The large-scale excavation of Iwami Ginzan began in 1526 and lasted for more than 400 years, and at its peak, the annual output once accounted for 30% of the world's total silver production, which can be called the world's largest silver mountain.

In addition to silver, various minerals such as chalcopyrite, pyrite, and galena have been found in the vicinity, which can be described as rich in minerals.

On the tenth day of the first month of April, Sheng Yong, Li Youzhi, Feng Dong and others, leading horses, were crawling with difficulty on the top of the peak of the Immortal Mountain in the Silver Mountain.

This silver mountain vein has not been discovered, the early development is on the top of Xianshan Mountain, here is an open-pit silver mine, very easy to mine, but the output is relatively small, and the Chinese Tang Dynasty used the ash blowing method refining technique has not yet reached the east, so the efficiency is not high.

The original history was not until 1533, when the Zhou Fangguo Daimyo Dayi Neilong learned the ash blowing method from the Ming Dynasty, improved the refining technique, and greatly increased the output of silver.

After Sheng Yong and the others reached the top of the mountain, they could see at a glance that the ground was full of silver mines and there were pits everywhere, so they could only lead their horses and did not dare to ride on them.

Li You's eyes were green, and he picked up a piece casually and looked at it: "It's really a good mine, it can be mined in the open pit, and the East Country occupies such a silver mine, but there is no silver?" ”

Sheng Yong laughed and kicked with his foot: "Your Majesty said that the cultivation technique of the Eastern Kingdom is not good, and we must use our Daming technology." ”

After that, he said: "The most important veins have not been found yet, and these are not enough for us to mine." ”

Historically, the vein was discovered in 1526 by the wealthy merchant Kamiya Shouzhen of the Eastern Kingdom, but where the vein is, Zhu Gaoxu definitely does not know, but it doesn't matter, because it must be on Iwami Mountain.

When Zhu Gaoxu was in Beijing, he considered that the west side of Iwami Yinshan was close to the sea, and the ore veins were definitely not on the side of the sea, and in the three directions of southeast, north and south, it should be close to the place of early development.

Now Sheng Yong is just at the top of Xianshan Mountain in the east, and after Sheng Yong came, he determined that the direction of early development was east, so he decided at this time: "Gather all craftsmen and craftsmen from the east to start looking for ore veins from the east, and for the sake of efficiency, let's blow up the mountain with explosives." ”

"From here?" Li Youzhi was a little skeptical: "I have been mining for hundreds of years, and I haven't found a vein. ”

"It is precisely because of the hundreds of years of mining that we have laid a good foundation, first looking in the east, and then we can't find it, and then we take turns from the south, the north, and the west."

After Sheng Yong made a decision, the Ming people immediately took action, and began to dig deep holes along the east, and then planted explosives.

Boom, boom, boom, in the explosion for a few days, Iwami Yinshan collapsed a large area in the eastern part of the mountain, compared to the manual excavation of the east himself, the efficiency of the Ming people is much higher, but it affects the local landform a little.

By the end of April, there was no progress in the search for silver veins, but Sheng Yong was not in a hurry, while organizing the mining of the original open-pit silver mine, while continuing to dig in the east, his plan was to find half a year in each direction, if he still couldn't find it, he would turn again.

His Majesty said that it was on Mt. Iwami, and he would definitely not be able to run away.

At this time, more than 20,000 Ming troops and all supplies had been transported from Jeju Island, and more than 50,000 Dong himself had been plundered and captured from the local area.

At the beginning of May, Sheng Yong ordered the construction of the city wall to start one mile away from the foot of Iwami Mountain, and organized Fifty Mandong himself to start construction along the foot of Iwami Mountain.

The main thing is to build a ring of walls around Iwami Ginzan.

The west side of Iwami Mountain is close to the sea, garrisoned by the Ming Army's naval division, you can not build, from the east to the north and south directions, about eighteen miles, build a low wall one zhang high.

The head of the wall can stand people, put a cannon every 100 steps, and after all of them are released, about 100 guns are needed, plus other places, the entire Iwami Silver Mountain, Sheng Yong prepares at least 200 cannons.

The low wall, which is 28 miles long, will surround Iwamiyama at that time.

In the place within the wall, the Ming army could tun more than 40,000 acres of land, of which more than 30,000 acres were originally owned by the local Dong himself, all of which were occupied by the Ming army.

Zhu Gaoxu originally asked him to garrison Shijian Mountain, and the Ming army supplied it from the sea, but he decided to let Sheng Yong observe it on the spot.

After Sheng Yong looked at it, he found that Iwami Yinshan was too easy to defend, if it was really only necessary to defend Iwami Yinshan, only two thousand soldiers and horses would be enough.

Now that the Ming army has more than 20,000 people, and if it wants to mine smoothly, it needs strategic space.

After observing the terrain, Sheng Yong put the defense line one mile away from Iwami Silver Mountain, because there are many other mountains around Iwami Silver Mountain, and there are large areas of farmland and plains between the mountain ranges, as well as many people from Tohon.

He built a low wall eighteen miles long, connecting the large and small mountain ranges with all available terrain to form the outer line of defense of Iwami Ginzan.

After the completion of the entire low wall, there are tens of thousands of acres behind the wall that can be cultivated, and there is a large area of strategic space.

But the consequence of this is that almost one-tenth of the territory of Iwami Province is occupied.

Iwami Kuni's daimyo Matsumoto was furious and immediately organized troops and horses to attack.

However, this would mobilize the entire feudal kingdom of Iwami Province, and there would be only three or four thousand people, many of whom were peasants.

The Ming army collapsed with a single charge.

Matsumoto had no choice but to ask for help from Ashikaga Yoshichi.

