Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 248: Discovering a World-Class Copper Mine

We went to a remote village and saw the real reclamation scene. When we returned to Tianji County, it was already evening.

After a day of riding, King Zheng Guohui of Chu and the officials accompanying him were a little tired and prepared to rest for a night in the local area and return tomorrow.

You can also visit two more villages along the way. This is also how King Zheng Guohui of Chu personally implemented his own governance philosophy to the bureaucrats.

We must do things in a down-to-earth manner and avoid the spread of bad habits in officialdom such as exaggeration and flattery.

At this time, there was a commotion outside. King Zheng Guohui of Chu, who had just come back to wash up, frowned, put down the teacup in his hand and looked over.

Chief of Staff He Xian came over quickly, bowed and said;
"Your Majesty, while inspecting the countryside, Lord He slipped and fell into a ditch, hitting his waist and abdomen on rocks and injuring himself.

The person had just been carried back, and was already on his deathbed.

The imperial physician just checked him out. His waist and abdomen are severely injured. His ribs are broken and his internal organs are damaged. He has lost a lot of blood. Even a god might not be able to save him."

The Mr. He he mentioned was the accompanying Minister of Commerce and Culture, He Ruilin. This person did not suit Zheng Guohui's taste in many aspects. He had a stubborn and conservative personality. He never expected that he would be injured here.

Zheng Guohui frowned and asked, "How could it be such a coincidence?"

"In reply to your Majesty, I think it's because he's been traveling all day and hasn't gotten enough rest. Lord He is old, so it's inevitable that he's a little unsteady on his feet. This incident was purely accidental."

"Well... fortune and misfortune can happen to people at any time!" King Zheng Guohui of Chu sighed deeply, but felt a little relieved in his heart.

This is a good thing, as it prevents the government from punishing the offender and leaving behind the suspicion of abandoning the original intention after the bird has been killed, which would be unpleasant.

Since this big troublemaker has met with an accident, after returning from this inspection, we must eliminate all those people with bad intentions who have emerged in the government.

There is no need to make a big fuss about it. Just find some other crime like corruption and abuse of power to depose him and punish him.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu was drinking hot tea leisurely. After a while, Deputy Prime Minister Zheng Shouxin walked in. He looked at He Xian, then shook his head slightly at the King of Chu.

It means; the person is gone.

Sure enough, there was a sound of wailing coming from outside. It sounded like it was Peng Hao, the magistrate of Tianji, who was one of He Ruilin's most proud students.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu sighed, put down the teacup in his hand, stood up and walked out. At least superficial comfort had to be given, and corresponding honors had to be given. This was originally the meaning of the question.

Two days later

After returning to the new city of Xi'an, King Zheng Guohui of Chu gave the officials who accompanied him a few days off so that everyone could have a good rest and relax and not overwork themselves.

He Ruilin, the Minister of Commerce and Culture, who had accompanied the delegation on the rural inspection tour, was full of energy when he went, but was reduced to a jar of ashes when he returned.

Several of his followers, dressed in mourning and with sad faces, boarded a cargo ship back to Manila and took the ashes home to report the death. The expedition team also arranged for two people to accompany them.

The two men carried a secret letter from His Majesty the King of Chu and presented it directly to Prime Minister Li Hezhang. After seeing the letter, they immediately cooperated with relevant personnel from the Ministry of the Interior to carry out a secret arrest operation.

Completely wipe out some of the dissident elements in the government who are jumping around very happily.

Inside the headquarters hall

King Zheng Guohui of Chu was meeting with several tired-looking survey team members, accompanied by Xi'an prefect Hou Jiayu. Excitement was shining on their faces.

"...

Well, that means an unprecedentedly large copper mine has been discovered over 60 kilometers southeast of Tianji County. It has staggering reserves and great development prospects?"

After listening to their statements, King Zheng Guohui of Chu tapped the chair handle lightly with his fingers, an inexplicable light flashing in his eyes, and said thoughtfully.

The leading captain nodded his head like a praying mantis, his excitement barely suppressed as he hurriedly replied;

“Your Majesty, yes.

Our expedition team surveyed the area for over a month and discovered that the scale of this large copper mine far exceeded our imagination. It is a bornite belt with a ore body more than 1100 meters wide and about 13 kilometers long. Its scale is unimaginable.

This is just a preliminary survey. Within a radius of 30 kilometers, we have discovered five more mineralization points of varying sizes. The farthest one is 5 kilometers away from the main deposit. This discovery is quite astonishing.

