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Things seemed to be getting more and more tricky, and when they learned that this money village was instructed by the king of Chu, these envoys of the vassal kings knew that things were not so simple, and the king of Chu, who had just ascended the throne, must have deeper means. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Could it be that what does this Chu State want to blackmail? Take the opportunity to get the benefits?

The two countries that are most worried about this matter are Annan and Zhenla, both Wang Lihui of Annan and Liu Zheng of Zhenla are worried.

Liu Zheng of Zhenla was originally named Khuerna, but in recent years, Zhenla has become more and more closely associated with the Ming Dynasty, so he changed his name to follow the example of other feudal domains.

After all, the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty impressed the vassal states too deeply, and everyone was proud of the national surnames of the Han and Tang dynasties, such as the surname of the king of Joseon, and there were countless different races with the surname Liu.

Li Hui and Liu Zheng are most worried about the problem of borrowing, Chu State borders on them, and when they came, they knew that the territory of Chu State was quite limited, and when they came to this Chu land, they deepened their understanding of this problem, and now Chu has more than 500,000 households, and the population is as much as two or three million, it is said that this is the case, there are many black households, such as Kunlun Nu, and some people from various vassal countries who are secretly hiding here to work, whether it is the Ming Dynasty or the vassal state, the population of a high-class county is only seventy or eighty thousand, and more than 100,000 is already a very rich place, It is good to have 350,000 people in a medium county, and 10,000 or 20,000 people in a lower county may not have it, but there are only counties in Chu, and the population of a county is more than 200,000 people.

These days, Li Hui and Liu Zheng will send people to wander around here, not to mention that the city is already overcrowded, that is, outside the suburbs, but as long as there is a level of land, there are workshops and warehouses, and there is no end in sight, there are buildings everywhere, and the roads connect all the buildings, which is even more spectacular.

The more they saw this, the more Li Hui and Liu Zheng understood the crisis lurking in Chu, and to solve this crisis, it was natural that it must be solved by expanding the territory.

In the hinterland of Chu is the Ming Dynasty, this dynasty is the state of Chu, but also the state of the parents of the King of Chu, Liu Chengfeng received the favor of the Celestial Empire to be able to gain a foothold here, so it is impossible to ask for land from the Ming Dynasty, so the goal of the Chu people is naturally Annan and Zhenla.

Now Chu has 100,000 water divisions, and the land division is composed of the original three guards and some newly recruited warriors, although the scale is not large, only more than 30,000 people, if it is expanded, it is only 50,000 at most, compared to the strength of Annan and Zhenla to fight each other by hundreds of thousands, although the number on paper is not much, but what makes people really worried and afraid is the economic strength of Chu, the current wealth of Chu is definitely more than ten times the sum of Zhenla and Annan, Zhenla and Annan are now fighting for so many years, and they have long been exhausted, It can be said that the poverty is to the extreme, and the loss of the strong man has reached the limit, if at this time, the Chu State adopts the strategy of winning over one party to suppress the other, which is enough to bury the other party's Zongmiao Sheji.

Not to mention, there is a behemoth like Da Ming behind the Chu State.

Li Hui hadn't slept well for several nights, and he suddenly realized that the Chu people suddenly sacrificed the big killing weapon of Qianzhuang, obviously trying to force Annan to cede land, as for how much to cede, he couldn't rest assured, if it was just a few counties, it was still within Annan's tolerance, but what if it was a few prefectures?

The appetite of the Chu people, of course, will only get bigger and bigger, their land is mostly mountainous, so the demand for plains is also great, it just so happens that the richest plain in Annan is in the hinterland of Annan, if the Chu people hit the idea to this, Annan will be finished.

But it is not easy to stop the Chu people, unless ......

A few days later, early one morning, Li Hui gathered a few attachés at the State Guest House and gave an unexpected order to go and make contact with the Zhenla people.

Annan and Zhenla are feuds, so the two countries have always been old and dead, that is, although the vassal kings of the two countries have arrived in Lianzhou, both sides have deliberately kept their distance, living in the guest house, both sides try to avoid any chance of touching, obviously Annan King Lihui suddenly sent someone to contact Zhenla, is a great determination.

After giving this order, King Annan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and he was still waiting for news and waiting for the situation to change.

……

It is located in the east of the front hall of the palace, only a few feet away from the south gate, and the building here is still unremarkable, and it seems a little abrupt compared to the splendid palace rooms, but the furnishings also take care of these central ministers, although not luxurious, but also chic.

