On the night of early spring in April, the night wind is cold and infiltrating.

The people of the tower sat in the hall with a roaring bonfire, and the sparks of the bonfire brought out long sparks in the night breeze that blew by, making a crisp crackling sound.

Zhao Hu, who was sitting on the main seat, supported his fat face with his right hand, leaned on the back of the chair very uncultivated, and asked the three subordinates below who were as helpless as himself: "Is there really no way?" ”

Hearing Zhao Hu's inquiry, several subordinates drooped their heads one by one, even Tie Long, who had always had the most ghost ideas, had a helpless expression, Zhao Hu sighed regretfully, and couldn't help but be annoyed.

"I'm afraid that I was tricked by the old scoundrel of Grand Duke Hans this time, this Grand Duke's title is simply the moon in the water, flowers in the fog, which people can't see and touch."

The words of the old bachelor during the day were vividly in his ears, which not only made Zhao Hu's restless heart beat excitedly, but also triggered the problems that Zhao Hu had been pressing to solve for many days.

That is, Zhao Hu found that his finances had entered a dead end, a big problem that could shake his foundation, and as soon as he hurried back to the tower fortress, Zhao Hu immediately asked the guards to notify the three regiment commanders below to rush to the castle hall to hold an emergency military meeting.

The commander of the sixth heavy infantry regiment is the financial officer Starn, the commander of the eighth heavy infantry regiment is Munda, the commander of the first light cavalry regiment Tie Long, and the first light cavalry regiment is a new type of light cavalry regiment formed by Zhao Hu with 2,000 Kazakh war horses exchanged with the Kazakhs, and the commander is the original guard captain Tie Long.

This newly formed light cavalry regiment was Zhao Hu's treasure bump, not only were the soldiers all recruited from the northern refugees who were good at horseback riding, but also the weapons equipped were the most sophisticated of all the armies.

The newly built light cavalry not only had uniform and delicate lock scale armor, but also added thick steel plates to important parts of the body, which was far higher in defense than the ordinary Imperial light cavalry wearing thick leather armor, but much lighter in weight than heavy cavalry.

In his hand is a three-meter-long cavalry spear, with a new single-edged thick-backed combat knife that is good for chopping and slashing on his waist, and ten short javelin slots are also configured on the weapon racks on both sides of the war horse's cross, which is completely a mobile light weapons arsenal.

This made the light cavalry regiment with strengthened defense have very good mobility and impact power, and even Tielong, who was originally good at commanding cavalry battles, was also amazed by the configuration.

What made Zhao Hu most proud was that this light cavalry that poured his heart and soul into his heart and soul was armed with a light crossbow, which was an epoch-making equipment, so that this new light cavalry was a heavy cavalry in the face of the Kazakhs.

This new type of one-handed * crossbow arrow is simple to operate, high shooting accuracy, and reasonable crossbow body design allows cavalry to rely on one foot on the horse to open the crossbow string, and the quiver is carried on the back of each cavalry, which can be used as a thickened back armor and can be taken by the arrow.

Although the range of the one-handed* crossbow is not as good as that of the heavy infantry equipped with the foot heavy crossbow, it can easily penetrate the cavalry buckle armor at a distance of 150 paces, and can even penetrate the steel full-body armor of the heavy cavalry within 50 meters.

What worries Zhao Hu the most is that people want to eat, horses want to eat grass, and more than 20,000 people eat every day and do nothing, which makes Zhao Hu's heart ache, especially the consumption of the light cavalry regiment that has just been established is even more than that of a heavy infantry regiment of 3,000 people.

Zhao Hu secretly thought that to make a fortune is not only to reduce expenditure, but more importantly, to open up financial resources, money is not saved, money is earned, Zhao Hu is anxious to find a way to the north, not only concerned about the crown of the grand duke like a full moon, but also to find a way to connect the north and south trade routes.

Now a large number of materials in the south are hoarded in the iron tower, the weapons alone are piled up in two large warehouses, and other materials are piled up, new things are constantly being made, but old things cannot be sold, Zhao Hu found that he had inadvertently fallen into an economic crisis.

What is a crisis? The biggest crisis is that they can't be sold just by producing them, and these valuable things are placed here, and they can't be turned into money if they are rusty and moldy, but will slowly turn into a pile of scrap copper and rotten iron.

Especially in the rainy season just past, the humid weather and heavy rain made the bowstrings in the warehouse soften, and in all kinds of ways, all kinds of weapons and equipment accumulated in the warehouse could only go into the iron-making furnace again and turn into a puddle of molten iron.

What to do? Zhao Hu, who was troubled by these problems, had a headache, most of the people in the south were a bunch of poor and destitute little lords, each living a stable life, who wanted so many weapons for what.

