Fenghou

Chapter 438 Silver Mine
Dangchuan County is located in a mountainous area, and its status in Lintao Prefecture is almost negligible. Its existence is only a small county specially established for the need to accommodate the family members of the army. With the disappearance of the Song Army in Lintao Prefecture, a large number of people in Dangchuan County also left. Go, there are only a few hundred families left, with a population of two to three thousand.

The reason why Dangchuan County became the focus of attention of the Song and Xia armies was because of a large silver mine thirty miles away in the northwest of Dangchuan County. Of course, it was not called a silver mine before, but a lead mine in Dangchuan County. All the local people thought it was a lead mine.

It wasn't until the Xixia people took over the mine and resumed mining and smelting that news gradually spread that it was not a lead mine, but a silver mine.

At present, silver mines have been mined for nearly [-] years. Before that, due to lack of manpower, the output has not been large. In the past two years, due to the transfer of [-] mining slaves from Xixia Army at one time, the output of silver ore has increased suddenly, from an annual output of [-]. Tens of thousands of taels of silver, and now produces tens of thousands of catties of crude silver annually.

Although the mine is far away from the county seat, its population is much larger than that of the county seat. Seven thousand mine slaves and thousands of family members live in endless shacks around the mine.

Mining slaves come from complicated sources. Some are captured soldiers of the Song Army, some are captured slaves of Song Dynasty Han people, and many are Qiang and Tubo people. They were originally slaves in the salt mines. Transferred to Dangchuan County.

Among the [-] people, [-] people are mining ore in the mine, and the other [-] people are smelters, responsible for smelting ore.

When the Xixia people occupied the mine, they discovered a large amount of ore mined by the Song army, without smelting. These ores were cheap for the Xixia people. The Xixia people were overjoyed. jin of crude silver, plus the ore they mined by themselves, in just over a year, the Xixia people's crude silver inventory exceeded [-] jin.

Not long after the Battle of Gongzhou ended, Cao Baozong sent a thousand camels to Lintao Prefecture to transport back the [-] catties of crude silver stranded in Dangzhou County. Unexpectedly, the camel team had just arrived in Didao County and was about to rest for two days. Entered Lintao Mansion.

The chief general Xia Jin had to send a thousand troops to escort the camel team to Dangzhou County to transport the heavy silver.

The silver mine temporarily stopped mining. At the foot of the mountain, in front of a warehouse made of big stones, wooden boxes were brought out one by one. A thousand camels were transported away.

Chief Steward Ren Zhongqun came out following the last few wooden boxes, and said with a smile, "General Tuoba won't leave without a drink?"

The main guard is called Tuobaji, he is a general, he shoulders the important task of escorting the silver ingots, he is really a little nervous.

Tuobaji shook his head and said: "The Song army has already entered Lintao, so we can't delay for a moment. Let's have a chance in the future!"

Ren Zhongqun squinted his eyes and said with a smile: "That's good! I wish the general a smooth journey."

A thousand Xixia guard cavalry mounted their horses one after another, and dozens of camel slaves finally checked whether the boxes were tightly bound.

At this moment, a low-pitched horn sounded faintly from a distance, and then a soldier on the mountainside shouted: "A cavalry is coming from a distance!"

Tuoba Ji hurriedly put up the curtain and looked into the distance, only to see the yellow dust billowing on the official road in the distance, the dust was flying, and the thunderous sound of horseshoes came from a distance, probably more than ten miles away.

Ren Zhongqun's complexion changed drastically, and he shouted: "General Tuoba, hurry up, I will restrain the opponent!"

Tuobaji was full of hatred and anxiety in his heart, he angrily scolded dozens of camel slaves, "Don't check, let's go!"

The camel slaves set off with the long camel team, and walked quickly along the official road to the north. They kept lashing and whipping the camels to speed up, and a thousand cavalry followed closely on both sides of the camel team.

Tuobaji was extremely anxious, he wished the camel team would gallop, and he didn't know if he could escape the pursuit of the Song army this time.

It was Yang Zaixing's [-] cavalry who came from a distance. Although they were a day behind the opponent, they continued to speed up and catch up with each other.

