In the peaceful years of later generations, Yang Chong saw the trade war between countries, and knew that economic strength is one thing, and the other side is the stability of the people's hearts. Whether it is bullying the weak or eating big fish, the most important thing is to encourage your own people to persist and crush the morale of the other party; In the feudal era, when the government was highly monopolized, it was a good way to morally strike at the opponent and occupy the commanding heights.

After planning, Cui Kaiyuan staged a public trial show in Dunhuang, and the evidence presented by the government was so rich that Xiao Lang gave up his self-defense, smuggled weapons with the Turks for a long time, colluded with horse thieves to kill people, leaked the list of operators who went to Kangguo, sent people to spy on Zhangye Armory, participated in Gaochang's assassination of Yang Chong, and so on; The observers were all angry, and the people of the Xiao family were all like ashes. The Xiao family was executed by five people, and Yang Chong later wrote to Chang'an to report the incident.

Zhang Huaishan listened to the case at the scene, while wiping the sweat on his head, Yang Chong is definitely a devil, except for the evidence provided by the Zhang family for smuggling weapons, many things even Zhang Huaishan, a local snake, does not know. Zhang Huaishan was sure that some of the evidence was bought by Yang Chong from the Turks; Zhang Huaishan secretly rejoiced that he had made a decision at that time, and according to Yang Chong's methods, if he wanted to deal with himself, he would never be less guilty than Xiao Lang.

The case of Kang Laohe in Zhangye County is simpler, the Kang family has been powerful and prosperous in Zhangye for many years, and they have done all the bad things, some of them are blood debts, and they have found about 100 people to testify; In the end, the government sentenced Kang Lao, his father and son, and eleven minions to death, and the remaining 31 people were exiled, and all family property was confiscated. Hundreds of people were killed in each county together, although their respective charges were different, but everyone understood what Yang Chong wanted, and all the scholars immediately asked their families to put the goods on the market for sale, and the prices suddenly fell.

Subsequently, Cui Xun found in the official documents that the steel output of Yiwu, Jiuquan, and Gaochangsa counties reached 70,000 catties per month, and the number of blacksmith shops in Jiuquan and Yiwu increased rapidly; At the same time, salt from Puzihai and other places was transported into the Hexi region in large quantities, and then disappeared without a trace in Yuanwei County, needless to say, Yang Chong began to fight back.

The Great Sui salt industry policy was for the people to operate freely, and the government levied taxes, but the financial situation deteriorated, and Chang'an had begun to implement the salt monopoly policy to control salt households in various places. The identity of salt households is different from that of ordinary people, they have a separate household registration, are managed by the government, and are not allowed to change to other industries or fugitives, and the tools and raw materials for salt production are provided by the government, and all the salt produced must be handed over to the government, and the government will pay the cost and grain.

Cui Zhen understood that Yang Chong's delivery of salt outside now was tantamount to a blow to Chang'an's salt industry and taxes; Not to mention iron tools, so many warriors and rebel gangs need it, as long as Yang Chong dares to send out a steady stream of steel, he will continue to exchange energy for food and tea. There are so many troops in Hexi and the Western Regions, how can such output be needed, Cui Xun hurriedly sent a chapter to Chang'an, describing Yang Chong's production capacity, hoping to end this trade war as soon as possible.

But Wei Xuan couldn't stop it, Shang Shutai allocated 500,000 copper coins to enter the Western Regions and Hexi from various channels, and bought materials at a high price. The dignitaries of the various families who participated in this feast also invested a lot of money, and if they stopped now, the losses would probably be even heavier than that of the government.

Wei Xuan and the household servant Wei Jin and the Duzhi servant Du Xingman discussed, neither of them dared to make the decision, and they had to wait until Fan Zigai, the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Luoyang, took the idea, Fan Zigai thought that since the defeat was decided, it was better to hold on for another three months, and Yang Chong's approach was ironclad evidence for Yang Chong's conviction in the future.

