Being a private salt dealer is a promising career.
Liu Chengzong originally thought that he would not be able to see his ship until the Haibei Shipyard was completed.
Unexpectedly, the brave Tang cavalry took the initiative to attack and captured two Mongol Empire fishing rafts. They were overjoyed for a while, and the West Sea Fleet was formed!
Because the Tang soldiers were having a great time, they set up two bird cannons on the raft.
Therefore, the West Sea Fleet became the sole master of this ocean on the day it was formed, directly improving the average equipment level of the naval forces of various tribes in Qinghai Lake.
They had ship-borne artillery.
Since people in Xifan generally practice water burials and sky burials, the locals do not eat fish, so the Tubo Empire withdrew from the struggle for maritime hegemony.
As a result, Liu Erye, who was born as a landlubber, only had the Mongolian Empire, which was good at fishing, as his competitor on this sea.
Evenly matched.
However, on the matter of shipbuilding, Liu Chengzong and Zhou Zhouqiang had quite different differences.
Liu Chengzong felt that the Tibetan Empire had withdrawn from the maritime hegemony, and the Mongolian Empire's navy had never dared to see the wind. They made whatever ships they wanted, and building the ships as soon as possible was the only thing Zhou Qiang needed to consider.
After all, if the ship is built the day earlier, his troops will be able to build garrison piers on the other side. By then, there will be less smoke on the other side, and support will be available day and night, and troops can be sent to occupy the Chaka Salt Pond.
He can have a business route that makes a lot of money every day.
According to the scale of 500,000 people in the Hehuang Valley, the value of salt consumed every day is more than a thousand taels. This is a big business with a market of 400,000 taels.
But Sunday Qiang felt that willow wood shipbuilding was not good, and pine wood shipbuilding was enough for at least twenty years, and the hull was too weak to defeat others.
Liu Chengzong wanted to force Sunday to be sent to Chengyun's doctor and ask someone to take a look at his brain.
Is this guy hoping to build a warship that can fight the Qinghai Lake monster or what?
Liu Shishi said: "Just use pine wood. Pine wood is very good and can be used for twenty years."
In fact, many merchants engaged in maritime trade use pine wood to build boats because pine boats are cheap.
A boat cost dozens of taels of silver. As long as it could take a trip to the South Seas and come back, it would be enough to dismantle the boat and burn it as firewood.
Of course, more people will abandon the boat on the coast. The Spaniards like to buy such cheap second-hand cargo ships.
For Liu Chengzong, the same was true for his use of ships. As long as he could bring back a ship of salt, the value of the salt would be a hundred times greater than that on the ship.
But a boat is said to require hundreds of hours of work, and they are in desperate need of craftsmen.
Sunday Qiang's method of solving this matter was very official. He found two banner troops from Xining Guards and asked them to send a message to Lanzhou.
There are shipbuilding craftsmen on the Yellow River in Lanzhou. Their skills may not be that high, but they are enough for daily use of cargo ships.
They are better at shipbuilding than Shaanxi soldiers like them.
Liu Chengzong was busy planning a shipyard in Haibei, and his subordinate Dai Daozi was preparing for a battle by the Chaka Salt Lake across a mountain in Hainan.
Under the call of Lazun, tens of thousands of herdsmen and Western soldiers, led by Nayan of various tribes, launched an attack on the Heka grassland.
Baiyan was unwilling to devote his troops to such a fratricidal battle, so he only led 200 herdsmen and followed Lazun under the protection of Dai Daozi's group of Tangqi.
The reason why Dai Daozi stayed with him was because of Taiji's threat.
He said in a pretentious manner, brother, look, the mission given to you by the commander is to protect me and return to the station safely, but now that there is a war, if I die, your commander’s wish will be in vain, so you have to protect me again. one time.
Dai Daozi thinks...if you die, Marshal, can't you find someone else? In such a big Qinghai, it is hard to find a five-legged horse, but the two-legged Mongolians are all dissatisfied?
But it's not a bad choice to follow Baiyan Taiji to explore the intelligence of the two large tribes.
On the hills in the southern part of the Heka Grassland, Dai Daozi's men were camping. Dozens of cattle and sheep were foraging on the grassland under the hills. They were all the livestock of this team of Tangqi.
"Guan team, another sheep."
There was an iron pot on the bonfire, and the thinly sliced mutton was simmering in the pot. Dai Daozi was bored with Tang Bing's report, so he nodded, concentrated on picking up the mutton, dipped it in minced garlic and put it in his mouth.
Within half a month, Dai Daozi led Tangqi to participate in two battles.
To put it bluntly, Taiji is not stingy, and all the spoils obtained by Tangqi belong to them.
