The Sun and the Lion

Ibrahim, who was lying on the bed, felt a splitting headache. He first closed his eyes and tried to endure it. After a while, he supported the bed with his left hand and pressed his head with his right hand and tried to sit up.

Mira, who was awakened by the movement of the person beside her pillow, quickly called a few attendants to join her in serving Ibrahim, who had not yet recovered from his hangover.

"Help me...go to the study..."

After being helped by the female slaves to wash and eat, Ibrahim gave orders to the servants with some unclear words.

Waqie on the side was a little worried about whether Ibrahim, who was not yet fully awake, could properly exercise the power of the monarch, and planned to persuade Ibrahim to continue to rest.

At this time, the guard came towards me, knelt down and reported: "Your Majesty, the Financial Vizier has asked for an audience. He is waiting."

"Call him in."

Petrossian, who was summoned, quickly walked into the study. The eunuch in charge of reception helped to hold the documents he brought. After the two sat down, they placed them on the table for them to read.

After a day's hard work by the financial officer, all the loot brought back by Ibrahim was counted. According to their valuation, these properties are equivalent to about six times this year's fiscal balance.

"Sure enough, taking by force is better than hard work."

Ibrahim sighed silently in his heart. This was net income after deducting military expenses. It was a huge sum of money no matter where it was used.

Then he summoned Waqie, and after a little thought, one-third will be sent to the internal funds to be used for operating the royal industry and temporary use. The rest is transferred to the national treasury for investment in the provincial economy - including post stations, water conservancy, resettlement of immigrants, etc.

Of this portion allocated to the treasury, Ibrahim specifically ordered that at least a quarter be used for the construction of Isfahan.

The construction progress of Isfahan was not satisfactory. At first, the architects planned to start with the renovation of the old city. However, the planning of the old city was very chaotic. Mosques, religious schools, mansions, brothels, opium dens and other places could appear on the same street. Even the main roads are not paved. In summer, a gust of wind can stir up dust, and when it rains or the snow melts, it turns into a pile of mud.

The only good thing is that every house and street in the city is equipped with a drainage system. All garbage and sewage will be discharged to designated locations. Farmers who come to the city to sell agricultural products will clean the cesspools when they leave the city and put the waste inside. The things are taken away and used as fertilizer to ensure the sanitation of the city.

The old city not only has these troublesome hardware problems, but also has other disadvantages.

In addition to the lack of manpower mentioned earlier, Isfahan is a diverse city, but this has also brought about sectarian conflicts, and even local underground forces are named after sects. Every time during religious festivals such as Ashura, young people from different sects would physically mingle together. The physical conflicts would leave everyone with bloodshed and deepen the direct estrangement between different groups.

The local governor and emir could not come up with a good solution to this problem. Even if they sent troops to suppress it many times, they only stopped the apparent conflict.

Even the military and political leaders could not solve this problem, let alone the architects. Moreover, this happened to be the time when Ibrahim was on his own expedition, and communication was inconvenient. This report, written in the summer, was not delivered to him until after the expedition.

Regarding this problem, Ibrahim had no good solution. He couldn't just massacre all the people in the old city.

"Your Majesty, apart from the city of Isfahan, are there any other projects that require the Ministry of Finance's attention?" Pietro saw Ibrahim thinking about something and asked him cautiously, but this still interrupted him. ideas.

"No, not yet."

After confirming other income and expenditure, Petrosyan resigned with a package of documents, while Vache, who had just gone out for something, was holding a letter and walked towards Ibrahim with a happy face.

"Your Majesty, my master, Huda bless you."

Ibrahim looked at his eunuch butler with confusion and took the letter from him: "What happened to make you so happy?"

After reading through the contents of the letter, Ibrahim’s doubts were easily resolved.

The content of the letter was a detailed investigation report on an open-pit copper mine. At first, a herdsman in a local village called Sungun accidentally picked up a piece of copper ore while grazing. After being confirmed by local craftsmen, the local landowner organized manual mining and monopolized the village's copper ore trade.

The incident of copper flowing out of this settlement, which is not famous for mining, attracted the attention of a royal businessman who was responsible for running the mining business. Find Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com. The traders responsible for distributing the copper also had no sense of confidentiality and were entrusted with the task. The coppersmith could easily find out the origin of the copper when purchasing it.

Then he took all his servants and temporarily hired a team of bodyguards. He rode a horse and supported himself to this small village. He found the local copper mine and contacted the landowners involved in copper mining through the foreman. On the line.

As soon as they met, he revealed his identity as a royal businessman, and several wealthy locals were immediately frightened by the bodyguards and documents they had never seen before. Then he took advantage of the victory and said that he thought the copper mine business had great potential and was willing to invest in the mines here.

The appearance of the royal merchant proved his own wealth, and he had the royal family as his backer, which ensured both financial and military resources.

After successfully getting involved in the local copper mine business, after further excavation, especially after the arrival of professional engineers, it was shockingly discovered that this was a large open-pit mine that was not only easy to mine, had high reserves, but also had high-grade ore.

Ibrahim was pleasantly surprised when he saw this. He knew what a large copper mine meant. Not only can it provide raw materials for firearms workshops nearby, but it can also increase a large amount of income for internal funds.

This copper mine, which was accidentally discovered in advance, can be said to be the largest open-pit copper mine in Iran. It was only sporadically mined in the early 19th century, the early Qajar Dynasty. This place is only 130 kilometers away from Tabriz, and is also associated with molybdenum, gold, and silver.

Of course, Ibrahim didn't know any of this detailed information. He had never memorized the distribution of mineral resources before traveling through time. The fact that he was able to develop a source of wealth this time was purely due to his European energy.

"Okay, okay, okay." The excited Ibrahim immediately ordered Waqie: "Immediately allocate funds to develop this copper mine!"