Great Zhou Empress

Liu Mian really likes the jade turtle he got.

The Jade Turtle was placed in his bedroom so that he could see it as soon as he got up.

In order to prevent others from damaging the jade tortoise, when everyone comes to appreciate it, they only let people watch from a distance.

His officials also found some strange things, but seeing Liu Mian was so excited, no one dared to say anything.

Liu Mian seized a large amount of wealth and funds in a short period of time by printing banknotes, and he even used banknotes to force "buy" a large amount of land.

Unbeknownst to him, a large number of businessmen have secretly left the area under his control, but this kind of thing is not as obvious as a fierce war. Many people under Liu Mian have alienated him, so naturally No one dared to tell him these things specifically.

Of course, if I told him, he might not care.

He was a little bloated, and naturally there were many flatterers under his hands, praising him, saying that he must be the lord of the world if he got the jade turtle of Qin Shihuang.

But how can you keep the Jade Turtle from being known to others? It must be known to the common people, so that everyone will recognize you.

Liu Mian felt that this was the case, what was the point of hiding in the bedroom every day to watch, this kind of thing should be seen by the whole world, so as to show that he was destined by destiny.

After all, this era is still an era of mysticism. The emperor has to say that he is the right man, and Liu Bang has to kill a white snake to revolt.

So he held a grand display ceremony.

It was another sacrifice to the heavens, and it was another time for someone to carry the jade tortoise around the city. If it wasn't for the fear of damage, he would have wished to travel the jade tortoise all over his entire kingdom.

After all, something went wrong.

A jade tortoise the size of a table is too easy to bump into when it is carried around.

It just so happened that one of the sergeants in charge of the delivery was very angry about the fact that the salary was only issued in banknotes, because the banknotes could not be used in many places and could only be used by others. He just took the banknotes to the pharmacy in the morning to get medicine for his mother. The shopkeeper of the pharmacy didn't want banknotes, so he fooled him by saying that he didn't have these herbs.

The sergeant was so angry that he vented his anger on the jade tortoise. If it wasn't for the appearance of the jade tortoise, how could Liu Mian think of printing banknotes.

He deliberately slackened, causing the jade turtle to slide down the side, and the right foot hit the ground.

The people around exclaimed.

However, when the foot was broken, the exclamations around became more violent.

Isn't this tortoise made of jade?But what is in this foot?

Stone?

When the broken tortoise was sent back to Liu Mian's palace, he saw the tortoise, how could he not know that he was cheated.

But at this time, there was no one who wanted to catch Ming Shouyi who brought the jade turtle over.

At this time, news came from the area under the actual control of the Dacheng Dynasty in the east, saying that the Dacheng Dynasty had sent a message saying that the incident about the jade tortoise was not true, and it was all concocted by Qin Guogong Liu Mian alone, just for his plan to usurp the throne. The turtle is simply a fake.

Liu Mian was so angry that he almost fainted.

He spent two hundred copper coins to buy it.

At the same time, more explosive news came, the Dacheng Dynasty blocked the commercial roads, and did not allow a grain or a piece of tea from the southeast region to enter the west.

At first, he didn't care, and didn't realize what it meant.

He always feels that if there is land, there will be output, and if there is output, there will be food, and if there is a blockade, it will be blocked.

He is the kind of young master who has not been rich for three generations. Apart from having an inflated ego, he has no real ability.

Liu Mian, who has never been involved in production, does not know that different lands have different yields and different yields.

The area he controls belongs to high mountains, semi-arid and semi-humid areas, and the land production is extremely limited.The area he sees every day is the Guanzhong Plain. Because of the water conservancy projects built in the early years, the land seems to be fertile. However, the Guanzhong Plain is small and densely populated, and it is difficult to feed the population in this area.

What's more, he has to support an army.

Because of the tightening of trade routes, the grain and tea that had been transported in large quantities all year round were out of stock at this time. The local merchants acted quickly and stored all the grain, or violently raised the price, and even bought grain at high prices in rural areas. Landlords It even hides the food in his family more tightly.

Suddenly there was no food on the market.

When it came time to pay taxes, Liu Mian found that he could not collect food. Of course, he could also collect copper coins as a substitute, but after collecting part of it, he found that there was no place to buy food.

All the salaries he gave to the sergeants were banknotes, and now the banknotes were useless at all.

If nothing else, his army would mutiny.

As a last resort, Liu Mian urgently distributed the grain as salary from his own warehouse to the sergeants, and allocated a batch of copper coins to distribute, barely stabilizing the situation.

