After a day and a night of travel, the train had already entered Summer Province on the morning of the second day. Moreover, it was already very close to the provincial capital of Summer Province.
However, the government office of Summer Province was definitely not the only government office in Summer Province. There were also many prefecture-level government offices in Shuofang and Yunzhong. However, the government office of Summer Province was the core one. The rest of the government offices were in charge of the political power of the northern ethnic minorities. They were the administrative institutions of the imperial court set up with the submission of the northern nomads.
Generally speaking, the government office of each place should be located near the center of the region. However, the natural conditions in the vast area to the north of Summer Province were too harsh. There were not too many nomads who submitted to it. If they set up a prefecture nearby, it would cost too much resources. They needed to build city walls and government offices. However, the nomads did not like to settle down. Therefore, if they set up such a city, there would not be many people in it. In this way, the great cost would be wasted. Therefore, these areas that submitted to the Tang Empire did not build cities on the spot. Instead, they chose to set up multiple government offices in the same city to save administrative resources.
This situation only applied to the nomads in the north. In the inland with a large population, it was simply unimaginable to set up the government office of a prefecture in the administrative area of another prefecture. It was just like the Tang Empire setting up the capital of Malacca Island. How could it be? It was absolutely impossible.
Not only was Summer State City responsible for many provincial and county government offices, but in the northern, northwestern, and northeastern border areas, many new provincial and county government offices didn't have their own independent governing cities. They all set up their government offices in the nearby cities, or many new provinces and counties jointly built a city to serve as the governing cities of these provinces.
This unique phenomenon was the ruling strategy of the Tang Empire. It was formulated to quickly adapt to the territorial expansion. It also meant to take care of the surrounding people who submitted to it. After all, many areas that were set up as prefectures were just a little larger. The population and economic scale did not meet the minimum standards of prefectures. They could not even reach the standards of a county. However, in order to take care of these people who submitted to it, they often set up prefectures and gave the people in this area a prefecture-level official position. This made them feel that they were valued by the Tang Empire. Then, they would be more willing to follow the Tang Empire and become the people of the Tang Empire.
Because these prefectures had vast land but lacked enough population, they did not set up county-level units under the prefectures. Instead, they set up small tribes, which were nomadic communities. A group of hundreds of people could be regarded as a small tribe. In order to protect the interests of these small tribes, the local tyrants who were conferred as officials of the prefectures would set up government offices in designated cities. There, they would get in touch with the imperial court of the Tang Empire. If the tribes needed anything, they would coordinate with them to ensure that the local people could live a normal life and their interests could be effectively protected.
Due to the limited number of people that they had to manage, these special provincial and county yamens usually didn't have many people working for them. They were on a completely different level from the official provincial and county yamens of Great Tang, and they were only there in name.
Even within the Tang Empire, there were great differences between different prefectures. Chang 'an County and Wannian County in Chang' an City were more powerful than most of the prefectures in the country. Whether it was in terms of economic strength or population, they could instantly defeat most of the prefectures in the country. After all, the capital county belonged to Jing County, and it was the strongest. It would not be difficult for it to instantly defeat ten ordinary prefectures.
After passing through the Summer State, the railroad track that extended from the capital city of Chang 'an to the north turned to the west. This was because there was a vast desert not far from the north, so there was no need for traffic. Along the way to the west, there were many counties and the governing city of the Yan State, Yanzhou City. The final destination was the Lingwu City in the Lingwu City of the Lingwu Province, where the Lingwu City of the Lingwu Province was located. There were many cities near the Lingwu City of the Lingwu Province. This place was relatively prosperous because it was upstream of the Yellow River. These cities were arranged along the Yellow River. With an abundant water source, it was easy for cities to form.
In addition, although Lingwu City was located upstream of the Yellow River, this section of the Yellow River was relatively wide. It was much wider than some parts of the Yellow River. This was very conducive to agricultural irrigation. It was impossible not to be prosperous.
