Shan County, Yuanshan County, Crooked Mountain Iron Mine.

This iron mine, which is "controlled" by the local Baron Huang, has already become the star of the entire Yuanshan County in the past year or so. From the governor Han Sangui and the various forces in the county town to the city guards of Hongyuan Mansion, they all paid attention to this iron mine that would soon be transferred to their hands.

In the past year, the convoy loaded with a large amount of high-quality iron ore and transported to the south has made all those who pay attention to the Crooked Head Mountain Iron Mine red-eyed. If it weren't for the fact that the Songjiang Army behind them was too strong, and the forces of Yuanshan County alone could not compete, and the remaining city guards would not dare to intervene, they would have wanted to take advantage of it a long time ago. Fortunately, Song Jiangjun and Chen Wu short-sightedly made an appointment with them for a year.

Although some time had already passed, under their repeated urging, the Ankang Chamber of Commerce and the local Baron Huang, which were secretly controlled by the Songjiang Army, finally expressed their intention to fulfill the agreement.

Many of the forces in Yuanshan County, which were already impatient, but did not dare to come out in chaos, could finally settle down.

Witnessed by a large number of leaders and faces in Yuanshan County, the two sides officially handed over at the best restaurant in Shanxian County on this day at the end of October. The Ankang Chamber of Commerce will fully withdraw from the Crooked Mountain Iron Mine within a week, as the price for the Songjiang Army to give up the mining right four years in advance, the Yuanshan County forces led by Han Sangui and others must pay 600,000 gold coins at one time!

Even if this money is shared among many people, it cannot be regarded as a small amount, but none of the forces that can participate in the shares are distressed or dissatisfied.

Although the Matsue Army never publicly stated that this was a large ore vein, according to the intelligence they gathered from various sources. Even some miners who mine inside. All of them prove this. Be optimistic. It is possible to continue mining for more than a decade or even decades.

Compared to the huge wealth hidden in the Crooked Head Mountain, these gold coins are not worth mentioning!

The people of the Songjiang Army were very happy, and even though they were strongly reluctant to give up when the formalities were delivered, they still withdrew from the Crooked Mountain Iron Mine very simply after taking the money. It didn't even take a week, it took only three days. However, the forces of the Harayama County, which had become red-eyed in the past year, were more efficient than the Matsue Army. The people here only left on the front foot, and they drove in the iron ore half a day later. Can't wait to resume production.

Seeing the baskets of iron ore piled up, the excited forces couldn't wait to hold a celebratory drinking party that night. According to unreliable sources, Han Sangui even openly declared at the reception that "this is a great victory against the expansion of the Songjiang Army"!

It's just that during the carnival, no one noticed that the baron of the Huang family packed up his family property and left his hometown where he had lived for many years with the personnel evacuated from the Ankang Chamber of Commerce, preparing to move to Dengzhou.

The reason is simple, the remaining reserves of the Crooked Mountain iron ore mine are not much. Although it is impossible for Chen Wu to accurately estimate the exact date, it can be as little as a few weeks, and as much as a month or two. The last bit of iron ore on the surface of Crooked Head Mountain will be mined. By that time, the Songjiang military family had a great cause. I'm not afraid that the people of Yuanshan County will dare to play tricks, but Baron Huang can't. Han Sangui and the others were furious, and most of them would vent their anger with this little baron.

If you don't pull him when you know what you can, it will inevitably chill the hearts of your subordinates!

………

A worthless waste mine, easily exchanged for 600,000 gold income, is undoubtedly a very cost-effective business. Moreover, Songjiang Jun has a statement first, and this deal is also forcibly requested by the other party, even if he finds out that he was fooled soon, he has no way to blame Songjiang Jun's cheating people.

Blame can only blame, they have their own ideas back, eyes and no beads!

For Chen Wu at the moment, this is just a small episode, a plan that has been arranged a year ago. After seeing the report from his subordinates, he tossed it aside. What really needs to be paid attention to is the source of iron ore in Songjiang after there is no Crooked Mountain Iron Mine.

This, like food, Chen Wu has actually been prepared for a long time.

It has to be said that the advantage of a traverser is too great. Especially after thirteen more years in the game, and countless players participating in the transformation of this world, he can know many secrets that no one in this world has yet discovered.

For example, the Asahikawa Domain on the Cook Islands!

The Cook Islands were home to the Dongyi pirates, as well as the coastal counties of the empire. But for this isolated island chain, there are few who are really familiar with it.

According to the statistics of players in the game, the total area of the Cook Islands is close to one county, roughly between the area of Ninghai and Songjiang Army. However, due to the barren place and years of war, the island was divided into dozens of large and small forces, and the Dongyi people on the island were extremely poor, and the population was only less than one million.

Among them, the Asahikawa Domain is one of the many powers in the Cook Islands, which is roughly located in the southeast of the Cook Islands, with an area of only one-third the size of Yuyang Prefecture, and a population of about 50,000 or 60,000 people. No matter how desperate the army is, there are only more than 1,000 full-time samurai that the Asahikawa Domain can afford.

