Chapter 23 Departure

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What a coincidence. The person Li Cun was going to borrow grain from tomorrow was none other than Yu Yancheng, the largest landowner in Bangyuan Cave.

There are four main reasons why Li Cun chose Yu Yancheng.

The first reason is that Yu Yancheng, who is also engaged in maritime trade, is the richest person in Bangyuandong and even Qingxi County.

Li Cun, who is particularly familiar with the maritime merchant community, is absolutely convinced of this.

As far as Li Cun knew, many maritime merchants in Quanzhou had a net worth of several million yuan.

Li Cun's original employer, the Wang Chaoyi family, had been engaged in maritime trade in Nanyang for more than ten years and earned 200 million yuan.

What is the concept of 200 million yuan?

At the peak of the Northern Song Dynasty, the annual fiscal revenue was only 160 million yuan.

In other words, the assets held by Wang Chaoyi's family were almost the fiscal revenue of the Northern Song Dynasty for two years.

Really wealthy country!

Li Cun had heard of Yu Yancheng before and knew that his net worth was at least one million yuan, far beyond what the Chang family could compare to.

If Li Cun could defeat Yu Yancheng's Zhuangzi, then Li Cun would basically have the money and food for the Eastern Expedition.

The key is that Fang La chose a bad time for the uprising.

A few years ago, when Tong Guan was on a mission to the Liao Kingdom, he met a man named Ma Zhi. Ma Zhi offered Tong Guan the strategy of "alliance with the Jin Dynasty to destroy the Liao Dynasty".

After Ma Zhi returned to the Song Dynasty, Zhao Ji changed Ma Zhi's name to Zhao Liangsi and officially launched the strategy of "alliance with Jin to destroy Liao".

After Zhao Liangsi, Hu Yanqing, Ma Kuo and many other people sent envoys to the Jin Kingdom many times, the Song and Jin Dynasties agreed to a "maritime alliance" and agreed to jointly destroy the Liao Dynasty.

The Jin Kingdom had already captured Shangjing, the capital of the Liao Kingdom, not long ago. In addition to the previously captured Tokyo, the Jin Kingdom already occupied two of the five capitals of the Liao Kingdom.

Now, the Jin Kingdom is preparing to attack Zhongjing of the Liao Kingdom.

According to the agreement of the "Sea Alliance", Zhao and Song should send troops to attack the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun and cooperate with the Jin Kingdom to destroy the Liao Kingdom in one fell swoop.

In order to regain the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun that the old Zhao family had dreamed of regaining, Zhao Ji gathered 150,000 of the most elite Western troops from the Zhao and Song dynasties to Daming Mansion in Beijing, preparing to send them north to join forces with Jin to destroy Liao and regain them after the New Year.

The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

These 150,000 Western troops were not only the elite of the Zhao and Song dynasties, they were also equipped with a complete set of soldiers, armor, horses, and provisions.

Damingfu, Beijing, has waterways extending in all directions.

If these 150,000 Western troops take the water route, they can reach the southeast in less than ten days.

At this stage, the reason why these 150,000 Western troops have not gone south yet is not because they do not have the conditions to go south, but because no one has taken Li Cun and Fang La's uprising seriously yet.

Once Li Cun or Fang La caused a big disturbance, the 150,000 Western troops would be able to quickly sail south to quell the chaos.

So there really isn't much time left for Li Cun.

Under such circumstances, Li Cun wasted no time in making money one by one, but the result was inevitable that before Li Cun could fight out, he would be taken advantage of by the Western Army and the armed southeastern landowners who were always ready to make a move.

Therefore, Li Cun could only choose the biggest one, conquer a few, and after saving enough capital for the Eastern Expedition, he would immediately start the Eastern Expedition.

And Yu Yancheng fully meets this condition.

The second reason is that Yu Yancheng has a ship that Li Cun particularly wants.

Li Cun asked people to build a large number of rooster cars.

However, in order to ensure that the Huben army has sufficient supplies and that the Huben army can make the eastward expedition easier, Li Cun will definitely need a large number of ships to transport people and supplies.

Looking at Qingxi County, the only one who can provide Li Cun with so many ships is Yu Yancheng, a large merchant.

Therefore, Li Cun must fight against Yu Yancheng, even if it was for nothing else but the large number of ships in Yu Yancheng's hands.

The third reason is that Yu Yancheng deserves to be killed.

Yu Yancheng was a water bandit. When he was doing maritime trade, he especially liked to rob his peers. The merchant ship of the Dynasty family was robbed by him several times, and Li Cun even experienced it once.

It can be said that Li Cun and Yu Yancheng have old enemies.

Moreover, Yu Yancheng is an extremely sinister person, bullying men and dominating women, so he has a very bad reputation here in Qingxi, even worse than Fang Youchang.

If Li Cun captured Yu Yancheng's Yujiazhuang, it would be regarded as revenge, it would also be regarded as eliminating harm for the people, and it would also give Li Cun a good reputation.

The fourth reason is that during the recent period, Yu Yancheng gathered Li Hao to defend Xiangqu and defeated Fang La's men many times. He seemed to have become a stumbling block to the rebel army's Eastern Expedition.

Here's how it goes.

Not long after the uprising succeeded, Yu Yancheng summoned many landowners and formed a group of troops, euphemistically claiming that it was not only to avenge their ally Fang Youchang, but also to unite to protect themselves.

