Chapter 280 Empress Jin sent a large amount of gold
In the ninth year of Chongzhen, early October.
The land of Liaodong has entered the winter of ice and snow, with the temperature dropping to more than ten degrees below zero.
But there is a place where it is as cold as 20 to 30 degrees below zero. It is difficult for normal people to survive here for a long time, because it will get even colder later.
Mohe.
This is Mohe.
But starting from July this year, a group of people came to this place, making this sparsely populated place, which may have been rarely visited by people in the past tens of thousands of years, become quite lively for the first time.
Especially along the small rivers, there are many figures gathered more densely, all bending down and standing barefoot in the water, using the tools in their hands to wash the sand in the river.
It makes a crisp sound of brushing.
And it lasted for more than two months.
The number of human beings standing in the cold river water increased, numbering at least tens of thousands, and then continued to decrease, until finally only a handful of skinny people remained.
It wasn't until the snowflakes slowly fell, the temperature dropped, and even the river water became cold enough to freeze, that the sound of washing sand in the river decreased or even disappeared.
Considering that the temperature will get lower and lower, and resources such as food and clothing are seriously insufficient, it is impossible to stay here for the winter.
Therefore, on October 5th, Dorgon, the leader of the Zhengbai Banner in charge of the gold mining project, issued an evacuation order, taking only more than 800 Korean slave workers and dozens of carts full of alluvial gold, and then
Under the escort of nearly three thousand Jurchen elites, they headed south back to Shengjing, and were expected to arrive by the end of the month. After all, the journey from Mohe to Shengjing was more than two thousand miles, and it would take a long time to travel even if you were hurrying.
etc!
How come the number of slave workers in North Korea is only over 800? Didn’t more than 20,000 people be recruited before?
Where have most of North Korea's young slave laborers gone?
Naturally, all the dogs were taken along.
Some died from lack of food.
Some died of illness.
Some chose to run away.
Others were beaten to death or beheaded by the Jurchen warriors because they were disobedient, did not work hard, resisted and other reasons.
In the end, only more than 800 people survived, and more than 90% became disposable consumables.
The alluvial gold that the Jurchens unearthed from the Mohe Laogou Gold Mine was really purchased with the lives of Korean slave workers, and was filled with countless sins and corpses.
"It seems that in the first half of next year more North Korean slaves will be captured, and in the second half of the year we will bring 30,000 people over to dig for gold. We will also bring more food, so that more gold can be found."
Riding on a horse, Dorgon looked at the team in front of him and thought to himself.
Not easy.
It is not easy to do anything in this world, even if it is cutting down the big trees that can be seen everywhere in the mountains, digging for ginseng in the deep mountains and old forests, taking out the pearls from the river clams, or even successfully finding the Laogou gold mine and successfully panning for sixteen
But these are not easy tasks and require a lot of hard work and effort.
Only plundering, killing, setting fire, these destructive actions are relatively easy and can achieve very big gains. They are the easiest things in the world - of course, the premise is that you must be strong enough and have the strength to kill the resisters.
, if you lose, you will lose your life.
For Dorgon, as long as the risk of looting and killing other ethnic groups is low and the losses can be ensured, he would rather choose to loot than to choose a gold mountain in front of him, because mining gold will be very difficult.
Trouble is tiring.
But now for the Jurchen clan, plundering is no longer feasible. Going up the mountains to cut down trees and going down the river to pan for gold is a last resort. Even if plundering is necessary, they only dare to attack North Korea in the east and the savage Jurchens in the north.
Take action, Mongolia in the west and Ming Dynasty in the south don't even dare to have the idea of touching them.
Because many tribes in Mongolia have defected to Guan Ningjun this year, and have also established cooperation in wool acquisition, which has huge profit margins. In order to protect these interests, Guan Ningjun will naturally not allow Daikin to take action against Mongolia, otherwise
They will definitely intervene and form a two-sided attack on Dajin. With the Jurchen's elites of less than 30,000 people, they cannot accept the loss of even 300 people killed in battle.
The Ming Dynasty in the south is getting richer and richer, and the Guan Ning Army in front of it is getting stronger and stronger. It already has 100,000 elite soldiers, and through mining, breeding, fishing, opening factories, selling wood and other industries, it makes a net profit in a year
More than 30 million silver dollars, no less than the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty.
So when the "Oriental Times" wrote a special article to introduce the development of Guan Ningjun's various industries, and praised Guan Ningjun for achieving self-reliance and becoming rich through his own diligent efforts.
The Ming court was shocked.
The civil servants were jealous, jealous and angry.
As for the senior executives of Daikin, they felt cold all over and their faces were pale and ugly.
In fact, the Guan Ning Army was not something to be afraid of. The Eight Banners Army beat them many times until they lost all their courage. When they encountered the Eight Banners, they were much weaker and could not pose a threat to Daikin.
However, several units of Guan Ning's army have since established long-term cooperation with Xujiazhuang. Guan Ning's army has become rich, their equipment has been greatly improved, they can eat enough meat, their bodies have become stronger, and they have learned from Xujiazhuang's excellence in every aspect.
All the blood and bravery were obtained by throwing money.
Therefore, Da Jin's dream of going south to plunder and make a fortune will never be realized with Ning Jun as a stumbling block.
We even have to be wary of Guan Ning's army taking offensive actions and plunder them in turn.
