Chapter 379: Unstoppable! (Thanks to the book friend wiki for the reward!)
Dongning Prefecture, Sanyuan County.

At this time, the county town had long lost its former tranquility and peace, and was shrouded in the shadow of war.

"Kill!" "Kill!" "Kill!"

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"

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Under the cover of artillery fire from more than a dozen red cannons, countless high-spirited Fengzhou soldiers carried ladders, pushed battering rams and other equipment and headed towards the county town.

Since the Fengzhou Army attacked Dongning Prefecture three days ago, the offensive can be said to be unstoppable, and basically did not encounter any decent resistance from the Zhenwu Army. It took less than a day to beat them down to the county town. Facing the Fengzhou Army's tidal-like offensive, the Zhenwu Army's resistance in Sanyuan County seemed a little powerless...

They probably all understood that no matter how bravely they resisted, they could not make up for the huge gap in strength between the two sides. What's more, they had been abandoned by the top leaders and would not receive any support, becoming a strategic abandoned pawn of the Zhenwu Army.

In addition, the local offensive that Ye Mingsheng had launched in the public opinion war before is now effective, triggering emotional resonance in the hearts of the vast majority of Liaoyang soldiers in the Zhenwu Army.

So in this situation, although Li Changshan, the general who was arranged by Wang Muzhi to defend the city, was anxious to supervise the battle, he constantly tempted the soldiers with money and threatened them with death in an attempt to inspire the morale and resistance will of his soldiers.

However, it still did not have much effect. The morale of the Zhenwu Army soldiers in the city was still very low. The arrows they shot were soft and sparse, and the rolling stones and logs thrown down were also aimless. It was difficult to cause any serious damage to the Fengzhou Army soldiers.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

After wasting hundreds of artillery shells, the artillery of the Fengzhou Army finally adjusted the direction correctly, and a round of intensive artillery fire blew the heavy wooden gate of Mihara Castle into pieces.

Seeing that the city gate had been broken, the morale of all the Fengzhou soldiers was boosted immediately, and a satisfied smile appeared on the dark face of Yuan Song, who was in charge of the central army. With a wave of his hand, tens of thousands of Fengzhou soldiers rushed towards the city gate frantically.

At the same time, seeing the destruction of the city gate and the mad influx of Fengzhou soldiers, it was like the last straw that broke the camel's back, completely crushing the Zhenwu soldiers in the city who were already on the verge of despair...

Amid the deafening slogans of "Surrender and no killing" shouted by the Fengzhou Army soldiers, the thousands of Zhenwu Army soldiers remaining in the city did not put up any futile resistance. Instead, they knelt on the ground, threw away their weapons, raised their hands and waited.

Although the overall situation had been decided, it must be said that Li Changshan, whom Wang Muzhi chose to defend the city, was still a very courageous man. He led the troops loyal to him and fought bravely until the last moment. He himself was hacked to death during the siege by the Fengzhou army.

Half an hour later, Yuan Song, escorted by his personal soldiers, rode a tall horse and slowly walked into Sanyuan County with the attitude of a victor.

As soon as Yuan Song entered the city, his brave general Zhang Meng brought him good news.

“General, we have completely captured Sanyuan County, and captured more than 2,200 enemy soldiers!

"This is the head of the rebel general Li Changshan. Please have a look at it!"

After he finished speaking, Zhang Meng excitedly took a hideous human head from a soldier nearby and showed it to Yuan Song to ask for credit.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Song looked at the head in Zhang Meng's hand. Although the head was covered in blood at this time, he could vaguely see a familiar look. Yuan Song couldn't help but shake his head with some emotion. He had served in the Imperial Guards for more than ten years. Although he was not familiar with Li Changshan, he had met him several times in Luoan, so he could be considered to have met him once.

I never thought that when we met again, we would be separated by Yin and Yang. This is really sad...

Although each of them had their own destiny and life and death were determined by fate, Yuan Song also wanted to give this former comrade a last bit of dignity and respect, so he ordered:
"You did a great job. I will ask the general for credit for you. The kitchen is slaughtering pigs and sheep to celebrate your success!"

"As for Li Changshan's head, find a tailor to sew his head and body together, and then find a good coffin to bury him!"

