Chapter 622 [First Update]

Everyone's blood boiled with excitement after hearing what Liu Tan said. Even Li Kangcheng was eager to join the expedition to rescue those who were enslaved by the Wuhuan.

After the three young generals boarded the ship, Liu Tan decisively left the port and returned to Jicheng. He had done everything he could, and the next thing he could do was to provide better logistics.

Thinking of this, Liu Tan instructed Dou Sibo, "The initial food and fodder preparations are almost complete, and some medicinal herbs have also been taken with the army. However, those herbs are far from enough, especially alcohol, which is in short supply. From now on, buy large quantities of alcohol, even wine. Then build a few more distilleries, and workers will come over later."

Dou Sibo didn't expect that Liu Tan was still thinking about this matter. According to previous habits, those herbs were basically consumed by the entire army.

After all, it was a war in the era of cold weapons. Most soldiers lost their lives on the battlefield. Even if those who lost arms and legs were brought back, they were left to fate. As for minor injuries... it actually depended on luck. After all, one could die if one was not careful.

Anyway, to put it simply, it all depends on luck. If you are lucky, you can survive. If you are unlucky, you will have to wait for the next life.

However, Liu Tan's idea was that if it was a minor injury, as long as the disinfection was done well, the patient could basically be saved. For serious injuries... if the wound was large, suturing technology was now popular and the patient could also be saved. As for broken arms and legs... he had no way to deal with that.

After all, he might know something about science, and what he came up with were relatively general things that did not involve too much professional knowledge, or rather, the professional knowledge involved was made up with the professional knowledge of this era. That knowledge might be a little outdated, but it could still be used.

But he is not good at something as professional as medicine, as he really doesn't know much about it.

Since he doesn't know much, he can only try his best to make the most of what he knows.

Dou Sibo obeyed the order and left. Although he did not particularly care about the lives of the soldiers, he was obedient and set up many workshops according to Liu Tan's instructions, and purchased a large amount of wine.

To be honest, there was actually a ban on alcohol in this era. Of course, this ban only existed among ordinary people. The nobles indulged in partying and drinking every night and no one cared.

So Liu Tan's target was those who were not under control, and the first thing he did was to snatch the wine from his father's mouth.

After finishing the letter, Liu Tan thought about the time when he first came through. He almost always responded to Liu Che's requests. If Liu Che said east, he dared not go west. But now he even dared to snatch wine from Liu Che.

In nearly ten years, he has changed so much.

Liu Tan sighed and sent the letter calmly.

Anyway, there is a lot of wine in his father's wine cellar, but he himself doesn't like drinking, so he usually keeps a few jars of old wine in the wine cellar to entertain others.

However, there were only one or two people he could entertain, and basically only Liu Che could come to enjoy the food, so Liu Tan had no intention of touching his own inventory.

When Liu Che received Liu Tan's letter, he said to Liu Chuan with a mixture of laughter and tears: "This little bastard actually set his sights on me. He finally sent the army out."

Liu Che finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was really worried that if things continued like this, his son's money would not be able to support the army's food, drink, and shelter expenses.

He wanted to write a letter countless times to ask Liu Tan to quickly send Li Xi to the battlefield so that the battle could be over as soon as possible. However, he was worried that his son would misunderstand that he was dissatisfied with him, which would put pressure on him, so he had been holding back until now.

Liu Ju immediately said, "My brother wants some wine. I have plenty here and will send it to him later."

After owning the jade mine, Liu Ju was not particularly wealthy. It could only be said that he was a little more comfortable than before. Although His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did not have much cash in hand, he did have quite a few other assets, such as wine... During the holidays, people would always send him a lot of wine.

He had previously kept many famous people in Bowang Garden, and the wine was also given to these people.

Later, through Liu Tan, he gradually understood some truths. He knew that if he wanted to have an influence in the court, he needed to fulfill his duties as the prince and not go against his father. As for those celebrities... they all liked to talk big, but they didn't understand that words can cause trouble, and they might even bring trouble to him in the future.

So Liu Ju slowly dismissed these people. Of course, he did not offend those people, but just alienated them a little bit. If these people wanted to leave, he would give them money and let them go. At the same time, he stopped recruiting people and did not give them any preferential treatment.

Naturally, those wines were not given away, so a lot of them were stored. This time, he sent some of the less vintage ones to his younger brother.

Liu Che glanced at Liu Ju and felt a little upset.

He was once very worried that Liu Ju would mind Liu Tan's background and treat Liu Tan badly, so he had always been committed to making his two sons love each other. Even though Liu Tan did not come back often in the Northern Border Kingdom, he allowed Liu Tan to write letters to him and Liu Ju at the same time.

But now it seems... a bit too much.

