Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 547 - 267: Black Stone Myth, Primitive Coking!

"This is... high-quality bituminous coal?!"

Xiulote, holding the asphalt-like black stone in his hand and looking at the thick smoke from the burning black stone nearby, cried out in surprise.

A gust of wind blew by, dispersing the smoke and the cry in the air. The wind also brought with it the sulfur smell unique to mining areas and blew away the coal fragments in the king’s hand.

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The king seemed transfixed as he gazed upon it. They appeared to be the initial seeds, containing the faint signs of life for an industry’s inception.

"Bertade, you have made a great contribution!... Where did you find this?"

"From the camp’s kitchen. The miners unearthed this kind of black stone from underground to use for cooking fires, and it seems they have been doing so for quite some time."

Bertade smiled faintly. He understood his Highness very well and had known the prince would certainly be interested in such peculiar items.

"Ezpan, have you seen this before?"

Xiulote turned to Ezpan, who came from a mining background. Looking apprehensively at the black stone in the king’s hand, Ezpan answered in a low voice.

"Your Highness, this is the blood of demons that coexists with the Stone of the Dead. It is said that in the legends, the great Divine Descendants slew and suppressed many underground demons. These demons, hailing from the dark Abyss, turned into black rocks of blood and flesh upon death. The mine has secretly used the black stone as fuel for over a decade now, at least since the first time I worked as a miner. This stuff burns for a long time and with great heat, saving much effort needed to chop wood."

"How abundant is the black stone?"

"Not too little, seemingly inexhaustible. There are two deposits near the Main Copper Mine, and some can also be mined underground."

"If there is so much of this black stone, why have I never seen it in the Capital City?"

Hearing this, Xiulote felt both invigorated and puzzled. In this era, chopping wood was an extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive task. After chopping the wood, one still needed to wait for it to dry before it could be burned, and even then, the heat value was not high. In contrast, coal was easy to mine and lasted long when burned, clearly superior to wood.

"Your Highness, because it is the unclean blood of demons!"

Ezpan was surprised at the king’s nonchalance.

"Some miners once brought black stone to the priests in Tarasco, hoping for a reward. The priests, however, were infuriated, deeming it evil and immensely unclean. They said that if the flame of the Stone of the Dead could communicate with the world of the dead, then naturally the burning of demon blood could also connect with demons... It is a highly dangerous evil object that should not be casually handled by commoners."

Xiulote paused, finding the deduction somewhat consistent with theology. He asked curiously.

"And then what happened?"

"And then... the miner was executed. The priests also sent people to the mine to identify the evil, and many of the older miners who had used the black stone were also put to death. Fortunately, I had only just arrived at the mine and they needed to keep people for mining operations, so I escaped that fate... After that, no one dared to talk about it in public."

"Mining is really hard work, and there’s always too much to do. By burning black stone, a lot of manpower is saved, allowing the mines to meet production requirements. The Tarasco samurai overseeing the work turned a blind eye, letting the lowly miners use the unclean black stone. They themselves would never touch it..."

"...I see... Advanced production methods that challenged divine authority were suppressed, yet preserved in secret because of their advanced nature..."

After listening to all this, Xiulote shook his head, filled with emotion. The issue couldn’t be simply attributed to the conservative ignorance of the mythological era. As a High Priest himself, he could better understand the logic behind the actions of the Tarasco priests.

The divine authority of the priests did not come from force but from the awe of the hearts of the people. The Tarasco priests burned the Stone of the Dead to communicate with the deceased, deterring the masses and sustaining their authoritative divine power. This majesty would not tolerate challenges from ordinary civilians; burning "magical items" naturally remained a privilege reserved for priests alone. The demon blood was closely related to the Stone of the Dead in mythology, so it could not be discovered by lowly miners, nor could the common people use it at will!

"Divine authority serves the priests. The root of this misfortune lies in the identity of the discoverer! If a High Priest had discovered coal and put a different spin on it, the outcome would’ve been completely different."

Xiulote mused. As he delved deeper into governance, he increasingly felt that the struggle for power and identity and the suppression of traditional authority were omnipresent in the operation of the Kingdom. How to continuously balance tradition and innovation, to provide growth space for new forces while maintaining the stability of the Kingdom, would become his lifelong exploration and reflection!

The discovery of coal disrupted the original plans. Xiulote postponed the subsequent farm inspections and focused entirely on investigating the "food of industry," also considering the use of coal.

The Black Wolf’s Royal Banner remained stationed in the mining area, envoys sent to support were dispatched back to the Capital City, and new Royal Decrees were issued. Guided by experienced miners, squads of samurai set out in all directions to collect all the special rocks, including samples of the black stone, to search for "where the demons were suppressed."

In the Main Copper Mine amidst the mountains, mining by the workers continued. The king did not interfere much with the mine’s operations, nor did he care about the rudimentary living conditions. He simply collected all the coal from the mining area under the anxious eyes of the miners, and then began to attempt to refine coke using the crude methods he remembered.

On the highlands of northern Jin in later times, crude coking was once very common. Xiulote had traveled there and seen the real thing, and also heard stories about coking from a tour guide. In general, crude coking was similar to charcoal burning in the sense that coal was ignited in a furnace where air was not completely sealed off, in order to achieve high-temperature dry distillation and carbonization. The kiln for crude coking could be designed like a clay brick kiln, with only slight modifications to its shape.

Xiulote assembled a dozen experienced miners, and after three to five days, they built a brick kiln furnace over 2 meters tall.

