Cheng Dong's belly of sage articles was not applauded, far away in Ningxia City, thousands of miles away, but the mansion of the new chief soldier Xiao Ruxun was like a city, so it was not lively.

"Mr. Xiao, Xiao Ke is a disciple of Li Shangshu's mansion, and I am hereby ordered by Li Shangshu to congratulate Mr. Xiao on his promotion."

"Mr. Xiao is really a general's demeanor, a talent, Wang Shilang often mentions the encounter with Mr. Xiao in front of a certain family."

"Mr. Xiao, my master asked me to ask, is there anything that can be used by us?"

"Mr. Xiao ......"

For more than ten days in a row, Xiao Ruxun could only do one thing from morning to night every day, that is, to receive all kinds of guests from all over the world, listen to their courtesy, and inquire about the dispatch of troops to the grassland.

All of these guests brought valuable gifts, and some of them gave them thick silver tickets. Xiao Ruxun wanted to refuse at first, but was stopped by Su Hao. Su Hao told him: These are all military expenses sent by others, why don't you collect them?

"However, this is an obvious bribe, if Xiao accepts it, the court will investigate it in the future, won't Xiao jump into the Yellow River and not be able to wash it?" Xiao Ruxun said uneasily.

Su Hao said: "This is simple, how much money you receive, keep an account, and report to the cabinet Shen Shoufu and the emperor every three or five times." All the expenses in the future are well documented, and who's to say anything about you? ”

"Is that okay?" Xiao Ruxun was surprised.

"What's not to do, let's go to crusade against rebellion, lack of military spending. The wealthy businessmen of the world have the same hatred for the traitors and thieves, and they have taken the initiative to send military funds. If we don't accept it, won't it chill the hearts of people with lofty ideals in the world? Everyone is also worried about the court. In the future, when Brother Xiao returns victoriously, when he writes the merit petition, write all their names, isn't it done? Su Hao said with a smile.

Xiao Ruxun suddenly realized: "It's this principle, Xiao Mou just wants to be worthy of his heart, why bother sticking to the form." ”

In this way, Xiao Ruxuan simply opened his mouth, and those who came did not refuse. He put all the money sent by the merchants into the public treasury of Ningxia Wei. Let the chief bookkeeper Liang Feng remember the accounts clearly, so that if someone wants to make irresponsible remarks in the future, he will not have to be afraid.

The businessmen came to Ningxia Weilai, of course, not to send money to Xiao Ruxun. They flattered Xiao Ruxuan with only one purpose, that is, to be able to obtain some benefits outside the border wall in the future. on this issue. Xiao Ruxun and Su Hao had already had a plan, and he told the merchants kindly that they should live patiently in Ningxia City, and everyone must have a share in the income on the grassland.

Knowing that the proposal to send troops had been approved by the imperial court, Xiao Ruxun and Su Hao quickly began various pre-war preparations. The surveying and mapping team of the Shenyu Battalion entered the grassland on a large scale and worked day and night to carry out mapping work outside the border wall. The intelligence department in charge of Chen Guanyu roamed among the various grassland tribes as Taoist priests, langzhong, merchants, and entertainers. Listen to the intel. The officers and men of Ningxia Wei were training hard, especially the use of various firearms and the coordination and tactics between firearms and cold weapons.

The glass workshop built by Hao Qing in Pingyu City was moved outside Ningxia, and at the same time, steel factories, iron factories, chemical factories and so on were established. It is almost a copy of the model of the Sushi factory on the outskirts of Beijing. Lu Xiu'er transferred a group of craftsmen from the factories in the capital, and those merchants who came to Ningxia to pan for gold also sent their skilled craftsmen one after another. Participated in the industrial construction of Ningxia Wei.

The things that Su Hao used to attract businessmen were mainly the mineral resources of Ningxia Wei and the surrounding areas. Once these minerals are developed, they must be digested locally to be the most valuable. If long-distance transportation is carried to the interior for smelting and processing, the transportation cost alone can make the profits of mining come to naught. Su Hao is well aware of the cost-benefit relationship, so he simply built a large number of industrial projects in Ningxia City, so that minerals can be turned into wealth on the spot.

Ningxia Wei itself is a region rich in mineral resources, and there is no need to wait for the army to send troops to the grassland, and the minerals within the border walls alone have already made the eyes of merchants shine.

High-quality Taixi coal was transported to the mainland by truckloads, and supplied to the families of powerful people at several times the price of ordinary bituminous coal. The abundant quartz ore and clay ore can produce a large number of glass and ceramic products without worrying about energy. Several iron ore and copper mines, according to the eyes of later generations, the scale is not large, but with the production level of the Ming Dynasty, it is already a good mine, and the most important thing is that there is still cheap coal, which can greatly reduce the cost of smelting, so the output is also very considerable.

The rise of industry brought a large number of people, and the towns of Ningxia Wei suddenly became prosperous, full of restaurants and shops that were being built or renovated, and rich merchants in bright clothes could be seen everywhere, which at first glance looked like cities in the mainland.

