Tibet

Li Heng stood in front of the window with his hands behind his hands, listening to the report from Liu Hun, the Minister of War, with a livid face.

"Your Majesty, the King of Qi has transported a total of 300,000 sets of old armors, 3.2 million damaged weapons, 4 million jins of crude iron, and 2 million jins of crude copper from Liyangcang. That's about it."

"Did you forget the food?" Li Heng said coldly.

"Your Majesty, I have specially verified that they did not take away the food. The 400,000 stones of food in Liyangcang are safe and sound!"

Hearing that Li Ye had not taken away the grain, Li Heng's expression softened a little, and he immediately ordered: "Arrange immediately to transport all the grain in Liyangcang to Luoyang!"

"Wei Chen obeys the order!"

Liu Hun bowed, stood up and retreated.

Li Heng then said to Pei Zunqing who was standing aside: "I originally hoped that Li Ye could completely wipe out the army of the vassal town that invaded the four states, but he failed to do this. Instead, he allowed the troops of Tian Chengsi and Li Baochen to retreat completely. I am very dissatisfied. Li Ye also moved the materials from Liyangcang without authorization, which is even more unacceptable to me, so I do not plan to hand over Jinjiang County and Donghai County to Li Ye."

Pei Zunqing was shocked and said quickly: "Your Majesty must not do this. The previous agreement required the King of Qi to regain the four states of Xiangwei, but we don't care how to regain it. The King of Qi did not want to go to war and bring disaster to the people, so he adopted The strategy of subduing the enemy without fighting is actually a good thing! If His Majesty goes back on his words, I am afraid it will seriously affect the relationship between the two parties."

Li Heng said coldly: "Wouldn't it affect the relationship if the materials from Liyangcang were transported without authorization?"

"Your Majesty, those used soldiers and armors were piled up in the Liyang warehouse during the Kaiyuan period. They were actually like garbage. Even the weapons supervisor was unwilling to deal with them. King Qi transported them away. The court did not suffer any loss, especially when he did not transport them away. He could have transported the food away in the name of compensating for military rations, but he still kept the food, which shows that he has the overall situation in mind. Your Majesty, please be clear!"

Cui Huan also reminded: "If your Majesty breaks your promise, I am afraid that the King of Qi will send his own troops to retrieve it. Then it will no longer be a problem between the two counties."

Du Hongjian also said: "Wei Chen has been worried that if the King of Qi annihilates Li Xilie and captures Jianghuai in the name of crusade against rebellion, will it completely cut off our connection with Jiangnan? Wei Chen can think of it, and the other party can also think of it. Your Majesty had better not give them a reason to send troops. It’s just two small counties. Your Majesty will go back on your word, not only will it affect your reputation, but it will also give them an excuse to send troops. It’s really not worth the loss!”

Li Heng was just saying angry words. Li Ye did not work hard and did not achieve the results he wanted. He was very dissatisfied. Of course, he knew that going back on his word for two small counties would not be worth the loss.

Seeing the strong opposition from everyone, he could only nod his head and said: "That's it! Inform the other party to go to the memorial hall and ask King Qi to take over Donghai County and Jinjiang County."

After a pause, Li Heng added: "Tell the other party clearly that this is not the land allocated to the Prince of Qi's Mansion, but a fiefdom that I have given to the Prince of Qi personally."

Li Heng made a sidestep, and the two counties were granted to King Qi Li Ye personally, but in fact they still belonged to the imperial court.

It was very close to Chang'an from Weizhou. The day after Li Ye returned to Chang'an, he received news from the court that the emperor had agreed to transfer Donghai County and Jinjiang County to him.

Li Mi smiled at Li Ye and said: "These two counties are personal fiefdoms awarded to His Highness by the Emperor. They have nothing to do with the Prince of Qi's Palace. The Emperor is really petty!"

Li Ye smiled lightly and said: "It depends on who you are. He is bestowing the title to his ministers. It is indeed a change of soup without changing the medicine. But if it is given to me, it will be no different from granting it to Prince Qi's Mansion. The county magistrate must be loyal to me." , if you are not loyal to me, I will directly replace the county magistrate and replace it with a new one. If the governor of the state wants to come over for inspection, he must first apply to the Prince of Qi's Mansion. If you dare to break in without permission, don't go back."

