If you want to open a mine, you must first look for a mine. Prospecting is a prerequisite for mining, according to the ancient Chinese traditional prospecting methods, there are about the following two, one is according to the symbiosis law of minerals prospecting. It is written: "The mountains have ochre on them, and iron under them; Whoever has lead on it, silver under it; He who has dansha on it has gold under it; There is a mercy (magnetic) stone on it, and there is copper and gold under it. The mountain sees the glory also. "The glory of the mountain" is the outcrop of the mine seedlings. The surface layer of iron ore is ochre due to oxidation, and lead (squad) and silver are often symbiotic, which has been confirmed by modern ore deposit science. The other is to prospect for minerals according to plant instructions. In the "Mirror of the Earth", it is said: "In February, Mr. Grass and Trees droops, and there is beautiful jade under it; In the middle of May, the leaves of the grass and trees are green and thick and without juice, and the branches droop down, and the ground has jade; In August, if the branches and leaves of the grass and trees droop, there will be beautiful jade; There are clouds, and after August, there is also jade for the dead of grass and trees. There are green onions in the mountains, silver under them, and the light is faintly white. The grass stems are red and have lead underneath; The grass stems are yellow and beautiful, and there are bronze vessels underneath. "Youyang Miscellaneous" contains: "There is ginger on the mountain, and copper and gold under it." This ginger is probably a wild plant, and its scientific name is unknown. A kind of copper grass is commonly found in the copper mine sites in southern Anhui. Commonly known as "patina grass" or "toothbrush grass", its scientific name is "Haizhou Xiangzhi", mainly distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, is a copper-loving indicator plant, and people still use it as one of the signs of looking for copper mines.

There are three kinds of prospecting methods commonly used in the Ming Dynasty: looking at stones, checking ore seedlings and looking at grass planting

Sight Stone. That is, to see what kind of rock layer the soil and rock, what color, to judge whether there is coal. "Yanshan Miscellaneous Records" said: "Those who have a pulse of charcoal regard their mountains and stones, count stones, and bluestone and sand and gravel are not." This means that where there is shale (several stones), there are often coal veins, and where there is limestone (bluestone), there is no coal. This judgment is in line with the general law of coal seam burial, but there are exceptions. Looking for coal is not only to look at the stone quality, but also to look at the color of the soil. "Heavenly Creations" says: "Those who have been taking coal for a long time can distinguish the color of existence from the soil surface." "Experience has shown that when the coal seam is closer to the surface, the topsoil can turn black, so the black soil becomes a sign of coal searching.

Check the seedlings. In many places, the coal seam is directly exposed on the surface, this phenomenon was called coal seedlings in the ancients, and it is called outcropping in today's people. Starting from the coal seedlings (outcrops), finding coal veins is the easiest and most effective way to find coal. "Yanshan Miscellaneous Records" says: "Check the soil and have black seedlings", you can find coal. Fang Yizhi (1611-1671) also recorded in his "Physics Knowledge" the common sense of "the outside is dewed, and the soil can be burned".

Looking at grass planting, that is, observing the surface vegetation to find coal, is a coal finding method summarized according to the relationship between coal seam and plant growth in some areas. In some areas, there is no grass and trees in the coal-bearing strata, so whether there is grass or whether the grass and trees are lush can be used as an indicator to judge whether there is coal in the area. Song Yingxing said in "Heavenly Creations": "Where coal does not grow lush grass and trees, the land is full of trees", "those who have no grass and trees in the bald mountains in the south will be coal", which is in line with the situation in his hometown of Jiangxi. In some areas, a certain plant is found on the coal-bearing strata, so this plant can be used as an indicator plant for coal prospecting.