Liu Che said with a cold face: "He is charging such a high price for wine that it will easily encourage more people to collect grain to make wine, and then more people will go without food. He is desperate and must be stopped!"

Liu Ju thought about it and realized that this made sense, so he said, "My brother should have some concerns about this, right? I don't think there's any news about how much he paid for the grain."

Liu Che originally thought that Liu Tan was not short of money, so the price might be very high.

Then news came from the Embroidered Clothes Messenger that the King of the Northern Territory had sent letters to many princes, saying that if they knew that someone was buying up grain in large quantities to make wine and sell it to him, they would be in trouble.

If Liu Tan did this to someone else, it would be like poking a needle in the throat, and he was afraid that the emperor would not be afraid.

But when it came to him, Liu Che didn't care at all, and even complained helplessly: "He is threatening people now, but in the end, I still have to take action!"

Liu Tan relied on the fact that the Emperor and the Crown Prince doted on him. If he was unhappy, he could just let the Emperor and the Crown Prince deal with him. Otherwise, he was just a vassal king, and he might be very distant from them. Why would anyone care about him?

Liu Ju didn't think there was anything wrong. Now the King of the Northern Territory held the military power, but Liu Tan had never had any contact with those troops from the beginning. They were all managed by Li Xi.

It is true that Li Xi has feelings for Liu Tan. After all, he has raised him for so many years, how could he not have feelings for him?

However, Li Xi's loyalty to Liu Che was unquestionable. With the army in his hands, he probably would not rebel even if Liu Tan put a knife to his neck and forced him to rebel.

The only things that could be said to be under Liu Tan's control were his elite regiment and the troops assigned to Li Buyan's three little guys. Liu Tan's elite regiment was left in Yan State to guard the royal palace, and the people under Li Buyan's command could not cause any trouble.

Therefore, Liu Che and Liu Ju basically turned a blind eye to Liu Tan's various logistical tricks and unreasonable threats to other princes.

Liu Ju directly sent someone to deliver a lot of wine.

Liu Tan received their letter first. After counting the wine cellars of his father and brother, he asked someone to clean up the wine cellars of Prince Yan's Palace first.

The former Prince of Yan, Liu Dan, loved wine and beauties, so the wine cellar in the Prince of Yan's Palace was even larger than that of the Weiyang Palace. In this regard, since there were no regulations, he would not be fined for such things.

Liu Tan estimated that the wine for the emperor and the prince might take up two-thirds of the wine cellar. However, when the wine arrived, Liu Tan was dumbfounded. He found that he had overlooked a problem, that is, he rarely asked his family for things on weekdays, and even often sent some fresh food and toys to Chang'an.

This led to the situation that whenever he asked for something, everyone would want to give him as much as they could.

The wine cellars of the Emperor and the Crown Prince were indeed not full of the wine cellars of the Prince of Yan's Palace, but he had other relatives and friends, especially Li Xi's wife, her husband and son were all here. She wished that Liu Tan would use some magic to wipe out all the Wuhuan people as soon as possible, so she supported whatever Liu Tan wanted.

There are also two eldest princesses and other people. Even if these people only move out half of their own wine cellars, it will be a lot.

Liu Tan once again discovered that the wine cellar in Prince Yan's Palace...might not be enough.

Of course, the good news is that the army will never be short of alcohol as long as the manufacturing efficiency of the workshop can keep up.

When the army was fighting outside, both Li Xi and Li Buyan would often use carrier pigeons to deliver messages. Anyway, they took a lot of pigeons with them after they left, so if they were not enough, they would ask someone to bring another basket.

Liu Tan received news about the army every day and calculated their time. He figured that it was almost time for the two armies to meet.

In fact, Li Xi fought against the Wuhuan people earlier than Liu Tan thought.

Li Xi was a very steady person in his daily life, and he was also cautious and prudent when he followed Wei Qing to the battlefield. However, the equipment provided by Liu Tan made him very itchy, and he wanted to try out its power.

Especially the powder keg. No matter how others told him how powerful the powder keg was, he couldn't imagine it.

After all, before the powder keg, no weapon similar to this thing appeared.

Although the Wuhuan were not well prepared, they would pour water down from the city walls every winter, turning the walls into ice walls, which was a good way to defend against the enemy.

Although it was spring in the Han Dynasty, the weather in Wuhuan was still very cold and the ice on the city wall had not completely melted. So when faced with the sudden attack of the Han army, the Wuhuan people were very calm. They all retreated back into the city and prepared to rely on the archers on the city wall to launch long-range attacks.

Li Xi remembered what Liu Tan had told him before he left: when in doubt, use the gunpowder barrel. Don't save it. Transporting it long distances is dangerous, especially in hot weather. So he said decisively, "Prepare to throw the gunpowder barrel."