Ye Mingsheng's words immediately awakened the generals of the Fengwu Army sitting here. The current situation is that the Fengwu Army has not fully prepared the strategic material reserves for a large and protracted war, but the war in the direction of Xinle Shunping is progressing smoothly. If this is the case, I am really unwilling to give up. From this point of view, it may be the right choice to reduce my appetite and only capture one of the two cities... ······
He Jingyun thought for a while and suggested to Ye Mingsheng:
"Your Excellency's idea is wonderful, but in my opinion, among the two cities of Xinle and Shunping, Shunping's geographical location is more important. If our army captures Shunping, then even if Xinle is still in the hands of the Yan army, they will The situation in this area will also be very passive, and when our army decides to start the decisive battle, Xinle will be easily captured!"
Listening to He Jingyun's words, Ye Mingsheng was a little confused. This did not mean that he was unclear about Shunping's geographical advantages. The geographical locations of Shunping and Xinle were already very clearly displayed on the sand table. , as long as you have a little knowledge of military and geography, you can clearly realize that Shunping is more important than Xinle. This is why the Yan army invested more troops in Shunping!
It is naturally better to capture Shunping than to capture Xinle, but the key to the problem is that the Yan army has 5,000 people in Shunping, and according to the intelligence of the Coordination Office, the number of people in Shunping City is about 30,000 to 50,000. In the meantime, with this population base, the Yan army in Shunping can definitely get two to three thousand young men from the city to help defend the city. If the qualifications are expanded, it is entirely possible to recruit more than five thousand people. .
And now Gu Shouting and Ma Zhongjun have more than 10,000 troops and horses in total. It can be said that it is very difficult to win Shunping with these troops and horses alone.
And without Gu Shouting's restraint in Xinle, Xinle's Yan army is likely to harass them from the side. If things really develop like this, then maybe the advantageous situation created by Ma Zhongjun and Gu Shouting will be lost. All previous efforts were wasted··················
This is also the reason why Ye Mingsheng wants to play Xinle instead of Shunping. Ye Mingsheng believes that He Jingyun also understands this, so he is puzzled by He Jingyun's words. Although he does not understand He Jingyun's thoughts, but Now that his chief of staff had spoken, Ye Mingsheng thought for a while and then asked:
"How confident are you that you can capture Shunping City with just Ma Zhongjun and Gu Shouting's more than 10,000 people?"
Facing Ye Mingsheng's inquiry, He Jingyun replied calmly:
"Your Excellency's ideas have given us the direction. We are 50% sure of winning Shunping. Of course, even if we fail to win Shunping, we will win Xinle as a nail in the middle of Youyan for our army." , laying a solid foundation for our army’s next attack on Zhuoxian County!”
Upon hearing that He Jingyun was 50% sure, and with Xinle as a guarantee, Ye Mingsheng felt that it was okay to let He Jingyun give it a try, and then asked again:
"Do you have any requests?"
After hearing this, He Jingyun pondered for a while and reported to Ye Mingsheng:
"If this battle is to be successful, it needs the full support of the Coordination Office!"
After getting the answer, Ye Mingsheng turned his attention to Huo San at the end and said:
"You heard General He's thoughts. What do you want to say?"
Huo San stood up and replied respectfully:
"As long as you allow it, Your Excellency, all the staff in our General Coordination Office will fully cooperate with Chief of General Staff He's actions..."
When Ye Mingsheng saw this, he decided directly:
"Very good! This battle will be left to General He with full authority. The Coordination Office will fully cooperate and make sure there is no mistake!"
"If you hold this humble position, I will honor my mission and dedicate Shunping to you!" He Jingyun said solemnly:
After dealing with the war situation in Xinle Shunping, Ye Mingsheng ended the war meeting and returned to his residence in Yi Jing, where his confidant and beloved general Gu Sansi was already waiting for him. .
Seeing Ye Mingsheng come back with a solemn expression, Gu Sansi handed a copy of the memorial to Ye Mingsheng and said:
"This is their joint letter to Your Majesty! Requesting Your Majesty that you release Ma Hongde, disband the Coordination Office, and restore the order of people's livelihood in Youyan!"
Ye Mingsheng, who had expected this for a long time, took the so-called "joint letter" with a normal expression, and glanced at the words written on it casually, such as "Consider the people of Youyan and do not compete with the people for profit." After reading the words, Ye Mingsheng smiled and shook his head, then called Ye Cheng in and ordered:
"I leave this joint letter to you. You record the names of all the people on it, and then give it to Huo San for him to investigate!"
