Chapter 56: Coal Mining and Hunting
In the year of 58, we were in the era of national steelmaking, and large-scale steelmaking was vigorously carried out in the country. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info Every family has pots and pans, but all of them have contributed to everything.
In order to catch up with the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, everyone is fighting hard. When I was a child, according to my grandmother, there were earthen steel stoves everywhere, and people were chopping wood and burning charcoal to make steel all over the mountain, and even thorn branches could not be found later.
It's okay on Taihang Mountain, you don't need to burn charcoal, there is a lot of coal here. In the boundary of Liaozhou, there are not many large coal kilns, but there are many small coal kilns. It is better to use coal for steelmaking, and it is better to make coal into coke and then use coke to make steel.
Liaozhou, the place where coal is produced, Wu Yuanqing can find many of them with his eyes closed. In front of his house, if you really dig deep, you can find it, but unfortunately the Tang Dynasty is limited to the problem of technical tools at this time, and it is too difficult to dig coal here.
"Wu Yuanqing, where are we going?" the crisp voice echoed in the green mountains.
This was the third day after the rain stopped, and yesterday the water had already dropped a lot, and Wu Yuanqing and his party finally crossed the river and handed over the prisoners who had been locked up for several days to Ma Beijia, the second governor of Liaozhou, who had been waiting on the other side of the river for a long time.
As soon as he crossed the river and saw the horse not driving, Li Chengqian exploded and reprimanded him fiercely.
Ma Beijia was also half frightened to death when he saw Li Chengqian, because he found that the child who sold him a treasure knife for a hundred taels of silver on the street a few days ago was the angry prince in front of him.
The enemy was very red when he saw him, Li Chengqian didn't know how many times he was ridiculed by Wu Yuanqing because he was confused about selling knives, but this time he finally found the culprit, and finally let out a good breath of evil in his heart.
Ma Beijia was very eye-catching, and asked people to quickly whip up the treasure knife, and on the way back to the city, he respectfully returned the treasure knife to Zhao and returned it to Li Chengqian.
After the little bully Li Chengqian took back the treasure knife, the anger in his heart was smoothed, and he didn't know whether the one hundred taels of silver were intentional or unintentional, anyway, he forgot to return it to other people's horses.
After losing a hundred taels of silver and being scolded for a long time, Ma Bei didn't know if he was congested, and when he returned to the city, he had already prepared a banquet.
After eating a meal with peace of mind, the wind prepared by Ma Bei was also a feast of reparation, and everyone finally slept beautifully in the Thorn Mansion at night.
As soon as he woke up, after breakfast, Wu Yuanqing led a group of people out of the city again.
Ma Bei didn't dare to slack off, and he also led dozens of servants to wait, but Wu Yuanqing also asked these people to carry hoes and shovels, and they didn't know what to do.
Tie up with the prince and get promoted, Ma Beijia doesn't dare to think about it, there is a matter of assassination to chase and kill the prince, it would be good to keep the official hat.
Originally, I thought that the prince and these people might go out of the city to see the scenery, hunting or something, and I could help introduce them and lead the way, but who knew that when they went out of the south gate, they went straight to the south under the leadership of the little grandfather of the Yingguo Mansion. Along the way, Ma Beijia realized that people were actually walking with a purpose. My desire to be a guide turned out to be wishful thinking.
Damn, why is Wu Yuanqing so familiar with this place, what the hell.
"That's it, early in the morning, you led us to the mountain and didn't know what to do, don't forget about the bet, if you lose, you will be beaten by me" Wang Lun said angrily.
Wu Yuanqing rode a horse with a folding fan in his hand and led the way in front of him, and replied casually: "If you want to beat me, you won't have a chance in your life." Do you know why I'm here"?
"Why" Er Ya, who was sitting in front of Wu Yuanqing, turned his head and asked when he heard the voice.
"Because there is coal here, or open-pit coal," Wu Yuanqing rubbed Erya's sideburns and said with a smile.
Erya twisted her head left and right and escaped from the clutches of her eldest brother.
"What is coal?" asked Erya curiously.
Li Chengqian and the others also looked at it when they heard it.
"Eh, don't you know about coal" Seeing that several people shook their heads, Wu Yuanqing sighed weakly.
"What about graphite, what about coal," the few people still shook their heads.
I'll go, I don't know. Even if there was less coal in ancient times, it was not so ignorant that it was so ignorant, how could it be obtained.
But when I think about it, too, these are either royal or noble, and the top fruit charcoal used at home is impossible, and it is impossible to use choking coal, so it is understandable not to know.
"Coal is coal. is a stone that can be burned". Wu Yuanqing explained.
"Stones can also burn, Wu Yuanqing, you can really blow" Wang Lun couldn't wait to mock.
Wu Yuanqing ignored him, and continued: "Coal is a solid flammable mineral that was gradually formed by ancient plants buried in the ground and undergoing complex biochemical and physicochemical changes. It is a kind of solid combustible organic rock, which is mainly formed by the biochemical action of plant remains, buried and then transformed by geological action, so people call it carboniferous. ”
Biochemistry, physical chemistry, what is the matter, I don't understand.
Except for Wang Lun, who was provocative, they all listened to it and looked at Wu Yuanqing with admiration.
In one word, it is "unconscious".
I don't understand what you mean, but it feels amazing.
Well, looking at the appearance of a few people, Wu Yuanqing also knew that this popular science was playing the piano to the cow, and he was blind in vain.
