Ang Lee wandered around the mountain for a day, but he did not find any trace of Duan Jianhan's group. However, he accidentally found iron ore in the mountain. Moreover, it was a very high-quality iron ore. The iron content of the ore was very high, and the scale was also very large. It had a very high mining value. When the road was built in the future, it could be mined at the same time, so that the road could be built faster.
Because the road that Ang Lee designed was along the river, he could only build a road for carriages and horses. He could not build a railway because the railway had to be as straight as possible. It was impossible to build a railway with bends. The train was too fast. If the railway was bent too much, the train would be thrown out when it started to move, which would cause a very serious car accident.
If he wanted to build a railway to Dongnu Province, he had to dig a tunnel. When he encountered a mountain, he could not choose to bypass the mountain. Instead, he had to drill a cave at the bottom of the mountain so that the train could pass through the cave and avoid the bends of the railway. If it was a small mountain, he could directly dig the mountain flat. However, there were many very tall mountains here. The cost of digging the mountain flat would be too high. It would seriously damage the terrain here, and the local tribes would not agree to it. If he drilled a cave, the impact on the environment would be relatively small, and the local people would accept it better.
However, Ang Lee felt that it was enough to build a wide concrete road. Dongnu Province was in the western border of the Tang Dynasty. The population was not very large, and the commercial development was relatively average. There were not many goods to be transported. Because of the bad road and the obstruction of the mountain, the cost of building a railway was too high. According to Ang Lee's estimation, if he wanted to build a railway to Dongnu Province, he would need to build at least dozens of bridges and dig dozens of tunnels. Whether it was to build bridges or dig tunnels, the consumption of funds was very large. It was also very time-consuming. The cost was too high, and the benefits were very ordinary. In short, it was not cost-effective. However, if it was for the sake of strategic interests, it was not very important whether it was cost-effective or not. As long as the imperial court felt that it was necessary to build a railway, it would be built.
However, judging from the current situation, the Tang Dynasty's road construction plan was a little too big. Railways were being built everywhere in the country, and the consumption of funds and human resources was enormous. Although the Tang Dynasty had sufficient resources and funds due to Ang Lee's efforts, and the built railways had also produced economic benefits, there were still too many new roads. The consumption of funds and human resources had reached the maximum. It was really a great pressure to transfer resources to build a railway in Dongnu Province, which was extremely difficult. After all, there were more important roads to be built. For example, the railway to Nanzhao and Pyu was even more important. This road was the main artery to the Indian Ocean, and it was the key to determining whether the Tang Dynasty could own the West Coast. As long as the railway was built to the Pyu coast, the influence of the Tang Dynasty would reach the Indian Ocean, and it would become a greater empire. The railway to Dongnu Province was obviously a little insignificant.
Of course, it would still be built in the future, but it would not be built for the time being. For the time being, a wide concrete road would be built to meet the needs of Dongnu Province for the transportation of goods. Such a road would be enough for Dongnu Province to use, and it would be of great help to promote the development of trade along the way. When the trade along the way became more prosperous and frequent, it would become more necessary to build a railway. It would not be too late to build it at that time.
The sky was getting darker and darker, and dusk was coming soon. For the safety of the soldiers, Ang Lee would not arrange for people to search through the night. He could only withdraw for the time being and continue the search the next day. On the way back, Ang Lee had the soldiers bring a lot of iron ore to the Jiang Clan. This mountain was in the territory of the Jiang Clan. If he wanted to mine resources in the future, he would need the support of the Jiang Clan. It would be impossible to not give these local tyrants some benefits, or directly let their local clansmen be in charge of mining.
However, completely relying on the local big clans was definitely not possible because these guys didn't have the slightest bit of technology. They only had the ability to mine iron. As for how to deal with the mined iron, they didn't have any good ideas. They still needed a full set of iron ore smelting technology. Only with a full set of iron ore smelting technology could they mine on their own. Therefore, they had to cooperate with outsiders. Everyone would share the benefits, everyone would have a share, and everyone would make money together.
