The results brought about by the consuls brought unanimous praise.
The emperors and ministers of the Eastern Roman Empire all thought that he had done a very good job in this matter.
After all, according to normal people's thinking, the mines that have not yet been mined can be directly exchanged for finished weapons.
No matter how you look at this kind of thing, they make more money!
Well, the fact that they have such thoughts can only be attributed to historical limitations.
In the end, the consul received a large number of rewards from Constans II.
Constans II was still responsible for this matter.
Next, of course, we have to discuss specific matters.
For example, where to build a dock and how many mines to build.
How to calculate prices for these mines?
And how to mine it? It is naturally impossible for Li Min to transport the mined ore away.
The only way is to smelt it on site and then take the finished product away.
Therefore, the matter of building a factory is also on the agenda.
In short, this is a complicated matter that needs to be discussed by the consul and Li Min.
However, the consul did not find it difficult.
It was an honor for him to get this job.
Moreover, in this way, he can help his good friend, the lord of Huaxia City.
Next, Constans II invited Li Min to visit Constantinople.
At that time, all documents will be signed there.
Li Min left happily.
Being able to see Constantinople in the Middle Ages was an unexpected joy for Li Min.
Next, Constans II set off and returned to Constantinople.
Li Min accompanied him.
Along the way, Li Min watched the technological level of Eastern Rome with cold eyes.
He found that at this time, many of their aspects were still at a relatively low level.
For example, carriages were still two-wheeled, and there were no four-wheeled carriages.
The production of weapons is extremely shoddy.
The armor was also extremely clumsy and heavy.
In short, at this time, Europe as a whole was very backward in technological development.
Well, okay, if it weren't for Li Min, even the Tang Dynasty wouldn't be much better.
However, Li Min feels that it will always be better than Europe now.
Within a few days, they arrived at Constantinople, the capital of Eastern Rome.
And Constantinople really lived up to Li Min's expectations for it.
This is a castle full of medieval European style.
Well, okay, this is medieval Europe...
In the following time, Li Min began negotiations with the consul.
The consul brought many resources from the mines for Li Min to choose from.
At this time, the consul really had no secrets to hide.
He regarded Li Min as his closest friend from the bottom of his heart.
The selected mine resources are all rich ores.
However, after seeing these mine resources, Li Min was not particularly satisfied.
Then he asked the consul: "Are there any other mineral resources?"
The consul spread his hands and relaxed his shoulders and said: "Oh, my friend, please believe in the sincere friendship between us!"
"These are our best mining resources in Eastern Rome. Of course, those that are being mined are not counted. Those that are really cannot be given to you."
Hearing the consul's words, Li Min smiled slightly, and then knew that he had misunderstood.
Li Min did not doubt that the consul was ineffective, nor did he doubt that Constans II would betray his trust.
After all, the two parties have only reached an intention now.
The goods from Huaxia City have not been given to them yet.
Li Min can regret it at any time.
As for Constans II, there was nothing he could do against him.
The main reason is that the current detection capabilities of Eastern Rome are extremely limited.
Many areas rich in mineral resources were discovered in later generations.
Now they haven't detected it at all.
What Li Min wants is naturally these places.
However, the problem is that Li Min can't clearly specify now. I want these places.
Because after all, this was Li Min's first time in East Rome.
Never been here before.
How do you know these places in our country?
And, do you even know which places are rich in minerals?
Therefore, Li Min could only follow the temptation and constantly lure the consul to tell him about these places.
In the end, Li Min selected fifteen mining resources.
These resources have been proved by later generations to be the largest rich ore in their country.
Of course, now, it is limited by technological capabilities.
These places are all small mining areas, and they don't even know there are mines in these places.
Therefore, after Li Min selected these fifteen places.
The consul actually felt sorry for himself.
Even their monarch, Constans II, had some bad ideas.
Of course, more importantly, I am afraid that the people in Huaxia City will regret it.
What if they discover that there are no mines in the fifteen places they selected?
At that time, what if they return and no longer cooperate with them?
Therefore, the consul strongly requested that Li Min be moved to several more places.
The consul also personally recommended several rich mines to Li Min.
