"Mine Supervisor Zhou, what kind of voice is this?" Guo Song looked at the mine and asked.

"Envoy Qi, this is the explosion of fire and thunder, the ore is too hard, and it needs fire and thunder to blow it up."

Guo Song suddenly became interested and said with a smile: "Take a look!" ”

The crowd walked up to the mine, and the mine was far away full of miners, and they saw that above the mine, several soldiers were placing blasting mines.

The commander of the firearms battalion in charge of the mine blasting saw Guo Song, and hurriedly ran forward and knelt down on one knee to salute, "See the envoy for his humble duties!" ”

Guo Song had a vague impression of him, as if his surname was Zhuang, Guo Song nodded, "You are Captain Zhuang?" ”

"Despicable is exactly!"

"What's going on?"

Guo Song looked at the soldier who installed the fire mine and asked, "Didn't the explosion succeed just now?" ”

"Enlightening envoy, generally the installation of fire mines requires two explosions, one can only be slightly loosened, and the second time can the ore be exploded."

Guo Song nodded, he could understand that the power of this kind of porcelain bottle fire thunder was indeed not good, and he could only blow up wooden doors, mud walls, etc., and it would not work to open mines and blow up stones, and even blowing up twice could only loosen the ore a little.

At this time, there was a shout from above: "It's going to explode!" ”

More than a dozen soldiers galloped away, each hiding behind a rock.

"Boom!" There was another violent explosion, with porcelain pieces flying and smoke rising into the air.

In a moment, the miners below rushed forward, digging with iron pickaxes and smashing with hammers, and large swaths of ore tumbled down from above.

"How much ore can you get from blowing these two times?" Guo Song asked again.

The firearms battalion scout said: "Returning to the envoy, you can probably dig out tens of thousands of catties of ore, and when you are lucky, you can have more than 100,000 catties." ”

Guo Song frowned, "How much fire and thunder does it take?" ”

"So far, sixty-five pieces have been used, and it will be easier to mine next, and we will not use fire and thunder much, otherwise the consumption will be too great, and we will not be able to bear it."

Guo Song looked at it for a while, then turned around and went down the mountain, came to the warehouse, the first batch of pig iron has been smelted, and there are big black iron lumps piled up in the corner of the warehouse, there are probably hundreds, weighing about 10,000 catties, and blister copper is also available, four or five thousand catties, pig iron and blister copper will be directly transported to Zhangye to continue refining.

At this time, it was almost dark, Guo Song ended his inspection, turned on his horse, and left the mine with everyone and returned to Zhangye City.

..........

Two days later, on the official road south of Ganzhou, a carriage came and was accompanied by two horseback attendants, and in the carriage sat an old man with white hair, looking at the scenery on both sides with great interest.

Historically, Yan Zhenqing should have died in the hands of Li Xilie at this time, but under the persuasion of Guo Song, he retired the year before last and went home to retire, just avoiding last year's Jingyuan Mutiny.

His wife is a native of Pinggao County, Yuanzhou, he first hid in his wife's mother's house in Pinggao County for a while, and then went to Kongtong Mountain, and lived in Li Ganfeng's Taoist temple for a few months.

Yan Zhenqing also wants to go to Hexi to see what the unique Hexi is like?

At this time, the carriage slowed down, and there was a checkpoint in front of it, it seemed that there were businessmen passing through the checkpoint, and Yan Zhenqing's carriage could only pull over and wait.

"Your money is not right, the weight is too light, you have always had six catties and four taels, you can see for yourself, your consistent money is only more than five catties."

"What's wrong with this money, the Kaiyuan Tongbao engraved clearly on it, this is a small money, and this money is used in the Central Plains."

"Fart! I haven't heard of any small money here, or I will pay taxes with silver, and I will not collect this money! ”

"We came all the way to buy horses, and you Hexi Jiedu Mansion said that you encourage business, but you are being troubled here, is this encouraging business?"

"I haven't seen this money, I can't collect it, or you go elsewhere to pay taxes!"

Yan Zhenqing heard it clearly, so he got out of the carriage and walked over, only to see several merchants driving hundreds of horses, blushing and arguing with the tax collector next to the checkpoint.

"How can you not collect this money? We all use this money to buy horses, and now the silver is so expensive that it can't be exchanged at all, and we have already bought our horses, but we are not allowed to go out, so what should we do? ”

Yan Zhenqing picked up a copper coin, he presided over the Shaofu Temple coinage, a look at this money to know that it is wrong, not to mention that it is smaller than the normal copper coin, and the copper content is very low, the calligraphy on it is not right, it is not the official money cast in Chang'an, it should be private money, Yan Zhenqing squinted and looked carefully, and sure enough, there was a 'Wei' word on the edge of the money, which was a copper coin minted by Wei Bojiedu Mansion.

