Chapter 370: Black Clouds Pressing on the City

Outside Thang Long City, Yue Army Camp.

Looking at the fluttering flags, Hu Xinbo, who was leading troops for the first time, was full of pride, as if the whole world was under his feet.

"My beloved ministers, Guangxi is right in front of us; does everyone have a wonderful plan to break the enemy?"

Hu Xinbo asked spiritedly.

The late emperor liked external expeditions, but those were small-scale wars, and mobilizing ten thousand troops was considered a big scene.

Gathering the national army to move out together was the first time since the establishment of the Great Yue Imperial Dynasty.

Before sending troops, the ministers opposed him leading the troops.

After all, letting an emperor who had never had experience leading troops lead hundreds of thousands of troops on an expedition, no matter how one looked at it, it was unreliable.

However, there was a disagreement on the commander candidate, and Hu Xinbo seized the opportunity to borrow strength to fight strength, smoothly gaining the leading position.

It was not that he loved leading troops, purely because this military action was too important.

Putting the national army in whose hands, he could not rest assured, so he could only go on the field personally.

"Your Majesty, Guangxi is surrounded by mountains on three sides and relies on the sea on one side.

The Dayu people's navy is not weak, and crossing the sea to fight has too high a risk, so it is not feasible.

The land-bordering areas are blocked by the Liuzhao Mountains, Daqing Mountains, Gongmu Mountains, and the Ten Thousand Mountains, and the roads are very rugged.

Wanting to attack Guangxi, the best choice is to send troops from Liangzhou, kill into Siming Prefecture, and seize Zhennan Pass.

……"

The more he analyzed, the more Chen Chuyang felt that attacking Guangxi was a wrong decision.

The Great Dayu Dynasty previously abandoned Jiaozhi, besides civil-military infighting, it was also because occupying Jiaozhi was indeed losing money.

Military issues were secondary; the main factor was logistics.

At that time, the development degree of the Red River Plain was not as high as it is now, unable to provide enough grain and pay for the large army, and logistics supplies had to be transported from the country.

Originally, it could be solved by sea transport, but the civil officials, in order to promote the policy of banning the sea, actively burned a large number of treasure ships.

Purely relying on land transport, originally the roads in Guangxi were not very good, and after entering Jiaozhi, the roads were even more tortuous.

As the gateway to Hanoi, Liangshan had high mountains and deep valleys, jungles everywhere, and crisscrossing mountains and rivers, like a maze.

Superimposed on the tropical rainforest climate, the climate was humid, and insects and mosquitoes were dense; it was a hellish transport line.

Attacking from Guangxi was so tricky; conversely, attacking from here also required facing these difficulties.

The previous Great Yue emperor was greedy for the Two Guangs, but ultimately did not take action, which was because after calculating the cost, he was forced to choose to give up.

Compared to overcoming heavy difficulties and running to start a war with the Great Dayu Dynasty, it was obviously more cost-effective to bully the indigenous people on the Indochina Peninsula.

However, these reasons obviously could not convince Hu Xinbo.

In order to dilute the fear of the Great Dayu among the people, they spent over a hundred years, yet still could not completely erase the shadow left by the Dayu army back then.

Just succeeded to the throne not long ago, it was the time when he needed to consolidate imperial power.

The Great Dayu provoked contradictions at this time; if they did not counterattack strongly, it would be a major blow to imperial power.

If everyone knew that there was still a suzerain state in the north, and a Dayu Son of Heaven pressing on top, he, this emperor, would become a joke.

Once people's hearts changed, the Great Dayu Dynasty could use political means to pull him, this emperor, off the horse.

Among the clan, it was not that there was only one successor.

If a brother colluded with the Great Dayu and obtained the other party's investiture, he would get the legal basis for usurpation.

"Hmm!"

"Minister Chen's plan is good, but it is still too conservative.

Since it was decided to send troops to conquer Dayu, it should not be limited to Guangxi.

Siming Prefecture should be attacked, and other regions should not be ignored.

Split a partial division to launch an attack on the Yunnan region, letting the Dayu Emperor taste what it is like to be exhausted from running around.

