Chapter 260 The coal mine has produced coal
Xu Shuo was busy distributing the money that was owed or withheld, and Shen Qingbai was also busy arranging people to build the city defenses.
City defense is a very serious matter. We cannot just pull a few thousand prisoners and let them do it. To be on the safe side, we need to ask the craftsmen who have done this before in Beihai Prefecture to tell us what to pay attention to.
When the prefect Nie Rang was hiding at home enjoying his leisure time, he heard his servants report that Shen Qingbai was gathering craftsmen to build the city defenses and prepare to start work. He sneered.
Without even glutinous rice ash, what could he use to build the city wall?
Are you counting on that condescending and arrogant princess sister?
Nie Rang asked, "What does Princess Yong'an do?"
The servant replied: "Let someone dig the ground..."
Digging? What a ridiculous thing to do...
Nie Rang slowly closed his eyes.
With this little ability, you still want to fight him!
Chen Ning was indeed digging the ground... Just kidding, there is so much land in Beihai Prefecture, and it is just left barren, and people can't even get enough to eat, isn't it a waste.
Now that autumn has arrived, there are many idle people. After Hua Yingxue's Beihai Prefecture branch posted a recruitment notice, people flocked to the scene and quickly renovated the wasteland that Chen Ning had taken a fancy to.
At this time, two Fu ships docked at a port dozens of miles away from Beihai Prefecture City... Chen Ning brought people to pick up the ships in person.
The first person to jump off the boat was Xiao Baiyan, who had grown a lot taller and was almost unrecognizable to Shen Ning. When Xiao Baiyan saw Shen Ning, he immediately saluted with a smile and kept calling her Princess.
"Princess, our ship has traveled to many places over the past few months... We've come across and bought all the things you mentioned."
Xiao Baiyan ran off the boat and rushed straight towards Chen Ning. His face was tanned after several months at sea, leaving only the whites of his eyes and teeth white. When he smiled, only a mouthful of teeth was left.
Seeing Xiao Baiyan rushing towards him, Qiyue quickly stepped forward and grabbed him: "Just talk, don't rush around!"
"hey-hey……"
Little White Eyes chuckled and said, "Long time no see. I'm so happy to see you. Come to July and give me a hug."
July: "Get lost!"
Soon, Shen Ning boarded the boat.
The huge cabin of the Fu ship was filled with things that Xiao Baiyan brought back on this voyage.
There were seeds of crops such as corn and potatoes that Chen Ning had asked him to find before, as well as various other things bought from overseas merchants.
Looking at the packed cabin, Shen Ning let out a long sigh...
This is not just cargo, it is hope in this vast but barren land!
Now, we are just waiting for news from Coal Hill...
Yes, while settling the unpaid wages of the coal miners, Shen Ning had already started to clean up and repair the coal mine.
There is almost no coal produced in the coal mine, which is why Beihai Prefecture is getting poorer and poorer. Moreover, the mine is too deep, and the ventilation inside is not done well. The reinforcement inside the mine is not up to standard.
It was pure luck that there were no large-scale landslides in the past...but even so, many miners had fainted and suffocated in the mines.
Chen Ning gave the mine some money and asked them to hire craftsmen to reinforce the mine and ensure ventilation.
In addition to the ventilation ducts, she also had several large artificial windmills built to supply air to the mine when ventilation was insufficient...
When the prefect Nie Rang found out what Shen Ning was doing, he laughed at him along with the other officials who had come to drink with him.
This Princess Yong'an is also a weirdo. I don't know how she managed to earn such a fortune. Now, she is pouring huge sums of money into this remote place. Is she really going to build her own fiefdom?
Not to mention anything else, just say that no coal can be mined in that coal mine for a long time. As a result, the princess seemed to have no money left and poured money into the abandoned mine. I heard that she even gave the miners two months' advance wages.
Pretending to be a Buddha or Bodhisattva to save all living beings... She can pretend for a while, but can she keep feeding tens of thousands of mouths forever?
It's just ridiculously stupid.
"Don't bother with that foolish woman. Let's just wait for the siblings to come and beg us."
"That's right. The day for building the city defenses is almost here, and the Second Prince is in charge of Liaodong. If Shen Qingbai dares to delay even a moment, I will immediately report him... By then, if he wants the glutinous rice ash, he will have to kneel before me!"
"That's right. Without Lord Nie, the Beihai Prefecture will be unable to move forward!"
Of course Shen Ning knew that the coal mine had not produced coal for a long time.
The miners dug hard, but mostly they dug out rocks and soil. Most of them were exiled prisoners, so they had to keep digging even if they couldn't dig out any coal. Then, because they didn't dig out any coal and couldn't get their wages, their families almost starved to death.
But she also remembered clearly that there was a sentence in the prologue of the original work: ...The Yuan Dynasty planned to seize the coal mines in Beihai Prefecture and raised an army.
In other words, in the original book, the Yuan Dynasty launched an invasion because it wanted to seize the coal mountain in Beihai Prefecture. If this coal mountain had never produced coal, why did the Yuan Dynasty want to seize it?
