The purchase of old armor ended after five days, and the results were greatly unexpected, and they received 34,000 pairs of armor of various kinds, 80,000 spears, more than 60,000 swords, and a large number of bows and crossbows, shields, and a total of 53,000 yuan, which made a great profit.

If these weapons and armor are purchased from the Ordnance Superintendent, it will be more than 200,000 yuan, and the more important thing is that the Ordnance Superintendent has no inventory, and it will take at least a year or two to rebuild them, which saves them a lot of time.

34,000 pairs of armor, plus nearly 20,000 pairs of leather armor seized by the anti-gang party last year, are enough to equip 50,000 village soldiers. At this time, King Kang Zhao Gou also issued an order to the states of Shaanxi Road, requiring all state governments to fully cooperate with the Jingzhao Army to recruit township soldiers, and before the New Year arrived, the order to recruit township soldiers was sent to the states and counties of Shaanxi Road.

Winter goes to spring, and in the blink of an eye, the spring of the sixth year of Xuanhe is coming, this morning, in the Xixia Palace, a military and political discussion on the fate of the Xixia is being carried out in the Hongfu Palace, and more than a dozen major officials of the Xixia Dynasty participated in the court meeting.

Three days ago, the Western Xia received a decree from the envoys of the Jin State, asking the Western Xia to send troops to Shaanxi Road, for this reason, the Western Xia monarch Li Qianshun quickly convened the civil and military ministers to negotiate, according to the alliance agreement reached between the Jin and Xia countries, the Western Xia had the obligation to assist the military operations of the Jin State, and unconditionally obeyed the will of the wolf lord of the Jin State.

"Your Majesty, if we send troops to Shaanxi Road, this is tantamount to tearing up the armistice and withdrawal agreement we reached with the Song Dynasty the year before last, which is a heavy blow to the credit of Western Xia and Your Majesty, and the stakes are very high, please consider it carefully."

It was Li Kezhen, the Shangshu of Western Xia, who spoke as the head of the civil officials of Western Xia, and he had reservations about the orders of the Jin State.

"Our national strength has suffered heavy losses, and we need time to recuperate, and sending troops at this time will not only destroy the trade between Song and Xia, but also affect our national policy of recuperation, which will do too much harm to our Western Xia."

As soon as Li Kezhen's words fell, Brother Richard, who was sitting opposite him, got up and said: "It is true that we signed an armistice and withdrawal agreement with the Song Dynasty, but we also signed an alliance agreement with the Jin State, and the agreement clearly requires us to obey the military orders of the Jin State, which conflicts with the agreement between the Xia and Song Dynasty, and now the question is, which agreement should we follow?" ”

Li Qianshun said slowly: "Although I don't want to damage my credit, it is obvious that the alliance agreement is much more important than the armistice agreement, and we must comply with the request of the Jin State to assist in the war, this cannot be questioned, I just want to find a more stable plan to minimize the impact of all parties." ”

At this time, Liang Anping, the king of Liang, got up and said, "Your Majesty, Weichen also wants to say a few words!" ”

Li Qianshun nodded, "King Liang, please speak!" ”

Liang Anping said loudly: "According to the agreement of the Jinxia Alliance, we should indeed send troops, but Shang Shuling also makes sense, sending troops cannot harm the vital interests of Western Xia, in His Majesty's words, it is to find a more stable plan, then I think, if we send troops without fighting, and station troops on the Songxia border, will it not only meet the requirements of the Jin State, but also avoid the loss of Western Xia?" ”

Brother Richard shook his head, "His Royal Highness King Liang, I'm afraid that the Jin Kingdom will not be satisfied with us sending troops without fighting. ”

Liang Anping said with a smile: "So we have to understand, why did the Jin Kingdom send troops to Western Xia, and what was their purpose?" ”

"Does that need to be said? Obviously, the Jin State is preparing to attack the Song Dynasty on a large scale, and we can send troops to contain the Song army on the Shaanxi Road, and cooperate with the Jin soldiers of Datong Mansion to attack Taiyuan, and the strategic intention of the Jin State is very obvious. ”

"Then we are stationed at the border with heavy troops, leading but not triggering, can we also contain the Song army?"

Brother Richard shook his head, "This is the case for the time being, but if Taiyuan is in danger, I believe that the Song army of Jingzhao Mansion will still rush to the east of the river to rescue, unless we attack Song on a large scale, it is of little point to contain it." ”

Liang Anping said: "Then can we take two steps, first of all, we will concentrate on the border, wait patiently for the battle of Song and Jin, if Jin is defeated, we will collect troops and return home, if Song is defeated, we can also take the opportunity to get some land, in fact, I think that instead of attacking Shaanxi Road, it is better to attack Hexi and recapture the land of Longyou and Hehuang." ”

Liang Anping's opinion touched Li Qianshun's heart, he waved his hand to stop Brother Li Cha's words, and said with a smile: "I think that King Liang's suggestion is the most stable and most in line with the interests of Western Xia, so I decided to adopt King Liang's plan!" ”

.........

