This is really a narrow road for enemies. Xianzhong did not expect that Wanli would send Eunuch Liu, the imperial horse supervisor, to Liaodong as a mine supervisor.
Last time in Zuixian Tower, I had an unpleasant quarrel with the eunuch Liu Eunuch, who was supervising the Royal Horse Supervisor. Eunuchs are always quite vindictive.
Because they have a little less on them, they are particularly concerned about what others think of them.
Therefore, Li Xianzhong is usually unwilling to offend eunuchs. Even if he is to the young eunuchs in the palace, he is always polite and gives some rewards from time to time.
However, the benefits of opening the original horse market were too great before, so Li Xianzhong had to refute Eunuch Liu's face.
Because Li Xianzhong was reluctant to open the horse market in Kaiyuan, it affected the interests of the Royal Horse Supervisor to a certain extent and made Eunuch Liu's life difficult.
In addition, this mine supervisor must be a very lucrative job, so Eunuch Liu secretly spent money on it and finally got this job.
It is unknown whether he deliberately came to trouble Li Xianzhong, but he spent such a high price and always had to get his capital back, which was not a good thing for Hongtoushan Copper Mine.
With the previous precedent of "Gaohuai chaos in Liao Dynasty", the generals in Liao Town will undoubtedly have no favorable impression of Eunuch Liu.
Li Xianzhong is not afraid of this Eunuch Liu. If he is ignorant, Li Xianzhong can have more than a hundred ways to make him disappear silently in Kaiyuan territory.
Of course, he would not do this unless absolutely necessary, as this would easily arouse Wanli's suspicion.
The current top priority is to quickly complete the city construction so that Wanli can fulfill his promise of canonizing himself Ning Yuanbo.
Due to the commotion in the capital about the Ye Hexian mine, and the big moves in Liaodong, the news naturally reached Nurhachi's ears.
Everyone felt sad and regretful when they heard it!
Who would have thought that there would be a copper mine in Hongtou Mountain, the hometown of Hada, in such a place where birds don’t poop?
Mang Gurtai said: "At this time, we must prevent the Ming army from building the city. If they are allowed to build the city, then this copper mine will be completely lost to us?"
Everyone understands this truth, but it is extremely difficult to stop the Ming army from building the city at this time.
First of all, the weather caused heavy rains from time to time, making the roads near Hongto Mountain extremely difficult to travel.
The second is strategic planning. The current strategic intention of Houjin is to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Ming army on the southern front.
Therefore, Nurhachi's strategy was to attack from the south and defend from the north.
The combat power of the Kaiyuan Ming Army was too strong. Both the cavalry and the infantry guarding the pass caused the Eight Banners in Jianzhou to suffer a lot.
After suffering many losses, Nurhaci will definitely have to adjust his strategy.
After careful analysis, they discovered a weakness of the Kaiyuan Ming Army, that is, their weak ability to attack difficulties.
To be precise, there was no attack. The Ming army under Li Xianzhong never attacked heavily defended city fortresses and passes.
The only few times they were were raids, taking advantage of the absence of the main force to attack the nest.
Li Xianzhong came to Hetuala twice without even trying to attack the city. Even when he attacked Gule Village, which was not defended by regular troops, he resorted to luring the enemy into sneak attacks.
This shows that Li Xianzhong almost never storms cities in battles.
So based on this characteristic of his, Nurhachi also arranged for him two lines of defense, Jiefan City and Gule Village.
In this way, only a small amount of troops is needed to prevent it from going south.
He turned his target to other Ming armies that were easier to win.
However, the temptation of the copper mine was indeed great at this time, which put him in a dilemma.
If the main force is sent to fight for the copper mines, it will undoubtedly disrupt the entire previous deployment.
When he was in a dilemma, he saw Huang Taiji bringing a Han man over. He said, "Great Khan, this Mr. Fan Wencai may be able to solve your problems!"
Fan Wencai is Fan Wencheng's elder brother and a scholar. When Hou Jin conquered Fushun last year, he and Fan Wencheng joined Lao Nu. He originally thought that since he was from a famous family and was a scholar, even if he could not be reused, he would always be able to make a living.
