Kai Fu Han

Chapter 469 Silver Mine
After Liu Xinqi took the people out, he gave Erlang five taels of silver as a "settlement allowance" and asked him to go home and settle down, and set off directly this afternoon.After Erlang accepted the money, his attitude became more respectful and he promised to go back as soon as possible.

When Erlang came over in the afternoon, he brought a set of documents issued by the Iwami Kingdom Guardian Palace, including the land deeds of ten subordinates and one hundred Japanese people.

These Japanese people came from Penglai with Liu Xinqi, and the Xinghan League had their contracts of sale.

Afterwards, the Xinghan League would also sign a lease agreement with these Japanese people. The 40 acres of land would be permanently leased to Liu Xinqi at a price of 100 taels without any regrets. The Japanese people had no right to unilaterally tear up the agreement.

The signature fee is equivalent to one tael per person.Just write your name and you will get one tael of silver for free. The selected Japanese people are very happy.

After resupplying some consumption in the past few days in Omori City, the fleet set sail again and headed west to Hamada City.

With people from the Zong family as guides, the fleet did not stop at night and kept sailing. The next day, September [-], the fleet arrived outside Hamada Port.

The Hamada River is not wide enough, barely enough for a county-level sand boat to sail, and trackers are needed to pull the boat on the shore to move upstream.All the large ships of the fleet stopped outside Hamada Port, and all the marines, field regiments and more than 6000 foreign soldiers disembarked, and pulled 38 sand boats and five walking boats into the Hamada River.

The government in Hamada City naturally had Erlang's men to negotiate. During the entire transfer process, no unsighted Japanese forces dared to disturb it.However, some bold local small businessmen came to this huge fleet to sell their specialty goods, grains and fruits. The military officials in charge of the trade went to negotiate with them. The Zong family cooperated and purchased some fresh products at a fair price. food.

Several businessmen who seemed reliable were selected and a long-term purchase contract was signed. The contract stipulated that these local businessmen needed to provide fresh fish, fruits, and food to the camp to be established on the upper reaches of the Hamada River, and the Xinghan League would pay cash on delivery.

After Liu Xinqi learned about it, he sent some people into Hamada City and made a large purchase in the city, including ironware, iron ingots, livestock, etc. He bought everything he could and asked for cash on delivery.

The Xinghan League's generosity made the entire Hamada City excited, and they became much more friendly towards the arrival of this team.

The journey to the central mountains went smoothly. They met up with the spies from the Military Intelligence Department who had stayed in Iwami Country. With the spies leading the way, the Army directly pulled the ship to the preset fortification site.

right!Just build a city.

……

Dissatisfied that the ship was sailing too slowly against the current, Liu Xinqi led his guards and followed the head of the Ishijian Kingdom spies to the place where the city was planned to be built.

"This is it. There is a small river on both sides. It can be built directly after flattening the hill in the middle of the river. The moat and water source are ready. And the hill is high enough, so there is no need to worry about being flooded by the river during the flood season. ." The spy introduced.

Liu Xinqi looked at this place and felt a little small: "How big is it here?"

"Both rivers run north-south, and the narrowest distance between them is one mile. The city can be built according to the width of one mile from east to west. There is no restriction on the north and south. You can build all the way south." The spy explained.

In other words, the city built was rectangular.

Liu Xinqi's mathematical knowledge told him that with the same side length, the square has the largest area.

"It cannot be built in a rectangular shape. It would be too wasteful." Liu Xinqi said: "After selecting the area, build two square fortresses at both ends, and no city wall will be built in the middle."

This will save a lot of materials for building the city wall, and both sides of the river bank between the two fortresses can be built into piers, and the transportation capacity will be greatly increased.There are fortresses at both ends of the north and south, and the defensive capabilities have not declined much, and professional military fortresses are easier to defend.

"This is indeed better." The spy nodded. "I think the width of the two rivers should not be enough to sail county-level sand ships." Liu Xinqi asked.

"Yes, the depth is okay, but the width is not enough." The spy replied.

"Can it be broadened?" Liu Xinqi asked.

"There is no problem in widening, but because they are all small rivers, the water flow will be very small in winter. If the river is widened, the depth of the river will not be enough to support the navigation of county-level sand boats during the non-flood season," the spy replied.

Sand boats are flat-bottomed boats, and the wading depth is shallow. This is not enough, which shows that the water volume of the two rivers is indeed too little.

"Then build some small flat-bottomed boats for transshipment first, and build a transfer wharf on the river where sand boats can sail." Liu Xinqi arranged, and an official nearby quickly recorded: "The two rivers can be combined later, and then widened and deepened. When the time comes, we will build ships as big as they are suitable for sailing, and maximize the use of the river's carrying capacity."

Building wide and smooth roads is very time-consuming, and it is definitely not possible in the short term. Transportation on small roads is worse than using boats, so in the near future, we can only maximize the use of rivers known as "forest roads" to help transport goods.

"How far is the silver mine from here?" Liu Xinqi asked.

"Go further upstream, about ten miles." The spy replied.

"Come on, let's go and see."

Some people stayed in place and began to plan the scope of the city. After the materials on the ship arrived, they could start preliminary work.Liu Xinqi took some of the guards and followed the spies further south.

Traveling lightly and simply, and all of them were elite, the ten-mile journey passed quickly.

"We found that there are two veins in this area, one is a copper vein containing silver and silver quartz; the other is more complex, containing iron, copper, lead and other ores, and these ores contain silver to varying degrees. Two. The mineral veins are very close together, and I don’t know if they are fused together underground.” The spy introduced.

Everyone came to a small basin, where several small smelting furnaces were built. Next to them were tents for people to live in. Several Han craftsmen were directing some Japanese people to work.

Seeing Liu Xinqi looking at the Japanese, the spy immediately explained: "These are all out of curiosity. They saw the smoke column in the sky and came here to investigate, or they were nearby mountain people who accidentally broke into the smelting point. , were arrested by our security personnel. In order to maintain confidentiality, we have temporarily kept these people here to do some work within our capabilities."

These small smelting furnaces use small crucibles to smelt minerals. Most of the construction materials are transported from Penglai and then secretly transported into the mountains to provide technical support for prospecting.

"Alliance leader!" The person in charge of the smelting point came up to greet him.

"How about the mineral deposits here?" Liu Xinqi shook hands with him and asked.

"It's great. I didn't expect such a small place to contain so many minerals. It's really a God-given place." The craftsman praised: "The reserves of silver ore and copper ore are very high, as well as iron ore, lead ore, zinc There are also many mines.”

Now everyone is alive. Liu Xinqi came all the way to Japan, not just for money and zinc.

(End of this chapter)