If you sell these weapons and equipment to the Kazakhs, I am afraid that it will not be long before the words made of iron tower will appear on the arrows nailed to the gate of the imperial capital.

"Is it true that we can't find a road to the northern border, and that there are Kazakhs squatting in the snow-capped mountains to the west of our Roman Empire? Kazakhs can't be so perverted! “

Seeing that his subordinates were silent one by one, Zhao Hu's face became more and more ugly.

Seeing the redder and redder face of his sovereign, especially the sparks of anger flashing in his eyes, poor Tielong had to bite the bullet and say, "My lord, if you want to find a way to the north, it is not impossible, but we need the help of someone!" Only with his help it was possible to find a way to the north right under the noses of the Kazakhs! ”

Zhao Hu heard that someone could open the passage to the north, and his mood immediately improved, but when he saw Tielong's appearance of wanting to speak and stopping, he hurriedly said: "When is this happening, what are you still hiding, do you really have to wait until we are completely in a desperate situation to say it?" ”

Seeing Zhao Hu angry, Tie Long replied with an embarrassed face: "Don't worry, my lord, it's not that my subordinates refuse to speak, but that doing so may affect my lord's precious reputation, I heard that among the prisoners exchanged from the Kazakhs this time is a little baron named Liu Fei, he is an important figure in the Liuyu Chamber of Commerce, the largest smuggling organization in the north, although he is just an insignificant small fish in the Kazakhs, he is very famous among the northern nobles and the imperial capital."

In terms of evading recovery, smuggling goods, and secretly opening up trade routes, Baron Liu Fei is a first-class expert, and his subordinates have heard this person mentioned many times before, and it is said that he often maneuvered between the imperial capital and the great nobles in the north, and there are many things that are inconvenient for the adults to be handled by this person, specializing in black work.

Since the lord wants to open the north-south passage under the nose of the Kazakhs, he must first find this person, if he can get the help of his Northern Rainfall Chamber of Commerce, it is simply easy to secretly open a secret passage to smuggle to the north! ”

Tie Long looked at the expression on Zhao Hu's face, and found that Zhao Hu didn't have a big reaction on his face, so he secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and continued: "It's just that this person likes to smuggle slaves the most, and he is notorious in the north, known as the black-hearted wolf in the north, if the adult cooperates with him, spreading it may have a bad impact on the adult's current reputation!" ”

"Qingyu? This can't be eaten or worn, who cares about this! Zhao Hu smiled after listening to Tielong's words, how could he forget this big acquaintance, he had the intention of cooperating with him when he was in the Falcon Territory before, but when the Kazakhs invaded, this matter was delayed.

Zhao Hu stood up and waved his hand to the subordinates below: "Let's disperse today, early tomorrow morning, Tielong, you will lead two thousand light cavalry to Chaoyang City with me, this black-hearted wolf in the north still owes me 200,000 gold Luke, just this time I asked him to carefully calculate this debt!" ”

Seeing Zhao Hu leave the hall with a happy face, Tie Long, who then stepped out of the hall, shook his head suspiciously and said: "How did you think of helping Zhao Hu consider your reputation, could it be that you have identified with what this Zhao Hu has done, judging from what Zhao Hu is doing now, I dare not say that he will become a good emperor, at least a rare lord who is sympathetic to the people!" Maybe he didn't want to destroy Zhao Hu's image as a benevolent lord in the hearts of the people! ”

The sound of horses' hooves shook the earth, and the dust kicked up by the two thousand light cavalry who followed at the same time, like a galloping yellow dragon.

The vast plain spread out rapidly in front of Zhao Hu's eyes, and ten stern-faced guards cavalry held the three-legged falcon spear flag tightly in their right hands to guard both sides of Zhao Hu, and the whole team rushed towards the northwest of Chaoyang City with an indomitable and sweeping momentum.

Holding the male soldiers, the horse stepped on the earth, the heaven and the earth galloped at my disposal, Zhao Hu, who was at the front of the team, was in a happy mood as if he was flying in the sky, followed by two thousand little brothers armed to the teeth.

"How far is Chaoyang City? Why did you rush to the road in the morning, not to mention seeing the city, even the flat ground was not seen, isn't Chaoyang City built on flat land. Zhao Hu turned his head to look at the sun in the sky, and turned to ask the flag officer beside him.

Seeing that the lord asked himself personally, the flag officer pointed to the slope of the business road in front of him with a respectful face: "My lord, as long as you cross this ridge again, you should be able to see Chaoyang City." ”

"Oh, really?"

Zhao Hu, who was full of doubts, drove his war horse to the top of the slope of the trade road in front of him, and suddenly his eyes lit up, and a fault appeared in the steep hills around him, and a huge flat and low depression appeared in front of Zhao Hu's eyes.