After buying the artillery and grenades that he had been thinking about for a while, Boss Qian felt better for a moment, but then he suddenly became sad: "What if the artillery shells and grenades run out? What if the artillery breaks down?" Looking at Zhu The charioteer had a depressed look on his face as he gritted his teeth and summoned up the courage to express his proposal to establish a long-term arms deal with the Pili Army. He originally thought that Zhu Tiaozi, who had suffered a loss in this transaction, would refuse, but unexpectedly he readily agreed, which actually made him feel faintly worried. From Boss Qian's point of view, Zhu Tiaozi is really a difficult business negotiation opponent, and he wonders if he will take the opportunity to ask for excessive prices. At that moment, he nervously waited for the other person's lion to open its mouth.
Boss Qian has secretly decided in his heart that as long as the conditions offered by Zhu Tiaozi are not too harsh or excessive, he will agree even if he asks for a hundred, two hundred or even a thousand horses in the future. With high risks comes high rewards. Trading on the Tea-Horse Road is indeed difficult and dangerous, but the profits are also extremely lucrative. With firearms and the Qian family's friendship with the tribes along the way, they can ensure continuous business and financial resources on this road. As long as the trade routes reopen, horses will naturally have nothing to worry about. On this trade route, there are not only mountain ponies from the southwestern Yi, but also plateau horses from the Tibetan area. You can even buy Dali horses. The former are excellent pack animals. The Tibetan horses can be used as pack animals and war horses. Horses are excellent war horses.
Boss Qian didn't have to wait long before Zhu Tiaozi proposed two conditions for long-term cooperation that had obviously been well thought out. In fact, these conditions were not the intention of Zhu Tiaozi alone, but the intention of the top brass of the Perak Army. Whether it is early compensation negotiations or firearms sales, it is essentially for long-term cooperation. This is why Ouyang Xuan asked Zhu Tiaozi to make appropriate concessions in the first two rounds of negotiations and try his best to promote long-term cooperation between the two parties. To Boss Qian's surprise, these conditions were not harsh in his opinion, but rather fair and reasonable. From this, it seemed that the Pili Army was full of sincerity in the cooperation between the two parties.
The first cooperation clause of the Pili Army is that it can provide firearms to Qianjiazhai on a regular basis, and it can even provide Qianjiazhai with two more city defense guns in the near future. Qianjiazhai needs to provide strategic materials such as salt, horses, copper, and iron ore to the Perak Army. The soon-to-be-built Yokoyuan Fort will be equipped with two new city defense guns on each wall. Although this front-mounted heavy gun has a slow rate of fire, it is powerful and has a long range. When used in conjunction with the light mother-child cannon, it can form cross firepower from far and near, making it a powerful weapon for defending the city. . Of course, the "monkey version" provided to Qianjiazhai was not only due to technical confidentiality reasons, but also because the original cannon weighed 1,000 kilograms, and it was too difficult to transport it to Qianjiazhai, so it was provided to Qianjiazhai as a 500-kilogram urban defense cannon. . The two cannons will pass through the waterway, pass through Xinjin Village and then to Qiongzhou, and then secretly be transported to Qianjiazhai when the Huojing River rises. This condition made Boss Qian ecstatic. With enough firearms, not only was business secure, but he was no longer afraid of government extortion and the Mongolian threat. When he asked about the price of the city defense cannon, "free", Zhu Tiaozi spat out two words, made a haha, and then mentioned the second cooperation terms.
The second terms of cooperation are that the two parties establish a joint caravan, with the Pili Army buying one-third of the Qianjiazhai caravan. It's just that the Perak Army did not invest in cash, but used the ammunition consumption and security forces required by the joint caravan to invest in the shares. The above two city defense cannons were also among them. The more than 400 young and strong men in Qianjiazhai can be organized into four companies according to the military structure of the Perak Army. Three companies serve as armed caravans, and one company serves as a rest and guard the village. The Perak Army will dispatch 50 military backbones to serve as squad and platoon leaders for each company. In addition to training in the use of firearms, they will also be trained in combat skills. Boss Qian agreed after some thought.
He knew that in the eyes of the government, Qianjiazhai was selling illicit salt and colluding with the barbarians. In the eyes of the Mongols, Qianjiazhai refused to surrender, and both families wanted to destroy them. From Boss Qian's point of view, it was a good choice to join the newly-emerged force of the Pili Army, not to mention that Qianjiazhai took the bulk of the caravan's profits, and the company commanders of the four companies were also from Qianjiazhai. After the establishment of the joint caravan, not only can it obtain supplies from the areas controlled by the Perak Army, but with powerful force, it can also go further and even open up new trade routes. The Tea Horse Trade Road actually has three branches, two of which go southwest to Yazhou, then go south to the Yi tribes, or go west to the Tibetan tribes through Diao and Yanzhou, and the third one goes from the Pili Army's Controlling the area, passing through Qingcheng County, Weizhou and Maozhou to the Tubo tribes, Qianjiazhai currently mainly operates the first two trade routes. In fact, the trade route to Wei and Mao was shorter, but Qingcheng County and Daojiang County along the way exploited the caravans heavily, both from the Southern Song Dynasty government and the new vassal troops who surrendered to Mongolia.
