The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 656 Luck is against the sky
Emperor Wanli once again took command of the Hailar Grassland.

Ma Gui and Dong Yiyuan then led their troops to continue their campaign against the Oirat Mongols.

In mid-May, Dong Yiyuan led an army of 500,000 westward along the Xuelingge River Valley.

The Oirat Torgut, Durbet, Khoshut and other tribes, large and small, seemed to be no match for them, and some even fled at the mere sight of them.

Dong Yiyuan advanced at an extremely fast pace, covering more than a thousand li in just four or five days.

Immediately afterwards, Ma Gui began to mobilize the garrison soldiers to build the railway westward.

By mid-June, the railway had reached the middle reaches of the Xuelingge River.

Dong Yiyuan led his army to continue their advance, and in another four or five days, they broke through the Xuelingge River Valley and were about to reach the last settlement of the Oirat people, the Dahu Grassland.

This battle seems to be going quite smoothly, with good news coming in from the front. It seems like taking over the entire northern desert this year is no problem at all.

Emperor Wanli even began to consider how to develop the northern desert region.

The northern part of the Gobi Desert is actually larger than the southern part, and it has many more grasslands, such as the Hailar Grassland, the Yinma River Valley Grassland, the grassland south of Langjuxu Mountain, the grassland south of Beihai Lake, the Xuelingge River Valley Grassland, and the Dahu Grassland. The combined area of ​​these grasslands is much larger than that of the grasslands in the southern part of the Gobi Desert.

However, development here has not been so easy.

The key issue is that the ice season here is too long. If we want to vigorously develop animal husbandry, we need a sufficient supply of heating, and heating requires burning coal.

He learned that to provide enough heating for a sheepfold that can hold a thousand sheep, they need to burn four or five hundred catties of coal a day.

There's no way around it; it's too cold here in winter. If we don't turn the stove up really hot, the temperature just won't go up.

In other words, each sheep consumes about half a pound of coal per day on average, and during the ice-covered period of about six months, it consumes eighty or ninety pounds of coal.

These eighty or ninety catties of coal aren't worth much; if calculated based on the cost of mining, they'd only be worth a few coins.

The problem is that there needs to be coal mining here. If we have to bring it over from Liaodong Commandery and Nurgan Commandery, not to mention the cost, the transportation capacity alone will be impossible to solve.

One sheep needs 80 to 90 catties of coal to get through the winter, so 10,000 sheep would need 800,000 to 900,000 catties, and 1 million sheep would need 800,000 to 900,000 catties.

With so many grasslands here, there are probably tens of millions of sheep to raise, not even including cattle and horses. If you calculate it this way, at least one billion catties of coal would have to be brought over to get through the winter.

That's a joke; they simply don't have that many trains to transport them.

Of course, this is not unsolvable. As long as a coal mine can be found here, then it will not be a problem.

After pondering for a few days, he ordered someone to convey his decree, instructing Yongnian Earl Wang Wei to quickly manufacture one thousand sets of coal mine exploration drill bits and have them loaded onto trucks and delivered over immediately.

This thing was incredibly easy for them to use right now, and it only took Yongnianbo Wang Wei a few days to load the finished drill bit onto a truck and deliver it.

On the third day of the seventh lunar month, around 5 a.m., the train carrying drill bits arrived at Hailar Station.

Upon receiving the news, Emperor Wanli immediately ordered 5,000 soldiers of the Shenji Battalion to drive 1,000 horse-drawn carts to load the drill bits and prepare for prospecting.

He even brought along Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan, Xiao Zhu Changxun, Song Yingxing, and others, and rode over to take a look.

He didn't need to teach them how to explore the coal mine; many of the Shenji Battalion soldiers were already veterans.

Soon, the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion drove horse-drawn carts loaded with drill bits and spread out on the south side of the railway, ready to begin drilling.

As the sun rose, thousands of carriages from the Shenji Battalion formed a long line stretching over a hundred miles long and roughly ten miles wide across the vast grassland.

Sitting in the lap of Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan, Xiao Zhu Changxun curiously scanned the area through a small telescope, then couldn't help but ask, "Father, why are they so scattered? Why don't they stick together and squeeze through? Won't they miss some people in between?"

You don’t understand this, right?

Emperor Wanli patiently explained, "What we need is a large amount of coal, not just a little. If a coal mine has no coal within a radius of several miles, then it is not worth mining at all."

Oh, so coal mines have to be big to be worth mining.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun slowly nodded, then asked, "Father, why haven't they started yet?"

