...

On the seventh day of the first lunar month, the royal court of Monroe...

Time flies, and even the most ferocious wolf king will eventually age one day, just like Tuoba Hongye now, who is fifty-six years old this year. Although he is not as till he is as till he is as old as an ordinary old man, his temples have a few more strands of silver threads, and the wrinkles on his face are much deeper than in previous years.

Tuoba Hongye looked at the strange scenery covered with silver makeup outside the palace wall, knowing that he was no longer young. While sighing about the ruthless years, he also began to consider the future of the Monroe Empire.

Last year, due to a sudden snow disaster, I had to temporarily give up the plan to use troops to the Han court and fight against the Central Plains in the south, but I didn't expect that the deployment of the Mengluo Empire in the Western Regions was completely disrupted by the Han army.

Although there are other channels besides the Pamirs, which can continue to have sufficient deterrence to the countries in the Western Regions, the establishment of the Western Regions Protectorate in the Pamirs is undoubtedly a thorn in the roots, which are firmly nailed to its weakness.

Liu Ce's ambition exceeded his expectations. Perhaps he should have sent troops to fight when he was in his prime, but since it became a fact, Tuoba Hongye naturally would not regret it. What he had to do was to reverse the current unfavorable situation.

"Saint Emperor, the trade with the Han court this year has minimized our losses. This winter, tribes do not have to worry about food.

In addition to the necessary food for each tribe, there are still a lot of surplus in the royal court. How dare the Holy Emperor ask how he plans to deal with the extra food?"

Tuoba Si still respectfully fulfilled his duties as a prime minister and always reported to Tuoba Hongye the most concerned food issue at present.

Tuoba Hongye thought for a moment and asked, "How much surplus grain does the royal court have now?"

"Seven.220,000 stones..." Tuoba Si accurately reported the numbers reviewed in the granary.

Tuoba Hongye turned around and said, "So much food is enough, enough to fight south next year and enter the Central Plains!"

Tuoba Si was shocked and hurriedly advised: "The Holy Emperor thought twice, the Central Plains are not as good as the previous Zhou Dynasty. With the encouragement of Liu Ce, the Han Dynasty was extremely martial.

Moreover, the Han soldiers in Xuanwu Pass have complete military preparations, so it is not a wise move to the south at this time!"

"No need to say too much, my intention has been decided!" Tuoba Hongye said firmly, "In order for my people of the Monroe Empire to live in a comfortable environment in the future, I am willing to destroy the Han Dynasty and station in the Central Plains at all costs!

What you should do now is to inform the warriors of all departments immediately and make them ready. When the weather gets warmer next year, you will immediately set off and head straight to Xuanwu Pass!”

Tuoba Hongye was determined. Tuoba Si knew that it would be useless to persuade him any longer, so he immediately accepted the order. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly turned back and asked in a low voice: "Saint Emperor, should you ask the auxiliary king to discuss it together?"

When Tuoba Hongye heard this, his face changed slightly and he said in a deep voice: "Prime Minister, who has the final say in the Mengluo Empire?"

Tuoba Si knew that he had made a mistake and hurriedly knelt on the ground and said respectfully: "The Monroe Empire was established by the Holy Emperor, so naturally the Holy Emperor's orders were first."

Tuoba Hongye: "Since that's the case, why should I recommend the regent to me? Do you think the royal court will not be able to form an army without the regent, or do you think he is more suitable to command the entire Mengluo grassland than me?"

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"I dare not, please calm down your anger!"

Where did Tuoba Si dare to answer such words? Naturally, he was so arrogant that he kept begging for mercy.

Seeing Tuoba Si's appearance, Tuoba Hongye's energy disappeared, and he said, "Okay, get up and do your own business. In addition, I ordered you to contact Huang Fu. How is this matter currently being handled?"

Tuoba Si said: "Reporting to the Holy Emperor, it was only rewarded yesterday. Fa Yang, the Prime Minister of Chu, said he was willing to cooperate with our actions. Once we start a war with the Han Dynasty,

He will definitely take a series of actions toward Hanting in the back, so that Hanting cannot concentrate on dealing with the decisive battle with us."

