Chapter 216: Jin Shang

Li Meng is in a high position, and he has gained some self-cultivation over the years, but when he heard the other party's words, the tea in his mouth almost squirted out, but he finally stopped.

Gao Yigong is such a high-ranking role in the camp, from western Henan to Shandong, not to mention the distance of hundreds of miles, the two provinces have suffered major disasters, and in his identity, if he is caught by the official army, I am afraid that it will be the end of a thousand knives immediately, in the army, this Gao Yigong is already a general who commands 10,000 people, and he has such a status not to enjoy, but he took such a huge risk to come to Shandong through the state, what he did was to borrow silver?

Although the eight battalions of the Chuang Army were all destitute peasants when they raised their troops, they could go from Shaanxi to Shanxi and Henan, and then go to Huguang, and Sichuan even haunted near Gyeonggi, such a large range of activities was really broken, and many wealthy families were broken by the Chuang Army, and the gold, silver, grain and straw accumulated for several generations or even dozens of generations were all taken captive, except for a small part distributed to the local poor people, most of them were used as military supplies for the Chuang Army.

Li Meng pondered here, although the size of the army is at most hundreds of thousands, but these people may not all spend military salaries, Li Zicheng's core army will definitely have some foundation in his hands anyway, what is the urgent need to take the risk to borrow money from his side.

But when the words came to his mouth, he didn't ask the end, Li Meng asked with a smile:

"I don't know how much silver the senior brother wants to borrow, but Li has some savings here."

Gao Yigong cleared his throat, and he was not polite, and said slowly:

"Fifty thousand taels of silver......

Before Gao Yigong's words fell, Li Meng laughed there and said with a smile:

"Breaking into such a big foundation, accumulated over the years, there must always be millions of gold and silver, and you actually took such a big risk to come to me to borrow these 50,000 taels, to let people know, wouldn't it be laughing off your big teeth!"

Hearing Li Meng say the word "break into the camp", Gao Yigong's body shook unnoticed, his eyes narrowed, and then the state of the whole person became calm, Li Meng obviously knew the exact identity of his side, and he didn't have to be frightened, but it was the first time he said this.

Looking at Li Meng's expression, although there was a ridicule in Fang Cai's words, he did not express a clear refusal, Gao Yigong came this time, and he didn't think about this matter too smoothly, cynicism, and even the situation of meeting with knives and guns is possible, but as soon as the other party answered, it made him very happy.

In this era, most of the things that Li Meng has experienced are real knives and guns, and they are solved straightforwardly, but this high level is from the bottom step by step to today's position, everyone has been dealt with, and the calculation of the city government is much higher than Li Meng, although Li Meng's words did not clearly indicate anything, but he did not say death.

Gao Yigong knew that if he wanted to make up any reason at this time, he was afraid that it would be counterproductive, so it was better to say it directly, and after a little hesitation, he said in a sullen voice:

"The big business here is big, the expenses are also big, the provinces are all disasters, and the supplies can only be squeezed out of the hands of those corrupt officials and bullies, but this food and salary can be squeezed, but the weapons and armor cannot, and the blacksmiths on the old camp side are not enough, and the several arsenals opened in Shaanxi and Henan are also empty."

Li Meng nodded, not everyone has the same heart as himself, raising a group of craftsmen and blacksmiths, these generals in Shandong are all purchased from the arsenal, and the eunuchs who take care of the weapons ask for this weapon is not low, and these generals do not change their weapons at all in order to save more money.

Therefore, the soldiers are holding rusty spears and blunt knives in their hands, wearing tattered armor, this is an ordinary thing, it is not surprising at all, cold weapons hand-to-hand combat, swords strike, spears and stabs, if the number of battles is large, then it will soon be scrapped, large quantities of swords, after chopping many times, there will be gaps, or even breaks, the tip of the spear is the same, the armor is not forever protected, must be repaired and maintained.

Li Chuang has been fighting every day, but the five-day battle is not to mention, every day and the official army is surrounding, breaking through, attacking and defending each other, pursuing and intercepting, fighting every day, it is impossible to really use wooden sticks and farm tools, weapons are still needed.

But if there are many battles, the loss of weapons is also very great, break into the camp and fight in the five provinces, but there is no base area that can be relied on, naturally there will be no stable supply of weapons, can only be obtained by opening the arsenal of the state capital and county, and there are some hidden ways to obtain, and the channel of exchanging weapons in the green salt of the Jiaozhou battalion is naturally one of them.

However, Li Meng is very clear about the number of weapons shipped two to three times a month, although there are a lot of weapons in several ships, but for such a large-scale force as the camp, even the core troops of the old battalion, it is a drop in the bucket and does not have much effect.

