Li An came to Xiazhou with confidence, if he couldn't settle the horse thieves here, it would be too faceless, and he would be laughed at after he went back, although Li An's reason for coming to Xiazhou had nothing to do with horse thieves, but since everyone went, there were also horse thieves in Xiazhou, so it was necessary to solve it, so as to conform to Li An's consistent style.

Therefore, when he heard that the merchants had a headache about the horse thief, Li An immediately thought of himself, since such a powerful figure as himself has arrived, how can the merchants still need to be afraid of the little horse thief? Isn't that a slap in the face?

However, these merchants just don't give Li An face, because they don't feel that Li An is here to fight the horse thieves, they only care about what they see in front of them, if Li An just came to stand on a high place and make a loud statement, telling all the people in the city that they are here to eliminate the horse thieves, and they will never leave if they don't eliminate the horse thieves, in this way, these merchants may be very happy and full of expectations, but Li An has been here for so long and has not done anything, at least in the eyes of these businessmen, Li An has indeed done nothing, There was no statement, as if it was like air, after coming to Xiazhou City, he quietly hid in his residence, in such a situation, how could the merchants feel that Li An could help them solve the problem of horse thieves.

The development of Datang Daily has been many years, and Ang Lee's name often appears in Datang Daily, but his appearance has never been painted on Datang Daily, so except for people who have seen Ang Lee, ordinary people can't recognize Ang Lee, and Xiazhou is far away from the capital, and the businessmen here won't recognize Ang Lee.

Seeing Li An say such a big thing, one-third of the guests in the entire restaurant turned their attention and looked at Li An quietly, looking a little surprised.

The people who were a little far away didn't hear too clearly, so they just looked at it, and the merchants at the tables next to them walked over directly.

"Brother Tai said that we can't do more than that, but we have all found out clearly, this time the court officials came to Xiazhou for the coal mine, not to exterminate the horse thieves, and they didn't bring many soldiers and horses."

"That's right, we all know that we only brought three hundred soldiers, and such a small number of troops is simply insignificant compared to the eight thousand men and horses in Xiazhou, and I really don't dare to count on it."

"Fortunately, General Guo's soldiers and horses will patrol along the way, which makes the horse thieves can only look for opportunities to attack in the cracks, and we have a good chance of avoiding the horse thieves."

"Yes! When General Guo didn't come last year, we were miserable, six out of ten times we would be robbed, and the loss was too great, not to mention the profits, and we couldn't even earn the capital back! ”

"We all planned to leave Xiazhou forever, it was General Guo who led the troops to come, which gave us hope, although we failed to exterminate the cunning horse thief, but it was enough to make the horse thief jealous, not too presumptuous, now I didn't go ten times to the goods, at most I was robbed twice, and eight times I could successfully transport the goods, although the loss is still not small, but there is also a lot of profit."

"Since Brother Tai said so just now, do you know anything inside?"

A group of businessmen came over and chatted.

Li An thought for a moment and said: "No, no, no, I don't know what the inside story is, it's just a feeling, the horse thief is so arrogant, not to mention the important ministers of the court, even ordinary people can't bear it, and they will definitely teach them a good lesson." ”

"I hope so! We all wish these damned horse thieves were killed sooner? These guys robbed from time to time, and we lost a lot of money. ”

"Yes! We didn't dare to transport too much cargo at a time, for fear of being robbed. ”

The two businessmen spoke.

When Li An heard this, he opened his mouth and said, "Didn't you think about spending a little money and hiring guards to transport goods?" ”

At this time, Li An thought of the institution of the dart board, which has been very popular since ancient times, in order to be able to keep the goods, but Datang really does not have a dart board, which makes many businessmen in the capital suffer losses.

"Brother Tai thinks too simply, horse thieves are very fierce, and the hired guards are too few to have no effect, and they can't beat horse thieves, but if they hire too much, it is also a lot of money, then there will be no profit at all, it is better to take a little risk and secretly transport goods, maybe you can make an extra profit."

