Chapter 69: Copper Mine

  The hunting trip was interrupted due to the wolf disaster, and Gao Huaiyuan led a group of tattered subordinates out of the mountain, each with bare shoulders and bandages wrapped around their bodies in a messy manner, almost everyone was injured, looking as miserable as possible.

  However, they didn't want to waste the spoils of this day either. Each person still carried one or two wolf corpses on their body. Wolf skin was a valuable commodity and discarding it would be a shame. Otherwise, they would have suffered so many injuries for nothing.

  After this battle, everyone's feelings have deepened a lot. To know that the friendship between life and death is the most sincere friendship, let alone they are also a group of partners who live together every day?

  Although the wolf pack incident caused everyone to end their hunting trip ahead of schedule, on the way back, Gao Huaiyuan did not feel any regret. This time's event once again gave them a rare opportunity for training, although it was a bit dangerous, but it was very worthwhile.

  Because he was worried that the wounds on everyone's body would become inflamed, after driving away the wolf pack, Gao Huaiyuan brought everyone to a small stream in the mountains and carefully cleaned the wounds with spring water. He then washed them again with soap he had been carrying with him. There wasn't anything like rabies vaccine available at the moment, so they could only use this method to deal with it for now!

  The wolf pack, after losing their leader, scattered and never appeared again. It's likely that the remaining wolves were busy fighting for the position of leader and didn't have time to bother them, so on the way back, they didn't encounter any more trouble.

  The crowd dragged the wolf's body, walking slowly, although the wounds on their bodies still hurt, but their enthusiasm was high. After more than half a day, they saw that they were not far from Wohu Village, so they found a place by the water in a mountain valley, caught a few big fish from the stream, skinned the dead wolf, and started a fire to roast it. The fatigue of the whole day and night was finally completely relaxed at this moment.

  Gao Hua Yuan raised his head and looked around at the surrounding mountains, still feeling a sense of familiarity no matter how he looked. He always felt that somehow, it seemed like he had been to this place before.

  Eating the roasted wolf meat, it tastes a bit like dog meat, after all, they are close relatives, and the meat taste is not much different, but what Gao Huairen was thinking about at this moment was not whether the wolf meat was delicious or not, but rather the terrain around him. No matter how he looked at it, he felt that it was a bit familiar, until when he saw a suspended stone on the opposite mountain, a long-forgotten memory suddenly flashed in his mind, however, recalling this memory was a bit strange, because it was something that happened hundreds of years later.

  He suddenly remembered that in his previous life, when he was still in school, he followed his father to this place called Daye. However, the Daye of this life is no longer a county town, but has been changed to Daye City. At that time, his father came here to find a friend, and his father's friend was at a copper mine in Daye City. If he remembered correctly, it should be this place. The reason why he didn't remember it before was because he had only come here once in his previous life, and his memory was a bit vague. Moreover, the terrain of the present day and the terrain of the past have undergone great changes after hundreds of years, leaving him with only a faint sense of familiarity, so he didn't realize what this place was.

  If he hadn't seen the overhanging rock on the mountain opposite, he probably wouldn't have remembered this matter. The impression of this overhanging rock in his memory was quite deep, so after seeing it, he determined that this was indeed the location of the copper mine where his father's friend lived in later generations.

  Gao Huaiyuan suddenly dropped the wolf leg he was gnawing on, excitedly jumped up, and ended up pulling on the wound on his calf, which made him grimace in pain. He almost fell down again, but at this moment, he couldn't care about the pain anymore. He burst out laughing, muttering to himself, "This is great! Haha!"

  Everyone was unaware of why Gao Huaiyuan suddenly burst out laughing, and some even thought that he had finally collapsed mentally. They all gathered around him, asking what was wrong with him. Liu'er also looked worried, leaning in to gently touch his forehead with her jade hand to see if he was injured or had a fever.

  "It's nothing, it's nothing! Hurry up and eat, I'm fine! Haha! I'm so happy! Haha!" Gao Huaiyuan retreated from the crowd with a pleased smile, continuing to laugh.

  "Hey, big brother, what's the good news? Come on and share it with us!" Huang Yan had been quiet for most of the day after being scolded by Gao Huaiyuan in the morning due to his poor night watch. He hadn't even dared to fart loudly all along the way, carrying three wolf corpses at the back of the group, keeping a safe distance. Now seeing Gao Huaiyuan's good mood, he cautiously approached him.

  "Get out of here, you're not done yet. Go back and be confined for three days. If you dare to do it again, just get out of here and go back to Shaoxing!" Gao Huaiyuan saw Huang Yan coming over with a sullen face, so he scolded him again.

  Huang Yan slunk away with his tail between his legs, looking utterly dejected. It was just not worth it! He had originally wanted to eavesdrop on the wall, but instead he ran into Gao Huaiyuan and got a good scolding. To make matters worse, they had to keep watch for the whole night, and then a pack of wolves came by and almost devoured them all. Now that things were clear, even the gentle Liu'er was unsympathetic to his plight, giving him the cold shoulder instead. Huang Yan was left speechless, so he quietly squatted down to one side, gnawing on wolf meat with a fierce expression, panting heavily in anger.

