Iron Dynasty

Lin'an, the palace of the King of Chu.

Li Chuyuan's face was ashen and he threw the battle report on the ground.

It's been half a month, and 6,000 people have died but not even a single Wu County has been captured. This Jiang Ying is really a waste. If this is the case, it is not known that it is the year of the ox and the month of the horse to capture the city of Suzhou.

When talking, Li Chuyuan looked very irritable.

He can't be in a hurry now. In order to buy flintlock guns and ammunition, the state of Chu has spent 12 million taels of silver this year, and he is also forced to request that the silver taels be exchanged for dragon coins of the Great Yu Kingdom, which is not equal. The exchange of proportions allows the second layer to be exploited again.

He didn't understand it when he was the heir of the king of Chu before, but now that he became the king of Chu, he realized that tea, rice, oil and salt are expensive.

Although Jiangnan is the richest in the world, and the Chu country is the richest in Jiangnan, so much money is enough to make him feel distressed, but as long as he can defeat the Merchant Council and pay this price, it doesn't matter.

But the current situation of the war clearly made him dissatisfied.

Sima Hao sat under Li Chuyuan. After the Cao family fled to Suzhou, he immediately united with the wealthy family of Chu to put Li Chuyuan on the throne. The imperial decree arrived a few days later. At this time, Li Chuyuan Whether it is in the imperial court or the state of Chu, it is justifiable.

Gently stroked his beard, Sima Hao looked indifferent, he said, Don't worry, Your Highness, war is not a one-time event, this Jiang Ying was born in a family of famous generals, and compared to other generals, he is still very good. As far as I know, the council The army is very cunning. They dug a lot of trenches and built a lot of earth walls in Wu County. It was only by relying on the trenches and earth walls that they were able to stop Jiang Ying's attack.

Hey, the current division of the Northern Expedition took only a few days to conquer Pingzhou, and Jinzhou only took a few days. Why is it our turn to fight so hard. Li Kaiyuan sighed deeply.

Sima Hao shook his head gently, This matter is actually very simple, because the firearms that the emperor sold to us are not used by the royal army.

This king is clear, but even so, this eliminated weapon is more advanced than the merchant council. After all, in addition to the smoothbore flintlock gun, we also bought the rifled flintlock gun. No, the problem is not the musket, but the artillery, we The artillery used was left by the father, and the artillery used by the Merchant Council was sold to them by the French. Li Chuyuan suddenly realized.

Sima Hao pondered for a while, then said: It seems to be the truth, Jiang Ying's battle report said that our artillery range is not as good as that of the Merchant Council.

Li Chuyuan suddenly stood up when he heard the words, and he said: In the past, the father and the king purchased the earliest artillery pieces in Qingzhou. These artillery pieces could swept the kings at the time, but now they are of little use. Now we have to buy Qingzhou with a longer range and more power. Bigger guns.

His Royal Highness, these 80,000 guns cost such a huge amount of money. If I buy more guns, I'm afraid that most of the money in the treasury will be consumed. This means that the Chu Kingdom has accumulated hundreds of years and gave it to the royal family in one day. Sima Hao felt a bit of pain.

Although the state of Chu is rich, the treasury is not inexhaustible, not to mention that most of the wealth in Jiangnan is in the hands of the wealthy.

Li Chuyuan laughed wickedly when he heard the words, and he said, Don't you want to buy some artillery pieces for the Sima family?

As soon as these words came out, Sima Hao's pupils suddenly dilated a little.

Now Jiangnan has become a pot of porridge. For the wealthy family, the biggest reliance is not Li Chuyuan but their trilogy, so they have been greedy for muskets and artillery for a long time.

His Royal Highness is going to lift the ban on firearms? Sima Hao said in shock. When King Lai Chu was alive, he had ordered that the noble tribes should be banned from owning firearms.

Li Chuyuan nodded affirmatively, The Merchant Council relies on the rich and powerful merchants, and the folk groups practice against this king. Why can't this king rely on the tribes of the rich to deal with them?

Sima Hao rolled his eyes. Since the death of the old king of Chu, the Sima family had no respect for the Li family. The reason why they named Li Chuyuan as the king of Chu was really helpless at the moment.

After all, there are still some wealthy families in Chu who support Li Chuyuan. If not, the Sima clan has already replaced him, so why should he be subordinated to others?

After a slight cough, he said, His Royal Highness is very talented, and such a strategy really makes the lower official highly admire.

Uncle praised me wrongly, this is just a helpless move of this king. Li Chuyuan's smile was a bit complicated.

Sima Hao was a little excited. He said, If this is the case, the Sima Clan is willing to take on a hundred old-style artillery pieces for His Highness, but these old artillery pieces are lacking in range and power, so His Highness can't sell them to us at the price they once purchased.

Li Chuyuan nodded, and he said, In the past, when my father bought these artillery pieces, it cost almost tens of thousands of taels, but now they can always be sold for 5,000 taels. After all, although the range of these artillery pieces is not enough, but Hundreds of meters are still enough, generally speaking, artillery fires best in this range.

Sima Hao's heart was clear, he had long coveted firearms, so he said: Well, 520,000 is not a big amount for the Sima family, but it is obviously not enough to have artillery, it would be even better if there were guns, can your Highness? Wait for me to buy muskets from Qingzhou?

Uncle's business is this king's business, of course. Li Chuyuan laughed.

Sima Hao laughed in agreement. He couldn't wait any longer, Then the lower official will go back to prepare the money.

After that, Sima Hao bowed to Li Chuyuan and turned to leave.

Watching Sima Hao disappear into the main hall, Li Chuyuan punched the table in front of him.

Bastard, do you really think this king is a fool! Li Chuyuan's eyes showed a hint of despair.

Just now he was just trying to test Sima Hao, but the results he got made him see the reality clearly. Almost everything he did this year would be constrained, and he knew who was behind the trouble.

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

It turned out that even if he came back, he was powerless and could only become a puppet of the Sima Clan.

You all forced me. Li Chuyuan murmured, maybe he used to be lucky to be able to restore the Chu Kingdom, but now he just wants to fight for himself a wealthy second half of his life, after all, he already has wife and children.

This time, he lifted the ban on firearms in order to test Sima Hao and also to show his favor to Xiao Ming. Before Chu was smashed, through arms trade, Chu's wealth would be transferred to Qingzhou. Based on his understanding of the emperor, he would definitely will be very happy.

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

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

Four days later, Zhezi arrived in Qingzhou.