Although he was somewhat curious about why his general treated Li Changshan so well, Zhang Meng did not care about it when he thought about the good food and wine that would be served. He immediately bowed and accepted the order:

"Yes, sir! I will do it right away!"

After Zhang Meng left, Yuan Song looked around at the dejected captives and awed people, and felt a little more proud in his heart!
He and Lin Huaiwu sent out troops at the same time, attacking Sanyuan County and Fengshan County respectively. Now, he has captured Sanyuan County in less than three days. It seems that he got ahead of Lin Huaiwu and got a good start!

Thinking of this, Yuan Song could not wait to order the people around him:

"Write to the general and tell him that our army has taken Sanyuan County and will be at Dongning Prefecture within two days. Please wait for good news from our army!"

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On the same day that Yuan Song captured Sanyuan County, Lin Huaiwu also captured Fengshan County. Two days later, Ye Mingsheng led He Jingyun, Guo Zhiping and other generals, as well as more than 20,000 Fengzhou soldiers, to Fengshan County and returned to his hometown.
Ye Mingsheng, who had returned to his hometown, was in his study listening to several staff officers reporting news from the front line.

"Reporting to the general, Fang Dawei, Zhu Lin and other generals of the Zhenwu Army are willing to surrender to our army. Especially Zhu Lin, he wrote a personal letter to you, saying that he has 5,000 soldiers in Dongning City and is willing to open the city gates and surrender the city after our army arrives at Dongning City!"

"In addition, Yun Hanjie from the Yun family also wants to pay a visit to Your Excellency, saying that he wants to capture Chen Dechang to apologize to Your Excellency..." Hearing these people's words, Ye Mingsheng sneered. Although he knew that these people were all fence-sitters who would defect to that side when they saw the situation was good, he did not expect that this group of people would act so quickly. As soon as he took over Sanyuan and Fengshan counties, these people hurried over to surrender and lick his boots.

Although he was somewhat disdainful and looked down upon these people's faces and their clownish behavior, Ye Mingsheng knew very well that at this moment he was only gaining the upper hand in the battle with the Zhenwu Army, and the overall situation was far from being determined, so at this time he still needed to pretend to be friendly with these people.

After a moment of silence, Ye Mingsheng opened his mouth and ordered:

"You draft a few handwritten letters to Zhu Lin in my name. Fang Da, please be warm and intimate in your tone. As for their demands, as long as they are not too excessive, you might as well agree to them first!"

“As for Yun Hanjie of the Yun family, I will not meet him. Let General He go to see him! Chen Dechang is just an old man now. It doesn’t matter whether we capture him or not. The Yun family should not try to fool me with this…”

The staff officers on the side wrote down Ye Mingsheng's orders and distributed them, then asked:

"Your Excellency, how should we deal with those who previously divided up the Ye family's land and property in Fengshan County and oppressed the Ye clan members?"

Upon hearing the news, Ye Mingsheng also started thinking. When Song Wenhui was in office, although he also hated Ye Mingsheng to the core, in order to prevent Ye Mingsheng from completely turning to the Zhenwu Army and to alienate the relationship between Ye Mingsheng and the Zhenwu Army, he not only did not liquidate the Ye family members in Fengshan County, but on the contrary he gave them some benefits.

When the Zhenwu Army defeated Song Wenhui and Song Wenhui, who was in charge of Dongning, became irreconcilable with Ye Mingsheng, the Zhenwu Army could not do anything to Ye Mingsheng, so they could only vent their anger in helplessness and seek out the Ye clan members in Fengshan County.

Honestly speaking, Ye Mingsheng had thought about this problem a long time ago, so when he took over Fengzhou, he had the foresight to empty the old house, leaving only a few old servants to guard the Ye Mansion and the land in Fengshan County. After that, he took the Ye family members who were willing to develop in Fengzhou in batches to Fengzhou and other areas controlled by Ye Mingsheng, settled them down, and distributed means of production to them...

But after all, it is hard to leave one's hometown. Some of the Ye clan members in Yejia Village are unwilling to leave and still choose to live in Fengshan County. Ye Mingsheng said all the good things to these people, but they were unwilling to move, and Ye Mingsheng had no choice. After all, he could not kidnap these people like a bandit.

