Chapter 434: Japanese Silver Mountain

The fall of the Southern Han Dynasty was very fast. After Liu Sheng was captured, it disappeared in the blink of an eye. Guo Rong even recovered the Jinghai Army and re-established the Rinan County here.

The position of the Jinghai Army Jiedushi actually includes the Liangshan in Vietnam in reality. This place was originally the Rinan County in the Western Han Dynasty. The Jinghai Army Jiedushi was established during the Tang Dynasty.

Guo Rong did not want to abandon this place. He now wanted to learn from Li Shimin and become an emperor of the ages. He also wanted his temple name after his death to be Taizong, not Shizong.

Emperor Taizong Wen of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

So naturally he had to ensure that the Golden Bowl was intact. Therefore, he had to take back not only Rinan County, but also Dali Kingdom. The Andong Protectorate in the northeast and the four Anxi towns in the western region were all in his plan.

The appearance of the tram gave him full confidence.

Guo Rong also implemented the Fubing system in Rinan County. Rinan County was also divided into eight Zhechongfu, with a total of 8,000 Fubing. Because the climate in Rinan County is hot and not suitable for war horses, there are not many horses prepared here. Guo Rong established the South China Sea Navy in Lingnan, and Rinan County is a base of the South China Sea Navy.

The environment here is hot, there are a lot of tropical rainforests, and there are continuous mountains, which makes it difficult to travel on land, so it is necessary to prepare a navy.

At the same time, Guo Rong has been preparing to open the sea. The first step to open the sea is to have a strong enough navy to protect the thousands of miles of sea.

After conquering the Northern Han, Guo Rong spent a year to sort out the south of the Yangtze River, and then returned to his loyal Luoyang. At this time, the Later Shu Kingdom had also been conquered, and the world was basically unified.

Next, he began to collect intelligence on the Dali Kingdom and prepare to attack the Dali Kingdom.

During this period of time, the court was not idle. Richard collected several silver mines and then increased the number of silver coins again. The court had more money in its hands. After having money, Richard began to repair water conservancy projects in various places.

You must know that over the years, the world has been in chaos for a hundred years, and water conservancy projects in many places have not been repaired for decades. Now that the court has silver coins, it cannot keep them in its hands all the time, but must let them circulate.

The best way to circulate silver coins is to build infrastructure in various places. Not only can it improve the roads and water conservancy projects in the world, but it can also give the people more money.

The emergence of silver coins has alleviated the shortage of money. Even though the court has suppressed more than three million silver coins for four consecutive years, it is still hard to find silver coins on the market. These silver coins are basically collected by the wealthy and powerful.

Although there are fewer silver coins on the market, the number of copper coins has increased. The court suppressed so many silver coins, but there is still a shortage of money on the market.

One of the reasons is that the north and the south began to connect. Jiangnan is also short of money. In fact, since the Tang Dynasty, the economic situation in Jiangnan has begun to surpass the north and Guanzhong.

Now Jiangnan is active in commerce, and often barter is used. The shortage of money is more serious than in the north. In the Southern Liang period, Emperor Wu of Liang Xiao Yan made hundreds of millions of iron coins in the Southern Liang in order to worship Buddhism, which caused serious consequences. The main reason is the lack of copper.

Now the emergence of silver coins has greatly alleviated the shortage of money and promoted the development of commerce, but silver coins are still insufficient. Richard speculated that in order to make the coins on the market circulate normally, at least one or two million silver coins and the same number of copper coins must be minted every year.

Richard has now discovered that many silver coins have been circulated to other countries, the most obvious of which is the Khitan Liao Kingdom. The Liao Kingdom was also short of money, and at least 300,000 of the iron coins he minted were circulated to the Liao Kingdom.

In addition to the Liao Kingdom, Goryeo, Silla, and Baekje also had silver coins in circulation, and even the Great Zhou silver coins began to appear in Japan. And with the continuous expansion of Zhou's trade, in the future, Tianzhu, Dashi and even the farther West will have Zhou's silver coins in circulation.

The output of silver in the Central Plains is not high. If the court continues to mine, it will eventually be insufficient even if the silver mines are emptied, so Richard turned his attention to Japan.

At this time, Japan was in the midst of war and was a mess. At this time, the largest silver mine in Asia was in Japan. If we can take this silver mine, the silver coins of the Great Zhou will not be cut off for the next few hundred years.

The problem of money shortage will be solved.

