Guanshi Mountain is located on the lower reaches of the Wei River, just over twenty miles away from Chang'an City.

In later generations, Pudong and Puxi were separated by the Huangpu River in the early years, but the gap was so huge that they were two worlds apart.

Not to mention that in the Tang Dynasty, Guanshi Mountain, which is more than 20 miles away from Chang'an City, does not have any of the prosperity of the capital of the Tang Dynasty.

Moreover, the mountains here only have a thin layer of soil on the surface that is somewhat nutritious and can barely grow some shrubs.

The topsoil below is all coal mines and is not suitable for plant growth at all.

In fact, there are coal mines under Guanshi Mountain, which is no secret.

In the pre-Sui Dynasty, or even earlier, some nearby villagers came to Guanshi Mountain to collect coal and stones to take home as fuel.

Later, several miles around the mountain were bought by the Changsun family. However, changes here were limited.

On the one hand, Guanshi Mountain is more than 20 miles away from Chang'an City, and there is no official road. There are only some rural dirt roads connecting to the official road. It is no exaggeration to say that transportation is inconvenient.

The most important thing is that the Changsun family bought this coal mine. They originally wanted to use it as fuel for iron-making, but after several years of struggling, they didn't come up with anything, so they gradually gave up.

In fact, if you really want to talk about it, the Changsun family still has some vision, but they have not found the correct way to use coal to make iron.

The late spring cold some time ago made life even more difficult for the villagers near Guanshi Mountain.

Misfortune lies on which blessing lies, and misfortune lies upon it!

No one expected that this late spring cold would cause earth-shaking changes in Guanshi Mountain.

"Everyone, please work harder. The demand for orders from the briquette workshop is getting bigger and bigger. If our coal mines can't supply it by then, the housekeeper will definitely be furious, even if it seems that the housekeeper is usually very talkative."

The coal mine in Guanshishan is a relatively rare open-pit coal mine, and it is also the easiest to mine among the coal mines acquired by Li Kuan.

Therefore, during this period of time, the Prince of Chu's Mansion concentrated on the construction of Guanshishan Coal Mine, and even set up a briquette workshop nearby.

Coal mine excavation, coal mine transportation, coal mine crushing, briquette production...

Around Guanshi Mountain, several large workshops have been built around open-pit coal mines.

"Manager Jiang, don't worry. In the mine, we have three meals a day, and we all see it. No one will be lazy. However, this coal is very solid. To dig it out, it is still

It’s very manpower-consuming, so if we want to continue to expand production, it’s best to increase manpower.”

A sturdy man who looked like a small foreman spoke boldly to Manager Jiang.

"Nonsense, it's not like I don't know. The late spring cold some time ago caused some refugees to appear in some counties in Yongzhou Prefecture. His Royal Highness the King of Chu has applied to the Ministry of Household Affairs to resettle all these refugees in the mines. That is what happened recently.

Already."

The coal mining area is in full swing, and the briquette making workshop is no exception.

Different from the mining areas, there are many women in the briquette making workshops.

Coal mining is a laborious job, and it is difficult for women to endure it, so there are almost no women there.

But making briquettes is different. Although it is also very tiring, women can still do it.

There are even some strong peasant women with nimble hands and feet who can produce more in a day than strong men.

"Old Liu, you and your wife are both working in Guanshi Mountain, so you don't have to worry at all in the future."

"Thanks to the blessing of His Highness the King of Chu, we, the villagers who have not had enough to eat, have been recruited to work in the mines, and several of our children have been sent to school. Today, I, Old Liu, will put down the words, I, Old Liu

I will sell this life to His Highness the King of Chu. Whenever His Highness the King of Chu says to go east, I will never go west. Anyone who dares to quarrel with His Highness the King of Chu will be at odds with me, Old Liu."

When Li Kuan asked Laifu to arrange the production of briquettes, he ingeniously asked him to arrange for a gentleman from the Prince's School of Chu to go to Guanshi Mountain to open a school specifically to teach the children of workers in the mining area.

There is no such thing as a poor family!

In the early Tang Dynasty, if ordinary farm children wanted to study, it was just like a dream, with almost no possibility.

Being able to read and digitize has already surpassed ninety-nine percent of farm children.

It is completely different from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, when children from poor families could have the opportunity to study.

Therefore, as soon as Li Kuan's school was established, it immediately conquered the hearts of all the miners in the mining area who had school-age children at home.

For Li Kuan, this was just a piece of cake.

Of course, the deep meaning behind it is not something that ordinary people can understand.

Anyway, in a short period of time, the construction of Guanshishan Academy did not cause any disturbance in Chang'an City.

On the contrary, various nobles and aristocratic families arranged for their children to go to various parts of the Tang Dynasty to purchase coal mines.

You can no longer eat the meat in Chang'an City, but you can still drink some soup from other places.

No matter how powerful Li Kuan was, it was impossible for him to monopolize Datang's briquette business.

As for the patent for briquettes?
Chapter completed!