Tibet.

Chapter 1412: Treasure Hunt in the Mountains
Qianquan Mountain is today's Kyrgyz Mountains, which spans the Shi Kingdom and Bactria. It is rich in gold and silver mines, which made the Shi Kingdom and Bactria prosperous, but also brought them disaster. Small countries with wealth but unable to protect themselves will eventually become prey to the big countries.

Therefore, we often see some farmers who, after picking up rare treasures, will hand them over to the country without hesitation. Many people will call them stupid, but they do not know that this is the wisdom of life. Rare treasures often do not bring wealth to ordinary farmers, but murderous intentions from those who covet them.

Li Chenghua led a thousand cavalrymen along the river valley between the vast and majestic mountains of Qianquan Mountain, and time seemed to be nomadic between forests and grasslands.

King Alian introduced them to a guide, a businessman in his fifties who had been the chief of the palace guards. He had accompanied King Alian to visit the mines of the Holy Maiden Society and had later gone there twice alone, so he was quite familiar with the terrain.

King Alian said that the mine was relatively close to Talas City. Li Chenghua only now understood what she meant. It was only relatively close to Julan City. Julan City was thousands of miles away from the mine, while Talas City was five hundred miles away from the mine.

Who knew how the Holy Maiden Society transported the gold coins to such a distant place, with thousands of people and tens of thousands of camels involved, and yet the news was not leaked at all.

On the one hand, it shows the loyalty of the guards of the Holy Maiden Society to Jin Shanling. On the other hand, it also shows Jin Shanling's ruthlessness. If she cannot maintain her position in the Holy Maiden Society, she will completely destroy it.

The internal struggle of the Holy Maiden Society started several years ago. Establishing an army was a big trap dug by the Holy Maiden elders for Jin Shan Ling, and transferring wealth was Jin Shan Ling's preparation for a rainy day, in order to completely cut off the roots of the Holy Maiden Society.

Li Chenghua's team had been walking in the Qianquan Mountains for five days. There was a gurgling river at the bottom of the valley, and undulating grasslands on both sides, slowly extending to the middle of the mountain. Then there was a forest area dominated by pine trees. Beyond the forest area were snow-capped mountains. Thick snow covered the top of the mountains. In summer, the snow melted, bringing abundant water to the valley.

"Zaire, how far is the mine?" Li Chenghua couldn't help asking.

Zaire was the name of the guide. His Chinese name was Shi Jingtang, a name full of the stench of history, but he just happened to be tainted with that name.

Zaire placed his hand on his heart, saluted with a smile and said, "Reporting to General Li, this is Wanzu Gorge, the longest gorge in Qianquan Mountain. If we go forward about a hundred miles, we will enter the mining valley."

"Is this place connected to the Thousand Springs Canyon ahead?"

Zaire nodded. "It is completely connected. It and Qianquan Canyon form a big cross, which is the Chinese character for ten."

Qianquan Canyon is a north-south canyon and an important strategic road. Although it is not as long as Wanzu Gorge, its importance far exceeds that of Wanzu Gorge.

"We don't have to go back the same way. We can just go directly through Qianquan Canyon."

Zaire smiled and said, "It's closer to Bakhanna through the Thousand Springs Canyon, but it's far to the Stone Kingdom, but it's the same thing for General Li."

"What are those people doing?"

Li Chenghua pointed his whip forward. There were only a few tents set up by the river and dozens of people groping for something in the river. They seemed to be herdsmen from nearby.

“Are they panning for gold?”

"That shouldn't be the case! I've never heard of gold sand in the river."

Zaire went to ask immediately and came back soon, saying, "Someone found dozens of gold coins in the river in this area. The news spread and people nearby came to look for them."

"Anything gained?"

"Very few, only a dozen or so were found!"

He opened his palm, and a Sogdian gold coin appeared on it. "This is what they found. I exchanged it with ten silver coins."

Li Chenghua carefully looked at the gold coin which still had traces of cold water and low temperature.

