Chapter 380

"Haha..."

"I have roamed the world, fighting all the way from Guangxi to Nanjing City; what kind of scene have I not seen?

This kind of child's play also wants to fool your grandfather—it's simply a dream.

Brothers, I will take the first step!"

After speaking, Pingnan Fu Haoxuan fell to the ground on the spot and began to foam at the mouth.

Obviously, this was poison prepared in advance, which had already been taken during the battle.

"Your Majesty!"

The remaining Wu Kingdom soldiers, after a shout, chose to slit their own throats one after another.

"Quick, stop them!"

Shi Jingzhong shouted hurriedly.

To encircle and suppress this group of remnants, the Liaodong army paid the casualties of hundreds of cavalrymen.

This was the time they suffered the greatest losses since entering the pass to suppress the rebellion.

In previous battles, although the number of casualties was higher, most of the losses were infantry.

Compared to infantry that can be trained in a few months to go to the battlefield, the cultivation cost of these elite cavalry is undoubtedly much higher.

Live fish and dead fish—they are not the same price.

Suffering such heavy losses, and all the fish caught are dead—how can this be endured?

"Forget it, fulfill their loyalty!"

Shi Jinglin opened his mouth to stop them.

"Fifth Brother, letting them go like this—didn't our people die in vain?"

Shi Jingzhong said indignantly.

Killing the false emperor is certainly a great merit.

But clearly, their merit could have been even greater.

Watching the merit slip away from under their noses, he was truly unwilling.

"Beheading the thief leader Pingnan Fu Haoxuan on the spot means our people didn't die in vain.

These people are all loyal and righteous; there is no need to let them suffer physical pain.

Cut off the head of the rebel leader Fu, send it to the capital to report the merit, and dig a hole to bury the rest!"

Shi Jinglin shook his head and then issued the order.

It wasn't that he was soft-hearted; it was purely that there was no need.

The rebel leader Pingnan Fu Haoxuan is dead, and the high-level officials of the rebel army are also dead; just these dozen or so soldiers left are simply worthless.

On the south bank of the Yangtze River, the number of prisoners caught by the government army is in the hundreds of thousands.

Unless they are named rebels, even if they catch them alive, the imperial court won't care.

Regardless of status or position, "loyal and righteous people" are always worthy of respect.

With no benefits to be gained, it's better to follow one's heart and let these people commit suicide.

"Fifth Brother, did this merit come too smoothly?

As long as the Min-Zhe navy was a little faster, Pingnan Fu Haoxuan's unit would never have been able to cross the river smoothly.

Even the Anqing garrison could be turned—it shouldn't have been that much of a time difference, right?

Even if they didn't catch up by chance, the Anqing garrison could backstab the rebel leader Fu in time; it's impossible that the intercepting army was delayed by chance again, right?"

After calming down, Shi Jingzhong asked suspiciously.

One accident might be a coincidence, but multiple accidents superimposed together is definitely not an accident.

The relationship between the Liaodong faction and the nobility faction, although it cannot be said to be like fire and water, certainly isn't worth someone giving away a great merit for nothing.

"Finding the problem is right.

Letting us pick up the bargain is nothing more than the Duke of Cheng and the Marquis of Wuyang fearing that their merit is too high to be suppressed.

In this great war to suppress the rebellion, the performance of the nobility faction was too dazzling, and they needed someone to help share the pressure.

Looking at the whole Great Dayu, the only one who can compete with them for the limelight is our Liaodong Town.

This is an open conspiracy; we cannot refuse the military merit delivered to our door.

Compared to the nobility faction, our Liaodong Town has already been pulled apart in terms of military merit.

If this continues, we won't be able to speak hard in the court in the future."

Shi Jinglin answered with a frown.

The actual situation is even more serious than what he said.

What they are being pulled apart in is not just military merit, but also military strength.

Influenced by the war to suppress the rebellion, the government armies of the seven provinces of Liangguang, Huguang, Min-Zhe, Jiangxi, and Nanzhili have all been replaced by people from the nobility faction.

No matter the resources they control or the number of troops, they are not something the Liaodong Town can compare with.

The imperial court just issued an order for the Prince of Zhenyuan to enter Shu to suppress the rebellion.

If there are no accidents, the military officers in the Shu region in the future will also have to be labeled with the nobility faction.

The most essential regions of Great Dayu are all within their control; it's hard for their strength not to grow.

Similar operations—they can't learn.

Not to mention that the imperial court wouldn't agree, even within themselves, they wouldn't allow the dispersion of power.

The nobility faction was jointly created by a group of nobles, but the Liaodong Town is centered on the Shi family.

The Emperor can tolerate the expansion of the nobility faction's power because within the nobility faction, there are still several large and small mountain tops.

These forces are all vested interest groups of Great Dayu and cannot go to overturn the table together.

