Under the leadership of the Ministry of Works, Yang Yuanqing walked about ten miles along a mountain range, a mountain covered with silver-gray and earth-yellow colors. It is obvious that copper ore and silver ore exposed outside the rocks are visible.

On the left is a river called Zulichuan Water, which flows directly into the Yellow River, several meters wide. Since it is already downstream, the river water is quite deep, you can take a large ship of thousands of stones.

Yang Yuanqing pointed to the river with a horse whip and asked the county magistrate Zhang Fangnong, "How far is this river from the Yellow River? Is it possible to take a boat?"

"Report to Your Highness, this place is twenty miles away from the Yellow River. After leaving this valley, you will walk a few miles forward to Liangchuan County. The county is close to the Yellow River. Here the river flows into the Yellow River from the next to the county."

Speaking of this, Zhang Fangnong picked up a stone and looked carefully, handed it to Yang Yuanqing and smiled: "When we were young, we liked to come here to take a boat to 'pick up gold'. In fact, it was to pick up copper blocks. Your Highness, this is a piece of natural copper."

Yang Yuanqing took the copper block and felt that it was heavy, yellow-red, and it was indeed a piece of natural copper. He nodded and asked, "How many natural coppers are there like this?"

"In the past, there were all over the river beach, but as there were more people picking it up, fewer and fewer people. However, there were still on the mountain. I guess this piece of copper rolled down from the mountain."

Yang Yuanqing looked up at the top of the mountain and thought to himself that this huge mountain range would have to be collected for at least a thousand years and could fully meet the needs of the Great Sui coins. He couldn't wait.

At this time, they came to a shed made of stones and branches. More than 20 smelting craftsmen were busy. They came with the army from Lingwu County. Their task was to smel ore and check the copper and silver content of the ore here.

Yang Yuanqing turned over and got off the horse and walked up to the shed. There were several officials from the Ministry of Works standing in front of the shed. The person in charge was Li Chun, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Works. Li Chun was mainly good at construction, but since he served as the Minister of Works, mining search and smelting were also under his jurisdiction.

Li Chun hurriedly led several officials to bow and salute. "See Your Highness the King of Chu!"

"Fortunate for everyone!"

Yang Yuanqing smiled and walked into the shed. Seeing the craftsmen building three stoves to smel ore, he asked with a smile: "Is there any finished product?"

"have!"

Li Chun quickly lifted a piece of oil cloth next to him, and saw more than a dozen silver ingots and copper ingots placed under the oil cloth. Yang Yuanqing picked up a silver ingot, about thirty kilograms, just a thick silver ingot. He still needs to continue to refine it.

Li Chun couldn't help but feel excited and said, "The ore in this area is of quite high quality. Smelters say it is rare. The copper ore here is even more valuable than Hongtien Mountain. No wonder it is called Longbao Mountain. It is indeed well-known."

A sincere feeling of joy also rose from Yang Yuanqing's heart. He seemed to see ships of silver and copper ingots transported to Taiyuan, and the currency began to enrich. The world's resources continued to flow to the Sui Dynasty, and the national strength became stronger and stronger.

This Dragon Bao Mountain Range may be the turning point for the Sui Dynasty toward prosperity. He knew very well what it means to own the largest capital of currency?

Although the fire of joy had been ignited in his eyes, he still restrained his excitement and said to the officials: "We should do more experiments, try to sort out ore everywhere, and make sure that this is a real rich mine."

"Please rest assured to you, your Highness. The official will definitely handle this matter properly."

Yang Yuanqing nodded and turned back to Pei Xingyan and said, "Leave two thousand soldiers and one thousand surrendered troops to command by Mr. Li, and build a wharf at the foot of the mountain as soon as possible. I hope that within ten days, the wharf will be completed. Then the fleet of Lingwu County will arrive and can load the first batch of ores."

"The humble position will definitely be done. But the miners have not yet settled. The first time the soldiers can load the ship, but what about the future?"

This is also a big problem. Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and ordered: "Go to Liangchuan County!"

Five hundred personal soldiers guarded Yang Yuanqing and rushed to Liangchuan County more than ten miles away, which was the only county town in Huining County. It is also the capital of Huining County.

It is close to the Yellow River and is a necessary passage connecting the Central Plains and the Western Regions. It has become one of the important towns on the northern line of the ancient Silk Road. It is known as the "Qinlong Pass" and is known as the "famous town on Long Shang".

Huining County is not big itself, with about 2,000 households. Except for more than a dozen shorter mountains in the west, there are irrigation agricultural areas along the Yellow River. However, due to the severe desertification and the soil quality are not good, it is too far behind Lingwu County and Wuyuan County in the north.

Due to underdeveloped agriculture, the people in Huining County are generally poor, and only some businessmen live a good life.

Yang Yuanqing led his personal soldiers to rush into the county town like a strong wind. The county town was dilapidated and low, the road was untrue, and the cavalry rushed by, and the sky was filled with dust.

The best buildings in the county town are the county yamen and the county yamen. The two yamen are next to each other. At this time, the red and white flags of the Tang Dynasty in front of the yamen have been lowered and replaced with the red flags of the Great Sui Dynasty.

Yang Yuanqing's war horse stopped in front of the county yamen, and then ordered the county magistrate Zhang Fangnong to "go and call the county magistrate together."

