On May 28, the midsummer sun seemed to dry everything on the earth. Han Jinxin, the www.biquge.info of the pen "Fun" Pavilion, sat on the edge of the small river in Changhua County, Qiongzhou Prefecture, looked at the ram river that meandered down, and wiped the fine sweat on his head.

Han Jinxin is leading a team to look for Shilu iron ore in Qiongzhou Mansion.

Located in the western part of Hainan Island, Shilu Iron Ore is the highest-grade iron ore in Asia. The average grade is 51.2%, with a maximum grade of 69%, and the most valuable thing is that the ore is all open pit veins, which is extremely easy to mine.

There are very few ore impurities in Shilu iron ore, and it is a good pig iron after a little smelting. The pig iron smelted from the iron ore here not only saves time and effort, but also makes the quality of steel skyrocket. In later generations, Chinese steel mills did not mine low-grade iron ore in China, and desperately imported iron ore from Australia and Brazil, because high-grade iron ore can bring twice the result with half the effort.

One of Han Jinxin's subordinates handed Han Jinxin a clean towel, and Han Jinxin took it and wiped it on his head—in this place of Qiongzhou Mansion, especially in such a summer, small things like handkerchiefs are no longer enough, and only by wiping sweat with a towel can they be wiped clean.

Han Jinxin's other subordinate did not have towels. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand and said, "Chief Soldier, it's good to leave this kind of thing to us, why should the Chief Soldier go on a trip himself." If the chief officer is exhausted, we really can't afford it. ”

Han Jinxin sat on the stone, bowed in the direction of Tianjin, and said: "Grandpa Guo is concerned about the matter of this Shilu Iron Mine, and he has looked for me twice in two days, so I must send capable people to find it." The so-called food of the king, the matter of loyalty. Since Grandpa Guo attaches so much importance to it, I, Han Jinxin, can't be lazy, so I just lead the team to find it in person! ”

"Grandpa Guo said that there are 300 million tons of iron ore in this Shilu Iron Mine, which is enough for us to mine for a lifetime. Now Grandpa Guo has organized blacksmiths near the capital to set up an iron-making blast furnace in Tianjin, or the blast furnace will be erected in less than a month. The pig iron smelted in the blast furnace is directly supplied to the converter steelmaking of the grandfather of the country, and it is waiting for the iron ore of Shilu to be boiled! ”

"I think that when I Han Jinxin almost starved to death in Jingbianfang, it was Grandpa Guo who took me in. Today, I, Han Jinxin, can sweat a little for Grandpa Guo, which is my honor Han Jinxin. ”

The dozen or so guards who followed Han Jinxin heard Han Jinxin's loyal words, and they all sighed that the chief soldier was really loyal.

This time, the grandfather of the prospecting country attached great importance to it, and the chief military officer personally led the team, and the five hundred secret guards were divided into 80 groups to search in the mountains of Changhua County, and it was expected that it would not be long before they could find the open-pit Shilu iron ore.

Han Jinxin was resting there when he suddenly saw a secret guard captain wearing a flying fish suit running not far away.

After the development of Li Zhi's secret guards over the years, many people have been on Li Zhi's merit list. In the rewards of the Son of Heaven again and again, many people were rewarded by the Son of Heaven with flying fish suits. As long as the Son of Heaven rewards one piece of clothing, the recipient can make several pieces and wear them. Therefore, many captains under Han Jinxin's command wear flying fish suits every day.

The captain of the secret guard ran up to Han Jinxin, with a smile on his face, and said to Han Jinxin: "Chief Officer, our 57th group has found more than a dozen Han people secretly digging iron ore in the mountains. According to those miners, the ore they stole was of excellent quality, and it was easy to sell when transported outside, and it was probably the Shilu iron ore vein that Grandpa Guo said! ”

Han Jinxin squinted his eyes and smiled, and said, "Okay, if it's really Shilu Iron Mine, there will be a lot of rewards!" ”

####

Outside the city of Fanjiazhuang, an experimental railway was erected on a barren grassland. The railway was laid with crucible steel rails and was used to test the basic structure of the train.

Both sides of the railway were full of people watching the excitement. The news that Grandpa Guo was going to test the railway this afternoon spread all over Fanjiazhuang a few days ago, and the people all knew that there was a three-mile-long "railway" in the wilderness south of Fanjiazhuang. Today, the railway cargo was officially tested, and the people regarded such novelties as an interesting thing, and called friends to watch it.

