"But if Li Wufeng is not allowed to bring enough troops to protect himself, why would he follow your order to go to Beijing? Lao Jiu wouldn't be naive enough to think that Li Wufeng is a pillar of the empire who is full of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, right?" Situ Tai asked rhetorically.
"This is also the most puzzling thing for me. Although Li Wufeng likes to take risks, Li Wufeng will not go into traps like this with few benefits and huge risks even if he is brave. Even if he wants to take risks, he is afraid that The advisors and generals under his command would not agree with him risking his life lightly. The old man still has no idea what His Highness Ninth Prince used as bait to lure Li Wufeng to come to the capital." Leng Qian, who is still dressed in gray clothes, seems to be getting thinner, but The dark eyes in the deep sockets are extremely deep.
"Let's take a look first. Anyway, Lao Jiu only asked a group of us to arrive in Beijing in March. We still have some time to figure out what is weird about this, but I always feel that this is a bit like a conspiracy against us. I have a I have a bad premonition that recruiting us to Beijing this time will be detrimental to us. Even if we bring enough force, I'm afraid something will happen. My premonitions are always very good."
Situ Tai sighed, a little tired and pressed his temples on both sides of his head with his fingers. The financial constraints made him exhausted. Although the negotiations with the merchants in the imperial capital made some progress, the amount of funds obtained was too small, and those heavyweights However, the guys all maintained a relatively cold attitude, apparently determined to wait until the truth came to light before they would lend themselves money. So should he compromise with those smugglers? This problem has always troubled Situ Tai, and compromise can certainly be done. Obtaining a large amount of financial support, but the legacy of tiger breeding, once the maritime ban is lifted, the Japanese can easily obtain supplements of various strategic materials, and their strength will grow faster. In the future, not only do they want to take back the treasure island and Kancha It will be more difficult to add islands and the Ryukyu Islands, and the threat of the Japanese will directly penetrate into the three coastal counties and prefectures. Although the Japanese can now obtain some supplies from Quanzhou and smuggling, as long as they strengthen their control over Quanzhou, the prefecture of Quanzhou With the blockade and control of smuggling, the throats of the Japanese were always in his hands. The stakes involved, he had to carefully consider.
Seeing his master's tired face, Leng Qian naturally knew that the other party must be worried about financial problems again, but at this point, he really couldn't do anything. In order to raise funds for going south, he greatly increased the commodity tax rate and transit in Donghai and Yanyun. Li Jin, knowing clearly that this was drinking poison to quench his thirst, but in order to win Jiangnan, he had no choice but to act like this, which caused complaints from businessmen in Donghai and Yanyun. Later, he also forcibly increased the so-called war tax in Donghai, further worsening the relationship with Donghai Industry and Commerce. The relationship between the two worlds, and the East China Sea and Jiangnan have been war-torn, and industry and commerce have been greatly damaged, especially in Jinling and Jiangnan prefectures. Continuous military disasters have spread in these places. Defeated soldiers and rebels have taken advantage of the war to plunder, and even in At the end of the period, Situ Yuan, seeing that the situation was over, organized and participated in the looting of wealthy industrial and commercial households. The industrial and commercial losses in the entire southeast region were extremely heavy.
In Yuhang Mansion, Situ Yuan emptied all the Jiangnan County treasury before fleeing, and the business community also frantically transferred assets under Liao Qichang's instigation and stringing, leaving Situ Tai with only an empty city; in Songjiang Mansion, known as the hometown of textiles, Since the decisive battle between the two armies was here, almost all the industrial and commercial owners either moved away in advance or were robbed; in Gusu and Weiyang, the wealthy households followed suit and fled. When Situ Tai's army entered the city, except for some landed nobles, almost all Industry and commerce have closed down, and 70% of the 10% of cities have moved their industries to Kansai and Tiannan. As a large number of industrial and commercial circles have fled Jiangnan, the financial sector in Jiangnan has also been greatly affected. The withdrawal of large amounts of funds has led to a tightening of credit. Prices have skyrocketed, the people are miserable, and the entire Jiangnan area is boiling with resentment.
Financial difficulties directly affected the operation of the three legions in Situ Tai's hands. Some of the veterans in Situ Tai's hands had already been almost exhausted to support the normal operation of the first and second legions. Although there were gains from the East China Sea and Jiangnan in the later period, with the new For the formation of the legion, this amount of funds seemed insignificant. If Situ Tai had not found a way to get a loan from the Kingdom of Doton, I am afraid that he would not have been able to survive this period of time.
