In a series of commercial agreements reached between the Commerce Department of the Ministry of Taxation of the Tang Dynasty and the Cen family, although military rations are the most important items, they are not the only ones.

In addition to the most important military food supply agreement, the two sides also reached various material supply agreements, and the Cen family will use their supply channels throughout the two provinces to provide the Tang Dynasty with various strategic materials urgently needed, including copper, iron, saltpeter, lead, cloth, salt, etc.

Especially sulfur and iron!

Because the Cen family said that they have channels to contact a large number of these two materials, such as sulfur, they can even directly purchase them from Guangzhou and then transport them back.

Guangzhou was a coastal city and one of the few ports in the Ming Dynasty that traded with foreign countries, and the main production area of sulfur in East Asia was Japan.

The easiest and cheapest way to obtain sulfur in large quantities is to import it from Japan.

As for iron, Foshan in Guangdong was an important steel town in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the output of iron was huge.

And these materials can be transported all the way into Guangxi and even to Liuzhou through the Xijiang River.

Of course, there will definitely be checkpoints of the Ming Dynasty along the way, but how to get through the customs in a fool's way depends on the ability of the Cen family.

In addition, the most important point is that the trading price of the above-mentioned materials, including military rations and steel, is only a few percent more than the market price!

This alone can save a lot of money for the Tang Dynasty!

The supply price of the Cen family and the supply price of Old Man Sun are simply a heaven and an underground, the supply price of Old Man Sun, no matter what kind of materials it is, there is no price lower than twice the price, and some strategic materials are three or even four times the price, such as sulfur, Old Man Sun dares to shout out the price of five times the market price, but the Tang Dynasty can only pinch his nose and buy it.

There is no way, who let the Tang Dynasty have no channels to obtain a large amount of sulfur for the time being, and the prices of these things, whether they are Old Man Sun or other merchants, are not cheap.

And the supply capacity of other people is not as strong as Sun Laotu, even if the price is cheap, but if the quantity is not enough, it is useless.

Otherwise, the officials of the Tang Dynasty would not have shouted, and the taxes of the Tang Dynasty have all been earned by Sun Laotu and these black-hearted businessmen.

Many officials of the Tang Dynasty, especially the generals of the Ministry of Taxation and the military, have already secretly sharpened their knives, waiting for the day when Old Man Sun is useless, it is definitely going to destroy this bastard surnamed Sun!

But this kind of idea can only be an idea, and now I think about it in my heart, but if I really turn my face with Old Man Sun, it will be more than worth the loss.

It's very simple to kill Old Man Sun and even rob his family, and it's also simple to snatch his goods and silver!

But Old Man Sun's value lies not in his own family property or anything, but in his supply and transportation channels!

Not to mention the supply channels, it is not an easy task to collect so many military supplies that are searched south in the market and are strictly controlled by the Ming Dynasty.

And the transportation is also troublesome, and now the Ming army in the surrounding provinces of the Tang Dynasty, such as Huguang and Liangguang regions, has basically blocked the connection with the areas controlled by the Tang Dynasty.

If you dare to swagger and take a caravan full of steel, copper and other controlled materials to the area controlled by the puppet Tang thief army, are you really the sword of the Ming Dynasty?

In the past year, there are definitely not only old men Sun who have traded with the Tang Dynasty, but there are very many, but some businessmen often trade once or twice and then stop coming?

Why?

Is it because they have made enough money that they are afraid of death and dare not come? Or is it that there is a sudden explosion of patriotism, and I don't want to sell the enemy anymore?

Just kidding, a few hundred percent of the profits are enough for them to stick their heads in their trouser pockets and continue this kind of business.

And patriotic? I'm sorry, in the middle of the sixteenth century, there was no modern concept of state and nation, some were just the whole world, at most there was one more Huayi, but even then it was limited, because some people thought that 'Hua into Yi is Yi, Yi into Hua is Hua', otherwise the Mongol Yuan invasion and the Manchu invasion, there would not be so many scholars kneeling to welcome the king.

Therefore, it is pure nonsense not to trade with the Tang Dynasty because of patriotism, and this kind of thing is still possible if it is placed in modern and modern times, but in the middle of the sixteenth century, there was no such concept at all.

Most of these businessmen who no longer come to trade in the Tang Dynasty have only one reason, that is, the affair with the pseudo-Tang Dynasty was exposed, and then they either died or fled!

Several prefectures and counties adjacent to Huguang on the opposite side of Xingquan Mansion have set up layers of checkpoints on the passage to Xingquan Mansion, and many merchants who dare to try to transport supplies to Xingquan Mansion are caught every month.

It is not easy to smoothly transport materials into the control area of the Tang Dynasty.

Without a deep network, it would be impossible to transport supplies, let alone large quantities.

But Old Man Sun can do it, and this is where his value lies, and the key to making the Tang Dynasty pay several times the price for the materials he supplies.

It's a pity that this old man Sun keeps his channels very secretive, and the Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Taxation of the Tang Dynasty has sent a lot of spies to try to dig out his channel network, and then replace him with one one, but they are all clueless.