Now the Tangqi all have their own Hequ horses, and other unused equipment will be placed on the edge of the camp after the battle for the various herders gathered by Lazun to purchase.
How can I say this kind of transaction of theirs?
Because the prices in the minds of both parties are different, it is like someone selling one stone of white flour and two taels of silver to Liu Chengzong in northern Shaanxi for a purchase price of one tael.
Both parties feel that the other party is very real and they have made a lot of money.
Dai Daozi wiped his mouth when he was full, and sighed: "If all the tribes in Qinghai are like this, I don't think the commander-in-chief needs to work step by step, running around in circles, Qinghai will belong to the commander-in-chief."
In his eyes, Lazun's vast army was not worth mentioning.
Compared with the Xiongnu army 1,500 years ago, most of the components of this army have slightly worse equipment and stronger tactics, so they are considered to be on a par.
But there are surprises.
For example, the Kalkadai Qing tribe came from the mountain pass in the north to join the alliance.
Daiqing was a subordinate of Lazun. The army had 800 cavalry. They generally used leather armor, which was often reinforced with iron bars. There were also many sabers and strong bows.
Taiji pretended that Dai Qing was once a nobleman of Khalkha, came from Mobei, and was Lazun's right-hand man.
"There may be a tough fight ahead. You all remember that no matter who returns to Haibei, they must tell the commander about the situation in the Khalkha Division."
In one of the two battles Dai Daozi participated in, he fought side by side with Dai Qing and met a unit belonging to Guru Huang Taiji. The equipment of that unit was obviously better than that of Huo Luo Chibe.
What is particularly noteworthy is that the Mongols had muskets.
Dai Qing had a tacit understanding with that army. The two sides suddenly encountered each other and slowly withdrew from the battlefield. Finally, Dai Daozi followed Dai Qing and went to the side to rob a tribe of Guru Huangtaiji.
Dai Daozi felt that this Dai Qing, like himself, was more likely to find another fish monster.
There is always a reason why people work hard but don't work hard. Dai Daozi thinks that Tang Qi is not worth fighting for La Zun, so why does Dai Qing?
Dai Daozi believed that it was probably also to spy on intelligence.
But this kind of thing is not something he worries about. He hangs out with a bunch of Mongolian tribes all day long, which greatly improves their sheep herding skills.
Dai Daozi just wanted to finish the battle as soon as possible and return to Haibei to report his findings to the commander.
This land is full of treasures. Lazun's land has fertile pastures. There are silver and lead mines near Bajiao City, and there is also a lot of peat.
In the ancient territory of Huang Taiji, several villages were discovered on the way to mine silver ore, as well as mines that produced gold and lead.
Just below the hill where they were stationed, there was drought gold, but they couldn't mine it.
Not to mention them, even the Mongolians who live here are too lazy to mine. Mining alluvial gold is a very complicated and cumbersome project.
This requires professionals to do it.
So he wrote down all these places one by one, just waiting to go back and report to Liu Chengzong.
Soon, Baiyan Taiji rode his horse from outside. It looked like he didn't intend to stay in the camp for a long time. However, when he saw Dai Daozi eating boiled mutton, Baiyan got off his horse and sat next to him. He asked someone for a pair of chopsticks. Took two bites.
"The mutton tastes very good, how do you like it." Baiyan Taiji asked: "Do you have any plans to stay with me? You are all good men, and you can take care of the cattle and sheep."
It was said that Taiji really wanted to keep Dai Daozi and his team.
During this period of time, he deliberately did not let Dai Daozi participate in the battle. He did not need to do anything at any time every day, as long as he stayed with him.
Dai Daozi's Tangqi team is like the biggest gem, making every noble who meets him envious of him.
Each of them is an experienced soldier. Forty-nine of them have forty-nine sets of armor, and all of them are neat Ming army standard cotton armor... On the Gannan grassland, even Lazun's guards do not have such neat equipment. .
The most important thing is that during this period, not only did Dai Daozi gain a lot more understanding of the Mongolian tribes in southern Gansu, but Baiyan also thought he knew Liu Shizi's troops very well.
Although most of the information came from Chen Shifo, who knew nothing, some of the information was information that could easily be tricked out with false pretenses.
For example, Liu Shishi is from northern Shaanxi, his army comes from Yulin, Ningxia, and Guyuan, and most of his senior officers come from his fellow Yan'an and Yulin colleagues.
Dai Daozi and this team of Tangqi are both from Ningxia.
In the eyes of Baiyantai Ji, this is equivalent to Daiqing of the Khalkha tribe who attached himself to Razun, which basically means leaving at will.
So I wanted to try to keep this team of people by my side forever.
