The next day, Zhao Ning arrived at Lantian Mountain. He had been to this place a few times before, but it was only to go to his own medicine field, and it was the first time he had come to the amethyst mine.

As one of the core industries of the Liu family in the past, although the scale of the amethyst mine was not particularly large, with no more than 1,000 miners, the value of the amethyst produced was extraordinary, and it was almost impossible to measure with gold and silver.

Therefore, the buildings in the mining area are very strong, with city walls, arrow towers, and moats all available, and it is a well-defended city.

On weekdays, there are not only the private soldiers of the Liu clan here, but also many Yuan Shen Realm commanders, but anyone who is not from the Liu clan rushes to approach, they will be scolded and driven away, and their lives will be threatened.

On the mountainside, Zhao Ning looked at the towering city gate in front of him, feeling happy. In any case, from now on, this place belongs to the Zhao family. The banner at the head of the city has been replaced, and the Zhao cultivators have taken control of the city defense.

Under the guidance of the clansmen, Zhao Ning walked into the city gate, and the first thing he saw was the many miners gathered in the clearing.

Most of these people came from Xinxiang Township, wearing cotton clothes blackened by mud and miners' hats similar to corrugated hats, their faces were covered with dust and mud, because it was time to eat, and many of them were still holding huge rice bowls, and their expressions were honest.

Seeing Zhao Ning coming in, the miners all stepped forward, bent down and saluted, their faces were quite eager and close.

Zhao Ning frowned slightly, he didn't order these miners to come to greet him, and was about to question, when the manager of the new mine who followed him hurriedly explained: "Everyone heard that Gongzi was coming, and they took the initiative to gather here to greet him......

"After the families of the victims of the mine accident who went to Jingzhao Mansion came back with a large amount of silver, our reputation of being the master of the people and relieving the suffering spread in Xinxiang Township, and everyone now regards us as the master of the blue sky......

I see, Zhao Ning nodded.

At this time, an old miner in front of the crowd, who should be a respected member of the miner Reed, plucked up the courage to take a few steps forward, and bowed to Zhao Ning again and again, "If it weren't for the Zhao family to make decisions for us, those orphans and widows who have no pillars of the family and no compensation will die of starvation in this cold winter."

"The old man was not in good health and had not worked in the mine anymore, but the old man's only son died in the mining disaster, leaving behind a pair of young children and a frail daughter-in-law...... Seeing that the rice tank at home was about to bottom out, the old man was helpless, so he could only drag the old crippled body down the well again.

"Fortunately, the Zhao family administers justice for us, so that the old man also recovers his son's compensation, now it's good, five hundred taels, enough for the child to grow up, and the old man doesn't have to die of exhaustion in the mine that doesn't see the light of day......"

The old man, with a sallow face and a slightly rickety back, was not in very good health, and when he said these words, he coughed twice, and once coughed as if he was about to spit out the lobes of his lungs.

Zhao Ning could see at a glance that this old man had already suffered from tuberculosis because he had worked in the mine all the year round and had inhaled too much dust, and he had not lived for a few years.

With such physical conditions, to be able to be accepted into the mine by the Liu clan again, he must be experienced and skilled, outstanding in some aspects, and he is also an excellent person, and at the same time, he may indeed die in the mine.

Zhao Ning held the old man who was about to salute again, and looked at the other miners, these people were in good spirits, especially looking at his eyes, they all seemed to see the hope that life would get better and better.

Probably in their minds, a family that will take more than 100 families of the victims of the mine accident to the capital to sue the emperor and help them win justice is worthy of their hope.

How could these ordinary people and low-level civilians think that the reason why the Zhao clan did this before was not because they had mercy on them, but because this incident had a great effect on bringing down the Liu clan.

This is a power struggle at the top.

How the people at the bottom live, the upper elites don't really care. If they do something that is beneficial to the people, it is conducive to the consolidation of their position by the elite group and the victory of the power struggle, they will choose this way.

When the power struggle is over, everything will return to square one. The upper elite is still the upper elite, the ruling class, and the common people at the bottom are still the common people at the bottom, the objects of the wealth that are ruled and exploited, and they are struggling to live.

A moment later, Zhao Ning arrived in the lobby, and according to his instructions, the mine steward took the account book, handed it to him for a look, and gave him a brief introduction to the situation as the heir to the head of the family.

"The annual output of the mine is 350,000 catties of amethyst, of which the low-grade amethyst accounts for about 60 percent, the middle grade amethyst is about 30 percent, and the upper grade is 1 percent. As for the best amethyst stone, it is very good to have a few hundred catties every year. ”

The manager 1510 said, "Now in the mine and the Liu workshop in Xinxiangxiang, there are four months of amethyst stock, that is, about 100,000 catties, and most of them have not been finely processed. ”

Zhao Ning waved his hand to signal the steward to sit down and said, he looked through the account books for a while, and after understanding the general situation, he fell into deep thought.

The manager said that the output is "amethyst" rather than "amethyst", the former is the product of the latter's preliminary processing, which can already be used, and the annual output of 350,000 catties is quite a lot in terms of the cherishing degree of amethyst.

