In addition to shops, ordinary people still use copper coins to buy small items.

Although gold and silver are good, they have not yet developed into an international currency, and now finding malachite in the Turks is equivalent to discovering a copper mine, Li Xingchen is overjoyed!

If you change the emperor, you think that now that you are fully loaded, a copper mine is not a big deal, but Li Xingchen understands too well what a copper mine means.

Even if it is not used to mint money, it has other great uses.

Immediately, Li Xingchen ordered the soldiers to lead the way to the place where the malachite was found.

The soldiers pulled out the Turkic prince, put a spear against his waist, and ordered him to lead the way.

The place to go is the Western Regions River, and the Turkic people are no strangers to it, and they often go to the river to pick up malachite.

It's just that the Turks believe that the mountains and rivers are given by God, and the malachite is near the water, which is the heavenly stone, and they will pick up some of them to make lucky stones, and will not delve into whether the stone is copper.

After arriving at the place, the military department Shangshu gave an order, and thousands of Wei troops began to dig around the river.

I don't know if I don't dig, I was startled when I dug it, and after digging a meter deep, someone dug up a lot of brown stones, but I don't know if it was malachite, so let the soldier come and confirm.

The soldier checked it and immediately shouted excitedly.

"Your Majesty, the stone contains a lot of copper, you see, brown to oil, oil to black, it's all copper!"

Li Xingchen was overjoyed and ordered the soldiers to continue digging frantically.

The result is unbelievable, a radius of dozens of miles, the ground is full of malachite, it is a large copper mine, if it can be fully developed, it will be more than the amount of copper in the territory of Dawei combined. Initial Update@

Their actions soon attracted the attention of the Turkic Khan.

The Turkic Khan was supported and scolded, "Your Majesty Great Wei, your compensation conditions, Ben Khan has already agreed, what are you doing now?" ”

Li Xingchen smiled.

"The amount of your compensation is to buy back the captives, and neither side has a problem at all.

But last night your royal brother, the prince of the Turks, led people to assassinate me, what do you want to say about this account? How much do you Turks have to lose?

Of course, I don't care about you, as long as I give this place to me, and when I move these stones back to Dawei, I will return them to you. ”

The old Turkic Khan's face sank, he looked at the malachite and frowned tightly.

What are these stones for? He couldn't figure it out! But Li Xingchen's decision-making made him have to suspect that the stone was a treasure.

"Your Majesty, your request is too much."

"How?" Li Xingchen suddenly turned cold and stared at him, "It's okay if you don't agree, then let's count the assassination last night, how much should I accompany to calm my anger?" ”

The military department Shangshu strode forward, rolled up his sleeves, and glared at the Turkic Khan viciously, "My Majesty's life, subverting your entire Turk is not enough compensation, now Your Majesty is gracious, just want some stones that are useless to you, what else do you want?" If I were you, I'd kneel down and bow down to Longn! ”

The Turkic Khan gritted his teeth angrily, eager to devour Li Xingchen alive, and after glaring at Li Xingchen for a minute, he said coldly: "I hope Your Majesty will transport the stone away as soon as possible, and don't trample on my Turkic land again." ”

After speaking, he shook his sleeves and left.

Li Xingchen smiled, and immediately asked the soldier who knew malachite to gather other people who knew stone to conduct a more detailed investigation of this copper mine.

It didn't take long for the results to come out, and the copper content in malachite was as high as 70%, which made Li Xingchen happy.

In addition to making copper coins from copper, the Great Wei also had other uses, but there were very few copper mines in China over the centuries, and the content was low, making it difficult to mine.

Now the Turkic copper ore is large, and only one meter of the surface layer can be mined, for the time being, I don't know how large the amount is, but the preliminary estimate is that the range covers at least tens of miles.

The discovery here is not only as simple as bringing money to Great Wei, but also making bronze objects, and with the black blade forging technology, it will be able to make melee weapons that are more durable and powerful than black blades.

With this copper mine, Dawei is like a tiger with wings, not only no longer suffering from the lack of copper, but also giving Dawei a reason to include the grassland in the territory.

As long as the malachite is not dug up, this is the property of Great Wei.

With the current level of mining, it will take at least decades or hundreds of years to dig out all this malachite.

。

Even if it is dug up at that time, this land has been firmly controlled by the Han people, this is Li Xingchen's main idea, the Turkic Khan has no way at all, and he thought that he would be able to dig it up soon, but the other party did not plan to return the land at all.

The corners of Li Xingchen's mouth always rose.

As the old saying goes, drowsiness sent a pillow, this trip to Turpan was accompanied by a Turkic copper mine, the decision was too right, and his character was too good.

In fact, it has nothing to do with whether his character is good or not.

The malachite accidentally discovered by the Wei army was actually a copper mine discovered by later generations of Outer Mongolians.

Not only is this copper mine extremely easy to mine, but it also has a huge amount of reserves.

In the seventies, Outer Mongolia was mined with the assistance of other countries, with an annual output of hundreds of thousands of tons, not only copper, but also the precious metal silver.

However, at this time, there are still hundreds of years before the future generations of mining, and now under the intervention of Li Xingchen, history has been changed, and Outer Mongolia may not appear again in the future.

It is important to know that the early excavation of large copper mines is no less than cutting off the possibility of the resurgence of nomads.

For the sake of copper mines, the Great Wei will always occupy this place.

Of course, it can't be said that Li Xingchen is lucky.

Historically, the Tang Dynasty went on an eastward expedition to the north and expanded the territory of China to Lake Belga, but still failed to discover the copper ore here, otherwise it would not have been possible to abandon this territory in the later period.

Therefore, there is such a thing as the mandate of heaven, I really can't say.

"Congratulations to Your Majesty!" The military department Shang Shule couldn't close his mouth.

"Your Majesty's royal expedition, not only returned with a great victory, but also found a copper mine that can be used for a hundred years in Great Wei, Your Majesty Hongfu, Great Wei has you, it is the luck of Great Wei."

The military department Shangshu kept patting the beard and slapping the horse, but he was not wrong, Li Xingchen nodded with satisfaction.

"Tianyu does not take the blame, this place is given by God to the Great Wei, it is better to name the copper mine Tianci Copper Mine!

Spread my will, and the 50,000-strong army turned a radius of 20 miles into a forbidden area. Expedited in 800 miles, let the Ministry of Industry Shangshu formulate a mining plan.

In addition, the copper mines in the Great Wei Dynasty that are small and difficult to mine have been closed, and all the people and horses have been transferred here.

Of course, it cannot be forced, and those who are willing to come over will pay three times the salary, and the children will have additional points for the imperial examination in the future. ”

…

Soon, Li Xingchen's order was transmitted back to the capital, and the Ministry of Industry immediately took action, sending the most skilled laborers in the Great Wei to the Turks.

As for the 50,000 Wei troops in the Turks, they were strictly guarded and did not allow the Turks to approach.

Mining copper ore requires a lot of manpower, but a large number of laborers cannot be transferred from the Great Wei, and the best way is to recruit Turks to work.