The kiln had more than a meter buried in the ground, and the top was shaped like an inverted pot, with a bottom diameter of about 3-4 meters. Overall, it somewhat resembled a Mongolian yurt. The furnace walls had vent holes for igniting and flue channels. The top of the kiln was tightly covered with clay, except for the chimney and ventilation holes.

While the kiln was being built, another group of miners crushed the coal and carefully sieved it to remove impurities. Once both sides were ready, they filled the furnace with the crushed coal and packed it tightly. Then they lit the coal through the ignition hole, beginning the coking process in the furnace.

Soon, the coal gradually heated and began to burn, emitting billowing hot air and thick smoke from the top flue. The smoke was intense, filled with both the pungent waste gases from the combustion of coal and a large amount of unpleasant coal decomposition products.

Xiulote stepped back a few paces, away from the range of the heatwave and smoke. He sniffed lightly and faintly detected a familiar, pungent odor.

"Hmm? This smell... ammonia?"

The thought momentarily carried the King’s mind far away. An ancient term surfaced in his memory, prompting him to sigh lightly.

"Coal chemical industry..."

The smelting of the coal continued for a full ten days, and the thick smoke gradually became lighter and then disappeared. This indicated that the coal in the kiln was nearly done calcining, leaving behind a hard, porous coke.

Only then did Xiulote arrange for people to pour water onto the scorching hot kiln to extinguish it. Not until the kiln had cooled off did Ezpan personally move to unseal the furnace mouth and extract the epoch-making metallurgical fuel, coke!

"Your Highness, this is the Divine Object you received after the sacrificial rite! We thank the Chief Divine for his blessing, for purifying the demon’s blood!"

Ezpan’s expression flickered with excitement, shouting slogans of the divine. The surrounding miners all looked on with reverence, prostrating themselves in unison.

"The Chief Divine is omnipotent and incomparable to ordinary deities. His radiance shines upon the earth, cleansing the impurity in the Black Stone. As long as we pray to the Chief Divine, the commoners may use the Black Stone without fear of corruption! And when the Black Stone undergoes the ritual of calcination, it becomes a true Divine Object, imbued with the power to change the world!"

Clad in elaborate Ceremonial Dress, Xiulote recited in an archaic tone in front of all the samurai and miners. With irrefutable authority, he intended to redefine the mythical status of Black Stone.

In the midst of the King-Priest’s chanting, everyone prostrated themselves together, facing the freshly coked kiln, praying loudly at this peculiar "altar."

"Praise the Chief Divine! He is all-powerful, bestowing upon us the Divine Object with His warm flames!..."

After the solemn prayer, Xiulote waved his hand, signaling the samurai and miners to resume their work. Then, struggling to contain his excitement, he picked up a piece of coke and examined it closely.

The piece of coke in his hand was irregularly shaped, with differently sized pores throughout, and was silvery-gray in color. With a slight grip, he could feel the unique hard texture of coke, completely different from the loose coal.

In this era, coke-making technology was only mastered by the Celestial Empire in the East. Although coking iron had appeared two hundred years prior, it had always been passed down among deeply established master craftsmen. This was the first coke production in the entire western hemisphere!

"Now that we have coke, all that’s missing is iron!"

Xiulote felt a moment of sentiment, another seed he had sown by hand, slowly altering the entire era. After a while, the King waved his hand, and Ezpan, along with two samurai, began removing the formed coke, weighing it with a simple balance scale.

Ezpan quickly calculated the yield, which was about 40%. With increasing experience in coking, the yield would gradually improve, with the peak for primitive coking expected to reach 60%.

"Hmm, for a first-time coke production, the coal quality in the mine is quite high!..."

The King murmured softly to himself, then patiently waited. Groups of scouts gradually returned from all directions, bringing mineral reports from the mining area.

The Qinganbate mining area, located near a dormant volcano, contained a wealth of rich ore deposits. Dominated by copper, it was estimated to be over ten million tons. Following was the associated gold and silver ore, situated deeper and more troublesome to smelt, not currently worth exploiting. Next, the volcanic area’s sulfur - the quantity was not clear, but definitely sufficient for use and was at one time secretly controlled by the priests.

And, surprisingly, a miner presented a piece of lead-zinc ore familiar to the Alliance. Given the geological features of the area, the lead ore should also contain silver.

"Hmm, lead-silver separation, the cupellation method..."

Not sure what he was thinking of, a smile appeared on Xiulote’s face. He chuckled, shaking his head, and then inquired about the most important coal mines.

Within a twenty-mile radius of the mining area, they discovered five small coal mines with reserves of a million tons each. According to the miners, there were several more underground deposits of the "Demon stone." The total reserves were certainly more than twenty million tons, consisting mainly of bituminous and lignite coal.

By later standards, the coal reserves here were modest, their value nowhere near comparable to gold and silver mines. In later times, the Qinganbate mining area was monopolized by mining conglomerates. The Mexica Government, despite discovering coal mines, deemed them unworthy of exploitation, leaving only private teams to stealthily mine them.

In this era, however, such reserves were already sufficient in Xiulote’s view.

"The Qinganbate mining area, with its copper, gold and silver, sulfur, coal, and lead-zinc mines... The fief’s handcraft industry, gunpowder workshops, bronze workshops... The future industrial center of the fief should be established here, providing an unending force for the Kingdom’s conquest!"

Xiulote lifted his head, gazing into the distant sky, his plans as broad as the heavens themselves. Eagles would soar through time, and the plains of the East, the hills of the South, the mountains of the West, and the Great Lake of the North, would all eventually fall under the King’s purview!