Dai Yan finished handling all the political affairs of Taoqiu, and after instructing Zhao Xue to sit in Taoqiu, he personally took a boat to the city where coal and iron ore were found. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

This is Xiangyi in the southern part of the Song Kingdom, which is close to the Chu State, and opposite it is the fief of the Yang Ling Jun of the Chu State, the territory of the Chu State that was given by Dai Yan to the Yin death in Fengyi.

And Xiangyi has always been the place where the Song State faced greater external threats. When Yanglingjun was alive, he indulged his clan soldiers from time to time to come to the Song Kingdom to plunder, and after this generation of Yanglingjun inherited the title, he was even more ruthless in hating the Song Kingdom, so there were more and more things that were sent to loot Xiangyi.

And Xiangyi's own position is also extremely embarrassing. The entire Song Kingdom was divided into three capitals, namely Suiyang in the west of the Song Kingdom, Taoqiu in the north, and Pengcheng in the southeast.

However, Xiangyi is located in the southwest of the Song Kingdom, just outside the control range of the three capitals of the Song Kingdom. Moreover, this place is also relatively barren, and Suiyang and Pengcheng do not look down on this place. As a result, Xiangyi had no backers in the upper echelons of the entire Song Kingdom, and he did not have much say in the entire Song Kingdom. Otherwise, every year the Chu people invade Xiangyi, why does Suiyang always treat it as if he didn't see it?

And Xiangyi's biggest worry is that when the pressure of the Song State is too great, the Song State will take Xiangyi as a sacrifice and cede Xiangyi's land to curry favor with the Chu State. You must know that such things are not uncommon in today's era!

Therefore, when Dai Yan personally arrived in Xiangyi by boat and walked around Xiangyi, the doctor of Xiangyi and the nobles of Xiangyi who got the news immediately began to connect with each other. In their eyes, this Tao Qiu Jun is not an ordinary person, this is a virtuous son of the Song State, who has made great contributions to the Song State, and has always been known for safeguarding the interests of the Song State. If he hugged this person's thigh, wouldn't the possibility of Xiangyi being a victim in the future be much smaller?

Dai Yan carefully inspected this Xiangyi, this city is located in the north of Suishui, but the location where the ore vein was found is located in the south of Suishui, not far away, the nearest ore vein is only three miles away from Suishui.

Although the coal mines here are not as excellent open-pit coal mines as in some areas, they are not too deep, and they can be dug up seven or eight meters into the ground, which can be regarded as shallow coal mines. According to Dai Yan's speculation, the coal mine here should belong to the Lianghuai mining area in later generations. Most of the coal mines in Lianghuai are buried relatively deep, and he is very lucky to be able to find such shallow coal mines here!

Although the scale of the iron ore found is not large, it is extremely widely distributed here!

Dai Yan didn't understand the method of calculating mineral reserves in later generations, he just walked around the entire vein area casually, and most of the veins were scattered within a radius of dozens of miles. In his opinion, with such an output of minerals, it is enough for Taoqiu to develop for more than ten years without problems.

So he immediately decided to mine here.

And as soon as he returned to Xiangyi City, he was immediately warmly welcomed by the entire Xiangyi officialdom and even the aristocracy.

The entire Xiangyi was desperately trying to please him, which made Dai Yan a little inexplicable: When did I become so popular? Could it be that people have become different after making money?

Xiangyi not only held a grand banquet to welcome Dai Yan, but also invited the best dancing girls from Suiyang to help the fun, and even all powerful families in Xiangyi offered precious gifts to Dai Yan!

Dai Yan was also a little strange when he saw such a scene, his identity was noble, and he didn't want to go around in circles with the other party, so he asked directly: "You offer such a precious gift, but you have something to ask for?" ”

Seeing Dai Yan's straightforward question, Xiangyi Doctor Huan Jie spoke directly: "I do have something to ask Cao Gong for help!" Now that my Xiangyi has been bullied by Chu Man, I am already in danger, this gift is our heart, we hope that Cao Gong can speak for us in the court, so that the king can send an army to defend us against Chu Man! ”

"Chu invasion?" Dai Yan asked suspiciously. Obviously, he still didn't know Xiangyi's embarrassing position in the Song Kingdom, and the predicament he encountered.

So Huan Jie carefully explained for him the origin between Xiangyi and the Yangling of Chu State, and Dai Yan didn't say anything about the hatred between them. However, when Dai Yan heard that the south side of Suishui would often be invaded by the Chu people, his brows also furrowed.

