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

Chapter 203: Li Er’s imperial edict arrives in Haikang. The one we should be afraid of is Li Er!

After listening to Li Yuanji's words, Cen Wenben immediately agreed. As for Yang Shu, he had never seen him before, but he had learned about him from other people. When he came to Lingnan, Yang Shu had already followed Yu Minghe to fight.

"Your Majesty, Yang Shu can stay there. I will send a message to the others to come back as soon as possible. Can you bring the army back? Or should we leave it there?"

Li Yuanji fell into deep thought after hearing this. Yu Ming and the people he brought with him at the beginning could be said to be a ragtag army. He only had 5,000 regular troops, and the rest were the troops under Li Xiang and Yang Shu.

Yu Minghe has almost 50,000 troops now after fighting along the way. He does not want to call back these 50,000 miscellaneous troops, as he needs a large army to garrison the areas surrounding his fiefdom.

Although the army under his command is not clearly divided, in Li Yuanji's eyes, the regular army is the 300,000 men and 70,000 navy under his command. The other armies, that is, the local government troops, are simply unable to join in the brutal war.

Moreover, the treatment of the miscellaneous troops and the regular army is completely different. The miscellaneous troops even have to undertake the task of farming and other work to do. For real fighting, they rely on these 300,000 troops and 70,000 navy.

Li Yuanji pondered for a while before he frowned and spoke.

"Yu Ming and the 50,000 men, except for the 5,000 they brought over from here, don't bring back the others. Let Li Xiang take 10,000 men back to Rongzhou and Guizhou to guard against Li Er's sudden attack.

Leave 20,000 men and give them to Yang Shu, and also tell Yang Shu that I will give him 3,000 elite soldiers. It depends on himself whether he has the ability to do so.

In addition, after you go down, you will formulate a military reform. Now our 300,000-strong army, which is fully equipped with new equipment, will be renamed Type A Army, and the armies of local prefectures and states will be renamed Type B Army.

The three thousand elite soldiers given to Yang Shu are three thousand first-class soldiers."

Li Yuanji had no choice. The Type A army cost too much money and food. The 300,000 soldiers he had now were all he had. If it weren't for the huge expense, there were still many things he could do. But now he could only put it off.

Now that he has such a large army, he will not expand the Type A Army for at least ten years, or even twenty years. He can only choose to expand it in various places according to the situation, such as Yangshu now, and the number of places cannot be counted in tens of thousands.

It's not that he is stingy, nor that he thinks the current army is enough, but that the money and food are severely limited. Even if he is developing here and various trades can be said to be almost unmatched by the Tang Dynasty, development requires a large amount of money and food. Where can he get so much money and food to support a large army?
In Li Yuanji's eyes, these 300,000 Type A troops were the equivalent of the army at the peak of the Tang Dynasty when only a few thousand people dared to follow tens of thousands of people in the Western Regions. With these, he was already very satisfied.

Cen Wenben wrote it down immediately. He had no choice. There were too many things to do now. If he didn't write it down, he was afraid that he would forget it when he got busy.

Seeing that Cen Wenben had taken notes, Li Yuanji continued, "As for Wei Yunqi, let him come back first. I will talk to him first, and then arrange for him to go to Xizhou. At that time, the affairs of Xizhou, Zhenzhou, Taizhou, and Wuzhou will be handed over to Wei Yunqi.

We don't have so many people now, so if a talented person appears, we will use him like this. Wait for Wei Yunqi to come back, you should take good care of him, make sure to teach him, and then let him take up the post.

As for the main army, the other 20,000 troops, as well as the troops that stayed with Wei Yunqi, all returned to Zhenzhou through the northern part of the Pyu Kingdom, and were temporarily led by Yang Jianhe.

It is a good time to urge the Pyu Kingdom. If they continue to procrastinate, my army will not be able to bear it any longer!"

It has been two months since the people of Pyu went back, and there is still no news. Li Yuanji is not that good-tempered. The most important thing is that Pyu offered himself to him. If they dared to trick him, he only needed to send out 10,000 or 20,000 Type A troops, and cooperate with Type B troops to destroy Pyu.

As for Wei Yunqi, he had no way to deal with it. He had no one. When a talent appeared, he could only use him to his full potential. As for whether Wei Yunqi could handle it, he didn't care. He trusted him so much. From the perspective of a superior, he had already delegated so much power and given him so much trust, so he had to do a good job for him.

Isn't it just one person doing the work of four people? Now, all the people under his command have multiple jobs. One person has a lot of work to do, while the mediocre officials below are doing their own jobs.

