The people of Wu were instantly dumbfounded; they had piles of money in their hands, enough to buy anything except grain...
After holding out for three months, the price of food on the market had risen to the point where 500 gold coins couldn't buy a single cake!
In the Central Plains countries, one gold coin could buy five or six bags of ground white flour!
Faced with this stark contrast, large numbers of Wu citizens illegally crossed borders to neighboring states such as Chu, Qi, Han, and Wei...
They brought a lot of gold coins with them, and they could immediately live a wealthy life. Only a fool would stay in his hometown.
Two more months passed, and the population of Wu had already decreased by 70%!
Apart from the soldiers who were on duty and held their posts, a few privileged individuals, and some elderly people in their seventies and eighties who couldn't move, basically everyone had fled...
Only then did the King of Wu realize that he had been tricked!
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Jiang Ming dispatched three armies from the states of Qi, Wei, and Chu, which swiftly and decisively destroyed the state of Wu!
The King of Wu was also punished for "great disrespect" by failing to pay homage to the emperor and report on his duties each year, and was directly escorted to Dukang...
Jiang Ming had been preparing for this financial war for a full three years!
If we were to fight head-on, given the strength of the Wu Kingdom and the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, we might not be able to take it!
But by using commercial and financial warfare to directly cripple and destroy its agriculture, it defeated its political opponents in less than three years at minimal cost!
The state of Wu produced many military strategists, but few tacticians.
They, along with their ministers, thoroughly studied Jiang Ming's battle tactics at the foot of the mountain!
However, they neglected the underlying logic of the nation, politics, and economy, leading to their utter defeat!
After the three armies annihilated the Wu Kingdom, Jiang Ming did not establish a new King of Wu.
Instead, officials were directly appointed to change the original territory of Wu into prefectures and counties, which were then directly under the jurisdiction of the central government!
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