roccoschili Chapter 585 Ji Jie Discovers a Gold Mine
Chapter 585 Ji Jie Discovers a Gold Mine
Fu Shiren brought back 400 catties of grain seeds from Linyi to Jiangling, but it was winter and they couldn't be planted. Liu Bei had no choice but to carefully preserve the seeds as if they were his own grandson, the only son in ten generations, and wait until spring.
Although it's too cold to farm, the Jiangnan region isn't like the Central Plains where it freezes over, so people can still work if they want to.
Liu Bei first sent Fu Shiren, who had only rested for two days, to sea again with the unfortunate illegitimate sons selected by various aristocratic families. Then, he personally directed and mobilized craftsmen to build twenty-three steel mills in Jiangdong, Jingzhou, and even Bashu. Ten of these were military steel mills for making weapons and armor, while the rest were civilian steel mills for making shovels, hoes, and curved plows. He attempted to promote the new agricultural tools to every household within three years and even export them.
Because Liu Bei understood that steel was the hard standard for measuring national strength and a shortcut to rapidly increasing productivity. Only by making enough agricultural tools could he cultivate enough wasteland and accumulate enough grain to support his northern expedition to unify the country and then set his sights on the world.
He is over sixty years old and doesn't have much time left, but there is still a lot to do, so he must make the most of every minute.
After arranging all the matters, Liu Bei turned his attention to Japan in the north and began to think about how to use Japan to open up a route to the Americas.
Preparations for this must begin now. We should utilize the manpower of the Japanese to establish a port in Hokkaido and a supply line along the Aleutian Islands. This way, once we defeat Cao Wei and unify the world, we can directly send people to explore the Americas.
Otherwise, doing these preliminary tasks after unifying the world would be a waste of time. The waste of time is secondary; the key issue is that he is afraid he won't be able to wait that long.
Therefore, Liu Bei became concerned about Ji Jie, who was escorting the dog Gutianchuan back to China, and looked forward to Ji Jie's return every day.
After setting sail, Ji Jie, guided by the dog Furuta River, successfully arrived at the coast of Kyushu Island in Japan.
Japan is an island nation with countless islands scattered throughout its territory. Among them, only four are the largest and most suitable for human habitation: from west to east, they are Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, and the unexplored Hokkaido.
Currently, the Kingdom of Dog Slave occupies Kyushu Island, Shikoku Island, and a small part of Honshu Island, while the Kingdom of Yamatai occupies most of the most prosperous part of Honshu Island. Both the Kingdom of Yamatai and the Kingdom of Yamatai have an almost overwhelming advantage over the Kingdom of Dog Slave in terms of economy and military.
When Ji Jie, the deputy commander of the Han navy, arrived, Gou Gutianchuan pointed to the coastline excitedly as soon as he saw the land and said, "General, please look, that is where I came from, and it is also my Gou slave's territory. There is a gold mine in the territory that can definitely meet the needs of the general and General Guan."
When the gold mine was mentioned, Ji Jie's eyes lit up. He suppressed his excitement and calmly said, "It's good to have a gold mine. With a gold mine, General Guan can help your Dog Slave Kingdom defeat Yamatai and unify Japan."
Although copper coins were the mainstream currency of the Han Dynasty, gold could also be used as currency, but only among the gentry. It was a high-level currency exclusive to the gentry, and since it was a currency, there was no reason not to like it.
Therefore, the moment Ji Jie heard the words "gold mine," he instinctively wanted to possess it.
Dog Kou Futakawa was equally excited and quickly said, "Let's go to the royal city first. After we meet His Majesty the King, I'll take you to the gold mine."
Ji Jie waved his hand and said directly, "This general has limited time. His Majesty is waiting for me to return and report. There is no time to waste. Go directly to the gold mine and have your king and ministers come to the gold mine to see me."
"Are you kidding me? I am an envoy of the Han Dynasty. How could I lower myself to meet the king of a mere dog-slave kingdom? If I did, my career in the Han Dynasty would be over. The Han emperor and his ministers cannot afford to lose face like that."
"This..." Dog Gutianchuan hesitated for a moment but did not dare to refute. He could only nod in agreement. After landing, he sent two subordinates back to the capital to report to King Himiko and his uncle Dog Guzhi. He himself took Ji Jie to the gold mine to investigate.
Having an acquaintance to guide them was convenient. Ji Jie led two hundred fully armed personal guards and followed Gougutianchuan to the gold mine Gougutianchuan mentioned in just two days. Upon closer inspection, they found that although there were many mine shafts near the gold mine, they were not deep. The deepest one was no more than three meters deep. It was clear that Gounu Kingdom had only recently discovered this gold mine and had not been mining it for long.
