Fallacy

Li Chengzhi waved to Li Xiaoxian: "Have you prepared your horses?"

Li Xiaoxian hurriedly said respectfully: "It's ready, it's downstairs!"

"good!"

Li Chengzhi nodded, smiled at Liu Fang and others, "After seeing the military camp, would you like to see other places? Is that okay?"

Liu Fang suddenly came back to her senses and summoned up some energy: "I can't ask for it!"

What the imperial court planned was first for soldiers and second for food. If one of them was cut off from the Western Sea, there would be no way to continue, and then they could take advantage of the gap and enter.

But seeing that the soldiers and horses in the camp were strong, the imperial court's extravagant hopes were gone. Now it can only hope that Xihai will definitely have enough food.

As if comforting, similar thoughts were running through Liu Fang's mind. But he couldn't be too direct and asked Li Chengzhi to open the grain depot for him to take a look, so he could only hold back for the time being and look for another opportunity.

Several people followed Li Chengzhi down the town tower and then climbed onto Li Xiaoxian's well-blooded war horse.

After leaving Guancheng and going north for more than two miles, you will reach Weishui. There is a pontoon bridge built on a boat as a base in the river.

After crossing the bridge, there are various shops and shops on the west bank. Without choosing specifically, Li Chengzhi walked in along the first house.

Liu Fang and others followed closely behind, and when they entered the door, they took a special look and saw a plaque about four feet in diameter erected on the gate tower, with a golden word "money" written on it.

Looking at the word and understanding its meaning, everyone immediately knew that this should be the place where coins were minted in the West Sea.

It's not a grain depot, it's a bit unsatisfactory. However, "money and grain" have never been divided into different families. It would be good to see what Xihai uses to replace "coin".

Liu Fang regained her energy a little and followed Li Chengzhi into the courtyard.

Therefore, the venue was very empty, with only a dozen figures sitting around under the hay shed in the distance. Li Shiliang and his chief and deputy chiefs were waiting at the door.

Nowadays, the army is out fighting, and countless people are consumed every day. Therefore, women and Minzhuang have long been recruited by the Ministry of Civil Affairs to rush for military supplies. Nowadays, most of the people left in the coin factory are the old and weak who are not good at it.

Disability.

Seeing that it was very difficult for these people to even walk, but they were still working here, Liu Fang and others suddenly showed curiosity, and Fan Zhong even had a glimmer of hope: Even these half-disabled people were not willing to let go.

It can be seen that there is a shortage of people in the West Sea to what extent?

With thoughts swirling in her mind, Liu Fang pointed towards the hut: "Can I take a closer look?"

I originally planned to let them watch as much as I could today, so Li Chengzhi naturally agreed: "I'll do whatever I can, please!"

He responded and walked forward.

Seeing a group of people walking towards him, the civilian husband subconsciously stopped what he was doing. When he got closer and recognized Li Chengzhi, the group of people became even more frightened.

Some people have broken legs, but they can still get up with crutches, and some people have broken arms, and walking is fine. But if they have broken two legs, and some have broken arms, and there is nowhere to borrow strength in an emergency and they can't get up, then they simply have to stand up.

Kneel down on the ground.

Some call them generals, some call them Dukes, and some even call them "Langjun".

In addition, there are some old and weak people, both men and women, all of whom have gray beards and hair and are senile.

Seeing those who were missing arms and legs, they were all young and strong, a glint flashed in Yang Shu's eyes: "Are they all wounded soldiers in the army?"

Li Chengzhi smiled noncommittally: "Mr. Yanrong has a good eye!"

Yuan Yuan was even more unbelievable, his eyes seemed to pop out. He took two hurried steps, stared at a strong soldier whose legs were broken at the knee, and asked in shock: "This injury is so new, how can it be healed?"

Soon? May I ask when you were injured, how you were injured, and what was your job at the time?"

The strong soldier looked at Li Chengzhi, saw him nodding slightly, and then responded loudly: "When we were marching to Shanshan in April, we were hit by a falling rock from the city wall... At that time, the villain held a very high position..."

The time to conquer Shanshan...will be almost three months from now?

Yuan Yuan endured his surprise: "How did you survive?"

The strong soldier didn't see Li Chengzhi nodding, so he yelled: "It's just a small person who has a big life!"

Judging from his expression and tone, Yuan Yuan could tell at the first glance that his words were perfunctory.

He has a rich family background and is considered experienced in battles. Not to mention seeing it with his own eyes, he has rarely heard of a wounded soldier who was so seriously injured and still survived.

There must be another reason.

But if people don’t want to tell me, why can’t they force me to ask?

Yuan Yuan instinctively thought of Li Chengzhi's superb medical skills.

It must be his wonderful rejuvenation that brought such a mortal person back to life.

Medical skills were only secondary. What surprised Yuan Yuan was that there was no cruel look on these people's faces, and there was no resentment in their eyes. On the contrary, when they saw Li Chengzhi, they had tears in their eyes and bowed before them, which showed their gratitude to him.

This makes it even clearer that Li Chengzhi must have worked hard to save him.

This person was just a corps commander, and the rest of the wounded soldiers were vaguely headed by this person, presumably just ordinary soldiers. It can be seen that there must be many disabled soldiers like this in Xihai.

