Iwami finally won it, but Mao Liyuan didn't feel a little ecstatic in his heart, he only felt as if his fate was out of his control.

Originally, he was full of expectations for the Iwami Silver Mine, but at this moment, he found that the Iwami Silver Mine seemed to have nothing to do with him, because he had already "sold" the mining rights and smelting rights of the silver mine to the Ming Ministry of Industry Shangshu, and he seemed to be waiting for others to give him the money.

As for tearing up the contract and turning his face with the Ming Ministry of Works, he really didn't dare, he had seen the firepower of the Ming army, not to mention anything else, just said that the 10,000 Ming troops who were still stationed with him in Iwami Country at this time, he, even if he united all the forces of the Ouchi clan, he couldn't do it, he definitely couldn't do it!

What else could he do in such a situation?

He can only wait honestly, waiting for the book of the Ming Ministry of Industry to give him the silver!

So, what does Gu Kexue, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty, think, will he give Maoli Yuan a share of silver according to the treaty?

To be honest, Gu Kexue didn't have any idea at this time, because he didn't know that Yang Cong was "swaggering" in Dongying under his banner!

On this day, he had just returned to the mansion after work, and before he had time to eat dinner, his subordinates suddenly came to report that Hou Zhitan, the housekeeper of the Hou Mansion of Hui'an, asked to see him.

Well, this is Hou Zhitan's real "official position", he is Yang Cong's housekeeper.

However, his identity as a housekeeper is not ordinary, because he is a playmate who has played with Yang Cong since he was a child, and the relationship with Yang Cong is simply like a family.

Gu Kexue naturally knew who Hou Zhitan was, and his relationship with Hou Zhitan was not ordinarily good, and when he heard that Hou Zhitan asked to see him, he didn't want to think about it, so he personally ran outside the gate of the mansion to welcome people in.

The two exchanged pleasantries all the way to the study, and Gu Kexue finally couldn't help asking: "Monkey, aren't you helping Master Taishi deal with daily affairs in Dongying, why did you suddenly run back?" ”

The monkey is not something that ordinary people dare to call, generally only the court officials above the third grade dare to call it so, and it has to be a court member on Yang Cong's side, and if he is an ordinary official, he has to be careful to call him "Hou Butler".

Hou Zhitan is not the kind of person who fights with people, he respectfully arched his hand and said: "The villain came to report the good news to Lord Gu on the order of Master Taishi. ”

Annunciation?

Where does this joy come from?

Gu Kexue said inexplicably: "Good news? What's the good news? ”

Hou Zhitan said honestly: "Master Gu, you have made a great contribution this time, Master Taishi has said that with this merit, it is enough for you to enter the cabinet and assist the government." ”

Yes!

Joining the cabinet and auxiliary government?

To be honest, Gu Kexue really didn't think about this kind of good thing, of course he knew that he had a few catties and a few taels, and if he wanted to manage the things of the Ministry of Industry, he was really competent, because he was interested in the "Principle of Knowledge".

For example, refining medicine, that is also a science, involving many aspects, he is not ordinary in the way of refining medicine, correspondingly, on the "The Principle of Knowledge. He is also quite proficient in the Five Elements Chapter, and it is enough to be a secretary of the Ministry of Industry.

However, he is really not very competent to be a cabinet scholar, because he has no research on the way of governing the country, and in this respect, he is at best similar to an ordinary official with a scholar's background.

At this moment, Hou Zhitan actually told him that he was expected to enter the cabinet as a minister, and to be honest, he was really surprised.

Of course, it's not that he doesn't want to be in the cabinet, becoming a cabinet scholar is a dream of a court official, who doesn't want to.

He was stunned for a while, and then said excitedly: "Really? ”

Hou Zhitan said solemnly: "Of course it's true, how dare the villain make such a joke with you." ”

This!

Gu Kexue rubbed his hands excitedly, and then asked embarrassedly: "You said that I have made a great contribution, why don't I know it?" Can you tell me what I've done? ”

He really didn't know what great merit he had made, during this time he was on duty in the Ministry of Industry and honestly sat on duty, he didn't go anywhere, and he didn't do anything special, how could he make great contributions?

Hou Zhitan didn't hide it, and told him in detail about Yang Cong's thoughts and what happened in Dongying recently.

Only then did he know that Yang Cong had actually fished out the largest silver mine in Dongying in his name.

This, this, this is simply joy from heaven.

He rubbed his hands excitedly for a long time, and then asked, "What do you mean?" ”

Hou Zhitan still said solemnly: "What Master Taishi means, you quickly order the officials of the Ministry of Industry to organize a group of craftsmen who are good at smelting silver ore, and then personally take them to Dongying to receive the Iwami Silver Mine. ”

He immediately clapped his hands excitedly and said, "Okay, you wait a day, tomorrow, tomorrow I will take someone to Dongying with you." ”

In this way, Gu Kexue followed Hou Zhitan to Dongying with a large group of officials from the Ministry of Industry and craftsmen who were good at smelting, and he took his subordinates around Iwami Country after a circle, not to mention how excited he was.

This is worthy of being the largest silver mine in Dongying, and the silver mountains are simply everywhere, and the silver content is quite high, higher than any silver mine in Daming.

Silver Mountain, and there is more than one, it is not a problem to dig a million taels a month!

So, why did the Iwami Silver Mine only produce about 500,000 taels of silver per month in the past?

This problem is actually very simple, and he will know it after a little understanding, because neither the Ouchi clan nor the Niko clan have enough food.

This may seem like a contradiction.

Just kidding, sitting on countless mountains of silver, they can dig up at least 500,000 taels of silver a month, will they be short of food?

They are really short of food, because there is not much food produced in Dongying, and the food trafficked by the Ming merchants is also limited, and most of the princes from all walks of life use the only food to feed their troops, where is the food to feed the miners!

In other words, neither the Ouchi clan nor the Niko clan had enough food to feed a large number of miners, so even if they were sitting on countless mountains of silver, they would not be able to dig up much silver.

This problem is not a problem for Yang Cong or Gu Kexue, transporting food, it is really not too simple for them, the southeastern provinces of Daming have grain, and they also have ships to transport grain, even if the fleet under Wang Zhi and Hong Tiezhu is not enough, it doesn't matter, they can use the fleet of the Daming Navy Division to transport grain.

It can be said that the problem of food is not a problem for them, even the consumption of 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands of miners is only a small matter for them, and in their case, food is no longer the main problem, but the main problem has become a problem of the number of miners.

So, how many miners can Toei or Iwami koku recruit?

This, it's really a bit scary, I heard that Iwami Silver Mine is recruiting, rice or something is full, and wages, the whole Dongying is a sensation, what homeless, hungry, ronin, homeless, and even homeless samurai, are desperately rushing to this side, 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands are not a problem!

In the end, Gu Kexue had to control the number of miners at about 100,000, because no matter how many people there were, it would be difficult to manage, after all, there were only 10,000 elites of the Ming army here, plus Mao Liyuan's men, there were only 40,000 or 50,000 people in total, and it was not easy to control these 100,000 miners, and if there were more, I am afraid that there would be chaos.

However, these 100,000 miners alone were already scary enough, and the output of Iwami Silver Mine easily increased to more than 1 million taels a month, more than double the previous amount.