Ang Lee did not go to Lingwu City this time. He would go back after playing around in Xia State. This was also agreed with the emperor. He could not easily change his itinerary.
"Assistant Minister Li, we are less than fifteen miles away from Xia State City. The coal mine we are going to is in front of us."
A subordinate ran in and reported.
Ang Lee saw the coal mine in the distance. He could see the piles of coal gangue from far away. It could be considered a very large coal mine.
"Stop the car! Let's go to the coal mine now. "
Ang Lee ordered.
Because the current best means of communication could not be faster than the train, and there was no telegraph in Xia State City, it was impossible for the officials of Xia State City to know in advance that Ang Lee was going to Xia State City. Therefore, there would be no one waiting to meet him. There was no need to rush to Xia State City. It was good to go to the coal mine where the incident happened first.
After the car was parked, Li An led a group of people out of the car. It was not far from the coal mine to Xia Zhou City. Therefore, after getting out of the car, Li An did not plan to get on the car again. He directly let the car drive to the station of Xia Zhou City. Of course, the necessary supplies, horses, and carts were all unloaded. This way, it would be more convenient to go to Xia Zhou City later. There was no need to run. Although it was only a dozen miles, it was tiring to run.
In order to facilitate transportation, there was a newly built road from the railway to the coal mine. This road was built quite well. It was a hard road. Even if it was rainy, there would not be a problem.
The mining tycoon originally hoped that this coal mine would make him rich, but unexpectedly, something happened. The coal produced by the coal mine contained too much sulfur, which caused many people who used this coal to be poisoned. This had a bad effect on the tycoon, which directly caused the price of this coal to fall sharply. It even fell below the cost price. What was more serious was that some people claimed compensation. The people who were suffocated to death would naturally ask the coal mine for an explanation. If they could not give a satisfactory explanation, others would not let it go easily.
Such a serious incident even attracted the attention of the imperial court. Ang Lee knew about this matter and used it as an excuse to come to Xia State.
It was normal for coal mines to contain sulfur elements. However, under normal circumstances, as long as the content was not very high, it was not a big deal. However, if the content of the coal mine was too high, it would be more troublesome. This could easily cause poisoning.
However, there was a good way to solve the problem of high sulfur content. That was to extract the sulfur elements from the coal. In this way, perhaps this coal mine could still get two products. The price of the by-product, sulfur, was much higher than the price of coal.
Even in the future, where the technology was very mature, the price of sulfur was two or three times a day. In the Tang dynasty, an era of backward technology, the price of sulfur could easily be ten times more than coal. It was even possible to be hundreds of times more.
After all, general coal only needed to be dug up with tools, but sulfur mines were relatively rare. There were not many sulfur mines that could be dug up directly. If technology was used to extract it, the cost would be relatively high. This was the main reason for the high price of sulfur.
In addition, the demand for sulfur was very high. In the past, it was mainly needed for alchemy. After Ang Lee invented black gunpowder, sulfur became one of the main materials for making artillery shells. The number of firearms troops in the Tang dynasty was increasing. The demand for sulfur was definitely not a small amount. Under the premise of limited production, the price would naturally be high.
At this moment, the coal mine was almost in a state of suspension. Because the sales volume was blocked, the price had fallen sharply. It had become meaningless to continue mining. In order to reduce the loss, the owner of the coal mine had to stop mining coal. This way, the loss would be smaller. However, such a large coal mine was also bought with a lot of money. If they just gave up, the loss was really unbearable.
Although the mining had stopped, there were still two people guarding the gate of the coal mine. There were also three pastoral dogs. They probably wanted to prevent people from coming in to steal things.
However, when these pastoral dogs, which were usually very fierce, saw so many soldiers coming over, they just barked a few times and were so scared that they didn't dare to breathe. They even clamped their tails between their legs.
"Generals, what brings you here?"
The gatekeeper asked as he looked at the soldiers who were about to go up.
