The official has achieved a certain degree of success, but it is actually almost the same as the emperor, especially those royal family members with their own fiefs. Although there is a sharp sword hanging above their heads, if they do not commit crimes like the Heavenly Rules, then the entire fief is almost completely decided by him.

The Prince Zhenyi wanted the glory of his father back then, with a greater fiefdom and more rights, but the prince's treatment was obviously not comparable to the prince's treatment.

Similarly, he also envied everything Ye Qing had in the north. No matter what, it would be enough to tell the court. Even if he was in a bad mood, he could completely ignore the court's attitude and do whatever he wanted in the north.

Everything is superficial. Behind the scenery in front of people, there are often huge bitterness and bitterness hidden. For these, ambitious ambitious people are often unwilling to face them. Even if they know them, they would rather ignore them. After all, the temptation of power is far more longing for them than the bitterness and bitterness behind them.

In December of the third year of Chunxi, Liu Ke returned to the Longcheng Barracks under Xia Guo. At this time, Ye Qing had been in Longcheng for a full month.

The Longcheng Barracks, which were established by Liu Ke's division for only one year, have now become a huge military base. The troops of Jingzhao Prefecture and the Hetao Routes all came from here. In addition, the old army of various ranks were reorganized under the leadership of Ye Qing, so that the six armies of Jingzhao Prefecture's fourth army had reached 200,000 in number.

Wang Chong and Xie Lun, who were entrusted with important tasks by Liu Ke, were indeed the best candidates who were placed in Longcheng Barracks as Liu Ke said.

In Ye Qing's words, these two people are born to be good seedlings in commanding the barracks, food, grass, and military weapons, but they are by no means suitable for leading troops to the battlefield, or even not at all.

Although the word "giant in thought, coward in action" is sometimes biased, after just over a month of contact and school entrance examination, Ye Qing now knows the best function of these two people, just like political workers in later generations, it is suitable for political work and brainwashing the soldiers who came to Longcheng Barracks, so that they can develop a firm loyalty in their hearts.

But if such theoretical strong men are to take their soldiers to fight, they will infinitely amplify their weaknesses that are superior to those who talk about it on paper and are poorer than actual combat.

In short, in Ye Qing's opinion, these two men in Longcheng Barracks are just two dragons. When you walk out of Longcheng Barracks and go to the battlefield, you will instantly turn into two insects. No matter how powerful the troops you give them, you will be defeated in the shortest time, and you will not even have any bones left.

"After the spring of next year, you can build a town in Jishi. As for sending troops to help Li An seize the throne, the lower officials signaled to them in a vague manner, but it can be seen that both Li An and the hot public martial arts seemed very cautious and unwilling to bother with the lower officials on this issue, but they did not clearly refuse." After hearing Ye Qing's evaluation of Wang Chong, Liu Keshi's face was a little embarrassed. In fact, he also knew the weaknesses of Wang Chong and Xie Lun.

Just as he knew very well that he could only be an aide under Ye Qing's command, he would never be able to become a general like Li Heng and Tian Lin, let alone become a confidant like Zhong Can and Mo Xiaobao, nor would he become a brave and resourceful person like Yu Yunwen and Xin Qiji.

His advantages are very obvious, and his weaknesses are also very obvious. The most direct manifestation is that Wang Chong and Xie Lun, who he cultivated, are almost the copy of his Liu Keshi, who are almost exactly the same as his Liu Keshi. They are a master of theory and a novice in actual combat.

"Sir, it seems that if we want to lead our troops into the summer openly, we will not be suspected by them. This matter is very difficult. Hot Gongji, Li An and others are not stupid people, so they are very careful of you." Liu Keshi glanced at Ye Qing who was not speaking and had to continue.

"Please give the silver you brought back to Xie Lun. No matter whether we are going to enter Xia, war horses, armor, and various weapons next year, we should prepare enough. Guanshan and Longcheng must be our important rear area. With the accumulation of stones next year, the merchants traveling to and from Xia and Song will naturally become part of our means to transport food, grass and other things. Before the troops moved, food and grass were first, and now there are a total of 100,000 cavalrymen. In this way, a army of 200,000 gathered here. If nothing is done, it would be a waste to just raise it." Ye Qing looked at the thick window paper in the room, pounding by the sharp north wind outside, and his hands were placed on the charcoal fire of the iron furnace and moving back and forth.

