Gongsun Chan was quite complacent, and he was pleased to hear Liu Ze's praise, after all, that battle brought Gongsun Chan great prestige and glory, but if he knew that Liu Ze only went west out of Yangguan with only 300 people to defeat the 100,000 Northern Xiongnu, forcing the Northern Xiongnu to move west to Kangju to help restore the Western Regions, how would he feel after such a feat? Due to the communication blockage, the details of the battle of the Western Regions have not been known by the Chinese people, not to mention that Liu Ze is a low-key person, so naturally he will not make a big deal about it, although the deeds of the Sun God Envoy's victory over the Xiongnu have occasionally been introduced to the Central Plains, but no one can associate Liu Ze with the Sun God Envoy.

At this time, one of his subordinates hurriedly came up to report, and when he saw that Gongsun Chan was meeting guests, he hesitated for a moment and did not speak. Gongsun Zhan said: "Gongzi Liu is my virtuous brother, not an outsider, and he will play directly if there is something." ”

The man hurriedly handed the letter to Gongsun Zhan. Gongsun Zhan took it apart and looked at it, was overjoyed, and said to Liu Ze: "Xiliang Bianzhang and Han Sui rebelled, and Zhang Wen, the general of the rear chariot cavalry, has been edicted to beg for thieves, and has requisitioned 3,000 Wuhuan cavalry, and specially ordered me to supervise the Wuhuan cavalry to go to Xiliang to help in the battle." ”

Liu Ze said: "Congratulations to Brother Bo Jue, I want to come to Zhang Che to ride is also to hear Brother Bo Jue's heroic feat and name Brother Bo Jue to lead the troops, this time to quell the chaos, I believe that Brother Bo Jue will be able to make a name for himself in the world." ”

Gongsun Zhan stood up excitedly, clenched his fists tightly, his eyes were shining, and said: "I've been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, and finally it's here, is the virtuous brother willing to go to Xiliang with me all the time to create a great cause?" ”

Liu Ze shook his head and said: "Brother Bo Qi is eloquent, this battle is an excellent opportunity to display his ambitions, but the younger brother's ambition is not here, the officialdom is like a floating cloud to me, a leaf is a light boat, wandering the world, and the wish of life is enough." ”

Gongsun Chan was slightly disappointed, and said: "Even so, the foolish brother is no longer reluctant, or the same sentence, in the future, where the virtuous brother will have Chan, just open his mouth, but where Chan's ability is, do his best." Liu Ze said goodbye with a smile.

Back home, Liu Ze secretly thought, it has been six years since Guanghe, and there is only a full year left before the Yellow Turban Uprising, how much more has he not done? I don't know how much the goal of accumulating tens of millions of grains has been accomplished? How much salt and iron cloth has been stored? How has the training of the three teams been completed? What is the business like? The sales of coal and stone should not be bad, but the amount of coal and stone stored in Mangdang Mountain may be limited. Tungsten ore and manganese ore have not been found so far, so let's start with this aspect.

Liu Ze immediately ordered Guan Hai to send all the mining personnel gathered last year to Youzhou. Liu Ze also said goodbye to Liu Yuanqi's family, took Zhang Fei to Youzhou, met the mining team, and then went straight to Xiaoling River in Liaoxi County, where the trip was the destination.

Liaoxi County is vast and sparsely populated, belonging to the undeveloped area, and Wuhuan Xianbei often nomadic here, the Han court's jurisdiction over this area is very weak, and can only cover some of the counties in Liaoxi County and the surrounding counties.

When passing through Liucheng, Liu Ze took a special look, he was reborn in this place, and he still had some strange feelings for this place.

But Liucheng was already empty at the moment, and the wall collapsed, which couldn't help but make Liu Ze feel a lot of emotion.

In the following years, the imperial court gradually lost control of the territory outside the Shanhaiguan, and it was only a dozen years later when Cao Cao conquered Wuhuan in the north that the land of eastern and western Liaoxi was reincorporated into the territory of the Han Dynasty.

But now Liu Ze is very relieved, at least there is no one living in the area of Xiaolinghe tile house, and the power of the government has not reached here, although the conditions are more difficult, but there is no need to look at the face of the government to act It makes Liu Ze a lot easier, the dilemma of Yangquan Coal Mine makes him feel a little palpitating, and it is not easy to do something in this corrupt era.

Tong guò checked the information, Liu Ze quickly found the location of the manganese mine, and immediately began production operations, the members of the mining team were personally selected by Guan Hai, strong and strong, naturally there is nothing to say, engaged in several coal mine production, for the drilling and mining of this kind of work is all handy, basically do not need Liu Ze to worry about anything, and this trip is equipped with sufficient black explosives, although the rock composition in this area of Xiaoling River is complex, the texture is hard, but the progress of mining is not slow at all.

Zhang Fei took dozens of guards to serve as a guard on the periphery, after all, this place is connected to Wuhuan Xianbei and other foreign camps, these barbarians are predatory, if they really let them find out that there are Han activities here, they have absolutely no intention of letting go. However, with dozens of rangers patrolling led by Zhang Fei, a small group of alien cavalry could not pose a threat, and even a cavalry team of several hundred people was by no means Zhang Fei's opponent. Liu Ze knew that whether it was Wuhuan or Xianbei Xiongnu, their annual raiding time was fixed in autumn, and the spring famine season was also the season for horse mating, and it could never be the season of barbarian invasion.