"I heard that the coal here can kill people. The imperial court sent people to investigate. Only the two of you. Where are the others?"
The soldier asked.
"General, no one buys the coal here. Naturally, there is no need to continue mining. The workers have all gone back. Only the two of us are guarding the gate. There are still many machines here. We are afraid that they will be lost."
The gatekeeper replied.
As he spoke, Ang Lee came up and looked at the coal piled up in the yard. He stepped over and carefully examined it.
Gently picking up a piece of coal, Ang Lee smelled it. Then, he pressed it hard with his hand. He wanted to see the strength and other characteristics of the coal so that he could determine what other substances were in the coal.
Through preliminary judgment, he could be sure that the coal mine in front of him was a sulfur-rich coal mine. The sulfur content was not low. It should be worth mining. Once the qualified sulfur could be mined, the value of the coal mine would be even greater. It could provide more wealth for the owner of the coal mine.
However, it was one thing to be able to mine it, and another thing to have the ability to mine it. For Ang Lee, the coal mine in front of him had the value of mining sulfur as a by-product. But for the ordinary local tyrants, they might not have the ability to mine it because extracting sulfur from coal required a certain amount of technology. At the same time, it also required a lot of machinery and equipment. They also had to buy various necessary materials.
In short, not only did it require technology, but also machinery and materials. That was to say, it required a lot of investment in the early stage. No one could say how much benefit they could get. The market was constantly changing. If the market was good, they could make a lot of money. But if the market was bad, they might lose money. The maintenance price of the machinery also had to be taken into consideration. After these machines were bought, they could not keep producing products. If they broke down, it would be difficult to find someone who could repair them. Most of the talents were concentrated in the capital, Chang 'an. That meant that they had to go to the capital to find someone to repair them. This was very time-consuming.
Therefore, Ang Lee was also in a dilemma. He didn't know how to help the unlucky owner of the coal mine. If he helped, it would be troublesome.
This time, Ang Lee brought a lot of technical talents with him. They were also busy checking the situation of the coal. Moreover, they checked more carefully than Ang Lee. After years of training by Ang Lee, these talents already had good technology and were fully capable of the heavy responsibility of research. They just needed Ang Lee's guidance.
After getting off the train, it continued to set off. It didn't take long for it to enter the station of Xia State City. As a result, the officials of Xia State City naturally knew the news of Ang Lee's arrival. They didn't dare to delay such an important matter. After meeting, they rode to the coal mine together. They didn't know that Ang Lee had come, but now that they knew, they couldn't pretend not to know. They had to come and pay their respects to show their respect and importance.
No matter which era it was, the efficiency of officials working for the common people was always very low. Delays of a few months were very common. However, when officials went to see their leaders, their efficiency was indescribably fast. They were almost as fast as they could. They were just short of flying over.
"Assistant Minister Li, the Provincial Governor of Xia State, and a group of officials are all here. There are also the local garrison generals."
A subordinate opened his mouth and said.
Ang Lee looked up. They were indeed high-ranking officials. Although there was some distance between them, they were all wearing official uniforms. As long as he saw their uniforms, he knew who they were.
In the whole Xia State, there were many officials who knew Ang Lee, but Ang Lee didn't know them. He only knew Guo Ziyi and a few others. Ang Lee saw Guo Ziyi from a long distance.
Lao Guo was also a crafty person. How could he not come to see Ang Lee, the leader? Moreover, he had a favor to ask of Ang Lee. He wanted all the good things in the R&D Center. If Ang Lee didn't give him anything, he would get nothing.
However, this time, other officials came by horse, but Lao Guo was awesome. He directly drove the motorcycle that Ang Lee just gave him, which was so cool.
"Haha! Look at how awesome Lao Guo is. He even drove a motorcycle here. How cool! "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
"General Guo is really different from others. He is obviously an old man with a white beard, but he is like a child."
Li Hanlu said.
。 Top.
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