Chapter 763: Thunder Accompaniment

Wei Yuan summoned the generals again and showed everyone the reply from the Sixth Princess. The generals and ministers in the hall were naturally filled with righteous indignation, one after another expressing that the master's humiliation was the minister's death, and they wanted to lead their troops to expedition, even if they had to fight to the death with the enemy!

Looking at the hot-blooded generals, Wei Yuan suddenly had a rather strange feeling. The attitude of the generals was clearly divided into two factions and three types of people. Among them, the generals from the cultivator background led by Cui Yu and Xu Yi were all standing quietly, their state of mind without ripples.

It was just that of the sixteen young masters and misses who came with Cui Yu back then, only eight remained now, and the oldest was approaching thirty.

By contrast, most of the young generals in the hall were extremely excited, yearning for a battle from the inside out. This batch of generals was mostly promoted from the troops and had undergone two complete training sessions at the military academy. Now, with the increase in demand, the Qingming Military Academy had opened a six-month basic officer training course on the basis of the initial three-month crash course.

The crash course taught the basic common sense of marching and fighting, as well as the basic elements of leading a thousand-man team. Subsequently, these officers served as hundred-man team captains, and a few of the most outstanding ones served as thousand-man team captains.

After having the basic course, the crash course was also called the preschool. The six-month basic course taught the coordinated operations of various armies, as well as the basic elements of commanding a ten-thousand-man team, and significantly increased the content of logistics and military supplies. According to convention, after completing the study, all officers would serve as captains of thousand-man teams.

The young officers who had undergone two sessions of training had significantly improved their average quality and performed outstandingly in some small-scale battles. Among them, the most outstanding dozen or so had been promoted to Assistant Regional Commanders commanding three thousand-man teams, and five or six had been promoted to Deputy Generals commanding five thousand-man teams. But because the time was still short, there were no Mobile Corps Commanders who could command ten thousand people yet.

Besides the radical and hot-blooded young officers, there were half of the older generals. Most of them joined Qingming halfway, and many of them came from the Western Jin official army and the Xu family's private army, and there were also a few horse bandits and Zhao soldiers.

Although these people were also shouting very fiercely, Wei Yuan could feel that there were no ripples in their hearts, which meant they were just showing loyalty.

Wei Yuan was sitting in the upper position at this moment, and suddenly realized a little bit of the feeling of the Jin Wang. Although he was high above, everyone below seemed to be a loyal and righteous person, but if there was no mind-reading technique, how to distinguish who was loyal and who was treacherous?

Wei Yuan had the power of the Qingming Realm, and being in Qingming, he could sense a little bit of what everyone was thinking. But the Jin Wang did not have such help, so he could only sit on the throne every day, guessing the thoughts and positions of the ministers based on clues.

Cui Yu and Xu Yi looked calm, but they were truly loyal. But Wei Yuan thought deeper, if it were old foxes at the level of the Left Minister and Right Minister, they would surely be able to let him see all kinds of loyalty he wanted to see.

Wei Yuan didn't actually know before whether the Left Minister and Right Minister were devoted to the Western Jin. But after looking at the five counties in the southwest, especially Xiang Rong County, Wei Yuan finally reached a conclusion: they might have contributed some effort to the imperial court, but what they really cared about was their own family.

As for those young officers, they were indeed very loyal, and Wei Yuan had already received their Qi Luck. But this kind of loyalty was conditional, that is, Wei Yuan's actions had to meet their expectations. If Wei Yuan decided not to fight, that loyalty would disappear by a small half on the spot.

And the wishes of this batch of young officers did not necessarily conform to the interests of Qingming, and even to a large extent did not conform to the interests of Qingming. Therefore, in history, there was no lack of cases of being coerced by young and strong officers to make foolish decisions.

Wei Yuan collected his thoughts, pressed his hands slightly to let the hall quiet down, and then said: "This Military Governor has already given sincerity, but the other party does not accept it, so don't blame me for being polite before using force. Issue a manifesto to the world listing the rudeness of the Zhao people, and give them three more days to correct it, otherwise don't say I didn't warn you!"

Liu Tong took on a new job again.

Subsequently, Wei Yuan began to arrange for the great army to set off. The main force pointed directly at Hanyang Pass, while the subsequent baggage troops were divided into one hundred teams in one breath, each team with fifty light cavalry and ten freight trucks, heading to the designated assembly points respectively. After assembly, they would receive subsequent orders.

Many young generals were confused, and only old people like Cui Yu guessed what Wei Yuan wanted to do.

In the Xu family's ancestral land, Xu Lanshan's study was brightly lit. She had been dealing with official business for several days in a row without a moment of rest. But the official documents waiting for approval were still piled up like a mountain.

She looked at them one by one carefully and approved them carefully, as if she never knew fatigue. She picked up an official document and looked at it, then suddenly ordered the servants to invite the Elder who delivered the official document in.

