Half a month ago, Yan Yingyuan, a Jiangyin Dianshi, was invited to Nanjing by the Jinyiwei. This Yan Yingyuan was just an inconspicuous Dianshi. I don’t know why the emperor wanted to summon him, so I could only come to the palace to meet you with a nervous mood.

After the visit of Yan Yingyuan, Chongzhen saw that Yan Yingyuan, who was equivalent to the later county public security director, was about forty years old, with a rosy face and a beard, and he had a shrewd and powerful aura. This famous figure who had led the military and civilians of Jiangyin City in history to defend Jiangyin for 83 days was invited by him. What was the matter?

"Yan Aiqing, I invited you into the palace to entrust you to do something. However, Yan Aiqing has never done this before. I wonder if Yan Aiqing can share my worries?"

Yan Yingyuan thought to himself that I had worked in the history of classics before, and I had never worked as a higher official, but everyone was promoted all the way! Could it be that if I had never worked as a higher official, I would say that I could not do it!

Yan Yingyuan thought to himself that the emperor didn't know what official he wanted to promote him, whether he would be promoted to third level, and was afraid of scaring him. Yan Yingyuan has always regarded himself very highly, and even if he was promoted to sixth level, he could be happy. He answered now:

"Thank you to the emperor's grace, you only need the emperor to speak. The minister will do his best to go through fire and water without hesitation. I just don't know what the emperor wants the minister to do."

Chongzhen smiled and said, "Don't worry, Yan Aiqing, as long as Yan Aiqing does it with care, it is not a difficult task. After doing this, I have more important things to leave to you. But this matter must be done well and there are no mistakes." Then he looked at Wang Chengen and said, "Let's do this, Eunuch Wang tell you about this matter first."

Wang Chengen hurriedly took over and said, "Mr. Yan, this is true. On the way to the south, the emperor met a paradise on the way, saying that there was a large copper mine in Jiangxi, and the mine was accompanied by gold and silver. The emperor had sent someone to see Feng Shui and said that this matter was not false. Therefore, the emperor wanted to send a capable official to be responsible for the mining. Because Lord Yan was in Jiangyin's tenure to pacify salt thieves, protect the country and the people, and had outstanding political achievements, the emperor specially invited Lord Yan from Jiangyin to do this. Although Lord Yan was not familiar with this matter, it was not difficult. The technical craftsmen related to mining have already looked for it. As for the mining area in Jiangxi, the emperor had sent people to buy all the territory. Can Lord Yan handle this matter for the emperor?"

Yan Yingyuan is not a confused person, and his understanding, communication and coordination skills are more comparable. Otherwise, he would suddenly lead hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Jiangyin to fight against the Qing Dynasty, so how could he be so smoothly? It seems that the emperor wants to preside over the opening of a copper mine, which is accompanied by gold and silver mines. In other words, it must be an extraordinary mineral deposit. In other words, the mission he has to shoulder is also extraordinary. Yan Yingyuan has always been a cadre who likes challenging work and answered immediately:

"I thank the emperor for his trust and dare not obey orders. I will do my best to repay the emperor's great kindness!"

When Wang Chengen saw that Yan Yingyuan was directly accepting the matter, he did not refuse. He praised him in his heart and continued:

"The emperor did not want to follow the salt and iron monopoly system. The emperor's kindness was great. This time, he adopted the method of joint mining. The emperor's mine land accounted for 60% of the shares, and other partners accounted for 40% of the shares. The emperor spent 120,000 taels of silver to buy the mine. The other partners could start mining. Zheng Zhilong paid 40,000 taels of silver for this 80,000 taels of silver. Originally, Zheng Zhilong wanted to pay all the other 40,000 taels of silver, but the emperor considered to let more people share the benefits. Therefore, the emperor intended to raise the other 40,000 taels of silver in Jiangyin. There is no problem with those who invest in the shares to make a profit within one year. The opportunity is rare. I think they will be happy. What do you think?"