In the end, he was just used as the lowest-level wrapper. Fan Wencheng finally got the appreciation of his master and was sent to Gule Village to supervise the production of horse gear. Unexpectedly, he was directly kidnapped by the Ming army.
Originally, the two brothers could discuss things when they encountered problems, but now Fan Wencai is even more isolated and helpless. In order to get rid of his embarrassing position, he is always thinking about getting ahead.
Until a few days ago, someone brought a letter from Fan Wencheng, which pointed out a clear path for Fan Wencai.
He waited for several days and finally waited for Huang Taiji. His brother was right, Huang Taiji actually adopted this suggestion and brought him to the Great Khan.
Fan Wencai knelt down to Nurhachi and said respectfully: "Qi Khan, I wonder if you are worried about the Hongtoushan copper mine?"
"Actually, this copper mine is not of much use to me, Daikin?"
As soon as he said this, Mang Gurtai immediately cursed: "Damn slave, what are you talking about here?"
Nurhachi's face darkened, and he said slowly: "Mr. Fan, keep talking, don't pay attention to others!"
Fan Wencai continued: "The biggest role of copper is nothing more than casting cannons, making money and trading."
"I, Dajin, cannot cast cannons, and there is no need to cast copper coins now; Horqin's trade channel has been blocked. Even if we try our best to win the copper mines, it is just more materials for making tools."
If you think about it carefully, this is really the case. This copper mine seems to be extremely valuable. It is just that for Jianzhou, which has abundant iron ore, and is not indispensable.
Fan Wencai continued: "In fact, what Li Xianzhong is doing now is not much different from Li Chengliang back then. Judging from his methods of dealing with various Mongolian tribes and wooing Ye He to fight against me, Dajin, they are almost exactly the same as Li Chengliang back then."
Nurhachi thought about it carefully and realized that the methods Li Xianzhong was using now were just leftovers from Li Chengliang's tricks back then. At most, they were just inheriting Li Chengliang's mantle.
He said: "Mr. Fan means that Li Xianzhong will not kill me, Daijin?"
Fan Wencai smiled and said: "The Great Khan is wise, that's exactly what it is!"
"It is good for Daikin to be weakened, but if Daijin is really eliminated, Li Xianzhong's life may not be easier than it is now."
"It just ended up like a rabbit dying and a dog cooking, and the bird disappearing and hiding its bow. The previous experience of the Li family in Liaodong is the best proof!"
"This copper mine is actually a good opportunity. We might as well use it to reach a deal with Li Xianzhong."
"We tacitly agree that he will occupy the copper mine and he will relax restrictions on Horqin, so that our trade channel in Dajin can be restored."
Fan Wencai's suggestion is quite reasonable. In fact, even if he takes over this copper mine, the benefits he can get will be limited, and he will have to constantly expend troops to protect it.
What's more, Li Xianzhong's main force was in Hongtou Mountain at this time. If he wanted to seize the mine, it would be impossible to do so without paying the price of tens of thousands of deaths.
It would also be a good choice if he could be exchanged for the restoration of trade routes.
Even if Li Xianzhong only used a delaying tactic, he would fall out after building the city.
It was the rainy season now, and it would take at least several months for him to build a city.
This period of time is enough to take care of the Ming army in the south.
Nurhachi said: "This time Mr. Fan has made great contributions, so let's be Zhang Jing first."
Zhang Jing is an official position in Hou Jin Dynasty. The specific job is to assist the court officials in handling some documents and other civilian officials.
Although he was just a petty official, it was already a qualitative leap compared to Fan Wencai's previous status as a slave.
He quickly kowtowed and thanked the sweaty Long.
He even volunteered to express his willingness to negotiate with Li Xianzhong, and he must rely on his sharp tongue to persuade Li Xianzhong to agree to this condition.
After discussing with Huang Taiji, Nurhachi felt that Fan Wencai's status was still too lowly.
So it was decided to send "Shi Wuli's Prince Consort" and the third-rank deputy general Tong Yangxing as the envoy. Fan Wencai assisted him to go to Kaiyuan to negotiate with Li Xianzhong.
Tong Yangxing was just a businessman at first, and his family was considered a large gentry family in Fushun. After Nurhaci established the Houjin, he took the initiative to secretly fund it.
