Tang Taizong is my elder brother

Master Lu came to Changsheng's camp. He is now making a report in person. After the battle, the officers and soldiers of the Changsheng Army will collectively discuss their feelings about the battle and summarize the gains and losses. One of them is the improvement of weapons and equipment.

These opinions will be collected and discussed in a centralized manner, and then the feasible ones will be reported to Changsheng for final summary and instruction. After this great victory, the Changsheng Camp also put forward many suggestions for improvement of firearms.

On the new design drawings, the original two-foot-long blade was changed to nearly three feet long. Master Lu came in without hesitation and pulled a stool to sit next to Changsheng: "Although our army's weapons are far more than The spears of the frontier army, but as long as our army's spears are cut off repeatedly, the humble staff thinks that there is still a need to lengthen them."

"Then, my lord, please look here." Master Lu stood up and turned back two pages, pointing to another blueprint and said: "Or add a piece of iron casing between the blade and the barrel to protect the barrel. Not to be cut."

Changsheng looked at it while thinking from time to time, and sometimes asked a few questions that she was interested in or didn't understand, and finally most of the improvements were completed at the first sight.

Changsheng looked back and found that there was still a drawing that she hadn't seen. She opened it and was stunned for a moment. Master Lu saw that she hadn't spoken for a long time, so he asked, "My lord, do you have any questions about this?"

Changsheng turned his head and asked excitedly, "When will this thing be made?"

"Testing is scheduled to start next month, and then production is about eight months away, assuming everything goes well."

"Very good. My order is to study this weapon with all my strength. The priority of its experiments and tests has been adjusted to the same level as that of the nine-pound gun, but it must be kept secret from the outside world! All research will be transferred to the underground secret room of the second battalion. conduct!"

After finally solving Master Lu's problem, Xu Liang came back from the north again, and he had a major problem to report to Chang Sheng.

"My lord, we may not be able to do business with the East Turks." Xu Liang shook his head masculinely and said.

"Old Xu, tell everyone about the situation."

After the main leaders of the Changsheng Camp, Qin Qiong, Fang Xuanling, Zhang Baozang, and Xiao Feng all arrived, Changsheng asked Xu Liang to introduce the situation of the Eastern Turks in the north again, while she drank tea quietly.

"The Eastern Turks in the north have restricted trade with the South for many years, but in recent years because of our repeated victories, the Eastern Turks in the north have been polite to our caravans. This year they drove away the Shanxi merchants. And all the other merchants who came to seek trade, leaving only our respective caravans in the Northwest Frontier." Xu Liang looked at Chang Sheng as he spoke.

But the latter drank tea on his own, as if he didn't hear it repeatedly, Xu Liang simply continued: "Who told us to sell inferior ironware to them. So we have to ban our business."

"Ah, our ironware is inferior?" Qin Qiong's eyes widened, he turned his head and asked Fang Xuanling beside him: "Aren't we going to the north to do free trade with them, exchanging their cattle, sheep and livestock products? "

Fang Xuanling laughed twice and did not answer. This matter is obviously not honorable. It is a plan to deliberately weaken or exploit the northern people. This matter was decided before Qin Qiong came, and everyone knew it. well aware.

That is to say, Qin Qiong has always been obsessed with military training, so he doesn't particularly care about this.

"Hey, General Qin, you should hurry up and ask about this matter first, and you will understand after listening." Changsheng didn't let Qin Qiong interrupt Xu Liang's statement, and raised his chin at Xu Liang: "Go on."

"Okay, my lord." Xu Liang nodded, and continued to talk. After his explanation, everyone quickly understood one thing, the iron shortage in the north, and the shortage was serious.

If it is a catty of pig iron, you can exchange it for two sheep or a cow in the north, and then you can exchange it with other people in the market for silver or copper coins and bring it back. In this way, you can get nearly three times the profit, eliminating the loss of going back and forth. With the money for Aguna's hiring, and the expenses of dredging the relationship between the top and bottom, the profit can still be maintained at [-]%.

For more than two years, Aguna and Xu Liang have taken turns going back and forth between the Changsheng Camp and the northern border market. Now they have bought a small town near our border in the southern part of Western Turks, and also bought the nearby tribal leaders. Now It is the time to make big profits, and the profit of the Longevity Camp this year is at least 20 taels of silver.This is really not a small amount of income for the Longevity Camp.

