Yang Sichang sneered, he also knew the quality of the weapons made by the Ministry of War, and knew that what Cao Wenzhao said was not a lie. But if the military department is not good, could it be that you did it well in private? No matter how to say that the Ministry of War also has the French style left over hundreds of years to learn from, and the difference between the private people and the difference is thousands of miles, but I am afraid that the difference is even farther.

"Master Inspector, the last general used to think that although the military department also made shoddy ones, they could also be used to pick and choose, and they were always hundreds of times better than the civilian ones. But at the beginning of this year, I got a pair of armor, which was a good iron armor, and when I asked, I found out that it was flowing from the Chaoyi side of Shaanxi. The general didn't believe it at first, so he sent a few cronies to let them buy another pair, but he didn't want those few damn ones to really buy a pair back, sure enough, it was a high-grade armor, far better than the military department's system, and at the end of the past six months, the generals have successively made twenty or thirty pairs of them, and they have been used by the accompanying soldiers. ”

"Shaanxi Chaoyi? Armour? Yang Sichang frowned, as the right attendant of the military department, he also understood the difficulty of weapon making. Compared with swords and arrows, the technical content of iron armor is much higher, and since ancient times, the imperial court has forbidden crossbows and bows, and swords and armor. It is not uncommon for a blacksmith with high folk skills to be able to make swords and spears that surpass the craftsmen of the military department, and it is possible to create iron armor that even the children of generals like Cao Wenzhao are full of, that is two different things. He thought for a moment and asked, "General Cao, do you have any samples?" ”

"Supervisor, please wait!" Cao Wenzhao owed Yang Sichang a debt to his body, retreated, and after a while, he came back with a pair of iron leaf armor. Yang Sichang looked at it, this iron leaf armor was made of cow tendons in series, and the pieces of iron leaves were shining with cold light, and there was a little protrusion at the end of the iron leaves, shining with cold light. Cao Wenzhao saw that Yang Sichang was looking seriously, so he hurriedly explained: "I heard the shop that sold armor say that this iron armor is made in accordance with the legacy of the Western Xia Kingdom, and each iron leaf is a three-inch thick cooked discus forged to only more than an inch thick, removing impurities, leaving behind all the high-quality fine iron, and the knife and arrow will not hurt." If you look at the end of the piece, which looks like a squirrel, it is the thickness when it is not forged, and the shop says that it is used to prove that the craftsman has not cut corners. ”

Yang Sichang didn't speak, he picked up a nail leaf casually and broke it hard, but sure enough, it didn't move, but it made his fingers hurt a little. He asked Cao Wenzhao to put the iron leaf armor on a chair, pulled out the sword hanging on the wall, first cut two swords, and sure enough, they all bounced off, he stabbed a sword hard, but only felt that the tip of the sword slipped, stabbed in the air, and finally he stabbed hard, only to penetrate from the ribs, wanted to draw the sword but couldn't pull it out, and found that the sword was actually only penetrated from the gap between the two iron leaves, and was stuck and couldn't pull out.

"Your Excellency, please be careful, let the end come!" Cao Wenzhao hurriedly stepped forward, pulled the sword out of the iron leaf armor, and presented it with both hands. Yang Sichang took the sword, but found that there was an inconspicuous gap on the blade, which was obviously scratched when he tried the armor, he walked to the iron leaf armor and looked carefully, but only found that there were a few white marks on the nail leaf, and it was gone with a wipe of his hand.

"Sure enough, it's a good armor!" Yang Sichang sighed: "How much silver does this collar armor cost?" ”

"Fifty taels of snowflake silver, including helmets, cuirasses, skirt armor, arm armor, and shin armor, and a pair of iron gloves." Cao Wenzhao sighed: "It's not good to have one point less, things are good things, but they are very expensive." ”

Yang Sichang didn't answer, he thought about it, and he had a plan in his heart. pretended to be disappreciative and smiled: "This kind of good armor, if it is not a warrior with a hundred people, I am afraid that it will not be worthy, so it is not expensive." By the way, even such militaristic weapons can be openly sold, isn't it that the government on the other side of the court doesn't care? ”

"My lord doesn't know, I heard that this business is very big, you see there is a mark on this heart guard!" Cao Wenzhao clicked on the iron leaf armor heart guard, and sure enough, there was a mark on it with a spear and an arquebus, and there were three words Hongyang below: "It seems that there are two people behind the back, Lord Liu, the chief soldier of Ningxia, and Lord Lu, the governor, and the local government doesn't care about them at all." And the place in Chaoyi is very strange, it is not the government that is in charge, but a place called the Lijin Bureau,"

"Lord Liu and Lord Lu? Are you talking about Liu Cheng and Lu Boqi? “

"Exactly!" Cao Wenzhao said with a smile: "But this armor is not something that everyone can buy, at that time, in order to buy these armor, I also stamped the official document with my own official seal, and the store sold it to me." ”

"Official seal? Document? ”

Seeing the puzzled look on his boss's face, Cao Wenzhao hurriedly explained: It turns out that this Hongyang sells a lot of things, armor, swords, bows and crossbows are only a small part of them, among which swords, strong bows and arrows can be bought by ordinary people with silver, and armor and crossbows are somewhat controlled.

