Lan Cai'er, the innate master, was also Lu Yuan's old enemy.
Although the two have actually never met each other, and there has been no direct conflict.
But the disputes and fights between the two forces had already started several years ago.
And ever since the news of Lan Cai'er's innate achievement came out, this woman has been the sword hanging over Lu Yuan's head, threatening his life at all times.
The reason why it never fell was mainly because Lu Yuan had kept a low profile before, and didn't make too much of an impact, making the opponent anxious and just kill him directly.
But at this time, Lu Yuan was about to lead his army to attack the Five Poison Sect's lair.
This behavior can definitely be regarded as forcing the other party.
When the time comes, Lan Cai'er, the saint, will almost certainly take action herself to eradicate Lu Yuan, the enemy who has been disgusting the Five Poisons Sect.
At that time, even if thousands of troops were guarding him, Lu Yuan still felt insecure.
Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for him to send troops without an innate grandmaster by his side to protect him.
The protection of a grandmaster is his bottom line.
However, the imperial court's current top-level combat power is also stretched thin. Whether it can send an innate grandmaster is still a question.
Therefore, Lu Yuan was not sure whether the court would agree to this.
But to his surprise, when he said these words, Shangguan Guangbai in front of him didn't even hesitate at all, and said directly: "Yes, the court can agree to this."
The simplicity of this answer made Lu Yuan slightly stunned.
Shangguan Guangbai couldn't help but smile when he saw his appearance: "Brother Lu should already know that Grandmaster Yan Wangqiu Yan of the Nanhai Sect agreed to the invitation of the imperial court to take up the position of national master.
Nowadays, the national situation is difficult. After discussions between the imperial court and Yan Guoshi, the imperial master has agreed to lead the Nanhai disciples to go north to Dongting County to assist the imperial court in quelling the rebellion.
If Brother Lu is willing to send troops, my father can transfer the national army to your army.
Yan Guoshi is an old master who has been famous in the world for hundreds of years. He has more than a dozen first-class masters under his sect. With him and his disciples here, the saint of the Five Poisons Sect can protect his elder brother. "
Yan Wangqiu is one of the few innate masters in the Yue Kingdom. However, although this person has been famous for a long time, he only has the strength of the first innate realm.
Therefore, when the Lingnan Jianghu forces wanted to infiltrate Yuzhang County, they were hit head-on by Yin Huixuan of Liuyang Sect.
When Yin Huixuan went south to Lingnan and challenged the heroes with his sword, Yan Wangqiu even avoided fighting. Before anyone came to knock on his door, he went out for a long trip and avoided it early.
Such behavior was despised by the world for a while.
And through this incident, we can also see the strength of Yin Huixuan and the weakness of Yan Wangqiu.
However, Yan Wangqiu's cowardice is not incomprehensible.
Once a warrior breaks through his innate ability, he can live to be one hundred and fifty years old. It has been ninety years since Yan Wanqiu broke through to become a master. When he broke through, he was fifty years old again.
In other words, this old master Yan only has ten years to live at most. Not even ten years to live.
Even if it were ten years ago, the other party's physical condition would not be much better.
At that time, with this old and decayed body, I was afraid that I would lose my life in a fight with Yin Huixuan, who was at the height of his power.
There is a sect behind Yan Wangqiu. Tens of thousands of people in the Nanhai Sect are all counting on this master to survive.
If he has any shortcomings, this sect will fall apart.
"There have been rumors in the world that the younger disciples of the Nanhai Sect are incompetent, and none of the disciples in the past four generations have become successful. As a result, Yan Wangqiu is over one hundred and forty years old, and he still has to stand up to support the situation.
Now it seems that there is something really wrong with the Nanhai Sect's sect inheritance.
The reason why Yan Wangqiu agreed to the court's conditions was because he wanted to help the court repel the Zhou people and quell the rebellion while he was still able to move his old bones.
As a descendant of the sect, he earns half of the county's foundation.
After all, if you can't survive in the world of martial arts, being able to establish a country is a good retreat.
Not only does it have a stable territory, but it also has the support of the imperial court.
At least he wouldn't have died, and the sect would have been killed by the enemies it had offended in the past, and it would have been wiped out. "
Lu Yuan was guessing in his mind, and looked at Shangguan Guangbai with a smile on his face: "If this is true, then when the imperial salary and Grandmaster Yan arrive, then I will send 50,000 troops to attack Wuling Mansion."
