Li Shimin faked his death? Then I will be powerful enough to conquer the world!

Fang Xuanling frowned and thought for a while, then reached out and carefully took out the imperial edict from his arms. The imperial edict was placed properly in his arms, and it still retained his body temperature when it was taken out.

He handed the imperial edict directly to Li Ji and said solemnly, "The Xueyantuo have invaded our borders. Those barbarians are like wolves and tigers, invading the borders of Youzhou, Shuozhou, and Bingzhou of the Tang Dynasty. The people living along the borders have suffered greatly. They are suffering terribly from the Xueyantuo army's invasion."

"His Majesty has personally appointed you, Li Ji, to lead the troops into battle."

Fang Xuanling continued speaking, his words full of seriousness. As he was speaking, Li Shimin suddenly coughed twice, and the coughs seemed particularly abrupt in the quiet room.

Fang Xuanling glanced at Li Shimin, shook his head helplessly, and changed the subject: "It was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who personally ordered you to lead the troops to fight against the main force of the Xueyantuo army."

Li Ji took the imperial edict and read it over and over again carefully, as if he were holding a rare treasure. His eyes seemed to want to engrave every word of the edict into his heart.

After reading it, he looked at Fang Xuanling with surprise, his voice trembling, "The imperial edict says that all military pay, food, and equipment for this expedition will be paid for by His Majesty, oh no, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's private treasury?"

He paused, still seemingly in disbelief, and continued, "And all the logistics are twice as much as in previous battles? And they also gave me 20,000 sets of fine iron armor?"

As soon as Li Ji said this, the other three people were stunned, as if they were under a spell.

Especially Li Shimin, his eyes were wide open, and Fang Xuanling could even clearly see Li Shimin swallowing his saliva unconsciously.

"It should be child's play, right? The cost of sending a large army to war is astronomical. That guy just came to power, how can he have so much money?"

As Li Shimin spoke, his voice became lower and lower. He knew in his heart that the imperial edict had been issued and it was definitely not a joke!

But he still didn't want to believe it, so he snatched the imperial edict from Li Ji's hand and read it carefully word by word.

"Twenty thousand sets of fine iron armor, personal rations for each soldier, not counting the rations for the main army, five hundred thousand bows and arrows, over a thousand chariots, twenty thousand hundred-forged Tang Dynasty swords..."

Every time Li Shimin read a sentence, he swallowed unconsciously, and the shock in his eyes became more and more intense.

Yuchi Jingde and Cheng Yaojin also swallowed their saliva like him. They were all shocked by the ridiculously luxurious configuration.

"How arrogant! Too arrogant! Who has ever fought such a prosperous battle?"

Cheng Yaojin couldn't help but sigh.

Li Shimin's hands began to tremble as he read the last part. He looked at Fang Xuanling, his face filled with disbelief: "Xuanling! How much does this cost?"

Fang Xuanling has been following Li Chengqian these days, and his horizons have been raised by more than one level. Now, looking at these old friends, he actually felt like he was looking at bumpkins.

He pretended to pull out a bag of tea from his bosom and said proudly, "The tea that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince gives to the courtiers only needs to be brewed in hot water. The brewed tea soup is clear and bright, unlike those dark tea soups that are brewed from other places. I can't get used to drinking that kind of tea anymore!"

Seeing Fang Xuanling acting like this, Li Ji snorted, got up and walked out.

After a while, he came in with a pot of freshly boiled water and a few cups. He put everything on the table and said loudly, "Come on! Make some tea! You old man, you're still adding it to the tea with us! I want to see how good this tea tastes today!"

……

A quarter of an hour later, four people each held a small cup and drank the tea leaves in the cups without stopping, like children with their favorite toys.

Li Shimin looked at the tea leaves in the cup with an intoxicated look on his face, as if he was tasting the most precious wine in the world.

"Xuanling, this is good stuff, it's really good stuff. Do you have any more? Give us some!"

Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly and said helplessly: "Your Majesty, we drink these things whenever we want while we are at work. I didn't take too much!"

Li Shimin looked at Fang Xuanling's disappointing appearance and said angrily, "You! Remember to take more tomorrow! It's a waste if you don't take advantage of the public's wool!"

Fang Xuanling was stunned when he heard this, and secretly complained in his heart: So you are the biggest official in the world!

