Chapter 89—The Evil Slave Trade (Part II)

Lingzhou is not a populous state, with six counties and 18 towns, with a population of more than 150,000, but most of the people in Lingzhou have their own fields, and most of them are old, weak, women and children, and no one is willing to do this dirty and tiring work.

Li Daozhen took Chen Ying's saber and took over these industries in the name of Chen Ying, and the salt farm was easy to say, after all, there were more than 2,000 slaves and more than 1,000 craftsmen, which could ensure a daily output of 1,000 stones.

In fact, this is far from the limit of the four salt mines in Lingzhou, if the manpower is sufficient, the Lingzhou salt mine will adopt the method of boiling salt from coal, and there will be no problem in expanding the production capacity by three or five times.

The key is that Li Daozhen does not have a person, of course, this person is not a talent, Li Daozhen has the identity of the county lord of Baicheng County, the Li family of Longyou, and she has hundreds of careful craftsmen from the Li family, and successfully restored production of fourteen large and small coal mines and four salt works.

Nowadays, whether it is coal or salt, as long as it is produced, it is money. Seeing that due to the shortage of manpower, the scale of production could not be expanded, and Li Daozhen was in a hurry. Now she has a big belly, a little nostalgic, and her energy is not as good as before, if she can't solve this problem in time, it will be even more troublesome in the future.

Li Daozhen was very energetic at this time, she didn't plan to ask Chen Ying what name she wanted, she just wanted to give birth to the child and raise her to adulthood peacefully. Whether it is a coal mine or a salt factory, these are the foundations laid by Chen Ying, which were temporarily interrupted by Li Daozong, as long as there are enough manpower, it is not too difficult to resume production.

Li Daozhen also thought about using the resources left by Chen Ying in Lingzhou to buy a gratifying foundation for the children born in the future.

Li Daozhen actually aimed at the three blast furnaces built by Chen Ying, it is said that these blast furnaces can produce 10,000 catties of steel per day when using coke to make steel, and the three blast furnaces can produce no less than 10 million catties of steel per year.

In fact, the production capacity of such small steel mills is very limited, with an annual output of more than 5,000 tons. That's all, a steel mill of this scale in later generations was just a workshop-style steel mill. However, in this era, this efficiency is amazingly high, and Li Daozhen was shocked into a cold sweat at that time. Although Li Daozhen is a woman, she also knows the important role of steel for the Tang Dynasty, Chen Ying's iron and steel mine is the lifeblood of the imperial court, with the identity of the daughter of the Li Tang clan, no matter who becomes the emperor in the future, if you want to take this steel factory for nothing, you will never change it if you don't give it to a duke.

The skilled workers of the steel plant, this is easy to say, because the relationship with Chen Ying is there, as long as he speaks, Chen Ying will not refuse, but ordinary craftsmen have a headache. A lot of work in a steel mill, such as crushing ore, adding ore to the furnace, adding coke.

Each furnace can smelt 10,000 catties of molten steel, which requires about 16,000 catties of iron ore and nearly 8,000 catties of coke, which need to be added manually and consume a lot of manpower. Therefore, a good craftsman with a dozen apprentices and hundreds of slaves is enough to complete this task.

Lee Do-jung desperately hopes that the steel can be put into production, because only in this way can she use the steel to obtain the maximum benefit for her future children.

Li Daozhen sat in the warm pavilion, sewing the clothes very carefully, although Li Daozhen had never touched the female red before, but for the children born in the future, they could wear their own sewn clothes, so Li Daozhen picked up the needle and thread, her hands that have been dancing with knives and guns since she can remember, picking up the needle and thread, undoubtedly like Zhang Fei's embroidery, every inch of the small coat is stained with mottled blood.

Seeing that Li Daozhen was stabbed again, Xiao Tao said distressedly: "Lady, let me come, right?" ”

"No!" Li Daozhen said stubbornly: "I still don't believe it, can this little thing still be difficult for me?" Today I must learn how to sew clothes. ”

Xiao Tao sighed helplessly.

Lee Do-jung has changed a lot since she became pregnant. In the past, she didn't care about money, and she always spent money as she wanted, but now, Li Daozhen seems to be in the eyes of money.

As long as it is Chen Ying's things, she wants them. Even Guo Zhun's tinplate workshop, she insisted on a third component. However, Chen Ying's prestige in Lingzhou is too high, although Li Daozhen is flying and domineering, but Lingzhou really has no one who refuses Li Daozhen, not because of anything else, because Chen Ying has the grace of life for Lingzhou people, and has the feeling of recreation, in this era of advocating virtue to repay virtue, Li Daozhen is enjoying Chen Ying's connections and resources.

