Chapter 378: Conspiracy! (Thanks to Shuha Yao and What What What for the reward!)
Dongning Prefecture, in the Zhenwu Army camp in Sanyuan County.

Wang Muzhi, dressed in military uniform with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, looked at Yutai County in the distance with a serious expression. He knew that he had to make a break with the Fengzhou Army as soon as possible, as he didn't have much time left...

"General, everything is ready!" Zhu Chengjie came behind Wang Muzhi and bowed to report:

"Yeah!" Wang Muzhi responded, but his eyes were still observing Yutai County.

Feeling Wang Muzhi's attitude, Zhu Chengjie seemed a little hesitant and couldn't help but ask:
"Sir, that Ye Mingsheng is as cunning as a fox. Do you think he will be fooled this time?"

Hearing Zhu Chengjie's question, Wang Muzhi looked back at him, then shook his head and said in Zhu Chengjie's expectant eyes:
“I don’t know whether Ye Mingsheng will be fooled. I only know that this is our last chance now! If we can’t defeat Ye Mingsheng, we must withdraw from Liaoyang and enter the pass…”

Zhu Chengjie was shocked when he heard this, and immediately said:
"General, is the situation in Luoan so critical?"

"Well, five days ago, Zheng Wang Jiang Guang and Lin Shize, together with Shenwu Army Sun Ruoshan, Longxiang Army Chu He, Xuanwu Army Xu Zhaojie and other rebels launched a coup. The coup lasted for three days in Luoan. Although the Prime Minister suppressed the rebellion, the families of Lin Shize and other rebels, as well as tens of thousands of rebels, have already left Luoan as they wished, and are now fleeing to Sichuan and Shu!"

"The most important thing is that the young emperor Jiang Rui and the queen mother Wang Yun were also taken out by Lin Shize. It won't be long before Lin Shize will draft an imperial edict in the name of the young emperor to gather the princes and vassal states such as the Qin King of Yongliang, Zhao Fuqu of Youyan, and Han Zhizheng of Qingyan, and attack the prime minister in the name of clearing the emperor's side!"

"This is truly a critical moment for life and death. It is time for us to be loyal to the Prime Minister. Regardless of whether we defeat Ye Mingsheng or not, our army must enter the pass within ten days!"

In front of his most trusted subordinate, Wang Muzhi did not hide anything and told Zhu Chengjie the latest news very frankly.

After listening to Wang Muzhi's story, Zhu Chengjie looked solemn, bowed deeply to Wang Muzhi and said:
"The last general is willing to follow the general to the death!"

Wang Muzhi nodded in satisfaction at Zhu Chengjie's statement, and then said again:

"This information is still top secret. You must keep it confidential and do not leak it out to cause unrest in the military..."

"I will finally understand!"

Zhu Chengjie bowed his hands in response, and then he seemed to remember something and asked Wang Muzhi:

"Sir, does the commander know this news?"

Seeing Zhu Chengjie asking this, Wang Muzhi sighed and said with some helplessness and sadness:

"After what happened last time, Lord Chen's condition has not stabilized. He has been in a daze and listless. I have discussed this with Shen Jianzhong from the Supervisory Department and decided not to tell him about this for now. Lord Chen doesn't need to worry about these things and should just take good care of himself!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Chengjie also looked sad and said angrily:
"Ye Mingsheng is a bastard who deserves to be chopped into pieces. If he hadn't come up with so many things out of nowhere, our army would have successfully captured Liaoyang and entered the pass to capture Youyan!"

"If I had known that he was so ambitious, I should have killed this shameless bastard with a single blow when I was in Luoan!"

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Guangning Prefecture, Cui Family Ancestral Hall

Cui Shao knelt in front of the tablets of Cui family's ancestors, muttering something as if he was praying for something...

After a cup of tea, Cui Shao finished his prayer. He kowtowed three times to the ancestral tablet very seriously and then slowly stood up with the support of Cui Guang behind him.

With Cui Guang's help, Cui Shao, who had been kneeling for a long time and had blood stasis in his legs, slowly sat down on a chair. He took a sip of the fine Jiangnan Longjing tea in the cup to moisten his throat. Then, Cui Shao looked at Cui Guang who was standing respectfully beside him and asked:

"How are the talks with the Gongsun family, the Yun family, Zhu Lin, Fang Dawei, Liu Boxian and the others going?"

Hearing Cui Shao's question, Cui Guang did not dare to neglect and immediately said respectfully:
"Reporting to the head of the family, we have already reached an agreement with the Yun family, but there is a small problem with the Gongsun family. The Gongsun family can agree to all other requests, but they have one request, which is that our young master Zibo must marry Gongsun Qiaoqing, the youngest daughter of Gongsun Heng of the Gongsun family, as his legal wife!"

