Chapter 351: The Coal Mines of Heyang County
Only after hearing what the laborers from Heyang County said did the villagers of Wangjia Village realize how universally detested the term "marauding bandits" was among ordinary folk.
Allowing marauding bandits to land here would mean the destruction of the peaceful life they had only just begun to build!
Is this really the kind of thing we've been doing all along?
Bai Mao gritted his teeth and roared, "People of Wangjia Village, put more effort into your work! We need to work harder than they do!"
Everyone cheered, "Alright! Now that we're full and energized, let's get to it!"
A group of them howled, eager to begin work, when suddenly a man wearing a blue hat emerged from the crowd. He was from Gao Family Village, a "technical worker" specifically assigned to teach new laborers "how to use cement."
He wheeled out a cart full of rattan-woven hats that resembled helmets, all dyed yellow, and handed them to the people of Wangjia Village, saying, "You will wear the yellow hats."
The villagers of Wangjia Village looked bewildered.
The technical worker smiled. "Ordinary workers wear yellow hats, technical workers wear blue hats. Mr. Bai Yuan and Sir Feng wear white hats. These are the Heavenly Lord's instructions, the rules of the construction site, and they must be strictly observed."
The Blue Hat shouted loudly, "Yellow Hats, come here! I'll teach you how to mix cement... Go, dig up some sand by the river, and bring up a few buckets of water!"
"Add cement, river sand... stir... yes... stir with all your might..."
The entire construction site immediately burst into a frenzy of activity.
The two construction teams, one building the cement castle and the other erecting the wooden palisade, worked simultaneously. A long wooden wall stretched along the edge of the Qichuan Ferry, first enclosing the entire dock. Behind it, the cement castle slowly began to rise from the ground up.
Early morning, fresh out of bed, Li Daoxuan picked up the pineapple bun his delivery rider had just brought, and with his right hand, he tapped the words "Heyang County" on the diorama box. His view zoomed to an aerial perspective of the county town, allowing him to carefully examine Heyang County, which had only recently entered his field of vision.
Heyang County Town was distinctly different from Chengcheng County Town.
The town had far more shops than Chengcheng, and while most were currently closed, they clearly had a glorious past. Once shipping resumed at the Qichuan Ferry, these businesses were sure to flourish once again.
The city also boasted numerous restaurants and ubiquitous snack stalls, suggesting that the people here were quite fond of their food.
Li Daoxuan reached for his computer and typed in "Heyang County." A quick search revealed that this small county town actually prided itself on being "China's Yellow River Ecological Food Capital."
Tsk, tsk, tsk, I like this kind of county town!
The Heavenly Lord, fresh from his delivery order, suddenly found his pineapple bun less appealing.
In the town, there was a small noodle shop with a crooked sign that read "Three Pools Knife-Cut Noodles." It looked like a place that hadn't been open for a long time, but as Li Daoxuan's gaze shifted, he noticed the owner sweeping up, preparing to open for business.
Oh, so there's flour now! The knife-cut noodle shop is about to open.
After the owner finished cleaning, he set up a large stove outside the shop, placed a big pot on it, filled the stove with coal, and began to boil water.
Li Daoxuan suddenly noticed a detail: the owner didn't seem to care at all about burning coal. He added a large amount to the stove, as if coal were worthless.
This place must be a coal producer!
Only people from a mining region would dare to use coal so lavishly.
He quickly pulled up a search engine. He didn't know until he searched, but when he did, it was quite astonishing: Heyang County had been a mining region since ancient times. Not only was the coal here of excellent quality, but it was also buried very shallowly, making it easy for ancient people to mine.
What's more, the coal mines were less than ten li from the county town, located in Jingshui Ditch and Wang Village, both west of the town. These two areas were already within Li Daoxuan's field of view; he just hadn't 'focused' on them before and hadn't noticed the mine shafts.
Now that he had a clue, he naturally had to zoom in for a closer look.
His view shifted to Jingshui Ditch...
It was very close to Heyang County, nestled in a mountain gorge northwest of the town. A winding small official road led into the gorge, which contained no villages or towns, only a cluster of makeshift shacks. These shacks were home to a group of common folk, all covered in grime and soot.
Their lives were clearly very hard, existing as the poorest at the bottom rung of society. Yet, interestingly, the great drought hadn't affected them as severely as it had other professions.
Regardless of drought or flood, there would always be demand for the coal they dug out! It was simply that during years of severe drought, the coal they mined fetched less grain.
Outside the gorge, the drought had lasted four years, forcing farmers to become rebels, yet these coal miners continued to live much as they always had—never quite full, but never starving to death either.
Li Daoxuan secretly rejoiced. Coal mines, excellent!
This place was worth developing significantly. The poor miners, he thought, were about to get rich.
His view cut back to Gao Family Village...
No sooner had he switched back than he saw thick black smoke billowing above the "Gao Family Village School," completely obscuring the sky above it.
This truly gave Li Daoxuan a fright. "Good heavens, is the school on fire? I didn't set it, did I? I've always wanted to burn down Thirty-Two Middle School..."
No, no, I definitely didn't start a fire! As a respectable member of society with a proper moral compass and full benefits, how could I actually do something like that?
Besides, the Thirty-Two Middle School in this box was custom-made with fire-resistant materials; it couldn't possibly burn.
Li Daoxuan waved his hand, and immediately a fierce gust of wind swept through the box, whooshing the black smoke shrouding the school away.
Before he could even get a clear look at what had happened, he heard the little figures in the box cheer, "The Heavenly Lord has arrived! The Heavenly Lord has cast a spell and blown the black smoke away!"
Li Daoxuan used the 'focus' function and saw a large group of figures standing on the school rooftop. One person was covered in soot, looking like smoked cured meat. Gao Yiye, Song Yingxing, Young Master Bai, Miss San, and others were all there, along with a large group of male and female students. Even the girls' rosy little faces were blackened by smoke.
Li Daoxuan chuckled, half amused and half exasperated. "What in the world are you all doing up there?"
Gao Yiye replied, "Reporting to the Heavenly Lord, Mr. Song and Young Master Bai, with the students, are experimenting with using the power of a steam engine to hoist giant stones. He connected gears and a pulley system to the steam engine's rollers, attached an iron chain, and then wrapped the chain around a large rock on the ground floor. When the steam engine is activated, it drives many wheels, pulling the giant stone all the way up to the fifth floor!"
Li Daoxuan looked down, and sure enough, a truly enormous stone had actually been hoisted to the fifth floor by this group. He had previously provided a 'miniature steam engine' to Song Yingxing for research, and that very steam engine was set up on the rooftop, which was why they were conducting their experiment there.
"Hmm, so that's what it is. But even if you're experimenting with a steam engine, why did you create such a huge cloud of black smoke?"
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