Chapter 424 Salt and Iron

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Since the two important sources of income in the jurisdiction of salt and iron, Lü Bocheng has been much more relaxed.

No longer has to worry about insufficient military funds.

Take the capture of Haizhou as the next goal. Go out early and return late every day to train soldiers in the barracks.

And since the excavation of the Xuzhou iron mine, many soldiers who retired from the army have also found a place to settle down.

In the past, for those who were homeless or unwilling to return home, Lü Bocheng only built land and built manors in several states under his jurisdiction, settled them there, let them work in the fields, and when the grain was harvested, they would have a share of food to solve the problem of food and clothing.

But these people have difficulty in walking and walking, and can't do much work in the fields. There is no spare money on them.

But now there are more choices, mining, smelting, ironmaking, and a series of auxiliary workers, which require a lot of manpower.

Even if they are missing arms and legs and have difficulty in moving, there are many jobs that can be done while sitting, or that can be done without having healthy hands and feet. There are many types of jobs for them to choose from.

Three meals a day, four seasons of clothing, and a generous salary.

Many retired soldiers came here and found jobs. These people were more properly settled in Xuzhou.

Lu Bocheng breathed a sigh of relief.

The retired soldiers had a guaranteed life, and the soldiers still in the army saw it and trained more actively.

After Lu Bocheng was busy training, Pei Xi often came to Su Qing'an when he had something to do.

Su Qing'an also often gave him some suggestions.

The two discussed setting up several iron officials. They were in charge of the mining and smelting of iron ore, the sale of iron stone, and the casting and sales of ironware.

On the other hand, Pei Xi's recruitment notice has also achieved certain results. Not only did the people of several states in Zhenhai come to apply, but even people from other states also came.

During this period, Pei Xi and a group of officials were busy selecting and examining their qualifications.

Seeing that Pei Zhi had always been with Pei Xi, Su Qing'an saw that sometimes when she and Pei Xi communicated, Pei Zhi could also put forward many suggestions that could be adopted. She was very moved in her heart. It was indeed a noble family. She admired their education of their children.

"Master Pei, your grandson is good. You should bring him out as soon as possible to serve you. Now several states have to replace a group of people, and there is a serious shortage of manpower."

"Madam, you are too kind. Zhi still needs to learn more." Pei Zhi bowed to Su Qing'an and said.

"Thank you, Madam, for your appreciation of him. I am now bringing him along to teach him personally and letting him experience the world. I also know that you are short of people now. I have already sent letters to contact some friends and relatives, and I believe there will be a response soon."

"Then I will trouble you, Master Pei, to worry about it. In addition to examining the knowledge of the people we recruit, we must also focus on their character. It is better to be short of people than to recruit a bunch of incompetent and mediocre troublemakers, and then we will have to spend effort to clean them up."

"Madam, don't worry, I won't have to."

Soon, the news that Xuzhou spent a lot of money to recruit miners spread.

Many people who couldn't make a living came one after another. And blacksmiths with a keen sense of smell also flocked from all over the place.

Lü Bocheng quickly ordered people to set up smelting workshops, iron workshops, etc. near the mining area. Furnaces and forges were built, and a weapons workshop was also set up. Special people were assigned to forge weapons.

And Su Qingmei also gave Lü Bocheng the technology of smelting pig iron into steel. Lu Bocheng was overjoyed and gave it to his loyal men for testing. He also told the iron officials to guard against it and to send loyal people to the weapons workshop to monopolize it.

After the iron stone was smelted, the weapons workshop began to forge various long swords, spears, ring-handled broadswords and other weapons.

And the pig iron ingots began to be sold.

Pei Xi ordered people to open a new street in Xuzhou, specializing in the forging and sale of various ironware. However, only farm tools, kitchen tools and some hand tools were allowed to be forged, and weapons were not allowed to be forged. Once discovered, they would be imprisoned.

