Chapter 1654: Involuntary

Pang Qingyun pushed the responsibility for the defeat onto He Kui, saying that He Kui was afraid of the enemy and watched them die without saving them, but in reality, if this were truly the case, then He Kui would inevitably be punished.

Even if it wasn't the imperial court's troops, but a private armed group recruited by Magistrate Jiang, such a big problem occurred, and such a miserable defeat was suffered. There were laws in the army, and Magistrate Jiang also had to give Magistrate Chen an explanation. He Kui would likely not survive.

In the final analysis, for the sake of a killer working below, going against a bureaucrat of the same level, even if one had the absolute advantage, was not a wise choice. Magistrate Jiang could suppress Magistrate Chen, but there was still Magistrate Di, and other bureaucrats watching. It was really not bullying people like this.

Moreover, Magistrate Chen was not a real piece of trash, he just lacked strength in private armed groups, but he was not bad in other aspects, and he also had his own small circle, common interests, and stood together.

So it was more likely that Pang Qingyun did not execute according to the established strategy, took a dangerous move, and pinned his hope on He Kui's rescue. As long as He Kui sent troops, perhaps as Pang Qingyun said, many people could have died less, and they might have won.

This was very consistent with Pang Qingyun's style, with a famous saying as proof: I have walked on thin ice all my life!

He liked to gamble! All-in every time, leaving no room!

But unfortunately, He Kui didn't move, so only Pang Qingyun was left pretending to be dead and escaped.

He couldn't go back to Magistrate Chen's place; going back would likely lead to being beheaded, so he could only head to Huoshan...

Under Wang Yan's gaze, Pang Qingyun knelt on both knees: "Master, this subordinate indeed did not fully execute the superior's order, but it is also true that He Kui did not move. He didn't have the guts to come out as a soldier. If he had sent troops, this battle would definitely have been won!"

"When you disobeyed military orders, your head should have moved. You like to gamble with your life, yet you are afraid of death. A battalion's strength all died, only you survived, and you are still whole. Pang Qingyun, tell me, is it some dog-day person who arranged me outside, saying that I am a brainless fool, and they all came to cheat me out of a fortune?"

"Master, please see clearly, this subordinate has absolutely no such intention!"

Wang Yan puffed smoke gloomily: "What position do you want to go to?"

"This subordinate dare not ask, only asking Master to give this subordinate a chance to sell my life, let this subordinate prove that this subordinate is not afraid of death, only afraid of dying without value, dying unclearly. This subordinate pretended to be dead and ran away, just to leave a thought for those brothers in my battalion, to burn paper for them during festivals, and when there is a chance in the future, I will definitely kill He Kui to avenge them."

"He Kui is too wronged." Wang Yan shook his head. "You put the lives of a battalion of brothers and your own life on others, which shows that you neither understand yourself nor others. Pang Qingyun, the lives of my brothers are very expensive, and I can't let you sell them like this."

"Master, I..."

"People who lead troops to fight must have a steady heart and be able to hold their breath."

"Please Master, show me." Pang Qingyun kowtowed to the floor to perform a great ceremony, but his eyes saw the dark red on the ground.

He couldn't help but think of the legend that Wang Yan beheaded the foreigner in the study. Could it be here? This is the foreigner's blood...

"First follow the training here for a month, familiarize yourself with our situation here, and then go back to find Magistrate Chen."

"Master, going back like this, Magistrate Chen will definitely cut off this subordinate's head." Pang Qingyun spoke immediately, his words full of panic.

"In the future, listen to orders honestly. Go."

Wang Yan puffed out a mouthful of smoke, too lazy to explain anything more to Pang Qingyun...

Pang Qingyun didn't dare to say anything more. He had already reacted that Wang Yan might have reached some tacit understanding with Magistrate Chen, or even more, Magistrate Chen had already defected to Wang Yan. After all, he had just participated in a big defeat of Magistrate Chen.

Otherwise, since Wang Yan had already accepted him, it was impossible to send him back to Magistrate Chen's side to be beheaded. In the final analysis, he thought he still had some talent and value worth being utilized.

He was arranged to the military academy, trained with the newly arrived young and strong, learned queues, learned to obey, was instilled with ideas, and became a soldier who met the basic line of 'Huoshan'.

After training for three months, Pang Qingyun, who had put on a fake braid, followed a team composed of security firms and civilians to transport rifles, ammunition, and other supplies. They set off from Huoshan, swaggered through the territory belonging to the Heavenly Kingdom outside, and walked through the war zone openly. They even passed by when the two sides were fighting to the death.

