After giving up being the wife of a powerful official, Ling Yunlu became a concubine

"What treasure? It may not be gold? Gold mines don't look like this." Yuzhi looked longing.

"You haven't woken up yet, have you? If there was gold, it would have been dug out long ago. Is there any need for you to leave your hometown?" Jinzhi patted Yuzhi's head.

"If you hit me again, you will be responsible if I become stupid." Yuzhi shouted, covering her head.

"Silly Yuzhi, gold may not be available, but there may be something better than gold."

There was a hint of mystery in Linglong's words.

"What is it? Tell me quickly, I'll make you some delicious snacks." Yuzhi hurriedly pulled Linglong's hand.

Linglong looked at the other people in the car, who were looking at her with questioning eyes.

"Well, I have to see it in person to be sure. Now it's just a guess."

"Ah, that's the same as not saying anything!" Yuzhi collapsed in Jinzhi's arms in frustration.

Outside the carriage, Xiao Minshen and Fulu, who were riding horses, listened to the conversation of several people in the carriage while observing their surroundings.

It is indeed desolate here. Other places are full of green mountains and clear water, but the mountains here are brown and even the water is yellow.

There were some towering trees sparsely growing beside the road, but unfortunately they had no leaves and were blooming with bright red flowers as big as bowls.

Lao Zhuangtou received the message and waited by the roadside early in the morning.

He saw the carriage from a distance and began to bow, "I greet the prince and the queen."

"Get up, old man." Shen Yunjin got off the carriage and helped the white-haired old man up.

"Li Zhuangtou, why is it so desolate here? There are no trees on the mountain? Aren't there any crops growing in the fields?"

"To answer your Majesty, this place has always been like this since I can remember."

Li Zhuangtou is a native local, and several generations of his ancestors were born and grew old here.

The land here is very poor and very little of it can produce crops.

Generally, outsiders could not find land to grow crops here, and eventually they moved away because they did not want to starve.

Only locals know how to fill their stomachs.

Even so, many locals moved away.

In the end, there were only a dozen or so households left in such a large area.

Li Zhuangtou brought Shen Yunjin and others to his home, and they cleaned up the largest rooms in the house.

"Your Highness and Your Majesty, please bear with us for a few days. Our house is small and these are already the largest rooms we have." Li Zhuangtou rubbed his hands embarrassedly.

"No problem." Shen Yunjin waved her hand. She would be able to overcome it in a day or two.

After saying that, she glanced at Xiao Minshen, and seeing that he had no objection, she began to ask the maid to bring the bedding they had brought into the house.

Xiao Minshen didn't care. He had even slept on the roadside before, and this one at least had a roof to shelter him from the rain.

Linglong had already pulled Li Zhuangtou's granddaughter and asked her to take her out for a walk.

Shen Yunjin carefully read all the account books that Li Zhuangtou brought over.

Xiao Minshen stood aside, studying the map in his hand.

The silent interaction between the two was interrupted by Linglong jumping in from outside the door.

"Concubine, look what treasure I brought you?" As she said this, she handed the thing in her hand to Shen Yunjin.

Shen Yunjin took it and looked at it. It was a brown stone.

The small stone was very heavy in his hand. Shen Yunjin looked it up and down.

This is definitely not an ordinary stone, otherwise Linglong would not describe it as a treasure.

An idea suddenly occurred to her mind. "Is this ore?"

Now, it was Linglong's turn to be stunned. She thought Shen Yunjin didn't know!

Xiao Minshen was also attracted and took the stone from Shen Yunjin's hand. "You said this is ore?"

"Well, I remember seeing the introduction of this kind of stone in the "Notes on the Classic of Waterways". This is siderite, which can be used to smelt iron."

Xiao Minshen sensitively grasped the key word: iron smelting!

What a treasure! He looked at the stone over and over again with a little jealousy.

"Linglong, where did you find this?" Shen Yunjin looked at Linglong.

"Didn't I say I wanted to do a field trip? So I asked Li Zhuangtou's little daughter to take me to see it."

"As a result, we found fragments dug out by someone at the bottom of the mountain. I asked around and they said that Li Zhuangtou had once learned to be a blacksmith and accidentally discovered that farm tools made from the stones on the mountain were stronger than those bought, so he dug out some of them."

Shen Yunjin and Xiao Minshen exchanged glances.

"Your Highness, Concubine, dinner is ready. Please go to the main hall to eat." Li Zhuangtou said softly outside the house.

The two men walked into the main room, where several pine oil lamps were lit, making the room brightly lit.

There was a large table in the middle of the room, filled with several dishes.

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, stir-fried side dishes, green peppers, and two stir-fried meat dishes, with a chicken soup in the middle.

Shen Yunjin picked up a flower-like dish from a bowl and asked, "What is this?"

"This is our specialty. It's the flower of the tall tree you saw on the way here. It's the best time to eat it now. It's best to stir-fry it with bacon."

Li Zhuangtou couldn't help rubbing his hands, wondering whether the prince and princess would be accustomed to the food.

Shen Yunjin took a bite and found it glutinous, sweet and with the aroma of bacon. "It's delicious!" she commented objectively.

"This is different from ordinary fried pork slices." Xiao Minshen pointed to the fried meat next to him.

"This is called oil-bottomed meat, and it's also a specialty here. It's made by boiling fresh pork belly with oil, then putting it in a clean jar with the oil while it's still hot, and sealing it. When you want to eat it, scoop it out with the oil and meat to cook. This kind of meat will not go bad even if you keep it for a year or two."

Seeing that Xiao Minshen liked it, Li Zhuangtou couldn't help but start talking more.

"I heard that you used to be a blacksmith?" Xiao Minshen asked casually.

"Yes, when I was young, I worked in a blacksmith shop for a while. Later, because my hand was injured, I couldn't continue working, so I came back to farm."

As he spoke, Li Zhuangtou took the iron tool hanging next to the door frame and said, "This is what I made myself."

Xiao Minshen took it and looked at it carefully.

"Yes, the workmanship is exquisite. But where did you get the material? It looks better than the ones in the shop."

Li Zhuangtou's face suddenly turned pale, his legs kept shaking, and finally he couldn't hold on any longer and knelt down.

"Please spare my life, my lord and madam. I mined some ore without permission."

After saying that, he began to kowtow continuously, making a "bang bang bang" sound on the ground.

The women in the kitchen didn't know what was going on, so they all looked into the inner room from the kitchen.

"Part? How big a part? When did it start? Does anyone else know? Was the mined ore sold or used somewhere else?"

Xiao Minshen asked questions one after another, and sweat dripped down Li Zhuangtou's forehead.