"Yun Chang is already old. I don't intend to bother you with this attack on Shu."
Yang Ling paused and continued,
"But Yun Chang also knows that if you can go with Gu, there will be less trouble in Pingdi Shu!"
"But you and I have something to say first. If Yun Chang doesn't want to do it in his heart, I won't force him!"
If Yizhou can be conquered in one fell swoop this time, and Guan Yu comes forward, it will save a lot of trouble to persuade Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and others to surrender!
Guan Yu was silent for a moment, cupped his hands and said,
"Since it is the request of King Qi, how can I refuse!"
"Besides, I haven't seen my eldest brother for some years, so I took this opportunity to persuade him to surrender to the Wei Dynasty!"
Guan Yu's words came from his sincerity.
After Guan Yinping married Yang Ling, he gave birth to two sons one after another.
Guan Yu also loved these two grandsons from the bottom of his heart.
When Cao Yuan ascended the throne as the emperor, under Yang Ling's instructions, he also rewarded the Guan family father and son in every possible way.
In addition, Guan Yu is already old and has the idea of retiring from the court and enjoying the happiness of his family!
"It is most appropriate for Yun Chang to think so."
Yang Ling smiled, nodded and said,
"Then please trouble Yunchang to make preparations in advance. In the coming spring, we will send troops to Shu to dominate the world!"
"Here!"
Guan Yu took the order and left.
After he left, Yang Ling stroked the beard on his chin, pondered for a moment, and said to Guanqiu Jian outside the door,
"Go and invite all three gentlemen!"
"Here!"
Guanqiu Jian accepted the order and left.
Yang Ling, on the other hand, after pondering for a while, picked up his pen and wrote something.
Not long after, Pang Tong, Gao Rou, and Xu Shu arrived hand in hand.
Seeing that Yang Ling was busy at his desk, they didn't want to disturb him and waited quietly aside.
After Yang Ling was done, he looked up and saw the three of them, and immediately smiled and said,
"You are here!"
"I have met His Highness King Qi!"
The three of them bowed, and Pang Tong said curiously,
"We are following the instructions of King Qi to mobilize our troops and generals to attack Shu next year."
"I wonder why King Qi sent us here?"
Yang Ling first greeted the three of them to sit down, and then said with a smile,
"There is still some time before the conquest of Shu, but I just feel that Liu Bei cannot be too leisurely!"
His original plan was to immediately send troops to attack Yizhou.
But it has been late autumn recently, and it will take a month just to gather the troops and send them to the front line.
At that time, it was the twelfth lunar month of winter when the weather was freezing and the ground was freezing. It would be extremely unwise to attack Liu Bei.
Therefore, what Yang Ling just discussed with everyone was to attack again next year when spring comes and the flowers bloom!
It's just that there will be at least half a year between now and next spring.
This period of time is neither long nor short. If Liu Bei is allowed to concentrate on developing in Shu, as long as he grows stronger, Cao Wei will have more trouble in attacking Shu in the future!
"this……"
Pang Tong and the other three looked at each other and said even more confusedly,
"I wonder if King Qi has any good ideas?"
You must know that Yizhou is a land of four fortresses, including Jiange and Hanzhong, Kuimen and the Three Gorges, which are easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Liu Beigou was there, and there was no way he could be moved.
"Look at this."
Yang Ling said, handing what he had just written to Pang Tong and the others.
After the three people took it, they looked at it carefully and their pupils shrank slightly!
What Yang Ling wrote was quite simple.
Roughly speaking, they want to sell grain, salt and other things to Shu at relatively low prices!
You must know that in ancient times, the two hostile parties had almost no contact with each other except messengers, let alone business.
But Yang Ling planned to sell grain and salt to Yizhou. Such a move was really incomprehensible to the three of them.
"May I ask His Highness King Qi, why... is this?"
Gao Rou couldn't help but ask,
"There is absolutely no need for us to conduct trade with Liu Bei, right?"
"Don't be impatient, just listen to me slowly."
Yang Ling chuckled and asked,
"Let me ask you, is Wei Wei short of food and salt right now?"
The three of them shook their heads without thinking.
With the seeds previously provided by Yang Ling and the salt-making method invented, coupled with the promotion by the court, people were encouraged to reclaim wasteland.
The most important thing is that Cao Wei's territory is relatively stable.
Therefore, the imperial court's finances are relatively healthy and the treasury is full!
"We, the Wei Dynasty, are not short of food, but what we are short of is copper coins!"
Yang Ling sighed slightly.
"Could it be that King Qi wants to collect all the copper coins from Shu through trade?"
Pang Tong reacted first, frowned slightly and said,
"But hasn't King Qi already ordered the digging of copper mines and the casting of copper coins to alleviate financial difficulties?"
The monetary policy of the Eastern Han Dynasty court was originally somewhat chaotic.
When Dong Zhuo came to power, in order to collect money for military use, he minted low-quality coins on a large scale.
As a result, it caused serious inflation at that time, causing prices to skyrocket!
Since these currencies were mainly circulated in the north, Cao Wei suffered greatly!
At the beginning, Cao Cao was forced to order barter, which barely resisted the circulation of inferior coins.
However, as Cao Wei's development flourished, the shortage of currency has restricted economic development and even begun to cause some deflation.
Most courtiers did not realize the seriousness of the matter.
Fortunately, Yang Ling reacted in time and ordered the digging of copper mines and the casting of copper coins, which alleviated the seriousness of the problem.
"Shi Yuan is right, but not completely right."
Yang Ling smiled slightly and explained,
"The few copper coins from Yizhou can only slightly alleviate the money shortage of Wei Dynasty, but it cannot fundamentally solve it."
His words made several people even more confused!
"I ask you again, if we sell grain and salt at low prices, do you think Yizhou people will spend money to buy it?"
"That's natural. Businessmen have been pursuing profits since ancient times. They can make money by buying low and selling high. Why not?"
Xu Shu nodded.
"In this way, Yizhou's currency will continue to flow into our Wei Dynasty."
"It won't be long before Yizhou will be short of currency."
"And the land of Sichuan and Sichuan lacks copper mines. If you were Liu Bei, what would you do?"
Yang Ling said with a smile.
The three of them were lost in thought, but Pang Tong wanted to understand first and said tentatively,
"Issuing large-value virtual currency?"
"good!"
Yang Ling nodded approvingly,
"This approach of raising the value of currency and plundering people's wealth can solve the currency shortage and fill the national treasury in a short period of time, but in the long run, it will have a devastating blow to the economy!"
"What I want to do is to fight an economic war with Liu Bei!"
Although Yang Ling's explanation was not very clear, Pang Tong and the others were all top strategists in the world.
Just after thinking about it for a moment, I understood the principle!
The three of them couldn't help but take a deep breath.
