Chapter 351: The Coal Mine of Heyang

Upon hearing the laborers from Heyang County speak, the villagers of Wangjia Village finally understood just how disliked the term “bandits” was among the common citizens.

Permitting bandits to land here would mean destroying the peaceful life they had only just attained.

So, this is what we’ve been doing all along?

White Cat gritted his teeth and shouted loudly, “People of Wangjia Village! Work harder! We must outdo them!”

The crowd responded, “Yes!”

Fed and energized, they were ready to work.

Just as the group roared with vigorous shouts, preparing to start, a man wearing a blue hat emerged from the crowd. This was a “skilled worker” dispatched from Gaojia Village, solely responsible for teaching new workers “how to use cement.”

He pushed forward a cart filled with helmet-like hats woven from rattan and dyed yellow, handing them to the Wangjia Villagers. “Put these yellow hats on.”

Wangjia Villager: “???”

The skilled worker explained with a smile, “Ordinary workers wear yellow hats, skilled workers wear blue hats. Master Bai Yuan and Lord Feng wear white hats. This is the Deity’s order, a rule of the construction site. Follow it well.”

The Wangjia Villagers looked utterly confused, but since it was a rule, they complied. Each put on a yellow rattan hat. Hmm, it was surprisingly sturdy, feeling just like a helmet, offering considerable protection.

The blue-hatted worker loudly called out, “Yellow hats, gather round! I’ll teach you how to mix cement… Go, dig up some sand by the river and fetch a few buckets of water…”

“Add cement, river sand… Stir… Yes… Stir hard…”

The entire worksite immediately came alive with intense activity.

The team building the cement fortress and the crew constructing the wooden palisade worked simultaneously. The long wooden wall extended along the edge of Qiachuan Port, first enclosing the entire port area. Behind this wooden wall, the cement fortress began to rise steadily from the ground up.

…

Early in the morning, just risen, Li Daoxuan picked up the pineapple bun the delivery guy had just brought with his left hand. With his right hand, he tapped on the box, selecting the characters for “Heyang County.” His perspective shifted instantly to a point high above the county town, scrutinizing the details of Heyang County, a place he hadn’t surveyed for long.

Heyang County was distinctly different from Chengcheng County.

Here, shops far outnumbered those in Chengcheng. Though most were shuttered now, they had clearly prospered in the past. Once ship traffic at Qiachuan Port resumed, these shops were bound to flourish again.

Numerous restaurants dotted the town, and snack stalls were commonplace, suggesting the people here were fond of good food.

Li Daoxuan reached his right hand to his computer, typed in “Heyang County,” and did a quick search. Then he understood: this small county town was nicknamed “China’s Yellow River Eco-Gastronomy Capital.”

Tsk tsk tsk, I like this kind of town!

The Delivery Deity suddenly found the pineapple bun in his hand far less appealing.

Within the town stood a small noodle shop, its signboard hanging crookedly: “Three Ponds Knife-Shaved Noodles.” It looked long closed. However, as Li Daoxuan’s focus shifted there, he saw the owner sweeping up, clearly preparing to reopen.

Ah! With flour back, the noodle shop is getting ready for business.

After tidying up, the owner set up a large furnace outside the shop. He placed a big pot atop the furnace, stuffed in some coal, and started boiling water.

A detail caught Li Daoxuan’s attention: the owner added lumps of coal without the slightest hesitation, seemingly as if coal were dirt cheap. He just kept shoveling it in.

This place must be a coal-producing area! Only people at the source could afford to burn coal so lavishly.

He quickly opened Baidu and searched. The results were surprising. It turned out Heyang County had been a coal producer since ancient times. Not only was the coal here of excellent quality, but its deposits were shallow, easily extractable even with ancient technology.

Moreover, the coal mines were less than ten li from the county town, located specifically at Jinshuigou and Wang Village to the west. Both locations were already within Li Daoxuan’s viewing range, but he hadn’t paid attention to them and hadn’t noticed the mine shafts.

Now aware, he naturally moved his point of view for a closer look.

His perspective shifted to Jinshuigou…

It was very close to Heyang County, nestled in a ravine northwest of the town. A winding official path led into this gully. There were no villages or settlements inside, just makeshift shacks housing a group of people covered in black soot.

Their lives were visibly hard; they were the poorest of society’s underclass. Intriguingly, the severe drought hadn’t impacted them as drastically as it did others in different occupations.

The coal they mined would always find buyers, draught or not! Although during the drought years, the coal fetched less grain.

Outside the ravine, farmers endured four years of drought, many driven to rebellion, but these coal miners persisted in their same state – perpetually underfed yet never quite starved to death.

Li Daoxuan secretly delighted, Coal mines! Excellent!

This place deserves serious development. Poor coal miners, prepare to get rich!

His perspective switched back to Gaojia Village…

As soon as it returned, he saw billowing black smoke rising above the “Gaojia Village School,” shrouding the entire roof.

This genuinely startled Li Daoxuan: Damn, the school’s on fire? Don’t tell me I started it?! I did always want to burn down Thirty-Two Middle School…

No, no, I didn’t do it! I’m a proper citizen with sound morals and social insurance, I wouldn’t actually commit arson!

Besides, this scale model of Thirty-Two Middle was custom-made with fireproof materials. It couldn’t catch fire.

Li Daoxuan waved his hand sharply, instantly summoning a gust of wind within the box. Whoosh! The black smoke blanketing the school was instantly blown away.

Before he could even focus on what was happening, he heard cheers erupt from the tiny figures below: “The Deity is here! The Deity used magic to blow the smoke away!”

Li Daoxuan activated his “focus” function. He saw a large group of figures standing on the school rooftop. One was covered in soot, resembling smoked cured meat. Present among them were Gao Yiye, Song Yingxing, Young Master Bai, Third Miss, and a large crowd of male and female students. The girls’ rosy cheeks were smudged black.

Li Daoxuan was both exasperated and amused. “What are you all doing up there?”

Gao Yiye replied, “We report to the Deity! Master Song and Young Master Bai were accompanying the students, experimenting with using steam engine power to hoist large stones. He connected gears and a pulley system to the steam engine’s flywheel, attached iron chains to them, and then wrapped the chains around a large stone on the ground floor. When they turned on the steam engine, it powered all those wheels and hauled the huge stone up to the fifth-floor rooftop!”

Li Daoxuan looked down and saw, indeed, a massive boulder had been successfully hauled up to the fifth-floor terrace.

He had previously given Song Yingxing a “micro steam engine” for research. This engine sat on the rooftop, hence the location of the experiment.

“Hmm, I see. But if you were merely playing with the steam engine, why did you produce so much black smoke?”