  After dark, Gao Huaiyuan and his party finally returned to Wohu Villa. The crowd's appearance frightened the people in the villa, who quickly ushered them in. Only after seeing the many wolf corpses on their backs did they realize what had happened to them, and they couldn't help but feel a chill for them.

  Liu Da hastily summoned the servants to take over the wolf corpses, and immediately skinned and cured them. This way, the people in the mountain villa would have a good fortune again, at least they wouldn't need to buy meat for half a month.

  In the mountain villa, there were medicines prepared for injuries. After returning to the mountain villa, everyone hurriedly cleaned and applied medicine to Gao Huaiyuan and others, busy for half a day. Huang Yan naturally couldn't escape his fate of being locked up. After applying the medicine, he immediately went to the confinement room by himself and locked himself in. What Gao Huaiyuan said was unchangeable, this was already well-known to everyone in Wotiger Villa. Although Huang Yan had followed Gao Huaiyuan the earliest, he didn't have the privilege of not accepting punishment. Without saying a word, he went into the confinement room.

  Everyone saw Huang Yan come back and be confined, they all inquired about the reason. The people who followed Gao Huaiyuan out to hunt told them the story. Without saying, after everyone heard it, although they didn't say anything, they also felt that Huang Yan got what he deserved. His negligence almost lost so many people in the mountains, but at the same time, they also admired him a bit. At least he didn't make a fuss and honestly went to serve his confinement.

  After a brief rest, Gao Huaiyuan handed over the matter of Wohu Village to Zhou Hao and others, letting them continue to be busy. He got up and hurried back to the old mansion of the Gao family, called for Xue Yan, prepared some thick gifts, brought money, and rushed to Daye County.

  This time he had no other purpose, just to get this unowned land from the government's hands and make it his private property.

  Daye has been known as the "Hundred Miles of Golden Land" and the "Treasure Basin of Jiangnan" since ancient times. Thousands of years ago, people began to dig wells and mine copper here, supporting a bronze culture. Later, some copper and iron mines were discovered, gradually forming a large-scale smelting industry. From the Tang Dynasty, this place was called Qing Shan Yuan Chang. During the Song Dynasty's Qian De period, Southern Tang built a county here, and it was named Daye, which means "Great Furnace Smelting". This shows how widespread the copper and iron mineral resources are in this area.

  The Southern Song Dynasty lost many important mineral resources in the north, so the resources here became even more important. Therefore, the pillar industry in Daye County is the copper and iron smelting industry. When Gao Huaiyuan first came to Daye, he had thought about whether he could get a share of this industry, but at that time, he didn't have the funds or power, so it was just an empty thought.

  The current situation is vastly different from when he first arrived, although it can't be said that he has become extremely wealthy, at least he now has a relatively sufficient amount of spare money. The soap workshop and crystal workshop continue to generate a large amount of money for him, ensuring he has sufficient funds. Additionally, through his operations in the local area over the past year or so, Gao Huairen's relationship with local officials is quite harmonious, guaranteeing that he won't be bullied by ordinary people.

  It just so happened that this time he discovered the address of a copper mine in later generations, and coincidentally, this piece of land was also an unowned mountain, which perfectly fulfilled his dream.

  To know that copper is a thing, in the Song Dynasty it means money. Since the Song Dynasty, due to economic prosperity, the Song Dynasty has always implemented a copper-based currency system, and copper coins are absolutely hard currency. Copper is also an important war resource. If there is a copper mine, then Gao Huaiyuan can control his own resources.

  So when he found the location of this copper mine, he didn't dare to delay for a moment, and immediately ran into the county town, found Liu Zhi County, and proposed to take over the mountain forest near Wohu Village under his name.

  At first, when Gao Huaiyuan was in Pangu's Lower Tiger Village, there were still some arable land that could be opened up, so Liu Zhi County didn't think it was strange. However, this time Gao Huaiyuan proposed a piece of mountain in Pangu that no one wanted, which was a bit strange.

  However, relying on his friendship with Gao Huaiyuan, he didn't want to lose face in front of him, so he readily agreed and accepted the generous gift from Gao Huaiyuan. With a stroke of his pen, he sold the official land to Gao Huaiyuan at an extremely low price, and after affixing his seal, he handed over the deed to Gao Huaiyuan.

  Although the price of this mountain land is low, its area is quite large, with dozens of hectares. Even if the price is low, Gao Huaiyuan finally checked his wallet and found that he didn't have enough money to buy such a large piece of land, so he started to feel a bit embarrassed.

  However, this did not deter Gao Huaiyuan. He quickly ran to the jewelry store and found Ma Zhanggui, from whom he first borrowed some money, and then went to the Wang family to find Wang Zhanggui to discuss borrowing money. The result was very smooth, as both families considered Gao Huaiyuan important to them, and they had cooperated well with him during this period, earning a lot of money. Therefore, they readily lent money to Gao Huaiyuan.

