Soochow, Wu Jing.
After Sun Ce proclaimed himself emperor, he established the capital in Jianye and changed its name to Wujing.
Cao Cao of the Wei State died, and Guo Jia, the important minister of Guo Jia, also died. After Cao Pi came to power, he killed his younger brother Cao Zhi, which caused the entire Wei State to become unstable. The Yellow Disaster was not properly managed, and the people of Wei State were still in dire straits. Many people had fled to Xuzhou, causing the population of Xuzhou to skyrocket.
After another public opinion war with Jingguo, Wei's strength was seriously damaged.
In Zhou Yu's words, the current state of Wei is strong on the outside and cadre on the inside.
Although there are still Xun Yu and Cao Hong struggling to support them, they probably won’t be able to leave for long.
So Sun Ce had other ideas.
Naturally, the Wei State is in trouble, so let them, the Wu State, come. But if they want to attack the Wei State, they must let Zhang Xiu take full advantage, otherwise they will not want to monopolize the Wei State.
The only way is to hit whomever.
Wu State attacks Wei State, and Jing State goes to attack Chu State. It is the best of both worlds, but Chu State is a bit difficult to defeat.
There was a reason why Sun Ce was so eager to attack Wei. He heard that Cao Pi wanted to marry Jingguo and marry his sister Cao Jie to Zhang Xiu. No one knows that Zhang Xiu is a lecher! Zhang Xiu probably couldn't resist the temptation of beauty. If they agreed, how could they attack Wei?
Seeing that Jingguo is getting stronger and stronger, Sun Ce is also very anxious!
"emperor!"
In a military room, Sun Ce led the generals and counselors to look at the sand table in the middle. Zhou Yu stood aside and described the next strategic layout of Wu State: "Now Xuzhou is in the hands of our army, and connected to the north is part of Qingzhou south of the Yellow River. Qingzhou It is Cao Wei’s territory, what we have to do now is to quickly conquer Qingzhou and border Jingguo.”
Tai Shici said doubtfully: "Being on the border with Jingguo, doesn't it mean increasing our army's defense strength?"
Zhou Yu looked at Taishi Ci with a smile: "To defend against Cao Wei is to defend, and to defend against Jingguo is also to defend. We and Jingguo are allies. At least for the time being, they will not attack us at will. There is only one purpose for bordering with Jingguo, and that is war horses !”
At this point, Zhou Yu's eyes enveloped everyone: "Comrades, the most scarce thing for us is war horses. Fighting in the Central Plains, without cavalry, it is impossible to compete for Yanzhou, Yuzhou and other places. Although Cao Wei has declined, the cavalry is still there. We are far from them. That’s why we have to break through Qingzhou first, and then send envoys to Chang’an to buy horses from Zhang Xiu.”
Sun Ce nodded: "Without war horses, it is equivalent to locking our hands and being unable to gallop in the Central Plains. Gong Jin's words are true. The cavalry must be formed. No matter how much it costs, we must form a team of 50,000 people. of cavalry.”
Zhang Zhao next to him shook his head: "I'm afraid Zhang Xiu will open his mouth like a lion!"
Everyone has thought of this.
Zhang Xiu's two major hobbies are greed for money and lust.
Needless to say, he was lustful. All the beauties with some reputation were dragged into his harem. Even several of their most famous beauties from Soochow were taken away. As a result, Sun Ce wanted to find a few beauties to fill the harem. Can't find stunning ones.
Zhou Yu is also depressed! I can’t find my soulmate’s wife.
Some famous people were packed away by Zhang Xiu, and even Sun Ce's sister Sun Shangxiang was taken away.
Greed for money is also obvious. For money, Zhang Xiu used despicable means to scold Wei and Chu bloody, forcing them to buy Jingguo's Yueying paper to fight back. Zhang Xiu sat and counted the money.
Fortunately, Zhang Xiu still had some benevolence and did not scold Sun Ce.
If they want to buy war horses from Zhang Xiu, they have to prepare for heavy bleeding in advance. But for the development of Wu State, they have to buy horses from Jingguo, because all the places in the world that can produce horses are in Zhang Xiu. In the hands of embroidery, Liangzhou, Bingzhou and Youzhou.
Whether it is Cao Wei, Liu Chu or Soochow.
Want to buy a horse?
Yes, a horse costs three hundred taels of silver, and it is an ordinary war horse. You can buy it or not. Anyway, I am the only one in the world.
This is called monopoly.
Zhang Xiu strictly controls the sale of war horses. Anyone who dares to trade without permission will directly implicate the nine tribes without saying a word. This is a matter related to the layout and development of Dajing's future operations, and must be stricter than ever.
In order to develop cavalry, Cao Wei and Liu Chu had to purchase thousands of war horses from Jingguo at high prices every year. Because of this income, Dajing made millions of taels of revenue every year.
Zhang Xiu's greed for money is everywhere.
If Sun Ce wanted to raise 50,000 cavalry to attack the Central Plains, he would first have to give Zhang Xiu 15 million taels of silver to buy war horses. Fifteen million taels! A quarter of Wu’s annual tax. This does not include building armor for the cavalry. However, Jingguo is very kind-hearted. The armor can be made by Jingguo. A set costs one hundred taels of silver. When you buy it, you can buy the armor and the horse together, and you can get a 92% discount. Once you get it, you can launch an attack on Cao Wei.
Zhou Yu gritted his teeth: "What a fool! The business of 15 million taels is 300,000 taels cheaper!"
Sun Ce feels distressed too!
Under Zhang Xiu's search, Jingguo's economy developed rapidly and has far exceeded Wu's income. Moreover, Jingguo's national policy not only divided the land, but also promoted the country's fertility rate. In order to allocate more fields, the people began to live as long as they could, causing the population of Jingguo to increase rapidly.
But Sun Ce was different.
Soochow is still dominated by the gentry. Although Sun Ce has vigorously opened up wasteland in recent years, the south is all mountainous land. The space is limited and not much can be reclaimed. If you don't care about the north, you can reclaim as much as you want. Moreover, Jingguo's policy was very flexible. Wherever the land was reclaimed, canals were opened.
Such a flexible policy requires strong economic support.
Sun Ce heard that Jingguo had to spend more than fifteen million taels of silver every year just to open roads and divert canals. Soochow would not even dare to think about this. Even if Sun Ce wanted to, the nobles would not agree.
Finally, Sun Ce gritted his teeth: "Buy! The cavalry must be formed."
As he spoke, Sun Ce stared at Zhang Zhao with sharp eyes like a knife. Zhang Zhao is the representative of the Soochow gentry. This money must come from the gentry. Zhang Zhao disagrees. It is not always possible to raise the money.
Zhang Zhao was panicked by Sun Ce's eyes and had no choice but to nod: "For the country and the people, cavalry must be formed. I support the emperor's wise decision."
Sun Ce nodded with satisfaction.
Then he looked at Zhou Yu and said: "Send someone to Chang'an to explain the matter to Zhang Xiu. Send an order to Lu Su and Xia Shuzhi to raid Qingzhou. We must capture Qingzhou in one battle."
"Here!"
Zhou Yu and others took the order.
Sun Ce looked at Tai Shi Ci and Ling Tong: "Although Cao Wei is defeated, we should not underestimate it, Ziyi! Gongji (Ling Tong's word)! You two will go to Xuzhou immediately to help Lu Su defeat Cao."
The two of them were overjoyed and said "hey" together.