Wei Jin and Du Xingman are willing to fall for this, Wei Xuan and Fan Zigai just want to force Yang Chong to rebel, once Yang Chong breaks the jar and makes up his mind to rebel, it will be an earth-shattering event, no matter whether Yang Chong wins or loses, the court has to come up with one or two people to calm the tongue of the people in the world. The two unanimously asked Shang Shutai to make a public resolution, and the two generals, Zhang Jin and Yin Shishi, understood that this is the way in the trade war, and they don't care about the trade war itself, they only care about whether Yang Chong can die.

Zhang Jin heard that it was no longer effective, so he persuaded: "Duke Wei, Yang Chong's attitude is actually quite upright, the center has transferred a thousand Turkic soldiers, all of them are Turkic war horses, all the armor is newly equipped, and the equipment such as bows and arrows has also been supplemented. It doesn't hurt to restrain him, but if you have to make a life, the barge horse village on Helan Mountain is an attitude of Yang Chong, which can not only protect the road, but also rob, and if it really gets to that point, there is one more Turk in the west. ”

Wei Xuan's face turned pale and said: "It is precisely because of this possibility that we want to put Yang Chong to death when we can still fight, and now Yang Chong does not dare to rebel, he can only be beaten, which is the most favorable time for us." ”

Duhu shook his head and said, "Duke Wei, not necessarily, as far as I know, the Wu'er who was inseparably killed in Hejin and Li Yuan is likely to be Yang Chong's people." ”

Wuduaner gathered in Hejin, recently stood out, became the leader of a group of rabble, Huozhou battle, Li Yuan bought Lishihu Liu Miao Wang, blocked the back road of Wuduaner's rebels, won a complete victory, killed more than 10,000 enemies, captured more than 30,000 people, but failed. Liu Miaowang's group of Hu people defected, and Wu Du'er rushed out of the junction with 30,000 remnants of the army, and joined up with another group of rebellious people in Jiangxian County, Chai Baochang, and revived.

Wu Duaner looted in the four counties of Yicheng, Jishan, Jiangxi, and Yuanqu, and even went west to Wenxi County, captured the two dock forts of Wenxi Pei's family in one fell swoop, and robbed a large number of food and materials; More than 2,000 Yingyangfu soldiers in Jishan, Wenxi and other counties were annihilated on the way to reinforcements, and then the two county towns fell. What's even more odious is that thousands of slaves of the Pei family and officials of the two counties were coerced to steal and roar away.

Li Yuan led 8,000 elite soldiers to catch up with Wuwei'er's brigade on the north bank of Fenshui, but he didn't expect that the 3,000 people in the front were ambushed, and more than half of the losses were lost, and Li Yuan could only be pressed by the whole army; Wudu'er took advantage of the situation that there was no way back to incite the rebels to fight to the death. At the same time, a group of 4,000 elite soldiers from the flank to kill, led by a burly figure, wearing a bronze mask, Li Yuan's men were unexpectedly no one could stop its front, the two sides fought a bloody battle for a day, Li Yuan was defeated, retreated to Wenxi County, and was waiting for Fan Zigai's reinforcements.

According to Li Yuan's report, 10,000 rebels were killed, and the Sui army was killed 3,000 people. After Fan Zigai's reinforcements, Wen Xipei's family relied on their prestige in the Hedong area for many years to persuade Chai Baochang to surrender, but Wu Duan'er got out again, made a detour into the Lishi area, attacked and killed more than 5,000 people from Liu Miao's royal army, and then captured Linxian. The Yin World Master hurriedly asked, "Maybe it's OK?" ”

Duhu said with a solemn face: "Yang Chong did take in a person named Wuduan'er, and in just three days, Yang Chong expelled Wuduan'er from the slave and drove him out of the house, but Zhou Qian sent someone to take Wuduan'er's portrait to Shannan Courtyard and Baijiangzhuang, and found that there were still people who had seen Wuduan'er. Zhou Qian asked Yuan Hongzhao, and Yuan Hongzhao said that Yang Chong knew their master and servant in order to treat the illness of Wuduan'er's master, Jibuxu, and took Wuduan'er for three days, just to meet Jibuxu's last wish. ”

(End of chapter)