Yan Yingyuan thought that asking him to raise money was an intentional test, so he calculated that according to his influence in Jiangyin, it would be no problem to raise a hundred thousand taels of silver. Moreover, this time there was the emperor's golden signboard and a treasure-like copper mine placed there (if what the emperor said was true, well, the emperor's golden mouth and jade teeth would of course not be fake!). He replied immediately:

"Give me five days to get the money."

When Chongzhen heard this, he was overjoyed and said happily:

"Yan Aiqing, I won't give you any official position this time. I gave this copper mine a name called Peacock Mountain Copper Mine Co., Ltd. As the major shareholder of this company, I appointed you as the manager, with an annual salary of 1,000 taels of silver. I am very happy to do things, and I will have great uses in the future. As for how to join forces and how to distribute dividends, Eunuch Wang has drafted the charter. You will understand it by taking it. I promise you to act cheaply, but I will not interfere. However, you should listen to Eunuch Wang more about the technical issues of mining. In addition, the accounts must be clear. Eunuch Wang will also explain this to you in detail. In the big aspect, Eunuch Wang will take charge of me, and Yan Aiqing can act cheaply. Yan Aiqing will handle this matter with Eunuch Wang. You must speed up and not lose money."

"I obey the order!"

Yan Yingyuan, who was playing the emperor's sign, raised 40,000 taels of silver in Jiangyin in one day. After the fundraising, there were still some people who wanted to join the shares one after another. Yan Yingyuan had to politely refuse. You should know that "Chongzhen's escape from danger in Beijing" has been a strange story among the people, some say that the clouds are flying, and some say that the heavenly soldiers protect their bodies, which is not the same. In Wang Chengen's intentional or unintentional spread, under the myth of worship of Chongzhen's disciples, and the vivid description of the Jinyiwei Wen Tiecheng, the vivid description of Chongzhen

The story of escape was edited into different mythical versions. However, for killing the pursuers of the Dashun Army, these different versions all replaced the targets they killed with other unlucky guys - bandits, Tartars, and Japanese pirates. So folk legend Chongzhen became a god-like figure. I heard that the mining was based on the instructions of Chongzhen from the world's pastoral masters, so people naturally thought that this was the instructions of the gods. So the rich people in Jiangyin believed it and flocked to them.

Yan Yingyuan's family was crowded with people, and finally had to go thirty-six strategies. As a master's plan, he took 600 disciples to Nanjing the next day. When he arrived in Nanjing, he met Wang Chengen and a craftsman, and immediately rushed to Jiangxi by boat.

The Governor of Jiangxi Yuan Jixian had already received the secret order of Chongzhen and arranged a thousand subordinates to accompany him to Dexing, Shangrao. The group set up camp tents at the foot of Peacock Mountain. Wang Chengen had too many things to do on part-time jobs and could not wait to explore. He just explained the depth of the mineral layer of the open-pit copper mine in later generations. The specific location was not accurate, so he had to dig more holes along the surrounding Peacock Mountain, dig deep holes, cast nets everywhere, and he could always catch something! Well, that's it! Wang Chengen hurriedly left the next day. Since the second day, the large group of people began to dig holes everywhere and dig a lot of gunpowder. When the mine was prospecting, in order to find out the mineral deposits as soon as possible, one was to spare no effort, and the other was to use gunpowder. A hole was made within a radius of dozens of miles, and a good place was digging everywhere.

In four days, copper mines were found at four holes. The Dexing copper mine deposit was very shallow, and later mechanized open-pit mining was used. Although there was no conditions for open-pit mining in this era, it was not difficult to dig more pits with a depth of more than ten meters or ten meters. Yan Yingyuan fully utilized his level of organization and coordination and commanded the massive Peacock Mountain prospecting battle. Those who participated in the battle included the Ming soldiers who were paid according to their work, 600 of the first batch of employees of Yan Yingyuan's company, and migrant workers who flocked to the vicinity, of course, also inseparable from the guidance of craftsmen. This extra-large copper mine was unveiled by a group of soldiers and temporary workers. It is worth mentioning that the 1,000 officers and soldiers who participated in this pit digging battle later became a strong engineer team in the Ming Dynasty and was known as the "Diamond Engineering Corps."