Yang Zaixing led the army to the mine. He reined in his horse and looked around. From a distance, he saw that there seemed to be an army on the mine, but that army was halfway up the mountain. Where did the camels go?

Yang Zaixing saw that the army was the guardian army of the mine, also a thousand soldiers. They were responsible for supervising the mining and smelting of the miners. The army was timid.

They didn't dare to fight the Song army head-on, so they fled to the halfway up the mountain looming, attracting the attention of the Song army, trying to buy time for the camel transport team.

Yang Zaixing glanced, and saw a dozen barefoot children hiding behind a big rock on the side of the road. Their clothes were torn and dirty, and they were probably children of miners.

Yang Zaixing grabbed a handful of money and asked, "Have you seen a caravan of camels? There are about a thousand camels."

More than a dozen children pointed to the north and shouted: "The camels are going that way, there are so many camels!"

"Follow me!"

Yang Zaixing threw the copper coin to the child, turned around and shouted, the cavalry troop galloped northward and rushed up a low hillside, Yang Zaixing saw a caravan of camels several miles away, each camel was carrying two wooden boxes, A Xixia cavalry of more than a thousand men looked back nervously from time to time.

"Brothers, except camels, no one will be spared!"

When the order was issued, the cavalrymen of the Song Army drew out their sabers and brandished their spears one after another, roaring and chasing and killing the camel team several miles away.
When Tuobaji saw Song Jun chasing him, he raised his knife in despair and shouted: "Brothers, fight Song Jun!"

A thousand Xixia cavalry shouted and quickly formed a formation in the fields on both sides of the official road.

The cavalry of the Song Army arrived in an instant and collided violently with a thousand Xixia cavalry, and the crowd of cavalry from both sides quickly drowned together.
This was a battle without any suspense. Both sides were well-trained, but the Song army had an overwhelming force. In five battles, the Xixia army was completely unable to resist. After less than half an hour, the Xixia army cavalry More than half of them were killed, and the remaining [-] soldiers turned their horses and ran away.

They passed by the camel team like a gust of wind, but they didn't stop, they ran away and quickly ran away.

Yang Zaixing stopped the army from chasing with a wave of his hand, and the army immediately took control of the camel team.

"Open the box and have a look!" Yang Zaixing ordered the soldiers.

The soldiers unloaded more than a dozen wooden boxes and pried open the first box. Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay. Inside was a heavy stone slab, rough in texture, but everyone could recognize it as a piece of rock on the mountain.

Yang Zaixing was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "Open the boxes again, they opened more than three hundred wooden boxes in a row, all of them were stone slabs, without exception.

"General, it couldn't be that the cavalry just temporarily changed the boxes!"

Yang Zaixing had already calmed down from his fury. If the cavalry had known it was a stone box, they wouldn't have fought desperately with him. They should have been deceived as well.

"Back to the mine!"

Yang Zaixing gave an order, and the soldiers of the Song Army led the camels and turned back to the mine, but the thousand guard soldiers disappeared.

Song Jun searched everywhere, and not long after, he caught a Han man in charge and brought him to Yang Zaixing.

The steward was so frightened that he knelt down and kowtowed and begged for mercy, "General, I'm just a small steward of the warehouse, I haven't done any evil, I beg the general to spare my life!"

"I won't kill you, get up and tell me, where did the army I saw on the mountainside go?"

"The chief steward took them and fled westward."

"Where is Xiangxi going?"

"It's very close to Hezhou. Thirty miles to the west is Hezhou Dingxi City Walled City, and then another [-] miles to Ninghe County. It's just over two mountains."

"Let me ask you again, where did the silver go? Why is there a slate in the box?"

"The villain doesn't know"

Before he finished speaking, Yang Zaixing's sharp sword was already against his neck, Yang Zaixing said coldly: "If you dare to say that you don't know, I will cut off your head and ask someone else."

Song Jun caught another warehouse steward, and the little steward in front of him collapsed, slumped on the ground and cried, "All the money was taken away by the chief steward Ren, a few months ago, I really don't know where he hid it." where it goes."

(End of this chapter)