Chapter 699 Swearing Conference!

May, 19th, 15:00

On both sides of Luoyang Avenue, the main road in Yijing, there are dense crowds of people, everyone is looking forward to waiting for something····························

"I heard that our Fengwu Army's Marshal Ye will personally lead the expedition to Hebei and Henan!"

"What? Marshal Ye is going to the battle personally? Has the situation in Hebei and Henan become so bad?
"There's nothing serious going on in Hebei and Henan. Xu Zhaojie is just a minor problem in Hebei and Henan. General Yuan of the Fengwu Army has already launched a counterattack in Hebei and Henan. Now that Marshal Ye is here in person, I'm afraid Xu Zhaojie is not far from death!"

'This gentleman is absolutely right! Since the establishment of the Fengwu Army, it has fought from outside the Great Wall to inside the Great Wall, conquering cities and territories all the way and has never been victorious. No matter how powerful Xu Zhaojie is, he will never be able to resist the millions of Fengwu Army's troops! '

"Instead of worrying about Xu Zhaojie, we should worry about the situation in Yunbing. I heard that Shangguan Hongyuan's offensive in Yunbing is very fierce!"

"No matter how powerful Shangguan Hongyuan is, he can't even see Jinzhong City now!"

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While the common people were discussing enthusiastically, in the guest room of Chenxiang Cottage, a luxury hotel in Yijing on the east side of Luoyang Avenue, Jiang Yuyan was looking at the situation outside with extremely complicated emotions in her heart. During this period of time, she had been running around in Yijing for several days for the issue of the banknote license and had sought to meet with many senior officials of the Fengwu Army.

However, when she wanted to give gifts to others, she was rejected many times in a row, which made her have a question in her mind!
Don’t the officials of the Fengwu Army love money?

In order to resolve the doubts in her heart, she actively inquired about the information and wanted to find an answer!
With her unremitting efforts, Jiang Yuyan soon found the answer·························

The answer is that under the supervision of the Censorate, the room for corruption among Fengwu Army officials has been greatly reduced, and under Ye Mingsheng's iron-fisted suppression, most of the Fengwu Army officials did not dare to break the law.

In addition to vigorously combating corruption, Ye Mingsheng also significantly increased the salaries and benefits of officials, allowing them to live a decent and affluent life even if they are not corrupt!
As a result, officials value their official positions even more. They don't want to lose their official hats for a little bit of profit, making all their more than ten years of hard study go to waste and turning themselves from high-ranking officials into prisoners!
After realizing the answer, Jiang Yuyan began to realize that the ruthless dictator in the Fengwu Army was different from other princes in the Great Zhou. Although other princes all shouted the banner of combating corruption, they were all concerned about the complicated and tangled network of relationships.

Therefore, in the process of combating corruption, it is often just a lot of noise but little action. They only dare to hit some small flies, but not the big tigers who are fat and bloated. They are not really considering the actions for the benefit of the people. It is just a political show out of their own interests!

But Ye Mingsheng was different from them. While fighting corruption, Ye Mingsheng also promoted reforms to reduce the burden on the lower-class people. He implemented a new tax law that required high-income earners to pay more taxes and allowed the lower-class people to pay less taxes, or even no taxes.

Although these reforms won Ye Mingsheng a lot of praise from the people, they also made him offend many people. These evil spirits were unwilling to see their interests taken away by Ye Mingsheng and given to the common people. They were always thinking about counterattacking...
Ye Mingsheng would naturally not be lenient towards these stubborn people. As he held the military power, he simply suppressed them with a wave of his hand. In this way, the clean officialdom atmosphere under the rule of the Fengwu Army was gradually formed today.

After realizing that bribery would not work in Yijing, Jiang Yuyan gradually became frustrated and desperate about obtaining a bank license. She knew very well that her Wang family was far inferior to her two competitors in Fengwu Army and had stronger connections and background.

The fact was exactly as she thought. Three days ago, the results of the license competition were announced. The Yun family of Liaoyang and the Liu family of Youyan successfully won the bid and won two banknote exchange licenses, which allowed them to open banknote exchanges in the area under the jurisdiction of Fengwu Army.

Seeing that all her efforts over the past few days were in vain, Jiang Yuyan was extremely disappointed and began to doubt whether she had made a mistake in joining the Fengwu Army.

Just when Jiang Yuyan was thinking about how to return to Yujing and deal with the mess of the Wang family, the Governor's Office sent someone to find her. But when she arrived at the Governor's Office, she found that the person who met her was Gu Sansi, who had turned her down!
Although Gu Sansi’s reputation in Fengwu Army was not as loud as Ye Mingsheng’s uncle Cui Shao and Murong Yuliang who came from a famous family, Jiang Yuyan, who wanted to join Fengwu Army and had carefully studied its power structure, knew that in Fengwu Army’s civil service system, Gu Sansi was Ye Mingsheng’s trusted and beloved general. There were many key matters under the rule of Fengwu Army that Cui Shao and Murong Yuliang had no say over, but Gu Sansi could make the decision...
Gu Sansi's interview also made Jiang Yuyan realize that things might turn around. Just when she expected Gu Sansi to make the decision and give her the third ticket number license, Gu Sansi only told her that the Chief Secretary would send an expert working group to Yujing to investigate the situation of their Wang family and let the Wang family make preparations. Apart from that, Gu Sansi said nothing.

