Chapter 1186: Don’t Be Shameless to Plot

Li Yi stared at Song Jing, who did not avoid him at all, staring at him.

The two looked at each other for a while, and Li Yi smiled: "Isn't it the case that victory is more important than war? We have occupied the place."

"Does it mean that we don't need to defend it if we have occupied it?" Song Jing asked.

"Did Longyou not defend it before? Did the Jiedushi of Hexi not defend it? It's just that the soldiers guarding the two places were put in front to defend, what's the difference?" Li Yi reasoned.

"Of course it's different. The road is long and the transportation of baggage is difficult." Song Jing found the key problem.

"The transportation was better in the past than now? Was it faster, or was there more stuff transported?" Li Yi asked with a smile.

"Isn't it because of you? Without you, how would they supply it?" Song Jing said confidently.

"Oh!" Li Yi nodded, and at the same time clasped his fists to express his gratitude.

Others looked at Song Jing, without saying anything, just looking.

Song Jing smacked his lips: "The source of the Yellow River needs to keep warm in winter, so where are the coal mines?"

Li Yi took out a map beside him, spread it out, and pointed to several places: "There are coal mines here."

He pointed to the location next to him: "It is 600 miles from here to Sister Lake in a straight line. There is a large open-pit coal mine occupied by Tubo."

Li Yi was referring to the open-pit coal mine in Haixi Prefecture at that time, which was located to the north of Sister Lake.

There are still Tubo troops and tribes there, but they are not fighting southward.

The other locations are in the area controlled by the Tang Dynasty, in Longyou, and a little further west. They are small coal mines that are difficult to mine.

The coal reserves are small, so it doesn't matter. It is enough to dig locally. The problem is to dig a few hundred meters deep.

"There are gold mines and other mines here, such as antimony and tungsten. You don't know what they are, right? Good stuff.

I can use them to make alloys and safety matches. I haven't taken out matches. If I produce them, it will easily make people sick.

If I don't want to be poisoned, I can only continue to add processes. The flint I'm using now is good. Let's use it first."

Li Yi thought that if he had to put on a match production line, he might as well use that technology on other things.

The flint of the Tang people was useful, and a skilled person could ignite a fire in a moment.

Flint is usually a white stone. There was a Baishigou near Li Yi's home when he was a child, and there were many such stones in it.

The main component is silicon dioxide, which can be used to ignite fire by rubbing it.

It is also in matches, but it is not valuable.

Red phosphorus needs to be made to make matches. It's so hard to make red phosphorus, why do we need to make matches?

Looking at the pictures and listening to Li Yi's words, the three prime ministers were silent, feeling bullied.

Yes, they admitted that they didn't know what Li Yi was talking about.

The only thing they knew was that there were mines, coal mines and gold mines.

Let’s not worry about the gold mines, as they are not used for the time being. The coal mines are used to keep the soldiers warm in winter.

“Are the people allowed to dig in the coal mines?” Bi Gou didn’t want to see Song Jing’s frustrated look.

“Now the people dig in the places where cement is burned, and keep some of them for themselves, and give some of them as the money for digging coal to the cement factory.”

Li Yi drew a few small locations on the map, where the cement factory was.

There were no other places drawn because there were no stones to burn cement.

Su Yan thought for a while and said, “There are few local people, and the coal sent to the front should be washed bright coal.”

“There are captives, and we are not going to send them back now, so send them to Longyou quickly.” Li Yi reminded.

Don’t always think about letting the people do hard work, the people still have to farm and raise livestock.

Capture tens of thousands of captives, exchange them with the people of the Tang Dynasty, and the rest will all go to wash coal and burn cement.

You can’t just eat and not work, people have the right to work.

“Transfer, transfer the captives, give money to the Anxi Jiedushi, and Yidi, you buy the captives.” Li Longji knew what the Anxi Jiedushi was waiting for.

Waiting for money, there are also medicines and tools for treating injuries, gauze, scissors, alcohol, etc.