At this time, on the slope near the Rushan Inspection Division, a prospecting team hired by Song Youliang with a high salary was prospecting. The leader is a middle-aged man with a black head, dark skin, and a short body but a strong man. This person's name is Xu Fugui, an old miner who went down to dig coal at the age of 17 and has decades of experience in mining and prospecting. He wore a thick cloth shirt, his hair was in a messy bun, a black belt was wrapped around his waist, and there was a deep black dirt in the lines of his palms and nails that could never be washed away. Although he claimed to be forty-five years old, he looked like an old man of half a hundred, and he had no hobbies on weekdays, so he would drink a little wine, and when he drank too much, he would go to the kiln.

This person claims to be able to see three feet on the ground with both eyes, and as long as he is invited, he is not afraid of not finding a mine. If you can't find a mine, it must be that you don't have any mine underground. I saw Xu Fugui sometimes take out a few stones from the soil and put them to his nose to sniff. Or spit on it, then wipe it with the corner of your clothes and sniff. Sometimes he lies on the ground, pulls off the soil, and digs out the grass roots to look closely. And the land he brought was also everyone's shovel, Xu Fugui said where to dig, they immediately dug wildly. Xu Fugui will never stop if he doesn't shout to stop.

Finally, after turning several hills and digging more than a dozen large pits. Xu Fugui pointed to a newly excavated pit and said: "My lord, after a small inspection, there is a very large coal hole under this hillside, and there are no less than one million catties of coal and stone in it. ”

Song Youliang was very excited when he heard this, and at the same time very interested, so he asked, "How can you see it?" ”

Xu Fugui arched his hand. Said: "Back to my lord, there are three ways to explore stone coal, see stones, check ore seedlings and see grass planting. The topsoil of this hillside is jet black, and there is no vegetation. This is a sign that there is coal under the mountain. Look at its rocks again. A few stones are lined, showing that the mountain is all high-quality coal, and the small ones are here to congratulate the adults. ”

Zhao Lianli on the side also became more and more excited the more he listened, and he couldn't imagine that this inconspicuous hill turned out to be a treasure mountain. Zhao Lianli laughed and said: "Okay, Master Xu, you have made meritorious contributions to mining prospecting, and this official will reward you heavily." ”

Master Xu Fugui was overjoyed, and hurriedly arched his hand and said, "Lord Xie." ”

Zhao Lianli is an anxious person, he will reward him if he says that he will be rewarded, and immediately sent someone to take fifty taels of silver and stuffed it into Xu Fugui's hand on the spot, "This is the money for tea, and the money for watching the mine is counted separately!" Zhao Lianli thought to himself that as long as this coal mine opened, the money would naturally roll in, and the fifty taels of silver were nothing

Now that the mine has been found, the next step is to dig the mine. Five days later, the construction of the Rushan Coal Mine began, where thousands of miners dug pits, dug shafts, and built houses nearby, digging drainage ditches, building latrines, garbage collection areas, etc., all modeled after the Acropolis of Haiyang.

Well sinking is very particular, and inexperienced miners are not competent, which is why Xu Fugui can have such a high salary of 150 taels per year. At that time, there were three ways to excavate mines: one was to dig a pit directly in the shallow part and take it in the open air, which was called a carbon pit in ancient times; the second is to dig flat ridges or dig inclined shafts along the outcrop of the coal seam; The third is to dig a shaft. Drilling the wellbore, pay attention to the position is accurate, the deflection is small, and it is firm and reliable. This is recorded in the Ming Dynasty's "Yanshan Miscellaneous Records": "Whoever attacks charcoal, there must be a well dry, although it is a hundred feet deep, it is unyielding." "Depending on the dryness of the well, I want it to be true and firm." If not, sharpen. In order to ensure that the wellbore is firm and reliable, the "Yanshan Miscellaneous Records" also said: the well must be drilled to "avoid its water", pay attention to the "well disease" (referring to faults and chicken nest coal), and pay attention to "the number of layers of stone measurement". That is to say, the wellbore should pay attention to the geological conditions, not in the place where the water content is large, there are faults, and the number of layers of rock and coal seams should be accurately determined when sinking the well. With his rich experience, Xu Fugui not only avoided these risks, improved the safety of the mine, but also saved a lot of manpower and material resources for Song Youliang.