Chapter 671: Personally Arriving at the Battlefield

"Please rest assured, Your Highness, this general will certainly not fail your expectations." Zhou Yi straightened his body and gave a military salute to Zhao Xu.

Zhao Xu nodded, his eyes narrowing, and he emphasized, "Do not go soft; hit them as hard as you possibly can."

Zhou Yi was taken aback; the Yan Wang seemed to have an extraordinary hatred for this Dongying.

However, he could also understand it, as Dongying was a foreign nation, yet it meddled in the internal strife of the Great Song.

If this wasn't being despicable, what was!

The matter was decided.

Zhao Xu had Zhou Yi withdraw the twelve warships from Pingyuan City, leaving only four to patrol the Jin River.

In this way, Zhou Yi could command thirty-two warships to execute this plan to destroy the Dongying Navy.

After Zhou Yi left, Zhao Xu had Feng'er pack a few sets of clothes for him, preparing to head to Qizhou.

He did not participate in the river-crossing campaign because the river-crossing campaign was a sure success, and there was no need for him to participate personally.

But with the southward advance of the Prince's Personal Army, the Xie Family and Southern Liang would inevitably send large armies to Qizhou to join the battle.

At that time, the Prince's Personal Army would fight a decisive battle against the Anti-Yan Coalition on the soil of Qizhou.

The scale of this war was massive, exceeding any previous conflict.

Although he trusted Chang Wei deeply, he felt that as the Yan Wang, it was still necessary for him to go personally to boost the morale of the Prince's Personal Army and avoid any errors in this campaign.

Furthermore, if he did not participate in a war that would be recorded in history books, wouldn't he be lacking in the hot-blooded spirit of a man?

Moreover, he also intended to inspect the rear base that he had ordered Chang Wei to establish.

Just like the decisive battle with the Anti-Yan Coalition, this matter was equally important.

After all, the conquered territory needed to be governed.

And a rear base established while fighting could obtain grain and fodder supplies locally, reducing the pressure of transporting supplies from Yanzhou.

After all, with an expedition of 120,000 men, the number of laborers transporting grain often exceeded that by several times.

The further one traveled, the more grain and fodder were consumed, because the laborers also needed to eat.

Relying on the enemy for grain was certainly one way, but if the enemy was defeated and chose to burn their grain and fodder, then one would be left helpless.

And he could not bring himself to send troops to seize grain from the common people.

Therefore, only by establishing a rear base similar to a revolutionary base while fighting could the pressure of grain and fodder be solved.

Even if they fought all the way to Jiangnan, there would be no need to worry about the army's rations at that time.

And there would be no need to send out large numbers of laborers to transport grain.

Based on this, the matter of establishing a rear base was, to him, by no means child's play.

In the afternoon, he called Liu Fu and Yang Feng over.

He had one urge the reform of government affairs and the other take charge of the reform of the military.

Fighting was one thing, but the internal affairs of Yanzhou could not be affected and had to continue to be pushed forward.

The next day, he set off for Qizhou under the protection of Xu Lie.

At the same time, he dispatched a troop of cavalry to Sizhou to have Ma Han prepare to recover Qinzhou and Yongzhou.

During this period,

he also transported a batch of yellow gunpowder and hand grenades to Ma Han's troops.

As soon as the decisive battle with the Anti-Yan Coalition began, Ma Han would lead the Ma Family troops to seize the opportunity to take back Yongzhou and Qinzhou, block the passage between Southern Liang and Northern Di, and destroy the border markets of both sides.

If the decisive battle was won, he would then act as the Western Route Army to attack Wuguan of Southern Liang.

The Prince's Personal Army would then act as the Eastern Route Army to continue moving south, sweeping through Qi and the puppet Imperial Court established by the Xie Family.

After three days of trekking, he arrived at Dongping City.

On the way, he had received the battle reports sent by scouts and gained some understanding of the current war.

