Chapter 288 – Steam Miner

Chapter 288 – Steam Mine Car
Through these years of experience, Richard found that people who had gone to elementary school were far better qualified than illiterates.

After five years of military national education, they had not only developed the habit of discipline, but also slightly more military experience. Being able to read the written word and understand basic calculations, they also developed a bit of discipline. Training such people as basic officers and skilled laborers relatively saves a lot of effort.

Richard was clear in his mind about the various scientific institutes, most of the members were consumables, and those who could really do research were actually only very few people with outstanding talent. The gap in IQ between people could be greater than between people and pigs.

But to become a consumable in an institute requires a certain amount of knowledge as well. When an illiterate person arrives at such a department, he or she is basically blind and can’t do any work. Trying to train an illiterate person to become a talent would require an extremely high cost of time and a lot of delay.

It has been three years since the establishment of the Harland Territory High School, and this year, middle school students have begun to graduate.

These middle school students not only learn more courses, plus geography, history, law, biology, science practice, the knowledge they learn is also more profound, the quality is also higher than the elementary school graduates, because the selection is strict intellectually also exceeds a chip.

However, this year’s graduation of secondary school students only more than thirty people, relative to the hundreds of thousands of population in the Harland territory, called a phoenix feather. These graduated high school students are already the group of people with the highest IQ and the most knowledge in Harland territory.

This year, Harland Territory invented the steam engine, all kinds of mechanical talents are far from enough. The demand for high-end talents in the territory is very strong, and the dozens of high school students graduating every year are a drop in the bucket for Harland’s territory.

Secondary school graduates are so rare, their future, of course, is brighter than elementary school graduates.

This group of people Richard basically arranged in various institutes, a few were arranged in the Mage Association, became assistants on the research of magicians. There were also three people who chose to stay in school and became secondary school teachers, enriching the educational force.

The middle school teachers in Harland territory earned three gold coins a month, such a salary level was slightly higher than any town mayor in the territory, roughly the same as an army squadron leader. But the mayor of a town is bound to have a gray income.

In any case, in the Harland territory, an annual income of more than thirty gold coins was already a high income earner. Such an income exceeded that of a free folk family with four laborers.

Harland territory had low prices, and thirty gold coins annual income could already be a very rich life.

Moreover, becoming a high school teacher had a high social status, and one could often meet the territory’s top brass, and was very respected. You also don’t need to face danger and fight with various enemies.

According to the current development, secondary school teachers will undoubtedly be an enviable career within ten years.

After ten years, with the large number of secondary school students graduating and the devaluation of their qualifications, their salaries will be lower and their status will fall as well.

For example, the current elementary school teachers, the social status has fallen a lot, the salary has also been reduced a lot, the treatment is no longer comparable to the basic level bureaucrats in the Harland territory.

After so many years of development, the elementary school graduates have added up to more than two thousand. As the saying goes, things are more expensive than they are, the weight of more people will be lower, the education is seriously devalued, elementary school teachers are no longer the territory’s urgent shortage of talent, when the social status gradually returns to normal.

Since two years ago, elementary school graduates have not been assigned jobs. This policy has dampened the enthusiasm of the middle class to provide for their children’s schooling.

But the status quo of Harland’s territory, schooling is still an important channel to change one’s fate.

Having gone to elementary school means that you can read official documents, so not only will you not be cheated by the bureaucrats at the grassroots level, it will also be easier for you to learn breathing techniques after joining the military. Although they cannot directly enter the government as civil servants, elementary school graduates still have a much higher platform than illiterate people, and the jobs offered to them are basically brain labor-based, with better salaries and social status.

The really smart people are still sparing no effort to make their children literate and read.

Human beings are physically gifted and intellectually gifted in different ways, which naturally divides them into classes. Harland Territory’s first batch of middle class freeholders, many of them had very ordinary IQs, talents, and abilities, and they were able to earn gold coins and achieve a class leap, mainly by chance and coincidence, catching the dividends of Harland Territory’s rapid development. It’s not that their own quality exceeds that of ordinary people, with more and more free people, the inward spiral of the population of Harland Territory becomes more and more serious, and a considerable portion of middle class families will fall down the class and be reduced to ordinary people. This is the personal quality, ability to decide, as if the wheel of history, no one can block.

Letting or not letting their children go to school is the key factor of whether their children can stabilize their class in the future.

