Chapter 875

Lin'an, Chu palace.

Li Chuyuan's face was very blue, and he threw the war report on the ground.

”It's been half a month, and six thousand people have died, but not even a single Wu county has been defeated. This Jiang Ying is really a waste. If so, I don't know it will be a year of the ox to capture Suzhou city. "

When he spoke, Li Chuyuan seemed very irritable.

Now he had to be in a hurry. In order to buy flint guns and ammunition, the state of Chu spent 12 million taels of silver in this year. Moreover, he was forced to ask for the exchange of silver into dragon coins of the state of Dayu. The unequal proportion of exchange made him be exploited again.

When he was the son of the king of Chu, he didn't understand it. Now when he became the king of Chu, he realized that tea, rice, oil and salt were expensive.

Although Jiangnan is the richest in the world, and Chu is the richest in Jiangnan, so much silver is enough to make him sad. However, as long as he can defeat the merchant Council, it doesn't matter to pay such a price.

But he is obviously not satisfied with the current situation of the war.

Sima Hao sat at the bottom of Li Chuyuan's head. After Cao's family fled to Suzhou, he immediately united with the powerful families of Chu state to put Li Chuyuan on the throne. A few days later, the imperial edict of the court arrived. At this time, Li Chuyuan's name was right in both the court and the state of Chu.

Gently stroking his beard, Sima Hao looked indifferent and said, "don't worry, your highness. The war is not a matter of one day. Jiang Ying was born in a family of famous generals, and he is still outstanding compared with other generals. As far as I know, the parliamentary army is very cunning. They dug a lot of trenches and built a lot of earth walls in Wu County. It is by relying on the trenches and earth walls that they can survive To stop Jiang Ying's attack, the following officials must find a way to conquer the trench. "

" ah, it took only a few days for the imperial northern expedition to conquer Pingzhou, and it took only a few more days for Jinzhou. Why is it that it is our turn to fight such a difficult battle. "Li Kaiyuan sighed deeply.

Sima Hao gently shook his head, "this matter is actually very simple, because the emperor sold us firearms are eliminated by the Royal Army."

"The king knows that even so, the eliminated weapons are more advanced than those of the merchant Council. After all, besides the smooth bore flint guns, we also bought the linear bore flint guns. No, the problem is not the muskets, but the cannons. The cannons we use are left by our father, and the cannons used by the merchant Council are sold to them by the French." Li Chuyuan suddenly realized.

Sima Hao pondered for a while, he said: "it seems that this is the truth. Jiang Ying's war report says that our artillery range is not as good as the merchant Council."

Hearing this, Li Chuyuan suddenly stood up and said, "in the past, my father bought the earliest guns in Qingzhou. These guns could sweep all the kings at that time, but now they are of little use. Now we have to buy guns with longer range and greater power from Qingzhou."

"Your Highness, the 80000 muskets still cost so much. If you buy the guns again, I'm afraid you'll spend more than half of the money in the Treasury. It's equivalent to that the state of Chu gave them to the royal family for a hundred years. "Sima Hao has some pain.

Although the state of Chu was rich, the Treasury was not inexhaustible. Moreover, most of the wealth in Jiangnan was in the hands of the rich.

Hearing this, Li Chuyuan burst into a bad laugh and said, "don't you want to buy some guns for Sima's family? "

with this remark, Sima Hao's pupil suddenly widened.

Now Jiangnan has become a mess. For the rich, the biggest reliance is not on Li Chuyuan, but on their songs. Therefore, they have been greedy for guns and artillery for a long time.

"Your Highness is going to lift the ban on firearms?" Sima Hao was shocked and said that when the king of Chu was alive, he once ordered that the powerful clans should not have firearms.

Li Chuyuan nodded affirmatively, "the merchant Council relies on the rich and powerful merchants, and the folk League training confronts the king. Why can't the king rely on the powerful clans to deal with them?"

Sima Hao's eyes turned. Since the death of the old king of Chu, in fact, the Sima family has no respect for the Li family. The reason why they regard Li Chuyuan as the king of Chu is actually a helpless move.

After all, there are still some powerful families in the state of Chu who support Li Chuyuan. If not, Sima's family has already replaced Li Chuyuan. Why should they be inferior to others.

With a slight cough, he said, "Your Highness is so talented. I admire you so much for your stratagem."

"My uncle praised me falsely. This is just my helpless move." Li Chuyuan's smile is a bit complicated.

Sima Hao was a little excited, he said: "if so, Sima is willing to bear 100 old guns for his highness, but these old guns are short of range and power. His highness can't sell them to us at the price he once bought."

Li Chuyuan nodded, he said: "in the past, when my father bought these guns, it cost almost tens of thousands of taels of silver. Now, 521 guns can always be sold. After all, although the range of these guns is not enough, they are still enough within a few hundred meters. Generally speaking, the guns are the best in this range."

Sima Hao's heart was clear. He had been salivating for firearms for a long time, so he said: "well, 520000 is not a large number for Sima's family, but it's obviously not enough to have guns. If you have muskets, it would be better. Can your highness buy muskets from Qingzhou on behalf of us?""Uncle's business is the business of the king, of course." Li Chuyuan laughed.

Sima Hao echoed with a smile, he can't wait, "so I'll go back to prepare silver."

Having said that, Sima Hao saluted Li Chuyuan and turned to leave.

Seeing Sima Hao disappear in the main hall, Li Chuyuan punches the table in front of him.

"Son of a bitch, do you really think Ben Wang is a fool?" There was a trace of despair in Li Chuyuan's eyes.

Just now, he was just testing Sima Hao, but the result made him see clearly the reality. Almost everything he did in this year would be restricted. He knew who was behind the trouble.

After living in Qingzhou for two years and coming back again, he lost all his foundation. He finally understood why Xiao Ming would ask him that sentence in the imperial study.

It turned out that even if he came back, he could not return to heaven. He could only become Sima's puppet.

"You forced me." Li Chuyuan murmured that maybe he was lucky enough to be able to recover the state of Chu, but now he just wants to fight for the second half of his life. After all, he already has a wife and children.

This time, he lifted the ban on firearms in order to test Sima Hao, and also to make friends with Xiao Ming. Before Chu was destroyed, Chu's wealth would be transferred to Qingzhou through arms trading. With his understanding of the emperor, he would be very happy.

However, he is not without conditions. After the start of a larger firearms trade, he will let Xiao Ming leave a way to escape for himself.

Thinking of this, he immediately drew up a compromise and asked Xiao Ming to send officials to Lin'an for negotiation.

Four days later, zhozi arrived in Qingzhou.

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