Poor Family Chapter 926

Chapter 926 Cao Yun's Worry

At noon, more than a dozen top sword craftsmen were led by soldiers into a room in Jinglue Mansion. There was only one table in the room. On the table were eight precious swords. The scabbards had been removed, and each sword was shining coldly. Very sharp.

Li Yanqing pointed to the sword on the table and said with a smile to the craftsmen: "This is the legendary Xia Guojian, which is strictly forbidden in the Western Xia Dynasty to enter the Song Dynasty. I got it by chance today. It is indeed very good. Come and take a look."

The craftsmen heard that these eight swords were actually the famous Xia Guojian, and they were immediately very interested. They stepped forward to take a closer look, or took the sword to test the edge, or observed its forging pattern, everyone looked very carefully.

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

Li Yanqing waved his hand and said to everyone: "Everyone may not understand what I mean, of course I know that Ganjiang Moxie and Zhanlu Tai'a are all made by our famous craftsmen in the Central Plains, and our sword casting skills must be better than Xixia. I'm not saying that This means, what I mean is, what is the secret that Xixia can make such high-level swords as weapons in large quantities? It takes years and months to make a really good sword. If we find a way, use If such a sword is built in a few hours, our army can equip it in large quantities, which will greatly promote the improvement of the army's combat effectiveness."

Everyone understood what Li Dutong meant, not to forge good swords so that they could be used as standard weapons, but to forge a large number of good swords. Mastering Xia Guojian's forging method may be able to achieve this goal.

Li Yanqing said again: "In the past, the imperial court created a thick-ridged war sword, which was very effective in piercing the enemy's armor. From now on, soldiers will wear a thick-ridged sword. I think Xia Guojian is very suitable, so I hope everyone can imitate it. , These eight swords are for everyone to study."

Everyone is talking about it, they are all top craftsmen, all of them are experts in sword making, at least half of them come from the Armament Inspection Department in Tokyo, and they have a very high authority in making weapons.

The old man at the head clasped his fists to Li Yanqing and said, "Reporting to Dutong, just relying on the analysis of samples will be of some use, at least you can understand the material of the sword, but if you don't know the key technology of the other party, I'm afraid that the imitated Xia Guojian will also be imitated. Not like, let Du Tong down."

Li Yanqing smiled slightly and said: "I can tell you a little information. Xixia craftsmen pay great attention to the furnace temperature when casting weapons. They use coal for smelting. Secondly, their bellows are very large. They are large vertical double-row bellows, which are stronger than the two of us. It needs to be high, there is the best quality carbon charcoal on East Road, much better than the charcoal from Xixia, I will arrange for people to send it in large quantities, as for the large bellows I have never seen before, you can figure out how to do it yourself."

All the craftsmen were overjoyed. Dutong's words had revealed the key secret of the Xixia craftsmen. They bowed together and said: "We will come up with a thick-ridged sword that satisfies Dutong as soon as possible!"

After seeing off the craftsmen, Li Yanqing returned to the mansion with a Xia Guojian left behind. At this time, Cao Yun and the others had already returned from the Ci'en Temple. Li Yanqing asked the servant girl to invite all the wives and concubines to the inner hall. Announced, everyone chatted and laughed and walked into the inner hall, Cao Yun asked with a smile: "Is your husband settled?"

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

"Sister, what is the announcement?" Zhao Fujin asked in a low voice.

"My husband is going to travel far away, it will take about a month."

"Ah! Are we going to fight again?" Everyone was taken aback.

"I'm not going to fight, everyone listen to my husband! I won't leak the secret."

Everyone sat down full of doubts, and the servant girl served them refreshments and tea. Li Yanqing smiled and said to everyone: "Everyone knows that I am the envoy of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy, but so far, I have never been to Bashu. Ashamed, I am an incompetent economic envoy, and during this period of time, all the accumulated affairs on Shaanxi Road have been resolved, so I plan to go to Bashu for a month to inspect."

When they heard that they were going to Bashu, everyone's heart dropped, and then everyone began to talk about the time they went to Bashu a few years ago. .

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

"There are two big belly women in the family, I think it's better for her to stay."

"Where is the pregnant woman, it's only been three months!"

Cao Yunjiao put her husband's hand on her stomach angrily, "Touch and see, where is the belly getting bigger?"

Li Yanqing felt and felt, and the direction changed. Cao Yun blushed and pulled his hand away, "No, you can't have **** during pregnancy, the doctor has repeatedly told you."

Li Yanqing said with a smile: "The doctor is only talking about the first three months and the last three months! It's okay in the middle, it doesn't matter, I just need to be careful."

Cao Yun had no choice but to obey 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 talk about it." Cao Yun tidied up her body, changed into a suit of underwear and lay down next to her husband again.

