Chapter 356 The abandoned child of the world!
Cui Shao left this incoherent sentence and did not give Ye Mingsheng an answer. He just asked Ye Mingsheng to think carefully about the reasons...

Because it was getting dark, and Cui Shao was not young anymore, and had traveled such a long way from Guangning Prefecture, he was physically and mentally exhausted, so in this brief meeting both parties only confirmed their intention to cooperate with each other. Then Ye Mingsheng arranged a camp in the military camp for Cui Shao and the guards he brought with him to rest.

When Ye Mingsheng returned to the tent and hugged Pei Zhixiu to sleep, he found that he could not fall asleep no matter what. The changes in his situation in the past three hours were completely beyond Ye Mingsheng's expectations. It can be said that he lost something in one place but gained something in another. He lost the help of the Yun family, but gained the help of the stronger Cui family!

However, Ye Mingsheng still had some concerns deep in his heart about the sudden arrival of the Cui family!
Ye Mingsheng is a person who likes to control everything. He doesn't like things to be out of his control, or he doesn't want there to be any key things that he doesn't know...
But now there is a question before him, why would the Cui family change their previous cautious style and choose to take risks with him?
Is the 180-degree change in the Cui family's attitude an opportunity for me, or a trap for myself?

Ye Mingsheng must figure out this problem. Only by understanding this problem can Ye Mingsheng judge how sincere the Cui family is in cooperating with him.

Since he couldn't sleep, Ye Mingsheng simply gave up and started thinking carefully.

Although Cui Shao did not reveal much useful information about this issue just now, Ye Mingsheng noticed one of his words!
Cui Shao's original words at the time were:

“I just figured it out…”

This is very crucial. It shows that Cui Shao has only figured it out recently. What happened recently?

The Shiwei people, who were called in by Song Wenhui for help, ignored the agreement between them and Song Wenhui and stabbed the Liaoyang army in the back, which directly led to the current precarious situation of the Liaoyang army and Song Wenhui himself.

Therefore, Ye Mingsheng boldly guessed that Cui Shao made such a big change because it was related to the Shiwei people!
And if we continue talking from this angle, Ye Mingsheng feels like he has grasped something...

As a foreign ethnic group, although the Shiwei people were ostensibly subject to the Great Zhou and obeyed the orders of Song Wenhui, the Governor of Liaoyang, they actually had a very high degree of autonomy. It could even be said that they were completely independent, although they were still subjects of the Great Zhou in name.

However, because they were a nomadic people, they were not good at production, and their production methods and systems were very backward, so they developed the habit of looting. Whenever they encountered natural disasters or man-made disasters, they would go back to their old ways and run to the places where the Zhou Dynasty people lived to rob them. In recent years, they have also been a scourge in Liaoyang.

And Song Wenhui was able to persuade them to join the war, which must have been at a huge cost, otherwise the Shiwei people would definitely not work for him...
So the question is, what conditions did Song Wenhui offer the Shiwei people to convince them to fight for his life?

First of all, it is definitely not money and food. For this war, both Song Wenhui and the Zhenwu Army have been preparing for a long time, and money and food have been invested in the army. War has always been a matter of burning money. As the saying goes, "One cannon shot is worth a thousand taels of gold."

Once the war broke out, money and food were needed everywhere, including the resettlement expenses of the soldiers, pensions for the injured and dead soldiers, and supplies consumed in the war. Liaoyang itself was not rich, and the financial situation of the Liaoyang army was on the verge of collapse. Song Wenhui simply could not come up with so much money and food to hire the Shiwei people to join the war.

Since it’s not money or food, there is only one answer!

That's the land!
Although doing so would cause Song Wenhui to face some criticism in public opinion, after all, the Shiwei people were not Luobei people, and neither the people nor the government paid much attention to them. Moreover, the most important point was that the Shiwei people were still nominally subjects of the Great Zhou, so Song Wenhui had a lot of room to maneuver in public opinion...
Why could Chen Dechang, Shen Jianzhong and others make the Shiwei people betray Song Wenhui?

There is no doubt that it was because Chen Dechang and his men offered the Shiwei people a higher price than Song Wenhui offered!