According to Liu Ze's expected results, Wuhuan Xianbei's ranger Sanyong did not appear at all, and the mining team made rapid progress, and in less than a month, a sufficient amount of manganese ore and tungsten, titanium, nickel and other ores had been dug up, and Liu Ze transferred a large number of vehicles from Phoenix Valley to transport all these ores to Mangdang Mountain.

When I returned to Luoyang, it was the season of peony blooming.

In addition to the Luoyang Dart Bureau, Chang'an, Yecheng, Changyi, Linzi, Tancheng and five new dart bureaus were opened, respectively, by Zhou Cang, Fang Yue, Mu Shun, Yu She, Meng Tan five dart masters as the dart head, Guan Yu is now busy with the turnaround, Yangwei Dart Bureau since the beginning of last year's opening, escort hundreds of darts without any loss, Guan Yu is indispensable. At the same time, it has also won a high reputation for the Yangwei Dart Bureau, and many merchants who were still waiting and waiting have already been convinced, and they have flocked to the Yangwei Dart Bureau to ask for escort goods. In recent years, bandits have been rampant on the road, and the merchants who have not been robbed are almost rare, and now Luoyang and the five major state cities have a dart bureau to escort the business, and the cost of the dart and their own transportation and escort costs are not much higher, it is completely within the range that the business can afford, and then someone transports it themselves is not a fool.

Jian Yong reported to Liu Ze on the sales of coal and porcelain last year, Liu Ze glanced at the account he handed over a few times, and said: "The sales of coal and stone in various places have come to an end, and from today on, it is necessary to transport coal and stone to Mangdang Mountain on a large scale, especially high-quality main coking coal, which is the main variety of transportation at present." ”

Although there is no laboratory equipment, it is easy to distinguish whether it is the main coking coal or according to the coking characteristics after combustion, and the high-quality coking coal burns with high flame, long time and large coking block. Jian Yong quickly wrote down what Liu Ze said in the notebook.

Liu Ze continued: "What is the situation of grain procurement in various places? What about salt, iron, cloth, and other things? ”

Jian Yongdao: "Since the beginning of the purchase last autumn, a total of 1.3 million stones of millet grain, 1 million stone of rice, 600,000 stones of millet grain, 500,000 stones of wheat, 200,000 stones of beans, and a total of 3.8 million stones of grains have been purchased, and a total of about 420 million yuan has been spent. Nearly 30,000 silk cloth has been purchased, basically completing the goal of the lord. The acquisition of salt and iron is more difficult, and the government control zhì is more strict, but through various channels, about 30% of the target has been completed, and the next step will be to increase efforts to achieve the target within the year. ”

Liu Ze nodded, it seems that the grain purchase situation has been completed well, and the price has basically remained at about 100 Wen, and there have been no major fluctuations. Salt and iron are monopoly commodities in the court, and it is reasonable that it will be difficult to purchase.

"Very good, the purchase of grain can not be relaxed, before the end of the year, we must complete the purchase target of 10 million stones, and also buy some forage in batches, after all, we still have so many war horses in need of feed."

Jian Yong looked a little worried, and said: "The matter of forage is easy to do, and the price is not too high, but it is ...... Last year, various localities were plagued by drought and locust plagues, and the grain harvest was failed on a large scale, and there was already a grain shortage in some prefectures and counties; last year's grain price of 890 wen 1 stone had risen to 120 wen 1 stone, and in some areas it had soared to 150 wen. ”

Is 100 Wen expensive? Joke, after the Yellow Turban Rebellion next year, the price of rice will soar to 1,000 yuan and 1 stone, or even as high as 10,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan and 1 stone valley, and when Li Guo rebelled in Chang'an, the price of rice even soared to 500,000 yuan and 1 stone.

Liu Ze waved his hand and said: "Money is not a problem, and then raise a billion money, but also to complete the goal of 10 million stone grain, in addition to the northern states suffered from drought and locust plagues, but all parts of the south should have a bumper grain yield, send people to Jingzhou, Yangzhou and other places to buy rice, although the distance is far, the transportation cost is higher, but it is still bearable." ”

Seeing that Liu Ze attached so much importance to grain purchases, Jian Yong naturally did not dare to slack off, and recorded them all.

Liu Ze also said: "Is the money from the sale of coal and porcelain still in the zài branches? ”

"Yes, the money of the branches will be transported to the head office in Luoyang within this month according to the practice of previous years, but this year the branch needs a lot of funds to purchase food and sundries, so it has not been shipped for the time being. Jian Yong reported according to the truth.

"No need, all the funds of all branches are stored in the same place, don't use them for the time being, I am going to establish a money bank ticket number, which requires a lot of funds." Liu Ze has his own arrangements for the use of these funds.

When Jian Yong heard this, he was very puzzled and said, "Qianzhuang ticket number? What kind of business is it? ”