After spending two days inquiring about the news in the Yulin District of Jinshan City, Liu Yifeng found that he couldn't understand it.

The people who are not so well-informed are generally full of confidence in Jinshan City, and every day there are countless free Ming people who go south from Caoshan City and Zhushan City, and join the establishment of Jinshan City with hope, hoping to realize their dream of reaching the pinnacle of life here.

But in the circles of the more well-informed, there is a less harmonious voice. To sum it up: the Maritime Administration has still not found the gold mine.

Dongshan Prefecture is a little different from the mainland, the traditional bureaucracy and gentry here are not the mainstream of the upper class, the mainstream is the private merchant power. The most important thing for businessmen is information, so starting from the Annam Metropolitan Protectorate, it has become an unspoken rule for merchants to obtain information from the middle and low-level officials of the Maritime Safety Bureau.

Especially Dongshan State.

Compared with the general framework of the Annam Metropolitan Protectorate, which has been fixed and the social class has begun to solidify, Dongshan Prefecture is still in its infancy. The most important thing in the start-up stage is opportunity, and in addition to one's own strength, the most important thing to seize the opportunity is information.

Song Yingxing had never been to the Annan Metropolitan Protectorate, and he didn't know that the middle and low-level officials of the Maritime Safety Bureau would sell all kinds of information to the shopkeepers of the commercial houses or the bosses of the Chamber of Commerce on a daily basis, and the result was that the purpose of the Maritime Safety Bureau to encircle and suppress Zhang Bandit was to grasp the gold mines in the hands of Zhang Bandit, and this information was revealed.

Liu Yifeng was shocked that almost all the shopkeepers he contacted knew about it.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, I remember that you didn't go digging for gold, how is it, how is the current situation of the Maritime Safety Bureau?"

Liu Yifeng put down the teacup, sorted out the hat on his head, and said: "Where am I going to dig for gold, that's just what I use to cover people's eyes, my real task is to catch the remnants of Zhang Bandit." ”

The person who spoke to Liu Yifeng was the shopkeeper of the Jinshancheng branch of a commercial bank that sold grain, surnamed Sun. The background of his family's business house is not simple, it is said that it was opened by someone under a certain official in the capital, and he has countless fertile fields in the Protectorate of Annam.

Since the beginning of the 38th year of Wanli, the entire Central Plains has been plagued by natural disasters, and almost every year is a major drought and locust plague and autumn floods, which also leads to the good business of his family's commercial bank. Although the Protectorate of Annam lowered the price of grain, several provinces in the Central Plains still had a huge amount of money due to the huge demand for their grain business.

They even actively bid for the quota of the imperial court to build roads and dredge rivers, because their foundation is in the coastal area, and if the grain cannot be transported inland, the coastal area will not be able to digest so much grain. All the local grain trading houses can be said to be the most concerned about road construction, even more concerned than the imperial court.

After hearing Liu Yifeng's perfunctory, Shopkeeper Sun smiled, the last time Liu Yifeng came to buy food, he guessed that Liu Yifeng was not an explorer, he was a dart master. It is estimated that he was hired by the Maritime Safety Bureau to deal with Zhang Bandits.

After all, Liu Yifeng himself is too tall, and the last time he came, Feng Shuo with him looked arrogant, and several Jurchens who were trained by Li Hongji had a sense of discipline in their gestures. Shopkeeper Sun, who has seen the world, almost judged at a glance that Liu Yifeng and these people have a military background.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, Ming people don't say secret words, has the Maritime Safety Bureau found a gold mine?"

He thinks that Liu Yifeng is a person from the Maritime Safety Bureau, so the Maritime Safety Bureau must know a thing or two about whether he has found gold in front of him.

Liu Yifeng pretended to be profound, took another sip of tea, and said with a smile: "How can gold mines be so easy to find." ”

"Didn't Zhang Bandit find it?"

"Shopkeeper Sun, don't believe rumors."

"That's why I asked Shopkeeper Zhang for confirmation."

"Shopkeeper Sun looks up to me, I'm just a little dart master."

Shopkeeper Sun stopped talking, and nodded to the waiter behind him, Liu Yifeng didn't know what was going on but boasted that the other party would not hurt him, so he sat back and watched the change.

Half an hour later, a person entered the reception room, and it was actually Liu Yifeng's acquaintance: Sun Li.

"Brother Sun!?"

"See you again, Master Zhang."

Shopkeeper Sun said to Liu Yifeng with a smile: "Shopkeeper Zhang, you told the Maritime Safety Bureau that Zhang Bandit discovered the gold mine, you are not a little dart master, and the little dart master does not have more than a dozen spring wheel guns." ”

Liu Yifeng didn't know how Sun Li would defect to Sun's shopkeeper and his firm, and he was not interested in the story behind it, but he also understood why he only did business more than a month ago, and why this Sun's shopkeeper was so enthusiastic about himself this time, and he felt that he regarded himself as a person from the Maritime Safety Bureau.