So this time, this small part of the Ye clan members suffered under the rule of the Zhenwu Army. In Fengshan County, the Zhenwu Army not only distributed the Ye clan members’ fields, mansions, and shops to other families, but also arrested many people in Yejia Village. If the Zhenwu Army had not been in power in Dongning for a short time and had an unstable foundation, and needed to pay attention to the influence of public opinion, they would have even planned to execute all the Ye clan members who remained in Fengshan County...

This time, as soon as Ye Mingsheng's Fengzhou army fought back, some elders of the Ye family who stayed behind ran out, crying and shouting for Ye Mingsheng to support them and to get back all the humiliation and injustice that the Ye family had suffered. In order to appease people's hearts, Ye Mingsheng personally came forward to persuade them with kind words, and promised on the spot that he would give everyone an explanation, and only then did he persuade these crying elders of the Ye family to go back.

Rubbing his temple, Ye Mingsheng asked Qi Dechao beside him:
"Have you made a list of the people who oppressed the Ye family and divided up the property and land of the Ye family members?"

Ye Mingsheng admired Qi Dechao, a smart and courageous young man, so he kept him by his side during this period and trained him as a secretary. He also let him do some clerical work during normal times.

Qi Dechao bowed and said apologetically:
“Your Excellency, according to our rough statistics, the number of people who were previously organized by the Zhenwu Army to oppress the Ye family and divide up the Ye family’s property and land may be as high as thousands. We have been actively counting the number these two days, but because the number of people is too large, it will take some time... Sorry, Your Excellency..."

After saying that, Qi Dechao looked at Ye Mingsheng with some worry. As a poor boy with no background, he also longed to stand out and change the fate of himself and his descendants through his own efforts. Therefore, he cherished the opportunity to stay and work with Ye Mingsheng.

He really wanted to do a good job of the task assigned by Ye Mingsheng, but unfortunately, sometimes, you cannot complete the task assigned by your boss just by working hard enough.

After hearing Qi Dechao's answer, Ye Mingsheng was angry at the Zhenwu Army but also a little helpless. The Ye clan members were his relatives and his most staunch supporters. Ye Mingsheng felt the same way about the persecution they had suffered and naturally wanted to support them and seek justice.

But the problem is that there is an old saying in China that the law does not hold the masses responsible. The Zhenwu Army is really insidious and has laid a mine for themselves. Fengshan County is not a large county with a large population, and the interpersonal relationships of a few thousand people are enough to spread throughout the county.

If Ye Mingsheng dealt with all these people seriously, he would undoubtedly lose the support of the people and damage the positive image of Fengzhou military regime in the minds of the people. This would definitely have an adverse impact on the implementation of Ye Mingsheng's subsequent series of policies...
But if not all cases are dealt with seriously, the Ye clan members might complain, which would have some impact on the Fengzhou Army. Like most ancient heroes, Ye Mingsheng also started his army in his hometown and recruited many of his own clansmen.

As Ye Mingsheng's power grew, these people also grew up to become the grassroots backbone of the Fengzhou Army. They were also very excited about the experience of the Ye clan members in Fengshan County. Reports have been sent to Ye Mingsheng in the past few days.

Because of this incident, the entire Fengshan County is now in panic. Many people are worried that Ye Mingsheng will go on a killing spree to avenge the Ye family. Ye Mingsheng needs to make trade-offs and compromises between these two aspects to achieve a balance between the demands and needs of both parties.

After pondering for a while, Ye Mingsheng made a decision and told Qi Dechao:

"You should compile a list as soon as possible and then do some screening to pick out the main culprits and the accomplices with more serious circumstances. If there is one of these people, their homes will be confiscated and their heads will be executed!"

"As for the others whose crimes were less serious and who were deceived and coerced by the Zhenwu Army, we can give them a chance and leniency. We will order them to return all the land and property they received from the Ye family within a certain period of time and to make a formal and sincere apology to the Ye family. If they fail to do so within the time limit, they will be dealt with like the main criminals, with their property confiscated and their heads executed. We will not show any leniency!"

"Also, you can take out some money from the account of the General's Mansion and send it to Yejia Village. Tell them that it is a small token of my love from my mother and I. Also, according to my schedule for the next two days, you can find some time for me to go to Yejia Village to comfort everyone!"

In response to Ye Mingsheng's explanation, Qi Dechao wrote it down quickly and nodded in response:

"Sir, I know what to do. I'll go down and do it right away!"

(End of this chapter)