Chapter 1238: Declaration of War

This was a problem Liu Zheng had to consider.

Do not speak of how the Prince of Wei had always been in Liu Zheng's camp.

In the face of interests, all of that is nonsense.

Of course, he understood.

The Prince of Wei represented the interests of the common people across the entire land of Qingzhou; to speak of personal feelings at a time like this showed a lack of vision.

This included if one day the Prince of Yong also stood up to oppose him; Liu Zheng felt that was also understandable.

There are no eternal friends, only eternal interests.

Today, when the Prince of Qin proposed an opinion contrary to his own, Liu Zheng had already begun to ponder the struggle against the various princes.

The issue of the Feudatory Kings would have to be resolved sooner or later. Once, Liu Zheng had wanted to borrow from Zhu Di to resolve the issue of the Feudatory Kings, to resolve the Feudatory Kings of Longyan. However, the national conditions of Longyan were not the same as those of the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, the central government had the strength to crush the Feudatory Kings, and the Feudatory Kings only agreed to swap fiefs under pressure from Zhu Di.

But as time passed, Liu Zheng discovered that Longyan was different. Longyan had great historical limitations. In Longyan, every Feudatory King possessed extremely powerful military strength, especially those like the Prince of Wei, Prince of Zhao, Prince of Qin, Prince of Wu, Prince of Chu, and Prince of Jin, who controlled an entire province or even several provinces.

When they have such powerful strength, why would they obediently listen to your commands?

This is a problem left over by history, a malady accumulated over thousands of years in Longyan.

Regarding them, Liu Zheng did not dare to be too forceful; after all, once these Feudatory Kings united to cause trouble, Liu Zheng would not be able to hold them off.

Even if he could hold them off, the common people could not.

He wanted a stable Longyan, not a Longyan filled with internal strife.

Therefore, Liu Zheng had to constantly occupy new territory and continuously strengthen his own power to cope with the wars that might come in the future.

Liu Zheng had once envisioned governing Longyan together with the various princes, but slowly, he dismissed this idea.

With the Feudatory Kings each acting in their own way, prioritizing their own interests over the national interest, how could that work? To build a powerful nation, the Centralization of Power and unification were necessary prerequisites. The Feudatory Kings were something Liu Zheng had to deal with, but not right now.

Currently, Liu Zheng's strength was still insufficient, and there was also the threat of Tsarist Russia. He needed to accumulate strength; once he pacified Tsarist Russia and possessed absolute power, he would learn from Yingzheng to sweep across the six states and thoroughly unify Longyan.

However, Liu Zheng did not intend to tell Yu Qian about these thoughts. If this kid thought he wanted to monopolize power and started making things difficult for him, that would be troublesome.

"The idea is good, but the Liaodong Army cannot be moved, right? You must not forget that the Plague in Liaodong is currently raging. Moreover, the Tsarist Russia Army is pressing on the border, and the Liaodong Army must be ready to provide support at any time to prevent the unexpected..."

Liu Zheng shook his head and said.

"Chief Councilor, this problem requires consideration, but the arrow is on the string and must be fired! After the Plague broke out, the army has been under martial law, and the chance of coming into contact with the virus is very small. Furthermore, by strictly controlling the range of activity of the Liaodong Army and having them only attack the Youzhou Army in a specific area, the Youzhou Army, which has no heart for battle, will surely retreat as soon as possible under the powerful offensive of the Liaodong Army and the threat of the Plague virus. And after the war ends, by focusing on monitoring these places—although this will consume a lot of manpower, material, and financial resources—as long as we can crush the Youzhou Army and raise the military prestige of Longyan, it is worth it."

Yu Qian chuckled and said: "Moreover, Yu Qian has heard that Chief Councilor borrowed one hundred thousand troops from the Li Dynasty! Hahahaha, is the Chief Councilor not preparing for this very matter?"

Liu Zheng was stunned, then laughed loudly.

This Yu Qian...

He suddenly liked this guy more and more.

Borrowing one hundred thousand troops from the Li Dynasty was originally intended to deal with Tsarist Russia at a critical moment.

In this way, the Liaodong Army could free up its hands to deal with the Youzhou Army.

Unexpectedly, his own thoughts had actually been guessed correctly by this Yu Qian!

Impressive!

A person who had never even been on a battlefield had such a fine

grasp of the overall war situation, and the tactics, methods, and post-war handling measures were all blurted out...

As a mere sixth-rank official, he saw the situation more clearly than anyone else!

Yu Qian is a talent indeed.

In him, Liu Zheng saw ability not inferior to Qingyang Shuo.

The Phoenix Fledgling and the Crouching Dragon; obtaining either one is enough to gain the world. Now that both belong to me, how can this world not be settled?

"Hahahaha, since that is the case, then do as you say. If you succeed, the Cabinet will have a seat for you, but if you fail, you will only have a shroud."

Liu Zheng chuckled and said.

