For the Tuyuhun people, although they belong to the Hu people with the Shatuo people and the Saiwai Hutong, the relationship between them is not harmonious, and there are many contradictions, so there are close contacts between the Tuyuhun people and the Great Liang, and the Great Liang also uses the Tuyuhun people to contain the Shatuo people in Hedong from the northeast.

Similarly, the Tuyuhun people did not have much relationship with the Khitans in the east, especially after the Khitan forces conquered the Murowei people in the north, annexed the Yan people in the south, and annexed the Xi people, their power expanded dramatically, and the Tuyuhun people felt more and more threatened by the Khitans in the east, even surpassing the Shatuo people.

Especially when they found that their original most important ally, Da Liang, was declining day by day, and now it was very likely to perish under the attack of the Shatuo people, their anxious mentality can be imagined, and it was urgent to find a more reliable and powerful ally, so they made this trip south to Xuzhou.

From a business partner to a quasi-ally, this process actually took less than a year, Huaiyou took a year to defeat Xu Si, annex Yanyunyi, and then even more surprisingly cut off Pinglu Town, an important town in the north, which had to impress the Tuyuhun people.

Therefore, they hope that this trip to Xuzhou can achieve a satisfactory result for both parties.

They wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Khitans had not yet gone south to Heshuo to buy iron and weapons from Xuzhou as much as possible, and at the same time, they also hoped to sell more horses to Xuzhou to make Xuzhou's military strength stronger.

Only a strong ally can pose a sufficient threat to the enemy and minimize the pressure on the Tuyuhun themselves.

Jiang Feng didn't know that the mission of a potential northern ally had also come to Xuzhou at the same time, and this ally was no less valuable than the imperial court, and he was still busy negotiating with the imperial court's mission, involving many aspects.

According to Guo Tao, it is a matter of time before Prince Jin is crowned, and I hope that after the marriage with Princess Jin is confirmed, it is best to be promoted before the wedding.

This seems to be a quid pro quo to tie Xuzhou more closely to the imperial court in everything.

For Jiang Feng, this is not something he resists.

In this era, it seems too unrealistic to ask for any romantic love, not to mention that he and Li Jin still have some fate and feelings.

Li Jin is not the kind of arrogant and brutal woman, and her appearance is also at the level of red face and trouble, after all, she has been selected by countless generations in the royal family, and it is impossible to be bad in terms of scientific theory.

What bothered Jiang Feng was Guo Tao's suggestion to him.

Jiang Feng moderately showed Guo Tao some of his strength, such as the iron smelting industry in Xuzhou.

In fact, before Jiang Feng began to build an iron-smelting center on a large scale, Xuzhou was originally an important iron-smelting center of the entire Tang Empire, but it fell into the hands of Shi Yu, a guy who was not very good at management, and this iron-smelting field could only reach that point and could no longer expand.

There are many reasons, the technical reasons are only one aspect, the backwardness of the management system, the lag of iron ore mining in Liguojian, and the instability of social security brought about by the lack of grain in Xuzhou itself in recent years, all of which have affected the production of this iron-smelting center.

But now all these constraints are gone, and a large number of displaced people from Yanyunyi have poured in, so that Xuzhou has no shortage of labor at all, and the mining on the side of Liguojian has begun to expand on a large scale, and at the same time, the road between Liguojian and the iron-smelting center has also been repaired like never before.

In addition to climbing the scientific and technological tree of iron smelting industry in the smelting center, in view of the abundant resources on this treasure land in Xuzhou, the original cement production has also been put on the agenda.

In fact, the production and manufacturing process of cement is not complicated, as long as there is limestone, clay and anthracite, plus the right amount of gypsum, it is not difficult to produce low-grade cement, but it is not easy to understand this principle, so the Romans have long begun to use the most primitive pozzolane cement, but later it is difficult to continue, that is, no one understands the reason.

The reason why Jiang Feng was a little hesitant about the production of cement was that once this thing was produced and used in the construction of the urban defense system, it would also mean that the power of long-range strike weapons such as catapults and fire dragon cannons would be greatly restricted.

With cement, unless it is a heavy thermal weapon such as gunpowder, it is difficult to have a destructive ability to build a city wall built with cement as a binder, as soon as this thing comes out, even Jiang Feng doesn't know what kind of impact it will have on history, especially after the popularization and use of scale, the impact on magic is also incalculable.

If it was in the case that Jiang Feng only occupied Huaiyou or even Xuzhou, he would not dare to open this technology tree easily, but now the situation is different.

Now that he has controlled the entire Pinglu Prefecture and the Yanyunyi region, it can be said that in terms of territory and population, he is no longer inferior to any of the feudal lords in the empire.