Pang Qingyun was no stranger to this scene. After all, he had been fighting for several years. In the past, when they were fighting, the people of the Shunfeng Security Firm would hold their flags so brightly, walking past them chatting and laughing without panic. Anyone who saw it couldn't help but want to go over and grab a ticket.

Such things hadn't happened, but the consequence was that it attracted the attack of the Shunfeng Security Firm. They didn't know where they popped out from, directly gathered thousands of troops, and killed everyone who grabbed their goods, which was quite cruel.

In the past, these people from the security firm were not like this. It was just that after their reputation spread far and wide and no one dared to provoke them, they became more and more arrogant. It seemed that they always liked to accidentally drop their fake hair in the territory of the Manchu Qing...

Pang Qingyun watched the people of the Shunfeng Security Firm walk past his eyes slowly several times, and he had to desperately restrain his subordinates from looking for death. He swore that he even wanted to kill the people of the Shunfeng Security Firm more than his subordinates.

Now as the side of the Shunfeng Security Firm, and even as the team leader, his feeling was quite cool...

After arriving at the place all the way, Pang Qingyun finally saw Magistrate Chen.

In the Huizhou-style architecture, under the patio, Magistrate Chen was a bit surprised.

"Pang Qingyun, you really know how to find a place."

"This subordinate has nowhere to go, so I can only stay for a useful body. I didn't die just to come back to see you, Magistrate Chen. If it weren't for He Kui watching us die without saving us, those brothers in the battalion wouldn't have died. Why didn't He Kui move? Magistrate Jiang! He doesn't want to see you, Magistrate, become big!"

Magistrate Chen scraped the foam with a teacup: "Pang Qingyun, Lu Dashan told me the process. There is no need to play your little cleverness at this time. Since you defected to Wang Yan and were arranged by him to work under me, your life is saved. The past things are considered turned over."

"Thank you, Magistrate!"

"Don't be busy thanking. Wang Yan gave me some money and food, as well as some firearms and ammunition, helping me re-recruit ten thousand people. Do you know what he wants?"

"Fight for the world?"

Magistrate Chen shook his head slowly: "He wants the common people to live well and wants to be more powerful than the foreigners."

"No one wants the common people to live a good life. He just wants greater power and to dominate more people."

"You went to Huoshan. Do you think the common people there live well?"

"Except for the lack of food, it's better than before the war."

"Then he wants the common people to live well!" Magistrate Chen put down the teacup. "Pang Qingyun, the old man teaches you a truth: when you work as a subordinate for others, you do what others want to do."

"This subordinate understands, I will definitely follow the Magistrate's orders."

"I ask you again, what does Wang Yan want now?"

Pang Qingyun frowned and pondered: "Please Magistrate, show me."

"Balance!"

"Balance?"

Magistrate Chen shook his head slightly: "After fighting for so many years, you have gone from a small soldier to a battalion officer, and you also ambitiously sold a battalion of mine, and affected other aspects, causing me to lose thousands of troops. Logically speaking, your eyes are looking upward, why can't you see clearly?

What Wang Yan has done over the years is to maintain the balance between the Manchu Qing and the Heavenly Kingdom. Once we win a big victory somewhere, it won't be long before we lose it back in another place. The firearms he sells are also the same. This time he gave me ten thousand, but in these few months, he has supplied the Heavenly Kingdom with another ten thousand."

This was the first time Pang Qingyun considered this problem from this angle. He only thought about climbing up before, but ignored the contradictions covering the entire Shenzhou. Huoshan, Manchu Qing, Heavenly Kingdom, internal bureaucrats, merchants, and external foreigners.

"He wants this world, wants to be emperor, shouldn't it be the more chaotic the better?"

"Isn't it chaotic enough?" Magistrate Chen said. "What you see is that the Manchu Qing and the Heavenly Kingdom watch Wang Yan grow stronger, but in reality, people are not dying any less. The chaos in Bashu and Guanzhong has never been less.

At the beginning, opium was banned, and the counterattack was great. Wealthy families constantly instigated the common people to rebel against Wang Yan. Later, Wang Yan began to distribute land to the common people, engage in construction, use work as relief, and give the common people a way to live.

He also took the opportunity to issue new banknotes himself, without using copper coins or silver, so many draft banks were affected. And do you think the opium business was damaged and Wang Yan gave him a face, will they give up? Wang Yan's trouble has never been less. Otherwise, why did he encounter dozens of assassinations in these years? Manchu Qing, Heavenly Kingdom, merchants, foreigners, all want him to die!"

"But he is still alive and getting stronger."

"Yes, sometimes I have to admit that some people are just hard-lived." Magistrate Chen sighed, then looked at Pang Qingyun fixedly. "Now do you know what you should do?"