When the ore samples from the Peacock Mountain Copper Mine were sent to Nanjing, Wang Chengen sent the ore samples to the Ministry of Industry. The copper content of this spotted copper ore reached 25% and 100 kilograms of ore was smelted out 25 kilograms of coarse copper.

When Wang Chengen sent the smelted copper tin to the palace, Chongzhen seemed to have seen the real copper tin, and it was too fast! Yan Yingyuan only went to the foot of Peacock Mountain for four days and discovered the location of the copper mine by digging a hole. How many holes have been dug? When Wang Chengen reported that he mobilized 18,000 people and 60 people were responsible for digging a hole, day and night, digging a total of 300 holes, and 3,000 kilograms of gunpowder were spent on 3,600 taels of silver for just asking people to dig the hole, Chongzhen couldn't help but admire Yan Yingyuan's courage.

The copper coins in the Chongzhen year were made in a crude way, with thin coins and light weight, with less than 60% of copper content and too high lead, so they are black and very easy to break. No wonder 5,500-800-800-100 copper coins on the market can be exchanged for one tael of silver. According to a normal year, one tael of silver is exchanged for 700-800-100 copper coins. If 8 grams of copper coins are minted, 6.4 kg of copper can be cast 800-100 copper coins, and the price of copper is 40% of the value of copper coins. That is to say, 6.4 kg of copper is 320 copper coins, that is, four kg of silver, and the price of one kg of copper is about six cents of silver. According to one tael of silver, the price of copper is equivalent to 700 yuan in later generations, the price of copper is 43 yuan per kilogram, which is not much different. The mineral deposit of this Peacock Mountain copper mine is very shallow, the most

The shallow area is only ten meters, and the mining cost is extremely low, so the mining profit is extremely large, reaching a huge profit of more than five times, or the gross profit margin can reach an astonishing 80%. The Peacock Mountain Copper Mine mine is a piece of cake. Based on the daily output of 24 tons of crude copper, it earns 1,500 taels of silver a day, and the pre-tax profit is 1,200 taels of silver. If the 10% mine tax is charged, the net profit will be 1,050 taels, and a stubborn profit of 360,000 taels of silver a year is a sure thing. The principal of 200,000, and the annual yield reaches an astonishing 180%. This is not the accompanying gold and silver. If the gold and silver output is included, the net profit will definitely exceed 500,000 taels of silver. After Wang Chengen settled the accounts, Chongzhen and Wang Chengen slapped their high five hundred and fifty taels of silver and laughed.

The eunuchs saw the emperor and the prince and the prince muttered for a long time. At the end, the king and his ministers slapped their right hands and laughed out loud. They didn't know what was happy about it. They thought it was just a piece of copper, but the emperor seemed to see countless gold, silver and treasures.

The king and his ministers really seemed to have seen countless gold, silver and treasures. No, this is far from being as simple as gold, silver and treasures! This is a systematic plan that the king and his ministers took a lot of brain cells to consider. This whole set of plans is linked together, called the "first-rich demonstration project", the "private capital activation project" and the "national power mobilization model project".

The two people came from later generations, of course they knew that having money was the hard truth, and of course there was another more civilized statement - development was the hard truth. In addition, the two analyzed the national mobilization power in the late Ming Dynasty. After analyzing the depression, it was really not to mention it! You said that Beijing alone could recover stolen money and help pay to recover 70 million taels of silver, and Jiangnan was richer. The rich man buried a lot of silver in the cellar, but he would rather bury it than invest it, and would rather give it to the Qing army for free in the future. The Ming Dynasty was definitely the world's factory and the birthplace of industrial technology in the world. The result of the trade surplus was that all the world's silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty, and even the Western colonists brought America.

