Guo Nuer and He Liufeng led people to escort Cao Gan to Sizhou at the end of February to see Sizhou assassin Yang Xingfeng, and they also opened the conditions for Xuzhou on behalf of Han Qian.

On March 10, Yang Xingfeng, the assassin of Sizhou, sent his son Yang Hu to return to Longya City with Cao Gan, Guo Nuer, and He Liufeng to meet Han Qian.

The conditions offered by Han Qian and Changxiang Hou are too tempting, not to mention the others, only 100,000 Shichuan salt passes through Sizhou every year and enters central Guizhou and southern Hunan, which is a huge profit of 80,000 or 90,000 yuan a year for Sizhou.

The scope of Sizhou is comparable to that of Xuzhou and Chenzhou, but it is more closed than Xuzhou and Chenzhou.

In the direction of Sichuan and Chongqing, the Qianjiang River leads to Sizhou, but there are many Wu people in the middle, which blocks the connection between Sizhou and Sichuan and Chongqing.

The bureaucrats were driven out of the Nanzhao area hundreds of years ago and moved north to the mountains of southern Sichuan, which also took away the mountain and forest land from the local native Fanhu.

In the direction of Jingxiang, Chenshui, a tributary of the Yuan River, originates from the eastern mountains of Sizhou, but the river is turbulent and narrow, and there are many dangerous shoals in the river, which is not conducive to boating, and only the north bank of Chenshui has a dangerous path to enter the hinterland of Sizhou.

The trail at the southern foot of Wuling Mountain, which bypasses Sizhou City controlled by the Yang clan and connects the east bank of the Qianjiang River with the west bank of Chenshui, is completely forced by smuggler salt dealers.

Sizhou is so closed, the number of people who have migrated and settled in its territory is also very limited, and the native households account for ninety percent of the total population, so since the beginning of the previous dynasty, the military and political power of Sizhou has been firmly held in the hands of the native surname, and the hereditary Sizhou assassin of the Yang family has been almost a hundred years since Yang Xingfeng.

Even so, Sizhou Yang's is far from being comparable to Ma's, who runs Tanzhou.

Sizhou is too barren, even if the Yang family and other big surnames have thousands of slaves under their command for exploitation, their lives are quite cold, and they are said to be assassins, and their prestige is not even as good as Feng Changyu, Xiang Jianlong, Yang Zaili and others in the early years, not to mention the Xiying who controls the power in Chenzhou at this time.

Even if the Yang clan maintained a scale of 2,000 soldiers and horses in Sizhou, it was quite difficult.

Yang Xingfeng's son followed Cao Gan to Longya City and entered the mountain to see Han Qian, in addition to further implementing the matter of salt and profit, he also wanted to buy the armor and weapons from Longya City.

Zheng Hui led the soldiers and horses of Xuzhou to attack Chenzhou, although Sizhou did not intervene and chose to stand by, but he always paid attention to the war, and it can also be said that he was very vigilant about the development of the Han family father and son in Xuzhou.

Although the strength and cohesion of Xuzhou will only be stronger and will not be weakened, from another point of view, the Han family in Xuzhou has undoubtedly officially become a member of the clans of southwest Hunan and Qianyang, and it has also virtually weakened the vigilance and hostility of other native surnames towards Xuzhou.

What they were more worried about before was that the reform of the land and acres and the promotion of the Tuke nationality would be promoted, and they would also be completely merged into Dachu with the two states of Chenxu, so they would no longer be the emperor of the soil and the overlord of the soil.

Now that it turns out that it is only the Han family that replaced Feng, Xi and other families as the lord of Xuzhou, the threat they can feel is weak. In their opinion, on the one hand, Han Qian could not pose a deadly threat to them just by relying on the power of Xuzhou, and on the other hand, once the situation in Chu State stabilized, even if he officially recognized the fact that Han Qian had seized Xuzhou, he would not condone Han Qian to continue to expand beyond Xuzhou.

In this way, Yang's attitude towards Xuzhou has logically changed from vigilance and defense to cooperation, not to mention that there are so many benefits to be gained.

However, the armament of Sizhou soldiers and horses is too poor, and the soldiers do not want iron armor blades, and even the reserves of iron arrow clusters are extremely limited, and the armament is mainly rattan armor, rattan shields, short bows, and spears.

