Hand over the jade seal first [Infrastructure]

Xiao Zirong has a lot of things on his hands now, and he will not directly call someone over to say that he will build a steam train. He is used to writing down the plan first, and when it is time to do it, he will start to do it in an orderly manner.

He found a bunch of relevant materials in the library, and then wrote down all the titles and page numbers.

Yes, this is where the mental library is inconvenient. If there is a physical book, he can add bookmarks directly, but now...he can only write down all the materials he needs, and after consulting these materials, he has to Burn all the records, so as not to arouse suspicion.

After Xiao Zirong copied all the required materials by hand, he realized that he encountered a very big problem-fuel.

The current main fuel may not be able to support the running of the steam train, otherwise... I am afraid that the fuel needed for this journey will occupy many carriages.

It is really obligatory to dig coal, but he looked at the map, so far the place with rich coal production is Jianyi.

The name Jianyi comes from the county magistrate Lei Huan dug out the jail and got the name of the two swords of Mo Xie, the general of Jide.

Now there is only such a legend left in Jianyi, which is not conspicuous in itself, and even belongs to an inferior county in the ranking of counties in Qi State.

After all, the soil in places containing minerals is generally not very fertile, and there is not much food from farming. Before the discovery of minerals, many places did not even have a large population.

Xiao Zirong is not very clear about Jianyi's situation now, after all, he is far away.

Originally, this matter could be left to Xiao Xuexing, but Xiao Zirong wanted to give Xiao Xuexing a surprise, afraid that the other party would ask him why he insisted on getting coal, what if he slipped his mouth?

It's not impossible to write a letter to Xiao Xuan, but there is a high probability that Xiao Xuan will hand over this matter to Xiao Xuexing.

Even if you don't hand it over to Xiao Xuexing, you will let him know.

For the emperor, this kind of thing is a trivial matter, especially since the existence of the coal mine has not been confirmed, he probably doesn't care.

Xiao Zirong rubbed his chin and thought for a long time. If these two people can't do it, then there is only one person left: Xiao Ji.

As far as he knew, Xiao Ji was also slowly getting in touch with the government, but Xiao Xuan seemed a little hesitant, and seemed a little worried about letting his son out, but he was worried about delaying him by keeping his son by his side.

And according to the correspondence, Xiao Ji probably also had a conflicted heart, wanting to do something, but afraid of messing it up.

Then this is very suitable to help Xiao Zirong run errands, anyway, it doesn't matter if this matter is messed up, the worst thing is that you can't find it.

Xiao Zirong did what he said, and wrote a letter to Xiao Ji directly, telling him that he had a dream that there was a coal mine in Jianyi, but he didn't dare to tell others, for fear that others would not believe him.

Xiao Ji was very surprised after receiving the letter, and subconsciously wanted to know if Xiao Zirong had also written a letter to Xiao Xuexing.

However, he didn't ask directly, but just found an opportunity to insinuate and said with emotion: "I don't know how Rong'er is doing now, and I don't know how to write a letter back."

Xiao Xuexing just returned from Jinling after skipping half a month's shift, and didn't care whether Xiao Zirong wrote a letter or not, but said: "Run'er may be busy with the imperial examinations recently, he has a thin skin, and he did it in Taoyuan City before. Shunli thought it would be the same in Jinling, but he didn't expect this kind of thing to happen, he must not relax until the imperial examination is over."

Of course Xiao Xuan knew that Xiao Xuexing had just returned, so he could only turn a blind eye to this matter. It wasn't that he wasn't worried about Xiao Zirong, it was just that as a parent, he had a different attitude towards children.

Some children are destined to be able to spread their wings and fly high, so they can't be overly controlled, and Xiao Xuexing's mentality is right or wrong, but since everyone has gone, it's good to be able to bring back news.

Xiao Xuan was also very emotional after hearing this: "I originally thought that it would be so smooth in Taoyuan City, this time it shouldn't be too bad, but who would have thought..."

Xiao Xuan shook his head helplessly. Originally, he could have explained that the scale was relatively large this time, which caused this.

But the problem is that there are still young ladies taking the exam at the same time, so they went smoothly and nothing happened. The contrast is so obvious that the big bosses didn't feel that King Jinling was not capable enough, but only that those students were not good enough. .

Some people even took the opportunity to criticize the poor students for doing crooked ways in order to get ahead.

Well, although many of the thirty students are from rich families, most of them are sons of businessmen.

The social status of merchants is the lowest, and sometimes their status is not as good as that of farmers' children.

Xiao Ji was sure that neither his father nor Xiao Xuexing had received the letter, and said very contentedly: "Let's take a look, Rong'er always has a solution."

Great, he has finally surpassed the Regent in his younger brother's heart!

Before, he had always been jealous of Xiao Xuexing's closeness with Xiao Zirong. At first, it was because of his eyes that he couldn't get close to Xiao Zirong even if he wanted to.

The age is there, and there is no common language.

