Hearing the words of Xie Waqian and the stone blacksmith, the other people all had not very good-looking faces!

What does the shortage of strategic materials mean that many workshops under the Ministry of Industry cannot be opened? This generation of the new army of the Tang Dynasty could not obtain weapons, especially muskets, artillery, and grenades.

And it is possible that none of the existing weapons can be used, because there is a lack of sulfur and saltpeter for gunpowder, a lack of lead for bullets, and a lack of iron for cannonballs.

When these firearms are unusable, the combat effectiveness of the Datang New Army will be greatly reduced, and it is possible to drop by seven or eight percent.

Because today's Datang New Army is too dependent on firearms.

Even Butcher Chen, a big boss, knows about these situations, and deeply understands the powerful relationships.

So Butcher Chen spoke at this time: "Don't we still have transactions with other merchants?" In this world, only those who don't know the surname Sun can provide these things, can't we find other people to increase the amount of purchases? ”

At this time, Old Man Xie shook his head slightly and said: "It's difficult, although we still have dealings with several other merchants, but the strength of these merchants is too small, and there are not too many transportation channels, even if they can buy so many materials from outside, they have no way to transport them, unless we directly send troops to help them transport them, so that the various materials purchased from them are not even one-third of what we need." If you want to solve the problem of material shortage, you really have to find a big businessman like Sun Yuanwai! ”

If you want to do business with the Tang Dynasty, the profits are naturally extremely high, and they are high enough to risk your life, but in the same way, if you want to do business with the Tang Dynasty, the difficulty is not ordinarily high.

Because what the Tang Dynasty needs is all kinds of strategic materials, not to mention the rest, just the iron thing, which has always been the control material of the dynasty, if the private businessmen want to sell it in large quantities, and they are also sold to = the Tang Dynasty This kind of thief, if they are caught by the government, it is definitely the end of the family and the extermination.

And since the rise of the Tang Dynasty, Su Jiakang has been strictly ordering traders to have dealings with the bandits in Huangzhu Mountain.

Now although the Su family is not out of the county seat, the person who blocked the Tang Dynasty has been replaced by Song Zhiwen, the prefect of Xingquan Mansion.

The most important transportation artery between Fucheng and Zhengtai County, that is, the Lanjiang River crossing, has now become a military area, and the Ming army and the new army of the Tang Dynasty have fought a war here and continue to fight against each other.

This not only cut off the large-scale transportation between Fucheng and Zhengtai County, but also cut off the main trade channels of those merchants.

Nowadays, if the merchants of Zhengtai County want to purchase materials from the outside world and sell them to Zhengtai County, they either take the remote mountain roads on other three sides, or take the risk to cross the river from other ferries on the Lanjiang River in the east.

This has greatly increased the difficulty of Zhengtai County to obtain materials from the outside world, not only ordinary civilian materials, but also various military materials needed by the Tang Dynasty.

At this time, Yang Xiucai, who did not speak at many strategic meetings, also spoke: "Can we organize people to take the initiative to purchase in other places, especially Liuzhou Mansion in the south, they are the state capital of Guangxi, and it should not be too much of a precaution against our Datang!" ”

Hearing Yang Xiucai's words, Li Xuan was a little surprised, this Yang Xiucai was brought to the Tang Dynasty by Li Xuan in a semi-forced way and became a soldier Langzhong.

Although he does not take the initiative to do things, and even has some thoughts of resistance, this person's dissatisfaction and resistance will not be revealed, and he will do some things that Li Xuan and Qian Mengjiu have explained to him wholeheartedly.

In addition, the Tang Dynasty really lacked capable and qualified civil officials, so Li Xuan didn't care too much, and directly promoted him to the position of Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Taxation, but the financial department of the Ministry of Taxation is very important for any regime, even if this regime is only a ravine dynasty like the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, it is impossible for Li Xuan to let Yang Xiucai directly serve as the secretary of the Ministry of Taxation, the position of the secretary of the Ministry of Taxation is temporarily vacant, and the daily trivial matters are concurrently managed by Liu Bagou, and Yang Xiucai, the left waiter, is mainly responsible for some clerical work and does not get involved in specific financial affairs.

As for the major policies of the Ministry of Taxation, Li Xuan is basically in charge of them personally.

In the past, Yang Xiucai was very low-key, and he didn't take the initiative to speak at the previous strategy meeting for many days, but today he took the initiative to say it, and he proposed a solution.

This made Li Xuan a little surprised, but also a little happy.

Perhaps, the Tang Dynasty completely gained a firm foothold in Zhengtai County and made him change his mind, maybe it was because his personality charm as the emperor was too great, and as soon as the king's domineering spirit was released, Yang Xiucai had the idea of kneeling and loyal.

Perhaps, it's just that this Yang Xiucai felt that the other people present were too stupid, and there was no good solution to the argument for so long, and he couldn't stand it anymore, so he would give a few pointers.

No matter what motive he was in for saying this, it made Li Xuan see his psychological changes, maybe after a while, he could really get a highly educated talent like a second Xiucai to work for him.

