"Mr. Zhu Ji returned that he made friends with Xu Jie, the chief censor of Fujian Dao in the Qinling Mountains. Xu Jie served Yuan Shu and joined the White Lotus Sect with Yuan Shu. Yuan Shu was the great protector of the White Lotus Sect and Xu Jie was the protector of the White Lotus Sect. He was willing to provide the movements of the White Lotus Sect to help us suppress the White Lotus Sect."

"At present, the White Lotus Sect has controlled various villages and towns in the Shangluo Mountain area, which is very popular."

"The White Lotus Sect was fighting in the Nanyang Basin before, but was later defeated by local princes. Under the leadership of the thief leader Tang Saier and Xu Hongru, he moved to Shangzhou in the Qinling Mountains."

"This group of White Lotus Sect protectors seems to know some magic tricks."

"Tang Sai'er was the leader of the White Lotus Sect during the Yongle period, and Xu Hongru was the leader of the White Lotus Sect during the Wanli and Tianqi periods. Both of them were from Shandong, so the two White Lotus Sects chose to merge in order to deal with the princes in Nanyang. Tang Sai'er's magic was even more powerful, so she became the leader of the White Lotus Sect and was called the White Lotus Sect by the White Lotus Sect."

Zhang Hua sent the Jinyiwei to explore the depths of the Qinling Mountains to send back news one after another, and Yuan Shu was actually annexed by the White Lotus Sect.

However, it is normal for all forces to compete and annex each other.

"Let Zhu Ji continue to inquire about the movements of the White Lotus Sect and closely monitor the every move of the White Lotus Sect."

"This censor Xu Jie needs to focus on winning over this."

Zhang Hua doesn’t want the White Lotus Sect to expand into its territory.

The ability of the White Lotus Sect to incite people's hearts will surely make villagers in Yongzhou panic.

Although the Censor Xu Jie, the Censor of Supervision, was not well-known, but he was able to serve as the Censor of Supervision, and was considered an important member of the court in their dynasty. The Censor of Supervision was responsible for inspecting various trajectories and impeaching all officials. Zhang Hua won over all talents.

Zhang Hua arranged the Jinyiwei to monitor the actions of the Bailian Sect, and then continued to farm in Guanzhong.

It was the time of farming, and Zhang Hua, Qin Xiaogong, and Cao Zhen were all working hard to farm, solve the military ration problem this year, and temporarily quit the army.

At the same time, the water conservancy supervisor Guo Shoujing has already led the civilians to dig the Zheng Guo Canal and make long-term plans for the future.

The Zhengguo Canal was built, and millions of mu of irrigated fertile fields could be added, providing continuous food for Zhang Hua's forces.

Zhang Hua migrated part of the population to Chang'an and Xia Towns to enhance the prosperity of these two third-level towns and upgraded them to small cities as soon as possible.

If it weren't for the destruction of An Lushan, Chang'an would have been the first city in Guanzhong.

After two wars in Chang'an, it was finally upgraded to a city in Zhang Hua's hands.

On the other hand, under the management of Fan Zhongyan, Xia Town has been upgraded from a third-level town to a small city, becoming the first city in Heluo!

At present, Zhang Hua has two cities, one Chang'an City and the other Xia City, with a population of more than 100,000, becoming the military and political center of the Heluo area in Guanzhong and Heluo.

Moreover, after Chang'an City and Xia City were upgraded, more and more people flocked to these two cities.

In addition to farming, Zhang Hua did not forget to build arms, especially the Mingguang Armor, which was commonly equipped by the Tang army.

The characteristic of Mingguang Armor is that there is a large circular or oval deck on the chest and behind it. After polishing, it has dazzling reflections in the sun, just like a mirror, so it is called Mingguang Armor.

The Mingguang Armor in this world has excellent defense capabilities and can be used by infantry and cavalry.

【Weapon】: Mingguang Armor

[Effect]: Defensive power +4, reducing some damage taken by generals and soldiers, among which the damage of bows and arrows is reduced by 40%.

【Equipped troops】: Cavalry, Infantry

[Special Note]: Based on the standard Mingguang Armor, blacksmiths with high craftsmanship can forge special Mingguang Armor that can be equipped with military generals with higher quality materials, but the cost is higher.

The effect of Mingguang Armor is good, but the cost is also extremely high. In the power of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, there are only heavy armor infantry, and heavy armored cavalry equipped with Mingguang Armor to improve their defense.

Zhang Hua asked someone to create 10,000 new pairs of Mingguang armor, which can be used when attacking Qin Xiaogong and Cao Zhen.

The Mingguang Armor not only improves defense, but also a group of heavy armored cavalry, and the heavy armored infantry are arrayed in bright armor. The real armored light is spreading towards the golden scales of the sun, full of momentum, enough to intimidate the enemy.

Appearance is combat effectiveness.

Under the management of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Zhang Hua, Chang'an City gradually became the economic, political and military center of Guanzhong.

The geographical location of a city basically determines its status.

After the Han Dynasty, who had never heard of the word Chang'an?

A team of carriages arrived at the south gate of Chang'an City, and there were dozens of armored soldiers guarding him.

The generals guarding the city wall stopped the horse team.

The flags and armor of this horse team are not the standard of Zhang Hua's power, but come from other forces.

"Where are you from?"

"This general, we are merchants from Sichuan and Shu. We transport tea to Guanzhong for sale in exchange for some horses. Please rest assured that we will pay tea tax to the government here, which is a lot of money. If we can set up shops in Chang'an to supply tea, it will be a considerable tax for the government here for many years."

The tea merchant in charge explained his purpose and believed that the other party would not make things too difficult for him.

You should know that tea is abundant in Sichuan and Sichuan, and was one of the indispensable materials in ancient times.

Those who cannot afford to lose money every day are firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea.

