Mr. Zhao stood next to an open-pit mine about a foot deep, watching the short Japanese miners carrying the excavated ore with wicker baskets.

Zhao Ping asked someone to carry a basket, and from the gravel willow basket full of floating soil, they found the reef sand and showed it to Mr. Zhao.

The so-called "reef" is a piece of silver ore, and the fine ones are "sand". Zhao Hao took a silver reef as big as a fist and looked at it carefully. He saw that there were branches-like silver patterns on the surface.

Zhao Ping told him that this was called 'rivet', which was the silver contained in the ore. He took out a magnifying glass of copper shell from his chest pocket, magnified the surface of the ore for Zhao Hao and said, "The golden spots on it are gold."

"So little?" Mr. Zhao couldn't help but yell.

"The gold content in a ton of ore is about five grams on average." Zhao Ping said lightly: "This quality is already extremely high. The ore in the Ming Dynasty is about 2 grams per ton, and it does not contain silver."

As he said that, he sighed and said, "It is said that 'Kun Yuan essence is 300 miles away from gold, and 300 miles away from silver, and 300 miles away from silver,' but this Lightning Island not only has gold mines and silver mines, but also gold and silver companion mines. It can be seen that the arrangement of creation is not something that ordinary people can think of."

"This is all explained by science. The conclusion is wrong. I can only say that the summary method is unscientific." Mr. Zhao said lightly: "How much silver does the ore produce?"

"It looks like four or five hundred grams per ton." Zhao Ping replied: "The purity is very high."

"That's really good." Zhao Hao said in surprise: "It's higher than Shi Jian Yinshan."

"Shi Jian has also visited the villain there. The ore quality is actually similar, but the mining conditions are much worse than here." Zhao Ping waved his hand and asked the two porters to carry the heavy willow basket to the ore treatment site at the foot of the mountain to wash and select.

Of course, Shijian Yinshan has been mined for many years? He has been digging all the mountains long ago. How can he compare with this kind of new ore that can have ore if you dig a hole?

"After all the ore veins are fully explored, you can plan the mine structure, install lifting equipment, and lay a railway track to the water truck ore treatment field." Zhao Ping was a little excited and said: "This can greatly improve efficiency, and the manpower does not need to increase too much, and the production capacity can be greatly increased."

Jiangnan Group Mining Corporation is currently operating nearly ten large and small mines, including coal mines, iron ore, sulfur mine, chalcopyr mine, lime mine, alum mine, etc. The research center is constantly launching and improving various machinery to improve production efficiency, and the production level should currently be at the forefront of the world.

"Well, let go of your hands and feet." Zhao Hao was also infected by his passion and said, "If you need any equipment, I have already informed President Jiang, so I will give you priority." As he said that, he patted Zhao Ping's shoulder hard and said, "Let's go and see how gold and silver are made?"

~~

The ore transported from the mine is first hand-selected, washed, removed impurities, and mashed into ore sand and can be smelted into the furnace.

At present, the furnace for refining silver is still made of soil. The earth furnace is about five feet high, and each furnace can accommodate two stones of silver ore. Then 200 kilograms of chestnut charcoal are added and stacked around the ore... In fact, coal use is more efficient, but unfortunately, the route from Jiangnan to Sado Island has not been opened, so we can only make do with it first.

The naked workers pulled the bellows back and forth in three groups to increase the temperature in the furnace. The furnace chief also directed other workers to add charcoal from time to time with long iron shovels, and the ore in the furnace melted into a ball before the fire was turned off.

This step is called 'sintering', and the purpose is to remove non-metallic impurities in the ore. The two stone ore can burn about 100 kilograms of "reef balls"... in fact, it is an alloy of gold, silver, lead and tin, and more than 90% is lead. After cooling, it needs to be transferred to another 'gold divider furnace' to continue calcining at high temperature to separate them.

The reactions in the gold-dividing furnace are recorded in various ancient texts, but after learning "Elementary Physics", Zhao Ping knew that this is actually just to use the different melting points of metals to separate various components in the "alloy".

First, the tin with the lowest melting point will melt first and then flow out from the small holes in the bottom of the furnace. Because tin is a base metal and the amount obtained is small, it will not be processed and thrown away directly.

Then there is a large amount of lead, but the outlet is lead oxide. It has to be re-smelted in another furnace before it can get the carrying pole lead used for making projectiles.

In fact, if the temperature is well controlled, gold and silver can also be separated. However, the melting points of the two are around 1,000 degrees, and the difference is only 100 degrees. With the current technical conditions, it is obvious that the temperature cannot be accurately controlled below 1,000 degrees, so it is impossible to separate directly.

This requires the knowledge of "Elementary Chemistry" - add sulfur to the furnace to react and combine sulfur with silver into silver. The melting point of silver sulfide is only 825 degrees, which is a distance from the melting point of gold. You can flow out first, and only gold remains in the furnace.

Then put the silver sulfide in another furnace and add charcoal to reduce it, and you can get a considerable amount of sterling silver...

Of course, you have to refine it repeatedly according to the actual situation, but this is the reason.

~~

Finally, Mr. Zhao saw the smelted snow-patterned silver and gold bars in the warehouse guarded by heavy troops.

