Under the leadership of officials from the Ministry of Industry, Yang Yuanqing walked about ten miles along a mountain range. This was a mountain range covered with dots of silvery gray and earthy yellow. The copper ore and silver ore exposed on the rocks could be clearly seen.
On the left is a river called Zuli River, which flows directly into the Yellow River. The river is several feet wide. Since this is the lower reaches, the river is quite deep and can carry a thousand-stone ship.
Yang Yuanqing pointed to the river with his horsewhip and asked the county captain Zhang Fangnong: "How far is this river from the Yellow River? Is it possible to sail?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, this place is still twenty miles away from the Yellow River. After leaving this valley, a few miles further forward is Liangchuan County. The county seat is close to the Yellow River, and the river here flows into the Yellow River from the side of the county seat."
Having said this, Zhang Fangnong picked up a stone and looked at it carefully, handed it to Yang Yuanqing and said with a smile: "When we were children, we liked to take a boat here to 'pick up gold'. In fact, we just picked up copper pieces. Your Highness, this is a piece of natural copper."
Yang Yuanqing took the copper block and felt that it was heavy and yellow-red. It was indeed a piece of natural copper. He nodded and asked, "How many natural coppers are there?"
"It used to be everywhere on the river beach, but as more people picked it up, there were fewer and fewer. However, there are still some on the mountain. I guess this piece of copper rolled down from the mountain."
Yang Yuanqing raised his head and looked at the top of the mountain. He secretly thought that this huge mountain range would take at least a thousand years to mine, and it could fully meet the needs of the Sui Dynasty for minting coins. He couldn't wait in his heart.
At this time, they came to a house made of stones and branches. More than twenty smelting craftsmen were busy. They came with the army from Lingwu County. Their task was to smelt the ore and check the copper content and content of the ore here.
Silver content.
Yang Yuanqing got off his horse and approached the men. There were several officials from the Ministry of Industry standing in front of them. The leader was Li Chun, the minister of the Ministry of Industry. Li Chun was mainly good at construction, but since he served as the minister of the Ministry of Industry, he was also involved in prospecting and smelting.
within his jurisdiction.
Li Chun quickly led several officials forward and bowed to salute. "See His Royal Highness the King of Chu!"
"Thank you everyone!"
Yang Yuanqing smiled, walked into our house, and saw that the craftsmen had built three furnaces to smelt the ore, so he asked with a smile: "Is there any refined product?"
"have!"
Li Chun quickly opened an oilcloth next to him and saw a dozen silver ingots and copper ingots stacked under the oilcloth. Yang Yuanqing picked up a silver ingot, and about thirty of them were just one rough silver ingot. It still needs to be refined.
Li Chun couldn't hold back his excitement and said: "The quality of the ore in this area is quite high. Smelters say it is rare. The quality of the copper ore here is even higher than that of Hongtie Mountain. No wonder it is called Longbaoshan. It is indeed well-deserved."
A heartfelt feeling of joy also arose in Yang Yuanqing's heart. He seemed to see ships of silver and copper ingots being transported to Taiyuan, and the currency began to become richer. The world's resources continued to flow to the Sui Dynasty, and the national power became stronger and stronger.
This Longbao Mountain Range may be the turning point for the Sui Dynasty to become stronger. He knew very well what it meant to have currency, the largest capital.
Although the fire of joy was ignited in his eyes, he still restrained his excitement and said to the officials: "We still need to do more experiments and try our best to beneficiate and smelt the ore in various places to make sure that this is a real rich ore."
"Your Highness, please rest assured. Your Majesty will definitely handle this matter properly."
Yang Yuanqing nodded, then turned back to Pei Xingyan and said: "Leave two thousand soldiers and one thousand surrendered troops under the command of Li Shilang, and build a dock at the foot of the mountain as soon as possible. I hope that the construction of the dock will be completed within ten days, and then the fleet of Lingwu County will be ready."
It will arrive and the first batch of ore can be loaded."
"The humble job will definitely be done. It's just that the miners haven't been found yet. The soldiers can load the ships for the first time, but what about the future?"
This is also a big problem. Yang Yuanqing thought for a moment and then ordered: "Go to Liangchuan County!"
Five hundred soldiers guarded Yang Yuanqing and rushed towards Liangchuan County, which is more than ten miles away. Liangchuan County is the only county seat in Huining County and the seat of Huining County.
It is close to the Yellow River and is the only passage connecting the Central Plains and the Western Regions. It has become one of the important towns on the northern route of the ancient Silk Road. It is known as the "Cardinal of Qin Long" and is known as the "Famous City on Long".
Huining County itself is not big, with about 2,000 households. In addition to a dozen shorter mountains in the west, there are irrigation and agricultural areas along the Yellow River. However, due to severe desertification, the soil quality is not good. Compared with the north,
Lingwu County and Wuyuan County are really far apart.
Due to the underdeveloped agriculture, the people in Huining County are generally poor, and only some businessmen live a good life.
Yang Yuanqing led his troops and rushed into the county town like a gust of wind. The county town was dilapidated and low, and the roads were not solidly paved. The cavalry rushed past and the sky was filled with dust.
The best buildings in the county are the county government office and the county government office. The two government offices are next to each other. At this time, the red and white flags of the Tang Dynasty in front of the government offices have been lowered and replaced by the red flags of the Sui Dynasty.
Yang Yuanqing's war horse stopped in front of the county government office, and he immediately ordered the county captain Zhang Fangnong, "Go and call the county magistrate and the county magistrate."
Zhang Fangnong rushed away. At this time, the governor of Huining County also came out after hearing the news. The governor of Huining County's surname was Xu, and his name was Xu Zhiyuan. He was a middle-aged man in his forties, and he knew Yang Yuanqing.
