A total of 15 companies signed up to participate in the auction of the Xiaohai Gold Mine, and on 20 April, the household department gathered these 15 families together, with a total of more than 80 people, and a waiter from the household department presided over the auction, and the director led people to collect 500 yuan for each person's living expenses, and then everyone boarded the train and headed north.

The train ran all the way to Cullen, and when they got off the train, they changed into horse-drawn carriages, and some merchants rode along on horseback. After resting on the road for the night, I finally came to Xiaohai City the next afternoon.

Xiaohai's military city has been repaired, the city is two feet high, and the city wall is equipped with artillery, covered with a wooden cover, and only the muzzle of the black hole can be seen. Merchants were not allowed to enter the military city, but could only live in temporary houses outside the city.

Although it is only a temporary house, it will obviously be used by the peasants around the city in the future, so it is extremely sturdy, and all kinds of living measures in it are relatively well done. The merchants were pleased with the novelty, and after inquiring about the money needed to build a house, they thought about building such a house near the gold mine for the gold miners to live in.

The next day, after breakfast, we headed to the gold mine. The gold mine was about sixty miles away from the military city, and everyone rode to the gold mine, a very large mountain, about ten hills.

Tobe Shirou said: "Now that the places where gold mines have been surveyed include five hills, whether there are any surrounding areas still need to be further explored, but there are only so many mountains in this area. There may also be veins in places where no gold deposits have been surveyed, so this auction includes the entire Xiaozhou Mountain, a total of fifteen peaks. Now you can go up the mountain to take a look at the survey pit that has been dug up, and get an idea of the fineness of the gold mine, and you can look at the ore, but don't take it with you. ”

The merchants all went up the mountain, and the first thing they went to was naturally the peak marked with the gold mine. When they arrived on the mountain, everyone understood why the squire said not to bring the ore down, and looking at the gold ore, the merchants had greedy eyes in their eyes. There are some places in the ore that are shining with gold, and even small golden particles can be seen, and it is the first time that everyone has seen such a high content of rich ore. If you take a piece of ore with more than ten catties, you may be able to refine more than one or two gold.

The squire was very satisfied with the greed in the eyes of the merchants, so that everyone could try their best to seize the mining rights in the auction waiting for the meeting, and the head of the household estimated that this time he should get more income than selling the alkali lake in the loop.

After the merchants had seen the peaks with ore, they went to the peaks where there was no gold on the surface. Some of the merchants brought in the feng shui master whispered something to the master's house, and those who heard it kept flashing their eyes, sometimes hideous, sometimes smirking.

The gold mines occupied a large area, and it was not until noon that the merchants had seen the places they wanted to see, and then they returned to the outside of the military city.

After a brief meal, Tobe said, "There are a total of fifteen bidders for fifty-year mining rights for gold mines, so our auction hall has prepared a total of fifteen seats, and each house can enter three people. We have prepared fifteen wooden signs in the order of registration, and those who want to increase the price will hold up the wooden signs, and the following ......"

At this time, Shilang's words were interrupted by a person, it was a Henan businessman, he stood up and said, "Lord Shilang, please forgive Xiaomin for being rude." However, with such a large gold mine, I am afraid that it will be difficult for one family to eat it, so why don't the household departments split each hill and auction it? In this way, it is easier for us to compete for it, and the household department can also get more auction money. ”

As soon as these words were said, most of the people shouted together, demanding that the household department split the gold mine for auction like an alkaline lake, otherwise only one family would benefit, and the other families would not be able to participate.

These are the wealthy businessmen who feel they are not sure of obtaining the right to mine gold. They signed up for a name, but they just wanted to come and see. Why did the imperial court hand over all the gold mines to the private sector for mining this time, many people felt that either the reserves of gold mines were not large, or the difficulty of mining was too great. In fact, there is no way to accurately measure the reserves of gold mines, and can only be speculated based on the excavated pits. When the merchants saw the excavated pits in the mountains, they knew they were wrong. They were either old mine owners or old miners who knew how to find ore, and it soon became clear that this was a rich and difficult bonanza to mine.

The original disdain quickly turned into an ambition, so at this time, whether the money they can take out can guarantee that they can get the right to mine has become a big problem, so everyone thinks that if it is divided into five parts, then of course their hopes will be much greater.

The squire seemed to have known that this would happen, he pressed down with his palm, and said with a smile after everyone calmed down: "We have thought of this method before, but just now everyone has looked at the situation of the peaks, the five peaks that have been surveyed for gold are connected, and if they are forcibly separated, it will lead to disputes over the ownership of the last connected place." So after much deliberation, we decided to put the Xiaohai Gold Mine up for auction as a whole. ”

The merchants immediately stopped, and the first to speak said, "Lord Shilang, in this way, there will be a situation in which the fourteen families are sad and the family is happy, and the amount of mining that the imperial court can receive will be very low." I'm sure Squiro-sama doesn't want to see that either. ”

The squire despised in his heart, and the imperial court had long since explained in the newspaper that the auction was whole, so why didn't he speak at that time? Now that I see that the gold mine is starting to be greedy, so I don't want to give up this piece of fat, so why did you go earlier.

However, he also knew that it was the nature of merchants to seek profits, and he took them to see the gold mines because he wanted them to have this idea. Only in this way can the household department maximize the benefits of the gold mine.

He cleared his throat and said, "This official understands the feelings of the merchants, but the imperial court has already said that this gold mine will be auctioned as a whole. As for what you have said, I have two suggestions, and I don't know if you would like to hear them. ”

The merchants said, "My lord, please speak quickly." ”

Shilang said: "The first suggestion is that I hope that everyone can join forces to bid for the gold mine, as for the shares held by you after the bidding, it can naturally be calculated according to the amount of capital contribution, so that everyone can achieve the effect of collecting firewood and high flames, and it can also enable many businesses to get a share of the gold mining." ”

Together, we can reduce the risk and solve the problem of insufficient funds, and maybe we can win the right to mine the gold mine.