Emperor: When will the Seventh Prince rebel? I will open the city gates to welcome him.

There was murderous intent in Li Haicheng's eyes as he looked at the ten county governors under the hall.

"I just told you that a good minister chooses the right tree to live in, and a wise minister chooses the right master to serve. Do you think that what I said to you was in vain?"

Wencang County Magistrate Wu Guangzheng cupped his hands and said:

"Reporting to the Prime Minister! A small county town cannot provide 500,000 dan of grain!"

The Magistrate Wen Cang took the lead, and the other Magistrates followed suit, bowing and saying:

"I hope the Prime Minister will forgive me! The grain grows from the ground. It's not that 500,000 dan of grain appeared out of thin air! How can a county town have so much grain?"

"Yes, Prime Minister! If you really take out so much food, the people will starve to death!"

Prime Minister Li Haicheng was very angry when he heard that no one dared to resist his orders and no one carried them out!

"Hahaha! Is 500,000 tons of food a lot?"

"Don't play tricks on me, the Prime Minister. I am negotiating with you now. If you hand over 500,000 dan of grain obediently, I will let you go. Now that the war is about to start, the wealthy merchants and landlords in your counties will have to bleed! If you don't know how to make a choice, then I will not only take the grain but also your lives."

Li Haicheng didn't want to negotiate any conditions with them at all.

"Each of you county governors, go back and prepare the food. I will send my subordinates to collect the food in three days! If any county fails to pay in full, don't blame me, the Prime Minister, for sending troops first and then sending soldiers!"

One county collected 500,000 dan of grain, and ten counties collected 5 million dan of grain.

Li Haicheng knew that this was the limit of harvesting grain.

Of course, most of this grain went to the bureaucrats and wealthy landlords in each county, while the common people had less food.

But even so, the people would still be plundered.

Now, as long as the army has enough food, Li Haicheng can no longer care about anything else.

When the county magistrates were leaving,

Shangtong County Magistrate Guo Simao stood up. He glared at Prime Minister Li Haicheng on the podium, and at the same time looked coldly at the Yunzhou Emperor in the tattered yellow robe.

"Li Haicheng! Your behavior of destroying others will never accomplish anything great!"

"Throughout history, he who wins the hearts of the people can win the world!"

"You just took the position of Prime Minister, and you dare to demand 500,000 dan of grain from each of our counties. It's hard to change your banditry and achieve anything great!"

Li Haicheng looked coldly at Guo Simao, the governor of Shangtong County:

"Xu Bing! Deng Fan!"

"The general is here!"

Xu Bing and Deng Fan stepped forward and knelt on one knee.

"Deng Fan, go and arrange for the executioners to take this corrupt official to Caishikou and behead him, and kill all his family members."

"Xu Bing, send three thousand soldiers to Shangtong County to collect grain! Don't go to the people's homes, go directly to the granaries in Shangtong County and the homes of the gentry to plunder."

"The last general takes command!"

Deng Fan stepped forward, grabbed Guo Shimao by the collar with his burly body, and dragged him out of the hall.

Xu Bing led three thousand soldiers to Shangtong County to harvest grain.

The troops led by Li Haicheng were originally composed of mountain bandits. No matter in the past or now, they cannot change their bandit nature of stealing food.

If the Shanshui rebels don't rob food, should we let them farm?

Military advisor Zhang Fangliang, who was standing in the hall, did not stop him.

If we don't raise food in this way, is there any other way to raise food?

All counties and prefectures in Yunzhou will be plundered, whether it is food or gold and silver treasures. This is not only the nature of the three bandits, but also the necessary material conditions to support the expenses of the entire army.

Food must be delivered before troops move forward, and the looted money must also be converted into food as quickly as possible.

If Shangtong County Magistrate Guo Simao wanted to turn himself into a chicken, then both Li Haicheng and Zhang Fangliang would kill him without hesitation to warn the other county magistrates in the hall.

After dealing with the matter of the counties handing over grain.

All the people left the temple.