Because there were more and more elementary school graduates and the base was getting bigger and bigger, Richard established a second middle school this year. This middle school was established in the Swamp Basin, in the middle of Lightning Fort and Flame Fort. The school was fully completed this winter. Next year, after the Goddess Birthday Festival, enrollment would begin.

Unlike elementary school, Harland Territory Middle School does not charge tuition fees, and there is also a living allowance after enrollment, one silver coin per month, which is enough for the students’ daily expenses, so they don’t need to add to the burden of their families.

Restricted by educational resources, the selection of middle school students is very strict, selecting students with talent.

If you want to be admitted to middle school, not only do you have to take the cultural courses tested by the exam education, but you also have to examine the students’ memory, logical thinking ability, study habits, self-control, and so on.

Ten elementary school graduates to have a middle school, this year Harland territory about eight hundred primary school students graduated, can be admitted to the middle school of less than seventy people, the average of a middle school can only enroll a class of students. The reason why the threshold is set so high, one of the important factors is the lack of educational resources in Harland territory.

Talents that can teach middle school students are very rare in Harland Territory.

The scientific development of the Morning Glory Realm was at a relatively low level, and according to the standards set by Richard, the curriculum for middle school students was already relatively difficult. Teachers who could teach middle school were considered erudite in the Morning Glory Realm.

Because of the serious monopolization of knowledge, the cultivation of talents was difficult, and the people who mastered knowledge were the church in addition to the nobles.

There were actually only six or seven people in Harland territory who could teach middle school students. Even the learned magicians such as Richard and Sophia had to give lessons to middle school students when they were free.

In a school, there were only seven or eight qualified middle school teachers who needed to teach three grades of middle school students, and on average, each of them was responsible for close to twenty students. If it wasn’t for the fact that three of the middle school students who graduated this year stayed in the school, the size of the middle school enrollment wouldn’t even be able to expand.

The top priority for talent distribution now is the major research institutes. In particular, the Mechanical Manufacturing Institute was the top priority for the development of Harland’s Domain.

Although secondary education is important, Richard will only cultivate talented people, temporarily establishing two middle schools is already enough. It was estimated that it would take another three or four years before more secondary school teachers could be trained and a third secondary school could be established.

The ten or so middle school teachers and four or five middle school administrators were all highly paid workers, their annual salaries adding up to nearly eight hundred gold coins.

Now that there were about six hundred elementary school teachers in Harland Territory, their salaries were already close to six thousand gold coins a year, in addition to the annual cost of books, chalk, and other teaching aids, which also consumed a considerable amount of money.

Even if the elementary school students can charge a tuition fee, but now Harland Territory elementary school charges are not high, four silver coins per school year, the tuition fee of more than four thousand elementary school students adds up to one thousand three hundred gold coins, which can’t fill up the deficit of the inputs at all.

This year, Harland Territory’s net investment in education has already exceeded six thousand gold coins, plus the investment in medical care, the cost has exceeded thirteen thousand gold coins.

Such an investment is close to half of what the government bureaucrats put in. It’s a step higher than even the disability and death-in-action pensions that the government pays out every year.

Although the Harland Territory’s financial revenue had a surplus and made great progress every year, the pressure on military expenses was enormous, still not daring Richard to increase his investment in education. After the end of the Commodity Fair, it turned to early November.

In the first half of November in the northern border area, the lowest temperature at night is close to minus twenty degrees.

Without enough fuel, winter would undoubtedly freeze to death in large numbers.

In several provinces in the Northern Border Region, every year, there were many old people who could not survive the winter, and there were also some poor serfs who froze to death in their shacks.

There are coal mines in Harland’s territory, and last year’s production had exceeded 60,000 tons. The free people class, basically have the money to buy enough coal for the winter.

The condition of indentured servants is a little worse, a dozen people live in a shed, the indentured servants who have a family only have a small cabin, on average, each person can only share two hundred pounds of coal.

During the four to five months of winter in the northern frontier, an average of two hundred pounds of coal was simply not enough, and in the not-so-cold months of October and March, the indentured servants needed to collect winter fuel as a supplement to their coal.

This year the coal mines added some of their workers and dug a third pit. The new pit used steam pumps and efficiency was greatly improved.

On November 8th, Richard came to the coal mine to inspect the mine, and the head of the coal mine, Chavetson, waited at the foot of the mountain early and went down the mine with Richard.

