I, the patron saint of the frontier of the Tang Dynasty, was forced to rebel

Chapter 79

"As the commander-in-chief of my Tang Dynasty, you have hundreds of thousands of troops in your hands, and you can't even wipe out even a mere tens of thousands of soldiers and horses?"

"You can't even get out of Henan Road?"

"Hu Guogong, tell me, I, how can I level the world?"

In the court hall, Li Tai's face was gloomy, and his tone was even more stern.

All the ministers should not be so frightened that they dare not speak.

They are basically civilian officials, and more than half of the generals are new to the post, let alone have the experience of going to the battlefield.

Qin Qiong and others have fought with the late emperor for many years, and they know that there is no solution to this matter!

"Your Majesty, the Henan Road is in front of the Hebei Road, and the Yellow River needs to be crossed in the middle. The temporary deployment of troops from the states on the other side cannot be controlled at all. I know that the transfer order has been passed on, and the states refused on the pretext of guarding the safety of their own state!"

"what!"

"Presumptuous! How dare you disobey the court order!"

Li Tai was furious, he didn't expect such a situation to appear under his rule.

Obviously, these state shepherds have ideas of their own!

"Then why were tens of thousands killed in Henan Province?"

"Except for Puzhou, there are no other places with Qin Mu's troops at all. How do you explain that?"

"The most fundamental reason is the Salt Gang!"

All the ministers were surprised, and Li Tai was even more surprised.

The salt gang has existed since before the Tang Dynasty, and the private salt and iron industry has always been banned, so this industry of smuggling for huge profits was born and formed a gang, which eventually evolved into a force of tens of thousands of people.

The salt gang controls the Yellow River Basin, salt and iron are smuggled, and there are horse gangs behind it.

The network of relationships is extremely complicated, let alone Li Tai, even Li Shimin would not dare to act rashly even if he was alive!

"The Salt Gang is controlled by Qin Mu?"

"No, they can't get salt from the imperial court, and Lingzhou controls some areas of the desert, especially Qinghai and other places. It uses a new technology to dry salt, and the monthly output can be used by millions of people."

"Besides, since the imperial court blocked the commercial roads, the price of salt from Henan Road to Lingnan Road has skyrocketed, and the Salt Gang took the opportunity to cooperate with the top producers in Qinghai to smuggle it. The people bought cheap salt, so naturally they would not care about the government."

"The fundamental reason for this resistance incident is profit. Thousands of ships from the Salt Gang have blocked the Yellow River Basin, and the military can't move troops at all. If we go around, Qin Mu may occupy the entire Hebei Road, and we will return."

"In addition, based on Puzhou, extending outwards, more than [-] cannons attacked continuously, and our army had to retreat!"

hiss! ~
All the ministers took a breath, this trend can be seen even by people who don't know the art of war.

Qin Mu intends to blockade the entire Yellow River Basin!

Then use the left and right sides of Puzhou to send troops to defend, the general trend, Chang'an's location, half of the Guannei Road completely cut off contact!
Not to mention the army, I am afraid that the government orders of Chang'an City will not be issued!

"presumptuous!"

Boom!

Li Tai could no longer control his emotions, and suddenly kicked the dragon case.

It's a pity that the dragon case is so strong that there is no damage at all, but he broke his toe!

As an emperor, to maintain his majesty, he could only bear the pain and show a fierce look in his eyes.

"What I want is the result, not these nonsense. Is there no other way for you to lead the army?"

"Have!"

Qin Qiong raised his head with a serious face.

"On the left side of Chang'an, Xingzhou and Fengzhou are under control. The forbidden army can go around and enter the border area with Tuyuhun to raid Lingzhou!"

"No!"

Unexpectedly, as soon as the method was announced, Gao Shilian refuted it.

"Your Majesty, Hu Guogong, according to the latest information, Lanzhou and other places have already fallen, and Qin Mu is currently sending people to control those places. The population and finances of those places have been completely emptied since a few months ago, and the army is even more hungry. Only surrender."

Speaking of this, Gao Shilian glanced at Qin Qiong and continued: "In addition, Tuyuhun in Dafeichuan borders Shanzhou. Shanzhou has already been garrisoned by Qin Mu's [-] troops. There are more than a dozen artillery and fortresses. Tuyuhun Now it is the end of the battle, as long as Qin Mu is willing, he can take it down at any time!"

Li Tai was shocked and slumped on the dragon chair.

The crisis surrounded on three sides, how to solve it!

"It's just that the relevant personnel of the imperial court have not understood why Qin Mu turned his offensive and attacked in the direction of Wutai Mountain all the way?"

Everyone fell into an eerie silence.

Gao Shilian and Qin Qiong couldn't figure out something, how would the other new officials know?
"Could it be that there's really no other way, don't the states in the direction of Mount Wutai want to hand over to Qin Mu to assert his arrogance?" Li Tai's tone revealed a hint of sadness.

It wasn't long after sitting on the throne, and the grand plan hadn't even started yet, the entrance was already blocked.

Such a trend is likely to
He didn't dare to think about it anymore, and suddenly understood why his father was so suspicious at the beginning.

Such a frontier general, of course, would be worried for any king!
Since ancient times, have such things been rare?
"Your Majesty, I believe that the current imperial court needs to contain the rebels, but more importantly, it needs to speed up the transformation of the Royal Workshop to imitate Lingzhou's armaments. The artillery is said to be able to attack targets five kilometers away, and five kilometers is ten miles away!"

"And that musket, shooting the target from 500 meters away, fighting like this is no different from dying!"

"Where does the imperial court get the silver taels?"

Tang Jian, who also served as the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, immediately put forward his opinions.

"The royal treasury is already empty, and the national treasury is even more empty. The turbulence needs to be stabilized, the skyrocketing prices need to be controlled, the expenditure of the army is increasing year by year, the taxation is chaotic, the corruption is serious, and the silver is even more difficult to make ends meet."

"In addition to the bank opened by Qin Mu, there are currently more than 100 branches in three provinces, and the deposits absorbed are at least 6000 to [-] million. The imperial court has no way to control it."

In a word, the current imperial court is completely out of money.

Strength comes from the support of the country and the stability of the people's hearts, but needless to say, the people's hearts have long been lost.

State support is even more nonsense, no money to talk nonsense.

The royal workshop has always been unpopular, and the real high-level officials in the Tang Dynasty are all veterans, sticking to the original way of war.

Therefore, even though they know that new armaments such as artillery are powerful, they don't know how to defend them at all.

"Since Qin Mu can smuggle, so can the court!"

The ministers never expected that Tang Jian, one of the ministers of the auxiliary country, would say such a thing.

This is clearly written in the law, and smuggling is not allowed.

However, everyone understands that there is no other way!
As long as the court is secretive enough, it can buy armaments for imitation.

"How much silver do you need?"

"Your Majesty, this is not a matter of taels of silver but gold! Rumors spread in Lingzhou that the cheapest cannon they use is ten taels of gold, and the subsequent maintenance and consumption are even more astonishing. Overall, it is estimated that a cannon needs to participate in a war." It cost more than 300 taels of gold!"

Speaking of this, Tang Jian sighed: "Moreover, Lingzhou has extremely strict controls on these things. Each workshop produces different things and then transports them to the mysterious military workshop for assembly. The outside world does not know how to make them."

(End of this chapter)