Tibet

Qianquan Mountain is today's Kyrgyz Mountains, spanning Shiguo and Bakhtin. It is rich in gold and silver mines, which made Shiguo and Bakhtin rich, but also brought them disaster. Small countries with wealth but unable to protect themselves will eventually become the food of big countries.

So we often see some farmers pick up rare treasures and hand them over to the country without hesitation. Many people will scold them for being stupid, but they don't know that this is the wisdom of life. Rare treasures often bring not wealth to ordinary farmers, but murderous intentions of those who covet them.

Li Chenghua led a thousand cavalrymen along the river valley between the vast and majestic mountains of Qianquan Mountain, and time seemed to be nomadic between forests and grasslands.

King Alian introduced them to a guide. The guide was a businessman in his fifties. He was the leader of the palace guards. He accompanied King Alian to visit the mines of the Saint's Society and went there twice alone later. He was familiar with the terrain.

King Alian said that the mine was relatively close to Talas City. Li Chenghua only understood what she meant now. It was only relatively close to Julan City. Julan City was thousands of miles away from the mine, while Talas City was five hundred miles away from the mine.

Who knows how the Saint Maiden Society transported the gold coins to such a distant place, with thousands of people and tens of thousands of camels, and the news was not leaked at all.

On the one hand, it shows the loyalty of the Saint Maiden Society guards to Jin Shanling, and on the other hand, it also shows Jin Shanling's ruthlessness. If she can't keep her position in the Saint Maiden Society, she will completely destroy it.

The internal struggle of the Saint Maiden Society started a few years ago. Establishing an army was a big pit dug by the Saint Maiden elders for Jin Shanling, so transferring wealth was Jin Shanling's preparation for a rainy day, which completely cut off the roots of the Saint Maiden Society.

Li Chenghua's team has been walking in the Qianquan Mountains for five days. There is a gurgling river at the bottom of the valley, and undulating grasslands on both sides, which slowly extend to the middle of the mountain. Then there is a forest zone, dominated by pine trees. Beyond the forest zone is the snow-capped mountain. Thick snow covers the top of the mountain. In summer, the snow melts and brings abundant water to the river valley.

"Zaire, how far is the mine?" Li Chenghua couldn't help asking.

Zaire is the name of the guide. His Chinese name is Shi Jingtang, a name full of historical stench, which happened to be stained by him.

Zaire put his hand on his heart and saluted with a smile: "Reporting to General Li, this is Wanzu Gorge, the longest canyon in Qianquan Mountain. Go forward about a hundred miles and you will enter the mine valley."

"Is this connected to the Qianquan Gorge in front?"

Zaire nodded: "It is completely connected. It and Qianquan Gorge form a big 'ten', the ten in Chinese."

Qianquan Gorge is a north-south canyon and an important strategic road. Although it is not as long as Wanzu Gorge, its importance far exceeds that of Wanzu Gorge.

"We don't need to go back the same way, we can just go through Qianquan Gorge directly."

Zhaier smiled and said, "It's closer to Bakhanna through Qianquan Gorge, but it's far to Shiguo, but it's the same for General Li."

"What are those people doing?"

Li Chenghua pointed his whip to the front. There were only a few tents set up by the river, and dozens of people were groping in the river. They seemed to be herdsmen nearby.

"Are they panning for gold?"

"I shouldn't! I've never heard of gold sand in the river."

Zhaier hurried forward to ask, and soon came back and said, "Someone picked up dozens of gold coins in the river in this area. The news came, and people nearby came to look for it."

"Did you get anything?"

"Very little, only a dozen!"

He opened his palm, and a Sogdian gold coin appeared on his palm, "This is what they found, I will exchange it with them for ten silver coins."

Li Chenghua carefully looked at the gold coin that still had cold water and low temperature.

She had guessed the origin of the gold coin. It should be that the team transporting the gold coins had an accident. A bag of gold coins accidentally fell into the river. The bag broke. After the soldiers fished it out, there were still a small amount of gold coins left in the river.

