Everyone quarreled for a long time, and finally the position of the president was not elected, but the deacons were elected, respectively, Cheng Boxian, Li Jingye, Fang Yiai, and finally Anhe, a total of four deacons, during this period of time when there was no president, the affairs of the association were temporarily handed over to the six of them to negotiate and be responsible, as for the position of president, this because no one is convinced, so it is temporarily vacant, and after the development of the coal industry, then whose industrial development is the fastest and strongest, then this position is his. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Huh? Brother An, I suddenly remembered a question. ”

finally made everyone quiet, and at this time, Li Jingye, who was one of the deacons, suddenly frowned and spoke.

"Oh, Brother Li, please speak!"

An He said with a smile, he didn't have any regrets about not sitting in the chairman's seat, after all, he was too lazy, although the cement association had the name of the president, he threw everything to Li Yifu, and he didn't want to care about those messy things at all, so for this emerging coal industry, he just wanted to make a fortune in a muffled voice, and let others do the hard work. Originally, he didn't even want to do this deacon's position, but after all, he proposed this matter, so at the suggestion of several other deacons, he was forced to hang up the name of a deacon.

"If so many of us go to dig coal, then it will definitely increase the production of coal, but because of the freight and other questions, our coal can only be supplied to the cement plant on the section from Chang'an to Luoyang."

Li Jingye said and pointed a few times on the map, the coal production area of Anhe is not very far from Chang'an and Luoyang, which Li Jingye sees very accurately, "But in this way, it will cause the sales area of coal to be very narrow, and there may even be a dug out of the charcoal that cannot be sold, so that we don't talk about making money, and we will definitely lose money at that time." ”

Li Jingye is still more insightful about business, knows the importance of the market to a product, and just now he only cares about being happy and competing for the position of president, so he didn't think of this for a while, but now as soon as he calms down, he immediately perceives this big problem. Others heard Li Jingye's analysis and understood the seriousness of this problem, if this problem is not solved, then even if they dig out the coal, in the end they can only be a bamboo basket to draw water.

"Cut~, I haven't seen it, who told you that charcoal can only be used to burn cement?"

An He said with a disdainful face, in later generations, coal can be called industrial food, whether in people's livelihood or industry, is one of the most widely used energy sources, compared with charcoal and the most primitive firewood, its advantages can not be explained in a sentence or two.

"Oh? Listening to the meaning of Brother An's words, you seem to know the other uses of this coal, hurry up and tell you about it! ”

Li Jingye was also very concerned about making money, and as soon as he heard An He's words, he immediately asked first.

The others also looked at An He with a curious expression, they all knew that An He knew a lot about these messy things, so they didn't have the slightest doubt about An He's words.

"Hehe, this is simple, I have prepared things a long time ago, you guys wait a while!"

An He said and gave an order outside, and after a while, a few servants carried in two more things. One of them was gray, about the same as coal, but lighter in color, and the other was a stove with a yellowish flame rising high.

In the puzzled eyes of everyone, An He stepped forward, first picked up the tongs by the stove, reached into the stove and picked up a cylindrical thing with many holes on it, and after turning around in front of everyone's eyes, he said:

"Everyone, please see, this is made by me with crushed charcoal and clay, I call it honeycomb coal or briquettes, a piece of such honeycomb coal, is enough for an ordinary family to cook a meal, and when not in use, you can plug the air intake hole below, slow down the burning rate of honeycomb coal, and it will not be extinguished overnight, and you don't even need to replace it with new honeycomb coal, you can make a meal, which is definitely much stronger than using charcoal and firewood......"

While explaining the role of honeycomb coal, Ann He showed everyone the use of briquette stoves, which has no technical content at all, so as long as you are not stupid or stupid, you can immediately understand what is going on.

"Brother An, you ...... Are you going to have everyone cook with coal? ”

Li Jingye stepped forward to look at the burning briquettes in Anhe's hand, and said with a surprised face, he was really shocked that Anhe dared to think and do, if everyone really used this honeycomb coal, then they really didn't have to worry about the problem that the charcoal couldn't be sold.

"Of course, although everyone now uses firewood or charcoal to cook and boil water, but compared to them, honeycomb coal is cleaner and more efficient, and the price is not high, it may be more expensive than firewood, but it is definitely cheaper than charcoal, and compared with honeycomb coal and firewood at the same price, it is definitely honeycomb coal that is more resistant to burning, and it is more cost-effective to use honeycomb coal, so we just need to spend some effort to do publicity and promotion, and we will definitely make everyone switch to our charcoal as fuel."

An He smiled very proudly, when he first started digging coal, he already wanted to get honeycomb coal out, but because the output of the mine was not large at that time, it was a little difficult to supply only a few cement plants, and even if he did, there was no supply of raw materials. Until now, in order to repay the help of his brothers, he decided to engage in the coal industry, and as the leading product to open up the market, honeycomb coal is of course the first to be made.

"Brother An deserves to be Brother An, and he solved this problem in one fell swoop!"

Cheng Boxian circled around the coal stove a few times, and then said with admiration, and the others also echoed it, and they were amazed around the coal stove.

