Xintong is the second stop of Qin Feng's trip out of Beijing this time.

As the most important iron ore mining area in the Qin State, the Ming Dynasty also attached great importance to it. Daye City in Taiping County has now become the steel capital of Daming, but for the Ming Dynasty, whose territory is expanding day by day, the production capacity of Daye City alone is far from keeping up with the steel needs of Daming.

Whether it is the fine iron wrought iron required for weapons and armor, or the agricultural tools for civilian use, etc., Daye City's production capacity can no longer meet the needs of the whole country. This directly led to a sharp rise in domestic steel prices in Daming.

Xintong is the second steel base planned by Daming.

Xintong under the rule of Qin, the mine was controlled by local tycoons, whether it was mining or production, it was an extremely disorderly state, the crude production process, low production capacity, seriously hindered the steel production of Qin, in the words of the Ming Ministry of Industry Shangshu skillful hands, this is a typical holding a golden rice bowl to beg for food.

After taking Xintong, the officials of the Ministry of Industry were the first Ming officials to enter Xintong. The domestic demand for steel is so large that it is about to drive skillful hands crazy.

Re-survey, planning, in the shortest possible time, the Ministry of Industry came up with a plan to transform the new tung mining area, and strive to play a role in the shortest possible time, in order to alleviate the Ming Dynasty's incomparable thirst for steel.

Xintong County Shou Huang Cheng, this year just passed his thirtieth birthday, he was originally the deputy guard of Daye City, Taiping County, in the wave of promotion in the Ming Dynasty, he belongs to the kind of young and strong young officials who specialize in the arts, and suddenly he was promoted to three levels in a row, and he was promoted to the official of the frontier who stood alone, and served as the first county guard in Xintonglai. It is the experience of the past few years that he has been the deputy guard of Daye City that the political affairs hall has taken a fancy to.

At the age of thirty, it became a fiefdom, in Chuqi or the former Qin State, it was basically impossible, at this age, basically they were still boiling their qualifications, and if they could be the last county commander, they would be considered young and promising. But in Daming, these rules and regulations are obviously not practical.

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty is unusually young, and more importantly, after the reform of the administration of officials, the Ming Dynasty vacancy a large number of official hats, the old officials who are obsolete and conservative and unbearable to transform, were swept directly into the garbage heap of history by the young emperor waving a broom, and the young people who have the courage to accept new things have taken the position by virtue of this shareholder West.

The average age of the officials of the Ming Dynasty is less than forty. And now that the Ming Dynasty has annexed the vast territory of Great Qin, it is obvious that a large number of young officials will usher in a large number of young officials, and the average age of Ming officials will also drop again.

Although Huang Cheng is very young, his qualifications are not shallow, in Dazhi City, he climbed step by step from a sword and pen official to the position of deputy guard, and basically participated in all the processes of Daye from scratch, and he is extremely experienced. Of course, these rich experiences have also become the biggest guarantee for him to defeat many candidates and become the county guard.

Although the Ming Dynasty is extremely lacking in officials, there must still not be many positions like this for the guardian of a county, and there are still many competitors.

At present, Huang Cheng was excited and nervous to welcome the presence of His Majesty the Emperor. Speaking of which, even though he is now serving as the county guard of Xintong, it is the first time he has received His Majesty the Emperor.

In the past, in Daye, he was only a deputy guard, and the emperor came to patrol, and it was not his turn to receive the report at all, he could only wear an official robe and act as the background wall of the chief officer. When he took up the post of Xintong County Guard, it was when His Majesty commanded the army and the Qin army to fight fiercely in the area of the Xiushui River, and he didn't even do the routine visit to the emperor before the feudal officials took office, so he directly ordered by the political affairs hall, and then rolled a small package, and brought his temporarily recruited soldiers to Xintong to take office.

At that time, there were still a large number of troops stationed in Xintong. A small detachment of cavalry left behind by the Wind Chasing Battalion is driving the small bandits in Xintong County to flee to the west.

Receiving the emperor for the first time, facing the emperor's hearing, although it was freezing on this day, Huang Cheng still felt hot and dry.

Qin Feng was most worried about Xintong's security. Historically, the mining area has been the most trouble-prone place, and the mining area requires a lot of strong labor, and if these people get out of control, it can be quite troublesome. When Daye City was first built, it was captured by the prisoners of the Shuntian Army at that time and later the prisoners of war when fighting against the barbarians, etc., Daye City at that time, but a force has always been deployed to maintain law and order, and Lufeng's miners' battalion was born here. Today, the miner battalion is the only hoplite in the Ming Dynasty, and its combat power is known as the first in the Ming Field Army.

"Is Xintong still stable?" Seeing that Huang Cheng, who was above and below his age, carefully maintained a gap of one horse's head from himself, Qin Feng beckoned and motioned for him to step forward and walk with him.