But the existence of the gold coin suddenly made her heart bright, and the hard work of the journey these days was swept away at this moment.

Three days later, they finally arrived at the Saint's mine, which was in a small valley. There were more than 20 abandoned smelting sites along the way, large and small, which showed that the scale of mining was very large at that time.

At the end of the valley, there was a huge mountain in front of them. The mountain was steep and straight. On the hillside, there was a huge stone weighing more than 100,000 kilograms.

There was a passage excavated on the mountain that could accommodate a camel. The passage extended all the way to the front of the boulder, which meant that there must be a gate behind the boulder.

"Behind that big stone is the gate of the mine cave!" Zaire pointed to the gate.

"Have you been into the mine cave?" Li Chenghua asked.

Zaire shook his head, "When I came here, I was still mining gold. There were heavy guards. There were originally more than a dozen big tents below, and I went straight into the big tent."

Li Chenghua no longer needed a guide at this time. She led more than a dozen people up the mountainside and came to the boulder, which stood on the cliff like a small mountain.

Looking at the surrounding situation, no one should have been here.

There are two ways to move the boulder. One is to pull it with a rope. Hundreds of people pull the rope together from a distance, and perhaps the boulder can be pulled down the cliff.

Another way is to use explosives. For the Tang army, this is of course the best way.

Li Chenghua immediately ordered the installation of iron fire mines.

Fortunately, they were fully prepared and brought dozens of iron fire mines and two firearms soldiers.

The two firearms soldiers were experienced and soon found a huge crack on the boulder, which was half a foot wide at its widest point. They found two flat iron fire mines, with the fuse facing outward, and stuffed them into the crack as deep as possible.

Then, with a wave of his hand, everyone moved away. A soldier lit the two fuses in the crack with a long stick torch and immediately ran up the mountain road. After running dozens of steps, he lay on the slope of the mountain road and covered his head with a shield.

"Boom! Boom!"

The two 40-jin iron fire mines exploded almost at the same time. The huge shock wave of the explosion blew the boulder, which was like a hill, into two halves and rolled down from the hillside.

"Boom!" With a muffled sound, the earth trembled and dust flew.

After a long while, the smoke and dust dissipated, and everyone walked into the valley again. They saw that the boulder on the hillside was gone, and only a semicircular iron gate, one foot high and eight feet wide, remained.

The iron door could not be pushed open, but there was a keyhole on it. Li Chenghua poured a little oil into the keyhole and slowly inserted Jin Shanling's necklace pendant into it. When Li Chenghua took the necklace, he guessed that it was a key because it was not pure gold, but copper plated with gold.

How could Jin Shanling wear a copper necklace? There was only one explanation, it was a key.

After the three sword copper rings were inserted into the keyhole, they were gently twisted, and a series of mechanical sounds came from inside.

Pushing the iron door hard again, the iron door was slowly pushed open along the rails.

This is a mechanism composed of countless thick iron bars. Two thick iron rods are like bolts, holding up the thick iron door from the inside. Use the key to open the mechanism, and the two iron rods will be pulled back by the iron chain, and the bolt will disappear.

If there is no key, it is much more difficult to open the thick iron door than the boulder at the door.

Let the air flow out for a moment, and Li Chenghua led dozens of soldiers to light torches and walked in.

Although it is an abandoned mine, you can still see the glittering gold ore on the stone wall. The gold content is quite high, and it is definitely a super high-grade gold mine.

After walking a few dozen steps, the view in front of them suddenly opened up. Everyone exclaimed, and a palace-like hall appeared in front of them, and there were piles of sheepskin bags in front of them.

These bags have only been there for two years, and they are all new and strong. Open a bag, and it is full of glittering gold coins, including Sogdian gold coins, Dashi gold coins, and Daqin gold coins.

Li Chenghua was ecstatic. This will be the greatest wealth of the Tang Dynasty, and she has found it.