Liang Anping returned to the mansion, and immediately asked people to find Qiao Zhongan, last year Jingzhao Mansion arrested the spies, Liang Anping's son Liang Yin was also unfortunately arrested by the Song army, Liang Anping pleaded with Li Yanqing through Qiao Zhongan, and finally made Li Yanqing release Liang Yin, the favor owed, he had to return it to Li Yanqing at the appropriate time, today's military and political deliberations, he advocated that the troops should not fight, and then bypass the Shaanxi Road to annex Longyou Hehuang, these are actually a way for him to return favors.

Of course, Liang Anping could not harm the core interests of the Western Xia, and he was well aware that the alliance agreement signed between the Jin and Xia made the Western Xia have no choice, and the dispatch of troops was inevitable.

Liang Anping paced back and forth in the study with his hands in his hands, in fact, the Western Xia army not only affected the relationship between Song and Xia, but also damaged his personal interests, he was Bao Yan Zhai's agent in Western Xia, and also sold a large amount of tallow to Bao Yan Zhai, making a profit of 300,000 yuan a year, if the tension on the Song and Xia borders led to the interruption of trade, he could not afford this loss.

He must communicate this with Li Yanqing to avoid the consequences of trade disruption as much as possible.

At this time, the family reported outside the door: "The owner of Qiao is here!" ”

Liang Anping perked up and hurriedly said, "Invite him in!" ”

After a while, Qiao Zhong'an walked into the room quickly, Qiao Zhong'an spent most of his time in Xixia, and now Qiao's firm has become the largest business house in the Song and Xia dynasties, with thousands of healthy mules, porcelain, tea, silk, cloth, cosmetics and other handicrafts of the Song Dynasty are trafficked to Xingqing Mansion in Western Xia, and furs, medicinal materials, ores, beef and mutton, fat, melons and fruits and other items from Xixia are transported to Jingzhao Mansion, with annual sales of hundreds of thousands of guan.

The huge economic interests also made Qiao's trading house have a high status in the Western Xia, especially the special pass made them unimpeded on the Song-Xia border, although some people accused Qiao's trading house of meticulous behavior, but the Western Xia, which suffered a great loss of national strength, still adopted a tolerant attitude towards Qiao's trading house that could bring huge benefits.

"See King Liang!" Qiao Zhongan clasped his fists and saluted.

"Joe, please take a seat!"

Qiao Zhongan sat down and asked eagerly, "I heard that the imperial court made a major decision this morning?" ”

The relationship between Song and Xia directly affected the survival of Qiao's trading house, and Qiao Zhongan had already received the news that Xixia was about to send troops, how could he not be in a hurry.

Liang Anping smiled bitterly and said, "The news of the proprietor Qiao is still well-informed!" ”

Qiao Zhong suddenly tightened in his heart, "So, the rumors are true?" ”

Liang Anping nodded, "There is no way for the imperial court, the envoy of the Jin State sent a decree asking Western Xia to send troops to Shaanxi Road, we have no choice but to send troops!" ”

Speaking of this, Liang Anping handed a letter to Qiao Zhong'an, "This is the specific request of the Jin State to send troops and the final decision of Western Xia, it is a major top-secret information, and it must not be known to a third party!" ”

Qiao Zhong'an's mood suddenly became low, he silently took the letter and stuffed it into his arms, bowed his head and said nothing.

Liang Anping glanced at him and said: "Although Western Xia has deployed heavy troops on the border of Shaanxi Road, it is not ready to attack immediately, and your special pass is still valid and will not affect normal trade." ”

Qiao Zhong'an sighed, "It can only be said that the Western Xia side can be passed, but the Song Dynasty side may not be, once the border is tense, the Song army will block the border, this is a custom, it will definitely affect normal trade." ”

Liang Anping thought for a while and said: "Otherwise, take the western waterway, use a large cargo raft to go south, transfer to land transportation in Jinzhou, and then enter the Wei River." ”

In fact, it is very convenient and the best plan to take the waterway, but the government and military of Longyou have a strong resistance to the Western Xia and do not allow navigation with the Western Xia, which Qiao Zhong knows with peace of mind, he was silent for a moment and then shook his head and said: "It is not realistic to take the waterway, I still go to discuss with Li Tongzhi, and the caravan from Yan'an Mansion to Dunzhou may work." ”

Liang Anping said with a smile: "You are right, Li Tongzhi is also the governor of Yanyun Road, he should have a workaround." ”

Qiao Zhongan got up and said, "I'll go back to Jingzhao Mansion, arrange the trade route properly, and try not to affect the trade between the two sides." ”