In early spring nights in April, the night wind is cold and cold. 3. The fastest

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

Zhao Hu, who was sitting on the main seat, supported his fat face with his right hand, leaned against the back of the chair with a very uncultured look on his face, and asked the three subordinates who were as helpless as him, with a depressed look on their faces: "Is there really nothing I can do?"

Hearing Zhao Hu's inquiry, several subordinates hung their heads one by one. Even the Tielong, who had always had the most ghost ideas, had no help. Zhao Hu sighed regretfully and couldn't help but feel angry.

"I'm afraid I was fooled by the old scoundrel of the Grand Duke Hans this time. This Grand Duke is simply the moon in the water and the flowers in the fog, which makes people unable to see or touch."

The old bachelor's words during the day are vivid in his ears, which not only makes Zhao Hu's restless heart beat excitedly, but also triggers the problem that Zhao Hu has been urgently solving for many days.

That is, Zhao Hu found that his finances had entered a blind spot, a major problem that might shake his foundation. As soon as he hurried back to the tower fortress, Zhao Hu immediately asked the guards to notify the three regiment commanders below to rush to the castle hall to hold an emergency military meeting.

The sixth infantry regiment commander is the financial officer Starn, the eighth infantry regiment commander Munda, the first light cavalry regiment commander Iron Dragon, and the added first light cavalry regiment was a new light cavalry regiment formed by Zhao Hu in exchange for 2,000 Kazakh war horses with the Kazakhs, and the commander was the former guard captain Iron Dragon.

This light cavalry regiment that had just been formed was Zhao Hu's treasure. Not only were the soldiers recruited from northern refugees who were good at riding horses, but the weapons equipped were also the most excellent among all the armies.

The newly built light cavalry not only has a unified and exquisite lock scale armor, but also has thick steel sheets added to important parts of the body. It is far higher in defense than ordinary imperial light cavalry wearing thick leather armor, but is much lighter in weight than heavy cavalry.

In his hand, he was a three-meter-long cavalry spear, and a new single-edged thick-backed sword that was conducive to chopping at his waist. There were also ten short javelin slots on the weapon stands on both sides of the cross section of the war horse, which was completely a moving light weapon library.

This made the Light Cavalry regiment, which strengthened its defense, have very good maneuver power and impact. Even the Iron Dragon, who was originally good at commanding cavalry battles, was amazed at the same configuration.

What made Zhao Hu most proud was that this light cavalry that had put his efforts into his hands was a light crossbow. This was the epoch-making equipment, which allowed this new light cavalry to fight against the heavy cavalry of the Kazakhs.

This new one-handed crossbow arrow is simple to operate and has high shooting accuracy. The reasonable crossbow body design allows the cavalry to open the crossbow string with one foot on the horse, and the arrow bag is carried behind each cavalry. It can be used as a thickened armor and can be taken with the arrowhead.

Although the range of a one-handed crossbow is not as good as that of the heavy crossbow equipped with heavy infantry, it can penetrate scale armor that is 200 steps away, but it can also easily shoot through cavalry clasp armor that is 150 steps away. Within 50 meters, it can even penetrate the steel full-body armor of heavy cavalry.

What makes Zhao Hu the most worrying is that people have to eat and horses have to eat grass. More than 20,000 people eat but don’t do anything every day, which makes Zhao Hu heartbroken. In particular, the newly established Light Cavalry regiment consumes even more than a heavy infantry regiment with 3,000 people. They eat nothing and can’t live like this even if they have money and food.

Zhao Hu secretly thought that to make a fortune, not only to reduce expenses, but more importantly, to broaden the source of wealth. Money is not saved, but money is earned. Zhao Hu is eager to find a road to the north, not only to care about the crown of the great duke like the full moon, but also to find a business road connecting the north and south.

Now that the materials in the south are hoarded in large quantities in the iron tower, weapons are piled up in two large warehouses, and other materials are piled up like mountains. New things are constantly being made, but old things cannot be sold. Zhao Hu found that he was inadvertently in an economic crisis.

What is a crisis? It is the biggest crisis if you can't sell it alone. These valuable things are here, and they will not become money even if they are rusted or moldy. They will only slowly turn into a pile of scrap copper and iron.

Especially in the rainy season that just passed, the wet weather and the heavy rain made the bowstrings in the warehouse soften. As the various weapons and equipment accumulated in the warehouse could only be put into the iron furnace again and turned into a pool of iron.

What to do? These problems make Zhao Hu have a headache. Most of the south are poor and small lords who live their own stable lives. Who wants so many weapons?

It is even worse to sell to Kazakhs. If you sell these weapons and equipment to the Kazakhs, you will be afraid that the words "iron tower" will appear on the arrow nailed to the gate of the imperial capital.

