Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 187: Sending troops to attack Zhenla, a large number of merchants enter Lingnan

After agreeing with Wei Ting, Wei Ting withdrew. Cen Wenben then went down to arrange the personnel to accompany Wei Ting, and Yang Cheng followed suit.

After Wei Ting went down, he came to Xue Wanche.

"Wan Che, I'm afraid we have to put our return on hold for now. The King of Qi asked me to deal with the affairs of Japan, Silla, and Baekje. You stay here first. If you do it well this time, the King of Qi will give us some of the craftsmanship here. When we return, we will be able to meet the Crown Prince."

Wei Ting then briefly told Xue Wanche what had just happened, and Xue Wanche also looked solemn after listening.

"Just go ahead, Zhengping. I heard that the food here is a little short. The king may be anxious and eager to open up trade over there, so he wants to take action against Japan.

Besides, it is just a Japanese country. If the king can hand over some of the craftsmanship to the prince, I think the prince will not say anything.

Zhengping, you can go ahead. I will stay here first. I need to learn about the military affairs again. Now it is a little different from before. After I understand it clearly, I can tell the prince. "

Wei Ting nodded and said nothing more, then began to prepare for his trip to Japan.

Inside the palace, Li Yuanji was meeting with Pei Xuanyan.

"Your Majesty, I have visited many neighboring countries this time. Among them is a country called Srivijaya. From what I have seen since I went there, I can see that this country is extremely powerful and is constantly expanding. Its development is almost entirely dependent on the relevant ports and the only strait that controls entry and exit. It earns a lot of money by collecting fees.

When I went there this time, Srivijaya not only took a fancy to our goods, but also to our large ships. They proposed to buy large ships from us and increase trade. When I was leaving, someone in Srivijaya told me that they would come to visit us later to finalize the trade and large ship matters. "

Srivijaya was also quite a powerful country during its heyday. It was the first place to expand its influence to Brunei. After Cambodia split into North and South Cambodia, North Cambodia became a vassal state of Srivijaya. When it was to the north, it was close to Australia and controlled the Strait of Malacca.

Li Yuanji listened quietly to what Pei Xuanyan said. He didn't know much about a small country like Srivijaya, but he was very happy since Srivijaya was willing to take the initiative to increase trade exchanges.

As for the power that Pei Xuanyan mentioned, he really didn't take it too seriously. In terms of power, could it be as powerful as the Tang Dynasty?
As long as there is nothing like that, he has no worries at all. Mainly because worrying is useless. He cannot stop others from expanding. The most important thing for him now is to develop trade.

After learning more about the situation, Li Yuanji's mood became even better, not for any other reason, but because the goods he took out were all best-sellers, and the prices they were sold at were several times higher than those sold to those people in the Tang Dynasty.

Pei Xuanyan made a fortune this time. All the large ships were loaded with money, food, supplies, various spices, and some local specialties.

"Well done. Let's do this in the future. This time when you come back, you can use the new sailboat. This sailboat will be better at sailing on the sea. Go and have a good rest first, and then you can take a good look at this new sailboat. Then you will know."

After chatting with Pei Xuanyan for a long time and understanding everything, Li Yuanji let Pei Xuanyan go. When he was the only one left, he smiled. In his opinion, the trade was now truly starting.

Then a month passed. Wei Ting went to Japan. Yang Cheng and Pei Xuanyan were preparing to go out again to prepare for trade. The war in Zhenla had also broken out. They had already launched an attack on Funan. Tang Ming then launched an attack on Zhenla. Xi Junmai and Tan Dian continued to put pressure on Zhenla on the border of Zhenla.

In the palace, Li Yuanji was lying leisurely when Xie Shufang walked in.

"Your Majesty, the training of the new army has almost been completed, and the weapons and armor have been issued. When will we launch an attack on Zhenla? I can't wait any longer. Now Zhenla has refused to obey my orders and dared to start a war. We should destroy the country to show your majesty's power!"

Li Yuanji looked at Xie Shufang with suspicion.

"Shufang, tell me first, who taught you these words? Can these words come out of your mouth?"

How could Li Yuanji not know that Xie Shufang had found someone? Otherwise, according to Xie Shufang's usual actions, he would have started fighting directly without saying those words later. He just gave a warning to Zhenla, asking Zhenla to remain restrained and not to mobilize troops, but Zhenla did not listen to his warning at all.

Xie Shufang was stunned after hearing this.

