Even though these big men were full of doubts in their hearts, for the sake of money, they had to take up their shovels and start working.

In order to prevent everyone from being lazy, Hu Changan waved his hand again and gave them an additional reward: "Whoever digs it first, I will directly reward that person with one hundred taels of silver." ”

One hundred taels of silver?!

Everyone's eyes were glowing green at the moment.

You must know that in the Ming Dynasty, the sum of a seven-grade county order is only more than 40 taels of silver a year, and Hu Chang'an is not a big deal.

If you are the first to dig up what Hu Changan wants, wouldn't it mean that you won't have to worry about eating and drinking for a few years?!

Immediately, everyone's enthusiasm for work was aroused.

Everyone took shovels and scrambled to start digging, for fear that someone would take the lead.

Seeing that everyone had started to work, Hu Changan nodded with satisfaction and left.

Next, it's up to who discovers the coal mine first!

......

However, it backfired, and half a month later, there was still no movement on the mountains in Gaochun County.

Seeing that the blast furnace of the Ministry of Industry is almost completed, there is still no progress here, and Hu Changan is also a little anxious.

You must know that coal can not only be made into honeycomb coal to keep out the cold, but also can be used as a raw material for ironmaking!

Compared to charcoal, coal burns better and can achieve higher temperatures with less fuel.

In addition, coal, like coke, can also be used as a reducing agent in ironmaking to speed up the production of iron.

Originally, Hu Changan planned to wait for the coal mine to be dug up and directly used in ironmaking, but who knew that the ironmaking workshop was almost finished, and the coal had not yet been dug out.

This is very bad for Hu Changan.

Hu Changan pulled up the map in his mind again, carefully checked with the mountain he bought, and the result was still the same.

There is indeed coal storage in the mountain that Hu Changan bought, but it has not yet been excavated.

Could it be that the coal mine in this mountain is hidden in the depths?

Hu Changan took the reins handed by the servant and prepared to go to the mountain to find out.

......

After a while, Hu Changan arrived at the hill in Gaochun County.

On the mountain, the workers were digging hard, sweating profusely.

But it works.......

Hu Changan turned around and found nothing.

Hu Changan was a little anxious.

But this kind of thing can't be rushed out.

Anyway, Hu Changan is ready to take a casual walk in the mountains and breathe in the fresh air.

In the past half a month, Hu Changan has been competing with the clerks in the Ministry of Industry, occasionally guiding the production of the blast furnace, and he is very busy.

Now that I finally have time to come out for a walk, Hu Changan sees the charming autumn colors in this mountain, and he is also ready to catch up with the fashion and come out for an outing.

Walking and walking, Hu Changan and the little guy gradually walked into the mountains.

The wild mountains in ancient times were not as well developed as they are now, not to mention the stone steps, and even the road had to be found from the weeds by yourself.

But fortunately, the mountain is relatively flat, and Hu Changan is not too difficult to climb.

However, just when Hu Changan was about to rest halfway up the mountain for a while, he suddenly found something unusual.

The black stuff at the foot of the mountain, why does it look so familiar?

Isn't this coal?

Hu Changan was shocked and hurriedly walked over there.

However, the mountain road is winding, and it is not easy to walk at a very close distance.

Hu Changan finally wasted his strength, crawled to that place, and looked fixedly.

Good guys, what coal!

It turned out that it was not coal buried in the mountains, but open-pit coal!

Sure enough, the system did not lie to me, saying that there is coal and there is coal.

Looking at the coal in the open air, Hu Changan was almost moved to tears.

This is simply stepping on iron shoes and finding nowhere to go, and it takes no effort to get there!

found the coal, Hu Changan hurriedly ordered the small servant to go to the large army to report the news, and he guarded it here.

After a while, the overseer led several strong men to this open-pit coal mine.

Seeing that the big guys had arrived, Hu Changan cleared his throat and said, "Everyone, this is the coal I am talking about, come and dig it!" ”

When everyone saw this, they were immediately surprised.

It was the first time they had seen such a black thing, and they didn't know what this strange thing could do.

However, since it was Hu Changan's orders, these subordinates who received wages could only do what they were told.

Without too much nonsense, everyone gathered here and dug up the coal with all their might.

However, Hu Changan looked at these men and frowned.

"Is this all the people? Why are there so few people? I saw a lot of people on my first day. ”

The overseer didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly replied with a smile: "Young Master Hu, you don't know something." ”

"Many of the previous workers were transferred from soap workshops."

"It's okay for a short time, but after a long time, the soap workshop won't be able to operate."

"Steward Chen had no choice, so he could only drop the people from the soap workshop back and buy a batch of subordinates from the tooth shop again."

When Hu Changan heard this, he also frowned.

In Hu Chang'an's mind, the workers here would have to be at least three times as many as they could barely maintain the amount of coal.

After all, the Ministry of Industry has built an iron-making blast furnace according to Hu Changan's idea, and coal is urgently needed.

The remaining coal will be processed into honeycomb coal in the future for the people in Hufu and Yingtian City.

Hu Changan has now fallen out with the Liu family, who supplies charcoal in Yingtian City, and he will definitely not be able to buy charcoal in winter.

Winter is about to begin, Hu Changan doesn't want to not even have a decent heating tool in winter, and be seen as a joke in vain.

Therefore, the manufacture of honeycomb coal must be accelerated.

At least in winter, Hufu must use honeycomb coal!

However, if you want to mine more coal, you have to find more people to dig it.

If you want to hire more workers, it will definitely not work to ask Steward Chen to buy people in the dental shop.

After all, although the Ming Dynasty can buy and sell people, people don't buy it like Chinese cabbage after all, as long as they put one kind of it in the soil, it's all over.

For the people who are bought, the host family not only has to give them a certain amount of monthly money, but also is responsible for their daily food and living expenses.

Although the living standard of the subordinate cannot be compared with the master's family, once the number of people increases, it is also a large amount.

So it's no wonder that the officials of the Ming Dynasty couldn't support their families with their salaries alone.

Nowadays, although Hu Mansion has a lot of money, there are also many places to spend money.

Even this coal mountain was bought by Hu Changan with a considerable amount of silver.

Two days ago, the housekeeper was still saying that there were too many people in Hu Mansion and the money was spent too quickly.

Right now, it's impossible to rebuy people.

Hu Changan touched his nose.

It seems that the only way to solve the problem of labor shortage is to recruit temporary workers.