There's no need to rush this.

Emperor Wanli raised his large telescope and scanned the area before explaining, "They are waiting for the row about ten miles ahead to be in position before they begin."

Otherwise, if they finish drilling here but the others haven't even reached their positions yet, they won't be able to estimate the distance, and their formation might fall apart.

Is it possible for this to drill that fast?
After thinking for a moment, Xiao Zhu Changxun couldn't help but ask, "Father, why did you let them drill on the grassland? Aren't coal usually found in the mountains?"

That's not necessarily the case.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently explained, "Coal mines aren't necessarily in the mountains; they can be found on flat land as well."

The reason why the emperor ordered them to first explore the grassland within a hundred miles south of the railway was because it was easier to drill and mine on flat ground.

Moreover, if it is indeed discovered, transportation will be convenient after extraction, as the railway is right next to it.

If we were to drill into the mountains, horse-drawn carts couldn't get in; people would have to carry the drill bits up, and that would involve traversing mountains and valleys, making the drilling process very slow. Moreover, even if we did find something, we'd have to build roads and extract the material before we could transport it out.

Oh, so prospecting in the mountains is so troublesome.

Xiao Zhu Changxun nodded slightly, about to ask something else, when a command came from ahead.

Immediately following this was a flurry of flag waving.

The soldiers of the Shenji Battalion immediately lifted the drill bit, slammed it to the ground, and then inserted the winch and started turning it.

This grassland is different from the mountains; the shallow layer is mostly soil with few rocks, making it relatively easy to crawl through.

The Shenji Battalion soldiers drilled incredibly fast; before long, they had driven the first section of the drill bit into the grass.

Then came the second, third, fourth, and fifth sections.

Xiao Zhu Changxun held up his binoculars and scanned left and right, staring in astonishment.

How come these guys are so fast?

He had only glanced around for a moment when these guys had already drilled through five sections of the drill bit and started pulling it out.

That pulls it out even faster.

However, the result was not ideal.

They found nothing within their field of vision.

The soldiers of the Shenji Battalion were not discouraged at all. They quickly loaded the drills onto the carriages and waited expectantly for the signal to depart.

Drilling coal mines is the easiest way to make money. If you're lucky, you can earn tens or even hundreds of taels of silver with a single drill bit.

They love drilling coal mines; they'd be willing to drill for months on end.

Seeing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun said with some disappointment, "Father, there's nothing there. How long will it take to drill down?"

It’s hard to say.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently explained, "This is actually a clumsy method, purely based on luck."

If you're lucky, you might drill down in a few days; if you're unlucky, it could take ten days, half a month, or even a month or two without success.

what?
It depends on luck!
Is this how you prospect for minerals?

As they were talking, they suddenly heard the sound of horses' hooves ahead.

Before long, the commander of the Shenji Battalion in charge of drilling rode up at full speed, excitedly cupping his hands and saying, "Your Majesty, we've found it! We've found it!"

Signal flags came from the south; over a hundred of the two hundred drill bits at the southernmost point had made contact. There should be a large, shallow vein to the south, likely suitable for open-pit mining.

what?
impossible?

Isn’t this too good of luck?

Wanli paused for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "Let's go, let's go take a look."

In less than half an hour, they arrived at the southernmost point under the protection of the Imperial Guards.

Sure enough, most of the drill bits on the ground were covered in black stuff.

This is a real drilling breakthrough.

Upon seeing this, Wanli couldn't help but exclaim excitedly, "Very good! Everyone who digs out will be rewarded, one hundred taels for each group."

Change your formation, spread out horizontally, and start drilling south from here to see how big this vein is.

This time, his luck was truly extraordinary. The width of this mineral vein was over fifty miles, and its length was nearly two hundred miles!
Moreover, the coal seam is very close to the ground; it can be mined by removing about one or two meters of soil from the top.

He originally thought that finding such a large open-pit coal mine on the Hailar Grassland was incredibly lucky, but little did he know, there was more good news to come.

In mid-July, the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion unexpectedly discovered a coal mine near the mouth of the Yinma River Valley!
Moreover, the coal seams over there are very close to the ground, and the veins seem to be larger than those here.

This luck is truly incredible.

He never expected that a simple search of the grasslands would lead to the discovery of two enormous open-pit coal mines.

Perhaps, this is the beginning of the Ming Dynasty's destiny.

Whatever he, as emperor, desires, will come to pass.

(End of this chapter)