The offensive and defensive momentum is easy!
This has led to the fact that Daijin now can only choose to develop east or north, and must carry out production activities such as cutting down trees, panning for gold, digging ginseng, extracting pearls, and hunting fur to feed the more than 100,000 Jurchen people.
"Flag Master, in the past two months, we have mined sixteen carts of alluvial gold. If all this gold is sold to Xujiazhuang, how much food can we get back?" Niu Lu Zhangjing couldn't help but asked with admiration.
"Xujiazhuang likes gold the most. They want as much as they have. In the past, ten taels of silver could be exchanged for one tael of gold. But after Xujiazhuang's absorption over the years, one tael of gold can now be exchanged for fifty yuan of silver dollars. Our batch of gold
, it’s about 320,000 taels. After removing the impurities, it would cost at least 10 million silver dollars. If we take it to Songshan City to buy grain, we can still buy it even if the price of grain is as high as 1 silver dollar/stone.
Ten million stones." Dorgon, who is good at mathematics, said.
"Ten million stones?!"
Niu Luzhangjing exclaimed excitedly: "With so much food, each clan member can share nearly a hundred shi. We can't finish it no matter how much we eat. As long as we sell this gold to Xujiazhuang, we can have a good year this year.
It’s a fat year.”
"How can it be possible to only buy food?"
Dorgon shook his head and said: "We still need to purchase some warm clothes, canned meat, tools, medicines and daily necessities. Many of these goods are expensive. Even if we have a lot of silver coins in our hands, I'm afraid we can't buy much.
Not enough.”
Because the level of productivity is too backward, the land in Liaodong can only grow some vegetables such as radishes, cabbages, and green vegetables. As a result, the food you eat and the clothes you wear can be as small as a needle or a kitchen knife.
, as well as iron pots, axes, hammers, wood saws, and even daily necessities such as salt, seasonings, tea, etc., must be imported from the Ming Dynasty. The self-sufficiency rate may be less than 30%, and everything must be bought from outside.
Such a lifestyle brings very high costs. If the annual living cost of an ordinary person in the mainland of the Ming Dynasty is 10 silver dollars, then the per capita living cost of the Jurchens in Liaodong must be at least 30 silver dollars to maintain basic food and clothing.
If you want to be better, per capita consumption will have to increase to more than 50 silver dollars; even if you want to go back to the good days six years ago, the per capita consumption will probably be hundreds of silver dollars - if you think about the fat years, it is not that easy.
.
"Flag Master, can we buy some more weapons produced in Xujiazhuang?"
Niu Luzhangjing suddenly looked serious, thought of something and said: "More than a month ago, we encountered the group of alien warriors who crossed the river from the north and were covered in white skin and white hair, and their eyes were different from ours. Their personalities
They only used firearms, and their number was only thirty, but they killed hundreds of our warriors. In the end, the cavalry swarmed up and killed them all... Flag Master, that group of aliens are quite capable and have extremely sharp firearms. If we meet again next year,
So, will several clan members have to die before one of them can be killed?"
"You mean those white-haired weirdos?"
Dorgon's face suddenly changed wildly, as if he was recalling a nightmare, because in the encounter with the white-haired weirdos more than a month ago, he not only gave command there, but also killed two of them with his own hands. He was definitely not weak.
For any elite existence, if they did not have an absolute advantage in numbers and launched a death-defying charge, otherwise even if three hundred people died, they would not be able to withstand those white-haired weirdos. They were simply terrifying existences.
The deaths of hundreds of Jurchen tribesmen made him extremely heartbroken and difficult to accept.
And does the appearance of that group of white-haired weirdos mean that the location of the Laogou gold mine is exposed? What if more white-haired weirdos come next year, also armed with sharp firearms, and want to rob their gold mines? Is it still possible?
Do we need to rely on death charge tactics to eliminate them?
Or what if the number of white-haired weirdos coming is not thirty, but three hundred, or even thousands?
Thinking of this, Dorgon couldn't help but shuddered and didn't dare to think about it any more, because if there were powerful enemies even to the north of Dajin, and it was difficult to fight against them, how could Dajin survive in the future? Could it be that it could only rely on robbery?
Plunder the extremely poor Korean Kingdom?
"We have to request to purchase a batch of sophisticated weapons from Xujiazhuang. It is best to buy firearms that are not weaker than those used by the white-haired monsters! Otherwise, we will pay heavy losses when we encounter them next time."
Dorgon nodded and placed the importance of purchasing weapons second only to food.
In fact, what they encountered more than a month ago was most likely the Cossack Cavalry Far East advance team from Tsarist Russia. At this stage, the Tsarist Russian Empire has already gained momentum and is actively expanding externally, and this expansion trend will continue in the future.
Thirty or fifty years later, it reached a climax and peak.
It's just that what they encountered this time was just a small group of Cossack cavalry. It might be in the nature of geographical exploration and resource investigation. It was not necessarily a pioneering operation strongly supported by the Tsarist Empire. They had to wait until a large-scale Cossack cavalry arrived, at least.
After ten or twenty years, there is no need to worry too much now.
even so.
The sharp firearms, the fierce fighting power, and the battle loss ratio of one to three made Dorgon dare not take it lightly. When he returned to Shengjing, he must report to the Great Khan, and he must attach great importance to it.
Ergon had already predicted that Daikin would encounter a huge challenge sooner or later in the north direction!