"As for Hot La Gongji, Li An is not as good as before. Since they are wary of it, let's open the gap from Li Chunyou. Su Dao is the only military general that Li An can rely on. Beiwei defeated Gongguanshan, and the pain of losing his son, now in the eyes of Li An and Hot La Gongji, it is no longer as important as before. So from now until the beginning of spring next year, or before the Mongols sent troops to conquer Liao, we must find a way to let Li Chunyou and Li An

The relationship became tense, allowing them to secretly dispatch troops to guard against each other while smelling the danger. In this way, as long as Temujin starts war with Liao, we can add another fire to the tension between the two forces of Xia. At that time, Su Dao alone will inevitably be exhausted to deal with it. Li An is not orthodox after all, and people's hearts will obviously still stand on Li Chunyou's side. Once they have a conflict, they will inevitably ask us for help." Ye Qing sighed slightly.

"Sir, there is another thing that is not very optimistic... I want to discuss with you." Liu Keshi seemed a little embarrassed at this time, and even said nervously.

"Tell me," Ye Qing said lightly without hesitation.

"Sir, I have worked very hard over the past year, but now what we call 100,000 cavalry is just a number. If we really want to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, I am afraid... the cavalry with a combat power of 60,000 or 70,000 is already the limit." Liu Keshi had previously tried to seek merit, or to be appreciated by Ye Qing, and gave him a greater place to display his talents, so he was sloppy in the number of war horses and cavalry that Ye Qing valued the most.

Yes, if the number of war horses is accurately counted, it will definitely reach as many as 100,000, but there are far less than that of those who can go to the battlefield. In addition to some underage, there are still untamed, or those who are old enough to carry some supplies between Longcheng and Guanshan. The remaining ones are optimistically estimated, and less than 70% of the real war horses are left.

After saying it truthfully, Liu Keshi faced Ye Qing's smiling gaze, a layer of sweat gradually began to seep out of his forehead, and his back was also as sticky as roasted in fire.

With a thump, Liu Ke's knees softened and he knelt directly in front of Ye Qing, and said in panic: "Sir, the lower official knows that such deception is a crime, but Sir, the lower official really wants to follow the higher sacred sky and land, so he came up with this inferior plan. Sir..."

The fear of Ye Qing is from the fear of Ye Qing. Even though he met in Yangzhou in the first place to the present, Ye Qing has never been angry with him, but in Liu Ke’s heart, he has always been extremely afraid of Ye Qing.

"Can you get up and talk and kneel on the ground solve the problem?" Ye Qing said lightly, and then after Liu Keshi stood up, he still had an easy-going smile on his face: "If I don't come to Longcheng Barracks, will you tell me the truth?"

"Sure." Liu Keshi said without hesitation: "In fact, when the Lord sent the Lord to Xia Kingdom, the Lord had already written a document to hand it over to the Lord and told the Lord the truth. But later he learned that the Lord was going to the Longcheng Barracks in person, the Lord... The Lord did not dare to shake this matter out because he was extremely scared. However, please rest assured that the Lord did not intend to hide it all the time. The Lord wanted to use the matter of serving the Xia Kingdom to make up for the merits. In this way, the Lord thought that the Lord would not have any disputes with the Lord. Moreover, the Lord also believed that when the Lord arrived in Longcheng, he would definitely know that the Lord had concealed the matter of the war horse as soon as possible."

"Since that's the case... then don't plan to have a comfortable New Year's Day this year. Just make up for the war horses before spring." Ye Qing said after sighing slightly.

"Sir..." Liu Keshi was very regretful at this moment. If he had a way to do it, he would not hide it or not report it. It was because he boasted about Haikou that he could not make up for the situation now, and he had to count some of the "old, weak, sick and disabled" into the numbers.

"My lord, it's not that the officials are unwilling to do it, but now... the number of war horses that can be traded with the Mongols is extremely limited. In addition, the Mongolians are secretly preparing to conquer Liao and want to obtain war horses from them. This year, Xia lord has worked hard to buy thousands of horses, but he only bought a few thousand horses. On the other side of the Westerners, a war horse dared to ask for 30 guan. The Xia people compensated the adults. The officials gritted their teeth and bought 25,000 guan, but this has already cost 750,000 guan. Lord Li Heng also needs to repair the key passes of Guanshan, such as

As a result, with other costs such as conscription, the lower officials would feel so painful to cut their flesh. It was not only because it was too expensive, but also because the lower officials had to take into account other aspects. There was really no other way." Liu Keshi complained to Ye Qing: "Sir, maybe you don't know that the reason why the lower officials do not agree to buy horses with money is because, if we gave the money to the foreigners and Mongolians, they have always had the tradition of selling and casting them into soldiers, so much money would be refined into weapons by them, which would be even more disadvantageous to us."

Liu Keshi naturally bought war horses with silk, but this also made Liu Keshi, who had always been like a rooster, feel so sad that he would feel sad for several days after trading with the French, Mongolian, and even the Xia people.

A piece of silk is only worth a lot of money here, so a horse costs thirty silk, which is cheap and expensive. In this way, Liu Ke also has to prepare soldiers' armor and clothes, etc. So, look at a horse and then the clothes on soldiers. Liu Ke always screams with pain.