"By the way, Xuanling, how much would such adequate logistics cost?"

Li Shimin suddenly remembered the important matter and asked hurriedly.

Fang Xuanling quickly put down his tea and replied, "Your Majesty, the original calculation of the Ministry of Revenue estimated the cost of the expedition at 20 million coins!"

"Twenty million yuan? Why doesn't the Ministry of Revenue just go and rob it?"

Li Shimin exclaimed in surprise, his face full of disbelief. In the past, the richest battle he had fought had only earned him eight million coins!

He also understood the situation. To be honest, for such a battle, he would earn at most five million yuan.

Three million dollars is enough to fight!

Five million dollars is a sign of wealth!

Fang Xuanling looked at Li Shimin somewhat embarrassedly and continued, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue originally proposed a plan of five million taels, but His Royal Highness the Crown Prince took one look at it and rejected it outright."

He paused, then imitated Li Chengqian's tone and said, "War is all about logistics. Without sufficient logistical supplies, how can we let the soldiers fight with peace of mind?"

"These are the Crown Prince's exact words."

Li Shimin listened to Fang Xuanling's words with a disdainful smile. He snorted and said, "Hmph, the old ones are still the wisest. Ask Old Cheng, ask Yuchi Jingde, and ask Li Ji. We didn't have any logistics when we fought the war back then. Didn't we still win?"

The other three nodded repeatedly, and Cheng Yaojin echoed, "That's right, Your Highness the Crown Prince still doesn't understand what a fierce general is!"

Yuchi Jingde slammed his hands on the table in excitement, shouting, "Logistics? What logistics? Who in the world doesn't know this? The King of Qin wields the bow, Yuchi Jingde wields the spear, who in the world can stop us? Why do we need to spend so much money?"

Li Ji glanced at the two brothers and agreed that they were right, but he could not erase the luxurious content of the imperial edict from his mind.

Li Shimin was delighted to hear these three old friends' flattery. He asked with a smile, "And then?"

Fang Xuanling looked at these old friends with tempers like children, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He continued, "Since the Crown Prince felt it was not enough, the Ministry of Revenue began to increase the budget continuously. The first time it was increased to 10 million coins, the Crown Prince rejected it. The second time it was increased to 15 million coins, the Crown Prince rejected it. The third time it was increased to 20 million coins, the Crown Prince rejected it again!"

"Rejected the Ministry of Revenue's budget three times in one day!"

Hearing Fang Xuanling's words, Li Shimin laughed so hard that tears almost came out: "It seems that this kid doesn't have that much money and is playing tricks on the Ministry of Revenue!"

As he spoke, he completely forgot the imperial edict he had just read.

Cheng Yaojin and Yuchi Jingde also laughed along with Li Shimin.

Only Li Ji held the imperial edict tightly in his hand, frowned, and fell into deep thought.

Fang Xuanling glanced dimly at Li Shimin and his two good brothers.

Then he uttered a sentence word by word: "The prince asked Qin Ruzhao to take people to move for a whole day!"

"Move five thousand dollars to the Ministry of Revenue!"

As soon as Fang Xuanling said this, the whole table fell silent, as if time had stopped.

Li Shimin held onto the table, his eyes wide open, and muttered, "Jingde, Jingde, come and help me up! I'm afraid I've gone mad!"

When Yuchi Jingde heard Li Shimin calling him, he immediately stood up, but his legs gave way and he fell under the table. He shouted, "Your Majesty, it's over! We didn't hear it wrong!"

His face was full of regret and unwillingness.

"A full fifty million yuan for a war! Li Ji is getting a bargain! I, Yuchi Jingde, refuse to accept this!"

He shouted as he tried to get up.

"Isn't he just a Xueyantuo? How am I inferior to this brat Li Ji? No! I want to enter the palace! I want to enter the palace to see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince..."

"Oh, no! Your Majesty! Let Your Majesty fight this battle for me! Don't stop me!"

Although Yuchi Jingde's legs were weak, he still crawled towards the door firmly.

As he was crawling, Yuchi Jingde found that he could not move any further. He turned around with great effort and saw Cheng Yaojin holding his calf tightly. Cheng Yaojin said with a firm face: "Yuchi Jingde, I can't be a man! You can't fight!"

There was a gleam in his eyes.

"This battle still has to be fought by me, the devil Cheng Yaojin!"