Chapter 510 A promise is worth a thousand gold! Gao Zongchang!

Listening to Yang Yuanze's words, Huang Wen Ze pretended to be enlightened, turned around and bowed to Gao Zongchang who was sitting on the commander's seat, and said apologetically:

"I am judging you with my own mean character. I hope Lord Gao will forgive me..."

Gao Zongchang snorted coldly and pretended to be angry when he heard this:

"Mr. Huang, who do you think I am? Brother Zhao and I have been friends for decades, through thick and thin. How could I just sit there and watch him get humiliated by a kid like Ye Mingsheng?"

In response to Gao Zongchang's rebuke, Huang Wen Ze was respectful on the surface, but in fact he was full of contempt in his heart. Everyone knew each other and had been friends for decades. It must be that they had been scheming against each other for decades and wanted to kill each other.

After scolding Huang Wen Ze for nearly a cup of tea, Gao Zongchang, who was a little tired, picked up the teacup and took a big sip, then looked at Huang Wen Ze and said:

"Brother Zhao, do you have any ideas on how to deal with Ye Mingsheng?"

Gao Zongchang finally asked about the real matter. Huang Wenzhe, who had been scolded by him, immediately perked up and said:
"Master Gao, please select a good general to lead a group of elite soldiers to rush to Zhuo County! My commander is now gathering the defeated soldiers in Zhuo County and preparing for another battle with the Fengwu Army!"

Huang Wen Ze's answer did not surprise Gao Zongchang. He coughed lightly, and Yang Yuan Ze, who was standing beside him, immediately asked Huang Wen Ze as if he had received instructions:

"Mr. Huang, your army has just been defeated by the Fengwu Army. It's a bit hasty to talk about counterattack now..."

In response to Yang Yuanze's questioning, Huang Wenzhe explained:

"Although our army was defeated by the Fengwu Army, my commander-in-chief brought back 50,000 troops from Yunbing. These are the elite main force of our army. Together with the remnants of the various tribes in Huilong and the newly recruited young and strong militiamen, we can gather an army of 80,000. With the addition of Lord Gao's troops, we can definitely gather a mighty army of 100,000!"

"Although the Fengwu Army is strong, it has just captured the northern part of Youyan. Our commander has been managing Youyan for decades and is deeply loved by the people. I think as long as our army can regain its strength, the people will surely welcome our army wherever it goes with food and drink!"

Although Huang Wen Ze said this with full confidence, Gao Zongchang was skeptical about what he said. According to the information he had obtained, Zhao Fuqu did bring back 40,000 to 50,000 people from Yunbing, which was indeed Zhao Fuqu's most powerful asset now.

But the 80,000 troops were indeed greatly exaggerated. In order to rush to Yijing, Zhao Yong had already recruited a group of young and strong men in the southern part of Youyan. With the defeat of Zhao Yong in Guangzong County, most of his tens of thousands of troops died or surrendered, and only a few thousand escaped back to Zhuo County. Among the defeated troops in Yijing, only a few hundred people including Zhao Jianan escaped, and the rest became prisoners of the Fengwu Army.

Therefore, if Zhao Fuqu wants to recruit young and strong people in the southern part of Youyan again, it will undoubtedly be very difficult, and he may even have to recruit the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled. Even so, we should not forget that spring plowing is about to begin. So many laborers have been recruited to serve in the army, so who will farm the land?
If spring ploughing is delayed, the autumn harvest will be disappointing and famine the following year will be inevitable.
And the most important thing is, if Zhao Fuqu was really as popular as Huang Wen Ze said, he wouldn't have been defeated by the Fengwu Army so quickly!

Therefore, as long as Zhao Fuqu was not obsessed with gains and losses, it would be absolutely impossible for him to gather a large army to launch a counterattack against Yijing at such a hurry at this time!
Gao Zongchang, who had an idea in mind, immediately shook his head and said:
"Although I want to lend a helping hand to Brother Zhao, it is the time of spring ploughing now, and those bandits are most rampant at this time, so my Henan Army must stay in the local area to protect the country and the people, so the day of the counterattack should be considered in the long run!"

Huang Wenzhe was not surprised by the excuse given by Gao Zongchang. He had long been aware of the current situation in Hebei and Henan, and knew that Gao Zongchang would never send troops easily.