Li Yi agreed without thinking: "I will pay, send someone to deliver the exchange vouchers and supplies, and the loss will be deducted from the tax."

"Deduct it next year, we have to collect 30 million strings this year, you have finally sold things and paid a lot of taxes."

Bi Gou discussed in a low voice, he wanted to see enough money on the books.

Other shipbuilding and railroad tracks can't be spent much now.

10 million strings for shipbuilding, not 10 million strings at a time.

Buy things and hire people one after another, and allocate funds in batches.

He knew where Li Yi lost money, and spent money on buying prisoners.

Who would give Li Yi money for washing coal and burning cement?

Li Yi also had to pay for the prisoners to eat, which was another burden.

"Xiao Yi, I know it's not easy for you." Bi Gou comforted again.

Li Yi blinked his eyes: "What's not easy for me? You mean the money for food? I asked the prisoners to use coal powder to make coal blocks and coal balls.

Are the people willing to buy one hundred coal blocks for one penny? If not, they can pull the coal powder back to make them.

If they buy, they can just pull the coal blocks directly. A prisoner can make three thousand coal blocks a day, which is considered a small amount. Five thousand is better. Once you are skilled, you will be able to do it quickly."

Li Yi is not worried about that. He washes coal. A prisoner must wash out one ton of coal a day.

Two people work in a group. If they produce 2.5 tons of coal a day, they will be rewarded with meat soup. If they produce three tons, they will be given meat.

If they produce less than two tons, their meals will be reduced by half. If they produce less than one ton, they will have complaints and will be buried in a pit.

Even if there are 150,000 frontline soldiers, how much coal can they use in a day? Ten kilograms of coal per person is not enough to burn.

The stove is kept burning all day long, and it keeps burning for twelve hours.

Eight people share a room, and there are eighty kilograms of coal. People can't get on the kang because it is too hot.

Don't talk about the kang, UU reading www. uukanshu.net It's impossible to stay in the house.

On average, one prisoner can wash out one ton of clean coal a day. Thirty thousand prisoners can wash out 30,000 tons, and the other 40,000 to 50,000 people can dig coal.

One month's work is enough for the soldiers in the front.

If you are in a hurry to make cement, you can wash coal with 10,000 people, dig coal with 20,000 people, and grind cement with others.

After washing for two or three months, your own place will be enough.

After a few days, the weather will be cold, and it will be difficult to wash coal. The water is cold. Normally, Li Yi, who was a coal washer at that time, would not do it.

The prisoners don't need to consider whether it is cold or not. They can wash coal in winter. They can dig holes in the ice and take out water to wash it!

"Xiao Yi, according to this... pay some taxes?" Bi Gou thought about it. The prisoners dig coal, wash coal, and make coal blocks.

When the front line is supplied, they can be sold. One person can provide Li Yi with 30 or 40 coins a day.

The more than 80,000 prisoners in the two places earn Li Yi 3,000 coins a day.

30,000 in 10 days, 300,000 in 100 days…

“Isn’t buying captives money? It needs to be paid in batches. One captive costs 50 strings of cash, more than 80,000. It takes a year to make 1 million, and four years to get back the investment.”

Li Yi felt wronged and couldn’t give in anymore.

The more than 12,000 captives he had now basically worked for nothing, and he didn’t ask the court for money.

Bi Gou just nodded, and suddenly shook his head again: “Do you think 25% profit a year is too little? Let me give it to you, my Ministry of Revenue has money.”

“Okay, I’ll give it to you.” Li Yi followed suit. If you have the ability, you can make money, I don’t want it.

“Then give me some ideas. I can guess that you will use them to get back the investment faster.”

Bi Gou couldn’t think of how to make money. Coal mining and coal washing were definitely not it.

Li Yi looked at him: “Do I owe you?”

“Okay!” Bi Gou nodded. There was money to be made, so why bother with face.