"yes!"
After receiving Ye Mingsheng's order, Ye Cheng immediately went down to do errands.
After Ye Cheng left, Gu Sansi, who was quietly watching Ye Mingsheng's operations, hesitated and reminded Ye Mingsheng:
"Master Ma Hongde is their lifeblood. At least half of them have colluded with Ma Hongde, so after they learned that Ma Hongde was taken away by the Coordination Office, they were all very excited and worried that Ma Hongde would turn them in. , so they are eager to fish out Ma Hongde. If we don't let him go, they are likely to take more radical actions... "
When Ye Mingsheng heard this, a cold light flashed in his eyes, he waved his hand and said:
"For the sake of the overall situation, I only killed a few evil scum and did not give them a general purge. If they still don't move forward and retreat with gratitude, then the sword in the hands of the Fengwu Army will make them understand this. Think twice about you. Don’t worry, Wang Xuecheng has made comprehensive arrangements, and a few rotten fish and shrimps can’t change the world!”
Ye Mingsheng's answer undoubtedly gave Gu Sansi reassurance. As the person in charge of implementing the New Deal appointed by Ye Mingsheng in Youyan, he was already in a political whirlpool, and people from all walks of life wanted to impose pressure on him. Influence, so as to interfere in his decision-making. Although he has Ye Mingsheng as a strong backer, Gu Sansi still bears a lot of pressure in the process of promoting the New Deal.
Now the public-private partnership he led has just begun to take shape. The price of grain, salt, cloth and other basic livelihood supplies in Youyan has begun to fall sharply compared to the beginning of the year, and has gradually stabilized. Stable prices and Sufficient supply has also reduced the pressure on people's lives, and therefore the public grievances have also been reduced a lot.
At this time, the Ma Hongde incident happened. Although Gu Sansi fully supported Ye Mingsheng in eradicating this scourge and dismantling the interest groups behind this guy, he was also very worried in his heart whether the Ma Hongde incident would happen. , which caused some disturbances in Youyan's livelihood, but now Ye Mingsheng's answer really makes him feel at ease.
After appeasing Gu Sansi, Ye Mingsheng continued:
"You should already know about Huainan, right? What do you think about it?"
Hearing Ye Mingsheng's question, Gu Sansi seemed a little surprised, hesitated and asked:
"My lord, are you talking about the incident in which Xu Zhaojie, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, stabbed Feng Keqin, the governor of Huainan, in the back?"
Ye Mingsheng said nothing but looked at Gu Sansi and nodded...
Gu Sansi was a little uncertain about Ye Mingsheng's attitude. Although Ye Mingsheng didn't say it explicitly, he vaguely felt that there was some grudge between Ye Mingsheng and Xu Zhaojie!
Gu Sansi was recommended by Ma Runshan in Liaoyang and joined Ye Mingsheng, who was the commander-in-chief of Fengzhou at that time. He only knew that Ye Mingsheng had served in the Xuanwu Forbidden Army, and that Xu Zhaojie, the Marquis of Zhenyuan of the Great Zhou Dynasty, had served as the commander of the Xuanwu Forbidden Army. Ye Mingsheng's old boss, Gu Sansi is not sure about other things.
Seeing that Gu Sansi was trying very hard to figure out his own thoughts and hesitated for a long time without saying a word, Ye Mingsheng directly made the words clear and said in a deep voice:
"Xu Zhaojie and I have different grievances. Now that Xu Zhaojie has defeated Feng Keqin in Huainan and is expanding his territory, I can't just sit back and do nothing. The purpose of bringing you Sansi here today is to see if you have any good ideas, to Huainan Use influence to stop Xu Zhaojie’s expansion!”
Ye Mingsheng finished speaking. Although he still didn't know what kind of grudges there were between Ye Mingsheng and Xu Zhaojie, as his subordinate Gu Sansi already knew Ye Mingsheng's thoughts. He thought for a while, carefully considered his words, and reminded Ye Mingsheng. :
"Sir, although our army's entry into the customs is developing rapidly, after all, the time is still short and there is not much communication between the various forces. It is very difficult to exert influence on the Huainan area and stop Xu Zhaojie's offensive at this time. Unless our army can open the road to Huainan..."
