Chapter 676: Fighting!

"Qingwu, greetings to the eldest lady..."

Although it was a surprise to meet An Miaoyi here, Murong Qingwu still bowed to greet her.

An Miaoyi, who was originally in a good mood, immediately restrained her expression when she saw Murong Qingwu appear. She knew very well that since she met Murong Qingwu here, this bitch must have just returned from Ye Cui's place!
Thinking of this, a cold light flashed in An Miaoyi's eyes. Murong Qingwu is best at pretending to be harmless in order to win the favor of others, just like she hangs around Ye Cui every day. Does she really want to be filial to Ye Cui?

Others may not know, but how could An Miaoyi not know about Murong Qingwu's sinister intentions?

Although she was disgusted by Murong Qingwu's green tea tactics, An Miaoyi was helpless because Ye Cui was very fond of Murong Qingwu's tactics and was obsessed with sharing the same interests with Murong Qingwu. She didn't know what sweet words Murong Qingwu said to the old lady, but Ye Cui's attitude towards her was becoming increasingly cold.

Murong Qingwu bowed to greet him. Seeing that An Miaoyi had not responded for a long time, she did not feel the slightest bit of uneasiness or worry. Instead, she became very excited. She knew very well that with the blessing of the child, An Miaoyi's position in the Ye Mansion would become more and more unshakable. Therefore, if she wanted to shake An Miaoyi, she must not confront her head-on, as that would only arouse Ye Mingsheng's disgust.

So the correct way is to overcome hardness with softness and to retreat in order to advance!

Therefore, Murong Qingwu was looking forward to An Miaoyi bullying her with the attitude of a big woman. The more fiercely An Miaoyi bullied her, the better...
Although Ye Mingsheng seems to not care about the affairs in the backyard of the Ye Mansion and leaves all these matters to An Miaoyi to manage, in fact, Ye Mingsheng also has spies in the backyard. Everything that happens in the backyard will be reported to Ye Mingsheng. Don't assume that Ye Mingsheng knows nothing!
So as long as An Miaoyi dared to bully her, she would not have to take the initiative to find Ye Mingsheng to complain, Ye Mingsheng would come to comfort her. After all, she had a father and brother who held high positions in the Fengwu Army, and a family with deep roots, so Ye Mingsheng would not let her suffer any grievances.

She would never say anything bad about An Miaoyi in front of Ye Mingsheng. She even pleaded for An Miaoyi and told Ye Mingsheng that it was her fault that made An Miaoyi angry.

Although Murong Qingwu's idea is good, it is obvious that An Miaoyi is not stupid. She and Murong Qingwu started fighting when they were still waiting to be married. Naturally, she knows what Murong Qingwu is planning, so she will not fall for Murong Qingwu's evil plan!
After looking at Murong Qingwu for a while, An Miaoyi smiled, then held Murong Qingwu's hand and said in a very affectionate manner:
"Sister Qingwu, are you going to accompany mother again?"

Seeing that An Miaoyi didn't take the bait, Murong Qingwu felt a little disappointed, but on the surface she still smiled and said:
"Well, mother has been very interested in poetry and Buddhist scriptures recently, so Qingwu volunteered to study with mother!"

Hearing Murong Qingwu's words intentionally or unintentionally revealing her close relationship with Ye Cui, An Miaoyi sneered in her heart but continued to say with a smile on her face:
“My sister’s reputation as a talented woman is known throughout the world. Mother will surely gain a lot by studying with her…”

Seeing that An Miaoyi had quietly set a trap for her, Murong Qingwu immediately clarified:
"As the ancients said, there must be a teacher among three people. Mother has a deep knowledge of poetry and Qingwu has learned a lot from her!"

Listening to Murong Qingwu's answer, An Miaoyi also felt a little awkward. She knew it was difficult to gain an advantage over Murong Qingwu, the world's most talented woman, so she also used her trump card. She hugged Ye Jingren, who was sucking his fingers with a silly look on his face, and then pretended to remember something and said to Murong Qingwu:
"Sister, come to my yard and chat with me about the past. The old lady is anxious to see her grandson today!"

If An Miaoyi continued to verbally attack Murong Qingwu, she could naturally respond calmly. However, facing An Miaoyi's "king bomb", Murong Qingwu could do nothing but smile and say politely:

"Please go ahead, sister. We can't keep the old lady waiting anxiously!"

