Chapter 95: Take Hangu Pass

"I regret not accepting Chen Qing's plan!" Li Jiancheng sighed to the sky. If Li Jiancheng obeyed Chen Ying's plan, whether he would be able to protect Chen Ying from Lingzhou, or to help Yang Ze be the general manager of Lingzhou, no matter what method he took, he would not be so passive.

The greater the achievements of Li Daozhen in Lingzhou, the greater the threat to Li Jiancheng. As the saying goes, loyalty means that there is not enough bargaining chips for betrayal. Of course, the so-called desire of the people is also because of sufficient interests. Ten million kilograms of steel, or even 15 million kilograms of steel, once put into the market, no matter which aspect, for the Tang Dynasty, there are all benefits but only one harm. Because Li Shimin can arm the army with these steel, or buy and give half to the people.

In this era, steel production capacity was limited, and most of the steel resources were used in the military field. Farmers' living tools, such as hoes, knives, axes, or plows, were all made of iron or wood. Steel tools were less than one in ten. Once these lightweight and high-quality steel entered thousands of households, fools also knew who these simple people would be grateful for. In that case, that was the real desire of the people.

However, it was too late to say anything. Li Daozhen had already formed a climate in Lingzhou. Even if Li Jiancheng wanted to touch her, Li Shimin would not sit idly by. Maybe before the expedition to Wang Shichong, the Tang Dynasty would first have a round of power reshuffle.

Wang Gui walked to Li Jiancheng with a embarrassed look and hesitated for a moment: "Your Highness, this matter is probably a problem. It is difficult for the King of Qin to get such a large amount of materials and wealth."

"It's not easy to deal with it, but you have to deal with it!" Before Li Jiancheng made a decision, Wei Zheng spoke out: "It's not too late to do this matter. When the King of Qin gets these materials and wealth, we will be passive in the overall situation. Your Highness might as well leave this matter to Commander Pei, and he will definitely handle it properly!"

Li Jiancheng nodded: "It's good!"

"Your Highness, Li Daozong is Li Daozong, and Li Daozhen is Li Daozhen, so we cannot generalize it!"

Li Jiancheng asked knowingly: "Chen Qing, what do you mean?"

Suddenly, Li Jiancheng suddenly remembered that Li Daozhen had Chen Ying's child in his stomach, his face darkened, he snorted from his nose and turned his back to Chen Ying and ignored him.

Chen Ying touched his nose and smiled embarrassedly.

Wei Zheng suddenly realized: "What Chen Binke means is that these industries of the Baicheng County Lord are nominally in her hands, but actually in Chen Binke?"

When Wang Gui and Li Jiancheng heard this, their eyes suddenly lit up.

The changes in Lingzhou are really too great. Not to mention the steel output, even if it will exceed 200 stones of salt on that day, it is a huge wealth. A pound of salt will be sold for 30 yuan in the Central Plains. The daily output of Lingzhou is more than 200 stones and more than 20,000 jin, which is equivalent to creating more than 600 jin of money, and a wealth of 220,000 jin in a year.

Chen Ying laughed silently and said, "Although what Wei Xima said is not far away!"

Li Jiancheng turned anger and looked at Chen Ying anxiously and said, "Although these industries belong to Li Daozhen, Chen can convince her to sell these strategic materials to His Royal Highness the Prince at half price."

Although Li Jiancheng was a little disappointed, he knew that this was Chen Ying's biggest concession. The price of official salt was 30 cents per catty, ranging from three guan to three guan per kilogram. If it was half price, it would be quite similar to Li Daozhen who had not made much money at all.

However, Li Jiancheng did not understand economy and did not know that science was the primary productive force. Chen Ying had discovered from Pei Ju's words that Li Daozhen was cooking salt in a carbonite saucepan.

When he was in Lingzhou, Chen Ying found that the original production method of salt ponds in Lingzhou was extremely backward. However, due to the harsh climate, strong wind and sand, and there was no natural conditions for direct salt drying, the salt making process was slightly optimized, and the separation, grinding, stirring, analysis, steaming and other methods were also adopted. However, in a subtle relief, a large number of mechanical and mechanical pots were used. The cast iron pot has a large diameter and can be filled with thousands of kilograms of salt water at one time.

