Ye Qingchen was born in 1000 AD, and until now, he is only 44 years old, only eight years older than Han Qi, but Han Qi, who is only 6 years old, looks as heroic as a young man, if he does not say age, it is possible to be twenty-five or sixteen years old, but Ye Qingchen, who is eight years older than him, is already dying.

Zhao Xin sighed for a while, for Ye Qingchen, there was more pity, if the memory is correct, he should have died 4 years later, in the eighth year of Qingli, and he was only fifty years old, the reason why he was so early was because of his mental exhaustion.

The financial problems of a small company must be jointly handled by a special accounting cashier, not to mention that in the Northern Song Dynasty, which was full of holes, Ye Qingchen ran in many directions, not to mention hundreds of thousands, even if it was one or two thousand, or even several thousand, he would not let go.

From a noble official from an exemplary background, to a third-class envoy who must be investigated in every minute, Ye Qingchen's efforts can be imagined.

In the later period of Renzong, although the current political policy was more outstanding, but the childlessness and other reasons, especially the diversion of the Yellow River, a catastrophe that swept the entire Central Plains and tens of millions of people, the silver money was almost swept over like flowing water, which made the finances of the Northern Song Dynasty, which was barely supported, even worse.

Zhao Xin didn't know if there was a reason for this, but he worked hard, like a tinker, demolishing the east wall and making up the west wall, and the finances of the Northern Song Dynasty, which was barely supported, collapsed, which was a blow to a person's faith, mind, and even body, so this year, but the 48-year-old Ye Qingchen died, but the Northern Song Dynasty lost an outstanding financial minister, and gradually fell into the abyss.

Ye Qingchen is such an image, with white hair and a dead face, it seems that he is over 60 years old, and some people believe it.

Sighing, perhaps, in this life, he will live a more comfortable life, after all, the financial situation, after the appearance of the iron material and the Ding Navy, will not be a problem.

talked about it briefly, initially, Ye Qingchen was just to get to know Zhao Xin, and he couldn't get straight to the point, so he mentioned the issue of money, a third envoy, which was a bit too shameless.

When it came to Han Qi, he had more dealings with Zhao Xin and was more familiar, and he asked straight to the point whether to replace it with steel.

As soon as Han Qi spoke, Zhao Xin knew what Han Qi wanted to do, steel replaced bamboo, this is a good choice, blacksmith workshop, at present, maybe refining some excellent steel, then there are some problems, general steel, there is no problem, especially this kind of rebar used in the construction industry.

It's just that such an investment has also been hit, the proportion of steel is relatively large, and a fortress, if all steel is used, will need at least about 60 tons.

This is not a small amount, the price of steel now, compared with before, has a huge reduction, but the benchmark price is still around 15 Wen, that is, 1 ton of steel, 0 through.

Compared with before, this number is already very low, the demand for 60 tons, 1800 guan, seems acceptable, but it will make the cost of the entire fortress, on the original basis, increase by about 1500 guan.

In other words, it was possible to build one bastion, but now only two can be built.

On the contrary, bamboo is not so difficult, Shaanxi does not produce large bamboo, but Jiangxi and Jiangsu are abundant, especially Jiangxi, a large area of bamboo mountain, from the middle of the selection of large bamboo, after a little processing, can be transported by ship, transported to Henan Province, and then, is less than a thousand miles away.

Even with steel, it needs to be the same, and even more expensive because steel is heavier.

Whether it was cost or convenience, in the end, Zhao Xin persuaded Han Qi to focus on bamboo.

At the same time, Zhao Xin also gave Han Qi a guarantee, that is, all the iron materials will be molded at one time in the blacksmith shop according to his needs, and he does not have to worry about re-forging, which saves a lot of effort.

To be honest, the technical level of Shaanxi is relatively weak, although in the military, there are also blacksmiths with the army, that is, the level of repairing weapons, and even reforging are very few.

They can't process it, and they may even waste it.

In fact, during this time, it seemed that in the Privy Council, in the capital, Han Qi was not idle, and almost read all the information of the military department, whether it was recent or before, the main thing was the geography of mountains and rivers.

On the premise that it is not possible to build on a large scale, it is conservatively estimated that 120,000 of his 00,000 guan will be used to build fortresses, that is, the maximum he can build is 50-60.

It sounds like a lot, but it is sprinkled on the entire Longxi, especially on the long territory bordering the Liao State and Western Xia, there are really not many of them.

The fortress has a completely different meaning from the cottage, and it is impossible to directly change the cottage into a fortress.