But Li Min always insisted on wanting these fifteen mineral resources.
What a joke, these fifteen mine resources have almost wiped out all their rich ores.
If we get a few more sub-level mineral resources, we won't really be able to eat our own meat, and we won't even be able to give soup to others.
Because Li Min refused to change places, the consul had no choice but to do so.
In the end, he felt sorry for himself and once again gave Li Min five rich mines.
Li Min was also helpless, this was not what I wanted.
I didn't ask for it, you gave it to me yourself, and I had no choice but to be disrespectful.
The next thing is to negotiate the details with the consul.
If we talk about specific government capabilities, the consul is much better than Li Min.
After all, although Li Min holds a high position, he always looks at the overall situation and has not personally addressed these issues at the grassroots level.
But we have to talk about the details of the negotiations.
The ten consuls put together are no match for Li Min.
Well, because there has never been any precedent for this kind of thing for a consul.
This is the first time, and there has never been anything to learn from.
For Li Min, there are too many such examples for future generations to refer to.
Li Min naturally knew clearly what conditions were most beneficial to him.
There are some conditions that Li Min doesn't even need to say out loud himself.
With just a few words of guidance, the consul himself would bring it up to Li Min.
The first phase of negotiations is coming to an end.
The personnel sent by Li Min have already stationed in several mining areas and began to prepare for development.
Li Min also delivered the first batch of food and weapons directly to the Eastern Roman Empire, showing his sincerity.
What kind of food was just enough, and what kind of weapons really made Constans II overjoyed.
I originally thought that the weapons they provided would be inferior to the last gift.
But what he didn't expect was that in terms of quality, this batch of weapons was exactly the same as the one he received as a gift last time.
At this point, the cooperation between the two parties officially began.
Well, actually actually.
In Li Min's view, this is completely a series of unequal treaties!
The Eastern Roman Empire was equivalent to a dozen concessions allocated to them.
In the concession, they have complete autonomy.
The laws of the Eastern Roman Empire were invalid in the concession.
They were also given 20 mines and a dock.
What Li Min gave them was just some food and weapons.
Well, of course, maybe in the eyes of the Eastern Roman Empire, they took advantage.
In short, it can be said that it is a win-win situation now and everyone is happy.
Li Min settled in Constantinople, and he couldn't leave for a short time.
After all, there is a language barrier between the two parties. If he is not here, there will be no way to communicate.
Now, Li Min is training a group of people around him and teaching them the language of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Of course, the Eastern Roman Empire was also training a group of people to learn Chinese well.
However, there is a very good teacher here in Huaxia City, and that is Li Min, the Lord of Huaxia City.
He was fluent in Chinese and the languages of the Eastern Roman Empire.
But there was no such good teacher in the Eastern Roman Empire.
However, they must also have a translator.
They even plan to train a group of people to learn Chinese.
Because they are very dependent on Huaxia City.
It can be said that Huaxia City does not necessarily have to do business with them.
In fact, people still have many choices.
Even in Europe, Eastern Rome may not be the only choice.
There are also several countries to choose from.
But now, people have chosen them.
For them, if they cannot do business with Huaxia City, they will suffer huge losses.
From this point of view, they must cultivate a group of translators.
In fact, the more people who understand Chinese, the better.
However, they suffer from the lack of teachers.
Finally, Constans II sent several nobles to follow Li Min and learn Chinese.
During this time, Li Min often attended their banquets.
The banquet was naturally filled with nobles.
Li Min's status was respected, so it was naturally impossible for Constans II to send civilians to study with him.
There are ten of these nobles in total.
Li Min did not refuse, but took an hour every day to teach Chinese to these ten nobles.
Li Min himself was also learning the language of the Eastern Roman Empire with twenty apprentices.
Therefore, Li Min simply combined these thirty people into a class.
In the classroom, Eastern Roman language is taught to the Han people on the one hand, and Chinese to the nobles of the Eastern Roman state on the other.
It happens to be bilateral teaching, so there will be no delay between the two.
Moreover, students from both sides can learn from each other and promote communication.
Ask them to talk half in Chinese and half in Eastern Romanian.
