The Three Kingdoms: Zhaolie, the strategist, and the rise of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 42: The wisdom of our ancestors, buying a deer to defeat Chu (please read it later!)

Just as Li Yi and Liu Bei were drinking and chatting.

A personal guard rushed in and said he had urgent news.

Liu Bei frowned, "Urgent news, where does the urgent news come from?"

He wondered what problems were still unresolved at this time.

Even Li Yi was thinking seriously, does Lao Liu have any urgent matters during this period of time?

The guard replied:

"Yes, it's the messenger from Kong Rong, the Prime Minister of Beihai. He said he has something urgent to do."

Hearing this, Li Yi's mouth corners tilted up and a playful smile appeared on his face.

"My Lord, all you have to worry about is timing."

“Now is the time.”

Is the time right?

Liu Bei raised his eyebrows, "Could it be that the military advisor is referring to Langya Zang Ba?"

"That's right." Li Yi nodded.

"What about Kong Beihai..." Liu Bei hesitated slightly.

"My lord, why don't you meet this North Sea envoy first and see what he has to say."

Liu Bei agreed and ordered someone to invite the envoy in.

Soon, the messenger came to Liu Bei, exhausted and dusty, to pay his respects.

Asked the purpose of the visit.

It turned out that Qingzhou Governor Tian Kai was defeated by Yuan Shao's general Zang Hong, and Kong Rong came to Liu Bei for help.

Tian Kai and Zang Hong were actually both governors of Qingzhou, but one was appointed by Gongsun Zan and the other by Yuan Shao.

The purpose of both of them was just to seize Qingzhou.

Kong Rong and Gongsun Zan were on the same side, so naturally they supported Tian Kai.

Especially since his Beihai is adjacent to the plain, once Yuan Shao comes, Beihai will inevitably suffer.

Following the principle of "the lips and the teeth are cold", Kong Rong knew that he had to help Tian Kai to fight against the Yuan family.

"My lord has already engaged Yuan's army, but he is afraid that he is no match for them, so he sent me to ask the envoy for help."

"I hope you will save my master for the sake of our old friendship!"

After the messenger finished speaking, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed with tears in his eyes.

Li Yi sneered inwardly. The envoy was quite smooth in his words. What did he mean by "I'm afraid I'm no match for him?"

It is one hundred percent that we are not opponents, okay?
Not to mention Yuan Shao, Kong Rong couldn't even deal with the Yellow Turban Army.

It was the kind of thing where one was completely beaten up.

Later, they were defeated by Yuan Shao's son Yuan Tan, leaving only a few hundred people.

Although this guy is one of the Seven Sages of the Jian'an Period, apart from being good at writing, he is really useless in military affairs.

Even though he had done such a great favor to Taishi Ci's mother, Taishi Ci still looked down on him.

"This matter is already known, come here!"

Liu Bei put his hands behind his back and greeted him.

"Please ask this messenger to go to the posthouse to rest first."

The messenger was helped up by the servants, wiped his tears, and reminded:

"I hope you will not let Kong Beihai down!"

good good!
They are all using moral blackmail, right?

What does "Don't let down Kong Beihai" mean?
Helping you is a favor, not helping you is my duty, nothing is taken for granted.

Li Yi couldn't bear to watch it any more and felt sorry for Old Liu.

Honest people really deserve to have guns pointed at them.

When Taishi Ci came to Liu Bei for help before, he also used moral blackmail.

But Old Liu really fell for it.

The only thing that made Li Yi feel relieved was that Liu Bei did not agree immediately.

Instead, he asked someone to invite the envoy to the post house to rest, obviously wanting to seek his opinion.

Sure enough, after the messenger left, Liu Bei turned to ask Li Yi:

"I wonder what the timing is that you just mentioned?"

Li Yi analyzed:
"Since Kong Beihai has asked us for help, we might as well use the strategy of using the enemy as a transit point to destroy Guo."

