In Baoding Mansion, Lu Xiangsheng's newly formed Tianxiong Army was also training diligently, and after several months of selection, he recruited nearly 8,000 people.

This is not because it is difficult to recruit young and strong, but that Lu Xiangsheng has strict requirements for the soldiers recruited, and he would rather have a shortage than an indiscriminate, in addition to being young and strong, he also needs to have brothers, friends or fellow villagers to enlist in the army.

Because he wanted to form this army with affection as a bond from the beginning, he would organize all the soldiers with an emotional foundation into the same army, and once someone was killed or injured in battle, it would arouse the hatred of the whole army.

Of course, this practice is a double-edged sword, and if the battle does not go well and someone flees first, it may cause a chain reaction in an instant, and the entire army will flee with it, causing catastrophic consequences.

Lu Xiangsheng naturally would not fail to consider this, but he was confident that this would not happen.

First of all, he shared weal and woe with the soldiers, ate and lived together, practiced with the soldiers every day, and did not deduct military salaries, and even treated the soldiers under his command as his own personal slaves.

Secondly, he often emphasized the pure bloodline of his army, and the name of the "Tianxiong Army" was given by Banzai himself.

"The Heavenly Heroes, hence the name Tianxiong Army."

After Tianqi copied the Fuwang Mansion, he did not forget the Tianxiong Army, and took the initiative to ask Lu Xiangsheng what weapons he needed, and Lu Xiangsheng was not hypocritical, and asked Tianqi for a batch of strong crossbows, three-eyed guns, bird guns, spears, and heavy armor.

Three-eyed guns and bird guns, Apocalypse has ordered the War Bureau to stop production, and prepare to replace them with flintlock pistols.

However, the production of flintlock pistols still could not keep up, so some stocks of three-eyed guns and bird guns were allocated first, and the Tianxiong army was allowed to practice first, and it was convenient to change clothes at that time.

As for the strong crossbow, Tianqi was originally going to dissuade Lu Xiangsheng not to equip it, and it was better to use firearms instead.

Because today's crossbows are very niche in the equipment of the entire Ming army, and they are not as convenient to use as bows and arrows, it is better to directly replace them with bows and arrows or muskets.

But after thinking about it, Tianqi still dispelled this idea, because Lu Xiangsheng had his own ideas, and the Tianxiong Army was also famous from Lu Xiangsheng's hands, and his own too much interference might make this army into four different ways.

Therefore, for Lu Xiangsheng's request, the apocalypse tried its best to meet it.

In order to increase the scale of production, Tianqi allocated 100,000 taels of silver for the War Bureau to recruit more craftsmen, and even recruited some craftsmen from the guard.

At this time, there were more than 6,000 craftsmen in the War Bureau, and the output of flintlock muskets could reach more than 1,500 per month.

Of course, it is not possible for all of these craftsmen to make flintlock pistols, and cold weapons such as spears, knives, bows and arrows still occupy an important position, as well as armor.

But these equipment are also very expensive, especially heavy armor, and a random set will cost dozens of taels of silver.

Sure enough, a good army is built with money. So no matter how much money you have, it's going to be spent quickly.

No, some people saw that the court was rich, and took the initiative to ask for a reward from the apocalypse, but this time it was not a lieutenant general or a local official, it turned out to be a Mongol, and it was the Chahar Department led by Lin Dan Khan, who moved west to the right wing of Mongolia.

Although they are also Mongolian tribes, Mongolia at this time is no longer the Mongolia of Genghis Khan's time, and the whole Mongolia has fallen apart and divided into many tribes.

These tribes have their own interests and demands, and naturally all kinds of contradictions and disputes are indispensable, and they are constantly fighting each other.

Lin Dan Khan moved westward, on the one hand, to avoid the edge of the Later Jin, and on the other hand, he wanted to take advantage of the weak strength of the Mongolian right wing to annex it.

After all, it is from a golden family with pure blood, and the strength of the Chahar tribe is also very strong among the Mongolian tribes, so the Mongolian right wing is not an opponent at all, and Lin Dan Khan also took advantage of the situation to gain a firm foothold.

However, the westward migration and the expedition in the past six months cost the Chahar Department a lot, so Lin Dan Khan wanted to inherit the "city reward" that originally belonged to the Mongolian right wing as soon as possible, which was also one of the important purposes of his westward move to the Mongolian right wing.

The so-called city reward is a system reached between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolda, which is mainly composed of three ways: tribute, mutual market and annual gifts.

Among them, the tribute is the mainstay, that is, the Mongol tribute, and the Ming Dynasty carried out it in the form of rewards, which began in the Yongle period of Ming Chengzu.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty was prosperous, and in order to maintain the status of the "Heavenly Empire", the Ming Dynasty was very generous in terms of rewards.

Until the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the animal husbandry and population in Mongolia grew rapidly, and this tribute method could not absorb the output of the Mongolian tribes, so the Mongols wanted to expand the trade between the two sides and increase the mutual market.

If he was not satisfied, he even did not hesitate to start a war, such as the "Gengxu Change" during the Jiajing period, which made the Ming lose face, so he had to consider opening another border trade and sealing the leader of the invading Mongolian right-wing Tumut tribe as the king of Shunyi.

After half a century of development, the mutual market has become the most important part of the city, and now in Xuanfu, Datong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu and other places have set up "small markets".

The reason for this name is that this kind of mutual market is not open every year, but opens once a month, so it is also called "monthly market".

However, these areas were all located in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, and they were agreed with the Mongol right wing, while the Chahar tribe belonged to the Mongol left wing, and their exchange of markets with the Ming was in Quang Ninh, which was interrupted after Guangning was occupied by Jianqing.

This had a relatively small impact on the Ming Dynasty, but it had a great impact on the Chahar Ministry, so it was urgent to open border trade with the Ming Dynasty from other directions.

Therefore, as soon as Lin Dan Khan gained a firm foothold in the Mongolian right wing, he couldn't wait to forcibly inherit his "city reward" when the Mongolian right wing had not yet been annexed, but this is a little unreasonable.

Moreover, if you really give it like this, it will also lose face for Daming.

As a result, most of the courtiers agreed with ignoring it, and some even radically suggested closing the monthly market as punishment.

However, Tianqi didn't think so, he didn't have the sense of superiority of the "Heavenly Empire", and he didn't look at what time it was, the threat of Jianlu was much greater than that of the Mongols, and the Chahar Department led by Lin Dan Khan was also very difficult to deal with Jianguo.

As the so-called enemy of the enemy is a friend, why should he offend Lin Dan Khan at this time? Wouldn't it be good for the two sides to strengthen cooperation, give up some prejudices, and join hands to deal with Jianyu?

Originally, when he learned that Lin Dan Khan had moved west, the apocalypse was waiting for an opportunity, but Lin Dan Khan had been busy encroaching on the Mongolian right wing, so he did not take the initiative to contact him.

Now Lin Dan Khan has taken the initiative to come here in the name of "city reward", which is a golden opportunity to strengthen the cooperation between the two sides.

Therefore, Tianqili overrode public opinion and directly agreed to his request for a "city reward", and even told Lin Dan Khan that he hoped to strengthen bilateral trade cooperation and asked him to send an envoy to Beijing for detailed talks.

Seeing that Tianqi had made up his mind, the opposition of the entire court disappeared more than half at once, because the eunuch party changed the direction of the wind under Wei Zhongxian's instructions.