The Western Army's frequent victory in the border should have been a very important matter for Asia, but the Oriental Military Government from top to bottom, from Chen Mu, Zhao Shizhen, and Zou Yuanbiao, did not stay in the county.

In the county, he was temporarily in charge of the Changsheng reserve system composed of the pro-army general Du Song, the infantry division general Shao Bianjiao, the cavalry general Hei Yunlong, the chieftain Bai Tao, and the patrol inspection Pei Huan, and the border guard system of the border chief officer Fu Yuan, the tour commander Lin Manjue, and the infantry Qianhu Lin Huer.

No matter which link in the middle of the Western Army has illegal actions, the more than 300 borrowed Western Army is more than 300 pieces of meat for this defense system.

It is not right to say that they do not pay attention to the Western Army, the soldiers who are far more than ten times more victorious are staring at them, and Zhu Xiaoen, the king of Ailan, who is the commander of the Restoration Army, is looking forward to trying his hand with the Western Army, and they all attach too much importance to it.

But Chen Mu and Zhixian Zou Yuanbiao are not always victorious, and they seem too contemptuous.

They were not in Changsheng at this time because there was more important things to do, and the immigrant expedition sent by Changsheng to the north in search of new land found iron sand, that is, there was a possibility of iron ore in the jurisdiction of Changsheng County.

Chen Mu wants to go crazy if he wants to go crazy about iron ore.

On the day when he received the news of the immigrants, the port prepared three ships for him, and immediately led 100 soldiers, including Zhao Shizhen, Zou Yuanbiao and more than 100 miners and mountain owners among the immigrants in the county, and the immigrants who sent the news to the expedition team went north by boat.

The place where the iron crushed sand was found was in a small town thousands of miles along the coast in the north of Changsheng Port, halfway between Changsheng and Jiexian County, and four hundred miles to the north is Puerto Vallarta, where Lin Huer led the wounded soldiers to rest for a short time.

After seven days and seven nights of sailing, two gunboats and a fortune boat docked, and the immigrants who were the guides introduced to Zhao Shizhen and others: "This is a natural harbor, we sailed along the coast and got off the ship here, and after going ashore, we found that there was a Xiyi military village here in the past, but it has been abandoned for a long time. ”

"The tribe here says this place is called Manzanillo by Xiyi."

Chen Mu had just gotten off the boat, stepped on the white sand beach, and Zhao Shizhen, Zou Yuanbiao and others looked around at the surrounding beaches that were depressed compared to Changsheng Port, and paused when he heard the words and asked, "Apples?" ”

Manzani is the meaning of apple in Spanish, but the word apple in the Ming Dynasty has just begun to be called, in the past it was called Pinguo, in the Han Dynasty it was called 'Nai', planted in Hexi, in the Ming Dynasty people thought that the apple in the land of Yan Zhao was better, and the name was slowly changing.

The immigrant nodded: "Yes, the Westerners grow a lot of apples here to make wine, and there are also workshops for making cider in the aboriginal villages, and it is said that sailors often drink cider to avoid illness at sea." ”

Scurvy.

Chen Mu followed the hand raised by the immigrant and looked into the distance, but he was obscured by the jungle and did not see the apple manor that the immigrant said, but he agreed in his heart that cider could cure diseases.

I heard Zhao Shizhen say: "The books I got in Panama mentioned that Magellan of Luzon had sailed for the Spaniards, and his fleet had a terrible disease at sea, with bleeding teeth, swollen legs, and rotten flesh, and tried all the methods that could be used. ”

Others have things to do, and Zhao Shizhen's work is relatively easy, so that he has enough time to study all kinds of materials, making him the most knowledgeable and memorable in the military government, saying: "They suspect that they are entangled by the devil, and prayer is useless." ”

"Bloodletting, bathing with animal blood, eating sugar, exercising, it is suspected that the foul smell of the ship, the blood stains and the oil in the pot make them sick, and some people eat mice, because mice can be alive and kicking on the boat, and they were once extremely sought-after, and a mouse can be sold for a high price of two taels of silver on the ship."

"I see it as the retribution for their wickedness." Zhao Shizhen pouted: "Otherwise, why would we be fine?" ”

"Because we drink tea, eat kimchi, and sometimes we grow vegetables on the boat." Chen Mu smiled, waved his hand and said: "Fruit wine and Yimu fruit will also be a good choice in the future, Magellan has passed, and now it is our turn on the sea, maybe the future world history will say that in the year of Longwan, the Ming Dynasty discovered the Spaniards, and thus discovered the world - how far is the place where iron ore was discovered from here?" ”

The flag army had dragged the war horse off the ship, and when they saw the ship docking, the immigrants who taught the natives to cultivate in the distance had already walked towards this side with the aborigines, and they pointed out the direction for Chen Mu, and the people rode or walked towards the creek where the iron ore was found.

It seems that the veins are not far from the coast, and it is not far east along the river that the expedition team found iron sand, which is said to have been discovered by the young men of the expedition from Pingxiang, the port where they docked, to the east in search of suitable land for planting.

Although it was less than twenty miles away, there were no proper roads, and the group stopped and stopped, and when they arrived at the area, it was nearly dusk, and the progress of the expedition was very slow.

It was a small group of no more than forty of the three thousand, and the creek was called the Wet Foot River, and the people set up tents along the river, mostly able-bodied young men, hastily cultivating a few acres of land around the camp, and their main source of food was rations unloaded from the boats and hunting.

Along the way, the people were extremely tired, and the banner army was busy setting up camp and putting the rice and grain they carried into the pot, but the experienced potters and blacksmiths who accompanied them were full of energy, and they shook their heads as they looked at the blast furnace hastily set up by the expedition.

Because there are no professional craftsmen, the expedition team took the iron sand and iron soil collected hard and put it in the furnace to decoction, not to mention the less slag of the iron at a time, and the furnace was also small, and the raw iron was only more than ten catties when smelted into a furnace, so the kiln would be destroyed and could not be used again, and it was necessary to rebuild, which was labor-intensive and time-consuming.

But Chen Mu really saw iron, and his expedition team used stupid methods to temper raw iron ingots, and made more than 100 catties of pig iron during the time they came, so it is needless to say what happened next.

No one wants to find iron ore in Asia more than Chen Mu, and no one wants iron ore to appear on the land under their jurisdiction more than Zou Yuanbiao, and the two hit it off.

In the next few days, Chen Mu's personal soldiers left a general banner to garrison Pingxiang Port and explore the surrounding terrain map; Prospectors traveled up the river to find out where the veins were, and Zou Yuanbiao's aboriginal deputy from the White Horse Department was appointed governor of Pingxiang on the spot, and his first task was to recruit the natives to build roads and trade with the surrounding tribes.

Chen Mu also made great efforts, not only left a general banner and hundreds of craftsmen, but he didn't bring anything with him, only 20 million Tongbao money.

Among them, 4 million Tongbao was directly used for this expedition of 40 people, as a reward for the discovery of iron ore, and ordered them to make a reward with the surrounding immigrant explorers and aboriginal tribes, and those who found iron ore and ore veins within a radius of 100 miles in the future will be rewarded with 200,000 Tongbao or equivalent goods each time.

In the following half a month, three expeditions within a radius of more than ten miles found traces of iron ore one after another, not only iron sand, but also ingots of iron, the more discoveries often mean that the iron ore veins are more huge, which made Chen Mu and his party extremely happy, and began to transfer people from Changsheng to this place.

This place is also named Pingxiang Iron Works.

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