If an in-depth and detailed survey is required, more manpower and equipment will be needed, as well as more time.

However, the results of our current surveys have shown that this area has great development prospects.

The most gratifying thing is
The main body of this unprecedentedly large copper deposit is only 27 kilometers away from the Qingshui River. The ore can be transported for processing via inland shipping, and laying steel rails is very convenient.

If we invest heavily in mining, it will be a treasure trove!"

"Well, I have granted your request for a detailed survey. The details will be arranged by the prefect. If you discover a large deposit of minerals, there will be a generous reward. Please go down and rest."

"Thank you for your reward, Your Majesty. I will take my leave."

After watching the survey team leave, King Zheng Guohui of Chu saw the prefect Hou Jiayu standing aside with an excited look on his face. He hesitated for a moment, then spoke the truth.

"Don't be too happy too soon. There are many copper mines in our Chu State, and no less than seven are currently being mined. They are all in the early stages of development and are currently unable to set foot on the deposit here. After the temporary survey of this deposit, the news will be blocked and strictly prohibited from being leaked."

"Your Majesty, this..." Xi'an prefect Hou Jiayu reported unwillingly, but seeing the stern look from the King of Chu, his heart trembled, and he choked on the rest of his words. He followed His Majesty's instructions and said, "The entire Xi'an prefecture will resolutely implement Your Majesty's order and strictly seal off any information about the mineral resources. It will not be leaked."

"Well, the current focus is on resettling Chinese immigrants and vigorously building roads, bridges, and urban infrastructure. These things are enough for you to be busy with, so please step aside."

"Your humble servant will obey the imperial edict and will take his leave now." Xi'an prefect Hou Jiayu bowed deeply and withdrew respectfully.

When King Zheng Guohui of Chu saw him leave, he sighed inwardly, stood up and walked towards the study on the side.

Too many resources is also a headache. Zheng Guohui also knows that this large copper mine on Shangri-La Island is the largest copper mine in the world in more than a hundred years, with extremely astonishing reserves.

This large copper mine has more copper resources than all the copper resources in the Shenzhou continent combined.

But so what?
The Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Outer Mongolia in later generations has a reserve of 3500 million tons, which is similar in scale to this large copper mine. Isn't it also not mined on a large scale industrial basis?

Zheng Guohui has such a big appetite, and the Chu State only has such a large mining capacity. If several mountains of bread were delivered to him at once, he could only eat that much for three meals a day, so he would have to give up something.

Limited by the development of the times

Today's mining is mainly done by manpower, and the use of mining machinery is in its initial stage. The operation efficiency is low and the material output is slow, which is also unavoidable.

The mining of the Chu State has invested a huge amount of manpower. Among the more than one million indigenous convicts, more than 50 have been invested to concentrate on mining more than a dozen large mines.

Among them, copper mines, iron mines, coal mines, and silver and tin mines are the highlights, and there are also hundreds of quarries across the country, and the main labor force is indigenous convicts.

For this reason, the government's infrastructure construction plans have a certain lag, mainly to ensure the needs of mines.

In the present Chu State

There are no large-scale indigenous settlements anymore, and the indigenous population that has not been enslaved is extremely small. There is no longer much labor available to invest in the large copper mines on Shangri-La Island.

The current main task is immigration. The main task of existing immigrants is to produce rice and grain to ensure a steady supply of food for subsequent immigrants and prevent them from having food shortages. This is the top priority.

According to the Chu government's plan
The immigration settlement of Shangri-La Island will be centered on two cities, one in the east and one in the west. Donggang is in the east and Xinxi'an is in the west, and will gradually expand to the surrounding plains.

The food supply for subsequent immigrants was mainly solved locally, rather than transported from the Hainan Islands, which would be too expensive.

Judging from the current situation
The continuous immigration to Shangri-La Island can start from mid-September and last for about two to two and a half months, with a total of 9 to 24 immigrants.

Thus

The newly harvested grain is just enough to supply the subsequent immigrants, ensuring the food needs for 4-5 months. If there is any shortage, it can be transferred from outside.

By the time the early rice is harvested next year, Shangri-La Island's immigration resettlement capacity will be taken to a new level, with the ability to accommodate 40 Chinese immigrants.

The initial stages of pioneering are bound to be difficult and come at a considerable cost.

For at least three to five years, the Chu government's immigration to the Shangri-La region was a net investment. The grain taxes it earned were consumed by subsequent Chinese immigrants, resulting in a greater grain production capacity based on a larger population.