The stone fire continues day and night. As long as the salt water in the iron pot is boiled, the iron pot is lifted with a moving pulley and lifted off the stove. After the iron pot condenses, the blocks of salt can be obtained, and then sent to the mill to grind with a stone mill to obtain fine salt as white as snow. The most important process reform is stirring, which is very labor-intensive. Chen Ying used the method of driving the rotor of the windmill to stir the salt water in a large pond made of ceramic tiles. After the stirring is completed, the drop of the salt pond is used to flow directly to each stove through the ceramic pipe.

After Chen Ying's process optimization, the salt factory has very little manpower. A worker can look at dozens of large pots at the same time. As for the stirring, clarification, and separation, it only requires less than one-tenth of manpower. In this way, the cost of boiling salt in Lingzhou is very low, about two cents to three cents per catty. Even if you finish the freight and sell fifteen cents per catty, the profit is not lower than that of other salt factories.

Coal is not available at all in Chang'an, and the transportation cost is too high, and there are also near Chang'an. Li Jiancheng is not rare. The key is steel resources, which are the most precious strategic materials in this era. However, the steel in Li Daozhen's hands is not 100,000 kilograms of 80,000 kilograms, but 10 million kilograms per year. This amount is really a bit large. Even if Li Jiancheng can pay, he cannot eat so much.

But now, Chen Ying's promised shipment at half price is no problem. Even if Li Jiancheng doesn't have that much money, the Eastern Palace ministers, including the Shandong nobles, all have money in their hands, and there are a lot of them. The most important thing is that they can make huge profits from half price of steel.

Li Jiancheng was in a very good mood at this time. The originally very difficult problem was solved by Chen Ying in a few words. At this time, Li Jiancheng suddenly asked: "Chen Qing, what kind of steel can you produce if you are going to work outside Chang'an City? "

Chen Ying said in embarrassment: "Chang'an is not as good as Lingzhou. If there is iron ore here, there is no iron ore. If there is no carbonite, transportation alone will consume a lot of money. If steel is cast, it may not be cheaper than the steel produced in Lingzhou."

At this moment, Wei Zheng said: "I know that there are both steel and charcoal in a place!"

Li Jiancheng and Wang Gui said almost at the same time: "White Xima means Hongnong Taolin?"

Hongnong County is the Yang family's county guard hall name, and it is also the location of Hangu Pass, one of the world's most powerful passes. It is located on the south bank of the Yellow River between Chang'an and Luoyang, and has always been a military and political place in history. However, due to its unique geographical environment, people often ignore that Hongnong County actually has rich resources, especially Taolin County under Hongnong County, which is the later generations of Lingbao City, Henan, which has the reputation of China's Golden City.

Of course, Hongnong County not only has gold, but of course, Hongnong County mainly has metal resources, and there are also a large number of gold-associated ores, copper, silver, gold, molybdenum, lead, iron and other minerals. It is no exaggeration to say that Hongnong County is a county of resources.

Chen Ying said: "But Hongnong is not in the hands of the Tang Dynasty now?"

Before the third year of Wude, the dividing line between the Tang Dynasty and King Shichong of Zheng was that it was bounded by Tongguan, and outside Tongguan was owned by Wang Shichong, including Hangu Pass. Therefore, in the early years of Wude, the early Tang Dynasty and Wang Shichong were in peace, mainly because Hangu Pass was in the hands of Wang Shichong, and it was not easy to break through Hangu Pass. During the Warring States Period, Qin Xiaogong seized the land of Wuhan from the Wei Kingdom. Because it was as deep and dangerous as Han, it was called Hangu. Qin Xiaogong set up Hangu Pass here. This city is 7.5 kilometers long from east to west, and the valley road only allows one car to pass. It is said that "one man is the pass, and ten thousand men cannot open." In 241 BC, Chu, Zhao, Han, and Wei countries joined forces to attack Qin and were defeated.
Chapter completed!