Chapter 560: Learn from Wang Jian?
After hearing Ye Mingsheng's reply, Gu Sansi breathed a sigh of relief. This secret agreement with Luo Bi was led by him, and Ye Mingsheng had delegated a lot of power and did not interfere much, so Gu Sansi could only guess Ye Mingsheng's intentions and do things...

Although the negotiations ended with a secret agreement, the difficulty of the negotiations was still very great. After all, although Luo Bi was in a weak position, due to their own internal factors, it was impossible for them to make major concessions to the Fengwu Army at the negotiating table, and the same was true for the Fengwu Army.

At the previous internal meeting, Gu Zhongshi, who represented the local forces of Youyan, and some senior military generals clearly expressed their opposition to the negotiations between the Fengwu Army and the Luobi people, as well as the possible exchange of interests. This hurt the feelings of the soldiers and the people. Everyone is fighting bloody battles in the front, and you are reconciling with the Luobi people in the rear. This is considered a betrayal by many people and is something that must not happen!
Faced with such sentiments within the Fengwu Army, it was Ye Mingsheng who withstood the pressure and made the final decision for this negotiation. After taking down Youyan, the Fengwu Army's main focus will shift more quickly to the interior of the Great Zhou. Ye Mingsheng does not want to get too entangled with the Robe people over border affairs. The dog-eat-dog fight between the Robe people and the Cumans is in the interests of the Fengwu Army and is also what Ye Mingsheng is happy to see!

Although Ye Mingsheng made the final decision, he also had to take everyone's emotions and influence into consideration. Therefore, the Fengwu Army could not make any concessions in this negotiation and must obtain enough benefits at the negotiating table. This left Gu Sansi with very little room to maneuver at the negotiating table.

And the most important point is that the only consensus reached by all parties in the Great Zhou on grassland affairs is not to let the Robe and the Cumans dominate the grassland alone. This is also the established national policy of the Great Zhou court on grassland affairs. The reason why the Cumans were able to rise quickly and get rid of the rule of the Robe was not only because of Huodu’s wisdom and bravery, but also to a large extent, it came from the support of the Great Zhou court...
This tactic was indeed very effective. After the rise of the Cumans and the Robe peoples, they feared each other and restrained each other. Although they still continued to harass and plunder the borders of the Great Zhou, large-scale wars rarely broke out, and the people in the border areas also lived a relatively peaceful and quiet time.

Now the Fengwu Army regime led by Ye Mingsheng controls Youyan and Liaoyang, two important provinces in the northern border of the Great Zhou. Therefore, it can be said that Ye Mingsheng is the actual person in charge of the grassland affairs of the Great Zhou. Ye Mingsheng does not intend to change this effective established national policy of the Great Zhou. When the Luobi people were strong, the Great Zhou supplied food, ironware and other supplies to the Cumans to help them fight against the Luobi people.

Now that the Cumans are strong and the Robe people are in a weak position, Ye Mingsheng naturally has to support the Robe people to prevent them from being defeated and annexed by the Cumans.

Therefore, he had to support the Robe people but not make too many concessions. He also had to seek maximum benefits from the Robe people. This was a great test of Gu Sansi's negotiation skills. Ye Mingsheng was quite satisfied with the result of the negotiations. He immediately put down the text of the agreement and asked about another thing that Gu Sansi was responsible for!
"Think carefully, how is the progress of the bond subscription?"

Seeing Ye Mingsheng asking about this matter, Gu Sansi pondered for a moment and introduced to Ye Mingsheng:
"Sir, I have already discussed this matter with them. At first, they were only willing to subscribe for more than 300,000 taels, but after a period of our presentation, they are now willing to subscribe for 700,000 taels..."

"We are continuing to work hard to make them more aware of the policies of our Fengwu Army and to make more contributions to the stability and peace of society and the people's well-being!"

Hearing the answer given by Gu Sansi, a cold light flashed in Ye Mingsheng's eyes. He had originally thought that after Zhao Fuqu's death, Youyan would soon be stable, and those people would be able to completely recognize the reality, cooperate with his work, and make better contributions to the Fengwu Army. But now it seems that he still underestimated their stinginess. They are not willing to take out even one million taels of silver. It seems that he will have to increase his efforts!

