In the afternoon, Feng Shaoguang and Huang Yiyun and Liu Shengbang went out of the state government and saw that Zuo Zongtang was already waiting outside the gate. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info Later, Chen Shuitai led the miners to greet him, followed by Li Kaifang and Su Sanniang, it turned out that these people had been waiting outside for a long time.

The Baoshan mining area is said to be four or five miles away from the west of the city, in fact, out of the west city gate, less than three miles forward, you have already begun to see the slag on both sides of the road, and there are constantly holy soldiers on duty along the road, it seems that Chen Shuitai knows the importance of minerals from above, and the arrangements are very cautious.

Began to enter the mining area.

According to a miner surnamed Song, who has been mining in the Baoshan mining area for more than ten years, the Baoshan mining area actually contains black lead ore, copper ore, white lead ore, gold, silver and lead ore, as well as sulfur ore and pyrite. Everyone listened to it loudly, but Feng Shaoguang was interested, he mainly came to the sulfur mine.

I don't know what benefits Chen Shuitai promised to Song Kuangtou, Song Kuangtou was very enthusiastic and patiently explained all the way. Soon, he led everyone to the first mine, saying that it was a lead-copper mine, and a small amount of gold was also produced.

There were several holy soldiers guarding the entrance of the cave, and when they saw Chen Shuitai and others coming, they hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

Feng Shaoguang saw that the mine was several people high, and the sides and top of the cave were arched with hardwood to support the mine to prevent it from collapsing. Secretly, this ancient man was also very ingenious and knew the safety of mining. I was not very interested in lead and copper mines, so after a little look, I asked Song Mine Head to take it to the next mine.

The second mine is more than three miles away from the lead and copper mine just now, and there are several mines, all of which are open on a separate peak, but they are white lead mines. In front of the mine of this lead mine, there are no holy guards guarding it. Feng Shaoguang asked Chen Shuitai, but said that it was because white lead was not very useful, so no one was sent on duty. Feng Shaoguang shook his head, but didn't say anything.

The head of the Song mine led Feng Shaoguang and the others into the mine from the largest mine on the side. The accompanying miners lit torches, and a few people walked inside. Walk along the mine cave into more than 100 steps, and there is a fork in the inside, one mine hole goes up on the left, and another mine extends diagonally down from the right.

Feng Shaoguang walked to the mine cave on the left first, and Chen Shuitai and the others were busy leading the mine head to light the road in front. Looking at the scattered ores in the mine, as well as the shape on the mine wall, blue-gray, gray-white, Feng Shaoguang judged that this should be a lead-zinc mine! The Qing Dynasty miners called lead-zinc ore and lead-tin ore white lead ore, but lead-tin ore is relatively gray-black and darker in color. Moreover, Feng Shaoguang also knew that in the vicinity of Guiyang in later generations, there were indeed several large-scale lead-zinc mines with the world's top reserves.

Sure enough, the head of the mine surnamed Song introduced: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a white lead mine. Ores like this can be heated and refined to obtain two materials, lead and "lead". ”

"Lead? You say that this ore can be heated and smelted to get lead? Feng Shaoguang asked.

Zuo Zongtang on the side was worthy of being well-read, but he had heard of this word and asked: "But the lead mentioned in Song Yingxing's "Heavenly Creation" in the previous dynasty? ”

The head of the mine surnamed Song was at a loss, and said: "This gentleman, the villain has never read a book, but I don't know if this lead is the one you said." ”

Feng Shaoguang said with a smile: "Ji Gao, it is the lead that Song Yingxing mentioned!" It is fierce because it resembles lead, so it is called "lead". The word is ugly, but today I want to change the name of this thing, and it will be called zinc! ”

"New?" Zuo Zongtang saw Feng Shaoguang write a zinc word with his finger, and then said: "Zinc? Good name! The meaning of the Holy King is far-reaching, and Zong Tang admires it! But I don't know what this zinc is used for? ”

"This? Ji Gao, I can only tell you that this zinc is not very useful, and when the time is right, it will open your eyes! Feng Shaoguang smiled, but he didn't say it thoroughly.

Zuo Zongtang knew that he deliberately sold Guanzi, and he didn't ask anymore.

When everyone returned, they looked at another mine on the right diagonally down, and the head of the mine surnamed Song explained that it was a gold-silver-lead synthetic. As soon as Su Sanniang heard that there was a gold mine, she became interested and wanted to see where the gold mine was. After looking for a while, it was all black and slippery ore, and there was no gold at all, so I couldn't help but lose interest.