Yu Qian hurriedly made a solemn vow and bowed to accept the order.

Only then did Liu Zheng leave with peace of mind.

This time, in promoting Yu Qian, Liu Zheng actually also had the intention of delegating power. Longyan was too big; having to personally inquire into every single matter made him truly too tired.

A talent like Yu Qian should also come to the fore.

After Yu Qian left the Heavenly Prison, he once again became the supreme commander of Jinghua City. This time, he did not want to defend the city like last time.

Although he knew that the Youzhou Army was only making a probing attack, the test of a two-hundred-thousand-strong army was not so easy to withstand. Once a loophole appeared in the city's defenses, the Youzhou Army would very likely take advantage of the situation to take Jinghua.

Therefore, he had to block the Youzhou Army outside Jinghua City.

Yu Qian pulled out all the elites from the Jinghua garrison and set up camp outside the city. Although this was very dangerous, given the premise that the opponent had a Military Advisor like Meng Zan, this was the best trump card.

With a powerful combat unit pinning down the Youzhou Army on the outskirts of Jinghua, keeping them from knowing the specific situation inside Jinghua City, he would then deploy more feint troops on the outskirts. Meng Zan would then have to consider a retreat, and at this time, the Liaodong Army in the rear could launch a surprise attack, which would surely deal a heavy blow to the Youzhou Army!

Youzhou.

"The court lacks upright officials, and there are Traitorous Officials within; I must raise an army to punish and suppress them, to clear the evil from beside the Emperor. The wise always consider disasters before they sprout, and the enlightened can see the truth in the most hidden places. Now that the clarity of the situation is not as if it cannot be seen, yet it is not being examined, I ask to offer my humble opinion. My ancestor was the great-grandson of the Taizong Emperor, enfeoffed in Youzhou with the title of Zhao. From the day of my enfeoffment, I have resisted the Mongols in the north and served the imperial court in the south. Every generation of the Prince of Zhao has fought in battles and sieges, personally facing arrows and stones, working hard through difficulties, and suffering great bitterness. It is precisely because of the hardships of the generations of the Prince of Zhao that Longyan has its ten-thousand-generation foundation. However, the thief-official has framed the various princes to remove the screen, and then acts without restraint, taking and giving, life and death, all returning to his hands. In the future, swallowing us up will be as easy as turning over one's hand. In the past, my imperial ancestor sought descendants extensively, fearing only that they would not be numerous; now, the Traitorous Official wishes to exterminate the imperial clan, fearing only that it will not be fast enough. How much time has passed, and my imperial ancestor's descendants are already all but wiped out. In the past, the Zhou Dynasty was prosperous, enfeoffing the feudal lords to establish a foundation of over eight hundred years. Even with the strength of Qin and Chu, they dared not attack Zhou because the various states acted as a screen for it. Qin abolished the feudal system and perished in the second generation; this can serve as a clear warning."

After the impassioned Declaration of War for the southern expedition was finished, everyone present was filled with righteous indignation.

What did this Declaration of War mean? Roughly: under the banner of clearing the evil from beside the Emperor, they wanted to share the Emperor's worries, eradicate power-hungry sycophants like Liu Zheng and Yu Qian, point out that the Longyan imperial court was muddled and incompetent, being played in the palm of Liu Zheng's hand, and in the name of the imperial ancestor, state the reasonableness and legality of the Prince of Zhao's existence, expressing their loyalty to Longyan to win sympathy, accusing Liu Zheng of slaughtering the Feudatory Kings, and then explaining the necessity of enfeoffing the Feudatory Kings to try to win over more Feudatory Kings to oppose Liu Zheng's policy of reducing the power of the princes.

This Declaration of War was written very well; in just a few words, it described the Prince of Zhao as a loyal official and molded Liu Zheng into a Great Evil.

However, although the Declaration of War was perfect, Youzhou had one fatal mistake.

That was declaring himself Emperor.

Once you have declared yourself Emperor, using the name of clearing the evil from beside the Emperor becomes self-contradictory.

And this was precisely the result of Meng Zan's weakness.

Meng Zan's mind was capable, but after a series of major events, he became hesitant and indecisive.

On one hand, he wanted to contact the Mongols and Tsarist Russia, and on the other hand, he did not want to completely bear the reputation of a rebel. Thus, he ended up with an incongruous result.

In fact, Meng Zan also knew these things; not

only did he know, but most of the civil officials knew as well.

Sending troops now was already very disadvantageous for them, but the military official faction was determined to fight, and they could not stop them, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and fight.

After the Declaration of War was read out, the Youzhou army set out, though this time they did not mobilize their entire force, sending only one hundred thousand.

After all, they had already established a state, and soldiers were still needed to remain behind to guard the country.

Youzhou declaring an emperor and the mobilization of the one hundred thousand-strong army happened almost simultaneously.

The entire Longyan was in an uproar. Pop-ups are frequent recently, you can click to download to avoid pop-ups.