Chapter 62: The merchant ship returns, and the military funds are in place...

"But what excuse can we use to attack the North?"

The excuse of relying solely on the Northern Kingdom to detain Yun Zi and other people is not tenable. This is why Shen Zhiwei feels that Gui Yang will go all out.

Yunzi and others were not even originally from Jingchang.

"Disrespecting the king and presumably claiming to be king is reason enough."

It's no wonder that scholars have quick minds. While Shen Zhiwei was still worrying about Yun Zi, Wen Tao had already started digging up old grudges.

Shen Zhiwei was speechless for a moment. She thought that the matter of becoming king was over, but she didn't expect that it was still not possible. Even now, it can still create value for her.

Wen Tao saw that Shen Zhiwei didn't say anything, so she asked in confusion, "Your Majesty, you have never cared about the monarchs of other countries becoming kings before. Isn't it just for today?"

She always felt that the king did not pursue the claim of other monarchs just to use this as an excuse to start a war one day. The king could not just use this as an excuse to attack Yun Kingdom and not use this as an excuse to attack other countries.

"...You're right. That's right. It's for today."

Obviously the main quest had been abandoned, and clearly Shen Zhiwei had already started to give up, but at this moment, she still felt the long-lost feeling of being backstabbed.

This is a backstab with nowhere to hide.

No, how could it be called backstabbing? It was clearly his subordinate's extraordinary ability to find excuses. Ordinary subordinates couldn't come up with such an excuse. She had to thank Wen Tao for her quick thinking.

"It seems you agree with Yang and You'an's plan to raise an army. If so, you should go to Yongming City and discuss your ideas with You'an to avoid any major problems."

To prevent Gui Yang and Hu Youan from attacking Yun Zi and others, they don't know that you have come up with such a good reason to start a war.

“Here!”

Wen Tao bowed and began to think carefully about how many days it would be appropriate for her to be away. As the Prime Minister, she could not leave Jingchang for too long.

Go and deliver the king's order, wait for two days to rescue them, and go directly by water from Taisheng. The round trip should take less than ten days.

Wen Tao made this decision and began to prepare.

The Northern Kingdom still knew nothing. King Yue of the North was extremely busy and could not even take a break during his illness. This was because the snow disaster in the Northern Kingdom was a rare heavy snowfall that he had never encountered in his nearly twenty years of life. The people of Fengbao City were completely unprepared and were buried in the snow.

Not only were there heavy casualties, but the fu that had previously cursed him began to spread among the people again, this time to a wider extent and with more people agreeing with it.

The rare heavy snowfall filled people with anger and sadness, and they urgently needed an excuse, an excuse to vent their pain.

They all agreed that their king was incompetent and that the monarch's inaction had angered God, and they needed an explanation from the king.

Public opinion is like water, which creates waves when angry. This time, King Yue of the North has witnessed the power of public opinion.

In the past, the King of the North did not need to worry about public opinion, but this time was different. This time, the public opinion was mixed with the nobles. Those nobles had always disliked him, and his previous killing of Prince Rong made those nobles hate him even more. Prince Rong had been the crown prince of the Northern Kingdom for many years, and there were many people who sincerely followed him.

Public opinion is boiling now, and those people are using it to pressure him. With the nobles involved, it will not be so easy to suppress public opinion.

King Yue of the North was forced into a corner and had to start thinking about whether to start a war directly.

That's right, he only wanted to start a war and didn't think about giving in to public opinion and taking the responsibility for the snow disaster.

If I take the blame this time, will he stand up again if something similar happens again? Again and again, there will be no end to it.

Moreover, he was the king of the northern kingdom and had never seen a king admit his mistakes to his ministers.

So he just thought that if a war broke out, these people would behave themselves. At that time, everyone would only think about whether the war could be won and whether the Northern Kingdom would become the next Bian Kingdom. Naturally, no one would bother him.

As for the possibility of really losing the war, King Yue of the North had never thought of this possibility. The last time Bian Kingdom lost, it was the result of the joint efforts of many parties. In the end, Bian Kingdom fell into the hands of Jingchang. It was the discord between the king of Bian Kingdom and King An that allowed Jingchang to get an advantage. How could the same advantage happen to the North Kingdom again?

Jingchang's good luck ended there.

King Yue of the North began to discuss with Prime Minister Su Wang how to start a war. He could not kill Yun Zi and others, nor could he start a war without reason. Public opinion was not on his side. If he took the initiative to provoke a war, it would be difficult to appease public opinion in the future.

Before the two of them could come to a conclusion, the envoy sent by Hu Youan had already arrived in Fengbao City to negotiate with them about Yunzi's matter.

On the day the envoy arrived in Fengbao City, Shen Zhiwei received news that the merchant ship had returned.

Shen Zhiwei then remembered that there were two large ships floating outside. Please forgive her for forgetting everything as she had been busy recently.

She hurried to the dock of the shipyard on the shore of the East China Sea. When she arrived, Zheng and Shang De had already started unloading the goods. Boxes of gold, silver and jewelry were piled on the dock as if they were free.

Fortunately, it is not directly exposed to the outside, otherwise the people walking back and forth would probably have no intention of working and would only want to admire the brilliance of the treasure.

This gain was much greater than Shen Zhiwei had expected. No, it should be said that it was much, much more. Is it so easy to make money outside?

Shen Zhiwei was shocked. Shen Zhiwei quickly called Zheng and Shang De over and asked them in detail about the voyage.