The soldiers are warlike and brave, and they are not afraid of death, which is the biggest advantage of this landscape since the previous dynasties, but the inferior soldiers with poor armament from Jiming Village, Chenyang City and other battles in Chenzhou were beaten like dogs.

Sizhou needs armor to improve its combat power, and at the same time, it also tests whether Xuzhou really has the intention of cooperating with Sizhou, not just using Sizhou, and even harboring ill intentions towards Sizhou.

Han Qian has never refused to come, sitting in the bamboo shed in the mountains, and said to Yang Hu, who is over 30 years old: "Sizhou can ask for anything, barter for money, barter for goods, and work for loans - Xuzhou is sparsely populated, and there have been wars for many years before, Ding Zhuang has suffered too many casualties, and if he wants to do anything at this time, he feels that there is too much shortage of manpower." If there is more Ding Zhuang left in Sizhou, I can hire a worker here and settle the salary to Sizhou on a monthly basis! ”

Yang Hu was slightly stunned, although he was in a remote location in Sizhou, but since he was a child, his father also extended Confucian students from other places to enter Sizhou, teaching them books and texts, and his horizons were much broader than ordinary Fanmin households, but he didn't expect to be able to use this way to exchange for scarce armor and weapons from Xuzhou.

But when you think about it, there's nothing wrong with that.

He alone has more than 10,000 village slaves in Sizhou, and usually the fields are cultivated by women and children, and after deducting the state camp and the guards, there are almost 2,000 young people who can be sent to work and buy armor.

"Dare to ask Lord Han, I don't know how to convert the workmanship?" Yang Hu faced such a young man in front of him who was six or seven years younger than him, but he didn't dare to slack off in the slightest, the Xuzhou Feng clan was destroyed, the Chenzhou Xi clan was killed like a dog, there may not be many rumors in other places, Sizhou is close at hand There is a pain of cold lips and teeth.

"Qianyang and Linjiang, whether it is recruiting workers or recruiting soldiers, how they are treated, and the price of the swords and armor produced in Dragon Tooth City is not a secret, Yang Gongzi must also be clear, why bother asking?" Han Qian said with a smile.

Yang Hu hesitated for a while, and said, "Lord Han treats his work too well, which may make him arrogant. The slaves sent by my Sizhou will be able to listen to Lord Han's call, and there is no need to be so generous in giving food and clothing, can you discount more wages? ”

Zhao Ting'er sat beside Han Qian, but he didn't expect Yang to escort the slave workers over, and it was not enough to strip all the wages from these slave workers, so he actually asked for food to be deducted here so that they could exploit more!

Zhao Ting'er looked at the mountain cloud forest with a slightly cold face, she was pregnant at this time, silently thinking that she couldn't be angry about such a trivial matter, so she couldn't hold back and didn't directly refuse Yang Hu's unreasonable request on behalf of Han Qian.

"Yang Gongzi thinks so, and he is right, but it is difficult for us to operate here, in this case, Yang Gongzi, do you think it is okay?" Han Qian said lightly, "The manpower sent by Sizhou is still managed by Sizhou, and we will allocate money and food according to the head, and at that time, how much food these slave workers will give every day is up to Sizhou, and Sizhou only needs to ensure that these people are not lazy in their work." ”

"Good!" Yang Hu said suddenly.

He thought in his heart, send 2,000 slaves over, according to the food standard here in Xuzhou, they can almost deduct 20 stone of grain every day, that is 600 stone of grain per month, and 7,200 stone of grain a year.

This is a huge amount of money in Sizhou.

Han Qian determined the general scope of cooperation, and more specific matters were discussed by Feng Yi, Zhao Jicheng and Yang Hu.

After Cao Gan contributed to this, although he was not a marriage envoy, he did not need to be responsible for the marriage between the county lord of Zhang Luo Qingyang and Yang Yuanpu, the king of Tan, but he still had to go to Yueyang on behalf of the Marquis of Changxiang to talk about the specific conditions for cooperation between Yuzhou and Yueyang.

This is also the original purpose of the marriage between the county lord of Qingyang and the king of Tan, Yang Yuanpu.

