At noon, a dozen top sword craftsmen were led by the soldiers to a room in the Jinglu Mansion, where there was only one table, on which were eight swords, the scabbards had been removed, and each sword was cold and shining, and it was extremely sharp.

Li Yanqing pointed to the sword on the table and smiled at the craftsmen: "This is the legendary Xia State Sword, Western Xia is strictly forbidden to flow into the Great Song Dynasty, I got it by chance today, it is indeed very good, you all come to take a look." ”

When the craftsmen heard that these eight swords were actually the famous Xia Guo Sword, they were immediately interested, and they stepped forward to take a closer look, or test the edge of the sword with the sword, or observe its forging patterns, and everyone looked at it very carefully.

At this time, an old craftsman said: "Repay the capital, although this sword is sharp, we can also build it in the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Li Yanqing waved his hand and said to everyone: "You may not understand what I mean, of course I know that the cadres Mo Ye and Zhan Lu Tai'a are all built by our famous craftsmen in the Central Plains, and our sword-casting skills are definitely higher than those of Xixia, I don't mean that, I mean that Xixia can use this high-level sword as a weapon to build a large number of weapons, where is this secret?" It takes years for us to build a really good sword, and if we find a way to build such a sword in a few hours, our army will be able to equip it in large quantities, which will play a huge role in improving the combat effectiveness of the army. ”

Everyone understood what Li Dutong meant, not to create a good sword and make the sword a standard weapon, but to build a large number of good swords, and master the forging method of the Xia State sword, maybe they can achieve this goal.

Li Yanqing said again: "In the past, the imperial court created a thick-ridged war sword, which has a great effect on piercing the enemy's armor, and in the future, soldiers will wear a thick-ridged sword, I think the Xia State sword is very suitable, so I hope you can imitate it, and these eight swords will be studied by everyone." ”

Everyone was gossiping, they were all top craftsmen, all of them were sword smiths, and at least half of them were from the Ordnance Supervisor in Tokyo, and they had extremely high authority in forging weapons.

The old man at the head hugged his fist to Li Yanqing and said: "Qiyu Dutong, just by analyzing the samples has a certain effect, at least you can understand the material of the sword, but if you don't know the key craftsmanship of the other party, I am afraid that the imitation of the Xia Guo sword is also an image and not like a god, which will disappoint Dutong." ”

Li Yanqing smiled slightly: "I can tell you a little information, the craftsmen of the Western Xia pay great attention to the furnace temperature when casting weapons, they use charcoal for smelting, and secondly, their bellows are very large, they are large vertical double-row bellows, which are higher than the two of us, and the best quality Shitanhe East Road is there, which is much better than the coal of Xixia, I will arrange for people to send it in large quantities, as for the large bellows, I have not seen them, you can figure it out yourself." ”

All the craftsmen were overjoyed, Du Tong's words had already revealed the key secret of the Western Xia craftsmen, and they bowed down together and said: "We will come up with a thick ridge sword that satisfies Du Tong as soon as possible!" ”

Sending off the craftsman, Li Yanqing returned to the mansion with a Xia Guo sword that was left, at this time, Cao Yun and they had already returned from the Ci'en Temple, Li Yanqing asked the maid to invite the wives and concubines to the inner hall, he had something to announce, everyone talked and laughed and walked into the inner hall, Cao Yun smiled and asked: "Has the husband been decided?" ”

Li Yanqing nodded, "I'm definitely going to go, I'll announce it to you today." ”

"Eldest sister, what is the announcement?" Zhao Fujin asked in a low voice.

"My husband is going to go on a long trip, and it will take about a month."

"Ahh Is there going to be war again? Everyone was taken aback.

"It's not going to war, let's listen to my husband! I'm not going to leak it. ”

Everyone sat down with doubts, the maid served them refreshments and tea, Li Yanqing smiled and said to everyone: "Everyone knows that I am the envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, but so far, I have never been to Bashu, I am ashamed, I am an incompetent envoy, and it is just during this time that the affairs accumulated on this side of Shaanxi Road have been solved, so I plan to go to Bashu to inspect for a month." ”

I heard that I was going to Bashu, and everyone's heart fell, and then everyone began to talk about the time when they went to Bashu a few years ago, and it was bumpy and bumpy, and it was extremely unsmooth, but Hu Qing'er seemed to have something on her mind, and kept looking at Li Yanqing.

At night, Li Yanqing scalded his feet with hot water, went to bed and lay down, Cao Yun slept next to him and said with a smile: "This time I went to Bashu, take Qing'er with me!" ”

"There are two big-bellied women at home, and I think it's better for her to stay."

"Where is the pot-bellied woman, it's only been three months!"

Cao Yunjiao put her husband's hand on her stomach angrily, "You touch it, where is the belly?" ”

Li Yanqing touched it, the direction changed, Cao Yun blushed and pulled his hand away, "No, you can't have sex during pregnancy, the doctor has repeatedly told me." ”

Li Yanqing smiled and said, "The doctor just said the first three months and the last three months!" It's okay in the middle, it's okay, I'm just careful. ”

Cao Yun was helpless, so she had to rely on him, and after a while, Li Yanqing lay down a little tired, "What do you mean by Qing'er?" ”

"Of course she wants to go with you, otherwise how would I have said this." Cao Yun packed up her body, changed into a middle coat and lay down beside her husband again.