Zhang Fangnong ran away. At this time, the prefect of Huining County also came out after hearing the news. The prefect of Huining County was named Xu, named Xu Zhiyuan. He was a middle-aged man in his forties and knew Yang Yuanqing.

He was originally the prefect of Diaoyin County, one of the six counties in Guanbei. In the ninth year of Daye, he was forced to sign a joint defense treaty with Yang Yuanqing, which made the six counties in Guanbei annexed by Fengzhou. At that time, Yang Guang was furious and many officials of Guanbei six counties were transferred. Xu Zhiyuan was also demoted to Huining County Magistrate and was promoted to prefect by the Tang Dynasty last year.

Xu Zhiyuan recognized Yang Yuanqing, and was so scared that he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, "His prefect of Huining, Xu Zhiyuan, came to see His Highness the King of Chu!"

Yang Yuanqing also recognized him and couldn't help laughing, "So it's you, Prefect Xu, don't be fine!"

Xu Zhiyuan smiled bitterly, "Your Highness, we haven't seen each other for four or five years. Your Highness is still as majestic as ever, and his style remains the same as before."

Yang Yuanqing laughed, "You are not bad, you are getting younger and younger. Today I have something to hold a meeting with you. I will bring the Chief Secretary and Sima. The county magistrate and others will come here soon. I have important things."

"I understand, Your Highness, please follow me!"

Xu Zhiyuan invited Yang Yuanqing to the county yamen conference hall. The chief and Sima came to meet Yang Yuanqing. Soon after, the county magistrate and the county magistrate also arrived at the county yamen.

Huining County has a small population, but there are many officials, which feels like a small sparrow and complete all organs. However, compared with Hedong County, the officials here are obviously much shabby.

In Hedong, officials deliberately wore official uniforms made of linen cloth, but their faces were red and white, fat. However, officials in Huining County had to wear robes with sprinkles. Most of them had bad complexion, dark faces, and looked very thin, just like desert mummies with too much wind and sand and gradually lost their moisture.

More than a dozen local officials gathered together, and each of them had a nervous expression. After all, the Lord of the Great Sui Dynasty held a meeting with them, such as the lower-level officials, and they were also Tang officials.

Yang Yuanqing sat in the main seat. He felt everyone's nervousness, and waved his hand and smiled: "Naturally, everyone, you are already an official in Huining County. Where can I demote you?"

The implication is that they have become officials in the worst places and should be no longer afraid. This cold joke made everyone smile bitterly.

Yang Yuanqing said to Xu Zhiyuan again: "Premier Xu first talk about the population and food situation in the county."

Xu Zhiyuan stood up and said, "I will report to Your Highness first. Huining County currently has a population of 5,000 households, about 30,000 people. Most of them live by the Yellow River. The land here is barren, the output is not high, and the grain output can only be barely enough to make a living. However, the geographical location of this county is relatively important, with merchants from Hexi and the Western Regions constantly communicating, and many people in the county make a living by commerce."

Only more than 30,000 people, Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and asked, "How many young and strong are there? I mean men over 16 and under 50."

The chief minister stood up and bowed and said, "I will answer this question. I just counted it two months ago. There were about 9,500 young and strong people."

This number of people disappointed Yang Yuanqing slightly, so he told the officials present his plan, "I have decided to dig out the copper and silver mines of the Longbao Mountains with all my efforts, but there are not enough miners, so I plan to recruit miners in Huining County. Let's take a look at how many people can be recruited at most?"

The officials looked at each other and turned out to be recruiting miners. This kind of hard work is not so easy to recruit people. Everyone knows it, but no one says anything.

Seeing that everyone was embarrassed and no one was willing to speak, Yang Yuanqing smiled and said, "Everyone can speak freely, tell me where the difficulties are? Don't have any concerns."

County Magistrate Han Jin stood up and bowed, "Your Highness, let me say a few words!"

"Mr. Han said, don't worry."

"To be honest with Your Highness, we have no worries. It's just that the matter is a bit difficult, mainly related to the customs here. There are three monsters in Huining County. One is that fruits and fruits are sold as grain. It says that the fruits and fruits here are large, and the grain yield is small. The second is that the boat ride is faster than riding a horse. This is mainly because of the convenience of riding a boat. There are also horses that have to rent horses. The cost is very expensive. If you travel from a distance, everyone is willing to take a boat. The third monster is that the man's housekeeper, and the woman is away, which means that men in Huining County are more obsessed with their families, like to guard the countryside and refuse to go far. In fact, in other words, the men here are lazy and like to rely on women."

County Magistrate Han made a big splash, but Yang Yuanqing didn't understand what he meant, "What does County Magistrate Han mean?"

County Magistrate Han smiled bitterly and said, "The meaning of humble vocation is that it is not easy to recruit miners. In fact, it depends on what price your highness will offer."

Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and said, "I need 20,000 miners, and I can use 10,000 prisoners of war, and the other 10,000 people will be recruited from the local area, so I plan to recruit 10,000 young and strong miners at high prices. As for wages, like the red iron ore, the miners recruited will be seven dou of rice per month and ten yuan per month."

After Yang Yuanqing said that, the prefect Xu Zhiyuan laughed first, "If Your Highness is willing to offer this price, then I guarantee that not only the people of Huining County will register enthusiastically, but also the people of Pingliang County will also attract people. Ten hangs of money here are high wages, and they are a mate for merchants. They only cost five hangs of money per month, and there is no food yet. Your Highness offers a high price!"

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