Future library

When it gets dark, De'an County wakes up.

The busiest area is within 30 kilometers inside and outside the county. The largest coal mine in De'an is built 30 miles outside the county. Thousands of people work here, and tens of thousands of family members temporarily live nearby. The spontaneous formation of residential areas has also made small businesses prosperous.

Near the mining area, domestic water and industrial wastewater slowly flowed along the stone canals. Several supervisor-like people in uniforms walked carelessly on the newly repaired curbs, and at the same time drove away those who stood on the road. He went down and said with a curse: "You can walk on a road worth a hundred taels of silver a mile? When you enter the mine, you must start as an apprentice. People must behave themselves, work more and talk less... "

They faced hundreds of young people who wanted to sign up as miners. Most came from rural areas in two or three nearby counties, and a very few came from outside Nanling Prefecture. They were obedient and strong.

De'an's coal mines are expanding day by day, and the miners' lives are gradually becoming known to outsiders. Although the coal mines are hard and tiring, the salary of three shi of grain per person per month is really too tempting.

The young people who came to sign up were from the same hometown as a unit and gathered together to talk. Looking at the mining areas and living areas under construction around me, especially the large kang-tiled houses used for accommodation, I was overflowing with excitement. As long as you think about it, the monthly salary that a ninth-grade official in the county can get is only more than 10 taels of silver, and the monthly salary of a second-class member of the Cheng family is only 2 taels of silver, and you can understand the needs of young people. happy.

A young man who had just ran away from home tightly held on to the clothes of his fellow villager, fearing that he would be dispersed by the crowd. He looked at the whip in the hands of the overseer with fear and whispered: "Brother, if we don't want to do this anymore, Will they hit us?"

"They don't dare to use their whips casually." The eldest brother from the same hometown has been to the mine twice, and now he is preparing to join the miner. He rubbed his hand between his teeth, thinking about the breakfast before going out, and said by the way: " If you don’t want to work anymore, just go home. With so much money from the mine, who would go home?”

"Now that the price of food is falling every day, my father is worried to death. If he were not worried about not having food next year, he would not let me come to the mine. But if I could only get three stones of food every month..."

"Three stones of grain is enough for your family to eat. You can keep the grain. If there is money, work overtime for a few days with the master, or get dozens of kilograms more coal than others every day, and you will be given a lot of money." The eldest brother is here. He had been coming and going in the mine for several days. At this time, he pretended to be mysterious and whispered: "I tell you, now is the best time to enter the mine. Apprentices must follow the designated master to enter the mine, and they can dig coal by themselves after a year." , after three years you can become a master and lead people into the mines. Moreover, the apprentice’s salary is only half of the master’s.”

"Then it wasn't a loss in the first year?"

The eldest brother snorted and said: "Small eyes can't see big things. I heard that there are not enough masters now. If you wait until next year, it is possible to be an apprentice for three years or a master for 10 years. And it is said that someone has said this for a long time."

Several people took a deep breath and then thought: "Five grains per month are actually enough."

"Let me tell you, you can get three stones next year and become a master in three years. I heard that the salary will double again. The more people you bring, the more the salary will be. By then it will be enough to buy land at home."

What several people were talking about was the new policy of Deyang Coal Mine.

As coal mines require more and more manpower, Cheng Jinzhou has to find ways to get people off the land.

At present, it seems that the most practical method is to sell a large amount of grain, thereby driving down grain prices, reducing farmers' enthusiasm for farming, and then improving the wages of miners.

Since he could purchase grain from the independent trading platform, Xiao Cheng's plan went quite smoothly. Moreover, this method is also the least harmful, far less terrifying than "sheep eating people". In fact, the main ones who suffered losses were the gentry in various places, while those below small landowners would not have any problem with the depreciation of their household grain reserves.

The best thing is that the gentry had no idea why grain prices would fall against the trend before the harvest, let alone blame Cheng Jinzhou. On the contrary, in the imperial court's evaluation, falling food prices was one of the reasons for getting high marks.

The gong at the registration office rang twice softly, and the crowd naturally became crowded, and the supervisor was shaking his whip anxiously. Today's mining areas are different from those in the past. Since more people have joined, the requirements for entering the mines have become: clean wealth and good health.

Since they are not prisoners or slaves, they have to be more cautious when using whips. If they are easily accused, they will also be whipped.

The review supervisor at the registration office was very meticulous, exactly what Cheng Jinzhou required to "show professionalism".

Several Star Warlock apprentices were wandering among the crowd. The miners who knew the situation immediately stood up straight, hoping that they would be selected.

A new Astromancer station was established near the mine, mainly for mechanical and chemical experiments. When Star Warlock apprentices need temporary workers, they will look for those who have signed up. At some point, if they find someone with Star Warlock talents, they will also bring them back.

For young people who aspire to become workers, becoming an apprentice to an astromancer is simply a windfall. Although the chance of getting a windfall is very low, the stories of the few successful people are still fascinating.

Different from the Star Warlock Association in other places, the number of more than ten Star Warlocks in De'an ranks among the top five branches in Daxia, but the quality is second only to the Xia Jing Star Warlock Association. So many Star Warlocks are currently studying In the intense stage, the number of apprentices they need will even exceed that of the Xia Jing Association.

