Three Kingdoms

In the past few days, another caravan has come from Chengdu. For Sichuan and Shu, which have had no sales channels for a long time, the hole made by Fei Qian is like being pulled out of a dam, with a crash. The demand that had been accumulated for many years surged out.

It would be fine if Sichuan and Sichuan were a region lacking in products. The problem is that since the Qin Dynasty, Sichuan and Sichuan have always been a land of plenty and rich in products due to the Dujiangyan Irrigation System. There is no shortage of copper mines, salt mines, cinnabar mines, etc. , had always supplied the three assistants in Guanzhong, but when Liu Yan came, he took the initiative to cut off the road to and from Guanzhong for his own political purposes. As a result, he could only rely on the more difficult road to find his appetite. The smaller Jingzhou sells commodity goods.

Just think about it and you will know that with a physique like Jingzhou’s, how could he be able to absorb the amount of goods that Sichuan and Sichuan originally supplied to the Guanzhong area? Therefore, large quantities of goods are produced and hoarded, unable to be sold, and now Feiqian provides a channel that is almost open to all comers, so why don't people like Sichuan and Shu go crazy?

Some are transported to Langzhong, that is, to the central Sichuan area in Chengdu, Sichuan. Near Jiange, almost all warehouses are piled with goods, either packages of grain and grass, or batches of silk cloth. Or some objects packed in long square wooden boxes.

This kind of long, square wooden box is extremely heavy and requires at least four people to move it. It also seems to be very valuable. There are soldiers watching and guarding you when you get on and off the car. Once when loading and unloading, someone accidentally dropped one, and the wooden box fell to the ground and cracked. Gululu rolled out many weapons and leather armor tied with linen and hay ropes, and many people suddenly realized that these wooden boxes were all packed with It's armor...

Perhaps because of the good trade profits, even the food of the Kuhaha people who transport these items is much better than usual. At least you can see some oily flowers on the soup barrels, and sometimes you can see white flowers. Although the black flour pancakes are still black flour pancakes, they can be eaten as much as they can. As long as they can travel longer, the caravan manager will not be stingy with baskets of black flour pancakes.

Li Hui stood outside the largest inn in Jiange, looking at the constant flow of vehicles and coolies, and some shopkeepers gathered together, seeming to be chatting and communicating some information about the products, smiling obviously very excited.

"General..." Li Hui's guard saw that Li Hui had been standing still for some time. It was not clear whether Li Hui was going to stop or continue walking forward, so he hesitated and said, "We are now..."

"Oh," Li Hui came to his senses and responded, "Let's go!"

Along the main street, about 300 steps forward, there is a stone road heading to the right. Turning inward is the administrative area of ​​​​Jiange Pass, including the Jiange Mansion and some public warehouses and armories. They are all here. On one road, there was a group of soldiers on duty under the archway at the corner. When they saw Li Hui and others coming, they shouted: "Who is coming?"

When Li Hui came this time, he didn't say hello in advance. Besides, Mianzhu was in ruins and was in need of renovation. The entire city had not been fully restored, and there was no decent political organization. Therefore, no one knew about Li Hui's coming all the way. .

"Li, the meritorious Cao Cao of Yizhou, came to visit General Zhang." Li Hui said in a nonchalant manner, lifting the outer robe and revealing a corner of the ribbon.

In the Han Dynasty, one symbol of identity was the seal and the other was the ribbon. Ribbons are tied around the waist. Ribbons of different colors and specifications represent different levels of official positions. Although it is not difficult to falsify, in the Han Dynasty, unless they were extremely bold, most people would not dare to falsify. If they were caught, they would confiscate their homes and exterminate the nine clans. That's all, so when the soldiers on duty saw Li Hui revealing his identity, they moved away from the horse and allowed Li Hui and his party to turn into the archway.

When he arrived in front of the Jiange government office, he swung his saddle and dismounted.

Ahem, when it comes to the action of throwing the saddle and dismounting, if it is a tall horse, it will look somewhat cool, but if it is a Mongolian horse or a Yunnan horse, what about this? If it is taller, you may not be able to pull your feet down. When we get to the ground, why should we throw it away...

It's not that Li Hui doesn't want tall horses. The key is that he doesn't have them. Ever since Liu Yan cut off the supply chain in Sichuan and Shu, there has been no new stock for so many years. Even if there is some inventory, where can it be Li Hui's turn?

Just like Li Hui, although he brought with him a guard of forty or fifty people, there were actually only ten of these short-footed horses. The rest had two legs, and they could not all be equipped. This shows that the war horses There is a lack of it among Sichuan and Shu.

Although Li Hui had revealed his identity, he still could not bring a large number of people to the Jiange Mansion directly unless he took action directly. But for Li Hui, after walking this way and seeing this way, in fact, there was a little vague feeling in his heart. The things gradually took shape, so when faced with the soldiers on duty at the entrance of Jiange Mansion who blocked Li Hui from bringing more people in, he was not angry or even had any unnecessary emotions, so he asked his subordinates to He stayed outside the government office, and then just led three or four people into the side door.