During this time, under the repeated urging of Xiao Ruxun's wife Yang Shulan and Qin Liangyu, Su Hao's marriage was also completed in Ningxia City. Su Hao wrote a letter to Huai'an Mansion and asked his father-in-law Han Wen to send someone to send Han Qian to the capital, and go to Ningxia with his mother Yang Gendi. Then, on an auspicious day of the zodiac, Su Hao married Han Qian and Lu Xiu'er at the same time. With Wanli's marriage decree, Han Qian and Lu Xiuer both married into the Su family as wives, which also fulfilled their respective wishes.

After Han Qian and Lu Xiuer entered Su Hao's inner house, Cheng Yi and Ge Ling, who originally lived in the inner house, looked a little embarrassed. But fortunately, the two hostesses are easy-going people, and they get along very well with Cheng Yi and Geling, and they do everything they can to keep them, and in the end, both of them stayed, so Su Hao naturally has no opinion on this.

In the middle of the two, the singer had no heart and lungs, and she didn't feel any inconvenience in staying in the Su family's inner house. Cheng Yi has a ghost in her heart, especially after Su Hao got married, she has more things on her mind. Han and Lu also knew the thoughts of this best friend, so they took turns blowing the pillow wind to Su Hao when they had nothing to do, and persuaded their husbands to take Cheng Yi together on the next day. Su Hao put this aside in advance on the grounds that the war was imminent and it was inconvenient to cause more incidents.

The various military preparations in the city of Ningxia lasted for several months, and it was naturally impossible for the Tatar tribes on the steppe to be ignorant. Although they did not know that the Ming army had begun to carry out various reconnaissance activities on the grassland, they still stepped up patrols along the border wall to prevent the Ming army from suddenly sending troops.

Bibai hurriedly escaped from Daming with thousands of soldiers and horses and came to the grassland. He didn't want to go to the leader of a big tribe and be a subordinate to someone else. In fact, no big leader dared to contain him, because with the strength of his hands, it would be a hidden danger to stay under anyone's hands.

Bibai led his troops back to his original tribe, and cleanly killed the tribal leader and his own soldiers, and became the tribal leader, making the herdsmen of the tribe submit to him. This kind of thing like the merger of big forces with small forces is commonplace in the grasslands, and the herdsmen did not resist, and directly recognized Bibai's leadership over them.

The Bibai tribe is located to the west of Helan Mountain, separated from the town of Ningxia by a series of mountains. Since ancient times, the Central Plains Dynasty has used Helan Mountain as a barrier to block the invasion of nomads in the west, so Helan Mountain has become the dividing line between the Central Plains and the Tatar tribes.

Fleeing back to Bibai on the grassland, he naturally will not ignore the news of Ningxiawei. Before he fled, he left a lot of eyeliner in Ningxiawei, and these eyeliners would send Ningxiawei's information to the grassland every once in a while for Bibai's reference. From this information, Bibai learned about Xiao Ruxun's request to send troops to the grassland to pursue him, and also knew the news that a large number of merchants poured from the Central Plains to the border pass.

"This Xiao Ruxun is crazy and dares to go to our grassland to fight?" Bibai's son, Bi Chengen, rolled over the information sent by his eyeliner and said to his father disapplauded.

"Chengen, don't underestimate this Xiao Ruxun. Of course, when my father was in Ningxiawei, I dealt with him, and this person is definitely not a reckless person. Bibai warned.

"What, father, do you think Xiao Ruxun really has the courage to chase after the grassland?" Bi Chengen asked.

"Isn't the information sent by the informant very clear?" The Ming army is now vigorously armed, and it is exactly what it looks like to send troops. The news from the imperial court has also been confirmed. ”

Bi Chengen shook his head and said, "I mean, didn't he make a show to the court to ask for a reward?" How could he have the audacity to go to the steppe to fight against us, didn't he know that this steppe was the world of our Tatars? ”

"With my understanding of Xiao Ruxun, whether he has the courage depends on whether he has the ability." If he had the certainty of victory, he would have done so. It wasn't that he didn't go out of the border wall to fight with our Tatars, but he didn't dare to go too far. ”

"In the past, he didn't dare to go too far, why did he dare now?" Bi Cheng En said.

Bi Bai glared at Bi Chengen and said, "Chengen, you are also a general, don't you understand the truth of time and change?" Think about it, why can't we hold Ningxia City, and what changes have taken place in the middle? ”

"You mean...... The firearms of the Ming army? Bi Chengen finally remembered, the cannon that was enough to collapse the city wall left an indelible impression on all the Bibai rebel generals, and it still appears in their nightmares from time to time.

He said: "I thought my father's conjecture, Xiao Ruxun must have been in cahoots with that little guy named Su Hao, and was ready to use firearms against us." This is how they joined forces at the beginning and defeated the Rabbit under Pingyu City. Now, they want to repeat the old trick and take the old man under the knife. ”

"But it's different." Bi Chengen said, "The reason why the rabbit failed was because he was a guest army, and Xiao Ruxun was the main army, and he fell into Xiao Ruxun's way." Once we arrived on the grassland, there was no boundless area everywhere, and no matter how sharp the firearms of the Ming army were, as long as we rode our horses and galloped, he could only fight according to the path we had drawn. Where are we afraid of them? ”

"If you take it lightly, you will be defeated." Bibai said, "We must not underestimate Xiao Ruxun's ability, Chengen, you and Wenxiu, you and Wenxiu, you should hurry up and reorganize your troops and prepare for the attack of the Ming army." ”