Then it was... Xiao Xuexing stayed by Xiao Zirong's side for so long and gave him so much help. In Xiao Zirong's heart, it was normal for Xiao Xuexing to get closer.

But...that was his own cousin. Although they were cousins, they were related by blood. His elder brother in the true sense of blood was not as good as his sworn brother, so he was very sad.

Later, Xiao Zirong wrote letters at the level of Master Duan Shui, and each time he wrote three letters impartially. Although the content was not quite the same, the number of words was more than Xiao Xuexing's.

Now his brother wrote to him alone!

Xiao Ji was very happy, and was not surprised by Xiao Zirong's feeling in the dream. It was rumored that Mo Xie had been dug out in Jianyi, so it would not be surprising if the place had a bit of spirituality.

It's just that Xiao Zirong was probably not too sure, so he said in the letter that as an elder brother, the younger brother has no way to send someone over to check, of course he has to help.

This is the first time Xiao Zirong asks him for help!

Xiao Ji didn't tell Xiao Xuan and Xiao Xuexing, anyway, it's not an important matter in the court, it doesn't matter if you say it or not.

Coal has already appeared in this era, and there is already some experience in coal exploration.

The most important thing is that Xiao Zirong also wrote a summary, for example, it is possible to see purple-red stones, and there must be coal where there is black coal gangue.

Xiao Ji handed over all these to the people below, and told him to go there as soon as possible, and then explore as soon as possible.

If it wasn't for Huan'er's sudden illness, he would have wanted to go there himself.

Later, it was Chang Shi who persuaded him: "When His Highness goes down, he is just waiting there. Even if His Highness does not go, the people below will not dare to be unsatisfied."

Only then did Xiao Ji give up the idea, stayed in Jiankang, and wrote a letter to Xiao Zirong by the way.

Xiao Zirong is very satisfied with his efficiency, and the efficiency of his subordinates is also very high.

The cement factory was built very quickly. This time the cement formula was different from before, but it was not a troublesome thing. After the cement factory was built, the hired people did not disband, but let them start digging foundations to build roads .

It is a good choice to use black powder to blast roads in mountainous areas, but it cannot be used in plain areas. The main reason is that the amount of black powder is not easy to control, and the safety needs to be further studied.

Xiao Zirong's research on black powder was directly handed over to the sisters of the Zhai family, or to Taoyuan City.

His plan is also very clear. In the future, the industrial zone will be a collection of all kinds of heavy industry, light industry and transportation industry, but the research and development of weapons must be kept secret. The location of Taoyuan City is very good, and there are conditions. The people there are not right. I must be faithful.

Therefore, the positioning of Taoyuan City may be the research and development of high-end weapons.

Once the black powder is stabilized, the next step is to conduct research on artillery and even firecrackers.

Xiao Zirong was taken aback when writing the plan. When writing, he felt that such a development would be no problem. After finishing writing, he felt a little hesitant, wondering if it was right to push the hot weapon to the end so quickly.

If it's about foreign countries or ethnic groups, he doesn't have any psychological burden, and he occasionally becomes extreme nationalism or nationalism.

But the current Northern Wei Dynasty is said to be ruled by foreigners, but in fact most of the people are Han Chinese, and most of their conscripts are now Han Chinese.

In other words, if war breaks out in the future, the muzzles of these hot weapons will actually be aimed at their own people.

Xiao Zirong would not think that those Han people who became Wei Jun were not his own people, they were ordinary people and had no choice, so he couldn't watch them die in cold blood.

But anyone with a discerning eye can see that it is impossible for Qi State and Northern Wei Dynasty to remain peaceful like this, and they will fight again sooner or later.

If he suppresses the progress of the research and development of hot weapons, and only rely on cold weapons to fight, many soldiers in Qi State will die.

Xiao Zirong suddenly fell into a rather difficult situation. He found that people who grew up in the peaceful era would not be able to adapt to the values ​​​​of this time at some point.

After struggling for a long time, he thought about it seriously and wrote a letter to Xiao Xuexing.

Writing to Xiao Xuexing was really his subconscious choice, logically speaking, he should write to Xiao Xuan, even Xiao Ji would be better off.

But if you really want to talk about it, Xiao Xuexing has played the role of a guide in his life for a long time. Xiao Xuexing can help him solve all the difficulties he encounters, and Xiao Xuexing will give him answers to all his questions.

He didn't even have to worry about whether his indecision would embarrass Xiao Xuexing, probably because he had never hidden everything from Xiao Xuexing, except that he liked the other party.

The other party knew him enough, and he knew the other party enough.

So at this time, he would choose Xiao Xuexing to inquire.

After Xiao Xuexing read the letter, he didn't think there was anything wrong with it. He just replied, "Why did you make the gunpowder bamboo tube in the first place?"

Xiao Zirong was a little strange, of course it was for self-protection?

Then he continued to look down, and found that Xiao Xuexing seemed to know what his answer was, and said, "Since the gunpowder bamboo tube has been developed, why do you think that no one else in Qi State can develop a more powerful weapon?"

Xiao Zirong: ...