"My Song Dynasty's 9th Road produces tea in 60 prefectures, 242 counties, especially Fujian Road. Over the years, Shi Miyuan's hands have been firmly controlling all this in Fujian, especially when Yangzhou Chamber of Commerce initially purchased from Fujian Road and replaced a large amount of tea, which aroused Shi Miyuan's vigilance, it became very difficult to trade tea and horses. However... everything is now changing..."

"Really?" Master Liu Ke's eyes widened in an instant, and looked at Ye Qing with surprise and asked.

Ye Qing nodded confirmingly, and then said, "But how we exchange it with the French, Mongolian, and Xia people is a problem that we must treat with caution. If we still do not control the amount of tea as before, it will still be unfavorable to us. So now for you, it is a great opportunity to take revenge."

Liu Keshi still looked at Ye Qing with his eyes shining, and nodded repeatedly, "Xiaoguan understands that after suffering a few losses, he has long wanted to take revenge. The French people have always liked the tea on Fujian Road the most. I checked it. Now most of the tea has come from other roads in the past two years, which is optional for the French people. So if there is a large amount of Fujian Road tea, Xiaguan will definitely be able to minimize the price of horses, and strive to control the price between 100 and 150 kilograms while alleviating our use of war horses. How about it?"

There has been a long time since the Tang Dynasty, there has been a precedent for tea to trade with the herds and other herds. However, at that time, whether it was the Tang or the Song Dynasty, when the resources of war horses were not scarce, the price of tea was relatively higher. After the Song Dynasty moved south, especially when the north had not recovered a city and a land, the Song Dynasty and the Fans often played the role of suckers in the war horse transactions.

When the founding of the Song Dynasty, the transactions of tea and horses during the trade between the two countries could still be maintained. One hundred kilograms of tea could be exchanged for a good price for a war horse. After the arrival of the south, the Song court completely became a sucker. During the several northern expeditions during the reign of the Supreme Emperor, the demand for war horses increased sharply, which also led to the price of the foreigners and Xia people on the ground, which made the price of a war horse rise to a war horse that could only be exchanged for a thousand kilograms of tea.

Now most of the northern regions have been recovered, especially the Hetao Third Road has been recovered. Even though it only took only one year, a small part of the grassland was held in the hands, so that Jingzhao Prefecture or Ye Qing could already bargain calmly when dealing with the foreigners.

Therefore, it is actually difficult for Master Liu Ke to lower the price to between 100 and 150 kilograms. After all, everyone knows that when the price rises, it is always unaware of it. When it comes to reducing the price of scarce resources, it is a bit more difficult than climbing to the sky.

What's more, the foreigners have always been greedy. Although they have a lot of war horses, sometimes when trading with the Song Ting, who is stupid and has a lot of money, they often have a mentality of not being too bad than being too bad, which makes the Song Ting, who has no bargaining chips, can only trade according to the price set by others.

So now, under the strict defense of the Fujian Chamber of Commerce, after finally finding more business opportunities and tea, Ye Qing, through tea, exchanged war horses with the foreigners, can not only ensure that the people's livelihood in the north is at the lowest standard of food and clothing, but also establish a good relationship with the foreigners through the trading method of tea and horse trading, so that once they want to invade the summer time, the foreigners will not be wary of them.

The compensation Ye Qing exchanged for his life from the Xia people in Guanshan has played a huge role in this year. Although Ye Qing has not seen the mountains of gold and silver in the negotiations so far, those huge wealth seems to have never existed, or it is like the Xia people never paid compensation.

But now, if you have a closer look, look at the six passes in Guanshan, look at the scale of the Longcheng barracks, look at the bright and sharp weapons in the Military Arts Division, the groups of horses that breed ponies on the grasslands of Hetao 3rd Route, and the satisfaction of the victims who were placed around Jingzhao Prefecture, and some of the foundations that Jingzhao Prefecture started to expand last year, etc., it is enough to know how important the money paid by the Xia people and Jin people to Ye Qing in the battle of Guanshan have played in this year.

Robbery, plunder, war colonization is often the fastest and most direct way to make money. This method is so unfavorable at any time.

Whether it is the power at this time or the later era of maritime power, it is like the world that there is no faster way to get rich quickly than to use war to plunder resources.

European colonialism persecuted the homes of many people. Even now, Europe is still a place that people yearn for. In museums, exquisite historical relics from foreign lands are still nakedly showing off their barbaric power era. Similarly, the wealth plundered is still exerting the remaining energy of prosperity for their current country.

So before Ye Qing attacked Xia, he began to breed involuntarily in his heart. The strength of the Mongols should not harm their own people. It is best to stop all the way west, and do not kill all the way with the slightest compassion and crush them ruthlessly with the iron hooves of the east.
Chapter completed!