After discussing with Huang Wan, Liu Cun rushed to the military camp in the south of the city to check the conscription, and it happened that Jiao He, the Taishou of Qi County, and Zhao Rong, the county governor, were there, and they summoned officers at all levels to convey the order of the assassin Shi, and set an action plan to lead 5,000 officers and soldiers of Qi County to Jinan tomorrow.

After greeting each other, they stood on the edge of the magnificent university field and chatted, and Jiao He politely made a request to Liu Cun: "This official has decided to lead his soldiers to Dongpingling with Zhong Da (Zhao Rongzi), and strive to obtain the support of Liu Kang, the king of Jinan, and the local clans, and recruit 20,000 soldiers on the spot to enrich the army to protect the territory and the people." Jinan is a rich land in the world, the arsenal is full, the grain and grass are worry-free, the only shortage is the war horse and the best pack horse, the captain of the Langya Chamber of Commerce under the rule of the Ming Dynasty traveled back and forth in Liaodong every year, sent all kinds of goods, in exchange for a large number of horses, so I want to ask the Ming Gong to help, as soon as possible to buy two thousand war horses and three thousand pack horses. ”

Liu Cun thought for a moment: "It's not a secret, Lord Assassin Shi also talked about conscription and the purchase of war horses last night, and decided to squeeze out a special military expenditure from the taxes payable to the imperial court in the first half of the year. ”

Zhao Rong hurriedly asked, "Can Lord Liu let me wait first?" The price is negotiable, there is a Langya money line Qingzhou general number on Fuqian Street, and I can pay the full amount first! ”

Liu Cun hesitated: "Half a month ago, I inspected the Tieshan Horse Farm, and the number of each ** horse raised was about 6,500 horses, all of which were horses from Liaodong and Goguryeo, and only half of them were tamed after three months of breeding and taming in the horse farm. ”

Zhao Ei was overjoyed, and immediately thanked Jiao He, who urgently needed war horses to form cavalry, was also very happy, but he was far more calm than Zhao Ei, and after thanking Liu Cun, he made further requests: "The situation in Jinan is more severe than that of Jizhou in the north, if Lord Liu's judgment is good, I am afraid that the Yellow Turban thieves of Qing, Yan, Yu and Xu will make trouble in a few days, so I dare to implore Lord Liu to endure the pain and give me the four thousand war horses and pack horses that I ordered, and I am willing to pay in advance at the average price of ten gold horses, Please take care of it! ”

Liu Cun was taken aback, and hurriedly waved his hand: "Why is it such a high price?" The price agreed with the Langya Chamber of Commerce is one war horse with eight golds, and one pack horse with four golds, and the average is only six golds! Since Lord Jiao is in urgent need, let it out first, just pay according to the original price set by the Langya Chamber of Commerce, and then let them send the remaining horses to make up the number, there is no need to pay so much, now the situation is urgent, everyone in Qingzhou has the responsibility of defending the land, and no one will be allowed to take advantage of the national disaster to accumulate wealth and self-fertilizer, at least I will never allow it under the rule of Liu Cun! ”

Jiao He and Zhao Rong were stunned for a while, and they both hugged their fists and gave a deep salute, the two had heard of Liu Cun's benevolence, and they finally saw it today.

Liu Cun hurriedly returned the salute humbly, and immediately ordered the clerk of the guard battalion around him to go to the Qingzhou headquarters of the Langya Chamber of Commerce in the city to issue a notice, and no violation of the contract would be allowed. Zhao Rong and Jiao He watched from the side with emotion, and thanked them again and again before saying goodbye.

Walking on the edge of the noisy school field, looking at hundreds of applicants coming in a row, almost all of them were young and strong people with ragged clothes and vegetables, Tai Shici felt very uncomfortable, but Fu Min was still thinking about what happened just now, and he couldn't figure it out, and finally couldn't help but step forward and ask Liu Cun: "Why doesn't the lord agree with the high price offered by Lord Jiao He?" ”

Liu Cun stopped and answered Fu Min's question in a low voice: "First of all, whether it is a person or a businessman, we must pay attention to integrity, I can't let the good image of Langya Chamber of Commerce based on honesty be damaged, let alone violate the spirit of contract that we adhere to and advocate; Secondly, the horses purchased by our chamber of commerce in Liaodong in large quantities, the average price of a four-year-old to five-year-old high-grade horse is only 5,000 yuan a horse, and the three-year-old foal and weight-bearing healthy horse are only 3,500 yuan a horse, and the cost of freight and domestication for two months per horse is about 3,000 yuan. Finally, no matter what you do, you must take a long-term view, which is what I often mention to you about taking care of the overall situation, do you understand filial piety? ”

"Subordinates understood! Shame on my subordinates! Fu Min bowed deeply and convincingly.

