"Prime Minister, do you think we have the possibility of alliance with Qi?" Min Ruoying looked at Ma Xiangdong and asked.

Ma Xiangdong Daqi, "Your Majesty, why did you suddenly have such an idea?"

Min Ruoying was silent for a moment before saying, "Qin Feng made me feel fear. He is not the same person as us, completely different. Compared with Cao Tiancheng's Qi State is closer to us."

Hearing Min Ruoying's answer, Ma Xiangdong didn't know what to say for a while, and after a while, he said: "Your Majesty, for us, the Ming Dynasty is a tiger, but isn't Qi a wolf? A lamb will not end up in a good way, no matter whether it is an alliance with a tiger or a wolf."

"Your Majesty, what is important is not who to form an alliance with, but who must be strong himself. We must become stronger first. As long as we can restore our strength to the late emperor's period, whether it is Chu or Qi, if we want to attack us, we must pay close attention to it!" Lian Bo also said.

Min Ruoying nodded, "These my dear friends are right, and they must be strong on their own. Our great Chu has been trapped in the past few years due to the failure of the last war and has never recovered. If the outside world wants to recover lost territory and internal rebellions continue, we must first solve these two problems. Now, there is an opportunity, Yang Qing, let me talk to you about it."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Yang Qing looked at the chief assistant Ma Xiangdong and others and said, "In Jinghu, Cao Hui from Qi suddenly came to me and wanted to see His Majesty the Emperor. Because the matter is important, I immediately took Cao Hui back to Shangjing from Jinghu."

"Is it because of the recent confrontation between Ming and Qi, and the Bozhou rebellion?" Ma Xiangnan asked.

"Yes." Yang Qing nodded. "Cao Hui has seen Bian Wushuang in Jinghu. He wants Bian Wushuang to launch a fierce attack on Zhou Jiyun."

Yang Chen, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was surprised: "What is this?"

Minister of War Lian Bo explained: "Mr. Yang has just taken office for a short time, and he may not know much about the current situation in Qi. Although Zhou Jiyun is a general of Qi, behind him are the largest wealthy families in Qi. In other words, Zhou Jiyun's loyalty is not His Majesty the Emperor of Qi. What the emperor of Qi has been pursuing in recent years is to eliminate the power of these wealthy families, but the wealthy families have a long history in Qi. I want to

If you don’t hurt yourself, you will be completely eliminated. Naturally, there will be many difficulties. This time, Zhou Shuguang’s rebellion in Bozhou is a clear proof. Emperor Qi was worried that the Bozhou rebellion would not be quelled for the time being. What happened to Zhou Jiyun in Kunling County? At that time, the two sides will be in chaos, and there will be a large army of Ming Dynasty in Taoyuan County in the middle. Even Qi could not stand it. At this time, we were asked to fight Zhou Jiyun, so we naturally wanted to solve one aspect of difficulties."

"So that's it!" Yang Chen suddenly realized, "Your Majesty, this is a good opportunity! Since that's the case, Qi will definitely not give Zhou Jiyun any support. Zhou Jiyun can be considered alone, and this is the best opportunity for us to completely complete the battle in the east."

Ma Xiangdong continued: "The opportunity is indeed the best opportunity, but the problem is that the Ming Dynasty obviously saw this. The Ming envoy entered the capital, and it was for Ma Chao's affairs on the surface. But in fact, I was afraid that it was for this matter. Taking advantage of Ma Chao's affairs, I stopped the loan to us and stopped selling weapons to us, just to make us stand firm in the war in Kunling County."

Lian Bo also looked bitter: "What the Prime Minister said is the biggest problem we are on the first. Bian Wushuang also wrote a memorial saying that because Zhou Jiyun greatly reduced his troops and gave up the periphery, the defense line of Kunling County is now operated as an iron barrel. If you want to defeat it, one is to have sufficient logistics supply, and the other is to have prepared for great sacrifices. We are now suffering from no salary, no rewards, and no sufficient military supply. This battle is difficult to fight. Although the Qi court will not provide any support to Zhou Jiyun, the people behind Zhou Jiyun will never sit idly by. They will definitely support Zhou Jiyun secretly."

"Yang Qing, tell me about the conditions offered by Cao Hui!" Min Ruoying said to Yang Qing.

"My dear sirs, Cao Hui now offers us the condition that they can afford our military expenses of one million taels of silver. As for weapons, we need to try to solve them ourselves. Secondly, the Qi court is willing to sign a non-aggression treaty with us."

Several ministers in the house were moved. It was not that they had made such a great decision for Qi this time and were willing to bear military expenditures. But because of the second condition, they wanted to sign a non-aggression treaty with Chu. If the Great Chu really signed such a treaty with Qi, it would be equivalent to forming an alliance with Qi and thus betraying the alliance with Ming. This is a fundamental change in the country's major policies, and it is naturally a major event.

