Xiliang, the seat of Han Shu's Chinese army.

"If you buy directly from the Republican Army, the price will probably be cheaper. And it's all good iron, it's just that it gets there head-on, and it trades head-on, and it can't be said. Ma Teng said.

Han Sui nodded. He was thinking. Han Sui admires Ma Teng very much, but the two of them have not yet come to the point of worshipping as brothers with different surnames, because their current biggest enemy is Dong Zhuo.

Although Han Sui accepted the imperial court's edict and became the Taishou of Xiliang. But he knew very well that the gap between the Xiliang and the Central Plains army was still obvious, for example, the most obvious one was that they lacked weapons, which was extremely remote and had a serious shortage of iron. Iron is an extremely important strategic resource. Because this strategic resource can directly expand the number of their cavalry. With cavalry, they have the capital to fight against the imperial court, and without cavalry, they don't have any capital to do such a thing, so such a situation is extremely disastrous for any of them. In such a matter, they are in a very bad situation.

The reason is that the important commercial passage from Hedong to the Guanzhong Plain was cut off by Dong Zhuo. Even if some iron could be transported, the price had risen more than twice at once, and the situation of the Xiliang Army was very bad. The reason is simple. In the last war, they consumed a lot of money. If they can't be added in time, it will reduce their strength in the next step very much, Dong Zhuo just saw this, so he suddenly increased his business taxes, and even deliberately sold it to Xiliangjun at a high price, Xiliangjun also had no temper, who let their situation be subject to them. In such a situation, they simply do not have a good way to deal with such a situation.

But Han Sui was also unwilling to be so controlled by others, he knew the importance of iron very well, and naturally understood such a point. But all of a sudden, he couldn't do such a thing, and he needed something proper to deal with to solve the situation.

Marten's solution was to contact the Republican Army directly, they could produce a lot of iron, and they had already inquired about it, and the price was fair. The quality is high, which is very advantageous for the cavalry to build more weapons and armor, and without these things, they would be in a very bad situation.

The cavalry is the military strength of the Western Liang Army. Increasing the armament of cavalry is far more clever than ever. That's where they need to see the most.

"Hmm." Han Sui was thinking of a way. However, their road is not passable, they are still far away from the Republican army, and there are Huns in the middle, so it is not very possible to bypass. In this case, they are still limited to Dong Zhuo. The development of the Western Liang Army was greatly restricted.

But Dong Zhuo didn't care about these, he knew that he could get benefits from Xiliang Jun. As for the situation of the Xiliang Army, he didn't care. These things are not for him to do. In short, such a thing is good for him, and as for how much the benefit is, Dong Zhuo himself knows it.

Li Jiazhuang, Republican Army Operations Department.

"There was smuggling everywhere. The north is also smuggling, the south is also smuggling, and when it comes to the Guanzhong area in Hedong, it is also smuggling. Shang Wu said with a telegram. He seems to be very disgusted with smuggling. There is no way. Smuggling will lead to the loss of a large amount of commercial tax revenue, which is very detrimental to the Republican Army's financial situation.

"We have to stop this from happening, which is a huge drain on our finances. What if we can't stop this? We could lose more than three infantry divisions in tax revenue, and then our burden would be a little heavier. Jia Xu said worriedly.

"But we need to think about another issue." Shang Wu said.

"Smuggling, why smuggling, this is because trade is needed everywhere, because the territory of our republican army is stable, the tax is low, and the development is stable, so trade is naturally developed, and our industry and commerce are developing rapidly, and a large number of goods need to be poured into various regions. On the one hand, we need to meet their local needs, and on the other hand, we need trade. But what we have noticed is that trade barriers are being erected against us everywhere. For example, this is the case with the Luoyang Imperial Court, which maliciously increased taxes on our goods. Unreasonable taxes are more than five times the amount of our goods. You can see how much money they are making from it, and in this way, our goods have no price advantage at all. And the only way to break such a situation is smuggling. Shang Wu said.

"Smuggling, although very risky, can break trade barriers, it sounds ironic, but it is a fact, this is a relationship of demand, if we can't break down such a barrier, it will completely pose a huge threat to our trade situation, we can't let such a situation continue to operate, because it is too dangerous. This is extremely detrimental to our situation, and if we can change that situation, it is the best outcome for us. Shang Wu said.

"Well, I agree with you, but I think we're too optimistic to turn things around all at once. The best thing to do is to take some steps that can quickly reverse such a situation, for example, we can take some steps to organize, formalize, and rationalize the smuggling team. Avoiding a massive loss of our tax revenues is too much of a financial challenge for us. The other thing is that we need to solve some of these things in other ways, because then we can make our situation much more favorable. Jia Xu said.

The first thing Jia Xu saw was that the huge disadvantage of smuggling, that is, the loss of finance and taxation, if such a loss can be compensated, as for the loss caused by smuggling to other places, and the impact, Jia Xu does not pay much attention to it, perhaps, if this is done, it can also make other places restrict the use of the Republican Army.

"Smuggling has certainly brought us financial and tax losses, but we must also see one point, that is, we need to integrate the smuggling force and become a regular force, which is equivalent to Zhao'an them." Shang Wu said.

"As long as they pay their taxes, we can ignore them, but at the same time, we can use other ways to deal with situations like this." Shang Wu said. Shang Wu was not averse to smuggling, on the contrary, the role they played should have made him see the importance of opening up new markets, but how to make smuggling activities much more profitable. This is an important issue that he cares about, this problem can complete many of their advantageous points to a large extent, and if they want to accomplish such things, they need to solve such things in other aspects.

"We should see that the smuggling force is extremely dispersed. It is difficult for them to deal with the local government and the entanglement of various forces, so they invisibly raise the cost all at once. In such a situation, many of their situations are extremely unfavorable, and many of them are unable to cope with such a situation, how to deal with this, the answer is very simple. That is to integrate them, integrate them out of a certain tax, and we get such a tax and open up such a channel for them. Providing such protection would at least reduce their costs diplomatically, and reaching an agreement would allow us to do so. Shang Wu said.

Jia Xu nodded in agreement. Smuggling is something that all the people are willing to do, and if it can be legal, they will naturally do it legally. But the problem is that the development of the power of the local warlords restricts such a development, because they need more money to develop the military power, and the agricultural tax is slow and takes time, which is unbearable for them, because if they delay for some time, they will be surpassed by their opponents, and in order not to be surpassed by their opponents, the only way is to increase the commercial taxes, which has led to the situation of smuggling.

If you can open the gates, reduce taxes. Significant cost savings, I believe that many businessmen will not do this. Because the profit margin in the middle has been greatly reduced. In such a situation, people can naturally further expand many advantages. That's where they have the most advantageous point at the moment. This is a great option for smugglers.

There is no way to say that a large number of commodities are produced, and they are creating more value, but these values can only be fulfilled by going out and selling to those who need them, otherwise, they themselves will not have greater development. This is the problem that the IRA is currently facing, and if it wants to accomplish something like this, it must make some more favorable improvements, reasonable tariffs, and all kinds of unfavorable conditions, and so on.

The IRA is not yet able to do this, so most things are difficult to open effectively.

Smuggling was carried out as a last resort. However, it should be pointed out that the strength of the IRA is helping this smuggling, for example, the Montenegrin army once looted the goods of the IRA merchants, but soon the IRA opportunity to crack down. This makes many local forces have to be afraid of the forces behind them. Because they annoyed each other, they themselves did not end well. The IRA has invisibly provided this protection, and each has its own set of needs.