Chen Qing came to the salt lake closest to Xining City, called Tuqiang Salt Lake. It is about a hundred miles away from Xining City, to the south of the West Sea. The other two salt lakes are fifty miles away and a hundred miles away to the west. The largest salt field
It is the third salt lake with an area of tens of thousands hectares and very rich reserves.
However, Xining Prefecture is currently focusing on developing the first salt lake, which covers an area of 4,000 hectares and is actually integrated with the second salt lake.
Two thousand salt workers also arrived with Chen Qing. Large areas of salt crystals can be seen everywhere. There is no need to cook them at all. Just cut the large salt crystals and transport them ashore.
In fact, the salt workers also do this. They are actually porters, so the salt produced by two thousand salt workers is enough for hundreds of thousands of people to eat.
Chen Qing looked at the endless snow-white world. Under the blue sky, the salt lake also showed a light blue. He couldn't help but sigh: "It is indeed a realm of the sky. It is really beautiful!"
Dong Liang, the director who accompanied Chen Qing to inspect, laughed and said: "Now Jiedushi understands! Why don't we boil the West Sea to get salt? Instead, we have to go deep into Tubo to get these salt lakes. In fact, there is no mining cost here.
We just pull up large blocks of salt, cut them into salt bricks, and then transport them to Xining Prefecture on camels. We have three camel teams with a total of a thousand camels that travel between Xining City and Salt Lake all year round."
Chen Qing nodded, "Indeed, the cost of boiling salt is too high. In this case, the cost of a bucket of salt is only a few cents!"
"It's about the same. It's mainly the wages of salt workers. We calculated it and found out that it was two cents per dou. The price in Huangzhou was forty cents per dou. The profit was quite substantial."
The price of salt in Chengji County is also 40 cents per bucket, but its cost is 18 cents per bucket. The cost is much higher than the salt here, so it is more economical to mine it here.
"It seems that I also like Tuqiang Salt Lake."
At this time, someone shouted: "There are cavalry coming from a distance!"
Chen Qing squinted and looked into the distance, only to see a black line appearing in the distance.
Dong Liang suddenly became nervous and said quickly: "It should be the son of Cleopas. Their chief's tent is only thirty miles away from us!"
"So close?"
"Their traditional pasture was originally very far away, on the west coast of the West Sea, but then it got closer to us step by step, just to compete for these three salt lakes."
"I just don't understand, why do they want to control these three salt lakes?" Chen Qing asked in confusion.
"They are greedy. They also want to make money by selling salt. First, we are not allowed to own salt farms. Then they take it for granted that they control the salt and can raise prices at will and make huge profits, as if we would not cook salt from the West Sea."
Seeing the cavalry getting closer and closer, Chen Qing ordered: "Come and have a look with me!"
Chen Qing believed that the Salt Lake was a fake and his real intention was to clean up the Xihai Department. He led an army of 6,000, but only 500 elite cavalry showed up now.
Five hundred cavalrymen galloped all the way and soon met Luojiang's one thousand cavalrymen. Dong Liang whispered: "The military envoy is Luojiang, the eldest son of Cleopatra!"
"I understand. You should hurry back to the salt field and let the salt workers hide for the time being."
Dong Liang turned his horse's head and ran towards the salt field.
Seeing that there were only 500 people on the other side, Luo Jiang felt contempt in his heart. He pointed his spear at Chen Qing and said angrily: "I'll give you half an hour to get back to Xining Prefecture, otherwise you won't be able to leave alive!"
Chen Qing laughed and said, "Jurchens, I have seen a lot of Xixia people, but I have never seen someone as arrogant as you. You dare to point a spear at me. I think you are tired of living!"
His face sank and he shouted: "Do it!"
The five hundred Song army cavalry roared angrily at the same time, urging their horses to kill the opponent.
Luo Jiang did not expect that the other party would dare to take action first. He was immediately furious and ordered: "Kill them!"
A thousand Tubo cavalry roared and charged at them waving their spears or daggers.
Chen Qing took off the Sirius Bow. This was his second bow. It was custom-made for him by two master craftsmen, Xie Changzhi and Hu Zhen. It took two years to make it. Since it was a customized model, it was completely tailor-made.
, Chen Qing is extremely comfortable to use, and its feel far exceeds that of a fixed distance bow.
He liked this bow very much, so he named it the Sirius Bow, which comes from Su Shi's line, "Look northwest and shoot at the Sirius!"
