Isn’t it? Just give it a try and you’ll find out!
If you explore any county, you will be rewarded with the map of that county, right? Let’s start from Baigui County.
Xu Yin immediately asked someone to find a local map.
I didn't bother to eat lunch, so I immersed myself in research.
The maps at this time were not as detailed as those marked in later generations. The silk-embroidered maps were slightly yellowed, and only briefly marked the locations of several important cities that could be reached by official roads, as well as obvious mountains, rivers and lakes, such as mountains and rivers.
So far, she has only been to Yunshan Village and Fucheng, and marked these two places with charcoal.
But Baigui County has a vast territory, and there are still many remaining cities. If you want to explore them one by one, it will be time-consuming and laborious. The key is, will King Jinnan allow it?
She was going to marry him soon. Once she was married, she would ride around in a carriage. This... wasn't very realistic!
This task is a bit difficult!
Xu Yin pinched her eyebrows with a headache.
"Girl, it's time to eat."
Eating is the most important thing for an emperor, so Xu Yin put aside her worries and ate first.
Not long after eating, the kid selling her iron ore came.
Xu Yin had already heard about his family's situation from the guards:
This child's name is Shanwa. His father is a mountain farmer. He accidentally broke his leg when he went into the mountains a while ago. The family's savings are not enough for him to treat his leg. Two days ago, his mother walked all night on the mountain road to return to her parents' house to borrow money, but she couldn't borrow it. My sister-in-law scolded her and fell ill when she returned home.
"Has everything been arranged at home?" Xu Yin asked him.
"It's all done!" Shanwa grinned happily, "The money I brought back has been used to ask the doctor to treat my father's leg. My mother heard that this stone is useful, so she asked me to come over after eating."
"Is that place far away?" Xu Yin poured him a cup of hawthorn water. It is good for digestion and contains some honey. It tastes sour and sweet, and children will definitely like it.
"Not that far."
Shanwa took a sip of hawthorn water and narrowed her eyes happily. It was sweet but sour, so delicious!
"If it's not far, then we should set off now? Mammy, send someone back to the palace to talk to the housekeeper, so as not to worry the prince if you come back late."
After giving the instructions, she turned around and saw Shanwa still holding hawthorn water to drink. Xu Yin couldn't help but smile and said:
"Don't drink so much at once, take it with you if you like it, and drink it when you're thirsty later."
She didn't even need to give orders. Nanny and Dongxue had already prepared the tea, fruits and snacks they would bring for the trip.
In addition, he thoughtfully packed a box of melon seeds and peanuts for the girl to pass the time on the road.
This was Shanwa's first time riding a horse-drawn carriage. The only means of transportation he had ever ridden was an open-top ox cart. After getting on the car, he touched here and looked there, and he was very curious.
Xu Yin grabbed a handful of melon seeds for him and chatted while eating them. She also placed in front of him the peach cakes, cloud cakes and other snacks that Dongxue had brought out from the royal chef of the mansion: "Let's eat and chat."
Shanwa ate a piece of fragrant and crispy peach cake, and then a piece of soft and glutinous walnut cloud cake. She felt that she couldn't eat the noble man's food in vain, so she knew that she could talk about everything and said everything she knew:
"My family used to live near that place. Many of the mountains there were bare. In some places, grass couldn't grow, let alone crops, so we called it Bald Mountain. Later, there was a flood there, and many people's homes were flooded. The same goes for my family, so I had to move out.
But my childhood treasure is hidden there, so every time my father goes back to worship his ancestors, I will go with him. This red stone was dug from the cliff behind the ancestor's tomb. There are many more stones like this over there..."
Xu Yin ate melon seeds and listened to Shanba's chatter. She would give him a snack from time to time. The child was sensible. Although he was very greedy, he did not dare to eat more.
We drank tea and chatted in the car, but we didn't realize how far the journey was.
But in fact, they walked from Fucheng to the Bald Mountain mentioned by Shanwa for at least an hour and a half.
Xu Yin: Isn’t that far?
Shanwa scratched his head: "It's not far. It's much closer than going to my grandma's house."
"..."
Next, she had to climb a mountain. Xu Yin lowered her head and glanced at her embroidered shoes, wishing she could take out the sneakers in her room.
Finally, the guard brother went up and found the red stone cliff Shanwa mentioned. He used a dagger to dig out several stones of the same color, and said that the cliff seemed to be full of stones of this color.
Xu Yin nodded secretly: It's hematite. I just don’t know whether the reserves are large or not. If not, there won’t be much development value.
As evening approached, she was debating whether to find a place to stay and continue exploring the bald mountain the next day, or to rush back to Fucheng, go to the stream to fetch water for tea, and bring back a group of people.
"Girl, the prince is here."
Facing the familiar and gentle face of Qingjun, Xu Yin couldn't help but stood up: "Why are you here?"
"The housekeeper said you came to Bald Mountain. What's the matter? This place is sparsely populated and not suitable for traveling."
Yan Kejin looked at her without any trace as he spoke. Except for the fact that her skirt was stained with dust and her headdress was a little crooked, everything else looked fine.
He took a step forward and straightened the hair accessories on her head.
"The hairpin is crooked."
"……Oh, thank you."
Xu Yin held up her hair, a little uncomfortable with him being so close.
"By the way, I'm here to find this."
She knelt down and handed a few pieces of iron ore at her feet to Yan Kejin.
"ocher?"
Yan Kejin paused and looked surprised.
Xu Yin asked in surprise: "You know?"
Yan Kejin glanced at her with complicated expressions. This was the right question for him to ask.
How did she know it was ocher?
Did you read it from that miscellaneous book?
"I just asked the guards to go up and take a look. The cliff is all covered with rocks. I don't know how deep it is. If it's just the surface, it won't be able to smelt much iron if it's developed."
Seeing that he knew, and seeing that he had rejected the others, Xu Yin simply spoke up.
"This is what I think. If iron ore can be mined, not only can the curved-turn plow be promoted on a large scale, but also ships can be built. Large ships wrapped in iron sheets can be built, so that when going to sea, there will be no need to worry about strong winds and waves.
I heard that the people in the southern barbarian coastal towns are not only poor, but also often harassed by pirates. If we can build strong ships and send soldiers to patrol the offshore day and night, we can be on guard against pirates..."
As soon as Xu Yin started talking, she couldn't stop talking.
Subconsciously, she desperately hoped that Yan Kejin's fiefdom would become rich and powerful as soon as possible, firstly to lift the people out of poverty and become rich, and secondly, to slap the faces of those in the capital.
Yan Kejin thought further.
The uses of iron go far beyond making farm tools and building ships. The reason why iron is controlled by the imperial court is precisely because it can forge weapons.
However, there was one thing she thought of together with him, and that was - there was iron ore in Tushan Mountain, so instead of reporting it, she would mine it herself.
Despite the risks, this is his fiefdom, his territory, and he has the final say.
Early the next morning, Yan Kejin sent someone to buy Bald Mountain.
The entire mountain, including the land at the foot of the mountain, came under the name of the palace.