The silver mine was almost exhausted but could not fill the trade deficit. The West was fighting a "Thirty Years' War" this time. Who the hell bought luxury goods such as porcelain and silk from the Ming Dynasty! Especially from 1630 to 1648, the whole of Europe was in a mess, and the military expenditure was stolen. How could it be that Chongzhen was in trouble! As soon as he came to power, he encountered a shrinking exports and the Jiangnan economy was greatly affected. The fertile land in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was used to raise silkworms and grow cotton. As a result, no one knew that the West had dug out the silver mines in America and burned the remaining silver to the war, so there was no order that should come.

Come on, the products are piled up, but the fields do not produce grain. The natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty have not stopped over the years. They have lost money in growing cotton and mulberry plants, and rice prices have risen every day. The lives of the rich men have actually entered the stage of "income but not enough" for them. These rich men have actually lived a good life. The silver in these guys' cellars has accumulated like mountains, but they are used to making money. Now they are operating at a loss. Who dares to spend as much money as before? It can be said that the silver in the Ming Dynasty is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a large number of merchants. Some merchants usually have other names, such as officials at all levels intervene in industry and commerce. The difference is only direct or indirect. The gentry and clan forces are also workers.

The main participants of business. However, the huge wealth that these people have cannot be effectively converted into war resources through mobilization. The Ming Dynasty had at least 200 million human resources, which was 200 times that of the Qing Dynasty. According to Du Chebbe, the Ming Dynasty's 1.2 billion mu of land, excluding 300 million mu of Liaodong, was calculated to be 900 million mu. The average grain production per mu was 426 kilograms, with a total output of more than 380 billion jin. The agricultural output value was 600-1.2 billion taels of silver, which was more than 200 times that of the Qing Dynasty, but the country's mobilization power was less than one percent of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty could even use the resources of the Ming Dynasty, which was a great irony.

Think about it, when Frederick the Great inherited the throne in 1740, he inherited one of the most powerful troops in Europe at that time, with a force of nearly 80,000, which is really incredible for a country with a population of only 2.5 million and an annual income of about 1 million pounds. By 1786, Frederick the Great's standing army reached 200,000, with a population of exactly 5 million. 80% of the annual income of the Prussian country was spent on the army. Comparing the mobilization power of a country, the Ming Dynasty was so ashamed to death compared to Frederick the Great.

Regarding who to rely on, the two of them discussed and found that farmers were temporarily unable to rely on. Although the potential of farmers is huge, they have greater destructive power! You can't publish Marxism first, then have an enlightenment movement, and then establish a proletarian party! How many years will it take! I don't know if it's enough. So the final recognition of the power of reliance is the gentry and gentry industrial and commercial class, which can be called the grassroots pillar of the Ming Dynasty. Lu Xiangyan's so-called "officials are not feudal, but officials are feudal" means that the long-term unchanging influence of the gentry and gentry industrial and commercial class in various places in the local area, and its appeal is definitely greater than that of the officials appointed by the court.

This is why Yan Yingyuan was able to command Jiangyin’s military and civilians to defend Jiangyin to break the city by 83 gentry. Simply put, it is because of the grassroots mobilization power of the aristocratic gentry and business class. Shi Kefa defeated Yangzhou in just six days. Although the command was poor, the inability to effectively mobilize the grassroots was the main reason for failure.

Therefore, Yan Yingyuan was selected as the first manager of Chongzhen Royal Company. Chongzhen and Wang Chengen respected Jiangyin's aristocratic and gentry, and gave the most profitable investment opportunities to these men with genius.

Of course, the emperor's purpose is far more than this, and this move is just to draw a brick and a jade.

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Chapter completed!