The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 1110: There is food in the warehouse, so there is no need to panic

Li You was startled, looked at Hegan approvingly, then straightened his chest with a solemn expression, and looked at Shi Guirong with a resolute face. It seemed that he was really the prince who was described by Hegan as being unparalleled in benevolence and righteousness, and the prince that Li Shimin valued the most.

Li You could also imagine that Hegan was trying to test the real intentions of the Turks by asking for a high price and paying a low price.

Seeing the master and servant in front of him with a righteous look on their faces, Shi Guirong secretly despised them. However, in Chang'an for many years, he had seen countless hypocritical people who were both powerful and insolent, so he didn't care too much.

Instead, he explained: "Our Khan's lifelong ambition is to eliminate the Right Wise King, regain the ruling power of the grassland, and restore the glory of Jie Lixian Da Khan. The Right Wise King is on good terms with the Tang Dynasty. If the Tang Dynasty stands on the side of the Right Wise King, our Khan will not have any chance of winning."

"After the Battle of Hengling, the key to determining the ownership of the grassland has fallen to the Tang Dynasty."

"So our Great Khan led his troops south, firstly to divert the trouble southwards, so that the Tang Dynasty would be too busy to take care of itself and unable to intervene in the grassland situation; secondly to collect food and fodder, find allies, and recommend the prince to the throne. If the prince dominates the Tang Dynasty."

"Of course they will send troops to help us. When the time comes, the prince will be in the south and our Khan will be in the north. The two families can continue to do business like the Tang Dynasty and the Turks do now. We can even go a step further and form an alliance through marriage to ensure eternal friendship."

Li You was relieved when he heard this. Shi Guirong's words made sense. Shi Luodie's roots were still on the grassland. As long as the grassland was not unified, he would not dare to go south on a large scale to attack the Central Plains, otherwise he would be cut off by the Right Wise King.

Once the grasslands are unified, the Tang Dynasty will be able to regain stability.

A strong Tang Dynasty was definitely something that the Turks dared not offend. It seemed that this was a chaotic situation, and everyone worked together to break the existing pattern, reshuffle the cards, and then quickly expand, each taking what they needed, and the competition was about who could clean up the situation faster.

Li You's heart moved, and he asked his doubts: "Aren't you afraid that the Right Wise King will attack the rear when you go south?"

"Hahaha."

Shi Guirong said proudly: "Didn't I tell you before that the Right Wise King was seriously injured in the assassination of Qiu Muda? In this Hengling battle, the Right Wise King was not seen from beginning to end. It was the Right Great Danghu Gu Rentu who was in charge all the time."

"It can be seen that the Right Wise King is in danger of losing his position. I'm afraid what he wants to do most now is to stabilize people's hearts and maintain the current situation."

"If we rush to attack now, it will only encourage them to band together to resist. As long as we turn south, they will let down their guard. Then they will fight for power and profit for the position left by the Right Wise King, which will cause trouble."

"So, we might as well take advantage of our free time now to develop our strength as much as possible."

At this point, Shi Guirong said angrily: "In order to control the grassland, the Right Wise King has almost taken all the resources into his hands. Now that the weather is getting colder, it won't be long before heavy snow falls in Mobei, and the entire grassland will enter a cold winter."

"We were short of food and clothing, so we had no choice but to head south to find a way to survive."

Li You's heart trembled, and he stared at the other party closely: "What are you going to do?"

"I have been in Chang'an for many years. I know that ordinary people don't have much surplus food at home. However, there are many wealthy families in the Tang Dynasty. They are all rich enough to rival a country. They have piles of gold, silver and food. We can borrow some food from them to get through the winter."

Li You said anxiously, "No, the nobles are the foundation of the court. If I offend them, how can I get their support?"

"Ah"

Shi Guirong glanced at Li You disrespectfully and said calmly: "What are you afraid of? We are the Turks who robbed them. We are not afraid of any big or small tribe. Besides, if we are the bad guys and you come out to be the good guys, won't it be easier to subdue them?"

"Otherwise, for a person who is well fed and well-drinking, what else can you offer to make them choose you? Can you give them more than the emperor? Why should they follow you and take risks?"

'Well'

Li You thought about it and it seemed to make sense. The Turks were the ones who robbed them, and he was the benefactor who saved them from danger. The nobles were the ones who suffered losses, the Turks got food, and he got people's hearts, so why not do it?
Under normal circumstances, I really can't compete with Li Chengqian.
"It takes about ten days for the north to pass on news. If I'm not mistaken, the Khan will lead his troops south after a short rest. We don't have much time left."

Shi Guirong said solemnly, "Your Highness, I need maps of the cities and passes in Hebei and Liaodong, as well as the deployment of troops in various places. It would be best if I could get specific information about the generals defending the cities along our marching route, the number of troops, the city defense equipment, and everything else."

"After all, the better our army is doing, the sooner you can take control of the military."

"Of course, there are also the distribution of wealthy families in the north, their property, and their food and grass storage. Since these places will be yours in the future, we can try to restrain our troops, kill fewer civilians, and only target the rich. This way, when you raise an army in the future."