Listening to Gu Sansi's dissuasion to him, Ye Mingsheng said calmly:
"This is not just a personal grudge between me and Xu Zhaojie, it is also related to the strategic layout of our army. Although Xu Zhaojie is sinister and despicable, he is also a hero in the world. If he captures Huainan, he will definitely use Huainan as his The foundation is to compete with our army for the land in the Central Plains and try to stop our army from going south, so our army must not sit back and watch Xu Zhaojie get the land of Huainan so easily!"
Feeling the determination in Ye Mingsheng's words, Gu Sansi knew that Ye Mingsheng was determined to mess with Xu Zhaojie. Realizing this, Gu Sansi said:
"Since you have made a decision in your mind, please tell me that I will do my best to do it!"
Seeing that Gu Sansi and himself had unified their thoughts, Ye Mingsheng ordered:
"I remember you recommended someone to me before. I can't quite remember his name, but I remember you admired him very much and said he was a natural lobbyist!"
Gu Sansi immediately introduced:
"This person's name is Su Yi, who is from Youyan Jizhou. He was a scholar in Anhe for eight years. He originally went to Luo'an to take part in the imperial examination. However, the emperor's southern tour did not help, and a child from a poor family like him could not be reused by Zhao Fuqu. So he farmed and studied in his hometown and opened a private school to teach some children how to read and write!"
"Because Su Yi has received a lot of praise in the countryside of Jizhou for being a well-educated person. After we opened a public private school, he also came to apply for the position of teacher... ···”
"After having contact with him, I felt that this person is knowledgeable and quick-thinking, especially good at vertical and horizontal techniques. What is even more rare is that this person is bold and careful, and his expression remains unchanged despite the collapse of the mountain. No matter what he encounters, he can deal with it calmly. He is a rare diplomatic talent who takes things calmly!"
Ye Mingsheng nodded when he heard this, and then asked again:
"What does he do now?"
"I'm telling you, your lord, Su Yi is currently serving as a member of the Chief Secretary, assisting me in communicating with all parties!"
After Gu Sansi finished speaking, he raised his head again and tentatively said to Ye Mingsheng:
"Sir, Su Yi is currently performing very well at work. Do you think I should bring him for you to meet him?"
Ye Mingsheng shook his head and said:
"I'm missing. I believe in your discernment. I want to give him an errand! Let him be the envoy of my Fengwu Army to represent my Fengwu Army to Qilu. Go to Licheng to meet with the Qilu Economic Envoy. Cao Changping!"
As soon as these words came out, Gu Sansi's eyes showed a trace of hesitation, and then he said to Ye Mingsheng:
"Sir, do you want to use Cao Changping to deal with Xu Zhaojie?"
Seeing that Gu Sansi understood his thoughts, Ye Mingsheng nodded and said in a deep voice:
"This time it was Cao Changping and Xu Zhaojie who conspired to make Feng Keqin fall into the trap. He still doesn't know whether he is alive or dead until now..."
"There is no deep affection between Cao Changping and Xu Zhaojie. They came together temporarily because of their interests. Both of them are eyeing the rich land of Huainan and want to take Huainan as their own. They are uniting While they are working together to deal with Feng Keqin, they are also fighting openly and secretly among themselves and scheming against each other!"
"It's just that Xu Zhaojie's superior skills allowed Cao Changping to bear the pressure of resisting Feng Keqin head-on in Langya. The losses were very heavy. Even now that Feng Keqin is defeated, he is unable to continue to invade Huainan and can only watch Xu Zhaojie attack the city in Huainan!"
"So I want this Su Yi to go to Cao Changping on my behalf and tell Cao Changping that I support him in going south to fight for Huainan with Xu Zhaojie. For this reason, I can sign a non-aggression treaty with him to ensure that when he goes south, my Fengwu Army will not take advantage of the opportunity to invade. Qi Lu, if he needs it, I can sell him a batch of arms!"
"Think twice, do you think this Su Yi is qualified for this task?"
After listening to Ye Mingsheng's words and understanding that Ye Mingsheng was still calm, Gu Sansi felt relieved and then nodded and said seriously:
"Sir, I believe Su Yi is capable enough to undertake this task. I will go back and tell him right now!"
Ye Mingsheng heard this and said:
"Then let him prepare to set off as soon as possible. Xu Zhaojie is expanding very quickly in Huainan. According to the information from the Coordination Office, he is now almost occupying one-third of Huainan's territory. The sooner Cao Changping sends troops, the greater the threat to Xu Zhaojie will be. big·················"