"Cao Gong, what we said is true. If you have looked at the south side of Suishui, you should know that there were traces of farmland there, and it was all fertile land that was reclaimed by us in the past. However, in recent years, the Chu people who raised the tomb have come to us every few months to loot, and most of the villages in Xiangyi have been destroyed by them, and the farmland has also been deserted! Today, there are only five villages left on the south bank of Suishui! Huan Jie said with a sad and indignant face!

Hearing this, Dai Yan was furious: "The Chu people are doing this, this is to encroach on our land!" Not an inch of the land of our Song Kingdom is superfluous! Since I have encountered such a scene today, I will naturally not ignore you.

However, if you want to ask Suiyang for help according to what you said, in my opinion, the effect that can be achieved should not be too great. When it comes to anything, you have to rely on yourself first! I just want to ask you, do you still have the determination to fight the Chu people? ”

One of the nobles immediately spoke: "Gong Cao said this, he really looks down on us!" The Chu people have invaded our land, and we are protecting our homeland, so how can we not have the determination to fight? It's really too big a gap between us and the clan soldiers in the hands of Yang Lingjun, and we can't match each other at all!

As the descendants of Yangyouji, the Chu people in the land of Yangling have practiced archery since they were children, and there are many archers in their hands! These archers have superior bows in their hands, and every time they start a battle, they shoot arrows with great accuracy, and many of our people have died at the hands of the opposing archers! ”

Dai Yan asked suspiciously: "When I fought with Yangling Jun back then, I didn't see how powerful the archers in their hands were?" ”

"This is what Cao Gong doesn't know." Xiangyi Doctor Huan Jie said: "Chu's internal strife is frequent, and the troops in the hands of the feudal lords and nobles represent their power in the country!" Therefore, whenever the army of Chu goes out to fight and the king of Chu needs to mobilize the troops of the local nobles, those nobles only send miscellaneous troops to fight, and the real elites will stay in their fiefdoms and will not be easily dispatched! If you want to really compare, the elite troops in the hands of the feudal lords and nobles will not be inferior to the military soldiers directly under the King of Chu! ”

After receiving such information, Dai Yan was silent for a while, but then he said, "I also understand your situation. If there were only archers in Yangling, it wouldn't be difficult to deal with, and now that I, Taoqiu, have just developed a new weapon, it's more than wrong to deal with those archers! ”

Immediately, Dai Yan ordered his entourage to go to the ship and unload a bed crossbow. He personally led the crowd to observe the power of this new crossbow arrow!

When the nobles of Xiangyi saw that just such a bed crossbow could easily shoot through a wooden shield two hundred meters away, they were all shocked! This distance is already the limit of archery shooting in this era! Doesn't this mean that once they have such a weapon, wouldn't the most threatening archers in Yangling be useless to them?

Dai Yan demonstrated this kind of bed crossbow to them, and then sold them a portable hand crossbow, which was the latest product of the crossbow factory.

After demonstrating the new equipment, Dai Yan said to them: "These equipment are all new weapons that can make your clansmen quickly lethal, I think as long as you have enough weapons, you shouldn't have a problem dealing with Yangling Jun, right?" ”

As soon as he heard that he could get a sufficient number of precision weapons, Dr. Xiangyi immediately thanked Dai Yan and said, "Thank you Cao Gong!" As long as we have these new equipment, we will definitely make Yangling Jun dare not invade my Xiangyi! ”

Dai Yan stopped Huan Jie and said, "Don't be in a hurry to thank me first, although these weapons are produced by me Taoqiu, they don't belong to me." So you have to pay a price to get these weapons.

When I came to Xiangyi this time, I actually had something to ask for. On the other side of the river, there is a black 'stone' that can be used as fuel, I call it coal, and it is very important to my pottery mound! I hope to be able to mine here, get enough coal, and transport it to Taoqiu!

Along with this coal mine, there is also a small amount of iron ore. I would also like to be able to make iron from this place. Whether it is coal mining or ironmaking, I will share it equally with you! ”

After Dai Yan made his purpose and conditions clear, these nobles of Xiangyi immediately agreed to his request. In the eyes of these people, now Tao Qiujun has a request for them, once they form an alliance of interests, and there will be difficulties in the future, can Tao Qiujun really ignore them? With such a powerful backer as Taoqiu, they don't have to worry about being abandoned in the future!

And they can also benefit from the development of this mineral, which is a good thing in one fell swoop!

Subsequently, Dai Yan began to invest heavily in this place and began to invest in preparing for mining.