Tuoba Hongye nodded without saying a word, and continued to look at the snowy scene outside the imperial city. The semen shot out of his pupils seemed to spread through the entire grassland...

At the same time, the capital of Chu State, Tiandu...

Fa Yang was concentrating on handling a lot of official duties in his prime minister's residence.

In late August, the Battle of Yizhou, which lasted for nearly two years, finally ended. With the victory of Chu, the battle won all the land of Yizhou and expanded its territory to the border of Jiaozhou.

However, the price paid was also very heavy. Seventy thousand Chu troops fell on the battlefield. These were the first batch of Chu soldiers after military reforms.

In fact, Fa Yang has always opposed the attack on Yizhou. After all, Chu State has just reformed, the people's hearts have not yet been stable, and the national strength is not strong. In addition, Yizhou is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and has no necessary strategic value, so it is not a must-have goal.

But Huang Fu was determined to take down Yizhou. In his consciousness, only the larger the country, the stronger his strength would be. Otherwise, he would inevitably repeat the mistakes like Duan Hong and Gaomi.

However, after this battle, the financial resources accumulated in the two years since the establishment of the State of Chu were almost gone (mostly used to purchase ore raw materials in the south of the Yangtze River accounted for two-thirds of the total military expenditure), and it was no longer able to continue to launch a continuous battle of more than 100,000 yuan.

In order to restore national strength as soon as possible, Fa Yang racked his brains and tried his best to do everything possible.

He was very sober. Liu Ce in the north would not watch himself grow stronger. If he knew that Chu was weak now, he would lead his troops across the river.

The terrain of Qing and Hu prefectures is flat. Once the Lingjiang defense line is lost, Fa Yang knows what the result will be.

But at this moment, the Monroe people took the initiative to contact themselves and said they wanted to join forces with the Chu State to join the Han Dynasty. All they had to do was to harass the Han court in the rear and cause trouble for them when the Monroe and the Han Dynasty started war.

Fa Yang has always been on guard against these barbarians from the Frontier who have ambitions, but the current situation in Chu State has to make changes and agree to alliance with the Monroe to deal with Liu Ce together.

If necessary, the State of Chu could join the Monroe people to attack the Han Dynasty on both sides of the north and south.

After reporting the proposal of the alliance with the Monroe people to Huang Fu, Huang Fu also agreed to this suggestion. What should be done now is to quickly restore the energy consumed after the end of the Battle of Yizhou.

But at the moment, what makes Fa Yang a headache is to restore national strength.

Because the laws of Chu State are extremely strict, the people are closely monitored for every word and deed. If they are not careful, they will be imprisoned, which makes some people in Chu State inevitably feel resentful.

There are also the high taxation pressure that countless craftsmen and farmers were exhausted physically and mentally. Over time, some people in the Chu State had already numbly accepted the reality.

There are also some who are unwilling to stay in Chu State waiting to die, and they secretly plan how to escape from this terrible place.

When the Chu army attacked Yizhou, 200,000 Qingzhou people seized the opportunity and ran towards the Ling River. Even if they were drowned in the river, they would still escape the high-pressure rule of Huang Fufayang.

In the end, 170,000 of the 200,000 people were caught back, more than 20,000 died in the fight between the Gen Chu army, and thousands of people drowned in the panting Lingjiang River. Only more than a hundred people finally fled to the other side...

As for the people who were caught, most of the ends were extremely miserable. The men were basically assigned to work as coolies for life, while the women were directly demoted to low-ranking households and could only engage in those shameless and dirty business.

Although this incident did not shake the Chu State's roots, what worried Fa Yang was what the prisoner said to him when he interrogated a prisoner who fled north.

"When Han Dynasty, I dare not say anything else. At least I have freedom. I will not be dug up my eyes and nose because of reading this book, nor will I go to prison for just one sentence.

I don’t want to live in a nervous mood all day long, I don’t want to walk and count my steps silently, I don’t want my children to be like me, busy from morning to night every day, and spend my whole life in a mediocre way.

And can Chu State give us these?"

After that interrogation, Fa Yang began to fall into thinking...

Don't get me wrong, Fa Yang is not reflecting on it, but thinking about how to prevent this from happening.

