Daqin: Prince Peerless, guarding Hangu for ten years!

Chapter 391: Doing meritorious deeds and exchanging food for pardon?

"what!"

"The treasury is empty?"

King Zhao exclaimed, his face suddenly turned pale, he looked at the chamberlain minister with a ferocious expression, and asked sternly: "What's going on? If you don't understand clearly, I will push you out and chop you!"

Looking at the furious King Zhao on the bed, the chamberlain's body kept trembling, and his face turned pale with fright. His hands kept sweating, and he hurriedly knelt on the ground and said with a hint of tears: "Your Majesty. , Your Majesty, please spare my life!”

"Previously, in order to be able to withstand the Qin army's offensive, otherwise General Lian Po would have no worries, all the food and countless weapons and equipment in the treasury had been transported to Shicheng. At that time, the treasury was already empty."

"We even requisitioned some grain from some common people and transported it to Shicheng together, in order to prevent the former army from facing the problem of food and grass supplies."

After hearing the explanation from the minister below, King Zhao finally remembered.

In order to withstand the Qin army's offensive, he did issue such an order.

But who would have thought that Lian Po was so useless and sent so much food and weapons and equipment, but in the end he still failed to withstand the Qin army, and now there is no more food and grass to requisition in the city.

This time Zhao State used less to attack more, and its military strength was not as good as that of Qin State.

After several waves of fierce offensives by the Qin Army, the morale of the soldiers in the city is now low. If these soldiers cannot be fed and clothed, it will inevitably affect the morale of the army again, and even affect the soldiers' ability to fight against the Qin Army. confidence.

Thinking of this, King Zhao turned to look at Guo Kai beside him with a heavy face, and asked: "Prime Minister, do you have a plan?"

Guo Kai shook his head helplessly: "Your Majesty, now the Qin army has surrounded the entire Dai County. Even if they want to recruit grain and grass from other cities, it is simply impossible!"

"The only way now is to snatch the food from the hands of the people in the city and distribute it to the soldiers fighting on the front line first. Only in this way can the food crisis be temporarily alleviated."

At this moment, a minister standing below came out and said resolutely: "Your Majesty, the Prime Minister's plan is inappropriate!"

"Half of the soldiers currently stationed in Daijun have their parents living in Daijun. If we seize food from them, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among these soldiers and even lead to civil strife."

"Besides, the food in the hands of these people alone won't last long!"

"Since the death of the late king in Handan, the national power of our Zhao State has gradually declined, and its strength is not as good as before. Coupled with the grain collected from the people in the Battle of Shicheng, now there is not much food in the hands of these people to collect! Even within the city Some poor people have begun to eat Guanyin soil and tree roots and turf."

"what?"

King Zhao looked surprised and waved his hands in disbelief: "Impossible, how could our huge Zhao country be reduced to the point where the people are eating dirt!"

In his eyes, although Zhao State had suffered several disastrous defeats, it still had hundreds of cities and countless people.

And how did their Zhao country fall to this point?
Another minister also came out, knelt on the ground and said: "Your Majesty may not know something. In order to be able to buy pig iron on a large scale, the Qin State did not hesitate to spend double or even triple the price. After hearing this, countless people Use all your savings to buy pig iron and sell it to Qin."

"And those people who have neither pig iron nor savings can only earn money by selling the grain in their hands to buy pig iron, and then sell it to the Qin State. But then the Qin State suddenly stopped purchasing pig iron. They even started to buy grains on a large scale, which led to the food crisis in our country of Zhao."

"what?"

King Zhao looked shocked, then looked at Guo Kai and asked: "Prime Minister, such a big thing happened, why didn't you report it to me?" "If I know about it, I will definitely order to prevent such a thing from happening! "

Guo Kai showed a trace of embarrassment, looked at King Zhao and hesitated: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty, this... this matter..."

"Your Majesty, the Prime Minister is also involved in this matter!"

The minister who just spoke saw that Guo Kai had deliberately concealed something, so he spoke directly: "The prime minister is afraid that if he informs the king, his own financial path will be cut off, right?"

Guo Kai suddenly turned his head and glared at the minister who was speaking. Then he immediately knelt down in front of the bed and said with a look of distress on his face: "Your Majesty, I am doing this for the sake of the Kingdom of Zhao!"

"The State of Zhao has been in decline since its defeat in the Battle of Handan, so I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to contribute to the State of Zhao. Moreover, as far as I know, I am not the only one who profited from it. Other ministers in the DPRK were also involved.”

Seeing that the matter was exposed, Guo Kai couldn't care about anything else and could only tell others.

The State of Zhao has always had great resentment towards the State of Qin, and King Zhao is extremely resentful towards the State of Qin. Now King Zhao has learned that he has a deal with the State of Qin. If it is not handled properly, not only will his position as prime minister be lost, but he may even lose his position as prime minister. Even this life will be ruined.

I only hope that King Zhao will forgive them for the sake of the participation of many ministers.

King Zhao's face suddenly turned livid, he glanced around at the ministers kneeling below, and shouted angrily: "You are all ministers of our Zhao Kingdom, but you secretly have deals with the Qin Kingdom, how can you deserve those who died in the hands of the Qin people?" Soldiers, how can you live up to the trust placed in you by previous kings and this king?"

Immediately afterwards, King Zhao waved his arms and shouted loudly: "Come here, arrest all these traitors!"

The ministers below were suddenly filled with panic, and they kowtowed and begged for mercy.

For a time, mournful cries for mercy surrounded the entire dormitory.

"Wait a minute, my lord!"

At this moment, Wei Ke, who had been kneeling below and had been silent, raised his head to look at King Zhao, and persuaded him calmly: "Your Majesty, the country is in crisis now, and it is the time to employ people. Besides, all the ministers have made great sacrifices for our country, Zhao." Credit, if we deal with it this way, I’m afraid it will have some bad effects.”

whirring—

whirring—

King Zhao took a few deep breaths, looked at the unsatisfactory ministers below, and then looked at Wei Ke.

What he said made no sense. Now was the critical moment of the war between Qin and Zhao. Regardless of others, Guo Kai alone had considerable influence in the court.

If it were handled like this, it would definitely cause dissatisfaction among some officials.

Then King Zhao suppressed the anger in his heart, turned around and asked: "Then what should we do between you?"

Wei Ke looked around at the ministers with a stern expression, and then looked at King Zhao: "Your Majesty, our army is short of food at this time, why not let them perform meritorious service and exchange food for forgiveness of sins?"

(End of this chapter)