Li Yanqing smiled lazily: "I thought you didn't worry about me, and you wanted to plant a spy next to me." ”

"Go! Am I that bored? I don't care if you want a woman outside, but don't bring me home. ”

Li Yanqing couldn't help but yawn, "Okay! Let Qing'er go with me, this matter will be talked about tomorrow, I will sleep first. ”

Not long after, Li Yanqing fell asleep, but Cao Yun couldn't sleep a little, the day before yesterday Tang Yuan'er ran to cry to her, her husband Wang Gui was outside again, and brought back a big-bellied woman, this is already the fourth, and there are words to pass on the ancestry, it is said that he still has a woman outside, and Tang Yuan'er is about to collapse.

However, Tang Yuan'er missed a sentence, saying that Wang Gui blurted out in anger, "Dutong is also raising women outside, and Mrs. Cao has no objections, what kind of dry vinegar do you eat all day long?" ’

This made Cao Yun secretly surprised, could it be that her husband really raised a woman outside?

This matter can't be done before there is evidence, so I have to tell Qing'er about it and let Qing'er observe it secretly.

.........

Early the next morning, Li Yanqing had just come to the official office of Jingluo Mansion, and Zhang Shun hurried over, "Dutong, the details of that weapon shop have been figured out." ”

Li Yanqing was stunned for a moment, did he figure it out so quickly?

"Are you sure you're not being misled?"

Zhang Shun shook his head, "They recruited two guys in Jingzhao, and they started with these two guys and asked the proprietor behind this armory shop." ”

Li Yanqing simply put down the pen, intertwined his ten fingers, and asked with great interest, "What is their origin?"

"It's related to the black party from a few years ago!"

The Black Dangxiang was a rebellious tribe suppressed by Li Yanqing when he first became the governor of Jingzhao, they originally lived in the Gyeongju area, but the year before last, they had moved to the Hehuang area of Xihe Road, where they raised horses for the Song army, and the Hequ horses they raised were already an important source of war horses for the Jingzhao army.

"The backstage of this armory shop is a black party item?" Li Yanqing was a little skeptical.

"To be precise, it is a branch of the Black Clan, whose leader is called Xibi Yu, who lives on the south bank of the Yellow River in northern Lanzhou, nominally lives by herding herdsmen, but in fact is engaged in the sale of smuggled contraband."

"What do you do to buy and sell contraband?"

Li Yanqing's tone was a little cold, he knew that the Western Xia was now weakened and urgently needed a lot of strategic materials, especially pig iron, the price of pig iron purchased by the Western Xia government was ten times that of the Great Song Dynasty market, and he did whatever it took to obtain pig iron, and even sold the livestock to the Great Song Dynasty, and directly transported the iron money back to melt it.

Li Yanqing imposed a very strict embargo on pig iron in Western Xia, daring to smuggle pig iron to the Khitan, once it was discovered, he would not be pardoned, and since the beginning of this year, hundreds of merchants who had taken risks to smuggle pig iron have been killed.

Not only did the Song Dynasty impose an embargo on pig iron to Western Xia, but even the Jin State strictly prohibited the transportation of pig iron to Western Xia, and pig iron was also a strategic material in short supply to the Jin State.

Zhang Shun said in a deep voice: "So far, what they have done is to smuggle gold and silver, transport the gold of the Song Dynasty to Western Xia to exchange for silver, and transport silver to the Great Song Dynasty to exchange it for gold. ”

Li Yanqing nodded, one tael of gold in the Great Song Dynasty was exchanged for ten taels of silver, and the official price and black market price were the same, but one tael of gold in Western Xia could be exchanged for fifteen taels of silver at most, which was the benefit of fifty percent, and many small businessmen were secretly doing this business, but both countries in the Song and Xia Dynasty strictly prohibited gold and silver from leaving the country, so they could only do smuggling transactions.

If it's just smuggling gold and silver, it's fine, but Li Yanqing suspects that they still want to do pig iron smuggling, otherwise what would they do when they opened an armory shop?

"You continue to send people to monitor them, it's best to send someone to be their buddies and really grasp their movements, I'm worried that they will smuggle pig iron on a large scale, if that's the case, you have to stop it in time, and you will never allow a pound of pig iron to flow into Western Xia."

"I understand the lowly position, let's arrange it!"

Li Yanqing smiled and waved his hand again, "Don't be in a hurry to leave, listen to what I say." ”

Zhang Shun hurriedly calmed down and continued to listen, Li Yanqing smiled again: "The smuggling of the black party has two sides, the shopkeeper of that shop also promised to get bamboo horns and Helan horses for us, we also have to use this channel to get what we need, especially Helan horses, which have a great effect on the scout camp, it is best that we can get hundreds of Helan horses, so on the one hand, you have to sabotage their smuggling pig iron, but you can't let them notice, you must let them continue to smuggle Helan horses, do you understand what I mean?" ”

Zhang Shun thought for a while and said, "Then why don't you let them cooperate with Song Jun?" ”

"Now is not the time, when they really engage in pig iron, you will act according to the situation, I don't care about this matter, I will leave it to you."

"Obey the order!"

Zhang Shun bowed and left in a hurry.

Waiting for Zhang Shun to leave, Li Yanqing walked to the map again, he looked at the Central Plains, Liu Yu's Qi State had been established, indicating that the Jin State was no longer strong, and had to launch agents to exploit the Central Plains for them.

Now the top priority of the Jingzhao army is to establish a huge intelligence network in the Central Plains, and after two years of destroying the Western Xia, he can go back and clean up the pseudo-Qi.

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