The immense power of economic warfare
Zhu Caicai was completely confused by Liu Buqi! Really confused!
Although he has been doing business for many years and is now considered one of the biggest businessmen in Youzhou, he has never thought that businessmen can interfere in politics and even influence military affairs!
Madam said this is called "political economics"!
After returning home, he pondered for the whole night. As soon as it got light in the morning, Zhu Changcai had already arrived at his own small room in the Commercial and Political Bureau to start a new day of study!
Before entering the door, the soldier saluted solemnly, which made him feel the benefits that being an official brought him. If he didn't learn this "political economy", he would not be able to hold his head up!
…
The reason why Liu Buqi thought of Zhu Caicai was, on the one hand, because after a long period of contact, he found that Zhu Caicai was a decent person with good business sense.
On the other hand, he has a deep understanding of both the grassland and Yehe! And a very important part of the "Youzhou Strategy" she planned for Yue Lingxi lies in what Zhu Caicai will do next!
Merchants in this era had a low status and had almost no political status except for collusion between officials and businessmen.
But Liu Buqi knew clearly that in the era when he came, except for a few countries, the interests of big businessmen and big financial groups were the so-called national interests!
Their every move can even directly determine the direction of the country's politics, military, diplomacy and other aspects!
The enormous power of businessmen and commerce has not been recognized at all by people of this era!
And Liu Buqi's epoch-making insights, even if they were just superficial, were enough to easily shake the fragile "national economy" of the grassland and Yehe!
…
Three days later, the complacent Zhu Caicai mobilized a large number of standard copper coins from Desheng Building, Desheng Tavern and the General's Mansion in Yanjing!
Bring along all the guys from Deshenglou who have been wandering around Yehe Tribe for years, follow the footsteps of Yue Lingxi and Liu Buqi and resolutely leave Yanjing. They will go to Yehe Tribe and start a war without the smoke of gunpowder!
Liu Buqi also didn't know whether releasing the giant beast of "capital" would lead to historical progress or the regression of human nature!
But in order to delay the Yehe army, he can only exchange economic resources for time!
…
Yue Lingxi brought the personal guards of the commander-in-chief, which consisted of 500 soldiers under his command when he was the leader of the flag, and escorted Zhu Caicai and the servants of Deshenglou who were carrying a large amount of copper coins to the headquarters of the Great Wall garrison!
Liu Buqi looked at the Great Wall stretching for thousands of miles in front of him, as if he were in another world!
This is a place I have been to before, with the same blue bricks and stone slabs, but different life circumstances, and even a different era!
Yet, this wall seems to have always been imprinted on the mountains and ridges here, silently guarding the land of Kyushu! The courts have changed, things have changed, and people have changed, but only this wall remains! Forever!
If I remember correctly, the place where the Great Wall Garrison General's Mansion is located has an extremely famous name in the future or in the past!
"The first pass of the heavens - Shanhaiguan!"
Of course, now it is called Zhenbei Pass!
At this time, the crowd in Zhenbei Pass was surging. On the day Gao Yi returned, he began to continuously deploy troops and generals, ready to meet the attack of the Yehe tribe at any time!
Upon receiving the news that the commander-in-chief of Youzhou was coming, Gao Yi, who was on the training ground, politely sent a lieutenant to greet him!
Yue Lingxi did not enter the city, but asked the deputy general to help convey a message to Gao Yi. He sent Zhu Changcai out of Zhenbei Pass on the pretext that he was escorting a big merchant from Yanjing City to the outside of the pass to start a trade, and then set up camp at Shili Pavilion outside the city.
After Gao Yi received the message from the lieutenant general, he immediately mounted his horse and chased after them. After a while, he saw Yue Lingxi and Liu Buqi waiting quietly at the Shili Pavilion!
"Do you really have a way to make Yehe give up the attack?" Gao Yi, who was impatient, asked Yue Lingxi loudly from a distance before getting off his horse.
Yue Lingxi quietly took the tea handed to him by Liu Buqi and took a sip patiently: "General Gao, it's not me who has the solution, but my wife!"
The garrison general who had just jumped off his horse looked suspiciously at the delicate woman beside him. If it weren't for the sentence "I have a way to make the Yehe tribe give up this attack," which was so attractive to him, he would have walked away long ago!
