Controlling the private salt business in Zhending Mansion is equivalent to holding an inexhaustible gold mountain.
Gao Kan was already thinking about it at this time. After everything was settled in Zhending Mansion, he would send a group of people to Bashu to solve the problem for the Liu brothers.
At that time, another salt road will be opened, and then the salt merchants in Shu will go from southwest to north, selling private salt back and forth.
In this way, even if it is not as good as the Lianghuai salt merchants who earn tens of thousands a year, it is still no problem to scrape together a military expenditure of more than ten or two hundred thousand.
It is estimated that tens of thousands of troops in Gaokan will be enough to control the Zhending Mansion alone and prevent the Jin army from taking advantage of the road to go south. However, if there is a plan to advance, this number of troops will be somewhat stretched, but by then There are other ways to make money.
Don't know that firewood, rice, oil and salt are expensive, and it's not yet time to pay wages. Just thinking about it, Gao Kan already feels a little short of money.
Most of the money he had on hand at the moment was obtained from looting.
If he were like Liangshan, a bandit who took over the mountain and became the king, that would be fine.
If you have no money, find a wealthy place, beat up a rich man, attack a corrupt official, and it will be enough to feed you for a while.
But if you want to be a genuine yamen, it just doesn't work.
As for relying on local taxes and the like, most of that stuff has to be entrusted to the court, and only a small part can fall into hands.
Unless Gaokan can obtain the right to manage military and financial affairs from the officials of Zhao and Song Dynasties, collecting taxes without paying taxes and stationing troops for training is considered rebellion. He can only do that when his territory is strong enough. He only has a small territory like Zhending Mansion. Obviously not.
If you want to ask the imperial court for the power to manage your own military finances, you have to be a military governor. Since the Song Dynasty, few people have had this thing.
In history, no matter how great their achievements and reputation were, and how many soldiers and horses they had, Han Shizhong and Yue Fei still could not become military governors.
Instead of thinking about this, Gao Kan would be better off thinking about how he could ask the court to make him a king like Taifu Tong did, which would be more practical.
The more things went through my mind, the more I thought it was a troublesome thing. As the saying goes, it is better to ask for others than to ask for yourself. It is true to find ways to find more private ways to make money.
Otherwise, the horse will not grow fat without the night grass.
At this point, his thoughts were far away, and he ignored the matter in front of him. Xu Wen kowtowed and agreed for a long time, but nothing came out.
Seeing that he was lost in thought, Lin Chong called out carefully: "Sir, what do you think we should do now?"
Hearing Lin Chong's voice, Gao Kan came back to his senses, glanced at Xu Wen, and frowned slightly.
He waved his hand and said: "Detain him first, keep the dog alive, write a letter and send it to various salt merchants, and then call him to the village."
"Yes." Lin Chong responded with clasped fists.
Seeing that Xu Wen had saved his life, he hurriedly kowtowed in gratitude.
Gao Kan ignored him and ordered Lin Chong to pull him down and go get the one hundred thousand taels of silver he mentioned later.
After the two of them went down, Gao Kan called Yang Zhi again and said, "The village has just been captured. We need to be careful tonight. It's okay inside the village. With General Cai in charge, it should be safe. Pay more attention to what's happening on the east side of the village."
Yang Zhi hurriedly clasped his fists and responded: "Don't worry, sir, my subordinates will send spies later to keep an eye on the east side of the mountain stronghold."
After a slight nod, Gao Kan added: "We are going to send some people, so let's just ask them to be smarter, check out the situation in Donglin Village, and make some preparations in advance."
"Yes, I understand." Yang Zhi responded and bowed before exiting.
Having a hand to take care of everything makes me feel relaxed and relaxed.
However, he didn't just find a place to lie down and take a nap. He still persisted in the meeting hall. When Cao Qi arranged for the village to be settled, he would definitely come to report to him.
Sure enough, after waiting for more than an hour, Cao Qi settled down all the troops in the village and came to report.
"Sir, all the barracks in the stronghold have been prepared. The general will gather the original soldiers and horses in the stronghold into two barracks, confiscated the ordnance, and entrusted it to our personnel to take care of. As for the defense in the stronghold, we have replaced it with our own people."
