Just one pregnancy and four babies, but the prince actually pledged his love to her

But now they are talking about the shortage of manpower and the problem of firewood. What's the point of talking about these things?

Except for Li Mengyue, the seven village heads present were all confused. They didn't know what Li Mengyue meant by saying this.

But one thing is very clear, that is, Li Mengyue would not do this without a purpose, there must be a reason.

Sure enough, Li Mengyue's next words verified their guess.

"I bought a small hill and planted fruit trees on it. However, during the planting process, a small incident occurred. The hill suddenly collapsed in one place, revealing black rocks."

Only Village Chief Li knew what Li Mengyue said. The relationship between the other six villages and Xinghua Village was not as "close" as it is now, so they naturally didn't know what was going on.

However, although they were curious, they did not ask directly, but waited for Li Mengyue to explain clearly.

At this time, Li Mengyue continued: "Those black stones are coal, something that can be burned to keep warm."

At this point, not only Village Chief Li, but also the other six village chiefs understood what Li Mengyue meant.

Fifty people were selected to dig coal for heating in winter.

But they knew that the hill belonged to Li Mengyue, and no matter how much coal they could dig out, it had nothing to do with them.

No, they can buy it.

"Girl Yue, what you said is to make people dig coal blocks and wait until winter to use them."

"That's right. It's just that the hill is my personal property. I will pay for all the fifty men's wages. As for the people who will repair the reservoir, I will find more people to come and try to ensure that it is completed within two months."

"Okay, Yue girl, I feel relieved when you say that. But Yue girl, can the black coal you mentioned really be used for heating?"

It’s no wonder that Village Chief Li asked this question. He had seen those black stones before, but they were just black in color, so they had nothing to do with firewood.

Don't let the work be done and a lot of coal be dug out, but it can't be burned. That would be a waste of work.

In addition, Li Mengyue had to pay wages every day, ten cents per person, five hundred cents for fifty people, and one tael of silver for two days, which was not a small amount of money.

Even if Li Mengyue has a lot of money and is not short of it, she can't do this.

Li Mengyue knew what Village Chief Li was thinking by looking at his expression. At this moment, she felt warm in her heart and was glad that she came to Xinghua Village and met a group of lovely villagers.

Just like now, Village Chief Li is still considering wasting her money, but who is she? How could she not spend her money wisely?

"Grandpa Village Chief, rest assured, coal can indeed burn and can be used in winter. It does not produce as much smoke as firewood, and can also be used to boil water, warm fire, cook, etc."

"Miss Li, if the coal you mentioned is really that useful, we don't have to worry about how cold this winter will be. How much do you sell it for? My family wants to buy more."

"I want to buy one too. My mother suffers from severe leg pain in winter. It would be better if the house was always warm."

Then several other village heads also expressed their willingness to buy to Li Mengyue.

Li Mengyue didn't expect that someone wanted to buy the house before she even started construction. This was a good sign.

Only when the villagers spend their money can the circulation of money be promoted and the economy gradually improve.

What's more, they didn't spend money recklessly, they only bought daily necessities.

Although it is not food, but in the winter when water freezes into ice, even if there is food, without anything to keep warm, you can survive for a short period of time. But if it is like this for several months in a row, let alone the elderly and children, even the young and middle-aged will find it difficult to persist.

She prepared to make honeycomb coal in advance. Her ultimate goal was not for the villagers of the seven villages, but for the entire Wuning County or Qingshan Prefecture.

According to the data obtained by a full set of geological monitoring instruments, there is a super-large coal mine on the small hill. Even with advanced equipment of the later era, it will take at least 40 to 50 years to mine the entire mine. You can imagine how big this coal mine is.

Therefore, Li Mengyue was not worried about the lack of coal blocks at all. She just needed to gather enough manpower, mine the coal as soon as possible, and then make honeycomb coal.

If you want to make honeycomb coal, you can't just have coal blocks. You also need quicklime, yellow mud, sawdust and other things. Mix them together in proportion to make coal mud. Then use tools to make honeycomb coal and dry it in the sun.

Although this slows down the process, there are reasons why it must be done.

After all, gases such as sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, nitric oxide and carbon dioxide produced by the combustion of coal are harmful to the human body.

As long as the doors and windows are closed during the burning of coal to ensure better insulation in the room, people will feel dizzy and have headaches after a short while, and may even lose their lives in severe cases.

However, if it is made into honeycomb coal, it will not have that pungent smell and can also reduce the harm to a certain extent.

Of course, it doesn't mean that you won't get poisoned, but the risk will be greatly reduced. As long as you pay attention to indoor ventilation and don't get too close, there won't be any problems.

Judging from the current situation, before the arrival of the extreme cold Little Ice Age, making enough honeycomb coal is the only way for people to survive the cold winter.

After talking to the seven village heads about the coal blocks, Village Head Li also agreed to select fifty people, and Li Mengyue prepared to go home.

She plans to make some honeycomb briquettes first so that everyone can have a direct understanding.

Because she knew that even if she told the seven village chiefs about the benefits of coal blocks and making them into honeycomb coal, they would not believe it too much.

But Li Mengyue knew that the village heads could not be blamed. The coal blocks and honeycomb coal she described were beyond their understanding.

It can be said that before she brought it up, not only the village chief, but even the higher-ups didn't know about coal and didn't understand its importance.

Not to mention anything else, Xie Ruiyuan was the third prince, a mighty general who was feared by the world, and the only prince to be conferred the title of king. When she mentioned the word coal, Xie Ruiyuan was extremely surprised and did not recognize it, let alone ordinary people.

In other words, no one in this era had discovered the uses of coal, and coal mines were still unknown to the entire Zhou Dynasty.

Li Mengyue was well aware of the extremely cold Little Ice Age sweeping across the north of the Great Zhou. She wanted to save more people and prevent them from dying in the severe cold. The only way at present was to mine coal and make enough honeycomb coal.

At present, the coal mine on the hill needs to be mined as soon as possible, and fifty people are far from enough, and I am afraid that thousands of people will not be enough.

The reason why she asked Village Chief Li for fifty people was mainly because the refugees were not utilized.

Once the refugees join in, there will be no need to worry about lack of manpower.

So after Li Mengyue finished talking about the coal mine with the seven village heads, they got up and went home.