Chapter 525: Clearing Out the Lair
The big tent was opened, and hundreds of Youzhou generals rushed in. They were all stunned to see that it was Luo Yi sitting on the commander’s seat.

At this time, Sima Zhang Gongjin said loudly: “Last night, General Li was assassinated by the King of Qi. General Yu Gongli, a general under the King of Qi, has led 30,000 troops to occupy Hejian County. The situation in Zhuo County is critical, but the emperor has an emergency plan. I will read out the emperor’s secret order.”

The personal guards quickly set up the incense table, Luo Yi knelt down, followed by Zhao Cihao, Helan Yi, Jin Wenyan, and hundreds of other generals.

Zhang Gongjin unfolded the secret decree and said loudly: “The King of Qi has ulterior motives, the Baoguo is rampant, and the situation in Hebei is unstable. In order to stabilize the overall situation in Youzhou, I hereby appoint General Huben Luo Yi as the deputy governor of Youzhou, confer the title of Shangzhuguo, and promote him to the title of Shanggu County Duke. If an emergency occurs and General Li is unable to take on the responsibility, Luo Yi can temporarily take over the position of governor of Youzhou. I decree this!”

Luo Yi said loudly: “The emperor’s grace is great. Luo Yi is willing to serve you with all his heart and soul!”

Zhao Cihao and the other two also shouted, “We will obey the emperor’s order!”

This is where Luo Yi’s cunning lies. He dared to use a fake imperial edict. The generals never thought that the imperial edict was actually fake. Although it was a bit strange, no one would pursue it.

All the generals responded loudly, “We will obey the emperor’s order!”

Luo Yi stood up, took the imperial edict, and sat down on the commander’s seat. Zhao Cihao, Helan Yi, Jin Wenyan and other generals came to pay homage together. Luo Yi officially took control of Youzhou.

Luo Yi immediately appointed his brother Luo Shou as the military commander of Yingzhou to take over his position. He personally led 30,000 Youzhou troops southward, preparing for a decisive battle with the rebel army of the King of Qi.

At dawn, on the outskirts of Guilong Island, west of Ryukyu Island, the warriors on duty suddenly discovered countless warships on the sea. The warriors were so scared that they rang the alarm bell, “Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!”

The alarm bells on the island also responded, and they sounded loudly everywhere.

The settlement is located in the flat hilly area on the north side of the island. It consists of hundreds of wooden houses, surrounded by fences, a martial arts field and a meeting hall. A large flag with the words “founding a country” written on it is planted on the roof of the meeting hall.

This is the headquarters of the Jianguo Party formed by the Yamakoshi warlords. There are more than 400 households and more than 1,000 samurai guards. The current leader of the Jianguo Palace is Lan Zhaotian, and the deputy leader is his brother Lan Zhaofeng, who is also the current leader of the island.

The Jianguo Government was only established a year ago. It was previously called the Yamakoshi Mutual Aid Society. Hundreds of remnants of the Gao Zhihui rebellion fled to Ryukyu Island. Later, more and more people defected, reaching a maximum of more than 3,000 people.

However, due to conflicts between the Shanyue people and the local natives during land reclamation, the two sides fought many times. The Shanyue people were outnumbered and suffered heavy losses, so the remaining people had to retreat to Guilong Island.

When we first retreated to Guilong Island, things were very miserable. There were less than a thousand people, almost all of them were the elderly, the weak, women and children.

However, since last year, a large number of Yamayue nobles have sent their families and wealth to Guilong Island, and the population has increased again to nearly three thousand people, with more than one thousand samurai guards.

At this time, Lan Zhaofeng had already learned that the Shanyue forces had been completely wiped out and there was no hope for large-scale combat. They began to change direction and train assassins to avenge their dead family members.

The alarm bells echoed in the camp, and Lan Zhaofeng rushed out of the big wooden house and shouted: “All young men and warriors, assemble!”

The National Founding Association mobilized every citizen to fight. All men under the age of 60 were dressed in helmets and armor and gathered with spears in hand. As soon as they finished gathering, 10,000 navy soldiers had already disembarked. Generals Chen Leng and Zhu Kuan each led 5,000 troops to attack the National Founding Association camp from the east and west sides.

