It is the fourth winter of Hongwu.

In the four years of Hongwu, which is about to turn the page, there seems to be no major incident, and the Ming Dynasty occupied Iwami Province, and Yelu Dashi was defeated by the Jin soldiers.

Even though the imperial court spent a lot of money and food, and 130,000 immigrants went to Youzhou, it was still very small compared to the cost of fighting.

After only one year of cessation of war, the treasury was increasingly full.

Much of the grain did not arrive in the capital, but was settled in the provinces.

A boatload of grain departed from Shandong, passed through Tamna Island in Goryeo, and then transferred to Tsushima Island to Iwami National Castle. They are all private merchant ships, and as long as they transport grain, they can be exchanged for salt or tea.

In fact, it was Zhu Ming who was encouraging maritime trade and restarting the northern route of Sino-Japanese trade.

Now the merchants take this road, just to help the army carry grain. After gradually tasting the sweetness, some people will spontaneously go to the sea, after all, there are as many as 4,000 officials, sergeants, and craftsmen sent out, and a large amount of supplies are needed every year.

In addition to transporting goods to official personnel, they can also trade with local wealthy families in Japan, and Daming maritime merchants can make money as long as they dare to take risks.

In order to solve the worries of the merchants, the Ming Navy also escorted twice.

This so-called escort did not follow the merchant ships, but went straight to the pirate lair of Japan and Goryeo.

The Japanese island of Kyushu is full of pirates, especially the surrounding islands of Nagasaki, Fukuoka, and Kagoshima. These pirates had no fixed targets, sometimes going to the coast of Goryeo to rob, sometimes intercepting Chinese merchant ships, and even occasionally wandering the Seto Inland Sea.

Emperor Shirakawa sent troops to fight pirates many times.

Ying Xuan, Yang Mi and other generals of the Zhong Xiang Navy are now turned into the Ming Navy, sailing around in the waters of West Japan, and they will be beaten up when they see non-Ming ships.

……

In fact, the most convenient route for Sino-Japanese trade is the "Great Ocean Road", which directly crosses the sea.

Between two points, the straight line is the shortest.

It usually takes ten days, and the whole process is smooth, so it will be faster.

The fastest record for Chinese maritime merchants in the Tang Dynasty was to arrive in Kobe from Mingzhou (Ningbo) in three days and three nights.

The fastest record for a Japanese envoy to the Tang Dynasty was to arrive in Mingshu from Kobe in four days and three nights.

But now there are two problems, one is that this route is the most dangerous and may encounter storms; Second, there are too many pirates on the Japanese side, and armed crackdowns must be carried out from time to time.

After the Ming Navy achieved results in clearing pirates, the biggest civilian beneficiaries were actually those Zhejiang maritime merchants.

When the Japanese envoy visited Kaifeng, Zhu Xiaozhong continued to march non-stop.

Next target: Sado Island.

There is Sado Kanayama there.

Sado Kanayama does not refer to a specific mine, but to a collective term for 55 mines. There are gold, silver and copper mines.

During the Edo period, Sado Island produced 400 kilograms of gold and 40 tons of silver every year during its heyday, and more than 50,000 people worked in the mining industry!

Similarly, Iwami Ginzan also has gold and copper mines.

Historically, after Iwami Province had exhausted its gold and silver mines, it continued to mine copper for many years.

In the spring of the fifth year of Hongwu, the snow melted away.

An old prospector craftsman from Fujian, looking at the silver mine caps under his feet, was directly made to doubt his life by the sight.

"These are all silver mines?" Zhu Xiaozhong also had a dull expression.

The old craftsman nodded: "It's the silver mine." ”

Zhu Xiaozhong said in disbelief: "Let's choose the nearest bay to land, in the mountains near the bay, casually explore for half a month, and then see patches of open-pit silver mines?" ”

"That's the ......," the old prospecting craftsman was also speechless.

Zhu Xiaozhong muttered to himself: "Are all Japanese blind? ”

Before going to sea, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that there is a gold mountain on Sado Island in Japan.

So, Zhu Xiaozhong got Iwami Country and rushed to Sado Island to find gold.

As a result, before gold or anything could be found, a large open-pit silver mine was found in the mountains near the bay of the landing site. Not to mention the old craftsman of prospecting, even if you change to an ordinary miner, you can find that something is wrong when you look at those mine caps on the ground.

This silver mine is called Hezi Silver Mountain.

It is located on the south side of a mountain range, and on the north side of this mountain range, there is the Aikawa Gold and Silver Mountain, which is more abundant in gold and silver reserves.

Tsuruko Silver Mountain and Aikawa Gold and Silver Mountain, both on the north side of the landing bay.

To the south of the bay where the Ming army landed, there was also the Nishimikawa Shajin Mountain. Historically, the Japanese have been more in mining here, cutting mountains to slide the earth and rocks into river valleys, and then sending people to the downstream rivers to pan for gold, and they can get gold sand at will.

The gold and silver mines on Sado Island were mined from the Warring States period until 1989.

During World War II, a large number of Chinese and North Koreans were even arrested here to do hard labor, leaving countless blood and tears in the mines.

"Big brother, there are a few Japanese people on the island who want to see them, and they all claim to be Japanese nobles."

"Bring it here."

More than a dozen Japanese came to meet him.

Zhu Xiaozhong inquired carefully, only to learn that they were exiled nobles and monks.

Although it became a state of the order system very early, the conditions were too difficult for the population to develop. Even the position of the national secretary of Sado Province could not be sold for a high price when he sold his official position, and it has been more than 100 years since the national secretary really came to the island to take up his post.

