customs clearance base

Chapter 1654 Rise (16)

On a night in early spring in April, the night wind was cold and permeating.

Everyone in the iron tower sat in the hall with a raging bonfire burning. The sparks of the bonfire brought out long sparks in the night wind blowing past, making a crisp crackling sound.

Sitting on the main seat, Zhao Hu propped his fat face with his right hand, leaned against the back of the chair in a very uncultivated manner, and asked the three subordinates below who were as helpless as himself: "Is there really no Is there a way?"

Hearing Zhao Hu's inquiry, several subordinates drooped their heads one by one, and even Tie Long, who had always had the most ghostly ideas, showed a helpless expression. Zhao Hu sighed regretfully, and couldn't help but feel annoyed.

"I'm afraid I was tricked by that old rogue, the Grand Duke Hans. The title of the Grand Duke is simply a moon in the water, a flower in the mist, which makes people invisible."

The words of the old bachelor during the day were vivid in his ears, which not only made Zhao Hu's restless heart throbbing with excitement, but also triggered a problem that Zhao Hu had been urgently waiting to solve for many days.

That is when Zhao Hu discovered that his finances had entered a dead end, a major problem that might shake his foundation. As soon as he hurried back to the Iron Tower Fortress, Zhao Hu immediately asked the guards to notify the three regiment leaders below to rush to the castle hall to hold an emergency military meeting.

The commander of the sixth heavy infantry regiment is Treasurer Starn, the commander of the eighth heavy infantry regiment is Munda, the commander of the first light cavalry regiment Tie Long, and the additional first light cavalry regiment is Zhao Hu who obtained [-] horses in exchange with the Kazakhs. Kazakh war horses, a new light cavalry regiment formed, the commander is the former guard captain Tielong.

This newly formed light cavalry regiment is Zhao Hu's treasure. Not only are the soldiers recruited from the northern refugees who are good at riding horses, but they are also equipped with the best weapons among all the troops.

The newly-built light cavalry is not only a uniform and exquisite lock scale armor, but also thick steel plates are added to the important parts of the body, which is much higher in defense than ordinary imperial light cavalry wearing thick leather armor, but it is lighter in weight. Much lighter than heavy cavalry.

In his hand is a three-meter-long cavalry spear, and on his waist is a new single-edged thick-backed saber that is good for chopping. There are also ten short javelin slots on the weapon racks on both sides of the horse's girdle, which is completely a mobile light weapon arsenal. .

This allows the light cavalry regiment, which has strengthened its defense, to have very good mobility and impact. Even the Iron Dragon, who was originally good at commanding cavalry operations, also admired this configuration.

What Zhao Hu is most proud of is that this light cavalry, which he poured his heart and soul into, is equipped with a light pistol crossbow. .

This new type of one-handed crossbow arrow is easy to operate and has high shooting accuracy. The reasonable design of the crossbow body allows the cavalry to prop up the crossbow string with one foot on the horse. The quiver is carried on the back of each cavalry, which can be used as a thickening The carapace can also be taken out with arrows.

Although the range of the single-handed crossbow is not as good as the foot-operated crossbow equipped by the heavy infantry, it can penetrate the scale armor 150 steps away, but it can easily penetrate the ring armor of the cavalry 50 steps away, and it can even penetrate the heavy cavalry within [-] meters. full steel armor.

What worries Zhao Hu most is that people need to eat and horses need to graze. More than 2 people eat and do nothing every day, which makes Zhao Hu heartbroken. In particular, the consumption of the newly established light cavalry regiment is even more than that of a reorganized heavy infantry regiment of 3000 people. , You can't live like this even if you have money and food.

Zhao Hu secretly thought that in order to get rich, he should not only reduce expenditures, but more importantly, expand the source of wealth. Money is not saved, but earned. The moon-like grand duke's laurel crown is not without the idea of ​​finding a business road connecting the north and the south.

Now a large amount of materials in the south are hoarded in the iron tower, and weapons alone are piled up in two warehouses, and other materials are piled up like mountains. New things are constantly being produced, but old things cannot be sold. Zhao Hu found that he had accidentally fallen into an economic crisis. .

What is a crisis?The biggest crisis is to produce but not sell. These valuable things are placed here, rusty and moldy, and they can't be turned into money. They will only slowly become a pile of scrap copper and rotten iron.

Especially in the rainy season that just passed, the wet weather and continuous heavy rain softened the bowstrings in the warehouse. After everything went on, all kinds of weapons and equipment piled up in the warehouse could only be put into the iron furnace again and become A puddle of molten iron.

what to do?Zhao Hu was troubled by these problems. Most of the south were a bunch of impoverished little lords, each living a peaceful life. Who would want so many weapons for what?

