Chapter 62: Victory or Defeat

"Shine, shine..."

The sound of metal hitting each other continued.

After a quarter of an hour, the two men stopped panting.

No one hurt anyone, and the knives in their hands were completely unsightly.

Zhao Xu was very satisfied. He said to Wang Ying: "Give me the silver and the people. We will produce them with all our strength. All the soldiers in the palace must wear them within a month."

"What about the plate armor?" Wang Ying hesitated. Although he was surprised by the success of the scale armor, he still wanted to make another set of armor.

"This is not a conflict. When your hydraulic forging hammer is built, you can produce plate armor and then replace it. Before that, my army can't always wear inferior armor, not to mention that my army may not be only these 20,000 people in the future." Zhao Xu said lightly.

Liu Fu smiled interestingly when he heard this.

According to the Dasong Law System, the prince's fiefdom is at most one state.

But since the founding of Dasong, basically no prince has ever owned a state of fiefdom.

The most records are only five counties.

As the fiefdom increases, the number of the royal guards can be expanded.

Now the King of Yan suddenly said this, is he confident that he can make meritorious deeds and be awarded more fiefdom?

In the past, he would not think so, but now, hehe.

…

"Is the armor made by the Armory so powerful?"

In the courtyard where Chang Wei was recuperating in the royal palace, Chang Wei stared at the new armor worn by Xu Lie, and the desire in his eyes almost overflowed.

After they came back, they told Chang Wei the news.

"How can this be false? My guards and I have tried it." Xu Lie deliberately turned around and showed off to Chang Wei.

"I don't believe it." Chang Wei shook his head.

Xu Lie, a guard, has a close relationship with him and always likes to make trouble.

He thought Xu Lie was teasing him.

Xu Lie did not speak, but suddenly bent his bow and shot an arrow at a guard standing at the door.

Chang Wei was startled when he saw it, and hurried to stop him, but it was too late.

He was immediately furious, secretly wondering why Xu Lie was so frivolous about human life.

But with a "ding..." sound, he saw the arrow hit the guard's armor and fell to the ground.

"Commander, how could you do this? This is a brand new armor. Now this piece of armor is deflated and not perfect." The guard was not prepared and looked aggrieved when he reacted.

Xu Lie scratched his head, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, haha, I'll treat you to a drink tonight."

Chang Wei was stunned in the same place. After a while, he came back to his senses and his face became increasingly excited.

Regardless of the crowd, he ran to find the King of Yan.

After a while, he came back with satisfaction and packed his things to go to the North Camp.

"General, where are you going? Your injury is not healed yet." Xu Lie was surprised to see this.

"My injury has healed 70%, so I don't need to work hard. His Highness allowed me to return to the camp. Hehe, I want to see the soldiers of the personal army wearing the armor of the Armory with my own eyes." Chang Wei looked excited.

When he went to mention this matter, the King of Yan naturally disagreed, but he was pestering.

Promise to only supervise the soldiers to equip armor, and not ask other heavy work.

The King of Yan reluctantly agreed.

After packing up, Chang Wei left the palace without looking back, and his spirits were ten times higher than before.

Xu Lie and others shook their heads helplessly as they looked at Chang Wei's departing back.

Bedroom.

Zhao Xu went to the study after dinner.

The manufacture of scale armor was on the right track, but he did not relax.

The last time Chang Wei came back injured made him realize that the Beidi people were not so easy to beat.

Especially since the current Wangfu's personal army had almost no cavalry.

And the most powerful Beidi was the cavalry.

The disadvantage of infantry against cavalry in war is huge.

Because it means that if he wins a battle, the enemy's cavalry can also easily retreat.

At the same time, if his supply line is extended, the enemy can also easily cut off his supply with cavalry.

In this way, he can basically only fight a defensive battle.

Therefore, it is very important to build a cavalry and it needs to be put on the agenda.

Cavalry needs horses, and a warhorse from Dasong costs 30 taels.

A cavalry needs at least two horses.

If a cavalry of 5,000 people is formed, it will cost 300,000 taels of silver.

This does not include the cost of raising horses at ordinary times.

"Raising soldiers is really a difficult task." Thinking of this, Zhao Xu couldn't help but sigh.

Calculated in this way, the armor, food, horses and soldiers' salaries of the 20,000 royal soldiers are huge.

The government affairs system in Yan County also needs the support of the royal palace.

After all, he refused to impose heavy taxes on the people.

However, he did not regret it.

Because if heavy taxes were imposed, he would have died long ago, and now at least there is time to plan.

