Chapter 660 New Mercenary

Whether it was a joke or not, Chen Kefu didn't take it seriously. Read with me H-U-N Mix * H-U-N Mix * Small - Say - Net, please keep it in mind

If we can get the attachment of Lingnan, this is indeed a good thing. But if there is too much to pay for it, it is not worth it. Although Lingnan has nineteen counties, it cannot be compared with the Central Plains.

Chen Kefu is not the kind of man who only smiles for the Pomeranians. He loves beauties, but he loves rivers and mountains even more. If he had to choose one of them, he would definitely choose the latter. The nineteen counties of Lingnan and a beautiful woman of the Feng family can never be compared with the ambition of controlling the world in his heart.

Therefore, in the face of Feng Wan's seemingly real appearance, Chen Kefu just smiled slightly, and then closed his mouth and stopped mentioning the matter. He turned to say, "It's not a secret, now my court is gathering troops and horses to pacify Hebei, and we still need to guard against Henan Li Mi at any time, and we have to guard against Jiangnan." The imperial court also has no soldiers to send to Lingnan, but as long as Lingnan can write to the world, inform the Quartet that Lingnan will be attached to our court from now on, and Feng and Xian will accept the appointment of our court, and accept that our court will send local civil and military officials to the nineteen counties of Lingnan, and pay taxes to the court according to the system. Then, this king will ask the imperial court to add a seal to honor Feng Ang as the king of Yue, and this king will order the Huaibei garrison to move to Dabie Mountain, making a posture of going south at any time. In addition, the Lingbo Naval Fleet, which will be stationed at the mouth of the Yangtze River in Jiangdu, will also be prepared to advance west against the Yangtze River at any time. ”

After slowly stating his plan, Chen Kefu looked at Feng Wan, "This is all this king can do, if Yang Yun is not arrogant, then he will think about attacking Lingnan again." If he ignores this, then there is nothing else the king can do. ”

Feng Wan is still not very satisfied with this result, maybe she has just let it go, although Chen Kefu did not respond to what she said about the marriage between the two families just now, but she is not as worried as before. She unceremoniously bargained with Chen Kefu, as if she really regarded herself as Chen Kefu's fiancée.

After a long time, Chen Kefu was also a little helpless, and waved his hand, "Okay, as soon as Ling Zun's book arrives, this king will immediately let the Zhenhai fleet of 10,000 soldiers and horses go south to Hainan along the coast." The king can also support you with some weapons and armor, but you can't give them away for free, you all have to pay for them. Well, that's all the king can do. ”

Hearing that there were 10,000 reinforcements and that they could also get the weapons and armor of the Hebei Army, Feng Wan was also a little surprised. Read with me H-U-N Mixed *H-U-N Mixed *Small-Said-Net, please remember to suppress the surprise in your heart, and her face was silent, but she still continued, "The concubine has already heard that there are firearms and gunpowder in Chen Wangjun's army, which is very powerful. Now His Royal Highness's reinforcements are far away, but please ask King Chen to send some firearms and thunder and other sharp weapons to Lingnan, we are willing to buy them at a high price. ”

Firearms can be said to be the last trump card in the Hebei army, and such sharp weapons have always been extremely secretive. Seeing Feng Wan so aggressive, Chen Kefu was also a little impatient. However, if Lingnan can really be annexed, even if it is only in name, it is equivalent to separating Lingnan from Jiangnan Nanchen. In this way, not only can it weaken Nan Chen's strength, but it is also equivalent to putting a chess piece on Nan Chen's back, causing his backyard to catch fire and make his vest uneasy.

Even from a long-term point of view, the location of Lingnan is in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, which can control Nanchen at the bottom, restrict the Jianghan Yang Hui at the top, and even go up the river to Bashu. To the north is the south of the mountain, pointing directly to Luoyang in the Central Plains.

Lingnan's move is good, although it has no effect on Hebei on the surface, but it can give his opponents a headache. Although Chen Kefu also understands that the so-called attachment at the moment is just some deceptive nonsense, just to take advantage of his power. Anyway, Hebei and Lingnan are thousands of miles away, and their hands can't reach there. …,

But the price is not too great, but the business is very cost-effective. That's why Chen Kefu is willing to send a fleet to transport 10,000 reinforcements to Lingnan at this time. However, Chen Kefu didn't want to open this gunpowder opening. Gunpowder is a mysterious thing, but it's not really a very profound thing. Selling gunpowder to Lingnan will easily be found out by them.

"Your Highness, I am willing to exchange food for food." Seeing that Chen Kefu was still hesitating, Feng Wan gritted her teeth and said.

Lingnan is located in the southernmost part of the Great Sui, and in addition to Hainan Island at the southern end, the three counties of Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen and Rinan are even more southern. Unlike the Central Plains, which is hot all year round, it is very suitable for the production of crops, and compared with some places in the north, there is still one season a year, and Lingnan has already grown twice a year, and even in the southernmost counties such as Cochin, it has already grown three times a year. Moreover, Jiaozhi and other places are close to Linyi, and the rice varieties planted there are not as high as those in the Central Plains, and the yield is higher. Now that the Central Plains has been fighting for several years, in addition to the grain still stored in those big granaries, the most lacking thing is food for many heroes who control one side.

