Liu Cheng openly seized the merchant ships of the Nanyang Company, and Ouyang Xuan's countermeasure was to prepare for war in an all-round way, which surprised Zeng Yong and Yang Bangxian. What surprised them was not that they wanted to start a war with Liu Quan, but that this decision was so arbitrary - Brother Xuan had always been thoughtful, planning and then acting. Regarding the reaction of the two, Ouyang Xuan did not explain further. According to his judgment, although the current historical line has been partially changed due to its own appearance, the general trend of the Mongols' destruction of the Southern Song Dynasty has not changed. Judging from the battlefield in western Sichuan, although Yang Wen'an's troops on the Mianshui front are still constantly harassing, the frequency and intensity have become much smaller, and they have even begun to turn to the defensive. Liu Heima, who was confronting the Thunderbolts in the direction of Genting City and Jintang, was also building fortifications and even began to retreat slowly, apparently preparing for the use of troops in other directions.

In the original historical line, Liu Heima and Niu Ling, who still occupied Chengdu, sent troops to support Luzhou, which was besieged by the Song army, after Liu Zhen rebelled against the Song Dynasty and surrendered to Mongolia in June this summer, and defeated Yu Xing in one fell swoop. Although there is no evidence of Liu Cheng's collusion with the Mongolian army at the moment, with his rebellious and impermanent character, coupled with Yu Xing's hard work, Ouyang Xuan estimated that Liu Cheng had sent people to contact the Mongolian army. And Niu Xuan was suddenly sent back to the Sichuan battlefield by Kublai Khan, and there must be a big move brewing, and the Thunderbolt army must be fully prepared in advance. Even if Liu Cheng did not rebel, Ouyang Xuan was ready to take advantage of the abundant river water in the summer to expel the Mongolian army from Tongchuan Mansion Road in one fell swoop. At that time, the Thunderbolt army will not only engage the Mongol army in central Sichuan and even northern Sichuan, but will even clash with Liu Quan. At present, Liu Heima occupies about 30% of the prefectures and counties of Tongchuan Fu Road, and after these states and counties are recaptured by the Thunderbolt army, Liu Chuan will definitely ask for these states and counties as a pacification envoy of Tongchuan Road. If the Thunderbolt Army does not agree, it will inevitably clash with Liu Quan, who is narrow-minded and greedy for fame and fortune, so it is necessary to prepare for a rainy day.

The third urgent military intelligence was a letter from Yang Wen. In fact, the interaction between Banzhou and the Perak Army was either an official document to an official document, or Yang Yan or someone from Nanyang Company conveyed the meaning, and this was the first time that Yang Wen personally wrote a letter. Ouyang Xuan naturally didn't dare to be careless about the letter from his father-in-law, and after reading it several times, he decided to summon Yang Bangxian to discuss it before making a decision. In the letter, Yang Wen first praised his correct decision to open a mine in Dongchuan County, and then changed his tone to talk about the recent bad signs and his own worries. The situation of mining in Dongchuan County, Wang Youfu regularly reports by secret letter, and Ouyang Xuan naturally knows about it. The shallow burial, large reserves and high quality of the Dongchuan Copper Mine made the local technicians sent by Nanyang Company very happy.

Under the advanced mining technology and efficient management, in just four or five months, Nanyang Company has more than 10 copper pits in Dongchuan County, with a monthly output of nearly 100,000 catties of blister copper, and the cumulative output of blister copper has reached more than 300,000 catties, and the production capacity is still rising rapidly. All of this blister copper has been purchased by the Perak Army and shipped back to Qiongzhou and Dayi for further processing to make different alloys that are excellent materials for machines, machine tools, and firearms and ammunition. At present, the Thunderbolt Army has trial-produced new field guns, mountain guns, and naval guns with alloy copper, and their performance is excellent. Although the density of copper is greater than that of iron, due to the excellent ductility and thermal conductivity of copper alloys, copper cannons are one-third lighter than iron cannons of the same caliber, and the range and power are not reduced or even enhanced, and the barrel cooling time is shorter and the service life is longer.

