Xingqing Mansion is also called Xingzhou, here is the capital of Western Xia, but also the largest city of Western Xia, is the economic, cultural and political center of Western Xia, in its heyday, here thousands of merchants gathered, piled up like a mountain, commerce is very prosperous and rich.

The economic richness of the Western Xia, in turn, can support a strong military strength, the Western Xia had 500,000 soldiers at its peak, of course, the Western Xia belongs to the whole people, the population of the country is only more than 2 million, and the mobilization of 500,000 people is already its limit.

However, in the past ten years, the Western Xia has been going downhill, especially after the Song Dynasty gradually broke off trade ties with the Western Xia, the financial resources of the Western Xia have decreased sharply, and the Liao State that has always supported it was destroyed, and the Jin State replaced the Liao State as the suzerainty of the Western Xia.

However, the Jin State treated the Western Xia on the contrary to the Liao State, not only did it not have the material assistance of the Liao State period, but asked the Western Xia for cattle and sheep materials in three days, for example, the 20,000 Jin soldiers stationed in Datong Mansion completely relied on the supplies of the Western Xia to feed.

In addition, the Song Dynasty canceled the annual tribute to the Western Xia, and suffered a major natural and man-made disaster last winter, which refers to a snowstorm that has not been encountered in a century, so that nearly half of the livestock in the Western Xia were frozen to death, and then the Jin State forcibly extorted millions of sheep from the Western Xia.

Although the Tangut eventually delivered a million sheep, this led to a sharp deterioration in relations within the Tangut, with the Uighurs and Tibetans in Hexi taking the lead in accusing the court of favoring the Dangxiang clan and plundering other ethnic groups, including the Qiang and Han Chinese, who also responded to the accusations of the Uighurs and Tibetans.

Soon, the relationship between the party and the court also broke down, and there began to be extremely discordant voices.

In October, Richard led an army of 20,000 to suppress the Uighur rebellion in Hexi, and then turned back to suppress the rebellion of two Qiang tribes in Xiliangfu, killing thousands of people and plundering their cattle and sheep and other property.

Western Xia was troubled internally and externally, and its troops gradually decreased, and the situation began to become very dangerous.

In winter, the streets of Xingqingfu were very deserted, pedestrians were scarce, and most of the shops were closed, at this time, in the cold wind, a middle-aged man was hurrying north along the street near Nancheng, walking through an alley, he turned around and went in, but he stopped again, and made sure that there was really no one following him, so he walked quickly to the depths of the alley.

Before walking to the exit at the other end of the alley, the man stopped in front of a wooden door, this is the back door of Qiao's trading house, Qiao's trading house is the largest Song trading house in Western Xia, specializing in all kinds of Song Dynasty luxury goods, although the economy of Western Xia is withering, but Qiao's business is not bad, its customers are all Western Xia nobles, and King Liang also has three percent of the shop, so ordinary people dare not provoke them.

The man knocked rhythmically on the door three times, and in a moment, the door opened, revealing an old face inside, "Ah! It was the Ninth Master who came in person. ”

The full name of the ninth master is called Zhang Jiu, who is a famous camel transporter between the Song and Xia Liaojin, who is responsible for transporting goods to people, black and white, and can also get some special commodities for the Western Xia Emperor Li Qianshun, Li Qianshun A favorite concubine especially likes Baoyan Zhai's top West Lake Eight Scenery perfume, which is only available to the powerful, Zhang Jiu can also get it, and take Lai Xixia, so that Li Qianshun really pleases his concubine.

It was for these reasons that Zhang Jiu had a special pass issued by the Western Xia Emperor and could enter and leave the Western Xia at will.

"It was Shopkeeper Wei who came to me."

"Shopkeeper Wei is here, please come in!"

Zhang Jiu flashed into the courtyard and was taken to the shopkeeper's room by the old servant, where a young man was sitting at the table writing a letter, and the old servant coughed, "Shopkeeper Wei, Zhang Jiuye is here." ”

As soon as the shopkeeper looked up, he had a baby face, and he looked seventeen or eighteen years old, but his eyes were very deep, the shopkeeper was called Wei Ying, a hidden spy sent by Li Yanqing to Western Xia many years ago, and lost contact with the Great Song Dynasty military for almost ten years, Wei Ying also became the big shopkeeper of Qiao's Commercial Bank in Xingqing Mansion step by step from a small guy, he was actually thirty years old.

"On such a cold day, the Ninth Master is here in person!" Wei Ying smiled and stood up to salute.

"You Master Wei summoned you, do I dare not come?"

Zhang Jiu was very familiar with him, he sat down directly at the small table, crossed Erlang's legs and asked, "Is there any goods entrusted to me to transport to the Great Song Dynasty?" ”

"What else can I do with you? The old rule is to send a batch of sheepskins to Qiao's firm in Jingzhao Mansion. ”

"You're lucky, the Western Xia Imperial Court is considering making sheepskins a forbidden item, and I'm afraid it won't be able to be shipped away after a while."

