Chapter 1010
Words:1085Update:22/08/14 02:19:34
Fei Shou City in the south of Lingzhou was the northwest terminus of the Liyang transport, while Xiangfan in Qingzhou was at the center of the empire's supply line. Thus, if the imperial court wanted to accurately grasp Beiliang's weakness, they had to have the cooperation of the King of Jing An, Zhao Xun. Currently, Tantanon, who was the Left Assistant of the Secretariat, was very satisfied with Xiangfan's actions. For this reason, he asked the imperial court for an exceptional promotion, which was also against the rules. He generously invited Lu Xu, who was behind the scenes of Jing An Palace, to the front of the stage and gave him the opportunity to lecture at the Hanlin Academy, which was what the common people called the Dahuang Gatekeeper. He also specially allowed him to not go to the capital to take up a post. Previously, Beiliang's Chen Xiliang had temporarily stayed in Fei Shou City. He had stalled for a full ten days with the imperial court's Deputy Minister of Grain Transport, Gu Dacheng. He had used all his tricks, but he could not make the Deputy Minister relent at all. At dawn, a simple carriage entered Fei Shou City from the north gate and stopped at Shanhai Pier in the south of the city. Three men of different ages walked down from the carriage. Two of them were young men of similar age, and one of them was a thin old man in a green robe. The three of them stood on the deserted pier that did not have many grain ships in sight. The short young man had a cold blade at his waist. He kicked a wooden stake that was holding the ship and glanced at the temporary residence of the Deputy Minister of Grain Transport. He said unhappily to the grey-haired young man beside him, "Gu Dacheng and his father, Gu Ling, are known as the Great and Small Gu Pixiu of the River. Back then, Gu Ling recognized the master of the Ceremony Directorate as his adoptive father. The father and son were able to hold the post of Grain Transport Minister one after another. It is said that the money they earned was enough to fill a granary. However, Gu Dacheng is greedy. Now that the imperial court has old man Huan personally watching his money bag, no matter how bold he is, he would not dare to take a single copper coin from Beiliang. In my opinion, this is a dead end. Why don't we just kill the one surnamed Gu? In the future, whenever a transport minister comes, we'll kill them all. We'll kill them until no one from Liyang dares to provoke us. When the time comes, our Beiliang can strut around and privately sell our grain. The grain transport from Fei Shou City to Xiangfan City consists of sixteen canals of various sizes and no less than fifty granaries. There are bound to be places that dare to do business with Beiliang. Even if we take a step back, if we really can't do it, we'll just rob them. Mount Qingliang has raised so many dogs of the jianghu.
Unfortunately, the incognito King of Beiliang and the master craftsman of the Mohist sect, Yang Guangdou, did not agree with him at all. They only strolled along the limestone floor of Shanhai Pier and walked towards the transport minister's residence not far away. The official residence had been built for quite some time and was rarely repaired. Compared to the prefectural governor's residence in the city, it appeared even more dilapidated. It was no wonder that the father and son of the Gu family did not put up a front. If they really overstepped their authority, they would be accused by the imperial censor of colluding with Beiliang to fill their own pockets. That would be a death sentence for them. Even if they had the support of a high-ranking eunuch in the capital, it would be useless. Whoever interceded in this matter would be courting death. The transport minister's residence was surrounded by a fence. The dozen or so armored soldiers felt a little jittery at the slightest sound and their gazes were fearful. A few naughty and mischievous children who were born locally continuously threw pebbles into the fence. None of the armored soldiers dared to make a sound. They were really bored and could only find joy in the midst of misery. Taking advantage of the absence of the officials, they used their iron spears to pick up the pebbles. This caused the group of playful children to be even more delighted. They went around looking for pebbles to throw. Hsu Fengnian stood a few feet away from the fence and said softly, "The imperial court is making things difficult for Beiliang on the matter of the transport of grain. It's not entirely to test my bottom line. In reality, West Chu's restoration of the country is imminent. When the time comes, although the troops sent to rescue the Emperor from all over the country won't dare to demand an exorbitant price, they still have to ensure that they can fill their stomachs. When the time comes, the sound of a crossbow is equivalent to ten thousand taels of gold. In the end, war is still a competition of resources. Otherwise, without money and without food, even if Gu Jiantang has hundreds of thousands of soldiers, he won't be able to survive the new West Chu with Sun Xiji inside devising strategies and Cao Changqing leading the troops from the outside. Many people say that if West Chu had made up its mind earlier and allowed Cao Changqing to take away Ye Baikui's military power before the Western Wall, it would have taken at least five or ten years for Li Yang to completely pacify the Spring and Autumn Period."
Yang Guangdou smiled and said, "I have made countless deductions about West Chu's restoration of the country. It will take some time."
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