Chapter 18: The Strongest City in the Imperial Capital
Facing Ye Mingsheng's ridicule, Liu Shilin was not angry at all. In fact, the smile on his face became brighter. He said leisurely:

"Master Ye, when my father heard my idea a week ago, he felt exactly the same as you do now, and he also thought I was crazy. But now my father has agreed to let me come to you, Master Ye. Master Ye doesn't want to listen to my explanation to see if I, Liu Shilin, am really crazy?"

Seeing Liu Shilin so confident, Ye Mingsheng hesitated and pondered for a moment. After a moment, he said coldly to Liu Shilin: "Okay! Since you want to say it, then I will give you this opportunity, but don't blame me for vilifying you in advance. If your explanation doesn't make any sense, don't blame me for kicking you out of the house!"

"Of course! If Lord Ye still thinks that what I said is nonsense after listening to what I said, I will get out of here without you saying anything!" Liu Shilin said solemnly. It was obvious that he was very confident in his plan!

"Master Ye, do you know how many troops there are in that place?"

Walking to the palace map hanging in Ye Mingsheng's room, Liu Shilin pointed to the location of that place on the map and asked Ye Mingsheng:
Recalling the official documents exchanged in the army over the past month, Ye Mingsheng hesitated for a moment and said, "About 5,000 people!"

"That's right, Lord Ye, do you know the composition of these 5,000 people?" Looking at Ye Mingsheng, Liu Shilin said meaningfully:

"Son of a noble family!" This time, Ye Mingsheng did not hesitate and said directly:
"Master Ye, I have read your resume. You participated in the Wanfengfu Battle. You should have some understanding of the combat effectiveness of these well-equipped noble children, right?"

Liu Shilin said lightly, and when he mentioned "noble children", he deliberately emphasized the tone, which was full of sarcasm and disdain.

"You should know that I only have one battalion of more than a thousand people, and that is the strongest city in the palace!" Ye Mingsheng said coldly:
“Of course I know, this is where you, Lord Ye, need our Liu family!”

Liu Shilin's face became serious and he said very solemnly. After saying this, Liu Shilin moved in front of Ye Mingsheng and continued to speak in a low voice in Ye Mingsheng's ear.

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Half an hour later, in the study, Ye Mingsheng was looking at the map of the Palace Kingdom on the table, lost in thought. Liu Shilin had been gone for a while, but since he left, Ye Mingsheng's eyes had never left the map in front of him.

The place Liu Shilin mentioned was called Liujing, the capital of Gongdu Kingdom, known as the strongest city in Gongdu. Before the imperial guards of the Great Zhou Dynasty came to the rescue of Gongdu, the 120,000-strong coalition force of Park Sung-tae and the Luo Bi people who launched the rebellion tried every possible means, but they failed to capture Liujing after fighting for a whole month!

It was based on this that Ye Mingsheng realized that Liu Shilin wanted to plot against Liujing, and thought he was crazy. However, after listening to his plan, Ye Mingsheng felt that if Liu Shilin could really do it, the conditions he said might not be empty talk to conquer Liujing. First of all, the real strength of the Liu family represented by Liu Shilin was much greater than Ye Mingsheng imagined!
They are the agent forces supported by the Supervisory Department in the palace, responsible for collecting intelligence for the Supervisory Department in the palace!
The bandits who were detected by his scouts a few days ago and were equipped with armor, crossbows, and firearms were actually from the Liu family. According to Liu Shilin’s account, the contraband in Heishanfeng’s possession and the coaches who trained these bandits were all provided by the Supervisory Department. The purpose of organizing and training this group of people was to prepare for the Supervisory Department’s next action in Gongdu...

At the military meeting that day, although he rejected the requests of Wang Xian and Lin Huaiwu to fight on the grounds that suppressing bandits was not his job, Ye Mingsheng actually had other plans in mind.

He had only a thousand men under his command. Although they were sure to win if they went out of the city to suppress the Black Mountain Bandits, there would inevitably be losses as long as there was a war. And Ye Mingsheng would soon lead his troops to block the Gongdu army in Ruishan County. The military force itself was very tight, and there could be no losses in suppressing the bandits.

Obviously, this could not be said to Wang Xian, Lin Huaiwu and others at that time, so Ye Mingsheng just found an excuse to get away with it.
In addition, when Ye Mingsheng first settled in Ruishan County, he was eager to make a contribution and wanted to make a big splash. After learning about the existence of Heishanfeng in the Dahushan area, he wanted to try to annihilate this bandit.

But before he could take action, an order came from above. Although it was not stated explicitly, Ye Mingsheng could tell at the time that the order meant that he was not allowed to move this "Black Mountain Wind"

At first Ye Mingsheng was a little curious about why, but now he understood that Heishanfeng was nominally a group of bandits, but in fact they were a private army controlled by the Supervisory Department in the Gongdu area!
According to Liu Shilin's plan, the total number of Heishanfeng and Ye Mingsheng's imperial guards, which had reached 2,000, combined to form a total of 3,000 people. After two days of rapid march, they arrived at the vicinity of Liujing and lay in ambush.

The purpose of lurking around Liujing is not to attack the city, but to wait for the city gate of Liujing to open by itself!

According to Liu Shilin, the commander of one of the eight gates in Liujing and his subordinates have been bribed by the Liu family, and the Liu family still has about two hundred armed servants in the city. With one order, they can definitely control the city gates, and then Ye Mingsheng will lead the army to file in. In this way, with the cooperation between inside and outside, they can completely capture the political and economic center of this palace capital!
Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng, who has already tasted power in this world, couldn't help but feel excited. For a military officer like him, there is no greater merit than destroying a city and destroying a country. As long as the plan succeeds, he, Ye Mingsheng, will be promoted and get rich, which is a foregone conclusion!
After taking a few deep breaths, Ye Mingsheng began to force himself to calm down. He looked at the map on the wall and continued to study Liu Shilin's plan.

First of all, it is certain that for Ye Mingsheng, the plan proposed by Liu Shilin is more than ten times better than Wang Kangxin’s plan.

Even if Wang Kangxin's plan succeeds, Wang Kangxin will get most of the credit. Ye Mingsheng, who is fighting desperately to block the enemy in Ruishan, is behind him, so it would be very good if he can get a share of the credit.

But if Liu Shilin's plan succeeds, things will be different. Ye Mingsheng will become the protagonist, while Wang Kangxin and Li Wanshun who attacked the Luochuan Road granary will become supporting roles, paving the way for Ye Mingsheng's actions.

(End of this chapter)