It's just that amethyst itself is very valuable, even if it is a low-grade amethyst, it is also very precious and will not be used directly. Generally, it will be transported to Liu's workshop in Xinxiang Township, and then finely processed again, and then sold for the production of Fu Bing.

There are many materials for making runes, and different types of runes of different grades require different materials, but no matter what kind of runes, as long as they are integrated with amethyst, the quality can be greatly improved.

Because amethyst can withstand more complex rune arrays, increasing the power of true qi.

A military standard rune knife, if it uses amethyst as the carrier of the core rune array, it will be able to increase the lethality by two percent!

This is a great improvement in the combat power of cultivators, and when it comes to fighting with life, it is the difference between life and death!

Of course, it does not mean that with amethyst, there are runes that are stronger than others. The production of talismans is related to all aspects, such as manufacturing skills, talisman skills, and so on.

But there is no doubt that amethyst ore is the foundation industry of the Liu family, and the income that the Liu family has obtained from the amethyst mine, I don't know how many strong people have been cultivated for them, and it is precisely because of the amethyst mine that the Liu family can become a family of mendi.

Zhao Ning sought amethyst ore, of course, not to sell amethyst in exchange for other resources, what he wanted was the effect of amethyst to enhance the power of runes.

In the early autumn of next year, before the outbreak of the Grassland War, he must provide a large number of powerful talismans for the cultivators of the Zhao clan and the Yanmen Army. Use the update of the runes to improve everyone's combat power, in order to achieve unexpected results on the battlefield and win key battles.

"The 100,000 catties of amethyst in the warehouse were finely processed on the spot, and then all of them were transported to my Zhao Fu Soldier Workshop...... How much time will it take?" Zhao Ning asked the steward.

"About a month and a half. The steward thought for a moment and replied.

The fine processing of amethyst takes time, and after it is transported to the Zhao Clan's rune workshop, it also takes time to make new runes or transform existing ones, and the latter will inevitably take much longer. In about half a year, the number of upgraded runes is limited.

"A month. Zhao Ning gave his own requirements, "How many more people need to be added, calculate a number and report it to me, and I will transfer it to you from the clan." ”

The fine processing of amethyst can only be done by cultivators, so it is not advisable to recruit the people of the new township, and Zhao Ning can only be drawn from the family.

It is the end of the year, there are a lot of affairs in the clan, and the clansmen are very busy, but for the sake of family and country affairs, Zhao Ning must choose this way, and if there is any problem, he can only let Zhao Xuanji come forward to solve it.

After staying in the mine for half a day, Zhao Ning left in the afternoon, today is a day off, and tomorrow he has to go to the Duwei Mansion on an errand, so he needs to return to Yanping City earlier.

Out of the city gate, Zhao Ning pondered for a moment, and said to the steward who sent him off: "The wages of the miners are redefined to ensure that a miner can make a family of three have no worries about food and clothing, and if someone has tuberculosis, they will be treated in time." ”

"Don't worry, Childe, I'll do it. The steward agreed very simply, although the Zhao family is not a Bodhisattva temple, but it is a good family with a pure family style, and it has never been exploited by people and men, "but tuberculosis is a disease that is not easy to cure......

"Regularly check the health of the miners, treat them in time when the symptoms are mild and can be treated, and let them leave if they are not in a good condition and cannot continue to work in the mine - just pay them more.

"At the end of the day, they're doing things for us, and they can't let them end up, we have to let them leave the mine and live a good life. Zhao Ning's voice was firm.

Once the miners elsewhere heard about the situation here, they also made similar requests to the mines where they were located, saying that it would not cause dissatisfaction among other families with various mines, and even maliciously attacked the Zhao family, saying that the Zhao family bought people's hearts......

Zhao Ning knew the consequences, but the matter would not be so serious, after all, it was just a mine, involving more than a thousand people.

Thinking of the situation in his previous life when Daqi was ten rooms and nine empty in the war, and the corpses of the people were piled up for thousands of miles, he felt that he should do what he could, and some problems were nothing.

"Yes. "The steward should be undertaken.

Back in Yanping City, Zhao Ning went directly to the Zhao family's rune soldier workshop, learned some information on the spot, and wanted to judge how many runes the workshop could make and transform before the early autumn of next year.

"According to the practice of the clan, the workshop produces 3,000 low-level runes and 500 middle-level runes every year. This is what Zhao Ning has learned.

Most of these talismans are sold, and a small number are used by family members. Because the strength of the Zhao clan is the elixir, the output of Fu soldiers is not much.

After inquiry, Zhao Ning learned that the existing 100,000 catties of amethyst stone could also make a thousand talismans.

100,000 catties of amethyst, it sounds like a lot, but it's really not much, this thing is very massive, there are dozens of catties in the palm of the big sphere, and after refining, it will appear smaller when it is melted into the runes.

Of course, the mine is still in operation, and there will be a continuous supply of amethyst in the future.

Zhao Ning asked the Fu Bing Workshop to make corresponding preparations, and the manpower and equipment were vacated first, and when the amethyst stone arrived, he would start work immediately, without delaying a little time.

At this point, there is only one problem left for the production of runes.