The cottage has the advantage of the cottage, and in the future, when the fortress takes on the heavy responsibility of defense, but the cottage that has been built cannot be demolished, and it can be used as a living and distribution center for border people.

This requires a unified idea, Han Qi has already made a preliminary choice, and the next thing is to see if Zhao Xin has any opinions.

Zhao Xin was really flattered when he heard Han Qi's thoughts, what kind of person is Han Qi, in the later period of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty, and even the elders of the three dynasties across Renzong, Yingzong, and Shenzong, he was in a high position.

can go from an ordinary jinshi to the highest position of Zaifu, and has very good abilities in both military and civilian aspects.

Zhao Xin, perhaps because of the consultation and vision of later generations, has good ideas about the overall situation, but marching and fighting has never been his forte, and he has never been in contact with it, and he will not and will not spend more energy in this aspect in the future.

But Han Qi asked so sincerely, he couldn't refuse, he had no choice but to pretend to take a look.

It's a pity that unfamiliar place names, these are not the location of the Great War, and they will not leave anything in history, the good fighters have no outstanding achievements, and sometimes the history looks at the big people who have left their names in the green history, and even said that the Renzong Dynasty, who can listen to the name, are all big people.

On the contrary, those that seem to be very important, or even make great contributions, have no names and records at all.

I don't understand it militarily, but the map can still be seen, there is no geography of mountains and rivers, just look at the stable distribution.

In general, these forts, in groups of three, the distance between each fort is no more than 60 li, which is almost an hour's distance from a fast horse, interdependent, each other's horns, in the area of these three forts, is an absolutely safe area, without pulling out these three nails, everything behind you is safe.

The triangle is the most stable and offensive, 60 are divided into 20 groups, almost blocking the forefront of Western Xia, but there is no place to face the Liao State.

Zhao Xin was stunned for a moment and pointed out the problem.

Han Qi is definitely well thought out, the border between the Liao State and the Northern Song Dynasty is very long, starting from Shandong and Hebei, extending to Shanxi, Shaanxi, and then to Xixia, stretching for thousands of miles.

However, most of the places are sparsely populated or have a large number of ethnic minorities, and if you want to fortify them, you can't take precautions.

But for the Northern Song Dynasty, it is far away, for the Liao State, why not, thousands of miles to attack this thing, for the Liukou, this is nothing, for the national army, especially the Northern Song Dynasty, it is a nightmare, the Liao State is coming, it is also in the direction of Hebei, from here, it is not cost-effective.

Zhao Xin pointed out, maybe the Liao State will not come, what about the Western Xia, if the Western Xia is so honest and does not set foot in the territory of the Liao State, then there will be no war with the Liao State.

Besides, for the general, all possibilities must be considered, what Zhao Xin mentioned was indeed something that Han Qi did not expect, but such a large territory, if there is really a bunch of fortresses, it will be a bit of a waste.

Zhao Xin just pointed at the strategic vision, and the specific approach was done by Han Qi himself, and sure enough, soon, Han Qi made a trade-off, and transferred 2 groups from the northwest, although it was said that it would cause the west to be weak, but where are the 18 groups topped, and the city walled city in the rear, it is not a problem to have two groups less.

On the side of Liao, these two groups are not to defend against the enemy, but to be vigilant, so they don't care about the way of a group, but the arrangement of each of the 6, the distance may be more than 200 miles, but it can make the range of at least 1000 miles impossible to pass through casually.

As long as Xixia chooses this road, then these walled cities may not be able to last even a day, and all the soldiers, weapons, and supplies will become the spoils of Western Xia.

However, it is placed on the fortress, but it is extremely suitable, the number of people is no longer the inevitable need to capture the fortress, regardless of the cost, use ten times, or even thirty times the strength to exchange, the people of the fortress are replaced, and the fortress is captured.

It is this kind of thinking that makes Han Qi reflect on the layout in the west, it seems that it is a little too dense, one by one, some too much, and began to adjust, although in the end, the fortress was not transferred to the east, but it was more reasonable and dispersed, this system, from the day it was built, became a nightmare for Western Xia.

Unconsciously, a long time has passed, tomorrow is the auction, they rushed all the way over, and they were a little tired, so they said goodbye and couldn't go back to rest, Zhao Xin nodded, sent them out, and when parting, he specially instructed Ye Qingchen that if he had time tomorrow, he could come over and talk to him for a while.

Ye Qingchen was a little inexplicable, and the others were similar, Ye Qingchen was not the first time he met Zhao Xin, what did he need to talk about alone, but at their level, don't ask if you shouldn't ask, Ye Qingchen also agreed, and went out.