"This subordinate will follow the Magistrate's orders!" Pang Qingyun said again, his tone firm.

He understood. His identity change now was no longer to eliminate more Taiping troops to achieve merit and reach a higher position, but to let the two sides drag on and fight, without worrying about the lethality. Even if they could settle the opposite side, they could discuss it, and not kill was fine. As long as the war was delayed for a longer time, then he was meritorious.

If he was still the same as before, wanting to rely on killing more people to solve the problem, then he would die miserably.

He only knew now why they had been fighting for so many years, and the scope of the war was still so large. They fought back and forth there, and neither side had gained a greater advantage.

Instead, as time passed, the Heavenly Kingdom stood firm. Except for the Xiang-E region, it almost took down the entire Jiang Nan region, which was truly a trend of standing against the Manchu Qing who lost the Bashu and Guanzhong regions, and being evenly matched.

Even the foreigners didn't move. Before, they wanted to force the Manchu Qing court to change treaties, sell opium, etc., but now they didn't have the guts to move around.

The situation in the Shenzhou maintained a delicate balance. The foreigners were just trading with both sides, selling weapons to both sides like Wang Yan. If they acted more, it would be easy to destroy this balance.

At the same time, on the other hand, their troops were not enough. The current Shenzhou battlefield was rampant with bolt-action rifles, and there was no generation gap in weapons with the foreigners, and there was no gap in quantity. After all, the foreigners only had tens of thousands of troops. Whether it was the Manchu Qing or the Heavenly Kingdom, tens of thousands of guns were available, just not so concentrated.

In order to avoid being robbed of business by foreigners, Wang Yan released more and more weapons, and the prices were all beaten down.

By now, everyone was riding a tiger and it was hard to get off. People studied Wang Yan's rise countless times, trying to find the secret in it. And then they discovered the industries under Wang Yan, and the foreigners were strange about how Wang Yan researched so many things.

Industry, two simple words, but behind it was a system, involving all aspects. Only by solving the pre-things could the subsequent technology be lit up. A difference of one step would have problems.

Some of Wang Yan's technologies were even more advanced than foreigners. Steam was permeating Wang Yan's territory, and the miracle of industry was echoing on this ancient land...

Pang Qingyun was promoted to Assistant Regional Commander, but he didn't lead troops directly. Instead, he became a staff officer, learning by Magistrate Chen's side, and also handled some logistics affairs, which was considered to represent Wang Yan to perform supervisory duties.

And then Magistrate Chen fought with Li Cheng again near Hefei and Liu'an. Unsurprisingly, Magistrate Chen was defeated again. Li Cheng sent a surprise force over, directly inserting into the rear of Magistrate Jiang, and gave Magistrate Jiang a ruthless one while he was unprepared...

With a crisp sound, the precious teacup was swept to the ground and shattered.

"The new army is newly formed, and the combat power is insufficient? Let his mother's dog fart!"

Magistrate Jiang was slightly rich, with a face full of flesh. At this moment, because of anger, his fierce appearance was exposed, and his face was terrifying.

"I think he defected to Huoshan, defected to Wang Yan! Otherwise, how could there be ten thousand guns?"

"Don't be anxious, Magistrate Chen still has a sense of proportion." Magistrate Di on the side persuaded. "It was also because He Kui under your command didn't have the guts last time, and Magistrate Chen's subordinates were too ambitious, so it was reasonable to have problems and suffer a defeat. He re-recruited people, the combat power was not enough, and it was reasonable to leak some people over. Magistrate Jiang, don't talk nonsense. Magistrate Chen is a heavy minister of my Great Qing, and even more a loyal minister."

Magistrate Di's tone was deep and meaningful.

Magistrate Jiang hummed: "He dare not cut off our retreat. Wang Yan hasn't thought about rebelling yet."

"What kind of angry words is Magistrate Jiang saying? Wang Yan just didn't rebel openly, but he has always been rebelling secretly. Whether he really rebelled openly, according to his style of doing things, only when the Great Qing, the Heavenly Kingdom, and the foreigners all don't want to be good, will they want to force Wang Yan to raise troops."

Magistrate Di sighed, "Magistrate Jiang, don't be angry. Give Magistrate Chen a soft word, say something nice, and the three of us will drink another wine, and this matter will pass. At this point, this war is boring. Just deal with it, and less movement of troops can save less silver."

Magistrate Jiang suddenly laughed loudly, "The old man has planned for a lifetime and walked to this point today, but he is still involuntary, hahaha..."

?? Daily thanks to the good brothers who tipped, voted for monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and silently read the book for their strong support! ===== CHAPTER 1655 =====