Chapter 82

"Marquis, news has come from Yangzhou.

The treacherous officials you arrested were rescued by the rebels yesterday.

It is said that after Grand Secretary Xu arrived at the scene, he was so angry he could barely speak!"

Looking at the steward who was lying through his teeth, Marquis Wuyang nodded with satisfaction.

The few generals under his command were quite reliable in their work.

Even a job like breaking out of prison could be done so beautifully; he could definitely recommend them to his nephew for heavy use.

"These treacherous officials deserve to die; pass the order down that anyone who discovers the traces of these thieves is to kill them without mercy."

Marquis Wuyang's order directly decided the fate of the imprisoned officials and salt merchants.

The dirty work was done by the "rebels," the trouble was Grand Secretary Xu's, and it had nothing to do with him.

As long as the parties involved were all dead, then this trip to Yangzhou would be complete.

……

Gaoyou City.

"Everyone, since we raised our troops, our greatest crisis has arrived.

The righteous army in Huaian has been wiped out by the imperial court, and the Capital Battalion is heading south in force, pointing directly at Baoying County.

The Wucheng Military Commission, which just achieved a great victory in Yangzhou, is also approaching Xinghua County at this time.

From the situation, the imperial court wants to attack us from both the north and south.

This is not the only bad news; it is said that the imperial court intends to mobilize the Shandong navy to enter the Grand Canal, and the waterways will soon be unsafe as well!"

Wen Feiyang said with a grave expression.

Being the leader of a righteous army is not easy; not only do you have to deal with a pile of messy matters, but you also have to face external military pressure.

Despite being only in his thirties, his face looked older than many fifty-year-olds.

"Uncle, our Gaoyou Prefecture is located between the Yangtze River and the Yellow River.

Successive generations of feudal lords who carved out territories used the Yangtze and Huai Rivers as boundaries; I have never heard of anyone taking the world by occupying Gaoyou alone.

The imperial army is coming aggressively; hunkering down in Gaoyou is just seeking one's own death.

Whether heading south or north, we must conquer a larger foundation to have a foothold."

A young scholar spoke up first.

Thrilling things like rebellion are best suited for young people.

The older generation's thinking is rigid, full of fear of the imperial court, and they are often hesitant in doing things.

Among the seven great families of the two Huai regions, the Wen family was not prominent.

But they were the first to delegate power to the younger generation, and after raising troops, they developed better and were the only ones who could control their own troops.

Compared to rebels in other regions, the Gaoyou Prefecture rebels didn't have the most troops, but their internal organizational structure was the most perfect.

"Wen Jianping, shut your mouth!"

"The imperial army is attacking; if we abandon our foundation and go on a long expedition now, we will become wandering bandits.

I have never heard of wandering bandits achieving great things!

Gaoyou may be inherently deficient, but it is still a foundation.

As long as the foundation exists, military morale exists.

If the foundation is lost, our roots are all gone.

We would be no different from those mud-legged rebels.

The foundation of the Great Dayu Dynasty has not been lost; now is not the time to fight for the world.

The most important thing right now is to find a way to defeat the rebel-suppression army and then find someone to operate in the imperial court to seek amnesty!"

Wen Feiyun, who was on the side, spoke up angrily.

Where there are people, there are disputes; on the issue of rebellion, the Wen family also held different opinions internally.

Some wanted to go all the way to the dark, overthrow the rule of the Great Dayu Dynasty, and establish a dynasty belonging to their own family.

Others believed that the timing was wrong, that fighting the imperial court to the death was just paving the way for others, and that seeking amnesty was the right path.

Neither side could convince the other, and every time it came to a choice, a dispute over the route would break out.

When progress was smooth, the pro-war faction often had the upper hand.

Once setbacks were encountered, the pro-amnesty faction would gain a greater say.

"Quiet!"

Seeing that others intended to join the battle, Wen Feiyang hurriedly spoke to stop them.

Both sides had sufficient reasons, and once they started arguing, nothing would get done.

"According to the intelligence gathered, the Capital Battalion has about thirty thousand combat troops, including three thousand cavalry.

Their specific combat effectiveness has been verified by the righteous army in the Huaian region.

In a head-on confrontation, they are not a match for a single blow.

You all know the situation of our army.

We claim to have an army of two hundred thousand, but that is the number including men, women, old, and young, and the proportion of able-bodied men is less than one-fourth.

If we really fight, we are definitely not the Capital Battalion's match.

Defending the city, the righteous army in Huaian has also tried, and it was nothing more than holding out for a few more days.

The troops of the Wucheng Military Commission are also not to be underestimated.

That 'noble playboy army' label is just something the outside world has imposed on them.

Huang Renlong organized more than three hundred thousand righteous troops to besiege Yangzhou, and they were all found by them and defeated in one fell swoop, which is enough to prove that this army is not trash.

