Chapter 32: The Treasury is Out of Money

After Ma Yun, Zhao Pu and others discussed the plan to implement the economic blow with Xueyun girl, Xueyun returned to Jinling, and Ma Yun secretly sent someone to escort the 200,000 taels of silver looted by the Khitans to Changsha, as a special fund for the economic attack on Li Tang, and at the same time notified Fan Zhen to formulate a new plan, cooperate with Xueyun, promote the issuance of big money, and arrange manpower to rush to Qianzhou to make preliminary preparations for the coinage workshop......

Ma Yun stayed in Dengzhou, accompanied by Zhao Pu and Wu Ban, and after meeting with the gentry who comforted Deng and Tang Erzhou, he left the general Ni Kefu to garrison Dengzhou, and he took Li Xiang and other generals to return south, and arrived in Xiangzhou in May of the twelfth year of Tianfu of the Han Dynasty. 78 free e-book download .// During Ma Yun's stay in Dengzhou, Jianghuai's spies came with news that Guo Wei led the Han army under the city of Suzhou, defeated Li Tang's army, beheaded more than 20,000 people, and captured more than 40,000 Li Tang troops, including Wei Cen, the superintendent, and Marshal Li Jingsui was only spared. Jianghuai was shaken, and Li Tang sent Liu Renzhan, the general of the forbidden army, to lead an army of 20,000 to Shouzhou to garrison. After Guo Wei paraded the three armies by the Huai River, he led the army back north.

On the way to Xiangzhou, Ma Yun asked Ji and Li Xiang: "Mr. Li, now that Li Tang is defeated, the widow intends to stay between Deng and Tang, see how Liu Zhiyuan and Du Chongwei are fighting, waiting for the opportunity to move, what does Mr. think?" ”

You don't need to look at Ma Yun, just listen to Ma Yun's words, Li Xiang understands that this Chu King Chitose has been feeling good recently, this time he wants to stab Liu Zhiyuan in the back, Li Xiang shook his head and said: "King, there are three things that must not be done in this matter, first, our army has experienced three months since the Northern Expedition in February, and is now on the way back to the south. You also know that our army is not like the army of the Central Plains Dynasty, in our army, there is a group of militia, these people are idle training, busy farming, and wartime. But now it's already the busy farming season, and these people are probably looking forward to going home to harvest food. Second, today, Han is the strongest, Tang is second, Chu is third, and Du Chongwei has no other territory except near Yecheng, and his strength is the weakest. At present, the Tang army is defeated, Li Tang's strength, at least two percent of the ten percent have been removed, but the Han army not only has no loss, but the momentum is great, Liu Zhiyuan has already sat firmly in the country, at this time the Northern Expedition, there is no raising arms and a call, the appeal of the responders is like a cloud, and our army is basically infantry, and it must be fought for city by city, one is slow, and the second is the siege battle and the most loss of soldiers and horses. I'm afraid that before we have been able to defeat Xuzhou and Xuchang, the Han army has already defeated Du Chongwei and came with victory. Third, we don't have much military rations, and most of the money is invested in Li Tang, at the moment we are in financial difficulties, if once the Northern Expedition falls into a quagmire, at that time, there is no food, no money, what should the king do? Now in the Northern Expedition, the army has no will to fight, there is no reasonable interface for the division, and his own money and food are not well prepared, the minister really doesn't know, how can the king achieve victory? What's more, as soon as Da Chu became a minister, he turned his face and went north, how will the people of the world view the king? ”

Ma Yun was quite uncomfortable when he said this, Li Xiang smiled indifferently, and said: "This Central Plains Dynasty is indeed our enemy of Great Chu, but the meal must be eaten one bite at a time, and our most important opponent at the moment is not the Central Plains, but Li Tang." Only by occupying the south of the Yangtze River, I Da Chu wants money and money, and I want people to have people, relying on Jianghuai as a barrier, entering the Central Plains, and retreating is enough to defend myself, not to mention that Li Jing is incompetent, Zhou Zong and Feng Yansi form a party and mess with the government, this is an opportunity given by God to the king, if the king does not grasp this opportunity, it will be too late to regret it. At present, the Central Plains can be used as a backup, and the Lingnan Han Kingdom is our enemy, how to draw Li Tang into our war against the Han and weaken Li Tang's strength again is what we really have to do. ”

Ma Yun was awakened by Li Xiang's words, knowing that now is indeed not the time to turn his face with the Central Plains, and said: "What Mr. Li said is very true. It's the widow who is overly optimistic. However, our Northern Expedition was originally negotiated with Li Tang to jointly send troops, but they actually sent troops late, and the result was heavy losses, if we crusade against Lingnan, will Li Tang still send troops? ”

Li Xiang glanced at Zhao Pu and didn't speak, he didn't know about Li Tang, it's just that Li Tang can't send troops, so he has to send someone to persuade and lure him to take advantage, of course, the best candidate is Zhao Pu, who has sent Li Tang several times. Therefore, it is better to leave this to Zhao Pu.