"Your Majesty, although there are silver mines in the Central Plains now, I do not recommend large-scale mining." Richard said to Guo Rong in the Qinzheng Palace.

Guo Rong wondered: "Why don't you mine the silver mines? Sir?"

"Your Majesty, we must leave some for future generations. What if we have mined them all now and they have nothing to use?" Richard said.

"Then what will we use if we don't mine now?"

"It's very simple, Your Majesty, we don't mine ours, but we can mine other places!" Richard smiled and took out a map.

"This is the Central Plains, this is Jiangnan, this is the East China Sea, and this island is Dongying."

"When I traveled around the world, I found a huge silver mine on this small island in Dongying! Its reserves are more than the silver mines in the whole of China now, enough for us to use for a long time."

"There is such a silver mountain in the small Dongying?" Guo Rong said in surprise.

"Your Majesty, this overseas land has many special products. Some places have so much gold and silver that it is like a mountain of gold and a sea of ​​silver." Richard said with a smile.

"Overseas, tens of thousands of miles east of the ocean, there is a vast land that does not detract from the Central Plains. There are so many gold mines here that it is rare in the world. In the south, there is the world's largest silver mountain."

"Overseas is so rich!" Guo Rong's eyes kept shining when he heard Richard's description. Such wealth must be in the hands of the court.

"It's a pity that the distance is too far." When he thought of the distance of tens of thousands of miles, Guo Rong sighed again.

"Your Majesty, it is still very difficult to travel back and forth with the current navigation technology, but with the continuous development of navigation technology and shipbuilding technology, we will eventually build a large ship that can cross the ocean, and then we can naturally send people to mine!"

"Will there really be such a day?" Guo Rong asked.

"Of course there is! Your Majesty, as long as you encourage craftsmen to continue to improve technology, it will be realized one day."

"It's still a long way to cross the ocean, but this one in front of us can't be let go."

"This silver mine in Japan must be taken!" Guo Rong looked at the map in front of him and said: "But my Great Zhou is a country in the Central Plains and a country of etiquette. Japan was very respectful during the Tang Dynasty. I'm afraid it will be a hasty conquest."

"Your Majesty, the Japanese are not respectful." Richard said directly.

"Oh, is there something else going on here?"

"During the pre-Sui Dynasty, Japan sent envoys to the Sui Dynasty, and the letters they brought to the country called the emperor of the country of the rising sun to the emperor of the country of the setting sun. Then they were taught a lesson by Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty."

"Then during the Tang Dynasty, these Japanese people called themselves the emperor, and the letters brought by the envoys to the Tang Dynasty even more brazenly called themselves the emperor. Then Wu Zetian was furious and denounced them as the king of Wa and forbade them to call themselves the emperor."

"Emperor?" Guo Rong was slightly stunned, and then he said angrily: "Your small country dares to call yourself the emperor!"

"A small barbarian actually called himself the emperor! Treason!"

Guo Rong was furious: "Extremely arrogant!"

"Come here! Order all the cabinet ministers and the Privy Council, and all the six ministers to come to the Qinzheng Hall!" Guo Rong gave a direct order.

Soon many ministers came one after another. At this time, everyone didn't know what happened, but seeing Guo Rong's angry face, they all became cautious.

Guo Rong was usually kind to others and respected his ministers, but he was equally terrifying when he got angry. You have to know that this was an emperor who was about to conquer the country. From the first day of his accession to the throne, it was the Battle of Gaoping. He won the Battle of Gaoping against all odds, and only then did he gain the respect of those arrogant and brave generals.

After that, he fought all over the world. No one dared to face his anger except Richard.

"Your Majesty, what is the important matter for summoning us?" asked the deputy prime minister Fan next to him.

"Get ready, the court will send a large army to conquer Japan as soon as possible!" Guo Rong said directly.

"Conquer Japan?" Hearing this, the ministers around were stunned. What was going on? Why did the emperor suddenly want to conquer Japan?

Japan was overseas, far away from the Central Plains. What if the army failed? In addition, the only way to go to Japan was by boat. The sea was turbulent. Once something went wrong, tens of thousands of troops might be overturned by the waves. The risk was too great.

"Your Majesty, Japan is a vassal state. Come and submit quickly. It's not a good idea to attack rashly." Another minister said.

"Aggression rashly? Come and submit quickly?" Guo Rong sneered, then stood up and said: "Come and submit quickly. They dare to use the title of the emperor. You tell me to come and submit quickly?"

