Pyongyang used to be the capital of Goryeo, since Lee Sung-gye returned to the throne and took the throne, then moved the capital to Seoul, and Pyongyang as the national capital has become history, and in the next few hundred years, although Pyongyang's castle is still tall, you can still see the old prosperity, but as a city it has long since declined, and now with the establishment of treaty ports, the depression of the land tribute road is becoming more and more depressed.

In the past few months, Pyongyang, on the banks of the Taedong River, has welcomed small wooden-hulled and iron-ribbed locomotive ships that have brought not only Western machines but also thousands of Chinese laborers, and the establishment of the Pyongyang Regional Affairs Office has allowed the Unified Prison Office to extend its tentacles into the heart of North Korea.

Around the city of Pyongyang are barren mountains, indeed barren mountains, the mountains are full of withered yellow weeds, among the weeds are bald rocks, occasionally a mountain eagle skimming the lonely sky, in a way, the barrenness of this piece of land in North Korea is far beyond the imagination of outsiders - the trees on the mountains have either been cut down by the government or two classes of nobles to build houses, or used by the common people as firewood, and the desolate mountains are full of traces of mudslides after heavy rains.

A mountain eagle soaring in the air stopped on a bald rock, the eagle's sharp eagle eyes looked around, as if to declare its territory, and suddenly, the seemingly quiet mountain moved, first the belly of the mountain swelled suddenly, and then countless gravel and earth and billowing smoke erupted, and in the eruption, the violent continuous explosion shook the whole land.

The continuous sound of explosions, which seemed to announce the beginning of the day, was in the sound of explosions. Laborers in rattan hats and blue uniforms in the safety zone at the foot of the mountain. They all looked at the cloud of smoke that seemed to be swallowing half of the mountain. In the past, they have opened a mountain for a long time, but it is the first time that a hill has been leveled with hundreds of tons of explosives.

When the miners were dumbfounded and felt the shaking of the ground, on the balcony in front of the wooden house of the "Beiyang Mining Company Headquarters" a kilometer away, Kuang Rongguang saw through the billowing smoke clouds from the telescope that the mountain had disappeared, and finally showed a smile on his face, and said to Chen Ronggui beside him.

"You've calculated it accurately. It took only 100 tons of gunpowder to level the hill, and when the cannon was fired, the coal mine was almost completely exposed! ”

As the chief surveyor of the mining company, he and his friends explored 17 coal mines around Pyongyang and drew China's first geological map, the Samshendong coal mine was the first of these mines he chose - not because of its tens of millions of tons of reserves, but because of its convenient transportation - less than three kilometers from the Datong River, and the riverside wharf was properly deepened to accommodate 800-ton sea vessels, while the Beiyang Shipping Company only had one coal ship with a tonnage of only 720 tons, which means that after the coal mine was put into operation. Coal can be quickly transported by water to the treaty ports of Tianjin and Shandong.

"If it's a new type of explosive, it only takes a dozen tons!"

When Chen Ronggui looked towards the gunpowder smoke that had not yet dissipated. With some regret on his face,

"The gunpowder used in mining is all self-made by the machine bureau in Seoul, and now Europe and the United States have begun to eliminate black powder with smokeless medicine and picric acid explosives, and we ......"

As a mining engineer, Chen Ronggui has his own views on many things, such as after learning that picric acid has been used as an explosive in France, he began to try to refine explosives using picric acid dyes, although it is only just beginning to experiment, but some progress has been made.

"When your new explosives are successfully developed, then we will open a factory in Pyongyang or Nampo, just like a fuel plant! Specializing in the production of explosives, anyway, whether it is coal and iron mining, or military supplies, explosives can be used! ”

"Fuel plant?"

Chen Ronggui's brows jumped slightly, and he turned his head to look at Kuang Rongguang with some suspicion on his face.

"Yes, it is briquette pressed with pulverized coal, and only a few briquette machines need to be introduced!"

As he spoke, he pointed to a pile of coals that were white in the sunlight not far in front of the house.

"The quality of Pyongyang's anthracite is not inferior to Welsh coal, low sulfur content, low ash content, the average calorific value is more than 7,600 kcal, and the heat will be greater than 8,000 kcal after selected coal washing, and the quality is by no means inferior to Welsh coal, in Shanghai, Hong Kong and other places The same quality of Welsh cigarette costs 16 taels of silver per ton, which is not the most important, the most important Beiyang ......"

When talking about Beiyang, Kwong Rongguang thinks of the smoke billowing from the warships and chimneys of the Beiyang Navy that burn low-quality bituminous coal.

"Briquettes are developed as high-efficiency coal for ship fuel, lump coal is especially inconvenient for warships to be used as fuel, inconvenient for shipment, and emit black smoke, the warships of the Beiyang Naval Division emit black smoke, because it is Kaiping bituminous coal, Kaiping coal, billowing black smoke when burning, the firepower is very weak, not suitable for ship fuel, belongs to low-quality coal. The anthracite powder produced in Pyongyang can be used to make briquettes for warships, which can not only meet the needs of the navy, but also be used as fuel for cruise ships, and now the briquettes in the East Asian market are almost completely monopolized by Britain, Australia and the United States. Lower mining costs......"

