Li Shimin's will: Li Zhi, the throne belongs to your brother

"Let's go to meet the emperor together!" Li Tai tilted his head, signaling Wu Meiniang to go and meet Li Shimin together.

"Yes." The two girls hurriedly got up and sorted themselves out.

As soon as the three of them left the room, they saw Li Shimin with an anxious face.

"The son pays homage to the father!!"

"The son pays homage to the father!!"

"Free gift!!"

Li Shimin casually signaled the three to get up, but his sharp eyes signaled Yan Wan and Wu Meiniang to leave.

Seeing his anxious expression, the two women knew that they must be discussing important matters with Li Tai, and they said in unison: "My son will leave."

"En." Li Shimin responded indifferently, put his eyes on Li Tai, and said: "The weather is very good today, let's get on the horse and walk with me."

"Yes!" Li Li could tell at a glance that Li Shimin was preoccupied.

Soon, the two got on their horses and walked towards Chang'an North City.

'Ding...' Before I got close, I heard a lot of metal collisions.

The largest coin-casting site of Shanglinyuan was discovered in the northern city of Chang'an. It used to be the largest coin-making center in the Western Han Dynasty. It was called the "Shanglin Sanguan" in the Western Han Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, it was called Qian Jian.

"Greetings, Your Majesty, and the crown prince!!" Qian Jian's people hurriedly saluted when they saw Li Shimin's arrival.

"Excuse me, you don't need to take care of me!" Li Shimin waved his hand and said.

"What does the father bring his children here for?" Li Tai said, looking at the craftsmen saluting all around him.

Li Shimin didn't answer, looked at the worker and explained slowly.

"This copper smelting method uses the fire method. The paper is calcined twice with malachite to obtain copper, and then the silver is extracted with lead. The upper layer is the copper liquid."

"This is the biggest money prison. There are many money prisons in Luoyang, Youzhou, Bingzhou, etc."

"Go, I'll take you to see something good."

After speaking, Li Shimin led Li Tai to ride a horse and walked out of the city.

The road became more and more remote, and it was obvious that he had walked into a deep mountain. Li Tai was a little puzzled when he climbed over this mountain.

He was surprised to find that there was also a blast furnace here.

"Well, this is a blast furnace I made, but it is not used to smelt iron, but to smelt copper!!" Li Shimin said very proudly.

The corners of Li Tai's eyes twitched, you Li Er are such a clever little ghost! !

It's a genius to actually think of using it to smelt copper to make money!

Before the Song Dynasty, the copper smelting method was the fire method, and after that it was the wet method.

The fire method refers to the use of malachite to obtain copper after two carbon-adding calcinations. The principle is to use copper carbonate and copper hydroxide to react with carbon at high temperature to obtain copper.

The wet method is to use the replacement reaction of copper sulfate and iron to obtain copper.

Now the fire method is used, and it is obvious that blast furnaces can be used for copper smelting.

It's just that, so refining... I'm afraid the currency will depreciate! !

Chapter 122 How can money be worthless?

Li Tai shifted his gaze and asked sideways.

"When did the father build the blast furnace?"

Li Shimin on the side, Li Shimin dismounted, and handed over the reins of the horse to the guard at the intersection on the side.

"Since iron was successfully smelted, I feel that this blast furnace can be used to smelt copper."

Li Tai looked at the guards ahead, and it was obvious that he had already reached the blocked place.

"After iron smelting?"

Li Tai pondered for a while, so it's only been a month or two?So fast?

He couldn't help feeling in his heart that the wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated.

But on second thought, if all of them were used to mint copper coins, there would definitely be problems!

Although Li Tai is not a professional economist and does not know much about economics, this does not prevent him from experiencing the financial crisis.

Whenever there is a financial crisis or inflation, countless entrepreneurs will go bankrupt and jump off the building.

"Did the father succeed, and how is the output?"

As a prince, Li Tai knew how to smelt copper by fire. As for smelting copper in a blast furnace, no one knew whether it would be successful or not.

The corners of Li Shimin's mouth were raised, his face was beaming, and he said with a touch of showing off.

"Even iron can be successfully smelted, and copper smelting will naturally be successful, but~"

Li Shimin paused, then changed the topic and said: "It's just that it's different from iron smelting. Copper smelting in a blast furnace requires not only lime but also more lead, and the order of production is also different."

"What's the difference?" Li Tai asked along the way.

"In this blast furnace for copper smelting, copper slag comes out first, copper water in the middle, and lead and silver at the bottom."

So, there are three layers?

Li Tai briefly thought about it, adding lime can remove the sulfur in it, and the slag formed also floats on the liquefied copper liquid.

Adding lead is to extract the silver in it, and the density of lead and silver is higher than the same, so it will sink to the bottom, so the middle is relatively pure copper liquid.

"The output is [-] jin per furnace, and there are countless other silver and lead." When talking about the output, Li Shimin laughed from ear to ear.

"This output is really extremely high!" Although this output was within Li Tai's expectations, he was still surprised.

As the two got closer and closer to the copper smelting base, a concrete road appeared in front of them.

There is a long transport queue on the concrete road.

There are horses and oxen pulling two-wheeled wooden carts, and there are also wheelbarrows pushed by several people.

