"But if Li Wufeng was not allowed to bring enough troops to protect himself, why would he obey your orders from Lao Jiu? Lao Jiu wouldn't be so naive that he thought Li Wufeng was a pillar of the empire full of loyalty and patriotism, right?" Situ Tai asked back.

"This is also the most puzzled thing about me. Although Li Wufeng likes to take risks, he likes to take risks like this trap, which has few benefits and huge risks, even if he is bold, he will not go inside. Even if he wants to take risks, he is afraid that his advisers and generals under his command will not agree to him take risks easily. What is the Ninth Highness used as bait to tease Li Wufeng into Beijing, and I still have no idea." Leng Qian, who is still wearing gray clothes and plain clothes, seems to be thinner, but the black eyes in his deep concave eyes are extremely deep.

"Let's take a look first. Anyway, Lao Jiu just asked us and his group to come to Beijing in March. What's wrong with this? We still have some time to think about it, but I always feel that this is a bit like a conspiracy against us. I have a bad premonition. This trick will not be good for us. Even if we bring enough force, I am afraid that something will happen. My premonition has always been very effective."

Situ Tai sighed, and pressed the temples on both sides of his head with his fingers. The financial difficulties made him exhausted. Although the negotiations with the merchants in the imperial capital made some progress, the amount of funds obtained was too small. The heavyweight guys all maintained a relatively cold attitude. They obviously made up their minds to borrow money until the truth was revealed. So should I compromise with those smuggling merchants? This problem has always troubled Situ Tai. Although compromise can obtain large amounts of financial support, the tiger's legacy is still alive.

As soon as the sea ban is opened, the Japanese can easily obtain various strategic materials for supplementation, and their strength will grow faster. In the future, not only will it be more difficult for them to recover the treasure island, Kamchatka and Ryukyu Islands, but the Japanese threat will directly penetrate into the three coastal prefectures. Although the Japanese can obtain some materials from Quanzhou and smuggling, the Japanese's throats will always be strangled in their hands as long as they strengthen their blockade of Quanzhou and control of smuggling. The interests in this are of the people that have to be carefully considered.

Seeing his lord's face tired, Leng Qian naturally knew that the other party must be worried about financial problems again, but at this point, he was indeed powerless. In order to raise funds for going south, he greatly increased the commodity tax rate and transit lijin in Donghai and Yanyun. Although he knew that this was a poison to quench thirst, he could only do this in order to seize Jiangnan, which caused complaints from merchants in Donghai and Yanyun. Later, he forcibly increased the so-called war tax in the East China Sea, further deteriorated the relationship with the East China Sea industry and business circles. Donghai and Jiangnan were in war and industry and commerce were greatly damaged, especially in Jinling and Jiangnan prefectures. Continuous military disasters spread in these places. The defeated soldiers and chaotic troops took advantage of the war to rob. Even at the end, Situ Yuan's side saw that the situation was hopeless, and some organized participation in the looting of wealthy business households in the entire Southeast region. The industrial and commercial losses in the entire southeast region were extremely heavy.

In Yuhang Prefecture, Situ Yuan cleared all the treasury of Jiangnan County before escaping, and the industrial and commercial community also transferred assets frantically under Liao Qichang's instigation and helping, leaving Situ Tai with only an empty city; in Songjiang Prefecture, known as the textile township, since the decisive battle between the two armies was here, almost all the industrial and commercial owners either moved away in advance or were captured; in Gusu and Weiyang, the wealthy families followed the trend and fled. When Situ Tai's army entered the city, except for some land nobles, almost all the industrial and commercial industries had closed down, and 70% of the 100% had moved their industries to Guanxi and Tiannan. Due to the large-scale escape from Jiangnan, the Jiangnan financial community was greatly affected. The withdrawal of a large number of funds led to a tightening of money, prices soaring, and the people were suffering. The entire Jiangnan was filled with grievances.

Financial difficulties directly affected the operation of the three legions in Situ Tai's hands. Some of Situ Tai's old foundations had already been almost exhausted to support the normal operation of the First and Second Legion. Although there were some gains from the East China Sea and Jiangnan in the later period, with the formation of the new legion, this amount of funds would be insignificant. If Situ Tai had not found a way to borrow a sum from the Duodu Kingdom, I was afraid that I would not have been able to survive this period.

