Chapter 244

Guangzhou Prefecture, Viceroy's Yamen.

"Haha..."

Looking at the victory report in his hand, Marquis Wuyang could not help but laugh out loud.

It was truly a case of getting exactly what one wished for.

Originally, he was still worried about the war on the front lines, but in the blink of an eye, the rebel army attacking Hengyang had been wiped out.

"100,000 rebels routed, 18,000 enemy troops beheaded, and 56,000 captured"—these were the verifiable battle results.

After slightly embellishing the data, by the time it reached the Emperor's hands, the results could be magnified even further.

The battle took place by the river, and a large number of corpses were washed away by the river water, so it was normal for there to be fewer heads.

In fact, since the outbreak of the rebellion, the rebel troop numbers reported by the imperial army were all self-declared.

The rebels claimed to have an army of 100,000, so the official data was 100,000.

The rebels said they sent 200,000 troops, so the official data was 200,000.

Verifying the truth was non-existent.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had just been restored, and many of its local branches had suffered devastating destruction.

Without a professional intelligence agency, their intelligence gathering could not even keep up with the Bai Lian Sect.

The latter had been subjected to official crackdowns for years and had never been completely wiped out; it was impossible for them to have no intelligence support.

No matter how many scouts were sent out, they could only estimate based on the length of the enemy's marching columns or the number of camps.

Not wanting to look for trouble, it was simpler to just use the data published by the rebels themselves.

When making strategic deployments, they usually cut the enemy's self-proclaimed troop numbers in half before formulating a preliminary plan against them.

Fortunately, everyone liked to brag these days; there were only those who inflated their troop numbers, and no one was seen reporting fewer.

If a "Wang Ba" (cunning person) appeared among the rebels and did the opposite, the imperial army would definitely suffer a huge loss.

"Congratulations, Marquis!

With such a great victory in hand, you will surely be able to capture the rebel leader alive, conquer Changsha, and pacify Huguang..."

An Qingfeng immediately stepped forward and said.

Working in the same city as the Viceroy of the Three Provinces, with their yamens right next to each other, he felt quite stifled as the Provincial Governor of Guangdong.

Theoretically, the power between the Viceroy and the Provincial Governor was meant to check and balance each other.

Unfortunately, it was wartime, and Marquis Wuyang was an Imperial Commissioner with a pile of titles hanging behind his name.

He couldn't afford to offend him, yet he couldn't avoid him either.

Every time he encountered a major matter, he had to come over for a visit.

It was fine when receiving a victory report; Marquis Wuyang would be in a good mood and wouldn't cause him trouble.

If the war on the front lines was unfavorable and Marquis Wuyang was in a bad mood, he would be miserable.

As a superior, it was simply too easy to pick on a subordinate.

"Enough, this Marquis has no delusions of wiping out the rebels in one fell swoop.

If we did all the work, wouldn't it make our colleagues look incompetent!"

Anyone could tell that this was a jab at Grand Secretary Xu.

However, Marquis Wuyang could say such things, but others dared not respond.

As a Grand Secretary of the court, leader of the Qingliu Sect, and an auxiliary minister appointed by the late Emperor, Xu Wenyue's power was incomparable to that of an ordinary person.

Even Marquis Wuyang himself was far inferior to Xu Wenyue in terms of the power he held in his hands.

Daring to tease Xu Wenyue was because of his special status.

It was just a few jokes, not a substantive attack, so the two would at most engage in a war of words.

For others to participate without knowing their own limitations would be irresponsible to their own official careers.

To avoid this sensitive topic, An Qingfeng immediately spoke up:

"Marquis, after the great victory at Hengyang, it is the perfect time to expand the results.

Commander Li only reported the battle results and did not mention the next combat plan, so perhaps..."

"Enough!

How the subsequent battles are fought is something I have my own calculations for; you need not worry.

If you have this leisure time, you might as well seize the time to organize the people to restore production and strive to create more tax revenue for the court."

Before he could finish, Marquis Wuyang waved his hand to interrupt.

Military matters were originally his weakness, and he could occasionally bluff his way through.

If they were to discuss it in depth, wouldn't that expose his incompetence?

In the officialdom, one could do anything, but one must not destroy one's own persona.

Throughout the court, everyone knew that Marquis Wuyang was well-versed in military strategy and possessed the talent of a general.

To live comfortably, he had to maintain this persona.

Currently, things were progressing very smoothly; regardless of how he commanded, the constant victory reports from the front lines proved his ability.

Whether fighting bravely on the front lines or sitting in the rear devising strategies, everyone only wanted victory.

If things continued at the current pace, it might not be impossible for him to have a place in the history books when mentioning the famous generals of Great Dayu in the future.

And this evaluation would not be too low.

After all, although his military career was short, he had never tasted defeat.

The Provincial Governor had been rebuffed, and the remaining officials present silently withdrew their desire to show off.

The main general on the front lines was a direct subordinate of their own Viceroy, and they, who should have been trusted aides, had instead become outsiders.

Apart from secretly lamenting that their talents were unrecognized, there was nothing they could do.

Ganzhou Prefecture.

Looking at the forwarded victory report, Wei Zhiyuan was so angry that his face turned blue.

Everything is afraid of comparison; clearly, he led more troops than Li Mu, the main general, yet his battle results were not even a fraction of the other's.