"And how did you get your first armor?"

"It was picked up from a thief, and it's not clear how it flowed out in the first place!"

"Since that's the case, let's go buy three hundred collar armor first, use the official seal of my overseer, and see if you can get some discounts! Don't know enough? ”

Cao Wenzhao was overjoyed when he heard this, he originally wanted to talk about it, but he didn't expect Yang Sichang to agree to him, he hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed: "Thank you, Master Governor, it's enough, the last general will definitely kill more thieves and serve the court!" ”

"Okay, you can step back first, and this armor will stay with me!"

"Yes, Overseer!" Cao Wenzhao stood up, bowed and took four or five steps back, and retreated to the door before turning to leave. Listening to the footsteps fading away outside the door, Yang Sichang walked to the Tieye armor next to the chair, stretched out his hand to caress the cold and smooth armor surface, and whispered to himself: "Liu Cheng and Lu Boqi, you two have made a private armor battle, ignoring the law of the country, what do you want?" ”

Yang Sichang was thinking about his thoughts there, and a staff member walked up to him and said in a low voice: "Master Inspector, the next one is Master Li Dongguo, the imperial history of Hedong Patrol Salt, is it for him to wait a little longer?" ”

"Li Dongguo, Lord Lee?" Yang Sichang wanted to say that he should wait a little longer, but he remembered that this person was the first to come out to relieve himself in the hall, and his mind changed when he said this: "Let him come in, come on, take this armor to the back room!" ”

"Yes, sir!" The servant on the side answered and took out the iron leaf armor. Yang Sichang returned to his chair and saw Li Dongguo coming in from the outside, and as soon as he took two steps into the door, he bowed down and said, "Your Majesty will see the Inspector!" ”

"Come on, show Master Li a seat, serve tea!"

"Thank you, sir!" Li Dongguo owed Yang Sichang and sat down. The servant brought tea and water, and the two took a sip. Yang Sichang said in a deep voice: "Lord Li, I went to Beijing to supervise the war this time, and the court and the Son of Heaven have great hopes. If you inspect the salt affairs in Hedong, you will have to rely on a lot of money! ”

Regarding Yang Sichang's request, Li Dongguo had already prepared: "That's natural, Xia Guan has already prepared 30,000 taels of silver for the arrival of the adult army this time." ”

"Good!" Seeing that the other party was so knowledgeable, Yang Sichang's face showed a smile: "The three armies have not moved, the grain and grass go first, this military event, money and grain are absolutely indispensable, Lord Li has made the first contribution this time!" ”

"Don't dare to be an official!" Li Dongguo was secretly happy when he heard this, since that time he borrowed Liu Cheng's troops to defeat the thieves and recapture Pingyang. As the highest inspection and supervision official of Hedong District, one of the four major salt monopoly areas of the Ming Dynasty, Li Dongguo had rich contacts with the famous Jin merchants, Hui merchants and other merchant groups at that time, and through the ready-made logistics system, he sold textiles, leather products, dried meat, and ironware produced in Chaoyi to Henan, Beizhili, Shanxi and other places; Selling timber, dried fruits, grains, and medicinal materials to Shaanxi made huge profits. The financial gain stimulated his desire to climb up even more, and this time Yang Sichang was appointed as the supervisor, and Li Dongguo realized that this was a rare opportunity, whether it was Fang Cai's support in the court, or the 30,000 taels of silver, it was his political investment.

"Master Li! You have been an official in Shanxi for several years, and you must know a lot about the affairs of the Three Jin Dynasty. ”

"The Overseer is serious!" Li Dongguo said with a smile: "The lower officials are just inspecting the salt business, how dare they speak presumptuously and delay the military aircraft!" ”

"Master Li, there are only two people here, there is no third person, it doesn't hurt to speak out!"

