Zhao Nian, the eunuch in the chamberlain, gently walked to Yang Yong's ear and said, "Your Majesty, there is an urgent military situation on the grassland to ask for a meeting. ”

Hearing the word grassland, Yang Yong couldn't help frowning, after the elimination of the Eastern Turks, how to deal with the huge territory of the Eastern Turks has become a problem, although this territory is large, but due to climate, fresh water, soil quality and other reasons, there is not much land suitable for cultivation, and now there are many places in the south of the Great Sui are wild land, even if you want to immigrate to the south, for the Great Sui, this steppe is completely a chicken rib even if it is in your hands.

If the army is stationed alone, how many soldiers and horses are needed to defend it, and how much does the court need to invest every year? Although this burden is not too heavy with the current strength of the Great Sui, it is just that this simple investment is not destined to last, if it is abandoned, this land will immediately become the territory of the Western Turks, and within twenty years, the Western Turks will become as powerful as when the Turkic Empire was not divided before.

Now there are still 50,000 Sui troops stationed on the steppe, just to prevent the Western Turkic forces from moving back, and at the critical moment of attacking Goguryeo, could it be that the Western Turks came to invade the territory, Yang Yong's mind turned countless thoughts in an instant: "Quick, let the messenger come up." ”

"Yes."

Not long after Zhao Nian went down, Li Mi came up behind Zhao Nian, and when he saw the emperor, he hurriedly bowed his head and knelt down: "Weichen Siwei Sergeant Li Mi is seeing the emperor." ”

"Li Mi?" Yang Yong looked the sergeant of the guard up and down, and it was not until Li Mi was drenched in cold sweat that Yang Yong withdrew his gaze: "Get up and talk back." ”

For the most famous anti-bone boy in history, Yang Yong naturally has a deep image. Although Yang Yong didn't read history in his previous life, he didn't watch less TV, Li Mi, as the prince of Pushan County in the court, first rebelled with Yang Xuangan, and after Yang Xuangan failed, he threw himself into Wagang, relying on the name of Pushan County to deceive, and after his wings were full, he killed Zhai Rang, the leader of Wagang, and replaced him to continue the rebellion. After failing to defect to Tang, he also wanted to make a comeback and rebel again, but was finally killed by Li Yuan.

No matter what, history has changed, and since he hasn't even cleaned up Li Yuan, he naturally doesn't have to care about a little Li Mi, but. Such a person can't be made to take power, and now Li Yuan has been a member of the Zhengwupin for more than ten years, that is, Yang Yong's suppression of Li Yuan.

Li Mi felt that the emperor's gaze just now was nailed to his body like a spike, and his whole body was suddenly uncomfortable, but in the face of the emperor's gaze, he didn't even dare to move, and at this moment the emperor's gaze was withdrawn. Li Mi felt his whole body loosen. The beads of sweat that had just been wiped off the golden-winged warship flowed down again, and he hurriedly got up from the ground, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart that the royal authority was unpredictable, and replied: "Weichen Xie Emperor." ”

"What is happening in the steppe, and do the Western Turks dare to invade? The Qing family said in detail. ”

"Back to the emperor, it is not a Western Turkic invasion, but a good thing, a great thing for my Great Sui, Weichen received the order of Lord Changsun Sheng and set off from the grassland day and night. Report this great good thing to the emperor. ”

Li Mi's words made Yang Yong even more at a loss, the Eastern Turks have perished, what good things will be, could it be that some treasure has been discovered, and the truth is really as Yang Yong expected. The treasures of heaven and earth have really been found on the grassland. After listening to Li Mi finish slowly, Yang Yong suddenly realized.

It turned out that last year was when the Eastern Turks were basically extinct. A team of Sui soldiers found a green stone in the tent of a Turkic nobleman, this green stone is very beautiful, the Turkic nobles used it to decorate in the tent, originally the Sui army was not interested in such a stone, but this team of Sui army happened to have a soldier's father who was a miner, and knew that this stone was called malachite, in fact, it was made of copper, and copper ore generally existed in places where this kind of malachite could be found.

In China, copper is basically synonymous with money, since the Han Dynasty, China has been suffering from the lack of copper, in order to solve the money shortage, the rulers of the court racked their brains, promulgated laws, prohibiting the people from melting money as instruments, prohibiting the outflow of copper money, casting when five, when ten, and even when the hundred big money, and even the Song Dynasty issued flying money as paper money, although these have been effective, but did not fundamentally solve the problem of money shortage, until after the Ming and Qing dynasties, a large inflow of silver, with silver as the main currency, the money shortage has been solved to a certain extent.

