My Ming Dynasty, I have the final say

Chapter 223 Anshan Iron Mine

Anshanyi, at the foot of Dagu Mountain.

Xu Qian and Zhao Li stood at the foot of the cliff, looking up at the cliff above their heads.

"Father, I'm afraid the rock walls of this mountain are all iron ore."

After swallowing, Xu Qian said with a trembling voice.

“And it’s also the easiest open pit mine to mine.”

"The whole mountain?"

Hearing this, Officer Zhao turned his head in a daze.

For three days, after the first iron ore was discovered, hundreds of people dug here and there in the mountains.

Xu Qian licked the stone, and his mouth tasted like rust.

In the end, he came to a terrifying conclusion - the entire interior of Dagushan was made of iron ore.

"Really, what the emperor dreamed was actually true."

After muttering a few words to himself, Zhao Li suddenly fell to his knees and kowtowed in the direction of the capital.

"Your Majesty is a god descending to earth, a god descending to earth."

"The gods descended to earth."

Following Zhao Li's movements, Xu Qian beside him also knelt down.

The Xu Qian family has been professional prospectors since the early Ming Dynasty.

As a miner, more professionally, he is called a mountain craftsman.

He deeply knows how difficult it is to find a mineral vein.

How many people in his family have studied all their lives and used all their family traditions, but they can't find a few veins of minerals.

The emperor had a dream and directed them to find a mine, and it was the easiest open-pit mine to mine.

For Zhao Li and Xu Qian, the leaders who heard the news personally from the emperor, this was beyond words.

The four major steel groups in later generations are Shougang, Baosteel, Wuhan Iron and Steel, and Anshan Iron and Steel.

Among them, the emperor Zhu Youxiao only remembered Shougang and Anshan Iron and Steel, and the reason was very simple. The steel plant was right next to the ore vein.

Although Shougang was founded by the Longguan Iron Ore Company established by the Beiyang government in the late Qing Dynasty, the ore veins had already been the smelting base of the Lulong, Pinglu, and Tianxiong armies as early as the Li and Tang Dynasties. During the Anshi Rebellion, this iron mine supplied the rebels with a large amount of military supplies.

However, after successive generations of mining, most of the open-pit mines and shallow mines that are easiest to mine in the Shijingshan vein have been dug.

As for the ore veins of Baosteel and Wuhan Iron and Steel, it is impossible to use them these days. It is too difficult to mine.

In this era, the easiest and most convenient iron ore to mine for the Ming Dynasty was the Anshan iron ore.

Let me tell you a story: Liaodong lacks blacksmiths and even more iron ore.

There are three main reasons leading to this problem: policy, history, and humanities.

For humanistic reasons, Zhu Yuanzhang's mountain cutting was prohibited, and the imperial court rarely took the initiative to develop mineral veins.

Take King Ning when he was still in Daning Prefecture as an example. Zeng Jin wrote to Zhu Yuanzhang, asking for the development of iron mines near Daning because Daning lacked weapons and tools.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang refused on the grounds that the people's life was already difficult, and the problem was solved by having people transport some weapons and tools while transporting grain from the south to Daning.

The policy issue is the health system.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the capital of Liaodong had twenty-five guards, one hundred and twenty-seven thousand-household offices, and hundreds of households under its jurisdiction.

Originally, according to the establishment, there should be one iron factory and one hundred households per guard, responsible for building armaments.

However, since there is really no iron ore in Liaodong, some guards have to share one with other guards. As a result, there are only 23 iron factories and 100 households in Liaodong.

Among them, the most intuitive manifestation is that the iron factory closest to Liaoyang City is located more than 40 miles north of Fengji Fort. However, in terms of organization, the iron factory is affiliated to Tieling, 150 kilometers away to the north. Wei's. Starting from the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the Ming Dynasty Guard System began to deteriorate, and serious soldiers began to not receive enough food and salary, let alone the craftsmen affiliated with the Guard House. This led to the border army often lacking armaments.

In order to solve this phenomenon, after discussion, the central court finally had to take charge of coordination and provide ordnance to some remote guards.

And for historical reasons.

It can be said that no mines can be found in other places. After all, due to the prohibition on rock cutting, the Ming Dynasty had a low mineral mining volume in all the Central Plains dynasties.

But in the Ming Dynasty, there were no mines in Liaodong. It was really because the local Yamen was blind.

Before the late Qing Dynasty, the entire Northeast was an undeveloped Red Sea area.

Before the Sui Dynasty, the Northeast belonged to foreign tribes such as Goguryeo, and they did not have the technology to develop.

During the Tang Dynasty, Khitan people gathered here, and they exchanged warmth with Li Tang all day long. One of them had no energy, the other had no skills.

During the Liao and Song Dynasties, the core area of ​​interest of the Khitans was on Nanjing Road, which is near today's Beijing, and they did not care about the Northeast.

As for the Yuan Dynasty, everyone knows it. Those people worked hard to eat ready-made food.

But let them find it themselves?

Thanks, I didn't think so.

During the Ming Dynasty, Liaodong was always under military control and was rarely developed.

When they arrived in Qingqing, this group of people, in line with the strategy of governing the country by preferring friendship to friends and not allowing domestic slaves, banned the Han people from entering Liaodong, their land of Longxing, and would kill anyone without permission!

This is why among the three large-scale population migrations in the late Qing Dynasty, including going to the west entrance, going to Nanyang, and crossing the Guandong, the only way to go to the Northeast was to use the word "chuang".

Then, with such a big piece of land, the little Japanese melon heads in the east were given a free advantage.

During the Japanese invasion period that began in the early 10th century, the Japanese found more than iron mines in Liaoning, including Tieshishan, Xi'anshan, Dong'anshan, Dagushan, Cherry Orchard, Guanmenshan, Xiaolingzi, and Gongchangling. Mountains, as well as many mineral veins such as Dashiqiao Magnesite Mine and Yantai Clay Mine.

Take Dagushan in Anshan as an example. The entire Dagushan, which is 280 meters above sea level, was leveled directly, and nearly 10 million tons of iron ore were taken away.

After kowtowing eighteen times in the southwest direction, Zhao Li stood up from the ground.

Calling his godson over, Zhao Li gave instructions.

"Zhao Yong, please go down and have the brothers stationed on the spot. If you run out of food, take the money and go to Liaodong Governor Sun Chengzong to buy it."

"The Zajia family is going back to Beijing with Xu Qian to report to the emperor about Datie Mountain."

"My child understands."

After hearing what Official Zhao said, Zhao Yong nodded hurriedly in response.

"Stay here for me safely and don't do anything wrong!"

Looking at his godson, Zhao Li ordered with some worry.

"Also, don't let me know about the discovery of a large iron mine here before the Za family comes back!"

"I understand, my child understands, this is related to the glory and wealth of the godfather."

Looking at Official Zhao with fanatical eyes, Zhao Yong patted his chest and promised.

"Unless the child dies, we will never let outsiders know that a large iron ore has been found here."

"Ah."

After hearing this, Zhao Li nodded with satisfaction and headed towards Liaoyang City with a few personal followers and Xu Qian.

Seeing Official Zhao's retreating figure, Zhao Yong couldn't help but start thinking wildly.

"If my godfather can be a supervisor of an iron factory, I can also be a deputy."

　Happy New Year, guys

　　

　

(End of this chapter)