Three rainy seasons? That was three years ago.

At that time, the warship of the Ming Dynasty had not yet been launched.

Europe has already built ironclad ships, at this time, Zhu Gaoxian wants to go to the beach as soon as possible, but he has other questions, "Do you have anyone here to strike iron?" That's it. ”

Zhu Gaoxian picked up a knife, and the snow-white blade reflected in the cold light in Alexis's eyes, and he fell back in fright, as if the knife was going to cut his neck.

After Hasan translated, Alexis thought for a moment and said, "Yes, but it's not that good. ”

Zhu Gaoxian put the knife into the scabbard and threw it at Alexis, "It's for you, go, take us to have a look." ”

Through the introduction, Zhu Gaoxian learned that the Bangjialun people are still nomads, but they will have a fixed nomadic location, and this is where they will stay from September to December.

They are all nomadic people, but the climate and environment here are much better than those in northern China, and they are still living by water and grass, but the people here are mainly gathering and hunting, and they are chasing water and grass because the prey is also born by water and grass, strictly speaking, they are chasing prey.

Alexis was very happy to get the delicate knife, and when he passed through the tribe, he deliberately held it in his hand, and put the blade into the scabbard for a while, and took it out for a while, and when he saw the envious eyes of the young people of the tribe, he was very proud, as if he had been crowned king.

The man who made the iron for the tribe was an old blacksmith, and like all old blacksmiths, he had an apprentice who usually helped him with a sledgehammer.

When the old blacksmith saw the hero coming, he hurriedly stopped what he was doing, and led his apprentice to greet him, and he gave a national salute to Zhu Gaoxian and others.

"Get up, please!"

Zhu Gaoxian gave a hand, and the blacksmith wanted to invite Zhu Gaoxian and the others to sit in the tent, and Ha San hurriedly asked Alexis to give in and said, "We are here to ask for advice, where did you come from to make iron stones?" ”

Next to the blacksmith's furnace, there was a pile of iron ore, which was exactly what Zhu Gaoxian wanted.

Zhu Gaoxian glanced at the dog, who handed a kitchen knife to the blacksmith and said, "This is your reward!" ”

It is much more useful for a blacksmith to have an innovative product to imitate him than to give him a silver or two that he does not need at all.

The blacksmith's face did not have the usual drunken flush, so it was evident that his daily life did not include alcoholism, and he often used some leisure time to look at the sea not far away and the mountains and forests nearby, and at the same time to think about the appearance of some iron tools, but he never thought of making a knife like this.

Isn't it too big? So straight?

Zhu Gaoxian pointed to the part of the blade, "It will be very hard here, in order to be sharper, and what you should know is that if all the parts of a knife are very hard, if you cut it with one knife, the knife will definitely become in half, and you can't use it a second time." ”

"Yes, yes!" Hearing Alexis' translation, the old blacksmith was so excited that he couldn't help himself, "I didn't expect His Royal Highness the Prince to know how to strike iron." ”

Zhu Gaoxian said with a smile, "We Ming people not only know how to strike iron, but also use iron to make boats, if the old man is willing, you can go to our ship to see, our technology is very advanced, and I want to help each other with you." ”

When he said this, the old blacksmith was very pleased, and he gathered up the work in his hand, and gave it to his apprentice to do first, and said, "I will take you there, and I do not want to leave here, for there are many stones used to make iron, and in a few places the stones are still very pure, and they will not be used up for many years." ”

The old blacksmith walked in front, Zhu Gaoxian and others hurriedly followed, they walked about five miles in the direction of the south, Zhu Gaoxian's eyes saw a black iron ore mountain, the ore in the mountain, as the old blacksmith said, the iron content is very large, very pure.

Zhu Gaoxian breathed a sigh of relief that he had found the iron ore so easily, and he asked Ha San and Alexis to communicate with the old blacksmith, and he himself climbed the mountain with the help of the guards and looked in the direction of the west.

He remembers reading a report in his previous life about a gold mine discovered in the western part of Australia, the largest of which weighed about 90 kilograms.

This time he had to find the location of the gold mine, arrange for the Ming people to come and mine it, and he had to start preparing to go to Europe.

There should also be tribes in the west.

Zhu Gaoxian came down from the mountain, Alexis and Ha San had already communicated with the old blacksmith, and Ha San told Zhu Gaoxian, "Your Highness, listen to this old blacksmith said that the blacksmiths of more than a dozen tribes near them will come here to look for iron ore, and this should be the only iron ore here." ”

Zhu Gaoxian said with a smile, "Iron ore is buried deep underground, it needs to be excavated, their tools are very simple, I don't know what kind of coincidence, so they suddenly found these iron ore, and I don't know what kind of coincidence, let them find that iron ore can be refined at high temperatures." In short, this is all the ingenuity of nature that has endowed human beings with wisdom. ”

Ha San understood, the natives here have very backward tools, and it was only under God's influence that they found these iron ores and made use of them.

