Chapter 242 Copper Mine
Over the past year, through the attribute panel, Richard knew that his meditation experience had increased by 50,000, and he only had 10,000 experience left before he could advance to the sixth ring.
Step by step, it would take more than ten years for Richard to improve his 50,000 meditation experience.
But once large-scale magic research is completed, the meditation feedback will increase several times, ten times, or even dozens of times.
The more important the results of the study, the better the feedback from the meditation and the longer it lasts.
Magic crystal charging technology is the cornerstone of the improvement of magic civilization.
If this technology is made public, the magic crystal will become a special energy source that can be reused.
Richard's status among magicians will be elevated to the level of Newton and Einstein, and his importance will be no less important than the earth's victory over controllable nuclear fusion.
Completing this study has brought great benefits to Richard. The feedback on meditation has been very good and has been going on for a year.
In the recent period, although the feedback has been a little less, according to Richard's past experience, it should be able to continue for half a year.
In the past two or three months, Richard has been able to increase his meditation experience by three to four thousand per month.
Within half a year, Richard will definitely be promoted to the sixth ring.
After entering June, another big discovery was made in the territory.
Mineral prospectors discovered a copper mine fifteen kilometers southeast of the prosperous castle.
Copper is a precious metal resource in the Dawn Plane. Copper coins can be used as currency.
Although copper coins are the lowest value currency, they have the largest circulation. The currency in Harland's territory is in short supply, and the most lacking thing is copper coins.
In addition, copper is a metal with many uses and is an indispensable resource for industrial development.
After discovering the copper mine, Richard couldn't wait to visit the mine.
The copper mine is only three kilometers away from the Black River. The Black River turns from the northeast of Graveson Castle near the copper mine, passes through the Viscounty of Nelson, the Province of Lach, and enters the Dukedom of Jonathan.
The copper mine is located near the Heihe River, and transportation is very convenient.
The only troublesome thing is that the copper mine is only six or seven kilometers away from the Viscounty of Nelson. Richard estimates that part of the veins extend to the Viscounty of Nelson.
The origin of this copper mine is located on the border of the Haaland family territory and the Nelson Viscounty, as well as the border of the provinces of Gedda and Lahe.
A mineral vein belongs to two provinces. If there is a mineral dispute, it will be a bit troublesome to deal with it.
Despite the mining dispute and the troubles ahead, Richard immediately decided to develop the copper mine.
The Harland family is far stronger than the Nelson family. Now the Harland family has six infantry brigades, a cavalry reconnaissance brigade, a Warcraft cavalry brigade, plus headquarters guards, staff, and logistics personnel, the main force is close to 7,000.
In addition, Harland Territory also trained auxiliary troops to operate trebuchets. There were more than a dozen auxiliary squadrons totaling 2,000.
In addition, the territory's armed forces include intelligence, escort, marine police, and security personnel, totaling three thousand.
In a state of war, without the need for further mobilization, the Harland Territory can organize 12,000 soldiers. It is precisely because of such strong strength that King Roger is willing to compromise with the Harland family.
If Richard was just a little baron, how could he resist the pressure of the royal capital? It's like fish on the chopping board.
When Roger and Martins were promoted to hereditary earls, their power was far inferior to that of the Harland family. The strength of the Harland family is already equivalent to that of a weaker southern earl.
The Nelson family only has eight squadrons of main soldiers, with a number of about 1,200. The army is not as good at fighting as the soldiers of the Haaland territory. Even the second-line armed personnel can only gather up to 3,000 soldiers.
Harland's territory has Warcraft cavalry, a mage group, elite enchanted armored infantry, and special magic equipment, alchemy bombs.
Although Richard and Nelson are both viscounts, the difference in combat effectiveness between the two sides is more than ten times, and they are not heavyweight opponents at all.
In terms of population, the Haaland territory now has a population of 240,000, while the Nelson Viscounty has a population of only 80,000. The gap is more than three times.
Generally speaking, according to the unspoken rules of the Dawn Plane, the Nelson family would not dare directly compete with the Harland family for the copper mines.
If the two families were at odds, Richard would ask soldiers to disguise themselves as bandits and go to the Nelson family to cause trouble, rob the population, rob businesses, and kill the people who mined the copper mines.
After several times, the Nelson family must not be able to withstand the consumption and can only swallow this breath. Unless the Nelson family obtains the support of other great nobles and deals a heavy blow to the Harland family, the Harland family will be able to compromise and have the strength to compete with the Harland family for the copper mines.