"Your Highness wants to garrison troops?"

"Of course, not only do we need to garrison troops, we also need to stockpile a large amount of grain and supplies, and we also need to purchase and purchase large ships. Now the imperial court has no time to take care of the coast. This is our opportunity."

Li Mi pondered for a moment and said: "I know from my humble position that Jiangdu and Mingzhou each have a court navy, which is basically in a semi-dormant state, idle and useless, and the ships are all large ships left over from the Kaiyuan Tianbao period, almost all of them are three thousand There are many ships of more than 10,000 dan, including 5,000 dan and 10,000 dan ships. If His Highness can get hold of them, it will indeed be an opportunity."

Li Ye nodded, "I know, I'm plotting against them, but I need to get to the port first, have a base, and then find a way to get ships."

"Has your Highness thought of any solution? I mean building a boat."

Li Ye shook his head, "I haven't considered it yet."

Li Bi smiled and said: "I am humble enough to give you a suggestion! You don't have to start from the court every time. This time you might as well start with the generals and recruit the entire navy directly. The court doesn't pay attention to it, but we do. Your Highness can summon Liu Changning, the deputy commander of the Navy, he just defected from Jiangdu, and we can understand the situation first."

Li Ye thought for a moment and said, "Okay, summon Liu Changning to Chang'an!"

In the study, Li Ye stood in front of the map and stared at the two counties. Three years ago, he sent hundreds of people to make sand tables for the eastern states. However, the amount of work was huge and it has not been completed yet. It is estimated that it will not be completed until next year.

Li Ye's excuse for wanting these two ports was overseas trade, but in fact it was to control the coast. The East China Sea Road is today's Lianyungang. From here, the fleet can control the Shandong Peninsula and Huainan to the south. Of course, the East China Sea Island The main target is still the Shandong Peninsula.

The task of controlling the south of the Yangtze River was handed over to Jinjiang County. In fact, Li Ye wanted Mingzhou, which is today's Ningbo. However, Mingzhou was the headquarters of the Tang Navy and its strategic position was extremely important. The court would be very sensitive and would never agree, so he retreated. Secondly, Li Ye focused on Jinjiang, Quanzhou. The fleet set off from Jinjiang and headed north. In a few days, it could land in Hangzhou Bay, and at the same time, it could also capture Fuzhou, Jianzhou and other places.

Judging from the map, his army was transported to Donghai Island and Jinjiang by large ships. It also needed a supply point in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It was impossible for the court to allocate it to him, but it could be supplied through a commercial port.

Just as he was thinking about it, Princess Dugu Xinyue came in with tea and food, and said with a smile: "Husband, why don't you go to have dinner?"

Li Ye smiled and said, "I have something to do now and need to clear my mind."

"Then I won't disturb you husband!"

"It's okay, my thoughts have been sorted out now."

Li Ye picked up his rice bowl and looked at the map while eating.

When Dugu Xinyue saw her husband draw two circles on the map, she couldn't help but smile and asked, "Why are you so interested in the seaport?"

Li Ye pointed at the two circles on the map with his chopsticks and smiled: "The court has assigned these two counties to us. We plan to build seaports for overseas trade."

"Overseas trade requires large ships!"

"We have large ships, ten thousand-stone sea ships, bought by Zhang Ping. We can go to Nanyang to buy spices, sell porcelain and silk, etc., and go back and forth, making ten times huge profits, and we can also trade with Japan and Silla. We can also make several times the profit. If we make a few more trips a year, our military salary will come out. Now the pressure on military salary is too great. We must not only reduce expenditures, but also increase revenue!"

Dugu Xinyue nodded, "I heard from my third uncle that overseas trade is indeed very profitable, and there are many wealthy people in Guangzhou!"

At this time, Dugu Xinyue discovered that there was an island outside the map. It looked quite big, and it was actually drawn by her husband himself. She pointed at the island and asked with a smile: "What's going on with this island? It wasn't on the original map?" ?”