In the ninth year of Chongzhen, at the beginning of October.

The land of Liaodong has entered the icy winter, and the temperature has dropped to more than ten degrees below zero.

But there is a place where it is cold to minus twenty or thirty degrees, and it is difficult for normal people to survive here for a long time, because it will be even colder later.

Mohe.

This is Mohe.

But since July this year, a group of people have come to this place, making this sparsely populated place, which may have rarely been visited by people for tens of thousands of years, and for the first time it has become quite lively.

Especially by the small river, there are many figures gathered more densely, all bending over and standing barefoot in the water, using the tools in their hands to wash the sand in the river.

Make a crisp sound of brushing.

And it lasted for more than two months.

More and more people stood in the icy waters, at least tens of thousands, and then dwindling, until in the end only a scrawny few remained.

It wasn't until the snowflakes slowly fell, the temperature dropped, and even the river was so cold that it froze, and the sound of the river washing sand diminished or even disappeared.

Considering that the temperature will get lower and lower, and there is a serious shortage of food, clothing and other resources, it is impossible to stay here for the winter.

Therefore, on October 5, Dolgon, the owner of the Zhengbai Banner who was in charge of the gold rush project, issued an evacuation order, taking only more than 800 Korean slave workers and more than a dozen carts full of Shajin, and then returning south to Shengjing under the escort of nearly 3,000 Jurchen elites, and it is expected to arrive by the end of the month, after all, the journey from Mohe to Shengjing is more than 2,000 miles, and it will take a long time to travel quickly.

Wait a minute!

How come the number of slave workers in North Korea is only more than 800? Didn't more than 20,000 people be requisitioned before?

Where did most of the young Korean slave laborers go?

Naturally, they were all brought by dogs.

Some died from lack of food.

Some died of disease.

Some chose to run away.

Others were killed and beheaded by the Jurchen warriors due to disobedience, lack of hard work, resistance and other reasons.

In the end, only more than 800 people survived, and more than ninety percent of them became disposable consumables.

The sand gold mined by the Jurchens from the Laogou gold mine in Mohe was really bought in exchange for the lives of Korean slave laborers, and it was full of countless sins and bones.

"It seems that more Korean slaves will be arrested in the first half of next year, and another 30,000 people will be brought over in the second half of the year to pan for gold, and more grain will be brought in, so as to dig for more gold."

Riding on a horse, Dorgon looked at the team in front of him and said to himself.

Not easy.

It is not easy to do anything in this world, even if it is cutting down the big trees that can be seen everywhere on the mountain, digging up the ginseng in the deep mountains and old forests, taking out the Dongzhu in the river mussels, and even successfully finding the Laogou gold mine, and successfully digging for 16 truckloads of sand gold, but these are not easy tasks, and they require a lot of hard work and effort.

Only plundering, killing, and setting fires, these acts of destruction are relatively easy, and they can also achieve very big gains, which is the easiest thing in the world - of course, provided that you yourself are strong enough to kill the rebels, and if you lose, you will lose your own life.

As for Dorgon, as long as the risk of raiding and killing other peoples is low and the loss is small, he would rather choose to loot than choose a mountain of gold in front of him, because mining gold can be troublesome and tiring.

But now for the Jurchen people, the road of plundering is no longer passable, going up the mountain to cut down trees, down the river to pan for gold is a last resort, even if it is necessary to loot, they only dare to do it to the North Korea in the east and the savage Jurchen in the north, Mongolia in the west and the Ming in the south, now they don't even dare to touch the idea of a little touch.

Because many tribes in Mongolia have successively defected to the Guanning army this year, and have also established cooperation in wool purchases, there are huge profit margins, in order to protect these interests, the Guanning army will naturally not allow Dajin to take action against Mongolia, otherwise it will definitely interfere, and form a two-sided attack on Dajin, with the Jurchen less than 30,000 elites of their own clan, even if the loss of 300 people killed in the battle can not be accepted.

The Ming Dynasty in the south is getting richer and richer, and the Guanning army in front of it is getting stronger and stronger, with 100,000 elite soldiers, and through mining, breeding, fishing, opening factories, selling timber and other industries, it earns more than 30 million silver dollars a year, which is no less than the financial income of the Ming court.

Therefore, when the "Oriental Times" wrote a special article to introduce the development of various industries of Guan Ningjun, and praised Guan Ningjun for achieving self-reliance and prosperity through his own hard work.

The Ming court was shocked.

The civil servants were jealous and angry.

As for the high-level officials of Daikin, they felt cold and pale.

In fact, the Guan Ning Army was not afraid, the Eight Banners Army had beaten them many times, until they lost their blood and bravery, and when they encountered the Eight Banners, their momentum was three points weaker, and it was impossible to pose a threat to Dajin.

However, several units of the Guanning Army, since the establishment of long-term cooperation with Xujiazhuang, the Guanning Army has become rich, the equipment has been greatly improved, it can eat enough meat, its physique has been constantly strong, and it has learned the excellent places of Xujiazhuang everywhere.

Therefore, Dajin's dream of going to the south to plunder and make a fortune will never be realized.