After all, relying on scientific research and development is very expensive.

Xu Liang said that in the end he was also filled with grief and indignation, and he told his colleagues a little sadly: "The leaders of the tribes we bought recently revealed to me that the Khan, the leader of the Western Turks, recently called a meeting of the Khans of the Western Turks to discuss The matter of casting iron and smelting iron by myself." Xu Liang paused after finishing speaking, and then added: "It is said that a rich iron ore was discovered in the northeast direction, and then the Turkic Khan mobilized his capable people and strangers to get smelting Iron method, ready to do it yourself."

Changsheng was shocked when she first heard the news. Her first feeling was that the other party had taken the wrong medicine. Iron smelting is definitely a high-tech job in this era. It has always been robbed and plundered. Why do the bandits who live in business want to start climbing technology.After analysis, she thought of two possibilities. One is that Changsheng really beat the Eastern Turkic brother too hard. As the Eastern Turkic brother, the Western Turkic is definitely more powerful than the opponent.

Even famous Turkic generals like Ashina Rangan suffered a great loss under the hands of Changsheng. Those people from the Eastern Turks still had the guts to come over and provoke them. Secondly, the iron deficiency in the north is really severe. No iron ore was discovered before, so all The source of iron products is basically plunder or trade.It seems that it is not feasible to plunder this road now, and although the trade road has provided them with a lot of much-needed iron products.

However, after inspection, it was found that these iron pans and iron wrists are very easy to rust. In the case of large temperature difference between day and night in the north, the elimination rate is extremely high. The Turkic Tartars all their lives complained that they were fooled, and scolded the people in the south as treacherous businessmen.

So now after the discovery of iron ore, the leaders of the tribe have discussed that we can simply produce ironware ourselves. Although it takes some effort, at least we will not be controlled by others.

"The big tribes of the Eastern Turks have long discovered that we are selling low-quality ironware, but firstly, they are really short of iron. Second, although our ironware is of average quality and has a high elimination rate, it has a complete range of styles and is not expensive. Thirdly, they Knowing that we are from the Longevity Camp, we are polite. The high-level officials in the East Turks pretended not to see it. There is also a report that Turkic merchants directly bought our ironware and then sold it to their compatriots, these beasts!" Xu Liang Said that in the end, he was filled with righteous indignation.

Everyone looked at him silently, and the honest and honest Xu Liang might have noticed that his emotions were a bit too much, adjusted and said: "Someone from the Pugu Department has come to inform us, they said that Qimin Khan stipulated that they should finally They bought our iron wares once, because they knew we were the frontier army of the Sui Dynasty, so the person who came here was very polite. He said that it was fine to sell them in the past, but he would not agree to us selling them in the future. As for the inventory in our hands, they will follow the current Unified purchase at the market price, or barter, but the time is limited to one month."

There is one thing to say, the conditions given by the leader of the Eastern Turks this time are considered good. In order to expel inferior ironware and prevent the country’s economic lifeline from being controlled by outsiders, Qimin Khan also made a great sacrifice. Although the long-lived iron products The iron content in it is very low, but it can’t stand the long-term production of the Changsheng workshop, so Qimin Khan’s task for Pugu is to buy the stock that says there is a long-lived camp in one go, and then draw a picture for this event. a terminator.

Changsheng saw that Xu Liang had basically finished speaking, so he waved his hand to signal that everyone can start expressing their own opinions.

"Our iron wares all contain less iron, and their iron wares must contain more iron and be bulky." Qin Qiong was actually still thinking about the difference inside, and how much he could earn. There is a month, why don't we step up and earn a fortune from them?"

Zhang Baozang turned his head to Xu Liang, and asked directly: "How much profit does our ironware business make per month?"

"Based on the first three months of this year, it's about 5000 taels of silver a month." He stroked the stubble on his chin and said, "It may be even higher in the second half of the year. After all, many businessmen have been driven away. We started to form a situation of dominance, almost [-]."

"How about the military strength of the Eastern Turks?" This time it was Xiao Feng who spoke: "Well, there is also the servant bone department you mentioned."