Li Dongguo saw that Yang Sichang insisted again and again, and he also wanted to show his ability in front of Yang Sichang and prepare for a closer step in the future: "Then the lower official will be bold, if there is something wrong, please bear with the superintendent!" ”

"Master Overseer, in fact, if you are only here to repel the breached captive horse, it will not be difficult. After all, winter is coming, and the captives have been broken for more than twenty years, even if there is no king, the captives will withdraw from the exit and return to the outside of the plug for the winter! ”

Yang Sichang nodded, at that time, neither the Mongols nor the Later Jin had the ability to occupy and control the prefectures and counties of the Ming Dynasty within the Great Wall, so the main purpose of their invasion was to loot wealth and population, and at most they would stay at one or two strongholds on the Great Wall to prepare for the next invasion. This invasion usually begins at the time of the autumn harvest and ends in the winter, as this allows for the maximum harvest in the shortest possible time. Historically, when the Central Plains Dynasty was militarily weaker than the nomads, it usually adopted a flexible defense strategy: build a large number of fortified strongholds in the border areas, deploy the main mobile forces in the second line, and when the enemy invades, the people in the invaded areas withdraw into the strongholds with livestock and grain that can be taken away, and burn the grain that cannot be taken away, so as to reduce the supplies that the enemy may plunder as much as possible. The mobile forces on the second line moved to their areas and used the fortified positions as bases of operation to strike at the enemy who was exhausted during the retreat. Generally speaking, if the nomadic side invades for two to three consecutive years and the resources obtained are not as good as the lost manpower and material resources, the nomadic side will not invade the area for a long time, and will choose to use trade to obtain the necessary resources. However, the problem facing Yang Sichang was that he had little confidence in the strength and quality of the Ming army in Shanxi, and he did not know whether it would be able to complete the strike task that the mobile forces should undertake in the elastic defense.

"Lord Li, you should know that the Emperor Taiji has been proclaimed as a Khan by the Western Chieftains, right?"

"I've heard of it."

"That's good!" Yang Sichang's expression became solemn: "This time, the captive chief broke the border from the right guard of Datong, but it was just a small test, if he couldn't be beaten, I am afraid that there will be no peace here in the future!" ”

"What the Overseer said is very true!" Li Dongguo is also a smart person, and immediately guessed Yang Sichang's intentions: "If the lower officials guessed correctly, are you worried that the soldiers in the two towns of Xuanda are not very useful?" ”

"Hmmm! The national disaster is a good general! “

"Master Inspector, I have a way, I don't know if I should talk about it or not."

Yang Sichang was overjoyed when he heard this: "Lord Li, you have a way, please speak up!" ”

"Borrow soldiers!"

"Borrowed soldiers?" Yang Sichang was stunned when he heard this: "Who did you borrow troops from?" ”

"Naturally, it is Liu Cheng, the chief soldier of Ningxia, I heard that this person was drawn from the army by Ling Zun, if you open your mouth to him, he will definitely not refuse!"

"Him?" Yang Sichang's mind saw Liu Cheng's face, and the night conversation with this young military general more than half a year ago left a very deep impression on him. Considering the civil-military relationship at that time, the status gap between them, the various benefits that this plan brought to Liu Cheng, and the benefactor relationship between his father and Liu Cheng, Yang Sichang felt very sure that it would succeed before proposing, but to his surprise, although his attitude was tactful, Liu Cheng still resolutely rejected Yang Sichang's proposal to ride into the mainland to level the thieves, and also found a bunch of reasons to refute it. This made Yang Sichang subconsciously want to avoid being too close to him, so he supervised Xuanda this time, but he didn't consider Liu Cheng's power at all. But he didn't expect that he wouldn't look for him, but he came to the door, Cao Wenzhao's armor, Li Dongguo's borrowed soldiers, and he couldn't hide if he wanted to.

"Master Li, as far as I know, Liu Chengnai is the chief soldier of Ningxia, and it is far away from Datong Town, why do you say him?"

"Hehe, Master Inspector, this is a long story, last year the Shaanxi thieves crossed the Yellow River east and broke through Pingyang-" Li Dongguo recounted the fact that he borrowed troops from Liu Cheng and drove away the thieves to recapture Pingyang, and said with a smile: "It's not me who boasts for General Liu, if you talk about the strength of soldiers and horses, Ningxia Town is beyond the reach of the world!" The two divisions of Chahar Tumut are the nobles in the captives, and they also devote themselves to their command, and the troops reach the West River, rebuild the naturalized city, and the people who descend are like clouds, Du Ruhu and Du Shen will lead a battalion of soldiers, and they will be stationed in Chaoyi, which is only separated by a water from Shanxi, and it is only seven or eight days to arrive in Datong. ”

"It's Chaoyi again!" Yang Sichang's heart moved, but there was no change on his face: "The matter of borrowing troops has a lot to do with it, and I still have to consider it!" (To be continued.) )