"Yes! When the horse thieves are the most, there can be three or five hundred people at a time, each horse thief is very strong, if the escort team does not have the scale of a thousand people, they will not dare to fight at all, even if it is the elite people of the imperial court, it will take two or three hundred to fight against three or five hundred horse thieves, the cost of so many guards is too high, not that we small businessmen can afford. ”

The merchant said helplessly.

Hearing this, Li An nodded approvingly, these businessmen are right, the horse thieves are elusive, the number is sometimes too small, there is no law at all, which brings great difficulties to the encirclement and suppression work, at the same time, the businessmen have to go to different places to do business, there are many transportation routes, and a large number of imperial soldiers and horses are guarded, which is very unrealistic, the imperial court only has a total of eight thousand soldiers and horses in Xiazhou, these soldiers and horses sound like a lot, in fact, there are not many at all, after scattering and garrisoning various counties and state cities, The remaining mobile force is only 5,000 cavalry, and these cavalry have to take turns to rest and rest, so you can't let 5,000 men and horses take turns to work! This will resemble the soldiers, and the military expenditure will also rise sharply, and the court will also have opinions.

There are many people who will always say that when there is a war, military rations and salaries are required, so when there is no war, don't soldiers eat and not lead the army's salary?

This question is very good, but it also seems that he is very unlevel, and soldiers who do not fight also have to eat and lead the army's salary, but once the war is fought, the consumption of these two aspects will be greatly increased, and if there are casualties, the expenditure will increase in the north of the city.

For example, in order to improve the enthusiasm of soldiers, when mobilizing for combat, additional allowances will be given to all soldiers, in the case of many soldiers, this is a large expense, in addition, the soldiers who fight bravely, kill the enemy's soldiers, but also give a large reward, in order to encourage more soldiers to kill the enemy bravely, soldiers are injured, they have to spend money to treat their injuries, and they must also be given nutritional expenses, as for the soldiers who died in battle, the family can not only receive a pension, in addition, the children at home must always be taken care of by the imperial court, and a certain amount of economic compensation will be given every yearuntil the child grows up.

The sum of so many expenses is definitely not a small amount, and even many times that of when there is no war, hundreds of times is possible.

The situation in Xiazhou is even better, after all, the horse thieves are nearby, the distance is not very far, and the food supply of the 8,000 army can be placed in Xiazhou City, and if you go to the border to fight, the 8,000 army needs to be equipped with 80,000 strong laborers, so that they are responsible for transporting grain, grass and weapons, as well as tents and other utensils.

The consumption of 80,000 strong laborers is also very large, and they have to eat themselves along the way, and they also have to consume a lot of resources, and even need to send an additional part of the soldiers and horses to protect their safety, if these strong laborers are killed by the enemy, their families will also receive pensions, which is a great expense.

In short, as long as there is a war, it is necessary to spend money constantly, and the court without money will never be able to fight, unless it can guarantee victory in every war, and can take enough materials and money from the loser, so that it can feed the war with war.

However, in ancient and modern China and abroad, the army that can really do the war is very rare, and most of the army has to rely on the logistical support of the imperial court, once it loses the logistical support, this army will face the danger of annihilation of the whole army, so logistics has always been the focus of attention of military strategists, and cutting off its grain route is also a very important means of victory for many military masters to defeat a strong enemy.

"That's right! It costs too much money to ask for guards, and it is impossible for the soldiers and horses of the imperial court to protect a caravan all the time, the problem of horse thieves is really difficult, and the only way is to eliminate all these horse thieves, only in this way can all the problems be solved once and for all. ”

Li An said.

The surrounding businessmen all had expressions of approval.

"What Brother Tai said is what we think in our hearts, that's right, only by completely eliminating the horse thieves, the business of Xiazhou City can be better, and sending guards to patrol is just the next step."

"This can't be blamed on General Guo, the horse thieves are too cunning, General Guo led the main army into the mountains many times, and fought with the horse thieves no less than a dozen times, and it can be regarded as killing a lot of thieves, but it can't cure the scourge of horse thieves, and besides, the soldiers and horses of the imperial court have also lost hundreds of people? General Guo was distressed, and he shed tears. ”

"Yes! These horse thieves have been entrenched in Qiwu Mountain for a long time, and they are too familiar with the terrain and various conditions in the mountains, and they are indeed too difficult to exterminate, which is really sad! ”

"Now I dream of striking all the horse thieves in Qiwu Mountain as soon as possible, and I won't leave a single one alive."

