Chapter 298: The New Equipment Testing Ground

“This weapon is really not bad,” Huang Xiong praised, looking at the newly opened wooden crate in the temporary camp. “Much better than the first generation.”

Inside the Type E packing crates, manufactured to a uniform standard, were “second-generation standard spears,” specifically designed to arm the Transmigration Group’s local irregular armed forces. The steel, triangular spearheads, treated with a modern heat treatment process, were coated with a protective layer of “hell oil”—a grease made from the black residue left after extracting coconut oil, used for industrial lubrication and rust prevention.

The spear shafts were machine-turned, treated for preservation, and extremely tough. They were guaranteed not to rot or be eaten by insects for several years, even without being smoked. These standard spears were specially made for the militia; equipping them all with Minie rifles would be too extravagant.

There were three hundred standard spears and three hundred machetes. Each person was issued two rattan helmets—one for work and one, a new product, reinforced with steel beams on the top and sides for use in combat. This was the only protective gear for the miner-militiamen. Of course, with the current processing capabilities of the machine factory, mass-producing high-grade armor like chainmail or plate armor would be easy, just a bit wasteful. Someone had suggested making cotton armor, but issuing that in Hainan Island would probably lead to the militiamen preferring to go shirtless. Others had proposed a simple European-style protection: a front and back breastplate and shoulder guards, fixed with cross-shaped leather straps.

In the end, all these proposals were rejected. Since the regular army didn’t even use body armor at the moment, there was no need for the militia to have it.

Before coming, the miners had undergone basic military training from Wei Aiwen in the quarantine camp and had developed a basic sense of organization and discipline. They were organized according to military structure, divided into squads, platoons, and companies. They moved in squads. One of Huang Xiong’s main tasks was to train them in basic bayonet fighting skills and simple tactical coordination, forming a self-defense system with the infantry platoon as the core and the militia as support.

The Transmigration Group didn’t bother to equip them with ranged weapons. For any enemies they might encounter in Qiongshan, thirty Minie rifles were sufficient for long-range deterrence. Huang Xiong even felt that they might not even need rifles.

“With these four hundred men, if we train them well, we could take Qiongshan Prefecture with just spears and machetes, without rifles,” Huang Xiong boasted. “If a few petty thieves from around here show up, they’ll be perfect for christening our blades.” He was quite eager to try.

“Take Qiongshan Prefecture?” Tang Menglong was very doubtful. Qiongshan Prefecture, after all, had over two thousand combat troops in Baisha, not comparable to the few hundred poorly clad garrison soldiers in other counties.

“Of course,” Huang Xiong said without changing his expression. Since joining the Australians and receiving officer training, he had been deeply poisoned by the “omnipotence of discipline and organization” and was full of contempt for the Ming army. He even felt that the Jurchens, whom he had once feared like tigers, were no match.

“Just you watch, Chief. In three months, they’ll be an elite force!” Huang Xiong slapped his chest.

“I’m counting on them to mine for me. Your training can only be done in their spare time,” Tang Menglong quickly declared.

Coal mining was hard physical labor. If they had to train after a full day’s work, the miners would probably rebel. But without training, these four hundred men would be a disorganized mob. No matter how much Huang Xiong boasted, if seven or eight hundred bandits showed up, thirty rifles probably wouldn’t be enough.

In the end, they agreed that each miner squad would have one day off every six days. On this day, they would spend half the day training and half resting.

The four hundred coal miners were now moonlighting as construction workers, building the camp and the road under the command of Zhang Xingpei and Shan Daoqian. Although they had no construction machinery, they had an endless supply of black powder and well-made, durable tools, which greatly reduced the workload of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive earth-moving work.

In fact, Xu Yingjie from the Chemical Industry Department, after nearly blowing himself up several times, destroying the laboratory three or four times, and diving into the blast trench countless times, had successfully developed nitroglycerin—all thanks to the dried coconuts brought back from Yulin Fort. The different grades of coconut oil obtained from cold and hot pressing now solved the Transmigration Group’s supply of edible oil and some of its industrial needs. Glycerin, a versatile basic chemical raw material, was used to test explosives as soon as it was mass-produced. Nitroglycerin was too dangerous to be used as a military explosive, but it was quite good for civilian explosives used in mining and quarrying.

Xu Yingjie used diatomaceous earth to absorb the nitroglycerin, creating relatively safe dynamite blocks. However, the navy refused to transport it on their ships—its safety was relative.

The large prefabricated wooden house components couldn’t fit on the transport boats; they were brought in on rafts towed by the boats. Zhang Xingpei’s construction team took less than three days to complete the construction of the Jiazi Coal Mine’s pier. The defensive works had not yet begun; they had only dug a simple trench filled with Lin’gao-made standard defensive bamboo spikes. These were not hand-sharpened but mass-produced on machines in the woodworking factory, and had also been machine-roasted and treated for preservation.