Shangguan Guangbai was overjoyed when he heard this and said quickly: "Brother Lu, don't worry. The military salary of one million silver, as well as Master Yan and his entourage, will arrive next month. I hope that my brother can send troops immediately. Now the court is really waiting." It’s amazing.”
Nowadays, there are really not many soldiers and horses inside and outside the imperial court that can be mobilized.
There are 50,000 soldiers and horses in Jiuzhen County in Dayue, but these 50,000 people cannot move at all if they want to suppress the entire three Lingnan counties.
The capital Jinling also has a capital camp of 50,000 people, but these troops also have to suppress the three counties of Linhai, Yuzhang, and Jian'an. Moreover, where the imperial capital is located, there may be men and horses guarding it, but they cannot be mobilized.
In Guangling County in the north, there are 200,000 border troops.
But the 200,000 troops need to guard against the same number of Liang soldiers on the opposite side, or even more.
With this group of people mobilized, Liang Bing can drive directly to Guangling and directly threaten Jinling City across the river. This would have a worse impact than the loss of Dongting County.
Therefore, the frontier troops in Guangling County were still unable to move.
This is why the imperial court sent envoys to Liang State to make peace with the country.
If they do not reach a peace agreement with the Liang State and allow the other side to withdraw their troops from the border, the imperial court will always be under great pressure on Guangling County and have to station heavy troops here.
And if the two countries reconcile, then the imperial court will be able to mobilize another 100,000 troops from Guangling County.
Even if the peace talks go more smoothly, the Liang Kingdom can even be persuaded to send troops together to deal with the Zhou Kingdom.
If this is true, then the danger of national annihilation that Dai Viet is facing now will be solved in an instant.
"I only hope that those Liang people can understand the truth of the death of lips and cold teeth. My Yue Kingdom is destroyed, and the Zhou people come to seize the southern land, and they can attack the Liang Kingdom from the west and south.
By then, the Liang Kingdom will be attacked on both sides, and its fall is not far away.
But now, looking at the whole country, only the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses on Lu Yuan's side can be used to support one or two. " Shangguan Guangbai thought so in his heart.
The imperial army was so stretched that it could only be humiliated.
At this time, Lu Yuan also promised: "Don't worry, as long as my two conditions can be fulfilled, sending troops will be nothing more than idle business."
"Then it's settled." Shangguan Guangbai finally confirmed.
"It's settled." Lu Yuan nodded solemnly.
After the matter was settled, the atmosphere between the three of them suddenly became much better.
When Lu Yuan faced Shangguan Haiyue again, his face had the same smile as before.
Shangguan Haiyue also smiled again and continued to get close to him as before.
However, the military situation was urgent. After confirming Lu Yuan's conditions for sending troops, the Shangguan brothers and sisters just stayed here to have a meal, and then left in a hurry to return to their father.
Whether it was one million taels of silver or Yan Wangqiu, the innate master, who wanted to mobilize and approve the matter, they had no say, their father had to make the decision.
The current situation is difficult. If these conditions can be fulfilled as soon as possible and Lu Yuan can send troops as early as possible, it will be a great thing for Shangguan Ming.
The Shangguan brothers and sisters did not dare to delay.
…
After seeing off the Shangguan brothers and sisters, that afternoon, Lu Yuan summoned the generals and announced the order that the army would go on an expedition soon.
Now in his military camp, there are 5,000 old soldiers, 15,000 new soldiers who have been trained for half a year, and 32,000 pure recruits who have been trained for two months. The total number is 52,000.
Let’s not talk about the combat power of these many soldiers and horses. At least the troops came out with momentum.
After all, there are 50,000 people, and they are all strong men.
According to Lu Yuan's recruitment conditions, as long as these people can be recruited into the army, even new recruits will basically have one or two skills in martial arts and archery.
With these foundations in place, it cannot be said that they really cannot fight.
"Those Miao soldiers and horses were originally just mountain people. Some of them were not even mountain people, they were simply farmers.
When it comes to the quality of soldiers and horses, they are not necessarily better than me. "
Lu Yuan was quite confident in the soldiers and horses under his command. Maybe if you go to fight against the elites of the imperial court or the elites of the Zhou people, they are no match at all.
But the Miao people, who are on the same level and even worse than me, are not weak at all.