Selling to the Kazakhs is even worse. If these weapons and equipment are sold to the Kazakhs, I am afraid that it will not be long before the words Made of Iron Tower will appear on the arrowheads nailed to the gate of the imperial capital.

"Is it true that we can't find a road that can lead to the northern border? Are there Kazakhs squatting on the snow-capped mountains west of our Roman Empire? Kazakhs won't be so perverted!"

Seeing the silence of his subordinates one by one, Zhao Hu's face became more and more ugly.

Seeing the increasingly red face of his lord, especially the sparks of anger in the eyes looking at him, the poor Tie Long had no choice but to bite the bullet and say: "My lord, if you want to find a road to the north, Not impossible, but we need someone's help! Only with his help will it be possible to find a way to the north under the eyes of the Kazakhs!"

When Zhao Hu heard that someone could open the passage to the north, his mood improved immediately, but seeing Tie Long hesitated to speak, he said anxiously: "When is this, why are you still hiding? Do we really have to wait until we are completely trapped Desperate to speak out?"

Seeing Zhao Hu get angry, Tie Long replied with embarrassment: "My lord, don't worry, it's not that the subordinates don't want to talk about it, but doing so may affect your precious reputation. I heard that the captives brought back from the Kazakhs this time There is a little baron named Liu Fei, who is an important figure in Liuyu Chamber of Commerce, the largest smuggling organization in the north. Although he is just an insignificant fish among the Kazakhs, he is very famous among the northern nobles and the imperial capital.

Baron Liu Fei is a top-notch expert in evading recovery, smuggling goods, and secretly opening up business channels. His subordinates have heard about this person many times before. It is said that he often deals with the imperial capital and the great nobles in the north. Many things that are inconvenient for adults to handle are handed over to this person to take care of black jobs.

Since my lord wants to open the north-south channel under the eyes of the Kazakhs, he must first find this person. If he can get the help of his Northern Liuyu Chamber of Commerce, it will be a piece of cake to secretly open a secret passage to the north! "

Tie Long looked at the expression on Zhao Hu's face, and found that there was no big reaction on Zhao Hu's face, he let out a sigh of relief, and continued: "It's just that this person likes smuggling slaves the most, and he is notorious in the north. Known as the Black Heart Wolf, if you cooperate with him, spreading the word may have a bad impact on your current reputation!"

"Qingyu? It's something you can't eat or wear. Who cares about it!" Zhao Hu laughed after hearing Tie Long's words. How could he forget this big acquaintance? He used to cooperate with him when he was in Falcon Territory. Intention, but the Kazakhs invaded, and the matter was delayed.

Zhao Hu stood up and waved to the subordinates below: "Let's leave today. Tomorrow morning, Tie Long, you will lead 20 light cavalry to Chaoyang City with me. The black-hearted wolf in the north still owes me money." What about [-] gold lukes, just this time I asked him to carefully calculate the reckless debt!"

Seeing Zhao Hu leaving the hall with a face full of joy, Tie Long stepped out of the hall and shook his head in doubt: "Why did I think of helping Zhao Hu consider his reputation? Could it be that what I did to this Zhao Hu caused a lot of trouble?" I agree, judging from what Zhao Hu is doing now, I dare not say that he will become a good emperor, at least he is one of the rare lords who is considerate of the people! Maybe it is because I don’t want to destroy Zhao Hu’s image as a benevolent lord in the hearts of the people!"

The sound of rumbling horseshoes shook the ground, and the dust rolled up by two thousand light cavalry who followed at the same time was like a galloping yellow dragon.

The vast and boundless plain spread out rapidly in front of Zhao Hu's eyes. Ten serious-faced cavalry guards held the three-legged falcon spear flags in their right hands and guarded closely on both sides of Zhao Hu. The momentum ran towards the northwest of Chaoyang City.

Holding a strong soldier in hand, riding the horse on the ground, the world is free to gallop, Zhao Hu at the front of the team is in a happy mood as if flying in the sky, followed by two thousand younger brothers who are armed to the teeth.

"How far is Chaoyang City? Why did you drive all morning, not to mention seeing the top of the city, even the flat ground? Isn't Chaoyang City built on a flat land?" Zhao Hu turned his head and looked at the sky. Sun, turned around and asked the flag officer beside him.

Seeing the lord asking himself, the flag officer pointed respectfully at the slope of the commercial road in front of him and said, "My lord, as long as we cross this ridge, we should be able to see Chaoyang City."

"Oh, really?"

Zhao Hu, who was full of doubts, was the first to rush up to the top of the slope of the commercial road in front of him on his war horse. Suddenly, a fault appeared in the surrounding steep hills, and a huge flat and low-lying land appeared in front of Zhao Hu's eyes.

(End of this chapter)