Tai Shi Ci laughed, patted Fu Min on the back, and said something to Liu Cun: "Big brother, Lord Zhao Rong is envious of our army's clothes and armor, and asked my junior brother twice at the banquet yesterday if he could help them buy thousands of sets for the soldiers of Qi County?" After hearing the little brother's explanation, Lord Zhao Rong was very regretful, and finally retreated to the next best, saying that even if he could buy the leather armor on the brothers of our craftsman battalion, he would be satisfied. The younger brother didn't know what the elder brother thought, so he didn't dare to agree to him, and before parting just now, he quietly asked the younger brother what the elder brother meant, and it was estimated that after the elder brother generously gave them 4,000 horses, they were embarrassed to mention the leather armor to the elder brother again. ”

Liu Cun's eyes lit up: "Ziyi, you immediately return to the west garrison of our army, take out two sets of special armor at the military level and two Mobei horses, and send them to Lord Jiao and Lord Zhao's mansion, these things are specially brought by me to prepare to give away, noon is approaching, it is estimated that Lord Jiao and they are almost home, you tell Lord Zhao Rong that I agree to transfer 2,000 sets of cavalry armor to him, that is, the more than 8,000 sets of cavalry armor in our army's inventory, although it is not as good as our army's improved and finalized cavalry custom armor, but no matter the selection of materials, workmanship or appearance, which is much better than the one on the brothers of the craftsman battalion, let's sell it for fifteen gold sets, which is three gold higher than the locally made cavalry armor, and the quality and appearance are definitely several times better. ”

Tai Shi Ci turned to leave, and Fu Min's question came again: "Lord, why do you only sell two thousand sets?" After the restructuring of our cavalry, thousands of cavalry have all been redressed in the current set of new armor, and the previous set of ranger armor is no longer needed, since there is still one in the arsenal, why not sell them all, and recover the funds to let the weapons workshop make more new armor? ”

Liu Cun explained in a low voice: "Most of the captains and lieutenants of Beihai Kingdom and Anle Country are disciples of wealthy families, with thousands of acres of fertile land at home, rich and arrogant, but they love face very much, if they see a cavalry with bright armor and strong horses suddenly appear under the command of Lord Zhao Ei, what do they think?" ”

"I definitely won't be resigned to being left behind, I'm afraid our war horses and leather armor are not enough for them to buy! There are also landlords in Donglai counties in their hometowns, which ones don't have hundreds or thousands of armed families? If you know that you can sell the world-famous Langya army armor and Liaodong war horses from our hands, you will definitely flock to it with a lot of money. The subordinates understand, haha! Fu Min finally understood.

Liu Cun smiled with satisfaction, glanced around and said in a low voice: "Do you remember Xiaohe, last night Lord Assassin Shi was very angry when he talked about the Du Wei Zuowei of Anle Country and Beihai Country, and complained that he couldn't move them, and angrily denounced the nearly 10,000 soldiers of Anle and Beihai as purely family members raised by wealthy families from all over the country, only for their family masters to take care of the family and nursing homes, and there was never a country and people in their eyes!" After hearing this, I have been pondering, what method should be used to transfer all their troops to the front to fight with Zhang Ju's army? Now it's finally a bit of an eyebrow. ”

Fu Min was surprised and delighted, he was surprised that he never thought that the lord was already quietly plotting the forces in the hands of these big families, and he was happy that he finally had the opportunity to weaken and eradicate those powerful people who ate people and did not vomit bones!

In the next few days, while Liu Cun paid close attention to the battle in Jizhou, he kept an eye on the large-scale riots that were about to start in the Yellow Turban armies in the south, and repeatedly calculated people and things, but he didn't know that Jiao He, the Taishou of Qi County, who had not much impression before this, and the family behind Jiao He, were also calculating him Liu Cun.

The Jiao family has lived silently in Maoling (now Xingping County, Shaanxi), the burial place of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for hundreds of years, and has not been famous in the world, compared with the noble bloodline of the Liu princes in various places, the prominence of the fourth and third princes of the Yuan family, the glory of the two Yang families in the east and the west, and the wealth of the Wei family, etc., the Jiao family is just an ordinary nobleman in the eyes of outsiders.

But it is this inconspicuous ordinary nobleman, not only standing for hundreds of years without falling, but also the real owner of the world-renowned Sanfu business and Liangzhou business for hundreds of years, Maoling Jiao and its descendants are not many officials in the court, the most famous is only Jiao Yong, a doctor of scripture who has just left Taixue and went to Hedong to serve as a taishou, but there are hundreds of children scattered in the officialdom of Gyeonggi Sanfu, Bingzhou, Liangzhou, Jingzhou and Yizhou, forming a tightly concealed power network and intelligence network with huge energy.

The patriarchs and elders of the Jiao family have carefully calculated and weighed repeatedly, believing that Liu Cun's rise is an opportunity for the Jiao family, especially after learning that Liu Cun is a descendant of the royal family, the Jiao family attaches great importance to Liu Cun.

Secondly, Liu Cun himself has a generous temperament, and the Langya Academy behind Liu Cun has faintly become the banner of the Great Han Shilin, and has been silently providing moral support for Liu Cun, coupled with the good cooperation with the Langya Chamber of Commerce of Liu Cun Group and Liu Cun's alliance Xuzhou Mi family over the years, the Jiao family, which controls most of the industry and commerce in the western part of the Han Dynasty, is very aware of the huge potential of Liu Cun Group.

Therefore, the patriarch of the Jiao clan convened the elders from all over the country and quietly gave up his efforts to seek the history of Qingzhou for the children of the clan, Jiao He, and sent a number of outstanding young disciples to Qingzhou to wait for the opportunity, and warned Jiao He to be content with his duties, establish a close relationship with Liu Cun as soon as possible, and strive to step into Liu Cun's camp as soon as possible.

Liu Cun didn't know anything about this, he didn't know that he was lucky enough to avoid a huge crisis related to his future and fate, and he didn't know why Zhang Wen, the imperial lieutenant Zhang Wen, the imperial servant, and Zhang Rang, the favored minister of the emperor Liu Hong, who supported Jiao and took over the Qingzhou Assassin History, suddenly gave up his support for Jiao He and instead supported him Liu Cun to take over the Qingzhou Assassin History.