Chapter 222 A Big Gold Mine
Lu Youpeng happily told him: The jade sent from Dali was processed by Manager Qu and then sold to wealthy families. Their wealth increased more than tenfold. This was a very profitable business.
So that's it, Lao Lu has found another big gold mine.
In fact, the idea of Dali Kingdom exchanging jade for weapons was actually a clever idea of Zhao Yulin’s fourth sister Zhao Sihan.
Duan Xiaolin went back to report that the Shenwei Army was willing to give weapons, but it had to be in cash. They were still looking for Zhao Yulin to borrow money. How could the little silver that the treasury had just collected be enough? The small court was in chaos again.
One day, the tribal chieftain from the south of Dali came to the court to present jadeite. The young emperor rewarded Zhao Sihan with a piece of top-quality jadeite. She immediately thought of the huge consumer market of high-ranking officials and wealthy families in the Song Dynasty.
Zhao Sihan gave Duan Xiaolin an idea, asking the Zhennan Palace to send people to pick up the raw jade stones, and then have the caravan transport them to Xinshi to calculate the price according to the industry regulations to offset the cost of military equipment. Master Lu would then send them to Chengdu to ask Manager Qu to process the stones into jade articles for cash.
This operation directly opened up a one-stop service system for jade from production to supply and sales, which brought huge profits to all parties and reduced the cost for buyers.
The military equipment funds for Dali have been found, the Shenwei Army has obtained jade and made jade products to make multiple profits, and Shopkeeper Qu has a direct purchasing channel to reduce sales costs. Naturally, everyone wants to do this business that benefits all parties again.
Seeing Lu Youpeng's expectant expression, Zhao Yulin said, "Let's talk about it when we get back. Dali is not trustworthy, and the brothers don't want to sell it to them."
Old Lu muttered on the side: This is a different time, Xiao Linzi is not that kind of person, and the Fourth Miss is guarding him.
He ignored Lao Lu's words and said that he should take a rest first and talk about it when he got back.
On the vast Mobei grassland, green grass has begun to grow by the river. The grassland Khan is full of confidence and begins to plan to march south to the Song Dynasty. He wants to take revenge.
Tacaer and Hubili have both returned to the royal court. The newly built royal city is magnificent, shining like a pearl on the grassland.
The Khan appointed General Kuoduan and asked him to lead the main force out of Lingzhou to attack Fengxiang Prefecture of the Shenwei Army, capture Baoji, seize the strategic materials of the Shenwei Army, and then go straight to Guanzhong.
All the kings felt that this was an impossible goal, because the Shenwei Army had been garrisoning Guyuan for many years and had established a relatively complete defense system along the Xiaoguan Road .
Moreover, this plan is more vicious than attacking Chang'an City. It is equivalent to directly hitting the vital point of the Shenwei Army, which will inevitably lead to fierce resistance.
But that's what the Khan wanted to do.
In his opinion, this is called hitting the vital point directly.
Hubili was well aware of the power of the Shenwei Army. The battle of Xiangyang made him realize the superb command art of Zhao Yulin, who caused the loss of nearly 50,000 soldiers without even seeing the enemy.
Moreover, the Qinlong area is now unprecedentedly united under the management of the Shenwei Army, and the patriotic enthusiasm of local officials and generals is high. It is completely different from the past, when as soon as the army arrived at the city, the officials inside would surrender and offer the city by raising their scimitars.
In the evening, he went to see Prince Kuoduan for a drink. After a few words, he knew that Kuoduan still did not agree to march west out of Guyuan and onto Fengxiang .
Both of them were victims of the Shenwei Army, and they soon reached an agreement. They went to pay their respects to the Khan together. The Khan of the grassland first scolded Hubili, accusing him of being only good at talking and afraid of the enemy, which led to the failure of the plan to capture Xiangyang and was an unforgivable crime.
Hu Bili had no choice but to tell Ta Chaer that he was indecisive and slow to send troops. He could have entered Xiangyang City before Zhao Yulin and taken the initiative in just half an hour. Unexpectedly, he lost the opportunity, which led to the Shenwei Army taking the initiative after sitting in Xiangyang.
In fact, the Khan of the Grassland had many eyes and ears in the army, and he was already aware of all these situations. He had known about the quarrel between Hubli and Tacaer for a long time, and he just wanted Hubli to speak out.
Then, the Khan would summon Tacaer again for a confrontation and reprimand, and as a result, the alliance between Hubli and Tacaer would be over.
As for Hubili, he couldn't care less about so many things right now. If he wanted to gain more appreciation and support in the royal court and the army, he had to do something convincing.
Hubili had the world in his mind. He found that the Shenwei Army was developing too rapidly and without making any noise. He believed that if there was another mistake, the grassland country might let Song grow stronger and stronger, and lose the opportunity to destroy this rich country in the south.
The Khan took a sip of the Qin Feng wine that had just been delivered to him, pointed at Hubili with his big hand holding the wine jug and asked: Tell me, what bad idea have you got?
Hubili looked at Prince Kuoduan and said that the Shenwei Army is currently developing very rapidly. We cannot go and fight Zhao Qier head-on. If we do that, we will suffer too much loss and may not be any good. We should mobilize the Western Expedition Army to come back and fight together.
The Khan drank in silence and motioned for him to continue.
Hubili said that the Western Expedition Army would not be back for a while, but the royal court had huge expenses and was short of silver, so they had to go south to rob two cities. The west was poor in itself, and the silver was not much and was taken away by Lin'an. There were also the fearless Shenwei Army stationed there, so why not go east...
Hubili said this while waving his hand towards Lin'an in the east.
