Taiyuan is currently the Yuan clan town, since the Yuan family surrendered to Chang'an, Yuan Xuanhu was named the king, under the jurisdiction of Taiyuan north of the eight states, the army has increased to 50,000.

In the land of the four wars in Hedong, the Yuan family was not safe, but the direct threat to them was one south and one north, with Zhu Tao in the north and Li Huaiguang in the south.

In last year and this year, Li Huaiguang has sent troops north on a small scale three times, all of which were defeated by the defenders of Jiexiu County, Li Huaiguang was named the king of Jin, of course he wants to rule the whole territory of Hedong, he is the biggest enemy of the Taiyuan Yuan clan, and he may go north on a large scale at any time.

There is also Zhu Tao, Zhu Tao once invaded Hedong, but was defeated by Li Sheng's men and had to retreat to Youzhou in embarrassment, but his ambition is still unfulfilled, he still occupies Jingcheng and Flying Fox, and will also send troops south at any time.

It was these two threats that made the Yuan family dare not take it lightly and sent heavy troops to defend the three passages in the north and south.

During this time, the Yuan family discovered Zhu Tao's intelligence network in Taiyuan, and the army searched the whole city, arresting a total of 27 spies, making Taiyuan City restless.

In the palace, Yuan Xuanhu was listening to the report of his nephew Yuan Zheng, who was the general of Qilinwei, commanding 5,000 people, responsible for maintaining the internal security of Taiyuan, and dealing with the spies planted by the enemy army in Taiyuan, which was also his important duty.

"The lowly position has been repeatedly determined, Zhu Tao's spies in Taiyuan have all been arrested, and no one has escaped, Li Huaiguang's spies in Taiyuan are also being investigated, according to the current clues, Li Huaiguang's spies are likely to be arranged in Taiyuan and Jiexiu."

Yuan Xuanhu pondered for a moment and said: "I have three requirements, first, whether Zhu Tao has spies in other counties, he must be tortured strictly; Second, Li Huaiguang's spies should be found as soon as possible and wiped out; Third, do other feudal towns have spies in Taiyuan? I suspect that there is, so we must also be careful to investigate, not to take it lightly, especially Zhu Zhu, he and we are only separated by a Yellow River, I heard that he and Guo Song signed an armistice contract, then he will inevitably go all out to the east, it is very likely to cooperate with Zhu Tao to attack Taiyuan in the north and south, and Guo Song, he has already taken Fengzhou, in fact, it borders Yunzhou, and it is also possible to attack Taiyuan, so the two of them are also likely to have spies in Taiyuan, and they must be strictly prevented and controlled. ”

"Ignorance, understood!"

Yuan Xuanhu asked again: "How is the arrangement of going to Hexi to buy war horses?" ”

"Back to the prince, a few days ago, news came from Hexi, the latest regulations of the Hexi government stipulate that foreign merchants must use Hexi money, gold and silver or barter to trade in Hexi, and they are not allowed to buy copper coins directly."

Yuan Xuanhu was stunned, "What do you mean?" ”

Yuan Zheng explained: "That is to say, when they go to Hexi to trade, they don't recognize copper coins, they only recognize gold and silver and physical goods, or they mint Hexi money by themselves." ”

"It's just nonsense, who will have Hexi money, gold and silver are so precious, who is willing to take it out?"

"So now the merchants who go to Hexi to trade are all bringing goods, general goods are not enough, the government only buys a few kinds of goods, cloth, tea cakes, medicinal materials, paper, pen and ink, copperware, pig iron, wood and daily necessities, like other luxury goods, silk, famous porcelain, jewelry, etc., you can take it yourself and sell it, but the government does not accept it, if the government does not accept it, the war horse can not be bought, at most you can only buy some wine, sheepskin, cotton and the like."

"What is cotton?" Yuan Xuanhu asked puzzled.

"It is the white stack, which is planted in large quantities in Anxi, used to replace cotton, cashmere, duck down, etc., to make winter clothes or bedding, very warm, and it is said that it is very popular in Chang'an now."

Yuan Xuanhu nodded, "How much can you buy a war horse?" ”

"Hexi does not restrict the purchase of war horses, but the problem is how to send them back, buy too much, Zhu Zhu will definitely start, according to the understanding of the lowly position, it is generally to buy five hundred horses, which is the upper limit of Zhu Jun's permission to cross."

"We need at least three thousand horses, and we can come from Toyosu, but I want to know, how much cloth are needed?"

"About 150,000 pieces of cloth, but we can transport it by boat, use the Yellow River to transport it, and send it to Jincheng County, Lanzhou, where there is the Municipal Shipping Office of the Hexi Government, sell it directly to the government, and take the horse to Liangzhou to pick up the war horse."

Yuan Xuanhu quickly estimated in his heart, and asked the Hui people to buy horses, the price was two hundred pieces of cloth, obviously slaughtering themselves, buying horses from Hexi only cost fifty pieces of cloth, although the price was not cheap, but at least it was much cheaper than Hui Hui, and the warehouse had enough cloth, and the exchange of three thousand war horses to form a cavalry, this deal was still very cost-effective.

