Yun Qijun and the three of them were not slow, they first stayed in Yangcheng County for a few days, and then they arrived in this Jingnan County City, the most important foundation place of Zhao Yuanjin.

The two brothers Qingyuan and Qinglin, who were sitting opposite, were looking through the secret report in their hands, and their faces were obviously a little confused.

This restaurant is actually one of the many secret strongholds set up by Ling Cangshan in the south, and it usually operates its own business, and also accumulates wealth for the sect, buys living resources, spies and collects intelligence, looks for young children with root and bone talents, and replenishes new blood for the sect.

“…… Zhao Yuanjin's subordinates still have a few capable people, and they have quietly followed us all the way for so long. ”

After a long time, Yun Qijun turned to the side and said lightly.

"It's just that we didn't do it, otherwise none of those pesky guys would have survived." Qinglin Daoren said disapprehantly.

"A group of ordinary people who obey orders, what's there to worry about?"

Yun Qijun smiled disappreciatively, and with a stretch of his jade hand, he took the stack of secret reports, and looked at it casually for a while, and the smile faded in his beautiful eyes: "This Zhao Yuanjin has developed quite well recently, far beyond my prior estimate, it is really a little unbelievable." ”

Qingyuan Daoist nodded: "Yes, according to the information above, there are as many as 40,000 new troops being trained under his command now, plus the original 30,000 troops, the total strength has reached 70,000!" It is said that 30,000 people will be recruited, how can a small prince who was almost wiped out a few months ago have such a rich family to support such a huge army? ”

The number of troops a prince can have under his command depends on many factors. The most important of these is, of course, financial and material resources. Only with sufficient salaries and grain and grass can we afford to raise soldiers and elite soldiers.

If you want to recruit and train elite soldiers on a large scale, the amount of money and food needed is by no means a small amount, and it is by no means too much to describe it as "spending money like running water". In all dynasties, military expenditure has always been a heavy burden on the imperial court, but it is also an indispensable expense for maintaining the stability of the country.

Judging from the size of the army alone, Zhao Yuanjin can undoubtedly be regarded as a great prince with the appearance of a hidden dragon, but the territory he owns is only three counties, and he is still new to it, and theoretically he can't come up with enough money and food to support such a huge army.

Wu Zhence of Huaiyang Land has been in business for two years, and now he sits on the territory of nine counties, and has the secret support of Lingcang Mountain and many southern clans, and currently has only more than 100,000 troops under his command, and the new army being trained is only 40,000 people.

Wu Zhence didn't want to continue to expand the army, but his own financial resources really couldn't support it, hundreds of thousands of soldiers ate horses and chewed, and the corn, white flour, and forage consumed every day were enough to pile up into several mountains, and once there was a war, all kinds of consumption would be even more exaggerated!

Speaking of which, I'm not afraid of other people's jokes, this Qianlong surnamed Wu now owes a lot of debts, and many IOUs are issued in his personal name, creditors...... Naturally, it is those wealthy families in the south. Silver, grain, iron, cloth, wood and other resources, anyway, borrow them first.

When we win the battle in the future, grab more territory, kill a group of unsatisfied rich landlords, and confiscate their family property, we will naturally have the ability to repay our debts, and we can borrow more resources by the way.

This model of borrowing money to fight a war, repaying debts after winning the war, and borrowing more debts to expand and develop by the way, many feudal princes played like this. This was true even for the European powers of the early 20th century, such as Britain, France, Germany, and the Soviet Union, which borrowed a lot from the richest of the United States.

Some greedy and tyrannical feudal lords would also levy taxes and levies on the common people, and even the taxes for the next many years would have to be collected in advance, recklessly squeezing out the last vestige of oil and water from the common people, just so that they could have more capital to expand.

As for what happens if you lose? There is no need to ask this question, since ancient times, the world has fought for dragons, and if it fails, it will die. The loser is dead, and the creditors can only consider themselves unlucky, it would be good not to be settled by the victor, how dare you expect more?