The more research there is, the more apprentices are needed to help. As for whether any of them can become a star warlock, no one cares, not even Cheng Jinzhou.

He couldn't even take care of the Star Warlocks who seriously wanted to join, so how could he manage the Star Warlocks' franchise activities? Such activities were completely carried out voluntarily by the Star Warlocks.

Moreover, Cheng Jinzhou currently has more important things to do.

Being able to withstand 150 star points means that it can carve a normal second-level star array. With the United Star Formation, there are more things to consider as to what kind of star formation to carve.

In other words, the range of choices is wider.

Under normal circumstances, Warlock Jiang Huangxing should be able to give Cheng Jinzhou the best advice. But with the joint star array, Xiao Cheng would not be able to explain the contents of the star array to him in detail, and it would be difficult for Jiang Huang to give rational suggestions.

Although the star array has not yet been engraved, the news that Cheng Jinzhou was about to be promoted to the second-level star warlock still spread back to the capital as quickly as possible.

The Holy Church was the first to react. Li Zhong ordered people to send a large number of gifts to congratulate him, including as many as one hundred thousand taels of silver ingots, which were supplied entirely by his status as a fourth-level star warlock.

Bishop Kande was preparing to return to Xingzhou and took this opportunity to apply for a large amount of aid for Cheng Jinzhou.

The Star Warlock Association and the imperial court, which have a delicate relationship with Cheng Jinzhou, were not far behind and sent five million yuan - it sounds like a lot, but 1,000 yuan is consistent, and 5 million yuan is 5,000 yuan, which is about more than 2,000 taels of silver. , which can be regarded as a standard congratulations to the second-level star warlock for taking office.

As for the gifts sent by other star warlocks from various places, as well as known or unknown noble families, there are countless gifts. Seeing that the entire yard was piled up with all kinds of valuable "stuff", Cheng Jinzhou finally understood the "happy" aspect of weddings, birthdays and other wedding banquets.

Who doesn’t like getting something for nothing? Because there is too much money and counting is too tiring and makes you angry. Xiao Cheng has not yet evolved to this point.

In the yard, several servants were busy inspecting the gifts, and then reported them to Liu Qingshuang in the main room. The little girl only looked about fourteen or fifteen years old, but she seemed to be holding a red pen, especially the way she was keeping accounts, which made Cheng Jinzhou feel a little strange.

He had seen Liu Qingshuang practicing with a sword, and he had also seen her smart social status, but he had never seen her take accounting seriously. Especially her little lolita appearance, but she was clearly acting like a mistress, driving the servants around, which made Xiao Cheng smile knowingly.

There were heavy footsteps behind him, and he knew they were servants of the Cheng family. If it were a naive guy who walked quietly behind the owner, he would have seen everything that should be seen and shouldn't be seen, which would be the most taboo.

Cheng Jinzhou turned his head without changing his expression, and sure enough he saw a steward coming over from outside the second door. He laughed softly and said, "Third brother, Mr. Bai is here."

"Bai Jing?" Cheng Jinzhou said, straightened his clothes and walked out.

Liu Qingshuang raised her eyelids slightly and sighed softly.

Bai Jing's expression was very exciting.

Fortunately, he was an aristocratic son from a noble family, so he did not break into the inner house of De'an County Government Office because of this, even though the house of De'an County Government Office was quite simple.

Seeing Cheng Jinzhou floating over from a distance, Bai Jing patted his red face and said, "Mr. Cheng, you must come with us to see, we have found it."

"Sulfuric acid?" Cheng Jinzhou's own hands-on ability is very weak, but he has always participated in the research projects of various star warlocks. When needed, Ys can help and is well aware of everyone's research progress.

Bai Jing said excitedly: "The lead chamber method has been successful. The current lead chamber capacity is 1 cubic meter. We will be able to build a larger one soon."

"What about concentration?"

"above 50."

Cheng Jinzhou immediately pulled Bai Jing up and floated upward. With the increase in star points, although he was not immediately converted into a new star array, it was easier to control his own anti-gravity star array. It's just that now that he has the United Star Formation, he doesn't value low-level star formations very much.

Bai Jing chattered: "With sulfuric acid, we can produce nitroglycerin on a large scale, then explode the mines to produce coal mines, and then use the coal produced in the coal mines to produce nitric acid. At the same time, we can manufacture machinery. We will create a unique Kingdom. Unfortunately, there is no sulfur near De'an. It has to be transported thousands of miles by water. We need to widen the Jian River so that it can carry more material transportation."

"Don't worry, we will make it quickly." Cheng Jinzhou was also a little excited.

Sulfuric acid is the cornerstone of modern industry. It is indispensable for making guns and cannons. It is also indispensable for smelting iron and gold. It is even used in chemical fertilizer agriculture.

If the Star Warlocks could produce sulfuric acid on an industrial scale, they would be able to increase the extraction of various raw materials in a very short period of time.

Cheng Jinzhou rubbed the ring on his hand. When the scale of Daxia's transactions increases, his exchange transactions will be more convenient, and it will be much easier to increase the level of the Star Alliance.

…

On the way to 500 votes, there is still some distance left.

Raise your voice and shout, please vote for Shitori. The journey is hard.

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