"Thanks to Your Majesty Hongwei, Xintong's security is good." Huang Cheng hurriedly said.

"Mining has always been difficult to manage!" Qin Feng smiled and nodded.

Huang Wei himself was born in Daye, so he naturally knew the meaning of Qin Feng's words. After a little gathering of thoughts, he began to talk eloquently.

"Your Majesty, Xintong is still very different from Daye at the beginning. The minister was there when Daye was first built, so he knew the initial situation of Daye. But Xintong is a different story. General Yang Zhi and General Yu Chao defeated the Qin army in the first battle of Xintong, and the military prestige was impressive, and it effectively shocked the place, which can be regarded as laying a good foundation. This is one of them. ”

"Second, the original mining area of Xintong is controlled by large and small Haoqiang, these Haoqiang in order to grab profits, the miners are too close, as we take over the mining area, these Haoqiang are swept away, and I Daming for the miners' interests are quite in place. The miners were given a quick peace of mind, thanks to generous pensions after casualties, adequate food guarantees, and the distribution of various labor and protective tools. ”

"Third, the imperial court's relief for Xintong was quite timely, and as soon as the war ended, the relief food of the household department had already been in place, so that the famine that would generally occur after the war did not occur. If the local area is stable, the mining area will naturally be stable. ”

"So now everything in Xintong has been on the right track, compared with the Qin court, compared with those Qin gentry, my Ming is as kind as a bodhisattva, and now the people's hearts have been to my Ming."

Listening to Huang Cheng's words, Qin Feng couldn't help laughing, this young county guard was also very funny.

"Are there any more bandits?"

Huang Cheng hesitated slightly, "There are still some, but they are not in the climate, and now they are all hiding in the poor countryside, and the ones who can incite are only those villagers who don't know about foreign affairs, in the county town, county seat or mining area, they can't afford to make any trouble." Mingwei and the dart masters of the Tianwu Dart Bureau have also been catching these bandits, and basically every day someone is caught and sent to the county seat. ”

"All these people were sent to the mines?"

Huang Cheng shook his head: "The mine is very good now, these people are all restless, and it is easy to have accidents wherever they are sent, so in Xintong, such people are sentenced to hard labor and sent to repair roads." ”

Qin Feng nodded, "It's not bad to deal with it like this." But isn't the mine bad for miners? ”

"Your Majesty, now the Xintong mining area is still under construction, the previous Qin gentry are all digging indiscriminately, without planning, it is just a mess, we naturally can't do this, so now less than one-third of the mining area is really working, but because we want to re-improve their iron-smelting process and build an iron-control plant, the raw materials are still enough." Huang Chengdao: "The real scale of the ground will have to wait until next autumn, and by then, we will need a large number of miners." ”

"By then, where will you replenish the miners from?"

"Your Majesty, this is not worrying. In the previous battle of Xintong, General Yang Zhi and General Yu Chao captured nearly 20,000 prisoners, and now Mingwei and Tianwu Dart Bureau are still arresting some of the intermittent bandits, and these people are now sentenced to labor of varying severity, more than a year, less than a few months. These people have gone through this period of labor reeducation, and by next year, they are basically honest, and more importantly, by that time, we have completely gained a foothold in Xintong, maybe even Yongdu will be defeated at that time, so these people can also come in handy. These people, to put it bluntly, are all poor people, who can let them have work to do and wages, who will do the work of rebellion and lose their heads! At that time, there will naturally be plenty of labor. Besides, those who really have bad deeds, and those who have blood on their hands, after they are caught, are also sentenced to death. Don't hide it from Your Majesty, our Xintong is still killing people every day! ”

Qin Feng glanced at Huang Cheng, he was quite satisfied with this county guard. The officials who can grow up in the Daye mining area have all seen the world, and at the beginning of the Daye mining area, it was not the same as killing people every day. To be a governor in a place like Xintong, you have to have the heart of a bodhisattva and a thunderbolt.

This Huang Cheng seems to be a typical person like this, while trying his best to appease the people, on the other hand, he held high the butcher's knife board and fell heavily, on one side is honey jujube, and on the other hand, the bloody knife and axe, how to choose, it is self-evident.

Looking at Qin Feng's face, Huang Cheng knew that His Majesty was very satisfied, and his heart suddenly relaxed.

"Your Majesty, please see that the front is our newly built coke media workshop in Xintong. Using coking coal to make iron, can improve the quality of molten iron very highly, Taiping County has developed this process, but the coking coal workshop, is our Xintong County first put into use. Because we found extremely high-quality anthracite coal here. The quality of the coal is far higher than that of Taiping County. From construction to official production, it only took us two months. Huang Cheng said proudly.

Qin Feng raised his head and looked at the place Huang Cheng pointed to, and in front of him, between a snow-white hill, several huge black spots were still eye-catching.