noffsinger Chapter 645: Silver Method
Chapter 645: Silver Method
Jiang Meng forced himself to maintain a serious expression: "Ahem... Your Highness Prince Yi, don't worry. At least it won't be that easy for them to capture the city today. Let me take care of the fighting. Your Highness should go back to the city defense inn to rest first."
Zhou Chang suddenly had an idea, and ran away in fear of missing out on it: "Brother Jiang, listen to me, I have a good idea. We don't need to take the risk of sending soldiers out of the city to meet the enemy. We just need to prepare small change, yes small change. Well... no matter what the quality is, if they attack us later, just throw small change outside the city. I don't believe they won't pick it up."
"Uh..." Jiang Meng and all the soldiers present were petrified on the spot.
How is this a good idea?
Unheard of.
Ridiculous.
No war...
Zhou Chang couldn't stop talking, and didn't care about everyone's expression: "Don't think this is a bad idea. After we throw all the silver, we will tell the other side that because King Xian has just passed away, we will discuss with them to stop fighting for a few more days. As long as they agree, we will send silver every day. This should be fine."
"Ah..." Jiang Meng opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word.
Such an unprecedented method, can this still be considered a war?
But now standing in front of him are the only two princes in the court who can compete for the throne.
Jiang Meng swallowed back the objection that was about to come out of his mouth, and replaced it with a blunt "euphemism": "Your Highness's idea is good, but it is more likely that the meat bun will not come back after hitting the dog."
"It's like throwing meat buns at a dog. It doesn't matter whether they come back or not. The soldiers don't want to fight, so we can use silver to delay time." Zhou Chang felt that his idea was good as he spoke. "Hey, General Jiang, the Mirage Kingdom has always been poor and crazy. How can they not be greedy for money? We throw silver down and their soldiers will be busy picking up the silver. The war will not start, and everyone will be happy. This is called the silver method, yes, the silver method."
Jiang Meng and his subordinates looked at each other in bewilderment: "Even if we throw silver today, what about tomorrow? The Mirage Thief is insatiable and will continue to challenge us tomorrow, but he will only challenge us more fiercely and with greater force."
"Tomorrow? Of course we'll continue throwing silver tomorrow..." Zhou Chang seemed to be possessed by the stupid son of a wealthy landlord, and asked with a grin, "By the way, Brother Jiang, there are quite a few trebuchets on the other side. How many trebuchets do we have? We may not have enough time to use them today, but if we throw silver tomorrow, we may have to use all of them."
Jiang Meng stared in astonishment, deeply suspecting that Prince Yi had been replaced by someone else. The person in front of him was not the one he knew in Jindu.
The others looked at Zhou Chang as if he were a madman.
Zhou Chang still had a naive and proud look on his face: "Wait for me, I will prepare the silver. Don't worry, with the court's 'wartime order', there will be no shortage of silver. Let the strong ones throw it far away today, and feed those starving ghosts first."
Everyone was about to get hurt from holding it in, but since Jiang Meng didn't say anything, no one dared to say anything, and everyone had a rich expression.
Anyone with a slightly higher position and connections has heard of Prince Yi's reputation of "leaving traces when the wind blows and plucking feathers when the geese pass by", but now they have no idea what he is planning.
Jiang Meng had already expressed his attitude of standing on the same front with Prince Yi yesterday. It was too late to feel embarrassed now, and he could only hide in his armor and keep silent.
The silence made Zhou Chang anxious. "Oh, I'm still a first-rank soldier, brother Jiang, General Jiang, listen to me once, even if it's just a try today? You don't have to pay for it. In order to prevent my brothers from going out of the city to die in vain, I'm willing to spend that money. What are you hesitating about? Does anyone have a better idea?"
When asked this question, although everyone had different expressions, they all shook their heads in their hearts.
Jiang Meng couldn't stand the awkward situation and had to bite the bullet and agree: "Yes, since Your Highness Prince Yi loves his soldiers like his own sons, I will cooperate."
He did what he said. Jiang Meng nodded, and Zhou Chang no longer had to pay attention to others. He turned around and led his men down the city wall to dispatch people from the Jincao Division.
First, he asked the Jin Caosi to use the "wartime order" as a token of authority to collect small change from various banks, silver shops and stores in Maicheng.
Because the "Wartime Order" had been well publicized earlier, tens of thousands of taels of silver were raised within an hour.
Together with the 20,000 taels of silver ingots borrowed from Yuan Qi when he came here, the total amount was nearly 100,000.
By the time the silver coins were gradually carried up to the tower, it was almost noon. The Mirage Army had already beaten the drums several times and was pushing the ladder trucks to prepare to charge.
On the city wall, Jiang Meng had already deployed defensive fortifications and did not take Prince Yi's idea to heart.
Since they could still make it before the fight started, Zhou Chang grabbed Jiang Meng with one hand and pointed at the dozens of large boxes of silver coins that were being carried up behind him: "Brother Jiang, don't fight them. How can you win now? Let's have our people throw the silver as far as possible, preferably at their feet."
Zhou Chang was reluctant to throw the whole silver ingot away, so he spent a lot of effort and smashed dozens of boxes of broken silver before he could lift it up.
Jiang Mengben was concentrating on the battle, but was harassed by Prince Yi. He was extremely annoyed, but he could not offend the prince, who was also a first-rank military officer, in public.
He had no choice but to point to the deputy generals around him and said, "Quickly, lead your men and follow the orders of His Royal Highness Prince Yi. Throw it away, throw it away..."
Since he was going to be embarrassed anyway, he had to back off and never do it himself.
"Yes..." Military orders were as heavy as mountains, and the deputy generals had to obey.
While Zhou Chang was talking, the vanguard of the Mirage Army had rushed to the city, and the fastest was more than ten steps away. He simply turned around and grabbed a handful of silver coins and threw them out: "Suck, suck, suck... Come and pick it up..."
The tone is like feeding the dog.
Afterwards, several deputy generals of Jiang Meng led their men to line up in a row, interspersed between the concave walls of the tower, and began to throw down small pieces of silver with great force.
"Crackling..." The broken silver fell like raindrops.
The mirage army running in front initially thought it was raining, but then they saw silver light flashing before their eyes and became confused.
Soon, the sharp-eyed one saw what had fallen to the ground and fell to the ground with a "wow".
Immediately, the mirage soldiers rushing around also discovered the "wealth from heaven" and stopped to squat and start picking up the silver. The rear team could not see clearly what the front team was doing and was still rushing forward.
The front team had changed from charging to "plowing the field", with traffic jams in front and back making it a mess.
Zhou Chang watched from afar with great joy in his heart, lying on the city wall and shouting: "Throw it quickly, keep throwing it, keep throwing it... Throw it all down, don't stop, don't stop, don't stop..."
Jiang Meng also noticed that it seemed to be taking effect, but he frowned and raised his right hand, waiting for an opportunity to shoot the arrow down.
"No, no, no... Brother Jiang, take your time. If you throw it today, there is still tomorrow. Don't shoot a sneak attack at this time, otherwise my money will be thrown away in vain." Zhou Chang whispered to stop him.