Finally, Fa Yang gently closed the book, stood up with a torch, and said to himself: "It seems that the laws of the original form are still too loose. The five techniques of controlling the people only talk about treatment, but no words!

Starting today, the five techniques of controlling the people will be prosperous if they are in line. If they are in conflict, they will be killed without any explanation!"

Since then, the laws of Chu have become stricter and more terrifying...

...

Chang'an, Daming Palace, Yongle Palace...

"Your Majesty, the people of Qing and Huzhou are really suffering..."

Wang Yazhi, who was confiscated in the past, was lucky enough to be a member of the high-pressure rule of Chu.

Under the arrangement of Jingzhou officers, Wang Yazhi was sent to Chang'an with some other "refugees".

In Chang'an, Liu Ce personally met Wang Yazhi and went to Yongle Hall to talk to him, and asked officials from all the fourth rank and above in the palace to listen to the gang of waste people who only criticized the authorities.

Wang Yazhi sat on the side of Liu Ce's case and confides in tears about her experiences over the past two years.

After she finished speaking, everyone in Yongle Palace shook their heads and sighed. They thought that Wang Yazhi was also a descendant of a famous family, and his father was not the kind of sarcastic person, but he did not want to encounter such unpredictable disasters. His family was destroyed because of reading a book.

The Chu State is now like a cage, with all the people living in it being prisoners, allowing the upper bureaucrats of Chu State to bully and abuse them.

"That's so annoying, so annoying!"

Wei Ji on the other side kept twisting his fat body after hearing Wang Yazhi's words, and looked angry.

Liu Ce glanced at Wei Ji. This guy has been close to Gan Ziba's father-in-law Lei Laohu recently. The two often go to high-end places, and they spend money like soil.

However, Liu Ce did not mean to stop the relationship between the two. After all, when Lei Laohu arrived in Chang'an, the first thing he did was to donate 200,000 silver dollars to the Ministry of Rites Education and Chemical Department to fund the establishment of suburban schools, which was a role model for other merchants.

For such a person, Liu Ce naturally could not interfere in his private life. Instead, he should give encouragement and support, and spending money can also promote the income of shops and increase taxes to a certain extent.

After coming back to his senses, Liu Ce glanced around everyone present and said, "Did you all hear it? What kind of momentum is Chu State now?

Who else now thinks that the policy of Chu is for the people of the world, but the national policy of the Han Dynasty is putting the cart before the horse? I want to tell you,

The world is not peaceful yet, and it is far from time to relax its vigilance. The Monroe people in the north are eyeing each other, and the war is about to break out. The Chu State in the south treats the civilians harshly, and the people are struggling in the dark.

There are still many things we have to do. The burden on our shoulders is very heavy. Dear ministers, please remember that you are one of the billions of people in the Han Dynasty.

The treatment you have is given by all the people. I don’t want to be the desperate scene that Miss Wang said one day.

Our journey has not ended, but has just begun. Please join me to start a new journey, truly clear the six-way, and give your descendants a peaceful and prosperous era!"

All the officials stood up, bowed silently to Liu Ce, and bowed slightly.

There is no need to say anything extra, just work hard to do it...

"The new journey has just begun now!"

Liu Ce stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes shining outside Yongle Hall...

Outside the Daming Palace is a prosperous cloud map...

...

"Grandpa, what happened later? Why didn't you continue to talk? Did Your Majesty defeat Chu State and the Monroe?"

In a quiet manor outside Suzhou City, a group of children surrounded an old man with white hair, eyes full of expectations.

The old man tried hard to get up, leaning on a crutch and said with a smile: "Let's just talk about this today. This story is very long, but I'm very tired today. I'll tell you when I have time in the future. Let's go out and play first..."

The children left the old man reluctantly and went out to play on their own.

The old man smiled and looked at the children, shook his head and said, "Cherish the present. Our generation has paid such a heavy price. I hope you can live in this paradise without worries."

After saying that, the bell rang, and the old man turned around and saw that the clock hand on the wall pointed just in the direction of twelve o'clock.

"That is a new journey, a cruel war..."

The old man closed his eyes, as if he was trapped in memories, his ears were full of golden swords and iron horses...
Chapter completed!