"This money is also common in Chang'an?" Yan Zhenqing asked.

The merchant nodded, "There is a lot of money in Chang'an, and everyone calls it small money." ”

"This kind of money can't be exchanged for silver!" Yan Zhenqing said again.

"Now there is no money to exchange, silver and gold have long disappeared from the market."

"Old man, you comment, I said that this money can't be used, right?" The tax collector asked Yan Zhenqing.

"This problem is more serious, I suggest that you report it to the top, maybe let the businessman go to the county to make up the tax, isn't it the county of Delete Dan in front? After walking more than 20 miles, it will not take much time. ”

Several businessmen suddenly became anxious, "I said that you old man, this money can be used all over the world, why can't Hexi use it?" ”

Yan Zhenqing said lightly: "I advise you to hurry up and get the money to pay your taxes!" If you continue to grind like this, hundreds of your horses will be gone. ”

Several businessmen knew that they didn't dare to entangle any longer, so they brought over a hemp bag and took out dozens of copper coins from it, which was the real Kaiyuan Tongbao, yellow and clear, with a high copper content. ”

The tax collector did not make any trouble this time, collected fifty yuan of tax money, issued tax stamps, and several merchants hurried away with hundreds of horses.

Yan Zhenqing said to the tax collector at this time: "I suggest that you quickly notify the Liangzhou side and detain these horses, there is a problem with the money they paid, and if you check it out, you will be blamed." ”

"The old man is saying that there is a problem with those little money?"

Yan Zhenqing nodded, "Those money are Wei money minted by Wei Bojiedu Mansion, the color is gray and white, it is inferior money, if they really use this kind of small money to buy horses, Hexi will lose a lot." ”

The tax collector was startled and hurriedly informed the soldiers guarding the checkpoint, and the soldiers guarding the checkpoint rode towards Koudan County, and only when the county government issued a seizure order would Liangzhou execute it.

Unless contraband or spies are found, the caravan cannot be seized at the checkpoint.

Yan Zhenqing's carriage continued to travel north, and at noon the next day, the carriage finally arrived in Zhangye City.

The inspection of entering the city is very strict, and it is not troublesome to get to Yan Zhenqing, he has a pass issued by Liangzhou, and the soldiers guarding the city did not embarrass him, and directly let them into the city.

As soon as you enter Zhangye City, a kind of prosperous and lively atmosphere will rush to your face, there are shouting sounds everywhere, and the bustling flow of people, the goods of each shop are dazzling, and the traders from all over the world are bargaining, and the cold side of Longyou has formed a world of difference.

Yan Zhenqing secretly praised that Guo Song was indeed very capable and managed Hexi in an orderly manner, and when he came all the way, he saw that the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, with prosperous business and abundant materials, and he did not see the wrong person, and the hope of the Tang Dynasty was indeed on him.

At this time, he saw that a sign next to him was crowded with people, most of them were illiterate, and an official was reading something aloud, but his carriage was a little far away, and he couldn't hear what the official was reading?

Yan Zhenqing said to his entourage: "You go and listen, what are you reading?" ”

The entourage passed, and came back after a short time and said: "Master, it seems that Hexi and Beiting recruited farmers, and each family will send three hectares of Yongye Field, and if it is a military household, it will send five hectares of Yongye Field, which will be tax-free for life." ”

This is a bit interesting, the Long March athletes recruited to Anxi during the Kaiyuan period only gave one hectare of land to each household, and Guo Song actually gave three hectares, and they were tax-free for life, which will definitely attract many people.

It also did not need the consent of the imperial court, and it was directly promulgated.

At this time, Yan Zhenqing's interest became even stronger, and he couldn't wait to have a good talk with Guo Song immediately, so he couldn't wait to walk around and see what else this guy was doing.

When the carriage arrived in front of the yamen of Jiedu Mansion, Yan Zhenqing suddenly saw an acquaintance, and hurriedly shouted: "Xiao Du!" ”

Xiao Du is Du Siye, he is Yan Zhenqing's named disciple, follow him to learn calligraphy, Du Siye just came out of the door, he heard a familiar voice, he followed the sound to look, suddenly saw Yan Zhenqing, immediately surprised and happy, ran forward and said: "Master, why are you here?" ”

"Huh! I'll come to Hexi to take a look, are you Guo Yuanjun here? ”

"The envoy is here, I'll go and report to the master!" He turned and ran towards the official office.