Led by officials from the Ministry of Industry, Yang Yuanqing walked about ten miles along a mountain range of silver-gray and earthy yellow, where copper and silver ore were clearly exposed to the rocks.

And on the left is a river, called Zuli River water, directly into the Yellow River, the river is several zhang wide, because it is already downstream, the river is quite deep, you can do a thousand stone boats.

Yang Yuanqing pointed to the river with a whip and asked the county lieutenant Zhang Fangnong: "How far is this river from the Yellow River?" Possible sailing? ”

"Back to Your Highness, there are still twenty miles away from the Yellow River, out of this valley, a few miles further forward is Liangchuan County, the county seat is close to the Yellow River, and the river here flows into the Yellow River from next to the county seat."

Speaking of this, Zhang Fangnong picked up a stone and looked at it carefully, handed it to Yang Yuanqing and said with a smile: "When we were children, we liked to come here by boat to 'pick up gold', in fact, it is to pick up copper, Your Highness, this is a piece of natural copper." ”

Yang Yuanqing took the copper block, only to feel that it was heavy, yellow-red, and it was really a piece of natural copper, he nodded and asked, "How much natural copper is like this?" ”

"In the past, there were all over the river beach, but there were more and more people to pick up, and there were fewer and fewer people, but there were still on the mountain, and it is estimated that this piece of copper was rolled down from the mountain."

Yang Yuanqing looked up at the top of the mountain, and secretly thought in his heart, this huge mountain range will be mined for at least a thousand years, which can fully meet the needs of the Great Sui coinage, and he can't wait in his heart.

At this time, they came to a shed made of stones and branches, and more than two dozen smelters were busy, they had come with the army from Lingwu County, and their task was to smelt the ore and check the copper and silver content of the ore here.

Yang Yuanqing turned over and dismounted, approached the shed, in front of the shed stood several officials of the Ministry of Industry, the leader of which was Li Chun, the waiter of the Ministry of Industry, Li Chun was mainly good at construction, but since he served as the waiter of the Ministry of Industry, prospecting and smelting were also under his jurisdiction.

Li Chun hurriedly led several officials to step forward and bow down. "See His Royal Highness the King of Chu!"

"You're glad you guys suffered!"

Yang Yuanqing smiled, walked into the shed, and saw that the craftsmen had built three furnaces to smelt ore, so he smiled and asked, "Is there a finished product?" ”

"Yes!"

Li Chun hurriedly lifted a piece of oilcloth next to him, only to see that there were more than a dozen silver ingots and copper ingots under the tarpaulin, and Yang Yuanqing picked up a silver ingot, about thirty catties, just a thick silver ingot. It needs to be further refined.

Li Chun couldn't hold back the excitement in his heart and said: "The quality of the ore in this area is quite high. Smelters say that it is rare, and the quality of copper ore here is even more than that of Red Iron Mountain, no wonder it is called Longbao Mountain. Sure enough, it lives up to its name. ”

A heartfelt joy also rose from Yang Yuanqing's heart, as if he had seen a shipload of silver and copper ingots transported to Taiyuan, and the currency began to be rich. The resources of the world continued to flow to the Sui Dynasty, and the national strength became stronger and stronger.

This Longbao Mountain Range may be the turning point of the Great Sui to become strong, and he knows very well what it means to have currency, the largest capital.

Although the flame of joy had been lit in his eyes, he still restrained his excitement and said to the officials: "It is still necessary to do more experiments, try to beneficiate and smelt everywhere, and make sure that this is a real rich mine." ”

"Your Highness, please rest assured. The magistrate will definitely handle this matter properly. ”

Yang Yuanqing nodded, and then turned back to Pei Xingyan and said: "Leave two thousand soldiers and one thousand troops to Li Shilang to command, and build a wharf at the foot of the mountain as soon as possible, I hope that within ten days, the wharf construction will be completed, and then the fleet of Lingwu County will arrive and can load the first batch of ore." ”

"The lowly job will definitely be done. It's just that the miners have not yet landed, and for the first time they can be loaded by soldiers, but what about later? ”

This is also a big problem, Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and then ordered: "Go to Liangchuan County!" ”

Five hundred soldiers escorted Yang Yuanqing to Liangchuan County, which was the only county seat in the entire Huining County, more than ten miles away. It is also the seat of Huiyeong-gun.

It is close to the Yellow River and is the only passage connecting the Central Plains and the Western Regions. It has become one of the important towns on the northern route of the ancient Silk Road, known as the 'Cardinal of Qinlong' and known as the 'Famous Yi of Longshang'.

Huining County itself is not big, about more than 2,000 households, except for more than a dozen shorter mountain ranges in the west, along the Yellow River are irrigated agricultural areas, but due to serious desertification, the soil quality is not good, compared with Lingwu County and Wuyuan County in the north, it is too far behind.

Due to the underdevelopment of agriculture, the people of Huining County are generally poor, and only a few merchants are living well.

Yang Yuanqing led his own soldiers to rush into the county seat like a gust of wind, the county seat was dilapidated and low, the roads were rammed unrealistically, and the cavalry rushed over, and the sky was full of dust.

The best buildings in the county are the county government and the county government, the two yamen are next to each other, at this time the red and white flag of the Tang Dynasty in front of the yamen has been lowered, replaced by the red flag of the Great Sui.