"Brother An, you're done with honeycomb coal, but what is this thing?"

Cheng Boxian picked up the gray things next to him, and after carefully observing them for a long time, he didn't understand what they were, but he just felt that it was very similar to charcoal.

"Oh, this thing is called coke, it is made of coal after a certain treatment, you don't look at it as inconspicuous, but it is a good material for ironmaking, and not all coal can be used to make coke, in my few coal mines, at most less than a fifth of the coal can be coking, so its price is much more expensive than coal." An He said.

Datang's implementation of the government-private parallel mining and smelting industry, does not prohibit private mining and smelting, so the private mining industry has developed rapidly, although it can not be compared with the powerful government-run mining and metallurgical industry, but it is much better than the previous dynasty, and the development of private mining management industry has also increased the demand for fuel for smelting.

The use of coal as a fuel for ironmaking, this method has appeared as early as the Han Dynasty, but the coal contains sulfur and other sundries, making the iron too brittle, this kind of iron is not very useful, so the use of coal to make iron is not common in the Tang Dynasty, until two hundred years later in the Northern Song Dynasty, because of technological progress, the use of coal to make iron began to form a certain scale, and until the Southern Song Dynasty, because of the invention of the method of coking with coal, so that the iron smelting with coke became the mainstream, and even until more than a thousand years later, it is still used. Of course, there are also people who are lucky enough to find natural coke, which can be directly used to make iron, but there is not much naturally formed coke, which is far from enough for smelting.

Anhe has advanced the appearance of coke by hundreds of years, and as long as the current smelting technology is slightly improved, it will definitely make Datang's steel output increase exponentially, and steel output is a sign of a country's strength, so Anhe's move seems ordinary, but its significance is so great that it will definitely make the entire Datang earth-shaking changes. It's a pity that none of the people here can see the meaning of the appearance of coke, so when they heard that this thing can be used to make iron, they are only happy that the charcoal has one more use, and the charcoal they produce in the future will also have one more market, and the others don't think much about it at all.

An He has long known that these unlearned guys will definitely not understand the importance of coke, so he is not surprised by their reaction, of course, he will not waste saliva to explain the meaning to this group of gentlemen, it doesn't matter if they don't understand, as long as the people who use it can understand, he has already asked people to send the coke produced in his mine to the Ministry of Industry, I heard that someone has been arranged to try it, presumably there will be results after a while.

The Coal Industry Association had been formed, and the market for the coal had been found, and now that everything was ready, someone was sent to find out the coal mines. At that moment, everyone no longer drank any alcohol, so everyone simply sat down and distributed the people or money that each family wanted to pay, and roughly everyone gave the same share.

On the second day after the matter was agreed, as soon as the gate of Chang'an City was opened, a team of people and horses immediately left the city, and roughly calculated, there were hundreds of people, and everyone was ready to go. Among the members of this team, Cheng Boxian and Li Jingye were all there, and several deacons of the Coal Industry Association, which was established only yesterday, were not present.

After leaving the city gate, their group walked in the northeast direction for a while, and then stopped, Cheng Boxian and they called several leaders of the team over, and then asked in a deep voice:

"Can you write down everything I told you yesterday?"

"Don't worry, my subordinates have written it down, we will definitely live up to Childe's trust and try to find as many carboniferous mines as possible."

One of the team leaders stood up and said that they were the henchmen and servants sent by Cheng Boxian and others, but now they belong to the prospecting team under the Carboniferous Association, and they are responsible for going to the area set aside by Anhe to find mines, and they all have warrants from each province on them, so they can mobilize the local manpower and relations of each province at any time.

"Well, remember what An Zhonglang will explain, you must inquire more and observe more, and try not to leak the news, if you find a carboniferous mine, come back as soon as possible to report, you are no longer servants in the provinces, but belong to the prospecting team under the Datang Coal Industry Association, the promise that the association gave you is not a joke, if you find a carboniferous mine with mining value, you will immediately have a hundred yuan of funds to take, even if it is for yourself, you must not be lazy!"

Cheng Boxian also instructed that the first time he did this kind of thing, he was inevitably a little uneasy in his heart, so he couldn't help but tell him repeatedly.

"Please rest assured, the subordinates are also from various prefectures, and there are wives and children at home, even if they are not for themselves, they will desperately find a few mines for the sake of their families!" One

A very eye-catching team leader said immediately.

Next, Fang Yiai and others also stepped forward to say a few words, and the meaning was almost the same, anyway, they asked them to look for as many mines as possible, and then they personally toasted a bowl of parting wine to the first batch of subordinates of these carboniferous associations, which allowed them to get on their horses and hurry.

Looking at the prospecting team that left with horses, Cheng Boxian and they breathed a sigh of relief, since yesterday's decision to find ore, they have been busy now, and they didn't even sleep last night, and several people are now all bloodshot.

"Hmm~, it's finally over, let's go back and catch up on sleep!"

Li Jingye stretched his waist and yawned, the spirit of the strong beating just now immediately collapsed, and the tiredness on his face could no longer be hidden, and he said weakly. (To be continued.) )