Wu Shigong listened to the story told by Wan Wendong with great interest. In modern times, no matter which novel contains such a plot, those private mining bosses must be villains, and the miners' resistance to oppression

His behavior will definitely be highly praised.

However, Wu Shigong certainly would not care about such moral judgment. But after understanding the intentions of Li Lu and Wan Wendong, to be honest, Wu Shigong was not very interested in sending troops to help those private mine owners and take back those private mines.

Wu Shigong is still very confident in the combat effectiveness of his army. According to Wu Shigong's estimation, as long as he sends an army of 1,500 to 2,000 people, he can completely drive those miners out of the private mining areas. It is just that those private mines are located in

In mountainous areas, the terrain is complex, and the time required for military operations is limited.

Of course, if Wu Shigong sends troops, the food and salary for his soldiers will definitely be provided by those private mine owners. But that is not how the accounts are calculated. For Wu Shigong, for the benefit of others, the soldiers he has carefully trained will bear the sacrifice.

, this is a very uneconomical thing.

In addition, Wu Shigong just needs some cheap iron materials. He can buy them from these private mine owners through Li Lu, and of course he can also buy them from the miners organized by the horse bandits. Maybe the horse bandits have no other sellers of iron materials.

Through channels, the iron materials sold to Wu Shigong will be cheaper. Wu Shigong himself will not suffer too much.

However, since Li Lu has brought Wan Wendong to him for help, it is not good to refuse him. Besides, Wu Shigong also needs to use his own eyes and ears to learn about the situation of the iron mines in detail. Therefore, Wu Shigong is very

He politely said to Wan Wendong: "This matter is so serious that I cannot give you an immediate answer. Wan Yuanwai, just have fun in Runing Mansion for a few days. I will give you an answer after we have discussed it.

"

After seeing off Li Lu and Wan Wendong, Wu Shigong immediately called all the main staff and military attachés around him to discuss whether to send troops. During the discussion, everyone's opinions were surprisingly unified.

They all felt that there was little point in sending troops.

And Deng Qifan's words are also the most representative: "Sir, if the Runing Battalion sends troops this time, the mine owners will only provide some food and wages. But the rules of your Runing Battalion are that the soldiers receive double pay, plus pensions for the casualties of the soldiers."

, so your income must not be much."

"And if you want to gain profits, you must take advantage of this opportunity to get a share in the iron mines. Not to mention whether the mine owners are willing or not, even if the mine owners agree to give it to you, how can you guarantee it?

Will those miners not cause trouble again in the future?"

"Therefore, in order to prevent those miners from causing rebellion again, your Excellency must station an army in Nanyang Mansion. The students will not mention the question of why your Excellency, the garrison of Runing Mansion, should station troops in Nanyang Mansion. Even if this question can

Solved, where will the future food and salary of this new army come from?"

"What you are worried about right now is nothing more than one problem: those rebellious miners will not sell you iron materials, and your supply of iron materials will be cut off. In fact, this problem can be easily solved by asking Sihai Trading Company to send a shopkeeper to these rebellious miners.

Just make some contact."

"Of course, if the benefits offered by the mine owners are large enough, your Excellency can also send troops to help. However, there is no need for you to rush to answer now and let the mine owners of Nanyang Mansion be ignored for a while. In that case, they may do it

Make relatively big concessions."

After hearing Deng Qifan's words, Wu Shigong was convinced. This is the mature approach. So after the meeting, Wu Shigong asked Yuan Xingshan to send several shopkeepers and clerks from Sihai Trading Company to Nanyang Mansion to contact the rebellious miners.

Discussing the purchase of iron materials. On the other hand, he called Xue Zhinong over.

After all, Wu Shigong still had to be prepared to send troops, so those preparations had to be done ahead. The Shanchuan Division also had to immediately send out personnel to find out the map of Nanyang Mansion and the situation of the rebellious miners.

After Xue Zhinong arrived, Wu Shigong explained the task clearly. He finally said to Xue Zhinong: "Zhinong, in addition to what I just told you, the people you sent to Nanyang Mansion this time need to find out two things clearly."

"One thing is that I heard from Li Shoubei that the combat effectiveness of the rebellious miners has exceeded that of the general army. There are four thousand of them. Such a large force is placed beside us.

It always makes people feel a little uneasy. Although they do not pose a threat to us yet, we still need to know their situation as clearly as possible."

"The other thing is that you also need to find some old local miners who really know the output of those iron ore mines. If those mine owners are willing to give us some shares, then we will not suffer any loss in the negotiation."

