Chapter 22 Salt and Iron Monopoly
"I am Zhang Jincheng, and I am here to meet you, General!"
Zhang Jincheng is a middle-aged man with dark skin, a strong build and a small mustache. He is not the ordinary wealthy and elegant businessman. It is obvious that he is often on the road.
"I heard that you have a way to buy war horses from the Eastern Xianbei?" Qin Mo asked.
"Uh, hehe..." Zhang Jincheng revealed the cunning side of a businessman.
Qin Mo smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm not an official, there aren't that many taboos."
Zhang Jincheng thought the same and patted his chest and said, "I'm not bragging, as long as the price is right, I can get you as many war horses as you want, General."
"I have no money." Qin Mo said.
Zhang Jincheng's face froze, a little unhappy, "General, are you making fun of me?" A big businessman like him not only has the support of local families, but also has his own cavalry.
He is not a good person.
"I have no money, but I have salt." Qin Mo pointed to the bamboo basket in the corner.
"Salt?" Zhang Jincheng was puzzled. He walked forward and opened the black cloth covering the bamboo basket. His eyes were immediately illuminated. It was table salt, which glowed like snowflakes, emitting alluring light.
Zhang Jincheng's breathing became heavier. He used his fingers to pick up a few grains and put them into his mouth. "Salty, the purest salt, without a trace of bitterness. It is truly the best salt."
The body is shaking with excitement.
Looking up, seeing Qin Mo's half-smiley eyes, Zhang Jincheng realized his mistake and said awkwardly: "General, how much of this salt do you have?"
"That depends on how many war horses you can get." Qin Mo said.
From the beginning to the end, Qin Mo was the one who controlled the rhythm. It was not because of how powerful he was, but because of the things he brought out. No Three Kingdoms merchant could resist the temptation.
"At least one thousand, no, five thousand horses." Zhang Jincheng boasted.
This is of course unrealistic unless we unite with merchants from other border areas.
Qin Mo did not expose the truth and smiled, "In addition to war horses, I want cattle, sheep, furs, and even dairy products. I want as many as I can get. And as for salt like this, I have as much as you want."
"Deal!" Zhang Jincheng couldn't wait.
This business was extremely profitable. He only needed to sell salt to the Xianbei nobles and then purchase war horses, cattle and sheep from the Xianbei. In just two rounds of transactions, he could make a fortune.
"Then I'll wait for your good news." Qin Mo was also very excited.
Qin Mo has not been idle during this period. He has been planning to strengthen the strength of the Royal Guard Battalion. In addition to exchanging salt for war horses, cattle and sheep, he has other plans.
…
After seeing Zhang Jincheng off, Qin Mo followed him out of the house and came to Xu's, the largest blacksmith shop in Yuyang County.
Compared to half a month ago, this place has changed a lot.
Qin Mo not only took over Xu's, but also bought all the yards surrounding the blacksmith shop. After the renovation, he recruited more than a hundred blacksmiths in the city to build his first military workshop - Qinbingge.
Weapons and armor were scarce in the Eastern Han Dynasty, mainly because of the shortage not of blacksmiths but of pig iron.
But pig iron is already a commodity with overcapacity in reality, and one ton of pig iron is only about three thousand yuan. It just so happens that the dimensional space has expanded, and Qin Mo once again becomes a porter between the two worlds.
And the appetite increased.
In order to facilitate the transfer of materials such as salt and pig iron, Qin Mo secretly sold three pieces of ancient jade, making a profit of 800,000 yuan. He rented a warehouse in a remote area of Jiangcheng and paid a year's rent.
Then, Qin Mo purchased one hundred tons of pig iron and transported it to Qin Bingge.
With sufficient supply of pig iron, the originally deserted ordnance workshop suddenly became lively, working day and night to produce weapons, armor, arrows and other military supplies for the Royal Guard Battalion.
Although the soldiers of the Royal Guard Battalion were equipped with armor, most of them were leather armor, and many of them were in tatters.
Even so, they are considered elite in the Yellow Turban Army.
In addition to armor, the weapons used by soldiers were not only crudely made, but also limited in number. Once damaged, they were not even replaced.
Not to mention arrows as consumables.
In order to improve the level of weapons and equipment of the Royal Guard Battalion, Qin Mo planned to build the Qin Bing Pavilion. This alone makes it unmatched by other Yellow Turban armies.
The Yellow Turbans only knew how to destroy, not build, and were doomed to not last.