In this case, the Great Sui Dynasty soon felt deeply, the rapid development of the economy needs more copper coins to turnover, there is no copper coins, can only use silk, silk, cloth, etc. instead of coins to circulate, to a certain extent, it has also been welcomed by the people, but these things are easy to damage, and it is not easy to divide, after all, it is not as good as coins.

Fortunately, when the Sui army opened the country, it was not long after Emperor Wu of Zhou destroyed the Buddha, and there were a large number of bronze vessels collected from the temple in the treasury, so the ancient bells, Buddha statues and other objects were re-turned into copper juice and cast into new money, which alleviated the money shortage of the court to a certain extent.

However, with the development of the economy in recent years, the money shortage has risen again, and no matter how the court steps up mining every year, the money shortage is always as tight as a year.

With the heart of trying it out, the soldier reported the discovery to his captain, who in turn reported it to the owner of the building, and the owner of the building reported to the general of the chariot cavalry above, and this chariot cavalry general was Li Jing, who had been promoted several levels in a row because of his merits and entered the ranks of middle and senior officers in the Great Sui.

If it was a different person, anyway, now that they have returned with a full load, what is the great thing about a few stones, maybe they will miss it, and Li Jing used to discuss problems with Han Baohu in the past, the art of war, and the people's livelihood, so he naturally knew what it would mean if he could find a large copper mine on the grassland, so he immediately took the captured Turkic nobleman and set off, and asked him to lead the way to the place where the malachite was found to find it.

This place is no stranger to many Turkic people, and the herdsmen can often pick up this kind of malachite in the river, but the Turks worship the mountains and rivers, and only think that this is the wealth given by God to the herdsmen, and they will never delve into it.

When they arrived at the place, Li Jing gave an order, and five hundred Sui soldiers picked up tools and dug up within a radius of several miles. This digging is terrible, the Sui army dug only one or two meters deep, someone dug up hard stones, knocked down the stones to see, these stones are green color, after the miner's son confirmed, the stone not only contains copper, but also contains a lot of copper.

At this time, all the soldiers dug frantically, and found that this piece of copper ore is extremely widely distributed, at least in a radius of tens of miles, if the stones within a radius of dozens of miles contain copper, then how much copper will there be here?

Li Jing can be sure that this is a large copper mine, and it is very easy to mine, if it can be developed, I am afraid that the output of all copper mines in China combined is larger.

Li Jing soon reported his discovery to the top, Yang Liang, the king of Han, had returned to the dynasty, at this time in charge of the overall situation on the grassland was Changsun Sheng, Changsun Sheng learned of the situation, immediately carried out a more detailed exploration of the entire copper mine, and found that the copper ore content of this copper ore was as high as 30%, that is to say, the copper content was as high as high

The Central Plains was not without copper mines, and the copper reserves announced by China in later generations were about 80 million tons, and as long as one percent of them could be mined, the court would at least not suffer from a lack of money.

It's just that China's copper ore is scattered, the content is low, it is difficult to mine, the copper ore in nature, the highest rich ore content can reach 99%, and it is generally on the surface, purple-red, so it is also called red copper. Soft and malleable, it can be processed into tools and daily necessities with a little beating. And in China, such copper ore is very rare, has long been found by the ancestors to make weapons, now most of the copper ore is buried deep underground, according to the exploration of later generations, China's grade of more than 1% of the copper ore only accounts for 35.9% of the reserves, on average, the country's copper ore grade is only 0.87%, the difficulty of mining can be imagined.

The copper ore found today is more than 30 times that of the domestic copper mine, and only one or two meters of soil can be mined by digging up the surface layer of soil, although I don't know how large the reserves of the entire copper mountain are, but it is only a preliminary estimate, and the scope of the entire copper mountain occupies dozens of miles in a circle.

The discovery of this copper mine is not just as simple as bringing huge wealth to the court, with the wisdom of Changsun Sheng, he can naturally see the embarrassing situation of the court after the elimination of the Eastern Turks, if the army is withdrawn, the court will not only get some slaves and cattle and sheep, but also make a wedding dress for the Western Turks, if the army is not withdrawn, tens of thousands of horses and horses on the grassland just to guard these barren land The cost is too great.

With this copper mountain, the court not only can no longer suffer from the lack of copper, but also gives the Great Sui a reason to include the grassland into its own territory, as long as this copper mountain is not dug up, even if the Central Plains changes the dynasty, it will always occupy the copper mountain as its own property. With the current level of mining, it is possible for this mine to be open for decades and hundreds of years, and even if the mine is dug up, this land has already been firmly occupied by the Han people.

"Good, good, good." After listening to Li Mi's report, Yang Yong laughed, and sure enough, he was drowsy and sent a pillow, and he secretly wondered in his heart, could it be that he had a good character, and God gave him a windfall when he just felt the shortage of copper coins in China.

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