When Mao Geng heard that the place where Lu Jiuyuan taught was in Guixi, he was impulsive and almost wanted to mobilize Lu Jiuyuan to mine the super-large silver mine. Even if Lu Jiuyuan could not go back to preside over the great cause of mining, at least his disciples could do it for him!

Speaking of Guixi Silver Lead and Zinc Mine, it is said that the reserves of silver alone are 10,000 tons. What is the concept of 10,000 tons? Songjin is 640 grams, one tael is 40 grams, and ten thousand tons of silver is 250 million taels. No matter what business you do, you can dig ready-made silver and make money quickly! Isn’t it good to let a generation of great scholars and moral experts get rich first? Hehe! If Lu Xiangshan gets rich first, in addition to maximizing social benefits, the news value will be extraordinary.

However, Mao Geng then gave up this idea and thought about the late Guixi Silver-Lead-Zinc Mine that was late in later generations. Although the reserves of silver-Lead-Zinc are amazing, they were discovered in the mid-to-late 1980s. It is said that exploration is quite difficult. By the way, it will take decades to explore! Even if Lu Jiuyuan mobilized his disciples to find this mine, it would be difficult to dig out the ore.

I am not here to cheat people in the Song Dynasty. Besides, it’s better to cheat anyone, and I must not cheat the respectable Lu Jiuyuan.

Let’s wait! China is rich in land and resources, and there are more mineral resources that are easy to mine. Isn’t it just copper and zinc?

As a small shareholder who once persistently held Jiangtong shares, Mao Geng certainly knew that Dexing Copper Mine and Yongping Copper Mine were both super open-pit copper mines. In other words, the copper mine was buried very shallow, so shallow that it could be mined open-pit if it was cleared. As long as the ore veins were found, there would be no need to worry about not being dug out. Well, the copper mines in these two places were more valuable for mining in this era!

As for zinc ore, there is no need to worry about it. Since the Song Dynasty had a large number of lead fields, it would not be missing zinc ore. It would be faster than if you were original or new. According to the view of later generations, the benefits of resources can be given out more than they can be regained in deep processing. Taking the highest end of the industry is the key to success, and this is the truth!

Mao Geng turned around many times in his mind, but in the end he felt that Lu Jiuyuan's disciples' resources were useless. Instead of letting his disciples suddenly realize the empty space every day, they were idle, it would be better to be idle --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Mr. Xiangshan, I heard that there are no less than thousands of disciples who have heard Mr. Xiangshan teach him, and there are also many disciples who are taught by Mr. Xiangshan. Mr. Xiangshan is both focused on enlightenment and practice. I want to create an opportunity for Mr. Xiangshan's disciples to practice. I wonder if Mr. Xiangshan would mind?"

"I wonder what Chief Executive Mao wants Lu's disciple to serve?"

"I said Mao Geng, why did Jinxi and Guixi suddenly touch Mr. Xiangshan's disciples again? I see that you have always been rigorous and don't go off topic. Today's topic was originally a copper coin battle, so how can you get off topic by typing it up!"

Zhao Han was anxious to get the title given by the emperor's grandfather immediately. Mao Geng took him to see the zinc. Zhao Han admitted that it was at least related to copper, but suddenly it touched Lu Jiuyuan's disciples again. Zhao Han couldn't help but rush to pull Mao Geng back to his original track.

Mao Geng realized that the Duke in front of him was serious about solving the problem today. It must be the pressure from Lin'an!

"Duke, the excitement is still behind. Let's go and see that side."

The three of them walked to the same place and saw an iron trough placed on the fire. The gray-white liquid in the iron trough was boiling and the hot gas was lingering on the trough. Mao Geng handed over two masks and then demonstrated it, asking Zhao Han and Lu Jiuyuan to wear masks as well. There was lead in the trough, and the lead steam was toxic. Of course, precautions should be taken.

Mao Geng gave a message and helped him back, and Mao Geng showed the iron bar to Zhao Han and Lu Jiuyuan. After the two confirmed that it was an iron bar, Mao Geng threw the iron bar into the liquid, revealing only the part of the tail outside the groove.

"This is nothing else, it's the liquid that turns into after zinc melts. Wait for a while to take out the iron bars and you can see."

After about a minute, I picked up the iron bar and the part inserted into the groove turned silver-white, which was completely different from the part exposed at the tail.

After cooling down, Mao Geng asked the two of them to touch it again, and felt that this layer of silver-white thing was like a layer of silver-white paint. No matter how you touch, pinch, or rub it, the silver-white coating would not fall off at all. Lu Jiuyuan, who was used to seeing the paint falling off, began to feel magic.

"This is called hot-dip galvanization." Zinc also has electrochemical anti-rust function. Galvanization is very common in later generations, and the melting point of zinc is low. Even if electroplating is available in later generations, hot-dip galvanization still occupies an overwhelming position.

Mao Geng took the two of them out of this lead environment, and then gave each of them a hot-dip galvanized disc, explaining:

"This thing is also coated with a layer of zinc on the iron. After galvanizing, it will not rust for many years."

"Is it really that amazing?"

In Zhao Jian's concept, as long as it is iron, it cannot be escaped if it rusts. If it does not rust, it can only be said to be a miracle.

"Yes, that's exactly that."

Mao Geng answered very affirmatively, thinking that the iron tools these days are really weak, and the iron coins cast in the Song Dynasty were even more unsuccessful. The iron coins were cast thick and heavy, and they were rusted at all times. It is reasonable that the people are unwilling to use iron coins.