The coal mine found in Harland’s territory was mainly shallow, and the mine shaft was not deep.

There was very little gas gas in the mine, and there was a certain guarantee of safety.

After descending down the slope into the mine, the first thing Richard noticed was a steam engine, he turned his head to Chavison and said, “Is it good to have a steam engine installed in the mine car?”

“The Mechanical Research Institute only built the first steam mine car the day before yesterday, and it’s only been half a day since it was installed in the coal mine, so it hasn’t been tried out yet.”

“This year it so happens that I am here, and you turn on the mine car to see if it is good?”

Hearing Richard say this, Chawson said with some difficulty, “It is said that this steam mine car is not too safe, or else Master Earl will go up first, and I will let the miners start the steam engine.”

Chavison’s age was already fifty years old, and he was the first batch of free people to enter Harland’s territory. Being able to successfully live to the age of fifty already made Chavison feel like he had gained the favor of the Morning Goddess.

When Chavison had just entered the Harland Territory, despite looking a bit old, he was actually a man in his prime in his thirties, and was relatively authoritative among the slaves.

After entering the Harland Territory, Chavison first became a grassroots manager, and then was transferred into the exploration team because of his rich experience. After discovering the coal mine, he was transferred to be the mine manager, and it has been eight years now.

Under his leadership, the output of the coal mine has grown from small to large, and this year it has exceeded 80,000 tons.

Underneath the mine, a town was also built from scratch, and the town was basically filled with the families of the coal miners, plus a portion of the free people living nearby, numbering more than a thousand people.

Chawei Sen’s position is half a level higher than even the mayor of the town of Coal Mountain, equivalent to a deputy county official.

Now the life, all let Chawei Sen very satisfied, to save his life Richard, Chawei Sen is from the heart respect. Although he was old and decrepit, he was still willing to fight for Richard. His intention was not to put Richard in danger.

Even though Chavison had good intentions, Richard still didn’t appreciate it. He needed to see with his own eyes how the mine cart worked, and then see if there was any way to improve it.

“I’m a six-ringed magician, I can release a magic shield to protect myself, what can happen?”

Seeing that Richard wasn’t very happy, Chavetson could only order the miners to light the coals, while he himself stood in front of Richard. If there was danger, he would be the one to lose his life first.

Richard squeezed away from Chavissem and carefully observed the operation of the steam engine.

As the boiler burned away, hot steam surged out, carrying the main wheel to turn slowly, which drove the winch and tightened the steel cable.

The tightening of the steel cable immediately pulls the ore carts, the steam engine is so powerful that it can pull four ore carts at a time, and in just a few minutes, more than sixteen tons of minerals were pulled out.

Normally, it takes about a dozen manual laborers to carry sixteen tons of coal out of the pit every day. Even if you use horse-drawn rail transportation, you still need six horses and six wagon drivers.

Now a machine, which takes only a few minutes, can do the job. From this day forward, the transportation of coal from the mines has been an easy matter, requiring only one boiler man and one mechanic.

Seeing this scene, Chavison immediately stared with wide eyes, this witnessed a scene, directly changed Chavison’s three views, let him not dare to believe.

Although there were transcendent powers in the Morning Glory realm, and Chavison had seen magicians release magic, but the power of the machinery was so strong, it still made Chavison a bit dumbfounded.

“If every mine is fitted with a steam engine, I’m certain that I can increase the coal mine production to 150,000 tons next year.”

Seeing Chavisen muttering, Richard pondered in his heart.

“There are about three hundred workers in the Harland Territory coal mine, averaging out to an annual production of five hundred tons per person, a person can dig a little bit of thirty-six tons of coal in a day. The production efficiency is actually not high, and will seriously lose money in the latter days. The coal bosses can’t even mine enough coal to pay their workers.”

According to the history that Richard knows, the seventeenth century has not used the steam engine British, coal mining efficiency are more than the Harland collar, the annual mining of coal more than two million tons.

All circumstances indicate that the seventeenth century English mining technology, production process is more advanced than the Harland territory.

Of course, the Harland territory coal mine is a state-run mine, the pressure on the miners is not as good as the English.

Eighteenth-century sweatshops, the life expectancy of workers is about six years more than a little bit, the early capitalists, simply do not take the workers as human beings, oppression of workers than the use of animals are ruthless.

(End of chapter)