"For 10,000 taels, the Yun family buys out the right to operate Caoyun." Yunchen's voice was low, and he emphasized the last two words: "Gold." ”

10,000,000 taels of gold! King Ning's hand shook, thinking that he had misheard. Ningguo's tax revenue now is only about 10 million taels of silver a year, that is, 1 million taels of gold. Then 10,000,000 taels of gold is the tax revenue of Ningguo for a hundred years! And it's the sum of the whole country not eating, drinking, and spending nothing!

This price really moved King Ning's heart. He thought in his heart, if Ning Guo can really unify the four countries, then the new dynasty will be built, and there will be places where money is used. Why worry about not being able to gather the hearts of the people?

"Where did you get all this money?" King Ning couldn't help but ask.

Yunchen didn't intend to say anything about the treasure, so he said ambiguously: "Although my Chu country is small, it has always been comfortable and rich, what's the matter, do you think I can't afford 10,000 taels of gold?" ”

King Ning really felt that Yunchen couldn't afford it, if the Chu State really had so much money, why wasn't it discovered by the Yan State when he was the first to die?

Yunchen knew that King Ning was suspicious, so he further explained: "My Chu State has accumulated countless wealth in the past two hundred years, and the kings of all dynasties have a sense of distress, so they have allocated part of the treasury to extend the national Zuo in case of emergency. Naturally, these are my assets for recovering the country, this 10,000 taels of gold is 70% of my net worth, and I am willing to use it to buy out the management rights of Caoyun. ”

"How long is the buyout?" King Ning immediately asked. With so much money to buy out the operation of Caoyun, if the time is short, it will not be able to earn back the principal at all. And with Yunchen's shrewdness, he will definitely not do this kind of loss-making business.

Yunchen also replied very neatly: "As long as the new dynasty Guozuo lasts, I will buy it out for as long as possible." This is a long-term business, which is enough to show that I believe in the ability of the Yuan clan and fully believe that the new dynasty will last for a long time. ”

At this point, King Ning finally heard a sentence that was quite acceptable, and his heart was a little more comfortable, and finally asked: "If the new dynasty does not become a climate, what if the national fortune is too short?" ”

"Then I think that my vision is not good, and if I lose, I will pay for it, and I will never complain." Yunchen replied calmly.

King Ning knew in his heart that the 10,000,000 taels of gold to buy out Cao Yun would seem to be his own loss in the short term, but in the long run, it would be a loss-making business. But he needed money too much, and the war with Yan in the past two years had cost a lot of military resources, although it would not shake the foundation of the country, but there was little surplus.

And he simply can't guarantee how long the new dynasty will last. Throughout history, there have been changes of dynasties from time to time, not to mention that the four countries have not returned to their hearts, and perhaps in a few decades, a new regime will replace them. Therefore, just looking at the present, at least for ten years, it is still the Yuan family who takes advantage of this business.

Thinking of this, King Ning finally gritted his teeth and nodded in response: "Okay, as long as you keep your promise, declare to the world that the Yun clan will not interfere in politics, will not go out, will not rebel, and stay away from the temple forever, Lone will do your business, and build a new dynasty with you for mutual benefit!" ”

"The king is wise!" For the first time in recent days, Yunchen bowed down and bowed to King Ning.

King Ning was very useful, and nodded with a smile: "But Lone also said ugly things in front, if Lone finds out that you have bad intentions, do you know what the consequences will be?" ”

Yunchen also smiled back: "Wechen also said ugly things in front, if the king intends to cross the river and demolish the bridge and kill Wechen, then Wechen also has chips in his hand, which will definitely make you regret it." ”

Although Yunchen's words were full of threats, he cleverly called himself "Weichen", which shows that he has chosen to obey King Ning's grace and power. Although King Ning didn't feel happy when he heard this, he was also quite jealous of Yunchen, especially at this sensitive moment of the situation, he also knew what the result of Yunchen's defection would be. And because of these 10,000,000 taels of gold, he was reluctant to kill Yunchen, so he had to explain to his descendants and slowly plan for the Yun family.