Ma Hongde of the Ma family has confessed everything and named all the people who have interests in their family. He can now sort out the conflicts of interest among the local factions more clearly. Now, taking advantage of the momentum of Zhao Fuqu's defeat, it is time to completely subdue them!
His eyes flickered a few times, and Ye Mingsheng looked at Gu Sansi and said:

"You can pause your work for a while and give me the list of people who will subscribe to the bonds!"

As soon as these words came out, Gu Sansi could vaguely sense Ye Mingsheng's thoughts from his cold tone, and immediately said with a solemn expression:

"Understood, sir. I will arrange for someone to send it over as soon as I get back!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly, then explained a few more words that the Luobi people were ambitious and greedy, and might tear up the secret agreement and turn against Gu Sansi at any time. He told Gu Sansi to be vigilant and not to trust the promises and credibility of the Luobi people easily, and then let Gu Sansi leave.

Before leaving, Ye Mingsheng also hinted that he could reveal the general results of the negotiation to Gu Zhongshi·················

After all, Gu Zhongshi is the deputy governor and the representative of the localists in the Fengwu military regime. On the one hand, we must maintain respect for him and take care of the feelings of the localists. On the other hand, we also need the support of the localists in fulfilling the secret agreements and we must not let them feel that they are not trusted!

We should not suppress these people blindly, nor indulge them blindly. We should make full use of carrots and sticks and seek a balance between suppression and leniency. Only in this way can we form a political balance and better maintain the rule of the Fengwu Army.

After dealing with Luo Bi's affairs, Ye Mingsheng picked up the next memorial on the desk. This was a proposal submitted by He Jingyun regarding the candidates for the next two divisions of the Fengwu Army!

Just as Ye Mingsheng expected, He Jingyun recommended Ma Zhongjun and Zhang Meng as generals of the 7th and 8th Divisions of the Fengwu Army. This was also the answer Ye Mingsheng wanted to see. However, due to some current realities, Ye Mingsheng decided to carry out a new round of major reorganization of the Fengwu Army on the basis of expanding the army!

The Fengwu Army's current division is the largest combat unit. The combat strength of a division varies. For example, the three main divisions, Yuan Song's First Division, Lin Huaiwu's Second Division, Guo Zhiping's Third Division, and Gu Shouting's Sixth Division, all have more than 20,000 troops. However, the Fourth Division under Peng Ce and the Fifth Division under Ye Tie have relatively fewer people, with only a little over 10,000 people.

This organization was a decision made by Ye Mingsheng after comprehensive consideration of many factors including the Fengwu Army's territory, total troop strength, and financial situation.

And yesterday, Yuan Song’s troops sent back news that after the Yan army was defeated and Zhao Fuqu was killed, the remnants of the Yan army in Zhuo County and other southern areas of Youyan had decided not to resist the Fengwu army anymore and surrendered to it. Only a small number of diehard Yan army members either stayed in hiding or followed Zhao Jianan to Yunzhong...
This also officially demonstrated that the Fengwu Army had fully occupied Youyan. After gaining control of Youyan, the Fengwu Army's finances, reputation and other factors all rose to a new stage. The original division-level organization was no longer suitable, so Ye Mingsheng considered creating a new army-level organization, establishing the First Army, the Second Army, and the Third Army, and incorporating the two divisions into one army. This would make it more suitable for the Fengwu Army's next large-scale operations!
Ye Mingsheng still had an idea about the army-level organization, so he wanted to hear the opinions of He Jingyun and other major military generals. After closing He Jingyun's memorial, Ye Mingsheng called Ye Cheng in and gave him instructions;

“Send someone to the General Staff Headquarters to inform He Jingyun to come over this afternoon!”·························
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In Zhuo County, in a magnificent mansion.

Yuan Song, dressed in silk and satin, was writing something very seriously. Ever since defeating Zhao Fuqu at Fuhugang, the Fengwu Army had not encountered any decent resistance in the southern part of Youyan. Wherever they went, most of the Yan troops surrendered, and the rest fled. Yuan Song accepted Zhuo County very smoothly. Although he successfully took over this part of the territory, Yuan Song was not very happy...