As a precious metal, copper is not only an important industrial raw material, but also used to make coins. It's just that there is a shortage of copper in the Great Song Dynasty, and there is a shortage of copper in Sichuan, and the lack of copper materials is the reason for the birth of "Jiaozi", the world's earliest paper money. One pound of copper plus lead, tin and other metals can mint a hundred copper coins, and ten pounds of copper can be minted into a constant coin, worth one tael of silver. Within four or five months, the copper mine mined by the tripartite cooperation was worth more than 30,000 taels of silver, and after deducting the mining costs, the dividends were at least 20,000 taels of silver, which was really a huge wealth. You must know that Dongchuan County is poor and poor, and an ordinary family of three here can live a very nourishing life with only four or five taels of silver.

In a short period of time, a huge amount of wealth was obtained, which was a great joy for the three parties who cooperated with Banzhou, the Thunderbolt Army, and the Barbarian tribe. But in the face of huge interests, the Wuban tribe who originally knelt and begged the Thunderbolt Army and Banzhou to cooperate became dissent, or rather, the local tribal leaders and the Baiman and Wuman garrisons had the idea of monopolizing interests, and began to deliberately look for trouble. In fact, these tribal leaders and garrison generals not only have to accept "benefit fees", but also share dividends from mining operations, and their income is really expensive, but "people's hearts are not enough to swallow elephants", and what they want now is all. In the face of difficulties, the management of Nanyang Company tolerated everywhere for the sake of the overall situation, and in the eyes of these people, it became weak. What's even more excessive is that they have also begun to strictly control the smuggling trade that had turned a blind eye to the past, causing the trade volume between the two sides to plummet. In ordinary trade, the smuggling of war horses, which was already carried out secretly, had a greater impact, and the number of transactions plummeted by more than 50%.

After learning of the situation, Yang Wen summoned Wang Youfu to discuss countermeasures. After discussing for a long time, there was no good way, so I had to send people to negotiate with the Wuman leaders in Dongchuan County on the one hand, and on the other hand, transfer the newly trained light infantry brigade to Luo's cottage - Ouyang Xuan called Liupanshui. That knows, these barbarian leaders are not willing to give in, and in the negotiations, they demand a ninety percent of the benefits, and Banzhou and the Thunderbolt army have a total of one percent. They did not show weakness in the transfer of troops from Banzhou, and transferred 1,000 troops to the border areas of the two sides, and for a time the two sides were tense. Yang Wen knew that it was not difficult for the Banzhou army to defeat the 3,000 white barbarians and the Wuman army in Dongchuan County, and it was not difficult to capture the copper mine cave, but the difficult thing was how to hold it. You must know that behind Dongchuan County is the Dali Kingdom, and behind the Dali Kingdom are the Mongols. Faced with this thorny situation, he wrote to his son-in-law for the first time to discuss countermeasures.

The warm spring sun shone on Ouyang Xuan's tightly knit brow, and he kept tapping his fingers on the table. At this moment, there was no one else sitting with him at a wooden table in Yokohara Fort except Yang Bangxian, Zeng Yong and Xia Xiaogen. After thinking for a while, Ouyang Xuan seemed to have made a big decision, and said to Yang Bangxian: "I agree with my father-in-law's handling of this matter, but I need to add a few points." Hearing this, Xia Xiaogen took a piece of paper and took notes. Ouyang Xuan's opinions are divided into three aspects, one is to continue to negotiate, but must not make concessions, otherwise it will lead to other Wuman and Miaojiang tribes following the same example, and there will be endless troubles in the future. The second is to carry out targeted killings of die-hard elements among the leading figures of the barbarians. Some people are white-eyed wolves that can never be fed, and there will never be a win-win concept in their thinking. Third, Yang Bangxian returned to Banzhou and expanded the light infantry brigade established in advance into a field division, and those Miao Jiang children who were in the Perak Army Military School will become the backbone of the army.

Ouyang Xuan also deliberately emphasized that if the negotiations fail, all the technicians and management personnel sent by Nanyang Company to the copper mine will be withdrawn, and the key equipment and technical materials will also be brought back. If the Wuman in Dongchuan County dared to stop him, Nanyang Company would retaliate in the same way, after all, the Wuman also sent a large number of children to study at the Confucius Institute in Banzhou.