After defeating the Xixia army's surprise attack southward, Chen Qing immediately ordered Zhao Xiaoyi to lead the scout battalion north to check the movements of the Xixia army in Dingxi County.
The Song army that captured Longxi County was not in a hurry to advance westward to face Tao. The top priority was to stabilize control of Gongzhou.
Especially when the city walls in Chengji County of Qinzhou have not yet been repaired, rushing westward will cause the battle line to be too long, which will be broken by the Xixia army one by one, and even the puppet Qi army will sneak attack the rear of Qinzhou.
The war did not affect Longxi County. Longxi County still maintained peace and prosperity. The two mule and horse shops that had been looted in the east of the city resumed business. The Song Army returned the captured mules and horses to the two shops.
That morning, Chen Qing, accompanied by Deputy Mine Superintendent Cao Jingde, came to the saltpeter mine about eighty miles south of Longxi County. This was an important saltpeter mine for the imperial court. The army of the Northern Song Dynasty used gunpowder on a large scale, and saltpeter was the main source.
Produced in Sichuan and Longxi.
The saltpeter mine has been out of production for several years. The mine supervisor is an official sent from Bianliang, Tokyo, and his whereabouts have long been unknown. The deputy mine supervisor, Cao Jingde, is from Longxi County. He is actually the main person in charge, organizing manpower, mining ore, and at the same time organizing the truck commanders.
Ore is transported out of the mine.
Chen Qing came to a big mountain and saw a dozen large and small mines scattered on the rock wall. The original plank road was still there, wooden carts were piled on the ground, and dozens of crowbars were scattered everywhere.
discarded on the ground.
"Jiedushi, this is our No. 4 mine. It is a new mine. We have a total of five mines. This is the smallest one. Only more than 300 people work here. The largest No. 1 mine is prosperous.
There are thousands of people mining at the same time.”
Cao Jingde pointed to a huge concave surface about two feet away from the ground and said to Chen Qing: "That is a saltpeter vein that has just been discovered. Peel off the outer rock and expose it. It is estimated that this vein can produce more than 100,000 kilograms of saltpeter ore.
There are tens of thousands of kilograms of purified fire salt powder, but unfortunately the mine was stopped just as it was about to be mined."
"Where did the miners come from?" Chen Qing asked.
"In fact, most of them are young men from Longxi County. More than half of the three thousand newly recruited troops by Jiedushi were our miners. The puppet Qi army is also preparing to resume mining, and they have also brought money and cloth just to recruit miners.
, but was snatched away by puppet Qi soldiers."
Only then did Chen Qing realize that the more than 10,000 guan of money and 20,000 pieces of cloth they had seized were originally used to recruit miners, but this was only part of the money they seized. They also found a large amount of property from Xixia soldiers, mainly gold.
Silver, more than 30,000 taels of broken silver and two thousand taels of gold were all the personal property of Xixia soldiers.
"What do you need the cloth for?" Chen Qing asked puzzledly.
"Cloth is also money. In some remote places, you can't buy anything even if you have money, so you have to exchange it with cloth."
Chen Qing nodded and asked: "How many miners can we recruit now?"
"There is no problem with two to three thousand people. Three mines can be restored, but money is needed. Without money, miners cannot be recruited."
Chen Qing thought for a while and asked: "How much does a miner earn per month?"
"It costs sixty cents a day for food and accommodation, but less than two cents a month. Disability and death will be counted separately."
Chen Qing was startled, "So low?"
Cao Jingde smiled bitterly and said: "The wages in the northwest are already very low, but this is still a very high wage. Working as a clerk in the county can only earn 30 coins a day, and as a maid, 20 coins a day. Chengji County recruits repairmen
We have all heard about the city wall, which includes food and accommodation for fifty cents a day, which is very good and has attracted many people from Longxi County."
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "Mining Superintendent Cao, please restore the mine! I will allocate the money and cloth to you. It is no problem if the government and the army cooperate. If Superintendent Cao Mine can give my army 30,000 yuan a year,
For every kilogram of pure nitrate powder ore, I will reward you two thousand dollars each year."
Cao Jingde's eyes lit up, "Is Jiedushi serious about what he said?"
"I keep my word and I will never lie!"
Cao Jingde said without hesitation: "Okay, I will start recruiting workers when I get back. I would like to ask the Jiedushi Envoy to first allocate 12,000 guan of money, 6,000 bolts of cloth and 3,000 shi of grain. You don't have to give me the money and grain. The Jiedushi Envoy can send people
To take care of money and food, but the money, food and cloth must be in place,"
"What are you going to do?" Chen Qing asked curiously.
Cao Jingde smiled and said: "I am actually looking for mine heads. I can find ten mine heads. Each mine head can find 300 miners, so that's 3,000 people. Then all the mining iron tools are sealed in the county warehouse.
