Chapter 685: Counterattack

After the council, the Crown Prince left the mansion and entered the palace, entering the Chunhua Hall.

There were many more guards, internal officials, and palace maids in the Chunhua Hall, and the defense was tight, looking like not even a fly could fly in. It was just that these people not only defended against the outside but also against the inside.

The Crown Prince entered the hall calmly and sat down in the main hall. Concubine Yuan walked out from the back hall and sat opposite the Crown Prince, without even saluting.

A civil official behind the Crown Prince's face sank, and he shouted, "Bold! Seeing the Crown Prince, why don't you kneel?!"

Concubine Yuan said lightly, "I only kneel to the King."

The civil official's face stiffened, but he couldn't say a word. The Jin King hadn't died yet, and the Crown Prince had already started to overstep the rules, which was very easy to be recorded in the history books.

So even though he already had the power in his hands, the Crown Prince still had to act out the play every day by holding morning meetings.

The Crown Prince has waited thirty years for the succession, single-mindedly wanting to be the greatest enlightened monarch in the history of the Great Jin, so naturally, he cannot allow his reputation to suffer the slightest blemish.

His face sank, and he said to the ministers following him, "You all withdraw."

After the ministers withdrew from the Chunhua Hall, heat ignited in the Crown Prince's eyes, and he said, "You are finally back! Father King doesn't have much time left, the throne will be mine sooner or later, why must you still be so persistent?"

Concubine Yuan said, "As long as the King is still here for one day, this matter is absolutely impossible."

The Crown Prince gritted his teeth and said, "I don't want to wait! If you follow me now, then I will promise you, I will give the Qingyang Military Governor position to Wei Yuan! In the future, as long as we are harmonious, I will use him just like Father King!"

Concubine Yuan said lightly, "Whether Wei Yuan is in Qingyang or not, this title is not important. But if you give this official position to someone else, who would dare to accept it, and who could accept it?"

The Crown Prince was finally moved, grabbed a teacup and smashed it heavily on the ground, shouting angrily, "Where am I inferior to Wei Yuan?! Why did you choose him and not me?"

"I told you, you wouldn't understand."

The Crown Prince's face was gloomy, and he said, "Fine, fine, fine! Then I will see what kind of end your Wei Yuan will have!"

Concubine Yuan said, "My father is watching like a tiger, if you treat Wei Yuan well, then you can have one more fulcrum, and it is also a barrier for the western portal. If you force him into a corner, guess if he will accept my father's reward?"

The Crown Prince's face was gloomy, and he said, "Zhao Wang always considers himself a generation of wise kings; when I fully master the throne, I will have to compete with him properly. The two counties that were taken away back then should also be taken back. Hehe, these two counties were lost by Father King!"

After saying this, the Crown Prince stood up and left, flicking his sleeves. When passing by the only remaining maid of Concubine Yuan, the Crown Prince suddenly swung a slap and slapped her face heavily.

The maid took it as if nothing had happened, and her face soon swelled up.

That night, the Crown Prince didn't sleep in the palace either, but directly brought two concubines back to the Crown Prince's Mansion. But as soon as he entered the mansion gate, he received several urgent reports in a row, all of which were military intelligence from the north.

The Crown Prince changed his route to the study and read them overnight.

The most important thing in the military intelligence was sent by Prince Ying, and there were three consecutive letters, respectively requesting 100,000 soldiers, 50,000 breastplates, and 100,000 shi of military grain.

In addition, Prince Ying's wording was intense, specifically naming Qingming breastplates; if there were no Qingming breastplates, then quality-equivalent ones would have to do. If that couldn't be done, Prince Ying named the Minister of War to go to the front line to command troops and defend against the enemy on the front line.

Along with the letter, Prince Ying also sent back a suit of armor produced by the Ministry of War. This armor was stained with blood and had almost been slashed in half diagonally, showing the miserable state of the soldier wearing it at the time.

The Crown Prince ignored the filth and carefully looked at the gap in the armor. Seeing the messy patterns at the gap and the obvious cracks and bubbles, his face was already gloomy. He picked it up and weighed it again, then gave a heavy hum.

The Qingming breastplate standard weight is thirty jin, and not a single suit is missing more than three liang. And this suit of armor didn't even have fifteen jin. Not to mention the steel quality was far inferior to Qingming's.

The Crown Prince spread out the map and carefully observed the position of Prince Ying's defense line. Although Prince Ying didn't say it explicitly, the Crown Prince understood that if this matter wasn't resolved, I am afraid the defense line of several hundred miles guarded by Prince Ying would completely collapse, and retreating a hundred miles would be considered good.

Thus, the Crown Prince stared at the map all night, repeatedly deliberating, and only approved less than half of the military intelligence when the sky was already bright, and it was time for the morning meeting again.

Qingming, Wei Yuan was bitterly cultivating Five Elements Dao Soldiers.

Nearly three hundred pixel Dao Soldiers occupied positions in the square in front of him, forming a Sharp Metal Demon-Slaying Formation. In the formation, a dark red magic knife was slowly condensing into shape.

Wei Yuan's divine sense moved, and the magic knife flew out of the formation, cutting a Dharma Form level dark iron casting target in front into two halves.

