Chapter 636: Brickhead Eastern Xianbei

The King saw off Xie Yuan and Xue Lin'an, then immediately summoned Dong Fu and the head of the Military Arsenal Bureau.

Without attending court, he simply decided on such a major matter himself.

In the end, he still heeded Dong Fu's advice, first sending people to sound out the attitudes of the feudal lords surrounding Rebel King Han Shou; coordinating with the court would of course be best.

Dong Fu walked twice around the King's intercontinental sand table, saying, "...... If the other feudal lords don't cooperate, it's fine; we'll simply take Mount Heng as the starting point for attacking Chu, beginning this winter, beginning right now, with supplies first."

"'What the Grand Commander means is, should we now send a little of next year's provisions for the Chu campaign ahead of time?'"

Dong Fu nodded, "Avoiding the waterways and using Mount Heng as the starting point to attack Chu is actually a good choice. The Rebel King of Han Shou is guarding against the court; besides Han Shou, the southern commandery of Nan Jun and the Gan River near Chang'an surely have deployments. The route to Mount Heng is distant; attacking Chu by a detour seems unfavorable on the surface, and the wasted provisions from the extra distance would be immeasurable. But with the combat capability of our Black Armor Cavalry, taking Chu doesn't require the huge army of two hundred thousand they imagine."

Dong Fu's point was, how much waste could there be anyway? Besides, we have few troops.

The King blinked.

"'Does the Glutton's Pouch have that much fodder?'"

Dong Fu exclaimed, "'Not ship it from Chang'an?'"

The King gestured with his hands, "'Nope — the several ten thousand cavalry and twenty thousand Forbidden Army in Chang'an haven't run out of grain only because I've been extracting it from the aristocracy; the state treasury is empty.'"

Dong Fu: ……

Hard to say.

The King had not yet visited the Glutton's Pouch when he summoned the Chief Steward again. Zhu Ti came and reported a figure that shocked both the King and Dong Fu: "...... The amount of provisions we can redirect for the Chu campaign is enough for fifty thousand troops, for one month."

The King thought it was great, and had already finished it before it even arrived.

"'Have you included my private treasury?' Seeing Zhu Ti shake his head, the King finally relaxed; he hadn't touched the grain recently bought from White Poplar."

When poor, one seeks change; the King knew that Zhu Ti's stockpiled fodder came partly from selling off his estate and partly from the profits of the Big Farm and the Commerce Department.

Hoping for tax revenue from the northern border would be futile; just keeping the various levels of government running was about all that could be done.

After the autumn harvest, even if times were hard, the tax reduction he promised upon accession could not be changed any further; for now, the only hope of quickly procuring fodder lay in the estate and the Commerce Department.

The King turned his gaze to the quiet-as-a-chicken Military Arsenal Bureau, saying, "We need to look farther afield; making money from Great Jin's silver is hard, so it's time to look at our neighbors. Sort out all the recent products of the Military Arsenal Bureau — yes, those shoddy copper and iron pieces I don't like — and we'll sell them to the Wusun."

The Military Arsenal Bureau's Qian Zongguan was extremely worried; he had accumulated quite a bit of good equipment over the past year, but the King didn't value any of it and even had him keep producing while developing new weapons, as if intending to sell the weapons themselves.

Qian Zongguan anxiously said, "Your Majesty, selling weapons to an enemy — shouldn't we be cautious?" He believed his technology had greatly improved over the past year, with blade and spear quality far superior to before, and wondered what repercussions selling such arms to the Western Regions might have.

The King casually patted the Tai'a Sword lying on the case, "Bring it over so I can chop a bit and see when it breaks."

"'I'll go inventory the sellable weapons right away and have them ready for you before the office closes,'" Qian Zongguan said, hurrying off.

Their Military Arsenal Bureau's current products can't even withstand three blows against cavalry weapons, let alone the King's divine armament.

While the King was practicing calligraphy in the Lantai Hall, Qian Zongguan returned; the King stared at the long list, lost in thought. He's always urging things on, but he wondered whether this stockpile wasn't a bit excessive.

"'How can there be so much?'"

Qian Zongguan immediately alerted, "Your Majesty, we haven't taken any share of copper and iron from the Agricultural Implements Bureau!"

The King: ……

Wei Shen beside him almost laughed; this was truly a topsy-turvy situation. The King had always imported weapons, leaving the Military Arsenal Bureau's status even lower than that of the Agricultural Implements Bureau.

"'All we can say is that the copper and iron of the northern border are still fairly abundant.'"

The King nodded, "'But selling this resource to neighbors counts as aiding the enemy — I can't let it go cheap!' Even though he doesn't use it himself, the price absolutely cannot be low."

Wei Shen thought he was overthinking it, "'You can think what you like, but the question is whether the Wusun have that money.'"

The King heartily agreed, "'We need to develop several more buyers!'"

"'...... No fighting elsewhere either. The grasslands have been quite docile lately; I suppose they're at home training troops, hoping to eliminate you, the tribute collector, and simply don't have the bandwidth for other neighbors.'"

The King pondered, "'Then… we need to find a way to get them to fight!'"

Wei Shen: ……

This guy's mind works incredibly fast, "'Let's have the Eastern Xianbei make a trip to Youzhou!'"