been back. Here is a long vacation for three months and ten days, so that I can go back, but someone wrote to me that everything is fine at home, and my family also went to the spinning factory and became a master. Cai Youliang said proudly.