The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 811 Intolerable
In the East Market of Chang'an, Shi Xiaozhen personally led hundreds of Imperial Guards to surround the Silla Trading Company located in the East Market. The Silla Dynasty had more than 30 shops in the Sui Dynasty, distributed in various places. The Silla Trading Company was the headquarters of these shops, and all kinds of money and material allocation were uniformly handled by the Silla Trading Company.

Jin Shengyun from Luoyang was also a deputy manager of the Xinluo Trading Company. If the Inner Guard wanted to take action against the Xinluo shops, they first had to raid the Xinluo Trading Company and obtain the register before they could proceed.

The Imperial Guard soldiers burst through the gates of the Silla Trading Company and rushed inside. After a brief burst of shouting and cursing, the Silla Trading Company fell silent. More than twenty people knelt in the courtyard, their hands tied behind their backs.

The internal security soldiers quickly found 80,000 counterfeit coins and a large number of ledgers in the basement.

Shi Xiaozhen looked at the ledger, which recorded very clearly that a total of 100,000 white coins were issued. 20,000 coins were allocated to Luoyang, 10,000 coins each to Chengdu and Jiangdu, and 8,000 coins had already been exchanged in Chang'an and stored as silver by a wealthy man surnamed Yu.

In addition, there were 200,000 strings of cash in red goods, stored in a storehouse in Licheng County.

Shi Xiaozhen opened the register and discovered that Silla had actually opened a counterfeit money exchange shop in Yeokseong County last year, with branches in Bukgun and Dongnaegun. It was indeed very convenient to exchange counterfeit money through the counterfeit money exchange shop.

Shi Xiaozhen confiscated the counterfeit money from the wealthy Yu family and escorted the prisoners, counterfeit money, and account books back to Luoyang.

Upon returning to Luoyang, Shi Xiaozhen dispatched more than forty teams of imperial guards to various places to confiscate and destroy the Silla shops scattered throughout the region, wiping them out in one fell swoop.

Inside the imperial study, Xiao Xia looked at the thick stack of shipping manifests and asked, "How many are there?"

The delivery slip was a counterfeit money slip distributed by Chang'an Xinluo Trading Company to shops in various regions. Each delivery slip meant that a batch of counterfeit money was put into the market.

"Your Majesty, from the eighth year of the Daye era to the present, there have been a total of 450,000 strings of counterfeit money!"

Xiao Xia's face immediately turned extremely ugly. There were actually 450,000 guan! Silla really deserves to die!

Shi Xiaozhen whispered, "Your Majesty, this is not the most serious thing!"

"What else?"

"There are also people; they tricked 20,000 households from Hebei Province, Henan Province, and other places into becoming slaves in Silla!"

"Twenty thousand households!"

Xiao Xia was shocked. "How did you do that?"

"Give them two hundred strings of cash on the spot, and after we talk about Liaodong, give each household another five hundred mu of permanent farmland. Ask the fleeing people if they want to go?"

"Ordinary people certainly couldn't stop them, but what I'm concerned about is how they got to Silla?"

“I interrogated them thoroughly. They rented a boat from Kuaiji County, sailed out to sea from Bohai County, and went directly to Silla.”

Xiao Xia narrowed his eyes, a chilling killing intent flashing within them, and said coldly, "A ship from Kuaiji County, could it be from the Zhu family?"

The Zhu family of Kuaiji Commandery is the largest maritime merchant family in the Jiangnan region, owning nearly a hundred ships with a value of over 5,000 shi (a unit of grain measure). Xiao Xia even received the family head, Zhu Xuhui, in person. "They don't know exactly where the ships were rented from; it was an official from Silla (Korea) who was in charge of renting them."

Xiao Xia's anger could no longer be contained, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Since Silla is determined to seek its own death, it cannot be blamed on me!"

Inside the Hall of State Affairs, Xiao Xia angrily slammed his fist on the table, pointed to the investigation records on it, and said to the ministers, "What do you mean by kicking someone when they're down? This is kicking someone when they're down. Taking advantage of the internal strife in the Sui Dynasty, they made a fortune from the war, plundered 450,000 strings of cash from the Sui Dynasty with counterfeit money, and also plundered nearly 20,000 people. It would be against all reason if such a small country did not perish."

