The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Chapter 591 Is there anyone who dares to rebel?

It was winter, so there were no typhoons or tsunamis, making the return journey exceptionally smooth. Ji Jie piloted the warship back to the Yangtze River estuary in just seven or eight days.

After reporting the situation to Zhou Xun, he planned to stay at the port and enjoy the New Year in peace. However, Zhou Xun said that His Majesty had issued an edict ordering the Vice Admiral of the Navy, Ji Jie, to immediately go to Jiangling to pay homage upon his return. The specific reason was unknown.

This thrilled Ji Jie. As the former county magistrate of Wushang County, he had never even met Sun Quan, let alone Liu Bei. Now, he was personally summoned by Liu Bei, who was highly respected and had already ascended the throne. This was definitely a great honor for him.

Ji Jie dared not keep Liu Bei waiting any longer, so he ordered his personal guards to bring back the gold and silver brought from Japan, while he himself rode a fast horse at full speed, exceeding the speed of a messenger, to Jiangling.

Several days later, he successfully appeared at the gates of Jiangling City. Upon entering the city, he went straight to the palace without resting. After reporting his arrival, he waited quietly for Liu Bei to summon him.

At that moment, Liu Bei was discussing land reform with Zhuge Liang when he learned that Ji Jie had returned. He was overjoyed and immediately ordered Ji Jie to be summoned and sent someone to call Guan Xing over.

While waiting for Ji Jie to arrive, Liu Bei couldn't help but ask, "Prime Minister, do you think Ji Jie will bring us good news this time?"

Zhuge Liang shook his head and said, "I'm not sure. Vice Commander Ji returned more than half a month later than expected. He must have done a lot in that time, and he might have made some discoveries."

What the emperor and his minister are most concerned about now is the Iwami Silver Mine in Japan. With this silver mine, the development speed of the Han Dynasty will definitely accelerate.

But even though Japan is small, it is still as large as a province in the Han Dynasty. Finding a silver mountain in such a vast territory is no easy task, so the two rulers were extremely uneasy at this moment.

With trepidation, Ji Jie entered the room, walked to the center of the room, bowed, and said, "Your subject Ji Jie pays respects to Your Majesty and the Prime Minister."

Liu Bei gestured for him to rise, saying, "Please rise, my dear minister. You must be tired from your voyage. Tell me about the situation in Japan. Did you make any other discoveries within its borders?"

Ji Jie didn't know what the so-called other discoveries were and dared not ask, so he could only start from the beginning, recounting in detail the situation from leaving the Great Han with the dog Gu Tianchuan to returning to the Great Han alone. Finally, he took out two fist-sized pieces of ore, one gold and one silver, from his bosom, presented them with both hands, and pleaded guilty, saying, "Your Majesty, I killed the powerful minister of the Dog Slave Kingdom, the dog Gu Zhibei, without permission. I beg Your Majesty to punish me."

Liu Bei laughed indifferently, "What crime is there in killing a powerful minister of a vassal state? Not to mention powerful ministers, you have the right to deal with even the King of the Dog Slave Kingdom, Himiko. Don't take this small matter to heart."

After saying that, he took the ore and examined it carefully. After examining it for a long time, he handed it to Zhuge Liang and said, "The quality of this ore is very good. Tell me more about the details of the two mines."

Ji Jie recounted the story again, and Liu Bei listened attentively, memorizing all the details before smiling and saying, "My dear minister, you must be exhausted from your journey. Go to the post station to rest first, and you can return to Jiangdong after a few days of rest."

"Thank you, Your Majesty..." Ji Jie bowed and took his leave.

After Liu Bei waited for him to leave, he turned to look at Zhuge Liang. He was about to analyze the quality of the ore with Zhuge Liang when he heard Guan Xing shout from outside the tent: "Old Ji, you're back just in time. Come to my house for dinner and drinks tonight."

A moment later, Guan Xing entered the room. Upon seeing him, Liu Bei immediately ordered, "Close the door."

Guan Xing stepped forward and bowed as instructed. Liu Bei then threw over the ore and said, "Look at this. Ji Jie just brought it back. Ji Jie has done a great service this time. Not only did he discover a gold mine in the Kingdom of Dog Slave, but he also discovered the Iwami Silver Mine, located on the border between the Kingdom of Dog Slave and the Kingdom of Yamatai, through Himiko and Nanmi Sheng. Moreover, the reserves of the Iwami Silver Mine are as rich as you said. Hundreds of kilograms of silver ore can be mined from the surface. I can't even imagine how much can be mined underground. There must be a silver mountain buried underground. We're going to be rich."