After leaving the second mine and taking a short rest, Feng Shaoguang proposed to go and see the sulfur mine.

So I walked three or four miles northwest and came to a yellow-brown basin. But in the middle of the basin, there are dozens of holy soldiers guarding, which is the sulfur mine.

"My lord, this is the largest sulfur mine in Gyeyang. But it is open-pit mining, and the whole lake is wide, and it is also the number one. The head of the mine surnamed Song looked proud, and while introducing, he led everyone to the deep pit in the middle of the basin.

This basin is a bit like the crater that Feng Shaoguang has seen on TV before, there is a radius of about a mile in the middle of the basin, and it is all light yellow sulfur ore, Feng Shaoguang grabbed a small piece and sniffed it, there is indeed the unique pungent smell of sulfur. As Feng Shaoguang, who has been in the oil refining and chemical plant for several years, he easily judged that these sulfur mines turned out to be high-purity natural hot sulfur.

Huang Yiyun, who had been following behind, sighed: "I can't imagine that this world is so magical, there is so much sulfur!" When I think about Yiyun's practice of medicine in Guangxi, I can't find a small piece of sulfur, which is really incredible. ”

The head of the mine surnamed Song pointed to the hill at the end of the basin and said, "My lord, all the way from here to that side, it is a sulfur mining area. The scope is very wide, and when the government was still there, hundreds of officers and soldiers were sent to guard the mining area, and outsiders were strictly forbidden to enter. ”

Feng Shaoguang and others followed the head of the mine surnamed Song to the hill, nearly two miles, before reaching the top of the hill. Song Kuangtou picked up a stick casually, cocked a loose piece of dark brown ore, and said: "My lord, please see, this ore is very peculiar, it has a sulfur smell but it is not sulfur, and it is much heavier than sulfur." The government didn't know what this mineral was used for, so we went out of our work and piled up all the minerals we dug up on the nearby hills. ”

Feng Shaoguang took the dark brown ore, and took a closer look, but he couldn't see what kind of ore it was, the appearance was brown, it was a three-dimensional pile of crystals, and there were reddish-brown streaks in the middle, could this be sphalerite? Feng Shaoguang also inferred from the shape and formation location that it was mixed with sulfur ore, and there was lead-zinc ore a few miles next to it, which is estimated to be the reaction of geological processes to produce sphalerite with a chemical composition of zinc sulfide.

For this sphalerite, Feng Shaoguang has some impressions. When I was in college, a teacher who taught thermodynamics once said that when heated in the air, sphalerite will produce zinc oxide and sulfur dioxide, zinc oxide can be used as a topical medicine, and can be used to smelt metal zinc, and SO2 can be used to make sulfuric acid. This sphalerite is also very useful, and the Manchu government doesn't know the use and throws it aside, but keeps it for itself.

Feng Shaoguang couldn't help but laugh secretly, and said to Zuo Zongtang: "Ji Gao, this kind of ore, I guess it should be called sphalerite." If it's really sphalerite, that's very useful! Although he was very sure that this ore should be sphalerite, Feng Shaoguang still asked Liu Shengbang and several guards to bring back a few large pieces of ore and fire it to verify whether it was really the composition of zinc sulfide.

Seeing this sulfur mining area, such a large range of sulfur and zinc sulfide ore, Feng Shaoguang's heart blossomed. There is saltpeter, there is sulfur, charcoal is ready-made, and from now on, gunpowder does not have to worry anymore. Moreover, with sulfur, you can use the chemical knowledge you have learned, at least to prepare some sulfuric acid. However, Feng Shaoguang was still reluctant to directly use natural sulfur to make sulfuric acid, which was too wasteful. It happened that this kind of sphalerite composed of zinc sulfide was found again, and it was very cost-effective to use this zinc to make zinc and prepare some sulfuric acid by the way. After making up his mind, Feng Shaoguang was ready to go back and gathered people to build a gunpowder factory and a zinc-making sulfuric acid factory.

The last cave, not far from the sulfur mine, under a reddish-brown peak, is also a mine, but this one is pyrite. The head of the mine surnamed Song said that this mine has been mined for a long time, and the government uses it to smelt pig iron, and there are also iron-making earthen furnaces and blast bellows built not far away. This earthen oven, in Feng Shaoguang's opinion, is too small in output and backward in technology, so he is not ready to use it. When he goes back, he will organize and design a soil smelting furnace with high output and high utilization rate, which must be worthy of his identity as a former chemical mechanical engineer.