As for the wealthy families on the island, even Tsushima Island is not as good.

At the very least, the Abylius of Tsushima can still control the whole island with their strength.

And the wealthy families of Sado Island, until two or three hundred years later, still enclosed themselves and could not be unified.

The entire island, with the exception of the middle part, has been developed into farmland. The rest are all mountainous areas, and there are even Yi people, hiding in the mountains and forests to drink blood.

Japanese political prisoners, who were inconvenient to execute, threw their brains on the island, which belonged to the Japanese penal colony.

Zhu Xiaozhong interrogated and quickly issued an order: "For nearly thirty years, the Japanese nobles who were exiled on this island stayed behind to help manage the common people and miners. And all the wealthy families on the island were arrested and sent to Iwami Silver Mountain for mining, and none of them were allowed to stay on the island except for women! ”

After another half a month, it was discovered that the Ming army was only capturing the Hao clan and did not attack other civilians, and the Japanese on the island no longer panicked.

There were even Japanese people who came from the mountains in the southern part of the bay and said to Zhu Xiaozhong: "General, there is gold in the south!" ”

Zhu Xiaozhong asked, "What's your name?" ”

The Japanese said, "My name is soy sauce." ”

"Soy sauce?" Zhu Xiaozhong looked at the translator and thought that the translator had made a mistake.

The Japanese explained: "When my father was mining, he was given two feet of cloth and a bottle of soy sauce because he had found a large piece of gold. My dad couldn't forget the deliciousness of soy sauce, so he gave me this name. ”

The interpreter said: "General, this person is a civilian and does not have a surname. ”

Zhu Xiaozhong understood, and said with a smile: "Since you came to offer gold, I will give you the surname Jin, which can be passed on to your descendants." From today on, it will be called Golden Soy Sauce. ”

"Thank you General for giving me my surname!" Jin Soy Sauce was so excited that she was about to cry, and she knelt down and bowed.

Zhu Xiaozhong asked, "How do you know that there is a gold mine in the south?" ”

"I am a miner in Notokoku who has been mining gold and silver for generations. The silver mountain over there was almost finished, so I took a boat with my neighbors and secretly came to Sado Province to pan for gold. ”

Zhu Xiaozhong immediately alerted: "How many gold diggers are there in the south? ”

"Hundreds of people, all miners who can get to the country." Jin Soy Sauce said.

Zhu Xiaozhong asked: "The local wealthy family doesn't know?" ”

Jin Soy Sauce replied: "The Hao family knows, and let us contribute gold dust every month." ”

Gold mining on Sado Island has emerged in recent years, but it is mainly obtained through gold panning.

The local tycoons deliberately concealed the news from the Japanese imperial court, and at the same time secretly collected the gold rush tax. Moreover, no one was allowed to leave the island with the gold, and those who wanted to get rich would be killed.

In fact, this matter has been spread to Notoko, but few people believe it.

It wasn't until 300 years later that large-scale gold mining began, and until then it had been a petty fight.

Zhu Xiaozhong asked the prospectors to go along the Xisanchuan River, where gold can be panned, and went upriver to find gold deposits in the mountains.

Soon the news came back that there was a large amount of gold in the mountains.

Zhu Xiaozhong looked at the southern mountains and said with heartfelt emotion: "Father-in-law (Zhu Ming) really has the help of the gods, so much gold and silver, it must be given to the Ming Dynasty by God!" ”

How can anyone but the gods explain all this?

Zhu Xiaozhong was already completely confused, and the landing site he chose was only the nearest bay. As a result, when I landed on the island, I found an open-pit silver mine, and then someone offered a gold mine.

It's outrageous!

In fact, it's not outrageous, there are fifty-five mines on the big island, and you can find them just by exploring them.

If you can't find it, you're unlucky.

What is truly outrageous is that the largest gold and silver mine on Sado Island has not yet been discovered right under their noses......

The first time Zhu Ming knew about Sado Jinshan came from playing a P Club game.

If the player chooses to start with China, they will receive the task of colonizing Taiwan after opening the Colonial Idea. Once Taiwan is taken in its entirety, if Japan does not control Sado Island, there is a great chance that the location of the next colonization mission will be Sado Island.

In the game, colonizing Sado Island has a high priority!

After playing a few more times, Juming became interested in Sado Island. When he clicked on the game-related page, he found that the island's native products were gold and silver, and the output of gold and silver was ridiculously high.

"There aren't enough miners captive." Zhu Xiaozhong began to sigh.

At this time, Zhu Xiaozhong received an order from the imperial court: send troops to Heianjing to force Japan to surrender as soon as possible.

The Japanese envoys could not decide on the matter of leasing the territory, and they returned home by ship after the beginning of spring.

Zhu Ming naturally wouldn't wait stupidly, and had to give the king a little color to see.

April of the fifth year of Hongwu.

Zhu Xiaozhong left 300 armor soldiers and stationed them at Mt. Omori (Iwami Ginzan). Another 150 troops were stationed on Tsushima Island, 200 troops on Sado Island, and 200 troops on Iwami Kunijo.

The rest of the troops, all pulled to Heiankyo!

Moreover, they ransacked the castle town all the way. Starting from Iwami Province, entering the Seto Inland Sea through Shimonoseki, and encountering a coastal area with a city, he landed and grabbed a handful.

Grab it and leave, and don't give the enemy a chance to gather troops.

A series of attacks were sent to Heiankyo like snowflakes.

Emperor Toba received urgent reports one after another, but before he could react, the Ming naval fleet had landed in Nambakyo (Osaka).

(Two shifts will resume tomorrow.) ）

(End of chapter)