"I invite everyone to come today to discuss the shortage of copper resources, and everyone can mention any ideas!" During the meal, the other two elders of Sheng Zihao rushed to the garden, and Zhao Ta said after they sat down.

"Second master, if we want to ensure the supply of copper, we'd better have our own mine dedicated to supplying workshops!" Zheng Lu thought for a while and said.

"Now several mines in the Great Song Dynasty have reached the maximum output, and most of the products have been given to our workshop, but it is a drop in the bucket, so we can only find new mines to increase production, and copper is related to the lifeblood of the country, and it will not be handed over to the private sector for the time being!" Zhao Ta shook his head and rejected his suggestion.

"Now the only way to stop the outflow of copper is to raise the price of copper!" Zheng Shou proposed again.

"How much more will the price be raised?" Zheng Fuxiao asked, "The materials sold by Fusang to our dynasty are mainly sulfur, wooden planks and gold, but the bronze tools made by Fusang are especially good at our country, but they are less copper. landed in the coastal states where there were no cities, and collected copper coins from the local people at high prices, returned to China for casting, and then sold them back to make a profit of ten times or a hundred times; Similarly, the trade gold and spices of the South Seas countries such as Jiaozhi and Java agreed to be exchanged for small flat money, and if the small flat money of their country was not allowed to come out, they would barter the goods for copper, and then barter for copper when they returned to the country, and the profit was ten times higher than that between the round trip! ”

"Yes, with such huge profits, it is useless for the copper price to rise a few points, and if it rises excessively, it will hurt ourselves and make the cost rise to an unbearable level!" Zheng Shou didn't need to be said by others now, he denied himself, he sighed and said, "The best way is to stop relying on copper casting cannons, so that we don't bother so much!" ”

"Huh?! The idea can be considered! Zhao Ta suddenly stretched out his hand to stop them from continuing, falling into deep thought. In later generations, many iron cannons were handed down to the world, and he chose copper cannons because of the ease of processing and success rate at first. But he forgot that iron can also cast cannons, so he walked into a dead end.

"What is the yield and quality of our iron now?" Zhao Ta thought for a moment and asked.

"Second master. Since you proposed to make coke from coal burning, the quality and yield of iron smelting have improved, and it is easier to make steel! Zheng Lu replied immediately.

"Okay, let the workshop use iron instead of copper to try to cast iron cannons!" Zhao Ta patted the table and said excitedly.

"The second master has a good idea, if we can successfully test the iron cannon, we will not be controlled by others because of the lack of copper, and the weight will drop a lot." Zheng Lu nodded, and everyone also felt that it was a good way to solve the problem fundamentally.

"Second master. Even if we replace copper cannons with iron cannons, we will need a lot of copper on bullets, guns, and gun carriages, which will only relieve the current tensions, which will still be in short supply in the long run. After being excited, Zheng Shou said with a wry smile, he thought of these again, copper is a necessity for making bullets, and it cannot be recycled after being fired, don't look at how much a bullet uses. However, the amount consumed was huge, and nearly 10 million rounds of ammunition were consumed in the Northern Expedition, which added up to a lot, and it was not a small amount. In the future, with the expansion of the potential, the consumption of bullets will only increase, not less.

"Dali has a lot of copper, I have asked the Ministry of Rites to negotiate with them for mining, once successful, our lack of copper can be fundamentally changed. You also have to recruit craftsmen and workers to get ready, and after reaching an agreement, go to Dali to mine! Zhao said.

"That's the best. Can Dali agree? Their king's words don't seem to count, and the minister of state is in charge! Zheng Lu said with some suspicion.

"Huh. When the second master can't get what he wants, let alone little Dali, even if the second master of Jin Guo wants to ask them, he has to give it obediently! Zheng Fu said with a smile.

"Of course, the second master has already given them face by discussing with them, if they don't know how to do it, the army will destroy their country in an instant, and it will be ours at that time!" Zheng Shou also followed suit, at this moment, they are no longer the time when there were three or two guns and one hundred and ten people, and they are a small caravan that looks at people everywhere.

"Hehe, you guys are really crow's mouths, the negotiations are really not going well now, and if you don't get it right, you have to fight again!" Zhao Ta listened to the three old men praising themselves, and grinned, "It will take time for things to come to fruition over there, and we can't let those speculators free up the copper of our Great Song Dynasty, we have to find a way to teach them a lesson." ”…

………

In two months, the trade winds will rise, and the various maritime merchants are busy preparing goods and loading ships to prepare for sailing, of course, the hard currency of copper coins has become a necessity for each family to prepare, but this year I heard that the emperor ordered a strict ban on going to sea, and violators will be heavily punished, but everyone does not care, I don't know how many emperors have said this kind of words, and in the end there is thunder and rain, and a few small shrimps are cut off.