Only Emperor Hongli of Yunzhou, Prime Minister Li Haicheng and military advisor Liu Fangliang were left.

"Military Advisor, how should we march next?"

Li Haicheng looked at Zhang Fangliang and said.

Yunzhou Emperor Hongli also looked at the military advisor Zhang Fangliang. Hongli knew that the military advisor was originally a Jinshi of the Dafeng State.

After becoming an official, he found that the officialdom of Dafeng State was extremely corrupt and incompatible with his character, so he resigned in anger.

Unexpectedly, after resigning from his official position, he joined the rebel bandits and his goal was to overthrow the imperial power of the Dafeng Kingdom.

Military Advisor Liu Fangliang said:

"Given the current situation, we must first occupy Xiangzhou. Only by occupying Xiangzhou can the territory of Yunzhou be stabilized."

"Let Yunzhou, Guizhou, Qingzhou, Xiangzhou!" The surrounding areas are connected to each other! If we advance, we can attack Dafeng, and if we retreat, we can become the king and dominate! Dominate one side!"

"Of course, after doing all this, the Prime Minister can ask His Majesty to issue an imperial decree to return to Luzhou and have the Luzhou governor declare himself king, or directly proclaim himself emperor!"

"In this case! Even the King of Zhenbei in the northern border can do nothing! Dafeng is doomed. If he rushes to help the southern border, the northeastern Luzhou and the northern Shang Kingdom will send troops at the same time! The King of Zhenbei, Hongxuan, cannot be saved!"

Hong Li was so frightened that he felt a chill down his spine and jumped up from his chair:

"You want me to issue an imperial decree to make the governor of Luzhou a king? Absolutely not! My father will tear me into pieces."

Prime Minister Li Haicheng was amazed when he heard the brilliant plan proposed by military advisor Zhang Fangliang.

He smiled and glanced at Hong Li:

"Hongli! You will be my son-in-law soon. I told you to address me as "I" or "Your Majesty". Why address me as "this prince"?

"You are just a prince in Dafeng Kingdom. Now this Prime Minister makes you the emperor. Aren't you grateful? Isn't being the emperor what you always dreamed of? As long as Dafeng Kingdom is not destroyed, you won't even be the crown prince!"

Military Advisor Zhang Fangliang looked at Hong Li and smiled and said:

"Your Majesty! You are already sitting on our warship. As long as you are in our hands, even if you do nothing, the military advisor can still issue an imperial decree in your name!"

"This strategy is called holding the emperor hostage to control the princes and disturb the hearts of the ruler and ministers of Dafeng State!"

As long as he drafted an imperial edict in the name of Emperor Hongli to instigate Yang Detai, the governor of Luzhou, to rebel, and passed the news to Emperor Dingwen Hongjing regardless of success or failure,

Would Emperor Dingwen have no suspicion towards the Governor of Luzhou?

Removing the governor was the lightest punishment; they might even execute Yang Detai, the governor of Luzhou.

Even if a new governor goes to Luzhou in the future, Zhang Fangliang can still issue imperial edicts in the name of Emperor Hongli.

Therefore, there cannot be two emperors in the world of Dafeng.

Zhang Fangliang looked at Hong Li and said:

"Your Majesty, please issue an imperial decree now! I will go to Xiangzhou in person to instigate the governor of Xiangzhou to rebel."

"Prime Minister, prepare 300,000 troops! Be prepared to attack Xiangzhou!"

Zhang Fangliang took the imperial edict and 30,000 soldiers to Xiangzhou.

Xiangzhou

Zhu Quanqing, the governor of Xiangzhou, frowned in the governor's office.

Faced with such a crisis.

As the governor, he actually felt a sense of powerlessness.

"You shouldn't have done that! You shouldn't have let Hong Li be the King of Southern Xinjiang. Now, I only have a few tens of thousands of men. How can I be a match for these 400,000 rebels? Even if I take a step back and have enough troops, do I really dare to kill the eldest prince Hong Li?"

Just when the governor was upset.