Zhao Song has been having a very hard time in the past year.
The area of Yonggu County he occupied was not only small, but also very poor. It wanted agriculture but not agriculture, industry but not industry, and no iron ore or coal mines. He occupied such a place and supported an army of nearly 20,000 people.
You can imagine how hard life was.
He has been worrying about weapons, ammunition and salary almost every day for the past year!
Otherwise, Zhao Song wouldn't have been thinking about breaking into the hinterland of Guang'an all day long.
Unfortunately, several of his plans failed before they even started. For example, this time there was no change in Guang'an that he expected. Not only did the Guang'an First Army not go south, but even the Guang'an Third Army ran back.
Nowadays, the First Army and the Third Army in Guang'an are fighting lively. I heard that the Third Army led by Du Zhikuan defeated the First Army steadily. It is estimated that after waiting for a while, Guang'an County, north of Chongguang City,
It's time to welcome a new owner.
Under such circumstances, how dare he explore the Nanzi Mountains to launch a surprise attack on the hinterland of Guang'an.
That's not called a surprise attack, it's called death.
You can't go to Guang'an, and Pingdan County and Lingchang County to the east are also dangerous places. Didn't you see Li Kun, Feng Haozhong and Jian Minggang fighting to the death in these two counties? This place is very dangerous.
As for Hexi County in the west, let alone hope that Hexi County will not send troops to attack him.
So, he could only continue to stay in Yonggu County, because he didn't have much money, so he had to make do with himself when eating, with only eighteen dishes per meal.
Not to mention how miserable these hard days are.
But even if you are poor, you still have to support the army, purchase weapons, and reserve ammunition!
It's not like he didn't know how powerful the new artillery was, but Nanzhou Bank was too evil and sold it extremely expensively. One shell actually cost more than what he paid for each meal.
Although Zhao Song gritted his teeth and sold six new nine-pound field guns and more than a thousand rounds of artillery shells.
If there were more, he would only be able to eat eight dishes in one meal. If that were the case, why would he be considered a vassal? He could just disband the army and go to the countryside.
Zhao Song's financial situation is much worse than that of Lin Ziran. Because Lin Ziran had income from an oil company, he also obtained a batch of loans from Nanzhou Bank.
Therefore, in the artillery force under his command, except for the more than ten artillery pieces purchased in the early stage, which are old-style artillery, the ones behind are all new-type artillery pieces. The total number of new five-pound and nine-pound artillery pieces is already more than fifty, and each
Each new type of artillery is equipped with a sufficient number of new grenades and maroon gunpowder.
But Zhao Song didn't have that much money. Yonggu County was very poor, and even Nanzhou Bank looked down on him and didn't provide him with any loans.
But even though he was poor, he had to eat and fight wars, so Zhao Song sent someone to find Lin Ziran and sent a message saying: "Brother Lin, do you still have any inventory of old-style ammunition?
Give me a batch, brother!"
Lin Ziran naturally welcomed Zhao Song's request. On the one hand, it could bring him closer to Zhao Song and establish an offensive and defensive alliance as soon as possible, which could be used to deal with Jian Minggang, and incidentally, it could also deal with Li Kun or Feng Haozhong.
On the other hand, it can also attract a large number of orders to Qingshan Machinery Factory!
When Lin Ziran started Qingshan Machinery Factory before, he always thought about the huge cost, but now he thought that although this thing is expensive, it can still make money.
Whether it's Li Kun, Zhao Song, or even other feudal lords and towns, they can become customers!
Li Kun's previous batch of orders were quite profitable, and now he can probably make a profit from Zhao Song as well.
So Lin Ziran replied: "It's hard to get ammunition these days, and I don't have much inventory here. However, since Brother Zhao has spoken, I have to get a batch for you even if I raid the warehouse."
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"Don't worry, brother, I won't cheat you, the price must be low!"
He took Zhao Song's reply and said, "Brother Lin, it's still up to you to show your loyalty!"
Then he said in a serious manner how difficult it was for him and that he was short of funds. Finally, he said, "Can we barter? I still have some other specialties in Yonggu County."
Looking at the specialties Zhao Song mentioned, which were all agricultural products or low-level handmade products, Lin Ziran directly replied: "Although it's difficult for you, Brother Zhao, I'm also in difficulty, little brother!"
Then he hinted to me that a vassal town would use this large amount of wood, wooden furniture, and handicrafts for what purpose?
If you are a brother, just go ahead and bring the money directly, and we will hand over the money and deliver the goods.
It has to be bartered, but at least it has to be coal, iron ore or other raw materials, so that the oil company and machinery factory under my control can use it.
Zhao Song was also speechless about this. If I had an iron ore or coal mine, I wouldn't need to purchase ammunition with outdated performance from you. I would have already gone to Nanzhou Bank to purchase new artillery and ammunition.
Zhao Song, who was not a coal boss, nor an iron boss, nor even a farmer, ended up scraping together a sum of cash and buying a batch of old-style ammunition.
After all, these old-style ammunition sold by Lin Ziran are indeed cheap, at least much cheaper than those sold by Nanzhou Bank.
Nowadays, those at Nanzhou Bank, in order to promote new artillery ammunition, do not even transport old ammunition to Luoan County to sell it, and it is also very expensive to sell it.
However, even though Zhao Song collected some money, it was still not enough in the end. In the end, Zhao Song went rogue and took out a lot of house deeds, land deeds, calligraphy, paintings, antiques and the like as payment for the goods.
Lin Ziran was speechless about this, but in the end he still asked people to take away the paintings, calligraphy and antiques. As for the land deeds, it was naturally impossible to ask for them. Those real estate properties were all in Yonggu County. If they could be discounted,
Zhao Song had cashed it out long ago, and it will be left for him until now, Lin Ziran.
In fact, if it weren't for maintaining the relationship between the two parties, Lin Ziran wouldn't even want these paintings, calligraphy, antiques, etc. These are troubled times, and it's still a mess that has lasted for decades.
These paintings, calligraphy and antiques are not as valuable as scrap metal.
A landscape painting by a famous painter from the previous dynasty, fifty or sixty years ago when Daheng was still at its peak, could easily be auctioned for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
But now Zhao Song gives it to Lin Ziran at a discount, so he can only exchange it for a nine-pound old-style grenade!
The most important thing is that Lin Ziran did not deliberately lower the price, but this thing is so worthless.
Later, Lin Ziran asked people to take the painting to Luohai City for sale. If he was lucky, he might be able to sell it for tens of dollars, but if he was unlucky, he might just throw it away.
However, at any rate, the two parties finally reached a batch of ammunition deals. Including the deal with Li Kun, Lin Ziran personally took two orders for Qingshan Machinery Factory.
Calculated in terms of amount, it is over hundreds of thousands of dollars. For the current Qingshan Machinery Factory, it is considered a relatively large order, and the profit is also very good.
But this is not the key. The key is that Lin Ziran has successfully eased the relationship with both of them.
This laid the foundation for the subsequent joint fight against the county governor's office.