Although we had learned from the intelligence of the Coordination Office that Zhao Fuqu, in order to be able to fight against the Fengwu Army, was extremely aggressive and actively preparing for war in the limited territory in the southern part of Youyan, almost capturing all the young and strong men as soldiers, and letting children, the elderly, and women engage in labor production.

Then, in order to maintain the army's expenses, Zhao Fuqu took away more than half of the fruits of production, making life miserable for the people in Zhuo County and other places. However, this was only heard after all, and I didn't have any intuitive feelings in my mind, so the feelings were not particularly deep.

However, since Yuan Song led his army into the southern part of Youyan, all he saw and heard was a decline in people's livelihood. The people were in ruins, with pale faces and thin bodies. From the old men in their seventies to the children of five or six years old, all were working hard in the fields. However, the lack of working-age labor still meant that their labor output was far below normal, and people starving to death had begun to occur commonly.

All of this made Yuan Song very sad. The conscience and kindness in his heart had made him try his best to save some food for the people on the basis of ensuring his own military rations, so that more people could survive.

Just as Yuan Song was writing something, a young man in guard uniform tiptoed to Yuan Song's side, as if he wanted to see what Yuan Song was writing. Although the young man walked very quietly, Yuan Song, who was born as a military general, still heard the noise. Although he did not turn around, Yuan Song seemed to know who the person was. He frowned slightly and scolded:

"Yuan Zhe, this is in the military camp, not at home!"

Hearing his father's scolding and realizing that he had been discovered, Yuan Zhe said helplessly:
"Dad, don't you see what you are wearing and where you are living? This is not a military camp at all!"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Song turned around and warned:
"It doesn't matter what you wear or where you live. As a soldier, you should always be strict with yourself..."

Hearing his old father start another long speech, Yuan Zhe immediately changed the subject and said:

"Dad, you are obviously imitating Wang Jian!"

"I guess this letter is written to Marshal Ye, right? Ask him to give our family more good land and beautiful houses?"

"If you ask me, Dad, don't waste your energy. Last time you wanted to use Chen Chuanwu's incident to back off, but Marshal Ye had already seen through your little trick, so he made a big deal out of a small matter and didn't punish you for anything. What you are doing now is completely unnecessary!"

Yuan Song's eyes were a little complicated when he heard this. He had three sons. The first two were just like him, very honest and steady. They were also sent to the Fengwu Army for training a long time ago. Only the youngest son, Yuan Zhe, had always given him a headache. Unlike his two older brothers, Yuan Zhe could be said to be a genius. He had shown a strong talent since he was a child. He was smart and literary, and he could quote classics such as the Four Books and Five Classics with ease.

Honestly speaking, if Yuan Song had not been very confident in his wife and Yuan Zhe looked very similar to him, he would have been more or less suspicious...
Although Yuan Zhe was very talented, he also had a common problem among geniuses, that is, he was arrogant and naughty by nature. In order to cultivate him and prevent Yuan Zhe from wasting his talent, Yuan Song found many good teachers for him. These good teachers, without exception, all of them were very sure of Yuan Zhe's talent and felt that he was a piece of fine jade who only needed to be carefully carved and polished to shine in the world. However, most of these teachers were driven away by Yuan Zhe.

So in order to temper Yuan Zhe's spirit, Yuan Song has kept him by his side since Yuan Zhe turned fifteen, hoping that military life would make Yuan Zhe more stable.

Under his son's gaze, Yuan Song was silent for a while before he slowly said:

"I have been in the army for decades and have learned a lesson: be prepared for danger in times of peace! I have reached the pinnacle of my career in the Fengwu Army, so I should take a step back and see the world in a new direction!"

"Even though we both know some things, we still have to do what we should do, and we can't be careless at all!"

At this point, Yuan Song looked at Yuan Zhe and said earnestly:
“You must learn to hide your shortcomings and don’t always show off your talents. This will hurt others as well as yourself…”

(End of this chapter)