Dressed as a young lady, she became rich by relying on Pinxixi

Chapter 117 Waste to be revived

"Scholars, farmers, merchants, and artisans, the four classes must work together to govern the country. I am determined to engage in business. If Marquis Cheng'an has any commercial needs, I will definitely help you to achieve your goals within my ability."

"Why is Second Madam so stubborn about business matters?"

"Let things reach those who seek them, so that they can be put to good use, and return their value to scholars, farmers, and workers..."

Xu Siyu talked a lot about the role of businessmen in society to fool Ping Chi, but in fact she had learned her lesson and didn't want to be involved in officialdom too much, so she decided to let go of any involvement.

These words did have an effect.

At least, Ping Chi believed one thing in his heart, that Xu Siyu was really the boss.

However, she and Lin Yiqing were determined to do business and it seemed that it was not easy to persuade them.

Ping Chi, who was overwhelmed with the affairs, gave up the idea of continuing to persuade him and just handed the records of the Ming Dynasty Ministry of Revenue to Xu Siyu and asked her to help with the purchase, which was considered as his agreement to the form of buying and selling between them.

Xu Siyu finally retained the possibility of doing business freely.

……

It can be said that the Ming Dynasty still had some national destiny.

Xu Siyu had always been worried about a counterattack from the Li Dynasty, because the dynasty was in chaos everywhere and was unable to take care of itself.

This winter, Anshun in the Ming Dynasty is steadily recovering its vitality...

Lijing City.

News of rebellions in the northwest, southwest, and the southward movement of the Mo tribes from the northern grasslands had already spread into the city from various border areas, causing panic.

Emperor Song Changyu was so worried that he couldn't eat or sleep.

He knew in his heart that among these three places, the most dangerous one would be the southward migration of the Mo people.

In the past, when Dali was first established, my great-grandfather and Meng Ming once led an army of 50,000 and galloped across the grasslands, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from various tribes in the northern grasslands to hide in the depths of the grasslands and dare not come out.

Over the years, although the Mo people often violated the border, they were only harassments from small tribes.

The emperor's grandfather appointed Ji, the deputy general who had followed him for many years, as the King of Zhenbei, and stationed him in Yanping Prefecture, the throat of the north. For safety reasons, he also allocated the strong soldiers of the Meng family to the Zhenbei Army.

But now, the Mo people have broken into the south of Yanping Prefecture, which definitely means that the current King of Zhenbei, Ji Lingxiao, has fallen.

After passing Yanping Prefecture, if the Mo people continued to move south, there would be almost no pass that could stop them.

If they really wanted to attack the capital, it would probably take less than a month to reach the capital after traveling hundreds of miles, and the troops stationed in the capital would be no match for them.

In this way, even if Song Changyu hated the newly established Ming Dynasty in the southwest, he could not take care of it.

He could only urgently dispatch Dali's troops to the north to defend the city.

……

The news that the two battalions of the Shenwei Army were setting off north with their baggage was passed on to the Linjiang Palace, which then passed it on to the southwest.

After receiving the news, the three brothers of the Heike clan knew that the southwest was temporarily stable, so they felt more confident and bold in storing food and building cities.

Of course, they also noticed the shortage of military supplies in Dali.

The Shenwei Army sent half of its troops and baggage to aid the north. They could only rely on their own stored food and grass to defend their country.

Let the troops move, regardless of life or death.

The Song family is really great!

The Heike brothers' contempt for the Song family increased, but no matter what, they would not send troops to settle the score at this time.

The people of Mobei must be driven out of Jishan Pass in Yanping Prefecture. They will wait until Dali has repelled the Mo people before launching an expedition.

With such stability, Marquis Guang'an ordered the full restoration of the southwestern trade routes within the Ming Dynasty.

Lin Yiqing led the Xu family's caravan to extend their own trade routes to the border, bordering Jiaozhi, Annan, Zhenla and other countries in the south, and developed the business that had been squeezed for half a year.

Marquis Guang'an followed the caravan to persuade the Guangshun defenders to surrender.

The Ming Dynasty's growing prosperity and continued support for the border areas finally persuaded the Guangshun defenders to surrender.

The entire six southwestern routes belonged completely to the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming army also exceeded 100,000.

The increase in troops required a large number of additional weapons, and simply melting old ones and casting new ones could no longer meet the needs of the Ming army.

Marquis Guang'an began looking for iron ore needed to cast weapons.

The iron mines in the southwest were once a secret, and few people knew about them.

In the past, the Zhou family controlled the mines in the southwest. Although the map of the mines was taken away by the Zhou family, everyone believed that Lin Huiyan and her son had information about the iron ore.

After Guang'an Hou sent people to inquire repeatedly without success, he pushed the responsibility onto Xu Siyu and asked her to lead people to search.

Of course, his coercion was accompanied by a promise: the mine he found could be purchased privately by Xu Siyu, and she would be allowed to mine and refine the products, with two-tenths of the products going to the government and the remaining eight-tenths sold to the government.

Thinking of the huge wealth that the iron ore could bring, Xu Siyu was forced to work actively.

Xu Siyu thought that no matter how cleanly Zhou Dinghuai handled the matter, there would always be clues left in the Zhou family. She took Lin Huiyan and Zhou Feng back to the Zhou family's courtyard, asked them to recall the incident over and over again, and carefully searched the documents left by the Zhou family. Unfortunately, there was no result.

Xu Siyu did not give up. She didn't believe that just a clan land was worth Zhou Dinghuai staying here.

There must be an iron mine nearby.

Controlled resources like iron ore must be built in hidden mountainous areas, and there may even be cover-up projects. There was really no other way. Xu Siyu and Lin Yiqing followed the map of the Ming Dynasty and dispersed outward with Changjia Prefecture as the center, and asked people to collect stones from the mountains.

In the study, Xu Siyu used the metal detector she had secretly bought to repeatedly test the stones. Finally, she located Panlong Mountain in the southeast among more than 30 hills.

Panlong Mountain is on the edge of Changjia Prefecture.

Starting from the city gate, you have to drive on the official road for two hours, and then walk on the winding and rugged mountain road for another hour and a half to reach the foot of the mountain.

Marquis Guang'an sent several craftsmen who knew about minerals to follow in the search.

No one had walked on the mountain road for a while, and it was covered with fallen petals, making no trace visible.

Everyone still had some doubts.

Only after we pulled away the obstructing white grass and saw the complete retaining wall and fortress did we feel confident that we had found the right place.

The officers and soldiers conducted a carpet search of the mountain and finally found the bombed and buried mine behind a dense peach forest.

When they found the mine, it was full of corpses, some of which had not yet completely decayed. It was obvious that they were people who had died recently.

Xu Siyu was particularly sad. These were all talented people who had been mined, but in this regime change, they had no choice but to be buried.

What's even more annoying is that such mines are filled with corpse poison and bacteria and cannot be mined directly. Xu Siyu can only have people bury and mark them again, and then dig a new hole according to the direction of the mountain.

Workshops and workers' courtyards were built around the foot of the mountain, but there was still not enough manpower.

Guang'an Hou needed her to produce iron as soon as possible, so Xu Siyu had to use two cents of the profit to recruit the coal miners in Sanxi Township and move half of them to Panlong Mountain. She also copied a book called "Iron Mine Mining Engineering" bought from Pinduoduo and gave it to them, asking them to learn how to dig a well by imitating it.

……

With the salt and iron business in hand, Xu Siyu became the imperial merchant of the Ming Dynasty and was the most famous person for a time.

But a big tree always attracts the wind.

Some people envy the Xu family's prosperity, while others are jealous.