"Your Highness, the current war is going very smoothly. Dong Commandery has been completely taken by us. At present, Qin Shan has taken Chen County in the west, Lv Chang has taken Yang Prefecture in the east, and Guan Tong has taken Gao County in the south. They are still continuing to attack cities and seize strongholds; before the reinforcements from Qi arrive, they will at least be able to take the eight counties on the outskirts of Lu City."

Zhao Xu nodded; the area of Qizhou was much larger than that of Yanzhou.

Yanzhou had a total of seven counties, while Qizhou had twelve.

According to Chang Wei's usual account, Qi had currently concentrated its main forces in the four counties in the Southwest, abandoning the eight counties in the north, and was only letting the private armies of the Rich Clans delay their advance.

However, these private armies of the Rich Clans were clearly like clay chickens and pottery dogs, completely unable to withstand a single blow under the attack of the Prince's Personal Army.

The Prince's Personal Army could basically capture two or three county towns in a day, which was no different from them surrendering at the first sight of the wind.

"The main trouble is that many Rich Clans have broken into smaller units, and small groups of their private armies are constantly roaming through the various counties and districts, attacking villages like bandits and ambushing the common people transporting grain," Chang Wei added.

Seeing Zhao Xu frown, he hurriedly explained, "However, this general has already distributed the captured firearms to the Village Soldiers, and Zhong Li is also actively training them to ensure that everyone is a soldier. Today, six villages encountered private armies of the Rich Clans, but they were all wiped out by the Village Soldiers, and many were even captured alive."

Zhong Li added, "The private armies of the Rich Clans usually carry swords and blades, which are far inferior to the Village Soldiers holding flintlocks."

Zhao Xu nodded slowly; in such a short time.

Qi did not even have enough flintlocks to equip its own army, so the Rich Clans naturally could not have them and still remained in the era of cold weapons.

On the contrary, the Village Soldiers had received the flintlocks confiscated from the soldiers of Qi, immediately entering the era of firearms and crushing the private armies of the Rich Clans.

Thinking of this, he said, "That's more like it. We cannot forget the old trade of resisting the Northern Di. The Rich Clans have many private soldiers, but can they have more than the people of Qizhou? As long as the people are united as one, these private armies of the Rich Clans are nothing but a swarm of flies and cannot cause any major trouble."

"Your Highness is right, but this is all thanks to Zhong Li," Chang Wei said, glancing at Zhong Li beside him.

Zhao Xu revealed a satisfied smile. In the past, he was very satisfied with Zhong Li as an excellent cavalry general.

But he did not expect that in the Military Academy, he would discover that Zhong Li was proficient in both civil and military affairs and was quick to accept the military-civilian ideology he taught.

After thinking about it carefully later, he believed that he was very suitable to be a Military Scribe.

After all, if he were to promote any random scholar to the position of Military Scribe, he would certainly not be able to suppress the other generals.

But Zhong Li already had illustrious military achievements and a certain prestige in the army. By letting him serve as Military Scribe and command the military orders of the army, he could smoothly establish the order system for the Prince's Personal Army.

However, he still wanted to see how the practice of the theory would go.

If he built the rear of the war well, the position of Military Scribe would belong to him alone.

So he patted Zhong Li on the shoulder, "Follow this Prince to the countryside for a stroll; this Prince wants to witness your skills."

Zhong Li replied with a "yes" and led Zhao Xu out of the General's Mansion, with Chang Wei following behind as well.

Before the reinforcements from Qi arrived, he was quite at leisure and could focus on consolidating the territories he had conquered.

After leaving the city, Zhao Xu pointed in a random direction.

Before long, they arrived at a nearby village called Duling.

Upon entering the village, Zhao Xu immediately heard bursts of shouting and killing sounds.

Following the sounds, it turned out that in the village's threshing ground, a group of young men were holding sticks and practicing the Bayonet Technique.

They were drenched in sweat, but everyone was full of vigor.