After the people were assembled, Yu Yancheng told the landowners that it would be better to take advantage of Fang Shisan's unsteady footing and dampen his spirit first.

A dozen other landowners knew that Yu Yancheng, a former water bandit, was very good at fighting, so they all agreed with Yu Yancheng's proposal.

Therefore, Yu Yancheng led the landlords' armed forces and took the initiative to attack the rebels.

Since the landlords led by Yu Yancheng were well-armed and equipped with horses, and there were many brave bankers under them, the rebels, on the other hand, had no armor and were just a group of peasants who had just put down their hoes.

As a result, Yu Yancheng won several games in a row - Fang Wu, Fang Qi, Lu Mai and others who had just debuted were all defeated by Yu Yancheng.

That is to say, Yu Yancheng's men were too few before, and the rebels had a large number of people. Yu Yancheng did not dare to go too deep. Otherwise, Yu Yancheng might have wiped out the rebels without waiting for the Western Army to move south.

Under this situation, if Li Cun defeated Yu Yancheng, Li Cun's status in the rebel army would definitely rise sharply.

As for the last reason, that is, Li Cun planned to propose marriage to Fang La after defeating Yu Yancheng.

yes.

Li Cun is a bastard.

But Li Cun is a bastard with some conscience and some bottom line.

When Li Cun was in the most difficult time, Fang Baihua brought a large "dowry" to Li Cun and helped Li Cun survive for several more days. She also gave Li Cun her pure and pure body.

It would be unreasonable not to marry her yet.

Therefore, Li Cun planned to marry Fang Baihua Mingzheng back after conquering Yu Yancheng's Yujiazhuang and demonstrating his strength, and then annex Fang Baihua's army in a legitimate manner.

In short, Li Cun is ready to attack Yujiazhuang.

Unexpectedly, Li Cun hasn't gone to fight Yu Yancheng here yet, but Yu Yancheng is about to fight over there first.

actually--

It is not accurate to say that Yu Yancheng is coming to beat Li Cun.

To be precise, Yu Yancheng was actually preparing to wipe out all the rebels.

In other words, Li Cun is just one of Yu Yancheng's targets.

Ordinarily, in this case, Li Cun could actually choose to sit back and watch the fight, letting Fang La and Yu Yancheng continue fighting, while Li Cun waited to reap the benefits.

But Li Cun's money and food supplies have really gone to the bottom. The key point is that Li Cun really doesn't have time to play these petty tricks, and then lose big for small things.

So Li Cun decided to send troops to attack Yujiazhuang.

As soon as Li Cun, Fang Baihua and Zhang Shi returned to the Huben Army, Fang Jing came looking for them.

As soon as the two parties met, Fang Jing looked at Fang Baihua with hatred.

Since Fang La has been busy expanding the army and studying the reform of the Yuan Dynasty these days, and Yu Yancheng always comes to cause trouble, Fang La doesn't pay much attention to the remote Li Cun and Fang Baihua.

As a result, it was only in the past two days that Fang La heard about the scandal between Li Cun and Fang Baihua.

At first, Fang La firmly didn't believe it.

My own girl knows it herself.

Fang La was 100% sure that Fang Baihua was not that kind of lewd woman. How could she have had an affair with Li Cun in just a few days?

But later, rumors about Li Cun and Fang Baihua spread more and more, and some people even said that Fang Baihua had a dark knot.

Only then did Fang La take the matter seriously, and sent someone to investigate, only to find out that Fang Baihua had lent all his money and food to Li Cun, and had also given the army to Li Cun for training.

Fang La then realized that the scandal between Li Cun and Fang Baihua might be true, and became furious, and then wanted someone to call Fang Baihua back to punish and remove Fang Baihua from his military power.

But at this moment, someone came to report that Yu Yancheng would come to attack them tomorrow.

One trouble after another made Fang La feel a little anxious.

Fang Fei thought for a while and suggested to Fang La: "How about letting Li Cun fight Yu Yancheng, and we will make plans based on the situation later?"

Fang La felt that Fang Fei's move was very good at driving away wolves and tigers, so he asked Fang Jing to order Li Cun to fight.

After Fang Jing looked away from Fang Baihua, he said to Li Cun arrogantly: "My brother ordered you to fight Yu Yancheng. You must not lose if you win. If you lose, my brother will engage in military law against you!"

This is a bit bullying. Fang Wu, Fang Qi, and Lu Balang have all been defeated, and Fang La has not used military methods on any of them. Why is it Li Cun's turn? If he is defeated, Li Cun will be punished?

When Niu Meng and others heard this, they all looked at Fang Jing angrily, as if "as long as Li Cun gives the order, they will kill Fang Jing on the spot."

Li Cun glanced at Fang Baihua, who also looked displeased, and said with a smile: "Go back and talk to Brother Thirteen, and I will find a day to send troops as appropriate."

"Discretion? Find another day? Li Cunbi is afraid of Yu Yancheng and doesn't dare to fight!"

Fang Jing, who had no doubts about his guess, despised Li Cun's cowardice and was angry that Li Cun dared to disobey orders!

But Fang Jing has already noticed that if he talks nonsense again, Niu Meng and others may kill him.

"A good man never suffers immediate losses."

With this thought in his mind, Fang Jing shook his sleeves fiercely and said: "I will truthfully report your words to my brother!"

After speaking, Fang Jing turned around and left.

When Fang Jing left, Li Cun put away his smile and immediately ordered: "Make food immediately and prepare to go to war!"

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Chapter completed!