She had already guessed the origin of the gold coin. It must be that an accident happened to the team transporting the gold coins, and a bag of gold coins accidentally fell into the river. The bag broke, and after the soldiers fished it out, there were still a small number of gold coins left in the river.

But the existence of the gold coins suddenly made her feel bright in her heart, and all the fatigue from the journey in the past few days was swept away at this moment.

Three days later, they finally arrived at the Saint's mine, which was located in a small valley. There were abandoned smelting sites along the way, more than twenty in total, large and small. It can be seen that the scale of mining was very large back then.

At the end of the valley, there is a huge mountain in front of us. The mountain is steep and straight. Halfway up the mountain, there is a huge stone weighing more than 100,000 kilograms. There is a passage carved out on the mountain that can accommodate a camel. The passage extends to the front of the huge stone, which means that there must be a gate behind the huge stone.

"Behind that big rock is the mine gate!" Zaire pointed at the gate.

"Have you ever been to a mine?" Li Chenghua asked.

Zaire shook his head. "When I came here, they were still mining gold. It was heavily guarded. There were originally more than a dozen large tents below. I went straight into the tent."

Li Chenghua no longer needed a guide at this time. She led a dozen people to the mountainside and came to a huge rock. The rock stood on the cliff like a small mountain.

Judging from the surroundings, no one should have been here.

There are two ways to move the boulder. One is to pull it with a rope. Hundreds of people pulling the rope together from a distance may be able to pull the boulder off the cliff.

Another way is to use explosives, which is of course the best way for the Tang army.

Li Chenghua immediately ordered the installation of iron fire mines.

Fortunately, they were well prepared and brought dozens of iron fire mines and two firearms soldiers.

The two firearms soldiers were experienced and quickly found a huge crack on the boulder, which was half a foot wide at its widest point. They found two flat iron fire mines with the fuse facing outwards and stuffed them along the crack, trying to insert them as deep as possible.

Then he waved his hand, and everyone moved away. A soldier lit the two fuses in the crack with a long stick torch, and immediately ran up the mountain path. After running dozens of steps, he lay down on the slope of the path, covering his head with a shield.

"Boom! Boom!"

Two 40-jin iron fire bombs exploded almost at the same time. The huge blast wave blew the huge rock as big as a hill into two halves, rolling down from the hillside.

"Boom!" With a dull sound, the earth shook and dust flew.

After a long while, the smoke and dust cleared, and everyone walked into the valley again. They saw that the huge rocks on the mountainside were gone, and only a semicircular iron gate about ten feet high and eight feet wide remained.

The iron door could not be pushed open, but there was a keyhole on it. Li Chenghua poured a little oil into the keyhole and slowly inserted Jin Shanling's necklace pendant into it. When Li Chenghua took the necklace, he guessed that it was a key because it was not pure gold, but copper plated with gold.

How could Jin Shanling wear a copper necklace? There is only one explanation: it is a key.

As expected, the three sword copper rings were inserted into the keyhole. After a slight twist, a "click" sound was heard, and a series of mechanical sounds came from inside.

He pushed the iron gate hard again, and it was slowly pushed open along the rails.

This is a mechanism made up of countless thick iron bars. Two thick iron rods act like door bolts, holding up the thick iron door from the inside. When the mechanism is opened with a key, the two iron rods will be pulled back by the iron chain and the door bolt will disappear.

Without the key, opening the thick iron door is much more difficult than the huge stone at the entrance.

After letting the air inside flow out for a while, Li Chenghua led dozens of soldiers with lit torches and walked in.

Although it is an abandoned mine, you can still see the glittering remains of gold ore on the stone walls. The gold content is quite high, and it is definitely a super high-grade gold mine.

After walking a few dozen steps, the view suddenly opened up. Everyone exclaimed in amazement. A palace-like hall appeared before them, filled with mountains of sheepskin bags.

These bags were only stored for two years and were all very new and sturdy. When one was opened, it was full of glittering gold coins, including Sogdian gold coins, Arab gold coins, and Qin gold coins.

Li Chenghua was ecstatic. This would be the greatest wealth of the Tang Dynasty, and she had found it.

(End of this chapter)