That afternoon, the empress gathered everyone in the imperial court to discuss this matter. Everyone's reaction was even more intense and unyielding than the empress's.
On the spot, there were people who wanted to kill Gu Zicheng as a sacrifice to the heavens before sending troops to Great Xia.
As for how the Seventh Prince of Great Xia died and who killed him, no one cared.
There was only one thought in everyone's mind. I haven't even caused trouble for you, yet you dare to cause trouble for me? If you want to fight, let's fight. Do you think I'm afraid of you? They might as well fight their way to Great Xia and plunder.
Shi Qing and Kouzhehai, who were more mature and prudent, only stroked their beards in silence.
"Great Elder, do you have anything to say?" The empress looked at the reactions of the people below her, and it wasn't beyond her expectations.
To the aboriginals, such a reaction was expected.
Whoever had the bigger fist was the boss. Between the two countries, only the weak would defend themselves.
"I feel that we should warn the Protectorate of the North, the Protectorate of the Northeast, and the Protectorate of the Southeast, especially the Protectorates of the Northeast and the Southeast. I'm afraid that the Yun Nation and the Chen Nation will also make strange moves, so we should be on guard at all times.
There was also the problem of salt. After the war, the number of salt merchants from the Yun and Chen Kingdoms would be greatly reduced. Salt would probably be a big problem. Our days on the mountain will be even more difficult, "Shi Qing said in a deep voice.
The empress nodded her head slightly.
Salt was indeed a big problem.
After the war, the trade routes would definitely be affected. At that time, the amount of salt transported into Dayao would be greatly reduced.
Now, it all depended on Ren Baqian's trip to the mountains.
"Your Majesty, instead of being on guard, why don't we strike first and gain the upper hand? We can directly invade the Yun Nation and occupy the salt fields. Then, the salt problem will naturally be solved. Even if we can't, we can still plunder them. The cities of the Yun Nation can't possibly lack salt, right? "Someone immediately followed up." Qin Chuan stepped forward and said.
The empress didn't say a word after hearing this. It wasn't a problem for 15,000 soldiers to block the Yun Nation, but it was impossible for them to penetrate the Yun Nation.
However, seizing the cities of the Yun Nation and plundering the ironware and salt was very likely to succeed.
Of course, the price was equally high. At that time, they would definitely be pincered by the Yun Nation and Great Xia.
Even with Dayao's strength, fighting on two fronts at the same time was a little strenuous.
Defending and attacking were two completely different things.
"How's the recruitment of new soldiers going?" the empress asked.
"Your Majesty, the recruitment has been completed. A total of 20,000 people have just entered the camp. The recruit training had just begun, and it would take at least half a year. However, I'm afraid that we don't have enough weapons and equipment. The armory is filled with rats. The last few supplies were sent to the Protectorate of the North two months ago. "
The empress nodded and said, "Use the wooden saber to train first."
After that, he asked Feng Hou about the forging of military equipment.
Speaking of this, Feng Hou's face was filled with joy. Currently, Mount Damo produced close to five thousand kilograms of iron every day. In less than three months, they had already produced a total of six hundred thousand kilograms of iron, which could be used to forge thirty thousand weapons.
Nowadays, the iron ingots that were sent to Jingtian Furnace every half a month were piled up like a mountain. However, at this time, the forging of weapons depended on repeated hammering to remove the impurities, and then adding beast blood to change the composition of the long saber so that it had a certain alloy characteristic. Even a good master could only forge three standard long sabers a day.
Jingtian Furnace had a total of more than twenty skilled craftsmen. Adding in some ordinary craftsmen, they could only produce no more than 100 weapons a day.
Right now, there were about three thousand standard longswords piled up in the Jingtian Furnace.
This number had already made Feng Hou overjoyed.
After he said this, everyone was surprised. They didn't expect that so many weapons could be forged in just two months.
Following that, everyone was also delighted.
At this rate, they would be able to equip an army of ten thousand in two months.
One had to know that the aboriginals only had a total of ninety thousand soldiers.
With the combat power of the aboriginals, ten thousand fierce warriors could be used as an army of one hundred thousand soldiers from the other three nations.
The empress nodded and asked, "Can it be faster?"
Feng Hou thought for a while and said, "At most, 150 longswords can be forged every day."
This way, they could forge four thousand and five hundred longswords every month. Everyone in the imperial court was satisfied.
However, the empress still felt that it wasn't enough.
Even though she didn't respond to Qin Chuan's words just now, she was really moved.
Dayao lacked too many things.
Especially after Ren Baqian went to Earth for so long, he increasingly felt that Dayao was lacking in various resources. In particular, to develop to the level of Earth, not only did they need knowledge, they also needed various resources.
Not only did they need salt, but they also needed iron, copper, and various other metals.
And a lot of manpower and material resources.
She wanted to build a new city, but what could she do without money and manpower? She wanted to build roads, but what could she do without money and manpower? The palace's treasury was empty, and Ren Baqian's training could still last for more than a month. What could she do without money?
Ren Baqian had thought of the same problem before, but he wanted to do it through commercial means.
The empress's idea was more direct.
Rob!
No one? The soldiers of the Yun Nation and Great Xia, as well as those commoners, were all humans! When they were chatting, Ren Baqian mentioned that it would be best to use these people as coolies to build roads.
Even though the empress didn't say anything at that time, she took note of this matter.
No money? They would have money after conquering the Yun Nation.
