In addition to the account books, half of the surplus handed over by the trading houses was transported to Pyongyang by sea ship with him. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Yu pinched his fingers and calculated, more than 200,000 yuan plus the money and grain sent by the imperial court were only enough for May expenses, and after five months, unless Li Yu only retained 40,000 soldiers, which was just enough to meet the grain allocated by the imperial court, the plan of immigrants to enrich Anton could be stopped in order to maintain the operation of the Anton Protectorate normally.

Glancing at the account book sent by Dou Huaike again, I sighed helplessly in my heart, I spent too much last month (New Year).

The distressed Li Yu looked at Cui Xuan with expectant eyes and said, "I wonder if you have any good way to solve the problem of insufficient finances?" ”

Cui Xuan pondered his head for a while, and said: "At present, the most profitable trade routes in Datang are sea trade in the southeast and northwest in the northwest; Our Wangfu corresponds to Wanquan Commercial Bank and Jiaolong Hainan Airlines to carry out trade. But as His Royal Highness began his military operations in Andong last year, Jiaolong HNA had no income, and a large number of guards from Wanquan Commercial Bank were transferred to Andong as an army, and trade in the Western Regions shrank. The other four major commercial houses and industries also needed a lot of money in Anton, which led to their plans to open branches in other states and counties that were expected to be shelved, and their production capacity was limited, the supply of goods was insufficient, and their profitability could not be improved for a while. ”

"Anton is estimated to have nothing to do this year, so a certain suggestion is to temporarily let the profits of various commercial banks and industries not need to be transferred to Anton for use, and leave it to expand its business scale, lay branches in various places, and enhance its business capacity."

"No!"

Li Yu directly rejected Cui Xuan's suggestion, "If the money made by the commercial house is not handed over to the government this year, the immigration plan of the Anton Pioneer Group and the sea ship construction plan of the Liaodong Shipyard will be stranded." Or think of other ways, such as looking for ways to generate income on the basis of what you already have. ”

How to generate income? Cui Xuan is a little big, and now Datang is the most profitable Yan Wangfu to operate, and he also produces and sells exclusive goods that make the world blush. Li Yu asked Cui Xuan to think of other ways to make money to generate income, but he really couldn't think of it for a while.

Cui Xuan had an idea and said, "Your Highness has it!" ”

"Is there a way to generate income?"

"Let's open a mine!" Cui Xuanxi said.

At present, in addition to operating iron ore to make weapons and armor in Youzhou and Andong, Yanwangfu has not involved other minerals. The iron ore operated by the government spends money on mining and smelting to meet its own needs, and it has no profitability at all.

Li Yu muttered: "I have opened an iron mine, Cui Xuan, do you mean that we will open a copper mine?" ”

Cui Xuan shook his head and said: "Your Highness, although copper mining makes money, how can there be gold mining to make money!" Only the opening of gold mines can solve the current financial shortage. ”

"Yes!" Li Yu said suddenly: "One or two gold is equivalent to ten guan money, if you can find a gold mine that mines ten thousand taels of gold every year, with an annual income of 100,000 yuan, and at the same time mining several such large gold mines, it will earn hundreds of thousands of yuan a year." ”

There is also a problem with gold mining, that is, it consumes a lot of manpower, and it also requires trustworthy supervisors.

If you think about it, gold mining is only a long-term project to increase revenue, and it is not very helpful for the time being.

Li Yu was a little discouraged when he thought of this, but gold mining is also a lucrative way, and it is not bad to mine early.

As for the current financial problems, with the delivery of grain from Silla on schedule, at least in the area of grain, Li Yu does not have to spend a lot of money to buy grain in the south.

Commercial expansion could only be halted for the time being, so that the commercial banks could sustain the profits in the first half of this year.

Since he planned to mine gold, Li Yu thought of the famous Shandong Zhaoyuan gold mine in later generations, which was the first in the country in terms of gold production in country Z, and there were many gold producers in other places in the east of S, and several large gold mines were found near Zhaoyuan in later generations.