Yang Yuanqing's war horse stopped in front of the county office, and immediately instructed the county lieutenant Zhang Fangnong, "Go and call the county commander and the county Cheng together." ”

Zhang Fangnong rushed away, at this time, the Taishou of Huining County also heard the news, the Taishou of Huining County was surnamed Xu, called Xu Zhiyuan, a middle-aged man in his forties, but he knew Yang Yuanqing.

He was originally one of the six counties of Guanbei Dioyin County Taishou, in the ninth year of the Great Cause, he was forced to sign a joint defense treaty with Yang Yuanqing of the six counties of Guanbei, so that the six counties of Guanbei were annexed by Fengzhou, when Yang Guang was angry, many officials of the six counties of Guanbei were transferred, this Xu Zhiyuan was also demoted to Huining County, and was promoted to Taishou by the Tang Dynasty last year.

Xu Zhiyuan recognized Yang Yuanqing, and he was so frightened that he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed down, "The lowly will Ning Taishou Xu Zhiyuan see His Royal Highness the King of Chu!" ”

Yang Yuanqing also recognized him, and couldn't help laughing, "It turned out to be you, Xu Taishou, don't come unharmed!" “

Xu Zhiyuan smiled bitterly, "Your Highness, we haven't seen each other for four or five years, Your Highness is still majestic, and his demeanor has not diminished back then." ”

Yang Yuanqing laughed, "You are not bad, you are getting younger and younger, I have something to meet with you today, bring Changshi and Sima here, and they will come over soon with the county order, I have something important." ”

"Humble and understood, Your Highness, please come with me!"

Xu Zhiyuan invited Yang Yuanqing into the county government hall, Changshi and Sima came to see Yang Yuanqing together, and the county commander also rushed to the county office.

The population of Huining County is not large, but there are many officials, and there is a feeling that the sparrows are small and have all the organs, but compared with Hedong County, the officials here are obviously much shabby.

In Hedong, thrift was advocated, and the officials deliberately wore official uniforms made of fine linen, but their faces were all red and white, and they were all white and fat, but the officials of Huining County had to wear hemp official robes, and most of them had bad complexions, dark faces, and they all looked very thin and thin, just like desert dry corpses that were too windy and sandy and gradually lost their moisture.

More than a dozen local officials gathered together, and their expressions were quite nervous, after all, it was the lord of the Great Sui who held a meeting with these low-level petty officials, and they were also Tang officials.

Yang Yuanqing sat on the main seat, he felt the nervousness of everyone, so he waved his hand and smiled: "Everyone be natural, you are already an official in Huining County, where else can I demote you?" ”

The implication is that they are already officials in the worst place, and there should be nothing to be afraid of, and this cold joke made everyone have a wry smile on their faces.

Yang Yuanqing said to Xu Zhiyuan again: "Xu Taishou will talk about the population and food situation in the county first. ”

Xu Zhiyuan stood up and said: "I will first report to Your Highness, Huining County currently has a total population of 5,000 households, about 30,000 people, most of whom live by the Yellow River, the land here is barren, the yield is not high, and the grain output can only barely make ends meet, but the geographical location of this county is more important, and there is an endless stream of merchants in Hexi and the Western Regions, and many people in the county rely on commerce to make a living. ”

There were only more than 30,000 people, Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and asked, "How many young people are there?" I mean men over the age of sixteen and under the age of fifty. ”

Changshi got up and said: "I'll answer this question, two months ago, I just counted that there are about 9,500 people in Qingzhuang. ”

Yang Yuanqing was slightly disappointed by this number, so he told the officials present his plan, "I have decided to go all out to dig the copper and silver mines in the Longbao Mountain Range, but there are not enough miners, so I plan to recruit miners in Huining County, let's see, how many people can be recruited at most?" ”

The officials looked at each other, it turned out that they were going to recruit miners, this kind of hard work was not so easy to recruit, everyone knew it, but no one said anything.

Yang Yuanqing saw that everyone was embarrassed, and no one refused to speak, so he smiled and said: "Everyone can speak freely, what are the difficulties?" Don't have any worries. ”

The county commander Han Jin stood up and arched his hand: "Your Highness, say a few words from your humble position!" ”

"Han County Commander said, don't have any worries."

"Don't hide it from Your Highness, we don't have any concerns, but things are a little difficult to do, mainly related to the folk customs here, there are three strange things in Huining County, one is to sell melons and fruits as food, saying that the melons and fruits here have a large output, and the grain output is small, the second is that the boat is faster than riding a horse, this is mainly convenient to take a boat, and you have to rent horses while riding a horse, the cost is very expensive, if it is a distant family, everyone is willing to take a boat. The third blame is that the man is the housekeeper, and the woman is outside, which means that the men in Huining County are more homesick, like to guard the country, and refuse to go far away, in fact, in other words, the men here are lazy and like to rely on women. ”

Han County's order said a lot, but Yang Yuanqing didn't understand what he meant, "What does Han County's order mean?" ”

Han Xian Ling smiled bitterly and said: "The meaning of the humble position is that it is not easy to recruit miners, in fact, the key depends on what price His Highness offers." ”

Yang Yuanqing sighed and said: "I need 20,000 miners, of which 10,000 can I use prisoners of war, and the other 10,000 will be recruited from the local area, so I plan to recruit 10,000 young men as miners at a high price. ”

After Yang Yuanqing finished speaking, Taishou Xu Zhiyuan laughed first, "If His Royal Highness is willing to offer this price, then I guarantee that not only the people of Huining County will enthusiastically sign up, but also the people of Pingliang County will also attract them. ”