The nobles of the Dawn Plane are often so simple and crude when competing for interests. Unless you have enough power, you will make others respect your interests and compromise with you.
The time has entered July, and large cotton fields have begun to mature. Seeing the cotton picking season, the Harland Territory mobilized thousands of indentured servants to start picking cotton.
At the beginning of spring this year, at Richard's request, the agricultural department began to plant a large amount of cotton, totaling 16,000 acres of cotton fields.
The cotton plant has spread to this area of Grant Kingdom for thousands of years.
During the Kingdom of Venus, cotton began to be grown in the southern region, and a primitive cotton spinning industry was established.
By the time of the Grant Kingdom, cotton cultivation spread to the west and north.
At first, because of the cold climate and long winter in northern Xinjiang, cotton was not suitable for the climate and environment of northern Xinjiang, and the yield was very low.
However, the high-priced cotton cloth shipped from the south made the northern Xinjiang nobles hate it.
In order to not be subject to the nobles of southern Xinjiang and have bargaining power, the nobles of the north endured extremely low yields, and even occasionally had no harvest in a year, and had been growing cotton for hundreds of years.
Through continuous selection and breeding of improved varieties, cold-resistant cotton seeds have been developed.
Even though the output is not as good as in the south, the northern Xinjiang nobles have cultivated a primitive cotton spinning industry through continuous cultivation and domestication.
There have always been cotton test fields in Harland territory. However, because the yield is low and the economic value is not as good as growing food, it has not been promoted.
Starting last year, with the improvement of living standards, the freedmen in the territory had the habit of buying large quantities of cotton to make underwear.
Because the textile technology is low, wool cloth is hard and itchy when worn next to the skin, so it is suitable for making coats.
When I was a serf, I only wore linen clothes. In winter, I could only huddle in the barracks and burn a kang to keep warm. Every winter is very difficult, and many weak people die during the long winter. Later, with the economic development of the territory, Richard issued woolen clothes, sweaters and woolen trousers to the indentured servants. Although it is very warm, it is not comfortable to wear.
After becoming a free citizen, I gradually saved some money. Of course, I had the need to buy cotton cloth and improve my living conditions.
With market demand, Richard will consider planting cotton.
The cotton yield in northern Xinjiang is only 100 catties, while the cotton yield in the southern region is about 200 catties per mu.
Sixteen thousand acres of cotton fields can produce about 800 tons of cotton, which is about six and a half pounds of cotton per person. The indentured servants could not afford to consume cotton or cotton cloth for the time being, and 800 tons of cotton was enough for the territory. As the number of free people increases, Richard will slowly increase the cotton planting area and increase cotton production.
This winter, Richard plans to distribute a large number of cotton-padded clothes and quilts to soldiers to replace blankets. Tomorrow spring, the cotton planting area will be expanded to 20,000 acres.
Half of the 800 tons of cotton will be consumed for military supplies, and the remaining 400 tons will be sold to the private sector.
In the southern part of the Grant Kingdom, the price of cotton was very cheap, about one copper coin per pound, which was only three times more expensive than grain. Even though growing cotton is very labor-intensive, the economic value far exceeds growing food. Moreover, women in the southern region can spin cotton and weave cloth in exchange for money.
For this reason, cotton cultivation was very common in the southern part of the Grant Kingdom.
Because a large amount of cotton and grapes are planted, as well as beekeeping, although the land in the south is fertile, there is a shortage of food production.
Although the northern region is the front line, where wars often break out with the orcs, because there are fewer people and more land, it is the most important granary of the Grant Kingdom.
Every year, the Grant Kingdom needs to mobilize grain from the three northern provinces to Noland.
Because the cotton yield in northern Xinjiang is low and the climate is cold, the demand for cotton is large. The price of a pound of cotton is about three copper coins.
In years when northern Xinjiang's cotton production is reduced, southern cotton often takes the opportunity to increase its price, with the retail price reaching six to eight copper coins per pound.
Generally speaking, a family of six would need more than one hundred kilograms of cotton to purchase a set of cotton-padded clothes and bedding, which would cost between ten and fourteen silver coins.
A dozen silver coins is already a lot of money for ordinary people.
Therefore, free people in northern Xinjiang often wear cotton-padded clothes for many years.
As for ordinary serfs, it was impossible to wear cotton-padded clothes.
