Chu Huan naturally knew nothing about Xiao Huanzhang's death, but the people in Beishan were panicked, but Chu Huan knew it very well.

After this battle in Beishan, his vitality was severely damaged. Chu Huan knew very well that even if Xiao Huanzhang was ambitious, he would not be able to threaten the southern line of Xiguan in a short period of time. He just ordered Xuanyuan Sheng to make preparations to attack Beishan at any time. He also knew very well that with Xiao Huanzhang's temperament, he would never dare to fight again after he was defeated. Moreover, seeing that the Xiguan army was ready to move, Xiao Huanzhang's only choice was to seek peace from Xiguan.

Xiao Huanzhang wants to make peace, but Chu Huan wants to make peace even more.

But he didn't know that Xiao Huanzhang was dead, and he didn't know that Luo Dingxi had plans to seek peace. However, Xiao Huanzhang had no choice but to seek peace, while Luo Dingxi was secretly a trick.

In any case, Beishan has prepared for peace talks.

Luo Dingxi, in the name of Xiao Huanzhang, sent someone to Qingtang to see Xuanyuan Shengcai first and mentioned the matter of peace talks. Xuanyuan Shengcai naturally did not dare to make a decision. He rushed to rush and sent someone to report to Shuoquan. Chu Huan learned that Beishan was asking for peace as he expected, and naturally he was in the right way, but the conditions for peace were required. He knew that Beishan wanted to make peace, but Xiguan was able to fight and reconcile. Before the other party knew his thoughts, even if he had made peace, he had to strive for sufficient benefits.

Xuanyuan Sheng received the news and sent someone to send the Beishan envoy to Shuoquan. However, Qing Tang still followed Chu Huan's instructions and was ready to move. He almost every day he would send troops to wander around the north bank of Liangzi River, pointing at the other side, and making signs of crossing Liangzi River at any time.

After the Beishan envoy arrived at Shuoquan, Chu Huan did not summon him immediately. After two days of hang up, he summoned him. When the Beishan envoy suggested that Beishan was willing to ced the three counties of Qingzhou and give up a corridor to enter Xiguan, Chu Huan felt in his heart that Xiao Huanzhang was sincerely seeking peace. When the follower asked to compensate Xiguan for 50,000 stones of grain, Chu Huan was a little surprised.

However, naturally, there was no expression on the surface, and no reply was given. He only said that government affairs were busy and there was not much time to negotiate. After that, Xiguan sent Du Fugong, the general manager of the New Salt Administration, to negotiate.

Sometimes the conditions are too harsh, which makes the negotiations difficult to go smoothly, but the conditions are too generous, but they can also cause suspicion. Chu Huan has been waiting for Beishan to negotiate peace, and from the beginning, Chu Huan has made up his mind to at least obtain a passage from Beishan. If Xiao Huanzhang does not agree, even if Xuanyuan Sheng ordered the troops to send troops to Beishan, he would still have to open a passage.

It was a very embarrassing thing to cede land and negotiate peace, and Beishan is not a city alliance now. Chu Huan estimated at the beginning that Xiao Huanzhang might not be stingy with gold and silver, but it would be a big deal to ask Xiao Huanzhang to cede land. However, he did not expect that the Beishan envoy who came to the peace talks this time had already exceeded Chu Huan's expectations. Not only did he ced the land in the three counties, but he actually compensated 50,000 stones of grain.

These two things are what Chu Huan needs most at the moment. He needs to open the business road and trade within the pass. Only in this way can he solve the food and grass problems facing Xiguan.

Chu Huan has been under great pressure recently. Although the Southern Front has won the victory, the Western Front will sooner or later have to endure a war. Therefore, after the victory of the Massachusetts, Chu Huan's attention is focused on the Western Front. Once the war begins in the Western Front, food and grass are naturally indispensable. Pei Ji has sent a letter. Although the morale of the soldiers on the Western Front is not low, the soldiers mentioned the cavalry in Tianshan privately also have a hint of fear. Before Zhu Lingyue fights, maintaining the morale of the Xiguan Army is an extremely important military preparation.

There is no doubt that providing food and grass to the western front will naturally play a great role in stabilizing the morale of the army. Everyone knows that Xiguan is not strong, and the Tianshan cavalry is coming at any time in front. If the food and grass supply cannot be guaranteed in the rear, this battle will not be able to continue. If the food and grass are prepared early, the soldiers will naturally boost morale when they see sufficient logistics support.

This is what Chu Huan is worried about recently.

There is not much grain in the official warehouse in Xiguan, and it is very difficult to support the two fronts. Fortunately, the Xiguan army does not have too many troops, and the military supplies of tens of thousands of soldiers in Xiguan can barely support it. However, if there is no source of food and grass, it means eating one less. Moreover, the food stored by the government is mainly the grain borrowed from the gentry and wealthy families. These grains must be used to prepare for cultivation after the beginning of spring. Chu Huan has called some of them from it. If the war continues and there is no place to obtain the required food and grass, you can only call these foods. If there is no grain to plant at that time, there is no need to wait for the great famine next year, and the people will cause trouble during the spring plowing.

Chu Huan wished he would become a god and had the ability to turn into food into food.

The Beishan envoy claimed that Beishan was willing to provide food, which made Chu Huan overjoyed. He was very sensitive to the east and west. Beishan could put forward such conditions from the beginning. Of course, Xiguan could continue to bargain. It would be good to get one stone of grain from Beishan, so Du Fugong was specially sent to negotiate with the Beishan envoy.

Chu Huan said that he was busy with official business, which was not entirely an excuse.

In addition to food and grass, logistics is also indispensable.

When Xiao Huanzhang was on the border of the army, Pei Ji had already reminded Chu Huan, and Chu Huan knew that this matter was also of great importance and did not neglect it.

