Chapter 161: Silver

Days and nights go by, winter goes to spring, glaciers thaw, everything recovers, and it's time for animals to mate/mate.

Herders drove hungry livestock out of cowsheds and other places and began to chase after the abundant water and grass. Farmers have also begun to use cattle and horses to plow their fields in preparation for the most important planting of the year. When the Huns invaded the north last year, although they destroyed many fields and ditches, Xu Chao led people to work hard for more than a month and repaired the ditches.

After being promoted to the post of secretary of the household department and secretary of the Ministry of Industry, in addition to dredging the Yellow Water Canal near Lian County, he also focused on inspecting Pingluo County and Yongning County on the west bank of the Yellow River, and made plans for the areas to be reclaimed and recultivated. As soon as the spring began, he put forward the big plan of "controlling the Yellow River", and lobbied Yan Zhong and Yang Qiu, and even specially described the beautiful scene after building dikes on both sides of the Yellow River to Zhao Yun, Lu Fang, Xu Wen and others, but unfortunately no one was interested in his plan, or although he was interested, he was immediately frightened and uninterested when he heard about the money and grain that was going to be spent.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of this year's spring ploughing, Chen Cheng asked the craftsmen under the Ministry of Industry to stop making swords and spear heads, and instead made iron ploughs, which were distributed to various counties in the north. As for Shuofang County and Wuyuan County further away, there was nothing he could do, so he could only let the people over there figure it out on their own.

Although a lot of coal and iron ore can be dug up by relying on Helan Mountain, the smelting technology in these years is very backward, and it is impossible to get more steel without sending more manpower. Chen Cheng has a lot of good ideas, all of which he learned from those "earthen workshops" that were severely cracked down by the iron fist of the people's government when he was watching the news broadcast. His major was originally related to chemistry, and after checking the information, he was naturally able to figure out the relevant process. However, although these technologies are relatively simple, it will take a little time to transform them into local grafting and transplantation.

Fortunately, there are also coal and iron mines in Shuofang County and Wuyuan County, and as long as the people there work harder, they can still meet their demand for steel a little.

Just as the northern side of the country began to get busy, the battle situation on the Hanyang County side changed again. Han Sui repelled Ding Yuan's army, regained Shangtai, and pushed the battle line back to the position it had been in October last year. The reason why he was able to achieve such results was not because Han Sui built many saddles and stirrups, and nailed many of his cavalry to horseshoe. Because these techniques also spread to the Guanzhong region, the cavalry under Lu Bu also added iron hooves, and their mobility became stronger.

The main reason why Ding Yuan was repelled was Dong Zhuo in Bingzhou. Most of the generals under Ding Jianyang's command came from Bingzhou, and they had various connections with the heroes of Bingzhou. Dong Zhuo killed more than 60 powerful families in Bingzhou, shaking the world and the soldiers under Ding Yuan's command.

The soldiers are all in their hearts, and there are many Dong Zhuo's old departments in Guanzhong, these people disobey Ding Yuanyang and hinder him in many ways, making Ding Yuan unable to stand in Hanyang at all. After several battles with Han Sui's new cavalry outside Shangtai City, Ding Yuan's army and the enemy on the opposite side won and lost each other, and then took the initiative to withdraw from Shangti, and the army returned to Chang'an City.

After inspecting the blast furnace where the explosion occurred, Chen Cheng had just returned to Lian County when he received a military report from Shangshu Province.

"I'll let him Han Sui die!"

Chen Cheng said impatiently: "As long as Ji County is not captured, this kind of military situation will be handled by Shang Shuling and the Ministry of War." ”

The explosion of the blast furnace not only wiped out the previous month's construction, but when the molten iron splashed, more than a dozen workers and soldiers were killed on the spot, and twice as many were injured. This can already be regarded as a major production accident, Chen Cheng is quite familiar with it, and immediately rushed over. After cleaning up the scene, he found that one of the people who died on the spot was proficient in arithmetic.

Not only did he finish Elementary Mathematics, but he was also teaching himself Geometry and Intermediate Mathematics. Chen Cheng had high hopes for him, and was ready to promote him to the head of the Ministry of Engineering after the blast furnace could be put into normal production, but he died in such a daze, which made Chen Cheng's heart depressed.

Fortunately, those wounded could survive as long as they held on until he rushed over, otherwise the losses would have been even greater this time.

