Chapter 386: Blocking Battle

The capital, Taihe Hall.

"Enough!"

"This won't do, that won't do; why don't you all come and sit on this dragon throne!"

Emperor Yongning scolded in a rage.

The content of the previous high-level meeting had leaked out after all.

After time fermented, not only did it not fade, but it became increasingly lively.

The civil and military officials in the court either firmly opposed the tax reform or simply said nothing at all.

In an instant, Emperor Yongning was reduced to a lonely man.

To quell the disputes in the court and the public, he made quite a few efforts, but he overestimated his own credibility.

The series of wild operations he took to personally govern as soon as possible ultimately backfired.

The officials firmly opposed the tax reform, besides their own interests being damaged, it was also because they were worried about the Emperor messing around blindly.

In the past few years, as long as the domestic situation stabilized, disputes would inevitably arise in the court.

This included factors from the ministers, and there was no lack of responsibility from the Emperor.

Every action had a good starting point, but in the end, it all ended up in a mess.

Emperor Yongning felt that the officials were not working hard, while the officials thought the Emperor's requirements were too idealistic.

Many things involved the whole body by moving one hair.

Not working wouldn't cause problems, but once work started, all kinds of problems would appear.

The combat effectiveness of the Great Dayu bureaucratic system had long been inferior to what it was in the past; any complex operation was a test for the bureaucratic system.

"Your Majesty, please calm your anger!"

"We ministers absolutely do not have such rebellious hearts!"

Seeing the Emperor sulking, the officials hurriedly knelt down to plead guilty.

Originally, they were the ones sulking at the Emperor, attempting to use pressure to force Emperor Yongning to give up messing around.

Similar operations had been carried out countless times by their predecessors.

Almost every time a new emperor ascended the throne, they would mess around once.

Some with soft temperaments would compromise with the officials in two or three years, entering a mode of co-governance between the Emperor and ministers.

Some with firm wills and strong political skills would suppress the officials, which was also very normal.

Either the ministers' authority restricted the monarch's power, or the monarch's power overwhelmed the ministers' power; this was a way of playing that had been passed down for thousands of years.

Both sides belonged to normal power struggles, and Great Dayu had long formed a system.

By the time it reached Emperor Yongning, some changes were discovered.

Outside of power struggles, the nation was also facing internal and external troubles.

Besides daily power struggles, everyone had to find ways to maintain the stability of the empire.

The old ministers in the court all hoped that the Emperor would slow down his pace and not cause trouble.

As for the young, vigorous faction, they were all at the back of the line and had no right to speak for the time being.

The reformists of the past had been wiped out seven or eight out of ten in the previous political struggles.

At this time, wanting to promote the tax reform from the eight southeastern provinces to the whole country, they couldn't even find people to do the work.

So much so that Emperor Yongning once wanted to recall several big shots of the nobility faction to the court to promote comprehensive tax reform.

However, this could only be thought about; the nobility group messing around in the south was meat not cut from their own bodies.

Changing to the north, the situation changed; the nobility group was also the vested interest group of the inherent system, and cutting their own meat was too difficult.

According to convention, with no one in the court supporting him, the Emperor should have extinguished the fire.

Never did he expect that Emperor Yongning had also learned to sulk, and as soon as he came up, he made a big wave.

Even the "dragon throne" was to be given up; this was equivalent to explicitly saying that the officials were bullying the Emperor.

Although everyone's actions indeed had the suspicion of bullying the Emperor, it absolutely could not be publicly acknowledged.

If the matter couldn't be solved, then just use magic to bombard each other.

Since ancient times, powerful ministers bullying the Emperor were all kinds of arrogant and domineering, but they were kneeling on the ground pleading guilty.

Today's matter spread out, and it became the Emperor being young and ignorant, and the group of ministers could only kneel and admonish.

"You all..."

The cursing words, Emperor Yongning ultimately took them back.

The officials showed their stance with actual actions; continuing to clash hard would only result in both sides suffering.

"Fine, the new tax law will not be promoted for the time being."

Emperor Yongning said indignantly.

Deep in his heart, he had already made up his mind to cultivate a batch of trusted officials in the court.

He didn't want to encounter such bullying again today.

You must know that regarding the tax reform, he only mentioned it once at a high-level meeting and hadn't even spoken about it publicly in the court.

Just revealing a hint of intention caused a huge uproar; normal people would feel stifled.

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Having obtained the desired result, the group of ministers ignored Emperor Yongning's ugly expression and directly played a wave of salt on the wound.

At this time, Wan Junhui was the most embarrassed; having turned a good situation into this, he, the Chief Grand Secretary, needed to be responsible.

But there was no way; Emperor Yongning was too diligent in government.

If he could learn from the late Emperor, and when trouble arose, hide in the palace and not come out, the scene of officials bullying the Emperor wouldn't have appeared.