Under Murong Qingwu's watchful eyes, An Miaoyi, with her child and maidservant, slowly walked towards Ye Cui's courtyard. Looking at their departing backs, Murong Qingwu hadn't said anything yet, but Ying'er, the little maidservant who followed her, couldn't help but complain in a low voice:

"Why are you so proud! That woman can't have children?"

After listening to Ying'er's complaints, Murong Qingwu's mood improved a lot. While continuing on her way back, she secretly made up her mind that when Ye Mingsheng came to find her in a few days, she would be more proactive and ask Ye Mingsheng to hand over all the food!

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Fengwu Army, in the meeting room of the General Staff Headquarters
Ye Mingsheng was at the top of the list, and below him were several confidential advisers from the General Staff, headed by He Jingyun. Looking around at these people, Ye Mingsheng asked in a deep voice:
"What is the situation in Anqing now?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's inquiry, Deputy Chief of General Staff Zhao Han wanted to step forward as usual to introduce the situation to Ye Mingsheng, but He Jingyun gave him a look. After receiving He Jingyun's hint, Zhao Han hesitated for a moment and stopped his action. At this time, He Jingyun, the Chief of General Staff, stepped forward and introduced to Ye Mingsheng:

"Your Excellency, according to the information from the Coordination Office, Xu Zhaojie secretly appeared in Chengfeng County and inspected more than 10,000 Zhennan Army soldiers around Chengfeng County. He also summoned Wang Songhe and others in Chengfeng County. After Chen Zongchang's death, he appointed the former deputy general Wang Songhe as the acting general. In this summons to Wang Songhe, he formally appointed Wang Songhe as the general of Anqing!"

Upon hearing the news, Ye Mingsheng frowned slightly. If he remembered correctly, when Huo San was introducing the results of the battle to him, he had vowed to him that with Xu Zhaojie's cruel and bloodthirsty character, Wang Songhe, who failed to complete the task of strangling, would only end up being killed.

The successive killings of the general and the deputy general will inevitably shake the morale of the Zhennan Army in Anqing and make the people panic. Their Coordination Office will use this opportunity to accelerate the infiltration into the Zhennan Army and strive to win without fighting. For this purpose, Ye Mingsheng also approved a special fund of 20,000 taels of silver for him...
Now it seems that Xu Zhaojie is not as stupid as Huo San thought!
After a moment of silence, Ye Mingsheng asked He Jingyun:
"What is the current movement of the Zhennan Army?"

He Jingyun said without hesitation:
"According to the intelligence sent by the Coordination Office yesterday, three days after Xu Zhaojie appeared in Chengfeng County, the Coordination Office's spies in Shouchun discovered that 20,000 of the 30,000 elite troops originally deployed by Xu Zhaojie in Xuancheng have been transferred to Anqing. It is expected that they will enter Anqing in the next five days!"

Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed when he heard the news. According to previous intelligence, Xuancheng was only thirty miles away from Jiangnan, and was the outpost base chosen by Xu Zhaojie for the attack on Jiangnan. He deployed 30,000 elite troops here, and gave priority to equipping this unit with the firearms obtained from Shangguan Hongyuan.

And now Xu Zhaojie has actually transferred two-thirds of this force into Anqing. If nothing unexpected happens, Xu Zhaojie is very likely to want to stir up trouble in Anqing. Does this mean a strategic shift for the Zhennan Army?

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng looked at Huo San beside him, looked at him coldly and asked in a deep voice: "Can you explain to me why the Zhennan Army made such a big move, and we only know about it now?"

Although Ye Mingsheng's tone was very calm, Huo San, who had followed Ye Mingsheng for many years, could clearly feel the anger hidden under these calm words...

Huo San secretly complained in his heart, and organized his words to report to Ye Mingsheng:

"Sir, more than half a month ago, the spy we planted in the Zhennan Army was uncovered by Xu Zhaojie's men. This person could not withstand the torture and confessed some information to Xu Zhaojie, letting Xu Zhaojie know that we had begun to arrange secret agents in the Zhennan Army as early as when he just took over Anqing. Xu Zhaojie was furious when he knew about this and appointed his cousin Xu Benlei to investigate the matter thoroughly!"