He was once arrested and imprisoned by officials of the Ming Dynasty, and later married the daughter of the old slave clan. After Li Yongfang's death, he could be regarded as a leading figure among the Han people in the Later Jin Dynasty.
Nowadays, the search at Kaiyuan South Pass is very strict, especially since Hongtou Mountain was almost closed after the city began to be built. It is impossible for them to enter Kaiyuan from here.
They had no choice but to pretend to be a Mongolian caravan and detour for several days from Zhenbeiguan to Kaiyuan.
Of course, the whereabouts of this so-called "caravan" have been under the control of the Intelligence Department since it left Hetuala.
In fact, Fan Wencai's ability is still lacking compared to Fan Wencheng, so the Intelligence Department has been using Fan Wencheng to write letters to guide him.
Although he is not a member of the Intelligence Department, he is actually serving the Intelligence Department.
Naturally, it was impossible for Li Xianzhong to have contact with these envoys sent by the Tatars.
If this news got out, he would have a hard time defending it.
Those who come into contact with businessmen are naturally businessmen.
After being left out for several days, Tong Yangxing and others finally met with Kong Youde.
As far as the current situation is concerned, Li Xianzhong has only been in the Liaodong Army for less than half a year. Although he has firmly controlled Kaiyuan Road, his foundation is too shallow after all. If it were not for the Li family's heritage behind him, he would not even be able to do what he is doing now. Less than.
He did not control Liaodong at this time, so Jianzhou's premature defeat was not in his interests.
This is why he wants to facilitate this transaction in the name of Fan Wencheng.
Tong Yangxing was originally a big merchant, so he was naturally familiar with trade.
Li Xianzhong finally made a concession and agreed that Jianzhou could trade through Horqin, but he was not allowed to trade firearms and armor. In addition, all merchants were not allowed to trade directly with Jianzhou and had to trade through Horqin Mongolia.
Previously, the Horqin Tribe had lost a certain amount of income because they cut off trade with Jianzhou, but now it can be considered as compensation for them.
Now Fan Yongdou's family is the representative of Shanxi merchants' trade with Mongolia, and Liang San is also the representative of Liaodong merchants. In fact, the trade with Horqin is almost monopolized by Li Xianzhong.
In fact, Li Xianzhong recently opened Heaven and Earth in the capital and built roads in Liaodong, which cost a lot of money, so he could make some extra money from the Tatars!
In return, Nurhachi agreed in principle to the Ming army building a city on Hongto Mountain and promised not to send troops to stop it.
Kong Youde also euphemistically stated that as long as Hou Jin did not cross the border wall of Liaodong and attack Ye He's tribe, the Kaiyuan Ming army would not attack Jianzhou for the time being.
Of course, these terms are all verbal promises, and it is impossible to leave any writing behind them.
To put it bluntly, the two parties who have their own hidden agendas are tacitly aware of each other, and if they have a tacit understanding, they will fall out at any time.
In order to show his sincerity, Kong Youde personally arranged for Tong Yangxing and Fan Wencai to purchase a batch of supplies from the Kaiyuan market.
However, the transportation of this batch of materials still took a detour through Horqin, and it was impossible for Kaiyuan to have direct trade with Houjin.
During this trip to Kaiyuan, Tong Yangxing and Fan Wencai successfully completed the task and received awards from Nurhaci, and Fan Wencai also came into his sight.
Without the interference of the Jianzhou cavalry, the Ming army built the city much faster. Although heavy rains from time to time affected the speed of building the city, with the help of cement, a small city with a circumference of 4 miles was still uncovered after only more than 20 days. The military construction was successful.
Although the city is not big, the terrain built on the mountain is very dangerous.
In order to increase the shooting points on the city, this small city built turrets at the four corners of the city and a gate tower on the front to serve as a shooting point for the firecrackers.
The city is also equipped with ten Franco machine guns.
This city was named Hongtou City!
After the construction of the city was completed, a large number of civilians began to build side walls based on Hongtou Mountain, and built a small peak fire tower almost every 2 miles.
Li Xianzhong specially transferred 1,500 people from the Pinglu Guards to Hongtou City to be responsible for the safety of the copper mines.