It's just that his heart hurts, and half of his warehouse is gone in one click.

What made him even more troubled was that the quartermaster told him that in this case, the grain stored in the warehouse would only be enough for three months, and the spring plowing had not yet come, and it would take half a year to harvest the grain after the spring plowing, that is to say, after They are running out of food.

Liu Mian wanted to ask for food from Xia Guo, his partner, but Xia Guo's land was even more barren, with a population of only a few hundred thousand in the whole country. Where would there be surplus food for him?

Not to mention the Maitreya sect that is in civil strife in the southwest region. It was originally a mess because of the lack of land, the large population and the drought, and there was no food to sell.

Looking for Liao?

Come on, that's a pack of wolves, and Liu Mian is afraid of them.

As a last resort, he had to prepare for the war within three months and conquer the grain-producing areas in the south of the Yangtze River. This was the only way.

So he urged Yan Hai to quickly let the pawns placed in Jiankang do it, and once he assassinated Yuan Hanzhang and the little emperor there, he would raise troops on his side.

The chess piece was Yan Yi who was working as a cook at Duke Wei's mansion in Jiankang City at this time.

Coincidentally, the little emperor's "son" held a hundred days, Wei Guogong sent Yan Yi to the palace, and together with other chefs, prepared for the banquet.

All the chefs have checked their identities. Yan Yi has been a chef in Jiankang City for so many years, and some time ago he won the first place in the culinary competition. His identities are clear and there is no problem.

It's just that Xue Zhijing couldn't participate in this banquet. When she was concentrating on dealing with Liu Mian, the Liao Kingdom in the north was ready to move.

More than a year ago, Xue Zhijing fled from Xiao Liege's side. It happened that during the civil strife of the Dacheng Dynasty, Xiao Liege led the soldiers from various ministries and pushed the border between the Liao Kingdom and the Dacheng Dynasty to the hinterland of the Central Plains. .

Logically speaking, this should be a big improvement. If they worked hard, they might be able to take the entire Central Plains into their pockets.

But the core system of the Liao State is the tribal system, and the royal family of the Xiao family is essentially the leader of the tribal alliance.

Of course, it is tighter than the loose tribal alliance in ancient times, but looser than the unified system of the Dacheng Dynasty.

Such a loose system is prone to chaos when facing powerful enemies and obtaining some big benefits.

When they occupied most of the northern Central Plains, several important families in the Liao Kingdom began to fight. At the same time, the colorful world of the Central Plains fascinated their eyes, and they no longer wanted to live the traditional life on the northern grasslands. After living, they even want to settle in Nanjing City.

It took Xiao Liege a lot of effort to stabilize the situation and balance the relationship between the several big families.

She even held the wedding ceremony for her eldest nephew Xiao Derui and his fiancee Yeluyan in advance, and made matchmakers for several families so that they could marry each other.

But she couldn't stop the rich and powerful from wanting to get the world of flowers and flowers in the Central Plains, and the charming eyes of wealth.

Up to now, I heard that the Dacheng Dynasty has begun to be chaotic again, such as the Jade Turtle incident, and the blockade of business roads.

The officials of the Liao Kingdom judged that this is an important time to attack the Dacheng Dynasty.

Although Xiao Liege doesn't have any longing for the colorful world, but she has longing for conquering the city and establishing an invincible achievement, not to mention there is a person in the Dacheng dynasty that she hates so much.

Xue Zhijing.

This name now appears in the messages she receives almost every day. Although Xue Zhijing is only a court lady, she built the Shenji Camp, opened the Lichun Courtyard, established the Shengfeng Bank, and opened a comprehensive university, making her a great success. The hottest figure in the dynasty is already the de facto powerful minister of the Dacheng Dynasty.

It is said that this long-range economic attack on Qin Wang Liu Mian was written by her.

Xiao Liege was always in a trance, although she knew that Xue Zhijing was very cunning, running away from her one after another, with a lot of ideas in her mind, but what impressed her most was Xue Zhijing's gentle appearance towards her.

She seemed to know that Xue Zhijing was very powerful, but she never knew that she was so powerful.

But she knew that she had never caught Zhijing Xue, as she judged at first, Zhijing Xue was a goshawk in the sky, and sooner or later he would soar in the blue sky.

But the powerlessness brought about by this recognition only made her feel angry.

Xiao Liege felt that she must beat Xue Zhijing once.

Destroy the Dacheng Dynasty.

The latest information was sent to Jiankang City, and the Liao army began to gather in the North Central Plains.

