Steel Dynasty - Chapter 876

[Chapter 874 Li Chuyuan’s despair]

Lin’an, Prince Chu’s Mansion.

Li Chuyuan’s face turned pale and he threw the battle report on the ground.

“It’s been half a month. Six thousand people have died but not even a single Wu County has been captured. This Jiang Ying is really a waste. If so, he would not have known it was the Year of the Ox and the Moon of the Horse when he captured Suzhou City.”

Li Chu was speaking .

Yuan looked very irritable.

He had to be impatient now. In order to purchase flintlock guns and ammunition, Chu State spent twelve million taels of silver this year, and he was also forced to exchange the silver taels into Chongqing dragon coins. It was unfair. The proportional exchange allowed another level of exploitation.

He didn’t understand it before when he was the prince of Chu. Now that he has become the king of Chu, he understands that tea, rice, oil and salt are expensive.

Although Jiangnan is the richest in the world, and Chu is the richest in Jiangnan, so much money is enough to make him feel distressed, but as long as he can defeat the Merchant Council and pay this price, it doesn’t matter.

But the current war situation clearly dissatisfied him.

Sima Hao sat under Li Chuyuan. After the Cao family fled to Suzhou, he immediately united with the wealthy families of Chu to put Li Chuyuan on the throne. Within a few days, the imperial edict from the court also arrived. At this time, Li Chuyuan Both in the imperial court and in the State of Chu, he was justified.

Gently stroking his beard, Sima Hao looked indifferent and said: “Your Highness, there is no need to worry, war is not something that happens overnight. Jiang Yingnai comes from a family of famous generals. Compared with other generals, he is still very outstanding. As far as I know, the Parliament The army was very cunning. They dug many trenches and built many earthen walls in Wu County. It was by relying on the trenches and earthen walls that they were able to stop Jiang Ying’s attack. In the opinion of the subordinates, they must find a way to conquer the trenches. “

” Hey, the current Northern Expedition Army only took a few days to conquer Pingzhou, and Jinzhou only took a few more days. Why is it our turn to fight this battle so hard? “Li Kaiyuan sighed deeply.

Sima Hao shook his head slightly, “This matter is actually very simple, because the firearms sold to us by the emperor are all obsolete by the royal army.”

“I know this well, but even so, the weapons that are obsolete are better than those of the merchant council.” After all, in addition to smoothbore flintlock muskets, we also purchased rifled flintlock muskets. No, the problem is not the muskets, but the artillery. The artillery we use is left by our father, and the artillery used by the merchant council is French. People sold it to them.” Li Chuyuan suddenly realized.

Sima Hao pondered for a moment and said: “It seems to be the truth. Jiang Ying’s battle report said that the range of our artillery is not as good as that of the Merchant Council.”

Li Chuyuan suddenly stood up when he heard this. He said: “My father used to buy the earliest one in Qingzhou.” These artillery can sweep across the kings at that time, but now they are of little use. Now we must buy artillery with a longer range and more power from Qingzhou.”

“Your Highness, these 80,000 muskets cost so much. If I buy more artillery, I am afraid that most of the money in the treasury will be consumed, which is equivalent to giving the Chu State’s hundred years of accumulation to the royal family in one day. “Sima Hao feels a little hurt.

Although the Chu State is rich, its treasury is not inexhaustible, not to mention that most of the wealth in Jiangnan is in the hands of wealthy families.

Li Chuyuan suddenly laughed evilly when he heard this, and said, “Uncle, don’t you want to buy some artillery for the Sima family’s tribe?”

As soon as he said this, Sima Hao’s pupils suddenly dilated.

Now that Jiangnan is in chaos, the biggest reliance for the wealthy clan is not Li Chuyuan but their tribe, so they have been coveting muskets and artillery for a long time.

“Your Highness is planning to lift the ban on firearms?” Sima Hao said in shock. When King Lai Chu was still alive, he ordered that wealthy tribes be strictly prohibited from possessing firearms.

Li Chuyuan nodded affirmatively, “The merchant council relies on wealthy merchants and private groups to fight against me. Why can’t I rely on the powerful tribes to deal with them?”

Sima Hao’s eyes rolled. Since the death of the old King Chu, , In fact, the Sima family no longer has any respect for the Li family. The reason why Li Chuyuan was appointed as the King of Chu was really a helpless move at the moment.

After all, there are still some wealthy families in Chu State who support Li Chuyuan. If not, the Sima family would have replaced him long ago, so why should he be subordinated to others again.

With a slight cough, he said: “Your Highness is talented and resourceful. Such a strategy really makes me admire him greatly.”

“Uncle, I am so ridiculous. This is just a helpless move by this king.” Li Chuyuan’s smile was a little complicated.

Sima Hao was a little excited. He said: “If this is the case, Sima is willing to bear a hundred old artillery pieces for His Highness. However, these old artillery are lacking in range and power. Your Highness cannot sell them to us at the price we paid for them.”

Li Chu Yuan nodded and said: “My father used to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver on each of these artillery pieces. Now I can always sell them for 5,000 taels. After all, although these cannons have insufficient range, they have hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.” Mine is still enough. Generally speaking, artillery fires best at this range.”

Sima Hao was very clear. He had long coveted firearms, so he said: “Well, five hundred and twenty thousand is not a big sum for the Sima family. It’s obviously not enough to have artillery. It would be better if we had muskets. Can Your Highness buy muskets from Qingzhou on my behalf? “

“My uncle’s business is my business, of course.” Li Chuyuan laughed. stand up.

Sima Hao laughed in agreement, he couldn’t wait any longer, “Then I will go back and prepare money.”

After that, Sima Hao saluted Li Chuyuan and turned to leave.

After watching Sima Hao disappear into the main hall, Li Chuyuan punched the table in front of him.

“Bastard, do you really think this king is a fool!” Li Chuyuan’s eyes were filled with despair.

He was just testing Sima Hao just now, but the result he got made him see the reality clearly. This year, almost everything he did would be restricted, and he knew who was behind it.

After living in Qingzhou for two years and coming back again, he lost all his roots. He finally understood why Xiao Ming asked him that question in the imperial study.

It turns out that even if he comes back, there is nothing he can do to save his life and he can only become Sima’s puppet.

“You forced me to do this.” Li Chuyuan murmured. Maybe he was lucky enough to be able to restore Chu State, but now he just wants to fight for a wealthy second half of his life. After all, he already has it. Wife and children.

This time he lifted the ban on firearms to test Sima Hao and also to show his goodwill to Xiao Ming. Before the Chu State was destroyed, the wealth of the Chu State would be transferred to Qingzhou through arms transactions. Based on his understanding of the emperor, he would definitely Will be very happy.

But he is not without conditions. After the larger firearms trade begins, he will let Xiao Ming leave a way of escape for himself.

Thinking of this, he immediately drew up a deal and asked Xiao Ming to send officials to Lin’an for negotiations.

Four days later, Zhezi arrived in Qingzhou.

(End of chapter)