So asking Gao Zongchang to send troops to help is nothing more than asking for a high price. Even so, it is still a trap. So he clasped his fists to Zhao Fuqu and said sincerely:
“Master Gao, our army is short of food and clothing in Zhuo County, and there are tens of thousands of soldiers who need to rest. If we can’t counterattack quickly, I’m afraid we won’t be able to hold on…”

Gao Zongchang immediately understood Huang Wen Ze's hint after hearing this. Although he was somewhat disgusted by Huang Wen Ze's expression, in order to keep Zhao Fuqu, the watchdog, in the southern part of Youyan to protect himself from the ferocious Fengwu Army, he hesitated for a moment and said:
"I am well aware of Brother Zhao's difficulties in Yujing! How about this! I will support you with 100,000 taels of silver, 200,000 dan of grain, and 50,000 pieces of cloth!"

Huang Wen Ze was of course dissatisfied with what Gao Zongchang said. This was just a small amount of money, which was like giving alms to beggars. He immediately continued to speak righteously:

"Master Gao, my commander sent me here to ask for help out of the fact that we are all of the same blood, not to ask for charity. It is our duty to protect our homeland, but the enemy is fierce after all, so please make preparations early!"

Feeling the threat in Huang Wen Ze's words, Gao Zongchang was a little angry and wanted to walk away, but when he thought that without Zhao Fuqu blocking the way, the Fengwu Army could march straight into his Central Plains, he had to suppress his impulse. He was so irritable that he didn't care about etiquette and said directly:
"Two hundred thousand taels of silver, three hundred thousand dan of grain, and one hundred thousand rolls of cloth are enough, right?"

Looking at Gao Zongchang who was somewhat defeated, Huang Wen Ze still argued:

"Our army wants to turn the entire prefecture and county in the southern part of Youyan into huge fortresses, clearing the fields and consuming the manpower of the Fengwu Army. Therefore, the consumption of food is very large. Three hundred thousand dan of food is far from enough..."

Looking at Huang Wenzhe who had just said that he was not here to ask for implementation, but now said that it was not enough, Gao Zongchang was also very helpless and could only add more pressure:

"We can only give you 50,000 more shi of grain. We don't have enough in Ji and Yu. As for cloth, we can give you 50,000 more pieces!"

Huang Wenzhe, who was familiar with the situation in Hebei and Henan, also understood that the 300,000 dan of grain he could get from Gao Zongchang was probably the limit. Gao Zongchang would definitely not give him more, so he gave up working on it and instead argued for the cloth:

"Our soldiers have been fighting for years, and they also need to make good clothes, so please give us more cloth, Lord Gao!" Gao Zongchang was really impatient with Huang Wen Ze, and there was still some cloth accumulated over the years in the treasury, so he was too lazy to argue with Huang Wen Ze and said directly:
"One price! Two hundred thousand taels of silver, three hundred thousand dan of grain, two hundred thousand rolls of cloth! You don't have any more if you want more."

Although he was still somewhat dissatisfied, seeing that Gao Zongchang had said so, Huang Wen Ze could only accept it, bowed to Gao Zongchang and said:
“Wen Ze would like to thank Lord Gao for his support on behalf of my commander-in-chief. With this batch of food and fodder, we will be able to fortify our defenses and clear the fields, blocking the Fengwu Army from entering the Central Plains…”

Although it was painful to give out so many things at once, Gao Zongchang's expression eased a little after hearing Huang Wenzhe's promise. He nodded and said:
"This is the best!"

After discussing the important matters, Huang Wen Ze did not stay long and quickly said goodbye and left. Only Gao Zongchang and Yang Yuanze were left in the room.

After thinking for a while, Gao Zongchang asked Yang Yuanze:
"Do you think Zhao Fuqu will really withdraw from Youyan and escape to Yunbing?"

Facing Gao Zongchang's question, Yang Yuanze shook his head and said:

"Sir, Huang Wen Ze is trying to scare us. As long as Zhao Fuqu is not senile, he will never do this. Although the Yan army has already captured Jinzhong and half of Yunbing's territory, as long as Youyan is occupied by the Fengwu army, they will be rootless duckweed, and the Yan army will also be demoralized. By then, Feng Han will be able to destroy them without Ye Mingsheng's intervention!"

"But sir, we should really help Zhao Fuqu now and let him be the moat of Jiyu and stop the ferocious beast of Fengwu Army. In the past, Zhao Fuqu was ambitious and had always been eyeing Jiyu covetously!"

"If Ye Mingsheng hadn't appeared out of nowhere, there's no guarantee that Zhao Fuqu wouldn't attack us Jiyu after he captured Yunbing. Now that Ye Mingsheng has destroyed his hometown, Zhao Fuqu, a fierce tiger, has become a toothless sick cat!"