In other words, this is a newly discovered mine that has not yet been exploited.
Ji Jie was overjoyed upon seeing this and immediately ordered his personal guards to rush into the mine with pickaxes and hammers. Dozens of men swung their pickaxes and smashed the rocks, easily unearthing the gold hidden in the crevices.
Someone picked up a piece of gold the size of a walnut from the rubble that had fallen to the ground and exclaimed, "Vice Governor Ji, there really is gold! There really is gold!"
Ji Jie rushed over, snatched the gold, wiped it on his clothes, and examined it closely. After looking at it, he excitedly shouted, "Dig, keep digging! Let's see how much gold this mine holds!"
Although the gold in my hand is only the size of a walnut and its color is not very pure, don't forget that this is the most primitive ore. It will need to be refined and processed later. Once we return to the Han Dynasty, we can have a professional goldsmith process it, and it will definitely become the purest gold.
Encouraged by this, the soldiers once again picked up their pickaxes and searched frantically. As time went by, gold was constantly being discovered, and some even had incredible luck, digging up a gold nugget the size of an adult's fist.
This is sufficient proof of how abundant the gold reserves are. If all of them were mined, it is estimated that they could provide Liu Bei with millions of shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain needed for his northern expedition.
Although gold cannot be eaten, it can be used as currency to buy grain from the gentry. As long as there is enough gold, not only the gentry in Jiangnan, but also the gentry in the Central Plains will be eager to send grain to Liu Bei.
Thinking of this, Ji Jie waved his hand and said, "Stop digging. Let's go somewhere else to open up new mine shafts and estimate how big this gold mine really is."
Ji Jie, being unfamiliar with Japan, had no way of knowing about the gold mine. If Guan Xing were here, he would probably be able to guess that this was the Hishikari Gold Mine in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, with reserves of over two hundred tons, all of which were high-quality ore.
While ordering his soldiers to scout the area, Ji Jie called over Gougu Tianchuan and said with a smile, "General Gougu, I assure you, General Guan will definitely like the gold in this mine. As long as there's enough gold, not to mention weapons and farm tools, General Guan can even sell you our Han Dynasty's most prized possessions: the three-bow crossbow and the trebuchet. So, regarding the mining..."
Dog-Fukawa said excitedly, "General, don't worry, I'll gather people to mine gold as soon as I get back, and you can come and collect it next time."
Ji Jie laughed and said, "Then you'd better mine more. Next time you come, I'll bring you a large ship. With a large ship, you can go to the Great Han by yourself and won't have to wait for me to come and pick you up."
The tower ship can be given to the dog, Gutianchuan, but the price will definitely be ten or twenty times higher than that of the Great Han.
Despite this, Gougu Tianchuan was still extremely excited. Their Gounu Kingdom's dilapidated ships were too fragile. They were destroyed by the wind and waves after only one voyage and he almost drowned. If he had the Han Dynasty's warships, wouldn't he be able to go wherever he wanted?
Don't forget that Japan is an island nation. For an island nation, not having ships is like not having cars on land; it's inconvenient to go anywhere.
After agreeing on the procurement details, Ji Jie led his men to continue exploring the mountains. Carrying pickaxes, they dug around and found another two kilograms of gold in just three days. If they could find so much on the surface, they couldn't even imagine how much was buried underground.
Ji Jie became more and more excited as he explored, and in the end he wished he could bring in tens of thousands of troops from the Han Dynasty to mine overnight. However, three days had passed and King Himiko and the powerful minister Goguchihi had not yet arrived, which made Ji Jie somewhat displeased. After thinking for a moment, he decided not to wait any longer and decisively turned around and left with the gold he had collected in the past two days.
Seeing Ji Jie's anger, Gou Gutianchuan hurriedly shouted from behind, "General, don't go! Wait two more days, my king will definitely come in two more days!"
Ji Jie sneered, "The royal city is not far from here. You should have arrived in three days. The fact that you haven't arrived only proves that your king is deliberately delaying and testing my bottom line. He even wants me to condescend to meet him. Does this little dog-slave king think too highly of himself?"
"Tell your king that the Great Han will not tolerate any provocation. When I come here next time, if he does not give me an explanation for what happened today, I will personally lead my army to the capital to demand an explanation. At that time, I will not mind replacing the king of the Dog Slave Kingdom. Farewell."