The other's battle results started at 100,000, making it feel like the rebel army was made of paper.

When it came to him, he hadn't even taken a mere Ganzhou.

To complete the mission, he was forced to split his troops to attack Ji'an just to barely scrape by.

But the problem was that the rebels attached far more importance to Ji'an than to Ganzhou.

Since Ganzhou hadn't been taken, the offensive in the Ji'an region was naturally not optimistic either.

"You have all seen the battle report; not to mention comparing yourselves to the Guangxi troops, you should at least be better than those remnants in Guangdong!

But what about now?

Regional Commander Jing has already recovered Shaozhou Prefecture, and the battle for Chenzhou has also entered a critical stage.

They have already put out the word that they will conquer Chenzhou within ten days.

Subtracting the time for message transmission, it is estimated that recovering Chenzhou is a matter of the next few days.

If we continue to have no results, we will be blamed by those above.

I will be dismissed and punished, and your official careers will also end here!"

Wei Zhiyuan said earnestly.

To boost the morale of the army, he had also racked his brains.

But his subordinates were used to slacking off on the battlefield, and when they suddenly encountered a tough battle, none of them were capable.

Anyway, they were all fooling those above, and in normal times, he would have tolerated it.

But the situation was special now; if there was no battle record to show, he would definitely be liquidated after the war.

Although Great Dayu had mostly given "three cups of wine as punishment" to powerful military generals in the last few decades,

that was aimed at powerful generals with fierce battle merits, whom the court feared for the strength they held.

As long as it wasn't a matter of principle, they could be treated leniently.

For a general like him whose battle record was a mess, the court would not be soft-hearted.

To hoard troops to bolster one's own power, one needed enough capital.

If the court moved against him, he wouldn't even have room to resist.

If this Regional Commander was unlucky, the generals below naturally wouldn't have a good life either.

As long as those above wanted to investigate, they wouldn't worry about not finding problems.

Without needing to use any underhanded tricks, they could legally finish them off just within the regulatory system.

"Regional Commander, it's really not that we are deliberately dragging our feet.

It's truly that the rebel army is too powerful, and it's very difficult for us to gain an advantage on the battlefield!"

"Regional Commander, Assistant Regional Commander Deng is right; the rebel army is indeed too powerful!"

"Bang!"

The group of generals complained one after another, making Wei Zhiyuan slam the table in anger.

"Do you really think I'm discussing this with you?"

"Let me tell you, if we cannot recover Ganzhou and Ji'an as soon as possible, no one will have a good time when the accountability comes down.

Don't think that your positions are iron-clad inheritances from your ancestors that no one can touch.

Since the Bai Lian Sect rebellion, many clan princes have been killed, and countless civil and military officials have died in battle.

If that day really comes, I would rather die on the battlefield than lose my position in humiliation.

This is a petition for battle; the content is to hope that the Viceroy can form a suicide squad of generals, and I hope it won't be used in the end.

I know you are in a difficult position, so I have also signed you up on your behalf; you don't need to thank me!"

Hearing Wei Zhiyuan's words, the generals who hadn't taken it seriously suddenly turned blue.

If looks could kill, Wei Zhiyuan would have already been torn to pieces.

This method was simply too vicious; it was clearly dragging everyone to die together.

The most critical thing was that such petitions for battle were basically approved.

However, generals who generally did this had committed serious crimes and had no way to escape.

Only to avoid implicating their families did they choose such a tragic way to die.

Their current situation clearly hadn't reached that point.

There were plenty of imperial troops who were unsuccessful in their offensives on the battlefield; if all of them were to be punished, half of the generals in the southeastern provinces would be held accountable.

The law does not punish the masses; this also applies in wartime.

The court still needed them to pacify the rebellion, so it couldn't be too serious about this.

Of course, as the Fujian Regional Commander, Wei Zhiyuan would likely be the "chicken killed to warn the monkeys."

It was obvious that Wei Zhiyuan had seen this point clearly, which was why he came up with this "mutual destruction" tactic.

"Regional Commander, it's not worth it!"

"That's right, Regional Commander.

Things haven't reached that point yet, there's no need for this!"

After regaining their rationality, the group of generals hurriedly persuaded him.

If everyone acted as a suicide squad together, the Fujian imperial army would be finished.

If the generals were emptied out all at once, even if the court immediately supplemented with new generals, it would take a long time to form combat effectiveness.

But the situation was special now.

In the allied force pacifying the three provinces, they couldn't play much of a role at all and still consumed a large amount of grain and supplies.

The cost-effectiveness was too low.

Now the court's treasury was extremely empty, and military expenses had to be self-raised by the Viceroy's Yamen.

To cut expenses, Marquis Wuyang might really go with the flow and send them to the battlefield as cannon fodder.

At worst, after dealing with them, he could send the tens of thousands of Fujian troops back.

As long as the soldiers below heard they could stop fighting, they would probably be overjoyed and wouldn't make a fuss for them at all.

Afterwards, spending all the saved military expenses on the few units that could win battles might even yield more illustrious results.

The court wouldn't care how many troops participated in the pacification; the Emperor only wanted to see the imperial army wipe out the rebellion.

After straightening out their thoughts, everyone was terrified.

(End of chapter)