In any town's recruitment, it is filled with children of multiple noble families, forming checks and balances among each other.

Under mutual restraint, it is difficult for a single noble general to completely control the army.

As long as the Emperor does not damage the core interests of the nobility group, this armed group that shares the fate of Great Dayu will not raise a flag to rebel.

Even if individuals among them have ambitions, others will pull them back.

If it weren't for the institutional checks and balances on military generals, the situation of ruling the military with civil officials wouldn't have appeared in previous years.

Originally, the Liaodong Town should have been like this, but the previous Liaodong Governor was an idiot.

To seek personal gain, he ignored the institutional checks and balances on power and cooperated with the Shi family to clear out dissidents in the army.

Once the system is destroyed, no matter how stable the power structure is, it's all nonsense.

One is within the control range, and one is outside the control range—who is easier to be suspected goes without saying.

Just push them forward a little, and the eyes of Emperor Yongning and the hundred officials in the court will be cast on the Liaodong Town.

"Truly despicable!

This group of bastards—if they want to play schemes, they have the ability to find those civil officials.

Bullying us honest people—what kind of thing is that!"

Shi Jingzhong's complaint did not arouse the resonance of the crowd.

If they were honest people, the Shi family wouldn't be able to dominate alone.

You must know that five years ago, there were multiple armed forces in the Liaodong region, and even the Liaodong Regional Commander wasn't a member of the Shi family.

Now, the grass on the graves of those competitors has grown for several seasons.

In terms of the speed of development and growth, they are no slower than the nobility faction.

It's just that the plate of Liaodong isn't big enough, and they soon encountered a bottleneck.

The Great Dayu imperial court can invest in the Liaodong front lines—every year it's only a few million taels.

The current Liaodong Town is the limit of what can be developed within limited resources.

Wanting to go further, either let the imperial court increase investment, or overturn the Tatars.

As for jumping out of Liaodong—that's impossible.

If they really take this step, they won't be able to get a single cent of the imperial court's resources.

The southern economy is relatively wealthy, and the nobility faction can rely on self-raised funds to solve the military expenditure problem.

The north is plagued by natural and man-made disasters, and without the support of the central government, it is difficult to support the Liaodong Town.

Not to mention that they don't control local government in their hands.

As long as the Emperor and the hundred officials have normal brains, they won't let the Shi family intervene in the local government affairs of various provinces.

This forms a closed loop.

The Liaodong Town wants to obtain more resources, so it must show its strength to the imperial court.

And after showing its strength, the Shi family will encounter even greater suspicion from the imperial court.

……

On the south bank separated by a river, the great battle also entered its final stages.

But compared to the desperate fight on the north bank, most of the rebel soldiers on the south bank chose to lay down their weapons and surrender.

The Emperor ran away, and the morale of the army had long since cooled.

Several Dayu government armies suppressing the rebellion in the south didn't have the habit of killing prisoners; after they surrendered, it was nothing more than exile and military service.

Many people in the rebel army were from Guangxi themselves; exile is equivalent to returning home.

Even if life is miserable, it is still returning home, which is better than dying in a foreign land.

It is also surrender, but the group of Wu Kingdom civil officials are ashen-faced.

In the Great Dayu Dynasty, ordinary grass-roots people rebelling still have a glimmer of life, but scholars rebelling will be severely punished.

The reference standard is official rank.

Having obtained official rank and enjoyed the generous treatment given by the imperial court, this belongs to eating the salary of Great Dayu.

Eating the monarch's salary and not sharing the monarch's worries, but instead running to rebel—that is definitely a crime added to a crime.

Especially those surrendered officials—one counts as one, directly enjoying the nine-clan extermination package.

Too many people are involved to kill them all, but the close relatives definitely can't run away.

Distant relatives and collateral branches will also be liquidated, and confiscation and exile are inevitable.

Past human relationships have all lost their effect at this time.

No one will be foolish enough to stand up and plead for the rebels at this time.

It is precisely because the consequences are serious that the great clans in Huguang and Jiangxi previously spared no cost to buy their own lives.

The situation is different now.

The rebel army has been suppressed, and they want to defect, but there is no opportunity.

Those who finally stayed on the rebel chariot are directly identified as stubborn elements and must be liquidated most severely.

"No one has been sent over yet; it seems the great gift I sent should satisfy the Shi family."

Looking at the rows of prisoners being escorted, the Marquis of Wuyang said with a laugh.

Everything is settled; whoever grabs the military merit belongs to whom.

The disputes between the two sides are gone, and the relationship has returned to normal.

Sitting together again, everyone is a member of the nobility faction and needs to jointly maintain the group's interests.

"Whether satisfied or not, they must accept this great gift.

They can't just not want the military merit in their hands for the sake of anger.