Dai Daozi found a Tang soldier who understood Mongolian language. After hearing this, he laughed dryly. He knew what Taiji was thinking of by pretending to be pretentious. He shook his head and said: "As long as the trade between Taiji and the commander is completed, these things on us, you They are all easily available.”
Dai Daozi knew that the quality of the armor he wore was not very good. Every time the Lion Army gave them pocket money, they would go to the craftsmen to buy armor pieces.
Since Tangqi rarely participated in robbery missions, the main purpose of everyone was not to buy the best set of armor pieces, but just to buy a set of similar armor pieces.
He also looked forward to the smooth development of the trade between the Lion Army and the Mongols. At that time, they could exchange their armor for eighty or ninety livestock, bring the livestock to Xining, and even buy the armor for his son.
Although most did not have sons, as trade expanded, they would soon have aunts.
I have never heard of a rich man who could not find his mother-in-law.
Taiji smiled and said nothing more.
Although the prices here are like this, things are rare and expensive.
But in reality...there is no way to produce 5,000 livestock at once.
What's more, he doesn't want Liu Chengzong to really open the market in Qinghai. This is human nature.
At this moment, only forty-nine people like Dai Daozi can be envied by others. When every noble can buy expensive equipment from Juerwan, will the forty-nine sets of armor still be enviable?
Without gaps and comparisons, how can people be happy?
"This battle is almost over, will you go back later?"
Dai Daozi nodded matter-of-factly and asked, "Is the battle going to be over?"
He felt like the battle had just begun.
Baiyan nodded and said: "We came here just to rob the horse. We have almost robbed it, so we can go back. How can we still beat our brothers to death?"
After he finished speaking, he looked around and whispered: "Do you think there is something wrong with Dai Qing?"
Of course Dai Daozi thought there was something wrong with Dai Qing, but he didn't say anything. He just wondered: "What's wrong?"
"He is a Khalkha. There are Khalkhas over there in ancient times. There are even Khalkhas in the tribe of Yongshebu further west in Caidan."
Huaidan later became Qaidam, and now two tribes from Yongxiebu occupy it.
The Khalkha people from Mobei were mixed with every force in Qinghai, which made Wei Yan worried.
"We brothers are fighting each other, and Choktu Taiji of Khalkha is watching from outside Suzhou. I always feel that Choktu Taiji is like a wolf and may attack us at any time."
Dai Daozi frowned when he heard the messy tribe names.
Especially when the names of these tribes also carry the name of the leader, he has a big head.
He said: "Then what are your plans?"
Baiyan didn't speak for a long time.
His mood was very complicated. Both Rajun and Guru were his brothers. It was very uncomfortable for brothers to kill each other.
But brothers killing each other is not the most uncomfortable thing.
It would be the most uncomfortable thing to do if you weaken yourself and attract foreign enemies because of brothers fighting each other.
Because this not only makes people uncomfortable, but also makes their brothers look stupid.
Beside them, there is the wolf Choktu of Khalkha, and in the Bay of Juer, there is the lion Liu Chengzong.
Relatively speaking, the lion made him feel more at ease.
Because every Mongolian wants to believe that no matter how powerful the Han people are, they will never be able to settle in Amdo. If they cannot stay in Kham, they will never be able to enter Weizang.
The Mongols will not only pursue Kham, but also drive them into Uizang.
Both Lazun and Guru, at this time, just want to use their power to attack each other from the small tribes outside.
On the contrary, he pretends to be an outsider and examines the increasing number of Mobei Khalkha people in Qinghai.
"After this battle, it won't be long before Guru will march to the Gannan grassland. I don't want to fight him, so you go back and ask the commander if I can lead the tribe to cross the Yellow River from Guide and pass through the Riyue Mountain. Haibei Resident Shepherd."
Dai Daozi laughed when he heard this: "Isn't Haibei the place where Lazun gave us the command?"
"Your commander-in-chief doesn't listen, and Lazun doesn't care about fighting with you, so naturally it's your commander-in-chief's place."
He pretended that there was nothing he could do about it. After seeing Liu Chengzong's army, he was actually more worried that Liu Shizi would send troops to attack them.
"I can go back and ask you, but don't hold out too much hope." Dai Daozi said, "We want to farm the land, and we won't let you work as a shepherd."
When Bai Yan heard that Dai Daozi was willing to tell him, his face became more relaxed: "I know this. Haibei is very big and there are many places where farming is impossible. I can just go to those places."
"But I have a request."
Baiyan Taiji looked at Dai Daozi, paused, and then continued: "The Marshal and I said that since we have made peace and the two families have become one, we will get along well."
"If the foreign tribes in Khalkha want to invade Qinghai, I hope the commander-in-chief can lend me troops, and those of us in Qinghai can fight against the foreign enemies together."