Minister Xiao, I will give you fifty thousand troops, responsible for conquering Yunnan.

Taking advantage of the fact that the imperial army there has not realized the danger, take Guangnan Prefecture as soon as possible."

Hu Xinbo thought and said.

Compared to the heavily guarded Guangxi, the neighboring Yunnan obviously reacted more slowly.

This was related to the long-term border conflicts; Guangxi and Annan had friction every few days, while the Yunnan border was much more peaceful.

"I obey the decree!"

Xiao Yunfan answered happily.

Fighting east and west for many years, he was also famous for his military achievements in the Great Yue Imperial Dynasty, but he still lacked a major victory to establish his position.

In the past, he was bullying small indigenous countries; even if he won, everyone felt it was normal.

This time, facing the Great Dayu, if he could take Yunnan in one go, his name would become a monument in the history of the Great Yue.

……

Bathing in the spring breeze, Li Mu led the troops to set out again.

In the end, he did not wait for the child to be born.

The border situation was tense, and the Annan army could kill over at any time, so he had to go over in advance to stabilize people's hearts.

This was the sequelae left by promoting the Annan threat theory.

Li Mu had confidence in the garrison troops below, but others did not.

The war had not yet broken out, and the gentry and merchants in Guangxi were preparing to run away.

The requests for help from a group of officials flew like snowflakes.

If measures were not taken quickly, before the enemy attacked, their side would be in chaos first.

"My Lord, news has come from Thang Long City.

Five days ago, Annan King Hu Xinbo held a pledge ceremony in Thang Long to set out on an expedition.

Judging from the flags, the enemy's total military strength is about two hundred and fifty thousand, claiming to be two million to the outside world."

Hearing the final number, Li Mu could not help but laugh out loud.

He had seen those who boasted, but had never seen anyone who could boast like this.

Feudal dynasties that could gather two million troops were only peasant insurgent armies; counting men, women, and children, it was estimated they could gather two million.

Those with real combat effectiveness were not even one-tenth.

"Haha..."

"Since the Annan people are so polite, then we must cooperate.

Pass the order down, tell the outside world that I personally lead fifty thousand troops to fight a decisive battle with the Annan people."

Li Mu said heroically.

Originally, he also wanted to boast, to scare the Annan people, but now he found that it made no sense at all.

People claimed to have two million troops; if he wanted to suppress the other party, he could only claim to have three million troops.

If he really did that, and it was recorded in history books in the future, it would be a joke.

He did not want to become a king of boasting in the eyes of later generations, so he simply changed his strategy.

If he couldn't boast more, then he would simply say less.

Anyway, it was not a lie; not counting the local troops in Guangxi, he indeed only brought fifty thousand troops.

If the Annan people believed it, they would have their own suffering on the battlefield.

……

Guilin Prefecture.

"Where has the Marquis of Hanshui's army reached?"

Zhang Sihan asked with concern.

Since learning that Annan sent out "two million" troops, he had not slept well.

Even if he knew the other party was boasting, everyone still had no bottom in their hearts.

Even if this number was folded twice, it was still a five hundred thousand-strong army, and Guangxi was still in an absolute disadvantage in military strength.

If the enemy broke through the defense line and killed their way into the hinterland of Guangxi, he, this Provincial Governor, would be a tragedy.

Not to mention being punished and imprisoned, anyway, the previous credit would definitely have to be thrown in.

Struggling to this day, he was no longer young and did not have so many years to squander.

If he could not rise this time, his dream of entering the cabinet would really become a dream.

Although in the history of the Great Dayu, there were officials who entered the cabinet directly from the post of Provincial Governor, that was the high-configured Southern Zhili Provincial Governor.

The existence of the Guangxi Provincial Governor, which ranked at the bottom among Provincial Governors, was still several levels away from obtaining the public recommendation qualification.

"Provincial Governor, rest assured, the Marquis's army has entered Wuzhou and will arrive at the front line before long.

The Annan army is still on the road; calculating from the distance, it is only about a hundred or eighty miles away.

