Prince of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 604

Su Wan'er is a smart and sensible woman, she knew Gao Ming couldn't be persuaded at this time, and even more knew that she couldn't persuade her!

Looking at the resolute Gao Ming, she wiped away her tears while sobbing, and then gently pressed her head against Gao Ming's chest.

"Lang Jun, this concubine will be waiting for you to come back in the palace!"

"Wan'er, I..."

Seeing Su Wan'er being so considerate, Gao Ming would be lying if he didn't think so. Just as he was about to say a few heartwarming words, the voice of the servant suddenly came from the door.

"His Royal Highness, Zhao Guogong and Liang Guogong are asking to see each other!"

"Uh..." Hearing the servant's voice, Gao Ming frowned, "Why are they here?"

Although he was somewhat dissatisfied with someone disturbing him, as the other party, Gao Ming couldn't ignore it, so he could only pat Su Wan'er on the shoulder lightly, and then sighed.

"Hey, Wan'er, I have to deal with the national teacher first, and I'll come back to accompany you when I'm done. I've wronged you!"

"Where did His Highness say this?"

As soon as Gao Ming finished speaking, Su Wan'er immediately shook her head, wiped away the tears from her eyes, and said with a strong smile to Gao Ming: "Your Highness should put state affairs first, and leave Bao'er to my concubine!"

"Ok!"

Hearing what Su Wan'er said, Gao Ming also nodded. He first kissed his doting daughter on the cheek, and then handed it to Su Wan'er.

"Then I'll go first, wait for me to come back!"

After finishing speaking, Gao Ming quickly kissed Su Wan'er on the cheek, then turned around and left the room, leaving Su Wan'er alone in the room holding the child, blushing in a daze.

After Gao Ming left the house, he went straight to the study.

At this time, Changsun Wuji and others were talking in the study, and when they saw Gao Ming coming, they all bowed to him.

"My minister has met His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Excuse me!" Gao Ming walked straight to his seat and sat down, then waved his hand towards Fang Xuanling and the others, "Everyone, please sit down!"

"Thank you, Your Royal Highness!"

After getting Gao Ming's permission, Changsun Wuji and others sat down, and after they all sat down, Gao Ming spoke again.

"It's not yet time to deal with the papers. You guys are here because I plan to send troops to the Western Regions, right?"

Hearing that Gao Ming went straight to the point, Changsun Wuji and the others all looked at each other, then Fang Xuanling stood up first, and bowed to Gao Ming.

"His Royal Highness, what I want to ask is, how many troops does His Royal Highness plan to mobilize to go to the Western Regions?"

"At least a million or more!"

Gao Ming answered without any hesitation, because in his opinion, Li Shimin brought hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses to the expedition and there were accidents, so if he brought fewer people, he might have to deliver food, let alone revenge, so in order to be on the safe side For the sake of it, he thought it would be safer to bring more people.

After hearing Gao Ming's words, Fang Xuanling stroked his beard immediately, and then spoke again.

"Since His Royal Highness wants to bring more than a million soldiers, how many civilians do you plan to recruit?"

As the saying goes, it is called "soldiers and horses before moving food and grass." In order to serve the soldiers who go out, it is necessary to recruit corresponding civilians, and the number of civilians is often several times that of combatants.

This Gao Ming also knew, so he hesitated for a while before speaking again.

"I plan to recruit 150 million civil servants!"

Hearing Gao Ming's answer, Fang Xuanling nodded again.

"I understand, but there is one thing I have to tell His Highness the Crown Prince. When His Majesty set out to conquer the Western Regions, he brought less than 40 troops and less than 60 civilians, but he spent millions of money!"

Having said this, Fang Xuanling immediately bowed deeply to Gao Ming.

"Now Your Highness wants to gather a million soldiers and recruit 150 million civilians. It will cost a lot, but the treasury is empty, so I may not be able to support it. I hope Your Highness will think twice!"

"The national treasury is empty?" Hearing Fang Xuanling's words, Gao Ming immediately frowned, "At the beginning, I brought back more than [-] million guan in property from Goguryeo, plus the huge amount of business tax paid by the Royal Chamber of Commerce of the Tang Dynasty every month. , how could the treasury be empty?"

Seeing Gao Ming's expression of disbelief, Fang Xuanling suddenly showed a wry smile, and he cupped his hands again towards Gao Ming.

"His Royal Highness does not know that most of the belongings you brought back from Goguryeo are gold, silver, jade and jewellery. It will be difficult to exchange these belongings into copper coins for military pay!"

"Really?" Hearing Fang Xuanling's words, Gao Ming frowned again: "What about the commercial tax collected? I remember that last season, the three cities of Chang'an, Jingzhao Mansion and Luoyang collected more than 100 million guan. The commercial tax of the entire Tang Dynasty is at least 600 million, right?"

As soon as Gao Ming finished speaking, Fang Xuanling shook his head again.

"Your Majesty has already spent nearly half of the taxes collected by the Commercial Bureau when he went on an expedition. The rest is not enough for His Royal Highness's military pay, but even if it is enough, His Highness can't spend all the money in the treasury, right?"

"This……"

Hearing Fang Xuanling's words, Gao Ming fell silent immediately.

Even ordinary people know that the family's money cannot be spent completely, and some money must be left for emergency, and the country is naturally the same.

Of course, if you spend all the money in the treasury, if something happens, what will you use for emergency?
After Gao Ming thought for a while, he suddenly thought of something, and looked at Fang Xuanling suspiciously.

"Liang Guogong, you didn't say that on purpose to prevent me from sending troops to the Western Regions, did you?"

Looking at Gao Ming's suspicious gaze, Fang Xuanling showed a wry smile again, and then cupped his hands towards Gao Ming.

"Everything I said is true, I dare not lie to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, please learn from him!"

As soon as Fang Xuanling finished speaking, Changsun Wuji also stood up and bowed to Gao Ming.

"His Royal Highness, the old minister also thought that Liang Guogong would not dare to deceive His Highness!"

Looking at the two people saluting towards him, Gao Ming frowned again, and he was silent for a long time before speaking again.

"What you mean, to put it bluntly, is that there is not enough money, right? If I try to get enough money, then you have nothing to say about sending troops, right?"

"This……"

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Changsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling were stunned.

In fact, the purpose of the two of them to find Gao Ming was to prevent Gao Ming from sending troops to the Western Regions.

It's not that they don't want Gao Ming to avenge Li Shimin, but they feel that the situation in the country has been stabilized first, so as not to cause domestic turmoil because of this incident, and the loss outweighs the gain.

According to their thinking, since Li Shimin has passed away, it is a done deal and irreversible, so Gao Ming should ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor first, then follow the limelight to stimulate the morale of the Tang people, and finally send troops to the Western Regions .

In this way, it will be much safer, even if it fails again, Datang will not suffer any losses.

Otherwise, if Gao Ming went out this time, it would be fine if he won. If something went wrong, and even Gao Ming died on the battlefield, then Datang would fall into a huge turmoil, and the consequences would be disastrous!
Now Gao Ming suddenly said that he could raise enough money. If he really succeeded, then Changsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling's plan would naturally fail, so they immediately hesitated.

However, Gao Ming didn't think so much. He wanted to send troops to the Western Regions to destroy the Western Turks and Ashina Helu. Now that he saw Changsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling hesitated, his face suddenly became gloomy.

"Zhao Guogong, Liang Guogong, what do you mean? Huh?"

(End of this chapter)