"Are you really not able to find a road that can lead to the northern border? Are there Kazakhs squatting on the snow-capped mountains to the west of our Roman Empire? The Kazakhs are not so perverted, right?"

Seeing that his subordinates were silent, Zhao Hu's face became increasingly ugly.

Seeing the increasingly red face of his lord, especially when he looked at his eyes with sparks of anger, the poor Tielong had to bite the bullet and said, "Sir, it is not impossible to find a road to the north if you want to find a road to the north, but we need the help of one person! Only with his help can you find a road to the north under the eyes of the Kazakhs!"

When Zhao Hu heard that someone could open the northern passage, his mood immediately improved. But when he saw Tielong's desire to speak, he hurriedly said: "When is it now? Why are you still hiding it? Do you really have to wait until we are completely in desperate situation before you can speak out?"

Seeing Zhao Hu getting angry, Tielong replied with an embarrassing expression: "Don't worry, sir, it's not that his subordinates refuse to say it, but doing so may affect his precious reputation. I heard that among the prisoners who were exchanged from the Kazakhs this time, there was a little baron named Liu Fei. He was an important figure in the Liuyu Chamber of Commerce, the largest smuggling organization in the north. Although it was just an insignificant little fish among the Kazakhs, it was very famous among the northern nobles and the imperial capital.

In terms of escaping pursuit, smuggling goods, and secretly opening up business channels, Baron Liu Fei is a first-class expert. His subordinates have heard people mention this person many times before. It is said that he often deals with the imperial capital and the great nobles in the north. There are many things that are inconvenient to the adults to handle, leaving them to come forward and take on black work.

Since the adults want to open up the north-south passage under the eyes of the Kazakhs, they must first find this person. If they can get the help of his Northern Liuyu Chamber of Commerce, it would be easy to secretly open up a secret passage to smuggle to the north!"

Tielong looked at the expression on Zhao Hu's face and found that there was no big reaction on Zhao Hu's face. He gave a sigh of relief in his heart and continued: "It's just that this person likes smuggling slaves the most. He is notorious in the north and is known as the black-hearted wolf in the north. If the adults cooperate with him, it may have a bad impact on the adults' current reputation!"

"Qingyu? This thing that cannot be eaten or worn is no more than this!" Zhao Hu laughed after hearing Tielong's words. How could he forget this big acquaintance? He had the intention to cooperate with him when he was in the Falcon Territory, but when he encountered the Kazakh invasion, the matter was delayed.

Zhao Hu stood up and waved to his subordinates below: "Let's go away today. Tomorrow morning, Tielong, you will lead two thousand light cavalry to go to Chaoyang City with me. This northern black-hearted wolf still owes me 200,000 gold Luke. This time I asked him to carefully calculate the debt!"

Seeing Zhao Hu leaving the hall with joy on his face, Tielong, who stepped out of the hall, shook his head in confusion and said, "Why did he think of helping Zhao Hu consider a reputation? Could it be that he has recognized what Zhao Hu did? Judging from what Zhao Hu is doing now, I dare not say that he will become a good emperor, at least a rare lord who cares about the people! Maybe he doesn't want to destroy Zhao Hu's image as a kind lord in the hearts of the people!"

The sound of horse hooves shocked the earth, and the dust of the two thousand light cavalry who were riding horses at the same time rolled up like a rushing yellow dragon.

The vast plain spread rapidly forward in front of Zhao Hu's eyes. Ten serious guard cavalrymen held the three-legged falcon spear flag in their right hands and escorted Zhao Hu's sides. The entire team rushed to the northwest of Chaoyang City with an indomitable momentum.

Holding a strong soldier in his hand, he stepped on the earth, and the heaven and earth let me gallop. Zhao Hu, who was at the front of the team, was in a happy mood as if he was flying in the sky, followed by two thousand little brothers armed to his teeth.

"How far is Chaoyang City? Why did you have been on the road for a whole morning? Not to mention seeing the city, you can't even see the flat ground. Could it be that Chaoyang City is not built on a flat earth?" Zhao Hu turned his head and looked at the sun in the sky, turned around to ask the flag-holding officer beside him.

Seeing the lord asking himself in person, the flag-holding official pointed at the slope of the business road ahead with a respectful expression: "Sir, as long as you cross this ridge, you should be able to see Chaoyang City."

"Oh, is that?"

Zhao Hu, with a puzzled face, was the first to rush to the top of the slope of the business road ahead, and his eyes suddenly lit up. There was a fault in the steep hills around him, and a huge flat and low depression appeared in front of Zhao Hu.
Chapter completed!