Gao Yigong told all the things he encountered in the camp, maybe it was a secret thing to say it so openly, he was a little nervous in his heart, and hurriedly took a big sip of the tea bowl and drank it, and said hesitantly:

"Don't hide it from General Li, in the past, all the soldiers and horses in the camp had their own channels, and I don't know about the other big battalions, but we bought them in Pingyang Fucheng and Shaanzhou in Shanxi, and the price was about three to two times the market price.

Although Gao Yigong is wooden, his eloquence is also average, but Li Meng listened to it with relish, the several large battalions that made trouble in Shaanxi, if they were fighting with officers and soldiers with wooden sticks and stones, they would have been exterminated a long time ago, how could they fight to the present with more wins and fewer losses, the stable way of food and weapons must be very important, and the problem of local collection and distribution of food and salary is not big, the origin of this weapon Li Meng has always been confused, and when he discussed privately with Zhou Juren, he also speculated whether it would be the local guard office that bought and sold weapons privately, who would have thought that it would be bought in the state capital of Shanxi in an open and honest manner.

Luzhou Mansion and Zezhou Mansion are world-famous iron production places, the Ming Dynasty set up a mine supervisor and weapons bureau here, which is considered an important place, but now the officials are chaotic, the scene of the end times, the eunuchs and the officials in charge, and the landlords and gentry below are all thinking about making money on the government-run iron mines, and selling weapons privately is not a big deal.

It's just that what I said before was silver taels, but this high skill has led the topic to the weapon, which is really a little confusing, and Li Meng is not in a hurry, it is rare to listen to the stories and anecdotes in other armies, and there are always a lot of benefits for himself, but he is not busy turning this topic to the right path.

Gao Yigong's mood gradually became a little normal, and his speech became smoother, and he still said flatly:

"Since September last year, the price of weapons purchased in Pingyang Mansion has suddenly risen fifteen times, and it is necessary to give enough cash silver, and the old camp has some savings, but the dog officials of the imperial court, Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou, have been chasing and fighting tightly, and they have been biting on the bite, and the silver to buy weapons will soon be insufficient."

Before he finished speaking, Li Meng choked on a mouthful of water, looked at Gao Yigong in front of him with a smile and laughter, and teased:

"Brother Gao really doesn't treat Li as an outsider, didn't this dog official even scold me."

Knowing that his words were wrong, Gao Yigong was a little embarrassed, but the silent man opened the chatterbox, and there were a lot of words, and he continued there:

"The price is high, I can't help but buy it, the foundation of the old camp is quickly consumed clean, these few times with the dogs of the imperial court....The officers and soldiers have suffered a big loss, and some of the brothers who have been attached to the latter can only have two percent of the weapons in their hands, and they don't hide it from Lord Li that Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou are both capable people, and if the camp goes on like this, it will hurt the fundamentals, and King Chuang said, no matter what, you have to get a batch of weapons, fight a big battle, and hurt the officers and soldiers, otherwise if you run like this, the big camp will collapse."

There is no scruple at all, the scene at this time is quite awkward, a big leader of the anti-thieves and a senior military attache of the imperial court are there to talk about how to defeat the officers and soldiers and protect the core of the "anti-thief" plan, the two of them have said something against the grain, even if there are no these words, the meeting between the two is enough to kill the head and destroy the clan.

The other party wanted to borrow money to buy weapons, Li Meng finally understood the reason for the 50,000 taels, but he still had some questions, and couldn't help asking:

"Why has the price of Shanxi's weapons increased so much, it's not right, is it running out of iron?"

"It's enough for the mine to open for a hundred years, and the camps to buy weapons are all shipped through the branches of Shanxi's big firms Goldman Sachs and Pingyang, who knows that in the second half of last year, these dogs raised prices very much, saying that you don't buy them here, naturally someone buys them, and the weapons are not enough!"

Gao Yigong, who has always been calm, finally got a little angry between his words, and he learned about other provinces and events through Tang Bao and Di Bao, and there were some descriptions of businessmen, all Li Meng could know was relatively one-sided things, and the amount of information brought by Gao Yigong's words was very large, and it really took full attention to understand.

The big business name Goldman Sachs and Shanxi, this may be the Jin businessman who has been hyped in the media for many years, and maybe it can find some roots in modern times.

"Who else can this Goldman Sachs sell weapons to, and the soldiers and horses of the imperial court can afford it? Besides, they can directly transfer it in the arsenal! ”

Although the room was clean, Gao Yigong still spat on the ground with hatred and cursed:

"To whom they were sold, to the Tartars who were outside the mouth, and to whom they were sold to the east, in exchange for skins, cattle and horses, and those mountain goods......

Gao Yigong was talking energetically, but he saw Li Meng standing up from the chair, his expression was extremely shocked and angry, and he asked loudly:

"Sell it to the Tartars, sell it to the east, isn't that to sell to the Jurchens?"