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

Chapter 197 Taking over Li Jiancheng’s legacy!
Li Yuanji was now looking forward to it more and more. Once it was achieved, he didn't even dare to imagine how big his fiefdom would be. Anyway, it would definitely be bigger than the Tang Dynasty.

After listening to Li Yuanji's words, Cen Wenben immediately agreed.

"Your Majesty is right. The King of Qin is capable of such a thing. There is no guarantee that he will not suddenly attack Lingnan. The army must return to defend as soon as possible.

However, my king, it would be better to expand the army. Now we have to leave troops in Yuezhou Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture, Songzhou Prefecture, as well as Xizhou, Zhenzhou and other places. The army that was expanded before is now stretched to the limit to deal with the King of Qin.

We must at least ensure that there are more than 80,000 troops that can be mobilized at any time. Once a conflict arises with the King of Qin, I am afraid that wars will break out in several directions. If the army is too small, we will be unable to cope with it.

The most important thing is that the various places have not been conquered for a long time. If a war breaks out here, and new states are established, some people may become restless. Without a large army stationed there, it will be extremely difficult to govern."

Li Yuanji frowned. He knew what Cen Wenben said, but expanding the army was not something that could be done just like that. The pressure of money, food and logistics was very great.

"Based on our current financial resources, how much can we expand the army without affecting development?"

Li Yuanji looked at Cen Wenben. Cen Wenben knew these things best, so he had to ask.

Cen Wenben said without thinking, "Your Majesty, you can support the expansion of 50,000."

Li Yuanji pondered for a moment and said: "Then expand the army by 30,000. 30,000 is enough. Next, you must start to develop the newly established prefectures with all your strength and expand the army in each prefecture.

We can't lose our composure now because of Li Er's incident. We still have to proceed as planned. Even if Li Er wants to use troops against us, it won't happen so quickly. All we have to do now is be prepared for Li Er to make stupid mistakes.

I just don't believe he would be stupid enough to come to me first. If he really dares to do that, I will mobilize millions of troops from all over the country. If I can't kill him, I will scare him to death!"

Li Yuanji knew that Cen Wenben's thoughts were disturbed by the current situation and he became a little impatient and not as steady as before. Li Yuanji could understand that after all, Cen Wenben was still young and was not the Prime Minister Cen who remained calm even when faced with a mountain collapse.

Cen Wenben is confused now, but he cannot panic. He knows the direction of the future situation, and he knows even more clearly that he cannot stop his development now. Development is the most important thing for him. It is not only about enhancing his strength, but more importantly, the source of contribution points.

The bad thing about this system is that the contribution points come from completing development tasks. Once development stagnates, new tasks will be difficult or even impossible to complete. Now he has almost figured it out. Although the contribution points for subsequent tasks are increasing, the difficulty is also increasing.

So far, his task seems easy to do, because he is still ahead in current development. Once this lead disappears, the task will become particularly time-consuming, the speed of obtaining contribution points will slow down, and development will also slow down accordingly.

What Cen Wenben said was indeed what he thought. If Li Shimin was really determined to deal with him, he would not pretend. With an army of millions, including his own main force of 300,000, plus Li Jiancheng's people in the Tang Dynasty, if Li Shimin dared to come to him, he would dare to fight Li Shimin.

As for whether the Tang Dynasty would be invaded by Tuyuhun, Turks, and other neighboring countries, that was not something he considered. Li Shimin didn't care, so he would care even less.

Cen Wenben also knew that he was a little confused now. He took a deep breath and calmed down after a while.

"Your Majesty, I am deeply troubled and ashamed of your trust."

Li Yuanji didn't care at all: "It's okay, as long as you can think of these things, people will eventually grow up after going through trials and tribulations.

Jingren just needs to remember that difficulties and setbacks, as long as they cannot knock us down, will only make us stronger.

Without the bitter cold, how can the plum blossoms smell so fragrant? Jingren, let’s encourage each other. "

Cen Wenben was stunned, and kept thinking about Li Yuanji's words in his mind. He really didn't expect that Li Yuanji could say such philosophical words. Although the last line of the poem was a bit straightforward, Cen Wenben felt that the artistic conception was really good.

After a while, Cen Wenben bowed.

"Your Majesty is a great man. I am grateful for your guidance."

Cen Wenben was really taught a lesson. Now he has completely calmed down and there is a faint smile on his face.