Normally, the main entrance of a government office has four doors, two are larger in the center, and the other two are smaller, on the left and right sides of the door. The two large doors are usually closed at all times. Like in some movies and TV shows, the four doors are always open at all times. No matter who they are, ordinary people can also walk in the middle or both sides. The situation of walking on both sides basically did not exist in feudal society. Just like if someone like Li Hui comes to visit unexpectedly, before the master of the sword pavilion has ordered the front door to be opened to welcome him, he can only go through the side door, which is the smaller door opened on both sides of the door. It is impossible to go directly through the middle one, let alone Not to mention those ordinary officials or ordinary people who don't even have official positions.

Li Hui was waiting in the front yard. As the general of Jiange, Zhang Yi was a little surprised after receiving the news in the government office.

Li Hui is here?

What is Li Hui doing here?

Zhang Yi's eyes grew colder.

As a Jianwei Zhang, Zhang Yi's Zhang family is not small in strength in central Sichuan. Not to mention anything else, there are more than a dozen large and small Zhuangzi near Qianwei in western Sichuan, and they can pull out nearly ten thousand people!

Coupled with the various relationships with surrounding forces of all sizes over the years, it is no exaggeration to say that if there is any movement from Jianweizhang, the entire western Sichuan will be shaken.

"How many people are here?" Zhang Yi asked.

"More than forty people..." the confidant guard on the side replied, "the four who came in with us, the rest are outside the hospital..."

"Hey," Zhang Yi smiled, patted the table and said, "You look so courageous... Come on! Let's go and follow him! If we don't meet him, wouldn't he be looked down upon? "

When the two parties met, they did not get into a quarrel at the beginning. On the contrary, the etiquette was in place. They greeted each other politely and took their seats respectively.

"Thousands of miles of clouds are guarding Jianmen, and thousands of chaotic mountains are heading straight to Chang'an. General Zhang, this Jiange has thousands of mountains and winding mountain roads, which is a unique scenery..." Li Hui said with a smile. I saw a lot of scenery along the way! And it’s directly connected to Chang’an!

Zhang Yi grinned and laughed twice, but there was no smile at all in his eyes, only a cold light, "Brother Li is joking, the mountains and forests in Nanzhong are beautiful, how can Jiangge compare with it?" You are so stupid with me, you My uncle did this very often in Nanzhong!

Li Hui's uncle was Cuan Xi. He had been a powerful man in Nanzhong for generations and owned a large number of tribes. In fact, smuggling is not done less, and enough benefits are gained from trade with ethnic minorities. In history, even when Zhuge Nan was conquering Yunnan, he was recruited as his subordinates and became the leader of the army. After Zhuge Liang finally put down the Nanzhong Rebellion, he promoted Cuan Xi, Zhu Ti, and Meng Yan to local officials. Until the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Central Plains was in civil strife, and the conflicts between the local powerful and the Jin Dynasty became increasingly acute. , while the powerful surnames such as the Meng family perished one after another. The Cuan family took advantage of the situation and rose to power in Nanzhong, ruling the entire Yunnan, Sichuan, and parts of Guizhou for more than 400 years.

Li Hui laughed.

Zhang Yi also laughed. It's just that the two people seemed to be laughing happily, but in fact their hostility was getting stronger.

Li Hui touched the leather pouch on his belt, took out a copper seal, threw it on the table, and said with a smile: "General, let's see..."

Zhang Yi stared at Li Hui, and after a while he reached out to take out the bronze seal. He opened it and took a breath, because there were also four large characters engraved on the bronze seal, "Jiange Order Seal".

Because of the chaos in the imperial court system and the political structure of local princes, many places outside Sichuan and Shu had already seen many official positions being held by many people at the same time, such as the governor of Qingzhou, the governor of Yuzhou, etc. Even in the late Three Kingdoms, It is also a common thing. For example, Zhuge was still a Marquis of Wuxiang, and Wuxiang was in the Kingdom of Wei.

As for Sichuan and Shu, such things are basically non-existent at this moment. Zhang Yi himself is the Jiange Order, so he naturally has a "Jiange Order Seal" in his hand, and then suddenly saw the second one. Of course, he was shocked. Even the shelf he was holding suddenly collapsed.

Zhang Yi jumped up and pointed at Li Hui. Just as he was about to say something, he saw Li Hui extending his palm to signal, "Brother Zhang, please be patient for a moment... I am a Zhang family, but I am still afraid." A little bit of wind and rain?"