When the ten fingers were pierced once, Song Wu's sister-in-law took Yu Guni to the warm pavilion, Xiao Tao finally breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed a bunch of small clothes, and said to the needle girl next to her: "Give you half an hour to sew all these small clothes!" ”

Yu Guni bowed to Li Daozhen and said, "Meet the county lord, respected county lord, may I ask you to announce your servant coming, what is the matter?" ”

Li Daozhen said: "The county lord wants people, many people. ”

Yu Guni stared at Li Daozhen with big eyes, his eyes were full of puzzlement: "I don't know what kind of person the county lord wants?" ”

"Prisoners of war, or slaves!" Li Daozhen said: "The Turkic captured Sui people, Qiang people, or Rite people, no matter what kind of people you are. ”

Yu Guni shook his head and said: "The weather is cold now, you can't use soldiers, the county lord wants people, and it needs to be after the beginning of spring next year at the earliest." ”

At this time, Yu Shot's department can be described as strong and strong, with more than 10,000 cavalry, and well-equipped, most of these cavalry have followed Chen Ying to fight the Turks, beat Liu Wuzhou, and are also considered to have rich combat experience, if Yu Guni wants to enter the Turkic sweat tent alone, he will definitely not dare. But dealing with the small tribes scattered in the Hetao area, Yu Guni did not have a little psychological burden.

"The county lord won't let you work in vain!" Li Daozhen paused and said: "No matter what method you take from the county lord, you give the county lord a strong man, and I will give you 10,000 yuan, or property of the same value." ”

A green light appeared in Yu Guni's eyes: "What about the woman?" ”

"Half the woman, only five thousand dollars!" Li Daozhen's purpose in taking prisoners of war was to restore the life of the steel mill, and the use of women was not as great as that of a strong man.

Hearing this, Yu Guni's heart moved.

If Li Daozhen wants free slaves, although Yu Guni will not refuse Li Daozhen, at least he will use some reasons or dozens or hundreds of slaves to prevaricate Li Daozhen, but Li Daozhen buys it with real money, it will be different. 10,000 yuan is not a small amount, you can buy a hundred stone of grain, you can buy a few orchids......

At this time, Yu Shot set up a department in the Hetao area, which is backed by the Tang Dynasty, and exists like an invincible person, and he can get millions or tens of millions of money by going out casually.

Li Daozhen and Yu Guni hit it off, the two joined forces to start the slave trade, Li Daozhen paid the money, and Yu Guni went out to rob someone, the first attack, Yu Guni successfully ambushed a tribe of Baimaqiang, Yu Guni shot cleanly, and brought more than 500 young men and women of the Baimaqiang Department to Lingzhou, Li Daozhen was not ambiguous, and gave Yu Guni five million money at that time, Li Daozhen naturally did not have these money, but Li Daozhen gave Yu Guni 1,500 stone salt, and Yu Guni was overjoyed.

If in the Central Plains, the price of salt is equivalent to about 30 yuan per catty, and more than 300 catties of salt is almost 10,000 yuan, but this is only the price of salt in the Central Plains, but in the grassland, two buckets of salt can be exchanged for a cow. More than 300 catties of salt can be exchanged for fifteen cows, and the windfall profits in the middle will come faster to rob the bank.

After the initial sweetness, Yu Guni has been out of control since then.

In November of the second year of Wude alone, Yu Guni sent his subordinates to take the initiative five times, braved the severe cold, and obtained nearly 3,000 war slaves and nearly 4,000 women.

Pei Ju stayed in Lingzhou for more than half a month, and through open investigation and secret visits, he finally figured out Li Daozhen's current general strength. Li Daozhen not only took over the fourteen coal mines, four salt works, and a steel mill developed by Chen Ying when he was in Lingzhou.

In particular, the steel mill in Bronze Canyon has three blast furnaces, each of which can produce more than 10,000 catties of steel in 12 hours.

10 million catties of iron, although the amount is not small, will not make Pei Ju lose his temper, but 10 million catties of steel, has made Pei Ju feel unbelievable, after repeated confirmation, Pei Ju found that Li Daozhen out of 12 furnaces of molten steel in five days.

At this time, Pei Ju had a piece of crude steel billet in front of him, a steel billet glowing with blue light, and with a flick of his fingers, it made a steel sound like a dragon's roar.

Although Pei Ju didn't know how to make steel, he also knew that this was an excellent piece of steel in front of him.

Pei Ju said with an extremely excited expression: "It's really good steel." ”

Then Pei Ju's face sank, and he quickly picked up the pen. Li Daozong and Li Shimin are very close, and now Li Daozong's sister has mastered the fourteen coal mines, four salt farms, and a steel mill with a daily output of 30,000 catties of steel, which can create tens of thousands of profits every day, Pei Ju thought silently: "As long as Li Jiancheng's approval is obtained, he will snatch these things back at all costs!" ”