In this way, their learning progress can be greatly accelerated.
Moreover, these twenty Han students will all stay here in the future and take charge of the situation in various places.
Knowing the nobles of Eastern Rome now will also be of certain benefit to them in their future work.
Among the ten Eastern Roman nobles, there was a girl who stood out among the crowd.
This girl, even if she stood among ten thousand people, if people looked at her at a glance, she would be the first thing they noticed.
She is tall and has long golden hair.
The skin is so white and tender that people dare not touch it, fearing that it will break if touched even slightly.
Generally speaking, it is probably because of the dimensionality.
Although Europeans are all white, their skin is often rough.
But the skin on this girl's body is extremely delicate, and she doesn't look like an Eastern Roman at all.
And her appearance actually has the classical temperament of an oriental girl in addition to the exotic style.
The mixture of these two temperaments gives her a special sense of beauty.
Even with Li Min's experience as a person, he couldn't help but take a second look when he saw this girl for the first time.
As for the entire study class, all the twenty students in Huaxia City are boys.
Although now in Huaxia City, women can already work and serve as officials.
But after all, the education they have received over the years is all about women's three obediences and four virtues.
If you are not married, you will obey your father; if you are married, you will obey your husband; if your husband dies, you will obey your son.
The four virtues are virtues and merits.
The educational philosophy that a woman’s lack of talent is a virtue makes few women willing to show their face.
Therefore, these twenty students are all male.
Among the ten nobles of the Eastern Roman Empire, women accounted for half of them.
At this point, Eastern Rome was more advanced than the Tang Dynasty.
Here, the princess can also inherit the throne.
If the previous king had no sons, his daughter could inherit the throne and become queen.
Of course, Constans II had a son, Constans IV.
The father of Constans II was Constans III.
Okay, it looks a bit messy.
I don't know what order they are in.
And this girl is the daughter of Constans II, whose nickname is Anna.
Anna's beauty was known to almost everyone throughout Eastern Rome.
Known as the most beautiful princess.
The noble men, as well as the twenty students in Huaxia City, all admired Anna very much.
Every day, I am trying to please Anna intentionally or unintentionally.
And Anna has very good diplomatic skills.
Her manners are elegant and calm, and her speech makes people feel like spring breeze.
She doesn't neglect anyone, but she also doesn't give people the illusion that she likes them.
All this makes everyone impeccable.
Her language talent was also outstanding. Among the ten nobles of Eastern Rome, her learning progress was the fastest.
It only took half a month to start a dialogue with the Tang people in Huaxia City.
She liked Chinese civilization very much and would ask Li Min various questions when she had nothing to do.
And Li Min also liked this diligent and studious student.
Every time she asked a question, she would always be given a concise and concise answer.
Through conversation, Li Min discovered that Anna was very knowledgeable.
Moreover, she is also a church fanatic.
However, she had some doubts about some issues in the church.
Then, she would often ask Li Min about these questions.
For example, there are various doubts about geocentric theory.
There are also various metaphysical problems.
These questions were raised by the Western sage Aristotle.
These ideas were extremely advanced and sensational at the time.
But now, many of the issues there seem out of date and full of contradictions.
Li Min didn't expect that Anna, as a princess, would be so knowledgeable.
Moreover, he will also put forward his own doubts and opinions on these philosophical issues.
This is really rare.
Fortunately, Eastern Rome was the least persecuted Western country by the church.
Because in Eastern Rome, Constans II was very powerful.
He can appoint everything in the church, and he can control the church.
In other countries, the church is in control.
Any theory that is inconsistent with the church's philosophy is heresy.
The church ruled the West for hundreds of years.
This dark period is called the Middle Ages.
And now, it is just the beginning of the Middle Ages.
If Anna wasn't a princess and wasn't in Eastern Rome.
Just based on these questions of hers, she might have been regarded as a heretic by the church and burned alive.
Faced with Anna's problem, Li Min combined the ideas of later generations and gave her in-depth and simple analysis.
Li Min's analysis was like bolts of lightning to Anna.
Cutting through the layers of fog in front of her.
It always makes her feel suddenly enlightened.
