Chapter 273

Liaodong.

"The court has repeatedly ordered us to send troops to rescue the capital; as subjects, we should not have refused."

"It is just that the Northern Barbarians are powerful, and it is difficult for us to compete with them in field battles. If we are not careful, it is possible to bury the entire Liaodong Town."

"Colleagues, is there a way to have the best of both worlds?"

Zhong Jingming asked with a solemn expression.

The former Liaodong Governor had high prestige in the army, and being suddenly questioned and executed by the court had already caused a lot of dissatisfaction among the soldiers.

As a successor, Zhong Jingming did not go through a normal power transfer and belonged to the type who took the position with an imperial edict.

To consolidate power, he had to suppress the trusted old subordinates supported by his predecessor and turn to support the Liaodong military families.

The original balance of power was broken all of a sudden. The Liaodong military families, who were already powerful, obtained most of the important positions in the army in this round of power replacement.

The most direct consequence was that the prototype of a Fanzhen appeared on the land of Liaodong. Middle and high-level generals who were not from Liaodong military families were squeezed out one after another.

The court's decrees, when they reached the land of Liaodong, had to obtain their support to be executed.

Human hearts would never be satisfied; the two sides cooperated happily before because everyone's interests were consistent.

After becoming big, the Liaodong military families still wanted to get more power. Realizing that the situation was out of control, Zhong Jingming naturally did not want to continue to cooperate.

As the Liaodong Governor appointed by the court, although his personal ability and moral integrity were not very good, he did not lack the most basic political sensitivity.

Supporting a Fanzhen, whether it was the Emperor or the civil and military officials in the court, could not be tolerated.

If he did not want to be liquidated by the court, he had to take action immediately to curb the Liaodong military families and cut off their path to becoming a Fanzhen.

Just as he wanted to make changes, news of the Northern Barbarians besieging the capital suddenly came. The original plan went bankrupt, and he could only choose to drink poison to quench thirst, continuing to cooperate with these military families.

The Emperor's Prince of the Blood edict arrived, but the Liaodong military families had no interest in Prince of the Blood.

Compared to clashing head-on with the main force of the Northern Barbarians, they preferred to pick soft persimmons. One by one, they were rubbing their hands, preparing to take advantage of the enemy's empty rear to go over and make a profit.

The interests of the small group ran counter to the Emperor's imperial edict, making Zhong Jingming's situation suddenly become awkward.

Wanting to follow the Emperor's wishes and send troops to rescue the capital, the little brothers below did not agree.

Satisfying the wishes of the little brothers, the charge of disobeying the imperial edict was something he could not bear; it was truly a dilemma.

Now he envied Marquis Wuyang the most, who easily split the Guangxi Town without causing any ripples.

If it were Liaodong Town, whoever dared to suggest splitting it would not want to see the sun the next day.

"Governor, as subjects, the Emperor's imperial edict must be executed."

"However, how to execute it specifically needs some flexibility."

"The Emperor wants us to enter the capital for Prince of the Blood, so let's withdraw the troops outside the pass back to the pass first, and then advance steadily towards the capital."

"Considering that the Northern Barbarians are powerful, we should not clash with them directly; this Prince of the Blood should focus on strategic deterrence."

"After the various Prince of the Blood main armies arrive, then unite with the various reinforcements to launch an attack on the rebels together!"

Regional Commander Shi Jingfeng said very politely.

This way of dealing with things was the result they came up with after many internal discussions.

Liaodong Town was indeed similar to a Fanzhen, but the location of their Fanzhen was not good, and they relied heavily on the court's support for money and grain.

If the two sides turned against each other and the court cut off their supplies, the seemingly powerful Liaodong Town would instantly fall apart.

Under this background, the matter of directly disobeying the imperial edict was definitely not allowed to happen.

"Regional Commander Shi, with such efficiency, I am afraid the court will not be able to account for it."

"Given our distance from the capital, we should have arrived before the reinforcements from Liangguang; if we delay time like this, I am afraid it will not be easy to account for."

Provincial Governor Zhu Tianyu spoke up to persuade.

Faced with the growing Liaodong Town, no matter who was an official on the land of Liaodong, they had to be three points shorter.

A Provincial Governor who could do this, except for this unlucky guy, could not find a second person.

Deep in his heart, he was full of resentment towards his superior, Zhong Jingming.

According to previous political rules, Liaodong Governors supported other factions to balance the power of Liaodong military families.

The military power was basically in a state of balance, so these civil officials could issue orders and occupy the political initiative.

After being messed up by Zhong Jingming, the Liaodong military families directly dominated, which was equivalent to actively handing over the political initiative to the other side.

Now that it was time to send troops, neither the Governor nor the Provincial Governor counted; they had to coax these military families to do it.

"Provincial Governor, there is nothing that cannot be accounted for."

"The predicament we are facing, I think the court is also clear about it."

"Being able to send troops at the risk of the entire army being wiped out is enough to prove our loyalty to the court."

"Waiting for the various reinforcements to act together is a last resort."

"If we could defeat the enemy army alone, the Northern Barbarians would have been wiped out by us long ago, so why wait until now!"

Shi Jingfeng responded unhappily.

It was not easy to save up family assets, especially when the court's finances were scarce; once troops were lost, it was a permanent loss.