He was originally the prefect of Diaoyin County, one of the six counties in northern Guan. In the ninth year of Daye, he was forced to sign a joint defense treaty with Yang Yuanqing in the six counties in northern Guan. As a result, the six counties in northern Guan were annexed by Fengzhou. At that time, Yang Guang was furious and many Guan
All the officials in the six northern counties were transferred. Xu Zhiyuan was also demoted to the position of Huining County Magistrate. Last year, he was promoted to the prefecture by the Tang Dynasty.
Xu Zhiyuan recognized Yang Yuanqing and was so frightened that he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed to salute, "Xu Zhiyuan, the humble governor of Huining, is here to see His Highness the King of Chu!"
Yang Yuanqing also recognized him and couldn't help laughing, "So it's you, Prefect Xu. You're fine!"
Xu Zhiyuan smiled bitterly, "Your Highness, we haven't seen each other for four or five years. Your Highness is still as majestic and elegant as before."
Yang Yuanqing laughed and said, "You are not bad, you are getting younger and younger. I have something to meet with you today. I have summoned Chang Shi and Sima. The county magistrate and others will also be here soon. I have something important to do."
"I understand your humble position. Your Highness, please come with me!"
Xu Zhiyuan invited Yang Yuanqing into the county government meeting hall. Chang Shi and Sima came to see Yang Yuanqing. Soon the county magistrate and county magistrate also arrived at the county government office.
Huining County has a small population, but it has a lot of officials. It feels a bit like a small sparrow with all the internal organs. However, compared to the big counties in Hedong, the officials here are obviously much shabby.
In Hedong, frugality was advocated, and officials deliberately wore official uniforms made of fine linen, but their faces were all red and white and fat. However, officials in Huining County had to wear linen official robes, and most of them looked pale.
Well, his face was dark and he looked very thin, like a desert mummy that had been gradually losing moisture due to the heavy wind and sand.
More than a dozen local officials gathered together, each with a rather nervous expression. After all, it was the Lord of the Sui Dynasty who was meeting with low-level officials like them, and they were still officials of the Tang Dynasty.
Yang Yuanqing was sitting in the main seat. He felt everyone's nervousness, so he waved his hands and said with a smile: "Everyone, be more natural. You are already an official in Huining County, where else can I demote you?"
The implication was that they were already serving as officials in the worst possible place, so they should have nothing to fear. This cold joke brought a bitter smile to everyone's faces.
Yang Yuanqing said to Xu Zhiyuan again: "Xu Taishou first talks about the population and food situation in the county."
Xu Zhiyuan stood up and said: "I will report to His Highness first. Huining County currently has a population of 5,000 households and about 30,000 people. Most of them live by the Yellow River. The land here is barren, the yield is not high, and the food output is barely enough to make a living.
, but the geographical location of this county is relatively important. There is an endless flow of businessmen from Hexi and the Western Regions. Many people in the county make a living by business."
There were only more than 30,000 people. Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and asked: "How many young men are there? I mean men over 16 years old and under 50 years old."
Changshi stood up and saluted: "Let me answer this question. I just made statistics two months ago and found that there are about 9,500 people in Qingdao and Qingdao."
This number made Yang Yuanqing slightly disappointed, so he told the officials present his plan, "I have decided to go all out to mine the copper and silver mines in the Longbao Mountains, but there are not enough miners, so I plan to recruit miners in Huining County. Everyone
Let’s take a look, how many people can we recruit at most?”
The officials looked at each other. It turned out that they wanted to recruit miners. It was not easy to recruit people for this kind of hard work. Everyone knew it, but no one said anything.
Yang Yuanqing saw that everyone was looking embarrassed and no one was willing to speak, so he smiled and said: "Everyone, feel free to speak freely and tell us where the difficulties are? Don't have any worries."
The county magistrate Han Jin stood up and cupped his hands and said: "Your Highness, I would like to say a few words because of my humble position!"
"Just tell me, Magistrate Han, don't worry."
"To be honest with you, Your Highness, we have nothing to worry about. It's just that things are a bit difficult to handle. It's mainly related to the folk customs here. There are three strange things in Huining County. One is selling fruits as food. They say that the fruit and melon production here is large, but the food production is small.
The second is that taking a boat is faster than riding a horse. This is mainly due to the convenience of taking a boat. Riding a horse requires renting horses, which is very expensive. If you are visiting distant households, everyone is willing to take a boat. The third strange thing is that men are housekeepers, and women are housekeepers.
Outside, it means that the men in Huining County are more homesick and like to stick to their hometown and are unwilling to travel far away. In fact, to put it another way, it means that the men here are lazy and like to rely on women."
Magistrate Han said a lot, but Yang Yuanqing didn't understand what he meant, "What does Magistrate Han mean?"
Magistrate Han gave a wry smile and said: "The humble position means that it is not easy to recruit miners. In fact, the key depends on the price His Highness offers."
Yang Yuanqing pondered for a while and said: "I need 20,000 miners, 10,000 of whom I can use as prisoners of war, and the other 10,000 will be recruited from the local area, so I plan to recruit 10,000 young men as miners at a high price. As for the wages, and the red iron
It’s the same as a mine, each miner recruited is seven dou of rice and ten ounces of money per month.”
After Yang Yuanqing finished speaking, Prefect Xu Zhiyuan laughed first, "If His Highness is willing to offer this price, then I guarantee that not only people from Huining County will sign up enthusiastically, but people from Pingliang County will also be attracted to come. Ten ounces of money is a high salary here.
Working as a waiter for a businessman only costs five ounces per month, and there is no food, but His Highness is offering a high price!" I was in the front row.