The group returned the same way, and when they arrived at the gate of the tribe, Zhu Gaoxian saw Jiang Boling and the other four family heads waiting at the door, they were sincerely afraid, and wanted to come forward to make amends, but they didn't dare.

Zhu Gaoxian is ruthless and considerate of them, at such an old age, it is really not easy to follow the ocean across the ocean and over the mountains and mountains.

"Come to my tent!"

Zhu Gaoxian took the lead in the front, fortunately it didn't rain, he walked such a long mountain road, there was dust on his clothes, but there was no embarrassment caused by mud, his shoes were stained with rotten dead leaves, and there were a few spider silks in his hair.

However, the young man's shoulders and back are broad, and his body is powerful, which makes people only deeply admire after seeing it.

The four princes of Daming led them across the ocean, over the mountains and mountains to find mineral veins, and he was not for himself.

Jiang Boling and the others glanced at each other, took a deep breath, restrained the emotions rolling in their hearts, and respectfully followed Zhu Gaoxian into his tent.

The tent was carpeted, the folding beds were put away, and a few chairs were set up to look like a conference hall, which for a moment made people feel that they were not in the wilderness.

Zhu Gaoxian was already sitting at the top, holding a cup of tea, although he was very thirsty, he still drank slowly.

After the four of them saluted, Zhu Gaoxian said, "Sit down!" ”

Where did the four of them dare to sit, but they didn't dare to disobey, they only sat in the corner of the chair, and after that, the other three looked at Jiang Boling.

Jiang Boling was honestly frightened, he raised his hand and slapped him in the face, "Your Highness, Xiaomin is really an old lake, he couldn't wake up this morning, and it was really useless for His Highness to go to see the ore vein in person!" ”

Zhu Gaoxian raised his hand, and when he saw that the other three were going to follow suit, he waved his hand, "There is no need to say this, you are just running for nothing, I called you to come, mainly to arrange the work behind." ”

The dog served tea to the four of them, Zhu Gaoxian's eyes drooped, looked at the ground, pondered slightly, and said, "Yesterday, you all saw the of those white people. ”

"Yes!"

"What do you think?"

Jiang Boling and the others thought about it, and it was Xu Chonghuai's turn to speak, and he said, "Your Highness, please rest assured, that kind of beastly behavior, Xiaomin and others will not allow it in the future, and they will not be able to do it in any case." Zi said, 'Do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself', and the small people understand the truth of accumulating virtue and doing good. ”

Although it was not until more than 600 years later that Zhu Gaoxian did not see the Europeans receive heavenly retribution, he still hoped that the people of the Ming Dynasty could keep in mind the teachings of their ancestors, pass on the civilization, and keep a huge family business for future generations.

After discussing this, Zhu Gaoxian said, "Next, I want to divide the work into several parts, the first is to build a wharf, the selection of the wharf is naturally the closest straight line distance from the mine, only when the wharf is built, our ships can dock, and the machines can be transported." ”

"Yes, Your Highness, Xiaomin will start doing it in a while."

Zhu Gaoxian pointed to the mine road not far away, "The second is to establish a base, the primary purpose of our visit is iron ore, we don't have to grab farmland and residential land with the locals, for this idea to cause conflicts, in the future we need to spend more energy, manpower and material resources in suppressing conflicts and armed battles, the gains outweigh the losses." ”

As a last resort, Zhu Gaoxian did not want to commit the crime of exterminating the human race.

"Yes, Your Highness, we will keep that in mind."

"Yes, our civilization is tolerance and assimilation, use the civilization of my Ming Dynasty to influence them and assimilate them." Zhu Gaoxian looked outside, and he said in a low voice, "I hope that with you, with the efforts of the imperial court, in the future, the golden dragon flag of my Ming Dynasty will fly in the sky above this land, and you must keep this in mind!" ”

"Yes!" The heads of the family all stood up and received the order awe-inspiringly, and they also deeply felt how heavy the responsibility was on their shoulders, and at this moment, they really understood what the real purpose of His Highness led them here.

And once they have opened up this land, in the future, their merits will be visible.

"Next, the third is to start mining. Try to organize the locals to mine, we don't have so many people in Daming. We sent machines to plough the land for them, for women and children to plant, for men to participate in mining, to make sure they were fed and clothed, and I don't think it would be so difficult. ”

The four heads of the family understood the truth, and for the common people, as long as they could eat and dress warmly, they would follow closely.

"Your Highness, this place is handed over to Xiaomin and others, and your Highness will definitely not worry about it!" Jiang Boling took the lead in guaranteeing.

"Well, you guys go down and prepare first, I want to think about the plan of the first base, and I'll give you the drawings later."