"Even sheepskins must be listed as forbidden, so what else can Xixia sell?"

"Medicine and gems! There is also the tallow that Baoyan Zhai wants, and Xixia can't help it, this time I will transport a batch of tallow to Bashu for delivery. ”

Wei Ying took out a sealed paper tube from the cabinet and handed it to Zhang Jiu, who didn't ask much and took it directly.

This is a tacit understanding between the two, Zhang Jiu knew from the beginning that Xiao Wei was Li Yanqing's scout spy in Western Xia, and because of Baoyanzhai, Zhang Jiu and Li Yanqing had a little personal relationship, and after a conversation with Li Yanqing, he accepted the important task of delivering a letter for Wei Ying.

So when the two of them said something like 'come in person' before, it was actually just a joke, Wei Ying was looking for him, and he had to come in person.

"Any important news lately?" Wei Ying asked with a smile again.

He knew that since Zhang Jiu was sending tallow to the Great Song Dynasty, he must have dealt with Liang Anren, the king of Liang in Western Xia, Liang Anren was in charge of the logistics materials of the Western Xia army, and he used his position to buy the military's tallow and mutton fat at a low price, and sold them to Baoyanzhai in large quantities, and he could earn thousands of taels of silver at a time.

After running a few times a year, the income of 20,000 taels of silver is very safe, and he has earned at least 100,000 taels of silver just by selling tallow and mutton fat over the years.

Although Liang Anren also has the dry shares of Sancheng Qiao's firm, he almost never comes here, and Wei Ying can't touch him.

Zhang Jiu nodded and said: "There is indeed some news, the Yeli Department and the Mi Capture Department have not paid the autumn tax until now, as if they asked for a reduction of half of the tax sheep, and the imperial court refused to agree, and the result was a stalemate." ”

Dangxiang is a branch of the Qiang people, called Dangxiang Qiang, later separated from the Qiang people, called himself Dangxiang clan, a total of eight tribes are composed, the fine seal department, the Fei Ting department, the Xiangli department, the Pochao department, the Yeli department, the Mi Capture Department, the Tuoba department, etc., in addition to the black party and the snow mountain party and other small tribes, among which the Tuoba tribe is the most powerful, Tuoba Han pseudonym is Yuan, Yuan Hao is the chief of the Tuoba tribe, he unified the party, the establishment of the Western Xia, he inherited the Tang Dynasty to seal their surname Li, called Li Yuanhao, the Western Xia royal family are the Tuoba nobles.

The other tribes were also in a semi-independent state, militarily at the disposal of the imperial court, economically they paid a tax once a year in the autumn, and the affairs of the other tribes were not asked by the imperial court, and their chiefs decided themselves.

However, due to the successive military defeats in Western Xia in recent years, the losses were very heavy, these losses were actually the losses of the eight tribes, the population loss was too large, but the benefits were not great, which made the nobles of the other seven tribes increasingly dissatisfied, and even the Tuoba Department had contradictions within the tribe.

Just this summer, the seven tribes unanimously demanded the implementation of the conscription system, that is, the imperial court must give benefits to the tribes and herdsmen in order to send troops, and in the past, it was free to send troops, and even weapons, war horses, and camels had to be prepared by themselves, because in the past there were profits, and everyone could accept them, but now there are only losses and no gains, and no one will do it, and the Uighurs and Tibetans have also rebelled and stood on their own.

So far, the imperial court has still pretended to be deaf and dumb to the demands of the tribes for the conscription system, which has caused widespread dissatisfaction among the tribes, and everyone has taken the opportunity to pay taxes and sheep to make trouble.

Wei Ying said with a smile: "Of course the imperial court can't agree, it promised the Yeli Department and the Miluo Department, and the other tribes will have to follow, and the imperial court has no income, and there is a large amount of money to pay, and in the end, I am afraid that even the current army will not be able to support it." ”

"To put it mildly, I think if the Song army attacks Western Xia at this time, it is actually the best time."

"The Song army is too busy to take care of itself, and he is already exhausted just by dealing with the Jin soldiers, where do you still have the energy to attack Western Xia, you think too much."

"Huh! I'm just joking, no one will take it seriously, okay, I'm leaving, take care of Shopkeeper Wei! ”

"Ninth Master has a good trip."

Zhang Jiu left the back door of Qiao's trading house, and hurriedly walked to the other side of the alley, the paper tube was in the bag on his back, but he had Xi Xiazi's special gold medal with him, and no one dared to search him.

In Xingqing Mansion and even Western Xia, Zhang Jiu could almost walk sideways.

As soon as Zhang Jiu left, Wei Ying began to deploy his subordinates again, and the information that Zhang Jiu said just now had to be confirmed before he could send it to Chang'an City with an eagle letter.

As for the important information that Zhang Jiu took away, it was an extremely important map of the deployment of troops in various parts of Western Xia, which Wei Ying spent a thousand taels of gold to buy from Lang Zhong of the Western Xia Army.