A special thank you to my patrons:
—Shahzaam, Jacob Mooe, kevin Williams, Jose Sierra, Pasang Sherpa, Acedia, kurtis newman, Nhoxious, Little Sand, sediaz, Targaryen, King Scales, Kurgarraz.
You can read 50 chapters ahead of everyone on p@treon.
P@TREON - [email protected]/lessaservantofcosmos
(just replace the "@" with "a")
ps: Please support me on P@treon. I can really use your help!
————————————————————
Coal was the accelerant of modern industry.
It was not that coal was superior to charcoal in every respect, but rather that coal possessed a convenience that charcoal simply could not match.
To produce charcoal, trees had to be felled, then sealed in kilns and slowly smoldered before the wood could finally be carbonized. Coal, on the other hand, could be used the moment it was dug from the earth and was not constrained by the growth cycle of trees.
When vast quantities of energy were needed, the advantages of coal became strikingly apparent.
However, coal also had one rather serious problem: it contained a great deal of impurities, especially sulfur. Regarding desulfurization, Fei Qian truly did not know much. He only vaguely recalled from a middle school chemistry class that there was a reaction involving the calcification of sulfur. Thus, he had simply, crudely, washed the coal in water, crushed it, dried it in the sun, and mixed in a small amount of lime. He had discovered that this actually had some effect—at the very least, when it burned, he could no longer smell the acrid stench of sulfur dioxide...
Of course, such a rudimentary method of desulfurization was still far from meeting the requirements for steelmaking. Therefore, to produce good steel, charcoal was still necessary for the time being.
But in other applications, coal as a fuel could play a tremendously significant role.
At present, Fei Qian had many things he could only discuss with Huang Dou. And Huang Dou, in order to maintain secrecy, had no choice but to personally tinker with all of it himself. Working non-stop, day and night, had caused Huang Dou, whose figure had once been as round and plump as a large soybean, to grow considerably thinner.
Huang Chengyan picked up the fire tongs and crushed the burnt-out remains of the honeycomb briquette in the brazier into fine powder. Then he said, "For this item alone, Huang Dou deserves to have another merit recorded. But..."
Huang Chengyan did not finish his sentence, but his actions just moments before had already fully expressed his concern.
This object, though excellent, was not suitable for large-scale distribution as a finished product. Anyone who managed to obtain a sample would, more or less, be able to produce a crude imitation. Though they might not be able to discern the exact nature of some of the more subtle additives, if the briquettes were merely used for ordinary purposes like heating and cooking, the absence of those additives would make little discernible difference...
The technical barrier was simply too low; it could not form an effective threshold.
Fei Qian agreed with this point. Unless he could seize control of the entirety of Bingzhou, including Shangdang and Taiyuan, and seal off all eight passes of the Taihang Mountains, thereby controlling all the coal-producing regions of Shanxi, this technology, which held no great difficulty, would rapidly spread.
However, what Fei Qian placed his focus on was the catalytic effect this small physical substitute for heating in industry could have in propelling forward the entire realm of engineering and technology.
Fei Qian said, "I have no intention of selling this. We shall use it ourselves. From Yong'an to Beiqu, there is a continuous river. Along the banks of this river, there are no shortage of suitable locations to construct large-scale workshops. And for the fuel used by the majority of these workshops..."
Fei Qian pointed at the honeycomb briquette.
Unless coal was advanced a further step into coke, and a proper desulfurization technique was developed, it would still fall short of high-quality charcoal for iron and steel production.
But for other projects that were not so sensitive to impurities like sulfur and phosphorus—such as preliminary, rough-clinker cement, glass of higher sulfur content but more brilliant coloration, red bricks or cinder blocks, grey tiles or colored glazed tiles, and other massive consumers of energy—coal could become a powerful foundation for these products...
To say nothing else, if all the timber and charcoal originally used to fire kilns for brickmaking could be saved and redirected towards iron smelting, just how much more iron and steel could be produced?