"Uh, Your Majesty, is it so obvious? I did talk to Jingren, and he said that the money, food, and supplies for the war are ready. As long as Your Majesty agrees, we can fight at any time.

Moreover, Zhenla actually disobeyed the king's order. This is a naked disrespect for the king. King, we cannot tolerate this. Please send me and Dingfang to defeat Zhenla!"

After hearing this, Li Yuanji pondered for a moment before speaking slowly.

"Go call Jingren and Dingfang."

When Xie Shufang heard this, he immediately became excited.

"Yes, my king! I will go right away!"

After a while, Cen Wenben and Su Dingfang were called over by Xie Shufang.

"See you, Your Majesty."

Li Yuanji motioned for everyone to stand up and spoke slowly.

"I sent a letter to Narman before, asking him to stop expanding, not to harass Funan and Tangming, and to maintain peace and stability in the region. However, Zhenla did not listen at all. Narman insisted on using troops and brazenly launched an attack on Funan.

This move has deeply affected us. Our trade there has been damaged. Funan and Tangming have successively asked me for help, and Zhenla even dared to send a large army to my Yuezhou Prefecture. Zhenla has disregarded my orders so much that it can no longer stay.

This king has decided to send troops to destroy Zhenla!"

Xie Shufang and others were all very excited, and then Li Yuanji's voice was heard.

“Now that the new army has completed its training and all its equipment has been issued, it’s time to take action.

Xie Shufang! You lead 50,000 troops, sail to Funan, unite with the Funan army, and attack Zhenla!"

Xie Shufang stood up immediately.

"The general will take the order!"

Li Yuanji then looked at Su Dingfang.

"Su Lie! You lead 50,000 troops to Tangming immediately, and join forces with the Tangming army to attack Zhenla!"

Su Dingfang immediately stood up. "I accept your order!"

Li Yuanji finally looked at Cen Wenben.

"Jingren, you must immediately arrange for money, food and supplies to ensure that the army has sufficient supplies. Also, send a message to Xi Junmai and Tan Dian to have them launch an attack on Zhenla from Yuezhou Prefecture!"

Attacking Zhenla was a goal set long ago, and now everything was ready. Li Yuanji was very decisive.

Now, with three armies and a total of 130,000 troops attacking together, plus the armies of Funan and Tang Ming, the strength can reach more than 200,000. With his army as the main force, it is completely enough. Even in the Tang Dynasty, using so many troops to destroy a country is limited in the number of times.

Cen Wenben agreed immediately.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured that I will definitely ensure the logistical needs of all the armies. At the same time, I will contact Wei Ye of Jiaozhou Prefecture in a timely manner and ask him to ensure the supplies needed by the army at any time. Everything will take precedence over the army."

With Cen Wenben's guarantee, Li Yuanji felt more at ease. He was not worried about the army's combat effectiveness at all. After all, they were leading in all aspects. The only thing he was worried about was the logistics.

Because they are already short of food. Despite the existence of trade, they are frantically purchasing food from abroad, and the exchange of goods is all paid for with food. However, most of the food obtained through trade and purchases in this expedition will be used for this war.

Li Yuanji was very distressed, but he had to fight this battle because he must not lose Funan and Tang Ming, especially his prestige, which must not be lost.

If Zhenla had been obedient this time, he would not have launched an attack on Zhenla so quickly. He would have waited until this year's grain harvest before considering conquering Zhenla. But there was no way. His trade route would not be threatened by anyone.

After everyone went down, the war machine started to operate immediately, and the news that Zhenla had invaded Yuezhou Prefecture and obstructed trade began to spread gradually. In addition, the army was gathering and setting off, and the mobilization of supplies let everyone know that their king was about to start using military force against Zhenla.

Everyone was blessing the war, and the army was extremely excited, as if they were already imagining how glorious they would be charging back and forth on the battlefield.

But there was one person who could no longer sit still and came to Li Yuanji.

"My king, you should let me go to such a big war. Now they have all gone to fight, and I am the only one left. I also helped in the last battle against Linyi."

This person is Xue Wanche. Seeing that everyone went out to expand the territory, he became anxious. Although he was from the Eastern Palace and not from the Prince of Qi's Mansion, in his opinion, he was doing everything now. In Lingnan, wasn't he doing basically everything? Li Yuanji didn't have any taboos about him.

Li Yuanji was really speechless when he saw Xue Wanche in front of him. He himself could hardly understand what Xue Wanche was thinking. He was obviously Li Jiancheng's man, but here he treated himself as a member of the Prince of Qi's mansion.