Zheng and Shang De were much darker than when they left. This showed that the sunlight on the sea was very strong and was still very harsh even when winter was approaching.

The two men stood in front of Shen Zhiwei and saluted, their mouths showing a mouthful of big white teeth, obviously in a very happy mood. After listening to their description, Shen Zhiwei understood the fundamental reason for their happiness.

These two men attacked two small countries quietly.

That's right, with just one trip to the sea, relying on more than a hundred navy ships, two large ships, refined salt and other supplies, they defeated two small countries!

"The two small vassal states in the south don't actually have many people, with less than two thousand guards in the city. We came from the sea and simply claimed to be envoys from the emperor, and they welcomed us into the city. We originally just wanted to build a dock to trade with the small states, but we didn't expect the rulers of those two small states to be so incompetent that they wanted to take the refined salt for themselves and even tried to force my wife and I to stay. So, we had no choice but to fight them. But the two small states were no match for us and eventually surrendered to Jingchang."

First they invited the wolf into the house, then they provoked, and finally they were defeated. The monarchs and court officials of these two small countries were really incompetent.

Shen Zhiwei was speechless after hearing this. These days, anyone can be made a marquis, and even dares to call himself a king. In a world of great contention, geniuses will emerge as well as trash. Shen Zhiwei finally understood.

No wonder after he became king, many small countries disappeared quietly. It would be strange if they could survive at this level.

"Next time, bring more soldiers and a few officials who can govern the area. Now that we've conquered the place, we should manage it well and treat it as an enclave."

These small coastal countries are far away from Jingchang, with several countries in between. Jingchang cannot attack them from the land, so it can only govern them as enclaves.

"Yes." Zheng took note of this in his mind. There should be a third big ship after the spring of next year. Huang Yu had a rich harvest when he went out to sea with them this time, and he had more inspiration for building big ships in the future.

After Zheng finished talking about the war, Shang De came forward to talk to Shen Zhiwei about the harvest. She was so detailed that she remembered clearly what was in each box and who it came from. She also remembered the expenses on the way, which she had organized into an account book with every item clearly recorded.

Shen Zhiwei asked for the account book and didn't let Shang De say anything after listening to the general idea. She asked the couple to go down and have a good rest. The dark circles under their eyes were too obvious.

They encountered so many things along the way, but after they came back, the couple finally relaxed their tense spirits and had a good rest.

Shen Zhiwei flipped through the account book herself and made a rough estimate of the expenses and gains of this voyage. Then she grinned, feeling that she didn't have to worry about the military expenses for the attack on the Northern Kingdom.

Going out to sea is really profitable. It was obviously a test and we didn’t bring much cargo out, but we ended up bringing back countless gold, silver and jewelry.

The merchant ship didn't go far, but it was able to harvest so much. If it goes further in the future and dumps the goods to more backward places, I wonder how many good things it can bring back!

Shen Zhiwei's heart was burning with excitement just thinking about it. She had tasted her first taste of long-distance trade. It was so delicious. The benefits of being a pioneer in this industry were really huge.

In the future, we must build more large ships and sail them out to sea!

When Shen Zhiwei calmed down, it was already dark. Most of the valuables had been moved off the ship and were planned to be put into the warehouse one by one. The people in the shipyard had no chance of sleeping today, especially those in charge of the warehouse. They had to take turns to put the things into the warehouse. Otherwise, with so many gold and silver treasures left outside the warehouse for one more day, it would be more dangerous.

Shen Zhiwei came to the shipyard feeling relaxed, and when she left, she pulled out a large pile of gold, silver, and jewelry. After she arrived in Jingchang, she personally watched over these things as they were deposited into the national treasury. The national treasury, which had been thinned by three points due to infrastructure construction, was now filled up again at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At the same time, Wen Tao also returned from Yongming. Both of them were traveling in the cold winter. The road was very cold and difficult to travel, but neither of them was afraid at all. There was only expectation for the future of this country in their eyes.

Young people are like this, they have endless energy. For their ideals and the future, they are willing to fight to the end and are not afraid of any hardship, because hardship is only temporary and the future will definitely be bright!

After Wen Tao came back, he told Shen Zhiwei that the Northern Kingdom was going to go to war with Jingchang, and Hu Youan was leading an army of 100,000 to the border, and asked Shen Zhiwei to send more soldiers.

An army of 100,000 is nothing to the Northern Kingdom. It must be increased to at least 200,000 to have any hope of breaking through the Northern Kingdom's border.

Shen Zhiwei said that there was no problem. After the governance of Jingchang, Taisheng and Bian, many people were willing to join the army and go to the battlefield to fight for the merit of being awarded a title of nobility.

At this time, Shen Zhiwei would sigh that it was a good thing that she inherited the throne of the Great Zhou Dynasty. If she were the monarch of another country, she would not be able to govern the Bian Kingdom at all, and who knows how she would trouble the common people in Bian Kingdom.

They should be relocated and dispersed to cut off the roots of the Bian Kingdom.

Otherwise, the differences in culture, beliefs, and customs would definitely lead to the revival of the Bian Kingdom.

But when the Great Zhou swallowed up the State of Bian, there were not so many problems. It should be said that there was no problem for the Great Zhou to swallow up any country, because not long ago, these countries were still vassal states of the Great Zhou, and the common people were the people of the Great Zhou.

The Great Zhou swallowed up the Northern Kingdom without having to worry about subsequent backlash. This was the confidence of the orthodox regime. No other vassal state could have the same courage.