If Zhang Yi was asked to comfort Zhang Yi alone, he might not be willing to listen. However, after listening to Li Hui talking about the Jianwei Zhang family, Zhang Yi managed to control his emotions, squeezed the new "Jiange Order Seal" tightly, and sat down again. He came down and slapped the "Jiange Order Seal" on the table, "Brother Li, please tell me if you have anything to say!"

"This seal was given by Ambassador Liu..." Li Hui stroked his beard and said with a smile.

Zhang Yi rolled his eyes. Nonsense, Zhang Yi guessed it when Li Hui took it out, but soon, what Li Hui said attracted Zhang Yi's attention.

"When I was young, I first left Nanzhong and went to the land of Sichuan and Sichuan. I saw rows of buildings, crisscrossed streets, and merchants gathered together. It was so prosperous that it was like reaching heaven..." Li Hui chuckled, "Now, How much does the land of Sichuan and Sichuan count for? Brother Zhang, do you think so?"

Zhang Yi was silent for a moment, and the "Jiange Seal" he was holding tightly could not help but loosen, and said: "Brother Li has something to say, you might as well say it directly."

"The Zhang family of Jianwei has spanned four generations and created the foundation of Western Sichuan. It is really admirable..." Li Hui said slowly, "But, Brother Zhang, don't you think Sichuan and Shu are a little too crowded now?"

Zhang Yi frowned tightly, thinking.

"On the first day, my hair is thick, and on the second day, my hair is strong. How can I die without clothes or brown hair?" Li Hui slowly recited a poem from the Book of Songs, then knocked on the table and looked at Zhang Yi, half-smiling but not smiling. He said, "Without tea and wine, why drink?"

Zhang Yi was speechless, and after a moment he laughed and said, "Brother Li is teaching you a lesson! Someone has lost his grace! Come, prepare a banquet!"

After giving instructions to his servants, Zhang Yi looked at the copper seal in his hand, then pushed it towards Li Hui and said, "... Mr. Liu, what are your orders...?"

"Not even a grain or a drop can leave the border!" Li Hui said with a smile.

"Huh?!" Zhang Yi's eyebrows suddenly stood up again, then he looked at Li Hui and suddenly rolled his eyes, "What if... it's not food and grass?"

Li Hui laughed loudly, "One only asks for food and grass, and the others don't care!"

Zhang Yi's face softened, he shook his head, tsked his tongue, muttered something in a low voice, and finally sighed and said: "It's a pity..."

What's a pity?

Naturally, it is a pity that the way to make money from grain and grass has been cut off. Grain and grass are the most hoarded commodities in Sichuan and Shu. General Zhengxi gave him a very high price. If he stopped making grain and grass, he would naturally lose a lot of profits.

Of course, the profits of other items are not low, but they are not as high as those of grain and grass.

If we just ban food and grass...

Zhang Yi thought about it and finally decided to compromise.

Qianwei Zhang, naturally the main force is in the vicinity of Jianwei, which is still some distance away from the rich areas of Chengdu in central Sichuan. This time Liu Bei purged the wealthy surnames of Fei Qian, the general in central Sichuan who tended to conquer the west, and also deprived Liu Zhang, Pang Xi and others of their names. In some industrial acres, natural wine has left a lot of space, which naturally attracts the covetousness of many surrounding surnames, and Jianwei Zhang is no exception. Therefore, to a certain extent, Jianwei Zhang does not want to fall out with Liu Bei, because he can reach out to For the sake of going to Sichuan, those who can compromise will compromise.

Did Liu Bei mean to ban only grain and grass?

of course not!

Originally, Liu Bei asked Li Hui to come. His original intention was to let Li Hui and Zhang Yi fight. No matter whether Li Hui won or lost, Liu Bei would not lose.

If Li Hui wins, as a fringe force in Sichuan and Shu whose family only has some strength in Nanzhong, it is basically very difficult to expand through Jiange. Liu Bei naturally does not need to worry too much that Li Hui will become Zhang Yi's second; if Li Hui It doesn't matter if Hui loses. On the one hand, the battle will naturally delay the operation of the Jiange line. On the other hand, it will buy Liu Bei a certain amount of time. At the same time, it will provide a good excuse. As long as he frees up his hands , and can even join forces with Jingzhou Liu Qi to directly deal with the Jianwei Zhang family.

However, it is clear that Li Hui has his own plans. Anyway, the promise he made to Liu Bei was that not a grain or a drop of grain would be allowed to leave Jiange Pass. As for other items, did Li Hui guarantee it?

In other words, from the time Li Hui got involved in the chaotic political arena of Sichuan and Sichuan, Li Hui had his own plans. Pang Xi, Liu Bei, and even Zhang Yi in front of him were just steps one after another for Li Hui.

"Why is it such a pity?" Li Hui smiled and knocked on the table. The profit from food and grass was indeed so high that people wanted a piece of the pie when they saw it. "Your Majesty has an order, food and grass are not as good as Jiange... But there is nothing more than Yinping." Huh?"