Nowadays, not only in Xuzhou, but also all over the country, iron is sold by the government, and weapons cannot be forged and sold privately. Folk craftsmen can only make farm tools, kitchen tools and some small hand tools.

And the monthly purchase of pig iron ingots is also limited.

Moreover, the price of iron stone is not cheap. After forging, the selling price is naturally expensive.

So it is a common situation for ordinary people to be "unarmed".

Sometimes, when the states and counties were recruiting soldiers for war and lacked weapons, they would collect old ironware from the people's homes, take it back and forge it into weapons, but sometimes a family could not pay half a pound or a pound.

But now Xuzhou is not short of iron.

And as long as there is a lot of something, the price is no longer expensive. In the chaos of the world, how can you not keep some ironware at home?

If you can't buy weapons, then stock up more ironware. Chopping wood knives, kitchen knives, hoes, shovels, and wooden bolts for door bolts are all replaced with iron bolts.

Stock up more, it's definitely right.

In the future, when you have no money, you can take the old iron to the blacksmith shop and they will recycle it. Although the price is not as good as when you bought it, it can still be exchanged for money.

So after the Xuzhou Ironware Street opened a shop, the business was so prosperous.

Xiang Shang naturally would not miss this opportunity.

He got Su Qing's instructions to buy many idle shops in Xuzhou City, and was thinking about what business to do. When the news of iron ore in Xuzhou was not received by other parties, his shop was quietly opened.

It is better to keep the wealth within the family. Moreover, they also pay taxes like everyone else when they open a shop. If others can make money, why can't they make money themselves?

They already had an iron mine and ironware workshop in the mountains, and they had many craftsmen. They sent a letter to call some experienced people to come.

When the iron mine started selling pig iron ingots, the craftsmen in the mountains also arrived. As soon as the shop bought the pig iron ingots, it started working immediately.

There were various drawings drawn by Su Qingmei, which were fast to work, high in output, novel in shape, exquisite and easy to use, and the business was so good.

It was not just Su Qingmei's shop, but any iron shop had never worried about business. Many were just family workshops with insufficient manpower and orders that could not be completed in time. They were overwhelmed by orders.

Many merchants from other places naturally smelled this wave of business opportunities and came to Xuzhou to buy various ironware and transport them back to various places to sell.

They all made a lot of money.

Soon, many merchants who came to Xuzhou to buy ironware flocked to Xuzhou, and sometimes large caravans could be seen entering and leaving the city gate every day.

Xuzhou, which had been silent for a long time, began to show the prosperity of a peaceful year.

Good news came from Chuzhou.

When Xu Tang arrived in Chuzhou, he quickly controlled a group of officials from various counties and prefectures in Chuzhou. They were detained separately and tortured, and soon some people confessed.

Once the door was opened, it was like a mountain torrent.

Without stopping for a moment, Xu Tang immediately ordered people to control the homes of a group of officials and related personnel.

Even from the homes of servants, thousands of taels of silver could be found. Not to mention other officials with great power. A large amount of gold and silver was found in the underground warehouse of the Chuzhou government office and the home of the former governor of Chuzhou, from the warehouse, secret room, and pond.

The Chuzhou government office could not even pile it up.

The silver transported from Chuzhou to Xuzhou continued. It was as much as more than 20 million taels.

While Xu Tang ordered people to transport silver to Xuzhou, he beheaded dozens of officials of Chuzhou, big and small.

Officials from other states in Zhenhai were silent and checked themselves.

Xu Tang's move really scared the officials of the other four states.

Some were so scared that they submitted their official documents. As long as they were found to have no corruption and no problems with their tenure, they were allowed to stay or leave. However, some people saw hope from the investigation in Chuzhou.

They became more diligent.

When the silver from Chuzhou arrived in Chuzhou, the soldiers in the army were excited to learn that they had received more than 20 million taels.

"Mighty! Mighty!"

"We will win! We will win!"

"Sir, the military supplies are not lacking, we can prepare."

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