Or be a bit thicker-skinned and simply not admit it.

The officials participating in the discussion couldn't possibly come out and expose themselves.

If others dared to shout, that would be planting spies in the palace, which was a capital crime of having one's family wiped out.

With no evidence, that would be groundless; in the name of severely punishing rumor-mongering, one could also take the opportunity to deal with unlucky guys one didn't like.

Ready-made imperial power techniques, the Emperor himself didn't know how to use them, and he was also very helpless.

He couldn't handle the Emperor, and he couldn't control the officials even more.

Emperor Yongning chose him to serve as Chief Grand Secretary because he valued that the faction power behind him was small and he couldn't monopolize power.

The effect was very obvious; he had never monopolized power.

The price was that when encountering problems, he, the Chief Grand Secretary, also couldn't suppress the officials.

"Your Majesty, the Prefect of Qiongzhou submitted a memorial that Annan people sent assassins to impersonate an envoy mission, attempting to sneak into the capital to commit rebellious acts."

"Now the envoy mission personnel have been detained by the Qiongzhou government office; please have the court deal with them."

Wen Siyuan immediately submitted the memorial.

As the Minister of the Court of Diplomatic Reception, under normal circumstances, he shouldn't step into this muddy water.

But since the Chief Grand Secretary gave a hint, he could only present the matter to shift the awkward atmosphere in the great hall.

Deep in his heart, he greeted the entire family of the Prefect of Qiongzhou.

Assassins impersonating an envoy mission—submitting it to the court themselves was fine; sending the official document to the Minister of the Court of Diplomatic Reception office—what was that?

It was true that they managed foreign envoys, but they all did reception work.

As for foreign diplomacy, that was superfluous.

In international relations, the Great Dayu court was heaven, and the group of vassal states only had the duty of obeying orders.

"Ministry of Justice, regarding these vassal state assassins, how should they be dealt with?"

Emperor Yongning asked coldly.

"Your Majesty, according to the Great Dayu Law, the assassins should be executed according to the law, and their vassal state should be held accountable."

Di Deyu, the Minister of Justice, immediately gave the answer.

In fact, the Great Dayu Law had so much content; he didn't know if there was this clause.

Not remembering didn't affect giving the answer.

Great Dayu had never been a purely rule-of-law country; more often than not, rule of man was greater than rule of law.

The Great Dayu Law also had to conform to everyone's moral concepts; if the content of both sides conflicted, the Ministry of Justice had the right to interpret the law.

Temporarily adding a clause to sentence them was not impossible.

After all, vassal states sending assassins to impersonate an envoy mission and plotting misconduct—these terms were too niche.

Great Dayu had been passed down for more than two hundred and eighty years, and this was the first time encountering this.

Normal people couldn't imagine that such a bizarre and absurd thing could happen by their side.

If it weren't for the fact that the two countries were in a state of war, the court would definitely send people to strictly investigate the ins and outs.

"Hmm!"

"A group of clowns; let the Qiongzhou government office handle it according to the law."

"As for sending people to hold Annan accountable, forget it!"

"Tell the Marquis of Hanshui to hit them hard; I don't want Annan to exist in this world."

Emperor Yongning said murderously.

It was clear that this wave of Annan people had hit the muzzle of the gun.

The Emperor, who had a belly full of fire, couldn't find a place to vent, and they just happened to come up.

The group of ministers rarely opposed the Emperor's resolution.

The Emperor venting his anger on Annan people was better than venting it on themselves.

Even the most active censor remained silent at this time.

The information everyone received was that Annan invaded Guangxi, and Great Dayu was passively fighting, so naturally, it couldn't be called militarism.

At this time, sending assassins to provoke again—if they continued to let Annan exist, where would everyone's face be?

Great Dayu's establishment absorbed the lessons of Great Song; when treating foreign enemies, the political stance was much tougher.

Early morning, just as the sky was brightening, the Annan military camp outside the city was empty.

Standing on the city gate tower, looking at the empty camp left after the enemy troops withdrew, Li Mu curled his lips in disdain.

"Pass down the order to let the various garrisons of Guangxi leave the city to pursue the enemy troops."

"Tell the people below to bite the enemy's tail and beat them hard, gradually nibbling away at the enemy troops."

"This operation focuses on annihilating the enemy's effective strength; it does not require defeating the enemy troops rapidly."

With over a hundred thousand Annan troops, if they lined up to fight hard, eating them up would require paying a not-so-small price.

But now the battlefield had become the march, and even if the enemy set off in the middle of the night yesterday, in reality, the rear army had only walked a few miles.

At such a distance, the Great Dayu army would soon catch up.

The long snake formation looked majestic, but in reality, when they really fought, the head and tail could not look after each other.

