Datong Prison is located in Jiaocheng County, not far from the Fen River, and is crossing the east exit of Shandong Luliang. The Prison is located in Yiquanshe, Shanxi, Hutu, among the mountains, dozens of miles away from the county town. This subway is rich in minerals and has many mountains and forests, and iron smelting has a history of one or two thousand years.

After the New Year, the spring was chilly and the snow had not melted, Du Zhongxiao brought Tao Shiqi and Shisanlang to Datongjian.

Li Gui, the Zhishu, led a group of officials, and went out ten miles away to pick up Du Zhongxiao and his party.

Du Zhongxiao saw that the so-called Datongjian was just dozens of thatched houses, surrounded by fences, which were very simple. The industry here was single, almost all related to iron smelting. Not to mention Bingzhou, it was incomparable to all the counties he had seen.

After sitting in the official hall, Li Gui bowed and said, "I'm here to sign the verdict, and I'll prepare a banquet to greet the officials of our supervisor. Don't dislike it."

This is a routine in the officialdom. Du Zhongxiao thanked him and asked, "The magistrate, it is said that this surveillance has accumulated hundreds of thousands of kilograms of iron. Is there any such thing?"

Li Gui shook his head and sighed: "It's true. A few years ago, war with Dangxiang was started, and the iron coins were used on Hedong Road. The Iron Supervision was very popular. After not wanting to use iron coins, the people stole a lot of stealing. In just a few years, it would be profitable to mint the coins. The iron courses were piled up, but there were only hundreds of thousands of pounds."

Du Zhongxiao heard in his previous life that bad coins drove out good coins, and it was true that Hedong Road was on stage. After using iron coins on Hedong Road, the official coins were quite good and the currency value was stable. Not long after, the people stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen stolen s

There are people who steal copper coins, but because the raw materials are rare, the harm is not serious. Iron can be seen everywhere, and there is a tradition of iron smelting in many places on Hedong Road. Once iron coins are used, the method of money will soon be ruined.

Li Gui's official position is the magistrate of Jiaocheng. The Datong magistrate is only a part-time position. He does not understand many situations and does not talk much about it.

Although the official iron backlog was still very popular, the private iron smelting nearby was still sold along the Fen River to the Central Plains. There were iron smelting, and there were iron courses. The accumulation of iron in Datongjian became more and more, which became a problem. This is the case with the official account. It was obvious that the iron was piled up there and could not be sold at a low price, otherwise the officials would not dare to sell it at will, otherwise they would not be able to explain it to the above. The more iron accumulated, even if it was rotten, they would not dare to sell it.

After chatting in the official hall for a while, Li Gui took Du Zhongxiao to inspect Jitiet in Datong.

Just like the soil and salt of Wynn Supervisor, the iron accumulation here is also piled on the site. Most of them set up simple sheds, and some don’t even have sheds. The sun and rain have been rusted. The iron in this place is worthless, with only five warehouses and three dogs, looking at hundreds of thousands of kilograms of iron.

Du Zhongxiao took a brief turn and was worried. Most of these were pig iron, which was not of high value. The key is that there were iron smelting families everywhere in the surrounding mountains. In the Datong Prison, you can see the thick smoke from the furnaces in the mountains. The iron course for private iron smelting is one-tenth, and the official iron price is high. Under the competition among the people, the iron here cannot be sold at all. In the past, they relied on minting money, and the ones sent to the state were kept. Now that the money smelting bureau has been stopped, the war with Dangxiang has ended, so they don’t need to be iron anymore, so they can only pile it here.

After seeing the iron storage, Li Gui said: "There are several other iron storage yards in our surveillance, which are all near the furnace, which is almost the same as here. Since the peace talks with the Dangxiang, the institute has stopped making weapons, and the iron storage has accumulated more and more. Now all the goods yards are full, and there is nowhere to store them again. I once wrote to the court to stop collecting iron classes and let the people lose money. However, the people are unwilling to do so, and they can't imagine it."

