Everyone continued eating. Li Yi ate slowly while the three of them ate quickly.
After they finished eating, they went to get more. Their appetite was indeed huge. It seemed like they were tired from traveling.
When they were full, the three of them looked satisfied.
Li Yi sent someone to arrange for them to rest. After all, they had to sleep and eat in the open. If they did not rest well, they would fall sick.
Li Yi checked. Lu Zhou was a small place at the entrance of Qinzhou Bay.
In Guangxi's Qinzhou Wu Leiling, there were 494 households and 2,674 households.
The numbers were not accurate. It was written by the people of the future. Nobody knew which period they were referring to.
Clearly, the numbers did not include the mountain people. The mountain people did not have a household register.
The local tributes were silver, hawksbill turtle, sassafras, jade feather, and beetle incense.
Guangxi had silver. The hawksbill turtle was a turtle-like creature in the sea turtle family.
Sassafras could not be found by normal means. However, sassafras meant incense.
The jade feather referred to jade feather grass, a medicinal herb. Beetle incense was a snail, a medicinal herb.
Li Yi analyzed the situation. The local sassafras referred to fragrant bark. Guangxi had fragrant bark trees and medicinal herbs.
He understood now. Apart from silver, everything else was medicinal herbs.
Which mine did Lu Zhou get his silver from? It was not from the Feng Huang Mountain silver mine. The Feng Huang Mountain silver mine was in Long 'an County.
It could only be from the Zhongsu silver mine in Bo Bai County. If there were any scattered silver in the area, it would be collected as tributes.
"I don't think there are any silver veins in the area. If we want to develop, we need someone who's willing to go and point out the veins."
Li Yi was thinking about how to make the locals willing to build roads. Sea trade alone was not enough.
There were many mines in Guangxi such as bauxite, lead, zinc, tin, tungsten, manganese, antimony, gold, copper, and coal.
As long as they could point out the good stuff, the locals, no, outsiders would be willing to help build roads.
Naturally, there might be people who wanted to send the goods to the beach and transport them by sea. However, the mountain people would not agree.
It was not easy to find something valuable, and they wanted to use it to build roads. What was the point of using the sea route?
"The quality of the coal mine is good, but we'll have to build a well. It's dangerous and slow. Let's burn charcoal in the short term.
Transporting coal is fine, but where should we transport the coal from? Guangzhou? Is there any coal mines in Guangzhou? There are coal mines in Fujian … "
Li Yi hesitated. All the coal mines in Fujian had to be drilled. Why not do it in Guangxi?
Furthermore, the quality of Fujian's coal was far inferior to Guangxi's. Fujian belonged to the east of Jiangnan and was a coastal area.
The lives of the people in the coastal areas of the Tang dynasty did not seem to be very good. Hangzhou, Yangzhou, and Suzhou were not bad because they had canals.
"How about we transport the coal from the coal mines around the iron mine on Mount Ma 'anshan and then take the Yangtze River to the sea?" Li Yi thought of a place.
The people from the Tang dynasty's inspection team had gone there, but they did not know what was going on.
Li Yi knew where the largest open-pit mine was. Hedong Road, Shuo Province.
There was a lot of coal in Antaibao's open-pit coal mine back then, but it was too close to the 'outside', so it was not suitable to take it out now.
In fact, there were people in the area who were digging and picking up some coal to burn.
There were many coal mines in Hedong Road, and there were also many open-pit mines.
…
While Li Yi was considering how to motivate others to build roads, Tan Shida's family of three strolled around Zhuangzi.
The Li Family's Zhuangzi was clearly better than their stronghold and their main stronghold.
The ground was made of cement, the ditches were filled with cement, and the water from the Imperial Plantation was still flowing. There were even small fish in the water.
There was no debris on the road. There were livestock moving in and out, but no feces were left behind.
The clothes of the villagers were clean and tidy. Those who wore dirty and old clothes went to the workshop area.
"Father, the people in the capital office are richer than us."
Tan Shui touched the new clothes he was wearing. Looking at the appearance of the manor, he could tell.
"Of course, the place where the emperor lives is better than where we live. If we don't come here ourselves, nobody will care about Lu Zhou," Tan Hai complained.
He complained about the Provincial Governor Lu Zhou. He did not care about any work. Whenever an order was sent to the stronghold, he would definitely send people to work.
Also, when it was time to pay tribute, those who were registered in Lu Zhou's household could not gather so many things.
In the end, the stronghold had to pay for it. He did not know how much it was, but it felt like it was getting more and more every year.
He heard that the government paid for it, but Lu Zhou's Yamen did not pay.
Fortunately, he did not have to pay rent as well. They were even now.
The woman saw a merry-go-round. Some kindergarten children were playing there instead of attending classes in the afternoon.
Some of the children were blowing bubbles. A breeze blew, and a group of bubbles flew to the woman. She reached out to catch them, and they exploded in her hand.
"Father, there's a river in the stronghold. We should build one when we get back. How should we build one?" The woman looked at the merry-go-round and wanted to play as well.
Tan Hai glanced at them and said to his father, "Father, should we give the things to Li Dongzhu?"
The things he was referring to were the silver taels that the three of them had brought along. They could not bear to spend them along the way. They carried the rice on their backs and looked for water to drink.
The silver taels were used to bribe people. They wondered who the officials in the imperial court were looking for to use the silver taels to pave the way.
"I'll give it to you during dinner. Let's see if we can settle the matter."
Tan Shida was not sure if Li Yi was just making a casual remark or if he was truly willing to help.
The three of them went on a merry-go-round before they went back to sleep. They only woke up when the sky turned dark. Their bodies were sore.
They had been worried throughout the journey. Once they relaxed, fatigue overtook them.
When the three of them came out, they were brought to the small bathing pool. The father and son shared one pool, while the other pool was occupied by Taohong and Tan Shui.
The water was taken from the hot springs of Mount Li. The bamboo tubes were cut open and sections were placed on top of each other.
The water was poured from the top of Mount Li, and eventually flowed to Zhuangzi to save time.
It was then heated up to help the body recover.
It wasn't until seven o 'clock in the evening that the three of them changed their clothes to eat.
Li Yi was waiting for them. He was hungry, so Li Yi ate some dried fruits and preserved fruits in advance.
That night, Li Yi treated them to hotpot. It was a clear pot of duck soup, with mutton and vegetables as the main ingredients. There was no spicy food.
Li Yi did not know if they ate spicy food. Based on the geographical location of the other party, they should not have eaten spicy food.
The three of them went to retrieve their bags and brought them over.
They sat down and looked at each other. They opened their bags and took things out.
'Dong! Crash! 'A pile of silver objects of different sizes and shapes fell onto the table.
Li Yi was surprised. What's going on? Pay for the meal?
"Li Dongzhu, about the road construction …" Tan Shida pointed at the silver and said.
Li Yi was so angry that he laughed. "Haha! You're bribing me with money to build the road? Do you know how much money I have to spend to provide you with the tools?
How much can the malaria prevention pills be sold for? How much do you need to spend to hire people?
I'll exchange the silver for coupons. It's convenient for you to carry them around. You don't have to give them to me. "
Ge Yan came over and put the silver in his clothes. He weighed it and exchanged it for the coupons.
"I feel that this matter needs to go through the imperial court. Li Dongzhu, you don't want money. What about the officials in the imperial court?" Tan Shida was a little embarrassed.
"They don't want it either. I've already fed them well. If they want money from outside, hmph!" Li Yi snorted as he spoke.
He had always given the officials all kinds of benefits. He would give them whatever they needed, even to the Emperor.
If the officials were not honest enough, he would get rid of them.
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