The fighting between the state army and the Republican army on the state front was largely calm, with occasional skirmishes between the two sides, but nothing else. The state army dug trenches, and the Republican army also stepped up the construction of their fortifications, and the two sides formed a standoff, and it seemed that there was a great posture of old age and death.

Unfortunately, these are superficial phenomena, and in many areas, the trade between the two sides has never stopped.

After the state army and the Republican army fought, they knew the power of firearms. They began to find ways to get weapons from Hedong, stealing, robbing, and copying them. And these weapons can be carried out by smuggling.

The state army and the republican army fought an official battle, and the two sides were just constantly fighting each other, but no one wanted to fight a large-scale war. But the people don't care about this, they are frantically looking for all kinds of ways to promote the increase of trade between the two sides.

And the state needs a lot of food, firearms, household goods, food, cloth, and weapons, and they need a considerable amount of supplies.

The Bingzhou Army purchased a large number of weapons, and the smugglers sold these things to the Bingzhou Army, and at the same time sold them to the Wuhuan people who needed these things, as well as the local people, which was a big business, and the people who could participate in it were the local landlords Haoqiang, because these things came with the fastest money and developed the fastest. The IRA will not put an end to such situations, some of which are deliberately liberalized, and some of which are specialized in smuggling.

The trade in the north stimulated the merchants of Hedong, for example, the Hedong people went to Hexi Prefecture to do business, and the purchase of the Huns made many people rich. They continued to borrow money and invest in larger quantities of purchases to do business in Hexi Prefecture. Orders stimulated the further expansion of factories and handicraft workshops, business seemed to be very good, and people were constantly involved, but for a while, the Huns really could not afford too many business orders.

But the merchants of Hedong, as well as more Hedong people, will not give up such an opportunity, they have gathered their target in another direction, and there are also a large number of Wuhuan people, Xiongnu people in the north of Bingzhou, and even their demand is greater. Because the place they occupy is even more barren. But there was a war there, but that didn't stop them from doing all sorts of things, and the locals had many trails. Relying on second-hand carts, careful smuggling, through these paths, the trade between the two sides is maintained by such a smuggling method.

At all times, the links between regions need to be carried on in this way, and a simple blockade and hostile relations cannot avoid such a relationship.

Lieutenant Shishi, the intelligence officer of the Republican Army, is very aware of such a situation, but the Republican Army has not taken measures to block it, although it will cause the loss of tax revenue, but the factory production in Hedong is real, if it is blocked, it will completely cut off the connection between Hedong and Bingzhou, and in addition, the situation between them will become very bad. The IRA will lack the necessary means to enter these areas for intelligence, so instead of being blocked, it will become a channel for the IRA to obtain intelligence. Many intelligence officers will enter here disguised as vendors, get a lot of information about the merger, and then bring it back.

Lieutenant Stone was born as a bitter child, and the purpose of joining the Republican Army was just to make ends meet. But then he began to learn, he knew how to read, he knew what he was a soldier for, and more bitter children got out of the sea of suffering, there was no way, many things were like this, because he knew the situation of those children too well. If it weren't for that, they wouldn't have achieved such an outcome themselves.

In this mission, the burden of the stone is very important, that is, to gather more local forces, win over, and let the local landlords lean to their side. The stone felt very difficult. Because in his opinion, the local landlords are greedy, why should they be co-opted, this is really an incomprehensible thing, such an incomprehensible thing, so that he himself feels very incomprehensible. But what can be done to do this, and he doesn't have a very good way to do such a thing.

It's a very difficult thing, but he still has to carry it out, maybe among the landlords, there are some enlightened people, and it is okay to win over them.

Stone is just one of such intelligence networks, the Republican Army has changed their withdrawal, they need to actively improve such a state of confrontation from other aspects, how to change, it is necessary to work the intelligence side, to win the support of the local people.

Li Jiazhuang, inside the War Department.

"Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shu and others are actually all the way." Jia Xu said dissatisfied.