In Li Yuanji's case, one person has to do multiple jobs. This shows Li Yuanji's trust in him and his high regard for him. Most people cannot even hope for such treatment.

Cen Wenben also laughed after hearing this. As for Wei Yunqi's matter, he did not express any opinion. He was not familiar with Wei Yunqi and had never met him. When this man came back, he would have to take a good look at him.

Those who can be entrusted with important tasks by Li Yuanji are all capable, and Cen Wenben is very confident about this.

Cen Wenben was about to speak when Li Yuanji's voice came again.

"In addition, you must be prepared to add another 5,000 Type A troops. When Wei Yunqi manages four states, and is close to the Pyu Kingdom, almost all of our arrangements for the Pyu Kingdom will be completed by Wei Yunqi, so he must have a Type A army with 5,000 troops."

Five thousand people may not sound like a lot, but it is already a lot. This Type A army that exists for war, like the army of the Pyu State, can at least defeat fifty thousand people. Moreover, Wei Yunqi will have Type B troops in four states, which is enough.

I just want Wei Yunqi to advance. The army is not enough, but it is enough to deal with the situation over there.

Cen Benwen felt a pain in his heart after hearing this. In the blink of an eye, there were quotas for another 8,000 Type A troops. The money and food supply for these 8,000 troops would cost a lot. It would be strange if Cen Benwen didn't feel distressed.

"Your Majesty, I understand. But Your Majesty, the Type A Army really needs to slow down. It consumes too much money and food. If it continues to increase like this, there will not be enough money and food to support its development."

Li Yuanji also agreed to Cen Wenben's request without any hesitation. After all, he had no plans to expand the Type A army any further. But after thinking about something, he had no choice but to speak.

"Jingren, there is another place that needs us, that is Li Xiang. Give him a quota of 3,000 people. If he is paired with a Type B army, I will feel at ease."

When Cen Wenben heard this, he quit immediately.

"No, no matter what I say, my king, you just agreed to this. You don't know how valuable money is. Didn't Yu Minghe bring 5,000 Class A troops? Your Majesty, why don't you send 3,000 people over there?"

There are now 300,000 Class A troops here. If it weren't for the fact that the King of Qin is now on the throne, I would have suggested that the King reduce the army."

Li Yuanji's mouth twitched, and he had to do as Cen Wenben said. It was impossible for him to reduce the army anyway. Even if he tightened his belt, the army could not be reduced. Without this army, how could he intimidate Li Er?

If Li Er knew that he didn't have many troops, it would be strange if he didn't come to find him. Without such a large army, he couldn't sleep well.

After the matter was settled, Cen Wenben immediately went down to start delivering the message. In the following time, Ning Chun and Feng Zhixun returned. At the same time, the organization of ten departments, one supervision agency and one bureau was officially promulgated. As soon as Ning Chun and Feng Zhixun came back, they were pulled by Cen Wenben to work on things. They were so busy that Li Yuanji felt sorry for them.

However, Li Yuanji's heartache did not last long. He was also pulled into the team by Cen Wenben. He was responsible for the personnel arrangements of each department. This matter immediately made Li Yuanji busy. "Go up a little bit. Mei'er and Shun'er are really good. Just keep doing it."

After working for a long time, Li Yuanji finally finished the job and immediately called Wu Mei and Wu Shun to give him a massage, while Yang Qingwan and Wei Gui watched from the side.

"What are you two doing sitting here? Go prepare something delicious for me. I haven't had a good meal in a while. I'm so hungry."

Neither Yang Qingwan nor Wei Gui could escape, and the two women stood up with smiles on their faces.

"Yes, Your Majesty~"

The numb voices of the two people made Li Yuanji restless. He glared at the two women. Yang Qingwan and Wei Gui covered their mouths and went to prepare food for Li Yuanji.

At this time, Wu Mei's voice came softly to Li Yuanji: "Your Majesty, wait a few more years. When my sister and I grow up, we can serve you."

After Wu Mei finished speaking, her face turned red. Li Yuanji looked at Wu Mei with wide eyes. He really wanted to know, aren't kids nowadays maturing too quickly?
Then he realized that it must be Yang Qingwan and Wei Gui who did this, otherwise how did these two know all this?

Li Yuanji was very confused. When Wu Mei and Wu Shun grew up, would he be considered an old cow eating young grass?

Soon it was evening and Cen Wenben came over.

"Your Majesty, Shufang and his men will arrive tomorrow. There is also news that the court has sent an angel. An imperial edict has been issued and the angel will arrive in three days."

