Chapter 387: Sunset Afterglow

Facing the raging fire, even though the Great Dayu army took action at the first opportunity, it still took two hours to extinguish the fire.

Fortunately, it was not winter; otherwise, encountering withered branches and fallen leaves, the fire would have accelerated, making it even harder to extinguish.

Delayed by two hours, the Yue army, whose ambush failed, successfully completed their withdrawal.

As the Regional Commander, Shi Yufeng, however, could not see a trace of joy on his face.

"Whose subordinates are you, why are you still lingering here now?"

It was truly too infuriating; he led the troops to fight desperately to block the enemy troops, striving for withdrawal time for the main army.

After fighting a battle with the enemy halfway, he actually encountered rear army soldiers during the transfer.

One or two stragglers could be accepted, but now there were actually organized troops lingering behind.

"General, we are the troops under the command of General Weiwu, responsible for escorting the main army's grain and fodder."

"It's not that we want to linger; it's mainly because the road ahead is interrupted and vehicles cannot pass, and General Weiwu is leading people to rush to repair the road."

Hearing the middle-aged captain's explanation, Shi Yufeng's anger grew even more intense.

Soldiers and horses have not moved, grain and fodder go first.

According to normal arrangements, this kind of strategic withdrawal should prioritize transporting grain and material supplies away.

The Yue army made the decision to break out after much consideration, not on a whim.

An orderly withdrawal could theoretically be fully achieved.

Now the order was reversed; the grain transport troops that should have withdrawn first became the rear army.

After a brief loss of focus, Shi Yufeng reacted quickly.

These unlucky guys in front of him probably offended people in the court, which was why there was such an unreasonable arrangement.

"Tell General Weiwu that the enemy troops have already caught up; tell him to speed up the withdrawal."

"Pass down the order for the whole army to set up camp on the spot."

Shi Yufeng waved his hand and said.

Everyone was a frustrated person; there was no need to make things difficult for each other.

This unit that fell behind being able to withdraw smoothly was considered their good luck.

If they were bitten by the enemy troops, it could only be considered their bad luck.

As rear-guard troops, the military strength in his hands was not much, and he had no energy to show kindness.

If the conditions weren't immature, he would have wanted to use these people as bait to plot against the enemy troops once more.

A general's success is built on ten thousand bones; what a general lacks least is ruthlessness.

Guangzhou Prefecture.

"Pass down the order for the various units to prepare; two days later, set off from the sea to conquer Annan!"

Looking at the commander's order in his hands, after confirming there were no errors, Zhang Ning immediately issued the order.

Simply from the perspective of distance, setting sail from Lianzhou Port was closest to Annan.

However, war not only needs to consider distance but also the concealment of the action.

Placing tens of thousands of soldiers at Lianzhou Port—as long as the Annan people had normal brains, they would consider enemies coming from the sea and would never concentrate their forces to attack Zhennan Pass.

The enemy troops did not take the initiative to launch an attack but unfolded a defensive battle on the spot.

Wanting to conquer Annan, the price that needed to be paid would increase by at least several times.

If Annan didn't have internal emptiness, pirates wouldn't have run rampant.

Without pirates causing trouble, the White Lotus Sect prisoner troops couldn't have been sent over easily, and there wouldn't have been so many rebels in Annan.

Besides military considerations, there were also political considerations.

With the fact of the Annan country sending troops to attack Zhennan Pass, Li Mu leading his army to annihilate Annan became justified.

Shenglong City.

"Master Lin, are you sure there is no mistake?"

Cui Ziyan asked in disbelief.

Not killing envoys when two countries are at war belongs to the international latent rules of the East Asian region; the one who set this rule was precisely the Great Dayu Dynasty.

As a country of etiquette, in the past two hundred-plus years, Great Dayu had been using actual actions to maintain its reputation.

Now hearing that his own envoy mission was killed, Cui Ziyan's first reaction was that it was impossible.

He would rather believe that the envoy mission sank halfway or was intercepted and killed by pirates than believe that this was done by the Great Dayu court.

"Prime Minister, this was seen with the own eyes of intelligence personnel; it absolutely cannot be fake."

"The heads are now hanging on the city wall of Qiongzhou; if you don't believe it, you can send people over to verify."

Lin Zeliang immediately guaranteed.

To rebuild the intelligence system, he had put in quite a bit of effort, which was how the network was spread back to the two Guang provinces.

Of course, calling it an intelligence network was gilding himself.

The personnel were all temporarily selected, and there wasn't even time to conduct professional training; it was purely a makeshift team.

Besides collecting public information, secret intelligence was not touched at all.

Even for the sake of safety, they had to take the initiative to stay away from the government's sight, let alone infiltrate the court.

"What did that bunch of idiots do to provoke the Great Dayu people to start a massacre?"

Cui Ziyan asked with a frown.

Great Dayu's international reputation was too powerful; even if his own envoy mission was killed, he still suspected that the envoy mission members had caused some trouble.

Including the last time the envoy mission was detained, he hadn't doubted the reasons announced by the Great Dayu court.