Silver ore is not pure silver; it needs to be refined and processed. It's considered good if half of the silver in two hundred kilograms of silver ore can be refined into pure silver.

But it was still a huge fortune. How could Liu Bei, who had been poor for most of his life, not be excited when he suddenly received a windfall?

With such tempting wealth right in front of him, it's remarkable that he was able to resist sending troops to Japan immediately. What more could you expect from him?

Guan Xing smiled and said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty! Now we have the funds for the Northern Expedition. If I am not mistaken, the gold mine in the Dog Slave Kingdom should be the Hishikari Gold Mine of later generations. In addition to the Iwami Silver Mine, Japan has three other major gold mines with very considerable reserves. One of them is the Hishikari Gold Mine that I just mentioned."

After finishing his sentence, he picked up his pen and drew another simple map of Japan, saying, "Secondly, there is the Sado Gold Mine, which is not located on the four main islands of Japan, but on this small island called Sado, north of Honshu. It is a gold and silver mine, and by my time, it had produced a total of 78 tons of gold and 2300 tons of silver."

"Finally, there is the Kounomai Gold Mine in Hokkaido. The mine extends for more than 30 miles and has produced more than 70 tons of gold. However, Sado Island is too remote and there are few people. Hokkaido is still a primitive society and has not yet been conquered by Japan. It will take a long time to find these two gold mines. In addition, Japan has many other small gold mines, but I don't know their specific locations and reserves."

Liu Bei sighed, "How can such a small country as Japan be so wealthy? Is it possible that all the gold and silver in the world has been buried there?"

Guan Xing laughed and said, "But Japan only has gold and silver. Other mineral resources are very scarce, so scarce that it cannot be self-sufficient. By the way, Ji Jie just said that after leaving the Kingdom of Dogs, he sailed east all the way to the end of the island before returning to land and help Yamatai resist the Kingdom of Dogs. Based on this, I judge that Ji Jie has reached the end of Honshu Island. Going a little further east is Hokkaido."

Zhuge Liang said, "The Sado Gold Mine and the Kounomai Gold Mine are not urgent for now. They won't run away. We can deal with them later when we find them. The most urgent task right now is to mine the Hishikari Gold Mine and the Iwami Silver Mine. These are the ones that are right in front of us. We have to get them in our mouths first before we can think about the others. And we have to prevent Cao Wei from taking them from us."

"Therefore, Your Majesty, I suggest that Zhou Xun lead the navy to patrol the East China Sea and strike the Wei army's warships. The small boats of the coastal fishermen can be ignored, but the Wei army's large ships with long-distance sailing capabilities must be destroyed. Sink every ship that goes out to sea, so that they can never go to sea again."

The seas belong to the Han army. The Wei army's ships and navy do not yet have the ability to sail far into the ocean. But we must be prepared for the worst. What if Cao Wei finds out that there are gold mines in Japan and summons craftsmen to build ocean-going warships?

If they can build ocean-going warships, there's no reason why the Wei army can't.

Therefore, it was necessary to plan ahead so that even if Cao Wei's warships were built, they would not be able to go to sea.

Liu Bei nodded and said, "The Prime Minister is right. Moreover, we don't need to transport all the gold and silver brought back from Japan back to Jiangling. We can use a portion to buy grain, ironware and other supplies we need from the coastal people of You, Qing and Xu provinces. We can also contact the Gongsun family to buy ginseng and deer antlers from Liaodong. We can also spend money to hire Liaodong knights to go to Goguryeo, dig up some black soil from the swamp and send it over. I want to see if the black soil of Liaodong is really as good as Anguo said."

"This raises a new question: how can we speed up the mining process?"

Although the gold and silver mines have been found, mining will still take time. It cannot be accomplished overnight; it can only be carried out gradually over a long period. All the imperial court can do is try to speed up the mining process, rather than bringing the gold and silver mines home instantly.

Neither Liu Bei nor Zhuge Liang had much experience with this, so they could only turn their attention to Guan Xing.

Guan Xing spread his hands and said, "I don't have any good solutions to this. The only thing I can do is save on transportation costs by sending people to Japan to build factories, refining the ore into gold and silver, and then transporting it back to the Han Dynasty. This will not only save on transportation costs but also prevent pollution of the Han Dynasty's environment."

Refining ore pollutes the environment, but polluting Japan's environment is better than polluting Han China's.

Liu Bei sighed and said, "It seems that getting rich overnight is impossible. We can only gradually develop our resources and make a steady profit. That's settled then. You can get out of here."

Guan Xing rolled his eyes, bowed, and took his leave. But as soon as he turned around, the door was pushed open, and Chen Dao rushed in and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, something terrible has happened! Shi Hui has rebelled!"