The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 525 The Miners Regain Their Freedom

It took the entire army three days to transport all the tens of tons of jade raw materials down from Mishan.

Even Gan Minglan, who had never been interested in jade, admitted that she had been amazed this time.

In both of my lifetimes combined, I have never seen such a large quantity and weight of jade.

Before jadeite from Southeast Asia flowed into the Central Plains, Hetian jade dominated the aesthetics of the Han people for thousands of years.

Among them, the most exquisite of all is mutton fat jade.

When she made a zero-dollar purchase at the Kashgar Khan Royal Palace, she received a number of gemstones, including various ornaments carved from mutton-fat white jade.

Among them was a nearly flawless white horse, about the size of a palm, which she had kept for several years.

The surface of the jade horse is as smooth as a baby's skin, and you can feel the oily resistance when you push it.

It is oily but not transparent, and appears translucent under strong light, with cloud-like flocculent patterns visible.

Don't tell me yet.

She grew to love this mutton fat jade carving more and more with each handling and polishing.

But now, even the piles of jade raw materials are becoming tiresome and unappealing.

The Mishan jade mine is simply the one with the longest mining history and the largest mining volume.

There are more than a dozen jade mines of varying sizes in Khotan.

One night a few days later.

Lu Ye, Hu Tou, and more than twenty personal guards, along with Gou Gou, furtively carried five large sacks into Gan Minglan's tent.

The feeling of being slept with was simply unbearable to watch!

Gan Minglan knew without guessing that it must contain the good stuff these guys got from various mines.

really.

Needless to say, there were sacks full of mutton fat jade.

The red jade, as bright as a rooster's comb and with a greasy luster, with its purplish-red parts resembling congealed blood and its crimson parts resembling cinnabar, is priceless. There are more than a dozen pieces, each the size of a human head.

There are also top-quality jades, such as yellow jade and sugar jade, each piece of which is a fine material that has been cut open.

It's so shiny it's practically glowing!

Gan Minglan had no choice but to accept these gifts as a token of filial piety.

There are rules on the battlefield.

Soldiers risk their lives on the battlefield; who wouldn't want to acquire spoils of war afterward?

Those jade stones, weighing hundreds or even thousands of kilograms, are too conspicuous. They have been registered and will be sent to Shangdu in a few days.

The sealed-off mines all belonged to the imperial court.

However, the loose stones in the mine's inventory must be considered spoils of war.

These days, the guards' mouths are so wide open that even an AK can't hide it.

With the closure of these jade mines, more than 8,000 miners were found in Khotan, a region with a population of only tens of thousands.

According to the customs of the Hu people, once these people entered the mine, they could not leave unless they were either dead or severely maimed.

Just like that, they were told they were free!
The miners couldn't hold back their sobs and burst into tears:
"Waaah, I'm not a slave, I'm a commoner. My home is on the X Grassland. I was knocked unconscious while herding livestock and brought into the mine."

"General, General, I am a Han Chinese! I have been sold to Mishan from the Northwest for eleven years. What is the situation outside? Have the Angmen Bei Kingdom even reached the homeland of the Hu people? How is the Emperor?"

"Ah! Ah! Ah! General, why didn't you come sooner? If you had come a month earlier, my younger brother wouldn't have died from exhaustion in the mine."

"."Those who were kidnapped, sold, or cheated included Han Chinese, Uyghurs, and Hui people—truly all sorts of people.

They had one thing in common: they hadn't seen a single penny in all the years they had been mining.

They thought they were going to die in the mines, but it turned out that the Western Expeditionary Army saved their lives.

When the Han miners learned that the dynasty had changed and that a powerful emperor was now sitting on the dragon throne in the capital, they were filled with immense pride.

After the Kansai Army read out a series of policies to benefit the people in the Western Regions, these Han Chinese miners expressed their willingness to stay.

Those Uyghurs and Hui miners who received fifty taels of compensation returned to their respective tribes and raved about the Western Expeditionary Army.

They repeatedly emphasized to their people:

"The Kansai Army does not indiscriminately kill innocent people! They only target anti-government nobles and holy warriors; they treat us commoners and Han Chinese the same way!"

Tribe member: "Our tribe has also produced several holy warriors!"

The returning miner said, "That was before. As long as their descendants didn't seek revenge, the Kansai Army would let bygones be bygones!"

Clan member: "What's the difference between them and those noble lords? Aren't they all just sucking our blood and relying on us for support?"

Returning miners:

"It's different. After the Kansai Army took over us, their families also had to move here to build military settlements. These soldiers also farm and herd sheep when there's no fighting! They can support themselves without us, just by relying on the military settlements! The policy for us is a three-year tax exemption!"

Clan members:

"Tell me quickly what this household registration system means? If we register truthfully, won't they know our tribe's activity patterns and population size, making it easy for them to control us in the future?"

Returning miners:

"Registering your household registration is not to control you! Only by obtaining the commoner household registration of the Yongtai Dynasty can you be considered a citizen of the Celestial Empire. As a citizen of the Celestial Empire, the garrison must protect us."

Most importantly, with this household registration, you can get free land, high-yield seeds, and farming tools! In the Kansai region, wheat yields four to five shi (a unit of dry measure) per mu (a unit of land measurement) on barren land in the first year. Tell me, do you want to plant it or not?”

Clan member: "Only a fool wouldn't want to!"

The miners who returned home continued to enthusiastically promote the product:

"The centurion who brought us back said that the Kwantung Army will build ten cotton weaving workshops in Kucha, Aksu, Kashgar, and Khotan. In the future, the high-yield cotton we grow will fetch a high price. The price of cotton will be much higher than that of grain!"

The clansmen were astonished: "Cotton seeds can be high-yielding? The Han people are truly skilled at seed cultivation! This is great, this is wonderful!"

Returning miners:

"The benefits don't stop there. With weaving workshops, there will be a need for female workers to weave cloth. The girls and women of the tribe can go into the weaving workshops to earn wages. The centurion said that in the weaving workshops in Guanzhong, even the most ordinary female workers can earn two taels of silver a month!"

The tribesman said, "What? They actually made Guli, who is not yet married, go to work to earn money? That won't do! Guli can only stay at home and do chores! Aren't the Han people very particular about the separation of men and women?"

Returning miners:

"The weaving workshop there is full of female workers. Only Guli and the old women are suitable for weaving!"

Clan member: "."

Returning miners:

"Also, wasn't the capital city of Shache burned down? The Guanzhong Army will build a Protectorate of the Western Regions on the site of the old capital city."

They even invited us to work on the construction site and paid us! Two hundred coins a day, paid once a day! After finishing this Protectorate, we still have to continue building roads eastward; the work is endless, simply impossible to finish.”

Clan member: "With such a garrison from the Protectorate General, it seems the Yongtai Dynasty won't give up on us easily!"

Some rebellious tribes fell silent after hearing that the Han people would build the Protectorate directly on the site of the old capital of Shache and station 100,000 troops there.

Can't beat it, really can't beat it!