Before sunset, Ang Lee finally went down the mountain smoothly and returned to the camp near the Stone City of the Jiang Clan. At this time, the Jiang Clan had invited Ang Lee to live in their Stone City and prepared the best guest room for Ang Lee. However, in order not to affect the normal life of the local clansmen, Ang Lee insisted that the soldiers and horses be stationed outside the Stone City. He even lived outside the Stone City and occasionally went in to communicate with the Jiang Clan Leaders.
The Jiang Clan Leader also had the title of Provincial Governor of Jiangzhou. However, even a high official like Provincial Governor was only a small official in front of Ang Lee. Moreover, the Provincial Governor of Jifeng Province was actually just a title. In the Tang dynasty, it was not even comparable to a county magistrate. At most, it was equivalent to a county magistrate in some small counties. A bigger county had thousands of people, which was much more than here.
Since Ang Lee had discovered the iron ore, he naturally had to tell the Jiang Clan Leaders. Only in this way would he appear to be open and aboveboard. If he deliberately concealed it and directly sent the imperial court's mining team to mine in the future, he would appear to be a little petty and these Clan Leaders would be dissatisfied.
Ang Lee felt that since these iron ore resources were in the Jiang Clan's territory, they should naturally get a share of the profits. In this way, it would be more conducive to the normal mining of the iron ore resources. If he did not share the profits with the local people, there might be trouble during the mining of the iron ore resources. The reason why the iron ore mining in various areas of the Tang dynasty was very smooth, the output was very high, and the quality was very reliable was that the local big clans were responsible for the mining and operation of these iron ores. The local big clans could gain huge benefits. Moreover, these big clans had a greater say in the local area. If they gained benefits, they would naturally work very hard. If the iron ore resources were mined by outsiders and they were only responsible for the work and received very low pay, the big clans would be dissatisfied and not be very enthusiastic about their work. They might even use their say in the local area to encourage the local coolies to make trouble and destroy the iron ore fields that were being mined, or even cause very serious armed fights.
Since ancient times, it was very common for people to fight over mining mineral resources. It happened in almost every dynasty. Even in the later generations of civilization, it often happened. It was just that the scale was smaller, but it definitely existed.
The main source of troops for the Qi Family Army of the Great Ming Dynasty was the miners and the big clans near the mines. In order to compete for a mountain that was said to contain treasures, they carried out large-scale armed fights. It could be said that the fight was inextricably tied. In the end, the mine was not opened, and everyone became soldiers. From this, it could be seen how difficult it was for outsiders to mine mineral resources in the territory of the big clans. Even if the procedures were complete, it was useless to have the support of the imperial court. The local big clans did not care whether there was a document from the imperial court or not. As long as the mineral resources were in their territory, it was their resources. If outsiders wanted to come to their territory to mine resources, it would be impossible for them not to peel off their skin.
In other words, if outsiders wanted to mine local resources, they must give enough benefits to the locals. At the very least, it should be joint mining. This would make the locals feel psychologically balanced. Otherwise, the locals would be very unhappy. The local big clans would mobilize their own people to make trouble, causing the outsiders to suffer heavy losses or even lose everything.
It was said that barren hills and turbulent rivers produced unruly people. It was not easy to comment on whether the local big clans were unruly people for the time being because different people had different perceptions. In the eyes of the foreign mine owner, he had already obtained the approval of the imperial court and obtained the local mine. As a result, this mine naturally belonged to him. The locals had no reason to come and make trouble.
However, the locals did not think so. They would think that their ancestors had lived here for generations. Every blade of grass and every tree in the local area belonged to the locals. The imperial court gave the mine in their territory to outsiders with a document. This was a blatant act of plunder and robbery. Because of the strength of the imperial court, the locals naturally did not dare to rebel against the imperial court. However, it was not a problem for them to make trouble for the outsiders. Aren't you opening a mine in my territory? Sure! I'll make trouble for you when I have nothing to do.
