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“Warships?”
Niu Ben’s suggestion made Xiao Ming nod slightly. Although the Bian River wasn’t wide, the three warships if commanded southward would have more than enough room to pass through. After all, these three warships were only Fifth-Grade warships, equivalent to the size of ordinary merchant ships.
“That’s a plan, but currently these warships are patrolling at sea. I need to gather them first,” Xiao Ming mused.
Pengzhou City on the sand table was built by the water. To enter Pengzhou City, one could only pass through the wooden bridge in front of the gate. But by then, Pengzhou City’s army would surely have demolished the bridge.
At this point, three warships patrolling the river could transport soldiers to the other side and provide artillery support for the attack.
“That’s no problem; the three prefectural armies also need some time to gather and train,” Niu Ben said happily. He had always been eyeing warships because the further south they went, the more cities were built by water. Without naval protection, they wouldn’t even be able to cross rivers.
While everyone was observing the sand table, a guard came in from outside the door and said to Xiao Ming, “Your Highness, the Prince of Wei’s envoy has arrived.”
Lu Fei chuckled upon hearing this, “Your Highness, is the Prince of Wei regretting it and wants to ally with Your Highness again?”
“The Prince of Wei is ambitious and won’t surrender to Your Highness so easily. Perhaps he has some malicious intentions,” Niu Ben said.
Xiao Ming frowned and said, “I will know once I go. You all continue to observe the sand table and formulate the battle plan, then submit it to me for review.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Niu Ben and the generals responded.
With that, Xiao Ming followed the guard to King Qi’s residence. In the main hall of the residence, a middle-aged scholar was waiting for him.
Upon seeing Xiao Ming, the middle-aged scholar bowed and said, “Your Royal Highness King Qi, I have been dispatched by the Prince of Wei to discuss the matter of Tongzhou with Your Highness.”
“Tongzhou?” Xiao Ming’s eyes narrowed, thinking that what had to come, had come. He knew the Prince of Wei would make an issue out of Tongzhou.
Sitting in the main seat, he said, “The Prince of Wei’s thoughts, feel free to speak them.”
The middle-aged scholar said, “His Royal Highness the Prince of Wei said that the world is in chaos now, and as members of the imperial clan, we should support each other. Therefore, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wei is willing to continue providing supplies to Qingzhou warships, but hopes that Your Highness can provide twenty thousand matchlock guns and three hundred cannons as rental fees.”
“The Prince of Wei truly drives a hard bargain.” Xiao Ming snorted coldly. He said, “What if I don’t agree?”
“Then His Royal Highness the Prince of Wei cannot continue to provide supplies for Your Highness in Tongzhou. I hope Your Highness will think twice,” the middle-aged scholar said indifferently. “Your Highness, if you lose the Tongzhou port, it will be difficult for your warships to go south.”
The middle-aged scholar’s arrogant tone made Xiao Ming flare up. He hated being threatened by others the most. Given this, he decided he would teach the Prince of Wei a lesson, making him realize the vastness of heaven and earth.
He said, “Go back and tell the Prince of Wei that if he stops supplies to Tongzhou, I will certainly make him pay the price.”
Xiao Ming’s tone was severe, which startled the middle-aged scholar. This time, the Prince of Wei had come with full confidence. After all, Tongzhou was within Wei territory, and Xiao Ming had no way to deal with it.
“Your Highness, you must weigh the pros and cons carefully.” The middle-aged scholar didn’t expect Xiao Ming to be so unyielding and for a moment didn’t know what to do.
Xiao Ming stood up at this moment and said to the middle-aged scholar, “I have considered it very clearly. You go back and tell the Prince of Wei that I remember the Battle of Cangzhou and the Battle of Jizhou. Now that he disregards the kinship of the imperial family and refuses to ally, I have been benevolent and righteous enough to him. From now on, he needn’t hold back against me, and I will not hold back against him either.”
The middle-aged scholar had been quite calm, but now Xiao Ming’s words thoroughly frightened him. In his view, Xiao Ming was formally declaring war on the Prince of Wei.
“I… I take my leave.” Having been rebuffed, the middle-aged scholar wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked out without looking back. He was afraid that if he left any later, Xiao Ming would execute him as a warning.
After sending off the Prince of Wei’s envoy, Xiao Ming’s eyes narrowed. He had held a glimmer of hope for the Prince of Wei, but now the Prince of Wei’s true colors had completely disappointed him.
Moreover, he was not the original Xiao Ming; he didn’t care about royal bloodlines. He only knew one thing: if this continued, Great Yu Empire would probably truly be doomed.
Therefore, before these vassal kings could ruin Great Yu Empire’s population from one hundred million to only a few million, he had to adopt an aggressive stance. He would seize as much land as possible, especially prosperous and populous areas like Wei’s territory.
After driving away the Prince of Wei’s envoy, Xiao Ming immediately ordered Yue Yun to dispatch three warships from the fleet to Qingzhou to assist in the campaign against Pengzhou City. At the same time, he and Niu Ben began to intensively plan the attack on Pengzhou City.
And as if to retaliate against Xiao Ming, after the envoy returned to Jinling City, the Prince of Wei quickly cut off supplies to Tongzhou. At the same time, the Prince of Wei ordered that no Qingzhou merchants were allowed to trade in Wei’s territory, otherwise they would be executed without mercy.
After the order was issued, three Qingzhou merchant ships that had not had time to withdraw were seized.
“Your Highness, the Prince of Wei is simply too hateful! He let our people come back, saying that if we want to redeem the merchant ships, we have to pay five hundred thousand taels of silver.” Li Kaiyuan said indignantly. Business was already difficult due to the war.
He never expected the Prince of Wei to suddenly pull such a move at this time. The goods transported on these three merchant ships, plus the value of the merchant ships themselves, were worth more than two hundred thousand taels. Li Kaiyuan couldn’t help but feel heartbroken.
The retaliatory measures taken by the Prince of Wei indeed caught him off guard. According to Li Kaiyuan, some powerful families in Wei’s territory seized the opportunity to make trouble for merchants from Qingzhou.
Although it was superficially just expulsion, in fact, the Prince of Wei and some powerful families had long harbored malicious intentions. The seizure of these three merchant ships already indicated the problem.
It must be said that this matter indeed bothered Xiao Ming greatly. These merchant ships belonged to the Qingzhou Chamber of Commerce. Although he had ordered them to withdraw when he fell out with the Prince of Wei, they still didn’t have time to leave.
It wasn’t that the merchants withdrew too slowly, but that the Prince of Wei had planned this long ago and had seized these three merchant ships even before issuing the order.
“Your Highness, business for the Chamber of Commerce is difficult now. What should be done?” Li Kaiyuan sighed.
“If domestic business in Great Yu Empire is difficult, then do foreign business. Do you think I painstakingly opened up maritime routes for fun? I planned ahead precisely to deal with this kind of situation. Now you should shift your focus to maritime trade.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Li Kaiyuan said. Hesitating, he said, “Your Highness, what about these three merchant ships?”
“Hmph, he took three of my merchant ships, so I will take three of his cities.” Xiao Ming slammed the table.