But within a radius of a hundred miles nearby, this is already a very weak force!

Of course, if it was just like that, it would be nothing to worry about for Chen Wu. After all, the Cook Islands are a simple island chain, and apart from a little geographical value, there are few decent resources in the barren islands. If Chen Wu achieves great things in the future, he may not mind sending troops to take it down, but at the moment, Chen Wu only needs to seize the territory of the Asahikawa Domain.

As for the reason, I think many people have already thought of it.

That's right, the Asahikawa Domain's territory has a staggering amount of iron ore, which is one of only three in the Cook Islands. The other two iron ore mines in the middle of the Cook Island chain are ordinary iron ores with small reserves and relatively large mining difficulties. Only this iron mine of the Asahikawa Domain is a large mine that is large enough for thousands of miners to continue mining for twenty years!

Although this iron mine is not enough to completely meet the needs of the Songjiang Army, it can at least become the largest source of iron ore in Songjiang County for a long time in the future. Supplemented by transactions with various forces within the empire, it can ensure the peace of mind of the Matsue Army's iron mines.

This is the easiest iron mine for Chen Wu to come and go.

Looking around the three counties of Songjiang, Yanyun County in the north is the territory of the eldest prince and the Song family, and it is almost impossible to turn against him until the final battle for hegemony in the world. Although the Kingdom of Oman also has iron ore mines in the south, most of them are in the hinterland. In the Red River Valley and Chiang Mai Plain, there are only Hung Kai coal mines and copper mines. However, it is too difficult to fight all the way to the hinterland of the Omanis and let this land of seven counties fall into ruin.

No matter how you look at it, only Asahikawa Iron Mine is the best to seek.

It hangs in solitary straits, not the Empire's traditional sphere of influence. Although the Lena people in the north were capable, the Cook Islands were too poor, and the forces inside were not afraid of death, and they did not know the storage of the Asahikawa iron mines. As long as Chen Wu sent a sailor to land in the Asahikawa Domain and defeat this small force with only more than a thousand samurai, it would be within reach.

In addition to solving the factor of iron ore coming to help, the development of the Asahikawa mine also has the advantage of absorbing labor, which indirectly reduces the number of ronins who run to the shores of the empire to become pirates because they can't eat!

And the current Chen Wu also happens to have such an ability and environment.

If you want to make a move on Cook Island, a strong sailor is essential. Not only must they be able to land across the sea, but they must also be in case of the Lena people's ocean sailors and the empire's East China Sea divisions getting the news and coming to make trouble in the future. But fortunately, the two parties themselves will contain each other, and it is unlikely that they will mess around unscrupulously. After the expansion, the Ninghai Division already has the ability to initially escort the enemy. And the location of the Asahikawa Domain in the Cook Islands determined that it was more favorable to Chen Wu!

Aside from the naval division, if you want to develop the Asahikawa Domain, you need the Matsue Army to be stationed there for a long time.

Previously, the three counties of Songjiang were under pressure from the Omanis, and it was impossible to send troops overseas for a long time. But after the victory of the Second Tiannan War, there was no need to worry about the threat from the south for a long time. Whether it is from the external environment, the timing or its own ability, it is ripe to make a move on the Asahikawa Domain.

As the time entered November, after the Songjiang Army and Tiannan Army Divisions on leave regrouped and resumed training, the Ninghai Division also ended its rest period and began a new round of unified maintenance of the sea ships after the Chengxi landing battle. At the request of Chen Wu, Shi Liang, the admiral of the naval division, personally rode to Dengzhou.

When he came, he thought that Chen Wu had summoned him to inquire about the situation of the Chengxi landing battle, and he had already thought about how to report it, as well as the various problems and shortcomings revealed in this battle, and even how to carry out the next step of training. However, after the actual meeting, Chen Wu only talked about this aspect of the problem slightly, and then focused on other aspects.

"Admiral, do you know anything about the route from Ninghai to Cook Island?"

The first question that took the initiative made Shi Liang startled.

While pondering the meaning of Chen Wu's question, he said, "Although Weichen doesn't understand, there are naturalized Haikou recruited in our sailors. I heard that the leader of the Black Shark Regiment is also a person from the Governor, and they must know about this route. ”

After receiving an affirmative reply from the other party, Chen Wu nodded with satisfaction, and directly told the other party of his attempt: "I want to attack Cook Island!" ”

"Huh!?"

This abrupt decision was so shocking that Shi Liang didn't react for a while, and cried out out in a gaffe.

There is no shortage of territory in any country. Even if it doesn't seem valuable at the moment, there's nothing wrong with taking it first. But the Cook Islands are different, except for some seafood and fishery, there are hardly any decent resources. Coupled with the fact that the land on the island is barren and sparsely populated, the forces are divided and fighting each other, and it is really worth the loss to capture it.

Braving the sea storm in the eastern ocean, sacrificing a large number of soldiers to fight in the huge risk, and finally having to put food in it to feed the Dongyi people on the island, and get nothing, why bother? (To be continued.) )