Zhu Nao

Lingtai County.

When the assembly order was sent to Lingtai County, Xie Wuji was chatting with You Gan in the army tent.

The team of Shu merchants who went to Xiliang to go to Xiliang has returned. This trip has been very profitable, and You Gan is also very trustworthy. He directly brought the accounts and [-]% of the profits to the military camp, and shared them with Xie Wuji.

"General Xie," You Gan said, "Look at the accounts, are there any problems?"

After reading it, Xie Wuji put the account aside and said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome, you're welcome." You Gan said, "This time it's just a small test, and the effect is not bad. In the future, I still want to do business with Xiliang for a long time, and then I will have to trouble you to thank the general."

Xie Wuji said: "Twenty percent profit, no trouble."

You Gan chuckled: "General Xie, we have been cooperating for a long time, and you don't want to give me a good price for the sake of affection?"

Xie Wuji glanced at him lightly: "If you care about affection, you can give me a few more."

Yugan pouted.Xie Wuji was decisive enough to bargain when he was negotiating, leaving no room for anyone.

The two were chatting, when someone outside suddenly announced: "General, a letter has arrived."

Xie Wuji said: "Take it here."

After a while, the soldiers delivered the letter from Guangjin Mansion.Xie Wuji opened it to take a look, and You Gan glanced at it, and guessed what it was.

Xie Wuji read the letter and threw the letter back into the wooden box, You Gan asked, "Is it about King Qin? Are you going to be called to send troops?"

Xie Wuji sneered, and said: "I thought they wanted to wait until the rebels died of old age in the capital, then they could win without fighting."

You Gan didn't expect that Xie Wuji, who was always moody and indifferent, could also joke, he was stunned for a moment, and then he couldn't help laughing out loud.It's no wonder that Xie Wuji said that, in order to coordinate the dispatch of troops by the princes of all parties, this matter has been dragged on for long enough.It has been more than a year since the chaos army entered the city.During this period, Xie Wuji wanted to take the initiative to send troops, but was repeatedly delayed and rejected by the officials along the road.Several times this thing almost turned yellow.Originally, the whole world thought that the imperial court was in trouble and would come to rescue from all directions.But now this matter has really torn off the last fig leaf on the court's face-in fact, the court has long been only a court in name.Not many people really respect it anymore.

In a short while, Xie Wuji said: "How many people do you plan to send to this time?"

Yugan held up two fingers.

Xie Wuji was a little unbelievable: "Twenty thousand?"

You Gan shook his head: "Two thousand."

Xie Wuji was stunned. 2000 people?This... is too little, right?

=====

Shuzhong.

Jun Nao followed behind Tie Wu, patrolling the iron smelting workshop.

The workshop is steaming, and hundreds of workers are working in an orderly manner.The orange-red iron slurry is poured into the mold, and the cooled mold is broken into sharp blades.

Tie Wu picked up a freshly made blade and handed it to Zhu Nao: "Fu Yin, you asked me to improve this."

Zhu Nao took the blade and looked at it.Nothing could be discerned from the appearance alone, so he asked Tie Wu, "Have you tried it?"

Tie Wu nodded: "I've tried it. This knife is harder than the one I hit before. But it's also a lot brittle, and most of them will break after less than a hundred cuts."

Junao nodded with satisfaction: "Very good."

As soon as Zhu Nao took over as governor of Chengdu, he vigorously developed workshops in central Shu, especially weaving workshops and iron smelting workshops.Tie Wu was the old blacksmith who contributed to improving iron smelting methods at that time. He spent his whole life blacksmithing and found the secret to strengthening the hardness and toughness of iron, so Zhu Nao arranged for him to work in a government-run iron smelting workshop.

In the past few years, Zhu Nao invested most of the profits earned by the iron smelting workshop back into the iron smelting workshop, gave the craftsmen high salaries, and ordered the craftsmen to vigorously study various methods of improving forging.This has led to considerable progress in forging in central Shu within a few years. Now the artisans have more mature and reliable forging methods, and can more accurately forge the desired ironware.