Two months ago, Kwong Rongguang might have felt that the DPRK was incapable of doing anything -- the country was barren and the people were poor, but now, after the initial exploration of the coal mines in the Pyongyang area, he has completely reversed this idea -- the coal mines near Pyongyang are far more abundant than he imagined, and the reserves are more than 100 million tons, and if the Pyongyang coal mines can be fully developed, the coal mines alone will be able to support the unified supervision government to set up all kinds of foreign affairs in the special zone.

"Now, I'm afraid it's a little early to talk about the fuel plant!"

The confident words of his friend made Chen Ronggui smile slightly, and pointed to the mountain bag that had disappeared in the distance and said.

"The top priority now is to mine the coal first, you know, according to the example of previous years, in two months, this Datong River will be frozen, this seal is three or four months, our mine is still a little short of manpower! If nothing else, how long does it take to remove those few feet of soil and gravel? ”

Chen Ronggui's reminder made Kuang Rongguang immediately realize the current priority, and he hurriedly turned around and walked towards the office, saying as he walked.

"I'll give the Office a call and see if the Office can think of something else!"

In the early morning, a series of explosions suddenly came from the north of the city, which woke up the people in their sleep, not only the ordinary people were awakened, but also the affairs hall set up on the site of the old palace could also feel the shock from the north of the city, and even the simple wooden house shook slightly.

"At least a few hundred tons of explosives!"

Chung Jun-sung, who was running in the backyard of the Ministry of Affairs, couldn't help but glance north of the city after listening to the explosion, and among the 17 coal mines around Pyongyang that are suitable for open-pit mining, this coal mine is the easiest to mine, and it only needs to be simply blasted on the mountain to be mined directly. If you have a qiē shun lì, after today's blasting, the coal will be produced in a week at most.

It's manpower...... However, the cost of recruiting domestic laborers remains high, and so far less than 5,000 laborers have been recruited, and only about 2,000 people have fallen into Pyongyang through Incheon and Nampo.

Where did people come from?

"Jaylin!"

Zhong Juncheng looked at Xu Jie, who was two years younger than him, and he graduated from the Shanghai Church School, which may be the characteristic of the Unified Supervision Office -- for the staff in the government, he has an attitude of preferring shortage to abuse, and does not need to be used unless he receives new education, except for the batch of young children who studied in the United States that year, he recruited a large number of young people who graduated from church schools in Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong and other places, according to adults, at least they have learned some "modern knowledge".

"Director,"

Xu Jie, who was running with the head of the hall, hurriedly stood aside, the Unified Supervision Office is different from other yamen in China, there is only one "adult" in the palace, that is, the Commander Tang of the Imperial Palace, and the others call him a public official.

"Did Huang Haidao send someone to reply today?"

Chung Jun-sung was referring to the "mine labor" that he had discussed with Hwanghae-do Dao-yin yesterday, and the mine had urged people more than once, and he even had to send all the laborers who had been trained in Nanpu for less than 15 days, but labor was needed in all aspects, and there was only one mine.

In order to solve the labor problem, Chung Jun-sung, director of the Pyongyang Affairs Department, moved the article to the North Koreans -- the North Korean people had to serve labor every year, so he thought about changing this labor into mining labor, so that the Korean people in Hwanghae Province would take turns to serve in the mines or ports in batches, and even requisition these unpaid labor to build railways in the future, so as to reduce the cost of railway construction.

"Li Daoyin hasn't sent anyone back yet!"

Xu Jie's reply made Zhong Juncheng's brows furrow, and a trace of anger appeared on his young face, he walked back and forth a few steps, and then looked at Xu Jie and said.

"You send someone now...... No, you go over in person and tell Li Quanzhe that if he can't recruit 5,000 laborers to serve in the mines the night after tomorrow, don't blame the head of this department for taking off his official hat first and sending someone to send him to the Unified Prison Mansion for questioning! ”

In fact, this kind of "high-minded" Celestial Empire mentality permeates the entire Unified Supervision Office -- he has never taken North Korean officials seriously, although Zhong Juncheng, as the director of the local affairs department, does not have the right to live and kill me, but it is normal to take off the official hat of a third-rank official.

"Director, if you really take off Li Quanzhe's official hat, the ...... in the house"

Xu Jie said cautiously and softly, this Li Quanzhe has just taken office for less than a month - the hat of the previous Dao Yin was not taken off by the director of the hall in front of him.

"Fuchu wants speed! Jielin, you have to understand one thing, for the unified supervision office, if the local government can levy more than 100,000 free labor to help build roads and mines, maybe it will reward us! ”

(If it's comfortable to watch, you might as well praise it, hehe, thank you for your continued support and love, thank you!) ps: Empire's Chaoyang Reader Exchange Group: 150536833 I basically take time out of the group every day, everyone is welcome to join, and put forward your suggestions and opinions to Wuyu. (To be continued......)