Those big businessmen in the southeast, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are either financially strong, or they collude with the government, and if they catch it, they also spend some money to avoid disasters, and no one cares about it. According to the custom, they sent their men to collect copper coins, and now the country has replaced copper coins with Jiaozi and silver coins, and has stopped minting copper coins, so copper coins are becoming scarce day by day, and the price is rising, so they have to start earlier, but this time many of the people they sent returned empty-handed.

After careful inquiry, it turned out that a group of people had now bought copper coins at a price twice as high as the market price, which was three times higher than the official price. These big businessmen didn't care at first, they all thought it was just a gimmick, because at such a high price, the profit would drop a lot after receiving the copper coin, just to attract people to send the money over, and when there were more people, the price would be lowered, so they all calmed down and waited.

More than ten days have passed, not only did those people not stop, but more people participated, some hawkers did not hesitate to go to remote places where the news was closed to collect money at a high price, and then sell it to those people at a higher price, and even some people received the money and hoarded it, waiting for the price to rise again. Therefore, the black market price of copper coins has not only not fallen, but has a tendency to rise again. Seeing that the day of the arrival of the trade winds is getting closer and closer, the merchant ships are about to go to sea, and the ships are about to call at the port, but the hard currency has not yet arrived, they can't help but be anxious, but they still want to wait to see how much capital those who collect the money have.

But this time, the big merchants bet on the wrong treasure again, and the price of the copper coins increased by another two percent, and the wind quickly spread to the coastal state capitals, and some people exchanged their savings for famine. The big merchants could not sit still, and they began to suspect that the purpose of the high-priced collectors was not only to receive more money, but to monopolize the market, to eat the goods and overseas markets sold by the foreign merchants, and to cut off their financial routes.

After understanding the reason, these big businessmen couldn't sit still any longer, and joined forces to buy copper coins at a higher price, and at this time, the price of copper coins had doubled on the original basis, but at this time they had no way back, and they did not hesitate to pour all their resources. The result was still good, they still 'laughed' to the end, no one dared to compete with them anymore, copper coins continued to flow into their hands, and the copper coin acquisition war that lasted for two months ended in their victory.

The wool was also on the sheep, and after the fleet of the merchants docked, they suddenly found that their goods were worthless, and the merchants of the Song Dynasty who were holding a large number of copper coins in their hands collectively smashed the price, and they had to pay more if they wanted copper coins. Just when the merchants were dumbfounded, a savior appeared, and they used barter to trade with the merchants, but the price was naturally cheaper, and the desperate merchants could only cut the meat.

This time it was the turn of the Great Song Dynasty that the maritime merchants were dumbfounded, their money was pressed on copper coins, and naturally there was no surplus money to purchase goods, but they still refused to reduce the price, pinning their hopes on the smuggling road, they calculated that although the copper coins had risen five times, if they were trafficked to various feudal countries, they would still have two or three times the profits. Even reselling to those ships that evade tariffs and anchor at sea and do not enter the port is also profitable.

Just when the big businessmen retreated to the next best, news suddenly came that the navy and the state government patrols had stepped up the efforts to investigate the smuggling of copper coins. The original troops were all mobilized, and the inspections of the state capitals were replaced by the law enforcement teams of the forbidden army of the Suppression Division. When they wanted to smuggle through the inner line of the government, they found that this road was also impassable, and the imperial historians had already controlled it and sent it to Jingshi for questioning.

Bad news came one after another, it is said that the navy launched an encirclement and suppression of the smuggling ships moored outside the harbor, and all those who found the Great Song Dynasty copper coins on the ship were confiscated and the personnel were seized. Immediately afterwards, according to the clues, the governments began to track down the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty who participated in the smuggling, and many of them were arrested, ranging from confiscation of income to exile, and beheading.

Copper coins could not be traded, the market price began to fall rapidly, and the official exchange rate was also lowered. At this time, the government also issued a notice that since the copper coins have been withdrawn from circulation, the Jiaozi shops and cash cabinets will stop exchanging copper coins. At this moment, the houses and fields pawned and mortgaged by the big merchants are about to expire, and no one is willing to take over the large number of copper coins that can be purchased when the market price drops. There is only one way for me to go, and that is to give the copper coins to the official family at the moment when the government stops exchanging them!

The big businessmen wanted to cry without tears, and they were on the verge of bankruptcy, and after thinking about it, they realized that they had been calculated, but even if they knew that they had cheated their people, they were powerless to retaliate. Because there was only one person in the Great Song Dynasty who could have such a large financial resource to purchase copper coins, instruct caravans to exchange a large number of goods with the merchants, mobilize the army to investigate smuggling, and use the imperial history to remove moths from the official palace, the emperor!

The great merchants respected and hated the emperor, and this operation did not only require financial resources and power, but also needed to be proficient in the doorway, and to have a careful mind and grasp of the situation and timing, and any mistake in any part of the action would lead to failure and suffer huge losses, which made them have to admire the emperor's business acumen. Hateful and hateful, the emperor let them go at the last moment and did not kill them all, and bought the copper coins in their hands, although they suffered huge losses, but saved them from going bankrupt and losing their money... (To be continued......)