"Not long ago, Huang Taiji attacked with 800 troops and was defeated by our brothers. On the plain, Huang Taiji is not just our enemy. If the loss is too great, Huang Taiji will be destroyed by other forces."

Zhang Shide was not afraid of Huang Taiji.

Zhang Shicheng and Zhang Shide can defeat Huang Taiji's 800 people, which means that Zhang Shicheng has at least 1,600 salt and refugees.

Compared with the salt people and the Eight Banners Cavalry, the Eight Banners Cavalry has a higher elite level, so at least more than twice the number of salt people is needed to repel the Eight Banners.

Zhang Shicheng wanted to support so many salt people, no wonder he sold salt everywhere and exchanged salt for materials needed for the development of other territories.

"For the first transaction, our Xia Village needs 2,000 kilograms of salt to exchange for pig iron."

Zhang Hua owns a sixth-level mine. Xia Village has established a preliminary smelting system and is not short of iron ore. Zhang Shicheng's salt village is located on the plain and lacks iron ore.

The miners in Tieshan dig iron ore and transport it to Xiacun. Xiacun Blacksmith Shop is responsible for smelting and forging iron tools, and can produce a lot of pig iron and weapons every day.

Zhang Hua and Zhang Shide negotiated the exchange ratio, and the transaction location was Dongguan guarded by Chen Wu.

In addition to the fact that Xiacun has no shortage of iron ore, Zhang Hua also wants to subsidize Zhang Shicheng's iron tools to deal with Huang Taiji.

Zhang Shicheng and Zhang Shide established the Yan Village power established by Yanmin as their direct line, which was very inconsistent with Huang Taiji and could be used just in time.

Zhang Shicheng is a businessman who wants to monopolize the salt production in this area through trade, and then obtain various resources and expand his territory.

Huang Taiji's ideas were different from Zhang Shicheng. While Huang Taiji was trying to win over Han gentry to farm, he plundered and occupied land everywhere.

Zhang Shicheng, who controls salt production and is rich in oil, is undoubtedly a piece of fat in Huang Taiji's eyes.

No wonder Huang Taiji did not concentrate on attacking the valley, but instead sent envoys to win over Zhang Hua, and promised that the Eight Banners' Lord would be unable to deal with so many enemies at such a high position.

The terrain of the valley is even easier to defend and difficult to attack. Huang Taiji has no thousands of soldiers and horses, so he can't take the valley at all.

If Zhang Shicheng is used to consume Huang Taiji, Zhang Hua will be under much less pressure.

But this requires a degree.

Zhang Shicheng cannot be allowed to become the overlord after annexing Huang Taiji, nor can he give Huang Taiji the opportunity to destroy Zhang Shicheng.

This involves diplomacy.

After discussing the salt and iron trade with Zhang Shide, Zhang Shide left a follower to contact Xia Village.

"Huang Taiji is a dominant rule in the eastern plains, maybe our two villages can form an alliance."

Seeing that Xia Village had a population of thousands, it was quite prosperous and produced iron ore, Zhang Shide took the initiative to propose alliance with Zhang Hua.

Only the strong are worthy of forming an alliance.

An alliance?

Zhang Hua did not trust Zhang Shicheng very much.

When Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang fought against each other, Zhang Shicheng stood by and did not rescue Chen Youliang at all.

Therefore, Zhang Shicheng is unreliable.

But on the surface, in order to stabilize Zhang Shicheng and make Zhang Shicheng concentrate on fighting for hegemony with Huang Taiji, Zhang Hua still agreed to Zhang Shide's proposal.

Zhang Shicheng's brother Zhang Shide was quite ambitious and assisted Zhang Shicheng in expanding.

According to Zhang Shide, there are dozens of large and small forces in the eastern plain, and large forces, such as Huang Taiji and Zhang Shicheng, have more than 20 villages and tens of thousands of people.

The small forces only have a few villages, or even a fort or cottage, with a population of thousands.

As for smaller forces, they cannot be independent at all, but rely on various major forces to become pawns of Huang Taiji, Zhang Shicheng and others.

When Huang Taiji and Zhang Shicheng came here, they were more or less with some confidants, so they expanded at an astonishing speed in the early stage.

The Xia Village power established by Zhang Hua in the valley is no less than Huang Taiji, so he is qualified to be the target of Huang Taiji and Zhang Shicheng.

Zhang Hua sent Zhang Shide away from Xia Village.

"The eastern plains are wider than we think, and the plains in the valley may be only one tenth of the outside. The eastern plains may be just a corner of the world."

Zhang Hua’s Xia Village is still quite small.

All major figures compete in battle, like sand in the waves. Every force is fighting openly and secretly. If you want to grow and grow, there is still a long way to go.

Liu Qisu, a scholar from the late Ming Dynasty, shook his head: "Zhang Shicheng, this person is good at doing business, but he is selfish and not trustworthy."

"I know it in my heart."

Without Liu Qisu's reminder, Zhang Hua knew that his relationship with Zhang Shicheng could only be mutual use.

Compared with the melee of dozens of forces in the eastern plains, Zhang Hua could fully farm in the valley, and wait until his troops were sufficient to compete for the plains.

Chen Gong said: "The forces in the eastern plains can fight in a melee, so that they can attract local refugees affected by war and enter the valley to reclaim wasteland. We use less than one-tenth of the valley."

"This is the strategy of 'storing grain and slowing down the king'."

Zhang Hua and Chen Gong looked at each other and showed a knowing smile.

After defeating Jin Wushu and Wang Feng in the valley, they can finally farm well in the valley.

As long as the refugees outside the valley can be absorbed and the population can be increased, the development of Xia Village will not stagnate.

The valley is vast and sparsely populated. Not to mention Zhang Hua’s current population of 15,000, even if it increases by 10 times, the land will not be insufficient to use.

"In the mountains and valleys, there should be many refugees and mountain barbarians, and there are more than 4,000 hidden households."

Zhang Hua has sent someone to draw a topographic map of the valley.

The valley where Xia Village is located stretches for hundreds of miles, with mountains from north to south, and there are many hidden people in the forest.

There may be scattered villages south of the river.

The mountain area is much larger than that of the plains, so according to Zhang Hua's inference, these hidden refugees and mountain barbarians may have as many as ten thousand people.

"Posted a notice, as long as the hunters in the village find mountain people or barbarians in the mountains and forests, they will report immediately and reward 500 yuan of copper coins."

In order to increase the population of the territory, Zhang Hua searched for refugees and barbarians in the mountains and forests, and migrated them to the river valley plain to farm.

In the farming era, population is the most basic resource. Someone can farm, mine, recruit soldiers, collect taxes, farm produces grain, and mine produces iron tools.

The more people there are, the more resources they produce and the stronger their power.

Of course, if the population is sufficient, the lord must also have backbone. If he was the ruler of the Southern Song Dynasty court, even though he had a large population, he would still be beaten by the Jurchens.

Zhang Shide came to Dongguan and met with several salt people.

"Boss, what do they say?"

"They have agreed, but they did not expect that the villages in the valley have been occupied. For this person, they can only win over and not fight."

In addition to coming to sell salt, Zhang Shide also had another purpose, which was to explore the reality of the valley and see if there was any opportunity to take advantage of it.
Chapter completed!