Li Yuanji was very moved. He was just doing it for this man to see, just to let Xue Wanche know the bravery of his army and his strength, so that once Li Jiancheng came to power in the future, he would not dare to touch him easily. But Xue Wanche, on the contrary, did not hesitate at all and was moved by himself.

Li Yuanji stopped thinking about it. He had such thoughts about Wei Ting, so why not the same thoughts about Xue Wanche?
If Li Jiancheng came to power, his goal would be achieved. If Li Shimin came to power, that would be perfect, and Xue Wanche would take over directly, and would be transferred from the Eastern Palace to the Prince of Qi's Mansion. No matter how the fight in Chang'an goes, no matter who wins, he will benefit anyway.

It is precisely because of these reasons that he has kept the two of them here, because he knows very well that in just a few months, the incident in Chang'an will break out.

Looking at Xue Wanche, Li Yuanji spoke slowly.

"Wan Che, you have to stay here. You know I don't have anyone here. Now that they have all been sent out, should I leave someone here in case of emergency?

And you are just right. I know your ability very well. Now I am entrusting an important task to you. You have to take charge of all the defense affairs of Haikang."

After Li Yuanji's consolation, Xue Wanche finally dispelled his desire to go out and fight. At the same time, Xue Wanche was somewhat moved. It was precisely because he was Li Jiancheng's man that Li Yuanji was not on guard against him and let him command the army. Xue Wanche was particularly moved.

What Xue Wanche didn't know was that the reason why Li Yuanji was so relieved was because if Xue Wanche really wanted to mobilize troops to do something, he could hardly call upon anyone, especially to deal with him. Once Xue Wanche did it, the army below would turn around and push Xue Wanche in front of him.

This is Li Yuanji's confidence. In Lingnan, especially in Haikang, not to mention Xue Wanche, even Li Yuan is useless. His words, Li Yuanji's, are the only ones here.

After Xue Wanche went down, Li Yuanji finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, just as he lay down again, Cen Wenben rushed in. Looking at Cen Wenben's serious expression, Li Yuanji's first reaction was that something had happened again.

"Jingren, what happened? Why are you so anxious?"

Cen Wenben bowed first and said, "Your Majesty, this is a good thing. Recently, more and more people have come to Haikang to do business. I went down to take a look and found that there are more merchants coming from the Tang Dynasty, followed by those from other countries.

Merchants came from surrounding countries, and also from India, Dayangtong, Xiaoyangtong, Tubo and other countries. Many shops in the city have been bought, and many are rented. Some people have even started buying houses around the streets at high prices.

Especially in the inner city, the transaction price of a shop reached 3,000 guan, and those who bought houses and shops were basically merchants from the Tang Dynasty.

I have checked and found that those families have gradually started to send people here. Some of them include the Wei family and Liu family from Hedong, the Zheng family from Xingyang, the Cui family from Boling, etc. By the way, the Wei family from Jingzhao and the Yang family from Hongnong have also sent people here.

These people have not contacted me, I wonder if they have contacted the king?"

Li Yuanji was stunned when he heard this. He really didn't expect that there are so many people coming here to do business now?

In fact, some people had already started coming to Lingnan before. The main destinations were Leizhou and Guangzhou. In Guangzhou, the main concentration was in Panyu, and in Leizhou, the main concentration was in Haikang. However, they were all people who came to do odd jobs to earn money.

As for merchants, some of them started to come here to do business, but they were very few. Almost all of them were merchants from coastal areas and near Lingnan. He never thought that those families would send people here.

In particular, in addition to the families and merchants of the Tang Dynasty, merchants from other countries also began to have dealings.

Li Yuanji was extremely happy. What he lacked now was communication with the outside world. As long as merchants came and took the goods back, word would spread from one to ten, and from ten to a hundred. Merchants from all over the world would come to do business with him. This was the scene he had always been looking forward to.

As for those who want to hide the truth and make a lot of money after they go back, it is simply impossible. They can only delay for a certain period of time. In this world, there is no such thing as an airtight wall in the business world. The news will only spread wider and wider.

The corners of Li Yuanji's mouth gradually turned up, he looked at Cen Wenben and spoke slowly.

"Jingren, I really didn't know this. I'm surprised that so many people are coming here to do business all of a sudden.

It seems that the influence of Yuanlin and Xuanyan's trade abroad and the spread of their goods have made these people discover the business opportunities here, which is why they are flocking here."

(End of this chapter)