The land in the northwest is very barren. Although there is a lot of arable land, due to the harsh climate in the northwest, the grain harvest is very low. Compared with the inner city, the difference is huge. For a long time, the grain in the northwest cannot be supplied to the inner city, but a lot of grain has to be imported from the inner city every year. Only in this way can the problem of eating in the three northwest roads be solved.

Moreover, in the three northwest provinces, the area with the highest grain output is not Xiguan, but in Beishan and the six counties of Qingzhou, Beishan. Among them, the five counties have very high grain output. The land of Qingzhou alone is nearly half of the total grain output of Jiuzhou, the three northwest provinces. So if we really want to talk about it, the grain output of Beishan and the three prefectures is enough to supply food for Beishan. The real food imports from the pass are Xiguan and Tianshan.

Xiguan was once the strongest in the three northwest roads. In the final analysis, it is just because Xiguan does have a strong economic pillar.

Before Chu Huan developed the new salt, Xiguan's biggest economic pillar was ore, with many Gobi in the northwest, but there were also many mountains, and there were also many mountains in Xiguan.

The imperial court had to transfer grain from the treasury every year to support the northwest, but there were quite a few benefits from Xiguan. In addition to getting Jinsha from the Jinzhou area, the most important thing was that the imperial court set up a yamen in Xiguan that specializes in the management and development of ores. The mountains of Xiguan contain many minerals. In addition to the cold stone discovered by Chu Huan, iron ore is also a rich resource in Xiguan.

The imperial court has been developing iron ore in the northwest, and most of the weapons casting of the empire were made of high-quality iron made by iron ore transported from the northwest. First, it was used to equip the Royal Guards and then to the Twelve Tunmen Guards, so the wrong way to garrison the capital was that the quality of their weapons and equipment was very high.

At that time, people came and went day and night in Xigu Pass, and the convoys transporting iron ore to the pass were extremely frequent. Moreover, the official salt and iron operation, the empire had extremely strict management of salt roads and iron ore, and local governments could not interfere. Local governments could not investigate it. Local mining was equivalent to buying and selling private salt. In the laws of the Qin Empire, they were sentenced to death.

Therefore, although there is sufficient iron ore in the northwest, the weapons and equipment of the northwest army, whether it is the Northwest Army or the local army, are all distributed by the court. Local governments are not allowed to build weapons privately, and they are not allowed to mine privately.

After the Xiliang people entered, they almost occupied the entire Xiguan area. While conquering cities and territories, the Xiliang people also plundered the resources of Xiguan, forcing the people in the occupied areas to mine ore and even refine weapons on the spot. As for the yamen that manages the minerals, when the Xiliang people fought, they had already left the northwest. When the Xiliang people retreated, the northwest was in chaos and the ore yamen had not recovered.

Chu Huan followed Pei Ji's persuasion and immediately summoned a group of people from the Ministry of Works to restart ore mining and refining weapons.

He knew very well that because of the previous inventory, the current weapons in the Xiguan Army were not short of them, but it was inevitable that the northwest would compete for the might of the northwest. The weapons in their current hands were not enough to support the war that was too long. After each war, many weapons and equipment would be damaged, and logistics should be provided in time.

Although the empire prohibited local mining and did not allow local weapons to be built privately, when Chu Huan summoned a group of officials from the Ministry of Industry to discuss mining and refining weapons, no official raised an objection, but actively put forward his own suggestions. Many of them were once implicated by Gongsun Chu, the governor of Yuezhou, and were excluded and suppressed by the Zhu party including Dongfang Xin. Later, Chu Huan activated Gongsun Chu, and Gongsun Chu recalled a large number of suppressed officials to return to his position.

Although the court directly sent people to manage the matters such as mining and refining weapons, the specific handling of the matters still required people from the Ministry of Works to handle them. Among these people, many tour guides were familiar with mining affairs and were very familiar with them. At Chu Huan's order, these people were unwilling to take charge.

No one said that this was prohibited by the imperial court laws, and no one was stupid. Everyone knew what the Qin Empire was like now. There was chaos inside the pass, and the court had no time to stretch its hands and feet to the northwest, and everyone could see the situation clearly. Although no one raised the flagpole, everyone knew that the three heroes in the northwest were already something that even the blind man could see. Now we are not considering the imperial court laws, but trying every means to win the battle for hegemony in the northwest.

So in recent times, Chu Huan has not only been busy thinking about food, but also about mining and iron smelting. As early as the New Year, the Ministry of Industry had already begun to prepare various matters for mining and forging weapons. After the third day of the Lunar New Year, the Ministry of Industry, led by Han Hai, the head of the Ministry of Industry, worked hard day and night.

After Chu Huan arrived at Xiguan, only the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Rites had not been assigned by Dongfangxin. The other four yamen were replaced. After Chu Huan got rid of Dongfangxin, he appointed officials again. The Zhu Party's power in Xiguan was completely hit. Although many officials in the other four yamen were restored, they were all Chu Huan's orders. Speaking of which, they were all those who were appointed by Chu Huan.

Although Han Hai, the head of the Ministry of Works and Han Hai, the head of the Ministry of Rites, was still in charge of each department, he really didn't know what Chu Huan was thinking. They were not Chu Huan's direct line, nor did Chu Huan start it. So he thought of making contributions under Chu Huan's hands and stabilizing his position. Fan Xuan, the head of the Ministry of Rites, was still on his own initiative and sent a mission to Beishan once. Han Hai was naturally anxious. When Chu Huan proposed to start a mine, he naturally had the right intention and found an opportunity to make contributions. He patted his chest without hesitation and promised that he would definitely do the things he told Chu Huan to do.
Chapter completed!