If Song Wenhui's Liaoyang Army's financial situation was very bad, then the financial situation of Chen Dechang, Shen Jianzhong and their Zhenwu Army was not much better. Song Wenhui at least controlled Dongning Prefecture, the richest prefecture in Liaoyang, and could collect some taxes.

The Changqing Prefecture of the Zhenwu Army was the front line against the Luobi people. It was sparsely populated and people's livelihood was in decline. The Zhenwu Army had been able to hold on until now only by relying on transfusions from the imperial court and the wealth provided by some of the aristocratic families who had defected to the court, such as the Gongsun family!

Therefore, the Zhenwu Army, which also had no money and no food, could only give the Shiwei people land!
Moreover, they were at a disadvantage at the time, so in order to allow the Shiwei people to counterattack Song Wenhui, they could only promise more land. Maybe Posuo Prefecture and Lelang Prefecture, which bordered the Shiwei people, were promised to the Zhenwu Army...

This creates a huge conflict of interest with the aristocratic families represented by the Cui family!
In today's terms, what are these aristocratic families?
That is the big bourgeoisie and landlord class!

Land is an important asset of their family and the source of their wealth!

Your Zhenwu Army ceded large tracts of land, which was equivalent to letting these alien races into Liaoyang, exposing some aristocratic families represented by the Cui family to the sight and blades of these alien races. Given the greedy nature of these alien races, it goes without saying what will happen next!
Therefore, the aristocratic families, big and small, represented by the Cui family, would definitely oppose the Zhenwu Army's actions.

Although he found some reasons, Ye Mingsheng felt that it was not enough. It seemed that this alone was not enough for Cui Shao to take the risk and choose him. There must be a reason why Cui Shao made such a big change. Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but think hard.

If the Zhenwu Army wants a stable Liaoyang, it must rely on the power of the Cui family!
But what if the Zhenwu Army doesn't want a stable Liaoyang?

Or maybe the Zhenwu Army doesn’t care about the stability of Liaoyang at all... This thought suddenly flashed through Ye Mingsheng's mind, and he suddenly became alert, his eyes widened as if he thought of something incredible.

Although the answer he thought of might be a little horrifying, Ye Mingsheng always remembered this sentence: if you eliminate all the impossibilities, what remains, even if it is impossible, will be the truth!
If the truth of the matter was really as Ye Mingsheng thought, the problem that had puzzled him before seemed to have a reasonable explanation at this moment.

When thinking about the problems of the Cui family, we cannot limit ourselves to Liaoyang. The real root of the matter lies in the changes in the situation of the entire Zhou Dynasty court!

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At 1:00 am the next day, the gates of Shoucheng were opened wide, and tens of thousands of Liaoyang troops, carrying more than 100,000 dan of military rations that they had originally planned to use to hold out here for several months, quickly withdrew to Dongning Prefecture. They had received the order to retreat yesterday, but it was not until now that they completed their preparations and began to execute the order to retreat.

Half an hour after the Liaoyang Army retreated, a battalion of Fengzhou Army entered Shoucheng and officially took over the bridgehead for the Fengzhou Army to advance into the inland of Liaoyang.

At the same time, the Liaoyang Army also retreated to a place called Dongwogou. This place was considered a dangerous place, but due to the urgency of the military situation, the Liaoyang Army retreated very quickly. In addition, they did not expect any troop attacks, so all the scouts' inspections were very casual. After seeing that there were no problems around, they let the army pass through Dongwogou.

Just when tens of thousands of Liaoyang troops entered Dongwogou, countless Fengzhou soldiers suddenly appeared on both sides of the ditch. For a moment, the shouts of killing were deafening, and countless rolling stones, logs, lead bullets and arrows fell into the ditch like raindrops. The Liaoyang army was caught off guard and hundreds or thousands of people were killed or injured...
The general who commanded the Liaoyang Army seemed to be very tenacious. Although his subordinates suffered heavy casualties in an ambush, he still did not give up resistance. He kept commanding his troops to fight to the death and tried to let the remaining Liaoyang Army soldiers break out from the exits on both sides of Dongwogou.

His idea was good, but unfortunately, from the beginning of the ambush, Yuan Song and Guo Zhiping led more than 20,000 people each to block the exits on both sides. After several consecutive charges were futile, seeing the casualties increasing, an atmosphere of despair spread among the Liaoyang army.

