A large number of Indian laborers made the speed of railway construction in the Ming Dynasty begin to take off like wings, and after more Indians came to the Ming Dynasty, some became miners, began to dig coal and iron ore, some became river workers, participated in the ranks of the Yellow River, and some became farmers, and began to cultivate rice in various parts of Huguang. Zhang Qianfang kept transporting Indians, and the Ming Dynasty needed more Indians, if it weren't for the Indians who were not adapted to the cold weather, the Ming court would have been eager to pull them to Mobei to build the railway.

After the two Beijing railways and the Shanmu railways were basically built by the Indians, a large number of Houjin laborers and Ming laborers joined in the construction of the Beijing-small railway, and a large coal mine was found in Ordos, nineteen trona lakes, and open-pit lakes of miscanthus salt.

The discovery of these minerals made it possible for the train that transported the rails from Beijing to Guihua and other places on the Jingxiao Railway to finally have a large amount of goods to carry on the return trip. Coal does not need to be shipped back to the mainland, but alkali and miscanthus are good things, and such simple and easy-to-mine alkali lakes and miscanthus lakes in the mainland have not yet been found.

The newspaper published the news of the discovery of large alkali lakes and mango nitrate lakes in the Hetao area, and attached the management method for the household department to sell the mining rights of these mining lakes, and a large number of businessmen flocked to the lake, all wanting to grab the mining rights of the alkali lakes and manganthus lakes.

This time, the household department adopted the auction method, first set a reserve price, according to the mining rights for 20 years, 50 years, 100 years different reserve prices, and then start the auction, the highest price will win.

Of course, before the auction, the household department pulled all the merchants who were interested in buying to the station before naturalization by train, and then turned to Ordos on horseback and car, first to see the specific situation of the minerals and the situation of the road, so as to know in their hearts.

The merchants came to the alkali lake, took a little water with their hands, put it in their mouths and tasted it, tasted it slowly for a long time, and then spit it out, with a satisfied look on their faces. This kind of alkaline water contains very little salt, and it is an excellent alkali when it is slightly processed, and it is money to transport it to the mainland. The railway has reached the north of Guihua City, and the transportation conditions of this road are already excellent.

The household department started the auction on the spot, which had already been talked about. Each merchant was holding a cheque from the Royal Bank. All merchants who want to participate in the auction must pay a deposit of 10,000 yuan first, and after the auction, if they do not win the bid, they will return it, and if they win the bid and do not pay the money, the 10,000 yuan will be confiscated, and then the auction will be carried out.

Because the household department has set a reserve price, each merchant participates in the auction with a number of checks that far exceed the reserve price. The auctioneer took a small wooden hammer, knocked lightly on the table and said: "We will start the auction now, the No. 1 alkali lake is located in the Wushen tribe, and no one asks for fifty or one hundred years of mining rights, so the direct auction of twenty-year mining rights, the reserve price is one million yuan, and the price can be increased by 10,000 yuan each time, and the highest price will be awarded." ”

Everyone has already seen this alkali lake, the alkali yield is high, the purity is also high, and because you can get from Shaanxi without crossing the Yellow River, it is considered to be in good transportation. Soon, someone took out a small wooden sign with the number 83 written on it and held it up.

"Okay, the No. 83 merchant bid one million yuan, and there are merchants who have increased the price, please step up."

"Merchant No. 35 bid one million and one hundred thousand yuan, merchant No. 47 bid one million and twenty thousand yuan, oh, merchant No. 55 directly shouted a high price of one hundred and one hundred thousand, and merchant No. 5 bid ,...... one hundred and twenty thousand"

The No. 1 alkali lake made many people start to grab it, and finally sold for 1.8 million. With the assistance of the bank clerk, the household clerk registered the cheque number handed in by No. 34 in the register, and then put it away, and the No. 1 alkali lake was successfully auctioned.

This auction is only for 20 years, unless someone asks for it at the beginning of the auction, it will auction 50 years of mining rights and 100 years of mining rights, and before the auction of No. 2 Alkali Lake started, there was a No. 33 merchant who wanted to buy 50 years of mining rights.

The auctioneer knocked on the small wooden hammer and said: "Because the No. 33 merchant asked for the auction of fifty-year mining rights, the fifty-year mining rights were auctioned first, and if no merchant won the auction, the twenty-year mining rights were auctioned instead." The No. 2 alkali lake is also located in the Wushen tribe, and the reserve price of the 50-year mining right is 2 million yuan, and the auction is now open. ”

Everyone will calculate the account, 2 million in 50 years is obviously more than 1 million in 20 years, and the longer the time, the more complete the equipment, the higher the output, and the traffic situation will be improved, so the competition in the No. 2 alkali lake is very fierce, and the final transaction is 3.8 million.

In the end, 10 of the 19 alkali lakes were auctioned, which is a normal value considering the domestic demand, and with the addition of an open-pit miscanthus mine, a total of 51 million yuan was auctioned. Hubu Shangshu Bi Ziyan looked at the numbers reported by his subordinates, and his heart was about to stop beating. After the emperor said the method of auction, he was originally unimpressed, thinking that it would be great to be able to sell for 10 million yuan at most, but he didn't expect to get so much. What kind of bonds should be issued, the household department is now worried about how to use so much money.

Li Zhizao, the president of the Royal Bank, thought about the boxes of silver ingots handed over by the merchants, and sighed that His Majesty the Emperor was really powerful, and he was still worried that there would not be enough silver to make silver coins, and at least five years of silver taels would be enough. And after this incident, the credibility of the royal bank's cheque has also been sent, and in the future, no one will take a large amount of silver coins to deliver the large transactions, and will deposit the money in the bank to write a check to pay, which is a big profit for the bank.

When Zhu Youxiao received the report, he just smiled. Daming's money shortage in their own hands is impossible to appear again, and the application of checks will soon give rise to the use of paper money, as long as the Ming Dynasty's force is still the strongest around, the checks with numbers written on them are hard currency in various transactions, no one dares to deny, no one will deny.

But he also understands that the issuance of banknotes is a slow process, and at least for now, only checks can be used, not directly issued in various denominations. When everyone is completely accustomed to checks, when anti-counterfeiting technologies such as multi-color overprinting are only in the hands of the research institute, and when the public feels that it is too heavy and inconvenient to hold silver and copper coins, it is the best time to issue banknotes.

Now, after the officials of the court discovered that they had sold so much money at the alkali lake in the Hetao alone, there was little opposition to the emperor's aggressive expansion of territory. Who knows what valuable things will appear in other occupied places. The furs produced in the north of Xiangzhen are of good quality and the price is fair, and many officials have bought one for their wives and daughters.