Chapter 37 Then I, Liu Fu, will turn the tide!

The Liao emperor froze instantly…

The old eunuch behind him witnessed an unbelievable scene.

Yelü Zhen, a man of great wisdom and foresight, arguably the strongest emperor in the Liao Dynasty in three hundred years, was now seeing his jet-black hair turn white at a visible rate.

In the blink of an eye, more than half of the Liao emperor's hair turned white, and he suddenly collapsed weakly to the ground...

The Liao Dynasty palace has been bustling lately.

But in the Later Han imperial palace, Liu Laowu kept writing IOUs.

The Later Han dynasty had limited national strength; a single copper coin had to be split into sixteen pieces, not to mention the need to rebuild the homes of millions of people.

The people have no homes left, so where would they find food?

The imperial court needed to search for food everywhere to help the people survive the famine, and the officials needed to pay their salaries to support their families. The Japanese, the Later Jin, the barbarians, and the Qiang were constantly burning, killing, and looting on the border, so troops needed to be sent to quell the unrest.

In addition, there is a severe drought in Hedong, torrential rain in Jiangnan, and blizzards in Liaodong... all kinds of disaster relief require money.

It wasn't easy being Emperor Liu. As the emperor, he had to discuss with the officials in the court, give them a basic salary to support their families, and make them pay the rest on IOUs next year.

Emperor Liu Laowu dared not eat meat for seven days straight, turning the imperial garden into a vegetable garden, and spending his evenings planting vegetables in the fields after court...

In addition, construction of the Great Wall began, but the people were full of complaints.

Building the Great Wall is a life-threatening job. All the strong men are working on the Great Wall. Who will farm the crops back home?

People kept falling ill due to exhaustion, and some even collapsed and never woke up again...

But this was the inevitable sacrifice of building the Great Wall. The Great Wall was difficult to build. When the First Emperor built the Great Wall, he mobilized 700,000 laborers, and a third of them died.

But if you build it, it will provide an extra barrier against the cavalry of nomadic tribes for thousands of years to come, benefiting the people.

Not repairing it?

I'm sorry! The Later Jin and Liao dynasties raided southwards every year, killing tens of thousands of Han people annually. At their worst, they killed more than 500,000 Han people in a single year.

There were many things that had to be done, and Liu Laowu realized that as well.

I have to be the emperor even if it means gritting my teeth, even if it means bearing the infamy of future generations and being called a tyrant by posterity!

This is the time when the Han population is at its lowest in thousands of years. If we are not careful, the Han people will be wiped out. Then Liu Laowu will be the one nailed to the pillar of shame!

"Someone, take our imperial edict to those wealthy and powerful families, and tell them that we, the emperor, are asking them for money and grain."

During the few days that Liu Fu entered Liaodu, Liu Laowu went to borrow money from wealthy and powerful families.

But these people were incredibly shrewd; they all started complaining about being poor, and judging from their tearful expressions, they seemed even poorer than the displaced disaster victims.

But once the people Liu Laowu sent to borrow money left, this group began to live a life of luxury, with fifty-eight dishes laid out on the table and four or five beautiful women in their arms playing games.

Liu Laowu was furious!

They targeted a powerful family as a case study, making an example of them to intimidate other aristocratic and powerful families.

But I never expected it.

This drove these people to rebellion, and they formed a "pacification army," which then began to rebel.

The unfortunate Liu Laowu discovered that the Later Han Dynasty was so poor that the national treasury couldn't even spare the money to quell the rebellion...

Liu Fu, in Liaodu, soon received a letter from Liu Laowu:

"Eighth Prince, being the emperor is so frustrating. My son was sent away as a hostage, and I'm so desperate that I can't even borrow money. I've lost all face. But as a Han Chinese, I can't be the one to exterminate the Han people! We must do our best to hold on no matter what. You need to keep a low profile in Liao. Our Later Han is surrounded by enemies on all sides, and internal strife has broken out. We're really too poor! Don't provoke the Liao emperor any further. If he attacks Later Han again, all ten million Han people will be in danger. Remember that. As his father, I only ask that you keep him calm. I've also sent an envoy on the way to meet the Liao emperor and explain the situation to buy some more time for Later Han."

Liu Fu acted ostentatiously in Liaodu, and although his actions were very satisfying, Liu Laowu was constantly worried about Liu Fu's safety.

After all, what if we push the Liao emperor too far and he actually kills Liu Fu one day?

But he was unaware of Liu Fu's secret.

If they knew that Liu Fu had stolen tens of millions of taels of silver from the Liao Kingdom during his time in Liaodu, I wonder what kind of shocked expression they would have?

Liu Fu opened a map, spread it on the table, looked at it for a while, and was filled with many emotions.

There was also a peasant emperor on Earth named Zhu Yuanzhang, who was incredibly powerful and invincible throughout his life, but the situation he faced was not as dangerous as that of Liu Laowu in this world.

Once upon a time on Earth, after the Wei and Jin dynasties, foreign tribes invaded, and the Han people were reduced to two-legged sheep. In the end, only two or three million Han people remained, and they were almost wiped out.

How similar is the Later Han Dynasty in this world to the Earth at that time?

"The only way to temporarily solve the problem of the Later Han Dynasty is to transport the silver back to the Later Han."

But Liu Fu also knew that more than ten million taels of silver could solve some problems, but not the fundamental ones.

The fundamental problem of the Later Han Dynasty was the loss of population caused by the chaos of the times. The current population was so small that it was difficult to maintain production, let alone wage war. In addition, there were other internal and external troubles.

What can replace human labor in battle is their own army of ferocious beasts.

However, the number of beasts in the army is currently small, and Liu Fu needs more reputation points.

Moreover, he had only been in Liaodu for a little over a month, and as a hostage, he could not return to the Later Han Dynasty. If he could not return to the Later Han Dynasty, he would not be able to give his father the more than ten million taels of silver.

In this way, the crisis will still not be resolved.

Liu Fu pondered for a moment and came to a conclusion:

"The only thing we can do now is to escalate the situation further, gain more reputation points faster, upgrade our beasts, and then return to the Later Han Dynasty to resolve internal problems and use our beast army to deal with external threats and the invasions of various foreign nations. That's all we can do for now!"

With this in mind, Liu Fu stopped idling.

With the treasure-hunting rats leading the way, Liu Fu emptied the treasuries of the four Liao kings that very night.

The four Liao kings possessed a combined total of over four million taels of silver, and Liu Fu stole all the other necessities he could find.

The next morning, the Liao emperor was still unconscious, his anger and anxiety overwhelming him.

The task of welcoming the envoys from the Later Jin and Japan had to fall into the hands of those Liao kings.

The four Liao kings were all furious, their faces ashen. Last night, their silver treasuries were emptied, and all their savings accumulated over the years were wiped out. They were almost driven to their deaths by anger.

This morning I had to come and greet the envoys from the Later Jin and Japan. What a damn disheartening experience!

A large royal procession marched through the streets, but where was Liu Fu, the prince of the Later Han Dynasty, who was supposed to arrive yesterday?

Didn't we agree to welcome the envoys from Japan and the Later Jin together?

As the four Liao kings and the royal guard walked out of the capital, they immediately saw Liu Fu's figure outside the huge and majestic city gate.

Today, Liu Fu is dressed in a crimson robe of a Later Han prince, with a hard bow on his back and a quiver full of arrows.

The Liao kings found it strange that Liu Fu was carrying a weapon during such a joyous welcoming ceremony.

What are you doing?

Of course, we must do everything in our power to turn the tide!