"Go north in the name of aiding Beihai and take advantage of the situation to eliminate Zang Ba, the hidden danger." Hmm...

Liu Bei pondered for a moment and decided that using the excuse of destroying Guo as an excuse could indeed catch Zang Ba off guard.

But with Liu Bei's current strength, is a "surprise attack" enough to destroy Zang Ba?

Li Yi continued speaking.

"Since we are heading north to assist Kong Beihai, we might as well summon Zang Ba to lead his army to join us and let him go north with us."

"Then the lord promoted Zang Ba to a state official on the grounds that he had made contributions to the state, transferred him to the front of the tent to serve, and removed his military power."

"In this way, Langya and Donghai can be integrated into one place without any effort."

Liu Bei hurriedly said:

"What if Zang Ba refuses to obey my orders and refuses to come?"

Li Yi touched his chin and smiled:

"Then he must come."

Have to come...?
Liu Bei looked puzzled.

Li Yi took out a brocade box from his hand and handed it to Liu Bei.

"My Lord, do you still remember the refined salt I showed you yesterday?"

"I have given the method of refining this substance to Mi Biejia, and ordered him to refine it as soon as possible."

"This thing is not difficult to refine. Mi Biejia can easily refine a large amount of refined salt in a short time."

"If we can put this refined salt into the hands of the people, we will surely make huge profits."

Liu Bei suddenly understood, "Military Advisor, are you thinking of something?"

"good."

Li Yi nodded and said, "I want to use the same method that Guan Zhong used to buy a deer to control Chu to deal with Zang Ba."

As the prime minister of Qi State, Guan Zhong was extremely good at trade wars.

Whether it was the Hengshan Plan, the Luliang Plan, or the Buying Deer Plan to Control Chu, they all used trade wars to make the enemy country surrender without spending a single soldier.

For example, the State of Lu was good at making Lu silk, so the State of Qi purchased a large amount of it.

This caused the price of Lu silk to soar, and then every citizen of Lu gave up farming and started weaving Lu silk.

When the time was ripe, Qi immediately stopped purchasing Lu silk, resulting in a large amount of Lu silk being unsalable. Then the farmland became barren and the people had no food to eat.

In desperation, the people of Lu could only buy food from the State of Qi.

The State of Qi raised the price of grain a hundred times, completely draining the national strength of the State of Lu, thus truly achieving victory without fighting.

Later, whether dealing with Liang, Chu or Hengshan, they all used similar tactics.

The core idea of Guan Zhong's currency warfare tactics is "the art of lightness and heaviness".

Low price means cheap, and cheap means light.

High price means valuable, and valuable means heavy.

Protect all important materials in the country and prevent them from flowing out through trade, and then import important materials from other countries through trade.

By regulating the supply of strategic materials in this way, it is easy to control a country's economic lifeline.

Li Yi analyzed methodically:

"Refined salt can bring huge profits. We can ask Mi Biejia to form a merchant group to go to Langya to purchase grain."

"When necessary, refined salt can be bartered for food."

"Given the benefits of refined salt, I believe the people of Langya will have no reason to refuse it."

"At the same time, we must restrain Xuzhou's local merchants and strictly prohibit them from selling grain to foreign countries. Violators will be severely punished."

"It won't be long before we can control the lifeline of Langya. Zang Ba will be like a fish in a net or a bird in a cage, and will be under our control!"

Wonderful, wonderful!
Liu Bei clapped his hands and cheered, "This is a great plan."

"The Art of War by Sun Tzu says: 'To conquer the enemy without fighting is the best of all tactics.'"

"If we can integrate Langya into Xuzhou without sacrificing a single soldier, then Xuzhou will be unified again!"

"only……"

The conversation changed again.

"What about Kong Beihai?"

Liu Bei asked a key question.

If we deal with Zang Ba in the name of helping Kong Rong, will Brother Li still come to the rescue?
……

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(End of this chapter)