The Khan of the grassland was delighted when he heard the new idea that Hubili had whispered. Right now, in the Central Plains, the one with the most soldiers and generals was Prince Lu, the grandson of Mu Huali. The royal court would turn its attention there to unify the troops, and it would be a good opportunity for his prince to take over the military command and control the army.
Haha, this kid’s idea is very good, exactly what I want.
The Khan was in a good mood and asked Bili and Kuoduan to make a good plan and tell everyone about it when the kings gathered tomorrow.
He then turned around and urged Yelu Chucai to issue an imperial edict to rebuke the State of Song, and first urged the Emperor of Song to kill Zhao Qi'er.
After two days of bumpy ride on the boat, Zhao Yulin returned to Cuiping Mountain. His fourth sister Zhao Sihan and Zhennan King Duan Xiaolin had already been playing in Yibin for many days.
This time, Duan Xiaolin only brought back his fourth sister. It seemed that he was determined to capture Zhao Yulin and let the Shenwei Army sell another column of weapons to the Dali Kingdom.
Because they have tried to imitate it, but the effect was not good. The key reason is that the quality of steel and workmanship were not up to standard.
After spending a lot of energy to make an iron barrel cannon, it still exploded. After the crossbow was pulled twice, the bow back became soft and could never be returned, so he had to look for his third uncle again.
As soon as they met, Zhao Sihan teased him, why didn’t he bring his sister-in-law back?
He said that everyone was busy, so he invited them to go to Jiangbei's Beggar's Chicken for a drink. Currently, the only restaurants of Shenwei Army that were self-operated were the Beggar's Chicken here and the Dali Rice Noodles in the city.
Zhao Sihan told him that she had helped her manage the perfume-making business these days, and the income from the accounting office had increased a lot. Then she took out a jade bracelet and handed it to her brother, saying it was a gift for her sister-in-law.
Haha, it seems that in order to achieve his goal, Duan Xiaolin bribed Zhao Sihan to do his ideological work. Zhao Yulin said that it was unnecessary, since he already had a younger sister-in-law, wouldn't the other sisters-in-law have something to complain about?
Duan Xiaolin immediately said, "Yes, we have them all. We have prepared them all for the sisters-in-law."
Haha, Duan Xiaolin has also started to make a living by learning from Zhao Yulin and making glass.
The jade was worthless when buried underground, but digging it out was as easy as making a glass cup and it could be sold for a high price. He would not be reluctant to give it away, so he would just treat it as making a glass cup like Zhao Yulin.
He said directly that he came back for new weapons, and that he would give a corps of equipment, no more. It would be useless if he had more.
Duan Xiaolin said with some regret that his father realized how powerful the new weapons were after trying them out, and he wanted all Dali soldiers to be equipped with the Shenwei Army's new weapons.
Zhao Yulin was shocked when he heard this. What was he going to do?
The young emperor is very ambitious. It would be disastrous if the Dali Kingdom fully armed its hundreds of thousands of troops to deal with the Shenwei Army of Xinshi.
He asked if it was necessary to have so much.
Aren’t ten thousand elite soldiers enough to guard South Vietnam?
The new army is very expensive, right?
Duan Xiaolin said that his father wanted to conquer the Chen Dynasty. How many troops would that require?
Zhao Yulin believed that Dali was a small country with a small population, so how could it accommodate so many soldiers?
Excessive conscription of young men will only waste time and money and stir up public resentment. It is better to equip 10,000 new troops first to stabilize the situation.
Zhao Sihan didn't talk about business, but just kept picking up food for his brother. After eating and drinking, Zhao Yulin went to the city to visit his father-in-law Chen Yun, but Yang Zhishan was the only one who received him.
Old Yang told him that Mr. Chen had just gone to Jiading, and that the chief steward Chen Chen was pregnant, and the old man went to help her handle government affairs. Zhao Yulin calculated the time, if Chen Chen was pregnant, it would have been a while, why didn't she tell him?
He was a little confused, and after having some tea with Lao Yang, he went to the old house. However, only his eldest brother Zhao Yuqing and his family lived in the house, while the other dozen or so families, big and small, had moved to Cuiping Mountain.
When his sister-in-law saw Zhao Yulin walking into the yard, she greeted him with joy, "Uncle, Uncle, you're back. It's too hot outside. Come in and have some tea."
Zhao Yulin followed him into the small hall, only to see his elder brother sitting there listlessly resting. His elder sister-in-law went up to him and shook Zhao Yuqing vigorously, saying, "You idiot, Third Uncle is back, why are you still daydreaming?"
Zhao Yuqing opened his eyes and saw that it was him who came back. He didn't believe it and rubbed his eyes hard. When he saw clearly, he immediately shouted, "Third brother is back. Third brother, save me. I am so worried."
Zhao Yulin had just sat down when his sister-in-law personally brewed some tea and brought it to him. He took it, took a sip, and asked what the hurry was.
My eldest brother can't keep his composure anymore.
Zhao Yuqing immediately started to complain. He had taken over eleven restaurants of the Shenwei Army , but now business was dismal. Customers did not go to the restaurants to eat and drink, and the daily expenses remained the same. In just a few months, he had spent all the savings of the past few years.
Zhao Yulin had no idea that his elder brother was so generous and invested heavily in catering and bought so many stores from the Shenwei Army.
What Zhao Yuqing didn't understand was that he himself used dead pigs and dogs to refine oil, which hurt the diners and gave them a bad reputation. Even after he took over the restaurant of the Shenwei Army, the diners gradually stopped consuming after they knew he was the boss and were worried about the use of fake and shoddy ingredients.
Zhao Yulin said that he had advised him not to take over too many stores, so why didn’t he listen?
