Chapter 663.

Baisha County, Urn City.

Qi Guangbo, who was dressed in military attire and a scarlet cloak, stood in front of the map of Qingzhou, which was supported by a shelf, and looked at it intently.

Behind him were the generals of the battalions of the Yunzhou Army, Ji Xuan, wearing armor and a war sword at his waist, sat at the first place on the left side.

The generals looked relaxed, and although they remained solemn, there was joy in their brows.

In just three days, the nine counties on the border of Qingzhou were uprooted and the first line of defense was completely routed, giving the army a solid rear plate.

Chi Guangbo’s eyes did not leave the map, and said faintly, “You all are in a good mood, ah, a great victory, you may as well get drunk tonight.”

The generals froze and stared at each other wordlessly, no one chimed in.

Chi Guangbo instructed the adjutant general beside him, saying:

“Tell me about the situation in the city.”

The adjutant general rose, looked around the table at the generals, and spoke in a deep voice:

“Before the Qingzhou defenders retreated, they burned the grain and grass in all the granaries in the city. At the same time, a large number of quilts and cloths were centralized and burned. In addition, the rich families, merchants, and prosperous families in the city have long since withdrawn ahead of time, and now there are only hungry and poor people and stragglers in Baisha County.

“The other nine counties, all of them.”

“What?”

The generals were taken aback.

The Vice Admiral continued:

“Before that, Qingzhou Buzhengji, has ordered the wall to clear the field, the villages outside the city, nine out of ten rooms are empty, scavenging not half a bit of food.”

Chi Guangbo, who had his back to the crowd, lamented:

“What a good Yang Gong… Mercy doesn’t control soldiers, I didn’t expect him to be even harder on the people. Are you all still in the mood to drink now?”

The generals were silent.

They did knock down the Qingzhou border defense line and have a back plate, but it’s hard to say whether it’s solid or not.

Ji Xuan mused:

“Yang Gong didn’t intend to die defending the nine counties along the border to begin with, and by evacuating the wealthy households ahead of time and leaving behind only the stragglers and paupers, he intended to hand this mess over to us.”

Chi Guangbo nodded his finger on the map of Qingzhou and nodded:

“Qingzhou is 10,000 miles across, there is plenty of room for him to roll around, so why should he die defending the border? Now that the imperial reinforcements have not arrived, he chose to tangle with us rather than fight to the death, which is the right thing to do.

“That’s a wonderful use of the trick of doing unto others as they do unto you.”

When attacking a city, one hates to see the other side in as bad a position as possible, preferably out of ammunition and stragglers everywhere.

But once the city is captured, all the rebels have to do is maintain stability, and if there are disturbances in these places, they become a burden instead.

Of course, these can be ignored if you only aim to loot, the big deal is to kill everyone.

This situation applies when foreigners invade, but it’s not good for the Yunzhou rebels to do so when they want to gather the people and occupy the great righteousness.

“He wants to use the poor and stragglers to drag us down, humph, it just so happens that the militia died and were wounded in this siege, these are excellent sources of soldiers.”

A general said.

There are two sides to any scheme.

Ji Xuan glanced at him and said:

“Yang Gong is holding fast and burning grain and grass, not leaving us a single grain of rice, our side’s zizi pressure will increase exponentially. This is cutting meat with a blunt knife, slowly consuming our reserves.”

Yang Gong’s purpose was obvious, to be in Qingzhou and to weaken the rebels as much as possible.

The generals here are smart and experienced, and it’s not hard to figure this out.

Ji Xuan whirled around and revealed a smile, “However, he underestimated us.”

Qi Guangbo faintly said, “The State Master has been preparing for many years and has a deep heritage, can’t it be exhausted by a small Qingzhou? It’s just that we can raise troops to give congee, and use this to publicize the name of our righteous division.”

The generals looked at each other and laughed.

Qi Guangbo said, “It’s time for the Western Region monks to make their appearance, I’ve already sent someone to consult the State Master.”

…………

Qingzhou Buzhengji.

In the backyard, the round table in the hall was filled with delicacies, and Lina and Xu Lingyin sprawled out on the table, eating and drinking.

Master and disciple’s faces were one and the same, bulging into buns.

“Eating fish and bacon every day, I have to squat for a long time on the toilet.” Lina said vulgar words without any psychological burden, even though she had delicate facial features.

Lack of fresh fruits and vegetables on board.

“Master, I can poop.” Xu Lingyin loudly declared, indicating that she was better than her master.

“Should we save some for Brother Jiro?”

Lina mouthed the words and swallowed her food faster.

On the way to Qingzhou by boat, Zhang Shen, Xu Erlang’s teaching master, and Li Mubai came to his door and brought his disciple to Qingzhou first.

There was certainly no way that Erlang Xu would let Lina and Suzaku stay on the ship, so they came along for the ride.

“Two pots, two pots are not hungry.”

Xu Lingyin forced a definition on Xu Erlang.

