"Is this the Iwami Silver Mountain?"
Zhu Biao looked at the towering mountains in front of him and couldn't help but sigh.
If it is true that there are so many reserves as Li Jin said, then the mountain must be almost entirely filled with silver mines, but it is just covered with a layer of soil on the surface.
After meeting Xu Da at the City Lord's Mansion, Zhu Biao asked Li Jin to take him to Shijian Yinshan without delay, without wanting to waste a moment.
After hearing Zhu Biao's question, Li Jin nodded and said:
"This is Iwami Ginzan."
"The silver mines were actually discovered by Iwami's daimyo before, but they were all disposed of secretly by me."
"The only people who know about this silver mine now are people from Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Biao nodded and then said:
"Let's go up and have a look."
Then he waved his hand to the back, and the more than 300 miners behind him slowly followed Zhu Biao forward.
When passing the military camp set up by Li Jin at the foot of the mountain, Zhu Biao asked his cavalry to wait at the foot of the mountain.
He, Tang He and Li Jin can just go to the mountainside.
The cavalrymen dismounted spontaneously, and then began to spontaneously set up a camp next to the original military camp.
When Zhu Biao reached the camp on the mountainside, he only heard the crackling sound of whips inside.
Zhu Biao was a little stunned and looked at Li Jin, wondering why there was such a strange noise in this camp.
Li Jin laughed twice, and then said:
"This is a special method that has to be used to drive away slaves and slave mining."
Zhu Biao immediately understood that Li Jin must have had a bad attitude towards these Japanese slaves, which led his subordinates to treat these slaves cruelly and exploit them.
But Zhu Biao didn't care either.
Although I have studied many Confucian classics, I still know that people who are not from my race will have different minds.
Then Zhu Biao and others entered the camp, and the guard who was beating the slaves fiercely immediately knelt down and fawned with a flattering smile after seeing Li Jin and others.
He was totally different from the ruthless one just now.
"Aren't these people from Ming Dynasty?"
Zhu Biao could tell at a glance that these people were not soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, but looked like Japanese people.
Li Jin nodded and replied:
"Use barbarians to control barbarians. Sometimes, once a traitor appears in a nation, they often treat their compatriots more cruelly than we do."
"The guards of these Japanese pirates were slaves here before, and these slaves now are the former guards."
"Now that I have reversed the roles of the two, these guards will never want to go back to their former slave life."
"And my current identity was given to them by me. If they don't want to become slaves again, then they can only be loyal to me."
Li Jin's words made Zhu Biao thoughtful.
While thinking about it, Zhu Biao was brought to the foreman who was previously responsible for measurement by Li Jin.
"This is the special envoy sent by the imperial court. He wants to verify the reserves of Iwami Silver Mountain again. Please explain to the special envoy carefully and be sure to report truthfully."
"yes."
When the foreman heard that he was a special envoy, he became a little nervous.
He explained his method of measurement, as well as the time and place of measurement, and finally came to the conclusion that the mineral deposits of this silver mountain were no less than 800 million taels.
Zhu Biao nodded, and then said to an old man behind him:
"Guo Gong, did you hear that?"
The old man was the most experienced miner who came this time and was also the leader of this group of miners.
When Guo Gong heard this, he cupped his hands and said:
"I heard it. I think the measurement has been done very carefully. There shouldn't be too much deviation."
"In that case, then you go down and measure again. I need an accurate number."
Zhu Biao ordered them to check it carefully to avoid any trouble.
"yes!"
Guo Gong turned around and left, taking more than 300 of his men with him and leaving slowly.
Li Jin asked the foreman to leave and do his own things.
Tang He began to inspect the camp to see how the defense was, how to arrange the troops, and how to protect the silver mine in the future.
After everyone left, Li Jin remembered Xu Da's advice to him, asking him to explain his plan to annex the Japanese island to the special envoy in front of him first.