So, King Ning chose to continue to be patient, and reluctantly smiled back: "Yun Qing is really polite, now that the Ning royal family and Yun Qing are interdependent, if Yun Qing has anything wrong, won't the foundation of the new dynasty collapse?" ”

Yunchen smiled silently.

The two of them have been going around for so long, King Ning is also very tired, seeing that everything is temporarily settled, he can't help but wave his hand at Yunchen: "Let's stop today, the details of the matter, when Gu wins Yan and Jiang, it's not too late to discuss." ”

"Wechen retired." Yunchen didn't say anything more, and retreated.

When he walked out of the main hall of the Holy Study, Yunchen knew that King Ning's gaze was staring straight behind him. He lowered his eyes slightly, and his lips turned up involuntarily.

In fact, from beginning to end today, his purpose is just the right to operate Caoyun. The right to operate grain, oil, salt and iron was just a pretext for him to ask King Ning for a bargain. These things are certainly attractive, but it is impossible for any king in the world to hand them over to private management, even if he is given to him, his current strength does not dare to accept it openly, and he has no ability to digest it, but it will make a big splash and attract people's jealousy.

But after controlling the transportation, many things can be taken slowly, because all the circulation of materials in the world depends on transportation! In the land transportation and water transportation, the waterway is faster, smoother, and more accessible, and the flow of materials is eight or nine times out of ten, all by transportation! As long as you master this operation, let alone grain, oil, salt and iron, anything in the world can gradually invade and control. So he is not in a hurry, he has eaten the luck first in his lifetime, and the rest, he can leave it to future generations to plan slowly.

Who said that the restoration of the country must go through the court? As long as he grasps the fundamental lifeline of a dynasty, he will be like an uncrowned emperor, and he will sit in this position for a longer time.

Thinking about it, Yunchen stopped laughing, he only felt relieved.

*****

After meeting with Yunchen and talking in detail, King Ning acted quickly, and did a lot of things before Ming Chenyuan led the reinforcements to Youzhou, not only letting out rumors to provoke the relationship between several generals of the Yan army, but also taking the opportunity to send a large number of Ning troops into Youzhou.

At that time, most of the Ning army went with the belief that "they must die and recover Youzhou", and with the backing of the people of Ningguo, they fought with their lives on the battlefield, and they were brave and brave without fear of death and injury. On the other hand, the Yan army, after losing the two backbones of Nie Xingji and Ming Chenyuan, obviously did not have that morale, in the face of the almost crazy attack of the Ning army, as well as the secret help of the people of Ning State, the Yan army was afraid and took care of their own lives.

Many Yan Jun even complained in private: "In the past, I followed His Royal Highness the Regent, first, I respected His Highness for governing the army well, second, I wanted to serve the country, and third, I wanted to get promoted and make a fortune." Now that His Royal Highness is dead, the Marquis of Zhenguo is reversed, and several generals bite each other hard, we don't know which way we are working for the anti-thieves, and we can't glorify our ancestors, what else to fight? ”

Once this kind of words spread, the consequences among the Yan army can be imagined, and many people will be affected by this, and they will not be able to lift their spirits when they go to the battlefield, and they will be fatigued and weak. For several reasons, the Yan army lost the right time, place and people, and naturally lost, and retreated again and again, losing several cities in a row, including Youzhou Mansion, which was the camp of the Yan army.

Later, Ming Chenyuan came back and recaptured Youzhou in one go, but suffered heavy losses. 100,000 reinforcements lost 50,000, and another 50,000 followed him into Youzhou Mansion - never came out again.

After the Ning army recovered Youzhou Mansion, they quickly moved the people in the city away, and found the hidden ancient road mentioned by Yunchen. Because it has been abandoned for too long, the ancient road is overgrown with grass and trees, so it has not been discovered. King Ning decisively ordered to cut down trees and split the road, and did not hesitate to mobilize a lot of manpower and material resources, and finally reopened the ancient road before Ming Chenyuan returned, and set up an ambush. At that time, the Yan army was engaged in infighting and front-line warfare, and did not find that the Ning army was digging mountains and splitting trees in the rear and re-splitting the ancient road.