After conquering the Yun Nation, they wouldn't just rob and run like before. Instead, they would occupy the entire Yun Nation.
As for how to manage it after conquering it, that would be a matter for the future.
Wasn't there still Ren Baqian?
Let him think of a way.
There were more than fifty ethnic groups in their country, and he knew what to do.
However, if they wanted to conquer the Yun Nation, the current army was definitely not enough. Another twenty thousand wouldn't be enough either.
The empress was slightly distracted on the throne. Tong Zhenye took two steps forward and said, "Your Majesty, regarding the matter of weapons, Principal Ren might have a way. He once said that there's something that can turn iron into steel and can be made into weapons without repeated forging … "
Tong Zhenye's words pulled the empress back to reality.
"I understand. I will ask him in a while," the empress said. She was silent for a while, and a thoughtful expression appeared on her face.
Seeing the empress's expression, everyone kept quiet and waited for her to speak.
"How many soldiers do you think we need to conquer the Yun Nation and incorporate it into Dayao?" the empress asked.
The atmosphere in the hall froze all of a sudden.
Everyone didn't expect the empress to actually say such words at this time. Furthermore, she even said it with a serious face.
Your Majesty, are you serious?
"Your Majesty, we need an additional sixty thousand soldiers on top of the twenty thousand new recruits," Qin Chuan immediately said in a loud and clear voice. From his reaction speed, it was obvious that he had this idea for a long time. Otherwise, he might have to bend his fingers for a while.
"This subject has already thought about it. The Yun Nation has a total of 400,000 soldiers. If we go to war, they will continue to recruit more soldiers. With the strength of the Yun Nation, they should be able to reach 700,000 soldiers or even more. It would take at least 60,000 soldiers to conquer the Eastern Sea. After we attack the Yun Nation, Great Xia and the Chen Nation won't just sit back and watch. Furthermore, if we lengthen the line of soldiers, we will be vulnerable to attacks from all sides. We will need at least another 20,000 soldiers … "
Pulling the battlefront into the Yun Nation's territory would involve many aspects.
"Get ready to recruit another 20,000 soldiers!" the empress said.
"Yes!" Qin Chuan's face lit up with excitement.
"Your Majesty … If we recruit another 20,000 soldiers, I'm afraid we won't be able to supply them with food and pay. The 20,000 soldiers we have now is already the most we can do." Minister of Revenue Tu Wan immediately stepped forward.
The empress propped her chin up with her index finger and said, "The army's provisions are in the Yun Nation, waiting for Dayao's warriors to collect them. As for food … "
…
That afternoon, the palace discussion lasted until evening. When the empress was having her meal, she told Ren Baqian about some of the things that were discussed. Ren Baqian was immediately dumbfounded.
What was going on? Previously, they were still preparing to deal with Great Xia's attack. Why were they attacking the Yun Nation now?
Moreover, there were so many people in the imperial court discussing it in full swing for an entire afternoon?
And he basically passed?
How willful are you people? How strange were their brain circuits?
After a long while, Ren Baqian didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he asked, "Your Majesty, are you serious?"
The empress wiped her mouth, raised her head, and rolled her eyes at him. "Dayao lacks iron. Even though Mount Damo's daily output of iron is close to five thousand kilograms, according to what you said, we still lack iron. Especially in order to develop to the level of your world, the amount of resources required would not be enough even if you emptied Mount Damo.
Dayao lacked iron, but the Yun Nation had a lot of iron mines.
Dayao lacked money, and so did the Yun Nation.
Dayao lacked craftsmen, and so did the Yun Nation.
Dayao lacked labor, and the Yun Nation was full of them.
The Yun Nation has everything we want, so why don't we conquer it?
As for military strength, there were countless fierce warriors in the Sixty Thousand Mountains. What they lacked was something else.
Therefore, what they had to consider now was the lack of weapons and food. After that, you will be responsible for thinking about how to make the people of the Yun Nation behave. Do you have any more questions? "
Ren Baqian, "…"
Your Majesty, you have evolved from buying and selling to robbing and snatching.
In the past, he always felt that war was far away from him, even though he knew that Great Xia might not attack anytime soon. However, the development of the situation today caught him unprepared and also made him realize that war was far from as far away as he thought it was.
Also, Dayao really didn't lack labor as much as Your Majesty thought. There were still more than ten million remnant citizens of the Hao Nation living in retirement in the south.
"Your Majesty, why not the Chen Nation? The Chen Nation is located in the south of the Yun Nation. It is located in a corner and is only adjacent to the Yun Nation. It seems more suitable than the Yun Nation, which is adjacent to Great Xia and the Chen Nation, "Ren Baqian said curiously.
"The Chen Nation doesn't have as many resources as the Yun Nation. Furthermore, there are too many waterways in the Chen Nation. There are rivers everywhere, and as long as they break the bridges in many places, we will be delayed for a long time. Even if we occupy the Chen Nation, it will be more troublesome. On the contrary, the Yun Nation is a flat land."
Ren Baqian finally understood. He then gave the empress a thumbs up and praised her, "Your Majesty is indeed thoughtful. While others are still thinking about Great Xia, Your Majesty has already thought about poetry and the distance. You have also made plans for the future, allowing Dayao to advance faster and faster, and laying a solid foundation for the rapid entry into the technological era. Your foresight is truly extraordinary …"
The empress nodded in agreement.
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