.”
"How do you calculate the mine head's money?"
"This... they mainly extract money from the miners. The miners earn sixty cents a day, and each person has to give six cents to the mine head. The mine head earns six hundred cents a day, and then the mine head has to find someone to cook.
, we still have to find people and trucks to transport the ore to the Wei River, and the mine head can actually only earn 300 yuan a day."
"You mean that the miners make money by exploiting the miners?"
Cao Jingde quickly explained: "Jiedushi is not exploitation. It has been like this for decades. It is a convention and a rule that everyone recognizes. These mines are inherited by generations. They were the first to mine.
, later, after the imperial court did not allow them to mine, they became the head of the mine. If the Jiedushi governor found it troublesome, they could change the method. They would recruit people to mine themselves, and then sell the ore to the Jiedushi government. In fact, it would not cost more than a year.
Thousands of dollars."
Of course Chen Qing also understood this contracting method. This was the monopoly system of the Song Dynasty. This method was used in boiled salt mining. If it were other mines, it would be fine. But this is a fire salt mine, which is a strategic material, and it is still managed by the government.
Camp is better,
Chen Qing said calmly: "Salt mines are OK, but fire salt mines are not. Let's follow the previous method! You go find the mine head."
"I understand the humble position!"
Although Cao Jingde's personal interests in the official mine were not much, Cao Jingde felt excited when he thought of Jiedushi's promise of two thousand guan. He had been the deputy mine supervisor for more than ten years and was confident that he would be able to mine three thousand guan by the end of the year.
Thousands of kilograms of pure nitrate powder ore.
He couldn't wait to find the mine now and start work immediately.
.........
Chen Qing appointed Niu Gao as the military envoy of Gongzhou, commanding 3,000 new soldiers and 2,000 infantry to guard Longxi County.
He stayed in Gongzhou for a few more days, until the saltpeter mine began to operate, Wang Huai, the governor of the state, took office and reopened the state government, then Chen Qing led the army back to Qinzhou.
Three years after entering Shaoxing, the Lin'an court also underwent great changes. Zhu Shengfei got his wish and became the prime minister, granted the title of Councilor on political affairs, and became the spokesperson of Empress Dowager Wei in the court.
Less than half a year after Liu Ziyu took office in Xiangyang, he was transferred to Guangnan West Road as the military governor and led his army to quell the intensifying barbarian rebellion there.
Li Heng, the governor of the capital, was appointed as the deputy envoy of the Xuanfu Department in Huguang and the military envoy of Jingxiang.
At this time, because the Emperor of the Jin State was seriously ill, the power struggle within the Jin State was extremely fierce. Wanyan Nianhan led an army of 50,000 people on the right to return to Hebei. In addition, the Jin State consumed too many resources in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and the Jurchen troops were depleted too much.
, the Kingdom of Jin began to show a temporary trend of strategic contraction.
Jianghuai sent hundreds of thousands of puppet Qi troops to fill the vacancy after the Jin soldiers retreated north.
At this time, Yue Fei, the governor of the capital, proposed the idea of retaking Jianghuai and establishing a strategic buffer zone, which was supported by the governors of the capital Zhang Jun and Han Shizhong. Even the emperor Zhao Gou was very moved.
Prime Ministers Zhang Jun and Zhao Ding firmly supported sending troops to Jianghuai, but Prime Ministers Qin Hui and Zhu Shengfei opposed sending troops to Jianghuai on the pretext that the armistice agreement between Song and Jin Dynasties had not expired, and the court fell into a sharp situation of war and peace.
This afternoon, an extremely important guest came to the residence of Grand Scholar Lu Yihao.
In the past two days, the Lu Mansion was decorated with lights and decorations, and everyone was mobilized to clean the mansion. The door was polished black and shiny, and even every stone slab on the path had to be wiped clean.
"I'm coming!"
Lu Jinfei ran into the house and shouted: "Father, the official's motorcade will be arriving soon."
Naturally, the emperor Zhao Gou came to visit his veteran minister Lu Yihao.
"What are you excited about?"
Lu Yihao glared at his eldest son with dissatisfaction, "You are so old and you are not stable at all!"
Lu Jin quickly lowered his hands and said, "Yes! I know I was wrong."
"Help me go to the gate to greet the officials!"
Lu Jin supported his father and walked towards the gate.
"Father, does the official's arrival have something to do with Qing'er?"
Lu Jin had an intuition that the official's visit to his father in person had something to do with his son-in-law.
Lu Yihao nodded, "The official's attitude may have something to do with Qing'er, but he didn't come to me for the northwest affairs."
Lu Yihao knew very well that the emperor was willing to stoop to his residence instead of summoning him to the palace for an audience. This attitude must have something to do with Chen Qing's performance in the northwest.