During the past two years in the northern border, Xu Liang had already figured out such a situation. He took out a prepared map of the strength and distribution of all parties, sent it to everyone, and said: "The humble job observes them. The tribe has been doing business with us Han people for a long time, and now the fighting power is not strong. Everyone is willing to live in peace and stability, especially for those tribes that have collected money from us. I think the most threatening tribe near us is the Bonggu tribe. .”

Zhang Baozang looked at the piece of paper with tribe information in his hand, and found Pong Gu on it: "[-] to [-] armored warriors?"

"Yes." Xu Liang nodded.

"Well, it should still have some fighting power." Zhang Baozang continued to read: "The Pugu Department can mobilize nearly a thousand armored cavalry in wartime, a few officers have heavy armor, and the rest of the soldiers are the armored cavalry just mentioned. Most of the light cavalry used leather armor made of wild animal skins, and their weapons were made of iron, as well as animal bones and wooden sticks..."

The combat effectiveness should not exceed the general level of Western Turks.

This was Zhang Baozang's conclusion after reading all the information. After thinking for a while, he raised his head and asked Xu Liang, "You just said how much money you can earn from them in a month?"

"Twenty-five thousand, at least."

"Isn't this a pile of gold and silver treasures in the hands of a child?" Zhang Baozang looked at Changsheng with some doubts: "Why is no one going to snatch them?"

"Who will grab it? Is it their good brothers, the Western Turks, or our army from the Great Sui Dynasty? Besides, they are all cattle and sheep, dairy products, wool, and primary woolen textiles. At best, they are raw materials. They must be transported by our caravans." Only after reselling or processing in the country can we make a profit. Even if we rob it, we are actually purchasing it for our own factory.”

Everyone began to talk about it, and Qin Qiong became more and more outrageous the more he heard it, and finally couldn't help but interrupted: "I, the Northwest Frontier Army of the Sui Dynasty, should protect the family and the country, protect the environment and the people."

But everyone stopped for a while and then continued to join in the discussion on how to conquer the Bone Ministry. It has been specified how many troops will be sent and how long it will take.

"If it's just the level of the troops we encountered in Linchuan, with our army's current firepower, just dispatching two infantry formations should be enough to defeat them."

After Xiao Feng finished speaking, Zhang Baozang added: "The poor have a rich life, so let's send out a battalion of troops, and bring a few cannons."

"The question now is Qimin Khan's attitude and reaction. If we attack rashly, what will other tribes think?" Changsheng raised this question.

The East Turks don’t need their neighbors, the West Turks. Most of their south borders our Gansu and Shaanxi Shanxi today. It is considered a relatively rich and commercially developed area. All business exchanges with the Han people are frequent, so they are relatively rich and have little combat effectiveness. Their poor buddies are so strong.

Secondly, their population is small, and they are scattered into many tribes. Although these tribes are dominated by Qimin Khan, they do not fully obey the command of the other party, and Qimin does not like to use weapons rashly.

When the battle between Western Turks and Changsheng was in full swing, it was not that no one suggested that Qimin Khan sent troops to help deal with the Northwest Frontier Army, but he resolved it decisively. Firstly, their relationship with the Sui Dynasty has always been good, and some Look down on their poor buddies.Here comes the combat power that Changsheng has shown in the past two years is indeed a bit appalling.

Except for Qin Qiong who is still perseveringly adhering to the demeanor of our Great Sui Wangshi, the remaining few people have reached a consensus on sending troops:
We are doing business, just to buy some daily necessities that people in the north need, and then we have conflicts with local people when doing business. Even if this is known to the court in the future, we will not be wronged.

"Well, let's say to the outside world that all we send are militias." Changsheng doesn't intend to do anything to the East Turks, nor does she intend to create new enemies. She just wants to continue selling money and continue the business, as long as the trade is not forced Cutting off, inferior ironware will naturally slowly drive out good ones.

There are no fewer unscrupulous businessmen in the north than those in the south. They just don't have suitable opportunities and partners. Now Changsheng provides them with opportunities.There is no need for the Longevity Camp to bother with this aspect, Ashina can handle it by himself.

"There is another question, what should our competitors do, how can we shut their mouths, we better think of a good idea." Chang Sheng said.