"Anyway, this coal is a good thing. It can not only be used to make fires for heating and cooking, but also to make iron and steel, and to make various metals. Coal is further processed into coke, a combustible material that can produce higher temperatures, which is very useful for steelmaking and subsequent casting and forging. ”
"You said that this coal is underground, how do you know where it is, and you haven't been here, could it be that you are a god, you can see it with your eyes" Wang Lun persevered to find fault.
"Hey, I said, is your kid itchy again, are you looking for a smoke?" Wu Yuanqing glared at Wang Lun.
Wang Lun raised his eyebrows and glared back, looking like I was itchy skin, what can you do.
Wu Yuanqing was angry, and pointed at him with a horsewhip, you kid will wait for me.
Wait, wait, Wang Lun said that the master is not afraid of you.
Wu Yuanqing had no choice but to ignore him, but Wang Lun's question could not be answered, because everyone else looked at it with a look of wanting to know.
"What I dreamed of in my dreams, no"
No, can you change it to a fresh one, and come to this trick again, and you will only dream of Liaozhou in your dreams.
Everyone is already immune to the stalk that Wu Yuanqing dreamed of, and they are really annoyed that he used this as a reason.
If you really dream of it, won't you really become a fairy?
After walking up the valley for more than ten miles, Wu Yuanqing looked at both sides and estimated that he should have arrived at the location of his grandmother's village in the future.
There are a lot of small coal mines in my grandmother's house, almost every village has them, this is not the purpose of his coming here, the reason why I came here is because there is a coal mine on the mountain beam on the left side of my grandmother's village, this coal mine is not big, but the good place is an open air.
Basically, you can dig more than a meter down to dig coal, and some of it is even directly exposed.
In the Tang Dynasty, there were no villages in this area, only a dirt road with potholes and not wide leading into the distance, and the mountains on both sides were dotted with a few families. I don't know how thick the coal seam is from later generations, but Wu Yuanqing estimates that it will be a few meters at most, and there is definitely no need to dig a hole and dig deeply.
Wu Yuanqing chose a place, Li Chengqian gave an order to Ma Beijia, and Ma Beijia arranged for someone to excavate. At this time, Ma Beijia finally knew what the hoe and shovel were used for.
The mining matter was handed over to others, and Wu Yuanqing and the others naturally didn't have to stay here.
Their mission is to come out and play. Hunting, picnics, and barbecues, this is the content of today's activities set by Wu Yuanqing for himself.
Although cumin originated in Egypt and Central Asia, it had already crossed to China through the Silk Road. Although the spices of the Tang Dynasty were very valuable, for Wu Yuanqing and others, they were all trivial.
At this time, the spices are mainly star anise, cinnamon, fennel, cumin, which seems to be used less by the Tang Dynasty.
Before Wu Yuanqing went out in the morning, he found some cumin, star anise, cinnamon and other spice powders in the kitchen of the Thorn Shi Mansion and prepared some cumin powder by himself, which was specially prepared for today's barbecue activities.
In later generations, even if you go to the wild barbecue, you can only buy some bagged lamb skewers, chicken legs, fish or something.
Now it's okay, I have crossed over to the nobleman's house, the second generation of officials, there are guards to follow when I go out, and I can also lead the beauties on a wild outing to hunt and eat barbecue, this little day is really cool.
The palace maid found firewood to make a fire, took care of the eldest girl and the second girl, and the three little girls in Changle, leaving two guards to protect their safety.
Wu Yuanqing, two Wu Yuanshuang brothers and two Wang Lun brothers and sisters, plus the little boy Li Chengqian and his sister Xiangcheng, six people carried swords and bows, and led dozens of guards to rush into the mountains and forests.
On the galloping horse, the sound of the whirring wind passed through the ears, and Wu Yuanqing had a feeling of leading Huang on the left, Qingcang on the right, mink Qiu in the brocade hat, and a thousand horses rolling Pinggang.
Nima, hunting on horseback is really handsome and has no friends.
The population of the Tang Dynasty is small, the forest coverage rate is high, and the Loess Plateau is not as serious as the soil erosion in later generations. Lush forests everywhere. Naturally, there are many kinds of animals.
Pheasants, hares, deer, wild boars, roe deer, wolves, leopards and everything. It's like in later generations, occasionally seeing a rabbit on the mountain is excited to die, not to mention wolves, wild boars, these things, it is estimated that only the real inaccessible deep mountains and old forests have.
Not far from rushing into the woods, he startled flocks of birds, and saw a few colorful pheasants, and Wu Yuanqing shot them with arrows and bows.
It's a pity that the riding skills are not very good, the archery skills are mediocre, and no matter how fast the speed is, it is useless, leaving only a piece of chicken feathers.
It is not good to be out of school, Wu Yuanqing is not discouraged, anyway, he just comes out to play, he shoots when he shoots, and he should practice if he can't shoot.
Another person ran a few hundred meters, the grass in front of him swayed, and Wu Yuanqing hurriedly pressed the horse and watched carefully.
It has always had long ears, a three-petal mouth, and a stupid and cute gray rabbit drilled out.
Sanban didn't know what he was chewing in his mouth, kept twisting his head, and his eyes carefully scanned left and right.
But limited to the relationship of sight, Wu Yuanqing on the horse can see it, but it can't see Wu Yuanqing.
No matter how stupid and cute a rabbit is, it's a rabbit, and it's the same when you eat it.
Wu Yuanqing did not hesitate, but quietly bent the bow and arrows, using the strength of the slingshot in later generations, carefully aimed at the stupid rabbit, and when the bowstring was pulled to the extreme, his fingers were easily opened.
The arrows that were ready to fire rebounded with the bowstring, and flew out with a swishing sound of breaking through the air.