Du Zhongxiao nodded and said nothing. The same problems as earth salt and fur, the government collects in-kind taxes. After collecting them, it becomes more and more accumulated. Earth salt is an official monopoly, and there is always a way to imagine. Fur is a market need, and iron problems are even more troublesome.

Jiaocheng and Wenshui counties are the iron smelting centers on Hedong Road, and produce a lot of iron. The market is occupied by private iron, and there is no more way to imagine the official iron except for self-use. If the iron here is transported out and no one pays the freight, it will be very troublesome to deal with it.

This place is different from Yongcheng County where Du Zhongxiao stayed. There are iron transports from other places to make agricultural tools, but there are no blacksmiths here, so even such methods are not possible. It is difficult to make agricultural tools and other products here.

After seeing the cargo yard and returning to the official hall, Du Zhongxiao asked Li Gui: "County magistrate, is Qianjian far away?"

"Not far away, I just turned around the valley on the hill. However, because there were too many stolen castings, it was not profitable to cast money, and the money surveillance has been closed."

Du Zhongxiao nodded and thought for a while, "This place is among the mountains and has a sparse population. If you want to deal with the accumulation of iron, you still need to find a way to mint money."

Li Gui shook his head repeatedly: "I don't hide the signing and slaughtering money with iron. I have thought about all the ways I can think of. However, now the money is cheap and the goods are expensive. If you cast it, you will lose money. I have to stop. I have inquired about it. Most of the iron coins used in various places are locally stolen. Not to mention official coins, they are just crude and inferior coins stolen by the people. They will lose money when transported to other states. Alas, there are really many inconveniences to use iron coins."

Du Zhongxiao knew that there must be many unscrupulous reasons for the current predicament of Datong Prison. If it was easily solved, it would never be replaced by several magistrates. He would still have to wait for himself to solve it.

After thinking about it, Du Zhongxiao asked Li Gui: "Minister, don't you know what the price of tin nearby?"

Li Gui said: "Hedong Road does not produce tin, but the price is not cheap. Why? Do you need to cast copper coins by signing the judgment? It also produces copper locally, but it is difficult to find ore veins, and it is extremely difficult to smelte, and it is not easy to."

Du Zhongxiao was happy to hear this: "Does local copper be produced? I didn't expect it."

After asking, I found out that there is indeed copper mine in Jiaocheng Mountain, and it has been mined a long time ago. Now, the easy-to-finished mineral seedlings have been mined and basically no one has mined and smelted.

After listening to Li Gui's introduction, Du Zhongxiao had to give up the idea of ​​collecting copper. After careful consideration, he said: "Datong Supervisor is surrounded by mountains. Except for the smelters in the mountains, there are very few households. Hundreds of thousands of kilograms of iron, which is really not easy to deal with. My initial plan is to spend one or two months to recruit the smelters under his control to first refine the accumulated pig iron into iron. After refining the iron, there are more ways to think of. If you can buy an appropriate amount of tin and lead, you can re-mint the money. Datong Supervisor is in the deep mountains and does not mint the money, it will be difficult to have the financial resources to handle the iron course."

Li Gui said: "Of course it is good to be able to mint money, but the iron coins are cheap and heavy. If you accidentally lose money, you will lose money. The fourth road of Chuanxia uses iron coins, and they have Jiaoziwu there, so they do not need long-distance transportation. The same is true for Shaanxi Road, and there is tea guide, so Jiaozi is also used, otherwise how can it be? If there is Jiaoziwu on Hedong Road, the iron coins can be barely minted."

Du Zhongxiao smiled and shook his head: "Don't worry, magistrate, I have other ways. I can't do iron coins. One is that they are heavy and cheap, and the other is that they are too much stolen by the people. If I have a way to make iron coins more expensive and make it difficult for the people to steal, it is also feasible."
Chapter completed!