In a mine in Crescent Mountain, on the outskirts of Laizhou Prefecture, hundreds of miners are busy coming in and out of several mines, each carrying a huge basket with pieces of black ore piled up on their backs.

After they walked out of the entrance of the mine, they took turns to come to Jiang Laohan standing at the entrance of the cave to receive a bamboo stick, a bamboo stick here is a penny of silver, which is not a low salary at present, and a penny of silver is enough for a family of five.

Jiang Laohan, who is in his fifties this year, was originally just an ordinary old hunter in a small village at the foot of Crescent Mountain, and his good life has come since he discovered a strange ore here the year before last. As a meritorious person who accompanied the huge man to discover the ore himself, he was assigned a very leisurely but well-paid position as a foreman in this mine.

Jiang Laohan cherishes his current job very much, and in the past two years, he has personally supervised the miners here every day, rain or shine, but Jiang Laohan has been in a very bad mood since then, because he found that the mines here are about to run out.

Yes, the tungsten ore here is about to be exhausted, this is not unfounded, but the fact that he has seen it with his own eyes, in the past, the miners here could mine nearly 500 catties of ore from here every day, but now it is good to be able to mine 100 catties per day. Jiang Laohan quickly reported the situation to the Laizhou government, and the government quickly sent experienced old miners to check, and the old miners gave them a very bad news after reading it, that is, the tungsten ore here is about to be mined out, at best, it can be mined for another half a year.

"What? Is the tungsten ore in Laizhou running out? ”

This news like a thunderbolt on a sunny day suddenly blinded Pang Gang, this news made Pang Gang feel dizzy for a while, Pang Gang's career can develop to this day, to a large extent, it depends on his mutated "Modern Weapons Encyclopedia", and the reason why this mutated book can cash out a lot of things including battleships, armor, Mini rifles, and Mini bullets almost all rely on tungsten ore, iron ore and wood.

Iron ore and timber not to mention him, this thing is a lot, but tungsten ore is really a rare thing, although Huaxia is a big tungsten ore country, but now the problem is that people are not aware of the role and value of tungsten ore at all, naturally no one knows where there is this thing, without this thing Pang Gang's mutation book will become a rootless duckweed, without tungsten ore Mini rifles, warships, and gunpowder and other things can not be cashed, which means not to mention the army expansion plan that has just been prepared, If you don't know, Pang Gang's existing huge soldiers and horses will collapse with a bang.

"No, we must find the source of tungsten ore again within half a year, otherwise everything will be over!"

If someone were standing in the study at this time, they would find that Pang Gang's face was so terrifying and hideous at this moment.

Pang Gang immediately found a map of the Ming Dynasty and began to rummage through the map, and finally his eyes fell on the territory of Jiangxi.

Although Pang Gang of later generations is not an expert in mineral deposits, nor has he studied the origin of mineral deposits, but in the era of news explosion, he still knows some things, he still remembers that when he used to study geography, the geography teacher also talked about tungsten ore, and he vaguely remembered that China's tungsten ore reserves are stable in the world, accounting for 71% of the reserves. The first discovery of tungsten ore in China was discovered in 1907 by a foreigner from Germany or France in a place called Dayu County, Jiangxi, and it seemed to be in the newspapers at that time.

"Jiangxi!"

Looking at this place in Jiangxi, the look in Pang Gang's eyes was extremely complicated, this province belongs to one of the major tax provinces of the imperial court, although it is not as good as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but the annual tax paid is at least about one million, if Jiangsu is moved, will Chongzhen fight with himself? Although Pang Gang was not afraid of those officers and soldiers of the imperial court, he also did not want Li Zicheng and Manchu Qing to stab him in the back when he and the imperial court were in a fierce fight, and that would definitely not be pleasant.

But if you don't occupy Jiangxi and wait until the small tungsten mine in Laizhou is dug up, then you will be really dumbfounded, do you really want to let your sergeants pick up knives and guns to play with the enemy again? Although he is not afraid, he can let the army that has been accustomed to firearms switch to cold weapons again, which is not a small blow to the morale of the army, and even if he lets the army switch to cold weapons again, but the sailors, if they want to rely on their real strength to build a navy that dominates the South Seas and even the world, I am afraid that they will not be able to do it until they are white-headed.

"No, the source of tungsten ore must not be interrupted, even if it is a big fight with the imperial court, it is necessary to quickly occupy Jiangxi, as long as there is a steady stream of tungsten ore support, even if the Tartars, Liukou and the imperial court come to attack Lao Tzu at the same time, they can also beat them back, even if Henan and Hubei are broken, as long as Shandong and Jiangxi can be saved, they are not afraid."

Looking at Jiangxi Province on the map, Pang Gang secretly made up his mind.

"Tuk Tuk"

Just as Pang Gang was secretly making up his mind, a knock came in on the door.

"Come in!"