Those who were not strong would only make trouble for a while, while those who were strong would directly mobilize their clans to fight. Moreover, they would leak the information for a long time. This would cause a lot of trouble for the foreign mine owner. Many times, they would have to compromise and give a part of the benefits to the local big clans. Then, these outsiders would be able to smoothly obtain the resources.
Whether the local big clans would make trouble or not depended on many factors. One was the strength and character of the locals. The second was the strength of the outsiders. The third was the strength of the imperial court. These comprehensive factors determined the degree of trouble the locals would make.
People who were too weak were not suitable to start a business in other places. Not only to open a mine, even just renting a fish pond to raise fish would not do. There was such a precedent in the future. A very ordinary person went to another place to rent a pond and hired a few locals to raise fish for him. Renting the pond and buying the fish seedlings cost a lot of money. However, when the fish seedlings finally grew into big fish, the locals directly joined forces to rob the fish pond and took away all the big fish in the pond. The fish farmer wanted to cry but had no tears. He lost all his capital and got nothing in the end.
It was the same for raising fish. It was the same for raising flowers and planting fruit trees. It was very likely that they would be robbed by the locals if they were not careful. Moreover, they were often robbed when they had just harvested. Their hearts were filled with hatred!
Most of the time, no matter how many reasons you had, the locals would not buy it. They believed that the local things belonged to the locals and outsiders had no right to interfere. Even if there were procedures from the imperial court, it would not work. They did not have the ability and courage to directly challenge the imperial court. However, there were still many ways to deal with foreign investors. Just a simple disturbance would be enough to make the foreign investors suffer.
Directly robbing other people's products seemed a little too blatant. The more covert behavior was to make things difficult for the other party. For example, digging up the road so that the other party could not enter or leave, or simply blocking the road and collecting tolls. This road was opened by the other party and the trees were planted by the other party. If they wanted to pass through, they had to pay the toll. If they did not pay, they would not pass.
There was also a gentler resistance, which was to control the local well water and all the resources. Outsiders were not allowed to obtain any local supplies. All the local people and merchants would not do business with outsiders. If they lost their supplies, they would have no choice but to bow their heads.
Of course, outsiders would also do something wrong. For example, they would destroy the local feng shui. After all, it was not their hometown. No matter how much they polluted it, they would not feel the slightest bit of heartache. They would even conduct very barbaric mining and make a mess of the local land. The pollution caused the local land to be unable to grow crops. These actions would also seriously harm the local interests.
In short, letting outsiders mine local resources would always lead to all kinds of uncontrollable risks. It might even lead to more serious armed conflicts. From this, it could be seen how important it was for outsiders to maintain a good relationship with the local people. In order to take care of the local interests, especially the interests of the local clans that had more say, they had to sacrifice a part of their own interests. Only in this way could they achieve peaceful coexistence.
However, Ang Lee felt that the best way was to let the local people mine their own resources. The Imperial Court would provide them with equipment and technology. Of course, it would not be free. The equipment would be sold to the local clans, and the technology would also need to be paid. If the local people did not have enough funds, they could temporarily not pay. Once the pig iron was produced, they could directly use the pig iron to repay the money. This was a very good win-win situation.
The soldiers under Li An's command had brought over a hundred iron ores from the mountains. These iron ores were of different sizes, but they weren't that heavy when they were shared among the soldiers. Li An directly brought these iron ores into the stone city of the Jiang Clan. He wanted to let the Jiang Clan's patriarchs take a good look at them and let them know that these stones were treasures.
"Clan Leader, Assistant Minister Li has arrived."
The Clan Leader's servant said.
Although the Great Clan Leader of the Jiang Clan had the title of Provincial Governor of Jiangzhou, people were still used to calling him Clan Leader. Provincial Governor was only a title conferred by the Imperial Court, which sounded a little stiff and cold. It was more intimate to call him Clan Leader.
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