A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

In the seventh year of the Zhenguan era, as the New Year approached, bad news was placed on the table of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin.

The silver and gold mountains on the Japanese islands, which have been mined by people from the Central Plains for thousands of years, are about to be depleted.

This was an inexhaustible gold and silver mountain for China, and it's gone so quickly.

How can this be allowed?

Why does he always seem to run into all sorts of bad luck?!

Li Shimin cursed inwardly.

This would be a major source of income for the Tang Dynasty. Based on the current situation, it is estimated that the remaining gold and silver mines are not only extremely scattered, but also of low purity, making them very difficult to mine. They are neither worth keeping nor worth discarding.

"Have the people sent to the Japanese islands to search for gold and silver mines still not found them?"

Historically, the phenomenon of "mountains of gold and silver" running out has occurred more than once. Ever since this first happened, and the emperors of the Divine Empire realized that the gold and silver on that island were not unlimited, each emperor has sent people to explore the island in search of new gold and silver.

Over the past thousand years, many gold and silver mines have been discovered, which has enabled the mines to continue operating until now.

However, ever since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, people have been sent to search for it, but until now, no good news has come.

The Sui Dynasty also sent people to search for it, but to no avail. It seemed that the gold and silver mines on the island were finally about to be exhausted.

The site being excavated now by the Tang Dynasty was found during the Qian Dynasty, and it will soon be completely emptied.

If this news gets out, it will definitely cause a major earthquake.

Although gold and silver mines of various sizes were found in the Tang Dynasty, the gold and silver mountains on that island brought a greater shock to the people of China.

A small island had gold and silver mines that had been mined for 800 years, bringing countless riches to the Divine Empire. Countless people had a distorted view of that continent, believing it to be covered in inexhaustible gold and silver.

If the news were to spread, the people would be shocked by the government's financial strength.

Li Shimin was already troubled by this news, and then he discovered that there was another memorial below this one.

He opened it and found that it was related to the group of miners.

Those mining slaves felt that they had been mining for the Divine Empire for eight hundred years, and now that the mines were finally about to be exhausted, they hoped that after the mines were depleted, they could enjoy the same treatment as citizens of the Divine Empire, and enjoy the same policies and education.

This is the result of their generations of hard work. The Tang Dynasty should support them in establishing an empire, transferring all its political, economic, cultural, and essential resources to them, making them the legitimate rulers of the land, as a reward for their eight hundred years of hard work mining.

Li Shimin was so angry at the slaves' words that he almost laughed. He was already troubled by the impending depletion of the gold and silver mines, and now these slaves were trying to get his attention.

"Without gold and silver mines, there's no need for miners anymore. Let's use them to build roads and houses. Slaves should act like slaves."

Li Shimin said indifferently.

After the imperial edict reached the Secretariat, none of the ministers had any objections.

Since ancient times, the natives of Wa Nu Island have been mining slaves of the Divine Empire, generation after generation. Now that the mines are exhausted, their status as slaves will not change.

Li Shimin could arrange them however he wanted, let alone use them for infrastructure construction.

"There are still some gold and silver mines in China, but mining them is extremely labor-intensive. Why not transport a batch to the Central Plains and continue mining them? This would be a way to carry on our family business, make the most of our resources, and prevent them from losing their heritage."

Fang Xuanling submitted a memorial to the throne.

"allow."

Li Shimin waved his hand and directly approved Fang Xuanling's request.

Even in the Tang Dynasty, native slaves still had no human rights. Large numbers of mining slaves were transported from the Japanese islands back to the Central Plains and sent to various mines to work. With their skillful methods, they contributed to the development of the Tang Dynasty.

"Relying on gold and silver mines is not a legitimate means. Even without them, I, Li Shimin, can still make the world prosperous and strong."

Li Shimin rubbed his temples and spoke in front of all the ministers at the grand court assembly.

The news that the gold and silver mines on the island of Wa was about to be completely depleted shocked the entire known world.

The legend of the Japanese islands circulated not only in the Tang Dynasty, but throughout the entire Yanhuang civilization sphere.

That inexhaustible gold and silver mountain was finally exhausted after being mined for a full 800 years.

This caused a surge in gold and silver prices domestically, with countless people exchanging copper coins and various food supplies for gold and silver to hoard.

Without the source of gold and silver from the Japanese islands, the Tang Dynasty's gold and silver reserves would only dwindle.

Scarcity increases value, and the price will continue to rise.

Store it now, and it will definitely appreciate in value in the future.

However, this had little to do with ordinary people, who still used copper coins and had no need for precious metal currencies like gold and silver.

On the contrary, because these powerful families sold off various goods and exchanged them for gold and silver, the prices of various ordinary goods dropped significantly, indirectly benefiting the common people.

In addition, with various interventions from the imperial court, the lives of ordinary people were not affected.

However, the hoarding of gold and silver by various powerful families had a very negative impact on the operation of the imperial court.

Because these powerful families hoarded gold and silver, they would desperately store it away or take it underground.

This is very detrimental to the economic circulation of the entire country.

However, they all exchanged gold and silver through legitimate means, and the imperial court could not forcibly seize them, leaving Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and others extremely busy.

In the eighth year of the Zhenguan era, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, received another message from Changsun Wuji.

Another great change occurred in the Great Xia Dynasty.

The young emperor of the Great Xia Dynasty has officially come of age. Now that he has officially reached adulthood, he has begun to show dissatisfaction with the prime minister's control of the government. However, under the prime minister's various ideological influences, he is more concerned about the threat posed by the power of the imperial clan.

Because the prime minister is only seizing power, while the imperial relatives also have the right to inherit; what they want to fight for is the throne.

At least that's how the young emperor sees it.

The two sides have cooperated fairly well over the years, but no matter how capable Changsun Wuji is, one person can never be a match for the entire civil official group.

Over the years, they have barely managed to stay afloat, and the territory of their clansmen and military generals has shrunk considerably.

The death of Wu Pingwang, the pillar of the clan's military power, left the group leaderless, making matters even worse.

After Changsun Wuji noticed the rift between the young emperor and the prime minister, he chose to feign weakness and secretly contact the young emperor, expressing his loyalty and claiming that it was all the prime minister's doing, and that they had always been loyal to the emperor.

Faced with Changsun Wuji's sweet talk, the young emperor believed it to be true.

In recent years, the opposing forces have been continuously weakened, and with the help of military achievements, the Prime Minister's power has become increasingly greater and more stable.

If he continues to grow up, the young emperor will truly lose all hope of winning.

If he could subdue the fragmented military clans now, he might be able to use this opportunity to directly eliminate the prime minister and regain power!