At this moment, the Liaoyang general who had been commanding the army without regard for his own safety was finally targeted by the Fengzhou musketeers. Dozens of Weiyuan guns were fired at the same time, directly shooting him into a sieve.

Seeing that their generals had been killed, the Liaoyang soldiers, who had lost their backbone, collapsed completely.

They dropped their weapons one after another, then knelt on the ground and surrendered to the Fengzhou Army. Surrender swept through the entire Dongwogou like a whirlwind. In just a stick of incense, the thousands of Liaoyang Army soldiers remaining in the ditch all made a wise choice...
"Uncle, what do you think of our battle?"

Ye Mingsheng asked Cui Shao, who was watching the battle in the ditch through a telescope:
Although there are still rifts between him and the Cui family, Ye Mingsheng needs to work together with the Cui family to keep each other warm in the face of a powerful enemy. Therefore, for better cooperation, Ye Mingsheng is willing to make some changes to express his sincerity, which naturally includes changes in the way he addresses Cui Shao.

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's question, Cui Shao slowly put down the telescope in his hand and said very calmly:
"Very good, well done!"

Although he appeared calm, Cui Shao was still very excited in his heart. From Ye Mingsheng's past military achievements, he knew that Ye Mingsheng's Fengzhou Army was very capable and could make up for the Cui family's shortcomings in combat power, but he still had no actual quantifiable concept of the Fengzhou Army's combat effectiveness.

But the battle he witnessed today made him feel the strength of the Fengzhou Army. He originally thought that although the failure of the 10,000 Liaoyang troops was inevitable, they could still give it a try. Unexpectedly, in less than half an hour, some were killed and some were wounded, and the remaining survivors all surrendered.

This battle undoubtedly gave Cui Shao great confidence. Although he expressed to Ye Mingsheng yesterday that he was willing to support the Fengzhou Army, considering that the Zhenwu Army is now at its peak, Cui Shao also had deep doubts about his choice. The performance of the Fengzhou Army in this battle undoubtedly strengthened Cui Shao's support for Ye Mingsheng.

Ye Mingsheng didn't care about Cui Shao's calm reaction, but said calmly:
"If I'm not mistaken, Third Uncle, the reason you chose to support me is because the entire Liaoyang Province is just a discarded pawn, right?"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's question, Cui Shao, who pretended to be calm, was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said:
"You are smarter than I expected. I thought it would take you some time to figure it out..."

Cui Shao's answer was undoubtedly an affirmation of Ye Mingsheng's idea, but it also made Ye Mingsheng feel very complicated, shocked, angry, and a little bit of admiration.

Many discerning people in the court could see that the Zhenwu Army was formed by the Prime Minister Shangguan Hongyuan, and the purpose of establishing the Zhenwu Army was to help Shangguan Hongyuan control Liaoyang.

The reason why Shangguan Hongyuan wanted to control Liaoyang was to prepare for the usurpation of the throne in the future. He hoped that when the world was in chaos, he could attract a strong and loyal reinforcement from the border.

For this reason, everyone will have a preconceived notion that the Zhenwu Army will stabilize the situation in Liaoyang and restore order!

But that’s not actually the case at all!
Whether it is to stabilize the situation or to restore order, it takes time. Song Wenhui has spent most of his life, and has only achieved most of these two points. With the current situation in Da Zhou, by the time the Zhenwu Army stabilizes the situation in Liaoyang, it is estimated that the opportunity will be too late...
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Therefore, the Zhenwu Army did not care much about the situation in Liaoyang. What they really wanted was to gather most of the forces in Liaoyang, including the Khitans and Shiwei people, and rush directly to the interior to help Shangguan Hongyuan pacify the north and then conquer the entire world!
A new problem arises here. If you want these people from Liaoyang to abandon their homes and careers and fight their way into the interior, you have to give them some benefits. High positions and generous salaries are just empty promises and few people will believe them. The Zhenwu Army needs to take out real money to make everyone driven by interests.

At this point in the war, the Zhenwu Army and the Gongsun family are now penniless, and the financially powerful Yun family has been almost emptied by Song Wenhui, so there is only one party that can meet the needs of the Zhenwu Army!
And it just so happened that this fat sheep had always supported Song Wenhui before, so the Zhenwu Army had a natural excuse to deal with them!

(End of this chapter)