"Although according to your instructions, our secret agents in the Coordination Office have always used single-line communication, and the secret agents do not know each other's identities, but the secret agent who was busted used our contact code to assist Xu Benlei in uncovering one of our three secret bases in Shouchun, Kangyin and other places. This resulted in the death of more than a dozen guys in our Coordination Office, and two secret agents were forced to commit suicide after their identities were exposed!"

"In order to reduce casualties, I urgently ordered all secret bases in Huainan to go silent, so it took several days for the intelligence to be transmitted back from Shouchun!"

Ye Mingsheng looked at Huo San quietly for this explanation. When Huo San was about to kneel on the ground with trepidation in his heart, Ye Mingsheng slowly said:

"I don't want to hear your excuses. I just want the internal information of the Zhennan Army. Do you understand?"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's warning, Huo San immediately became serious and assured Ye Mingsheng:

“I will faithfully follow your teachings, sir…”

Ye Mingsheng didn't say anything after hearing this, he just looked at He Jingyun and said:
"What does the General Staff think of Xu Zhaojie's move this time?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, He Jingyun did not answer immediately but thought for a while and said:
"According to the intelligence from the Coordination Office and our own estimates, after Xu Zhaojie took over Huainan, he extorted more than two million taels of silver and hundreds of thousands of shi of grain from the wealthy families in Huainan. This money and grain greatly eased Xu Zhaojie's financial pressure and also allowed him to expand his army by at least 50,000!"

"At present, Xu Zhaojie's total military strength is between 120,000 and 150,000. Among them, the newly expanded troops are all receiving training in Huainan. The 30,000 troops in Anqing and the 20,000 troops that will be transferred from Xuancheng to Anqing are all Xu Zhaojie's old troops. Judging from their contact with our army in the previous Hebei-Henan war and their performance on the Huainan battlefield, they are still very combat-ready!"

"According to previous intelligence, Shangguan Hongyuan has repeatedly asked Xu Zhaojie to attack northward to put pressure on our army, and the voices of the Zhennan Army to strongly deal with our army are also growing. Combined with the current overall situation, the General Staff believes that Xu Zhaojie is likely to launch an attack on the area controlled by our army in the near future!"

“But I don’t think Xu Zhaojie wants to have a big fight with our army…”

Hearing this, Ye Mingsheng became interested and asked He Jingyun:

"What do you mean, General He?"

He Jingyun heard this and said directly:

"From the battles in Hebei and Henan last year, although the Zhennan Army is very combat-capable, it is still slightly insufficient when facing our army, especially when facing our army's powerful artillery fire, the Zhennan Army suffered heavy casualties!"

"The army currently guarding Hebei and Henan is our best-equipped and most powerful First Army. After resting and reorganizing, General Yuan's First Army now has a full complement of more than 45,000 soldiers, while Xu Zhaojie only has 50,000 soldiers in Anqing. Even if he goes all out, he will only be on par with our army!"

"But in terms of firearms, although Xu Zhaojie got a lot of Shenwu guns and Zhengdong cannons from Shangguan Hongyuan, our army still has a huge advantage. In addition, the First Army has also formed a new cavalry battalion of 5,000 people, and the number of cavalry is much larger than that of the enemy!"

“Therefore, overall, our army still has a great advantage. Although Xu Zhaojie was a famous general with great military achievements at the time, I believe he would not be so conceited as to think that he could defeat our army without superior forces…”

Therefore, I predict that although Xu Zhaojie will launch an attack on our army this time, he actually does not want to fight with our army. What he really wants is to contain our army!"

"It is very likely that his real intention is not to drink, but to do this!"

As soon as he finished speaking, He Jingyun pointed his baton at a certain place in the sand table in front of him. Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng's mind suddenly became clear. Although he understood that Xu Zhaojie's many actions might be intended to have a confrontation with him in Hebei and Henan.

But to be honest, Ye Mingsheng still didn't quite believe that Xu Zhaojie would really give up his plan for Jiangnan at this critical juncture and go north to fight him head-on, thus taking advantage of that bastard Shangguan Hongyuan. This was not in line with Xu Zhaojie's character. Expecting him to sacrifice himself for others was purely a dream!

And now with He Jingyun’s explanation, everything makes sense·························
(End of this chapter)