And the erudition of the lord of Huaxia City made her heartbroken.
Over the years as she grew up, many problems have troubled her.
And the people around her were always like flies, constantly running to show their hospitality to him.
But facing these people, she had no interest at all.
She was only interested in knowledge and philosophical issues.
But, she is a princess and she is a noble.
She had to deal with these people.
As for her questions, her doubts, no one of these people had ever given even a hint of the question.
Even the learned priests of the church were unable to explain his doubts.
What's more, some priests always thought that her ideas were very dangerous and violated the tenets of doctrine.
As for those teachings, you only need to follow them. Why would you question them?
This idea is close to paganism.
And Li Min's appearance was like a bright light in the darkness for her.
It pointed out the way forward for her and solved all her doubts.
However, while solving doubts, it is also the beginning of new troubles.
Because, as each doubt is solved, more puzzles appear.
She is a very knowledgeable person and can naturally judge right from wrong.
The more she learned about it, the more she felt that many aspects of the doctrine were wrong.
Moreover, some mistakes are fundamental mistakes.
This realization will make her feel very painful.
Could it be that all the teachings she has believed in since she was a child are wrong?
This is a belief she has cultivated since she was a child.
This made her very conflicted.
Because of this, even her teacher Li Min had a different color in her eyes.
In her eyes, her teacher Li Min seemed to have turned into the devil.
In the Garden of Eden, apples were used to constantly lure her into making mistakes.
But she knew very well in her heart that, in fact, the devil was the right one.
That apple is the real result!
She is now flying towards the light step by step, like a moth.
Li Min was very busy, and of course he didn't have time to pay attention to this little girl every day. She was always thinking about something.
He has many things to keep busy with.
Of course, it is impossible to develop these twenty mining areas at the same time.
They don't have that much energy, nor that many manpower.
They plan to develop five mines in advance.
These five mines are not the ones with the richest mineral reserves, but the ones with the most suitable geographical conditions and the closest to the docks.
For example, the consul ordered people to repair the pier that Li Min requested, and there was no need for Huaxia City to do anything.
This is also their reciprocation of kindness and friendship for their friend Li Min.
The places where the five other mines are located have now become concessions of Huaxia City.
These places are all decided by the managers of Huaxia City.
The Eastern Roman people in these five places were all terrified.
They were living a good life, but they didn't expect that their owners would suddenly change.
From now on, you must obey the words of the new master from Huaxia City.
What should they do if their new owner mistreats them?
Fortunately, after the concession was established, their new owners had no new requirements for the time being.
With preparations for mine development, many people from Huaxia City have already settled on the mountain.
After a few days of surveying and mapping, they started recruiting workers.
The conditions for recruiting workers are that they have to take care of three meals a day and the daily wages are ten copper coins.
With such a salary, Li Min naturally inquired about it.
Because there are few jobs here, there are many people willing to work.
Therefore the wages are very cheap.
Five copper coins a day is already considered a high salary.
Well, the currencies used here are gold coins, silver coins and copper coins.
As the Romans do in the countryside, after arriving here, Li Min could only use their currency to make settlements.
Such conditions made the local people a little unbelievable.
You know, the highest wage here is only five copper coins a day, and it's still the kind of person who doesn't care about food.
Where are they now?
He was responsible for three meals a day and was paid ten copper coins.
Are things really that good?
They always feel unbelievable and unreal.
However, they are not willing to miss such an opportunity.
So, people started to sign up.
In the first batch, they only recruited more than 500 people.
Soon, after receiving simple training, this group of people began to mine in the mountains.
When it was still dark, these people came down the mountain happily.
Everyone held ten sweaty copper coins in their hands.
Apparently, they really paid each of them ten copper coins as wages.
"Hey, how is the work on the mountain? It must be very tiring! They must treat you like cattle. Otherwise, how could they give you such high wages?"
"Am I right? If you work slowly, you will definitely get beaten. Haha, I know how such a high salary is so easy to earn!"
"Haha, lame man, you are wrong! This job is good! I am not tired at all, and the food is not bad! If you don't believe it, ask them! Let's see if what I say is true!"