As soon as Qin Mo occupied a base, he began to think about building a logistics support system, and he already had the tendency to turn from the rebel army to the local princes.
Of course, this is mainly due to the convenience of traveling between the two worlds.
With real business as a support, no other family in the Three Kingdoms could compare with Qin Mo. Scarce materials like salt and iron, which were monopolized by the government, were like rotten cabbages in reality.
The advantages of the aristocratic family disappeared in front of Qin Mo.
As for the talent pool of the aristocratic families, Qin Mo also used players to hedge, which was no worse than the natives.
With these two advantages, it would be strange if Qin Mo did not rise.
"General!"
As soon as Qin Mo entered the workshop, blacksmith Xu Daqiang came to greet him immediately. He was the former owner of Xu's Blacksmith Shop and was now appointed by Qin Mo to preside over Qin Bing Pavilion.
"How is the forging of the horse head hammer?" Qin Mo asked with concern.
"General, don't worry. Thirty swords have been forged so far and are still being forged day and night," said Xu Daqiang.
"That's good."
This is the secret weapon Qin Mo prepared for the next battle.
…
In the blink of an eye, it is July.
The Royal Guard Battalion's sweep of Yuyang County has come to an end. A huge amount of food and fodder has gathered in Yuyang County, and the various troops that went on the expedition have also returned to the camps one after another.
There is a small episode in the middle.
When Zhao Liuyun led his troops to the south for a sweep, he encountered Zhang Ju, a famous local tyrant in Yuyang County. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he had a conflict with him. In a rage, he brazenly ransacked Zhang Ju's house.
In the history of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Ju was also a prominent figure.
In 187, Zhang Ju, Zhang Chun, Wuhuan Qiuliju and others rebelled, killing the Wuhuan Protector General Gong Qinchou, Youbeiping Prefect Liu Zheng, Liaodong Prefect Yang Zhong and others. They gathered a crowd of more than 100,000 people, stationed their troops in Feiru, plundered Youzhou and Jizhou, and enjoyed a prosperous life for several years.
But now it was extinguished in advance by Zhao Liuyun.
After a month of training, the Royal Guard Battalion has completed the integration of the old and the new.
The businessman Zhang Jincheng kept his promise and delivered the first batch of goods, including one hundred war horses and five hundred sheep; the first batch of weapons and armor produced by Qin Bingge, including five hundred horse head hammers, were also assembled.
Everything is ready!
Qin Mo no longer hesitated and immediately led his personal guard battalion to fight, heading straight for Youbeiping County.
…
Tuyin County.
This place is the seat of Youbeiping County and also the base camp of Duting Marquis Gongsun Zan.
Upon learning that the Yellow Turbans were attacking and had marched into Youbeiping County, Gongsun Zan was worried at first, fearing that he would be attacked from both the east and west by the two rebel forces of the Yellow Turbans and the Wuhuan, which would be terrible.
But then the spies came to report that there were only three thousand Yellow Turbans attacking.
"Three thousand Yellow Turbans dare to attack Youbeiping County? Could they be the enemy's vanguard troops?" Gongsun Zan was very puzzled. After all, in the eyes of the world, the Yellow Turbans had at least tens of thousands of people.
What can three thousand Yellow Turbans do?
"They are not the vanguard. Cheng Yuanzhi, the leader of the Yellow Turban Army in Youzhou, is still stationed in Ji County with his troops, and there is no sign of troop mobilization. Over the past month, these 3,000 Yellow Turbans have been looting in Yuyang County. They are probably the vanguard responsible for plundering food and fodder. I just don't know why they dared to cross the border into Youbeiping County." The spy replied.
The inside story of Qin Mo and Cheng Yuanzhi's parting ways is naturally unknown to outsiders.
This is how the beautiful misunderstanding came about.
Gongsun Zan's expression eased slightly, and he said coldly, "How courageous!"
"General, there is another piece of news." The spy said, "It is reported that the leader of this group of Yellow Turbans is the deputy general of the Yellow Turban Army of Youzhou, a strange man named Qin Mo. Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei were all defeated by him."
"Then I will go for a while longer." Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei were classmates.
After thinking about it, Gongsun Zan immediately decided to lead a thousand elite cavalrymen to actively attack the Yellow Turban Army, strive for a quick victory, and eliminate them in the shortest time possible.
Only in this way can the war situation in western Liaoning be avoided.
