The advantage of the smuggling trade between Hedong and Bingzhou is that the Republican Army can use such a smuggling trade to send a large number of intelligence officers into it, and they can observe and study the situation in Bingzhou from a close range.

Hedong Intelligence Bureau, intelligence officer Zhu Sanhei, looks like an old guy, in fact, he is an experienced scout, because of his rich experience into the Hedong Intelligence Bureau. He infiltrated a group of iron smuggling merchants and entered the state.

Then he followed these iron tools and learned some shady things about Bingzhou.

Taking advantage of the lunch break, Zhu San carefully sorted out the information, he carefully wrote the information in the lining of his clothes, so as to ensure the safety of the information, his intelligence contact points are just some taverns, or the next batch of caravans, in short, they are going to make a one-line contact. This makes it easy to ensure the safety of intelligence officers.

There is no special counterintelligence agency on the part of the state, most of them are amateurs, and they would not have thought that these extremely ordinary people are the intelligence officers of the Republican Army.

Zhu San has a strong sense of observation, and at the same time, he patiently tracked the ins and outs of some goods, and finally understood some things.

The rapid development of the economy in Hedong provided a large number of commodities, especially the cheapness of ironware, so that the local landlords Haoqiang saw great business opportunities, and they actively participated in it and bought a large number of ironware. Most of the smuggling caravans that started from Hedong and arrived in Bingzhou were intercepted by the landlord Haoqiang, who bought a large number of goods in their hands, and then gathered them together and resold them to the Huns and Wuhuan people in the north, and these iron tools could also be further made into a large number of arrowheads, weapons, processed and sold to the Wuhuan people and Huns. As a result, the weapons workshops in the state were extremely busy, and most of the weapons crafted were handed over to them. Zhu San simply wrote in the intelligence that he couldn't write too much.

Alcohol, iron, and even, some arrows originally transported to Hexi Prefecture, the factory could produce such backward weapons on a large scale, but they went astray. I came to the state. The landlords of Bingzhou controlled the weapons workshop, and they processed bows and arrows and sold them to the Xiongnu and Wuhuan people in the north.

Alcohol is also their favorite commodity, fighting, keeping out the cold, pastime, and the grain harvest will greatly improve the way of alcohol production. And it offers the possibility. Compared with the traditional production method, the wine produced is not too much, and the intensity is low, the northern nomads do not like it very much, but the distilled alcohol, blended, the production speed is fast, the quantity is large, and the alcohol intensity is quite large. Soon the market in the north was opened.

The savage northern nomadic tribes are very fond of such alcoholic beverages, and when they fight, they will drink them like crazy. It can greatly stimulate the blood and energy of the soldiers, rush to the front, and get sufficient morale.

In addition, there is table salt, which has improved the method of salt extraction in Hedong, and the extensive use of the salt drying method instead of boiling salt has increased the yield quickly and quickly, and most of this salt is dispersed to various places through smuggling. The Bingzhou market is second only to the Luoyang market.

Most of the IRA's merchandise is smuggled in this way. However, the landlords of the state are strong, but they continue to transport such goods.

The goods of the Republican Army are good, and they can be sold quickly, while the Wuhuan and Huns, who lack supplies, urgently need such supplies, but they are at the low end of the trade. In order to obtain higher prices, the state side continued to carry out scissors, frantically seized all kinds of trade benefits, and forced the northern nomads to let their blood bleed. Horses, cattle and sheep, leather became their most abundant products.

The most odious thing is that the funds of the northern nomads will also run out, after all, they are on the disadvantageous side of trade, in order to achieve their goals, they have to use some other ways to meet some of their own needs, they began to attack the Han people's residences, rob the Han people's property, and then sell it to the local landlord Haoqiang, and the landlord Haoqiang doesn't care where these goods come from, they only care about exporting a large number of these goods, which is also directly caused. The relationship between the state army and the northern nomads was extremely tense, the two sides were tense, and the state army was in a state of anger at both ends, but the landlords Haoqiang did not care about these at all, they still went their own way, sitting on the biggest business in the world.