The performance of the Liaodong faction in recent years is completely mismatched with the strength they possess.

If this continues, the hundred officials in the court will have to re-examine whether it is worth spending so much money on the Liaodong Town."

The Duke of Cheng responded calmly.

After the rebel leader Fu was suppressed, the critically ill Great Dayu Dynasty let out a sigh of relief.

Next, they only need to wipe out the rebel armies in Shu and Shanxi, and the internal hidden dangers will be considered solved seven or eight out of ten.

The remaining external troubles can no longer threaten the life of this ancient empire.

After having the army formed by the nobility faction, the imperial court has more choices.

These nobility faction bigwigs performed too dazzlingly in the great war to suppress the rebellion; in the future, they likely won't let them.

But the young generation of noble children is different; they have just emerged and are not yet enough to make the Emperor and the hundred officials wary.

As long as the Emperor has a normal brain, he will definitely support these young generals and let them become the cornerstone of stabilizing the empire.

Once the imperial court has better-to-use military generals, the situation of the Liaodong faction will become even more awkward.

"Haha..."

"The Duke's words are not bad; that group of guys in Liaodong Town has always had their eyes above the top, so it's time for them to suffer a bit.

Now that the war in Jiangnan is over, why don't we submit a memorial to transfer them to Shanxi to suppress the rebellion.

If they continue to preserve their strength, I'm afraid they won't be able to explain it to His Majesty."

The Marquis of Wuyang said after a burst of laughter.

For the Great Dayu Dynasty, the damage brought by the White Lotus Sect rebel army almost cost them their lives.

But for the Marquis of Wuyang, these rebel armies are the ladder for him to step toward the blue clouds.

Before the outbreak of the White Lotus Sect chaos, he was just an ordinary imperial relative in the capital, at most having the reputation of knowing military affairs.

The civil and military officials in the court didn't put him in their eyes at all.

Everyone gave face just for the sake of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, not for himself.

With the end of the White Lotus Sect chaos, his status and status underwent earth-shaking changes, leaping to become a core figure of the nobility faction.

Facing any civil and military official in the court, he could straighten his waist.

Even a strong vassal like the Liaodong Town could have its fate manipulated.

"Since the Marquis has opened his mouth, then let's do it!

Having fought for so long, our subordinates have also reached the time for rest and reorganization.

That group of guys in the Liaodong faction has watched the excitement for so long; it's time for them to contribute.

However, others can rest, but you, Marquis, cannot be idle.

The Annan War is at a critical moment; there is not much news coming from there, so I'm afraid you have to worry more."

The Duke of Cheng said slowly.

Li Mu chose to jump out of the court, the conflict of interest between the Li family and the Jing family no longer exists, so he is his good son-in-law.

When support is needed, naturally support must be given.

However, he is the Viceroy of Min-Zhe, and the battlefield is still far away; even if he sends troops to participate, the Liangguang Liuzhen are more suitable.

The Marquis of Wuyang, who serves as the Viceroy of Liangguang, has a greater say in this.

"This matter is simple; after the troops rest for a few days, I will send three towns of troops back to reinforce.

It is mainly the troops of Nanzhili that have not yet been formed; otherwise, sending the Liangguang Liuzhen back together wouldn't matter."

The Marquis of Wuyang agreed immediately.

These were all discussed beforehand, and everyone is their own people, so there is no need to break the contract halfway.

Compared to before the outbreak of the great war, the current strength of the Liangguang Liuzhen has still been weakened quite a bit.

The loss of troops and generals on the battlefield is not too serious; it is mainly that a large number of officers and soldiers have been transferred from within.

The troops of various provinces in the south are basically formed by transferring backbone forces from the Liuzhen.

The Liangguang Liuzhen, with a total military strength of over 70,000, now have less than 40,000 left, and quite a few new recruits have been added.

Not only are the Liangguang Liuzhen not full, but other provincial military towns also have vacancies.

Wanting to restore combat effectiveness, it is difficult to do so in a year or a half.

"Just relying on some garrison troops can block the enemy army.

With these reinforcements, I think it's enough to use.

If the war situation is tight, we will send more troops.

If it weren't for being unable to leave, I would really like to participate in the great cause of recovering the Jiaozhi Administration Commission myself!"

The Duke of Cheng said with slight sadness.

The Jiaozhi Administration Commission has an unusual significance for the Duke of Cheng's mansion.

When the rebellion broke out in Jiaozhi that year, the third-generation Duke of Cheng was the Regional Commander of the army.

Having finally stabilized the situation, because of the imperial court's order, he was forced to withdraw troops from Jiaozhi.

His name was linked to losing the city and the land.

The third-generation Duke of Cheng returned to the country and died in depression, chanting Jiaozhi until he died.

This matter is regarded as the greatest shame by the Duke of Cheng's lineage.

(End of chapter)