Although there is a soil word for soil steelmaking, compared with the iron and steel mills of later generations, it has the shortcomings of large investment, low output and serious pollution, but compared with the current "bowl" smelting furnace, it is already high-tech, and the requirements for operators are relatively high, not that you can use it casually.

Chen Cheng sat under the eaves of the corridor and said in his heart: The two-level "engineering" is still a little less interesting, why don't you find a place to cut more people and raise the level of "engineering" a little?

It's not that you can't kill someone. As soon as he thought of this, his face showed a slightly hideous look.

In the past, when playing games, you had to charge money to become stronger, but now it's a place where you don't charge money, but killing people can make you stronger, which is also a shortcut. After all the hard work of planning, leveling the land, and building factories, where is the knowledge that comes out of the head of a few people who can easily cut down a few people?

If the two-level "engineering" is not enough, then the three-level, and if the three-level is not enough, the fourth-level, as long as there are enough people, it will be able to do it after all. But in this way, won't you become a demon king? Killing people in battle is nothing, but killing people for the sake of gaining strength and knowledge? Forget it, I haven't fallen to this point yet.

Chen Cheng figured out the key, sighed, and said in his heart: It's a big deal to put other things aside and throw all your strength on this. Even if we don't solve the problem of steel now, we will still face it sooner or later.

When Liu Qian came back from school, she saw Chen Cheng sighing in the courtyard, so she stepped forward and said to him, "Master, don't be upset, I'll sing you a song!" ”

Chen Cheng squeezed out a smile on his face and said, "Is it a new one?" ”

"Yes!" Liu Qian pulled Zi Jia'er with her left hand and Ma Yunlu with her right hand, and said crisply: "Let's learn together!" ”

Ma Yunlu is Ma Teng's daughter, Ma Chao's sister, after being sent to Lian County, she became familiar with Liu Qian within a few days. The three of them went to school together, went out to play together, and when Liu Qian went to teach the children in Yacheng, they also went with them.

Among the three, Ma Yunlu is a tiger girl who has been dancing since she was a child, and her martial arts are only a little worse than Liu Qian, and she is much stronger than Zi Jiaer. However, part of this is due to the fact that she is the oldest.

Liu Qian pulled two friends to sit down on the wooden board, and then sang, "Elechuan, under the Yin Mountain, the sky is like a dome......."

"Huh?" Chen Cheng couldn't help but be a little surprised, these words were only read out by him on the side of Yinshan last year, and they were made into a tune so quickly? He let go of his concern about the blast furnace, relaxed his mind, and listened to the sweet voice of the girl wafting in the air.

There is no distraction in the song, only innocence and clarity, closing your eyes, it is like seeing the ice and snow melt on the peaks of Helan Mountain, along the gaps in the mountains, into the stream. After a song, Chen Cheng only felt that the irritability in his heart had subsided a lot.

He stood up and smiled, "It's a good song, you guys go play." ”

"Really?" Liu Qian said happily: "After that, I will learn the tune again and sing it to the master." ”

"Good!"

After the three little loli went to the stable to feed the horses together, Chen Cheng immediately summoned the tooth soldiers and ordered: "Quickly summon Yang Qiu, the secretary of the military department." ”

The tooth soldier took the order and left, and after a while, Yang Qiu, who was in the courtyard next door, rushed over. During this period of time, Yang Qiu has complained a lot about stopping the manufacture of weapons and turning to the production of steel for agricultural tools, but because of the previous events, it is not easy to make a strong objection now, so it has not been happy these days.

After receiving Chen Cheng's summons, Yang Qiu thought that he was going to set things right, and as soon as he came in, he said excitedly: "Lord, are you going to let the craftsmen go back to build weapons?" I've said a long time ago, just sow a few handfuls of seeds into the ground, why do you need so much steel? It's a waste! ”

Chen Cheng asked rhetorically, "Who told you that I was going to ask the craftsmen to rebuild the weapons?" ”

Yang Qiu was stunned and asked, "It's not this matter, then why did the lord call me over?" ”

Chen Cheng said: "Do you remember what I told you before about the silver mine in the mountains in the west? ”

"Of course I do!"