“Not hungry, then? ……..”

Lina said seriously.

The Council Chamber of the Bujinkan.

Xu Erlang lifted his green-flower tealight and took a sip of the piping hot tea, remaining silent as he listened.

At the first place of the pear wood long table, sits the scarlet-robed Qingzhou Buzheng Minister Yang Gong, this Yunlu Academy origin, the literary reputation of the Central Plains Ziyangju Shi has lost a lot of weight.

He had not slept for half a decade, and his emaciated face could not hide his fatigue, but his eyes were still sharp and his spirit still strong, as if he had endless strength.

“…….. The situation in Qingzhou is like this at the moment, the border is not being held.”

Yang Gong ended his long-winded speech, picked up his tea, moistened his throat, and looked sideways at Zhang Shen:

“What do you think about it?”

Thousands of miles to serve as staff of the two students, Zhang Shen majoring in the art of war, is Yang Gong urgent need of talent.

Zhang Shen nodded:

“If it were me, I wouldn’t let those merchants and wealthy families, the village gentry and the prestige family leave, the rebels will definitely choose to fight to feed the war, the day the city is broken, is the time when their families will be broken and perished.

“If you don’t want your family to be destroyed, then you should help defend the city to the death, so that you can greatly deplete the rebels’ strength. However, this is if the court has reinforcements. Ziqian, you’re doing a good job with this compromise.”

Saying that, he looked at the favored disciple, heartily examining him, and laughed:

“Resignation, come and analyze the situation in Qingzhou for all of you.”

The Governor of Qingzhou, the Commander of the Capital, the Tidings and Inspectors, as well as the civil officials and military generals under their command, looked at them one after another.

Xu New Year did not shy away from the stage, straightening his back and slowly sweeping his gaze over the crowd:

“In this official’s opinion, how long can Qingzhou be defended, and how should it be defended, first of all, all of you adults should understand three points.

“One: the environment of Cloud State!

“Yunzhou’s climate is humid and warm, the land is fertile, and every household has surplus grain; and with the ocean at its back, there are countless salt fields; over the past twenty years, the rebels have secretly eroded the court’s transportation offices and secretly transferred countless iron ore mines. There is no shortage of salt, iron and grain.

“Such an affluent land, Yang Buzhengji’s attempt to drag down the other side with stragglers and poor people is just a drop in the bucket.”

“Then according to Lord Xu’s meaning, Minister Yang Buzheng’s strategy is not good?” The Qingzhou governor frowned.

Xu New Year shook his head, “Naturally, Ambassador Yang Buzheng’s strategy won’t go wrong, but the focus needs to change, don’t think about dragging them down, but rather spell out their elites.”

He looked behind Yang Gong, the map of Qing and Yun states that was posted on the wall, and said in a deep voice:

“Let’s rejoin Cloud State, do you all remember the alias Cloud State?

“Bandit State!

“Since the beginning of Emperor Gaozu, Yunzhou has been occupied by the rebellious party of the previous dynasty, which transformed into mountain bandits and plagued the party. For six hundred years, the banditry in Yunzhou has never been resolved.

“Do you lords remember how many people there were in Yunzhou the last time the Yellow Book was recreated?”

The officials looked at each other, no one knew.

They were officials of Qingzhou, how could they know about what happened in Yunzhou.

Yang Gong tapped his finger on the desktop, somewhat dissatisfied, and swept over the officials, slowly saying:

“The last time, in the 30th year of Yuanjing, Yunzhou recorded eighty-three million households of people with a population of about three and a half million.”

That’s eight years ago.

Xu Erlang arched his hand and continued with a calm face:

“If I remember correctly, every time the Yellow Book is remade, the population of Yunzhou is plummeting. This is the price of rampant banditry.”

By this time, the officials had understood what he wanted to say.

“The population limits the number of their army, plus practicing and raising troops has been done secretly for the past few decades.” Xu Erlang’s fist gently tapped the tabletop, his voice thumping the ground:

“The lack of elite soldiers is the biggest break for the Rebels. Try to spell out all of their elites regardless of the cost, that’s what we have to do.”

“Makes sense!” The crowd nodded slowly.

Zhang Shen Yang Gong and Li Mu Bai, the three of them smiled at each other.

Xu New Year held out two fingers and said:

“Two: war power!

“The battle power of the Transcendent Realm is a factor that cannot be ignored in a war, and sometimes, a Transcendent powerhouse can even reverse the victory or defeat in a conventional battle.”

He used the term “conventional” battles because there are mega battles in the world, such as the Battle of Shanhaiguan.

The kind of war that swept through the major powers of the Nine States, it was difficult for a Transcendent powerhouse to turn the tide of battle, not that Transcendents weren’t strong enough, but that there were too many Transcendent masters in the entrance, it wasn’t rare anymore.

Of course, if it was at the level of Super Grade, or First Grade Martial Artist, it was another story.

Li Mubai suddenly asked, “Who is the enemy commander-in-chief?”