  Gao Huaiyuan used this money to successfully acquire the mountain land, obtaining the deed from Liu Zhi County. He could finally put his mind at ease. Although he knew it would be difficult to develop the copper and iron mines here in a short period of time, as long as he occupied the area first, when to start mining would be up to him.

  This hunt was adventurous, almost got eaten by wolves, but for Gao Huaiyuan, it was a good thing, allowing him to control a piece of land that could continuously produce money for him, which would be very important for his future development.

  Although the land was bought, Gao Huaiyuan temporarily had no power to mine the ore there, and even less so to build a smelter to process the ore. Just buying this piece of land made him owe a large debt, so he could only consider mining later.

  The official Liu Zhi County sent someone to survey the boundary in the mountain, and this piece of land was thoroughly marked as his private property. After finishing these things, it was already the autumn harvest season.

  This autumn harvest was different from last year's, the tenants had managed their rented land quite well this year, and after two seasons, they were able to make a living that was somewhat richer, so Gao Huaiyuan didn't have to worry about it much. The tenants voluntarily handed over the rent to the Gao family, without even giving Gao Huaiyuan any trouble. This made things easier for Gao Huaiyuan, and with just a few servants from the old house, they were able to complete the task. Moreover, this year he had an additional helper, Zhou Yi, who was quick with his abacus, and in no time at all, he had settled the accounts clearly. He used the Arabic numerals that Gao Huaiyuan had taught him to record the accounts, and when he handed them over for Gao Huaiyuan's review, everything was clear at a glance, which made Gao Huaiyuan feel more at ease with him.

  As for the private fields of Gao Huaiyuan on the side of Wotou Village, they also had a bumper harvest. After having so many young people, there was no need to find any laborers. Within two or three days, the harvest was completed. Gao Huaiyuan even came up with several wooden threshing machines, which allowed the work on the side of Wotou Village to be finished quickly.

  Anyway, Gao Huaiyuan no longer expected to gain any benefits from grain this year. After paying the necessary taxes to the government, he sold another portion of his grain and sent someone to deliver the proceeds to Gao Jian in Shaoxing Prefecture, thereby completing his task for the year. He even added an extra 10% as a show of his merit. As for the remaining grain, he simply stored it all away, so that they wouldn't have to buy more later. The reason he did this was because Gao Huaiyuan had the impression that there would be more battles between Song and Jin in the next few years, and during wartime, grain prices would rise rapidly. So, storing some extra grain couldn't hurt, even if it didn't make him a profit; at least they would have enough to eat and wouldn't have to worry.

  In order to repay the borrowed money as soon as possible, Gao Huaiyuan also went all out and grasped production tightly. Under Li Tong's full efforts, Luli Fang started producing batches of various glassware, and the quality was getting better and better. With Gao Huaiyuan's participation, after repeated experiments, a batch of nearly transparent glass was finally produced, which made Gao Huaiyuan overjoyed.

  For so long he had been waiting for this kind of product, and with this quality glass, he could make even better things. The first thing that came to mind was to use the furnace glass to make some glass mirrors!

  In this era, whether you are rich or poor, you have to use a copper mirror for grooming. No matter how polished the copper mirror is, it can't compare to the clarity of a glass mirror. Moreover, after using it for a while, you need to ask someone to polish it again, which is cumbersome and inconvenient. Therefore, Gao Huairen firmly believes that as long as he produces glass mirrors, they will immediately become popular and sweep the world off its feet. At that time, they might even be more sought after by women than his fake crystal products, making it hard not to make a profit!

  So after learning this news, Gao Huaiyuan plunged into the Liuli Fang again and started to make a move. He wanted to make a mirror, and the most basic thing was to get out of the flat glass first. The float glass production process in later generations, he didn't think about it, the process was really troublesome, not to mention the need for a large investment, and now the craftsmanship can't meet that requirement, so he could only use the drawing method to make flat glass. After his and Li Tong's all-night trial, they finally pulled out the kind of glass plate he wanted under high temperature.

  Just as they were still celebrating, a curious craftsman stretched his head to take a look. The temperature inside the glass kiln was originally high, and everyone's body was covered in sweat. A drop of sweat on his forehead fell onto the glass plate that had not yet cooled down, and with a "crack" sound, a good piece of glass shattered into countless fragments, rendering it useless on the spot.

  Li Tong immediately gave the craftsman a slap in the face. This was something they had worked on for two or three days, suffering who knows how much hardship, and it was all ruined by this careless craftsman. He was already somewhat hot-headed, and unable to contain his anger, he raised his hand and hit the craftsman, and began scolding him loudly.

  The craftsman also knew that he had done something stupid, and this was still the young master who personally suffered with them to create such a thing. He was so scared that he quickly knelt down in front of Gao Huaiyuan, repeatedly kowtowing and asking for forgiveness, begging Gao Huaiyuan to spare him.

  Gao Huairen was not pleased to see the glass plate he had worked so hard to make being ruined, but when he saw Li Tong hit the craftsman and the terrified look on his face, he softened and quickly reached out to pull him up, giving Li Tong a stern glance.