Not long ago, the capital fell, and Zhu Nao suddenly ordered the iron smelting workshop to build a batch of new weapons.And his requirement for this batch of weapons is to strengthen the hardness as much as possible, but the durability of the weapons can be given up-as long as they are not so brittle that they will break after being cut twice.

Tie Wu took his order, and quickly manufactured the batch of weapons he wanted.These weapons are very sharp, and they are definitely good weapons at first glance, but their shortcomings are also very obvious.

Tie Wu said worriedly: "Fu Yin, although these weapons are hard, they are weapons, too brittle is not a good thing. Soldiers kill the enemy on the battlefield, and the wear and tear of weapons is huge. If it takes a few months to replace a batch, the military expenditure will be greatly reduced. It's probably astonishing."

Hardness is of course the advantage of weapons.But in fact, as a weapon, it is enough to be hard to a certain extent.On the contrary, durability is also very important.If the weapons have to be replaced every few months, no matter how wealthy the government is, they may not be able to afford such consumption.He didn't understand the reason why Zhu Nao ordered such a batch of weapons.

But Zhu Nao smiled and said, "This is the kind of weapon I want."

Tie Wu was taken aback.Has the government been so rich that it doesn't care about military spending?

But Zhu Nao said: "These are not for our own use, they are intended to be sold to others. The better if they break easily, the sooner they break, the sooner they have to come and buy new ones."

Tie Wu: "..." Still, can it be like this?

After inspecting the iron smelting workshop, Jun Nao was very satisfied with the progress of the workshop.He ordered Tie Wu to continue forging, and he had to forge three thousand weapons before the autumn harvest, and then he left.

Back in the official residence, Wei Yue and Yu Changming were waiting for him in the official residence.

The expansion of the army was almost completed, and the government recruited another 8000 people, and Zhu Nao distributed the 8000 people to Wei Yue and Yu Changming.The two have also completed the reorganization of the recruits. Today, they came to Zhu Nao to report on their duties; second, they heard that the Guangjin Mansion had issued an assembly order, and the matter of dispatching troops to serve the king had been confirmed. discussion.

Yu Changming asked worriedly: "Are you really going there in person? Are you really planning to bring only 2000 people?"

Zhu Nao said: "That's enough. The more people you bring, the more food and grass you have to prepare. Why waste people and money?"

Both Yu Changming and Wei Yue knew that Zhu Nao didn't have much interest in King Qin, and his purpose of going to the Central Plains this time was not King Qin.The two of them didn't care about the safety of the court and the emperor at all, it was just that the Central Plains was chaotic, so they inevitably had to worry about Zhu Nao's safety.

Yu Changming said: "I heard that bandits and bandits are rampant in the Central Plains, and there are thousands of rebels at every turn. You only take 2000 people with you when you go out this way, in case you encounter any trouble..."

Wei Yue said: "Forget about the bandits, they may not dare to attack an army of 2000 people. But this time, more than a dozen princes will work together as the king, and everyone has their own plans. Will there be any chaos? Will there be any chaos?" Will someone be against us?"

Zhu Nao waved his hand indifferently and said: "I have already sent a letter to Xie Wuji. After I lead the troops out of Shu, I will go to Guanzhong first, and go to the Central Plains with him. He will lead 8000 people this time. With these [-] elite soldiers, what else is there?" Scary?"

Yu Changming and Wei Yue: "..."

Xie Jiajun's 8000 people are scary in themselves, okay?

Yu Changming said: "Aren't you afraid that Xie Wuji will harm you?"

Zhu Nao asked, "The reason?"

Yu Changming was taken aback: "What reason?"

Zhu Nao said: "If he wants to be unfavorable to me, there must be a reason."

Yu Changming: "...Didn't you trick him in Guanzhong before? Wouldn't he take the opportunity to avenge himself publicly?"

Zhu Nao laughed and said, "Then I helped him too, shouldn't he reciprocate?"

