"You're going to let me trade with the Tartars?"

Wang Qinian asked strangely:

"I heard that you are very good at fighting Tartars, why do you do such a thing?"

"Because I need a lot of horses."

Xu Shiyang shrugged his shoulders and said very calmly:

"Besides, salt is not an ordnance, if I don't exchange it with the Mughal Tartars, they will also exchange it with the Jurchen Tartars, which will not delay them from eating salt at all, and it will also strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Jurchen Tatars."

"Now my main enemy is the Jurchens, if the Mughals are willing to exchange war horses for my salt, the Jurchen Tartars will reduce a large source of war horses, and at the same time I will obtain this channel and increase my own cavalry."

"But I can't send my own men - I'm very short of manpower right now, and I can't send infantry to the grasslands, so you happen to be here, you have more horses, come and exchange some salt with me first, and then go to the grasslands for more horses."

Wang Qinian thought about it and found that this was indeed a good business.

The Mughal Tartars have always been very short of salt, but people can't do without salt, there are only a few small salt ponds in the vast steppe, and the Mughal tribes who control these salt ponds have to fight with the surrounding tribes every year to get some salt in exchange for blood.

The other tribes had to exchange salt with the Dangxiang people, with the Jurchens, with the small countries in the Western Regions, and even with the Han army who had taken refuge in them in the Jin and Shaanxi provinces.

If there is one more channel to exchange salt, those Mengwu tribes with loose rule will definitely treat Wang Qinian as a guest, and they will definitely not mind exchanging real strategic materials such as war horses.

In fact, in addition to salt, the Mugwu people urgently needed but could not get tea, but unfortunately Qi Province did not produce tea now, otherwise, Xu Shiyang would still be able to get more war horses from them.

"I promise you." Wang Qinian said: "I will go to Jinshan to help you do the salt and horse trade, but you have to return my people to me, I am short of manpower now." ”

"Nope." Xu Shiyang shook his head: "I didn't leave you behind, even if I was soft-hearted." ”

"The Han bandits I caught before were generally the leader of the bandits who would die, and the old bandits chose to kill one out of ten. Catching the Tartar is the least and the choice is one of the five kills. ”

"Should I thank you for your mercy?" Wang Qinian's tone was full of sarcasm.

"Of course. My kindness to the bandits is rare and you should cherish it. ”

"Can you promise not to kill my people?"

"I mean what I say, if I don't kill, I don't kill." Xu Shiyang said: "I am different from those officials you have seen before. ”

Zhang Mingyi snorted coldly.

Xu Shiyang can say that he is not an old-style court official, but he is.

It's just that I don't want to say much at this time.

"You have to make sure that my people won't be abused, and when I have saved enough horses, I'll have to ransom them back." Wang Qinian is still fighting.

"I have 11 of you in my hands, three of them are seriously injured, I dare not say that I will be able to save them." Xu Shiyang replied: "The other 9 people have to work, I don't support idlers, but I promise not to deliberately abuse them, this is the ultimate." ”

"If you want to get them back, that's fine, but I've sentenced each of them to twenty years in prison, and one year for a war horse to reduce their sentences. You earn 180 horses, and I'll give them back to you. ”

"You're too ruthless, aren't you?" Wang Qinian exclaimed.

He originally wanted to exchange all his captured subordinates for the price of one horse per person, but in the end, the price Xu Shiyang gave was actually twenty horses per person, which was equivalent to twenty times his own bid!?

"I'm not doing business with you, I'm asking you to atone for your sins." Xu Shiyang said calmly: "It's up to you whether you change it or not, how to change it." ”

Wang Qinian looked at Xu Shiyang and didn't know what to say.

After a while, he asked tentatively: "Then ......, I'll give you twenty horses first, and change our fifth child back, and the others will talk about it later, how about it?" ”

"Where did you get so many horses?"

"A few months ago, the Tartars retreated, and I stopped a couple of pairs of Tartars who had fallen behind." Wang Qinian explained briefly.

He felt that such a reason as beating Tartar should be able to impress Xu Shiyang.

And so it is.

"I'm starting to like you a little bit." Xu Shiyang nodded: "Okay, since it was captured from the Tartars, then you are allowed to redeem one first." ”

……

Xu Shiyang completed the deal with Wang Qinian north of Pi County, near the border with Qi Province.

Wang Qinian gave Xu Shiyang a total of them

There are nearly a hundred horses, although most of them are very thin from hunger, but it can be seen that the foundation is a good Liaodong war horse, and it will be able to recover after a period of time.

It was unbelievable that Wang Qinian was able to capture so many horses from the Tartars.

He had defeated the Tartars' army of 100,000 last time, and in the end he had captured not much more horses.

What's more, even the Tartars who fell behind in the retreat are not so easy to deal with.

Should it be said that this is the advantage of cavalry?

If a small group of Tartars does not have the will to fight, it is indeed easier for the all-cavalry mounted thieves to catch the enemy.

With these horses, Xu Shiyang can add ten regular cavalry to almost all the cavalry companies under his infantry brigade, which is also a big improvement in the combat effectiveness of the new army.

Another advantage is that a large amount of salt has found a market - in fact, now Wang Qinian is only trying to open a market when he goes to the Shanxi region, and his position is equivalent to being a middleman between Qi Province and the Mengwu people.

If everything goes well, it is estimated that it will not be long before most of Xu Shiyang's horse supply problem will be solved.

Looking at Wang Qinian's figure gradually drifting away, Xu Shiyang said to Zhang Mingyi with emotion:

"There are still many such people in Jiangbei, and the imperial court owed them a lot before, so that they don't trust the imperial court at all now."

Zhang Mingyi nodded with a heavy heart.

Don't look at him being very tough on Wang Qinian just now, but if he really knows Wang Qinian's past, he is more sympathetic to this horse thief than Xu Shiyang.

After all, Xu Shiyang has no feelings for Da Zhou, but Zhang Mingyi is different, as an official of the imperial court, I am afraid that there is a trace of guilt in his heart for betraying Wang Qinian.

"If this person can recover through the salt and horse trade, he can serve as an example for all similar figures in Jiangbei."

Xu Shiyang continued:

"Maybe soon, more people will take the initiative to come to me, instead of fighting another battle like today, causing me such a big loss."

"Well, the horse bones of Qianjin City, right?" Zhang Mingyi nodded.

He knows this kind of story in the classics better than Xu Shiyang.

"Wang Qinian goes to Jinshan's side, if he can open up the situation, he can also help me spy on the military situation of the Mughal Tartars - we will have to fight them sooner or later."

"I know." Zhang Mingyi glanced at Xu Shiyang: "What do you want to say?" Just say it straight. ”

"I'm explaining my strategy."

徐世杨 says:

"You and I know very well what Brother Zhang is doing when you come to Qi Province, and I don't want to create a gap between us over this, so I will try to explain my strategy to you as clearly as possible in the future."

"This is my trust in Brother Zhang, and I hope Brother Zhang will not live up to my trust."