Sure enough, Zhao Pu on the side smiled and said: "King, in the opinion of the minister, Li Tang will definitely send troops." The two parties led by Feng Yansi and Zhou Zong fought fiercely. Feng Yansi fought the main battle, hoping to take the opportunity to unify the world, and the Zhou sect was in peace, hoping to recuperate and wait for the opportunity. But this year, the results of Feng Yansi's main battle are not ideal, he sent troops to Fujian, but only captured Tingzhou, besieged Jianzhou for two years, and has just recently conquered, and after Jianzhou was conquered, Fuzhou Li Renda, who has been at both ends of the rat's head, is now completely falling to Wu Yue, Wu Yue has sent troops to Fuzhou to help Li Renda garrison. As for Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in the south, although they surrendered on the surface, Li Tang could not command them at all. In this case, fooling the people and saying that it is a great victory in Fujian, it naturally has nothing to do, but it must not fool Zhou Zong and others. As for this Northern Expedition, the annihilation of the whole army was even more of a blow to Feng Yansi, his phase was already unstable, if he wanted to keep his phase, he had to fight, and he had to win. What's more, now that the price of copper is soaring and Li Tang is in economic crisis, Feng Yansi has only two ways to deal with this situation, one is to agree to mint a lot of money, and the other is to lay down Lingnan, occupy Liu's wealth, and barely survive. If we propose to fight Lingnan, this will undoubtedly be a relief for Feng Yansi, and he will definitely lobby Li Jing and agree. ”

The three of them walked and talked like this, and after a short time they arrived outside the city of Xiangzhou, and the ten-mile long pavilion pointed out, the colorful flags were fluttering, and the voices were boiling. The newly appointed Ding, the provincial governor of Dengzhou, and Shi Wende, the political envoy of Bu, led the officials of Xiangzhou to go out of the city to welcome the triumph of the king of Chu. The newly occupied place needed to be soothed, so the two stayed in Xiangzhou for the time being.

Ma Yun didn't pay much attention to the hundred officials, but just walked to the village elders on the side and expressed condolences, hoping that they could forget the tragic past, work hard, and re-devote themselves to the tide of feudalism construction in Dachu. After that, Fang Cai came to the Xiangzhou Thorn Mansion under the embrace of the stars of the civil and military officials.

After lunch, Ma Yun convened Zhao Pu, Li Xiang, Wu Ban, Shi Wende, Ding Sijin, Liu Yantao, Peng Shigao and others in the hall to discuss and listen to Shi Wende's recital.

Unexpectedly, Shi Wende's first sentence was: "The king, the old minister is old and has little energy, and it is difficult to serve as the political envoy of Dengzhou, Anzhou, and Jingzhou." Please be considerate of the king and let Weichen resign from the post of political envoy of Dengzhou and Anzhou. ”

Ma Yun looked at Shi Wende, who was in his fifties, this old boy had seen him on the eve of the Northern Expedition three months ago, and he went down to the prefecture and county to observe the people's feelings, and he lobbied himself to let Changsha increase its funding for Jingzhou Road. Even now, it seems that this Shi Wende is also bright-eyed, quick-witted, and extraordinary; Thinking of the luncheon just now, this old boy has a good appetite, and he eats a good thing, and he is a person with a great body, and he doesn't look like an old dragon clock at all, besides, didn't you say that he was old and frail? Why don't you ask to return to your hometown, but only ask to be relieved of two positions?

When Chinese literati speak, they often pay attention to zigzag progress, outflanking in a roundabout way, so that others can know the elegance when they hear the sound of the strings. It's a pity that this time this time the words were too mysterious, and Ma Yun didn't hear the meaning, so he smiled and said: "Shi Aiqing, you are in good health, and the country depends on a lot, where did you say this recently?" ”

Shi Wende said: "The day before yesterday, Lord Xu and Master Fan sent an official document over. asked the old minister to reclaim Jingzhou, Xiangzhou, Suizhou, Fuzhou, Anzhou and other places, recruit refugees, open up wasteland, and repair water conservancy, but only promised to exempt taxes for two years, but did not issue a sum of silver. Although the old minister wants to contribute to the country and benefit the people, it is a pity that it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice. Without money, none of these projects can be started. The old minister is in his position, but he can't do anything, hey, the corpse is vegetarian, it is better to retire like this. ”

No wonder Shi Wende complained? It turned out that Xu Zhongya wanted the horses to run again, and they wanted the horses not to eat grass, how could this be possible? It is inevitable that the treasury will be empty, since Ma Yun ascended the throne, he has rewarded the three armies, improved the treatment of the old ministers, and reduced some taxes for the people, in order to improve the combat effectiveness of the army, spent huge sums of money to buy horses, cast heavy armor, and launched an economic offensive against Li Tang. All eyes are on one place - Neku, Ma Xifan has been rampant for so many years, although he has squandered a lot, but there is always a lot left.

Ma Yun suddenly understood that this old thing wanted to squeeze something out of his pocket. At this time, the concept of state finance was basically nonexistent, the emperor was not rich, so he took silver from the treasury, and if the treasury was not rich, if he met a Ming monarch, the government would take silver from the inner treasury. In their opinion, Ma Yun is undoubtedly a "four haves" Mingjun who has morality, culture, ideals, and a view of the overall situation. However, last time, I fell for the tricks of Xu Zhongya and these people, and promised them that they would not be able to treat the treasury as their own account office from now on, although they can still receive a lot of salaries from the treasury every year, but they always have the feeling that they are also civil servants, and they divide their own money with the country's money quite openly. At this time, let Ma Yun pay out of his own pocket, he has some flesh pain. So, he glanced around, looking for a few helpers to help talk.

As a result, Zhao Pu looked up at the ceiling, and was studying it with great interest, it seemed that he liked this style very much, and was going to get one in his own house; Li Xiang lowered his head and looked at his shoes with interest, as if they were embroidered with a crystal clear diamond; Wu Ban didn't dodge, but looked at Ma Yun with an earnest face, and was looking forward to Ma Mingjun's quick agreement, and his eyes were so eager that Ma Yun glanced at him and didn't dare to look at him anymore.

What to do?