The North Central Plains is a flat land. Because of the flat terrain and rich water flow, it has been the settlement of people from a long time ago. Although time has advanced to the present, the agricultural area has slowly moved to the Jiangnan area with richer water resources. This area has gradually Desolation should still be an area that various countries strive for.

After a year of war, the land was severely abandoned, and many places were overgrown with weeds, almost turning into grasslands.

On the contrary, such terrain conditions are more conducive to the advancement of the Liao army.

Because the core army of the Liao Kingdom is cavalry, when they besieged Bianjing three years ago, they arrived in less than half a month, and they were extremely mobile.

Now in winter, the water level of the current is low, and it is easy for them to cross the various rivers and go straight to Jiankang.

The Dacheng Dynasty had to transfer a large proportion of the Forbidden Army to the Huaihe area to confront the Liao Kingdom.

Xue Zhijing also urgently deployed some new strategies, and at the same time applied to Yuan Hanzhang, she and Yuan Jin went to the front line.

The case of Yuan Jin has been closed, and the courtiers naturally have no way to prevent a former border army commander from going to the front again. Xue Zhijing's name is to bring students from the Military Academy and soldiers from the Shenji Battalion to support him. From the very beginning, the Privy Council was not in charge of the military force, and it was useless for them to yell at the court, Xue Zhijing had already set off.

Xue Zhijing's troops were divided into two groups, one of which faced the Liao Kingdom from the land.

Along the way is her most important weapon, the Marine Corps, which will enter the hinterland of Liao from the sea.

The king's tent of the Liao Kingdom has been built to the other side of the Huaihe River.

Because it is the end of winter, the temperature is suitable for Liao people who are used to alpine regions all year round.

Xue Zhijing stood on a high platform, watching from a distance.

She knew very well that what Wang Zhang brought was definitely the most elite army of the Liao Kingdom. Wherever the Wang Zhang was, the capital of the Liao Kingdom would be there.

Yuan Jin said coldly, "The regent princess of the Liao Kingdom, Xiao Liege, is over there, and she is the leader. If we use a team of surprise soldiers to carry out the operation of killing wolves, tell me, will the crisis be resolved?"

Xue Zhijing's heart sank.

Kill the wolf?

She knew it would be like this when she came here, but she still didn't want to face it.

"Hasn't the pre-military meeting been deduced? This is their main army. If they confront it head-on, they will kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred. Even if we are lucky and succeed, Liao is not a country where one person has the final say. Without their princess regent, they still have the emperor and several big families, none of whom are vegetarians." Xue Zhijing said lightly.

"Hmph! I know, I'm just out of breath. Could it be that we're here to confront each other? When will your strategy work?"

Yuan Jin just said so, she is a very experienced little general, when guarding the pass in Xiongzhou area, Xiao Liege led troops to bypass Xiongzhou city, and did not dare to confront her head-on.

It's just that she just came here now, the forbidden army here is not completely under her control, and the Liao Kingdom didn't give them time at all, so she was just a little anxious.

Xue Zhijing calculated the time, "It is estimated that there will be news in the next two days."

The good news here didn't come, but the bad news came from Jiankang in the capital, and something happened in the palace again.

Food poisoning occurred in Liu Yan's "son"'s [-]-day feast.

According to speculation, the food poisoning poison was originally aimed at the queen mother and Liu Yan, but the queen suddenly changed the food for the queen mother and Liu Yan halfway. It is said that Ayila discovered the queen's abnormality, so they found the poison in the food provided by the queen .

Therefore, the queen mother and Liu Yan are fine, and poisoned a bunch of ministers and harem eunuchs and maids.

Because of the queen's anomaly, their investigation of food poisoning went astray, and it took several days to find out that the poisoning of the ministers came from another source of poison.

The entire capital was in chaos, but luckily Yuan Hanzhang was fine, so she quickly stabilized the situation. The imperial army imposed a curfew, and if there were any problems, they should be arrested first and then investigated.

It is temporarily unclear who did it, it may be Liu Mian, or it may be the Liao Kingdom.

Yuan Hanzhang put all this matter on Liu Mian's head in the mansion newspaper, and angrily denounced him as a traitor and traitor.

It was also at this time that Xue Zhijing received the news from the sea.

The Marine Corps has arrived at the sea off Nanjing City of Liao Kingdom.

Xue Zhijing set up a bed crossbow, and used this bed crossbow to deliver a letter to the camp of the Liao Kingdom on the other side.