These are not interrogation records, but secret ledgers of the Silla trading company. Behind each cold number lies a shocking plunder of wealth. No one could have imagined that in just three or four years, Silla would issue 450,000 guan of counterfeit money in the Sui Dynasty, using inferior iron coins to impersonate Daye Tongbao, and using all of it to buy various goods to be transported back to Silla.

What's even more infuriating is that they impersonated the Jiangnan Province and used ships to pick up people from various parts of Hebei. The people thought they were being taken to Jiangnan Province, but in the end, they were being transported to Silla as slaves.

"Your Majesty, our goal next year is to conquer the Western Regions. Wouldn't it be too much pressure if we were to fight on two fronts?" Pei Ju whispered.

Xiao Xia said coldly, "What pressure will there be? The Western Regions are just for intimidating small countries and establishing the Anxi Protectorate and the Beiting Protectorate. Twenty thousand people are enough. But Silla must be destroyed, otherwise I won't be able to sleep well for the whole year next year."

Liu Wenjing advised, "Your Majesty, please calm down and listen to my proposal!"

Xiao Xia nodded, "Please speak, Prime Minister Liu!"

"Your Majesty, we can use the same strategy we used to attack Goguryeo. First, we can establish a logistics base around Silla, then destroy all of its warships to disable its ability to sail. Then we can easily deal with Silla. I remember there is an island called Tamna Island in the southern seas of Silla, famous for its citrus fruits. It is about the size of one of our prefectures. We can occupy Tamna Island first, station troops there, and then use Tamna Island as a base to launch a large-scale invasion and sweep across Silla. What do you think, Your Majesty?"

Xiao Xia nodded, "This is also my idea, it can be implemented!"

Wei Zheng continued, “Besides Silla, there are also Baekje and Goguryeo on the peninsula. In fact, Baekje is closer to us. If Your Majesty destroys Silla but not Baekje, it will only benefit Baekje and Goguryeo in the end. My idea is that if we are to fight, it is best to destroy all three at once. Leaving one behind will eventually become a problem. Completely destroy the three regimes on the peninsula, change the population, and establish prefectures and counties. This is the long-term solution.”

Fang Xuanling also said, "Your Majesty, I support your thinking, but I would like to add that we cannot fight against all three at the same time. This is to prevent them from forming an alliance and uniting against a common enemy. Issuing counterfeit money and plundering people would be a good excuse for launching an attack. I can send envoys to inform the other two and appease them. If Baekje and Goguryeo take the opportunity to launch an attack and seize Silla's territory, we can tacitly approve it. After we have completely destroyed Silla, we can then launch an attack on Baekje over the land issue. At the same time, we can reinforce our troops in the north to contain Goguryeo and prevent it from making any rash moves. Once we have destroyed Baekje, Goguryeo will be trapped and can be destroyed at any time."

The last to speak was Xiao Yu, who bowed and said, “Your Majesty, when I was in Jiangdu, I chatted with some maritime merchants, and they mentioned Tamna Island. They said there is a small country on it called Tamna Kingdom, with a population of only a few thousand. It is much closer to Tamna Island by sea from Jiangdu than by sea from Donglai County. We can first send a small army to determine the route, and then transport supplies, food and troops to Tamna Island on a large scale after the spring.”

Pei Ju realized his mistake and quickly said, "Your Majesty, these two months are just the right time to prepare for war and mobilize troops to Jiangdu!"

The Council of State Affairs finalized the plan to send troops to Silla. Next, Xiao Xia needed to consider the commander-in-chief. Just then, Chu Suiliang reported at the door, "Your Majesty, General Luo Shixin requests an audience!"

"Has this guy sensed something?" Xiao Xia laughed. "Summon him to an audience!"

Before long, General Luo Shixin of the Left Guard hurried in, bowed and said, "Greetings, Your Majesty!"

"What wind blew General Luo here?" Xiao Xia chuckled.

Luo Shixin quickly replied, "Your humble servant is willing to don armor and lead the expedition against Silla in place of Your Majesty!"

(End of this chapter)