After all, this is the most important place in Kaiyuan now, almost as important as Kaiyuan City.
Taking this opportunity, Li Xianzhong applied to the Ministry of War for an establishment of 1,500 people. After all, such an important site has been added, so it is reasonable to increase the establishment of 1,500 people.
After re-recruiting 1,500 people, his Ming army also increased to 21,500.
Almost at the same time as the city was being built, construction of the copper mine shafts had also begun.
A supporting copper smelting workshop was built near the mine, surrounded by a cement wall.
For this copper mine, the Liaodong Governor's Yamen has recruited thousands of experienced miners from the Tieling and Fushun areas. The treatment at this mine is quite good. People who want to make a living by working hard have joined enthusiastically as they not only receive money but also provide food.
Especially when they heard that this mine was a royal mine, even more people wanted to come.
At present, mine No. 1 has started producing ore, and mine No. 2 is being excavated.
The safety of the mine is under the responsibility of the Pinglu Guards, but the operation is temporarily in charge of the officials appointed by the Liaodong Governor's Yamen.
The copper ore reserves here are still very large. A thousand people are enough for now, but more miners may need to be recruited in the future.
There is a larger mine in the mountains a few miles away from Mine No. 1.
It's just that this mine is hidden in the mountains, and the Pinglu Guards built a military camp and a shooting range here as a cover.
It is usually turned into a military restricted area and no one is allowed to enter.
This mine belongs to Li Xianzhong's private mine.
He couldn't be stupid enough to work for Wanli and the imperial court in vain. He also needed a lot of copper materials. Now that he had the materials, he could consider casting high-quality cannons.
Zhao Shizhen's "Shenji Pu" contains the casting method of the Folangji artillery, and Mao Yuanyi's "Weaponry" also contains casting books for various artillery. It is only a matter of time before Pinglubao can produce high-quality bronze cannons.
However, Li Xianzhong still planned to go to Macau to directly hire Portuguese cannon casters to assist in cannon casting, and also recruited some Portuguese gunners to help train the Ming army's artillerymen.
As long as you have enough money, these are not problems.
The Bugalao Gun Foundry in Macau is now the best gun factory in the Far East, where you can buy the most advanced artillery.
Among Li Xianzhong's men, only Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming were miners.
Now that Kong Youde is the deputy commander of the Intelligence Department and Mao Yuanyi's right-hand man, it is naturally impossible for him to return to his old career.
So Geng Zhongming was promoted to be the person in charge of this private mine.
Of the more than a thousand miners rescued from Jianlu before, except for more than a hundred old and weak people who were arranged to go to Pinglu Fort, the rest were directly arranged to work as miners in this private mine.
Fifty people were also selected from the existing miners in Pinglubao to assist Geng Zhongming in managing the mine.
The quality of the copper ore here is much better than that of Mine No. 1, and there are also some derived gold ores.
Although the amount is not large, gold can still be produced.
However, confidentiality is strictly maintained here. After all, if the matter of private mining is revealed, it will not be a trivial matter.
Therefore, a concentration camp-style management system is basically adopted. Once there is a private escape, the soldiers of the civilian guards will directly kill them.
Soon after, the first batch of copper water in Hongtoushan was produced.
Looking at the copper ingots one by one, Yan Mingtai, the governor of Liaodong, said with a smile: "Brother Xianzhong is really fast. In less than two months, he has actually mastered copper."
"Brother, it's time to call you Uncle Ning Yuan!"
Li Xianzhong said: "Brother Yan, please do not make fun of my younger brother. Your Majesty has not issued an order yet, and the matter has not yet been finalized."
At this time, Li Sanshun hurried over and said, "Oh no, the Liaodong mine supervisor Liu Eunuch and his party encountered a landslide near Fushun. Unfortunately, Eunuch Liu was hit by a boulder and has been killed!"
Hearing the news, Yan Mingtai had a flash of surprise on his face, but he still said regretfully: "These days there are continuous rains, and it is indeed easy to cause landslides. Eunuch Liu is so unfortunate that he did not wait until the day when the copper was produced."
Although he didn't know who did it, his intuition told him that it must be related to Li Xianzhong, but he would not point it out.
