Yan Maoda stood at the top of Maoer Mountain. The mountain is 400 meters high, and the mountain is steep and rocky, making it difficult to climb. The reason why Yan Maoda wanted to climb up was to be able to take a condescending look at the terrain in this area.

Maoer Mountain is an iconic hill by the Hongji Sea. It is said that there is a "true ancestor emperor" here to give "poems", and later there is a group of so-called "celebrities", "heroes", "heroes" and the like here to give "poems", so the local beauty is called its "poetry" mountain. This mountain was also associated with Vietnam in the 50s, and according to some "memoirs", there was a flagpole on the top of the mountain during the French rule in Vietnam. From the late 40s to the early 50s, every year on May Day and September 2nd, Viet Cong elements climbed up the mountain and hung the "national flag" on the flagpole at the top of the mountain.

"You don't need to hang the national flag here, you can build a lighthouse. Instruct ships to call at the port. Yan Maoda's secretary said. He overlooks the earth and the sea. Mao'er Mountain is a stone mountain, half of which juts into Yalong Bay. The coastline is full of hills and hills, and only at the foot of this Mao'er Mountain there is a narrow flat strip two or three kilometers long along the seashore. The city of Hongji in the old time and space is here. Hongji City was gradually built on the basis of the Hongji Coal Mining Company established by the French.

"What kind of river is that?" Yan Maoda asked, pointing to a wide river that entered the sea a few kilometers away.

"This is the Beitang River." Bei Kai said, "It's also called Baitengjiang." It is said that it was at this entrance to the sea that the Yuan army was defeated by Chen Xingdao. "He also learned a lot about Vietnamese history because he learned Vietnamese.

"Oh, it's still an ancient battlefield. It seems that there is also a great risk in arming the merchant station. Yan Maoda looked at the rolling river. The river is wide and dotted with sandbars. The tide is rising, and the tide is yellow and the river is turquoise, and the clear boundary in the center of the river is spectacular.

"Where is the best place to set up a trading station?" Yan Maoda asked. As a member of the exploration team, Bei Kai has specially led the team to explore here, and is very familiar with the surrounding geographical environment.

"Of course, the most suitable place is at the foot of the mountain, Hongji City in the old time and space." "There's flat land here, where you can build houses and yards. The conditions for the construction of the port are also good. It can also be used to divert water from the Beitang River to wash coal and provide daily use. ”

"What about defense?" Yan Maoda cares about this.

"Since it is a trading station, the scale of the fortifications must be moderate. lest the tree make a big splash. Besides, it really has to be too big and too strong, not only will it have to be spread very large, but it will also need more soldiers. Bei Kai pressed the hat on his head, "Try to use peaceful means." Now the Executive Committee means that it doesn't want to fight here. ”

Yan Maoda nodded: "Indeed." Let's go down the mountain. ”

At the foot of the mountain, the sailors and sailors of the Zhennan have begun to build a temporary earthen fence on the shore, surrounded by a trench planted with standard bamboo sticks, and a guard tower built with prefabricated parts is in full swing.

In the open space in the middle of the earthen enclosure is a wooden house made of prefabricated pieces. This is where Becky lives and works. The seamen who were on guard duty lived in a timber-framed barracks on the other side.

Bekai was a little terrified at the thought that he was going to work in this dirt enclosure and preside over the development - aside from 30 sailors and a 12-pounder mountain howitzer, his most reliable thing was a silicon 2-watt radio station, operated by his maid. The fear of being alone on the desolate coastline is indescribable. But there is no way to lay a soft egg at the moment - after this opportunity to take charge of one's own situation slips away, it will be difficult to mix in with the big guys.

"You get over it for the time being." Yan Maoda probably felt that this facility was a bit rudimentary--if he really wanted to have 10,000 Vietnamese troops, Bei Kai would have to explain it here. "I'll arrange for ships to transport construction materials, workers, and garrisons for you as soon as I get back."

Bei Kai stubbornly charged the hero: "It's okay, there are 30 sailors and 1 cannon, which is enough to resist local bandits and pirates." The Northern Li Dynasty will not be full, and there is nothing to do to launch a large army against us. ”

"It won't take three or four days to send you all the materials for the expansion of the base - the sea route from Lingao is very close," Yan Maoda tried his best to reassure him, "I will let the Zhennan come back as soon as I return to Lingao, and it will always be used by you in the future." Zhang Dascara is very familiar with the situation in Vietnam and will be a right-hand man. ”

"That's great." Bei Kai was overjoyed, it was much more reassuring to have the Zhennan and Zhang Da Scara here--he could still get on the boat to escape for his life, and said: "Zhang Da Scara is familiar with the sea and land routes here, and he is a very useful talent."

