Chapter 205: The Emperor's Fury

Politics is cruel.

After a military meeting, Zhou Zhenbang, who failed in the struggle, was completely excluded from the power center.

If he didn't hurry to find a way to operate, I fear it would be very difficult for him to keep his current position as Provincial Surveillance Commissioner.

Li Mu had no sympathy for Zhou Zhenbang's encounter.

Incompetence is not terrible; what is terrible is being incompetent and not knowing it.

For the smooth progress of subsequent wars, it was very necessary to clear out these guys who were dragging their feet in advance.

Frankly speaking, the Bai Lian Holy Kingdom's actions didn't exceed his expectations.

In a certain sense, the time for the Bai Lian Holy Kingdom to make strategic changes was still too late.

In a big business like rebellion, one cannot care about the gains and losses of a single city or place.

Purely from a strategic perspective, after seizing the two Guang regions, the Bai Lian Holy Kingdom should have concentrated its troops to fiercely attack Huguang or Jiangxi.

At the same time, send people to contact Bai Lian Sect believers in other regions to respond to this uprising on a national scale.

If they couldn't shake the foundation of Great Dayu's rule, occupying more land would have no meaning.

Clearly, the high command of the Bai Lian Holy Kingdom was blinded by short-term victories.

They attached too much importance to the gains and losses of a single city or place, and their strategic vision was not far-sighted enough.

"Commander Li, will sending troops next month be too late?"

Zhang Sihan asked with concern.

The orders from above kept pressing down, making him, the Provincial Governor, feel great pressure.

Yet on the issue of sending troops, his speaking power was very low.

Of the sixty or seventy thousand great army in the Guangxi region, the troops Zhang Sihan could command wouldn't exceed one thousand.

"Provincial Governor, this news was released to the rebel army; the specific time for sending troops will change."

Li Mu answered with a smile.

The rebel army could run away, but the grain collected by the rebel army had to be intercepted.

Even if they couldn't snatch it back, burning it with a fire was better than letting the rebel army take it away.

Without these supplies, the rebel army would only be able to fight a quick battle.

In a battle between two armies, the most important thing was to remain calm.

The more anxious and flustered one was, the easier it was to make mistakes.

In the blink of an eye, Li Mu had spent two Spring Festivals in Guangxi.

The Bai Lian Sect rebellion had lasted for such a long time, and it was time for it to end.

Compared to the previous few major battles, this time the mobile troops he could mobilize would reach as many as forty thousand.

Such a troop configuration was enough to conduct a large-scale battle.

"Provincial Governor, in this period of time, we have released so many fake messages.

Can the rebel army still be fooled?"

Zhang Sihan asked with concern.

As long as they could win the battle, he didn't need to care about how they won.

But in the last few months, Li Mu hadn't been training troops or suppressing bandits.

He had also seen many imperial armies, and he had never encountered one that liked suppressing bandits so much.

In order to suppress the banditry, Li Mu could even spend a lot of money to relocate nearby people, making the mountain bandits blind and deaf.

Countless mountain bandits paid the price of their lives under the imperial army's strike.

Only a few stubborn elements continued to persist.

However, according to Li Mu's intensity of suppressing bandits, after losing material replenishment, these guys couldn't persist for a few years either.

As the Guangxi Provincial Governor, Zhang Sihan was naturally happy to see such a change.

Eliminating banditry was also a political achievement.

The only problem was that the timing was wrong; now he needed military merit for suppressing the rebellion more.

"Provincial Governor, does it matter whether the rebel army is fooled?"

Jing Yifeng, who was on the side, asked back.

The situation developing to this step, the rebel army's strategic contraction had become a foregone conclusion.

The current Bai Lian Sect was no longer the small group it was at the beginning.

Sitting on a million-strong army, the supplies consumed every day were a huge number.

The model of supporting war with war could not be sustained.

Regardless of when the Guangxi field army launched an attack, they had to transfer strategic supplies as much as possible.

As long as transportation was taking place, there would be opportunities to exploit.

When they made a surprise attack on Liuzhou, Jing Yifeng tasted the sweetness, and now he wanted to replicate it again.

As for the aftermath, that was the responsibility of the civil officials.

As military generals, they only needed to defeat the enemy army.

If problems occurred in other aspects, the blame wouldn't fall on the military generals.

Military generals like Li Mu who liked to consider the overall situation were the exceptions among military generals, and there were few in the entire Great Dayu Dynasty.

"Wait!"

"You were practicing troop maneuvers two days ago; could it be that you have already sent troops?"

Jia Bo, who was on the side, exclaimed.

As an Army Supervisor, he paid attention to the movements of the great army at all times.

However, no matter how tightly he watched, he couldn't stop the Regional Commander from setting aside them and acting alone.

He couldn't even blame them; after the previous military meeting, the news leaked out.

To appease the military, they had to make concessions, and Li Mu obtained the power to send troops at any time.

He thought it was just talk, but he never expected Li Mu and Jing Yifeng to be so excessive as to hide it from the two of them.

"Nothing of the sort, Magistrate Jia, don't make a fuss.

That was just a normal troop mobilization; we, the commanders-in-chief, haven't gone over, so how can it be called sending troops!"

Li Mu denied it immediately.

Some things could be done quietly, but they absolutely couldn't be said.

As long as he refused to admit it, it was equivalent to nothing having happened.

Once the window paper was pierced, it would be slapping the Provincial Governor and the Army Supervisor in the face.