Mr. Li Xian had an unpleasant incident with Eunuch Liu, but not many people knew about it.
But it wasn't because of this incident that prompted him to kill Eunuch Liu. No matter how weak-minded he was, he couldn't just kill the mine supervisor sent by Wanli.
According to the information from the Intelligence Department, Eunuch Liu was not only planning to come to Liaodong to make a fortune, he was also planning to open up the horse market and destroy Li Xianzhong's "opening the Chinese law". He even contacted several businessmen privately.
Li Xianzhong couldn't bear it anymore. Eunuch Liu was not looking for trouble, he was simply looking for death.
What if he found out about his private mining?
The only way is to let him die on the way first. If he dies when he reaches the mine, it will be more likely to cause trouble in the mine.
Now a complete copper ingot transportation line has been established. Soon the first batch of 5,000 kilograms of copper ingots produced by Hongtoushan was transported to the Liaohe Terminal in Kaiyuan, and then all the way down the river to Yingkou Port, and then passed through Arrive in Tianjin by sea.
Although Eunuch Liu's "accidental death" made Wanli feel a little strange, the news that the copper ingots had arrived in Tianjin still made him very excited.
He did not expect that Li Xianzhong not only repaired the city within two months, but also produced copper.
The Ministry of Revenue sent people to verify that the quality of these copper ingots was very good, and it only took eight days to transport them from Liaodong to the capital. This efficiency was much higher than that of land transportation.
So under the kind reminder of Concubine Zheng, Wanli decreed that Li Xianzhong, the commander-in-chief of Kaiyuan, be conferred the title of Ning Yuanbo, which is hereditary. Li Xianzhong's wife Haqiya was made the wife of the uncle.
However, as a side general, Li Xianzhong was really not suitable to be in charge of the Jinyiwei anymore, so he gave Li Xingzhong the position of commander of the Jinyiwei, Tongnan Town Fusi.
It was more in the interests of the Li family for Li Xianzhong to succeed Uncle Ning Yuan. Although Li Xingzhong was definitely unhappy, he still expressed his gratitude as soon as possible for the benefit of the Li family!
It stands to reason that none of the people involved have any objections, and with Wanli's decree, there is nothing for others to worry about.
However, the Donglin Party members quit and demanded that Wanli take back his life on the grounds that Li Xianzhong was not qualified to succeed Ning Yuanbo!
Fang Congzhe had already heard about this matter, but the cabinet received 20% of the copper mine's profits, so he was lucky enough to pretend to be deaf and dumb.
After all, this was not the inheritance of the throne, and the cunning Wanli had already made this a condition when he gave Hu Bu a 20% profit.
Wanli made it very clear that with Li Xianzhong's contribution, it would not be a bad idea to create another earl, but now he just doesn't want to cause a flood of titles. If Fang Shoufu insisted on objecting, he would issue an order to re-consecrate Li Xianzhong as Kaiyuan Bo.
Therefore, the three parties of "Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang" headed by Congzhe above chose to collectively lose their voice in this matter.
At this time, a group of nobles, led by the British Duke Zhang Weixian and the Chengguo Duke Zhu Chunchen, stood up and expressed their support for Wanli's decision.
Their reason is also very simple. The title of knight is a recognition of the merits of the courtiers. It is reasonable and reasonable for Li Xianzhong, the commander-in-chief of Kaiyuan, to get the position of Ning Yuanbo because of his great contributions to the state.
Besides, Li Xingzhong has expressed his support for this matter, so you outsiders are just messing around.
After all, it is the emperor's business to confer a title, and Li Xianzhong, Ning Yuanbo, deserves it!
However, the Donglin Party members still objected relentlessly. Liu Yijing, known as the "coffin-coffin minister", even led the Donglin Party members to petition in front of Dong'an Gate!
Wanli didn't tolerate them anymore this time, and directly launched a court battle against them outside Dong'an Gate.
Not much, just one per person.
Not to beat them, but to humiliate them!
The onlookers saw a patch of white buttocks outside Dongzhimen.
Then word was passed down that if they continued to cause trouble outside the palace, they would take off their pants and start a court battle every hour!
In the end, this group of Donglin Party members had no choice but to evacuate Dong'anmen.
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