Chapter 63 The semen female partner chooses to farm (13)
Isn’t it? You’ll know after you give it a try!
If you explore any county, you will be rewarded with the map of that county, right? Then start with 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 major cities that could be reached by official roads, as well as mountains, rivers, lakes and other obvious mountains and waters.
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 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."
Eat like an emperor, so Xu Yin put her worries aside and ate first.
Not long after she finished eating, the kid selling her iron ore came over.
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 while going 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 back to her parents' house to borrow money but failed to borrow it. She was also
My sister-in-law scolded her and she fell ill when she got 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, which 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 Shanba 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 later when you're thirsty."
She didn't even need to ask her to give her 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 carriage. The only means of transportation he had ever ridden was an open ox cart. After getting on the carriage, 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 put the peach cakes, cloud cakes and other snacks made by the royal chef of the mansion that Dongxue had brought out in front of him: "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 could not eat from the noble man in vain, so she knew that she could talk about everything and told 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 there is a treasure from my childhood 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 ancestral grave. There are many such stones over there..."
Xu Yin was eating melon seeds, listening to Shanba's chatter, and giving him a snack from time to time. The child was sensible, and although he was very greedy, he didn't 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, of course. But I don't know if the reserves are large. 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 get 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 stand 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 over the cliff. 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.
"I think this way, if iron ore can be mined, not only can the curved-turn plow be widely promoted, but also ships can be built, and 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 those people in Beijing in the face.
Yan Kejin thought further.
The uses of iron go far beyond making farm tools and building ships. The reason why iron was controlled by the imperial court was precisely because it could forge weapons.
However, there was one thing she thought about with him, and that was - there was iron ore in Tushan Mountain, so she didn't report it and mined it herself.
Although there are 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 its foot, came under the name of the royal family.