The substitute prince: Reported the emperor's brother at the beginning

The Northwest Cavalry Army always made Ning Yi feel uneasy, and he had to keep them under control.

Ning Yi explained to Zeng Zhizhong and the old manager of the Intelligence Department what to do next.

Only after everything was arranged did I continue my journey north with peace of mind.

I come to Hushan Pass again, exhausted and dusty.

Ning Yi ordered on the spot that all troops stop their annual leave and officially begin intensive training.

Also, I asked the Intelligence Department to collect more herbs, horse feed, and salt, and now they are starting to store them for the upcoming decisive battle.

Those noble families and quite a few businessmen were quite dissatisfied with Ning Yi, the Sixth Prince.

Almost everyone refused to do business with him.

But it doesn't matter, he has plenty of ways to get things from other places.

His own private caravan does business under various banners.

As long as it is something that can be bought with money, I will spend it on it and never feel sorry for the money.

However, all the spoils he seized were huge amounts of silver. If he didn't spend it, it would remain in the warehouse as dead stock forever. Only when it was exchanged for supplies would it be worth the money.

Do you really think that if you want to seize military power, you just need to win people over?

Money and food were distributed in huge quantities. People were willing to work for the Sixth Prince only if they could have food to eat and get benefits from following him.

However, Ning Yi also remembers those aristocratic families. Just wait and see. Once he gains power, he will definitely uproot those aristocratic families.

Aristocratic families have always been a headache for every dynasty.

Some aristocratic families have deep roots and complex relationships. They are not only related to officials in the court, but also have inseparable ties with local officials.

Even the princes who hold military power are their partners.

It involves various industries. If you want to deal with these families, it is not enough to just attack them with force. More importantly, you must force them to quickly replenish the economic market while destroying the economy, so that they cannot control the local people.

There are also the troops of the vassal kings, who are also their reliance, so the vassal kings must also be dealt with, they are all cancer.

Many of the aristocratic families have their own troops.

Just like the Dongfang family, they were ambushed by Ning Yi last time and were threatened by the emperor's tens of thousands of troops.

I had to get the money out in Qingzhou.

Dongfang Wangxue has become smart now, and has even gathered more than 10,000 troops in Qingzhou.

Moreover, the weapons and armor were made by themselves.

It was announced to the outside world that it was to resist the barbarians who entered the pass.

In fact, if the barbarians really came, the Dongfang family would probably be the first to surrender.

However, more than 10,000 soldiers and horses are enough to threaten many nearby forces.

The Dongfang family has money, food, countless wealth, and status.

If a true royal relative wanted to mobilize tens of thousands of troops and promote resistance against foreign invaders, who would say anything?

Not only the Dongfang family, but also the northern families have a lot of soldiers and horses.

The Battle of Hushan Pass was not just about a few northern princes mobilizing their troops.

It is said that the Chen family, a big family in the north, is still a terrifying force in terms of the number of soldiers it produces.

Because once Hushan Pass is breached, with the barbarians' destructive power that can sweep away everything, how could they not target the aristocratic families?

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Chen family also increased their military strength, and also revealed that they actually had tens of thousands of private soldiers.

Normally, there are only three thousand guards at home, and a few guards following the caravan.

As a result, when the battle of Hushan Pass really broke out, they easily dispatched tens of thousands of armored soldiers.

These armored soldiers are usually the people who rely on the Chen family for their livelihood.

Usually I spend half of my time farming and half training.

As a result, when the army expanded, relying on these tens of thousands of armored soldiers, it immediately expanded to the current size of 30,000 troops.

Ning Yi was speechless. Is this still an ordinary wealthy family? It is even more terrifying than a vassal king. It is simply a warlord.

No wonder they are not afraid of the court at all.

The court asked them to pay the money, but they refused to do so.

If they can quickly increase their troops, tens of thousands of troops will be a piece of cake. That's not all. If the vassal kings with whom they have good relations can unite together.

Wow, a hundred thousand soldiers look so relaxed, and they are all wearing armor.

The Chen family is a thousand-year-old family, and they even experienced the era when barbarians broke through the capital and swept across the north.

But the Chen family managed to get through it. In addition to their relationship with the barbarians, more importantly, they were very powerful.

The barbarians were too lazy to care about so many things. With such a nail still there, they didn't want too many casualties, so they just wanted to pull out the nail.

If the Chen family was just an ordinary family with little resistance, how could the barbarians allow such a fat pig to wander around in front of them? They would have been exterminated countless times.

However, even though it was just a nominally aristocratic family, it had many relatives in the imperial court, and the local officials nearby were also very fawning on them.

Just look at the Chen Family Compound built by the Chen family themselves.

It is nominally a compound. Ning Yi saw it once when he passed by and was surprised to find that it was almost a state capital.

There were armored soldiers standing on it, and they were quite majestic, which was not comparable to that of ordinary state capitals.

It would be impossible to capture such a large compound without tens of thousands of soldiers and horses.

The Chen family also has strongholds in other places. If you destroy one, the others will rise up at any time.

No wonder the imperial court has always been unable to do anything with these aristocratic families.

Sometimes I just turn a blind eye.

These aristocratic families not only deal in arms and armor, but also in grain, salt, herbs, and all kinds of other businesses.

As long as they do not rebel in name or oppose the court, and are willing to obey orders in normal times, the court generally will not make things difficult for them.

But Ning Yi is at Hushan Pass, and the western defense line is not too far from the Chen family.

There are conflicts from time to time.

The Chen family's caravan was also stopped by Ning Yi, even several caravans, and all the members were beheaded.

The Chen family hated the Sixth Prince Ning Yi with gnashing teeth.

But the Chen family also had to endure it, because the Sixth Prince now had an army of hundreds of thousands under his command.

This guy is so arrogant and fearless.

Once he was provoked, he would really dare to lead a large army to attack the Chen family compound.

All it takes is a reason for the Chen family to cooperate with the barbarians.

The several princes in the north did not want to fight with the Sixth Prince right now.

As long as the Sixth Prince easily defeated the barbarian army of 100,000, they felt that their own vassal kings' soldiers were really no match for them.

However, even though the Chen family endured it, all businessmen in the north were not allowed to do business with the Sixth Prince, which was enough to cut off the Sixth Prince's military supplies.

I wish all the captured soldiers of the Sixth Prince would starve to death.

Of course, it would be even better if the Sixth Prince's captured soldiers fought to the death with the barbarians.

In this case, not only would the barbarians suffer heavy casualties, but the Sixth Prince, this scourge, would also be dead. By then, even if the barbarians broke through Hushan Pass, they would rarely threaten their aristocratic families.

Ning Yi had naturally been dissatisfied with the Chen family for a long time.

Such a big family actually wants to take advantage of the decisive battle with the barbarians. Why does they need such a scourge and cancer? Ning Yi will deal with them sooner or later.

Moreover, some of the vassal kings in the north must be dealt with cleanly and the entire north must be rectified before we can utilize the resources of the entire north and sweep across the entire Dawu Kingdom in one fell swoop.