Wu Zhence's financial situation is quite good among the princes, after all, he is a hidden dragon who is expected to succeed, and there are many people who are optimistic about him and are willing to invest and bet. But Zhao Yuanjin, who is alone and lonely, obviously does not have such convenient conditions, how can he have the capital to expand his military strength so frantically?

Qinglin Daoren added: "And the situation is not only that, according to the information collected by our people, the food level of the army under Zhao Yuanjin is quite good, and they can eat meat every day. Especially when marching and fighting, the ton is full of big fish and meat, and even all the horses are fed with corn, which costs ...... It's outrageous! ”

It is impossible for the guards under Wu Zhence to have such good treatment, let alone ordinary soldiers? In the long run, Zhao Yuanjin's army will have a lot of advantages in terms of physical fitness, morale, and horse endurance in the future, and it will be the same for the elite of the imperial army.

Yun Qijun frowned lightly and muttered: "Under normal circumstances, Zhao Yuanjin would never be able to take out so much refined food and meat to feed the army in such a luxurious way, and the imperial court cannot afford this kind of practice. It seems that he must have a secret in him that we don't know. ”

"Could it be that some other hidden sect is secretly helping him? And more than one ......," Qingyuan Daoist guessed.

Yun Qijun shook his head very firmly: "It is absolutely impossible, except for our Lingcang Mountain lineage, there are only a few top-level sects where human immortals are in charge, if anyone makes a move, it is impossible for us not to hear the slightest rumor." ”

The circle of monks is so big, everyone knows each other for hundreds of years, and it is impossible to hide something for a long time.

Just like when Ling Cangshan decided to support the Qianlong surnamed Wu, he greeted several other families in advance, and the high-level formed some tacit understanding, whether it was successful or not, the open and secret battles of each family were only limited to the junior disciples who had gone out of the mountain to practice, and they should not be affected to a higher level, especially the immortals could not personally go down to the juniors of other sects.

Qinglin Daoren frowned and said: "In this case, we must find out the truth of the matter as soon as possible, otherwise if we really let it go like this, it won't be long before Zhao Yuanjin will grow to the point where it is difficult to control, and it can be said that Wu Zhence is a greater threat than the imperial court." ”

"I have the same intention." Yun Qijun bowed.

Since the object of support has been chosen, the remaining Qianlong princes in various places will automatically become the enemies of the sect, and it is best for Wu Zhence to solve it by himself. If you can't, then you will have to take on some responsibilities and sacrifice the path of a few junior disciples to eliminate it in advance.

Of course, before that, you have to find out the secret of Zhao Yuanjin, if you can successfully obtain it and use it for the sect, it will be even better.

So in the next few days, the three of them have been wandering around the city, and secretly contacted some secret eyeliners with identities, and after finding that there was no gain, Yun Qijun decided to act alone.

Late that night, this Lingcang Mountain Dao Sect's inner descendant sneaked into the Jiedu Envoy's mansion alone, and after a round of exploration, he still found no abnormality. On the contrary, he was noticed by a group of masters guarding the mansion and had to retreat in advance.

Zhao Yuanjin has no immortal assistance by his side, but there are still some acquired martial arts masters, and there is also a congenital-level grandmaster-level powerhouse, who only defected not long ago, coupled with the geographical advantage, so she was able to find Yun Qijun's traces, after all, she was not familiar with the internal environment of the Jiedu Envoy's mansion, and mistakes were inevitable.

Then Yun Qijun went to the military camp outside the city, but there was still no gain. With Qin Feng's prior reminder, Zhao Yuanjin was extremely concerned about confidentiality matters, and some sensitive things were extremely tightly hidden.

In the end, Yun Qijun, who had nothing to do, simply stopped wasting his energy, and publicly submitted the name post as the descendant of Ling Cangshan's lineage, asking to meet the envoy of Jiedu.

She planned to ask Zhao Yuanjin face to face, if the two sides collapsed, then the only way to solve it was to use thunderous means.

After Zhao Yuanjin received the name post, he replied after a little consideration, saying that he would officially meet her the next morning.