This is a shady curtain that Zhu San knows from other people's mouths, although there is not much direct evidence to prove this, but this possibility is completely there, the northern nomadic tribes at the low end of the trade can do anything in order to get these materials.

Li Jiazhuang, War Department. Jia Xu had just signed an order. It's about production, and the three major armies of the IRA will produce more than two million**. These ** are mainly deployed in the Republican Army-controlled state of Hexi. Because they need to quickly occupy the demilitarized zone, but both sides will engage in battles there, the growth rate of cavalry troops is still relatively slow, after all, they need a lot of horses, training time, and the defensive task is actually very heavy, and the mountain division will definitely not want to be placed on a defensive position with only three infantry regiments alone, they need more troops, or, more.

Yes, they found the magic of **. **If used alone, the deterrent effect is not very large, but if it is deployed on a large scale, the crazy effect will be very large, because one ** is equivalent to adding a soldier and laying a large number of minefields in a wide area. If hundreds or thousands of ** form a minefield, they can pose a great threat to them to the greatest extent. This threat will have the greatest impact on the military operations of the opposing side.

The most important thing is that the burial of ** in the demilitarized zone can meet such a demand of the Republican Army to the greatest extent.

Shangwu agreed to do this, not just to stimulate orders from military factories. One of the most important purposes is that the republican army has taken the initiative to reorganize, the strength of the troops has been reduced on a large scale, the firepower has increased, and the problem of insufficient troops has become very prominent. The appearance of large-scale minefields was stabilized by the Great Wall defense line. If the Huns wanted to make an appointment, they had to be prepared to make great sacrifices.

Obviously, the deal was a good deal, and Shangwu quickly agreed. That's the balance he needs.

"** things are put aside for the time being. We also need to pay attention to Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhuo on the Guanzhong side wants to get more support, they need more materials, and the loan of funds is still a very important aspect, and they said that if they are transferred to the direction of Bingzhou, they are not willing to fight with us. Shang Wu looked at the telegram and said that the telegram came from Hedong, and Dong Zhuo did not have a telegraph line there, but he could quickly transmit it to Hedong and then forward it to Lijiazhuang. This is a huge time saver.

"It seems that Dong Zhuo is very self-aware." Jia Xu said with a smile.

"Hehe, yes, but that's not what we should be paying attention to. What we should pay attention to is what we should do to make such a situation more favorable at present, you know, Dong Zhuo's situation is actually very dangerous. Even, if we lend them money, our bank will be effectively repaid. It's a lot of trouble for us. Shang Wu said.

"Well, I noticed that the trade demand in Guanzhong is very large, salt, iron, cloth, and even many daily necessities." Jia Xu said.

"If the other party can set up a joint Guanzhong trading company, Dong Zhuo will provide relevant protection and trade tax facilitation. I think we can work together. After all, we are concerned with opening up the local market, and there is a need for something like this, and we can trade in exchange for a large amount of local food. Even, you can enter Bashu. This is extremely beneficial for us to open up the market. Jia Xu said.

Shang Wu nodded, this is indeed a good way. However, this is not a good solution to the problem of the safety of borrowed funds, they need more local resources to support, or to be able to reassure their banks.

"Trade is only one aspect. I think we still need to look at the favorable resources that Dong Zhuo can bring to them. If he can get more cavalry from Xiliang, I think, it will be of great benefit. Jia Xu said.

"Hmm. What we lack is horses, perhaps, Dong Zhuo can do this, and another point, that is, the Western Regions. Even though it seems far away there, I feel like we should lay it out in advance. Shang Wu said.

Shang Wu thinks far ahead, but at present, he still pays attention to horses, if he wants to establish more cavalry troops, the expansion of power in the steppe is inseparable from horses, and the same is true for transportation and logistics, relying only on the trade of the Huns. It is not enough to meet such a huge demand, and even the demand for cattle is very large. Such a huge demand forced Shangwu to expand more trade areas, because they lacked too many materials. Otherwise, they simply wouldn't be able to meet that many needs. This is also an important reason for the deployment of the Republican Army.