Zhili Province, Yongping Prefecture, Luanzhou Sijiaying.

Tan Tingxiang, governor of Zhili, Hong Guan, governor of Yongping Prefecture, and Pei Yinggeng, governor of Luanzhou, were the local chiefs at the three levels, and they hurried from Luanzhou Prefecture to Sijiaying, a remote place, early this morning.

Speaking of Luanzhou, Yongping Mansion, it is a place with a long history.

Luanzhou was once the location of Guzhu State, one of the earliest vassal states in China, and recorded the story of Jizi moving eastward, Yiqi letting the country, and Lao Ma knowing the way, but since then, it has fallen silent. And Sijiaying is a barren land more than ten miles southeast of the city, although there is the Luan River passing through, but the places that pass through are all desolate mountains that stretch for several miles, called Yanshan, can not be cultivated, and it is not convenient to navigate, therefore, it has always been a barbaric place.

However, this year, especially since the implementation of the Second Five-Year Plan of the Chinese Empire, Luanzhou has undergone earth-shaking changes.

First of all, the railway from Beijing City to Shengjing, when passing through Lulong County, the capital city of Yongping Prefecture, because the Luanhe River section is the narrowest in Luanzhou, so the railway bridge over the Luanhe River is set up in Luanzhou, and naturally, the railway passes through Luanzhou City. With the extensive development of inland navigation projects throughout the empire, the Luanhe River, as one of the largest rivers in Zhili, flowed directly into the sea, and was naturally repaired and dredged, which not only successfully navigated, but also established a fleet of Luanhe boats to and fro in the middle and lower reaches to and fro, transporting merchants and goods.

In this way, Luanzhou, an ancient small county, has developed rapidly. But this is still second, the key is that recently, several prospecting team members of the Mineral Exploration Institute of the Provincial Public Works Department, for some reason, wandered to this Luanzhou County, in the Yanshan belonging to Sijiaying Township, found a huge iron ore, immediately reported, with the Ministry of Public Works Minerals Department officials came to review, and came to the conclusion that the whole mountain range of this Yanshan, a radius of several miles is a huge iron mine, now, Luanzhou, Yongping Mansion and even the entire Zhili, are a sensation!

When Zhou Shengkun, the governor of Zhili at the time, learned the news, he immediately ordered Yongping Mansion and Luanzhou to go all out to explore and organize manpower to build iron mines. A few months later, Zhou Shengkun has been transferred to Shengjing as a member of the cabinet, and Tan Tingxiang, the former political envoy of Zhili and the prefect of Beijing, has just taken over as governor of Zhili, when he received an edict from Shengjing, drawn up by the cabinet and approved by the emperor, requiring all provinces of the empire to build factories and mines and develop industry and commerce.

Tan Tingxiang was a member of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he was very experienced in educating the people and persuading farmers to farm, but he was very unfamiliar with civilization and economic development. Just when Tan Tingxiang was having a headache about how to "colonize and prosper" in Zhili in accordance with the holy decree and the requirements of the cabinet, someone reported that the former governor had ordered the construction of a huge iron mine in Sijiaying Yanshan in the south of Luanzhou, Tan Tingxiang was overjoyed, and hurriedly ordered Yongping Mansion and Luanzhou to immediately increase investment and handle the mining of Sijiaying Yanshan Iron Mine.

Not long after, the governor of Luanzhou reported through Yongping Mansion that the Sijiaying Iron Mine had almost been prepared and was ready to be officially put into production, and today, the day of the official unveiling and trial production. Tan Tingxiang was overjoyed and immediately said that he would personally come to congratulate him, of course, his intention was self-evident.

It is said that it is a mountain range of Yanshan, but at this moment, after the early preparation for mining, the trees all over the mountain have been cut down and become a bare wilderness, no longer looking like a mountain range, but like a hill everywhere.

Tan Tingxiang and the other three people, surrounded by a group of officials, came to the mineral to be mined, and it was already more than ten o'clock in the morning.

At a glance, there are thousands of strong men in the mountains, dozens of oxen, horses, and mule carts, all loaded with food and wine, as well as a lot of mascots for starting work, and the rest are spare shovels and the like. And all of this, in a huge pit. Not only that, but there were several huge iron machines, bubbling with white steam, which seemed to be driven by a steam engine, and they were panting loudly.

The whole pit is yellow-brown, Tan Tingxiang has recently supplemented his knowledge of industrial and mining and knows that this is the appearance of hematite, but such a huge pit is full of iron ore?

Tan Tingxiang was excited, and hurriedly asked, "This, this is all iron ore?" ”

Pei Yinggeng, the governor of Luanzhou next to him, hurriedly stepped forward and explained: "Back to Lord Tan, it's true! Inside this pit is russet iron ore! The specific situation, the subordinate has already learned from the foreman of the mining, the situation is very gratifying, and the subordinates are so happy that they haven't closed their eyes for a few nights. But he was afraid that it was not the truth, so he asked the absentees to mine some more, and when they saw the actual iron ore, their subordinates dared to report it to the imperial court. ”

"Excellent! Well done! Now His Majesty and the imperial court are encouraging the establishment of industry, and I, Zhili, is now lagging behind, and is catching up with the southern provinces. Your Luanzhou Sijiaying iron mine was discovered and mined in a timely manner, and it must be done well! Tan Tingxiang asked Pei Yinggeng: "Immediately get the first batch of samples, calculate the grade of minerals, and what is the actual situation?" ”

Pei Yinggeng replied: "Lord Tan, my subordinates have asked the absentees to dig around this mountain to explore minerals. After preliminary estimates, this Yanshan iron ore mine is almost more than two-thirds of the entire Sijiaying Township, and this Yanshan is the easiest to mine because of its protrusion from the surface!

According to the experts of the Ministry of Public Works exploration and the mining of the subordinate organizations of the excavation and viewing, all the ore body of Sijiaying iron ore is distributed in the north and south, at least more than ten miles long veins, or even longer, according to the state city as the boundary, can be divided into two mining areas, of which the southern area of the resource reserves of more than 200 million tons, the north of the iron ore reserves of more than 150 million tons, the current adult foot of the foot of this Yanshan iron ore belongs to the north mining area, the iron ore buried depth is the shallower, the iron ore grade is also the highest, there are nearly 45% or even 62%, is not low, Crucially, open-pit mining can be used. ”

Tan Tingxiang directly asked the crux of the question: "Lord Hong, Lord Pei, tell me, how much iron ore can be mined from this iron mine every year, and if a large iron plant is built here, it should be possible, right?" ”

Hong Guan, the prefect of Yongping Mansion, immediately became excited, and said excitedly: "My lord, it's really okay!" There are several coal mines in Yongping Province that are already being mined, the largest of which is the Kaiping Coal Mine in Luanzhou, which now employs 4,000 coal miners, and produces 150,000 tons of coal a year last year, and is growing by tens of thousands of tons every year. There is coal in the near future, and now there are iron ores, stones are everywhere, and the three main raw materials for building an iron plant are ready, and it is completely possible to build a huge iron factory!

The key is how much the iron ore can produce. But now it seems that this iron ore is so abundant, as long as there are more people mining, the output will not be less! ”

Tan Tingxiang waved his hand: "Let's officially mine first!" Look at the taste and evaluate it. ”

With the order of the governor, the entire mine began to boil. Thousands of miners, led by foremen, raised shovels and pestles, began to dig. They divided labor with each other and worked in full swing, and before long, the machines also rumbled and made a deafening sound, and the villagers around heard the movement and rushed to see the excitement.