Chapter 687

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Rolling heatwaves roared through the steel workshop. Despite the colder weather, the artisans were still working with bared arms.

Sweat mixed with rust made them look dirty, but each of them seemed full of energy.

Ever since the steam locomotive was invented, Xiao Ming had ordered the production of railway tracks to be prioritized. There were two reasons for this: to accelerate the transportation of mineral resources and to improve the efficiency of the mining industry.

Because in addition to steam locomotives needing railway tracks, mines also needed mine cart tracks to provide a running path for the mine carts.

Now that Prince Zhao was defeated, conquering the State of Zhao was only a matter of time. In a month or a few months, the Great Yu Empire would basically achieve unification.

Although the Prince of Chu in the south was actually playing a double game, he had no reason to wage war at this time. After all, the Prince of Chu had his own son held hostage in Qingzhou and had also pledged allegiance to him, appearing quite obedient.

The most helpless thing was that he was willing but powerless now. The northern war had almost exhausted seventy to eighty percent of the capital he had accumulated over five years. Now, facing the threat of the barbarians again, after weighing his options, he decided to maintain the status quo and plunder the Prince of Chu’s wealth through commercial trade.

So, the most important thing for him now was to establish an industrial system. Only with a complete industrial system could powerful industrial capabilities produce more powerful war machines to help him conquer cities and seize resources from the Western powers.

In this reform, he proposed promoting reforms based on the six prefectures. The purpose was to quickly establish a commercial and industrial system. After all, over the past five years, the people of the six prefectures, under the daily propaganda of newspapers, were already ideologically incomparable to the common people in other places.

Moreover, these six prefectures were under his direct supervision, and once they developed, it would not be too late for him to promote them to other places.

“I greet Your Majesty.”

Seeing Xiao Ming approach, a middle-aged man in a blue robe walked over. On his blue robe, the words “machinery department” were embroidered. This was the artisan who came from the machinery department to guide the production of railway tracks.

Xiao Ming was also very familiar with this artisan. He was a veteran in the machinery department and later, after entering Bowen Academy, he and Lin Wentao specialized in mechanical production.

“Disperse with the formalities.”

Xiao Ming waved his hand. Now, every time he went out, he was accompanied by a large number of guards, making it impossible not to be noticed.

Looking at the busy artisans, Xiao Ming asked, “Lan Li, how is the construction of the railway track production line progressing?”

Lan Li said, “Your Majesty, the production line for mine tracks has already been established. The production line for steam locomotive tracks has been placed behind, as per Your Majesty’s instructions.”

Xiao Ming nodded. Although he now greatly wanted to lay railway tracks across the Great Yu Empire, iron ore was still a major problem.

Therefore, in order to enable mass production of steam locomotive tracks, the problem he must solve now was the mining and metallurgical industries.

Only when the output of these two industries increased could he stop worrying about raw materials.

“Let me go and see.”

Xiao Ming said. Now that he had proposed reforms, he had to participate; otherwise, if he let these guys figure it out themselves, they would probably take many detours.

These five years of self-reliance had given Lin Wentao and others a certain level of knowledge and practical ability. Under his guidance, he believed that establishing an industrial system step by step would not be a problem.

Following Lan Li into the workshop, Lan Li directly led Xiao Ming to the adjacent building of the original production workshop. After expanding production, the steel workshop added a converter, and the steel produced by this converter was specifically used for producing railway tracks.

Upon reaching the railway track production workshop, Xiao Ming saw the converter that was producing steel. Beneath the converter were grooves for molten steel, and the molten steel flowed through these grooves directly into “I”-shaped iron molds.

In fact, the essence of railway tracks was I-beams, supplemented by the iron mold forging technology used for producing cannons, which formed the current railway track production line.

“Your Majesty, we have now produced six thousand meters of railway track, and one mine cart has also been produced,” Lan Li truthfully reported to Xiao Ming.

Qian Dafu used to be responsible for prospecting and establishing mines. Now, even the eunuch by Xiao Ming’s side had not completely abandoned matters related to mines.

He said excitedly, “Your Majesty, this batch of railway tracks and mine carts can be sent to Laiwu County. The prospecting team discovered a large open-pit iron mine about one hundred and thirty li southwest of Qingzhou. If a mine is established there, Qingzhou will not lack iron ore.”

Xiao Ming nodded. The prospecting team had never stopped exploring the mineral resources of the six prefectures, and his long-awaited iron mine in Laiwu County had finally been discovered.

Laiwu, in contemporary times, was known as a “Steel City” and was definitely a treasure trove. According to the records in the technology crystal , the Laiwu area possesses 55 types of minerals, primarily including iron, coal, copper, gold, granite, limestone, dolomite, rare earths, diabase, basalt, construction stone, natural quartz sand, and mineral water.

Among these, the proven reserves of coal are 431.136 million tons, making it an important coal base in contemporary Shandong Province. The proven reserves of iron ore are 463.9319 million tons, ranking first among iron mines in East China.

Laiwu County was an inconspicuous place in the Great Yu Empire, sparsely populated. Qian Dafu had visited this place many times but found nothing. Now, this treasure trove had finally been unearthed.

For Xiao Ming, this area had both coal and iron mines, and their reserves were large, which could fully support him in establishing a modern mine.

This mine would have railway tracks laid, use mine carts for transporting ore, and use steam engines to pump groundwater and pull the mine carts.

“I think so too. Your nephew, Qian Gui, is indeed outdoing his elders,” Xiao Ming said with a smile.

Qian Dafu laughed and said, “Your Majesty, Qian Gui is bold and can endure hardship. He’s never afraid to go to places that I, your old servant, dare not go. In this regard, I, your old servant, also admit defeat.”

For Qian Dafu, Qian Gui was now his only hope, as he only had Qian Gui as a relative.

Xiao Ming said, “This Qian Gui is good. He’s a promising talent worth promoting. Tell him to keep working hard, and in a few years, I will give your position to him.”

Qian Dafu beamed with joy. Xiao Ming was naturally not talking about the position of eunuch, but rather making Qian Gui the main official in charge of mines and prospecting.

Lan Li chuckled, “If Laiwu County truly has so much coal and iron, why not build a railway line there?”

“Hmm, not just Laiwu. This railway should extend from Qingzhou to Dengzhou and Youzhou, connecting the mines and businesses of the six prefectures into one continuous area.”

In Xiao Ming’s mind, a blueprint had already formed. As the saying goes, “To get rich, build roads first.” As long as this got off the ground, the overall surpassing of Western countries would be greatly accelerated.

After inspecting the railway track production process, Xiao Ming felt a little more at ease. The presence of the French in the Great Yu Empire made him subtly uneasy, as it meant that the West was beginning to interfere in the affairs of the Great Yu Empire. This was not good news and was the reason for his continuously increasing sense of crisis.

There were many external enemies, and his industry and commerce were just stumbling along.