At this time, Situ Tai and Leng Qian deeply realized the truth that economy determines everything. Although strong armed forces are important, they are not supported by a strong financial foundation. All of this is a castle in the air, while finance is based on economic foundation. Looking at Li Wufeng galloping across the land in the west, Situ Tai and Leng Qian wanted to know how the weak economic foundation in the west could support such a huge army. The excessive attention to domestic affairs made them not clear about the large amount of funds offered to Li Wufeng by the Indians and Deans far away in the Central China. In their eyes, even if Li Wufeng gained something in India and Deans, it would not be possible to support such an army of hundreds of thousands.

However, Situ Tai and Leng Qian both believed that all this would be solved after obtaining the throne. As long as they could ascend to the throne, Situ Tai and Leng Qian believed that with their orthodox status and military strength, they could quickly pacify Wuhu and Quanzhou. By then, they would adopt reasonable economic policies to stimulate the development of productivity, gradually restore the empire's original national strength, and finally point the finger at the West and use the power of the country to solve the disaster of Li Wufeng until the empire's unification from nominal to substantial.

Of course, this idea is quite beautiful. As for whether it can be realized, Situ Tai and Leng Qian are very confident, but will the other party be so obedient and at slaughter?

The strong bloody smell can be clearly smelled even a few hundred meters away. Dark red blood can be seen everywhere. Miley can clearly see a centurion leaning against the wall and sitting at the base of the wall in pain, but the smile on the corner of his mouth looks a little weird. His fingers left deep scratches on the earth wall, and he could feel the soldier's pain and despair at the last moment. The solidified blood pool stagnated into purple-red blood clots, and the armor turned bright red. The long sword that slipped from his hand was inserted into the soil obliquely. A thick beast-faced iron shield was thrown aside, and a little sand covered the bottom of the shield. This beacon tower with the function of a small fortress is an important bridge connecting several cities. Whether from east to west or from south to north, the warning can be spread as quickly as possible. This is probably the reason why the enemy attacked here first.

The bodies of more than twenty soldiers were scattered in various parts of the beacon tower on the two floors. Most of the soldiers died after being hit by the same black painted rubber-pressed feather arrows. Several were injured by sharp chopping weapons, which should be caused by weapons such as sabers used by Rangers in close combat. There were twenty more than twenty corpses at the fortress gate, which were obviously killed when the enemy broke through the fortress defense and died in the final decisive battle with the enemy.

The eagle feather at the tail of the feather arrow was still exposed on the edge of the heart-protecting armor on the already dead centurion's chest. The arrow just avoided the guard of the copper heart-protecting armor, penetrated the thick double leather armor, and pierced into the chest. Logically speaking, this arrow was enough to kill on the spot, but perhaps the will of a huge sense of responsibility inspired the will that made the centurion drag his dying body to the beacon tower and ignited the beacon. Perhaps the completion of the mission made him feel a little relaxed, and the fatal blow finally took away the life maintained by his will.

He bent down gently, Miley stared at the centurion's face, which was twisted and deformed due to pain, and then turned over the other person's body. The dark arrowhead passed through his body, and the dark red blood stains were a little purple on the arrow shaft. Miley reached out to touch the arrowhead, and used his skills with both fingers silently. With a "clip", the arrowhead fell from the pole, lifted the arrowhead between his fingers and put it in front of him for a while, then shook his head and threw the arrowhead, straightened the centurion's body again. After looking for a long time, he reached out to close his eyes and closed his wide open eyes for the other person, stood up straight, and walked forward silently.

No one in the entire fortress can survive. It can be seen that the enemy intends to wipe out all the troops in this beacon tower fortress. From the horseshoe marks around the fortress, Miley infers that the opponent has at least two thousand cavalry. Although there are strong cities to defend, the Centenary still has no chance in the face of dozens of times his enemies. However, Miley believes that the enemy has not taken advantage of, but it is just that there is no other way out from the current situation.

The generals and officers who were closely following Miley's faces turned ashen, and the angry flames that were enough to melt gold and turn iron flashed in their eyes. This was the fourth similar situation I have seen in the past half a month! The purpose of the Tanghe people seemed to be very accurate. They removed these contact points densely spread across the southern plains one by one, and took advantage of their cavalry advantages. They concentrated their forces to attack and fight hard in a short period of time, greatly destroying the defense network of this area. Although such a battle may have caused a lot of damage to the Western Xinjiang cavalry, if this continues, they will eventually be their own side.
Chapter completed!