At noon, more than a dozen top sword craftsmen were led by soldiers to a room in the Jingli Mansion. There was only one table in the room, and eight swords were placed on the table. The scabbard had been removed, and each sword was shining cold and extremely sharp.

Li Yanqing pointed to the sword on the table and smiled at the craftsmen: "This is the legendary Xia Kingdom sword. Western Xia strictly prohibits the flow of things into the Song Dynasty. I got it by chance today. It is really good. You all come and have a look."

When the craftsmen heard that these eight swords were actually the famous Xia Guo Sword, they were immediately interested and went forward to take a closer look, either holding the sword to test the tip of the sword or observing its forging patterns. Everyone looked at it very carefully.

At this time, an old craftsman said, "Report to the Dutong, although this sword is sharp, we can also build it in the Song Dynasty."

Li Yanqing waved his hand and said to everyone: "You may not understand what I mean. Of course I know that Gan Jiang Moye and Zhanlu Taia are all created by our famous craftsmen in the Central Plains. Our sword-making skills must be higher than Xixia. I am not saying this. I mean that Xixia can use such high-level swords as weapons to build large quantities. Where is the secret? It takes years and years to create a real good sword. If we find a way to create such a sword in a few hours, our army will be equipped with a large amount of equipment, which will play a huge role in improving the combat effectiveness of the army."

Everyone understood what Li Dutong meant, not to create a good sword to make the sword weaponized, but to create a large number of good swords and master the forging methods of Xia Guojian, perhaps this goal can be achieved.

Li Yanqing also said: "In the past, the imperial court built a thick-bone battle sword, which was very effective in piercing the enemy's armor. In the future, soldiers would wear a thick-bone sword. I think the Xia Guo sword is very suitable, so I hope everyone can imitate it, and these eight swords will be studied for you."

Everyone talked about it. They were all top craftsmen, all sword-casting experts, at least half of them came from the military weapons prison in Tokyo, and had extremely high authority in casting weapons.

The old man in charge clasped his fists to Li Yanqing and said, "It is useful to report to the Dutong, just analyzing the sample can have a certain effect, and at least you can understand the material of the sword. However, if you don't know the other party's key craftsmanship, you are afraid that the imitation of the Xia Kingdom sword will be image and not look like the spirit, which will disappoint the Dutong."

Li Yanqing smiled and said, "I can tell you some information. Xixia craftsmen pay great attention to furnace temperature for casting weapons. They use carbonite smelting. Secondly, their bellows are large, and they are large vertical double-row bellows, which are taller than the two of us. There are the best quality Carbonifer River East Road on the other side, which is much better than the carbonifer in Xixia. I will arrange for people to deliver them in large quantities. As for the large bellows, I have never seen them. You can find a way for yourself."

The craftsmen were overjoyed. The words of the Dutong had already revealed the key secrets of the Western Xia craftsmen. They bowed together and said, "We will take out the thick spine sword that will satisfy the Dutong as soon as possible!"

After seeing off the craftsman, Li Yanqing returned to the mansion with the remaining Xia Guojian. At this time, Cao Yun and the others had already returned from Ci'en Temple. Li Yanqing asked the maid to invite all his wives and concubines to the inner hall. He had something to announce. Everyone walked into the inner hall with a smile. Cao Yun asked with a smile: "Have you settled?"

Li Yanqing nodded, "I'm definitely going, let me announce it to you today."

"Sister, what's the matter announced?" Zhao Fujin asked in a low voice.

"It will take about a month for my husband to go out for a long trip."

"Ah! Are you going to fight again?" Everyone was shocked.

"It's not that I'm going to fight, please listen to my husband! I won't leak the secret."

Everyone sat down with confusion, and the maid served them tea and tea. Li Yanqing smiled and said to everyone: "Everyone knows that I was appointed as the Sichuan-Shaanxi Military Commissioner, but so far, I have never been to Bashu. I am very ashamed that I am an incompetent military commissioner. It happened that the affairs accumulated on Shaanxi Road were solved during this period, so I plan to go to Bashu for a month."

I heard that I was going to Bashu, and everyone was worried. Then everyone started talking about the time they went to Bashu a few years ago. That bumpy and bumpy one was particularly unhappy, but Hu Qing'er seemed to have something to worry about and kept looking at Li Yanqing.

At night, Li Yanqing scalded his feet with hot water and went to bed to lie down. Cao Yun slept beside him and said with a smile: "This time I go to Bashu, take Qing'er with me!"

"I have two big belly women at home, and I think it's better for her to stay."

"Where is a big belly? It's only three months!"

Cao Yun put her husband's hand on his stomach coquettishly, "Touch it and see, where is the belly bigger?"

As Li Yanqing touched, the direction changed. Cao Yun blushed and pulled his hand away, "No, you can't have sex during pregnancy, the doctor has repeatedly advised him."

Li Yanqing smiled and said, "The doctor just said that the first three months and the next three months! It's OK in the middle, it doesn't matter, I'll be careful."

Cao Yun had no choice but to follow him. After a while, Li Yanqing lay down a little tired, "What does Qing'er mean?"

"Of course she wants to go with you, otherwise how could I say this?" Cao Yun packed up his body, changed into a shirt and lay again beside her husband.