"We can quickly win back the hearts of the people and recruit enough troops." The other party's considerations were so thoughtful that even Li You and Hegan felt that it was very considerate. There were so many things involved in the rebellion that the master and servant could not think of such details at the moment. Shi Guirong, a Hu man, actually made all the plans for Li You.

I always felt something was strange. Li You thought about it for a long time but couldn't find what was wrong.

Finally, he shook his head and made up his mind: "Okay, Mr. Shi, I have made up my mind to join forces with the Khan to conquer the world. Let's form an alliance now!"

"Your Majesty is wise, this is very good."

Shi Guirong, who completed his mission, was very pleased. Under the guidance of Hegan, he and Li You held the ceremony in an orderly manner, swore an oath of blood and swore to heaven.

At the same time, in the outer study room of Chengqing Hall in Taiji Palace, Li Yan summoned six important ministers including Changsun Wuji, Xiao Yu, Cen Wenben, Liu Bo, Ma Zhou, and Chu Suiliang to discuss military intelligence.

When everyone saw Chu Suiliang appear as expected, they knew that the so-called three provinces might have become four provinces in the emperor's mind. Chu Suiliang, a finance minister, had frequently participated in central government meetings recently.

Not like a prime minister, but better than a prime minister.

However, Chu Sui was originally one of the important ministers appointed by the retired emperor to take care of the young emperor. He had a long career and controlled the largest purse in the Tang Dynasty.

Recently, the Tang Dynasty has begun to promote treasure notes. The aristocratic families, both large and small, have collected a total of 100 million strings of cash. Under the joint will of the two greatest forces in the world, the imperial power and the aristocratic families, no one doubts whether this can be done.

Civil and military officials, meritorious officials and relatives of nobles also responded one after another. With the support of wealthy merchants and gentry, the amount of treasure notes quickly exceeded 200 million, and is still rising. When ordinary people start using it, I wonder how much more it will increase.

As a huge amount of cash poured into the warehouse, several important officials in the central government were extremely excited. Since they entered the officialdom, or in their knowledge, no emperor in history had been able to accumulate so much silver so quickly.

The current emperor may seem young and ignorant, but he has acquired a huge fortune of 200 million taels of silver in just one month. Based on this alone, who dares to say that he is not wise?
If an acquaintance who grew up under their noses could do this, they would have already bowed down to him. In other words, the current emperor had experience of traveling to the West, and everyone could comfort themselves by saying that this was just a reference to other people's experience, not their own creation.

Except for some surpluses in the fifth to tenth years of Zhenguan, the Tang Dynasty's treasury has been maintaining negative growth since the eleventh year of Zhenguan. The amount in the treasury has remained less than five million strings of cash for a long time. It was just that the silver that should have been distributed was not distributed and was used to temporarily fill the treasury.

In fact, every penny of silver that goes into the warehouse has an owner.

Li Shimin was not the only one who was anxious about the long-term empty warehouse. The ministers in the central government were also anxious. With such a large territory, if something happened anywhere, the court would be at a loss.

Repairing bridges and roads can be delayed, but floods, droughts and locust plagues cannot be delayed; of course, civilians can be sacrificed when necessary, but what about the Turkic invasion?
The Hu people's scimitars and iron cavalry will not be polite to you. The border war is a matter of life and death, and there is no time to delay. If there is no money when the war really comes, and the soldiers give up, will the Tang Dynasty be in danger of extinction?

In order to meet the emergency needs, Fang Xuanling racked his brains to come up with a compromise operation, which was to temporarily withhold the silver that should be issued as a backup. Before the next batch of silver was deposited into the warehouse, this silver was kept in reserve.

When the situation really becomes extremely urgent, solve the most urgent problem first.

After the subsequent taxes and revenues come in, the money that should have been paid before will be paid out. Although this is a tricky approach, it actually solves the problem.

When there is no food in the warehouse, I feel panicked.

The empty treasury would make the ministers worried, and if they worried too much, it would trigger their sense of crisis and keep them in an unstable state. The actual impact was the subtle decline of the imperial power.

Everyone felt that the court was in danger, so the emperor was not so powerful anymore, and instead the aristocrats had more of an upper hand.

Now a huge amount of wealth has been pouring in, and the warehouse of the Finance Temple has accumulated more than 200 million worth of money. Important officials such as Zhangsun Wuji and Liu Bo have never seen so much silver, and some of them have even come here in the name of inspection.

I visited the Finance Temple in person and had someone open the warehouse to broaden my horizons.

When you see the endless iron shelves in the silver vault made of gold and stone, and each shelf is neatly piled with silver, the strong visual impact brings a shock that makes people unable to calm down for a long time.

Let these big guys who claim to be rich understand what two hundred million taels, a full ten thousand tons of silver, means.
Moreover, this number was still increasing at a rate of several million taels every day. I thought it was grain, but who would have thought it was silver. After this amazing scene spread, important officials would often try to see this rare spectacle in a thousand years.

(End of this chapter)