Li Yanqing smiled lazily: "I thought you were worried about me and wanted to plant a spy by my side."

"Go! Am I that boring? I don't care if you are looking for a woman outside, but just don't bring me home."

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

Not long after, Li Yanqing fell into a deep sleep, but Cao Yun couldn't sleep a little bit. The day before yesterday, Tang Yuaner came to her and cried, and her husband Wang Gui brought back a woman with a big belly. This is already the fourth time. Yes, it is plausible that he wants to carry on the family line. It is said that he still has a woman outside, and Tang Yuaner is about to collapse.

But Tang Yuan'er missed a word, saying that Wang Gui blurted out in a fit of anger, 'Dutong also raises women outside, Mrs. Cao didn't object, why are you jealous all day long? '

This surprised Cao Yun secretly, did her husband really raise a woman outside?

This matter cannot be brought forward without evidence, so I have to tell Qing'er and let Qing'er observe secretly.

Early the next morning, when Li Yanqing arrived at the official office of Jinglue Mansion, Zhang Shun hurried over, "Dutong, the details of that weapons shop have been found out."

Li Yanqing froze for a moment, figured it out so quickly?

"Are you sure you haven't been misled?"

Zhang Shun shook his head, "They recruited two buddies in Jingzhao, and the humble staff started with these two buddies and asked the owner behind this weapon shop."

Li Yanqing simply put down his pen, crossed his fingers together, and asked with interest: "What is their origin?

"Related to the Black Party item from a few years ago!"

The Black Party Xiang was a rebel tribe that Li Yanqing suppressed when he first served as Jingzhao Tongzhi. They originally lived in the area of Gyeongju, but they had moved to the Hehuang area of Xihe Road the year before last, where they raised horses for the Song army. The Hequ horse raised has become an important source of war horses for the Jingzhao Army.

"The backstage of this armory is the gangster?" Li Yanqing was a little skeptical.

"To be precise, it is a branch of the Black Party. The leader is called Xibi Chou. He lives on the south bank of the Yellow River in the northern part of Lanzhou. In name, he makes a living by raising animals, but in fact he is engaged in the smuggling of contraband."

"What contraband business?"

Li Yanqing's tone became a bit cold. He knew that Xixia's national strength is now weak and urgently needs a lot of strategic materials, especially pig iron. The price of pig iron purchased by the Xixia government is ten times that of the Da Song market. In order to obtain pig iron, they will do anything and even sell livestock. After arriving in Song Dynasty, the iron money was directly transported back to be melted.

Li Yanqing imposed a very strict pig iron embargo on Xixia. He dared to smuggle pig iron to Khitan.

Not only did the Song Dynasty impose an embargo on pig iron shipments to Xixia, but even the Kingdom of Jin also strictly prohibited the transportation of pig iron to Xixia. Pig iron is also a strategic material that is in short supply for the Kingdom of Jin.

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

Li Yanqing nodded, one tael of gold in the Song Dynasty was exchanged for ten taels of silver, the official price and the black market price were the same, but one tael of gold in Xixia could be exchanged for fifteen taels of silver at most, which was a 50% profit. This business is done secretly, but both Song and Xia countries strictly prohibit the export of gold and silver, so they can only do smuggling business.

It would be fine if it was just smuggling gold and silver, but Li Yanqing suspected that they would still want to smuggle pig iron, otherwise what would they open a weapon shop for?

"You continue to send people to monitor them. It is best to send people to become their buddies to keep track of their movements. I am worried that they will smuggle pig iron on a large scale. If that is the case, you must stop it in time and never allow a catty of pig iron to flow into Xixia."

"I understand the humble job, let's make arrangements!"

Li Yanqing smiled and waved his hands again, "Don't rush away, listen to me."

Zhang Shun quickly calmed down and continued to listen. Li Yanqing smiled again: "The smuggling of black party items has two sides. The shopkeeper of that shop also promised to give us bamboo horns and Helan horses. We also need to use this channel to get what we need. Helan horses, especially Helan horses, are of great use to the scout battalion. It would be best if we could get hundreds of Helan horses, so on the one hand, you want to destroy them and smuggle pig iron, but you can't let them notice, you have to let them Keep smuggling Helan horses, do you understand what I mean?"

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

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

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Zhang Shun saluted and left in a hurry.

After Zhang Shun left, Li Yanqing walked to the map with his hands behind his back. He looked at the Central Plains area. Liu Yu's Qi State had already been established, which meant that the Jin State's national power was exhausted, and they had to send out agents to exploit the Central Plains for them.

Now Jing Zhaojun's top priority is to establish a huge intelligence network in the Central Plains. After two years of destroying Xixia, he can go back and clean up the fake Qi.

(end of this chapter)

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