Xintong is the second stop for Qin Feng to leave Beijing this time.

As the most important iron ore area in the Qin State, the Ming Dynasty also attaches great importance to it. Daye City in Taiping County has now become the steel capital of the Ming Dynasty, but for the Ming Dynasty with a wider territory, the production capacity of a single Daye City is far from keeping up with the steel needs of the Ming Dynasty.

Whether it is the fine iron and iron required for weapons and armor, or civilian agricultural tools, etc., the production capacity of Daye City can no longer meet the needs of the whole country. This directly led to a sharp increase in the price of steel in the Ming Dynasty.

Xintong is the second steel base planned by the Ming Dynasty.

The mines under the Qin Dynasty were controlled by local wealthy families. Whether it was mining or production, they were in an extremely disorderly state. The crude production process and low production capacity seriously hindered the Qin Dynasty's steel production. In the words of the clever words of the Minister of Works of the Ming Dynasty, this is a typical begging for food with a golden rice bowl.

After taking down Xintong, officials from the Ministry of Works were the first Ming officials to enter Xintong. The demand for steel in China is so high that they are almost driving skillful hands crazy.

Re-survey and plan. In the shortest time, the Ministry of Industry came up with a plan to transform the Xintong mining area, striving to make Xintong play a role in the shortest time to ease the Ming Dynasty's extremely eagerness for steel.

Huang Cheng, the governor of Xintong County, just celebrated his 30th birthday this year. He was originally the deputy guard of Daye City, Taiping County. In the wave of promotion in the Ming Dynasty, he was a young and strong, professional and professional young official. He was promoted to three levels in a row and promoted to the ranks of the border officials who were the only ones, and came to Xintong to serve as the first county guard. The Zhengshi Hall attracted his experience of being the deputy guard in Daye City for several years.

It was almost impossible to become a territory at the age of thirty. In Chu Qi or the Qin State before, it was basically impossible. At this age, they were still in the process of becoming a county magistrate. Even if they were young and promising, they could become a doctor in the department at most. But in the Ming Dynasty, these rules and regulations were obviously not practical.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were extremely young. More importantly, after the reform of the administration, the Ming Dynasty had a large number of official hats. The old officials who were old and conservative and unbearable to transformation were swept directly into the garbage dump of history by the young emperor. The young people who were brave enough to accept new things took advantage of this thing to take over the throne.

The average age of the Ming officials was less than forty. Now that the Ming Dynasty has annexed the vast territory of the Qin Dynasty, it is obvious that a large number of young officials will usher in a large number of young officials, which will also reduce the average age of the Ming officials again.

Although Huang Cheng was very young, he had a good experience. In Dazhicheng, he climbed from a swordsman to the position of deputy guard step by step, and basically participated in all the process from scratch from Daye, with extremely rich experience. Of course, these rich experiences also became the greatest guarantee for him to defeat many candidates and become the county magistrate.

Although the Ming Dynasty was extremely short of officials, there were still not many positions in the garrison of a county like this, and there were still many competitors.

At present, Huang Cheng was excited and uneasy to welcome His Majesty the Emperor. Speaking of which, even though he is now the governor of Xintong County, it is the first time he has received His Majesty the Emperor.

In the past, he was just a deputy magistrate in Daye. The emperor came to visit, and it was not his turn to receive and report. He could only wear an official robe as the background wall for the chief officer. When he took office as the governor of Xintong County, when His Majesty commanded the army to fight with the Qin army in the Xiushui River area, he did not even do a routine visit to the emperor before the brigade officials took office. Then he directly ordered the order from the Political Affairs Hall, and then brought a small package and took the personal soldiers he had temporarily recruited to Xintong to take office.

At that time, Xintong was still stationed in a large number of troops. A small cavalry left by Zhuifeng Camp was driving a small group of bandits in Xintong County to flee east and west.

When he received the emperor for the first time, facing the emperor's hearing, Huang Cheng still felt a heat all over his body.

Qin Feng was most worried about Xintong's public security. The mining area has always been the most prone to accidents. The mining area requires a lot of strong labor. Once these people are out of control, it will be quite troublesome. When Daye City was first built, it was captured by the prisoners of the Shuntian Army and later prisoners of war when fighting against barbarians. At that time, Daye City had always been stationed to maintain public order. Lufeng's miner's battalion was born here. Now, the miner's battalion is the only heavy infantry in the Ming Dynasty, and its combat power is called the number one in the field army of the Ming Dynasty.

"Is Xintong still safe?" Seeing Huang Cheng, who was older than him carefully maintaining the same horse head as him, Qin Feng waved and signaled him to step forward and walk with him.