"It's so beautiful." He held gold in one hand and silver in the other, looking left and right, the more he looked, the more fascinated he became.

"Young Master is probably the richest person in the world. He still cares about gold and silver like ordinary people?" Zhao Ping asked strangely.

Zhao Hao glanced at him, no wonder he was left in the quarry for three years, and no one spoke for him. However, he remained silent and said unfathomable:

"Of course, this thing is not just wealth, but also a regulator to stabilize the Ming society, and is the supreme weapon to change the world!"

"Yes." Zhao Ping nodded humbly and said, "I am indeed superficial."

"Young Master, give this gold and silver mine a name?" It was Sun Dawu, the dog slave who could speak. Even the city under his jurisdiction was waiting for the young master to name it. He had always referred to "Only City".

"Hezi Yinshan." Mr. Zhao said without hesitation.

"Ah..." Everyone was stunned when they heard this.

"Young Master, Hezi Yinshan was originally the one from the Hotan Yuan family, although it was indeed not far away." Zhao Ping reminded decisively.

"I know, just call it this name. We are mining the Hezi Yinshan Mountain. How can we find other discoveries?" Zhao Hao said without caring: "When discovering new mines, remember to keep them strictly confidential, both domestically and Japan."

"Yes." Everyone then realized that the young master was confusing the public for the sake of confidentiality. No wonder he had to change the name of Sado Island.

"It is indeed very necessary." Ma Yinglong said deeply: "If we know that we are mining silver mines, it will definitely cause an uproar. In Japan, those daimyos will also be jealous. Especially Uesugi Kenshiro on the other side, he is famous for his "greedy dragon" and must hide it from him as much as possible."

"I'm afraid there is no airtight wall." Jin Ke said in a deep voice: "You must be prepared to fight."

"It's better to start first, just take down his Echizen Navy first!" Ma Yinglong said gritting his teeth.

"Yes, I have a premonition that there will be a battle between us." Zhao Hao nodded and said, "But time is on our side. The later the war begins, the greater our chances of winning. And Kenshino Uesugi is busy fighting with the Arc Fiery Tiger, and he has no time to get out of here for a while."

"The task of taking the initiative to fight is handed over to the garrison area." As he said that, he looked at Yan Wu and Sun Dawu and said, "You have two tasks. One is to build a large bay, at least the north and south bays must be built. Although Uesugi Kenshin was known as the God of War, he was actually a hard-working attack. He knew that there was a strong city on the island and the courage to land and fight was reduced by at least 70%. The other is to use the slack farming training militias, which can not only help defend the city, but also cultivate strong folk customs."

"Anyway, the same sentence is the case. We should despise the enemy strategically and attach importance to the enemy tactically." Zhao Hao finally said in a deep voice: "Depend the war time as much as possible. Once we want to fight, we must strive to concentrate our superior forces on the battlefield we have chosen to wipe out the enemy's troops, so that they will not dare to invade again within a few years!"

"Yes!" Everyone responded loudly with their legs together.

~~

After leaving Lightning Island, Mr. Zhao and his party continued to go north for 700 miles and visited the last stop of the trip. It was also the end of the cruise of the main fleet in the security area - Zhenyuan Island.

Zhenyuan Island is a small island located at the west exit of the Jinqing Strait. Its original name is "Small Island". It covers an area of ​​less than two square kilometers. It is actually a raised mountain on the sea, so there is no land suitable for cultivation and no one lives there.

But the location of this island is very important. If you set up the water police station here, you can easily guard the Tsugu Strait, thereby cutting off the connection between Honshu, Japan and Ainu Island.

Moreover, there is fresh water on the island, which has the conditions for long-term survival and can also grow vegetables, so Zhao Hao changed it to Zhenyuan Island and set up the fifth water police station under the security area here.

Of course, compared with the other four water police stations with at least one thousand people, the police force here is pitifully small.

Because Jiangnan Group is currently here, there is not much interest to protect. Only the fleet of the Tanluo Chamber of Commerce in timber business will travel between the Tsugu Strait. But the goods they transported are too cheap, they are just the most ordinary grain coarse cloth cotton ironware, and they are not worth the robbery at all by the pirates at the risk of offending Sakai merchants.

And the big wood they pulled when they returned was not even given to the pirates for free.

So there is no need to arrange heavy troops here at the moment, and the staff in the security area are too tight.

So after building the bastion and dock for them, the engineering team withdrew the Lightning Island to continue construction, leaving only one hundred officers and soldiers of the Water Police Bureau, stationed alone on this extreme border island, which is 4,000 miles away from the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, when the fleet sailed into Zhenyuan Island Wharf, all the coast guard officers and soldiers changed into police robes, lined up neatly on the side of the ship, saluting the slope, and paying tribute to these respectable sentries from the world!

All the officers and soldiers of Zhenyuan Island Water Police Station have long been wearing police uniforms and shiny leather shoes, waiting on the dock.

There is no music, no firecrackers, and not even a banner. It is not a little bit shabby than the previous welcome ceremony, but this quiet scene makes people feel extremely solemn, and a sacred sense of mission arises naturally.
Chapter completed!