Shopkeeper Sun let Sun Li retreat and said, "Don't blame Shopkeeper Zhang, Sun Li is my nephew, so I know everything about you and Zhang Bandit at the beginning." ”

Now Liu Yifeng knew what Sun Li's background was when he owned so many horses.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, Sun Li said that you are both civil and military, and you used our people as bait to successfully take down Zhang Bandit's people, and got the news that Zhang Bandit found a gold mine, I think you are a character and want to make a friend."

There is obviously dissatisfaction with Liu Yifeng's pit of Sun Li at the beginning, if Liu Yifeng is a man, he will definitely not be able to give face to the shopkeeper Sun.

Liu Yifeng could only smile bitterly and said: "Shopkeeper Sun, it was my fault at the beginning, I was bent on catching Zhang Bandit's people, and I can't compensate you here." ”

Whoever wants you to pay for it, some and some people, I want you to answer my questions!

Shopkeeper Sun smiled and said nothing, Liu Yifeng could only smile awkwardly again, and said: "Shopkeeper Sun, there is one thing I still have to explain first, I am really not from the Maritime Safety Bureau, at most I just accepted the commission of the Maritime Safety Bureau." So there are a lot of things, I can't know the details. ”

It doesn't matter, you just say you know, and we'll analyze the rest ourselves. However, Shopkeeper Sun was very satisfied with Liu Yifeng's willingness to cooperate, and said, "What does the shopkeeper know?" ”

Liu Yifeng could only express his guess: "The gold mine is not so easy to find, if the Maritime Safety Bureau has successfully found the gold mine, then it should send a large number of people into the eastern mountains now." ”

The words can only be said here, in the eastern mountains, whether the Maritime Safety Bureau has found gold mines, how can Liu Yifeng know. He only made inferences based on what was told in later documentaries.

There are not many shallow gold mines in Nevada, and even the Nevada gold mine, which was the world's first gold mine in later generations, has hidden gold. Without the industrial mining and chemical purification methods of later generations, there would be no gold mining in Nevada.

The doghead gold discovered by Zhang Bandit is essentially the same type of gold that Liu Yifeng panned for in the waters of the Central Valley: gold that has been brought to the surface during tens of thousands of years of geological activity. This part of the gold reserves should not be underestimated, but the Maritime Safety Bureau and many gold mining firms in Jinshan City have not yet realized this.

Liu Yifeng believes that even if the Maritime Safety Bureau really finds the areas where the Indians found gold, it can only look at the mountains and sigh in the face of the poor mountains and rivers of Nevada.

The information channel of the shopkeeper Sun is definitely not only on Liu Yifeng's side, and he came to ask Liu Yifeng in order to circumstantially testify the information he got from other channels. For example, the fleet chamber of commerce has the fastest soft sailing ship, which was requisitioned by the Maritime Safety Administration, and Li Yan, the most popular in front of Song Yingxing, took this boat to the north.

With this kind of knot, how could Li Yan, as Song Yingxing's henchman, leave Jinshan City, and he also had to requisition a soft sailing ship. The brains of the shopkeeper Sun all thought that he must have returned to the mainland on that soft sailing boat.

It is normal for the officials of the Maritime Safety Bureau of the Eastern Three Weeks to return to their homeland, but why not make official ships and specifically requisition civilian ships?

His think tank was divided into two factions, one thought that the gold mine had been discovered, and went back to report urgently. On the other hand, they believe that something has happened to the gold mine and go back to report it urgently.

No matter which faction it is, the matter of the gold mine must not be so smooth, so Liu Yifeng came to visit Shopkeeper Sun to inquire about the news, but instead he was inquired about the news by Shopkeeper Sun.

However, the behavior of the shopkeeper Sun coming to Liu Yifeng for verification also conveyed some information, and now it seems that the Maritime Safety Bureau really did not find the gold mine, at least there is no way to find the clear location of the gold mine.

After getting the answer he wanted, Shopkeeper Sun tried to knock on more specific information again, but this time Liu Yifeng insisted that he was the character of a peripheral person hired by the Maritime Safety Bureau, saying that he really didn't know more, so he gave up. After inviting him to a meal as a landlord, he politely sent him away.

After sending Liu Yifeng away, Shopkeeper Sun found Sun Li and asked, "How is it, the young master still doesn't want to say anything?" ”

Sun Li shook his head and said angrily: "Uncle, I don't understand, we are all a family, why didn't Sun Xin tell us whether the Maritime Safety Bureau had found a gold mine." You don't know that when I went to visit him, he didn't even confiscate the post! ”

Shopkeeper Sun had already expected this result, and said: "This is normal, his father is the current head of the family, and he is a celebrity in front of His Majesty, so he naturally looks down on us people who are on the sidelines." Don't be emotional, continue to give him gifts in a respectful manner. ”

"Yes, uncle."