The third cooperation clause was proposed by Boss Qian, who wanted to send the family members of the caravan to Wanjiaping Mountain. In addition to the more than 400 people who will be organized into the armed caravan, there are about 500 more people from the Qian clan. When he heard that the newly affiliated troops in Dayi, Yongkang, and Qingcheng counties were defeated by the Perak Army, Qianjiazhai sent spies disguised as traveling merchants to Liuliba to spy on the situation, but they were blocked by Wanjiabao. Boss Qian listened to the spies' report that Wanjiabao was extremely strong and guarded the key points. It was as if one man could hold the gate and ten thousand men could not break it. He also said that the Pili army was majestic and had the appearance of a strong army. At that time, he was still doubtful. Today, I have witnessed the power of artillery with my own eyes, or I have received an education in artillery, and I no longer have any doubts about the strength of the Perak Army. I heard General Cao say that this is still a light artillery, and if it is a new type of field artillery, it will be more powerful.
The reason why Boss Qian wanted to send his clan members away was that although Qian's village was strong, it was too small and would be difficult to hold on to for a long time if it was besieged. He believed that the "Land of Paradise in Troubled Times, Taoyuan in Sichuan" promoted by the Pili Army was not false, and believed that his people would be safer in Wanjiaping. With a stable rear, the caravan has no worries. On the other hand, he understands that one cannot have two ends in life. Since he has chosen to be bound together by the Perak Army, he might as well be more single and send his family members to the rule of the Perak Army, which further shows Qian Jiazhai's determination to join the Perak Army. .
After reaching cooperation, Cao Ergou sent people to use mules and horses to carry some of the goods back to Hengyuan, reported the situation to Ouyang Xuan and asked for a navy to respond. A large number of the Qian clan members who returned to Wanjiaping this time were old, weak, women and children, and they had a lot of luggage with them, making it difficult for them to travel a long distance. In addition, some goods also need to be transported back to Hengyuan. After discussing with Boss Qian, Cao Ergou decided to travel by land to Qiongzhou first, and then take a boat and waterway through Xinjin City to Hengyuan.
During the waiting days, Cao Ergou was not idle. He organized the young men of Qianjiazhai into four armed caravan companies and immediately started formal training. Zhu Tiaozi is even more busy. He has been busy connecting with Qian Laoer, the second boss of Qianjiazhai, on product supply and delivery channels, costs and financial accounting. The rest of the villagers are also busy packing their belongings in preparation for the upcoming move.
On the appointed day, Huang Dagen and his naval vessels docked at the Nanhe River outside Qiongzhou City as promised. In order to prevent the defenders of Qiongzhou City from discovering it, the fleet stopped five miles away from the city. During this trip, the Pili Army not only dispatched all the ships of the navy, but Le Quan'an also borrowed more than ten large transport ships from his former colleagues stationed in Xinjin City. When Cao Ergou took his people by land, they bypassed Huojing City and Qiongzhou City far away. Since the formation of hundreds of people was quite large, it was not hidden from the officers and soldiers in Qiongzhou and Huojing. However, the garrison generals in these two cities chose to turn a blind eye, not only because they accepted the bribes sent by Boss Qian, but also because the soldiers in Huojing did not dare to take care of them at all. Although there are many soldiers in Qiongzhou, they don't want to take care of it, because the news they got from Boss Qian is that these people are all hungry people, and they want to go to Meizhou to find food because of hunger. In the eyes of the Qiongzhou garrison, these hungry people are like a plague of locusts. The farther away they are from the territory under their jurisdiction, the better. It has nothing to do with who they want to harm.
The trip from Qiongzhou to Xinjin City was very fast along the river, so it was still early to arrive at Xinjin City, but Huang Dagen still spent a lot of time in Xinjin. He did this so that the fleet passed through Chongqing Fucheng in the middle of the night without any disturbance, and arrived at Hengyuan Town at dawn. Although most of the defenders in Fucheng were loyal to the Perak Army, Pan Luohuan and a few of his cronies were deeply hostile to the Perak Army. No better than the passage of scattered ships, if these dozens of mighty ships pass through Fucheng during the day, they will definitely attract Pan Luohuan's attention, and he will order to detain or even attack the fleet. As Ouyang Xuan often said, the Pili Army is not afraid of Pan Luohuan, but try not to provoke him.
When the Qian clan members disembarked from the boat in Hengyuan Town, they found that a group of people had already greeted them on the shore, led by a tall and tall young man. Huang Dagen, who was walking at the front, turned and shouted to everyone: "Elders of Qianjiazhai, brother Pili Junxuan is here to greet you personally."