At this time, Situ Tai and Leng Qian deeply realized the truth that the economy determines everything. A strong armed force is important, but without a strong financial foundation to back it up, all of this is a castle in the air, and finance is based on the economic foundation. It seems Seeing Li Wufeng galloping across the vast land in the west, Situ Tai and Leng Qian both wanted to know how the weak economic foundation in the west could support such a huge army. Their overemphasis on domestic affairs made them pay too much attention to those far away in China. They were not aware of the large sum of money that the mainland Indians had given to Li Wufeng. In their eyes, even if Li Wufeng had gained something in India, it would not have been possible to support such an army of hundreds of thousands of people.
However, both Situ Tai and Leng Qian believed that all this would be solved after they obtained the throne. As long as they could ascend to the throne, Situ Tai and Leng Qian believed that with their orthodox status and military power, they could quickly pacify Wuhu and Quanzhou. At that time, reasonable economic policies were adopted to stimulate the development of productive forces and gradually restore the original national strength of the empire. Finally, they pointed the finger at the West and used all their strength to solve the scourge of Li Wufeng until the empire was unified from nominal to substantive .
Of course, this idea is quite beautiful. As for whether it can be realized, Situ Tai and Leng Qian are full of confidence, but as the other party, will they be so obedient and allowed to be manipulated
The thick smell of blood could be clearly smelled even a few hundred meters away. Dark red blood stains could be seen everywhere. Mailly could clearly see a centurion sitting against the wall in pain and unwillingness. However, the slight smile at the corner of his mouth looked a little weird. His fingers left deep scratches on the soil wall, and you could feel the soldier's pain and despair at the last moment. The coagulated blood stagnated into purple blood clots, and even the armor became deformed. It turned dark red, and the long knife that slipped from the hand was stuck diagonally in the soil. The thick animal-faced iron shield was thrown aside, with a little sand covering the bottom of the shield. This beacon tower, which also functions as a small fortress, is connected to several An important bridge between cities, whether from east to west or south to north, warning signals can spread as quickly as possible. This is probably why the enemy attacked here first.
The corpses of about twenty soldiers were scattered scattered throughout the two-story beacon tower. Most of the soldiers were killed after being hit by the same style of black lacquered glue-embossed carved feather arrows, and a few were chopped with sharp weapons. The injuries that led to death were probably caused by weapons such as the sabers used by the rangers in close combat. There were another twenty corpses at the entrance of the fortress. Apparently, they died in the final decisive battle with the enemy after they broke through the fortress defense.
The eagle quill at the tail of the arrow was still exposed at the edge of the dead centurion's chest armor. The arrow just escaped the guard of the copper armor, penetrated the thick double-layer leather armor, and penetrated straight into the heart. chest. It stands to reason that this arrow is enough to kill him on the spot, but perhaps it was the will inspired by his huge sense of responsibility that made the centurion drag his dying body to the beacon tower and light the beacon fire. Maybe it was the completion of the mission that made him a little bit nervous. Relax, the fatal blow finally takes away the life maintained by will.
Gently bending down, Maili looked at the centurion's face that was slightly distorted by pain, and then turned over the opponent's body. The dark arrowhead penetrated the body, and the dark red blood on the arrow shaft turned purple. Maili looked Touching the arrowhead with his hand, he silently exercised his skills with both fingers. With a "bang" sound, the arrowhead broke off from the shaft. He lifted the arrowhead between his fingers and put it in front of his eyes for a while, then shook his head and dropped the arrowhead, and put it down again. The centurion straightened his body, looked at him for a long time, then stretched out his hand to close his eyes, stood up straight, and walked forward in silence.
No one from a standard hundred-man team in the entire fortress could survive. It was obvious that the enemy intended to annihilate all the troops in the beacon fortress. From the horse hoof marks around the fortress, Maili deduced that the enemy had at least two thousand riders. As mentioned above, although there is a fortified city to defend, the Centurion still has no chance against an enemy that is dozens of times more powerful than itself. However, Maili believes that the enemy has not taken advantage, but he can't tell anything else from the current situation.
The faces of the generals and officers who followed Maili were ashen, and the anger that could melt gold and iron flashed in their eyes. This was the fourth similar situation that we had seen in the past half a month! The purpose of the Tanghe people It seemed to be very accurate. They removed these contact points that were densely distributed throughout the southern plains one by one. Taking advantage of their cavalry, they concentrated their forces in a short period of time to attack head-on, which greatly destroyed the defense network in this area. Although such a battle may have caused a lot of damage to the Western Xinjiang cavalry, if it continues like this, it will be our own side that will not be able to hold on in the end.
Claudia, who was walking at the front of a group of generals, found that he could no longer restrain his anger. The huge anger was like a raging wave impacting his nerve bottom line. He felt that if he didn't find a suitable opportunity to vent, He would really be burned to ashes by his anger. But as a military commander, his creed has always firmly restrained the surging murderous intent in his chest. He took a long, sharp breath of the icy cold air in the wilderness to suppress himself. Only in this way, Crowe Only then could Dia force herself to calm down and think carefully about how to deal with it.