"Saltpeter?" Zhao Xingde's heart moved and asked in a deep voice, "How much more money is needed?"

No one knows better than Zhao Xingde that the large amount of use of firearms consumes saltpeter on the battlefield. He used firearms to fight in the Song and Liaodong. In this era, due to quality, whether it is iron barrel cannons or muskets, the amount of gunpowder is extremely high. The iron barrel cannons used by the Liao Kingdom reached the point where gunpowder was needed to fill the entire barrel. Just because the Han army in Liaodong was desperately buying, the price of saltpeter on the black market in Song Kingdom has more than doubled.

"Brother Zhao misunderstood, it's not a problem of lack of money." Xie Ximin smiled, "We can still take out the money for mining this saltpeter mine. The silver money is of no other use except mold. It is better to invest it in real business. However, as I told Brother Zhao just now, the price of saltpeter fluctuates too much. For the business, the risk of mining saltpeter is too high, so another business needs to smooth out this risk. Chunyu Iron Factory has a good income. We want to exchange silver shares with the iron factory, 30% of the silver shares of Gaochanghang and 30% of the silver shares of Chunyu Iron Factory." Seeing that Zhao Xingde was a little hesitant, he said, "To be honest, Gaochangxing is also a century-old brand in Xizhou. In addition to this saltpeter mine, there are iron ore, copper ore and charcoal mines. However, the iron ore and charcoal mines in Guanzhong were sold to Chunyu Iron Factory."

"Swap silver stocks?" Zhao Xingde repeated in a low voice. He has participated in three partnerships, Chunyu Iron Factory, Yajiaoxing and Dongmuxing. He is also very clear about the ways to make money from the world's joint stocks. There are roughly three types of talk stocks, silver stocks and body stocks. Talk stocks are to sort out the boss's seats according to the amount of money they join. When deciding on major business affairs, they will also suppress small stocks. Silver stocks only eat flowers and interest, but have no right to talk in the business. The stocks are the capable shopkeepers. The craftsmen use this to make use of dry stocks, and according to the size of the stocks, they are in business and interest.

, but people who come from stocks can no longer do anything for other businesses. Exchange of 30% of the silver stocks means that Chunyu Iron Factory will hand over 30% of the annual income to Gaochang Bank, and Gaochang Bank will also hand over 30% of the income to Chunyu Iron Factory, but neither side interferes with the other party's operations. Exchange of bank stocks is usually the beginning of the in-depth cooperation between the two businesses. If the cooperation goes well, you can also exchange shares, be contractors, and jointly assign shopkeepers. This is how the eight major banks in Changan organized. Small and medium-sized commercial banks also use this to unite and strengthen their own strength.

Xie Ximin nodded and smiled, "It's important, Brother Zhao can discuss with Chunyu Dong's family. I hope to give Xie a reply next month." Zhao Xingde bowed and said, "Thank you." "Why be polite," Xie Ximin shook his head and smiled, "Our family was originally a blacksmith, and they were family friends with Chunyu's family. We naturally trust people. If people don't deal with them, like those treacherous merchants, even if they hold gold and silver, we will not let him join." Xie Ximin patted Zhao Xingde's shoulder and asked him to think slowly.

Zhao Xingde pondered and said nothing. At least in this era, saltpeter was an absolutely important material. Just as neither the Liao Kingdom, the Song Kingdom nor the Xia Kingdom had enough gunpowder. Although he began to try to establish a large-scale firearm army in Guanzhong, the Ordnance Division and the Bailout Division were still very careful in ammunition reserves, without considering that it might cost several times or even dozens of times the price in a few years to buy raw materials for gunpowder.

"Person Zhao seems to have gained something?"

"Where are there." Zhao Xingde replied in a flash, looking up, it was Yu Zangyun beside him, and said in a quiet voice: "It seems that Captain Zhao has a good popularity, and his colleagues from the National Guardian are very welcome." Zhao Xingde smiled and said, "It's not my blessing to Captain Yu." Yu Zangyun smiled and shook his head. The wine glass and Zhao Xingde gently touched Zhao Xingde, but did not drink it, and frowned and said, "I have received the news that the Meerbo people who invaded Hedong seemed to flee from Hedong to Hebei under the expulsion of Zhe Keqiu. Alas - another creature was suffering from the disaster." He sighed, raised his head and drank the wine in the glass.

"What?" Zhao Xingde said in a lost voice, "There are passes on all sides of Hedong, how can the bandits escape?"

"The pass is also something that needs people to guard." Yu Zangyun sneered, "This is not the first time to harm neighbors, nor will it be the last." Because the Meerbo cavalry acted quickly and it was extremely difficult to encircle and annihilate. Wang Deren, the guard general of Zhending Prefecture in Hebei, was called "Wang Yasha". He was brave in war, but he was unruly and had old grudges with the Hedong Army. Therefore, Zhe Keqiu concentrated his army to defeat the invading Meerbo army, and after regaining the captured people, he used three sides to set up a net, and at the same time, he let go, and forced thousands of Meerbo remaining soldiers to the extent of Zhending Prefecture Road.

"How can this be done?" Zhao Xingde felt uncomfortable. He didn't know what to say for a moment, and murmured, "What are the crimes of the people?"