"He is a small barbarian, the country of Japanese slaves, and he dares to usurp the title of the emperor! What is the emperor of the Great Zhou?"

The minister who just spoke was frightened by Guo Rong's spray, and knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, calm down. I didn't know that this barbarian was so rampant!"

When the ministers in the hall heard the word emperor from Guo Rong's mouth, they were in an uproar. A small barbarian dared to call himself the emperor. This is intolerable for the Great Zhou Dynasty, which unified the world and rebuilt China.

A small barbarian country of Japan dared to use the emperor. This is disrespect for China!

Hearing this, the ministers in the hall were furious and immediately expressed their desire to teach these barbarians a lesson!

The Great Zhou was able to unify the world, so it was naturally full of martial virtue. Guo Rong was actually equivalent to the founding monarch of the Zhou Kingdom. In this situation, Japan must pay the price.

It just so happened that after recovering Wuyue, Southern Han, and Southern Tang, the court also accepted the navy of Southern Tang, Wuyue, and Southern Han, with a navy of 100,000. So many navies are kept, so it’s just right to send these navies out to give those barbarians a little shock of the Great Zhou!

As for the night parade of a hundred ghosts and the dancing of demons in Japan, it is difficult for others, but it is not worth mentioning for Richard. As long as he wants, he can directly wipe out all the monsters and onmyojis in Japan.

Even if the so-called Amaterasu dares to come out, he can deal with it with one stick.

After everyone in the court reached a consensus, the war machine of the Great Zhou Dynasty immediately began to operate. After learning that the court was going to conquer Japan, the generals were immediately excited.

Seeing that the world was unified, there was almost no war to fight in the future, but suddenly they heard that the court was going to conquer Japan. This was great news for those ministers who wanted to make merit.

Moreover, many generals who knew about Japan found that if they wanted to conquer Japan, the best way was to attack from the north, and the north line was to start from Dengzhou, first go north to Silla, then go south along the coast, cross the Tsushima Strait, and then come to Japan.

This route can be said to be the safest. If you want to go here, you have to attack Liaodong and control Goryeo, Silla, and Baekje at the same time. Since you have already done this, then the Liao Kingdom should be destroyed.

Counting it this way, it is another merit of destroying a country.

The generals who were originally worried about not having the opportunity to make merits immediately became happy, and began to connect with each other, ready to grab the credit.

Especially those generals who did not make great contributions in destroying Tang, Wuyue, and Southern Han, they put all their efforts into it and prepared to do a big job. Even if they could not grab a duke, they would grab a county marquis.

Guo Rong naturally noticed the thoughts of these people and encouraged them in his heart. He naturally did not intend to let the Liao Kingdom go.

The Liao Kingdom, a Khitan tribe in the northeast in the past, has grown to this point today. Although the Liao Kingdom lost the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, they took away a large number of craftsmen and books from here.

The current Liao Kingdom is far from the nomadic people who had no technology in the past. Although their weapons and equipment are not as good as those of the Zhou Kingdom, they are not far behind.

It can be said that the current Liao Kingdom is to the Zhou Kingdom what Goguryeo was to Li Tang.

The emergence of such a powerful nomadic country in the north is not a good thing for the Zhou Kingdom. So Guo Rong would never allow the Liao Kingdom to continue to develop.

It just so happened that in the past few years, the court conquered the Northern Han, Southern Tang, Southern Han, and Wuyue, unified the world, and greatly increased the national strength. On the other side, those rail carriages have also been laid to Youzhou.

The time has come for the court army to conquer the Liao Kingdom.

This time to deal with the Liao Kingdom, Guo Rong is ready to advance by land and sea, starting from Donglai and attacking across the sea. The land route is to go north from Youzhou.

After the army went north from Youzhou, it attracted the Khitan army, and then went straight to the rear of the Liao Kingdom by land and sea. Under the pincer attack from both sides, the Liao Kingdom was strong, and there was only one way to go, which was defeat.

After recovering Hexi, the court obtained a large number of war horses. At this time, the number of war horses of the imperial army was no worse than that of the Khitans, and the cavalry that the Khitans were proud of did not have an advantage.

Guo Rong appointed ministers to prepare food and supplies, and began to send troops to Youzhou. Although Guo Rong wanted to conquer Japan as soon as possible, he was not in a hurry.

He deployed his troops in an orderly manner, and did not become complacent because he unified the country. With the help of rail carriages and sea transportation, the food and supplies prepared by the court were quickly transported to Youzhou, and a war was about to break out.