After all, the official documents in the country always used Great Yue Imperial Dynasty and Great Yue Emperor.

When the officials of the Ministry of Rites wrote the state letter, writing according to past habits was also very normal.

The envoy mission officials were negligent in checking, and causing a big blunder and sending themselves in—logically, it made perfect sense.

There are all kinds of birds in a big forest; similar blunder events hadn't happened just once in Great Yue.

Seeing more of them, the ability to bear it also went up.

"It is said that assassins were checked in the envoy mission; after the Qiongzhou government office received the news, they threw all members of the envoy mission into prison."

"After reporting to the capital, the Great Dayu Emperor directly ordered the killing."

Lin Zeliang answered with a helpless expression.

The news received was only this much, so he could only tell the truth.

What the truth was, the intelligence organization under his command had no ability to investigate, and rescue was out of the question.

When the news was received, the heads of the envoy mission members were already hanging on the city wall.

Before seeing the heads, he had always thought that the envoy mission had arrived at the Great Dayu capital and was negotiating to end the war.

"From Qiongzhou to the Great Dayu capital, the distance is not short."

"For such a long time, did you not discover that the envoy mission was arrested and imprisoned?"

Cui Ziyan immediately questioned.

The envoy mission being killed was small; the key was that this cut off the hope of peace negotiations.

The Great Dayu Emperor directly ordered the killing, clearly being enraged; sending people to negotiate now would not yield the desired results.

Great Yue's current situation was very dangerous; the hope of negotiations was shattered, meaning both sides could only fight to the end.

The sudden change in the situation broke their previous plans, and many strategic plans had to be redone.

"Prime Minister, this is the responsibility of the previous Tongzheng Commissioner."

"Ding Weiqi, that old thief embezzled intelligence funds, so that the foreign intelligence organization existed in name only."

"This subordinate has only been in office for a few months; being able to plant spies into Great Dayu is already very difficult."

"Wanting to infiltrate the Great Dayu court—without decades of effort, it is difficult to see results."

Lin Zeliang hurriedly shifted the blame.

The dead don't speak; the previous Tongzheng Commissioner's grave was already overgrown with grass, so carrying some more blame didn't matter.

Such a handling result was good for everyone.

The responsibility was on the dead, which meant no one had to be responsible.

"Forget it, it hasn't been easy for you either."

"Regarding this matter, I will explain it to His Majesty."

"However, the intelligence system under the Tongzheng Office must be restored as soon as possible."

"The court cannot give you decades to develop slowly; intelligence personnel must be sent out as soon as possible; we must grasp every move of the Great Dayu court."

Cui Ziyan's words, Lin Zeliang directly ignored the latter part.

Great Dayu checked household registration; foreign personnel going over was like a lamp in the dark night.

Living under the spotlight, a slight movement could possibly reveal their identity.

"Why is it not moving again?"

Hu Xinbo asked with a frown.

Since withdrawing from Zhennan Pass, three days had passed, and the main army had only advanced less than sixty miles.

If it were a daily march, he would have endured such a speed.

But now there were pursuing troops behind, and always dragging along like this—if the enemy troops caught up, it would be troublesome.

"Your Majesty, an explosion occurred ahead, triggering a landslide, blocking the main army's path."

Hearing this explanation, Hu Xinbo's expression suddenly became grave.

Just now he did hear the sound of an explosion, but he didn't take it to heart.

In the past few days, small groups of Great Dayu troops constantly launched attacks on the road.

Just last night, the camp was attacked three times; he was already accustomed to it.

Fighting a war on one's own territory, but feeling like the whole world was the enemy.

It was all caused by lax military discipline.

"Soldiers passing like a comb"—it was not a joke.

The places the Yue army passed through, the common people along the way were mostly harmed.

Not to mention helping them fight, not helping the Great Dayu army kill them was already giving face.

Even if they discovered the small groups of Great Dayu troops sneaking in, the simple logic of ordinary people not causing trouble made them pretend not to see.

Moreover, influenced by Central Plains culture, the Yue army followed the Great Dayu army in many aspects, and there were many similarities in military uniforms.

For ordinary people who hadn't left home, distinguishing the difference between the two countries' armies also had no small difficulty.

"Can we take a detour?"

Hu Xinbo asked with concern.

How to suppress the small groups of enemies sneaking in, he no longer had the heart to manage.

His belly full of fire had been vented almost completely a few days ago.

The domestic situation was critical; he had no energy to entangle with the Great Dayu army and only wanted to withdraw from this land of poor mountains and bad waters as soon as possible.

"Taking a detour will increase it by fifty miles, and the road is also very bad."

"No one can guarantee that on other roads, the enemy doesn't have an ambush."

"From the current situation, the Liangshan region might have people colluding with the enemy troops; otherwise, the enemy's actions wouldn't be so smooth."

"The main army had best still walk the main road, to avoid triggering more trouble."

Chen Chuyang reported nervously.

If he had known there were so many troubles, he shouldn't have followed along.