"It can be said that the current situation in Youyan is the most favorable to our army! Let Zhao Fuqu, this sick cat, and Ye Mingsheng, this wolf cub, fight each other and consume each other. We can sit in Jiyu and reap the benefits. The only thing we need to pay attention to is that we can't feed Zhao Fuqu too much, otherwise Zhao Fuqu will devour his master..."

Listening to Yang Yuanze's analysis, Gao Zongchang nodded and said:

"How is Cao Changping doing? Huang Wen Ze will go to see him next."

Yang Yuanze shook his head and said:

"Cao Changping won't pay any attention to Huang Wen Ze. Our insider in Qilu reported that Cao Changping is preparing to go south to fight Feng Keqin in Huainan. In addition, he seems to be plotting something with Xu Zhaojie, the Marquis of Zhenyuan who just took office as the Inspector General of Anqing. It seems that he is planning to trick Feng Keqin!"

As soon as Gao Zongchang heard this, he immediately became interested and asked:

"Oh? Is there anything else?"

Seeing Gao Zongchang's high interest, Yang Yuanze introduced him carefully:

"Well! Xu Zhaojie used Feng Keqin's power to deal with Chen Chongshan, who defected to Cao Changping, and secured his position as the Inspector General of Anqing. However, Xu Zhaojie was not a pushover. As soon as he secured his position as the Inspector General of Anqing, he killed Feng Keqin's pawn in Anqing, Li Sandao!"

“Not only that, Xu Zhaojie also instigated Feng Keqin to defeat Cao Changping on his back. In my opinion, this person wants Feng Keqin and Cao Changping to fight each other, so that he can benefit from it and expand his territory…”

After he finished speaking, Gao Zongchang narrowed his eyes, instinctively thinking about what benefits he could gain from this matter. He and Cao Changping did not have a good relationship and they were constantly quarreling with each other. Although no large-scale wars had broken out so far, there were often frictions between the soldiers under his command on the border.

Therefore, adhering to the concept that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, he should tell Feng Keqin about Cao Changping's conspiracy, but the problem was that there were some problems in the relationship between him and Feng Keqin. This was not because of the relationship between Gao Zongchang and Feng Keqin, who was more than 20 years younger than him, but because of the events of the previous generation.

Gao Zongchang used to be a colleague of Feng Keqin's father Feng Debiao. They worked in the same boat and had a good relationship at the beginning. But later, a position of a general became vacant and it was necessary to choose between Gao Zongchang and Feng Debiao. Since the relationship between the two was pretty good at that time, Gao Zongchang took the initiative to propose to Feng Debiao that neither of them should play tricks and compete fairly.

Feng Debiao was also very happy that Gao Zongchang had this idea. He felt that Gao Zongchang was a good brother to him because he had made greater contributions than Gao Zongchang, had more soldiers and horses under his command, and had more experience than Gao Zongchang. So as long as it was a fair competition, he would win without a doubt...

Therefore, with this agreement, Feng Debiao thought he was sure to win and he indeed did not use any tricks in the competition. After all, playing tricks costs money, and why should he spend money on something that is already a sure win?

In order to thank Gao Zongchang for his "martial virtues", he promised Gao Zongchang that if he became the general, he would let Gao Zongchang be the deputy general.
Just when Feng Debiao was full of pride and thought that the position of general-in-chief belonged to him, a shocking scene occurred. Gao Zongchang actually defeated Feng Debiao and was appointed as the new general-in-chief!

It turned out that all this was Gao Zongchang's plan. Gao Zongchang was a dishonest villain. He took advantage of the friendship between him and Feng Debiao, making Feng Debiao think that he had a sure win and did not spend any money to smooth the relationship!
Then, Gao Zongchang, knowing that he was at a disadvantage, spent a lot of gold and silver to several big men who had the decision-making power and the right to speak in the position of general. In this way, although Gao Zongchang did not have as great contributions, seniority, and more troops as Feng Debiao, he successfully counterattacked Feng Debiao.

Feng Debiao, who realized that he had fallen into Gao Zongchang's trap and was framed by his good brother, was so angry that he fell seriously ill. Although he was saved, he was left with a chronic illness and was bedridden. He was forced to give up his military power and return to his hometown in Huainan to recuperate. He supported and trained his eldest son Feng Keqin. However, even so, Feng Debiao passed away a few years later with a heart full of resentment.
Therefore, with this "revenge for the murder of his father", Gao Zongchang knew that even if he told Feng Keqin about it, Feng Keqin would never remember his kindness, and might even kill him, Gao Zongchang, after killing Xu Zhaojie and Cao Changping...

(End of this chapter)