Yan Maoda looked around: "Where is the open-pit mine here?" ”

"Maoershan is not an open-pit mining area." The last time Pei Kai came to Hongji to personally preside over the construction of the detection pit, he had first-hand information about the distribution of coal mines, "The underground in this area of Guang'an is almost all coal, but there are only a few open-pit mines, and the largest open-pit mine is in Jinpu -- inland, 15 kilometers from here. ”

"So far? I thought it was right by the sea. ”

"There's coal by the sea, too." "Last time we did the probe pit. ”

As a result of the exploration pits, the small hills in this area are full of coal veins, and the disadvantage is that most of them are buried deep and need to be mined by digging shafts. It took almost a week for Beikai to find an open-pit vein under a small hill 3.5 kilometers from Mao'er Mountain, with a small mining face, less than 400 meters in diameter, but shallow burial, with only 2 meters of overburden. It was the shallowest buried vein they had discovered within 5 kilometers of Mao'er Mountain.

Escorted by sailors, the two men walked for more than 20 minutes on the overgrown wasteland - fortunately, this is the seaside, the sea breeze is strong, the vegetation is not dense, and the grass is not high. Yan Maoda could still vaguely see the traces of the path that had been carved out before. The deep rut marks of the purple electric trolley are barely recognizable in some places.

Walking to the foot of the hill, you can see that a small circular pit has been excavated, and the bottom of the pit has accumulated water, which has become a backwater pool. The pit is overgrown with weeds. Apparently no one has been here since they left.

"We named this place Cat Poop Pit No. 1." Bei Kai laughed, "The coal quality is very good, and it is all Haode anthracite." Virtually no impurities. At that time, our people on the Big Whale dug up 100 tons of coal in a week. It's a pity that this place has to be developed in a big way. At that time, he did not have the strength to invest, and later Lao Chang negotiated an agreement with the Wu family to exchange sugar for coal - Wu Yujia's manor also had many coal mines that could be mined. ”

"So the Hongji coal we use now is not actually produced by Hongji?"

"Hongji Coal is just a commercial name." Bei Kai spent many days in the exploration team, and then came to Hongji, and knew a lot about the ins and outs, "It means the coal that is transported from Hongji." In fact, it is Guang'an, which is called Guangning in this time and space, and can produce coal. If you want to say that the real Hongji coal should come from Jinpu, the largest open-pit mine in the Hongji mining area. ”

Yan Maoda looked at it, it is 4 kilometers from this pit to the sea, and it is necessary to build a small railway or something to improve the efficiency of coal transportation. It is better to wash the coal on the spot - there is water available from the river. He thought twice and asked, "How much coal can be produced in this pit?" ”

"Bai Guoshi has read our exploration data and said that at least 40,000 or 50,000 tons can be mined -- this is a conservative statement."

"50,000 tons" Yan Maoda thought that this figure was not worth mentioning in the old time and space -- a 200,000-kilowatt medium-sized thermal power plant had a peak coal consumption of more than 40 tons in one hour. 50,000 tons of total mining is only 2 months of consumption. But for Lingao's industrial system, it is a terrible resource. In particular, Hongji's anthracite coal is full of high calorific value, which is much better than the inferior lignite produced in Guangdong that is currently used in Guangdong. It can also play a big role in filling the gap in coal chemical raw materials - at present, the operation efficiency of the coal coking complex of the Ministry of Chemical Industry is not high, only reaching 40% of the design production capacity - the lack of sufficient coal guarantee is a bottleneck problem.

"This pit mines 100 tons a day, 3,000 tons a month. It can be mined for seven or eight months. Yan Maoda calculated.

"100 tons a day is too low. Wude was certainly not satisfied. "With the use of bucket carts and small rails, each miner could mine 1 per day, even without animal power and other tools and equipment." 100 workers with simple tools such as shovels can do the job. I think at least 200 tons per day. In this way, the Executive Committee will feel that the development of Hongji is of full significance. The Executive Committee may also allocate some mechanized equipment to assist in coal mining, so that 500 tons per day is possible. ”

"At 200 tons per day, Cat Poop No. 1 can only be mined for three months. What to do in the future? Going deep into the mainland? ”

Beikai had already calculated: "Three months can continue to explore." There is coal everywhere in the underground in this area of Quang Ninh, and I believe that other open-pit mines can be found in this vicinity, and the 50,000 tons of Maopoo No. 1 is an open-pit reserve, and if you are willing to continue digging deeper, there is still a coal belt to be mined. It's just that the investment in construction is large. ”

"In the long run, sooner or later, we will have to completely control the Hongji-Jinpu area." Yan Maoda sat on a stone on the edge of the pit, looking at the black water at the bottom of the pit, "Miner, how are you going to solve it?" ”

"First send a group of naturalized miners to come over as the backbone, and then recruit some locals." "Zhu Fuyuan said that the peasants here are living a hard life. There is less arable land in this area of Hongji, and all of them are planted with upland rice. The output was low, and the taxes of the Li Dynasty were not light. Two crops of upland rice and one of the miscellaneous grains are not enough to eat, and people starve to death every year. It should be able to recruit a lot of workers. It's just that we don't know much about Beiqi. ”。