The people on both sides of the railroad looked at the railroad and chattered.

Some girls who don't show their heads on weekdays also took the opportunity to come out to breathe, and more than a dozen girls stood together at every turn, giggling as if they were rushing to the temple fair, or watching the lanterns on the Yuan Festival.

Many young people who were thinking about looking for a daughter-in-law saw those girls with wide eyes and looked at them carefully, not missing this opportunity to see the girl's appearance clearly.

In this era, many men and women have never met each other before they get married. Sometimes the matchmaker talks wildly, but in the end he marries an ugly girl. At this time, the opportunity to look at the girl is like the merchant agreeing to inspect the goods before paying, which is really rare.

Because there are more and more people watching the excitement, many melon sellers have also found business opportunities and put the melon business on both sides of the railroad tracks. At this time, the weather was very hot, and the people of Fanjiazhuang were indeed rich, and the business of these melon vendors was surprisingly good. Many vendors sold out of watermelons at once, and hurriedly went to the countryside to buy them.

The crowd waited for a while, and at four o'clock in the afternoon they waited for the test vehicle. I saw six carriages full of rice and flour, one of which was a wooden wheel, and the other five were all equipped with strange steel wheels.

The carriage stopped at the end of the railway, and the wagon was parked on a dirt road next to the railway, with two healthy horses in front of it. The bodies of the five steel-wheeled carriages were separated from the horses one by one, and all of them were toppled end to end on the railroad tracks. In front of these five carriages, there are also two healthy horses.

Immediately the people began to discuss.

"This is to compare the speed of a five-carriage carriage on a railroad with a carriage on a dirt road!"

"Can the carriage on this railroad win?"

"It's unlikely! The rice noodles in that carriage seem to be very heavy, and two horses can pull five carriages? ”

There were citizens who were idle and had nothing to do and even started a gambling game. There was a shopkeeper who opened a teahouse, and dozens of gambling people surrounded him. The gamblers piled up the silver on the dirt in front of the banker, and the teahouse owner shouted while keeping the accounts: "The banker bets on the railroad carriage to win, and he is not satisfied with the bet!" Bet one to lose one, bet to leave, willing to gamble and lose! ”

The people discussed for a while, and Li Zhi came over from the Guogong Mansion and stood on a small artificial platform in the middle of the railway with his personal guards.

After Li Zhi sat down on a chair on the small high platform, one of the guards near the carriage pulled out a handcuff and fired a shot into the air with a "snap".

The competition began.

Hearing the gunshots, the wagon on the dirt road rushed out first. Although carrying 3,000 catties of rice and noodles, the two-horse carriage on the dirt road did not show weakness, and ran at a high speed of more than ten kilometers, surpassing the railway carriage pulling five heavy carriages at once.

Next to the gambling game of the teahouse owner, several gamblers who had bet on the dirt road carriage to win shouted loudly and happily, shouting at the dirt road carriage: "Hurry! Fast! Faster! ”

The carriage on the dirt road seemed to hear the cries of the gamblers, and rushed forward with a neigh, exerting all the strength to feed the milk.

To the disappointment of these gamblers, however, the lead of the dirt wagons lasted only a short time before they were overtaken by the wagons on the railway.

Although there were five carriages on the back, the rails were very smooth, and there was very little friction between the smooth iron wheels and the rails. Although it is difficult to accelerate, once it is accelerated, it requires very little horsepower, so it can be accelerated all the time. The five-carriage of the railway ran faster and faster, and in the first half of the railway, it overtook the dirt wagon at a distance of four hundred meters.

Running to the back, amid the exclamations of the people, the two big horses on the railway galloped wildly, running at least thirty kilometers per hour, leaving the wagons on the dirt road far behind.

The common people all supported the new invention of Li Zhi, the prince of Jinguo. Although it was a little incredible, the people on both sides of the railway thundered with joy when they saw the railway carriage win.

The owner of the teahouse who sat in the village laughed, wrapped all the silver on the ground into his sleeve, and said with a smile: "Accept!" Agreed! ”

The gamblers who lost money looked at the teahouse owner in disdain, speechless.

Until the carriage stopped at the end of the line, the people were still unsatisfied and refused to go on both sides of the railway.

Li Zhi looked at the people of Fanjiazhuang, who liked to watch the excitement, waved his hand and said: "Drag five more carriages, and use ten carriages of railway carriages and dirt road carriages to compete!"