But the great shogun Ashikaga Yoshimoru was also in a hurry and couldn't respond.

In 1392, more than a decade ago, in 1392, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and the Southern Dynasty negotiated, and as a result, the two dynasties faced each other, unified the country, and officially entered the Ashikaga shogunate period.

But Ashikaga Yoshimitsu died last year, and Ashikaga Yoshinori became a fourth-generation shogun, and his prestige and prestige were certainly far inferior to his father's.

The point is that after he succeeded to the throne, he felt humiliated because of the Ming court's return, and immediately decided to stop trading with the Ming Dynasty, only to be immediately retaliated by the Ming Dynasty.

In April, Ashikaga Yoshinori gathered a large number of sailors to meet the Ming army, but he was defeated and returned, and his prestige fell to the bottom, and the major soldiers and horses who were originally preparing to gather from all over the country began to hesitate.

So much so that Sheng Yong entered Iwami Ginzan in early April, and it was a month since the beginning of May, and the shogunate army had not yet come to Iwami Ginzan.

And after the defeat of Iwami Province's daimyo country, nearby Zhou Defense Province and other countries also remained silent, and no one was willing to help send troops.

Sheng Yong was happy when he saw it, this is a good thing.

There is a big name in a place the size of the palm of the eastern country, and it can still claim to be a country, as long as we stare at Iwami country, other countries may not be looking for trouble?

So he became emboldened, and in May he sent troops again, this time advancing a hundred miles, plundering the local people and food everywhere, and Iwami Province suddenly fell into disaster again, and the daimyo ran directly to other nearby countries, completely unable to resist.

The territory of this Iwami country is not as big as the Ming Dynasty.

It is equivalent to a government against more than 10,000 people of the Ming army, and it is able to live there.

It took a month for the Ming army to plunder more than 40,000 people, and then arranged thousands of ships to transport a large number of strong and strong people to Nuer Gandusi.

In the Iwamiyama area, Sheng Yong kept the population of Higashimoto at about 50,000.

Part of it is mining, part is building a city, and part is tuntian.

The surplus plundered population was all sent to the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming army only plundered Iwami Province and never entered other countries, which made the major names near Iwami Province hesitate and did not dare to move.

What if you help Iwamikoku and the Ming army turns around to fight us? ——

Kyoto Flower Palace.

Ashikaga Yoshito, who was only in his twenties, sat on the ground, surrounded by many civil and military officials of the shogunate.

Everyone's faces are not good-looking, and many people are probably scolding their mothers in their hearts.

When Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was present last year, the relationship between the East and the Ming Dynasty was still very good.

As soon as Ashikaga Yoshimitsu died, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu immediately changed Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's national policy, and before Yoshimitsu was too flattering to the Ming people, he had no dignity.

During his lifetime, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty many times, claiming to be a vassal, with a respectful tone, hoping to be rewarded by the Ming Dynasty, whether it was Zhu Di or Emperor Jianwen, or later Zhu Gaoxu, they all responded to the eastern country.

At that time, everyone really felt a little low, and they were not very happy.

When Ashikaga Yoshimitsu died, the shogunate veteran Shogun Spo Yoshisho and others assisted Ashikaga Yoshimori, and the whole attitude towards Ming became stronger.

And now, they immediately tasted the consequences, the Ming army suddenly marched eastward, and the shogunate was defeated only by the sailors.

"How many soldiers and horses are in place now?" Ashikaga Yoshinori said slowly at this time.

General Si Boyi glanced at everyone and said in a deep voice: "There are already 20,000 elites who have arrived at the predetermined location. ”

"The minister thinks that it is still too late to talk about peace now." Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted.

Brush, everyone looked over, it turned out to be the leader Hosokawa Lai Yong.

Hosokawa Yoriyuki's father, Hosokawa Yoriyuki, was a close confidant of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and after Yoriyuki's death, Yoriyuki was also alienated by Yoshito, who was one of the important shogunate generals who resolutely opposed confrontation with the Ming Dynasty and devoted himself to establishing good relations with the Ming Dynasty.

"Bang" Ashikaga Yoshiji slapped the case heavily, and said angrily: "The Ming people invaded our country, killed our subjects, plundered our grain fields and grain, and bullied our women, Lai Yong still wants to humbly sue for peace?" ”

Lai Yong was not afraid, and said on the spot: "The minister heard that there are two million troops, and if they can transport 20,000 people, they can transport 200,000 people." ”

"The minister asked the general, how many soldiers do I have in the whole country? How to resist the artillery and iron cavalry of the Akito? ”

As soon as these words came out, the audience was silent.

Before, everyone dared to argue with the Ming people, because they thought of the kamikaze during the Yuan Dynasty's Eastern Expedition, but they didn't expect that this time the Ming people would easily transport more than 20,000 people to Iwami Province.

As Lai Yong said, if the Ming people can transport 20,000, they can transport 200,000.

How many soldiers can the shogunate have?

But Ashikaga Yoshitoshi completely ignored it, and he became angry: "I have made up my mind, no matter what, I want to fight with the Akito, and I will talk about peace later." ”

What he meant was to fight first, and then talk about it if he couldn't fight.

When everyone saw his persistence, they had nothing to say.

Lai Yong could only sigh: "If we are defeated, we will not be able to do it then." ”

Yi Zhi didn't listen, and still asked the daimyo from all over the country to send troops and food, and prepared to fight to the death with the Ming people.

Judging by the strength of the Ming people, there were about 20,000 Ming people, so at least 100,000 people should be prepared.

However, the daimyo everywhere were waiting and watching, and the assembly was very slow, dragging on until July, and after three or four months, the shogunate gathered less than 80,000 people, and Yoshimochi was not in a hurry to prepare for the attack at the end of July.