At this time, Liu Chengfeng was sitting in the main hall of the political axe, and Li Dongdong, the leader of the political council, was talking to Liu Chengfeng at the bottom, and in addition to Li Dongdong, two ministers of the parliament were also sitting beside him.

One of them is named Zhao Kang, this person was a lifting person, and then released as an official, first made a county lieutenant, after 20 years of ups and downs in the sea, and finally did a prefect in Sichuan, but then I don't know what luck, it was fortunate to enter the military department as an errand, but his background is just a lifting person, although there is great luck, and then it is difficult to go further, although later, seconded to the ministry, but there is still no chance to rise, four years ago because of the mother's funeral, so back to the hometown Ding worry, this to three years, and when you come back, He was transferred to the household department for business, and he did not do well in the household department, although his long career and experience in the sea made his political ability much higher than that of his colleagues, but after all, the future was still hopeless. In the end, under the temptation of Li Dongdong, he resigned in a fit of anger and came to this Chu land, and went directly to the political axe on business.

Zhao Kang is a shrewd and capable person, there is no real foundation, and it is impossible for a person to enter the central yamen of the Beijing Division, compared to those noble Hanlin people, he is obviously more skilled, and the errand of this minister is very organized, and now he is quite trusted by Liu Chengfeng.

Another minister of parliament is older than Zhao Kang, and his hair has become a lot whiter, his surname is Zhang Mingwen, Zhang Wen is even worse luck than Zhao Kang, and he only took the exam to show his talent, and later he was fortunate to enter the cabinet as a scribe after being recommended by others, and he was specially responsible for acting recitals and assisting cabinet ministers in some miscellaneous chores.

Under the influence of the head of the cabinet, he can gradually understand government affairs, all in all, these two people are more capable talents, Zhao Kang has a strong ability to make decisions, and has a strong insight into local affairs, after all, he has the experience of being in charge of the government, and he is not too rigid in the case. Zhao Kang is different, Zhao Kang belongs to the kind of copywriting master, and he can quickly sort out the folds handed to the political axe, and can clarify which twists and turns are more important and which ones can be postponed.

These two people have now become Li Dongdong's right-hand men, and after slowly getting in touch with the work of the political axe, the two of them quickly became like fish in water.

Such a combination, if it is placed in the Ming Dynasty, it will definitely be made fun of, the highest in the troika of the political axe is just a person, most people will give a white eye, but Liu Chengfeng knows that the ability of these three people may not be under the troika of the Ming cabinet, it is precisely because their identity is not noble, so they want to get ahead, often have to put in more effort than others, compared to those Hanlin, although their starting point is outrageously low, but that kind of shrewdness and ability, But it's not comparable to the bombastic Hanlin.

Today, the main issue to be discussed is the debt of the Chu State, of course, not the debt of the Chu State to the people, but the debt owed by the vassal states to the Chu State. This debt was transferred from the money bank, and the principal alone exceeded more than seven million taels of silver, seven million was not worth mentioning to Liu Chengfeng, but Liu Chengfeng knew that these debts were extremely huge for those vassal states, if you add interest, these seven million are tens of millions of taels of silver, and some countries borrowed more, some borrowed less, more than one million, and less than 100,000, that is, the small country of Aceh, which is a small country and a widow, actually owed 170,000 on credit, as far as Liu Chengfeng knew, the population of this Aceh country was only more than 400,000.

Li Dongdong has now done his homework, and said to Liu Chengfeng: "Your Highness, according to the understanding of the vassal states, the arrears owed by the vassal states are quite a lot, and more than ninety percent of the vassal states use the method of lending to the bank, and they have to take out a loan to the money bank every year, and then take out a sum of money from the loan to pay off the interest of the previous year's loan, and wait for the next year to borrow again, and so on, so in the opinion of the wechen, this time the money bank suddenly stopped taking out loans, and those vassal states are only afraid that they will not be able to pay off the loan interest within this year will exceed ninety percent." ”

Liu Chengfeng nodded: "This, King Gu also knows something, these vassal kings were raised by Qian Zhuang to be pigs, always thinking about getting something for nothing, now once they are taught to repay the debt, where do these people get the money?" But then again, the landlord's family has no surplus food, right? Now that our Chu State is using money, this money must be returned. ”

Li Dongdong smiled bitterly, Liu Chengfeng compared the vassal kings to pigs, the words were a little ugly, but it was indeed the truth, now everyone has a dependent surname, and they only know that they are waiting to be fed, who is to blame.

(To be continued)