This process will be repeated until Shangri-La Island reaches a population of about one million and agricultural production remains stable for 2 to 3 harvest seasons, at which point it will no longer need government financial support.

If complications arise at this time and tens of thousands of non-productive Chinese immigrants are transferred to mine copper, the subsequent transportation, docks, various non-staple food logistics and other populations that are separated from agricultural production will inevitably place a greater burden on the local area.

Most importantly, this goes against the policy of "strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches".

In the core territory of the Chu State, with the Hainan Islands as its main body, industry had not developed to a certain level of prosperity, and agriculture, animal husbandry and other industries had not flourished in an all-round way. When the economy was growing steadily, the development of mining and industry in the frontier islands would not be considered.

After King Zheng Guohui of Chu had clarified his thoughts, he no longer worried about the discovery of this large copper deposit and decided to put it aside for a few years.

Come to the study
King Zheng Guohui of Chu stood in front of a large and exquisitely drawn map of Shangri-La, with his elbows folded in his hands and his brows furrowed as he looked at it carefully.

The entire main island of Shangri-La is about 2400 kilometers long from east to west, more than 600 kilometers wide at its widest point, and has a total area of ​​78 square kilometers.

If the hundreds of surrounding islands are included, the total area will increase by another 10 square kilometers.

New Xi'an is located at the northwest end of the island. It is located on the foothills of the Central Mountain Range and has a large impact plain near the bay. It is one of the main areas for future development.

Because the geographical climate here is warm and humid, the rainfall is roughly between 1000 and 1800 mm, and the average annual temperature difference does not exceed 4 degrees, it is very suitable for the development of high-quality rice production.

Then high-quality rice production is the mainstream agricultural production in the region. Together with some natural rubber plantations, orchards and spice plantations, they basically constitute the main part of the agricultural landscape of the new Xi'an area.

Zheng Guohui watched his gaze move to the right and landed on the Port Moresby area in the northeasternmost part of the island, which is East Port.

Donggang is located on the southern slope of the Central Mountain Range, 30 meters above sea level. It is located in a bay with excellent geographical conditions. It is also the territory of headhunters and cannibals.

It took a lot of effort to wipe out these dangerous headhunting cannibal natives.

The southern slope plain where Donggang is located is an alluvial plain of the mighty Fly River. The river is 1290 kilometers long, making it the longest island river in the world, with a drainage area of ​​7.6 square kilometers.

Its area is one and a half times larger than the alluvial plain surrounding New Xi'an.

However, the terrain of the plain on the south slope of the Fly River is complex, cut into fragments by numerous turbulent rivers, with many lakes, and large swamps and endless mangroves in the lower reaches of the river.

The areas suitable for development are mainly the relatively flat and wide terrain in the middle of the river.

But this brings another problem, which is the high difficulty of development.

There are many large rivers in the southern plains, with abundant water all year round. This means that the cost of building bridges is huge. A bridge can be tens or hundreds of meters long, and a few bridges are even two or three hundred meters long.

Although ferries can be used as a temporary solution, building a bridge is the ultimate solution for long-term development.

Donggang is in an excellent location. It takes 2 days and 2 nights to reach the Solomon Islands to the east, and 1 day and 1 night to reach Darwin to Australia to the south, 3 to 4 days to reach Sydney, and a week to reach Canberra.

Whether it is from the perspective of consolidating the kingdom's maritime borders or developing the economy of remote islands, Donggang is an important area that cannot be ignored and has a pivotal position.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu frowned and thought. He was considering implementing an agricultural policy of planting rice and sugarcane in parallel in the Donggang area, which was more suitable for the local geographical climate.

The output of rice cultivation is mainly to meet the needs of reclamation in the Donggang area. At the same time, it must be able to transport food to the Solomon Islands and nearby Pacific Islands. This is an important means to stabilize the rule of distant sea islands.

The economic crop in Donggang area is naturally sugarcane cultivation.

In today's world
Whether it is the sugarcane plantations in North America or in Cuba and Brazil, the mother sugarcane comes from the tropical jungles around Donggang and is famous for its high sweetness and large yield.

The sugarcane on Shangri-La Island originates from the tropical jungle area west of Moresby.

The average annual rainfall here is relatively high. More than 190 kilometers west of Donggang (Note: Moresby) is an area with an annual rainfall of more than mm. It is humid and rainy all year round and rarely visited by people.

That is
The developable area to the west of Donggang is only about 240 kilometers. If you continue westward into the tropical jungle, the average annual rainfall will exceed 3500 mm, reaching an astonishing figure of to mm per year.