"Yes!" Xue Zhinong nodded quickly in agreement.

"If nothing happens, just go down."

Xue Zhinong turned to leave. But at this moment, as if he suddenly remembered something, he turned around and asked Wu Shigong: "My uncle has arranged for the younger girl. The younger one has been sent to Mama Li for training. The younger one has been sent to Mother Li for training."

I want her to work for our Shanchuan Division in the future."

Wu Shigong was stunned after hearing this, and then he realized after thinking about it that Xue Zhinong was talking about the Tang Mei he gave to Xue Zhinong! Then Mother Li was Man Ling's former madam, but why did Xue Zhinong send Tang Mei to Mother Li?

"Since I have given it to you, then you can make your own arrangements." Wu Shigong also understood immediately. Xue Zhinong said that if Tang Mei was to work for the Shanchuan Division, he must use Tang Mei's beauty to use a honey trap.

.However, regarding the specific affairs of the Shanchuan Division, Wu Shigong decided to let Xue Zhinong, the commander of the Shanchuan Division, have a free hand to do it.

The two waves of people, the overt and the dark, set off quickly under Wu Shigong's arrangement. Then Wu Shigong happily participated in his first grand celebration of his birthday since arriving in the Ming Dynasty.

I won’t go into details about the lively scene of the birthday party, but this time, Wu Shigong took advantage of the large number of guests to congratulate him and held the concubine-taking ceremony for Qiong Niang, Man Ling and Mei Yun.

After all this was done, the manpower sent by Bo Ming from Sihai Trading Company brought back satisfactory news as expected. After contacting the leaders of the rebellious miners, that is, the horse bandits, the horse bandits were very happy.

He agreed to Wu Shigong's request to purchase iron materials.

Moreover, after the horse bandits learned that Wu Shigong purchased a relatively large amount of iron materials, they were willing to give Wu Shigong a more favorable price, which was even lower than the price of iron materials that Li Lu gave Wu Shigong.

But some time later, the wave of men sent from the Shanchuan Division also came back, and they brought unexpected news to Wu Shigong.

Xue Zhinong reported to Wu Shigong: The total number of rebellious miners was indeed more than 4,000, and their family members numbered more than 10,000. In terms of numbers, Wan Wendong did not deceive each other.

The miners do not usually gather together. They live separately according to the iron ore-producing hills, and each hilltop is managed by a mountain owner. Only when something happens, will they gather together to defend against foreign enemies.

However, the horse bandits who were the leaders of the miners obviously had military experience. When the horse bandits were not working in the mines, they organized the miners and conducted certain military training. Therefore, the miners were not without any fighting ability.

of.

When Wu Shigong heard this, he didn't have any unexpected thoughts. Because in the Ming Dynasty, among the horse bandits and bandits in Luocao, there were indeed many soldiers who had fled from the army. Therefore, among the horse bandits, there were talents who knew military training.

Not surprising.

But the news Wu Shigong heard next made him unable to calm down. Xue Zhinong went on to report: Through inquiring about some old miners, he learned that the output of those iron ore mines was not satisfactory. And along with this iron ore, there were also some

Small coal mines. But these minerals are enough to meet Wu Shigong's current needs.

However, in addition to the iron ore and coal mines, there is also a saltpeter mine in that area. However, because of its remote location, the saltpeter mine has not been well exploited, so the locals have basically left the saltpeter mine idle.

With.

For the current Wu Shigong, the temptation of this news must be great. Because the current use of firearms in Wu Shigong's army is quite common, the consumption of gunpowder is also quite huge.

However, because it was not easy to purchase gunpowder, Wu Shigong's army could only maintain a relatively low level of training. As a component of gunpowder, Wu Shigong himself had a charcoal-burning workshop. However, it was more difficult to obtain saltpeter and sulfur.

Compared with sulfur, which is relatively easy to purchase, purchasing saltpeter is more difficult and the price is relatively high. If there is this saltpeter mine now, Wu Shigong's problem of obtaining gunpowder will be solved by more than half.

But in terms of economic accounts, what Wu Shigong was even more uncertain about was the political and military accounts. Whether it was iron or saltpeter, for Wu Shigong, it was not only a commodity, but also a strategic material.

If there was only one kind of strategic material - iron materials, Wu Shigong might be able to tolerate it for a while, but with two kinds of strategic materials, Wu Shigong would definitely not be able to sit still.

For this reason, after listening to Xue Zhinong's report, Wu Shigong had already made up his mind to send troops to take control of the iron ore and saltpeter mines.
Chapter completed!