The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 138 The Golden Thief is Coming

Yue Wenxuan offered "high wages" to stabilize the miners' emotions first, and then sent threats such as "salary cuts" and "dismissals" to stabilize the basic situation first.

But it is not enough to just stabilize the basic situation. If wages are fixed, it will gradually develop into a situation where state-owned mines eat from the same pot, which will eventually lead to a dead end.

It will have to be adjusted to "pay according to work" after a while, but there is no rush for this, it will be adjusted slowly later.

Yue Wenxuan did not adjust the management of the mine for the time being, and let Luo Jiandang continue to serve as the supervisor of the mine, but took away fifty imperial guards.

As he was leaving, Luo Jiandang couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, you've taken all the imperial guards with you. If bandits attack the mine, what will I do?"

Yue Wenxuan couldn't help but laugh: "Bandits? You have 1,200 miners here. Small gangs of bandits wouldn't dare to mess with you, but I'll take care of the big gangs. It won't be long before there are no more bandits in Denglai."

Luo Jiandang thought to himself: This prince seems to be really up to something big, planning to wipe out all the bandits? What kind of courage does that require? Throughout the Song Dynasty, from its founding until now, bandits have been rampant, and they've never been completely eradicated. Local officials haven't even bothered to suppress them, allowing them to establish strongholds in the mountains, only recruiting them when control became uncontrollable. Can the prince really wipe out all the bandits?
He didn't know that at this time, Madam Gong Er had already launched a "bandit suppression" campaign in Jiaoshui County.

Jiaoshui County, as a bridgehead against the Jin bandits, must not be lost.

When the rebel army was resisting the invasion of the Jin bandits, they did not want a group of bandits to come out from behind and cause trouble, so the first priority of the rebel army was to wipe out the bandits in Jiaoshui County.

The rebel army was divided into several teams of 100 men, and they hunted down the bandits everywhere in Jiaoshui County.

Su Qi'er, the leader of the Beggar Gang who had gone to Jiaoshui earlier, had already built a branch in Jiaoshui County and had fifty or sixty beggars under his command. These beggars helped the rebels to gather information and grasped the situation in Jiaoshui County as quickly as possible, knowing it better than the Jiaoshui County magistrate. The rebels attacked with precision and had wiped out all the waves of bandits closest to the county.

The remaining bandits could only flee towards Jimo County and Ye County...

There are also rebel troops stationed in Jimo County, and escaping will only lead to death.

Ye County was the capital of Laizhou. The governor of Laizhou received an order from the prince to cooperate with all his strength. He also ordered the county lieutenant of Ye County to bring archers to intercept the enemy. After several joint efforts, the bandit army in Jiaoshui County was quickly wiped out.

The main culprit was beheaded and thrown into the city, and the bandits were incorporated into the rebel army and handed over to Qi Jiguang for training. He started from memorizing military regulations and became a new man.
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A few days later, the "Complete Set of Small Ornaments of Ming Dynasty Miners" sent by Qiu Zhishenguan Sculpture Company arrived.

At that time, Madam Gong Er was still in charge of Jiaoshui County, so Yue Wenxuan had no choice but to move several miners to Jiaoshui County, and then had someone take them to the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine to teach the miners the mining and smelting techniques of the Ming Dynasty.

By the way, a few gunpowder makers also needed to be sent. The Zhaoyuan gold mine produced a lot of saltpeter and sulfur, so we simply built a "Zhaoyuan Gunpowder Workshop" next to the mine, recruited a large number of new apprentices, and produced a large amount of gunpowder.

A small portion of this gunpowder was given to the mines, allowing workers to use the Ming Dynasty's "burning and blasting method" to crush the ore more quickly and improve work efficiency. The majority of the gunpowder was taken away by the rebel transport team and sent directly to the front line.

There are also many iron and lead mines associated with the Zhaoyuan gold mine. Yue Wenxuan asked 20 Ming Dynasty blacksmiths from Dongmiaozi Village to bring a large number of apprentices to the side of the Zhaoyuan gold mine and built a new "Zhaoyuan Forging Workshop" to smelt iron, forge weapons and make lead bullets on site.

The entire Laizhou City began to work desperately...

Soon, the governor of Dengzhou also began to reorganize Dengzhou under the "prince's order."

Dengzhou's situation was better than Laizhou's. Last year, when the Jin bandits came to cause trouble, Dengzhou, isolated on the tip of the Jiaodong Peninsula and separated from Laizhou by a mountain range, prevented the bandits from penetrating deeply into Dengzhou. Dengzhou also had the powerful Ma Banzhou clan in charge, so even small bandits couldn't cause trouble.

All Dengzhou needed to do now was to introduce the "rebel technology" that Laizhou had already begun to promote on a large scale, promoting a host of new technologies such as forging, smelting, agriculture, gunpowder production, etc. They also actively prepared for war, producing a large number of weapons, armor, chariots, bows and crossbows...

Then just transport these things to Laizhou as quickly as possible!
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winter!
Winter wheat planting in Laizhou and Dengzhou has been completed, almost entirely using the modern methods taught by Liao. However, while only the planting methods were used, not all seeds were modern, improved varieties. The two states are so vast that Yue Wenxuan can no longer provide improved varieties to everyone.

The area he actually controls has now become two states, and his command power has greatly increased, so he can actually invest more seeds and fertilizers.

However, the Jin thieves may come at any time, so Yue Wenxuan has to leave a large number of command forces to be ready to deploy combat units at any time, and can no longer put all the command forces on internal affairs.

So he is now very careful about where to put the seeds and fertilizers.

He would only put in a small amount each time until they were delivered to the farmers and "used up". After his command power was released, he would put in a new batch.

Moreover, some ordinary people are unwilling to "buy" other people's seeds and insist on using the old seeds they stored last year.

Yue Wenxuan just let them do what they wanted, saving him the energy of commanding them. When next year's winter wheat harvest comes, just don't cry when you see other people's high-quality seeds overflowing.

The same goes for food!

Yue Wenxuan also began to be cautious about the food he put into the sand table. He controlled the amount of food he put in each time until it was "eaten" by the people. Then he released his command power and put in a new batch of food.

"Report!"

A cavalryman rushed into Jiaoshui County, and the scout on horseback galloped through the streets, shouting as he ran: "Get out of the way, this is urgent military information, you deserve to be hit to death."

The crowd on the street was split apart as if by a "Sword Wind Slash", allowing the scout to rush into the county government office.

Seeing the scout's anxious look, the people all felt that the situation was not good.

"That scout is in such a hurry, isn't he afraid of killing someone?"

"This news is very important."

"The gold thief must be coming!"

"Quickly pack up your belongings."

"It's been packed a long time ago!"

Jiaoshui County was instantly plunged into an atmosphere of panic.

They were not wrong. The scout rushed into the county government office and shouted at Madam Gong Er: "Something bad is happening! The Jin thieves are coming."

Madam Gong Er was chatting with the Jiaoshui County Magistrate about military preparations. Upon hearing this, she suddenly jumped up and said, "Tell me in detail."

The scout shouted anxiously, "A few days ago, Jinan's prefect, Liu Yu, surrendered to the Jin. After the Jin bandits took control of Jinan, they began to disperse their forces to the surrounding prefectures and counties... Qingzhou and Weizhou also surrendered, and a group of Jin soldiers are now heading towards Laizhou. They'll arrive in less than three days."

(End of this chapter)