Yuan Xuanhu immediately decided: "Just buy 3,000 war horses and send them back from Fengzhou." ”

.........

Yanzhou is today's Yan'an, belongs to Guannei Road, the north is the towering Great Wall, the north bank of the Great Wall is Xiazhou, the northeast is Suizhou, the north of Suizhou is Yinzhou, and at present Xiazhou and Yinzhou have been controlled by the Hexi Army.

There were very few troops stationed in Yanzhou, only 1,000 state soldiers, stationed in Zhifushi County, and only responsible for maintaining local law and order.

Yanzhou basically has no special products, but it produces an extremely important strategic material, Gaonu oil, that is, fire oil, there are many such self-spilling wells in Yanzhou, and the most important wells have been controlled by the government, and it is strictly forbidden to sell them to feudal towns and foreign races.

Dozens of other private wells were generally unmanaged, and for decades, smuggling was rampant, and the feudal towns obtained large quantities of thermal oil by various means.

There is a wealthy family in Yanzhou, called the Gongsun family, and the Gongsun family controls at least half of the more than 30 small oil wells controlled by the private owner, and the Gongsun family has also made a lot of money and become the largest wealthy family in Yanzhou.

The head of the Gongsun family is called Gongsun Liang, about fifty years old, with a lion nose and square face, and a dignified appearance, during this time Gongsun Liang was worried, the war that broke out in Shuofang in the north made him feel insecure, as the head of the family, he must be responsible for the life and death of the family, and now the situation is so chaotic, where should they hide?

That afternoon, Gongsun Liang was sitting in the study hall reading a book, when footsteps sounded in the courtyard, and he immediately heard the excited voice of his brother Gongsun Qing, "Big brother, are you here?" ”

Gongsun Qing is the fifth brother of Gongsun Liang, responsible for the sale of the family's high slave oil, Gongsun Qing is exquisite, very good at observing words and feelings, Gongsun Liang is very important to him, and hands over the most important assets of the family to him.

"What's the matter? I'm in a hurry. Gongsun Liang put down the book and glared at him.

Gongsun Qing rushed in and said in a low voice: "Big brother, big thing!" ”

"What's the matter?"

"Today, a merchant came to buy high-slave oil, and he asked for 5,000 barrels as soon as he opened his mouth."

Gongsun Liang was also taken aback, a barrel of oil is fifty catties, five thousand barrels is two hundred and fifty thousand catties, and all the inventory in their warehouse is only three thousand barrels.

Gongsun Liang immediately realized that this must be a feudal town to buy oil, and he has bought a lot of oil here over the years, and it is hundreds of barrels to buy it, but it is the first time that a feudal town that buys 5,000 barrels of oil has heard of it.

"Which feudal town is it?"

Seeing that the eldest brother reacted sharply, Gongsun Qing couldn't help but give a thumbs up and praised: "The eldest brother is smart!" ”

"Nonsense, which one the hell?"

Gongsun Qing took out a coin from his bosom and handed it to his brother, "They are going to pay the bill with this!" ”

Gongsun Liang took the money, his eyes suddenly narrowed into a slit, this turned out to be a piece of money, a gold coin, and the bottom was engraved with the three seal characters of 'Hexi Casting'.

"Guo Song sent someone over?" Gongsun Liang asked with surprise in his eyes.

"The person who came is Cangcao from Hexi Jiedu Mansion to join the army, called Zhang Chen."

Gongsun nodded brightly, he had heard that this Zhang Chen was in charge of the warehouse materials of Hexi Jiedu Mansion, nicknamed 'Zhang Caizhu', but he didn't expect him to come out in person.

"Big brother, do this business or not?"

Gongsun Liang paced back and forth in the lobby with his hands in his hands, although the Gongsun family was rich and powerful in Yanzhou, but in the eyes of the feudal town, they were nothing, so Gongsun Liang had long wanted to hug his thighs, he once sent someone to Chang'an and donated 5,000 yuan to Zhu Zhu's army, and Zhu Zhu gave him the title of Earl of Fushi County.

At first, he was still proud, thinking that the Gongsun family had a backer, but soon, the Zhao family, another big family in Yanzhou, donated 2,000 yuan and was also named the county earl of Fushi, Gongsun Liang realized that Zhu Jun didn't take their family seriously at all, how could there be a county name given to the two counts, which made him extremely disappointed, think about it, the imperial court has ten big oil wells in Yanzhou, where will they put a small oil well like them in their eyes.

In addition to Zhu Zhu, it is either the Taiyuan Yuan family, but the strength of the Yuan family is still a little weaker, I am afraid it will not be reliable, until the Hexi Army captured Shuofang, Gongsun Liang's eyes finally fell on Guo Song, this is a real powerful faction!

He was still worried that he couldn't find a chance to hug Guo Song's thigh, but he didn't expect the opportunity to come.

Thinking of this, Gongsun Liang immediately said to his brother: "You make arrangements, I want to see Zhang join the army!" ”

..........