Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

After leaving the first mine they encountered on their journey, Li You and his group continued onward.

I gradually encountered other groups of copper miners.

On the fifth day, they ran into an acquaintance.

"My lord! You've finally arrived!"

It was those fifty-odd assassins sent by Li You.

They have taken control of a mine and built thatched huts and earthen kilns for burning charcoal around it.

Having spent a long time in Huang Chao's army, almost every soldier learned the technique of making charcoal.

"My lord, our messenger left only a little over ten days ago, you've arrived so quickly."

The leader of this group of assassins was named Xinpi.

"We came down the mountain on another important business, and since it's nearby, we thought we'd come and see you. Xinpi, how's the production from your mine?"

Xinpi replied, "There are thirty of us in the mine. We've been mining here for more than ten days and have extracted a total of 430 catties of crude copper. We used our own charcoal to calcine it, so the purity of the copper ingots is higher than that of the mountain people. There is also some associated silver ore, which adds up to about 50 catties."

Li You secretly calculated in his mind that with 430 catties of crude copper, he could only expect to get 400 catties of copper in the end.

A copper coin weighs 4 grams, and based on a copper content of 80%, it requires 3.2 grams of copper.

Therefore, 400 catties of copper, after being melted and cast, can yield 62,500 copper coins, which is equivalent to 62 strings of cash.

This amount doesn't sound like a lot.

But there are only thirty people in Xinpi, digging a mine, and they haven't been digging for very long.

"My lord, we have several other rich mines with even higher yields than this one. I'll take you to see them."

"Hmm, we'll go later. Are these miners all local mountain people?"

"Yes, we paid them enough wages, and we also bought a lot of the copper ingots they had mined."

Li You nodded, expressing his appreciation for their previous efforts.

Over the next few days, Li You, led by Xin Pi, wandered around the mines in various places.

Xinpi led fifty elite warriors and seized control of four mines.

Based on their total output, they could earn the equivalent of 450 strings of copper coins per month.

Over the course of a year, that amounted to 5,400 strings of cash.

At this point, Li You had already conceived the idea of ​​buying up the entire Raozhou copper mine.

The mountain people mining around here are actually working hard to dig for those few bolts of cloth, and the benefits Li You can offer them will only be greater than before. With such high profits, the surrounding manpower can be organized.

Moreover, this place is deep in the mountains, where the government's influence is almost non-existent.

Besides mining copper, it is also very suitable for establishing a new base.

"Xinpi, we captured a group of bandits in the mountains ahead, totaling more than three hundred people. Bring these men in to mine as well, and follow the same rules as Huang Chao's army. I will send more people in later, and you will be in charge of this place. Strive to make this place the second Tongbai Mountain stronghold."

"promise!"

……

The inspection of the Raozhou copper mining area has come to an end.

Emerging from the continuous mountains of Raozhou, we then sailed on the vast and misty surface of Poyang Lake.

The burning of warships by Huang Chao's army recently dealt a heavy blow to the shipbuilding industry in Poyang Lake.

As a result, the number of boats traveling on the lake has decreased significantly.

Li You gave the order, and the 200 soldiers were divided into more than a dozen groups, each hiring boats, and quietly left the mouth of Poyang Lake.

We continued sailing down the Yangtze River to our next destination—Xuanzhou.

Ren Zongyang, the bandit leader, was so strong that Li You entrusted him to Zan Junmo to train in martial arts, hoping to mold him into a fierce general.

Xuanzhou is 500 li away from Jiangzhou, and it takes five or six days to travel by land, but it can be reached in two days and one night by going down the river.

This is the allure of the Golden Waterway.

Upon arriving in Xuanzhou, Li You discovered that the city's prosperity was comparable to that of Jiangzhou.

Cities along the Yangtze River do indeed develop more easily.

Compared to Raozhou, which also had copper mines, the copper mines in Xuanzhou received a greater degree of attention from the Tang Dynasty rulers.

The main reason is that the copper mine here is relatively close to the Yangtze River, with the nearest mine less than ten miles away.

The imperial court established the "Copper Official Smelter" here, which was responsible for smelting copper ingots and providing raw materials for the two mints in Chang'an and Luoyang.

In addition to ensuring the supply of copper for the national coin minting, the Tongguan Metallurgical Plant in Xuanzhou also had to guarantee the supply of copper for the military.

At that time, due to limitations in steel production, copper and copper alloys were still used extensively in military supplies such as armor, weapons, and horse harnesses.

Until the late Tang Dynasty, with the increase in steel production and technological progress, copper was gradually phased out in military applications.

During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the emergence and development of firearms brought copper alloys back to the forefront of warfare.

In Xuanzhou, besides government-run operations, private mining was also prevalent.

The copper produced by these private copper mines was mainly used to make civilian copperware, which was permitted at the time. What was prohibited by law was the practice of remelting Kaiyuan Tongbao coins to make copperware.

The local environment shapes its people. Because copper smelting was profitable, the Xuanzhou government and the people worked together to build more than fifty mines of all sizes, which were basically concentrated in one area. Every day, about four to five thousand people worked in the mines.

So there was no need to ask anyone; Li You followed the smoke coming out of the smelting furnace and found the mining area.

About two or three mines shared a single smelting furnace, which was also equipped with a man-made blower. In terms of equipment alone, it was much better than the simple earthen kilns in the Raozhou mountain area.

Li You hadn't expected that the difference in equipment between the two sides, which were only 500 miles apart, would be so great.

It seems that government investment does indeed have its benefits.

This also shows that Quan Wanji's memorial to Emperor Taizong of Tang was not particularly accurate.

However, Lao Quan was referring to a silver mine, not a copper mine.

No matter how little the emperor loves money, when it comes to mining copper, he still has to dig.

Li You was also somewhat relieved. The copper mines in the mountains of Raozhou were probably neglected because of the long distance and inconvenient transportation. If handled properly, they could have been completely mined by Huang Chao's army, with not a single piece falling into the hands of the government.

The Xuanzhou copper mine is only a dozen miles away from the Yangtze River on average, making transportation very convenient.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the government has taken a liking to this place.

In fact, there are copper mines in the mountains more than a hundred miles further in from Xuanzhou, as well as large-scale associated silver mines as Quan Wanji mentioned, but the development is far less extensive than that of the mining areas along the river.

So ultimately, it's still limited by transportation and location.

The geographical location of Xuanzhou Copper Mine is much better than that of Raozhou.

To paraphrase a real estate adage: Location, location, and that damn location.

The fifty assassins that Li You had previously sent had used the money and silk they brought to lease two mines and begin hiring local miners to start production.

The leader of this group of assassins was named Qi Bin. After receiving the news, he immediately came to see Li You.