Chapter 79: Three Strategies (Part One)

  Until this time, Guo Yun still didn't know the severity of the situation and said: "You all just wait, my uncle Guo Kuo is the Prime Minister of Zhao State, he will not let you get away with this."

  The plateau grunted and said, "Don't mention you, even if Guo Kai came, I would kill him too." As he spoke, he drew his military knife across the fat man's face, and fresh blood flowed out immediately.

  Guo Yun was now somewhat afraid and trembled with fear, saying: "Spare my life, don't kill me."

  Gao Yuan sneered, saying: "It's too late to beg for mercy now." With that, his military saber swung down, and Guo Yun's plump head was chopped off, falling to the ground.

  Li Yinghong exclaimed, "You really killed him!" Although Li Yinghong always said things like "I won't let him off" or "He won't get away with it" when mentioning Guo Kai, this was just talk. Li Yinghong wasn't unaware of Guo Kai's identity, and if he were killed, Li Mu would be no different from formally declaring rebellion. Therefore, seeing Gao Yuan kill Guo Yun without hesitation, Li Yinghong was also very surprised - Gao Yuan wasn't usually such a rash person.

  Gao Yuan returned the sword to its scabbard and said, "This is a warning for Guo Kai. At this point, there's no turning back between General Guo and us. If we let Guo Yun go, will Guo Kai just give up? Since it can't be turned back, we might as well do it thoroughly and kill Guo Yun. This way, we're telling Guo Kai that our actions this time are without any reservations or mercy. If he wants to continue opposing us, then Guo Yun is the next one."

  Li Yinghong actually didn't quite understand, but she absolutely trusted Gao Yuan, so she nodded and said, "Okay, let's do it your way."

  Gao Yuan immediately ordered the cleanup of the battlefield and brought Guo Yun's head back to the warehouse. The warehouse guards were so frightened when they saw Guo Yun's head that they knelt down on the ground, knocking their heads like chickens pecking at grain, begging for mercy.

  Gao Yuan Dao: "You don't have to be afraid, I won't kill you. Now take Guo Yun's head and hand it over to Guo Kai, let him clean up the mess in the mansion, and wait for his execution."

  The attendants and others took away Guo Yun's head, and the statistics of the battlefield also came out. In this battle, a total of 37 private soldiers of Zhao Cong were killed, 12 were captured, while the army of Gao Yuan had no casualties, only five people were injured, and none of them were seriously injured. Gao Yuan was also very satisfied with such results, but he did not expect that the first battle of the Mandarin Duck Formation would be held in Handan City, and it was still an internal war of Zhao State.

  Afterwards, Gao Yuan ordered the captives and the Zhao soldiers who had previously guarded the warehouse to be imprisoned together. These Zhao soldiers were shocked that Gao Yuan really dared to take action, and they opened up a massacre, showing no mercy. Originally, some of them had been discontented and resentful, wanting to find an opportunity to resist, but now they all sat quietly, not daring to make any further moves.

  At this time, the grain transport team also returned, and they brought 500 large carts with them. This increased the carrying capacity by more than tenfold, and it would only take two or three trips to transport all the grain.

  Moreover, the subsequent move went very smoothly, and there were no more obstacles. Although Guo Kai's mansion and warehouse were only separated by a wall, they remained silent, as if they had not seen anything.

  Gao Yuan and others returned to Li Mu's mansion with the last batch of grain, and after checking, a total of 352,700 stones of grain were transported back, which was more than 50,000 stones more than the original 300,000 stones. The extra grain that came out this time was actually the stored grain of Yun Ze Society, which was also the grain stored in Guo Kai's own home, and it was also brought back together.

  At this time, the five merchants who had formed a joint group to buy grain in Qi also gathered at Li Mu's mansion. Apart from Lin Wenqing, the other four were Zhuo Donglai, Zhao Ye, Feng Kui and Zheng Bofu. They chatted with Li Mu in the main hall.

  After listening to Gao Yuan's report, Li Mu also nodded and said to the five merchants: "Everyone, the grain has been recovered, so you can transport it back according to your own purchase quantity. This time, it really caused losses for everyone."

  Zhuo Donglai said, "There, there, this time it was all Guo Kai who played the role of Zhong, and had nothing to do with Wu Anjun. Moreover, being able to retrieve the grain was entirely thanks to Wu Anjun's help, and even implicated Wu Anjun in a feud with Guo Xiangguo. Therefore, we are also extremely grateful to Wu Anjun."

  Li Mubao said: "Now the grain price in Handan city is high and unstable, people's hearts are not stable. I hope that all of you can open the granary to sell grains tomorrow, as soon as possible to stabilize the grain price, so that Handan city can recover its stability."

  Zhuo Donglai said, "General Wu An, please rest assured that we will stabilize the situation in Handan City. The stability of Handan City is also our responsibility. If Handan City falls into chaos, it will cause huge losses to our business as well. Therefore, we have already discussed this and decided that out of the 300,000 stones of grain, half will be used for disaster relief, and the other half will be sold at a fair price tomorrow, with a uniform price of 120 coins, just covering our costs. First, let's quickly bring down the grain prices and restore order in Handan. However, I'm afraid that Premier Guo might intervene again tomorrow."

