For nearly two years, Jiang Ming fought battles in the south and north, constantly traversing the grasslands and the Central Plains, conquering various states, seemingly having no interest in the affairs of the Ji Kingdom.
However, quietly and subtly... he had already instructed the former Minister of Justice, Zizhi, who was stationed in Ji City of Yan, to cleverly bring down the State of Ji.
The specific method was: Jiang Ming said that Ji Bochang had become the new King of Yan, and the coins of Yan should be reminted.
So they opened a large copper mine on the border between the Yan and Ji states, using local materials to mint coins!
Minting coins requires burning a large amount of wood, and the country of Ji has many trees. Therefore, Jiang Ming used the money of the country of Yan to buy wood from Ji at a high price, and burned it into charcoal to forge copper coins.
At first, the younger brother of the Jin family, the ruler of the Ji Kingdom, did not take it seriously, thinking that Jiang Ming was foolish to do such a losing business... He even mobilized the people of the whole country to cut down trees and sell them to the Yan Kingdom to make huge profits.
Jiang Ming also instructed Tingwei Zizhi to expand export trade, selling grain, cloth, ceramics, bronzes, and all other goods to the Ji Kingdom.
In less than a year, the Kingdom of Ji accumulated a great deal of wealth!
The speed at which the country's power grew far exceeded the original method of farming, harvesting grain, and collecting rent.
Originally, the State of Ji was located in Liaodong, where the weather was cold and agriculture was not developed, making the country very poor.
Now that there is an opportunity to develop trade with the State of Yan, the State of Ji has also become rich rapidly!
The King of Ji Kingdom was quite pleased with Jin's younger brother, believing that Jiang Ming had indeed given up on attacking Ji Kingdom and had developed a very friendly neighborly business partnership with him.
In that case, who among the people of Ji Kingdom would still grow grain?
Planting trees is better than growing grain!
After all, what the Yan state needed was timber. Since they had no food to eat, they could directly use the money they earned from the Yan state to buy grain from it.
Moreover, Jiang Ming, the prime minister of Yan, was capable of "gathering" grain from all the countries under heaven.
Even if you're in Ji State in Liaodong, you can eat rice from Chu State if you want...
Why bother growing crops yourself?
Back then, Young Master Luo's trade network, which connected the world, combined with Jiang Ming's successful P2P fraud technology, brought a large amount of grain to the Yan Kingdom in a short time, which was enough to support Jiang Ming's trade strategy.
In less than a year, the state of Ji was in such a state that its treasury was filled with mountains of gold and silver treasures, silk fabrics, and various antiques, glass, tortoiseshell, and bronze artifacts, but its grain supply was only enough to last for three months.
The people in the country have all developed commerce, leaving farmland barren and converted back to forest. No one farms anymore, and all food is imported.
And right at this crucial juncture!
Jiang Ming suddenly announced that the war situation at the front was critical and that grain exports were prohibited.
This completely stunned the people of Ji Kingdom!
If the people of Yan stop selling grain, what will they eat?
Inside the palace, there was enough food to last for three months!
However, ordinary people's families could only store enough food for one month at most!
After the food for the month was used up, everyone was dumbfounded!
The ruler of Ji State then vaguely realized that he had been tricked and immediately sent envoy ships to ask Qi State for grain.
But at this moment, the State of Qi had been completely crippled by the divine general Yue Yi of the State of Yan. It was barely able to take care of itself, let alone have any grain to sell to the State of Ji!
Moreover, the State of Qi... is one of the countries most severely affected by Jiang Ming's P2P fraud!
Many wealthy households, coveting the high returns and profits promised by Young Master Luo, directly borrowed grain to invest in Young Master Luo's trading leverage... to the point that the military rations in the Qi army had been mixed with sand, and there was simply no way there would be any surplus grain!
All that grain was transported to the Yan Kingdom, supporting Jiang Ming in winning one war after another!
Having failed to obtain aid from the State of Qi, the State of Ji was completely out of options!
After all, given the level of navigation at the time, they were not yet capable of sailing to the State of Wu to buy grain.
Even if they manage to reach the Wu Kingdom, whether they can transport the grain back is still an unprecedented challenge!
In less than three months, the State of Ji suffered an unprecedented famine, and many people fled to the State of Yan, willing to become its subjects.
In that era, there were no clear nationality restrictions between vassal states, between states, or even between tribes on the grasslands.
If you want to be a citizen of Chu, then go to Chu; if you want to be a citizen of Qin, then go to Qin...
What is generally agreed upon in various countries is that the land is yours, but my feet are mine, and I am free to go wherever I want!
Survival is always the top priority.
In less than four months, four-fifths of the population of Ji State had migrated here and settled in Yan State.
Even the guards in the palace of the King of Ji fled to the State of Yan with their entire families.
The king of Ji Kingdom had nothing left except for the gold and silver treasures that filled his palace and countless precious objects!
His daily meals were reduced to a bowl of millet porridge.
Grain is not something you can just grow and have; it takes a year to grow, especially in harsh and cold places like Liaodong, where there is only one harvest a year!
If your workforce misses the planting season, the following year could be a tragedy of "extinction of the family line"!
In Jiang Ming's previous life, the once-powerful Sui Dynasty collapsed so suddenly because Emperor Yang of Sui abused the people's labor, causing farmers to miss the planting season, resulting in the starvation of millions...
Now the Kingdom of Ji is facing this problem!
If people all over the country cut down trees, growing grain will become a high-cost, low-profit business. Who would still do it?
By the fifth month, the entire country of Ji was littered with corpses of the starved, and one could walk for a hundred miles without seeing a single living person.
Those who could escape had all fled, and the remaining villages were now teeming with wolves.
When wolves enter people's homes, they always leave with tears in their eyes...
Jiang Ming saw that the time was right, so he sent Zizhi to lead the army to see why the ruler of Ji Kingdom was so stubborn. Even when they were at their wits' end, they still refused to surrender.
It wasn't until Zizhi led his troops into the capital of Ji Kingdom that he learned the truth: the king of Ji Kingdom had long wanted to surrender, but the envoy he sent out was eaten by wolves on the way!
That's how human settlements are... once people stop living there, wild animals come!
People from all over the country fled to the State of Yan. The State of Ji... quickly returned to its original natural state and almost became a zoo.
In this way, Jiang Ming destroyed the Ji Kingdom without shedding a drop of blood.
All those gold and silver treasures are still kept in the palace, and they are being well protected for Jiang Ming!
These things don't rot like grains; they can be stored for a thousand years without any problems.
To commend the King of Ji for his proper guarding of Jiang Ming's "property," Jiang Ming even issued a special order to bestow upon him the title of "Marquis of Property Guardian."
Right now, Jiang Ming wants to replicate this model to deal with the powerful Wu Kingdom!
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