The crowd quickly arrived at the outskirts of the city.
Pointing at the large crack in the ground beneath their feet, Heshen said with delight, ���Your Majesty, please look, buried beneath here is an iron ore deposit, which in terms of quality, is the same as the Huazhou iron mine! Moreover, it’s all exposed, making it even easier to collect!”
Lin Beifan gave a faint smile. This was the ore from the Huazhou iron mine, transported here by me.
“Not bad, not bad, is there more?” Lin Beifan asked with a smile.
“Of course, Your Majesty, please proceed!”
About half an incense stick’s time later, they arrived at another fissure.
Heshen pointed at the ore on the wall, exclaiming with joy, “Your Majesty, look, this is a silver mine. If it weren’t for this earthquake, we would have never discovered it! The silver content is very high, and there is a large quantity, plus it’s easy to extract! As long as we mine and refine it, our Xia Kingdom will never lack silver!”
“Very good!” Lin Beifan nodded in satisfaction again. “Is there more?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, please follow me!”
Following that, Heshen led Lin Beifan and the others through the earthquake fissures near Capital City, pointing out one mineral deposit after another.
There were copper mines, silver mines, iron mines, coal mines…
There’s practically a mine for every crack.
There were so many minerals that it was dark before they could finish exploring them all, but they had to go back for dinner.
On the way back, Heshen continued to report, “Your Majesty, these are just the mineral resources near the Capital City. There are many more beyond the Capital City, but they are too far away for me to show you each one! This time, the mineral resources have shown several distinct characteristics!”
“What characteristics? Tell me about them,” Lin Beifan said with a smile.
“Firstly, the mineral resources are highly concentrated, mainly around the Capital City, with only a few scattered across the country. It takes less than half an hour to reach them from the city gates!”
Lin Beifan nodded. This was intentional on his part; of course, the best things should be kept close to home.
“Secondly, there is a wide variety of mineral resources, including copper mines, iron mines, coal mines, and so on. Almost all the minerals we need can be found! Moreover, these different minerals are concentrated together, which is truly a miracle!”
Lin Beifan nodded again, “Indeed, it’s a miracle!”
Under natural conditions, these minerals would not be found together.
But under his control on the sand table, all this became possible.
“Thirdly, these mineral resources are mostly open-pit and are very close to Capital City, making mining extremely convenient. This saves a great deal of manpower and material resources! Moreover, the concentration of minerals also saves us another significant amount of manpower and material resources!”
Lin Beifan nodded again, no need for further words. This was certainly his doing, all to save manpower and material resources.
The more he saves, the more he earns.
“Your Majesty, there are so many minerals, and the variety is vast. Your humble servant has already dispatched professionals to tally and estimate their value! Do you have any idea, Your Majesty, how much all these mineral resources are worth in total?”
“How much?” Lin Beifan asked.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Heshen replied, “Your Majesty, the total value of these mineral resources amounts to 20 million taels of silver!”
Sitting beside him, Yaoyao became unsettled and gasped, “20 million taels of silver! That much?”
Lin Beifan secretly smirked. What’s so much about that?
I still have more than half of the mineral resources that haven’t been revealed yet!
Take the gold mines, for instance. Those are even more valuable.
But it’s not good to expose it, otherwise it will attract the covetousness of the great powers.
“There is more!”
Heshen said loudly, “We have only made a preliminary estimate, and there are still many ores buried underground that cannot be accurately assessed! But the total value is definitely more than 20 million taels!”
Yaoyao took another sharp breath, “More than 20 million taels!!!”
Then she grabbed Lin Beifan’s arm, excitedly saying, “Mineral resources worth more than 20 million taels! Little foolish emperor, you’ve struck it rich. Do you realize how wealthy you’ve become?”
Lin Beifan commanded, “Calm down! It’s just mineral resources worth more than 20 million taels, what’s there to be excited about?”
“How can I not be thrilled?”
Yaoyao said with immense excitement, “Over 20 million taels worth of mineral resources, and it has every kind of resource imaginable. Do you know how much money that is?”
Yaoyao couldn’t help but think of herself; she had worked so hard and had only managed to earn a few million taels of silver. But what about the other party?
They had committed no shortage of foolish acts, had often offended people, and the destruction of their nation seemed imminent.
Yet, after an earthquake, not only was the crisis of national destruction averted, but they also made a fortune, earning more than 20 million taels. Their luck was off the charts!
Could it be that this person was truly the favored child of the heavens?
So favored?
The more Yaoyao thought about it, the more unfair she felt inside.
I am the beloved Princess Yaoyao, adored by all, and yet I can’t compare to this little foolish emperor!
Furious, she grabbed Lin Beifan’s hand and bit it.
Lin Beifan cried out, “Yaoyao, why are you biting me?”
“It’s because I’m so annoyed, I just felt like biting you!”
Lin Beifan: “Ow, ow, ow, that hurts…”
Sitting beside them, Heshen coughed and turned his head away, pretending not to see.
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