Hearing what Cui Guang said, Cui Shao sneered:

"The brothers Gongsun Heng and Gongsun Huan of the Gongsun family are really close brothers. Gongsun Huan is worried that I will not plead for his brother when Ye Mingsheng settles accounts with him in the future, so he wants Gongsun Heng to be Zibo's father-in-law and my relative!"

“The daughter of the Gongsun family is a good match for my son. With the help of the Gongsun family, Zibo’s future career will be more stable…”

"Well! You write back to the Gongsun family and tell them that it's fine for Zibo to marry Gongsun Qiaoqing, but let them decide on their own about the dowry. The ten thousand acres of fertile land they have in Hulin is good enough. It's time to give them the surname Cui!"

Cui Guang nodded and continued:

"I understand. As for Zhu Lin, Fang Dawei, Liu Boxian and other generals, the talks have basically been concluded. They are all willing to join the Fengzhou Army. However, they still have some concerns, worried that Ye Mingsheng will cross the river and destroy the bridge..." "Humph! I will vouch for them! What are they worried about?"

"Tell them that I am not dead yet, and tell them that they have nothing to worry about. Even if Ye Mingsheng comes, he has to call me uncle!" Cui Shao snorted coldly and gave a direct order:

Seeing Cui Shao so domineering, Cui Guang hesitated for a moment, but still said with great concern:
“Master, if Ye Mingsheng knew about what we did…”

Glancing at Cui Guang, Cui Shao said with a half-smile:
"What if? Do you think we can keep what we did secret from Ye Mingsheng?"

"Ye Mingsheng, this little wolf cub, don't even think he has a knack for judging and employing people! Huo San and Wang Xuecheng from the Coordination Office, the two people he asked to gather information, are no ordinary people!"

"We can hide our actions from him for a while, but not forever. Ye Mingsheng will know everything sooner or later!" Cui Shao said with a complicated look:

Hearing Cui Shao say this, Cui Guang was even more confused and asked in confusion:
"Master, since Ye Mingsheng will definitely know, why should we do this?"

"The situation in Luoan has changed. Chen Dechang and Wang Muzhi are eager to return home. The Zhenwu Army is now doomed to fail. Can't our Cui family cooperate with him step by step? Why take such a risk now?"

"Haha, do you think that if we cooperate with him, we can get a share of his profits?" Cui Shao sneered again, and said helplessly:

"Open your eyes and take a good look at what Ye Mingsheng has done. He has reduced taxes for ordinary people, distributed land, and ensured judicial fairness. It is not an exaggeration to say that he loves the people like his own children!"

"And he himself is an ambitious person. Just wait and see! Ye Mingsheng is not Song Wenhui. Liaoyang alone cannot satisfy his ambition. It won't be long before he accumulates strength to enter the pass and compete for the Central Plains and fight for the supreme throne!"

"But think about it carefully. If he doesn't accumulate strength by exploiting the people, how else will he accumulate strength?"

After Cui Shao finished speaking, Cui Guang nodded as if he had understood something. At this time, Cui Shao continued to say in a deep voice:
"We can't dodge Ye Mingsheng's sword. If we stick our heads out, we'll get stabbed. If we hide our heads, we'll get stabbed again. If we want to keep our family's reputation intact, we have to show some courage. As for the rest, Ye Mingsheng will weigh the pros and cons himself!"

"The master has a far-sighted vision. I admire him!" Cui Guang bowed and said:
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Shoucheng, Fengzhou Army General Staff Headquarters.

Ye Mingsheng, who was leaning back in the armchair with his eyes closed, was listening to the staff officer telling him the latest news from the front line.

"Reporting to the general, we have found out that the Khitan has a total of 18,000 troops this time. Commander Xiao Tai has 10,000 troops, and Yelu Yan has 8,000 troops. Now both of them have been blocked by our army outside Fengzhou City. Under the attack of red cannons and grenades, the Khitans are expected to suffer about 2,000 casualties!"

"Xinfa County, Tahe County and other counties are still as stable as a rock. The small group of cavalry that appeared under Fengzhou City before has now been found to be only a small group of about a hundred people. It has now been defeated by the people sent by General Ye Tie!"

"Reporting to the general, Xue Heping's troops in Fengshan County, Dongning Prefecture, only left 3,000 men to garrison the county town! Their main force of 12,000 men has already retreated to the southwest, and it is suspected that they have retreated to Dongning Prefecture!"