"Hmph," Yu Zangyun sighed, "It's fine if the Kanto vassal states are like this. The Anbei Army Office can clearly drive eastward to attack the Meerbo tribe. The Guguo Mansion made the Anbei Army Office stop and let the Meerbo people go south. Some people think that the Liao and Song dynasties should be allowed to fight. Such a plan is no different from Zhe Keqiu." His eyes were complicated, and he seemed to be deeply ashamed.

Zhao Xingde didn't say anything and nodded heavily. The happy smiles all over the room seemed to turn pale.

"In their eyes, it would be better to kill corpses and blood. At that time, the King of Shidong went out of Hangu Pass to clean up the world, defeating the two sick cats without any effort, and also gaining the hearts of the people of Guandong. Humph, it's a great plan." Yu Zangyun patted Zhao Xingde's shoulder and said in a deep voice, "Prince Zhao, we must not let this shameless idea continue in the Guguo Mansion. If our dynasty wants to unify the world, the Guguo Mansion's vision can no longer be in Guanxi, but to look at the world, the people of Guandong are also the future people of my Daxia Dynasty. If you sit down like this, I will not kill Boren, and Boren will die for me. If you and I are powerless, it's okay. Since we are in Guguo Mansion, if we don't fight against it and win people's hearts, we will be the sinners in this world."

............

"Make rice at the time of Yin, and leave the city to line up at the time of Mao," Yang Yanqing said in a deep voice, "Each army should obey the orders and fight hard, and it is worthy of the elders of Hedong."

"Yes--" The generals of the Hedong Army under the tent received the order in unison. The tent echoed the clanging sound of armor. During this period, the Liao army attacked repeatedly, and 70,000 Hedong Army defended Yunzhou and never fought with them. The elite soldiers and generals had already been filled with smoke. In addition, the Meerbo people plundered Hedong, and Zhe Keqiu let them go again, which made the soldiers and generals in the camp extremely dissatisfied. The autumn was clear and the air was cool. When the Hu people went south to herd their horses, Yang Yanqing sent cavalry to test it several times. He found that the Liao army had been exhausted because of the days of attacking the city, so he decided to take advantage of the situation to attack the enemy and could not let them retreat without any loss.

The seventy thousand army left only more than ten thousand archers and old and weak guard the city, and took care of the rear of the formation with artillery and crossbows on the city. The 30,000 heavy armored crossbowmen, 10,000 long-handled axes and long-handled gunmen, a total of more than 45,000 heavy armored infantry formed a large formation under the city, and ten thousand cavalry on both sides formed a crutch horse formation. Another brave general Wang Lin led 5,000 cavalry out of the city had been out of the city for a few days, and had a circle of hundreds of miles, ambushed in the north of the Liao army, preparing to attack the flanks of the Liao army from north to south when the two armies were fighting fiercely.

Xiao Tachi couldn't capture the city. He wanted to withdraw his troops temporarily, but when he saw the Song army out of the city to invite the battle, he immediately decided to fight. The Liao army attacked the city for several days. The more than 100,000 sign troops had been lost, with only tens of thousands of people left. They drove all of them to the front of the army and prepared to charge and consume the arrows of the Song army. 20,000 Xi army, Jurchen soldiers and artillery craftsmen army formed a large formation of the central army, and the Baidiang camp and the general tent were even behind the large formation. Because the formation of the cavalry was sparse, it stretched far away to the north and south wings, and more than 40,000 cavalry seemed boundless.

"Catch this formation and we go to Yunzhou City to spend the winter." Xiao Tachi said casually. However, looking at the Song army formation, he was secretly shocked. He had never seen the Song army formation before. The soldiers and horses were clear in the flags and guards. A big "Yang" was erected in the formation. Because the Song army robe was red, from a distance, there were more than a dozen square formations red. Various drums and horns came from the formation to respond to harmony. The mobilization of each unit was orderly. After the Song army formed the formation under the city, he did not hesitate at all. Under the drumming command, the infantry and cavalry formation slowly moved forward like red waves. The rising sun shone on the Song army's armor and reflected a dazzling metallic luster. The Liao army and the Song army fought for many days, and were secretly shocked when they saw this situation.

Seeing the Song army's formation approaching step by step, Xiao Tachi couldn't help frowning. Yang Yanqing was guarding Yunzhou for many days. He thought that this person was cautious, but he didn't expect that the battle would be a situation of attacking each other with all his might. The Liao army in various units had been siegeing the city for several days, but now they are in a hurry to form a formation and have not adapted much. At this moment, under the pressure of the Song army step by step, some soldiers showed panic on their faces. Even the war horses were sniffing uneasy.

"Boom--" "Boom---" The cannons on both sides of Song and Liao almost rang out at the same time.

Huge stone bullets drew arcs and landed on the ground, which was a big pit. When the Song army left the city and launched an attack, it was a very short period of time. Before the artillery in front of the Liao army could lower its guns, the Song army was about to approach, causing most of the solid artillery shells of the Liao army's giant artillery to land behind the Song army, while the solid artillery shells of the Song army at the top of the city landed near the Liao army's artillery shells.
Chapter completed!