"Cui Xuan, I passed by Denglai when I returned to Beijing, and I heard that the local gold is prolific, do you have any understanding of the gold production in Denglai Erzhou when you propose to open a gold mine?"

Cui Xuan said with a smile: "Back to Your Highness, the gold is produced by Laizhou Ye County, a certain early years used to discuss Denglai, once went to the mountains of Laizhou Ye County, and saw the local people mining gold. If His Royal Highness wants to mine gold, the first choice should be Laizhou. Close to Andong and convenient for waterways. ”

Li Yu nodded, Zhaoyuan in later generations is now under the jurisdiction of Laizhou Zhisuoye County, and the local people are mining gold, so it is not difficult to find the gold mine.

After thinking about it carefully, Li Yu felt that since he opened a gold mine, he had to make a big vote, so he simply learned from the armed police gold unit established by country Z in later generations to find gold, and formed a force specializing in gold hunting and gold mining.

You must know that the islands in the southeast of Datang are generally rich in gold and silver, and Japan has the famous Iwami Silver Mountain and Sado Gold Mountain, and the gold mine near Keelung, Taiwan is the most abundant in East Asia. Sumatra is known as the Golden State because of its gold production, and there are rich gold deposits in Filipino, Hokkaido, and Borneo. Not to mention that there is a southern continent out there.

Li Yu's formation of a professional gold mining unit is of great use for overseas gold exploration in the future.

Li Yu said the thoughts in his heart to Cui Xuan, Cui Xuan's eyes lit up, and he praised His Highness for his wisdom again and again.

In this way, a special gold-seeking force was born, and Li Yu named it "Jin-seeking Guard", which was divided into two guards, the left guard was responsible for finding gold, and the right guard was responsible for gold mining, with clear rights and responsibilities and mutual cooperation.

Xun Jinwei is not subordinate to the commercial category of Yanwangfu, and is in the army sequence under Li Yu. This made Cui Xuan, who proposed to open a gold mine and take charge of the business network of Yanwangfu, quite depressed.

The left and right guards of the gold-seeking guard each have one general and two deputy generals.

In view of the importance of this position, Li Yu directly selected trustworthy and capable guards from the Yanwang Mansion's family affairs and tent mansions: Li Laiheng and Xie Qian were transferred to the left and right Xun Jin Wei generals, and the other four personal guards served as deputy generals.

Immediately, Li Yu transferred 200 craftsmen from the workshops in the Yanwang Mansion to find gold, and 100 guards on the left and right.

In addition to a hundred craftsmen, there are two hundred guards from other troops. The main task is to explore gold and silver mines in barren mountains and rivers, and if there are gold mines suitable for large-scale mining, the right guard will be notified to send people to mine.

In addition to sending 100 craftsmen to guide the proper way to mine gold, the labor required was all done by the captured captives of Goguryeo and Silla, who were relegated to slave labor, so they needed to be guarded by sergeants. Li Yu transferred 900 soldiers who had gone into battle to be assigned to the gold-seeking right guard, and looked back at the scale of gold mining, and the craftsmen, sergeants, and slaves of the gold-seeking right guard had changed.

After a month, the left and right guards of the gold search were formed under the personal guidance of Li Yu.

Li Laiheng led the gold-seeking guards to Laizhou to explore the local gold mine location and estimate the amount of gold ore that can be recovered.

Xie Qian led the right guard of the gold search to escort the 800 slave laborers who had been transferred in advance to board the ship in Duli Town, cross the strait and land at Dengzhou Port before going to Laizhou to mine gold.

After seeing the guards leave Pyongyang, Li Yu climbed the southern tower of Pyongyang and looked at the far south, wondering what was going on with the two overseas expeditions sent out last year.

Shi Yang Xuanji, the governor of Dongzha Prefecture, reported that there was no Lelanghai expedition sent by the Metropolitan Protectorate to dock in his jurisdiction.

Could it be that the Lelanghai expedition was captured by the Silla sailors as it passed through the shores of Silla?

Li Yu thought a little irritably.

I don't know if Zhang Qin of the Southeast China Sea expedition found gold mines near Keelung, Taiwan Island.