Xu Lanshan put several official documents together and threw them to the Elder, coldly saying: "I said I want to assemble five hundred thousand private troops, and I mean five hundred thousand! Even if you use the new army to make up the numbers, it's fine, but five hundred thousand, not one less!"

The Elder hurriedly said: "Five hundred thousand are all registered on the roster, not one less!"

Xu Lanshan sneered: "The number of pots set up in your camps is wrong! And although you privately divided the extra grain and rice, the consumption can't be seen. But you forgot the firewood and charcoal! According to the firewood and charcoal consumed for cooking every day, the five hundred thousand people on your roster are afraid that there are not even three hundred thousand! Do you want me to take you to the camp to take a look now?"

The Elder was silent for a while, then said: "Everyone does this. Blaming only me, I am afraid it is difficult to convince the public! I just want to be full, the Elder who recruits soldiers in front doesn't do it, and the Elder who distributes grain and rice behind doesn't do it! Everyone has been doing this for many years, you have only been in power for less than three years, and you want to shovel everything over? Unless you disband the entire Elder Council!"

Xu Lanshan coldly said: "The things you did in the past, not pursuing them is already my greatest concession. Now you still want to continue, that is impossible! I really can't disband the entire Elder Council, but picking two who jump the most happily and killing them to sacrifice the flag is no problem. Those guys like Quniu complain to me at most, will they really fight me to the death for this matter?"

Seeing Xu Lanshan's murderous intent, the Elder's cold sweat came down immediately, and he hurriedly said: "My meaning is that these things, if only I want to do them, I am powerless!"

Xu Lanshan said: "Three hundred thousand are to be sent to the Northern Frontier, and two hundred thousand are to recover Hanyang and Huang Ping counties, so not one person can be less! You just go ahead and do it. If someone really obstructs, just come to me. I just said, I am short of a few heads to establish prestige! Oh, by the way, I heard that a guy is Quniu's son-in-law, you go tell him that if he opposes me again, Quniu's daughter will remarry."

The Elder hurriedly agreed and left in a hurry.

After this Elder went out, a young cultivator who had been standing still asked: "Aunt, we still have more than two hundred thousand private troops in the hands of the Zhao people in the two southern counties. Didn't you say that Wei Yuan would recover the two counties? After he recovers them, we can buy those people back, it seems unnecessary to recruit another two hundred thousand new troops. Forgive my nephew for speaking bluntly, we are recruiting too many new recruits now, it is completely uneven."

Xu Lanshan was very patient with this young cultivator, saying: "You only know one thing but not the other. Now it is completely different from the past. Those new troops in Wei Yuan's hands, we can buy them back, and for my sake, Wei Yuan's asking price will not be too high. But..."

The young cultivator became curious: "But what?"

"... But, they may not be willing to come back."

Hanyang Pass, the Great Zhao military flag is flying on the city tower now, and the military aura in the city rises to the sky, which is incomparable to the past.

A group of Zhao generals stood on the city tower, looking to the west. In the center of the generals was a female general wearing a ferocious ghost mask, wearing bright red armor, like a phoenix flying out of the flames.

At this time, a cultivator appeared in the distance, shooting a sword toward the city tower from afar. A letter tube was tied to the flying sword, and a general naturally collected the flying sword, checked the safety of the letter tube, and then sent the letter inside to the female general.

The female general unfolded the letter and saw it written: "Shocked to hear that the Sixth Princess is traveling to Hanyang Pass. Recently, military affairs are approaching, so I specially offer a map of the escape route. The Princess can escape back to the Zhao country according to the route. Lest the battle be defeated and captured, losing the face of the Great Zhao. The Princess can rest assured to escape, the route is absolutely safe, and there will be no ambush. If there is a lie, heaven will strike with thunder!"

Although the mask covered her complexion, she tore the letter directly, and her complexion must be quite wonderful. After a while, she squeezed a sentence from her teeth: "If Wei Yuan dares to come, let him have no return!"

A few days later, the Qingming army appeared under Hanyang Pass.

In the valley of the deep mountains in the south, a Dharma Form cultivator stretched, stood up, and said to himself: "It seems."

At the same time, several thunderbolts fell from the sky, striking directly at the Qingming central army camp, and for a while, all the armies were shocked!

Many soldiers were pale, thinking this was an ominous sign. But the core veterans were not surprised, saying that whenever the Realm Lord went on an expedition, the central army was often struck by thunder, and they had never seen any battle lost.

The new soldiers were half-believing, but seeing the veterans speaking with certainty, they had to believe it.

At this time, the central army tent was lifted, and Wei Yuan walked out of the tent and looked around. Seeing that the eight lightning rods standing around the central army tent were not damaged, he returned to the tent and said to the generals: "I dare to conclude that the Zhao Princess is in the Hanyang Pass army! Order to transfer another fifty thousand light combat troops to surround the city, and must not let anyone in the pass escape!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 764 =====