The senior executives of Pili Army read Liuqiu Company's half-year report and were pleasantly surprised but also a little regretful. What is surprising is that Yu Zhu and others have opened up the situation in such a short period of time. Not only have they firmly controlled the flow of large and small demands, but their economic construction and navy are also developing rapidly. The regret is that we can't communicate with each other. Western Sichuan, where the Perak Army headquarters is located, has strong educational, scientific, cultural and health capabilities and a large number of professional and technical personnel. Liuqiu not only has considerable copper mines, but also can purchase much-needed strategic resources through maritime trade. However, due to the long distance and numerous obstacles along the way, Checkpoints cannot carry out large-scale exchanges of personnel and materials.
Copper is an extremely important raw material for the military industry. There are only a few small and poor mines under the rule of the Perak Army. Not only does the ore contain low copper content, but the output is also extremely impressive. The copper materials obtained from trade in Fan District, Bozhou and other places were also very small, and the price was frighteningly expensive. Only by solving the bottleneck of copper shortage can the Pili Army's industry, especially the military industry, develop rapidly. This is why Ouyang Xuan is very concerned about the Bozhou and Miao areas. Miao territory does not produce copper, but the copper mines in the Dongchuan and Huize areas of the neighboring Dali Kingdom are extremely rich, enough for the Perak Army to use for decades.
In fact, the most convenient and quickest road from Chongqing Prefecture to Dongchuan is via Shimenguan in Qingfu Village, Xuzhou. Not only is the road smooth, but some sections of the road can be traveled by water, which can save a lot of costs. But this route is the main channel for the Mongolian army to attack Bashu from Dali. Both the Song and Mongolian armies have heavy troops stationed here. It is impossible to transport copper to western Sichuan through this route. You must know that copper is a precious metal used to mint coins. Even if the Mongolian army is merciful and does not rob it, it will make the soldiers in the Song army jealous. What's more, there are Uman and Yi tribes such as Yi Niang, Yi Xi, and Wumeng along this road. Although these tribes are more civilized than the Yi tribes south of Jiading and Yazhou, they obviously will not let them pass easily. Caravan.
It is also a good choice to go to Dongchuan Huize via Luoshi Ghost Country. There are not many Mongolian troops in this direction, and most of them are Wuman soldiers from Dali Kingdom. The various tribes in Luo's ghost country have always fought with the neighboring Wuman tribe in Dali. From here, troops sent out of Dali will gain strong support from neighboring tribes. However, rashly sending troops into the territory of Luo's Ghost Kingdom will inevitably cause uneasiness and even hostility among the Miao tribes. Although they signed a tripartite agreement with the Bozhou and Perak Army, vowing to jointly fight against the Mongols, and welcomed caravans, teachers, etc. to enter Miao territory, and even sent people to study in Chongqing Mansion, they did not agree to allow the Perak Army and Bozhou troops to enter their territory. territory.
Luo Ru robbed the caravan some time ago, giving the Pili Army and Bozhou Army an honest reason to enter Luo's Ghost Country. Just the day before yesterday, Zhu Tiaozi wrote that with the help of Luosou and Luo Min, the special forces of the Perak Army and the Bozhou Army carried out a night attack on Luo's mountain village very smoothly. Luo Sou had been a housekeeper for many years and knew the defense of the village well. Under his leadership, he did not even alert the watchdog of the village. The raiding force ended the battle in just one stick of incense. Not only did they kill Luo Ru and the wizard and other cronies who had resisted, they also captured the Mongolian envoy who had colluded with them. According to Yang Wen's order, Luo Ru's family members were sent to Bozhou City for resettlement, and all the prisoners were sent to the coal mines near Hailongtun to serve as laborers.
Luo Ru likes women and fun, and is usually either drinking or on the way to hunting. Luo Sou is responsible for the daily affairs of the Dong tribe. In addition, he has a high prestige in being friendly to others. He also showed the captured Mongolian envoys and the personal and material evidence of the robbery of the caravan ordered by Luo Ru. Therefore, the village leaders of the tribe are hostile to the Perak Army. He had no objection to the actions of the Bozhou Army, and also supported him in taking over as the leader of the tribe. Luosou also announced that he would distribute some of the money collected by Luo Ru over the years to various villages, and also announced that the remaining property would be used for public welfare undertakings such as building roads and bridges and running schools, which won the favor of the people. Therefore, the Dong tribe There was no internal turmoil due to the change of leader.