"I'm afraid I need to make a long-term plan for this matter!" Ma Xiangdong grabbed his beard and pondered: "It's no problem to fight Zhou Jiyun, but the alliance with Qi requires careful consideration of gains and losses. Your Majesty, if this treaty is signed, I'm afraid the country will be in chaos for a while."

Min Ruoying nodded: "I understand that the people of Chu hate the people of Qi deeply. The two countries have fought for so many years and countless people have died. These blood feuds cannot be resolved in a short period of time, but the eyes of the ministers are naturally not comparable to those of ordinary people. I believe that now we have seen that the Ming Dynasty has caused great harm to our great Chu. This is not only in terms of economic and people's livelihood, but also in people's hearts. The hearts of the people of Chu are already in chaos!"

His voice was low and a little trembling. "In the past few days, I have been thinking about Qin Feng's style of doing things. I was thinking about the series of policies of Ming Kingdom. I looked through all the collected information about the Ming Kingdom. Everyone, I was afraid, I was afraid. Qin Feng and I are not the same person as Cao Tiancheng. He is destroying an era and destroying the basis on which we rely on for survival. Therefore, I am ready to agree to Cao Hui. Of course, the premise is that we will take down Kunling County first and completely recover the six eastern counties, and then discuss the alliance with Qi."

"I agree with Your Majesty's idea!" Zhang Chen suddenly said: "I have been away from the Ministry of Revenue for many years. This year, thanks to Your Majesty's grace, I regained the Ministry of Revenue again. However, after I took office, I found that our finances could not avoid the interference of the Ming country no matter what the idea was. Our taxes have become the bags of the Ming people, and they are even interfering in the formulation of our tax policies. Because of the alliance with them, our monetary system has basically collapsed. Now, the Ming Dynasty's paper money is used in most places in Da Chu.

Your Majesty, this is a huge trap. The Ming people are plundering us silently. They earned our gold, silver and even copper with pieces of paper. Our trade deficit with them every year has reached a terrifying amount. We are heavily in debt and have to save money. If this continues, it will take a few years, and there will be no need for the Ming people to send troops to fight, but we are afraid that we will not be able to persevere. Changing the course is the right thing to do, and it is not too late to make up for the loss of the sheep."

"Mr. Zhang, has things reached such a bad point?" Lian Bo looked at Zhang Chen in shock.

"Your Majesty, I didn't understand why the Ming Kingdom must add the policy of allowing Ming Dynasty banknotes to be popular in our country in the alliance. But a few months ago, I got a book about money theories written by Su Can, the current head of the Ming Kingdom Taiping Bank. After careful study, I finally understood some of the truths. This book is only circulated within the elementary school of Ming Dynasty and is one of the most advanced secrets of the strict control of Ming Dynasty. Su Can called all the Ming Kingdom's implementation of our Great Chu a currency war. The ultimate goal is to destroy the economy of our Great Chu." Zhang Chen said: "The sinister heart is really outrageous. I believe that first of all, we must stop the circulation of Ming Dynasty banknotes in our country, otherwise, our Great Chu coins cannot compete with them, so we can only let them knock on our bones and suck marrow on us."

Ma Xiangdong said: "Mr. Yang, this matter is not trivial. It cannot be easily banned. We can only take it slowly. Otherwise, we are afraid that the economy and people's livelihood of our Great Chu will collapse instantly."

Yang Chen said dejectedly: "Sincere minister, I naturally know this, but this matter is urgent. Every day more, the difficulty will be increased. Now on the market, the money of Ming people is expensive while the money of Chu people is cheap, and the Chinese people are no longer willing to use our own currency."

Lianbo finally came back to the savor: "Mingren is so sinister. No wonder they use their banknotes to settle every time they lend us loans. The salary we pay to soldiers is all Mingren's banknotes. If they rashly declare it invalid, they are afraid that the army will be in chaos first."

"Compared with the Qi people's clear swords and spears, the Ming people's soft swords are even more unpredictable. This is the reason why I would rather form an alliance with the Qi people than join the Ming people." Min Ruoying said sadly: "It's a pity that we understand this truth too late."

"This is not about Your Majesty's business. When the Qi people came in full force, the six eastern counties were instantly lost. The Jinghu war zone was in danger, and the country of Great Chu was shaken. The Ming people took advantage of the opportunity to enter. Even though they knew they were drinking to quench their thirst, they had to drink it." Ma Xiangdong comforted: "As long as the six eastern counties were recovered, and taking advantage of the chaos within the Qi people, the Ming people confronted the Qi people while digesting the Qin territory, we just happened to purify internal affairs, eliminate rebellions, and revitalize the prestige of the country."

"The chief assistant is right." Min Ruoying's expression finally became a little excited: "So, no matter how Ming people obstruct this battle, we have to fight, we have to fight even if we don't have money, and we have to fight even if we don't have weapons. Please!"
Chapter completed!