When Li Chengzhi was called to work here, it was by no means as simple as knocking on the bones and sucking out the marrow, nor was it as simple as giving him food to eat. In all likelihood, he was afraid of being injured and would become depressed, thinking that he was useless, thus ending his life.

With this alone, even if the court is trying to flatter you...

No wonder it doesn’t matter whether the surrendered soldiers come from Guanzhong, Dunhuang, or Six Towns. No matter whether they were strong or weak before, Han or Hu, as long as they surrendered to Six Towns, it would be like being reborn and their morale would be like a rainbow?

All because Li Chengzhi took the four words "love soldiers like sons" to the extreme.

Yuan Yuan felt lost and remained silent for a long time. Liu Fang could only think that he was surprised by Li Chengzhi's medical skills.

But like Yang Shu, his eyes kept turning. He kept looking between Li Chengzhi, the soldiers, the copper water in the canal, and the copper grains on the straw mat at the bottom of the canal.

There were so many thoughts in my heart that I hesitated to speak several times, but finally did not dare to open my mouth.

Just because Yang Shu knew in his heart that if Li Chengzhi didn't want to say anything, even if he put the knife on his neck, he wouldn't want to hear the truth...

The process of smelting copper and making coins was nothing interesting. Li Chengzhi got straight to the point and asked Li Shiliang to open the coin vault.

The coin vault was built underground and was more than ten feet deep. It was built with five-foot-thick stone bricks all around, and the inner perimeter was welded with steel plates.

Even each door is welded with nearly thick steel plates.

For this era, there is no safer place in the world than here. Not even a fly can fly in, not to mention people.

After going down two flights of steps and opening three more iron doors, we finally saw the true appearance of the coin bank.

As the wall lamps lit up one by one, everyone was dumbfounded, as if they were in a dream.

It was bright, not ordinary bright, and it was so painful that my eyes couldn't open.

Although the basement is less than one foot high, it is very large. There are no edges to the left and right, and it is ten feet wide from front to back. Every foot in the square is supported by pillars as thick as an adult's waist.

It is like a grain bucket, with cash boxes placed layer after layer. They are not covered, so if you look around, your eyes are full of gold, and you feel like you are in a sea of ​​gold.

Yang Shu took a deep breath and couldn't even turn his eyes.

Yuan Yuan exclaimed: "Real gold?"

"No!"

Li Chengzhi laughed loudly, stepped forward, grabbed a handful at random, and handed it to Yuan Yuan's hand, "It's just brighter copper!"

Yuan Yuan didn't seem to believe in evil, so he put it in his mouth and took a bite. He heard a "squeak" sound, as if his teeth were slipping, and his mouth was full of sour water.

He paused briefly and seemed to mutter to himself: "Is it really copper? But even if it is copper, this is too much..."

Gao Zhao raised his eyes and looked around, his eyes uncertain. After looking for a long time, he asked quietly: "Food is the most important thing for the people. Even if there are countless coins in this treasury, they are just dead things. You."

What's the use of letting me wait and see?"

"What the Taiwei said is true. For me at this time, it is really not of much use because I have nowhere to spend it, so I saved so much. But for me before, it was of great use!"

Li Chengzhi threw the copper coins in the box and said with a warm smile, "Is the captain pretending to be crazy or does he really not know anything? I think you should think he looks familiar?"

Gao Zhao sneered: "Even if the Gao family and the Li family are close friends, I haven't seen you give me half of this thing. How can I say it looks familiar?"

"Oh? That was my fault."

Hearing his sarcasm, Li Chengzhi didn't care, "I thought the Lieutenant must have seen this thing in Guanzhong or Six Towns..."

Guanzhong...six towns?

Gao Zhao's eyes narrowed, he took two quick steps and grabbed a handful of copper coins from the box.

After taking a closer look, his face turned pale instantly: "This is obviously brass?"

Seeing him like this, Yang Shu came over and asked suspiciously: "But what can I say?"

The same was true for Liu Fang and Yuan Yuan, both of whom stared at Gao Zhao with burning eyes.

The strange thing is that Gao Zhao seemed to be frozen.

"What else can you say? You may think that Li Chengzhi is complacent and wants us to see the wealth of the West Sea. But you don't know that he wants the Queen Mother and the court to know that there is no shortage of soldiers in the West Sea, let alone food.

…”

After being stunned for a long time, he said in a leisurely voice: "As the saying goes, before the troops and horses are moved, food and grass go first. Since I have secretly planned to stand on my own, I naturally plan the food and grass first. Only then can I recruit troops and horses. So since you defeated Nanliang, the Queen Mother

When I also ordered the old man to lead the troops to resist Rouran, I instructed Yuan Chen, who was the commander of the army at that time, to send Gao Meng and Gao Zhi to Beizhen, and the five states secretly raised food.

How could I have thought that I couldn't buy food even with all my wealth? After careful questioning, I found out that in recent years, there have been a large number of caravans traveling between the six towns and Guanzhong, as well as Rouran tribes, including Han and Hu. If so,

Hu merchants exchanged cattle, horses, livestock, pearls and gems for grain. Han merchants exchanged silk, gold and copper for it. The price was extremely generous, and the price of grain was raised three times.
To be continued...