Liu De stood beside the grass house, breathing deeply in the fresh air of the morning, wearing a white filial piety suit, which made him look very conspicuous at the foot of the mountain.

In the distance, the people living here have already begun a day's work.

At this time, Yiyang's corn has entered the sprint to the last month of harvest.

"How many five-baht coins have been minted by the coin mill so far?" Liu De asked Zhang Tang, who was standing next to him.

"Your Highness, at present, twenty-one million coins have been minted in the workshop, and according to your orders, the minister has locked them all in the secret room of the Shaofu......" Zhang Tang bowed and replied, after thinking about it, he reported again: "It's just that Your Highness, there is not much copper, and the remaining copper is only enough to mint another eight million coins at most......

"That's it......" Liu De rubbed his temples, this problem is indeed difficult to handle.

Compared with the more than 20 billion coins in circulation on the market, the new five-baht coins of less than 30 million are sprinkled into the market, let alone the nationwide currency market, and even the currency market in the relationship, it can't be pryed, just like a drop of water, dripping into the ocean, and it will disappear without a trace in an instant.

However, copper is a precious metal at this time, and it is very difficult for Liu De to get copper.

In particular, the time of guarding the soul in Yiyang in the past few days allowed Liu De to have time and a complete and systematic way to read all kinds of engineering works hidden in Shiqu Pavilion and Shaofu and the archives that recorded the craftsmen smelting ore and mining ore.

A look through these books and archives.

Liu De knew something that he used to think was very simple, but it was actually very difficult - the mining of copper ore.

In the documentation of Shaofu. Liu De read a lot of miners' quarrying records.

In the metal smelting books of the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty preserved in the Shiqu Pavilion, Liu De saw the records of ore refining and smelting.

These things add up to sue Liu De. In this era, whether it is mining or smelting, it is a race against time, a test of endurance and even luck.

Otherwise, most of the hard work may end up with nothing.

For example. Liu De often saw the record in the documents of Shaofu, 'so-and-so cut wages for one day, burn mountains for two days, and get 300 catties of copper and stone'.

After Liu De sought advice from the officials of the Shaofu. Found in this era, mining, even open-pit mining of copper ore. It's not like he'd wielded a hoe and a pickaxe as he had imagined. It's as simple as digging out the ore.

In fact, until now, there has not been a tool that can be sharp and strong enough to chisel through thousands or even tens of thousands of catties of ore.

In this era, there were no explosives.

There is only one way to conquer those fortified mines - to burn the mountains.

Using the principle of thermal expansion and cold contraction, the rock wall is baked with firewood for two or three days, and after the rock wall is cooled, the ore will naturally peel off under the rules of physics.

And that's just mining the ore from the open pit.

If the veins are buried deep in the ground, they have to be filled with human lives.

A miner who works in a mine can only live for a maximum of thirty years......

For example, the copper green mountain veins of the Chu State in the Spring and Autumn Period. Countless miners died in the mines.

Liu De now understands. Why is there more than 300,000 people working on the two big copper mountains in Yuzhang County?

Without so many people mining non-stop all year round, how can they meet the needs of Wu Wang Liu Bi for minting and trading?

Even, it can be said that the luxurious life of the nobles of Wu and the comfort of the people were built on the blood and tears of hundreds of thousands of miners.

Wu Wang Liu Bi has been founding the country for decades, and it has been almost 30 years since the two big copper mountains in Yuzhang were mined.

Liu De even thought of a very critical question.

In the previous life, Liu Bi, the king of Wu, was defeated, and the wolf fled back to Wu, but few of the people of Wu were really willing to die for him, so Liu Bi went into exile in Minyue, was killed by Minyue, and his head was sent to Chang'an.

If Liu Bi really showed favors to the people of Wu and exempted him from military service, how could this be the case?

You must know that after Xiang Yu's death, the people in the whole south who missed Xiang Yu did not know how many, and the resistance to the Han family was still sporadic until the establishment of the Han Dynasty.

If Liu Bi really loves the people like a son, it will definitely not end like that!

Liu De knew that he had found the answer to Liu Bi's question.

The two big copper mountains in Yuzhang, if they want to maintain the scale of mining and maintain Liu Bi's dominant position in the world's coinage business, they must have a steady stream of supplementary miners.

Because, in the records of Shaofu, it is very detailed that a miner can only work in the mine until he is at most thirty years old, and then all kinds of diseases and diseases will appear, taking the life of the miner.

Once other mining disasters and landslides occur, they will immediately swallow up the lives of miners.

Therefore, the mines of the Han royal family used all the miners were relatives of criminals, sons-in-law and convicts.

These people will die when they die, and the court will not be distressed.

But Liu Bi's two big copper mountains, just miners, need at least 100,000 or 200,000.

Liu Bi's Wu State is only three counties and fifty-three cities, and it really wants to be like the imperial court, relying on the relatives of prisoners, sons-in-law and convicts, where does he go to find so many criminals?

And if the stability is stable today, the homeless people are almost extinct, and it is impossible for Liu Bi to recruit so many homeless people to work for him as he did at the beginning of the founding of the country.

Then, there are only two roads left for Liu Bi.

One is to learn from the British Empire in later generations, send troops, attack Mitsukoshi, and capture enough miners for his mines.

The second is ...... Tap the domestic demand and send the people under his rule to the mines.

Mitsukoshi is now Liu Bi's younger brother and follower, how could Liu Bi attack them?

Thinking so, Liu De shook his head, Liu De had already experienced the shamelessness and brutality of politicians, but when he understood the true cruelty under Wu Guomei's lies, he was still a little shocked.

"Liu Bi has been mining Yuzhang Copper Mountain for decades, from the beginning to the present, how many miners have died in the copper mountain?" Liu De knows that this is a question that will never be answered.

"Hedong County's million-jin steel plan must be reduced, change to 100,000 catties a year......" Liu De thought in his heart, this is no way, Liu De can't be like Liu Bi, for his own selfish desires or something else, pushing hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people into the fire pit.

If he wants to realize his grand plan in the past, he must solve the problem of ore mining technology, at the very least, it can no longer be as inefficient and time-consuming as it is now, and it will have to be filled with human lives.

At this time, Wang Dao came over to report: "Your Highness, the King of Changshan and the King of Hejian are here, do you want to go over to greet you?" ”

Liu De nodded when he heard this, and said to Zhang Tang: "Come along......

Then, he walked out of the grass house with Zhang Tang. (To be continued......)

PS: Today is definitely 4 more, 8000 words a day~