“Reporting to the general, it has been found that Zhu Chengjie’s troops who retreated from Sanyuan County have appeared in Hulin County. In addition to Zhu Chengjie’s troops, our spies saw the flag with the character ‘Wang’ on it and traces of the Shiwei people in the Zhenwu Army camp in Hulin County. It is suspected that Wang Muzhi and more than 10,000 Shiwei troops have arrived at the Hulin County camp…”

After hearing the last piece of news, Ye Mingsheng suddenly opened his eyes and asked the busy crowd:
"Is there any news about the generals of the Yun family and the Zhenwu Army?"

"My Lord, we are still in contact with the Yun family and the Liaoyang generals in the Zhenwu Army. Deputy Director Wang has secretly sneaked into Dongning Prefecture to deal with this matter, but it will take some time for the results to come out. The price we offered is still a little far from their expectations." Qi Dezhao reported to Ye Mingsheng:

Upon hearing the news, Ye Mingsheng frowned slightly, and then his eyes shifted to the sand table again. Now the enemy and our situation on the sand table has been updated. It can be clearly seen from the sand table that the current Zhenwu Army's troops are already in the recovery stage.
Sanyuan County and Fengshan County are two frontier positions close to Lelang and Xuantu. The total strength of the Zhenwu Army is less than 10,000 people. This is basically equivalent to giving up and allowing Ye Mingsheng to obtain the territories of these two counties. They only hope that the garrisons left in these two counties can stop Ye Mingsheng for a while and delay time.

As for Hulin County, which is close to Guangning, now has the addition of Zhu Chenjie's troops, the known strength of the troops has exceeded 50,000, which is nearly 60% of the Zhenwu Army's strength. Coupled with the more than 10,000 Shiwei troops that appeared there, it is self-evident what Wang Muzhi wants to do.
If Ye Mingsheng still had some doubts before, whether Wang Muzhi really dared to carry out his plan of concentrating troops to attack Guangning Prefecture, then now it seems that Wang Muzhi may be even crazier and bolder than he imagined...

Ye Mingsheng had previously wondered why Wang Muzhi had to concentrate his forces to attack Guangning Prefecture. In his opinion, if Wang Muzhi wanted to attack Guangning Prefecture, there was no need to concentrate 70% to 80% of the Zhenwu Army's troops as planned in his plan, to anger the Liaoyang local faction in the Zhenwu Army and cause their dissatisfaction.

Wang Muzhi only needs to organize half of the existing Zhenwu Army to basically take over Guangning Prefecture. Even if he sends troops to intervene, they can at least occupy one-third to half of Guangning Prefecture.

In this way, with half of the troops left behind to cooperate with the cities of Dongning Prefecture, it would not be easy to capture these cities in a short period of time even if he sent out all his main forces.

But later, Ye Mingsheng looked at the map and realized Wang Muzhi's strategic intention. The border between Liaoyang and Youyan is Guangning Prefecture. If Wang Muzhi wants to enter the pass, there are only two routes to achieve his goal. The first is to enter the pass by land through Guangning Prefecture. The second is to take the water route, take a boat from Yutai County in Lelang to cross the Bohai Sea and enter Qingyan. Compared with the dangerous and unpredictable water route, it is obviously safer to take the land route.
So why was Wang Muzhi so determined to attack Guangning Prefecture? In addition to wanting to obtain the money and grain stored by the Cui family, he most likely wanted to obtain the territory of Guangning Prefecture as a bridgehead for entering Youyan...
Of course, no matter what Wang Muzhi’s plan is, Ye Mingsheng must eliminate him as soon as possible. Keeping this guy around will always be a scourge!
The opportunity is fleeting now. Instead of responding passively, it is better to take the initiative and put the pressure on Chen Dechang and Wang Muzhi!
After weighing the pros and cons silently in his mind, Ye Mingsheng decided not to wait for feedback from the Liaoyang local faction in the Zhenwu Army. He first occupied Sanyuan and Fengshan counties and displayed the momentum of a large army approaching. If he fought well on the battlefield, he would also have a great advantage in negotiations.

Glancing at all the generals in the staff department, Ye Mingsheng ordered in a serious tone:
"Send a message to Yuan Song of Lelang and Lin Huaiwu of Xuantu, and have them send troops to capture Sanyuan County and attack Fengshan County respectively. I will lead a large force to arrive later!"

"This battle is the last one for our army to clear Liaoyang. After this battle, our Fengzhou Army will be the master of Liaoyang. I hope you will fight bravely and fulfill your mission!"

(End of this chapter)