Even if the Great Jin may be stronger than himself in terms of military strength, even if nomadic forces such as the Khitan are still higher than him in terms of military potential, but given time, Jiang Feng believes that they will not be his opponents.

Now I want to integrate the strength of my own territory as soon as possible and give full play to it, which is the key.

In addition to ensuring food production in agriculture, it is necessary to rely on the development of industry and commerce to promote the improvement of military strength, and steel production is of course the most important, but cement will also play an increasingly important role.

With cement, the city construction can be made simple and strong, and when dealing with the iron horse advantage of the nomads coming and going, one of the biggest guarantees of the fortified wall is the city and the fortress.

Similarly, in order to ensure one's own logistical transportation capacity, it is also necessary to have a smooth and perfect official road system.

It is also a reason to find some necessary ways to settle these large numbers of laborers from the north, at least this kind of labor-intensive manufacturing can not only create value, but also reduce possible security risks.

So Jiang Feng is also thinking about whether this primitive cement thing should be on the scene.

Guo Tao was shocked by the large-scale iron production in the iron-smelting center, of course, this was still under the condition that Jiang Feng deliberately concealed it, even so, the discounted production capacity still made Guo Tao feel that Jiang Feng should consider competing for Chuyang Erzhou.

In Guo Tao's view, taking Chuyang Erzhou can not only gain more population and wealth, but also allow Xuzhou's iron to be sold in Huainan and Jiangnan in large quantities, so as to lay a more solid foundation for the Xuzhou army and the Shatuo people to compete for power.

It should be said that Guo Tao sincerely considered Xuzhou, of course, this is based on the premise that Guo Tao still believes that the Shatuo people have military advantages over Xuzhou.

He believed that if the Xuzhou army wanted to win the war with the Shatuo people, it could only rely on long-term persistence, and it might suffer huge losses in the early stage, but as long as there was Huainan, a rich land, and a long-term fight, it could be consumed by the Shatuo people, so he insisted that Jiang Feng should first take Chuyang Erzhou, instead of fighting for places such as Songzhou and Heshuo.

"This Tongzhiyuan master is really persistent. Jiang Feng shook his head helplessly, and glanced at Cui Shang, Wang Miao, and Hou Chen, who were sitting at the bottom, "Do you think his views are valuable?"

"The subordinates felt that Lord Guo might have underestimated Li Wu's attention to Chu Yang Erzhou, and he also overestimated the threat of ant thieves in Jiangnan. Wang Miao pondered for a while before he said slowly: " In fact, according to the information obtained by Wuwentang, after the ant thieves controlled the entire Xuanzhou, their sharpness was slowly decreasing, and the contradictions within it also began to appear, Qin Quan's main ant thieves and Han Baling's troops crossed the river to the south, and the ant thieves who were separated from each other already showed signs of separation, and they were also forced by the threat of Li Wu and Qian Yue, so they did not intensify, once we sent troops to Chuyang, Li Wu would definitely withdraw his troops and return north without hesitation, Li Wu could give up Changzhou, or even Runzhou, but they would never give up Chuyang Erzhou, especially Yangzhou。 ”

"Then what if we only take Chuzhou?" Jiang Feng knew that it was a bit stupid to ask this question, but he still had to ask.

"The county duke, Chu and Yang are one, Li Yu can't believe that we only take Chuzhou, as long as the war starts, it will be endless. Cui Shang shook his head with a wry smile, "At this time, we can't be dragged to the south, if it is really as you said, the Khitans will soon go south, we not only have to fight for a good defensive posture in the Central Plains, but also need to lay out in Heshuo immediately." ”

"Gong Guo seems to be very worried that we will turn against Caizhou, so he wants us to give up Songzhou to the Yuan family, what do you think?" Jiang Feng nodded silently, he was just asking, in fact, he also knew that now was by no means a good time to start a battlefield on the Jiangnan side.

This is indeed a difficult problem.

The status and weight of Songzhou are not ordinary states and counties, if they are obtained by Caizhou, then Caozhou, Yunzhou and even Puzhou in the north will be like being stabbed by a knife on the waist ribs, and may be pierced at any time.

But the same Songzhou is also indispensable to the Yuan family, Xuzhou to take Songzhou, only need to go south from Zhecheng, can easily cut off the connection between Bozhou and Chenzhou, most of Bozhou may be lost.

Jiang Feng didn't plan to fight with the Yuan clan at this time, and he was even willing to do something to ease relations, especially when the battle between Liang and Jin had not yet been decided, he didn't want to be distracted, but it didn't mean that he could make such a huge concession as ceding Song Zhou, which would not be recognized in the Xuzhou army.

If Jiang Feng made such a concession, it would only damage Jiang Feng's prestige.