Even though these big men were full of doubts, for the sake of money, they had no choice but to pick up their shovels and start working.
In order to prevent everyone from being lazy, Hu Changan waved his hand and gave them an additional reward: "Whoever digs it first, I will directly reward that person with one hundred taels of silver."
One hundred taels of silver?!
Everyone's eyes were glowing green at this moment.
You must know that in the Ming Dynasty, the salary of a seventh-grade county magistrate was only more than forty taels of silver a year. Hu Changan's move was indeed a big deal.
If he were the first to dig out what Hu Changan wanted, wouldn't it mean that he wouldn't have to worry about food and drink for a few years?!
Suddenly everyone's enthusiasm for work was aroused.
Everyone took shovels and started digging eagerly, for fear of being overtaken by others.
Seeing that everyone had started working, Hu Changan nodded with satisfaction and left.
Next, it depends on who can discover the coal mine first!
...
However, contrary to expectations, half a month later, there was still no movement in the mountains here in Gaochun County.
Seeing that the blast furnace of the Ministry of Industry was almost completed, but there was still no progress here, Hu Changan was also a little anxious.
You must know that coal can not only be made into honeycomb briquettes to keep out the cold, but can also be used as a raw material for iron-making!
Compared with charcoal, coal burns better and can achieve higher temperatures with less fuel.
Moreover, coal, like coke, can also be used as a reducing agent in iron-making to speed up the production of iron.
Originally, Hu Changan planned to wait for the coal mine to be dug out and use it directly in iron-making. Unexpectedly, the iron-making workshop was almost finished and the coal had not been dug out yet.
This made Hu Changan anxious.
Hu Changan called up the map in his mind again and carefully checked it with the mountain he bought. The result was still the same.
There is indeed coal storage in the mountain that Hu Changan bought, but it has not been dug out yet.
Could it be that the coal mines in this mountain are hidden deep inside?
Hu Changan took the reins from the boy and prepared to go to the mountain to find out.
...
After a while, Hu Changan arrived at the hill in Gaochun County.
On the mountain, workers were digging hard, sweating profusely.
But it works...
Hu Changan turned around and found nothing.
Hu Changan was a little anxious.
But this kind of thing cannot be rushed out.
Anyway, now that we are here, Hu Changan is ready to take a walk in the mountains and breathe some fresh air.
In the past half month, Hu Changan has been struggling with paperwork in the Ministry of Industry, occasionally instructing the production of blast furnaces, and he is very busy.
Now that I finally have time to go out for a walk, Hu Changan saw the charming autumn colors in the mountains and was ready to catch up with the fashion and go out for an outing.
As they walked, Hu Changan and the boy gradually walked into the mountains.
Wild mountains in ancient times were not as well developed as they are today. Not to mention stone steps, even the path had to be found among the weeds.
Fortunately, this mountain is relatively flat, so Hu Changan's climb was not too strenuous.
However, just when Hu Changan was about to rest for a while on the mountainside, he suddenly discovered something extraordinary.
Why does that dark thing at the foot of the mountain look so familiar?
Could it be that this is coal?
Hu Changan was shocked and quickly walked over there.
However, the mountain road is winding and it is not easy to walk even if you look at a very short distance.
Hu Changan finally used all his strength to crawl over to that place and took a closer look.
Good guy, it’s really coal!
It turned out that it was not coal buried in the mountains, but coal in the open air!
Sure enough, the system did not deceive me, saying that wherever there is coal, there will be coal.
Looking at the coal in the open air, Hu Changan was so moved that he almost shed tears.
This is simply a matter of trying to find nowhere, and it takes no effort at all!
After finding the coal, Hu Changan quickly ordered his servant to go to the main force to report the news, and he stayed here to guard it.
After a while, the supervisor led several strong men to the open-pit coal mine.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Hu Changan cleared his throat and said, "Everyone, this is the coal I'm talking about. Come and dig it!"
When everyone saw this, they were immediately surprised.
This was their first time seeing this dark thing, and they didn't know what this weird thing could do.
But since it was Hu Changan's order, they, the paid servants, could only do what he was told.
Without too much nonsense, everyone gathered here and worked hard to dig coal.
However, Hu Changan frowned as he looked at these men.
"Is this all the people? Why are there so few people? I saw a lot of people on the first day I came here."
The supervisor did not dare to neglect, and quickly replied with a smile: "Master Hu, you don't know something."
"Many of the previous batch of workers were transferred from soap factories."
"It's okay for a short time, but over time the soap workshop won't be able to operate."
"Guanshi Chen had no choice but to send the people from the soap workshop back and buy a new batch of servants from the Yahang."
After hearing this, Hu Changan also frowned.
In Hu Changan's mind, the number of workers here would need to be at least three times more to barely maintain the amount of coal used.
After all, the Ministry of Industry has built an iron-making blast furnace according to Hu Changan's idea and is in urgent need of coal.
The remaining coal will be processed into briquettes in the future for use by the people in Hu Mansion and Yingtian City.
Hu Changan has now fallen out with the Liu family who supplies charcoal in Yingtian City, so he will definitely not be able to buy charcoal in winter.
Winter is coming soon, and Hu Changan doesn't want to be laughed at without even a decent heating tool in winter.
Therefore, the manufacturing of briquettes must be accelerated.
At least when winter comes, Hu Mansion must use briquettes!
However, if you want to mine more coal mines, you must find more people to dig coal.
If you want to hire more workers, it will definitely not work if you ask Manager Chen to buy people from the dental shop.
After all, although the Ming Dynasty could buy and sell people, buying people is not like Chinese cabbage. You just need to add one to the soil and you're done.
For the servants who are bought back, the owner not only has to give them a certain amount of monthly money, but is also responsible for their daily food and living expenses.
Although the living standard of the servants is not comparable to that of the master, once there are more people, it will be a big deal.
Therefore, it is no wonder that the officials of the Ming Dynasty could not support their families with their wages alone.
Nowadays, although Hu Mansion has a lot of revenue, there are also many places to spend money.
Even this coal mountain was bought by Hu Changan at a considerable sum of money.
Two days ago, the housekeeper was still saying that there were too many servants in Hu's house and money was spent too fast.
At the moment, it is impossible to buy someone again.
Hu Changan touched his nose.
It seems that the only way to solve the labor shortage problem is to recruit temporary workers.