Now there are only two Xiucai in the Tang Dynasty, one is the former Xiucai Ma Wei who fled from Liuzhou Mansion and wanted to take revenge on the powerful people in Liuzhou, although this person is not loyal to Li Xuan in his heart, but he wants to take revenge, so he is extremely concerned about all the affairs of the Tang Dynasty, and currently holds the extremely important position of Zuo Shilang of the Military Department.

Maybe his position is just a squire, and there is no comparison with the Shangshu of everyone present, but now the Tang Dynasty is mainly based on war, and the wars with the Ming Dynasty are one after another, and the two main military institutions of the Privy Council and the Ministry of War are extremely important.

And he, the left squire of the military department, is still responsible for the recruitment of soldiers, and the Tang Dynasty has definitely been able to recruit so many qualified soldiers in such a short period of time, which is definitely due to him.

If Yang Xiucai also sincerely works for the Tang Dynasty, then the number of highly educated talents who really contribute to the Tang Dynasty will directly increase by half, from one to two!

Moreover, Yang Xiucai's suggestion Li Xuan thought about it carefully, and it was really feasible.

Liuzhou Mansion is located in the south of Zhengtai, and the hinterland of Zhengtai County is separated by a big mountain, well, that is, the deep mountain that started in the Tang Dynasty before.

The mountains are notoriously difficult to navigate, so there are hardly any large-scale caravans that dare to pass through the mountains.

But the main reason for the difficulty of traveling deep in the mountains is not the terrain, but the many bandits in the mountains!

However, what was the predecessor of the Tang Dynasty? Isn't it just a group of bandits, and it's the strongest group of bandits in the mountains.

Banditry, a problem that cannot be solved by ordinary caravans, is not a problem for the Tang Dynasty.

Perhaps, you can really send a caravan to Liuzhou Mansion to buy a large number of strategic materials back!

Li Xuan had this idea, and the others also had a detailed discussion based on Yang Xiucai's proposal, and finally decided that without further ado, Ming'er would send a caravan over to explore the way.

However, as soon as this matter was decided, the guards outside came in to report that there were several people from outside the barracks, and one of them claimed to be Sun Yuanwai and asked to see him!

Hearing this, Butcher Chen immediately jumped up: "How long has it been, the person surnamed Sun still knows to come, if he doesn't bring enough things, Lao Tzu will immediately cut him!" ”

Li Xuan pressed his hand slightly: "Don't be impatient!" ”

Then he glanced around and saw that the expressions of the ministers were different, some of them were happy, while others were as angry as Butcher Chen.

If there are enough strategic materials, the workshops of the Tang Dynasty will be able to start working at full strength, and it will not take long to get a large number of weapons and ammunition.

Hopefully, all the grenades that the generals had been waiting for would be able to make a large number of them, and then form a special grenadier team.

Looking at this scene, Li Xuan thought of sadness, and now this situation is definitely the sorrow of the Tang Dynasty, and it is also his own sorrow!

A dignified Tang Dynasty, and he is a crossing saint who has not been out for thousands of years, Nima was stumped by thousands of catties of iron, copper and gunpowder, what could be more embarrassing and humiliating.

When you say this, you have to laugh off the front teeth of the predecessors who have crossed other planes!

But he also knows that now is not the time to think about this, whether he is ashamed or not, first get the materials sent by the surname Sun.

Immediately, he said, "Let him in!" ”

After the guards were ordered to go out, it didn't take long for them to hear a few 'announcements' from outside.

After a while, Li Xuan saw Old Man Sun who had been absent for more than a month.

This person doesn't look much different from a month ago, and it's only been a month, how much has changed, but his face is full of exhaustion, but there is a hint of excitement in the exhaustion.

However, at this time, he obviously didn't expect that Li Xuan would bring so many people to see him together, and there were more than 20 important ministers of the Tang Dynasty in the house.

However, he should also have traveled north and south, and he had seen many big businessmen, although he was a little surprised to see this scene, he quickly calmed down, and bowed slightly: "The villain has seen Your Majesty!" ”

Although he called Li Xuan His Majesty, he claimed to be a villain, not a grass man or something like that, obviously he did not regard Li Xuan as an emperor, but just a business partner.

Li Xuan said: "Sun Yuanwai has worked hard all the way away, but the journey is still smooth?" ”

Sun Yuanwai immediately said: "Thanks to Your Majesty, although the villain encountered a lot of trouble along the way, he finally arrived smoothly with the goods!" ”

"Oh, I don't know what Sun Yuanwai brought with him this time, and how many of them were?" Li Xuan asked the question he was most concerned about.

Sun Yuanwai naturally didn't pretend to do anything at this time, and immediately said: "The villain came over this time and brought 3,000 catties of iron, 800 catties of copper, and a batch of sulfur, saltpeter, lead, etc.!" ”

At this time, a guard beside Li Xuan immediately leaned over and whispered two words in Li Xuan's ear.

Then Li Xuan said, "Oh, where are these things now?" ”

At this time, Old Man Sun smiled: "These materials are now in Zhengtai County, if the transaction is smooth, they can be sent over in less than three days!" ”

The meaning of this is that one hand pays the money and the other hand delivers, and if you don't see the money, you won't give the goods!