Luosou was not worried about the threat coming from within, but was worried about the neighboring Wuman Usa tribe and the Mongols behind it, who would not let it go after this incident. Although the Dong tribe is a large tribe in the Luoshi Ghost Kingdom, it is inferior to the Usa tribe in terms of numbers and economy. Moreover, the Usa tribe has hundreds of standing troops and its weapons are more advanced. As for the Mongolian army, it is even more powerful than the Dong tribe. The tribe could not resist. Therefore, as soon as the situation stabilized, he selected 300 strong young men to participate in standing army training and invited special forces soldiers to train militiamen in various villages. At his request, Yang Wen also sent 500 people to garrison the stockade and dangerous places bordering the Usa tribe. If the Mongolian army invades on a large scale, more troops will be sent to support.
Ouyang Xuan was very happy to see that he was one step closer to copper resources. However, he was not happy for a long time. Several letters of information submitted to his desk by his staff officer Xia Xiaogen made him frown again. After learning about the secret communication between Meizhou Army, Yazhou Army and Mongolian Army some time ago, Ouyang Xuan ordered to focus the reconnaissance resources in this direction. This order set the Perak Army's intelligence and reconnaissance system into high-speed operation. Intelligence was continuously coming from Jiading, Meizhou, Yazhou, Chongqing Prefecture, Luzhou and even Chengdu, Pengzhou, Hanzhou and other places controlled by the Mongolian army.
According to intelligence, Cao Zhizhou has been extremely unhappy recently. He saw Yu Xing being promoted to the highest official position in Sichuan, and Liu Zheng being promoted to Tongchuan Road pacifier and Luzhou magistrate. Even Zhang Jue, whom he had always looked down on, was promoted from deputy general to Hezhou magistrate. Originally, he thought that after Yu Xing was promoted, he would take over the post of Deputy Envoy of Sichuan and Jiading Magistrate based on his qualifications. However, unexpectedly, the imperial court appointed a young boy named Zan Wanshou to take over as Jiading Magistrate, making the money he spent on officialdom in vain. . He was so angry that he almost vomited blood. Not only did he frequently beat and curse those around him, but he also vented his extreme dissatisfaction with the Lin'an court at any time, scolding the emperor and senior officials in the court for being stupid and incompetent. .
Not only Cao Zhizhou, but also Meizhou guard Liu Tongzhi was thinking about the position of Jiading magistrate. This Liu Tongzhi was also born into poverty, but because of his unusually large ears, he was deceived by a fortune teller into being a descendant of Liu Bei, so he always boasted about his royal bloodline from the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty had been dead for nearly a thousand years, and there were still people there who looked down upon him as a so-called descendant of the Han Dynasty, but instead called him Liu Daer behind his back. Yu Xing originally wanted his son Yu Dazhong to take over as the prefect of Jiading, but Yu Dazhong was unable to hold up the wall. In addition to being greedy for money and lust, he was a mess in both war and government affairs. In addition, the big bosses in the DPRK Although he is greedy for money, he is not stupid either. Yu Xing has become the highest official in Sichuan. If the extremely important Jiading Prefecture is again controlled by his son, the entire Bashu may become his private property.
Liu Da'er had followed Yu Xing for many years, and he was very good at welcoming people. He also sent money to Yu Xing from time to time, so he was regarded as a confidant by him. When Yu Xing was spending a lot of money to run for office in Lin'an, Liu Dal'er also spent all his wealth on Yu Xing and entrusted him to buy the position of Jiading prefect. However, more than half of this money was swallowed up by Yu Xing. Also out of consideration to prevent Yu Xing from having too much power, and because the money was not in place, the Lin'an court did not agree to Liu Dal'er taking over as the prefect of Jiading. This completely angered Liu Da'er. The money for buying an official position was his entire family wealth, and it also included the rewards he exchanged for his life on the battlefield, as well as the military salary he deducted from the soldiers, and more importantly, the people's wealth he worked so hard to plunder.
