The reform of Yuqi County has just been implemented, and several eldest brothers of the Mo family have come down from the mountain, and Zhuang Shaoyou invested 10,000 taels of silver to build a forging factory in the north of the county, covering an area of five hectares.

The reason why this place was chosen is mainly because it is close to the riverbank, convenient access to water, and the shipyard and the sea in the northwest are convenient for the transportation of ore and weapons and equipment in the future, and since the alliance with Gongsun Du, the threat from the north has disappeared, and there is no possibility of threatening here in the Bohai Sea.

At the beginning of the month, news came back from the grassland that the seller needed 100,000 yuan of coarse grain and fine grain.

Zhuang Shaoyou was overjoyed when he heard this, and finally found the seller, but they want fine grain? But the official warehouse is full of coarse grains, and fine grains are not easy to preserve, too easy to get damp and moldy! So it's all freshly ground and freshly used!

Zhuang Shaoyou summoned everyone to discuss, and finally decided to mobilize the county's mills to start work around the clock to grind fine grain, and invest in the construction of an official mill, which was supported by the forging plant of the Institute of Science and Technology to carry out large-scale production, improve efficiency, and also reduce losses.

On the twelfth day of the month, Zhuang Shaoyou took Wu Liang, Zhou Tian, and 300 heavily armed soldiers and some of the Mo family's boat operators to the north on three merchant ships and two warships

After carrying a boatload of salt in Beifeng County, Zhuang Shaoyou and his party of five ships arrived at the mouth of the White Wolf Water, traced upstream, and arrived in the territory of Ube in Xianbei in the east on the 10th of the month.

The grassland of the moon has a cold wind howling, and it has the taste of winter.

Yu Mohuai, the lord of the eastern Xianbei community, sat in the big tent, looked at Zhuang Shaoyou below, and said with a smile: "Guests from afar, welcome to Yube as a guest!" Come! Let's have a toast first! Yu Mohuai picked up the big bowl as he spoke, and drained the wine in the bowl in one gulp, Zhuang Shaoyou and the others had no choice but to drink it in one gulp.

I'm dripping grass, and I'm more energetic than the burning knife at the beginning!

"Good! Happy, this is the person who likes to have fun! Just when Zhuang Shaoyou sighed at the strong wine, Yu Mohuai praised it loudly.

Zhuang Shaoyou hurriedly returned the salute: "Thank you for your praise, I can't drink enough!" It's not enough to see adults today, and I'm really happy to be able to drink even if I can't drink! ”

"Excellent! Since you are so happy, I can't be stingy as the master, come on, serve the food! ”

Two shirtless slaves carried a newly-slaughtered lamb into the tent and began to roast it on coals.

"Come, guests from afar, let's make another bowl!"

Zhuang Shaoyou accompanied Yu Mohuai to do another bowl, this big bowl of wine is nearly half a catty, two bowls are one catty, one catty of wine is down, Zhuang Shaoyou is already a little dizzy, thinking about business, just wanted to speak, but Yu Mohuai said: "Guest, today we only drink, don't talk about anything else!" ”

An hour later, Zhuang Shaoyou was carried out unconscious by two herdsmen.

The next morning, when the sun was three poles, Zhuang Shaoyou woke up slowly, looked at his side, there was no one, and he was helpless for a while, didn't he say that he would be confused with a beautiful woman after getting drunk? Why is it that it doesn't work when it comes to yourself?

Zhuang Shaoyou got up and cleaned and walked out of the tent door, two herdsmen outside the tent stood there, and when they saw Zhuang Shaoyou coming out, they immediately stepped forward and said in impure Chinese: "My lord! This way, please! ”

Zhuang Shaoyou entered Yu Mohuai's big tent again, thinking of last night's binge drinking, his heart trembled for a while, he wouldn't drink it in the morning, right?

Yu Mohuai, who was sitting at the top, saw Zhuang Shaoyou coming in, and said with a smile: "My brother, please sit down!" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou inexplicably sat down in last night's position, with a bowl of butter tea on the table, a large piece of hand-grabbed mutton, fortunately there was no wine, Zhuang Shaoyou breathed a sigh of relief.

"My brother, I don't know your name yet!"

"Zhuang Shaoyou" Zhuang Shaoyou replied a little inexplicably, the guests who were far away yesterday have become brothers today?

"Good! Then I'll call you Brother Zhuang in the future, let's talk about business! Winter is coming soon, my tribe doesn't have enough food for the winter, that damn snow at the beginning of the year cost me a lot, and now I'm just recovering a little, and now it's winter again!

My tribe has a total of 100,000 people, and my brother you have heard that the winters in the steppe are unusually long, and my tribe still lacks three months' food to survive this winter and next spring! ”

Zhuang Shaoyou heard Yu Mohuai so honest, his heart was a little moved, a total, 100,000 people for three months, and it is cold here, the herdsmen's physique is relatively strong, and the consumption is greater than that of Yudi, according to the calculation of one fine grain per person per month, three months to get 300,000 fine grain, which is half more than what the contact said!