  "Everyone, please rest assured. Since I, Li Mu, have stepped in to handle this matter, I will see it through to the end. You can all open your doors for business now. I dare anyone to come and cause trouble."

  Zhao Ze said: "Wu Anjun can manage to the end, we are all grateful, but these 3 million stones of grain are only the first batch. The second batch of 5 million stones of grain will arrive in Handan at most half a month later, and there will be more grain transported from Qi State to Zhao State afterwards. I'm afraid that Guo Xiangguo won't succeed this time, but he will still intercept subsequent batches of grain."

  Li Mu nodded and said, "Everyone can rest assured, as long as I, Li Mu, am here, such a thing will never happen again. If Guo Kai dares to seize your grain again, I will take it back for you once more."

  In fact, these five merchants were among the top businessmen in Zhao State, with each of their personal fortunes exceeding 10,000 taels of gold. Together, they controlled more than 60% of the commercial operations in Zhao State, playing a crucial role in its economy. The 300,000 dan of grain was not even a drop in the bucket for these five merchants, and even if they were to donate it all, it would not cause them much loss.

  But this time, Guo Kai openly broke the agreement reached between the merchants and the imperial court, which was a very bad precedent and greatly infringed on the interests of the merchants. Therefore, even if Li Mu did not intervene, these five merchants were going to take action, using methods that would damage the economy of Zhao State to retaliate against Guo Kai, also serving as a warning to the imperial court of Zhao State not to think that merchants are easy to bully.

  However, if Guo insisted on not respecting the agreement, these five businessmen really had no way to deal with him. After all, no matter how powerful the merchants were, they could not defeat the imperial court in the end. Even if the five of them joined forces, they could cause great damage to Zhao's economy, but at most it would be a lose-lose situation for both sides. Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, these five businessmen did not want to use such extreme methods, as merchants always hoped to make a profit in harmony.

  Li Mu's intervention also allowed them to avoid direct confrontation with Guo Kai, and the five merchants were all very grateful to Li Mu. They unanimously made a decision to express their gratitude to Li Mu and hoped that he would continue to intervene on their behalf. After obtaining Li Mu's promise, the five merchants finally felt at ease and bid farewell to him, each escorting his own grain back home to prepare for business the next day. The 1.5 million stones of grain that had been promised to stay behind to relieve the disaster victims were left in Li Mu's mansion.

  After all the merchants left, Li Mu let out a soft sigh and had Yuan Xuan take this batch of grain out of the city to be used for disaster relief. Only then did he gather Gao Yuan, Li Yinghong, Zhao Xuan, Ning Qi and others to discuss their next move.

  It's actually not difficult to take back the grain, but it's hard to deal with the aftermath. Li Mu's actions have already gone far beyond what is acceptable for a subject, and it would not be an exaggeration to call it treason. However, things are not completely irretrievable. If King Zhao issues another decree, shifting all the blame onto Guo Kuo, saying that the seizure of grain was Guo's personal action, then Li Mu's actions can only be seen as somewhat excessive, but not a major issue. Moreover, both sides will have room for maneuver.

  But this means that Li Mu and Guo Kai cannot coexist, which means that Zhao Wangqian must make a choice between the two. However, Zhao Wangqian's intelligence has always been the biggest weakness of Zhao State, so it is not expected that he can make any wise choices.

  Facing such a situation, Li Yinghong and Zhao Xuan were at a loss for words, so they couldn't say anything. Gao Yuan naturally had a draft in mind, but he was considering how to bring it up with Li Mu, and for the time being, he also didn't speak. The grand hall fell silent for a moment.

  After a while, Ning Qi said: "General, in my opinion, you now have three options to choose from."

  "What are the three strategies?"

  Ning Qi said: "The worst-case scenario is that the current General will now raise an army and rebel, proclaiming himself king."

  As soon as he finished speaking, Li Yinghong also couldn't help but let out an "ah" and looked at Li Mu, feeling her heart racing. Although Confucianism had not yet become the orthodox ideology of China in this era, the concept of loyalty and righteousness still deeply resonated with people's hearts. Treason was generally viewed as a heinous crime in most cases. Although during the Warring States period, there were instances of the three families dividing Jin and the Tian family replacing the Qi state, these events only occurred after the Zhao, Wei, and Han families or the Tian family had painstakingly operated for nearly a hundred years, completely controlling the situation, with all conditions fully prepared. The kind of event where someone would usurp power, like the legendary "Yellow Robe Incident", had never happened before. Therefore, Li Yinghong couldn't help but feel tense, wondering if Li Mu would make such a choice.

  Li Mu remained expressionless and said: "What about the middle strategy and the upper strategy?"

  Ning Que said: "The middle strategy is for the Grand General to use the name of 'clearing away evil from the imperial court' and immediately raise an army to execute Guo Kai, Zhao Cong and others. Then, he can isolate the King and take control of state affairs. The superior strategy is for the Grand General to lead his troops out of Handan, advance into Dai Prefecture, not rebel against Zhao nor establish himself as a ruler, but occupy the land and govern autonomously, refusing to obey the imperial court's orders."

  Li Mu listened and then remained silent for a long time, before saying: "Alright, Mr. Ning, I have taken note of your three strategies. Tomorrow I will go to the palace to see the king, and after seeing the king, I will make a decision."

  Ning Qi was taken aback and said: "General, absolutely not."