Jiangxia County is also an important copper and iron ore area of the Sui Dynasty, that is, the famous mining area Daye in later generations, the iron ore in this area is shallow and easy to mine, it was originally an official monopoly, after Yang Guang ascended the throne, the demand for copper and iron increased greatly, and the law was relaxed, allowing private individuals to participate in mineral mining after paying money to the official, but the blister copper and pig iron mined must be sold to the official, for this reason, the mines around the country sent mine supervisors. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After the decree was announced, whether it was the mines in Liyang County or the mines in Jiangxia County, the wealthy families began to participate in the mining, and the Bohai Society also bought a mine in Jiangxia County, mainly producing iron, and sold it to the government in strict accordance with the regulations in the first few years, but with the decline of the officials, the mine supervisors and the mine owners colluded, and a large amount of pig iron began to flow into the people to seek greater benefits.

The Bohai Society's motives for buying the mines were not pure in themselves, and they took advantage of the lax regulation to buy government mines at low prices, and began to expand rapidly, becoming the largest iron ore and iron-making mill in Jiangxia County, and they exported pig iron to Hebei on a large scale, which effectively promoted the birth of the 30,000 Bohai Navy.

Now, the Bohai Society has disappeared, as the remnants of the Bohai Society, Gao Hui holds most of the assets of the Bohai Society, and the largest iron ore mine in Jiangxia County, as the largest industry in her hands, has become her bargaining capital with the Tang Dynasty.

Two days later, an army of more than 10,000 people was killed in Wulong Mountain, and the leader was Xiao Miao's henchman Lei Shimeng, who was named the King of Qin and the General of Longwu after Xiao Miao's accession to the throne, commanding 20,000 elite soldiers.

There are many mines in the area of Wulong Mountain, more than 20 mines of all sizes, but there is only one mine with a smelting workshop, which is the Baishui Mine of Bohai Society, which is also the largest mine in Wulong Mountain and even Jiangxia County, the mine occupies one of the largest ore veins, when the army arrives at the mine, more than 3,000 miners are tinkling ore mining on the mountain, and there are several large stone houses at the foot of the mountain with white smoke, where is the pig iron smelting factory, close to Baishui, a tributary of the Han River, and a large amount of pig iron and blister copper are on the ship from there, It can be transported directly to Sangaro-gun through Hanshui.

The reason why Xiao Mo decided to eradicate this ore was not just a vote for Zhang Xuan, but also he was afraid that Li Tang's forces would enter Jingzhou through this mine first, and if there was an army of thousands of people hidden in the mine, he would not be able to detect it at all.

When 10,000 troops arrived at the mine, the chief steward of the mine hurriedly greeted him, bowed down and saluted: "May I ask what is the matter with the military masters?" ”

Lei Shi suddenly saw that he didn't know him, and he was even more annoyed in his heart, and said coldly: "Search for deserters and order all the miners to gather!" ”

The chief steward hurriedly took out an ingot of ten taels of gold and stuffed it to Lei Shimeng, "This is a little meaning, the military master is going to drink a glass of water and wine!" ”

Lei Shi was furious, knocked the chief steward to the ground with a slap, pulled out a knife and pointed at him and shouted angrily: "If you dare to fart Lao Tzu again, Lao Tzu will kill you with a knife!" ”

The chief steward was so frightened that he shouted, "Let the miners gather!" ”

After a short time, thousands of miners were gathered, Lei Shi waved his hand, tens of thousands of soldiers surrounded them, and the miners began to panic, I don't know what happened?

Lei Shimeng stood on a high place and shouted: "Don't be afraid, we are chasing the deserters, and everyone will pass the level one by one!" ”

Lei Shimeng whispered to the deputy general Li Wuzhen: "If these miners are locals, they will be let go and disbanded, and if they are Guanlong, they will be arrested, and in addition, the iron-smelting craftsmen will stay and be appeased." ”

"Are the miners going to be disbanded?"

"Exactly! Tell them clearly that the mine will be destroyed, and if they dare to work in the mine again, they will be killed! ”

"I understand it, so I'll arrange it!"

Li Wuzhen then took 5,000 soldiers to take thousands of miners to an open area several miles away for screening, and Lei Shimeng was waiting for him to take the people away to prevent thousands of miners from being coerced by the stewards and causing unnecessary casualties to the army.