Therefore, Shen Ning analyzed that this coal mountain should have reached the mezzanine zone... and behind the mezzanine, there is a high probability that there are coal mines.
Moreover, even if she was wrong, hiring these miners to dig coal would not cost much money. Besides taking a gamble on a possibility, it could also help them at least survive the winter.
So, why not do it!
In addition to repairing the coal yard, Shen Ning also went to the shipbuilding company.
When she arrived at the shipyard, the director of the shipyard brought hundreds of nearly a thousand shipyard workers to greet her.
The manager Dou Bao is over 40 years old. His father was the previous manager of the Shipbuilding Department. He has liked dealing with ships since he was a child. Blueprints and wood were his best playmates when he was young. After he grew up and became a master, he inherited his father's business.
However, the shipbuilding company was in trouble...
Originally, the Shipyard was supervised by the imperial court. There was even a Shipyard Admiral who was specifically in charge of the Beihai Prefecture Shipyard. Later, when the Beihai Prefecture Shipyard stopped manufacturing large ships, it was handed over to the Liaodong Guard for management.
However, the entire Liaodong region did not need too many ships, and they were considered cumbersome, so the Shipbuilding Department was eventually transferred to Beihai Prefecture.
In the past few years, they occasionally built small ships for shipping gangs and merchants, but in recent years, small ships are not needed much, so the shipyard has been abandoned.
Dou Bao couldn't let go and stayed with the increasingly dilapidated shipyard for more than ten years. He watched as the young people who were as motivated as him lost all their fighting spirit. When they could hardly even afford to eat and wear clothes, they no longer had the ambition they had at the beginning.
What dreams can a person who can’t even get enough to eat talk about?
Over the past year, Dou Bao has been working in Liaodong to make furniture for others. Otherwise, I'm afraid that the whole family would have to follow him and drink the sea breeze...
Dou Bao also didn't think that the Shipyard could regain its former glory. After all, Beihai Prefecture had become what it was now, the fiefdom of a princess from another family.
He certainly wouldn't have thought that a little girl would revive the shipbuilding company... The reason why he brought all the summoned boatmen to meet the Princess Yong'an was because the little princess was kind and righteous.
The shipyard's original withholding of wages had nothing to do with her, but she accepted it. Not only did she accept it, she also quickly paid off the wages within a few days.
The boatman, who had been unable to make ends meet, now had smoke from cooking fires in his home. Thanks to the wages he received, the whole family could barely get through the winter.
Dou Bao was grateful for this kindness and called everyone together.
But he never expected that this delicate princess who looked too young and beautiful and should not be in this desolate and dilapidated shipyard, actually said that she wanted to revive the shipyard!
She didn't say anything grandiose, but simply smiled and asked, "Are the keels and other wood in the warehouse still usable?"
Dou Bao nodded in surprise: "Yes!"
Even though they no longer build ships, the finest wood from the early years, especially the large keels, are all well preserved... This stuff is too conspicuous to handle and extremely difficult to preserve and maintain, so even those shameless parasites have never thought of using it.
Over the years, the shipbuilders at the shipyard have been diligently maintaining the timber for more than ten years.
Those that have been numbered and filed... not a single one is missing.
In fact, Nie Rang had also considered the shipyard at the beginning, but the wood left by the shipyard were basically huge materials used to build large ships in the early years, and the ones that were easy to sell had been used up over the years.
Those huge materials were archived in the imperial court and were difficult to sell due to the great risks, which is why they survived.
Shen Ning nodded happily: "That's good."
Then she continued, "So...are the craftsmen in our shipbuilding department still able to work?"
It was clearly just a plain sentence, but it inexplicably made Dou Bao and the old craftsmen around him tear up.
Their hands were born to wield wooden swords, and they seemed to be born for shipbuilding. Back when they were in the shipyard, they gave their all, and those ships were like their children... Later, they were forgotten in the corner and gathered dust like the wood.
Now, someone asks them: Can you still do it?
Of course!
Must be able to!
Shen Ning smiled calmly and said, "Then, starting from tomorrow, our Beihai Prefecture Shipbuilding Department... will be reinstated."
Dou Bao froze there. He moved his lips and asked, "Do you have money?"
It was really quite disrespectful to speak to the princess like this, but the princess opposite smiled and nodded: "Yes, all you can eat!"
She didn't want to leave those hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to gather dust... Besides, she wouldn't always have only those hundreds of thousands of taels.
Dou Bao asked again: "Who is it for?"
The imperial court no longer needs their Beihai Shipyard, and small merchants cannot afford to support their shipyard.
Then he saw the princess across from him saying, "Let us build it ourselves."
"us?"
Shen Ning smiled and nodded: "Build our own ship for Beihai Prefecture."
She smiled and said, "It must be boring after all these years of idleness... Don't worry, as long as I am still here, I will never withhold a penny from you all."
At this moment, a figure suddenly rushed in from outside. It was Eryue.
Er Yue looked a little excited. When he got closer, he was about to whisper something in a low voice as usual, but when he thought about what he wanted to convey, his voice suddenly became louder.
He said, "Miss...the coal mine is producing coal!"
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