If the two reported it to the imperial court, and the court pursued the responsibility, it would be no small trouble.

"Commander Li's meaning is that you will send troops in the near future?"

Zhang Sihan asked with concern.

Based on his understanding of Li Mu, being able to send troops so quickly meant he must have discovered a battle opportunity.

Generally, when encountering such a situation, one could prepare the victory report in advance.

"Provincial Governor, I think you should take the opportunity to contact the Yunnan-Guizhou Allied Army and the Fujian side to launch a spring counterattack together with us.

If nothing unexpected happens, we will attack Guilin in two days!"

Li Mu replied immediately.

He didn't expect the Yunnan-Guizhou and Fujian imperial armies to cooperate at all.

Currently, the cooperation between the various encirclement armies was a mess.

Even though Grand Secretary Xu repeatedly emphasized cooperation, each army fought its own battle.

It wasn't that everyone lacked the consciousness of cooperation; the key was that the various armies were too far apart, the message transmission speed was too slow, and there was a lack of effective communication between them.

By the time they received news from their allies, the battlefield situation had already changed.

Against this background, everyone could only formulate operational plans according to their own situation.

Not only was the imperial army's cooperation low, but the situation on the rebel side was also the same.

After the Eastern Expedition Army occupied Guangxi, they ran to open up the Jiangxi battlefield instead of merging with the Northern Expedition Army to conquer Huguang together.

Such a practice directly caused the rebel army to miss the best opportunity to seize Huguang.

Of course, such a decision wasn't necessarily wrong.

If two great armies really gathered together, command would be an unsolvable difficulty.

On the battlefield, it was never the more troops the better; most generals' command ability had limits.

Not to mention that where there were many people, there was trouble; a large number of troops gathering together was also a gathering of a large number of contradictions.

Exceeding the Regional Commander's ability limit and being unable to properly coordinate internal relations meant that the army's ten-point combat effectiveness would only have three or four points left.

It was better to act separately, as the combat effectiveness that could be exerted would be stronger.

Proposing such a suggestion was purely because he wanted to find something for Zhang Sihan to do.

Civil officials, after all, couldn't be left idle.

Once they were idle, they would have all kinds of wild thoughts and couldn't help but want to stir up trouble.

Taihe Hall.

Looking at Yin Zhiming and Zuo Hongjiang kneeling below, Emperor Yongning's face was terrifyingly gloomy.

With the results of investigations from all sides coming out, the truth that the two had manipulated the Bai Lian Sect to rebel in order to overthrow the eunuch party also gradually surfaced.

"Your Majesty, we are wronged!"

"These are all framed by others; how could we collude with rebels!

..."

Yin Zhiming and Zuo Hongjiang hurriedly defended themselves.

The investigation conclusion was true, but the evidence clearly had problems.

It was clear that someone wanted the two of them to die and helped perfect the evidence.

Some things that had nothing to do with him were also taken as evidence and brought before the Emperor.

"Hehe!"

"You two are wronged, so it means the Three Judicial Offices, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Eastern Depot, and the officials in the Guangxi region all framed you together!"

Emperor Yongning said mockingly.

If so many people participated in framing them together, then this was the biggest frame-up case since the founding of Great Dayu.

Such a shocking scandal caused a political impact that was even more severe than Yin and Zuo manipulating the Bai Lian Sect to rebel.

Superimposed on the other messes exposed on Yin Zhiming and Zuo Hongjiang, Emperor Yongning's trust in the two was completely exhausted.

Having been betrayed by confidants, the deeper the hopes he had placed before, the more Emperor Yongning wanted to kill them now.

"Your Majesty, the subject..."

Halfway through, Zuo Hongjiang's voice choked up directly.

Deep down, he was infinitely remorseful.

He had long known that his companions were unreliable, yet he still followed them to conspire for a great cause.

The eunuch party was removed, but the price was that they were to become funeral objects.

Emperor Yongning brought the case to the hall for interrogation, directly cutting off all room for maneuver.

This was not only taking their lives but also ruining their reputations.

Those Qingliu party members who once followed them were now the people who most wanted to tear them into pieces.

One could imagine that after this matter, the Qingliu group would inevitably suffer a heavy blow.

"Your Majesty, the subject is old and dim-sighted and failed to discover the two great traitors, Yin Zhiming and Zuo Hongjiang, in time.

Triggering the Bai Lian Sect disaster that rotted several provinces, it is truly a crime that deserves death.

The subject is truly too ashamed to face the millions of people who died; I ask Your Majesty to punish me!"

Pang Hengsheng immediately opened fire.

It looked like he was pleading guilty, but in reality, he was launching the final strike against the two, Yin and Zuo.

The Chief Minister naturally had responsibility, but it was Emperor Yongning who promoted and reused the two.

At this moment, opening his mouth to plead guilty was purely to take the blame for the Emperor, and by the way, stir up Emperor Yongning's hatred for the two.

"It has nothing to do with the Chief Minister; it is entirely because these two traitors hid too deeply.

Come here, drag these two traitors out and slice them!"

When giving the order, Emperor Yongning's heart was bleeding.

It was simply too slapping in the face; the people he trusted the most were actually rebels.

He directly chose to ignore the reasons why the two colluded with the Bai Lian Sect.

No matter how destructive the eunuch party was, it couldn't catch up with the Bai Lian Sect rebel army.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 206 =====