"I have always been a person who must be rewarded for meritorious service, and punished for mistakes." Chen Cheng said: "Since Yang Shangshu took office, he has been conscientious and supportive of our work in Liangzhou. Therefore, after careful consideration, I decided to take out this silver mine and develop it with Yang Shangshu. Well, there will be a few others who will join in. ”

Well, I thought about it for about ten minutes. Most of the time, I'm still thinking about how to build a more efficient and safe blast furnace, and the time I actually spend thinking about silver is about thirty seconds. The other county soldiers were all under the management of the county magistrates, but the Xu Rong Division, the Ya soldiers, and the forbidden army guarding Lian County stationed in Manbo were directly responsible for the state governor's office. The monthly salary, the two winter coats issued last year, weapons, armor, arrows, forage, coal, etc., all cost money.

Even the other princes of Liangzhou knew that they had to raise the elite soldiers and horses under their command, how could Chen Cheng not understand this truth?

Yang Qiu was a little puzzled, and he asked suspiciously, "Take out the silver mine and develop it together?" What does that mean? ”

Chen Cheng explained to him: "It is that we contribute together, and the income is distributed according to the proportion of shares. ”

"Shares?"

One question leads to another, and one concept leads to several other concepts. Chen Cheng explained for a while before Yang Qiu understood what he meant. He felt that it was much harder and more difficult to teach people than to cut people, and he explained that this kung fu, not to mention one Yang Qiu, even ten Yang Qiu would be hacked to death.

Yang Qiu was very excited after understanding what Chen Cheng meant. Developing a silver mine, this is simply picking up money, isn't it?

Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the salt and iron official camp has been the mainstream of China and one of the main sources of income for the imperial court. You don't need an iron plough to plow the land, you can also use a wooden plow, but you can't help but eat salt! Therefore, salt merchants in the past generations have been rich, but how can the profits from selling salt be compared to directly smelting silver?

If silver ore is found somewhere, hey, let alone silver ore, even if it is copper ore and iron ore, it will definitely be taken back to the government, where will it be the turn of private individuals to mine? Secretly mining in private is another matter, and it is never known to those who dare to get it. Of course, in the current era, not to mention that the princes of Liangzhou are mining minerals by themselves, even the scholars and doctors in the Central Plains also regard the national law as child's play.

Yang Qiu thought he had misheard, and after confirming it twice, the corners of his mouth were about to crack with a smile.

"Lord, please rest assured, I will transfer people from Fuping immediately!" Yang Qiu patted his chest and packed the ticket, "I promise to get things done, and there will never be a little basket!" ”

He also went one step further and demanded, "The minister's family has enough manpower and money and food, so don't bother others, right?" ”

Gold and silver are natural money, but money does not have to be gold and silver.

Chen Cheng smiled and said, "The government accounts for 30 percent, and the generals at all levels in the army account for 2 percent. Among the remaining fifty percent, Yang Shangshu accounted for two percent, and in addition, Cheng Yi and Ma Teng each accounted for one percent. ”

Yang Qiu immediately understood that this was used to win over the powerful princes and generals in Liangzhou. He took out the Northland County to serve, so he accounted for one percent more than Chengyi and Ma Teng. Cheng Yi is a part of the triangle alliance, and it means to divide him into one. Ma Teng sells women for glory.........

However, he also quickly discovered a loophole, so he asked: "This is only ninety percent, what about the remaining ten percent?" ”

Chen Cheng said: "The rest of the ten percent, let's give it to Her Royal Highness the Princess." ”

Silver or something, it's just an introduction, and after the amount of silver mining comes up, there will be a series of follow-up plans. For example, minting silver coins, opening a bank, and so on. Chen Cheng felt that sometimes, the force of Chiguoguo was very useful, but sometimes, without the need for force, he could still get what he wanted, and even the effect would be better.

Until then, of course, force is needed as a guarantee. If he can assemble a few aircraft carrier formations, he can also suck the blood all over the world.

When Yang Qiu left, Chen Cheng immediately said: "Order Zhao Yun to transfer Xia Xi and Zhong Zhen over." ”

These two were also very talented teenagers in arithmetic, and they were two of the smartest of the orphans. The blast furnace explosion killed and injured so many trained workers and a good seedling who was proficient in arithmetic, which of course made Chen Cheng very heartbroken, but no matter how heartbroken things were, we still had to continue to do them.

In this era and for a long time to come, steel is the backbone of a country, and even if the number of dead and wounded is several times higher, it will continue to work head-on.