It looks like they only have seven thousand combat troops, but in field battles, without several times the number of troops, it is hard for us to have any chance of winning.

To escape, we must break the enemy's two-pronged pincer attack to have a glimmer of hope!"

After Wen Feiyang finished speaking, the room suddenly became quiet.

Regardless of which strategy was adopted, this battle had to be fought first.

Only by winning would they have the qualifications to talk about the future.

"Uncle, actually, compared to a decisive battle with the enemy, we have another choice: a western expedition to Fengyang Prefecture.

Compared to these troops from the capital, the local garrison troops are much easier to bully.

Capture Fengyang, seize Xuzhou, and break into the Central Plains.

Sweeping all the way, as long as we are fast enough, we can raise an army of a million before the imperial army gathers.

If we can win, we fight; if we can't win, we dig open the Yellow River and let the Great Dayu be unable to take care of itself!"

Wen Jianping's plan startled everyone present.

One had to admit that young people are daring to think.

If they really managed to do it, they didn't know if they could take the world, but the imperial court's trouble would definitely be big.

"Jianping, I think compared to capturing Fengyang, it's more reliable to head south and eat up the Wucheng Military Commission's army first.

Siege warfare is no child's play; being able to quickly capture Gaoyou is because we have been operating here for many years.

Changing to another place would require a forced assault, and as long as the defenders hold out for a few days, the Capital Battalion will be able to catch up.

Don't forget, they have cavalry.

It's possible that before we even reach the walls of Fengyang, the imperial army will arrive first."

Wen Feiyang refused decisively.

"Taking Fengyang, hitting Xuzhou, entering the Central Plains" is no less difficult than "attacking Yangzhou, conquering Zhenjiang, and seizing Nanjing."

If it were really that easy, the world would have changed dynasties long ago.

Since ancient times, the hardest part has never been formulating a strategy, but how to implement the plan.

……

The army moved forward sluggishly, and Li Mu couldn't even be bothered to ride a horse.

On the vast plains, marching thirty li a day could be called an outing.

Looking around, there wasn't even any cover for several li, so there was no need to worry about the enemy setting an ambush on the way.

"Battalion Commander, traces of the enemy have been discovered thirty li ahead!

The formation is somewhat chaotic, and the number is large; the scouts couldn't count them."

Upon receiving this news, Li Mu was slightly stunned.

There wasn't only one route to advance on Gaoyou; choosing to march toward Xinghua County was because it was remote.

Although it was flat terrain, the area was full of vast marshes and lakes, making it unsuitable for large-scale decisive battles.

According to the initially envisioned plan, after the Capital Battalion defeated the Gaoyou Prefecture rebels, the Wucheng Military Commission would then recapture Xinghua County City.

This way, they could piggyback on the credit without risking a decisive battle with the rebels.

"Send more scouts and find out the rebels' direction of advance as soon as possible!

Pass the order down to set up camp on the spot and wait for the rear army to arrive."

Li Mu ordered immediately.

Intuition told him that the rebels were coming for him.

After the strategic plan was changed, several battalion commanders had their own divisions of labor.

The East City Battalion and the Central Battalion were responsible for watching Yangzhou City, ready to return for rescue at any time.

The West City Battalion and the North City Battalion were responsible for watching the enemy in the Taizhou direction, ready to turn around and attack at any time.

The South City Battalion and the main camp were responsible for feigning an attack on Xinghua.

The five major battalions were divided into three parts, with a distance of less than five li between them, forming a layout like the character "pin."

If any direction encountered the enemy, the other two sides could quickly provide reinforcements.

Theoretically, the Xinghua direction, which lacked strategic value, was the least likely to encounter the main enemy force.

However, the opponent was a rebel army, and if a rebel general got hot-headed and did something beyond common sense, it was completely acceptable.

Not knowing the situation, Li Mu decided to stabilize first.

……

Capital Battalion.

"Brother Jing, the enemy's movements in the Gaoyou region are a bit strange.

Baoying County is located at the junction of Yangzhou and Huaian, and is the connection point between central and northern Jiangsu, with military value far higher than Xinghua.

The enemy is not reinforcing Baoying, but instead moving toward Xinghua, which clearly doesn't conform to common sense."

If the intelligence hadn't been sent by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Li Yuan would have suspected someone was playing a prank.

If he were the rebel commander, he would have abandoned Gaoyou and run away long ago.

Even rebellion requires choosing a location; the more remote and impoverished the place, the higher the probability of success.

Even if the rebellion failed, one could drill into the mountains to avoid the imperial court's encirclement and suppression.

Xinghua is relatively remote, but that place lacks big mountains, and the area is too narrow, lacking space for strategic maneuvering.

"Brother Li, have there been few bizarre things the rebels have done along the way?

When we first came over, that group of rebels in Huaian even imitated the ancients and set up an Eight Trigrams formation to fight us."