With such astonishing rainfall, even sugarcane, which loves wet rain, cannot grow smoothly.

It is even less suitable for human survival. It is a desert composed of rain and green, and it is also a forbidden place for humans to set foot.

From Donggang to the north, the terrain rises gradually, reaching a plateau area with an average altitude of more than 2000 meters, roughly between and kilometers.

This developable plain and hilly area covers a total area of ​​about 4.2 square kilometers, slightly larger than the New Xi'an Plain.

Zheng Guohui did some homework before coming here.

He knew that sugarcane is a tropical water-loving crop. In areas with an average annual rainfall of 3500 mm, it grows extremely vigorously, with abundant juice and strong seedlings, which is a very suitable growing environment.

There are also sugarcane plantations in the southern Australian continent, but they are located at the northernmost tip of the entire continent, at the tip of the Yorke Peninsula.
This Australian sugarcane-growing area is located in Mosman, northern Queensland. It has a tropical climate with an average annual rainfall of 3500 mm. The local sugarcane production accounts for nearly 4% of Australia's total.

The sugarcane variety is purple sugarcane from Shangri-La Island, which is also a widely grown sugarcane variety in Central and South America.

There are also many sugarcane plantations in the Burdekin region of Australia, and the annual sugarcane production accounts for about 30% of Australia's total.

This place also has a tropical climate, but the annual rainfall is less than 1,000 mm. It is highly dependent on irrigation from water canals. The lack of water for irrigation will greatly reduce sugarcane production.

This requires the establishment of complete agricultural irrigation canal facilities, as well as reservoirs and dams, to prevent the sugarcane from growing and requiring a large amount of water for nourishment. If God does not cooperate, then it will be a disaster.

Sugarcane is a perennial tropical plant native to the Shangri-La Islands (note: formerly Guinea) with a normal growing season of 12 months.

In areas with insufficient rainfall, the period may be extended to 24 months.

Sugarcane can grow again after being cut. After the first harvest, the yield usually decreases year by year. It usually grows for three to four seasons and does not require too much field management.

It is an economic crop that saves time and effort, but the prerequisite is that the temperature is suitable, there is sufficient sunlight, and there must be plenty of rain for nourishment.

Taking all factors into consideration
The Donggang area is very suitable for developing large sugarcane plantations. In the future, a sugar factory will be built on the spot. Fresh sugarcane can be crushed right after it is harvested, ensuring high quality.

Based on the experience of Australian sugar mills

After harvesting, sugarcane is pressed to produce raw sugar and by-products such as molasses, bagasse and filter mud, all of which are very useful and can be said to be treasures.

Molasses and bagasse mixed with rice husks and fermented rice straw can be used to produce animal feed, which is loved by pigs, cows, mules, and horses.

After filter mud and bagasse compost and fermentation, they become very good farmland fertilizers, which can promote the increase of rice field yield, killing two birds with one stone.

Zheng Guohui made up his mind. He turned around, picked up a cigar on the table, cut off the cap, lit it, and started smoking leisurely.

When the strong smell of tobacco filled the air, he suddenly grinned, revealing a row of snow-white teeth.

Last time he knew nothing about agriculture, but now after years of being proficient in farming, he has forced himself to become an agricultural expert and can talk about it very well.

In his opinion
There are many opportunities in the Nanyang region today. Military conquest is not the most difficult thing. Long-term stable development is a more challenging problem.

Just like the current Chu State, it is not able to rest easy.

The division of interests after the conquest involves the vital interests of tens of thousands of officials in the military and political circles. If there is any mistake, it will be a big deal.

Zheng Guohui took a deep puff of the cigar, and his deep eyes were particularly bright in the smoke.

He had a clear understanding of the future division of interests in the State of Chu. If he wanted the dynasty to prosper and prosper for a long time, he had to artificially establish an aristocratic class with vested interests and a landlord class that would faithfully defend the rule of the kingdom.

The kingdom's rule can only be achieved through the nobles and small and medium-sized landlords, who spread like a big net over cities, towns, and even remote islands, in order to achieve the goal of consolidating its rule.

It is very delicate to strike the right balance in making sure they are full but not stuffed.

Recently in my spare time

Zheng Guohui often reads books about the rise and fall of dynasties at home and abroad, drawing inspiration from them, which he ultimately implements in the design of the kingdom's constitutional monarchy system.

In Zheng Guohui's plan
Royal power, political power and legislative power should restrict and promote each other, and royal power should be higher than political power and legislative power to show its respected status.

(End of this chapter)