And then there was direct heating.
Providing warmth for humans and livestock during the winter. And for plants as well—even, combined with the glass industry, developing greenhouse vegetables...
The Little Ice Age was fast approaching. Coal would provide Fei Qian's entire northern army and livestock with superb protection.
This small physical change brought with it, more often than not, greater possibilities and broader space for development.
To put it simply, if in the dead of winter, one could produce even a little green vegetable and leafy greens, for the people under his rule, the significance would be scarcely different from an auspicious omen.
In the Han Dynasty, colored glaze was still extremely precious. And vegetables grown within a glass greenhouse—they would be priceless treasures beyond measure...
And all of this, at its source, traced back to this single thing: this small, dark lump of coal.
With coal, Fei Qian could at least guarantee that during the coming Little Ice Age, within the cities and towns, there would not be massive losses of human life and livestock due to the climate. At the same time, because of the large-scale application of coal, there would not be regional, large-scale deforestation driven by the need for fuel.
There was, in fact, another consideration, one that Fei Qian did not mention to Huang Chengyan.
Historically, for the sake of heating, in an era before the widespread use of coal, all eyes had fixed greedily upon the trees. And excessive deforestation not only brought about the destruction of vegetation and the erosion of soil and water, but, more importantly, directly altered the entire ecological environment. The encroachment of yellow sand—was this not how, in later ages, the ruined husks of so many ancient cities in the northwest had come to be?
The earlier coal was adopted for large-scale use, the more it would actually serve to protect the vegetation.
Fei Qian continued, "The vast and boundless Lüliang Mountains, with their billowing mists and gleaming clouds of dawn. Layer upon layer of black coal slurry, and deposits of green-hued ore hidden everywhere. Mineral carbon, limestone, iron ore, clay—all are present in abundance, there for the taking with a mere bend of the waist. Your son-in-law wishes, in that place, to construct large-scale workshops along the river. On one hand, we could harness water power; on the other, we could use the mineral coal. We would manufacture all types of military equipment and civilian tools, and further research and develop colored glaze, roof-tile ends, farming implements, and the like. At the same time, we could once again standardize and establish the engineering techniques and craftsmanship that the Huang family inherited from the Mohist school, authoring books and setting down works, so that artisans, too, like Confucius and Mencius, might pass on their legacy to future generations..."
Even just this description of Fei Qian's overall future plans for Bingzhou was enough to thoroughly captivate Huang Chengyan. As Huang Chengyan listened, his eyes grew brighter and brighter, yet his expression became increasingly torn and conflicted. After mulling it over for a long, long time, he managed, with great difficulty, to say only that he needed to think it over carefully, and then he shooed Fei Qian away.
This...
What exactly did he mean by that?
Although Fei Qian felt the sudden shift in atmosphere was far too abrupt, he could hardly press the matter, Huang Chengyan being his elder. He had no choice but to rise and take his leave for the time being.
Huang Chengyan sat alone in his study, his expression shifting and unreadable.
The Huang family had already put down roots in Jing-Xiang for a hundred years. The vast majority of their artisans and their properties were all located in the vicinity of Jing-Xiang. To suddenly, on short notice, draw manpower away to Bingzhou was truly no easy matter.
Yet the prospect Fei Qian had described was also the very place that every artisan, including Huang Chengyan himself, yearned for in their deepest hearts. There would be water power, mineral deposits, fuel, and vast worksites. And moreover, there would be Fei Qian, a man of official rank and status who absolutely supported the research of the craftsmen...
If only he could be twenty years younger—no, perhaps even just ten years younger—Huang Chengyan would, no matter what, have gone with Fei Qian to Bingzhou to see it with his own eyes. And if it truly was as Fei Qian described, he might well have resolutely relocated his entire family there. But now, at his age, the choice was agonizingly difficult for Huang Chengyan.
Truly, it was so very, very hard.