Although a considerable part of Sichuan Yan will enter Xuzhou by the trail at the southern foot of the Qianjiang River and Wuling Mountain in the future, the Yangtze River is still the main road between Yuzhou and Yueyang, and Yuzhou wants to obtain the high-quality weapons and armor built by Longya City at this time, so it can only detour from Yuanshui and the Yangtze River.

Seeing that Han Qian and Yang Hu had already negotiated, and his goal of returning to Xuzhou had been achieved, Cao Gan asked Han Qian again: "Today is the period when Lord Han was killed for three months, Lord Han really didn't go out of the mountain and accompanied Cao Gan to Yueyang?" ”

"......" Han Qian shook his head, he must have been very satisfied with Wang Chan'er, Zheng Yu, and Uncle Wang Chan'er, Zheng Yu, and Uncle Xu at this time, hoping that those people would think that this was a tacit understanding recognized by everyone, and it was not yet time to break this tacit understanding, so he said to Cao Gan, "I am waiting in Longya Mountain to listen to the good news of Yuzhou." ”

"Cheng Han Lord Ji Yan," Cao Gan knew that he didn't expect him to be able to reverse Han Qian's will, and said: "Then it's inconvenient for me to stay here longer, go down the mountain and go to Chenyang to take a boat to Yueyang to meet King Tan, and there will be a meeting with Lord Han later." ”

"Master Cao probably doesn't really hope that he will have a meeting with me in the future." Han Qian said with a smile.

Cao Gan was slightly stunned, thinking to himself, he and Han Qian are the ministers of the two countries, even if he has the opportunity to envoy to Chu in the future, it is impossible to go around to Xuzhou, then if he wants to see each other again, either Han Qian stepped into Shu with the Chu army, or he stepped into Chu with the Shu army.

That's not a good sign!

Cao Gan smiled awkwardly and said: "My king sent Wei Qun, the Qing of Honglu Temple, as a wedding envoy to enter Yueyang to preside over the marriage between the county lord and the king of Tan, Lord Han is unwilling to go out of the mountain at this time, and I rush to Yueyang, the king of Tan may think that my weight is not enough!" ”

In the eyes of ordinary people, Wei Qun's weight is much heavier than Cao Gan, even if Yang Yuanpu and Shen Yang, the kings of Tan, know that Cao Gan represents the Marquis of Changxiang, but they can't guarantee that the concubine Wang Chan'er and Zheng Yu will talk about the identities of the two of them, and they can't guarantee that Wei Qun has a closer relationship with the prince of Shu, Qingjianghou.

Although he can't openly disobey the will of Wang Jian, the lord of Shu, and sabotage the marriage between the lord of Qingyang and Yang Yuanpu, the king of Tan, many of the cooperation between Yuzhou and Yueyang cannot be made public in Shu, and there is still a way for him to get in the way.

Of course, when Cao Gan said this, he still hoped that his side could intervene in these matters.

Han Qian also wanted to open up the Qianjiang River channel as soon as possible, turned around and said to Feng Yi: "Feng Yi, you can accompany Master Cao on a trip!" ”

Han Qian said that he was going to Yueyang as a spokesperson, Feng Yu naturally would not refuse, and he agreed, and said: "I will accompany Lord Cao to Yueyang, what else do you want me to bring to Your Highness?" ”

"When you go to see His Royal Highness and Mr. Shen, you will say that the Lord of Shu has no intention of plotting in the east, and everyone can do their own thing. In addition, the marriage between the county lord and His Royal Highness, Han Qian is filial piety, and he can't rush to Yueyang in person to congratulate him, Feng Yi, you have prepared enough congratulatory gifts this time, and the congratulatory gifts prepared separately for the county lord of Qingyang need to spend more thought. ”

The hole cards of Shu were completely seen through by Han Qian, Cao Gan could only touch his nose in embarrassment, and arched his hand and didn't say anything more, so he said goodbye to Han Qian, and went down the mountain first with Yang Hu, Feng Yi, Zhao Jicheng and others; Wait for Feng Yi to prepare a congratulatory gift to congratulate the county lord of Qingyang on the completion of his marriage to the king of Tan in Longya City, and then rush to Yueyang by boat through Jiming Village.