Chapter 341

"Issue an order to the Five Armies Commandery to prepare for the expedition to the Wonu Kingdom within three months."

Zhang Jie, who had already made a decision in his heart, ordered.

"Your subject understands."

Wang Lun nodded in agreement.

Although theoretically, the Great Gan military affairs were entirely under the jurisdiction of the Five Armies Commandery,

and all matters were decided by their Emperor in one word, not allowing others to speak a word,

but the actual situation was not that simple.

At the very least, the Secretariat, which was responsible for scheduling the world's supplies, could absolutely not be bypassed.

Without their Secretariat to regulate yin and yang and balance all parties,

even if that group of killers in the Five Armies Commandery had heaven-reaching military power, as long as they didn't intend to rebel,

violate military discipline, and rob supplies, they wouldn't be able to get a single grain of food or a cart of raw materials for making gunpowder.

Their Emperor also knew this clearly, but the civil and military officials of the Great Gan already had you in me,

and I in you, checking and balancing each other, so he just opened one eye and closed the other.

……

Outside Bianjing City, carts rumbled and horses were silent; a cavalry force consisting of over a thousand cavalrymen was preparing to set off.

At the very front of the cavalry, riding on a tall horse, wearing gilded fish-scale armor, with a majestic figure and a square face,

the general who was awe-inspiring without anger—who else could it be but Lu Junyi, the "Jade Qilin" of Hebei, who was the best with spear and staff among the 108 generals?

"Brother, the road ahead is long, the soldiers are fierce and the battle is dangerous; I hope you take care!"

Veterans who had joined Zhang Jie's command during the Liang Shan period, like the three Ruan brothers, came to see Lu Junyi off.

Although Lu Junyi joined Liang Shan later than them,

it was clear that the "Jade Qilin" of Hebei still had great personality charm, making them call him "Brother."

"Haha!"

Lu Junyi laughed heroically: "This trip is to expand the territory for our Great Gan,

to fight for the billions of people; even if I die on the battlefield, I can close my eyes.

Moreover, soldiers of our generation should not die of illness or old age on a bed; wrapping the corpse in horse leather is the way for us to exit."

The 700,000-strong army of the Northern Great Liao was completely lost in one fell swoop by Zhang Jie's dimensionality-reduction strike during his personal expedition,

and the Great Liao was simply a hot beauty who had removed all defenses in front of the Great Gan soldiers,

letting them take whatever they wanted, without the slightest strength to resist.

Now the focus of the Great Gan had shifted to Jiangnan,

and Zhang Jie personally ordered several detachments to be drawn from the northern cavalry to participate in the Southern Expedition.

After careful consideration, the Great Gan military's number one cavalryman, Grand Commandant Lin Chong, was left in the north to oversee the war situation,

while cavalry generals like "Jade Qilin" Lu Junyi and "Little Li Guang" Hua Rong were transferred back to Bianjing.

Now Lu Junyi, after resting, set off today as the vanguard of the Southern Expedition cavalry.

"Brothers, take care!"

Lu Junyi bowed to the three Ruan brothers and others, then flicked his horse whip and galloped south, taking the lead.

"Giddyup, giddyup!"

Over a thousand knights who had experienced the baptism of blood and fire in the Liao-Gan War, shed their impetuousness,

and became elite, followed silently behind their general.

"Sigh!"

After watching Lu Junyi go far away, the crowd seeing him off slowly dispersed,

and Ruan Xiao Wu, the second of the three Ruan brothers, suddenly let out a long sigh.

"Sigh!"

Ruan Xiao Er and Ruan Xiao Qi beside him did not ask their fifth brother why he was sighing,

but sighed in unison just like Ruan Xiao Wu.

Others who saw this scene cast sympathetic glances at the sighing three Ruan brothers.

These three Ruan brothers were also veterans who had defected as early as when the Emperor first went up to Liang Shan, and could be called one of the founding elders of the Great Gan.

The Emperor was a nostalgic person and did not stint on rewards for them,

and all three of them held high positions in the Great Gan's Five Armies Commandery; compared to the past when they fished for a living in Shijie Village,

it was not that their ancestral graves were emitting green smoke, but that their ancestral graves were on fire.

If their ancestors of eighteen generations knew of their current achievements,

they would have to dance a few segments of the "Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss" invented by the Emperor unintentionally in the underworld to express their ultimate bliss.

But even so, they were still depressed and unfulfilled.

But who let them serve in the Great Gan navy?

Although the navy was nominally called the three armies together with the cavalry and infantry,

anyone who knew something about the Great Gan military knew how to put it—the navy was simply too "watery."

Named as the navy, in reality, they were actually doing the work of a transportation captain.

This had no resounding, hard-hitting military exploits; even if the title on the head was loud, it was just a false name.

Compared to the army with outstanding military exploits, the cavalry that even captured Emperor Tianzuo Yelu Yanxi,

and the artillery that collapsed the city walls of the Great Song's Bianjing and almost made the first contribution to destroying the Song for the Great Gan,

the navy's battle record was too lackluster, almost just sailing to escort supplies.

Although those familiar with military affairs knew that the contribution of ensuring logistics in war was great,

and the Emperor had never ignored the navy's contribution, and there were rewards given after every transport,

this kind of thing could actually be done by ordinary transport fleets, and it didn't have to be the navy.

After all, the Great Gan army was invincible in the world; whoever dared to have crooked ideas about the Great Gan's war supplies,

had to be prepared for the killers from the Army Department of the Five Armies Commandery to visit,

and properly teach them some principles.

This kind of teaching was obviously not with words and language, but with swords, guns, and cannons.

After several families relied on natural barriers to defend themselves, thinking the Great Gan army was not to be feared,

and dared to launch surprise attacks on several Great Gan material distribution points, then happily shouted "GG,"

and finally were blown into flat ground by the Italian cannons of the second battalion commander of the army, plowed and swept,

with no chickens or dogs left, and even the earthworms in the stronghold were cut in half vertically,

all kinds of Great Gan supplies were transported very smoothly, and no one who was not afraid of death reached out their hands again.

And this also led to the further reduction of the navy's sense of existence among the Great Gan's three armies.

In the past, they could at least suppress water pirates and brush up their battle records; now, it was good,

there were no more water pirates, and the battle records naturally returned to zero.

Navy: Listen to me, thank you, because of you, the four seasons are warm~

(Ten thousand "Mud Horses"—a unique species on the green grassland—galloped past, leaving a mess)

"Fifth Brother, it can't go on like this!

If it goes on like this, I fear our navy will be removed from the Great Gan's three armies!"

Feeling the strange gazes of the people around him, Ruan Xiao Qi, who had a fiery temper, could no longer endure it,

and looked at Ruan Xiao Wu standing beside him, saying in a deep voice.

"Xiao Wu, the future of our navy is entrusted to you!"

Ruan Xiao Er also looked at Ruan Xiao Wu with hope.

Although he was the eldest brother, when it came to his status in the Emperor's heart, he couldn't compare to his fifth brother even if he whipped his horse.

After all, in the past, his fifth brother took on the task of the mission from Wang Lun, the Wang Minister who was still the Liang Shan leader,

the first time he met the Emperor who was hidden among the people.

Since then, his fifth brother had always been the number one person in the Great Gan navy,

and when the Great Gan was established, he was promoted to the position of Grand Commandant of the Left Army of the Five Armies Commandery,

enough to sit on equal footing with Grand Commandant Lu Zhishen of the infantry and Grand Commandant Lin Chong of the cavalry!

What is called "being in the Emperor's heart"?

This is being in the Emperor's heart!