Yang Gong said, “Surname Chi, first name Guangbo, a nobody.”

Zhang Shen raised his eyebrows, “A nameless person is in charge of the three armies?”

Yang Gong slowly said: ”Being nameless does not mean being talentless. On the contrary, this person is extremely powerful, he sent his soldiers to drive away the stragglers, and then had his experts mingle amongst the stragglers to paralyze the defenders, easily approaching the city walls. The Yellow Ridge County in the border was caught off guard this way, and only lasted a day before the city was broken.”

Zhang Shen sneered, “The generals guarding the city were merciful and allowed the stragglers to approach, they should be executed!”

Qingzhou Capital Commander Zhou Mi sighed, “He has been martyred in the line of duty.”

Li Mubai said, “That is, for the time being, I don’t know if this Lord Commander is in the Transcendent Realm.”

Yang Gong “hmmm”:

“Aside from the Garuda Tree Bodhisattva and Xu Pingfeng, who are responsible for holding back the Supervisor Zheng, no Transcendent Realm has appeared in the rebel army for the time being. However, it is highly likely that they are hiding and have not come forward.”

As a Confucian master of the fourth rank, a great scholar whose literary reputation was renowned in the Central Plains, Yang Gong did not have any obvious flaws or shortcomings in terms of talent and character.

Arrogance and gullibility won’t come to him.

“The imperial court is likewise not lacking in Transcendent experts.” Xu New Year said.

At this moment, the first thing that flashed through the minds of all the officials was not Sun Xuanji of the Si Tian Supervisor, but that Xu Qi’an whose reputation was like a blazing fire.

“Point three, it’s reinforcements!”

Xu New Year’s face was grave: “What this official means is reinforcements from both sides. The Buddhist Sect and the Cloud State Rebels have already colluded, so the armies of the western countries will have to invade the border sooner or later.”

“Once the court is forced into a two-front war, the reinforcements and military supplies available to Qingzhou will be greatly reduced. On the contrary, the Yunzhou rebels are like a tiger with wings. This is equally relevant to the second point of the war effort.”

The atmosphere in the council chamber was solemn, and the people frowned darkly, worry lurking in their eyes.

The Yunzhou rebels were coming in strong, and with the exiles all over the Central Plains, it would have been tough for Qingzhou to hold off the rebels.

Now that they are facing the invasion of the western countries, the imperial court will definitely not be able to take care of Qingzhou under the two-front war.

With the power of the Buddha Sect, there would even be a situation where Qingzhou was still holding out and fighting bitterly, and the armies of the Western Regions were hitting the capital.

“It would be great if we could make the armies of the western countries not dare to invade the borders.” The Governor of Qingzhou lamented.

Idiot ……. As a military general, Commander Zhou snickered in his heart, if Wei Gong was alive, he might be able to make the Buddha Sect jealous and not dare to start a war.

Who can make the Buddha Sect fearful nowadays, Da Bong?

Even the Supervising Buddhist Sect was not afraid, because this behemoth that dominated the Western Region had no shortage of top-notch experts.

However, there are only a handful of marshals in Kyushu who are as rare as Wei Yuan.

“It’s a dead end!”

Li Mubai, who specialized in chess, slowly shook his head, “It’s impossible for us to hold back the Buddhist Sect, and it’s inevitable that the Buddhist Sect will raise an army to the east.”

Yang Gong slowly exhaled, “Therefore, what we have to do is to risk our lives to fight off the rebel’s elite as much as possible. Leave the rest of the matter to the gentlemen.”

There is really nothing to be done about it.

“As soon as Duke Wei died, the rebellious party in Yunzhou raised an army to rebel, and the Buddhist Sect in the Western Region bullied me into having no one in the Central Plains, tore up the alliance, and turned on each other. We, however, can do nothing ……..” The governor of Qingzhou was in pain.

Xu New Year is silent, the western region of the Buddha’s strong, many soldiers and generals, and there are Lohan Bodhisattva sitting in the town of Alanta, such behemoths, never plotting and scheming can be controlled.

At this time, he suddenly saw two more people in the corner of the council chamber, one person was dressed in white, with mediocre looks, temperament, and height. The other person had a Lei Gong mouth, with ugly features like a monkey, and his eyes were azure and clear, as if he could see through the heart.

“Senior Sun, why are you here?”

Xu Xinxin was taken aback.

He was acquainted with this second disciple of the Supervisor.

When did he come ………. Yang Gong and the others were stunned, looking sideways and twisting their heads.

Protector Yuan swept a glance at the crowd before saying:

“Their hearts tell me: Who is this? Why is he here? Sun Xuanji? Is there not a single normal disciple of the Supervisor of Justice?”

When Protector Yuan finished, he was taken aback and hurriedly brushed off the relationship, pointing at Xu New Year:

“He said that last one.”

Xu New Year: “!!!”

…………

PS: The author says there’s an egg, so change it before you change it!