Jing Guoliang said indifferently.

Thinking of the rebels' Eight Trigrams formation, he couldn't help but want to laugh.

The military formations passed down by the ancestors are indeed effective, but the more complex the formation, the higher the requirements for soldiers and generals.

Setting up a formation is easy, but changing it is hard; as long as there are a few idiots running around inside, the formation will quickly fall into chaos.

After the establishment of Great Dayu, firearms began to be popularized, and military formations gradually became chicken ribs.

Now, these noble families are too lazy to require their children to learn those ancient military formations.

Even if they have to set up a formation, they just set up some simple square or circular formations, which are easy to learn and simple to operate.

"Brother Jing is right; the rebels are not the Hu people outside the pass, they are not that cunning.

Even if they have a conspiracy, they don't have enough strength to complete it.

The imperial court's real heart-trouble is still the Northern Hu outside the pass.

Since winning the last Liaodong battle, this group's strength has grown rapidly, and they have already annexed several grassland tribes.

Given His Majesty's style, he certainly won't let them continue to grow.

Once the imperial court's finances are abundant, it will definitely restart the war.

Besides the Nine Borders garrison troops, the Capital Battalion will likely have to go to the battlefield again."

Li Yuan said worriedly.

Only after being there personally did he know how profitable the salt industry was.

As long as the rectification is effective, it is not a problem for the imperial court to get ten million taels of tax silver from the salt administration in a year.

Compared to the previous 1.3 million taels of tax silver, it is a completely earth-shaking change.

The extra money, if not thrown into military spending, will be squandered by bureaucrats under other names.

Standing from the Emperor's perspective, it is definitely most cost-effective to use it to solve external threats.

"Fight if we must; as long as the imperial court has money, why worry about not pacifying Liaodong?

The Northern Hu population is only that much; even if they unify the vast grasslands, it's at most two or three million people.

Fighting them once a year, it won't take many years before they are dragged to death.

Risk and opportunity coexist.

Due to long-term peace, our noble group's say in the imperial court has declined severely.

If this continues, I'm afraid it won't be many years before the situation of the former Song appears.

Fighting on the borders is also an opportunity for us."

Jing Guoliang said calmly.

As the spokesperson for the noble group in the imperial court, he had long accumulated countless grievances about the current situation of the noble group.

With no changes before, he could only choose to endure.

Now that he saw an opportunity, he naturally wouldn't let it go easily.

War means risk, and war also represents power and wealth.

The current situation is the best example.

Under normal circumstances, nobles have no right to interfere in local affairs.

Once the two Huai rebellion broke out, the situation changed completely.

The war led to a reshuffling of interests, and the noble group's tentacles suddenly extended over.

As for the military generals eliminated in the turmoil, that can only be considered their bad luck.

The vacant military general positions all became the noble group's spoils of war.

Baptized by the flames of war, even the low-level garrison troops have a chance to become the most valuable garrisons of Great Dayu.

There is no other reason; it's just that the military fields have returned.

With tangible benefits placed before them, enthusiasm can naturally be mobilized.

……

"Jianping, this is your first time leading troops; you must be cautious.

Fengyang Prefecture is not that easy to capture; your goal is just to attract the Capital Battalion's attention; do not really go to attack the city.

Once we solve the enemy of the Wucheng Military Commission, unite with the righteous army in the Taixing and Nantong Prefecture regions, and then turn around to fight a decisive battle with the Capital Battalion!"

Wen Feiyang said earnestly.

With the two major factions in the clan arguing endlessly, he, as the Regional Commander, had to adopt a compromise strategy when making decisions.

South first, then north; easy first, then difficult; this is his core strategy.

But the enemy of the Capital Battalion could not be completely ignored, which is why there was a side force feigning an attack on Fengyang.

Choosing to let his nephew lead the troops was also a last resort.

It wasn't just Wen Jianping who lacked experience; even he, the Regional Commander, had never faced the enemy head-on.

Everyone lacked experience in leading troops; Wen Jianping at least led the salt guards to break through the prefectural yamen and killed two yamen runners with his own hands.

"Uncle, don't worry.

A mere side force of eight thousand, half of whom are old and weak.

It's fine to make a scene in the countryside, but running off to attack a prefectural city is simply impossible!"

Wen Jianping guaranteed immediately.

Having finally fought for this opportunity, he didn't want to lose it because of one sentence.

Whether to listen later is a matter for later.

Military books all say that when a general is away, he does not have to obey the ruler's orders.

Once he reaches Fengyang Prefecture, how to fight specifically is up to him.

If it really doesn't work, bypassing Fengyang to take Xuzhou directly, or taking a detour into Luzhou, are all things that can be considered.

In his view, no matter where one wanders, it's better than staying in Gaoyou and waiting for death.

(End of chapter)