The guard dug out some black coal.

Lu Bu asked them to add a small amount of yellow mud to the coal, and then used a spoon to spread the coal balls and put them next to them to air-dry them.

It is already a hot summer day, and the hot wind is closing in quickly.

The stove and firewood chopping has not arrived yet, and the coal balls have completely dried up.

A guard set fire to light the firewood.

A faint blue smoke rose and flames rose, and Chen Gong and Zang Ba looked puzzled.

Lu Bu clearly said that he wanted to use coal to ignite the firewood, but why did he still ask someone to use it to chop firewood?

The flames burn more and more vigorously.

"Put a few coal balls on it." Lu Bu ordered the guards.

The guard took a few briquettes and put them in the stove.

The flames licked the coal balls, and the black coal gradually turned red, and finally it actually started to burn.

Chen Gong and Zang Ba looked surprised.

The guards next to them were also stunned.

It was the first time they had seen the stones burning.

"Coal can burn, and it will last for a long time," said Lu Bu. "Use it to forge steel, the iron can be completely melted, and more impurities can be extracted."

"How did Wen Hou know this kind of soil...uh, no! It's coal..." Chen Gong asked: "Can it burn?"

"There were records in history books." Of course, Lu Bu would not say that he had the understanding of two thousand years later, so he simply put the blame on the history books: "I just saw it by chance and realized that there is such a wonderful thing in the world."

"Since you have discovered it, should you stop the construction of the military camp for the time being?" Chen Gong said: "It will not be too late to continue building after taking out all the coals here."

"The good coals in Xuzhou are all underground." Lu Bu ordered: "Continue to build the military camp, find some carpenters, stonemasons and people who specialize in digging passages, and leave the city with me tomorrow morning."

"Wen Hou wants..." Chen Gong seemed to understand what Lu Bu was going to do.

"There are so many people in Pengcheng, so you can't send them all to grow food." Lu Bu said: "I want to start a mine and start a coal mine! Isn't it stupid to sit in Xuzhou but let the coal lie underground and not use it?"

The changes in the technological era are always accompanied by the emergence of emerging energy sources.

If mining can be really started in Xuzhou, the application of coal will definitely drive the development of other industries.

The strength of Xuzhou may be in this move.

Lu Bu knew very well that opening a coal mine was not as simple as he thought.

In such a huge Xuzhou, coal is not everywhere underground.

With its existing excavation capabilities, it is not easy to open a tunnel several hundred meters deep into the ground.

It is most important to confirm that there is coal underground before excavation.

They didn't know the concept of mining. Although Chen Gong and Zang Ba were confused, they didn't ask much.

After confirming that he would start a mine in Xuzhou, Zang Ba immediately went to recruit people.

Most of the strong people are in the army, and most of the men who come to Pengcheng are weak.

However, no matter how weak a man is, he is stronger than an average woman.

Except for those who are seriously ill and are too young and old, Zang Ba will accept everything as long as he is a man.

Chen Gong accompanied Lu Bu back to the government office.

After going directly to the study, Lu Bu asked someone to find a roll of sniffled sheepskin.

Sheepskin was spread on the table, and he picked up his strokes and drew lines.

Chen Gong, who was standing next to him, watched it for a long time but couldn't figure out what he was painting.

"Wen Hou, these are..." Wen Hou asked Lu Bu in surprise.

"Coal Mine Construction Drawings." Lu Bu said: "Digging coal mines is not as simple as imagined. Xuzhou's terrain is complex, and the real good coal is hundreds of steps below the ground."

Chen Gong was stunned: "So deep..."

"It would be easy to deal if it was just deep." Lu Bu said while drawing the construction drawings: "There are many problems that need to be solved in building a coal mine. First, we need to dig a tunnel so that people can go down. Secondly, we have to establish a ventilation vent to ensure that fresh wind is transported to the ground. The lighting cannot be made with open flames..."

Speaking of this, Lu Bu stopped.

Looking at Chen Gong, his face was also filled with surprise.

Coal mines are different from other places.

The tunnels dug out will be filled with heavy gas, and using open flames will definitely cause an explosion.

Chen Gong, who didn't understand these things at all, didn't know why Lu Bu suddenly stopped and didn't say it.

Looking at Lu Bu in confusion, he was still waiting for the answer.

After being silent for a long time, Lu Bu looked at the construction drawings but did not add any strokes on them.

"Is there any difficulty?" Chen Gong saw that Lu Bu was hesitating.

"Do you know what can be used for lighting on the public station, but you don't need to use open flames?" Lu Bu suddenly said.

The lighting in the late Han Dynasty used open fire, and Chen Gong didn't know what it could be used to illuminate without using flames.

From the expression on his face, Lu Bu got the answer: "Forget it, I'll think of another way."

"I've never heard of it..." Chen Gong replied with some guilt.

Lu Bu interrupted him: "I know you haven't heard of it, I just asked casually."

"What are the layers of Wen Hou paintings?" Looking at the construction drawings drawn by Lu Bu, Chen Gong found that he had divided the part on the ground into several parts.

Each part is also marked with strange symbols.

Chen Gong didn't know that those symbols were actually Arabic numerals that were very popular in two thousand years.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the cultures of various regions had not yet penetrated each other.

Arabic numerals that Lu Bu thought were very convenient were just some strange symbols for Chen Gong.

"I don't know anything about the public station," said Lu Bu. "Coal is not available in every corner of the ground. It is divided into many layers. Some depths of coal are difficult to burn, while some depths of coal are easy to burn."

Pointing to several layers on the construction drawings, Lu Bu continued: "Each layer is called a trough, and the best coal is mostly in eight troughs down and fifteen troughs up. The coal of these layers is wide in thickness, easy to burn, and has the most mining value."

He used to be a mercenary, but it is logical that Lu Bu shouldn't have understood these things.

But he once performed a mission in a coal mine area of ​​a certain country.

And many of the people working there were his compatriots.

When he was idle, he would always chat with his compatriots, and his understanding of coal was only available at that time.

Lu Bu talked happily, and Chen Gong was confused when he heard it.

He looked at Lu Bu in surprise and asked, "How did Wen Hou know this?"

It was not until Chen Gong asked that Lu Bu realized that he was talking too much.

For Chen Gong, who grew up in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, coal itself is a magical existence.

It is even more impossible for him to have any knowledge about coal.

Suddenly, Lu Bu smiled and said, "Read more books, many things have been told by our ancestors, but we have just ignored them."

Chen Gong also read a lot of books, but he had never read any books about coal.

He was full of doubts, but Lu Bu looked serious, and Chen Gong didn't ask much.

"The office goes back to rest early and go out with me tomorrow morning to explore the terrain." The more you said, the more loopholes, the more you got. Lu Bu reminded Chen Gong to go back earlier.
Chapter completed!