Li Yuanji smiled and looked at Cen Wenben: "Haha, don't talk about this, let's think about the business now. Let's settle this matter for now. The most important thing next is that the prince is dead, which is a fact.

However, as everyone knows, I am on good terms with the prince, and he is my elder brother. Now that the prince is dead, we must win over those people under the prince, especially those who are talented.

This cannot be delayed. As for Li Er's attitude, don't worry about it. Just recruit all these people here. If Li Er is angry, he can attack me if he dares."

Li Yuanji sneered. Li Shimin was going to kill him anyway, and the result would be the same if he didn't do it, so why didn't he do it?

He has been lacking talent for a long time. It is still unrealistic for those trained in the academy to take on major responsibilities. They need more time to teach. Even with the guidance of Kong Yingda and others, they will not be able to learn in a short time.

Nowadays, most of the people there are actually only suitable to be minor officials. Although this reality makes him a little disappointed, fortunately, this was his original plan.

The lower-level officials are now in urgent need of manpower. With the expansion of the fiefdom, this demand becomes particularly important. He no longer aims to cultivate great talents. As long as people are capable of doing the work of minor officials, he will directly let them graduate from the academy.

If you really come across a good talent, then keep him in the academy and continue teaching him. It's just like panning for gold. If you find it, you'll earn more. If you don't find it, you'll earn less.

But he was really envious of the people under Li Jiancheng. He was familiar with many of them, both civil and military. Military generals were secondary now. The main thing was civil officials, and there were many among them who were both civil and military.

Li Yuanji couldn't help but sigh that in the era when aristocratic families existed, most of the children from these aristocratic families were both talented in literature and martial arts, without being biased towards one subject.

Starting from the Song Dynasty, there was a serious imbalance in the academic subjects. Most of the civil officials were unable to wield swords or sticks, and the military generals were really just military generals. Only a very small number of people were both good at literature and martial arts.

It has to be said that although the aristocratic families monopolized knowledge and many things and posed a great threat to the imperial power, they were really capable of educating people and cultivating talents.

As for the people under his command, Cen Benwen, Wei Ting, Xie Shufang, Liu Rengui and others, they were really capable of conquering all directions on horseback and governing one side on foot. People like Cen Benwen could directly reach the commander-in-chief level when they joined the army.

Even though he is a civil official, Cen Wenben has led troops before and is knowledgeable about military affairs. He has seen many military strategies. As for Wei Ting, even though he is a civil official now, he was also a scholar after entering the Eastern Palace and gave advice to Li Jiancheng, but he was a serious cavalry general before.

Needless to say, Liu Rengui not only fought against Baekje, but also governed Baekje in an orderly manner.

Xie Shufang was also a man of first-class ability in leading troops in combat. Historically, he joined Li Shimin and governed the area in an orderly manner, ensuring that the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.

Li Yuanji had to admit that there were many abnormal people in this era, and that he had learned a lot since he was young, and he had never been biased in any subject. Cen Wenben also looked solemn after hearing this.

"Your Majesty, this matter must be carried out as soon as possible. We cannot let the King of Qin get ahead of us. We will only focus on the Crown Prince's confidants. We should not be able to persuade the others, and the King of Qin may even plant people in our place.

I suggest not to have too much contact with other people. After all, the King of Qin is now the orthodox one. As long as the King of Qin expresses goodwill, most people will still give priority to the King of Qin. Only the prince's confidants will take it as their responsibility to avenge the prince.

Although these people have great hatred, they are all targets that we should win over, because we will inevitably have conflicts with the King of Qin in the future, and these people will also be able to fight to the death after they arrive.

And after seeing the king, they will definitely follow the king sincerely, and they have no other choice but to choose the king."

Li Yuanji's heart skipped a beat. He had been planning to bring all of Li Jiancheng's men over. But after hearing what Cen Wenben said, he found that he seemed to have thought too simply. If Li Shimin really sent people in, then what was he going to do?
Whatever is here, Li Shimin will bring it out in the next second. How can he play? How can he fight against Li Shimin?
Especially among Li Jiancheng's people, there were some with bad intentions, and he had to screen them all.

"What you are reminding me is that we should do this according to what Jingren said. I will draw up the list in a moment and you can send someone to make the contact immediately.

In addition, you should write a letter to Zhengping and Wei Yunqi later. These two people must be won over. Let Wei Ting come back and I will talk to him in person.

As for Wei Yunqi, send a capable person to persuade him to come over. Wei Yunqi is a man of great talent and ability. Now he happens to be fighting with Yu Minghe, so we must win him over.