Yu Changming was speechless for a while.

He was just preparing for the worst, for fear that Junao would encounter any accidents.In any case, Zhu Nao is indispensable in Shuzhong.But he also knew that Zhu Nao had always been bold in doing things, and this time he looked confident again, so it would be useless to try to persuade him.

Zhu Nao said to Wei Yue: "As soon as possible, order the people you are going to bring."

He said to Yu Changming again: "The land of Shu will be handed over to you."

This time when he leaves Shu, Wei Yue will take people with him, while Yu Changming will stay in Shu to guard and train the recruits well.

It was also the first time for Wei Yue to go out of Shu, and she was inevitably a little excited. She straightened her chest and said, "Don't worry, the order has already been ordered. This time, all the elites under my command have been taken out."

Yu Changming sighed first, then nodded and said: "Be careful on the road, if there is any danger, send someone back to report as soon as possible."

=====

After the autumn harvest, Xie Wuji took care of the newly harvested grain, and dispatched a group of soldiers from Guanzhong, Yanzhou and other places to form a team of 8000 people.By the time he finished his unhurried formation of troops, the Shu army had already crossed Daba Mountain and reached Guanzhong.

The meeting point agreed by the two armies was near Sanguan. Xie's army arrived two days first, and on the third day, they saw the troops of the Shu army approaching from a distance.

Standing on the high ground, Xie Wuji saw flags flying in the distance. The Shu army had two blue flags, one with the word "Chengdu" and the other with the word "Zhu".The dark team stretched forward in the valley.

Wu Cong stood beside Xie Wuji, watched with him for a while, couldn't help wondering: "Why did they bring so much baggage?"

Xie Wuji had also discovered this problem a long time ago.

This team of the Shu Army does not look like an army.The ranks of the army should be soldiers with swords on both sides of the head and tail, and the baggage team in the middle.In case of robbery or sneak attack along the way, the soldiers at both ends can go out immediately to defend the luggage.And this team of the Shu army is more like a simple supply team, or a caravan.Almost everyone in the team carried luggage, and there were more donkeys and mules pulling carts than there were people.

Also because of this reason, the number of 2000 people was originally not too many, but because of the large number of horses and horses, the team stretched very long.

Wu Cong muttered: "Didn't it mean that the spring plowing is finished before, and they can rush back to the plowing? How long are they planning to stay in the Central Plains?"

After a pause, he suddenly realized: "Is it possible that this is prepared for our army?"

The Shu army has fewer people, so it is considered an effort to send more food, grass and armaments?

Xie Wuji narrowed his eyes in doubt.

Not long after, the army approached, and they could already see clearly the person who was walking in front of the team on horseback——with a handsome face and a pleasant smile, who was it if it wasn't Zhu Nao?

Standing beside Xie Wuji, Jing Zhe was already full of surprise.He has not seen Junao for more than two years.He glanced at Xie Wuji, seeing that Xie Wuji had no intention of stopping him, so he got on his horse and galloped impatiently towards Zhu Nao.

Not long after, he rode to the front of the Shu army, turned over and jumped off the horse, and led the horse to Zhu Nao's side, his eyes were burning brightly: "Young master!"

Zhu Nao smiled, reached out and touched the top of his head: "Grow taller again?"

Jing Zhe said embarrassingly: "It's three inches taller. It's not that long anymore."

Zhu Nao said, "It's high enough, it's high enough."

He asked again, "How is it with General Xie?"

Jing Zhe said: "There are many bandits in Guanzhong, we often fight against them. I have learned a lot in the past two years, and I will tell you slowly."

The two said while walking forward, and soon, the Shu army came to the front of Xie's army.

Xie Wuji had already come down from the high ground and stationed his horse in front of the army.He looked at Junao from a distance, his expression was calm, but his eyes flickered slightly.He said slowly, "Master Zhu, long time no see."

Zhu Nao also smiled at him, red mouth and white teeth, beautiful and beautiful: "General Xie, we meet again."