"Dong Zhuo has obtained Guanzhong, Xiliang and other places, and his strength may be slightly stronger, but this still needs to wait until the imperial court's control over the local area is out of control to reach such a state, that is, they need to continue to grow and wait for the turmoil in the imperial court situation. We're looking at the situation at the imperial court. Jia Xu said. Shangwu also needs to consider the security situation around them, or what their situation is, etc.

And the power of the great general He Jin is also extremely complicated, the current scholars, landlords and heroes have all come to him, and he is also a relative, against the eunuch group. When fighting against eunuchs, his strength may still be the same, but He Jin's character is too problematic. Jia Xu analyzed.

Shang Wu listened patiently, these were sorted out from the intelligence department, in addition, there were all kinds of other information, such as, Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shu, two real requests for military assistance, they could even trade with the Republican Army, and at the same time, through the way of merchants, ask for loans. Dong Zhuo's situation is even more disadvantageous, and he needs to urgently expand his strength. And he has repeatedly stated that he has no intention of grabbing states with the Republican Army.

To be honest, Shang Wu is also thinking about something like this, the Republican Army has money to borrow, and if it borrows, a lot of their trade can be expanded again, but the connection between the two sides, or rather, business travel. Guanzhong is okay to say, through Hedong, Hexi to reach Guanzhong, but Yangzhou is too far away, you need to pass through a large area to get there, if you lend them money, the pressure on the bank will be very great.

In addition, they have benefits, they need more benefits, and if there are no more benefits, Shangwu will never do such a thing, so this matter is actually very difficult to deal with.

"I have to admit that what you said is very good and correct, but it doesn't have much to do with us. In other words, if we want to achieve a greater degree, we still need to develop our own strength, first of all, the area we control must be larger, and we are still a long way from our plan to occupy the northern Loop. We can only get the Hetao back after annexing the states, otherwise our flank security will become extremely unfavorable. Shang Wu said so.

"And within our jurisdiction, we also need to consolidate our forces and expand our strength. As for possible unrest, we need to be actively prepared. Shang Wu said. However, Shang Wu is more inclined to expand his strength and then fight. However, Jia Xu is a bold person, and he is more inclined to modify the plan and adopt an unbelievable way to do it, and win in chaos. Boldly speculate to expand their influence and strength.

It's very bold, and Shang Wu doesn't object, but first of all, he must consider his own ability, after all, if he doesn't get it right, it will lead to the complete loss of all control of the Republican Army. Shangwu didn't want such a thing to happen, so he wanted to add more strength to do such a thing, although it was conservative, it was understandable.

"Well, though, I think we have a great opportunity. You should seize this opportunity, and you should increase your investment in intelligence, and that may be the case. Jia Xu said with a smile.

"Huh. I'm not very adventurous, but I don't want to give up on opportunities, and if there were better opportunities, we could still do this. Shang Wu said so. Yes, Shang Wu is also a guy who doesn't give up, he has many, many things to do, and even, in many cases, he can do such things.

However, the first thing he needs to do is to increase his strength, because only after his own strength increases, many of their situations can be improved to a greater extent, otherwise, everything will be difficult to deal with at the beginning. Shang Wu is still very aware of this.

In this regard, he himself is very much in favor of the development of such a thing.

Expanding strength is not only as simple as external expansion, but also all the methods of integrating one's own internal forces, but this integration is not simply relying on them, but more on free forces.

In the army, the strategy of elite soldiers is adopted. The initial plan is to establish four branches of the armed forces, and at the same time reduce the existence of unnecessary military forces and strengthen the enhancement of the combat capability of the army. Save military spending and invest more in military technology. On the other hand, the economy is integrated, and after a period of rapid expansion, the IRA needs some larger companies, banks, because in this way, they are more competitive. At the same time, the competitiveness is reflected in the investment in education and scientific research, although the financial investment is still very large, but it can actively guide enterprises to do so, which is also a great advantage for them, which can meet their various needs to the greatest extent. This is another way of increasing strength.