With 100,000 elite soldiers at the start, what should you call me?

……

A ledger detailing the Yun family's past crimes was placed in front of Yun Richu.

Yun Richu fell silent. Li Tian was clearly using the lives of his entire family as leverage.

If you don't agree, the Yun family will disappear from this world today.

If I agree to this, wouldn't I be willingly degrading myself and joining the ranks of bandits? This would be a disgrace to the scholar-officials!

Li Tian wasn't in a hurry. He gave Yun Richu a chance in order to send a signal to the outside world, a friendly signal.

They possess 100,000 elite soldiers, including highly intelligent individuals, and are equipped with unlimited guns and ammunition.

Crushing all opposing forces would be an absolute breeze.

But would killing off all those who openly oppose you be of any use?

This will only create more hidden enemies, who will use the power of public opinion to demonize the new army, making it even more difficult for Li Tian to take action in the future.

Moreover, once a war is started, there will inevitably be suicide soldiers who die. There is no need to start a meaningless war; it is enough to buy time and develop in a stable manner.

Li Tian has not yet gained control over public opinion in this world.

In the initial stages, he needed to attract some "locals" to help him.

Sending Yun Richu as an envoy to Fuzhou can be seen as such a signal.

He needs to leverage the other party's influence.

"I instigated a rebellion, raised an army, and intended to retake Jianning Prefecture. General Li, you're quite bold to trust this old man to do your bidding?"

After a long silence, Yun Richu finally spoke, revealing that his previous secret collusion with Chen Jin was merely an attempt to preserve the Yun family line.

Now that the Qing army has left, an even more terrifying killing god has arrived.

The fate of the Yun family is entirely in Li Tian's hands.

Suddenly, at that moment, the young Li Tian in front of him became terrifying in his eyes.

Li Tian smiled calmly; "Of course you can rest assured, I'm not that narrow-minded."

All Yun Richu needs to do is appear in the envoy's procession; he doesn't need to do anything else.

Moreover, the lives of the other party's entire family are in Li Tian's hands, so Li Tian is not afraid of what Yun Richu might do.

Perhaps the other party should be wary of me.

"Very well, I will make this trip."

Yun Richu finally agreed; "However, I request that General Li erase all account books."

After speaking, Yun Richu pointed to the account book on the table.

"You have no right to negotiate with me. Even if I destroy all the ledgers in front of you, would you really be at ease?"

"I could hide one anywhere, and you wouldn't even know." Li Tian's gaze turned cold.

The old man was completely unaware of his own situation and still wanted to negotiate with him.

Yun Richu snorted coldly, then turned and left the office.

"Commander, it seems unnecessary to bring Yun Richu on a mission to Fuzhou." Zhang Yonghao felt that with a 'local' like Wang Qi, it would be enough to handle the peace talks; adding Yun Richu seemed redundant.

Li Tian shook his head; "We have to add Yun Richu. This world values ​​seniority and background."

"Yun Richu's appearance in our envoy group was also to tell the intellectuals of this era that besides the Ming Dynasty, there was another force they could rely on."

"We may not use these people who have come to our aid, but we must never let them serve our future enemies."

In Li Tian's eyes, both the Qing Dynasty to the north and the Ming Dynasty to the south were his future enemies.

Yun Richu was a senior figure with considerable experience, and was one of the remaining members of the Donglin Party and Fushe Society. He was a student of Liu Zongzhou.

Yun Richu may not be very famous, but his teacher Liu Zongzhou was no ordinary man. He was a Confucian master in the late Ming Dynasty and the founder of the Jishan School.

This is why Li Tian listened to the people's opinions, reassured them, forgave Yun Richu, and sent him on his mission.

"Commander's insight is brilliant." Zhang Yonghao thought to himself, "Indeed, the commander's thinking is far ahead."

"Find a few eloquent people, one group to be sent to the Lu Regent regime in Fuzhou, and the other group to the remnant Ming regime in Guilin."

After the Qing army was defeated and the area around Jianning Prefecture was safe, merchant caravans began to bring news.

Let Li Tian know the current state of affairs in the world.

Currently, the Sichuan and Guizhou regions are controlled by the remnants of the Great Western Army led by Sun Kewang. They outwardly submit to Emperor Yongli (Zhu Youlang), but in reality, they are independent regions.

Meanwhile, the Ming Dynasty also controlled Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, Fujian and other regions. In Fujian, the supervisory governor Zhu Yihai was in charge, while overseas regions such as Xiamen were controlled by Zheng Chenggong and others who respected the already destroyed Longwu Dynasty.

The rest of the region fell under Qing control.

There are many forces at play, and they are quite chaotic.

"The purpose of the mission was to buy time, and of course, to send a signal to them that we were also an army resisting the Qing, and that an alliance was possible, but we would not become their subjects."

Li Tian didn't want to support a member of the Zhu Ming imperial family to the throne, lest it cause trouble later. He only needed to get through this year before he could launch a counterattack.

"Alright, that's enough about this. You may all leave now."

Li Tian still has many things to deal with.

Just then, the office door was pushed open again, and Secretary Weiqiang had a happy smile on his face.

"Good news, Commander."

"The brothers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs who went out to trade successfully completed their mission and brought back high-yield crops such as potatoes and corn. A group of grain merchants are also willing to establish long-term cooperative relations with our army and have sent representatives to discuss detailed matters with our army."

Upon hearing this, Li Tian's face lit up with joy. In this era of food shortage, he certainly wouldn't forget potatoes, a high-yield crop.

Since there were none available in Jianning Prefecture, he had to send the merchant caravan to look for them elsewhere.

Potatoes were already being grown in many places by the late Ming Dynasty, but not on a large scale.

If you want to get potatoes, going to coastal areas is the best option.

Jianning Prefecture is not far from the coast. The merchant caravan arranged by Qian Weicai can reach the coast in a few days by boat along the river.

"Very good. Qian Weicai will be in charge of the long-term cooperation negotiations. I'll go check on the potatoes I bought now."

He entrusted business matters to Qian Weicai, believing that the Ministry of the Interior certainly had more suitable talent for business communication than himself.

Li Tian left his office and soon arrived at the Ministry of Agriculture.

The potatoes and corn purchased were sent directly to the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Commander, I knew you would come." Minister of Agriculture Jiang Yebai had been waiting for a long time.

"So, how about it? Can these potatoes and corn be promoted on a large scale and quickly?" Li Tian asked.

Jiang Yebai shook his head; "No, these are indeed potatoes and corn, but they are not varieties from hundreds of years later. The yield is not high, and they are very small. They are not suitable for widespread use and need to undergo several rounds of breeding and screening in the laboratory."

As he spoke, Jiang Yebai took out a strangely shaped potato about the size of a baby's fist, and a corncob that was dull in color, sparsely arranged, and had almost no kernels.

They are all ancient wild species, not yet 'domesticated'.