This year's winter is much colder than usual, and if it snows, farmers are likely to freeze to death.

The peasants were all destitute, and they did not even have cotton clothes at home, and the thin and simple linen clothes could not protect them from the cold. However, the demand for charcoal fire to protect against the cold is too great, and if a farmer in a village uses charcoal fire to keep out the cold, he can definitely empty the firewood of two mountains.

After listening to Gandalf's report, Luo Lan fell into deep thought, and he was thinking about a big thing, whether to promote coal.

Coal is an evil thing, and farmers will avoid it when they go up to the mountains to hunt and find it, so it is not easy to get farmers to accept coal.

But this problem is not the most troublesome, the most troublesome is the security issue.

In winter, heating must be poorly ventilated, and the coal burning in the special economic zone can be described as "black smoke", and the workers in the open air are a little unbearable.

This coal is not suitable for heating.

To put it bluntly, the reason why Luo Lan has been delaying the promotion of coal is because the quality of coal in the Special Economic Zone is too poor, which can be called murderous coal.

"Your Highness, since the Special Administrative Region uses black stone, it should also work to promote it to farmers' homes." Gandalf thought of it with Luo Lan, but he ignored the root problem.

Luo Lan shook his head and said: "The black stone in the special zone is too dangerous to use for indoor heating, we need more high-quality black stone, otherwise it will be easy to kill people, and the gains outweigh the losses." ”

"Better quality?" Gandalf was puzzled, "Does Blackstone classify anything else?" ”

The people of this world avoid blackstone, where to study what category.

But Luo Lan knows that there are three major types of coal, namely anthracite, bituminous coal, and lignite, among which anthracite will hardly produce black smoke when burned, and as long as a certain degree of ventilation is maintained indoors, people will not be poisoned.

However, there is no anthracite coal in the SEZ.

Luo Lan has been in the SAR for a long time these days, but he has not found coal that does not smoke, so he can be sure that there is no anthracite in the SAR.

"There is a type of black stone that is hard, dense and highly shiny, with an extremely high carbon content...... It's just that it doesn't emit much smoke when it burns. This blackstone can be promoted. ”

Luo Lan told Gandalf that Gandalf didn't understand anything at all, so he could only eat grilled fish sullenly.

The crowd cheered, but it was Rick who came.

He was dirty, like a beggar, and he was so tired that he couldn't know where he had gone.

Gandalf immediately stood up and bowed apologetically to Rick, leaving Rick at a loss.

Luo Lan explained to him, Rick laughed, he was not a hypocritical person, patted Gandalf on the shoulder, and then sat next to Luo Lan.

"Your Highness, guess what I found? Ten kilometers north of Déstrid, we found Silver! ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone around them was stunned.

Silver!

Although it is not as precious as gold, it is definitely a treasure, and Phuket is about to develop!

This unexpected joy also made Luo Lan smile, she never expected that silver would be found on Phuket Island!

The effect of gunpowder began to be revealed, and even the highest mountains had to be turned into rubble under the bombardment of gunpowder, and neither gold, silver nor iron could hide.

However, Luo Lan was still too happy, because what Rick found was not a silver mine, just some finely crushed silver ore.

"They're like tree roots, they're spreading out in the ground, they're scattered, we've only mined 20 kilograms so far, and then we can't find any more."

Rick explained, looking apologetic.

Luo Lan was still a little disappointed, but he didn't care, but comforted Rick: "Don't worry, Daisy's explosive bombs are not enough, you can't dig deeper places, when the explosive bombs are enough, let's blow up all the area, there is definitely a silver mine." ”

Luo Lan is not a pure consolation, generally silver mines are in patches, but they are relatively scattered, as long as silver ore blocks are found, there are basically silver mines nearby.

Rick was also motivated, and when he was full of food and drink, he was about to run again.

Luo Lan smiled dumbly: "You are the Minister of Agriculture, how did you fall in love with mining." ”

Rick laughed heartily: "Remake wheat in the spring, and mine in the winter to warm up...... By the way, Your Highness, I also found a large blackstone mine over there, lighter in color, and even a white-colored ......."

"What?"

Luo Lan stood up suddenly, and the excitement on her face was overflowing.

What did you really want to do, Rick actually found anthracite? According to his description, it was definitely anthracite, and it was a large anthracite mine!

"Let's go, take me!" In Rick's puzzled expression, Luo Lan urged that he should check it out for himself.

Gandalf also followed, he had just heard Luo Lan talk about anthracite, and he also thought about it at this moment.

The group immediately headed north, and when they passed through the Daisy Special Industrial Zone, Daisy and some elite miners followed.

Barrett's Guards cleared the way, and the crowd soon reached the newly opened coal mine in the north.

On the edge of the coal mine, Luo Lan looked around, only to see a large pit more than 30 meters long that had been blasted in front of him, and the pit was full of mud and rocks, and the most eye-catching thing was the patches of black stones.

Meticulous and high-gloss, it is only buried under the surface of the soil, and in some places even directly in the open air.

Luo Lan suppressed his excitement, he only had a general understanding of the characteristics of anthracite, and he was not a professional miner, so he couldn't be sure that this was natural anthracite.

"Barrett, take a few black stones and set them on fire."

Luo Lan commanded, and Barrett immediately jumped down from the pit and grabbed a few small pieces of black stone.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Barrett first lit a pile of firewood, and then set fire on the black stone.

The black stone barely emitted black smoke, and the scorching flames baked the black stone, and the amazing heat of the black stone was also emitted.

"Add a lot."

Luo Lan said again, and several guards picked up a pile of black stones and put them in the fire, and when the firewood was extinguished, a pile of black stones was already burned red.

There is still no choking black smoke.

They are just as good as the best charcoal, but contain far more heat than charcoal.

Rick and the others finally discovered the mystery and said in shock: "This kind of black stone ...... No poison gas! ”

Luo Lan smiled and nodded.

My good fortune has finally come, anthracite can not only be used for heating, but also to promote the development of trade, anthracite is the coal that can be promoted to ordinary industry and commerce!

"Rick, gather merchants, preferably those who used to be in the charcoal business, the more the better."

Luo Lan ordered, and Rick went to do it immediately.

"Gandalf, go back to Boogie City now, find Gig and Elle from the rum workshop, and ask them to help me build another workshop to prevent fire and moisture."

"Yes!"

Gandalf didn't ask why, and he immediately rushed back to Phuket City.

Only Daisy and Barrett and others remained.

The young and innocent Daisy never spoke, and she quietly peeked at Luo Lan.

Luo Lan smiled at her: "I have a big thing to do, I'll come to you another day to talk about gunpowder." ”

He took Barrett and departed on horseback. Daisy held her head high and waved her hand, her little face flushed.

The reason why Luo Lan was so eager was because he was about to set up a second state-owned company, Phuket Smokeless Blackstone Company.