Being the Minister of War in the country, with delicacies and beautiful wine and women, was much better than eating dirt in the mountains.

Now having lost the battle, someone would definitely have to be responsible when returning.

If things went wrong, he, the Minister of War, would become the scapegoat.

"Hmm!"

"It seems that giving up the Liangshan defense battle for the time being is correct; otherwise, with internal and external collusion, the main army would be in danger."

Hu Xinbo nodded and said.

Choosing to give up the Liangshan defense battle had nothing to do with internal and external collusion.

Making this decision was mainly because the domestic situation was deteriorating too fast.

Nearly half of the Great Yue Imperial Dynasty's land was out of the court's control.

Continuing to entangle with the Great Dayu army, he reckoned that even the most essential Hanoi region would not be preserved.

Although the Liangshan region had high strategic value, economically it was a money-losing business.

Defending this place to the death, besides consuming a large amount of money and grain, had no practical significance.

The most critical thing was that after the main force withdrew south, a small amount of troops couldn't hold it.

If it couldn't be held militarily, then take it back through diplomatic means.

Back then, after their ancestors were defeated, they were all considering the issue of pacification; as a result, the Great Dayu court suddenly gave up Jiaozhi.

It was enough to prove that the Great Dayu court did not value this piece of land.

Relying on the experience of dealing with Great Dayu, the Yue country high command felt that as long as they gave enough face and sent thick gifts to bribe the ministers in the court, this matter would be settled.

"Report!"

"Your Majesty, Shenglong City sent an urgent report."

"Our envoy mission was beheaded by Great Dayu officials when passing through Qiongzhou Prefecture and docking for supplies."

"In addition, the two Guang naval fleets have unusual movements; it is suspected that the enemy troops will launch a large-scale landing operation in the near future."

Receiving two pieces of bad news in a row, Hu Xinbo almost couldn't catch his breath, and his body swayed.

It was truly too stimulating.

First, the negotiations broke down, cutting off the diplomatic means to end the war, and then news came of the enemy troops wanting to land across the sea.

Compared to attacking from land, attacking from the sea was clearly much easier.

The Great Yue Imperial Dynasty now had sea but no defense; with the long coastline, they could land anywhere they chose.

The most critical thing was that attacking from the sea could bypass the Liangshan region, greatly reducing the pressure on the main army's logistics.

Before provoking the war, Hu Xinbo also considered attacking from the sea, but the naval fleet was not capable.

Plus, everyone naturally was full of fear for the sea.

As soon as the plan was proposed, it was rejected in the court.

Now the situation was different.

First there were pirates acting as vanguards, and then a pile of White Lotus Sect rebel prisoners were sent over, accumulating experience for the Great Dayu people in cross-sea operations.

It just so happened that the enemy troops were in Guangzhou, and there were still three garrisons of recruited soldiers that hadn't moved.

If a landing operation were launched at this time, Hanoi, with its empty military strength, would become very dangerous.

"Why, this little bit of matter has scared you all?"

"As officials of our Great Yue Imperial Dynasty, where is your arrogance!"

"A few Great Dayu troops—what is there to be afraid of."

"Li Mu, that brat, is still too young."

"If they had launched a landing operation before our army withdrew, they might have achieved some battle results."

"But now we have withdrawn for tens of miles, and the distance to Shenglong City is at most ten days of travel."

"By the time the enemy launches a landing operation, we will have just rushed back, and we will definitely be able to make them come but not return."

"In this battle, I must let Li Mu know..."

Hu Xinbo scolded while pretending to be calm.

While clamoring fiercely with his mouth, in his heart, he was more panicked than anyone.

Even the garrison soldiers hadn't been defeated; who knew how capable the recruited soldiers with stronger combat effectiveness were!

The Yue army's combat effectiveness could fool ignorant commoners, but he himself dared not believe it.

You must know that the veteran general in the military, Xiao Yunfan, led tens of thousands of troops back to the country to suppress the rebels and was defeated and died.

A series of facts all proved that the Yue army's combat effectiveness was worrying.

But now was the time to stabilize people's hearts; regardless of the comparison of strength between the two sides, they had to blow the cowhide first.

Once the morale scattered, the war would be even harder to fight.

"People on the mountain, listen."

"You have already been surrounded."

"Hurry and put down your weapons and surrender!"

"We treat prisoners well!"

Hearing the shouting from below, Shi Yufeng, who had several more scratches on his face, revealed a bitter smile.

As rear-guard troops, he fought while retreating; although he couldn't block the enemy troops below Zhennan Pass, he still entangled with the Great Dayu army for three days with the help of the terrain.

As a price, the seven thousand elites following him now had less than three hundred left.

Besides a few who scattered, most died on the battlefield.

The mission was completed, and the mission also failed.

Time was delayed, but the distance between the two armies did not widen as expected.

This place was less than fifty miles away from the rear army camp.

The main army was already progressing slowly; at the enemy troops' speed, it wouldn't be long before they caught up.

However, these problems didn't need to be worried about by him, a general who was about to die.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 388 =====