Chapter 268

Yangzhou Prefecture.

"This is simply bullying people too much, I..."

Words greeting the other person's entire family reached his lips, but Pei Pei Yunxuan forcibly swallowed them back.

Sending a militia over was clearly just going through the motions.

He had paid a high price, and this was all he got in return.

Being angry was useless; Marquis Marquis Wuyang had to prioritize the Huguang battlefield, and his reasons were very sufficient.

"When Huguang has a good harvest, the world has enough."

Looking at the entire Great Great Dayu Dynasty, Huguang was the number one granary.

It was not only the province with the highest grain production but also the largest province for grain exports.

Only by taking Huguang could the military grain problem be solved.

Although Jiangnan was also a major grain-producing province, its own consumption was also high.

Besides the farmers working the land, there were also a large number of workers and artisans.

The most critical point was that the Jiangnan gentry were powerful, and the local government had limited say here.

To raise grain, one needed to negotiate with the local gentry.

Yet these fellows were greedier than the next; the good rice raised earlier from the Jiangnan region turned into chaff by the time it reached the front lines.

The court investigated, but to this day, there had been no results.

Previously, the armies of the two Guangs had suffered losses, so no matter how many promises Pei Pei Yunxuan made, people didn't believe him.

Unless he could first produce grain and fodder to supply an army of two hundred thousand for a year, the strategy of prioritizing Huguang could not be changed.

If coordination below failed, expecting interference from above was equally unrealistic.

In the imperial court, the Jiangnan Faction had already become the target of public criticism and was being besieged by all sides.

Even with preparations in advance and arranging for the elders of the family to avoid disaster, accidents were still unavoidable.

Affected by the war, in the last six months, many officials from the Jiangnan region were forced to resign for mourning.

Along with them, the faction's power also suffered heavy losses.

Once they left office, it would be for 27 months.

The original connections were all disrupted.

When they returned to office, no one knew if there would still be positions for them.

Because of mourning, it wasn't just one or two officials who returned to be demoted.

Factors from many sides converged to create the awkward situation before them.

"Governor-General, having reinforcements is better than having none.

The Huguang regiment also has some combat effectiveness; besides the poor discipline, other aspects can barely be used."

Gu Youwen reminded him tactfully.

In his view, the Huguang regiment was a double-edged sword.

If one wanted to make great use of them, one had to make a scabbard to restrain them.

Otherwise, using them to suppress rebels would be a disaster.

Of course, in the matter of suppressing the resurgence of rebels, the regiment did a very beautiful job.

Wherever they had plowed, there had never been a resurgence of rebellion, nor could one happen.

The aftereffect was that the local area was cleaner than a face, and it was hard to see human habitation for tens of miles around; local officials would curse when they arrived.

"No need to say more; since they are going to lift the siege of Nanjing, let them go to Nanjing!

Just these few prefectures in Jiangbei can only provide limited money and grain; we can't afford to raise so many troops."

Pei Pei Yunxuan said helplessly.

The biggest difficulty in suppressing rebels had never been the army.

As long as there was money in the pocket, any kind of army could be trained.

Yet, he encountered trouble in the matter of urging the collection of money and grain.

Just as he wanted to impose an additional tax on the gentry and merchants, a tax resistance movement by scholars broke out, scaring Pei Pei Yunxuan into hurriedly calling a halt.

In the current prefectures of Jiangbei, he couldn't afford to provoke the gentry, and he couldn't collect money from the merchants.

Taxes from the bottom-level commoners could be collected, but he didn't have the guts to continue increasing them.

As a local official, one must consider the cost of governance.

Every time a tax was increased, a series of disturbances would occur locally.

Now the rebels were watching covetously from the side; internal changes at this time would be a matter of life and death.

The Lijin system was established, but the taxes collected were truly not much.

To put it bluntly, even the poorest Among Guangxi province collected more Lijin every month than he did.

This was not something that could be explained away by the impact of war.

If the policy could be seriously implemented, the Lijin contributed by Yangzhou Prefecture alone should far exceed Among Guangxi.

There was no way; the sharing of profits by officials had become the norm and was not something an individual could change.

Each layer peeled off a layer of skin, so even if a lot of money was collected, not much reached the top.

It wasn't that Pei Pei Yunxuan hadn't gone around lobbying to change all this, but unfortunately, everyone supported him only in spirit.

When it came to specific execution, everyone became complicit.

Against this background, asking him to produce a large amount of money and grain was simply impossible.

After all, the Capital Garrison, the Lu Army, and a large number of local troops staying in Jiangbei all needed him, the Governor-General, to pay their wages.

The northern land, having just finished the autumn harvest, should have been a time of joy for ten thousand families.

Unfortunately, no one could be happy this year; the news of the Northern Barbarian invasion was now spreading like wildfire.

Even the capital, which was touted as the safest place, was in a state of panic at this moment.

Unlike previous looting, the Northern Barbarians had also dragged the Guifang tribe along for this border raid.

According to rumors spreading outside, some said the Hu Ren had assembled an army of three hundred thousand, others said four hundred thousand, and some even said five hundred thousand.

