However, Zheng Yunming wanted to reproduce the glory of the Han Yeping joint enterprise in later generations, and there were both technical and financial difficulties. Needless to say, without steamships, transporting large quantities of ore from Pingxiang and Daye downstream to Hanyang upstream would be a onerous task in itself. In addition, Daye's iron ore is temporarily aside, and the coal mine in Pingxiang County is in Anyuan, which is inland, and the coal mine must be transported out to the wharf in Pingxiang County to be loaded onto ships.

Moreover, only Daye has a certain handicraft industry base in these three places, and the pits and blacksmiths are complete. Hanyang and Pingxiang are now barren handicraft bases, and building them into powerful handicraft bases requires a huge amount of financial support, which can only be done by the imperial court.

Bai Yijie has long known the solutions to these difficulties.

"The reason why the coal mines in Pingxiang have not been developed on a large scale is not because of the dangers of the road or the difficulty of mining, but because the coke method is not widely used in fine steel refining. If the Department of Preparation and the Transshipment Department had been able to recognize this problem and adopt some measures to encourage coal mining, the mining of the Pingxiang Coal Mine would not have much difficulty. ”

"There is no machine, big industry" Zheng Yunming consciously lost his words, and hurriedly changed his words: "I am afraid that the local government will not be able to afford to carry such a large amount of ore by manpower." ”

"You forget, my Song country may be lacking, but there is no shortage of manpower," Bai Yijie gently shook his feather fan: "Every penny increase in the price of coal and iron in the pig iron and coal markets, there will be many unemployed and helpless strong men who will be thrown into the army of ore transportation. How can there be a shortage of people to transport ore? ”

This is where the sorrow of the Great Song Dynasty lies, that is, the fate of Middle Earth for thousands of years after the Great Song Dynasty. When properly managed, people are indeed the best tools of production. He brings his own maintenance, never needs serious maintenance, and can use his brain to solve problems when he encounters problems that cannot be solved. The ease of use is not something that ordinary machines can compare to beauty. Because of this, before the Industrial Revolution, craftsmen everywhere in the world left most of the work done by man, whenever possible. The Industrial Revolution in the British Isles was largely due to the fact that the prices of handicraft products were raised to unimaginable prices after the opening of overseas markets, but the population of Britain itself grew slowly due to colonization. In economic terms, the price of labor has risen to an unacceptable level for businessmen. At the same time, the slave trade was abolished, so it was inevitable that machines would replace manual labor.

The Great Song Dynasty was not strong enough to open up enough markets overseas. The population of the Great Song Dynasty was the most powerful in the world, and naturally there was no need for slaves to compete for employment opportunities. The saturated domestic market and extremely abundant human resources are the ultimate reasons for China's delay in entering the capitalist and industrial society.

There must be an outside hand pushing this well-functioning economic mechanism to collapse from the outside, and then build a new system from the ashes. The former can be done by Mongolia, and the latter must be done by Zheng Yunming, who has turned back a thousand years.

Of course, Zheng Yunming didn't dare to mention this idea to anyone, even for Bai Yijie, whose imagination exceeded Zheng Yunming's prediction, it was probably difficult to understand this kind of unreasonable idea. However, Bai Yijie's argument is indeed worthy of Zheng Yunming's reference, using the Jinghu System to make the administrative advancement, using the manpower of the two lakes and Jiangxi to operate, and once the Hanyeping mining and metallurgical system under the unified management of the Transshipment Department is completed, it will lay a strong material foundation for Zheng Yunming's next operation.

Therefore, when Bai Yijie wrote to Zheng Yunming and proposed to go to Pingxiang County to inspect the local coal resources, Zheng Yunming thought that his plan to revive the economy of the Jinghu area could finally move forward.

Unexpectedly, this became a twist and turn in Bai Yijie's life.

To be precise, it has encountered twists and turns before it arrives in Pingxiang.

Bai Yijie's boat entered Yuanshui from the Yangtze River and went straight to Pingxiang. The trees on both sides of the bank here are verdant, and the birds are singing and the eagles are flying, which is slightly different from the scenery of Jinghu Lake.

When Bai Yijie was sitting on the bow of the boat and stroking the piano to enjoy the scenery, he suddenly heard an urgent cry for help from ahead.

A civilian boat was sandwiched between two paddle boats, and the people on the paddle boats, all masked and carrying large knives, were forcing the passengers on board to jump into the water one by one. According to the black words on the rivers and lakes, this is called "next wonton". This method is much more labor-saving than the "bandao noodles" that kill the river water and bleed one by one, and even if the passengers who are thrown down have good water quality and can swim to the shore, they are just falling into the name of "falling into the water by themselves", and they can't catch the evidence if they want to accuse the strongman.

The captain of the boat saw that there was a strong man ahead, and he was about to turn the bow of the ship and go back. Bai Yijie said with a wry smile: "Where is it too late now!" There will never be only one or two boats for thieves on the river. ”

Sure enough, before his words fell, two rowing boats suddenly came out of the reeds on the shore and rushed to Bai Yijie's seat at a fast speed.