"Otherwise, we will jointly write a letter to the imperial court, and ask the imperial court to send more troops over to encircle and suppress the horse thieves in the Qiwu Mountain."

"Are you new here? We have already written a joint letter, otherwise General Guo would not have appeared in Xiazhou City, but it can be a few more times, so that the imperial court may really be able to send more soldiers and horses to come. ”

"For a small Xiazhou, the imperial court has allocated eight thousand soldiers and horses, there should be no more troops, General Guo failed to exterminate the horse thief, this must be temporary, he is not familiar enough with Xiazhou City, as long as after some time, the terrain of Qiwu Mountain is all clear, and he will definitely be able to eliminate the horse thief's lair in one fell swoop, and export evil anger for us."

"Yes, the good days of the horse thief will not be too long, we will endure it for two or three years, and things will definitely change by then, the horse thief is a grasshopper after the autumn, and it will definitely not be long before he jumps."

Everyone said babblingly.

Li An looked at everyone and said, "You are right, the horse thieves will inevitably be eliminated, but they will definitely not wait for two or three years for so long, it should be faster." ”

Seeing that these merchants hated horse thieves so much, Li An couldn't wait to wipe out all the horse thieves in Xiazhou City immediately, so that he could be proud again.

"Guest, let's order a tune!"

I don't know when, two little ladies who are performing arts came to the second floor and stood not far behind Ang Lee.

"Yo, little lotus lady, such a coincidence! Since the last time I listened to your pipa tune, it's still haunting my ears? ”

Ang Lee said very happily.

The rest of the businessmen probably recognized the two of them as well, and their expressions were more friendly.

"It's rare that the guest officer still remembers the slave family, so let's order a tune!"

The little lotus lady asked.

Naturally, Ang Li couldn't refute the little lady's face, and besides, with so many businessmen watching from the side, it would be too stingy to refuse.

"Okay, okay, if you have any tunes you want to hear, let's laugh and talk about Fengyue while listening to the music."

Li An comforted the little lotus lady, then looked at the merchants and said politely.

"Since Brother Tai is the east, then we're welcome, let's first have a song of neon clothes and feathers, and then a song of forgetting Weichuan, and Yichuan song......"

In their opinion, Ang Lee is a big businessman with a lot of money, and it would be a disadvantage not to take advantage of such a person.

Li An smiled, motioned for the little lotus lady to start playing the pipa, and then continued to discuss with everyone how to exterminate the horse thief's strategy.

When chatting, Ang Lee did not forget to observe the little lady of the lotus flower from time to time, obviously looking like he was admiring the beauty of the lotus, but in fact he was observing whether there was something wrong with the lotus.

However, even if she knew Ang Lee's purpose, Li Hanlu's mood was very bad, she didn't like Ang Lee to look at other women with squinting eyes, which would make her feel uncomfortable, of course, if Ang Lee looked at her with this kind of look, she would be very excited.

Every woman is vain, and a rude woman like Li Hanlu is no exception, she likes to be pampered by Li An, but she doesn't like Li An to look at women other than her with the same eyes, especially strange women, which will make her very uncomfortable, but in the era of Datang, men have supreme rights and can easily realize the life of three wives and four concubines, but women can't do this, in this case, women can only learn to endure silently, and endure when they are unhappy, who made you a woman? Who is to blame for this?

A pair of two-color squinting eyes looked at the lotus flower from time to time, but this little lady who was a performer did not mean to panic at all, she still held the pipa and half-covered her face, and played one good song after another, and the tune was also very stable and beautiful, which seemed to be not affected by everyone's eyes at all, showing her super high performance skills.

"Good, good, good, so good."

When the merchants heard the good music, they naturally applauded happily and seemed very happy, and then continued to talk about business.

Some merchants are indeed bold enough to tell their fellow merchants about the place of trade they are going to and the types of goods they are selling, and they are not afraid that the news will be leaked out and the horse thieves will find out.