This is the sense of psychological superiority brought about by beating the Miao people violently several times in the past.
The only thing that worried him was the Miao people's innate master, the saint Lan Cai'er.
But now, Lan Cai'er's threat will be offset by Yan Wangqiu.
Although this old master Yan is old, he can't fight anymore. But Lan Cai'er is just a new grandmaster, not necessarily very strong.
With the old master guarding him, Lu Yuan is really worthy of Lan Cai'er.
So now that the conditions had been negotiated with the court, Lu Yuan also made serious preparations and planned to have a good meeting with the Miao people.
Shangguan Guangbai said it right before.
It would not be a good thing for Lu Yuan to really let the Zhou people cross the river.
Just the fact that he would lose Shaoyang Mansion and Luyang Mansion made him feel uncomfortable.
Without his own territory, how could he practice Taiping Taoism?
Lu Yuan has been suffering from the pain of being unable to practice the immortal magic in front of him for more than ten years, and he doesn't want to continue to suffer.
Moreover, now that Shaoyang Mansion has been attacked by the Miao people and has lost half of the five counties, it is indeed time to save it.
"Those Miao people are so arrogant that they really think I can't do anything to them. Let them see this time that I, Lu Yuan, are not someone they can bully at will." A cold look flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes.
With this in mind, after arranging the arrangements for the expedition, he left the military camp and headed for Fucheng.
When an army of 50,000 goes on an expedition, the amount of food and wages it consumes every day is not a small amount.
Preparing military rations and recruiting civilians for transportation all require the support of local governments.
Similarly, Lu Yuan left with his army, and the local guards in Luyang Prefecture could only rely on the prefecture and county militia here.
Therefore, the defense here will only rely on the Luyang Prefecture itself.
In Yangshan Mansion, south of Luyang Mansion, there are still 30,000 Miao people watching. This is a big threat and a big trouble.
How to deal with the above problems cannot be decided by Lu Yuan just by thinking about them.
We still need to discuss this with Sun Siwen, the prefect.
…
"Luyang defense, there is no need to worry about this."
In the government office, Lu Yuan found Sun Siwen and explained the news that he was about to lead the army on an expedition and his concerns. After that, his friend replied: "Since last year, with the help of Brother Lu, now the various county militia groups in the government have All are complete.
Coupled with the new arrivals of refugees, the household registration in this mansion has gradually increased, and the situation before the war has been restored.
Now whenever necessary, Luyang can mobilize 30,000 civilian groups at any time. With two thousand prefecture and county soldiers as the backbone, the 30,000 Miao people in Yangshan Prefecture are nothing to worry about.
It's just that in this way, the number of civilians I can allocate to assist in transporting grain and grass has become insufficient.
In order to resist the 30,000 Miao people, the government must prepare at least 20,000 militia groups, so the local government can only draw up 10,000 people as militiamen.
These people may not be enough to supply the army's logistics. "
When Sun Siwen said this, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.
Now, after continuous development, especially at the end of last year, we took the opportunity to gather some refugees, so that the population of Luyang Prefecture has exceeded 200,000.
But even so, it was still difficult to cope with the need to defend against foreign enemies and send civilian men to accompany the army on expeditions.
Lu Yuan also understood Sun Siwen's difficulties, and said at this time: "There is no need to worry about this. I am going on an expedition for the imperial court this time, and all the governments in the county should assist me.
Don't forget that I am still General Pingxi, the governor of Pingxi and Miao military affairs in the county.
I can send a letter to Hengyang Mansion and ask it to recruit civilians to help transport military rations.
Hengyang Mansion is located in the rear. Except for the previous Qixing Gate Rebellion, it has not suffered much war, and its household registration is relatively well preserved.
The government can produce at least 50,000 civilians, enough to transport supplies for the army.
Even the army's rations do not need to be transported from Luyang. Hengyang is the place where the grain is produced, and it can be collected from here, which is more trouble-free and convenient. "
Hengyang Mansion is one of the few major grain-producing mansions in Dongting County.
When the Qixing Gate rebelled and went north to Hengyang, the county government immediately became unable to sit still and forced Lu Yuan to send troops to quell the rebellion.
The reason is to protect Hengyang Mansion, a major grain-producing land.
And the more food is produced, the more people can be fed.
The entire Hengyang Mansion had 100,000 households and 500,000 people at its peak. Nowadays, although there have been repeated wars and many people have been lost, there are still 400,000 people.