Li Yanqing smiled lazily and said, "I thought you were worried about me and wanted to install a spy next to me."

"Go! Am I that bored? I don't care if you want to find a woman outside, but don't bring it home for me."

Li Yanqing couldn't help but yawn, "Okay! Let Qing'er go with you. Let's talk about this tomorrow, I'll go to bed first."

Soon, Li Yanqing fell asleep, but Cao Yun couldn't sleep. The day before yesterday, Tang Yuaner came to cry to her that her husband Wang Gui was flirting with her and brought back a big belly woman. This was the fourth one, and he was still confident that he wanted to continue the family line. It is said that he had a woman outside, and Tang Yuaner was about to collapse.

However, Tang Yuaner missed a sentence, saying that Wang Gui blurted out in anger, "The governor is also raising women outside, and Mrs. Cao did not object. What are you jealous all day?"

This surprised Cao Yun secretly. Did her husband really raise a woman outside?

This matter cannot be carried out before there is no evidence. I have to tell Qing'er and let Qing'er observe it secretly.

.........

The next morning, Li Yanqing had just arrived at the government office of the Jingliufu, and Zhang rushed over, "Terminal, you have figured out the details of the weapon shop."

Li Yanqing was stunned for a moment, and he could figure it out so quickly?

"Are you sure you're not misled?"

Zhang Shun shook his head, "They recruited two mates in Jingzhao, and Beizhi started with these two mates and asked the owner behind the weapons shop."

Li Yanqing simply put down his pen, inserted his fingers together, and asked with interest: "What are their origins?

"It has something to do with the black party a few years ago!"

The black party Xiang was a rebellious tribe suppressed when Li Yanqing was the first to be the Tongzhi of Jingzhao. They originally lived in the Qingzhou area, but they had already moved to the Hehuang area on Xihe Road two years ago, where they raised horses for the Song army. The Hequ horses they raised were already an important source of war horses for the Jingzhao army.

"The backstage of this weapon shop is the black party Xiang?" Li Yanqing was a little suspicious.

"To be precise, it is a branch of the Black Party Xiang. The leader is called Xibiqi. He lives on the south bank of the Yellow River in northern Lanzhou. He is nominally a livestock farmer, but in fact he is engaged in the smuggling of contraband."

"What kind of contraband buying and selling?"

Li Yanqing's tone was a little cold. He knew that the national strength of Xixia is now weak and urgently needed a lot of strategic materials, especially pig iron, which was very eager for pig iron. The price of the Xixia government purchasing pig iron was ten times that of the Song Dynasty. In order to obtain pig iron, he used any means and even sold the livestock to the Song Dynasty and transported the iron coins back and melted.

Li Yanqing imposed a very strict pig iron embargo on Xixia, and dared to smuggle pig iron to Khitan. Once it was seized, it would be killed immediately. Since this year, hundreds of merchants who risked smuggling pig iron have been killed.

Not only did the Song Dynasty impose a pig iron embargo on the Western Xia, but even the Jin Kingdom strictly forbidden pig iron to the Western Xia, and pig iron is also a scarce strategic material for the Jin Kingdom.

Zhang Shun said in a deep voice: "So far, what they have done is to smuggle gold and silver, transport the gold of the Song Dynasty to Xixia to exchange for silver, and then transport the silver to the Song Dynasty to exchange for gold."

Li Yanqing nodded. The official price and price of one tael of gold in the Song Dynasty were the same as the black market price, but one tael of gold in the Western Xia could be exchanged for at most fifteen taels of silver. This is 50% of the profit. Many small merchants were secretly doing this business, but both Song and Xia strictly prohibited gold and silver from leaving the country, so they could only do smuggling transactions.

It would be fine if they just smuggled gold and silver, but Li Yanqing suspected that they still had to smuggle pig iron, otherwise what would they do to open a weapon shop?

"You continue to send people to monitor them, it's best to send people to be their partners and actually grasp their movements. I'm worried that they will smuggle pig iron on a large scale. If that's the case, you must stop it in time and never allow a pound of pig iron to flow into Xixia."

"I understand, let's make arrangements!"

Li Yanqing smiled and waved his hand again, "Don't hurry to leave, listen to me finish my words."

Zhang Shun quickly calmed down and continued to listen. Li Yanqing smiled and said, "The smuggling of the black party is two-sided. The shopkeeper also promised to make bamboo ox horns and Helan horses for us. We also need to use this channel to get what we need, especially Helan horses, which have a great effect on the scout camp. It is best that we can get hundreds of Helan horses. So on the one hand, you have to destroy them and smuggle pig iron, but you can't let them notice it. You must let them continue to smuggle Helan horses. Do you understand what I mean?"

Zhang Shun thought for a while and said, "Then why don't you let them cooperate with Song Jun explicitly?"

"It's not the time yet. When they really make pig iron, you will act according to the situation. I won't care about this matter and I will leave it to you."

"Abide by the orders!"

Zhang Shun then took a tribute and left in a hurry.

When Zhang Shun left, Li Yanqing walked to the map with his hands behind his back. He looked at the Central Plains. Liu Yu's Qi State had been established, which shows that the Jin Dynasty's national strength was no longer supported and had to launch an agent to exploit the Central Plains for them.
Chapter completed!