Expecting the court to allocate funds after the war to make up for their losses was almost impossible.

The limited military budget being able to support Liaodong Town was already not bad.

Wanting to cultivate a batch of retainers again, not only did he have to put money into it, but it would also consume a lot of time.

In Shi Jingfeng's view, the Great Dayu Dynasty, which was constantly in civil strife, already had signs of the end of the dynasty.

At this time, everything was empty, only the strength in his hands was real.

As long as the troops were strong and the horses were sturdy, no matter how the situation changed, they could deal with it calmly.

Once the elite in his hands were buried, those miserable military family stories in history would repeat themselves in the Great Dayu.

"..."

Relying on constantly killing the chicken to warn the monkey and deterring people's hearts, they tossed until after the Lantern Festival before the various provinces initially completed the task of raising money and grain.

Money and grain dragged their feet, the departure time of the Prince of the Blood main army was passively extended, and Li Mu picked up a big bargain.

The extra two months allowed the originally tense procurement task to be easily completed in the end, and there was no need to bear any responsibility.

If asked, it was because the funding was not in place!

Having helped take the blame, the local yamen did not dare to talk nonsense. Not raising money and grain on time was originally public news, so they couldn't argue even if they wanted to.

Of course, they had no intention to argue.

To raise money and grain, they had already offended many people. Still bearing the charge of ineffective fundraising, everyone's mood was not good.

If it weren't for the great merit of Prince of the Blood saving the Emperor supporting them to move forward, it was likely that many officials would just rot.

After all preparations were completed, without the slightest hesitation, Marquis Wuyang immediately ordered the entire army to attack.

The huge fleet set off from Guangdong, sailed north along the coastline, and headed straight for the capital.

On the deck of the flagship, Li Mu held a telescope and looked into the distance boredly.

Crossing the sea, this was not his first experience. But walking such a long sea route at once was still a feat in human history.

Before this, no army dared to let tens of thousands of troops walk the sea route from Liangguang straight to the land of Hebei.

In fact, before the army set out, someone proposed to march by land.

The reason was: the situation at sea was changeable, and once encountering force majeure, it could lead to heavy losses for the army.

After weighing the pros and cons, they finally chose to take the sea route.

The land route was indeed safe, but it couldn't withstand the long time cycle. The theoretical marching time alone was three or four months.

If encountering special weather, the actual marching time would be extended, and it would not be strange to walk for half a year.

By then, let alone Prince of the Blood saving the Emperor, it was likely that when they went to collect the Emperor's corpse, only skeleton frames would be left.

Based on Li Mu's understanding of the officials in the court, the several major granaries in the capital were not all empty, but at least half of them must be in deficit.

With over a million soldiers and civilians in the city, without enough stored grain, no matter how solid the city was, it could not be defended.

Just shortly after receiving the Prince of the Blood edict, a case of Northern Barbarian spies burning grain occurred in the capital, and countless official granaries were reduced to ashes in the flames of war.

Even without considering language customs, a large number of Northern Barbarian spies mixing into the granaries was also very explosive news.

After the incident, Emperor Yongning ordered an investigation, but the result was that all the implicated officials committed suicide out of fear of crime, directly interrupting the investigation clues.

The factory guards after being re-established, although doing the same work as before, had already greatly reduced their enthusiasm for solving cases.

Especially cases involving interest groups, they would avoid them if they could, and would never be clever if they could pretend to be confused.

"Commander Li, what a good mood!"

Hearing this familiar voice, Li Mu directly put down the telescope and turned to remind.

"Marquis, the wind is strong outside, you should go back to the cabin to rest!"

When he went down to Yangzhou, he knew Marquis Wuyang was seasick. Although there was some improvement later, this kind of long-distance trekking was still not something he could bear.

If the main army had an accident and the Regional Commander fell ill halfway, that would be a big trouble.

With Marquis Wuyang topping in front, he, the Commander, would not be eye-catching. The sword light and sword shadow in the court were all topped by Marquis Wuyang, the Regional Commander.

The various impeachments of the Censor were all aimed at the Regional Commander. If no one sheltered from the wind and rain, then one had to be a big tree oneself.

Li Mu had self-knowledge; although he had made many military achievements, his foundation in the political arena was still too shallow to withstand the tossing.

Even Marquis Wuyang had a shallow foundation in the court. Being able to sit firmly in the position was mainly due to his status as an imperial relative.

No matter how the various factions in the court made trouble, they had to consider the Empress Dowager's reaction.

The harem not interfering in politics did not mean the harem had no influence on court politics.

Success might not be possible, but bad things were absolutely no problem. Once remembered by the Empress Dowager, the rest of his life would definitely not be good.

"Rest assured, I can still bear a little sea breeze."

"Counting the days, we will arrive at Tianjin Port in half a month. The Northern Barbarians are ravaging the land of Hebei, and Tianjin is also under their blade."

"After landing, there will be a fierce battle to fight; do you have any countermeasures?"

Marquis Wuyang asked with concern.

In recent days, he had been cramming knowledge about the Northern Barbarians, and finally concluded: these guys are not to be trifled with!

Even the most elite border troops could do nothing about the Northern Barbarians. It was too difficult for the Prince of the Blood main army to break the enemy.

(End of this chapter)