They even had to beware of the offensive actions taken by the Guanning army, which in turn plundered them.

The offensive and defensive momentum is easy!

As a result, the current Dajin can only choose to develop to the east or north, and must feed more than 100,000 Jurchen people through production activities such as cutting down trees, panning for gold, digging ginseng, taking Dongzhu, and hunting furs.

"Banner master, in the past two months, we have scooped up sixteen truckloads of sand gold, if all this gold is sold to Xujiazhuang, how much grain can we exchange for?" A Niu Lu Zhangjing couldn't help but ask longingly.

"Xujiazhuang likes gold the most, how many they want, in the past, ten taels of silver could be exchanged for one or two gold, but after Xujiazhuang's absorption over the years, now one or two gold, can be exchanged for fifty silver dollars, our batch of gold, about 320,000 taels, remove impurities, let alone have to exchange for 10 million silver dollars, and then take it to Songshan City to buy grain, even if the price of grain is 1 silver dollar / stone, we can also buy 10 million stones." Dolgon, who is good at math.

"Ten million stones?!"

This Niu Lu Zhangjing shouted excitedly: "So much grain, each clan can share nearly 100 stones, we can't eat it all, as long as we sell this gold to Xujiazhuang, we can have a good year and a fat year this year." ”

"How is it possible to just buy grain."

Dorgon shook his head and said, "We still have to buy some warm clothes, canned meat, tools, medicines, and daily necessities, many of which are very expensive, even if we have a lot of silver dollars in our hands, I'm afraid we won't be able to buy much, maybe not enough." ”

Due to the backward level of productivity, the land in eastern Liaodong can only grow some radishes, cabbage, greens and other vegetables, resulting in the food eaten in the mouth, the clothes worn on the body, and as small as a needle, a kitchen knife, as well as iron pots, axes, hammers, wooden saws, and even salt, spices, tea and other daily necessities, must be imported from the Ming Dynasty, and the self-sufficiency rate may be less than 30%, no matter what must be bought from outside.

If in the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, the annual cost of living for an ordinary person is 10 silver yuan, then the per capita living cost of the Liaodong Jurchen must be at least 30 silver dollars in order to maintain basic food and clothing.

If you want to think better, the per capita consumption will have to increase to more than 50 silver dollars; Even if you want to go back to the good days before Chongzhen six years ago, the per capita consumption is afraid that it will cost hundreds of silver dollars - how can it be so easy to live a fat year.

"Banner Master, can we buy some more weapons from Xujiazhuang?"

This Niu Lu Zhangjing suddenly had a serious face, and thought of something and said: "More than a month ago, we encountered a group of alien warriors who crossed the river from the north, covered in white skin and white hair, and their eyes were different from ours...... Banner Master, that group of aliens is quite fierce, and their firearms are extremely sharp, if they meet again next year, will they have to kill a few more clansmen to kill one of them? ”

"You mean those white-haired weirdos?"

Dolgon's face suddenly changed wildly, as if recalling a nightmare, because of the encounter with the white-haired monsters more than a month ago, he not only commanded on the spot, but also killed two with his own hands, which was definitely not weaker than any elite existence, if it weren't for their absolute superiority in numbers and launched a dare to charge to the death, otherwise they would have killed three hundred people, and they couldn't stand those white-haired monsters, they were simply terrifying existences.

The death of hundreds of Jurchen people made him even more heartbroken and unacceptable.

And the appearance of that group of white-haired weirdos, does it mean that the location of the Laogou gold mine is exposed? What if more white-haired monsters come next year, also with sharp firearms, and want to rob their gold mines, will it be necessary to rely on the tactics of death charge to eliminate them?

Or what if the number of white-haired monsters coming over is not thirty, but three hundred, or even thousands?

Thinking of this, Dolgon couldn't help but shudder, and didn't dare to think about it anymore, because if even the north of Daikin had a strong enemy, and it was difficult to fight, how would Daikin survive in the future? Can we only plunder the impoverished Korean kingdom?

"I have to ask to buy a batch of sophisticated weapons from Xujiazhuang, and it is best to buy firearms that are not weaker than those used by the white-haired monsters! Otherwise, the next time we encounter them, we will pay a heavy loss. ”

Dorgon nodded, and put the purchase of weapons second only to food.

In fact, what they encountered more than a month ago was most likely the Cossack cavalry Far East advance team from Tsarist Russia, and at this stage, the Tsarist Russian Empire has a rising momentum and is actively expanding externally, and this expansion trend will reach a climax and peak in thirty or fifty years.

It's just that what they encountered this time was just a small group of Cossack cavalry, which may be of the nature of a bit of geographical exploration and resource survey, not necessarily a pioneering operation strongly supported by the Russian Empire, and it will take at least a decade or two to wait until a large-scale Cossack cavalry comes, so there is no need to worry too much at present.

Even so.

The sharp firearms, the fierce combat effectiveness, and the battle loss ratio of one to three, so that Dolgon will never dare to take it lightly, and when he returns to Shengjing, he must report to the Great Khan, and must attach great importance to it, Dolgon has expected that in the direction of the north, Daikin will encounter a huge challenge sooner or later!