Thinking of this, he called Qin Accountant over.

"Qin Accountant, how is the income and expenditure of the royal palace during this period?" Zhao Xu asked.

Qin, the accountant, flipped through the account book and replied, "This time, the palace received 30,000 taels of silver from the ice-making profits in Jinling. The main income still came from brewing wine, a total of 980,000 taels. Last time, 200,000 taels of silver were seized from the Huang and Du families."

After a pause, he said, "The main expenses are the uniforms and food of the palace's personal soldiers. Now, the raw materials of the Armory are added, as well as the silver for the wine jars and the cost of purchasing green ant wine. Now there are still 360,000 taels of silver on the account."

Zhao Xu nodded.

Although his wine was sold at 15 taels per jar, the cost of the wine jars and green ant wine had to be deducted from it.

So overall, the profit was only about 10 taels.

The key is to exchange for the land of the wealthy family in Yan County.

During this period, a large part of the profit from selling wine was used to pay off debts.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be only this little money on the books.

"We can't be satisfied with what we have right now." Zhao Xu secretly thought.

After ordering Qin's accountant to go back, Zhao Xu leaned on his chair and pondered for a while, feeling that his plan to make money could not be stopped.

…

The next day.

Zhao Xu's deep dream ended in a burst of noise.

Waking up from bed, Zhao Xu looked outside with doubtful eyes.

Feng'er walked in at this time and pouted: "Your Highness, it's Dong An and Yang He. They want to see Your Highness."

Zhao Xu then remembered that today was the day to appoint the personnel of the trading company.

After washing, he had breakfast and met Dong An and Yang He.

"Hey, those who didn't know would have thought that you two are going to be grooms today." Zhao Xu teased the two of them.

It seems that he is sure that he can become an official in the palace.

Dong An and Yang He were more energetic than the other.

And as if they had agreed, both of them were wearing bright red robes.

Although it's not the groom's kind, it's still very festive.

Dong An and Yang He looked at each other and each snorted.

Dong An said: "Your Highness, he is my follower. He will learn whatever I do."

Yang He made a look like he was vomiting, "You can say such shameless words, aren't you afraid that you won't be able to sleep at night?"

Seeing that the two started to bicker again, Zhao Xu said: "Okay, you can argue again after the officials of the commercial bank are appointed."

After hearing this, the two stopped talking.

Not long after, other children from wealthy families also arrived one after another.

Because this time he wanted to ask Tsui Hark and others about what everyone was doing these days, so he set his location at the palace.

After all the personnel arrived, Zhao Xu asked everyone to write down the number of raw materials purchased during this period on paper.

After submitting the submissions, Dong An and Yang He were indeed at the top.

But just like Dong An's confidence, Yang He lost a little to Dong An.

With some calculation in mind, he asked everyone to wait.

He came to a courtyard and sent someone to call Xu Hark and others.

"How is your investigation going during this period?" Zhao Xu asked.

Xu Ke said: "Your Highness, I have been following Dong An. He did not cheat, but his father secretly supported him with a batch of materials. However, Dong An did not know about it, so Yang He actually won."

Chai Wu nodded, "Indeed, Your Highness, Yang He is a small spy, and he relied on his sharp tongue throughout the whole process."

Zhao Xu was greatly surprised when he heard this.

I didn't expect things to turn around like this.

If Dong An learns about this, I don't know what his expression will be.

"Li Qiao, Gao Jian, Sun Yi, etc. cheated and were disqualified. The rest were ranked according to the number of deliveries during this period. The first place was Yang He, the second place was Dong An..."

"Second place? Your Highness, this...is this wrong? How come I am second place?"

After Tsui Hark and others revealed the spying situation, Zhao Xu immediately announced the ranking.

When Dong An heard this, his proud smile disappeared and turned into surprise.

Other wealthy children who were scolded for cheating were also a little dissatisfied and argued: "Your Highness, we have worked hard and did not cheat..."

Zhao Xu sneered, "Li Qiao, you negotiated privately with the merchant to sell it to you at a low price first, and then make up the difference at a higher price after the selection. Isn't this okay?"

A young man from a wealthy family standing behind suddenly fainted when he heard this.

I was horrified, how did King Yan know about this.

Thinking of how someone seemed to be staring at him these days, he became more and more afraid to raise his head and look at King Yan.

The other wealthy family members also thought about it, and those who cheated did not dare to say anything.

Dong An knew that he had not cheated, so he said dissatisfiedly: "Your Highness, why do you refuse to accept this?"