Regardless of how many people were in the Hu Ren allied army, the enemy had torn through the Great Wall defense line and was heading straight for the capital.

The capital was now under martial law, and the entire court and public were in a state of panic.

"My dear ministers, the Northern Barbarians are invading on a large scale; do you have any countermeasures?"

Emperor Emperor Yongning asked with a look of exhaustion.

Ever since the Northern Barbarians invaded the border in October, his mood had never been good.

It was either this place falling or that place reporting an emergency.

The Three Xuan-Da Governor-General, in whom he had placed high hopes, had failed to block the enemy's military edge.

The Liaodong Grand Coordinator, responsible for dealing with the Northern Barbarians, performed even worse.

Let alone containing the enemy, they hadn't received a single piece of news about the Northern Barbarian main force bypassing Three Xuan-Da.

Whether these fellows were useless or had received the news and deliberately concealed it, no one could say clearly.

In any case, the Great Great Dayu Dynasty had performed very poorly in this war.

The troops that dared to leave the city to intercept the enemy were all routed, and the troops on the Three Xuan-Da line suffered heavy losses.

"Your Majesty, issue an edict for the world's troops to come and reinforce the capital!"

The Minister of War, Wan Wan Yuxuan, was the first to speak.

To block the enemy, the Ministry of War had exhausted all kinds of methods.

The result was, besides defeat, more defeat.

Even if they occasionally won a small victory, it would soon turn into a major defeat under the interference of civil officials.

There was no way; there were too many people in the Great Great Dayu Dynasty who fancied themselves military geniuses, and too many officials who wanted to show off.

Many civil officials who were well-versed in military books wanted to prove themselves.

"Currently, a large number of troops are concentrated in the south, suppressing the White Lotus Sect rebels.

If we issue an edict for reinforcements now, and everyone rushes to the capital in a swarm, Nanjing will be in danger.

There are still over a hundred thousand troops in the capital; even if they can't beat the Hu Ren, defending the city shouldn't be a problem.

The Hu Ren are not good at sieges; now we just need to order the various prefectures to strengthen their defenses and clear the fields, gathering all supplies into the cities to hold them.

With nothing to loot, the Hu Ren will naturally retreat.

To put pressure on the enemy, we can let the Liaozhen troops take the opportunity to penetrate deep behind enemy lines and cause destruction.

The Northern Barbarian main force has come out in full strength; this is the best opportunity to reduce their war-making power."

Jing Jing Guoliang said with slight helplessness.

This war was fought too stiflingly; many armies that clearly shouldn't have sacrificed themselves were buried due to incorrect command.

He couldn't understand even if he racked his brains what was inside the head of the Three Xuan-Da Governor-General, Li Li Zhihong.

In many cities with only a few thousand troops, instead of organizing the able-bodied to defend the city, he actually forced the generals to leave the city for a decisive battle.

From the Great Wall defense line to the capital, there were so many fortresses and strong cities in between, yet most of them didn't play their due role.

Now the situation was festering; issuing an edict for reinforcements seemed like the best choice, but in reality, it was riddled with hidden dangers.

Not to mention the impact on the Jiangnan battlefield, even the arrival times and sequences of reinforcements from various places were not the same.

Reinforcements arriving in batches were very likely to be seized by the enemy and defeated one by one on the battlefield.

Great Great Dayu's situation was already bad; if they lost more elites, the days ahead would be even harder.

With the court's current financial strength, the number of elite troops in the future would only become fewer and fewer.

Even the current elites would slowly lose their combat effectiveness due to insufficient grain and pay.

"Duke of Cheng, that is not the right way to say it!"

"Our Great Great Dayu is a celestial empire; how can we let the Hu Ren come and go as they please?

Since the Northern Barbarians dare to penetrate deep alone, we should take this opportunity to summon the world's troops to leave them behind.

Let the people of the world know that our Great Great Dayu is not something that these petty thieves can covet!"

Cabinet Minister Gu Gu Jiaxi immediately retorted.

The nobility group had become increasingly restless in recent days.

Taking advantage of their lack of attention, they had actually cultivated a batch of young generals.

If they didn't suppress them quickly and let these people grow and gradually grasp great power, they wouldn't be able to suppress them later.

Yet the situation was complex now, and they had to rely on the nobility to fight for their lives.

Especially the upcoming defense of the capital, which would certainly have to be handed over to the nobility.

Involving the fate of the nation and their own lives, no matter how much they wanted to fight for power, they wouldn't dare to mess around at a time like this.

If the nobility presided over the defense of the capital, their influence in the court after the war would inevitably increase greatly.

Under these circumstances, they had to let the Nine Borders military families participate to dilute the credit of the nobility faction.

Essentially, they were still playing a balancing strategy.

As for leaving the Northern Barbarians behind, that was just a political slogan.

If they really fought, being able to kill ten or eight thousand enemies would be a remarkable victory.

It wasn't that the Great Great Dayu army couldn't fight; it was mainly that the court's finances couldn't support it.

With the court's funding not arriving in time, the generals below didn't dare to fight to the death.

Once their troops suffered heavy losses, the court couldn't make up for their losses, let alone pay the pensions they were in arrears.