Hearing this, Gao Kan nodded and praised: "General Cao is easy to arrange, so I feel at ease."
Cao Qi turned his eyes and said again: "Sir, He Zhiyuan asks to see you."
After hearing this, Gao Kan's expression changed and he asked, "Commander He has made a great contribution to the successful recovery of Xilin Village. Is it time to meet him? I wonder where he is now?"
"So that the young master will know that when the end comes, he will be waiting outside the hall together with the general." Cao Qi said, clasping his fists.
"Well, please invite Commander He to come in and talk."
With a nod, Gao Kan went down to see He Zhiyuan.
He Zhiyuan was the infantry commander of Xilin Shanzhai and was close friends with Cao Qi. With this relationship, he asked Cao Qi to take the first step and persuaded him to cooperate with the army to attack the stronghold. He secretly ordered the troops to hold down the gate of the stronghold for defense, so that Lin Chong could be summoned. The leading troops entered the stronghold with little resistance and acted smoothly. Secondly, they also restrained many troops from the western village.
If not, if Gaokan were to lead a forceful attack, both sides would suffer a lot.
Moreover, when they entered the village, He Zhiyuan asked someone to open the gate of the village.
So no matter how you look at it, your visit here is a great achievement. You should have seen it a long time ago, but you just forgot about the high hurdles before.
But it is common sense that He Zhiyuan first rebelled against the Song Dynasty and surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, and then rebelled against Xu Wen, his immediate boss, and secretly colluded with foreign enemies, like opening a stronghold. He should not be an easy-to-trust person.
Regardless of him, even Cao Qi is not considered Gao Kan's closest subordinate at the moment. Even if he meets him, he will gain nothing.
It would be a good idea to get him a separate barracks to avoid suspicion.
Gao Kan didn't care about it in his heart, but took a look first before talking.
After waiting for a while, Cao Qi went out in person and called He Zhiyuan into the hall to meet Gao Kan.
As soon as the person entered the threshold, Gao Kan saw his appearance. He was a tall middle-aged man.
As if he knew that he was in an awkward situation, He Zhiyuan acted cooperatively as a military commander and in the stronghold. He should have been wearing military armor and weapons, but at this time, he had already lost all his strength.
Wearing ordinary clothes, he knelt down on one knee and worshiped Gaokan when he entered the door.
"The sinner He Zhiyuan has the courage to meet the young master!"
Seeing this, Gao Kan hurriedly stepped forward to help him up and said, "Commander He is serious about his words, why is this so important? Please get up quickly!"
After being helped by Gao Kan himself, He Zhiyuan refused to get up, but said resolutely: "Young Master is so righteous that you give the sinner a chance to forgive his sin, but the sinner dare not belittle himself and forget that he was with the thieves before, treason and surrender to the invaders." , please give me a heavy punishment."
Gao Kan heard the words and said with a smile: "Commander He doesn't need to worry about it. It was forced by the situation at that time and it is not the commander's fault. Besides, Xu Wen is in charge of the west mountain stronghold. He asked the judge to surrender. As a subordinate soldier, the commander has the first duty to obey the order, but there is nothing he can do."
"What's more, this time when General Cao came to persuade us, Commander He immediately abandoned the dark side and turned to the bright side. It was a great achievement for us to recover the stronghold without suffering any losses."
"Young Master's forgiveness will make the sinner burst into tears of gratitude and shame!" He Zhiyuan bowed in a muffled voice.
"Commander congratulations, get up quickly. Heroes don't ask about the past, but only look at the future."
Gaokan pulled He Zhiyuan up and continued: "Now the gold thieves have broken their promise and invaded our country in the Song Dynasty. The gold thieves general Wanyan Zonghan led the army and entered Hedong Road to cause chaos. They occupied many places and their troops were approaching Taiyuan Prefecture. The government and the public are in turmoil, and the whole world is angry. We still have many battles to fight, and we need to work together from top to bottom. When the time comes, we will ask Commander He to help us."