The people sent there should contact Yu Minghe first, and then tell Wei Yunqi about this matter. I have only one request, that is, even if you have to tie Wei Yunqi up, you must tie him up!"

In Li Yuanji's eyes, Xue Wanche and Wei Ting were not difficult to deal with. These two people were in his territory. Now that Li Jiancheng was dead, where else did they want to go if not stay?

As for Wei Yunqi, he was equally confident that as long as he met this person, he would be able to keep Wei Yunqi.

Cen Wenben agreed immediately. He totally agreed to win over these people. Now Li Yuanji's fiefdom was getting bigger and bigger, and people were needed everywhere. Only with people could they develop faster and better, and make those places give back to themselves as soon as possible.

"Yes, this matter is urgent. I will go down and start making arrangements right away."

Li Yuanji nodded. Now that everything had been discussed, there was nothing more to say. Then Li Yuanji sorted out the list and handed it directly to Cen Wenben.

Li Yuanji did not include Li Yi in this list because Li Yi was too far away and Li Yuanji did not like this person very much, and there were few people from the Li clan who knew him.

He didn't know what to say about the people of the Li clan. Those who had some ability and were close to Li Shimin were either capable but had bad intentions, or they didn't have much ability but wanted to make trouble all day long. He was really impressed.

When all this was done, Li Yuanji immediately called Xue Wanche.

"See you, Your Majesty."

Li Yuanji looked at Xue Wanche and was very satisfied. This man had been calling him the King since he came to Lingnan. This title was enough to explain many problems. Wei Ting always called him the King of Qi.

"Wan Che is here, please sit down. You have worked for me before, and I have talked to you directly about business. Please take a look at this letter first."

Xue Wanche was puzzled, but then he became a little excited. In his eyes, Li Yuanji wanted to find him, which meant that there must be another war. Otherwise, what could he be called for? Going back to Chang'an? This matter was also decided by Wei Ting. He came here with Wei Ting, and Wei Ting was the boss.

Xue Wanche couldn't wait to open the letter, or to be more precise, a note. After reading it quickly, Xue Wanche was stunned. He stared at the contents of the note with wide eyes, his hands trembling a little, and his eyes suddenly turned red.

Then he stood up and looked at Li Yuanji in disbelief.

"My lord, is this true?"

Li Yuanji nodded sadly. At this time, Li Yuanji's expression was extremely painful and he looked very sad.

After hearing this, Xue Wanche felt like he was struck by lightning. He stood there in a daze, his heart instantly filled with grief.

"Prince!!!"

The huge man had tears in his eyes. After a moment of sadness, immense anger burst out.

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince was your best friend when he was alive, and he is also your elder brother. Please, Your Majesty, avenge the Crown Prince!

Li Shimin actually dared to kill the prince. It was tantamount to treason and everyone in the world could kill him!
Your Majesty is the King of Qi, the legitimate son of the Saint. Now the Saint is under house arrest in the palace, and the Crown Prince is dead. Your Majesty's hope lies with you. I beg you to send troops to destroy the rebels and save the Tang Dynasty!"

Li Yuanji was also feeling emotional. Xue Wanche was really cruel. Every word he said was about righteousness. He even labeled Li Shimin a traitor and a traitor. It seemed that he, Li Yuanji, had become the hope of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Yuanji also showed grief and anger.

"Li Er plotted rebellion, and my elder brother was killed by Li Er. My father was also imprisoned in the palace. I wish I could kill Li Er, save my father, and avenge my elder brother. But as you know, the army is not here.

It will take two or three months for the army to return. Now, more than a month has passed since this incident happened. By then, Li Er will be in control of the world. Even if I want to take revenge, I will be powerless.

However, such a great hatred must be avenged. What we can do is to develop and strengthen our own strength and guard against Li Er. Only when we are strong enough can we avenge him.

Now it is like hitting a rock with an egg. Not only can I not avenge my eldest brother, but I am in danger myself. I will never have another chance.

Wan Che, do you understand this?"

Li Yuanji also had tears in his eyes and his face was full of reluctance, but he had no choice.

After hearing this, even though Xue Wanche was eager for revenge, he had to keep his hatred in his heart. He also knew what was happening here, and now that they were facing the Tang Dynasty, they really had no chance of winning.

Xue Wanche was extremely sad and clenched his teeth. His hatred for Li Shimin continued to grow.

(End of this chapter)