Wei Yuan was satisfied with the power of this Demon-Slaying Magic Knife, enough to kill an early-stage Dharma Form, severely injure a middle-stage one, and wound a late-stage one.

It was just that the Dao Soldiers were not real Dao Foundation cultivators, so these two hundred-plus pixel Dao Soldiers had strength similar to template cultivators, so the speed of condensing the magic knife was slow, taking half a day to condense one knife, and the practicality was poor.

However, this was just the beginning, verifying that this method was feasible.

Wei Yuan added the name of the Sharp Metal Demon-Slaying Formation to the optimization list, handed it to the Human World Fireworks for deep optimization, and then the Dao Soldiers began to form formations again. This time, they were practicing the Blood-Transforming Soul-Absorbing Great Formation.

The number of formations Wei Yuan had to practice later was not small, and the long list included many side-door formations such as the Spirit-Refining Formation, the Ten Thousand Soul Banner Formation, and the Yin-Yang Harmony Formation.

Wei Yuan was bitterly cultivating Dao techniques when suddenly his heart moved, and the Zhizheng Hall sent an intelligence report that a merchant firm in Ningzhou specializing in selling machine brocade was attacked by bandits at night, the firm was burned down, all goods were reduced to ashes, and neither the boss nor the clerks escaped.

This was the second one this month; the previous one was a merchant caravan transporting machine brocade having an accident, being robbed halfway, the entire caravan's drivers and clerks were all killed, and even the dogs they brought were slaughtered.

Thus, Wei Yuan knew that the counterattack of the Ningzhou brocade firms had finally arrived.

These large brocade firms expanded significantly when trading with the Shaman tribe, and they built a whole year's worth of looms, not only inviting old craftsmen back but also increasing the number of apprentices several times over.

This was all shiny immortal silver, so they naturally were unwilling to lose it just like that, and would never honestly hand over the Ningzhou brocade market to Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan had long expected this, so he launched the first step of the contingency plan.

He gathered all the merchant firm principals in Xijin and announced three things. First, increase the raw silk purchase price by thirty percent. With this increase, the silk price contained in one bolt of brocade reached four taels!

Overall, the brocade price of Ningzhou brocade firms needed more than eight taels to break even, unless the government and the Xu family were willing to collect less taxes and land rent.

The second thing was to reduce the grain sold to Ningzhou. Now Qingming transports four million shi of grain to Ningzhou every year, which, according to the minimum standard of two shi per person, feeds two million people in Ningzhou. This time, Wei Yuan cut one million shi in one breath.

The third was that grain and pills would be implemented with a quota system, paired with machine brocade. If you don't sell Qingming machine brocade, you won't get the quota for grain and small Peiyuan pills.

These three measures were announced, causing a huge uproar among the Ningzhou merchant firms. But Wei Yuan naturally wouldn't pay attention to the complaints of some merchants, clearly telling them that as long as the murderer wasn't handed over for one day, the quota system wouldn't change.

Now, because Qingming machine brocade was of excellent quality and had many styles, it had already made a name for itself, known as Qing Brocade. It was only slightly inferior to Ning Brocade, and had already far exceeded the brocade produced by Zhao Guo. In the market, there was only brocade produced by Zhao Guo, and no term "Zhao Brocade".

After arranging the first step of counter-measures, Wei Yuan returned to his old ways, practicing Dao techniques while thinking hard about the map every day: where to dig for people and where to fight.

Ningzhou, Shanyang County.

In a magnificent clubhouse in the county seat, guests were gathered like clouds at this time. The entrance was full of all kinds of luxurious carriages, and there were even a few flying boats parked in the distance.

Today was an emergency council of the merchant associations of the nearby counties, and almost all the principals of the large merchant associations had arrived, and many families simply had their heads come.

In the main hall, the head of the Yao family was radiant, sitting high in the center of the upper seat. Sitting on his left and right were the head of the Xu family, who operated the medicinal material business, and the Lu family, who operated grain production.

The head of the Mi family sat in the eighth seat on the left, and just a few years ago, he had firmly occupied a seat in the top three.

At this time, the meeting began, and the head of the Mi family first said, "Ning silk should naturally weave Ning brocade! I propose a comprehensive blockade, not allowing a single liang of raw silk to leave the pass, so that the root of Qing brocade can be cut off! Qingming does not produce silk, and no matter how capable Wei Yuan is, he cannot produce silk out of thin air."

The head of the Yao family held a teacup and laughed, saying, "Your Mi family only produces a few liang of silk, and you are embarrassed to propose a blockade? We who produce silk haven't spoken yet, how were we represented by your Mi family? You really have a big face!"

The head of the Mi family's face turned red, and he shouted angrily, "Qingming is growing, and no one benefits! Look at how you are desperately planting mulberry now? People have already started to cut off grain!"

The head of the Yao family said calmly, "Jin Guo is so big, what does a little grain count for? Other places will naturally make up for it. If you want a blockade, fine! As long as you buy all the silk at the current market price, you can blockade for as long as you want! If you have money, blockade; if you don't have money, shut up!"

The head of the Mi family's face turned iron-blue; back then, before there was Qing brocade, he had also said this to the head of the Yao family.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 686 =====