When the miners walked away, Lei Shimeng pointed at a dozen stewards with his sword, "Catch me and cut it down!" ”

The soldiers pounced like wolves and tigers, knocking down more than a dozen stewards, the stewards were so frightened that they couldn't possess their bodies, shouting for mercy, Lei Shimeng stepped forward and squatted in front of them: "To tell you the truth, you are loyal to the Bohai Society, so damn it!" ”

The stewards' faces suddenly turned pale one by one, and Lei Shi waved his hand violently, "Drag it down and slaughter it!" ”

The soldiers carried down a dozen stewards like sheep, "Spare your life! Spare your life! ”

The voice faded away, and after a while, it disappeared silently, and after a while, the soldier stepped forward and reported: "General Qiyu, kill them all!" ”

"Good! Destroy the mines, destroy the smelters, confiscate all the belongings and pig iron and blister copper! ”

An hour later, the Baishui mine was completely destroyed by the army, the army set a standard, the veins were strictly forbidden to be mined, violators were killed, all the miners were disbanded, hundreds of smelting craftsmen were brought back to Jiangling, and hundreds of thousands of catties of pig iron and blister copper ready to be transported to Chang'an became the trophies of the Liang army.

At the same time that the Liang army destroyed the smelting stone house, in a wooden house on the opposite mountain, two Tang army stewards witnessed the scene of Liang army's violence, the two of them were sent by Li Jiancheng to pick up pig iron, because they did not live with the Bohai people and survived, facing the smoke of the mine, the two immediately sent a pigeon letter in the direction of Chang'an.

.........

In the Wude Palace, dozens of important ministers gathered together, and everyone looked attentive and listened to the progress of pig iron introduced by the crown prince Li Jiancheng.

"This month, we collected pig iron from temples, Taoist temples and people, and obtained a total of 2.4 million catties of pig iron and 800,000 catties of copper, which can basically meet the weapons and equipment needs of the 130,000 new army.

"May I ask His Royal Highness the Prince, how is the mine progressing?" Tang Jian, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, asked.

"We have found the iron mine in Pingqiang County, Meishan County, but the vein is located under the rock, which is not easy to mine, and produces up to one million catties of iron every year, which is far from meeting the needs of the army and people's livelihood.

"Is there an associated copper mine?"

Li Jiancheng shook his head, "Basically, no." ”

Everyone was silent, collecting pig iron and copper from the people, which was just eating the old books of the previous dynasty, especially not for a long time, at most once or twice, otherwise it would easily provoke a popular uprising.

At this time, Li Yuan said slowly: "The reason why I decided to convene a court meeting specifically for copper and iron again is because this issue is very important, and it is imminent, without copper and iron, there is no empire, if we do not have a stable supply of copper and iron, we will not be able to build weapons, we will not be able to mint copper coins, and our dynasty will not be able to last, so although we have discussed this problem twice, if we can't come up with a reasonable solution, then the crisis will always exist and become more and more intense, Until our dynasty can't support it, I hope you Aiqing can see the seriousness of this matter clearly. ”

"Your Majesty is right."

Xiangguo Chen Shuda said: "We must come up with an effective solution, and we cannot delay it indefinitely. ”

Everyone expressed their attitudes one after another, and they could all understand the seriousness of the situation, Li Yuan nodded, and Li Jiancheng said: "The emperor continues." ”

Li Jiancheng continued: "To solve the problem of copper and iron is nothing more than to find mines, large-scale mining and smelting, since November last year, the Ministry of Industry has sent capable officials to Guanlong, Bashu to find ore veins, this is to solve from the inside, but this is very time-consuming, and sometimes find iron ore, but because of difficult transportation and can not be transported out, so in the internal search for ore veins at the same time, we also seek external resources, at present, there are four famous iron ore areas in the world, one is the iron ore area of Liyang County, one is the iron ore area of Jiangxia County, An iron ore mining area in Beiping County, I heard that Zhang Xuan also began to smelt iron ore in Liaodong, and the four major iron ore mining areas of the Northern Sui Dynasty accounted for three of them, and now there is only one Jiangxia County iron ore mining area, which is occupied by Xiao Milling. ”

At this time, Pei Lin asked: "Wei Chen remembers that His Royal Highness once said that Bohai will have a large iron mine in Jiangxia County, with convenient transportation, and Gao Hui is willing to supply all the iron and blister copper produced to our Datang, is there any progress in this matter now?" ”

Li Jiancheng sighed softly, "This matter has already been negotiated, and we have great hopes, but yesterday I received a pigeon letter from Jiangxia County, and this iron mine has been completely destroyed by Xiao Miao's army. ”

There was an uproar in the main hall, and Dugu Huaien, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, said angrily: "Is this Xiao Mo challenging us?" ”

"Now I don't know the specific reason, I don't know if Xiao Mo just destroyed the assets of the Bohai Society at Zhang Xuan's request, or if it was aimed at our Datang, but I don't know if our secret deal with Gao Hui has been leaked?"

"Quiet!"

Li Yuan waved his hand, everyone quieted down, and Li Yuan said again: "Copper and iron are related to the survival of the empire, we must not be controlled by others, Jiangxia mining area is the treasure of the country, how can it be owned by a clown like Xiao Miao, I thought twice, and prepared to send troops to Jingxiang to seize the Jiangxia mining area." (To be continued.) )