Then, there was what Yunchen said, "catching turtles in the urn", Ning Jun deliberately lost to Ming Chenyuan, but he didn't dare to lose too obviously, the two sides were deadlocked for several days, each with about 50,000 casualties, and finally all the remaining men and horses of Ming Chenyuan were introduced into Youzhou Mansion City, and then the city was surrounded by that ancient road to cut off the water source.

The Yan army originally stationed in Youzhou has experienced several battles to capture the city, and nearly half of them have been killed and wounded, and the remaining fifty or sixty thousand people have tried to rescue Ming Chenyuan many times, but they all failed, and finally had to fly the pigeon to tell Nie Xingyi the original thing, and attached the conditions of King Ning.

If the Yan royal family does not save these 50,000 people, the soldiers will feel cold, who will continue to serve the Yan Kingdom? The Yan army had even more reason to slack off and rebel; But if it is saved, the Yan royal family will agree to King Ning's peace negotiation conditions, which is equivalent to giving away the royal power, and it is even shorter in the eyes of the world.

So all the soldiers were watching to see how Yan Guo was going to deal with this tricky incident. Whether you save it or not, it seems to be a dead end - this is the brilliance of Yunchen's strategy.

When Ming Chenyuan found out that Youzhou Mansion had become an empty city, he immediately understood that he had been calculated. Moreover, the Ning army did a great job, not only moved the people in the city cleanly, but also did not even leave a single grain behind! When the Youzhou battalion was stationed here, in order to prevent trouble, several caves were dug underground and part of the military rations were buried.

But it's a drop in the bucket.

The 50,000 army had to open their mouths to eat every day, and even if they save, those military rations would only be enough to support two days. Ming Chenyuan led his troops to break through several times in the past two days, but unfortunately not only did he not break out, but he also suffered heavy casualties. He also knew in his heart that the longer the days dragged on, the more the confidence of the soldiers would be consumed, and if there was no food to feed them and their physical strength could not keep up, the possibility of breaking through the siege would become smaller and smaller, and in the end, everyone might starve to death in this city.

Fortunately, although the water source was cut off, there were still a few old wells in the city, barely enough for the soldiers to drink, so they could support it for a few more days.

In the blink of an eye, the 50,000 Yan army had been trapped in Youzhou Mansion for five days, during this period, Ming Chenyuan had thought of countless ways to break through, but Youzhou Mansion was surrounded by the Ning army like an iron bucket, and there was no breakthrough at all. In the next three days, the soldiers relied purely on boiled bark and turf to satisfy their hunger, and only a little grain could be seen on the table in the far away world, but it was only gruel.

In this case, all the trapped Yan soldiers felt unprecedented despair, the good man did not die on the battlefield, but died of thirst and starvation, and he died too much to be blind! For the first time, they are so eager for peace, for stability, for a war-free life, for their families.

The Yan army faced an unprecedented predicament, starvation, despair, low morale, and no fighting spirit.

(Everyone must still remember the 50 million taels of gold owed by Yunci Design Mingzhang in "The Concubine's Heart is Like a House".) At that time, I explained in my concubine's heart that 50 million taels of gold was a tax for the entire Nanxi country for seven or eight years, but in the imperial industry, 50 million taels of gold became a tax for 50 years of Ningguo. It should be reminded that 500 years later, Kyushu is divided into two, and Nanxi has a larger territory; 500 years ago, Kyushu was divided into four countries, and Ningguo was smaller, so there must have been a difference in taxes. Moreover, according to the law of economic development, the more dynasties and the more peaceful the dynasties, the stronger the productive forces and the higher the tax revenue. Of course, the idea is somewhat metaphysical, but the general law should be. ）