The door was opened, and Wei Manyao, who was dressed in a lake-colored satin jacket, walked in, she brought in a letter and handed it to Pang Gangdao, "Lord Wang, this is an official letter jointly sent by Huayan and Heitie, and the matter inside is quite urgent, you can take a look first." ”

Pang Gang opened the envelope and looked at it quickly, with a sneer on his face, "These rogues dare to constantly provoke us, and they really regard our patience as weakness, it seems that if they don't teach them a lesson, they don't know how many eyes Lord Ma has?" ”

Seeing that Pang Gang had plans to make a move, Wei Manyao said with some worry: "Lord Wang, didn't you say that we should be patient for the time being at this stage, and wait for the rogues to get into a mess with the court and the Tartars, and then we will fish in troubled waters, so that we can receive the greatest benefits?" ”

Pang Gang sighed lightly and said with a wry smile: "That's what I said before, but the plan can't catch up with the changes after all,"

"Lord Wang, what's going on?"

As Pang Gang's pillow person, Wei Manyao knew that something must have happened when she saw the look on Pang Gang's face, otherwise Pang Gang would not have changed the established strategic policy so rashly.

Pang Gang shook his head, so he said calmly: "It's nothing, it's just that I've decided to march to Jiangxi." ”

"What, occupy Jiangxi?" Wei Manyao's face changed, and she said hurriedly: "Lord Wang, don't be confused, Liu Zongmin has just been driven out of Jiangxi by those people in Jiangnan, and it is not a good thing for you to plug in a jar at this time." ”

Wei Manyao's worries are very reasonable, some time ago Liu Zongmin, who was carried away by the victory, rushed into the rich Jiangxi with an army of more than 100,000 troops, occupied two state capitals, and he still implemented the three-light policy there, and finally angered all the gentry in Jiangnan, in less than a month, they organized a huge army of volunteers to fight to the death with Liu Zongmin, and finally Liu Zongmin, who suffered heavy losses, had to run back to Hunan in disgrace.

Jiangnan is different from other places, the gentry here are very tenacious and huge, and any individual or force that provokes them will be attacked by them frantically.

Wei Manyao's words made sense, but Pang Gang, who has always been kind, said categorically as if he hadn't heard Wei Manyao's words this time: "We must occupy Jiangxi, this issue cannot be discussed." ”

Pang Gang rejected Wei Manyao's proposal with just one sentence, Wei Manyao was very surprised by such arbitrariness, but she was a very smart woman, as soon as she heard her husband's resolute tone, she knew that he had made up his mind at this time, so she stopped talking, she nodded very smartly and said, "Okay, then who are you going to send to attack Jiangxi?" It's not okay if there are fewer soldiers. ”

Pang Gang thought for a while, "This time, let's send Cheng Kai's Third Army, Bin Shiqian's Fourth Army and Weijiang's Fifth Army, let's fight big this time, not only Jiangxi, but also Hunan." ”

"Even Hunan fights?" Wei Manyao was startled at first, but later understood, since it had been decided to move to the south, a sheep was put in a group of sheep, and even Hunan was recovered by holding grass and beating rabbits.

"But Lord Wang, if we send three legions of 60,000 people at once, there won't be many troops in Shandong, if so"

Wei Manyao's words were not finished, but Pang Gang understood what she meant, although he has an army of 100,000 now, but there are 20,000 soldiers and horses in Henan, and 10,000 in Hubei, if another 60,000 troops are sent, there are almost less than 10,000 soldiers and horses in Shandong, which is almost empty, and if something happens, it will be very passive.

However, Pang Gang seemed very free and easy at the moment, and waved his big hand and said: "What are you afraid of, if the soldiers are gone, you can recruit them again, didn't Kong Lin earn more than 8 million taels of silver for us, these silver are enough for us to recruit another 200,000 troops, and the three-legged toad is not easy to find in the first few years, and the two-legged person is not easy to find?" If we don't have enough food, we will buy it, and if we don't have enough weapons, we will build it, Li Zicheng, a poor bastard, can gather hundreds of thousands of troops with his bare hands, I don't believe that I can't! ”

With Pang Gang's decision, the army originally distributed throughout Shandong immediately took action, and within half a month, three legions and 60,000 troops gathered outside Qingzhou City one after another to take the oath.

This year is February 27 of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Pang Gang gathered 60,000 troops and officially marched south, to recover Jiangxi and Hunan provinces in one fell swoop.

Li Zicheng and Chongzhen soon received the news, and after receiving the news, the two sides began to be in a hurry, Li Zicheng hurriedly ordered Liu Zongmin to speed up the pace of retreat, and then hurry up to transport things back to Shaanxi at the same time to see if they could scrape the ground in Hunan again.

Chongzhen was shocked and strictly ordered Jiangxi Governor Mao Sichang to immediately reorganize his army and fight, and he must hold Jiangxi, and in this way, the war broke out

(To be continued)