Two thousand soldiers of the National Construction Association rushed out and met Chen Leng’s five thousand soldiers. Before the two sides exchanged blows, arrows rained down on the two thousand soldiers of the National Construction Association. The soldiers’ leather armor could not stop the sharp and powerful armor-piercing crossbow arrows. Soldiers were shot down one after another, and screams and wails were heard everywhere. Two rounds of crossbow arrows killed half of the enemy.
The remaining less than a thousand soldiers turned around and fled, but were surrounded by Zhu Kuan’s army that came from behind. Although the navy was insufficiently trained, it was more than enough to deal with the people of the National Founding Association. After a few rounds of attacks, the number of soldiers of the National Founding Association was sharply reduced to three hundred, including the leader Lan Zhaofeng who was pierced by several spears. The rest of the people knelt down and surrendered.

It was easy to defeat the National Founding Association, but it required a long journey across the sea. In just half an hour, the National Founding Association was completely destroyed, leaving only more than 2,000 elderly, weak, women and children.

Led by several old men, the Sui soldiers found more than 5,000 boxes of wealth sealed in a cave not far behind them. This was the real reason why Xiao Xia decided to send troops to suppress the National Founding Association. Most of the wealth of the Shanyue tyrants had been transferred to overseas islands by them in advance.

The next day, the Sui army burned down the Founding Society. They then divided their troops into three groups. Sima Liu Jian was responsible for escorting the wealth and prisoners of war back to Quanzhou, and then returning to Jiangdu from Quanzhou.

Chen Leng led fifty warships and three thousand soldiers to explore the large island of Ryukyu. Zhu Kuan and Zhang Zhenzhou, led by He Man, led fifty warships and two thousand soldiers to explore the small island of Ryukyu.

The atmosphere in Jiangdu has always been relaxed on the outside but tense on the inside. On the surface, business is booming and people live and work in peace and contentment. Lower-class people are busy making a living, while middle-class families are beginning to use honeycomb coal instead of firewood in large quantities, and wealthy families are sitting in teahouses and restaurants discussing world affairs.

But in fact, the Jiangdu government and military had been preparing for war in full swing, purchasing large quantities of cloth and grain, and stockpiling dried meat and fish. At the Jiangdu wharf, a large number of fleets came and went, delivering all kinds of bulk supplies.

A large number of military craftsmen moved to Jiangdu with their families from all over Jiangnan. The iron mine that had just been discovered in the western part of Danyang County also began to be mined in large quantities. Tens of thousands of miners in Jiangbei mined high-quality iron ore and copper ore, and transported them to Jiangdu by large ships for smelting in Jiangdu.

Salt was now completely monopolized by the government. Refined salt continued to be priced at 30 wen per catty, while coarse salt was priced at 20 wen per catty, which was actually the salt tax. At the same time as the salt tax was levied, commercial taxes were reduced by half, and all miscellaneous taxes on the people were also cancelled.

For ordinary people, the fact that salt became a government monopoly had no impact on them. It was mainly the Guanlong nobles and local tyrants who suffered losses. However, the cancellation of various miscellaneous taxes and fees was a visible benefit to ordinary people. This move aroused enthusiastic responses in various parts of Jiangnan Road, and the people cheered and applauded.

For the local tyrants, although the salt profits were gone, the commercial taxes were halved, which benefited the local tyrants who mainly engaged in business and to some extent compensated for the loss of salt profits.

More importantly, all checkpoints have been abolished since last year. Except for very few interceptions taken to suppress the rebellion of Shanyue, there are no checkpoints on the waterways, official roads and city gates in the counties and prefectures of Jiangdu Road. This is called the customs clearance operation by merchants.

This action is of great significance to businessmen. In fact, there is not much commercial tax, and the gray charges at various checkpoints make businessmen miserable.

The “customs clearance operation” over the past year has brought remarkable results. Business is extremely active, materials are circulated rapidly, and the upstream shipbuilding, freight, terminal and warehouse industries, etc. have also shared prosperity.

By the end of July, a major event occurred in the Prince of Jin’s Mansion. The Prince of Jin’s wife and the concubine Zhang Qiao became pregnant at the same time.

That afternoon, Cui Mei and Lu Xieting came back from bathing in Jiangdu Palace. Although they did not live in Jiangdu Palace, they had been enjoying the hot springs there.

As soon as she entered the palace, Cui Mei found the princess and said, “Sister, Jiangdu Palace is so beautiful, why don’t you move there? Didn’t they say that the emperor would not come to Jiangdu?”

Cui Yu laughed and said, “Who told you that the emperor will not come to Jiangdu?”

“That’s what they say. I walked around Jiangdu City and heard a group of old people say this while drinking tea in a teahouse. They said that after the rebellion of the King of Qi, the emperor no longer trusted the governors of various places, especially Jiangdu, and he would not come again.”

Cui Yu frowned, “Why are you hanging around outside for no reason?”

(End of this chapter)