If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 174

Mining gold and silver from the Japanese country was the top priority of the Ming Dynasty in conquering the Japanese, and both Zhu Zhantun and several other vassal kings attached great importance to it.

Although the war on Japan's Honshu Island has not yet ended, Zhu Zhanqi, who has occupied Kyushu Island, has begun to dig mines after stabilizing the local situation.

Although the main vein of the Linggao Gold Mine itself is buried deep underground, the surrounding fragmented upper veins are still very impressive.

After the officials of Prince Zheng's Mansion organized a large number of miners and laborers who were good at mining, and also transferred professional gold mining craftsmen from the Ming Dynasty, the mining work of Linggao Gold Mine was officially launched.

Although it is only a shallow upper layer of the vein that is very fragmented, and not much is exposed above the ground, the amount of gold and silver mined is still considerable under fully-expanded multi-site operations.

After all, the grade of the Linggao gold mine is very high, and even during the initial mining process of the gold mine, some people picked up gold nuggets and large pieces of natural silver ingots.

Gold panning in ancient times was a very time-consuming and labor-intensive task, because if you want to obtain gold, you must first dig the ore, and this is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming heavy manual labor.

The modern mining of ores in later generations is still a very arduous job, let alone the ancient times when there was no modern equipment.

But fortunately in the feudal era, the labor cost was negligible, and His Highness Prince Zheng did not need to collect labor or anything like that. It was perfect for prisoners from previous wars to be used for work.

After all, ordinary people these days have no human rights, let alone prisoners. Except for those who can pay a ransom or have huge political interests, the remaining captives are usually treated as free labor by the victors. Use it to death.

Even if Zhu Zhanqi was kind-hearted and did not use the prisoners to death, these free prisoners would not be used in vain.

After all, these captured people are the backbone of the Japanese ruling class on Kyushu Island. If a few escape, Zhu Zhancheng has just stabilized the situation and has not yet made his rule deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. But now It's easy to cause trouble.

Although he has a large army in his hand, he is not afraid of people making trouble in the local area. At worst, the army can just go over and suppress it, but this is not the correct attitude to deal with the problem after all.

Just strengthening the management of prisoners and letting them work can prevent people from jumping out to cause trouble in the local area. Why should we condone it?

Even if those who want to clean up the place are still resentful and want to resist their own rule, there is no need to use this method. They can use other means to lure the snake out of the hole.

Moreover, Zhu Zhanjuan had just conquered Kyushu Island. As long as the Ming Dynasty's rule over this land can last for a long time and can be deeply rooted in people's hearts and maintain long-term stability, these so-called resentful people can only harbor resentment and cannot stir up trouble. What waves.

As for whether so many prisoners piled up in the mining area will cause security problems in the mining area itself, there is no need to worry.

Because in addition to the need to stabilize the order of the mining area, mining in the feudal era also needed to eliminate an entrainment problem.

Gold and silver are so attractive that the Ming Dynasty brazenly launched a war to conquer the Japanese for a little silver. How many of those miners who spend all day digging for gold could not bear to reach out?

It's just that ancient gold and silver mines were very strict about entrainment. Not to mention if it was hidden in clothes, even if it was caught in the butthole, it would be taken out.

Moreover, the gold mine itself is also a very important place, and it is common sense to send troops to guard it.The person responsible for this work was the Thousand Household Station of Qingyu Guard, which Zhu Zhanjuan most trusted, and Zhu Zhantun also used this Thousand Household Station as the basis to expand it into a new guard station.

This can be regarded as something in his plan. After all, the fiefdom has expanded so much, and he has to consider the issues of fighting and suppressing local areas. As the vassal king, Zhu Zhanyu cannot only rely on the four guards of Tianjin Sanwei and Qingyuwei. Includes everything.

Even during the Hongwu period, although the vassal kings in various places only had three royal guards, they could still mobilize the imperial garrison in their fiefdoms when necessary.

This is also one of the key factors why Zhu Di was able to raise a large army to fight against the imperial court during the Jingnan War. The imperial garrison troops surrounding King Yan had all fought with King Yan back then, and they would surrender at the first greeting. Under the command of King Yan.

And these original Yanwang vassal and surrounding garrisons also benefited after the success of Jingnan, and they suddenly became the emperor's personal army from local garrisons.

Therefore, after Zhu Zhanyu actually took control of Kyushu Island, he naturally began to consider military expansion.

As early as after he occupied Fukuoka City, which had been renamed Fukang, he had already sent people to write to the court, requesting Zhu Di to grant a designation and organization.

Although it was not a big problem for Zhu Zhanjuan to form the army privately even if he did not report it to the court, in order to avoid being gossiped about and arousing suspicion out of thin air, Zhu Zhanjuan still decided to go through the formal process and did not have a clear intention from the court. Don’t start doing this until you get down.

Fortunately, the sea road has been opened. A fast ship departs from Fukang on Kyushu Island and can reach Nanjing in only about 20 days.

Therefore, while Zhu Zhanchen was sorting out local government affairs in Kyushu and sending people to mine gold, official documents from the imperial court had also been sent to him.

Along with it, there is also a batch of gold and silver mined from the Linggao mining area.

"Your Majesty, this is all the gold and silver mined from the Linggao Mine this month. There are 710, 720, [-], and [-] silver coins in total. The mine is currently operating well, and both the gold and silver mines are in good condition. It is a rich mine. I believe it only takes some time to expand the scale and become familiar with the process. In the future, the output can be further increased." While reporting the mining situation of the gold mine to Zhu Zhanquan, Zuo Changshi of Prince Zheng's Mansion also bowed to him. A bow expresses congratulations.

Zhu Zhanjun seemed to be satisfied with this. He glanced at the smelted gold and silver ingots in front of him with satisfaction and nodded with satisfaction.

Although this batch of gold and silver doesn't sound like much, just a few hundred taels of gold and tens of thousands of taels of silver, it is still shocking to see so much gold and silver in front of you.

It’s even more satisfying knowing that there will be at least this many every month from now on.

So Zhu Zhankui casually picked up a gold ingot, weighed it in his hand, and threw it to Zuo Changshi: "Well done, I will reward you with this gold ingot. Keep up the good work."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the reward!" Zuo Changshi accepted the gold ingot and thanked him loudly.

Although a gold ingot is not a lot of money, Zuo Changshi was very happy with the reward from the vassal king.

After the reward, Zhu Zhanju also gave Zuo Changshi a new job: "The official documents from the imperial court have been sent. Grandpa has approved three more troops for me to guard. Thank you Zhang Changshi for your hard work and return to Tianjin." In one trip, I will recruit at least [-] new soldiers for Gu Gu. These Japanese are short and cannot be driven, so I, the people of the Ming Dynasty, can rest assured."

(End of this chapter)