Immediately he took Zhu Biao to a large tent and began to tell some of his thoughts about the Japanese island.
After Zhu Biao heard this, he frowned.
Zhu Biao can still understand if he talks about invading Shijian Country. After all, Shijian Country has a silver mountain that can continuously supply silver to the Ming Dynasty.
But on the whole Japanese island, Zhu Biao felt that it was unnecessary.
After all, Japanese islands are isolated overseas, not to mention how much food would be needed to completely annex Japanese islands.
As far as maintaining his rule in Japan was concerned, Zhu Biao felt that the gains outweighed the losses.
After all, if the indigenous people on the Japanese island rebelled, the Ming Dynasty and the Japanese island would be thousands of miles away, and they would have to cross the ocean. The risk would be too great.
If, like Kublai Khan, he encountered strong winds just after dispatching his fleet, causing heavy losses to the fleet, wouldn't it make things worse?
"Master Li, Japan Island is poor. Apart from Iwami Ginzan, there is no need to occupy Japan Island."
"This place will not benefit our Ming Dynasty. Instead, it may trap our Ming Dynasty in the quagmire of war."
After Li Jin heard Zhu Biao's concerns, he began to draw pie as usual.
"The envoy is wrong."
"The gold and silver mines in Washima are definitely more than just Iwami Yinshan."
"They have large and small mines near Kyoto. In addition, the Sado Gold Mine on Sado Island is the largest gold mine in the world."
"Even compared to Iwami Ginzan, there is still no concession."
"But the most valuable thing is that the mineral deposits in Sado Gold Mountain are gold, which is ten times more valuable than Iwami Ginzan."
"In addition, there are mines with rich mineral deposits scattered all over the islands."
"Japanese islands are not barren. Some places are even richer than the Ming Dynasty."
"Furthermore, Japan has extremely rich human resources. There are millions of people on Japan. These are free labor."
"If our country wants to carry out major infrastructure construction in the future, what we need most is manpower."
"Since these men from the Japanese island stay here and it is easy to cause a local security crisis, it is better to extradite them all to the Ming Dynasty."
"Let them contribute to Ming Dynasty's infrastructure."
"The women from the Japanese island look very similar to the women from the Ming Dynasty. After years of war, the population of the Ming Dynasty has long been depleted."
"Why were these women transported to the Ming Dynasty so that they could make due contributions to the Ming Dynasty's population boom?"
"The Japanese island is full of gold, and the welfare of the people of the Ming Dynasty is everywhere. How can you turn a blind eye, Mr. Special Envoy?"
Zhu Biao looked at Li Jin strangely.
For being able to talk about the slave trade in such a righteous way, he had to give Li Jin a thumbs up.
If men are allowed to participate in infrastructure construction, isn't that just like being a slave?
It would be different if a woman gave birth to a child for Ming Dynasty...
However, what Li Jin said still attracted Zhu Biao.
As said before, aggression is indeed wrong, but whether to invade or not depends on interests.
If it is good for the Ming Dynasty and the people of the Ming Dynasty, now that the knife is in his own hand, what can he do if he bullies the weak?
Now that Li Jin has put his naked interests directly in front of Zhu Biao's eyes, it is difficult not to make Zhu Biao's heart flutter.
Action is worse than excitement.
But before taking action, there is still a key question.
"Master Li, the emperor can't send you many reinforcements."
"With just the tens of thousands of people in your hands, can you annex the Japanese island?"
All the premise is to defeat the Japanese defenders.
If you can't even take down the local aborigines on the Japanese island, how can you qualify to devour the Japanese island?
Hearing this, Li Jin knew that Zhu Biao was already moved, and immediately laughed and said:
"Don't worry, special envoy, I have already arranged a plan to conquer the Japanese islands, codenamed Shooting the Sun."
"As long as the emperor can agree to my plan to shoot the sun, Japan Island will definitely be captured!"
"Shoot the sun?"
