However, at the same time, a problem arises!
After fighting the Northern Barbarians for so long and expending so much food, we've still managed to give them some Northern Barbarians food. Our own food supply is probably already severely depleted, which is a huge problem.
He looked at Ran Xianhua and said in a deep voice, "Minister Ran, how much grain does Great Ning have left?"
"Ah, this..."
Ran Xianhua's face stiffened, but he dared not hide the truth and said with a wry smile, "Your Majesty, the national treasury is now basically empty, and the grain is insufficient to support a war!"
He naturally understood the Emperor's thoughts. To be honest, he would have agreed a hundredfold to punish Lin Yi, but now that there was no food in hand, even a skilled cook cannot make a meal without rice.
Li Anlan frowned slightly and said in a deep voice, "Does my esteemed minister have a solution?"
Well!
Ran Xianhua looked at the ministers, especially those from several powerful families. These people were extremely wealthy and must have a large amount of grain in their hands.
Holy crap!
Everyone felt a chill run down their spines. This guy was trying to steal their food! This was going too far!
Cough cough!
"Your Majesty, I believe it is not advisable to start another war now. In addition to the shortage of food supplies, the Battle of Mountain and River Pass has cost us nearly 60,000 men, and the Xining Army has been almost entirely wiped out. We need to recuperate!" A minister stepped forward decisively and said with a righteous expression.
Li Anlan's face stiffened. These were clearly members of the Zhang Clan family. Sure enough, when it came to paying money, they all came up with excuses.
However, before he could speak, the other ministers also stepped forward.
"Your Majesty, please forgive us. Our family has run out of surplus grain. We provided a considerable amount of food to support the war effort, and we also supplied grain to the Northern Barbarians."
"There's really none left, not a single drop!"
"The southern chieftains have just been pacified; if war breaks out again, it will likely lead to another resurgence!"
"Your Majesty, the Shu Region and the Min River area have not yet been completely subdued; it is truly unwise to start a war!"
Damn it!
Li Anlan's face turned green with anger, but he forced himself to hold it in, because the last sentence reminded him that although these two places had been captured, if they were not fully digested, there was a possibility of reversals later.
With a combined army of 400,000, it's impossible to kill them all, so we must subdue them, otherwise all our efforts will be in vain.
Furthermore, although the southern chieftains have calmed down somewhat, it's hard to guarantee they won't cause trouble again. It seems we still need to send people to appease them, and it would be even better if we could completely subdue them.
Moreover, food security is indeed a major issue, and if it is not resolved, the consequences will be unimaginable.
Perhaps there is another way: Lin Yi has a bumper potato harvest. If they can seize all of them, they can instantly replenish their food supply.
But the key point is that Lin Yi isn't stupid; he wouldn't fund an attack on himself for Great Ning.
Forget it, let's wait a while. Maybe we can use ocean fishing to quickly recover.
Thinking of this, he looked at Zhan Shunyu and said in a deep voice, "Minister Zhan, the results of ocean fishing are quite good. Now that you have quite a few warships, it's time to carry out large-scale fishing. We can't let the Prince of Xiliang monopolize the benefits!"
"Your Majesty, the problem is that our fishing boats don't have ice storage, so the fish are hard to preserve..." Zhan Shunyu sighed, his face full of bitterness.
The Great Ning warships were not modified, so they were not only slow, but also lacked ice storage.
When they came back last time, everything except some fish kept in the hold had gone bad, which was a big problem.
Speaking of this, the other families who had participated in fishing also sighed. They had caught a lot of fish last time, but the losses were also huge.
oh?
Li Anlan frowned, took a sip of tea, and then said in a deep voice, "How did Lin Yi solve it? I don't believe they don't know this problem; they must have a way!"
"Your Majesty, Lin Yi has built a special icehouse by transporting ice blocks from the Icefield Kingdom," Zhan Shunyu said with a wry smile.
puff!
Li Anlan spat out a mouthful of tea, staring in disbelief. "What did you say? Transporting ice back from the Icefield Kingdom? Are you kidding me?"
Transporting ice blocks from the Icefield Kingdom thousands of miles away to fish is simply a fantasy. How much would that cost? Could Lin Yi possibly recoup that by selling fish?
This ice is very heavy, and it will melt and be lost along the way. This is utter nonsense.
"It is indeed a bit outrageous, but their fishing boats do have ice storage. I sent people to check several fishing boats from the northern fishing families, and they all have ice storage."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Zinong of the Privy Treasury couldn't help but smile wryly.
Li Anlan frowned. Asking him to transport ice blocks from the Icefield Kingdom was absolutely impossible; the cost was simply astronomical.
After a moment's thought, he said in a deep voice, "What if we don't need an icehouse, but instead build a huge space filled with seawater, and raise fish in it using only seawater?"
"That's possible, but seawater is quite corrosive to warships, and if a large amount of seawater is loaded in, the warship's draft will increase, and its speed will decrease..." Zhan Shunyu strongly disagreed with this idea. Although it would save money, it would have endless troubles in the future.
The corrosive effects of seawater are no joke; if this problem cannot be solved, the warships will soon be scrapped.
Moreover, if a warship in this condition were attacked, it would have virtually no chance of escape; the attackers would catch it easily, which would be a huge problem.
Li Anlan took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, " Privy Treasury, hurry up and study the corrosion prevention problem. Also, try to find out from Lin Yi that we can spend money to have him help build an icehouse. It would be even better if we could learn the technology!"
Give us the money, that's fine. As long as Great Ning develops, everything in the future will belong to Great Ning.
The population base in the north destined the development of this father and son to be no match for the Great Ning Dynasty, so there was no need to rush.
Let him off the hook for now!
Now, to deal with the two major vassal kings, we should first thoroughly digest them.
Xiliang Commandery!
Now the potato sale has finally come to an end. Apart from some potatoes that Lin Yi gave away for free, Jia Xu alone sold more than two million catties of potatoes.
Most of these potatoes ended up in the pockets of aristocratic families, and some wealthy merchants also bought a considerable amount. As for their specific use, that remains unknown.
However, looking at the large stack of silver notes in front of him, Lin Yi couldn't help but laugh out loud, saying irritably, "As expected of our strategist, these potatoes actually sold for over forty million taels of silver! That's unbelievable!"
This is an astronomical sum; if Li Anlan knew, he'd probably be spitting blood.
"Hehe, these are seeds, so naturally we can't use the usual price! After we buy them this time, they won't need to buy them again next time, so it's normal for the price to be a bit higher!" Jia Xu chuckled, looking quite smug.
Hahaha!
Everyone burst into laughter; that statement was indeed true, otherwise their lord would have suffered a huge loss.
It has to be you, my strategist!