Lady forced to seek prince

Only when the Prime Minister gathered more than 20,000 soldiers and horses did he dare to take his young son to the front of the garrison camp, which was only thirty miles away from the vassal territory. The official road between the two places had been completely sealed ten days ago.

King Xiang led his scouts up a hillside not far from the vassal territory and looked in the direction of the vassal. Then he saw a stockade built far away from the city wall. If he wanted to attack the city, he had to pass through that stockade first.

The Prime Minister's face immediately fell. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it. He thought that the scouts and lieutenants were exaggerating.

"How many days have it been?" King Xiang asked, "Can they build such a military stronghold?" Although the walls of the stronghold looked rough, as if they were made of ordinary stones, but if they wanted to build such a military stronghold in such a short time, It’s still not easy to cover the inside.

"Is there a lot of complaints in the vassal land now?" King Xiang asked, "Xiao Yu must have forced labor."

The deputy general immediately said: "This is the news brought back by the scouts. The King of Yu not only forced labor to build the military stronghold, but also captured those men to patrol the military stronghold. It seems that if we attack, the first people to face the enemy will be civilians who have no actual combat experience. .”

King Xiang felt a little more relaxed, but he still said cautiously: "Let the spies continue to watch. King Yu has always been treacherous. He may have done these deliberately to show us."

The lieutenant general said: "Our people also found out that every household in the domain has to send rice and grain to the government office."

A proud look appeared on the lieutenant's face: "King Yu didn't expect that we would suddenly attack and cut off their food route."

This was the plan of the Prime Minister and the Grand Master. In Xiao Yu's heart, it was impossible for the court to attack him so quickly, so he would take the opportunity to develop the vassal territory.

However... the result would be different if King Xiang and the Grand Master join forces. With him standing in front, the court would not have to find an excuse to attack King Yu, and naturally there would be no need to watch the vassal become more powerful.

King Xiang said: "I have made an agreement with you below that no merchants are allowed to go to the northwest, and not a grain of rice is allowed to flow into the vassal territory."

In fact, the Prime Minister had already given the order. While the troops were gathering, there were generals guarding the city gate. From that moment on, all carriages and horses entering and exiting would be subject to inspection.

But King Xiang also knew that it was inevitable that his subordinates would be greedy for some money and put in a few carts of rice and grain. But the Prime Minister can't really investigate. It's time to hire people and he can't hurt the morale of the army.

When he gathered his troops, he made it clear to his lieutenants and military leaders that this battle would bring them a lot of benefits. The cheese, leather goods, cotton, fields and farmers in the domain can satisfy them.

After capturing the vassal territory, let them plunder it.

Without these promises, if the military leader wants to confront the armed guards, he will probably lose his courage.

The lieutenant general said: "Don't worry, absolutely not." In fact, a caravan with more than a dozen mule carts passed by here today. The money they gave was really quite a lot, and the lieutenant general could release it in person.

Of course, after King Xiang came, they had to restrain themselves. Presumably, when the caravan saw that a war was about to start, they would stay away and not dare to come back to take advantage of the opportunity to make money.

The lieutenant general didn't feel guilty at all. Even if he transported food to the feudal lord, it was purchased at a high price by the feudal lord. Isn't it the same as letting the feudal lord lose money?

How long has the King of Yu been a vassal? It is true that the imperial court confiscated taxes. The previous war with Tubo has not been able to relieve the pressure. You can imagine how much extra wealth the King of Yu has on hand.

Before becoming the deputy generals, the Prime Minister wrote to them and told them that all the money spent by King Yu on his wedding was used as betrothal gifts, and the palace he built was not as good as the ordinary clan houses in Beijing. What was even more ridiculous was that he also built a house in the village. It simply disgraced the face of the Daqi clan. The vassal area tried its best to sell products to the clan, just to make a fortune from them.

Now there is no such chance.

There is another thing that the lieutenant hid from the Prime Minister. When the blockade between the two places was not very strict, people from the vassal area came to sell cotton seeds. According to what they said, they wanted to spread the method of growing cotton so that people outside the domain could follow them and live a good life. The farmers believed this, but they could not be deceived.

Did you finally bring out the looms and spinning wheels just to find a way out for the farmers?

Bah, even the Bodhisattva in the temple would not do such a thing.

It’s not just about coaxing everyone to work for Prince Yu and Prince Yu’s Mansion. When the cotton is planted, Prince Yu's palace will use the excuse that the cotton seeds were given to them and take the cotton as their own.

Only how many acres does the vassal land have, and adding the acres outside can make the money of Prince Yu's palace suddenly abundant. After all, Prince Yu needs to raise troops.

The methods of Prince Yu's Mansion are indeed superb. They first took out the cotton and hired farmers to spin it. After giving them enough sweetness, the farmers would do what they said.

At first, the deputy general wanted to arrest everyone from the domain, but he soon regretted it.

Those looms and spinning wheels were made by the domain's own craftsmen. If you want to weave cotton into cloth, you have to use their looms. Now that they take the initiative to take it out, isn't it an excellent opportunity?

If you take down the spinning wheels and looms, and let people learn how to cultivate and weave cotton, wouldn’t you seize the domain’s means of making money?

The lieutenant general began to look forward to fighting this battle after spring plowing. The farmers would cultivate good cotton. In the fall, the King of Yu would be gone and they would be the ones reaping the harvest.

In view of this, the lieutenant general has been discussing with various lieutenant generals and military leaders in the past few days. They privately divided up all the acres of cotton-growing fields outside the vassal territory, and agreed that if the Grand Master and the Prime Minister knew about it, each of them would take out A quarter of an acre to silence them.

None of these prime ministers knew about it, and the lieutenants and military leaders would not let him know.

"We also need to take out some grain from the hands of the farmers," said King Xiang. "Just tell them that after the war is won, the court will return it to them. If they don't want to, tell them about the feudal land. Not only will they take grain. , and had to be forced to perform hard labor.”

The deputy general responded, this matter is easy to handle. Even if someone makes trouble and just finds an excuse to throw them into the mines to do hard work, those farmers are very timid and will kill a few people before they all surrender.

After the two people finished speaking and were about to walk back, they saw a group of people rushing out of the military camp and heading towards them.

The Prime Minister was startled and immediately ran back with his deputy.

Before they ran into the city, a wave of arrows struck them, causing them to lose two soldiers. When the defenders on the city were about to counterattack, those people turned around and ran away without a trace.

The Prime Minister climbed up the tower panting. He had to admit that Xiao Yu's military committee was really powerful. It was precisely because of this that he was seeking his own death.

"Secure it well," said King Xiang, "they don't dare to attack."

Xiao Yu was so arrogant. If he was sure, he would have sent troops long ago. How could he still bother to build an army stronghold? This shows that their decision was right, and delaying it would be beneficial to the domain.

"Is there any other news to send?" King Xiang asked.

The spy next to him said: "The county master is not imprisoned with the accompanying servants."