Chapter 339

"Not so, not so."

Zhang Jie seemed to be possessed by Bao San-ge, Bao Butong—the fourth of the four great generals of Gusu Murong Fu,

the young master of the Gusu Murong clan who had already been sent by the Heavenly Dragon Zhang Jie

in the Heavenly Dragon World to meet his mother—who was like a reincarnation of a contrarian,

who had to say that catchphrase and argue a few points whenever anyone spoke to him or reasoned with him.

He said "not so" twice in a row, smiled, and shook his head: "Although Yunnan has much copper,

it really does not have much gold or silver, so it is not suitable as a place to solve this problem."

Even in modern times with advanced exploration technology, Yunnan is known as the Kingdom of Non-ferrous Metals,

and its gold resource reserves rank among the top in the country,

but the largest gold mine, the Heqing Beiya Gold Mine—a national large-scale gold resource base—

has cumulative proven gold resources of only 360 tons.

The silver output is the same; although many gold mines contain silver elements,

the Beiya Gold Mine only has 915 tons of associated silver.

These gold and silver reserves are naturally astronomical figures for an individual; let alone a lifetime,

even ten or a hundred lifetimes, one would probably not be able to earn or spend them all,

but for a country with a population of tens of millions, it is a drop in the bucket and not worth mentioning.

Moreover, these reserves are only proven reserves; the amount suitable for mining has not yet been calculated.

With the Great Gan's current pathetic industrial strength, this number would undoubtedly shrink significantly.

If one adds the loss during mining, that number makes Zhang Jie look up at the sky.

"Then is it Jiaozhi?

But I have never heard that Jiaozhi has large gold and silver mines!

Besides, Your Majesty, Jiaozhi is even further south than Lingnan, and there are countless miasmas permeating the air;

I fear it will be very difficult for our Great Gan's firepower advantage to be utilized. I hope Your Majesty will think thrice!"

Wang Lun thought of something, his expression changed suddenly, he bowed, and bitterly advised.

"Zhengdao, what are you thinking? How could I possibly want to attack Jiaozhi now?"

Zhang Jie was also left between laughter and tears upon hearing this.

Dali, or Yunnan, would be one thing; there are records of development and

immigration dating back to the Qin and Han dynasties, but Jiaozhi is a savage land of thousands of years.

It possesses terrible diseases like malaria, for which there is no specific medicine,

and the initial mortality rate can be as high as a terrifying ten percent or so.

In such a terrible place, except for a few people risking their lives, who would want to go, who would dare to go?

Moreover, even setting aside the miasma and the like, there is one problem that is very difficult to solve: the high-temperature problem.

The temperature there can reach around forty degrees; without air conditioning as a backup, it is nearly impossible to work and live directly.

It can be said that there is a reason why tropical places near the equator did not develop great civilizations.

Zhang Jie does not want to test the theory advocated by the military department of the "Little Days" (Japan) during World War II that the mind can overcome matter.

"Then where does Your Majesty intend to take it from?

Could it be destroying Western Xia and developing towards the Western Regions through the He Xi Corridor?"

Wang Lun, whose two guesses were both rejected by Zhang Jie, was also a bit confused.

"Zhengdao, your vision can be broadened a bit more." Zhang Jie smiled and shook his head.

"Broadened a bit more... Your Majesty, do you intend to launch an expedition overseas?"

Wang Lun's expression froze, and he reached a conclusion far beyond his expectations.

"Exactly."

Seeing that Wang Lun had finally gotten on the right track, Zhang Jie nodded with satisfaction.

Although Wang Lun was a failed scholar who had repeatedly failed the examinations, was detached from the traditional scholar-official class,

and was even cynical enough to dare to cast aside his face and become a bandit,

he was ultimately a scholar born and raised in this era,

and his vision was still relatively fixed on the land beneath his feet.

However, this is actually understandable; it is, in fact, determined by the lifestyles of agricultural civilization and fishing-hunting civilization.

If a fishing-hunting civilization does not go out to sea to fish or hunt prey for a year, the next year there will be more fish and fatter elk,

and the harvest will only be greater, so they can have leisure time to do adventurous things.

But if an agricultural civilization does not farm for a year, the next year there will be no harvest, and they will face the miserable fate of starving to death.

And let alone not farming for a year, even if you don't tend to it for ten days or half a month, weeds will grow wildly,

snatching the nutrients from the rice and wheat, and it will show you a significant reduction in yield!

The nature of agricultural civilization determines the folk customs of the people settled on it, who value their land and dislike migration.

The people born and raised here, and the theories developed,

were naturally branded with this indelible mark, and Wang Lun was clearly one of them.

"Your Majesty, do you intend to launch an expedition against the Wonu Kingdom?"

Wang Lun's sentence structure was a question, but his tone was exceptionally certain.

If Zhang Jie wanted to launch an expedition across the sea, he could only set off from the East China Sea or the South China Sea.

But the islands in the South China Sea, not to mention being uninhabited, were almost so,

with at most some natives living inside.

If one were to launch an expedition there, let alone making a profit, the Great Gan fleet's cost of going to sea might not even be recovered.

Then Zhang Jie's only choice was the Wonu Kingdom located in the East China Sea.

Although the Wonu Kingdom was isolated overseas and its land area was pitifully small compared to the mainland,

there were quite a few people on it; according to the envoys who came to worship the Great Song before,

there were millions of people in their country.

With so many people, even without gold, silver, and other precious metal resources, it was still a massive amount of wealth.

After all, all wealth ultimately boils down to the concepts humans assign to them, and it is also the product of human labor.

Their Great Gan's Yellow River management plan seems, perhaps, possibly to need some helpers (coolies).

At this moment, Wang Lun, who was responsible for the scheduling of the river management project, looked at the corner of the map,

where a few inconspicuous islands looked so pleasing to the eye...

Wang Lun: Wonu Kingdom, our Great Gan's project needs you to contribute some strength~

"Indeed."

Zhang Jie did not sell the punchline and gave a direct, affirmative answer.

"And, the Wonu Kingdom not only has people, they also have mines—large gold mines, large silver mines!"

As he spoke, Zhang Jie's eyes seemed to emit a substantive green light.

Located in Ashio-machi, Tochigi Prefecture of the island nation, discovered in 1610, it was one of the important copper mines of the Edo period,

the Ashio Copper Mine, which made an important contribution to the island nation's copper exports;

discovered in 1690, initially developed by the Sumitomo family who first discovered it,

and after the Meiji Restoration, Western technology was introduced, and the output increased significantly;

the Besshi Copper Mine, which is one of the symbols of Japan's modern industrialization, and other copper mines, let alone mention them for now.

The island nation also has "Gold Mountains" and "Bai Yin Mountains."

Built in 1601, located on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, island nation,

it became an important financial pillar of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo period,

the Sado Gold Mine, whose gold output once reached the world's top level.

And the most heavyweight "Bai Yin Mountain"—the Iwami Ginzan Bai Yin Mine.

This silver mine located in Oda City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan, is a World Heritage-level silver mine site,

and even in the 21st century, it was once one of the world's largest silver mines,

contributing about one-third of the world's silver output during its peak in the 16th to 17th centuries.

At its peak, the annual output reached 38 tons of silver, accounting for one-third of the global output during the same period;

its silver was called "Samo Bai Yin" due to its high purity and had extremely high credit in East Asian trade.

If modern technology were introduced, an annual output of one hundred tons of silver would not be a dream,

which is a full annual output of over three million taels of silver!

If this Iwami Ginzan Bai Yin Mine were to be hollowed out,

not to mention completely satisfying the Great Gan's demand for silver, it could at least alleviate a very large portion.