Excavating Old Man Sun's transportation channels, this matter has been taken over by the Survey and Statistics Department of the Hanlin Academy, which has just been established not long ago.

Not only that, Li Xuan also gave the Survey and Statistics Department of the Hanlin Academy a task, that is, to infiltrate, win over Ming officials from surrounding provinces, and establish intelligence channels in the Ming officialdom.

Although the Survey and Statistics Department of the Hanlin Academy has just been established, its personnel are all veterans drawn from other departments, and many of them are still officials in the former Ming Dynasty, catching fast, and spies, these are all old rivers and lakes, and the work has been carried out relatively quickly, and now it has infiltrated the intelligence network into several prefectures and counties in Huguang near Xingquan Mansion, and even attracted a small number of officials of the Ming Dynasty to secretly surrender.

However, after the intelligence work was carried out externally, the nature of the tasks of the Investigation and Statistics Department of the Hanlin Academy overlapped somewhat with that of the Intelligence Department of the Privy Council.

In this regard, Li Xuan also doesn't care about it for the time being, no matter what it is, it has to compete to have motivation, let them compete with each other, and it can also make the intelligence system of the Tang Dynasty take shape as soon as possible.

After reaching an agreement with the Cen family, the negotiation team of the Tang Dynasty did not return to Xingquan Mansion, but continued to stay in Huaiyuan County to be responsible for the follow-up handover work.

And this is also the practice in recent times, and the middle and high-ranking officials sent to Guangxi often do not return to Xingquan Mansion, but continue to work in Huaiyuan County or Rong County.

In addition to their original tasks, their official duties also have another one, that is, to prepare for the relocation of the political center and industrial center of the Tang Dynasty!

At present, there are many high-ranking officials of the Tang Dynasty working in Liuzhou Mansion, and there are as many as four people at the level of squire alone, and officials at the level of squire, industry, rites, and taxation all stay in Guangxi.

All this means that the Tang Dynasty has made the final preparations for the official southward movement!

But when exactly to relocate, it depends on whether the front-line army is fighting smoothly, such as when to conquer Liuzhou.

And Hao Bonian, as the commander-in-chief of the southbound detachment and the first major general in the Tang Dynasty, is naturally very aware of the responsibilities he bears!

But he still dragged Liuzhou City not to fight, and set his sights on the Xiangzhou and Wuxuan areas in the south of Liuzhou, where he wanted to annihilate the living forces of the Ming army as much as possible, and face off head-to-head through the field battle that the Tang Army is best at!

Twenty miles south of Wangyunxi in Xiangzhou, Anjia Manor, and Anjia Wharf along the coast of Liujiang, which was originally just a grange courtyard and private wharf for local landlords, has now become the garrison of 8,000 Ming troops.

The incomparably noble Guangxi Governor Wei Yan's temporary official office and the command center of the 8,000-strong army are located in the Anjia Courtyard, and around the Anjia Courtyard is the Ming army camp!

At this time, there was no calm in the camp of the Ming army a few days ago, it seemed a little noisy and even chaotic, the soldiers of the Ming army were spurred by the officers to build and strengthen the camp, and more soldiers were urgently lined up, some generals galloped through the camp on horseback, they went in different directions, but many people were heading towards the courtyard.

The arrow towers on the periphery of the camp and some of the Ming soldiers on the wooden walls looked at the north one by one with curiosity or panic!

In the direction of the north of the Ming army camp, it was sunny in winter, but there was a shadow like a dark cloud!

This dark cloud is still more than four miles away from the Ming army camp, but in this open area along the river, you can see it if you climb a little higher!

This shadow, which looks like a dark cloud, is the army of the Tang Dynasty led by Hao Bonian himself, including the baggage troops, with a total strength of nearly 10,000 people!

In order to be able to quickly and simply defeat the 8,000 Ming army, Hao Bonian almost completely gave up the siege of Liuzhou City, leaving less than 3,000 people on the Liuzhou side, and they were all garrisons.

The 1st Infantry Brigade, the main force, and several other subordinate units, were all brought here, and even the soldiers of the 2nd Baggage Regiment were brought in preparation for them to participate in the battle.

Hao Bonian did not underestimate the enemy with past victories, he thoroughly implemented the strategy of a qualified general: concentrate superior forces!

For a qualified general, the most important and important thing is to always let your troops maintain the superiority of their forces when fighting!

Even if the overall strength is at a disadvantage, it must form a local superiority in troops!

And this is also the characteristic of modern cavalry tactics, wall cavalry charge, it is this tactic that is adopted, through a denser formation to form a local force advantage, so that several of their own cavalry together to attack one of the enemy's cavalry!

Nearly 10,000 troops are coming slowly, just looking at its momentum, it is enough to make people feel powerless, and the pressure on the Ming army in the Ming army camp is undoubtedly huge!

This can be seen from the chaos in the camp of the Ming army!

At the same time, in the courtyard of the Anjia family, Wei Yan looked at a group of generals with obviously heavy faces and did not speak for a long time, and after a long time, he said: "At the moment of the great enemy, do you have a good way to retreat from the enemy?" ”