For ancient government officials, tea, like salt, was an important tax commodity.

This world is no exception.

The generals of the city gate also knew the importance of tea. This is a good thing, and the tea from Sichuan is even more good.

"You are waiting outside the city. I will report to the county government and see how the county magistrate will place you."

"Thank you, sir."

This businessman from Shu was not in a hurry.

Wherever his tea fleet went, it was welcomed by the princes, especially the more he went to the north, the more he was sought after.

Many princes were willing to exchange tea with war horses.

Bartering with things was the norm in ancient times.

Xie An, who was in charge of internal affairs of Chang'an City, heard that a tea convoy of Sichuan and Shu merchants came to Chang'an and knew that this was an opportunity to establish a tea-horse trade, so he immediately summoned the merchant leader of the horse team.

Dozens of soldiers from the escort team were left outside Chang'an City to prevent them from causing trouble in the city.

"How many kilograms of tea leaves do your fleet still have?"

Xie An held a banquet to entertain the Sichuan merchant and asked about his tea condition.

Zhang Hua's power lacks tea.

If there is tea, it can be sold to civilians, collect private wealth, and used to recruit soldiers and horses.

The Sichuan merchant replied: "I brought 20,000 kilograms of tea, but I have sold 15,000 kilograms along the way, and there are still 5,000 kilograms left. I heard that Chang'an is prosperous and I plan to sell these 5,000 kilograms of tea in Chang'an."

"Five thousand kilograms of tea are not too much. What is the price?"

"A high-quality horse, change 120 kilograms of tea leaves. A medium-quality horse, change 70 kilograms of tea leaves. A low-quality horse, change 50 kilograms of tea leaves."

"It's reasonable. From now on, you can transport 30,000 kilograms of tea to Chang'an every year, or even 50,000 kilograms or 80,000 kilograms. Chang'an can digest this batch of tea."

Xie An knew that Sichuan and Shu lacked horses. If Chang'an did not exchange horses for tea, other forces would be willing to exchange horses for tea, especially the princes of Liangzhou, who were even less short of horses.

Therefore, this Sichuan and Sichuan tea merchant is fearless.

Sichuan and Sichuan produce tea, and they can use tea to exchange for a large amount of missing materials. Five thousand kilograms of tea can be exchanged for 40 or 50 high-quality war horses.

These are the first tea merchants to come to Chang'an.

Before this, there were small forces everywhere, attacking each other and the roads were blocked. If the tea merchants in Sichuan and Shu needed to go to Guanzhong, they would have to go through hundreds of small forces.

However, after two years of mutual attacks, small forces were destroyed, and the remaining were large princes of a certain scale, which was conducive to the caravans' turnover of goods in various places.

Five thousand kilograms of tea are just a drop in the bucket. With the population of Zhang Hua's power, 500,000 kilograms of tea can be digested.

The tea dealer said: "Please rest assured. I went out of Sichuan this time to open up a trade route. In the future, the trade route will be unobstructed. Next, 100,000 kilograms of tea can be transported to Chang'an City in batches."

Chang'an City has a large population and the residents here are considered rich, so it has become an important market occupied by Sichuan and Sichuan tea merchants. It not only uses tea to exchange war horses, but also can be used to exchange other materials, such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, cloth, leather, etc.

The princes were launching annexation wars, and merchants from all dynasties were also engaged in invisible wars to expand their market share.

Although the ancient times emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, and the merchants had a low status, the existence of merchants could not be ignored because they invisibly influenced the fate of the dynasty.

Recruiting soldiers, building large-scale construction, and distributing military pay all require money. When it comes to money, it is inevitable that merchants cannot be avoided.

Most of the war horses in Sichuan and Shu came from this group of merchants, and the tea in Guanzhong and Xiliang areas also relied on this group of merchants to turn around between different forces.

There are also forces who purchase salt, iron, leather and food from neighboring countries through merchants.

Xie An established a trade relationship with Sichuan and Sichuan tea merchants, allowing tea merchants to rent shops in Shifang, Chang'an City and sell tea, but the government imposed heavy taxes on tea, and the government had the right of priority to refute.

The so-called right of priority refusal means that the government can buy some tea leaves first before the tea merchant sells it, and the remaining tea leaves will be sold to the civilians by the tea merchant.

Xie An's arrangement was, first, to hoard tea and form reserves for emergencies; second, to supply it to governments and military generals, after all, tea is a good thing; third, the tea you bought can also be sold further north to earn a mid-price...

When Zhang Hua heard that a tea merchant was coming in Sichuan and Sichuan, he agreed to Xie An’s tea-horse trade arrangements.

Zhang Hua raised more than 100,000 war horses in the horse farm in Guanzhong. Even if he took out a thousand war horses for tens of thousands of kilograms of tea, it would be insignificant.

If these tea merchants cannot change their war horses in Chang'an, then these tea merchants will also change their horses in Longyou. Therefore, whether Zhang Hua agrees or not, it will not affect the strength of the princes of Sichuan and Shu.

"Tea is a good thing. The princes who occupy Sichuan and Sichuan and Jiangzuo are not short of tea and silk. However, they lack good horses."

Zhang Hua did not envy these princes who occupied tea resources, because these princes lacked good horses and would become hidden dangers in the later stage.

Because the Eastern Wu, Southern Song and other Jiangnan regimes lacked war horses, they were always subject to control when they were in the Northern Expedition. Sun Quan had to travel thousands of miles to buy horses from Liaodong.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang could raise an army in the Jianghuai River and succeed in the Northern Expedition, which was related to the Mongols' abandoned farmland and opening horse farms in the Jianghuai River.

Just like the ancient Han people who thought about farming when they saw a piece of land, the Mongolians who thought about grazing when they saw a piece of land.
To be continued...