It is not difficult to extract 50,000 civilians from them. Providing military rations to Lu Yuan's 50,000-strong army was even simpler.
After all, the Hengyang Mansion's military rations originally had to supply one hundred thousand troops to Shu. Now that the armies of Pingshu are gone, the extra food can be used by Lu Yuan.
Sun Siwen was an official in Hengyang Mansion from the beginning and stayed there for several years. Of course he knew the situation in Hengyang Mansion.
Seeing Lu Yuan's plan at this time, he couldn't help but nodded and said: "If that's the case, then there will be no problem."
Luyang Prefecture has a militia group of 20,000 people guarding the city. As long as they don't go out of the city to fight in the field, with the quality of the Miao people's troops, there is really nothing they can do here.
Otherwise, Zhou Qing in Shaoyang Mansion would not be able to withstand the attack of hundreds of thousands of Miao people with 40,000 horses.
The soldiers and horses have an absolute advantage, and the top masters also have an absolute advantage. In the end, they still can't defeat the Shaoyang Mansion, and the Miao people's combat power is just like that.
So Lu Yuan is not false at all.
Even a scholar like Sun Siwen is not false at all.
The scary thing about the Miao people has never been their combat power, but their hundreds of thousands, as well as the numerous masters of the Five Poison Sect. This is what gives the court, Lu Yuan and the others a headache.
…
The matter of the expedition was just decided.
Then the military camp became busy.
The soldiers who had been put on leave soon began to return to the camp under the summons of the officers.
The soldiers in the camp also began to urgently strengthen their training after learning that the army was about to go out.
Especially for those new recruits, if they can learn one or two more skills at this time, master one or two more formations, and know more orders and flags, they will be more confident of saving their lives when they go to the battlefield in the future.
Isn't there a saying that says so?
Sharpening a gun in the face of battle will bring displeasure.
At this time, those new soldiers were the guns being sharpened.
Not only the military camp, but also the people in Luyang Prefecture who had just come out of the New Year atmosphere were quickly mobilized by local officials at all levels and county officers.
At this time, the benefits of the prefectural and county militia system were demonstrated.
With an order from above, all the manpower in the government can be mobilized instantly and a sufficient number of people can be gathered.
Don't worry about whether these people can fight or not, but when they are put together, it is a huge shock.
What's more, these militia soldiers also received some military training during their spare time.
Although it is difficult to say how effective this kind of training will be. But it's not a big problem to pull them over to defend the city.
As a result, throughout the end of the first month and the beginning of February, Luyang Mansion fell into a large-scale mobilization.
Even not just Luyang Mansion, after General Lu Yuan's official letter was delivered to Hengyang Mansion, there quickly began to collect grain and grass, mobilize civilians, and prepare to supply the army with food.
Such a huge mobilization of troops naturally aroused the vigilance of all parties in Dongting County.
Fortunately, those Zhou people were still far away from Luyang Mansion, so they were not too worried.
The Miao people, on the other hand, immediately became alert.
The Miao people from Yangshan, Jiuyi, and Lingling in the three prefectures next to Luyang Prefecture instantly entered a new round of mobilization.
A large number of Miao people were recruited and rushed to the border of Yangshan Prefecture. The original 30,000 Miao people were increased to 50,000 to prepare for Lu Yuan's southward invasion.
On the other side of Shaoyang Mansion, the 20,000 Miao people who were attacking Wugang County were instantly frightened and withdrew, strictly guarding the city defense.
The clouds of war are slowly gathering in the southern part of Dongting County, with signs of breaking out at any time.
In this depressing atmosphere where dark clouds are overwhelming the city.
On February 11, the sixth year of Hongdao's reign, the imperial court's army of one million silver and Yan Wangqiu and other Nanhai faction members finally arrived at Luyang Mansion after careful preparation and deployment.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan had nothing to say.
The 50,000-strong army that had been prepared set off immediately. Luyang Mansion also sent 10,000 civilians to accompany the army.
When they arrived at Hengyang Prefecture, they gathered another 60,000 civilians there, and the entire army immediately expanded to 120,000 people.
Lu Yuan also raised a banner, claiming that he had 200,000 troops to attack the Miao thieves.
Leading the army, they marched towards Shaoyang Mansion in a mighty manner.
For a time, the entire Dongting County was suffocated by Lu Yuan's momentum.