The Executive Committee regarded the construction of the Jiazi Coal Mine as a rehearsal for the mining of Tiandu and Hong Gai, including the organizational structure, equipment trials, and process management. Therefore, although the Jiazi Coal Mine was small in scale and of average importance, it received the same treatment as the future Tiandu and Hong Gai projects.

The new products tested by the Industrial and Energy Committee in this project included: modular prefabricated piers, ship-borne pile drivers, shallow-draft inland river transport boats, mobile complete kitchen equipment, mobile Lancashire boilers, large-scale water purification equipment, second-generation “Grassland Series” ready-to-eat rations, “combat/work” dual-use safety helmets, second-generation militia spears, and standardized defensive bamboo spikes.

There was originally a plan to use steam engines to power the newly developed coal-cutting machines, but the Industrial and Energy Committee, after some calculations, found that mechanical mining was too wasteful. With the current manual mining, the so-called four hundred miners was actually a general term. About two hundred of them were support personnel, including those who maintained the tracks, loaded and unloaded coal, guarded the pier, and operated the transport boats. Even with only two hundred miners, the quota for each miner squad per shift was 18 tons. The daily output would be 350 tons. With coal-cutting machines, the daily output could easily exceed 600 tons. The transport boats simply couldn’t handle that much coal.

Without mechanical mining, the boilers brought in were mainly used for providing daily life services, including pumping water, drainage, steaming rice, and providing hot water for bathing. The Ministry of Health reminded Tang Menglong to pay close attention to the personal hygiene of the miners. The ministry also sent a health worker to the Jiazi Coal Mine to take on health care tasks.

The infrastructure at the mining site was quickly completed. Laying the tracks took a considerable amount of time, not because the construction was slow, but because they had to wait for the Qionghai Coal to bring the necessary materials. Huang Xiong had long become accustomed to the Australians’ extravagant ways, but he was still amazed to see that even the rails, sleepers, and even the crushed stone for the roadbed were all transported from Lin’gao. But for Shan Daoqian and the others, this was much more efficient and ensured the quality of the materials. If they quarried stone near the construction site, they would have to break up the blasted rocks by hand without a crusher, and the size of the fragments might not be suitable. As for using local wood for sleepers, it couldn’t be treated for preservation, which would affect its service life. Now, it just meant the Qionghai Coal had to make a few more trips, and they had to spend a little more manpower on transshipment.

The infrastructure of the Jiazi Coal Mine was completed in less than a month. With the power of explosives, even the mining face was opened up—the coal seam here was very shallow. Pan Da, following Tang Menglong’s directions, directly used blasting to strip away part of the surface.

He conducted a field survey of the local coal resources and generally determined that this was a continuation of the modern-day Haikou Changchang Coal Mine. There were five to six coal seams, with the first layer being relatively shallow, and most of the reserves could be open-pit mined. However, the reserves were not large; the currently accessible open-pit reserves were about two million tons.

Tang Menglong ordered a portion of the miners to conduct a trial mining operation. The results were consistent with the data: the coal here was lignite, which was urgently needed by the steel industry.

However, the proportion of coal gangue was quite high. Tang Menglong’s analysis of a sample from the first 100 tons of coal mined showed that coal gangue and other low-quality coal accounted for more than 60%. Coal gangue could be used as fuel for boilers, and the remaining 40% was lignite. However, this lignite was much better than the lignite the Transmigration Group mined in Nanbao. The lignite in Nanbao was mostly earthy lignite, which, let alone for coking, had a low calorific value even as fuel. It was mainly used by the Agriculture Committee as fertilizer. At least the coal here was mainly dark lignite, which could be used for coking, better than nothing.

This did not surprise him—the coal mines in Hainan were inherently like this. The Changchang Coal Mine was said to have proven reserves of 67 million tons, but only 9 million tons were actually lignite; the rest was mostly coal gangue and other low-calorific-value coal.

In any case, Lin’gao already had a coal preparation plant, so it could be used after screening. But this meant that the Jiazi Coal Mine had to provide a sufficient amount of raw coal to meet the needs of the steel industry. After all, only four tons out of every ten tons transported could be used.

“What a pity that there are no good coking coal mines in Hainan or Guangdong,” Tang Menglong said with some regret.

Fortunately, there was a consolation prize here. Associated with the lignite deposits were kaolin, clay, and peat—all very useful minerals. Unfortunately, the transportation capacity was too poor, and there was no way to use them on-site.

Transporting coal by transport boats was very inefficient—one boat could only carry five or six tons when fully loaded. Even if they shuttled back and forth all day, they couldn’t transport two hundred tons. The coal had to wait at the Hai family’s pier for many days before the Qionghai Coal could gather a full shipload. Not to mention transporting these associated minerals.

Given the natural navigation conditions of the Nandu River, these flat-bottomed transport boats were already at the limit of the Bopu Shipyard’s ability to design and manufacture shallow-draft, heavy-load vessels. For now, they had to make do.