The Guangdong garrison troops were reorganized by the Marquis, and their comprehensive quality is not worse than ordinary recruited troops, so their foot speed should be much faster than the Annan people.

It is estimated that the two armies should arrive at about the same time and will not affect the operation."

Lu Lingchuan answered with a smile.

As a Military Preparedness Commissioner, he often dealt with the military and knew the garrison troops in Guangxi quite well.

Because of relatively sufficient money and grain, this garrison troop was not worse than recruited troops in daily training.

Back then, when encircling and suppressing the rebel army, this troop also followed Li Mu to conquer, fighting from Guangxi to Guangdong, and from Guangdong to Guizhou.

Later, because of the troop reorganization, it turned into a garrison establishment.

It was just that in the eyes of the court, most of that troop that could fight back then were on the casualty list.

They, these officials serving in Guangxi, vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

However, the garrison was a closed world, and local officials had no right to intervene, so they did not know that Li Mu's false reporting of battle damage was so exaggerated.

The generals in the military were those who knew, but they were also vested interest groups and could not go out and shout everywhere.

Officialdom is the same as the workplace; solving all problems in advance will not make the leader feel that the subordinate's ability is strong, but will think it should be so.

Only victory after experiencing twists and turns and paying a painful price can be recognized by everyone.

Military merit needs to be paved with the lives of soldiers; without such a large battle damage, then fabricate battle damage.

This is the trouble unique to Li Mu's troops.

Other military generals suffered defeats on the battlefield, and in order to avoid being held accountable, they were all desperately concealing battle damage.

"Being able to catch up is fine!

However, the reinforcements brought by the Marquis of Hanshui are only a mere fifty thousand, which I am afraid is not enough.

Should we let each prefecture recruit some strong men to follow them to participate in defending the city?"

Surveillance Commissioner Zhou Zhenbang proposed.

This time, he was sincerely offering advice and had no intention of deliberately making trouble.

After all, Annan people invaded, and everyone was on the same boat.

Winning the war, everyone had merit.

If the war was lost, everyone present would also have to finish together.

"No need to toss.

Guangxi is not without troops, and even the military strength is not less than the Annan people, it just depends on whether we dare to use it!"

Jia Bo said with a calm face.

As a place of exile for criminals, in the past few years, the Guangxi region had successively received over a million prisoners of war.

These people were distributed in garrisons everywhere, receiving labor reform.

Compared to ordinary people, these veterans who had been on the battlefield could be sent to the battlefield after simple reorganization.

"Official Jia, don't make such jokes.

Those rebel soldiers hate the court the most; giving them weapons, I don't know what kind of chaos will be caused.

In my humble opinion, military matters should be arranged by the Marquis, so let's not add chaos!"

Chai Jingcheng immediately opposed.

The war on the front line was still far from Guilin, and it would not affect this side for a while.

Giving weapons to rebel soldiers who were exiled to serve in the army was different; these guys were distributed in garrisons everywhere, and there were over one hundred thousand prisoners of war in Guilin alone.

If chaos was caused, he would have no ability to clean up the situation.

"Official Chai, you are overthinking.

This official does not have the habit of reaching out randomly!

These prisoners of war were originally exiled to serve in the army to guard the border; my proposal is just to let them fulfill their duties.

Whether to adopt it specifically depends on the Marquis's decision.

As for worrying about them causing chaos, that is completely unnecessary.

So many prisoners of war were exiled to Guangxi; have you ever heard of chaos?

Because the number of people involved is too large, their nine clans have not all been exiled yet, but people will eventually be sent over.

Prisoners of war without any concerns are only a very small number.

Just strictly supervise these minority elements."

Jia Bo responded calmly.

No local official liked the families of rebels.

Being able to send these unstable elements away, no one would hesitate.

For local gentry, after these people left, it was just right to make room for them.

With family members, prisoners of war had weaknesses.

Without being driven to a dead end, everyone would not dare to make trouble.

After all, they all belonged to people with criminal records, and exile to serve in the army only happened once.

If a major crime was committed, it would directly trigger the whole family annihilation package.

……

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 371 =====