These military common sense problems would definitely be reminded to the Annan King by someone.

If there were no accidents, the enemy troops definitely arranged rear-guard troops.

If it were in the past, Li Mu would definitely repeatedly instruct his subordinates to be careful of the enemy's ambush.

Now it was not needed.

Having experienced so many wars, if they didn't even have this bit of battlefield sense, then they could at most be a platoon leader.

Climbing to a high position would only harm others and themselves.

"Obey the order!"

After receiving the order, Wu Dage immediately became busy.

Compared to before, the Li Mu group had already embarked on regularization.

Past military orders were transmitted orally, but now such orders must have official documents stamped with the commander's seal, and exclusive anti-counterfeiting passwords.

To a certain extent, some efficiency was sacrificed, but to avoid shirking responsibility, this step had to be taken.

Relying entirely on oral orders, forging was simply too easy.

It didn't matter during foreign wars; no matter how much the officers and soldiers in the army couldn't think straight, they wouldn't defect to the Annan people who had no future.

If it turned into an internal war, using all kinds of treacherous means, buying off insiders would be very normal.

Li Mu could be certain that there were definitely spies planted by other political factions among his subordinates.

With the means of this era, no matter how much internal review was done, it couldn't be guaranteed that the interior was clean.

Not causing trouble—besides being cautious when using people, it was mainly because what he did was within the political rules of the game.

Even if there were some taboo things, they were not matters of principle.

If it made it to the court, the probability was being scolded and having a few months' salary confiscated.

If it happened to be party strife, it was possible to lose one's official position.

In troubled times, for military generals with great battle achievements, these punishments were better than nothing.

The court now couldn't do without the nobility faction; unless the Emperor's brain was twitching and he wanted to play "discarding the bow after the birds are gone," otherwise, being dismissed today meant being re-enabled tomorrow.

In the blink of an eye, the tightly closed city gate slowly opened, and a group of government troops stepped onto the journey in an orderly manner.

Looking at the distant foreign land, in Li Mu's mind, the battlefield of slaughter in the distance emerged.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

"Who let the cannons fire? I haven't given the order yet!"

The sound of artillery rang out, and Shi Yufeng questioned angrily.

As an old minister not favored by the Yue Emperor, this tragic job of rear-guard duty fell on him without any accident.

To block the Great Dayu army, he set up an ambush on the only way, preparing to give the enemy a head-on blow first.

Never did he expect that one mistake in a thousand would happen; before the enemy troops entered the ambush circle, his own artillery fired first.

"General, the cannon fire is not from our side."

"Judging from the sound, it should be the rear army that encountered trouble."

"Perhaps the enemy took a small path, ran to the front, and bumped into our rear army."

Hearing this answer, Shi Yufeng's expression sank.

The border line between the two countries was so long, but the main road available for the army to pass was only this one at Zhennan Pass.

If asked how many small paths there were, then no one could say clearly.

Rugged mountain roads could block other troops, but for the Guangxi soldiers, it was like walking on flat ground.

A team of one hundred and eighty people, bringing dry rations, weaving through was not impossible.

Blocking the Yue army was unrealistic, but causing trouble during the withdrawal and delaying the withdrawal speed was achievable.

"Don't worry about the rear army; our mission is to block the enemy troops for three days."

"With such a long time, if they haven't withdrawn to the safe zone, then they deserve their bad luck!"

"Let everyone continue to hide; absolutely cannot let the enemy..."

Before he finished speaking, the sound of Great Dayu army muskets and the roar of field artillery broke Shi Yufeng's fantasy.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

"Boom, boom, boom..."

Where they were exposed, he didn't know, but the enemy discovering their ambush became a fact.

Besides the front, enemies also appeared on both wings.

"Throw everything prepared before down to me, and then set fire to burn the mountain!"

"After finishing, withdraw from this place quickly."

Shi Yufeng decisively issued the order.

The ambush battle turned into an offensive and defensive battle; he was also very helpless.

The fire oil, rolling stones, and grass balls prepared at a great cost beforehand could not exert the expected effect, so they couldn't be cheap for the Great Dayu army either.

Killing the enemy wasn't working, so just use it to delay time.

This mission was rear-guard, delaying the enemy's offensive speed; battle achievements were not the first priority.

As long as the big fire burned, it would inevitably delay the speed of the enemy's pursuing troops.

In the blink of an eye, the raging fire ignited from both sides of the mountain road, and the official road was also blocked by the big fire.

The rolling thick smoke could be clearly seen from several miles away.

"Terrible, the enemy is more cunning than expected!"

"Pass the order to the front army to hurry and organize fire extinguishing; don't let the big fire spread!"

Li Sanqi hurriedly ordered.

Leading troops alone for the first time, encountering such a thing—there was simply no one else.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 387 =====