Chen Qing pulled out a wolf-tusked arrow from his back, galloped on his horse, and shot an arrow while he was running. The arrow was so fast that it reached Luo Jiang's eyes in the blink of an eye.
Luo Jiang suddenly saw the arrow appearing in front of his eyes, his face changed drastically, and it was too late to dodge, 'Poof!' The arrow hit the center of his eyebrows, and the tip of the arrow protruded from the back of his head. Luo Jiang screamed, turned over and fell off his horse and died.
The Tibetan army had just fought with the Song army, but the general was killed by the opponent's arrow. The soldiers suddenly panicked, and the deputy general blew the withdrawal horn, "woo woo"
The Tubo cavalry turned their horses and fled, leaving behind dozens of corpses and fled in panic. Luo Jiang's corpse was also taken away by them.
"Let them go!"
Chen Qinghe stopped the soldiers from chasing him. The Tubo people would soon bring thousands of troops with them when they returned. He also wanted to deploy them as soon as possible.
The place where Luo Jiang was shot was only twenty miles away from Kelopa's camp. At this time, his second son Danzhu had summoned 6,000 young Tibetan men and quickly gathered in the open space in front of the chief's tent.
Cleopas also came out wearing armor. Regardless of whether Chen Qing came to visit him or not, he must give him a strong blow and let him see the strength of the Xihai Department.
At this moment, there was a commotion outside, and the crowd moved out of the way, only to see a few soldiers coming in carrying a stretcher. Lying on the stretcher was a corpse. It was the eldest son Luo Jiang, with a knife stuck on his forehead.
An arrow.
"The young chief is dead! The young chief is dead!" Exclaimed voices spread from all directions.
Clopas was so shocked that his liver and gallbladder were split apart, and he rushed forward, "What's going on? What's going on with my son?"
He lifted the blanket and saw shockingly an arrow stuck in the eldest son's forehead. The arrow actually penetrated his head.
Cleopas was trembling all over, his legs were weak, he knelt down in front of his son, choked with sobs and burst into tears. The generals around him lowered their heads silently,
Clopas suddenly raised his head, wiped away his tears, and stared at the arrow shaft. There were four Chinese characters engraved on it, which he recognized, 'Chen Qing of the Western Army!'
The extreme hatred had made Cleopas lose his mind. He gritted his teeth and stood up. He said word by word: "The whole army is on horseback and we will capture Chen Qing alive. I will skin him with my own hands!"
He got on his horse and raised his spear high, "The Han people killed my son and wanted to rob our land. This is the land we have lived on for generations. We will not give up an inch. Let the Han people have a taste of our power!"
Seven thousand Tibetan soldiers raised their arms and shouted loudly. Under the leadership of the leader Clopa, they marched towards the Salt Lake in a mighty manner.
Chen Qing's 6,000-strong army has been deployed on the grassland. They are composed of 3,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry. In addition to the army, Chen Qing also brought a powerful weapon to deal with the grassland cavalry. This time he did not use gunpowder.
Instead of using kerosene, use a bed crossbow.
He will use a thousand bed crossbows, which can shoot five thousand jackdaw arrows at a time. This is an improved bed crossbow, which is reduced from four people to three people. It mainly requires three people to lie down and step on the string at the same time.
By concentrating the power of three people, the power of one plus two is far greater than three.
Three thousand cavalry lined up in order, and in front were two thousand spear soldiers. Their spears were placed on the ground, holding divine arm crossbows, preparing for the second round of shooting.
A thousand crossbows were behind them, all cocked and fired only once. Behind each crossbow squatted a firing soldier.
The bevel angle of the bed crossbow is 45 degrees, which perfectly avoids the Song soldiers arrayed in front.
Seven thousand Tubo troops appeared in the distance. They moved forward quickly and spread out densely on the grassland.
Kolopa saw the five thousand Song troops in front of him. Although it was a bit beyond his expectation, his deep-seated hatred completely blinded his reason. He didn't even stop to reorganize the army. He waved his spear and shouted: "Kill."
ah!"
"Kill"
Seven thousand Tubo soldiers roared and ran towards the Song army formation three miles away.
Chen Qing stood as calm as a mountain and looked at the Tubo people getting closer and closer with cold eyes. He originally did not want to conflict with the Tubo people, but at this time he had realized that without an iron fist, the Han people would never win.
For the respect of foreigners, only iron and blood are the truth.
The Tibetan cavalry was getting closer and closer, approaching 500 steps and now 300 steps.
"Launch the crossbow!" Chen Qing gave the firing order.