After picking cotton, Richard came to the Grant Wizards Association to watch the magic hot air balloon created by Annie.
Magicians in the Age of Kingship of the Dawn Plane observed thermal expansion and contraction more than two thousand years ago, and discovered the phenomenon of cold air falling and hot air rising.
Ancient magicians believed that the water element was heavier and smaller than the fire element, and explained this phenomenon vaguely.
Richard proposed the viewpoint of particle theory, believing that the movement of particles within an object will change with temperature. When the temperature rises, the vibration amplitude of the particles increases, causing the object to expand. But when the temperature drops, the vibration amplitude of the particles decreases, causing the object to shrink.
With the guidance of particle theory, there is a scientific basis for making magic hot air balloons.
If you want to make a hot air balloon, you need to solve many difficulties. The first is the air heating problem, which is actually the fuel problem.
To make a hot air balloon, you need a fuel that has a long burning time and is not too heavy. Coal and wood will definitely not work. If it were on the earth in the previous life, it would be particularly difficult to solve this problem. It would have to wait until industrialization began and liquefied gas was produced. The right fuel.
But in the Dawn Plane, with the help of magic, solving this problem is very simple.
As long as you engrave magic runes, create a magic flame lamp, and consume the magic power stored in the magic crystal, it can continuously burn and heat the air.
Solving the problem of air heating is equivalent to solving most of the troubles.
The air bag can be made of canvas or muslin, and the sewing should be precise to prevent the air bag from leaking.
Through experiments, Richard had already calculated conventional physical data such as the gravitational acceleration and atmospheric pressure of the Dawn Plane, and found that it was very close to the Earth.
With these data, the shape and structure of the air bag can be calculated through aerodynamics and the optimal solution can be obtained. After several months, with Richard's help in calculations, the air bag shape problem has been solved.
As the understanding of magic continues to deepen, Harland's territory relies more and more on mathematics.
A good magician must be proficient in mathematics.
In recent years, Sophia and Wendy have exhausted the mathematics knowledge they learned at Richard University. Anne and Butler's mathematics level has also caught up with Richard's, and they have learned calculus and space geometry. and other subjects, raised to the level of ordinary college students in the previous life.
Mathematics is a subject that requires a lot of talent. In terms of mathematical research, a genius' brain can be as powerful as ten thousand or one million ordinary researchers. This is a subject that relies extremely on genius to develop.
To prepare for a rainy day, Richard has established a mathematics research institute and selected mathematics researchers from two primary schools.
Some people are extremely talented in mathematics and can complete all their pre-college knowledge in three to five years of study. Now there are two 13 or 14-year-old children in the Institute of Mathematics, whose mathematics level is close to that of Richard and others.
Although these two children have low element affinity, weak mental power, and no magical talent, their logical thinking ability, sensitivity to numbers, and imagination are all beyond ordinary people. They are undoubtedly people with mathematical talents. Richard was trained as a preparatory mathematician.
For people like this who are talented in mathematics, even though they have no other abilities, Richard will still give them a salary that is higher than that of ordinary people and a higher social status, allowing them to concentrate on studying mathematics.
Even though there are magic energy particles in the Dawn Plane and the rules of physics and chemistry have changed, mathematics is still the basis of science.
Only when the level of mathematics is improved can the level of civilization develop.
The current level of mathematics in the Dawn Plane is quite different from that of the Earth in the previous life. What is missing are talented mathematicians such as Newton, Gauss, Euler, Poincaré, Riemann, and Turing.
Magicians in the Age of Kings paid more attention to the study of magic technology and did not pay much attention to mathematics.
The major kingdoms of mankind always attach most importance to extraordinary power, the application of magical power, and the development of industrial technology. They do not pay attention to the most basic mathematics at all.
Richard has been in the Dawn Plane for more than ten years and has never heard of a familiar mathematician. This plane has a history of tens of thousands of years. Civilizations have gone through epochs, and mathematics has not developed systematically since the age of kings.
Compared with other nobles, Richard should be the lord who values mathematics the most. Although his power is still weak, he has established a mathematics institute to cultivate talented mathematicians.
Staff at the Institute of Mathematics not only study pure numbers, but can also help solve some application problems, including but not limited to magic structure optimization, ballistic calculations, and aerodynamic calculations.
Although it has not been established for a long time and has not achieved many achievements, its role is already very crucial.
(End of chapter)