Everyone on the boat had blue veils, scarves and arrow sleeves, and various weapons in their hands, and they shouted, and the two boats sandwiched Bai Yijie's boat in the middle, and someone threw iron claws over and grabbed the side of the ship. Hold the three ships close together.

A strong man with a waist like a bucket and bulging arm muscles rushed onto the boat with a black plate axe and shouted: "Yuanzhou Navy Patrol!" Wait for what is the way, report it quickly! ”

The boy in white got up and shouted, "My son-in-law is"

Bai Yijie hurriedly interrupted him: "Student Bai Yi, a person from Xiangyang, came to Pingxiang County to look for old friends. As he spoke, he motioned for the boy in white to sit down, and said to the big man: "You have something to say, since it is an official and military inspection, why are you masked?" ”

The big man snorted: "It's not your turn to take care of the affairs of Lao Tzu!" Saying that, he danced the axe in his hand, and was about to rummage through Bai Yijie's luggage. The two boys of Qing and Bai hurriedly got up to stop them, but they were stopped by Bai Yijie waving his hand.

The big man opened a few of Bai Yijie's packages and rummaged through them, except for some change of clothes, the four treasures of the study, the Yaoqin plate and some loose money and silver, there was nothing else valuable. He was depressed in his heart, but he saw in a blink of an eye that this scholar was extraordinary, not an ordinary child, and the utensils used were clean and elegant, not to mention that a poor scholar could buy it.

"Since Gongzi is a distinguished guest to our Yuanzhou, the people of Jiangnan can't be rude." He put the axe on his shoulder and said happily, "Someone! Come over and help Gongzi to cross the boat, and ask Gongzi to rest in our water camp for a few days to be entertained! ”

As he spoke, four big men jumped over and held Bai Yijie hostage and turned back to his boat.

The masked man said to the second boy of Qingbai and Bai: "The two of you replied to your master, just say that Bai Gongzi is a guest in the Yuanzhou Water Military Camp, everything is fine, don't worry." ”

This is, of course, an elegant way of saying that the kidnapper and the meat ticket have always had a very special relationship. But whoever has seen some thieves on the market is most reluctant to use rough meat tickets. For fear of damaging a piece of flesh and skin, the ransom will be discounted. Only when the meat ticket is really fiercely resisting will some tough measures be used.

Bai Yijie was put on the thief ship, turned his head and shouted to the two boys: "You go and tell Zheng Gongzi that you don't have to wait for me to come back to repair the house, I will be in Yuanzhou for a few days, and I will naturally go back to him later!" ”

Zheng Yunming listened to Han Feng's 1510 report, and frowned: "Without a military advisor, who am I going to discuss the implementation of the reform policy?" The so-called metaphor of repairing a house is Bai Yijie's argument about the difficulty of reform told Zheng Yunming in Xiangyang, "The ministers of the DPRK and China are divided into two categories, one is a pastemaker, who does some tinkering work on the original house. One was a bricklayer who built a new house from scratch. The two factions have their own reasons, but at present, the house of the government hall is too damaged, and it can no longer withstand the wind and rain from the north only by decorating and pasting, so it has to start from scratch and rebuild a new house with new bricks and tiles. ”

At that time, Zheng Yunming also agreed, but the house had not yet been built, but the bricklayer was tied up first.

He was displeased and said, "These strongmen are too bold!" Blatantly plundering people on the river! The magistrates of Yuanzhou are all puppets and clay sculptures? ”

Yang Yu smiled and said: "You are serious, I am afraid that this water bandit in Yuanzhou is inseparable from the local officers and soldiers." ”

Zheng Yunming's face sank: "Are you saying that their officials and bandits colluded to commit murder on the river during the day?" ”

"It could have been worse." Yang Luo sighed: "I have long heard that there are water and land officials and soldiers pretending to be thieves and killing pedestrians on Jiangxi Road, but I only heard about it along the road, and I have not found out the real evidence. ”

"The thieves are so rampant." Zheng Yunming said angrily: "I immediately revised a letter to Zheng Xianggong of Lin'an, and asked the Privy Council to investigate the bad things in Yuanzhou." ”

"Of course this is a good idea," Yang said, "I'm just afraid that Liu Qianfu will have a different opinion." ”

"This must not be done." Liu Kezhuang bowed his head and wrote a military report about frustration and thieves: "What officialdom wants is to be clear, and it is very taboo to casually put your hand into other people's territory. The official is not an official, and he is a local subject like the officers and soldiers on Jiangxi Road, don't say that you write a private letter to Zheng Xianggong. Even if you send a formal letter to the Privy Council, the Privy Council will not pay attention to you, because it is not the authority of the officials. ”

"But Bai Yijie is lost in Yuanzhou, let's always find a way to save people."

"Kezhuang has three strategies to rescue the military division." Liu Kezhuang said slowly: "Only listen to the son's good choice." ”

Zheng Yunming sat down on the chair and said, "Sir, don't go around the bend, just say what you have to say." ”

"Prepare the ransom and go to redeem the people, this is the best policy."

Zheng Yunming waved his robe sleeves: "How can the dignified national army be forced by bandits, this proposal is not taken!" ”