Li Yuanji's pupils suddenly shrank.

"You said an angel came from the court with an imperial edict? Was it sent by Li Er?"

Li Yuanji didn't care at all about the arrival of Xie Shufang and his companions. He was completely shocked by the second piece of news. He had just discussed with Cen Wenben that Li Er would definitely not attack him at this time, and he himself was also extremely sure of it.

But now that the angel had arrived with the imperial edict, Li Yuanji's first thought was that Li Shimin was stupid enough to attack him first.

Cen Wenben nodded solemnly as well.

"Your Majesty, it is true. We have confirmed it repeatedly. Now that the imperial edict has arrived, it must have been sent by the King of Qin. Whether we accept it or not, we will be in a very passive position.

Your Majesty, we must go all out and have someone kill the angel directly. If the King of Qin pursues the matter later, Your Majesty can insist that we did not see the emperor. As for the killing, we can just find someone to take the blame.

My king, do you want to start the action now?"

Cen Wenben had a ruthless look on his face, not caring at all about his identity as an angel. In Cen Wenben's eyes, this imperial edict would definitely be very unfavorable to Li Yuanji. Would Li Yuanji accept the edict or not?
If they did not accept the imperial edict, even if they could fight back by using Li Shimin's killing of his brother and imprisoning his father and usurping the throne, they would then have to send troops to the Tang Dynasty, and many of their arrangements would be shelved. The key point was that they could not defeat the Tang Dynasty at that time.

The best opportunity to send troops has been missed, because their Type A troops are not here, most of them are in Zhenla. Even at this moment, the army has not returned from Xizhou, Zhenzhou, Taizhou, and Wuzhou, and will not arrive until tomorrow, and only a part of them has arrived.

It will take at least several days for all the troops to arrive.

Add to that the preparation time in between, how were they going to fight the Tang Dynasty at that time?

Once the imperial edict was received, it would be even more difficult. Even if he didn't know the content of the edict, Cen Wenben would not believe it would be a good thing. If it was to appease Li Yuanji, there must be some other items brought along, but he had investigated clearly and found that there was nothing else except the imperial edict.

The only solution Cen Wenben could think of was to kill the angel. Since Li Yuanji was unaware of it, he would not have to take responsibility but also would not have to make this choice.

Li Yuanji was also feeling very heavy. He didn't know the content of the edict, but he had already automatically thought of the worst. As for the favorable aspects, Li Yuanji had never considered them.

Judging from the time when the angel arrived here, Li Yuanji dared to guarantee that it was sent by Li Er as soon as he usurped the throne, otherwise it would not have arrived so soon.

After thinking for a long time, Li Yuanji suddenly smiled.

"Jingren, just let him do what he wants. Why are you killing angels? Can you keep killing them? I don't want to use such a shady trick.

Since Li Er has sent an angel, let the angel come. I would like to see what Li Er is going to do.

Even if the edict is issued, whether to accept it or not depends on whether I agree. If Li Er dares to send troops, I really don't mind having a good fight with him!
Now, I have 300,000 Type A troops at my disposal, and I can raise another million troops at any time, so why should I be afraid of Li Er!"

Li Yuanji also figured it out. Now that he had money, food, and a large army, why would he be afraid of Li Er?
On the contrary, the one who should be afraid is Li Er. At this time, Jie Li must be about to reach Chang'an. If Li Er is really that stupid, he doesn't mind helping Jie Li first and then destroying Jie Li himself.

When the time comes and all 300,000 Type A troops are deployed, the one who should be afraid of is Li Er. If he gets angry, he will directly mobilize a million troops. Even if he does not develop here, he will make Li Er beg him to withdraw his troops.

Li Yuanji was extremely grateful at this moment. Fortunately, he did not care about the opinions of Cen Wenben and others and directly expanded the army by 150,000. Otherwise, now he would not be able to be tough even if he wanted to. This is the sense of security brought by the large army.

Cen Wenben felt Li Yuanji's momentum and gradually regained his confidence and his former style.

"I obey!"

Cen Wenben's heart was full of enthusiasm. With such a great king, what was there for him to fear? At worst, he could just destroy it and start over. He had already gone through the most difficult days. How difficult could it be now? At worst, he could start over again and rebuild it after it was destroyed!
After some time passed and Xie Shufang and his companions came back, Li Yuanji immediately ordered them to organize their troops and prepare for war. When Xie Shufang, Su Dingfang and Xi Junmai heard the news, they all actively prepared for war.

Three days later, the angel sent by Li Shimin also arrived in Haikang.

(End of this chapter)