The pitch-black color of the sacks, the black powder exposed from the bumps from time to time, and the blackness on their bodies all showed that they were transporting coal.

Many people saw the arrival of Li Shimin and Li Tai, and the long line stopped: They all saluted and said, "Caomin pay homage to His Majesty and the crown prince."

Li Tai glanced at them, and saw that they were all dark, with a lot of black coal dust on their bodies, but their bodies were still burly.

"Excuse me, keep working." Li Shimin waved him off.

"Yes, Your Majesty!!"

With Li Shimin's permission, the team moved forward again.

"Bang!" At this moment, the sound of explosives exploding came from afar.

Li Tai was a little surprised, squinting his eyes and looking into the distance, he could see wisps of light smoke rising from the same mine in the distance.

My God, this is not using blast to open a mine! !

And the transportation team together suddenly started whispering.

"The sky thunder is ringing again!"

"I'm going to be tired again!"

"I don't know how many copper mines there will be this time!"

Apparently, they were used to the sound of explosions.

Seeing Li Tai's surprised expression, Li Shimin said with a very proud face.

"Dynamite is powerful, and it can save a lot of manpower and time when used to mine ore!"

"..." Li Tai raised his brows, thinking that you, Li Er, are really a genius, so you don't have to worry about the copper mine.

"It's just..." Li Shimin sighed when the topic changed.

"Using explosives to mine copper ore, the copper ore is naturally not scarce, but the coal that is scarce!"

"Lack of coal?" Li Tai's eyes showed doubts, so many people transported coal, how could there be a shortage of coal?

Li Shimin sighed and explained: "Even the nearest coal mine is more than 20 miles away, which is not worth the consumption of copper mines."

No wonder, you Li Er directly built a copper smelting base near the copper mine.

Copper mines can be exploded with explosives, packed manually, and transported down the mountain. Mining and transportation are basically negligible.

But the lack of coal cannot be mined with explosives. This thing is combustible. If one fails to detonate methane or something like that, I'm afraid it will be lost on the spot.

Therefore, coal mines can only be excavated by hand, and then transported here from twenty miles away.

This speed seriously hinders the smelting of copper mines, so there will be a team transporting coal all the way.

After a while.

Li Shimin stopped in his tracks, raised his head to signal Li Tai and said, "Here we are!"

Li Tai looked up and saw the blast furnace and two stone platforms, ore stacking, living quarters, livestock...

Everything is similar to the iron-making base, except that there are more people, livestock, and minerals on the other side.

"With a copper smelting base, there will be a steady stream of money, and the Li family no longer has to worry about lack of money."

Li Shimin stroked his beard, and said with a proud expression: "I don't have to worry about being short of money anymore!!"

"Er..." Li Tai pondered for a long time.

From a certain point of view, it is true that copper and silver represent currency, but too much currency will depreciate and the economic system will collapse! !

No, Li Shimin's nonsense must be canceled.

Thinking of this, Li Tai looked serious, and hurriedly said, "Father, I'm afraid this won't work."

"No? Why not?" Li Shimin turned his head and asked Li Tai with a surprised look.

why not?Of course it is because of the depreciation of the currency! !

But obviously, Li Shimin doesn't know what currency devaluation is, nor does he know what a financial crisis is.

Li Tai thought for a while, pondered for a moment, then began to count and said.

"If the output of a furnace is calculated at a minimum of [-] catties.

Ten copper coins weigh one tael, and 200 jin of copper is equivalent to [-] million copper coins.

If it was necessary to cast 200 million copper coins in the past, I don't know how much manpower and material resources it will cost.

Now that's just one batch of yields!

Not only that, this furnace can also extract a lot of silver. "

"That's right, so this blast furnace is a treasure!" Li Shimin was very excited when he heard that, this is simply a money printing machine.

As soon as the subject changed, Li Tai immediately began to pour cold water on him: "But has your father ever thought that if too much money is minted, then the money will be worthless!!"

"How can money be worthless?"

Li Shimin frowned, feeling puzzled and amused, because he had never heard of money being worthless in his life.

Because copper is very scarce in China, it has always been short of copper in all dynasties. It is said that because of the lack of copper, bullets are made of steel.

Li Tai looked at the smile on Li Shimin's face and understood Li Er's worry.

But this must prevent him from doing so. The output of the blast furnace will definitely have a huge impact on the current economy

How to give an example?I don't really understand this thing myself.

Li Tai looked pensive, turned his eyes, and paced.

"Taking grain as an example, the price of grain in the peaceful and prosperous times has always been low, about one penny per catty.

But if there is a war, the food is scarce, there is no market, and it is even more expensive than gold.

In the same way, if too much money is produced, then the money is worthless! "

The smile on Li Shimin's face gradually disappeared, his brows were gradually furrowed, and he began to think.

This metaphor is very vivid. In feudal dynasties, grain also had the nature of currency, and you could use grain and cloth to buy what you wanted.

The price of grain will also fluctuate, and a saying that is often heard is that cheap grain hurts farmers.

In the prosperous times, there was too much food, which led to a drop in prices, which would hurt the enthusiasm of the cultivators.