When you fight a war, you fight for territory, and when you grab territory, you do it for food, population, minerals, iron tools, horses, and other things. Among them, especially grain, is the most important, no food will not gather troops, no food will be unstable.

Chen Kefu now wants people and territory, and there is no shortage of weapons and armor, nor is there a shortage of war horses, and the most important thing is food. Last year's food crisis almost forced Chen Kefu and others to be helpless, and in the end, they robbed and stole immediately, plus extortion and extortion from the surrounding tribes, and finally got through that difficulty. Although the current grain problem has been barely solved, and Liaodong, Hebei, Shandong, Huaibei and other places have sown spring seeds, and they can be harvested in summer.

But now Hebei will ignite a big war again, and even the Shandong area may become a battlefield at will because of the tension with Li Mi. The war is changing rapidly, and no one can predict whether the newly sown seeds will be able to wait until the harvest season.

The larger the territory, the more people under control, and how to solve the problem of feeding more than 10 million people has always been a huge problem trapped in the Hebei court. Hebei, Shandong, and other places were the places where the war was most serious since the end of the Sui Dynasty, and even many landlords' families had long run out of surplus grain, their fields were deserted, their ditches were blocked, and their water conservancy was in disrepair. There was no food, and Hebei's military deployment was revised again and again. Because every time an army is sent to fight, it will greatly increase the consumption of food.

Hearing that Feng Wan was willing to exchange food for food, not only Chen Kefu's eyes lit up, but even Zhang Zhongjian and others also lit up. In these days, food is more precious than gold and silver. Li Mi and Wang Shichong fought and died near Luoyang, and tens of millions of people died before and after, for what, not just for the three granaries near Luoyang. Zhang Zhongjian led the sailors to rob all the way along the coast last year, but he pretended to be pirates, not for food.

Nowadays, money can't buy food, but if you have food, you can get anything.

Chen Kefu was also moved, as long as there is enough price, things are not undiscussed.

"How much food can you take?"

"How many firearms can King Chen give us?" Feng Wan suddenly grasped the initiative.

Chen Kefu thought to himself for a while, and said, "I want 10 million stone grain, and correspondingly, I can send you 30,000 reinforcements, and carry ten ships of gunpowder weapons." However, these weapons will not be handed over to you directly, and gunpowder weapons are complex to operate, and if they are not operated by skilled personnel, they will easily cause accidental injuries to the army. Therefore, these firearms will be used by our Hebei soldiers to support you. ”…,

The Hebei army is now equipped with a large number of gunpowder weapons of all kinds, such as gunpowder packs, poison gas bombs, fierce fuel tanks, rockets, grenades, mines, and even flowering iron-shelled bombs for projectiles. There are many varieties and complex styles. Most firearms are difficult to operate, with the exception of the army's specialized engineer battalions. Chen Kefu wanted food, but he didn't want Lingnan to get rid of the gunpowder formula.

Therefore, he finally used some tricks, he gave gunpowder, but on the grounds that the Lingnan people could not operate it, he only gave it to the reinforcements who went to Hebei. Originally, the Hebei Army was originally equipped with gunpowder, but Chen Kefu did this, but it was tantamount to charging another layer of fees for the weapons in the reinforcements that were originally promised. However, Chen Kefu was not so shameless after all, and in the end, for the sake of food, he was willing to send an additional 20,000 horses. Anyway, the most important thing in the imperial court now is people, in addition to the standing government soldiers, county soldiers, and town soldiers, the imperial court now also has prepared township soldiers and militia groups. Now that the spring ploughing has passed, mobilizing 20,000 or 30,000 people as mercenaries can earn back 10 million stone of grain. He not only made money, but also trained soldiers.

When Feng Wan heard such harsh conditions, she immediately frowned. As everyone knows, the firearms in the Hebei army are extremely powerful, and they can often play a decisive role on the battlefield when they are critical. For such a sharp weapon, of course, Lingnan also wants to take the opportunity to obtain it. However, seeing that Chen Kefu would rather send an additional 20,000 people than sell firearms to them, she was a little unwilling in her life.

She looked up at Chen Kefu, but there was no room for negotiation in the other party's eyes. After a while, Feng Wan retreated in defeat, and it was she who begged for help, and she was already congenitally weak for a while. With a hint of unwillingness, "Your Highness will give me another 10,000 crossbow machines and 1 million crossbow arrows." ”

"Three thousand crossbows, three hundred thousand crossbow arrows, plus the previous ones, you have to pay me a total of fifteen million stone grain."

"You add another 5,000 sets of Mingguang armor and 10,000 spears."

"Three thousand crossbows, 300,000 crossbow arrows, 3,000 sets of Mingguang armor, 3,000 spears, plus 30,000 reinforcements, ten boats of gunpowder, in exchange for 15 million stone of food, that's it. This king is not a trader, and he does not want to bargain anymore. Chen Kefu directly said the final bottom line.

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