"Trust your Majesty Hong Wei, Xintong's public security is good." Huang Cheng said quickly.

"Mine areas have always been difficult to manage!" Qin Feng smiled and pointed.

Huang Fengshen was born in Daye, so he naturally knew what Qin Feng meant. After sorting out his thoughts for a moment, he started talking.

"Your Majesty, Xintong is still very different from the Daye. I was there when Daye was first established, so I know the initial situation of Dazhi. However, Xintong has a different situation. General Yang Zhi and General Yu Chao defeated the Qin army in Xintong. The military power was so powerful that it shocked the place. It has established a good foundation. Anyone with dissenting intentions must think about the great military power of our Ming Dynasty. This is one of them."

"Secondly, the original mining area of ​​Xintong was controlled by powerful men of all sizes. In order to gain profits, these powerful men were too close to miners. As we took over the mining area, these powerful men were wiped out. Our Ming Dynasty guaranteed the interests of miners quite well. According to the payment of wages, rich pensions, sufficient food guarantees, and the distribution of various labor and protective tools made the miners feel at ease."

"Third, the court's relief for Xintong was quite timely. As soon as the war ended, the Ministry of Revenue's disaster relief food was in place, so that famines that usually occur after the war did not occur. The local area was stable, and the mining area was naturally stable."

"So now everything in Xintong has been on the right track. Compared with the Qin court and the Qin gentry, my Ming Dynasty is as kind as a Bodhisattva. Now the people's hearts are full of my Ming Dynasty."

Listening to Huang Cheng's words, Qin Feng couldn't help laughing. This young county magistrate was so funny.

"Are there any bandits?"

Huang Cheng hesitated for a moment, "There are still some, but none of them are the weather. Now they are hiding between remote and remote areas. The only people who can incite the villagers who don't know foreign affairs are the villagers who don't know anything about foreign affairs. They can't cause any storms in the county, county or mining area. The escorts from Mingwei and Tianwu Escort Agency have been catching these bandits, and basically people are caught and sent to the county every day."

"Are these people sent to the mine?"

Huang Cheng shook his head: "The mine is very good now. These people are restless. There is a lot of trouble when sent to them. So in Xintong, such people are sentenced to labor and sent to the road to build."

Qin Feng nodded, "This is a good deal. But isn't the miners bad in the mining area?"

"Your Majesty, the Xintong mining area is still under construction. The former Qin gentry were digging randomly and had no plans. It was simply messy. Naturally, we can't do this. So less than one-third of the mining area is actually started. But because we have to re-improve their iron smelting technology and build an iron control plant, the raw materials are still enough." Huang Cheng said: "The real scale will have to wait until next autumn. When that time comes, we will need a large number of miners."

"Where do you replenish miners at that time?"

"Your Majesty, this is not a worry. In the battle of Xintong, General Yang Zhi and General Yu Chao captured nearly 20,000 prisoners. Now Mingwei and Tianwu Escort Agency are still arresting some of the bandit suppression intermittently. These people are now sentenced to labor service of varying degrees, ranging from more than a year to few months. After this period of labor camps, these people have basically become honest by next year. What's more important is that by then, we have completely gained a foothold in Xintong. No, no

At that time, even Yong was beaten, so these people could come in handy. To put it bluntly, these people were all poor people, who could have work to do and pay for their head-losing work? At that time, there would naturally be sufficient labor. Besides, those who really had bad records and had blood on their hands were also sentenced to death after being caught. To be honest, our Xintong is still killing people every day!"

Qin Feng glanced at Huang Cheng and was quite satisfied with the county magistrate. The officials who could grow up in the Daye Mining Area have all seen the world. At that time, the Daye Mining Area also killed people every day. Being a leader in a place like Xintong must have both the heart of a bodhisattva and the means of thunder.

Huang Cheng seems to be a typical person. While using all means to appease the people, he held up a butcher knife board and fell heavily. On the other hand, there were honey jujubes and bloody swords and axes. It goes without saying how to choose.

Looking at Qin Feng's face, Huang Cheng knew that His Majesty was very satisfied, and his heart suddenly relaxed.

"Your Majesty, please see the new Jiao Media Workshop in Xintong. Using coking coal to craft iron can greatly improve the quality of iron. Taiping County has developed this process, but the coking coal workshop was first put into use by our Xintong County. Because we have discovered anthracite mines with extremely high quality here. The quality of coal is far beyond that of Taiping County. It only took us two months from construction to formal production." Huang Cheng said proudly.
Chapter completed!