"General Gao, as long as you obey my husband for one year, I promise that the Yehe tribe will never attack Youzhou during this year!"
Liu Buqi went straight to the point. Analyzing the information sent back from the tavern, Gao Yi was a "rough man" who liked to be straightforward.
"What a joke! Why should I believe you?"
"General Gao, you don't have to believe me. You just need to cooperate with my actions and mobilize the spies in Yehe. After a month of investigation, we will naturally be able to determine whether the Yehe tribe has given up the attack!"
The Gao family is a military family that has been stationed at Zhenbei Pass for four generations! Gao Yi's eldest son, father, and grandfather all died in the siege of the Yehe tribe!
If we were to say who in the entire Youzhou has the deepest understanding of the strength of the Yehe tribe, it would be none other than Gao Yi!
"Okay, one month from now, if the Yehe tribe truly abandons this attack, I, Gao Yi, will pay a visit to the Commander-in-Chief and pledge my loyalty for a year!"
After saying this, Gao Yi jumped on his warhorse and rode away! During the whole process, he didn't even get close to the Ten Mile Pavilion!
Yue Lingxi obviously didn't expect Gao Yi to agree so readily! Liu Buqi, standing by, breathed a sigh of relief. His straightforward approach was a bit risky, but luckily, his gamble paid off!
It’s Zhu Caicai’s turn next!
…
Between the White Mountains and Black Waters, in the villages where the Yehe tribe lives, the Taiyue merchants who often come here to sell daily necessities appear again without any supplies!
This time, they decided to use copper coins to buy wolf skins, tiger skins, and bear skins that were common in Yehe families!
Different from the previous stringent requirements on appearance, as long as the leather is new within the past year, it will be purchased at a high price regardless of appearance!
After years of mutual trade, copper coins could be circulated in the Steppe Khanate and the Yehe Tribe, and were very popular. After all, scarcity makes things valuable. Their value even far exceeds the value of copper coins in Taiyue!
According to Liu Buqi, this is called exchange rate!
For a time, the good news that killing wild beasts could earn copper coins spread throughout the lower-class people of Yehe. Countless outstanding Yehe hunters rushed into the mountains to track down the locations of those wild beasts before the winter was about to come!
On the other hand, no one is interested in buying pheasants and wild ducks for the winter! What a joke! How many pheasants and wild ducks can you get by killing a jackal? Are you afraid of not being able to buy things if you have money?
As the news spread, some leaders of the Yehe tribe also began to mobilize the strong men they raised to go up the mountain to hunt!
On the Taiyue side, with the cooperation of Gao Yi, cartloads of food were transported out of the pass and handed over to another group of Deshenglou's men!
Then a strange scene appeared: on one hand, the Taiyue people bought furs at high prices and exported copper coins, while on the other hand, the Yehe people, who had sold furs, used the copper coins to buy food for the winter!
The entire Yehe tribe was excited in this cycle for a whole month!
Then, the Taiyue merchants who had purchased a large number of furs returned to Taiyue as soon as winter came. With their return, the carts of grain shipped out of the pass were also intercepted by Gao Yi!
The Yehe people, who were rich outside the Great Wall, suddenly realized that although they had become "rich"! They only had a little food to survive the winter, and eating porridge every day was the only way for their family to get through the winter!
As for buying food for the winter, it was a pipe dream! You couldn't even buy a rabbit at the market!
Well, let’s go back to the mountains to hunt for food! So the Yehe people, who had basically nothing to do in the winter in previous years, started going up the mountains in large numbers to catch rabbits and roe deer!
The Yehe tribe did not form a strict war logistics support system. Although the leader would always have some supplies, the soldiers who would only assemble during wartime needed to provide their own weapons and bring their own rations!
When the Yehe leader began to gather his soldiers, he was shocked to find that everyone was hunting in the mountains! The few people who were barely gathered had only brought a small amount of rations, which was not enough for the war!
With such limited troops and food, let alone attacking Taiyue! Even if they could reach Zhenbei Pass without starving to death, it would be considered a good thing. The joint military plan that had been vigorously discussed with the Steppe Khanate for a whole year had to be shelved!
Damn Taiyue Kingdom! How cunning!
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