From Tulick's point of view, Datong was already so rich. The hometown of the merchants in Shanxi must be even richer.
It would be even better if he could rob them and then go back.
The Ming Army was useless. They were all infantrymen with very few cavalrymen. They could not keep up with the Ming Army. As long as they moved quickly, they might be able to do it.
Tulick began to imagine what would happen next.
He learned that to enter Shanxi from Datong, he needed to attack two places. One was Yanmen Pass and the other was Pingxing Pass. Yanmen Pass was more majestic and Pingxing Pass was slightly inferior. Once they broke through Yanmen Pass, they could directly attack the hinterland of Shanxi. Once they broke through Pingxing Pass, they could even threaten the capital of the Ming Dynasty through Zijing Pass.
He called his incompetent advisor over and discussed the future plan with him. He wanted to occupy more of Shanxi's wealth and did not want the tribes that cooperated with him to share any benefits. He even wanted to destroy these tribes when he migrated and take all the things they had robbed for himself.
The incompetent advisor could not explain, so Tulick pulled Liu Xi over and put his knife on his neck to let Liu Xi come up with an idea.
In order to survive, Liu Xi had no choice but to tell him to let the allied forces of the other tribes attack Yanmen Pass. He would directly attack Pingxing Pass and enter Shanxi from there.
Yanmen Pass was more majestic and difficult to attack. Pingxing Pass was relatively easier. If they were lucky, they should be able to attack Pingxing Pass before the allied forces and enter Shanxi to plunder.
Tulick was overjoyed and immediately asked Liu Xi if he knew about the food stored in the hinterland of Shanxi. Liu Xi did know a little, but in order to survive, he could only tell him everything he knew.
Tulick immediately felt that Liu Xi was very useful. He put down his knife and praised Liu Xi. Liu Xi inexplicably felt a little relieved.
In order to better ensure that he could survive, Liu Xi took the initiative to say that if he attacked Pingxing Pass like this, it would definitely attract the attention of the Ming Dynasty. To the east of Pingxing Pass was Zijing Pass, and to the east of Zijing Pass was Beijing.
That was the Daming's Imperial Capital, so the Daming would definitely react violently and send a large number of troops through Zijing Pass to support Pingxing Pass. At that time, it would be very troublesome, and their retreat route might be cut off.
La Lik looked at his inept advisor and saw the blank look on his face. He immediately realized that in terms of conspiracies and conspiracies, these inept advisors were somewhat useful, but in terms of strategy and tactics, they still had to rely on the Han people.
He knew that many of his ancestors were only able to establish their foundations with the help of Han strategists.
Of course, Liu Xi couldn't be considered a strategist. At best, he was slightly better than a useless strategist. However, he had traveled extensively and knew a lot about the geography and the psychology of the Han people. Therefore, Liu Xi was the most useful when it came to such matters.
Laolik decided to use Liu Xi as his advisor, so he handed Liu Xi a pot of wine, patted him on the shoulder, and said,
As long as you do your best for This King, This King will not kill you. As long as you satisfy This King, when Great Unity is breached, everyone else will die, but your family will live and even receive rewards.
Liu Xi looked at Laolik in shock, and instantly understood Laolik's meaning.
He wanted to rob and leave immediately. He didn't want to continue staying in Tumet's territory in the north. His goal was to go crazy in the end, and then leave far away so that the Ming court couldn't chase after him or take revenge.
It was precisely because of this that Laolik didn't abide by the previous agreement. That was why he took so much food by force, and didn't hesitate to offend the Jin merchants. It turned out that Laolik had already decided to flip the table!
Liu Xi instantly became depressed.
He realized that if he didn't become a traitor to the Daming, he wouldn't be able to live, and he wouldn't be able to protect his family. This was because the Ming Army couldn't save him, nor could they save his family in Datong City. If he couldn't cooperate, he would die.
As for his family in Shanxi …
He didn't know how many heartless things they had done. For money, food, and status, they had killed many innocent people, killed many righteous officials, and committed many evil deeds. Even he couldn't stand it, even though he was one of them.
He had always believed that good and evil would eventually be rewarded, so he was very careful when doing things. However, at the last moment, he realized that retribution had already come, and it was unavoidable.
In order to at least survive, it wasn't impossible to abandon other things. In those families that only cared about benefits, there was nothing they couldn't abandon.
It wasn't that they didn't want retribution, but that the time hadn't come yet. Now that the time had come, those wronged souls had come to claim their lives! Although the people who came to claim their lives were also a group of villains, shouldn't the evildoers be dealt with by more evil people?
First Master, Second Master, Third Master, I'm sorry. I want to live, and I want my family to live. You guys, take care of yourselves!
Liu Xi decided on his future path.
"If we want to smoothly plunder Shanxi, we must delay the main force of the Imperial Court before the plundering is complete. The crux lies in Zijing Pass. As long as we can make the Imperial Court think that Zijing Pass is in danger and is about to fall, the Imperial Court's army won't dare to cross Zijing Pass to Shanxi, and we'll be safe.
"Thus, we might as well create a bit of momentum and say that we're going to attack Zijing Pass with an army of tens of thousands. In fact, we'll do this at the beginning. We'll kill our way through, looting, burning, and killing, and frightening the people around us. They'll all run toward Zijing Pass and spread the news that we're attacking the capital, making the Imperial Court think that we're the attackers.
"In this way, those cowardly soldiers will be afraid and won't dare to leave the pass to fight. They'll only dare to defend within the pass. At this time, we can launch a fierce attack first, making the Imperial Court think that we can only defend and not attack. In this way, the Imperial Court's hands and feet will be tied and they won't dare to attack.
"At this time, we'll leave a small number of soldiers in front of Zijing Pass and continue to put on a show of strength, pretending to attack Zijing Pass. At the same time, we'll move our main force south to Taiyuan.
There are many granaries around Taiyuan, and I know of seven of them. As long as we move quickly, perhaps by the time we leave Datong, the Imperial Court won't dare to attack Zijing Pass! "
When doing business, it was common to put on a show of strength and reserve one's trump cards. It could be said to be a basic skill in business. If one didn't even know how to put on a show of strength, then one could forget about doing business.
While putting on a show of strength, one had to act in secret. Many things couldn't be done openly and needed to be done behind the scenes. This was also a basic skill of a successful businessman.
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