Lu Jiuyuan rubbed the silver-white metal objects in his hand, feeling heavy, and it looked smoother than ordinary iron. If he hadn't seen the hot-dip galvanized scene in advance, he really couldn't believe that the product of iron galvanized in his hand. It was because he had just watched the demonstration and saw it with his own eyes that he would not doubt what Mao Geng said.

"I witnessed a hot-dip galvanizing today, which opened Lu's eyes. It turned out that this zinc was so magical!"

Hot-dip galvanizing is of course. Later generations don’t know how many galvanized pipes there are. Galvanized plates are constantly coming down from the production line. If they talk about their output, they will definitely make Zun Jia stunned.

People say that one move is fresh and eats everything all over the world. Hot dip galvanizing is of course a very fresh move at present, and this move must be hidden. So Mao Geng smiled and said:

"Mr. Xiangshan, it is precisely because this zinc is indeed magical that we must keep the secret strictly. If the Jin people learn about the secret of zinc, wouldn't it be bad? You said right?"

"Yes, you must not let the Jin people learn it."

Zhao Han expressed his agreement seriously.

"So, I just wanted to ask Mr. Xiangshan to choose some disciples to learn the secret of zinc smelting. I just taught the Fu family before this, but the Fu family did not produce much zinc and could not fully guarantee the supply of zinc. There must be others who came to smelify zinc together. I think about it, Mr. Xiangshan's disciples should be trustworthy. If they learn this secret technique, they don't have to worry about leaking. Moreover, after they learned the secret technique of zinc smelting, it is not difficult to find zinc ore in Jiangxi. I believe that with them, we will never be short of zinc again. I just don't know what Mr. Xiangshan thought?"

Lu Xiangshan talks about conscience and values ​​moral education. His disciples can be said to be both morally and capable. If such a group of people are not trusted, who else can they trust? Zhao Han also nodded, thinking that it was a temporary choice.

Lu Jiuyuan opened the curtains, looked north, and then turned around and said:

"Lu teaches his disciples to do whatever he wants for the national affairs and thanks Chief Mao for his unyielding resignation. He values ​​Lu's disciples so much. How can Lu let down Brother Mao's good wishes? Let's do this, Fu Ziyun, who comes with me, counts one first. I'll think about it again. See who else can take on this responsibility among the disciples? In short, as long as Brother Mao is willing to teach, Lu will gather a group of disciples to learn zinc smelting, there is no problem."

“It can’t be so good.”

Lu Jiuyuan's disciples are first and foremost smart cultural people. Their qualifications are impeccable. It should be no difficulty to learn a simple zinc smelting trick. There is no need to doubt the confidentiality. Mao Geng was overjoyed, and Zhao Han was also very happy.

Then Mao Geng talked about his understanding of currency:

"The first principle of metal currency is that it is necessary to use base metal as raw materials. In the Han Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty, copper is still a base metal, and it is of course good to use copper coins. But in this dynasty, if copper materials were still a base metal in the past few decades, copper materials would be expensive during the reign of Emperor Shenzong, and the casting of copper coins was almost a loss. If the imperial court had not forced the price of copper, in fact, the casting of copper coins would have been in a loss."

"Since there is a risk of losing money, the method of smelting copper has emerged at this time. The method of smelting copper greatly reduced the cost of smelting copper, which made the coin coin barely remain the same. However, after the southbound, prices rose and the price of copper materials also rose. Although the court forced to buy copper at low prices, smelting copper coins were actually losing money. Now, the price of copper materials, haha, I mean the market price, or the black market price, is significantly higher than the price of the court purchased copper materials. Today's copper materials are no longer considered base metals anyway."

The implementation of copper materials in the Song Dynasty was a government monopoly on the copper industry. To put it bluntly, it is the same as the unified purchase and sales of later generations. The unified purchase and sales often conceal the imbalance of supply and demand, and also conceal the price imbalance.

Speaking of this, Lu Jiuyuan interrupted:

"In fact, since the Five Dynasties, iron coins have been casting. Iron is cheaper than copper. Don't worry about the material being more expensive than the value of money. However, iron coins are too heavy, and the heaviest iron coins in Sichuan are twenty-five kilograms, which is extremely inconvenient to trade. Second, it is very easy to rust. Over time, the money will be without money. People do not like iron coins, but because the iron coins are crude and heavy."

Mao Geng smiled and said:

"Mr. Xiangshan said it was the point. Since copper material can no longer be called base metal, of course, we must use iron at a low price than copper material to make coins. This is an inevitable choice."

Speaking of this, Mao Geng couldn't help but think of the fifth set of RMB coins in later generations. The silver coins of one cent were aluminum coins at a glance. The five cents looked like copper, but actually copper-plated with steel cores. The one-yuan coins looked like stainless steel, but actually nickel-plated with steel cores. The copper price in later generations rose sharply (from the lowest price of US$1,500/ton in six years to US$8,800/ton in 2008), and the price of stainless steel also rose sharply. If the coins were issued in real way, it would be strange if the central bank did not lose money! Therefore, the central bank chose base metals as core material without hesitation, but made the appearance look like it was made of expensive materials.

There is no need for Mao Geng to hide such a mystery:

"However, using iron to make money must be a little more particular. At least it must be made more refined, at least it must not be rusted. If I were to make iron coins, the casting method must be discarded and stamping method must be used. In addition, it is also necessary to coat the iron coins with a layer of zinc."

The countermeasures of the central bank in the later years also apply to the Song Dynasty. If the copper price rises sharply, we will use iron, but at least we must be able to live up to our face, right?
Chapter completed!