"Minister Gu is right; our Great Great Dayu is a vast and mighty nation; how can we be bullied by a group of Hu Ren?

If we don't organize a counterattack, in the history books of the future, we will all be sinners of history!"

Senior Grand Secretary Wan Wan Junhui followed up by stating his position.

It could be seen that the civil official group had now reached a consensus on the issue of suppressing military generals.

However, the plan was still too empty.

They kept talking about counterattacking, but when it came to specific actions, there wasn't a single reliable plan.

Besides summoning reinforcements, there were no valuable suggestions.

From a military perspective, it would be better to let the Liaozhen penetrate deep behind enemy lines and play a game of swapping homes.

Everyone plays a killing competition together, killing off the entire younger generation of the Northern Barbarians and cutting off their foundation.

"Hmm!

Draft an edict for the world's troops to come to the capital to reinforce the king immediately.

Troops currently participating in the suppression of rebels are not included in the conscription."

After hesitating for a moment, Emperor Emperor Yongning made his decision.

It wasn't that the Duke of Cheng's proposal wasn't good; deep down, he also wanted to send people to slaughter the younger generation of the Northern Barbarians, but this would damage his reputation.

Conforming to the empire's interests did not mean that everyone could accept it.

Letting the enemy ravage the territory just to cut off the Northern Barbarians' foundation would lead to scholars cursing him to death.

Emperor Emperor Yongning had always valued his reputation both during his life and after his death.

If it were during the era of the late Emperor, the Northern Barbarians wouldn't have dared to play like this.

If this scene had appeared a few years ago, the troops of the Nine Borders would have invaded the great grassland to retaliate at the first opportunity.

Great Great Dayu had a large population; even if millions died, it wouldn't hurt their vitality.

But the Northern Barbarians couldn't; they only had that small population in total.

If the younger generation were slaughtered, no matter how awesome they were now, they couldn't escape the fate of extermination.

Guangzhou Prefecture.

Squads of soldiers were neatly lined up on the drill ground, waiting for Marquis Marquis Wuyang's lecture.

The originally agreed-upon October departure to lift the siege of Nanjing was dragged out until November.

At this moment, Nanjing was already tottering; to urge them to speed up, the messengers from the south of Jiangnan were coming in waves.

Fortunately, Li Mu had experience in dragging things out.

Just the ceremony for the oath-taking departure had been dragged out until now.

They should have boarded the ships directly, but they were dragged from various places to Guangzhou Prefecture for an oath-taking assembly.

According to the plan, the departure was to be dragged out until December; it was only mid-November now.

The excuse for the past two days was that the weather was bad, with high winds and waves on the sea, making it unsuitable for sailing.

Today the sky was clear and the weather was fine, so the weather excuse couldn't be used, and thus it was time for Marquis Marquis Wuyang to be sick.

"Commander, news has come from the capital that the Northern Barbarians have invaded the border.

The Emperor has issued an edict summoning the world's armies to reinforce the king, and the Governor-General invites you over to discuss matters.

..."

"Apologies, gentlemen.

The Emperor has issued an edict to reinforce the king, so the original military plan can only be canceled now.

Pass the order down: the oath-taking assembly is canceled, and the entire army will return to their respective camps for normal training."

Li Mu said with feigned helplessness.

It wasn't that he didn't want to save Nanjing now, but the Emperor had issued an imperial decree, and he, as a subject, naturally had to execute it.

In fact, he had already received the news of the Northern Barbarian invasion.

He just hadn't expected the situation to be so severe that it required summoning a reinforcing army.

"Commander, but Nanjing..."

Before the person behind him could finish, Li Mu waved his hand to interrupt.

"Mr. Master Zhuxi, be careful with your words; since His Majesty has issued an imperial decree, he has naturally considered everything.

We, as subjects, must also understand His Majesty's difficulties.

I know the matter is too big for you to accept for a while, so why not come with me to the Governor-General's office to understand the situation."

It was a perfect stalling tactic, yet the few had no way to deal with it.

As representatives sent by the Jiangnan Governor-General, to urge Li Mu to send troops, these people had been following him every day in recent days.

It was annoying to death, yet these fellows were famous Confucian scholars.

He couldn't beat them, and he couldn't out-curse them.

Wanting to mess with them, he was afraid of killing them, which left Li Mu with no temper.

Not only was he harassed, but Marquis Marquis Wuyang was no exception, and his life was also affected.

Now the situation was different; the Emperor had issued an imperial decree for them to go to the capital to reinforce the king.

Using Nanjing for moral kidnapping no longer had any effect.

No matter how important Nanjing was, its status was still a head lower than the capital.

Not to mention the Emperor's imperial decree, which added even more political weight.

No matter how sufficient the reason, it couldn't make him disobey the imperial decree.

"Sigh!

An eventful autumn!"

The white-bearded Mr. Master Zhuxi sighed in despair.

The Northern Barbarians didn't come at a good time; he had already persuaded Li Mu to send troops to reinforce Nanjing.

He never expected that such an accident could happen at the time of the oath-taking assembly.

(End of chapter)