"Brother Yu, I brought a total of 100,000 Hu coarse grains and 100,000 Hu fine grains this time, barely enough for 100,000 people to eat for two months, and there is still a month left, I need to help you raise it after I go back! In addition, I also brought a lot of original specialties this time, including beautiful silk, exquisite porcelain, tea, salt and other goods. ”

"Why not? The original tea and salt are what we need the most, especially salt, every time we have to go to your Han people's place to buy it secretly, the most troublesome thing is that Changli does not produce salt at all, and the nearest salt-producing area is more than a thousand miles, otherwise there is no need to be so troublesome! As for porcelain and silk, they don't want it, and those bells and whistles can neither be used for war nor for food, in exchange for what? ”

Zhuang Shaoyou sighed secretly when he heard this, this Yu Mohuai seems to be honest, but he actually understands that those luxury goods are sugar-coated shells, which are useless at all, but a waste of money, forget it, go back and sell it to Liaodong, anyway, it's not too much.

At this moment, a brightly dressed woman came into the tent from the back door, about twenty-five years old, and threw herself into Yu Mohuai's arms and said coquettishly: "My lord, why don't people want silk, if people like it, just buy a little for others!" ”

Yu Mohuai's bones were crispy, and he nodded hurriedly, Zhuang Shaoyou was overjoyed, this girl is really here! Now you can make a lot of money!

As the woman continued to squirm, Yu Mohuai's breathing became heavier and heavier, and she quickly raised her head and said to Zhuang Shaoyou: "My brother, let's talk about it here today, I want all your goods, as for adding money, I will let the financial officer talk to you!" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou smiled and responded knowingly: "Thank you, Brother Yu!" In the next farewell! ”

As soon as Zhuang Shaoyou got out of the big tent, he heard the woman's tactful cry inside, Zhuang Shaoyou secretly discussed a few words, didn't he even take off his clothes? Pack up your feelings and go back to your tent.

Inside the tent, Zhou Tian and Wu Liang watched Zhuang Shaoyou come in with a smile, and Wu Liang asked, "General, the conversation went quite smoothly, right?" ”

"Well, it's okay!"

"Hehe, general, this is all the credit of the Zhantian brothers! It was he who used ten pieces of silk and some women's jewelry to buy Yu Mohuai's favorite concubine! It cost less than a thousand taels of silver! ”

Zhuang Shaoyou was stunned, looking at Zhou Tian, Zhou Tian was embarrassed and at a loss: "General, his subordinates are just doing their duty, how dare they ask for credit, Lord Wu praised it falsely!" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou laughed: "Okay! Brother Zhantian's move to encircle Wei and save Zhao is a stroke of genius! On this trip, Brother Zhantian should be the first to remember! ”

The next negotiation was negotiated by Zhou Tian and Yu Mohuai's financial officer Yu Xiang, Zhou Tian repeated the old trick, first bribing Yu Xiang, Yu Xiang pretended to be high, refused to accept, and then went to buy Yu Xiang's wife, after three days of hard work, the harvest was very rich.

The main purpose of Zhuang Shaoyou's trip is to divide the various departments of the grassland, and at the same time purchase good war horses, and now has initially completed the strategic goal, through these days' activities and the eastern Xianbei Ube has established a good relationship, plus winter is coming, many of the Ube's war horses can not be fed to the next year, simply used to exchange useful things, and finally Zhuang Shaoyou from the Ube drummed up five thousand good grassland war horses! The results are astonishing.

The price of war horses in the winter of the grassland is low, so five thousand war horses are not enough to cover the account, and there is not enough gold mine near Liucheng, where Ube is located, so Zhou Tian knocked five hundred catties of gold from Yuxiang.

In this era, gold was rarely circulated among the people, and it was in the hands of the royal family and used to reward ministers.

Therefore, the exchange ratio of gold and silver is slightly higher than in other periods, one tael of gold is worth twelve taels of silver, and it is worth 12,000 and a half baht, so 500 catties of gold is equivalent to 10,000 taels of silver.

In addition, a large number of beef tendons, leather goods, and 500 cattle were exchanged from Ube, which can be used for ploughing cattle in the spring ploughing next spring.

Everyone looked at the goods exchanged, they were all excited, this business is too worthwhile, as long as the things from the east are transported to the west, they can at least double!

However, Zhuang Shaoyou looked at the five thousand war horses but frowned, and pondered for a long time before saying: "Wu Liang, inform the people who told you in Xiangping City to report to Lord Gongsun Du immediately, and said that I will give him three thousand war horses!" ”

"What! General, general, this is the war horse that we have worked so hard to get back! Three thousand horses are three thousand iron horses! Think twice! Wu Liang said in a panic

"That's it! I know, Wu Liang, do you think that these hundreds of us with 5,000 good war horses can return to the city safely? Besides, how much do five thousand war horses have to eat in a winter? There is no grassland near us, so we can't afford to raise it! If you are hungry and thin, it will not be useful in the spring next year!

Anyway, it's easy for us to get these horses, so I'll give them to Gongsun Du's Lord Edon friendship! This time, we came to the grassland to trade, but it was the idea of Lord Gongsun! ”