Although Gu Sansi was very tight-lipped and only said that someone would go to investigate the Wang family's situation, without saying why they were investigating the Wang family or what would happen after the investigation, this made Jiang Yuyan keenly aware that not only might things take a turn for the better, but it might even become an opportunity for her and the Wang family.

Realizing this, Jiang Yuyan originally planned to set off back to Yujing immediately to make all possible preparations. However, at this time, news came from outside that Ye Mingsheng would personally lead troops to attack Xu Zhaojie, and would hold a swearing-in ceremony on May 19th.

After learning the news, Jiang Yuyan, who was full of strong curiosity and interest in Ye Mingsheng, made a decision and spent a large sum of money to rent a guest room in Chenxiang Villa. She wanted to watch the oath-taking ceremony and see what kind of person the rumored Ye Mingsheng was!

While Jiang Yuyan was waiting, time passed by minute by minute, and it was the auspicious time of 2:45 pm. As soon as the auspicious time arrived, the soldiers of the Ninth Division walked out in neat steps. Looking at the mighty and majestic appearance of the Fengwu Army soldiers, the people on both sides of the road cheered and cast envious eyes on them························
In the past, the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty have always had a view that good men do not serve as soldiers and good iron is not used to make nails. The reason for this view is that for a long time in the past, the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty had serious corruption and a very large fiscal deficit, so there was no choice but to withhold military pay.

As the saying goes, soldiers eat food, and when the army could not get enough pay from the court, the military discipline was inevitably corrupted in order to support their families, and oppression of the people began to appear. Because of this, the image of soldiers in the minds of the people became very bad, so the people were unwilling to send their sons to serve in the army. Therefore, sometimes when the Zhou Dynasty recruited soldiers, it often involved conscripting young men.

On the other hand, Ye Mingsheng, who held high the butcher knife in the Fengwu Army, cleared out many parasites and gentry families who sucked the blood of the people and snatched money from their mouths. This also enabled Ye Mingsheng to pay the army in full and give them better treatment. He also used this as a basis for demanding strict military discipline and establishing rules to severely punish those who oppressed the people.

In addition to enforcing military discipline, Ye Mingsheng also let the army actively participate in disaster relief and infrastructure construction in Fengwu Army. When Jizhou was hit by a flood before, the first disaster relief team that arrived was the Third Division under the Fengwu Army. With the rescue efforts of the officers and soldiers of the Third Division, Jizhou avoided a lot of losses and casualties. In the construction of infrastructure, the Fengwu Army was also not far behind, and built many bridges and dams for the people...

All these actions also made the Fengwu Army soldiers win back the support of the people. The generous salaries and various benefits enjoyed by the Fengwu Army soldiers also attracted a large number of young people of appropriate age to actively respond to the call of the Fengwu Army and enlist in the army. The current Fengwu Army does not need to conscript able-bodied men to fill the number. All it needs is a conscription notice to attract people. Those with poor physical fitness will not be accepted at all!

Although the heroic posture of the Ninth Division soldiers attracted cheers from the people, it did not attract Jiang Yuyan's attention. She stood quietly in front of the window, looking at the back of the team, hoping to see that figure as soon as possible. Another cup of tea, just when Jiang Yuyan's neck was a little sore, she finally saw a special black dragon flag in the team. Different from the ordinary black dragon flag, this black dragon flag was not only a circle larger, but also embroidered with gold threads around the flag.

Seeing the appearance of the black dragon flag, Jiang Yuyan was a little excited, and then she moved her eyes down to look under the flag.

There were hundreds of cavalrymen in armor under the flag. Although there were not a small number of people, Jiang Yuyan saw at a glance the figure who was surrounded and guarded in the middle. Although the distance was a bit far at this time, Jiang Yuyan could not see the figure's face clearly...

But Jiang Yuyan's intuition told her that the figure was the ruler who dominated the lives of millions of soldiers and civilians of the Fengwu Army - Ye Mingsheng!

The team guarding Ye Mingsheng gradually came to the center of the venue. Jiang Yuyan watched with her own eyes. Ye Mingsheng also climbed onto the high platform that had been prepared long ago. Ye Mingsheng, who was on the platform, looked around and looked down at the people on both sides of the road. When they saw Ye Mingsheng looking over, the originally noisy road immediately became quiet, and no one dared to make any eye contact with Ye Mingsheng.

"Since the Luo'an Incident, the emperor has been disgraced. The great traitor Shangguan Hongyuan has controlled the government and persecuted loyal officials. Countless loyal officials and righteous men have been poisoned. This time, he has teamed up with the traitor Xu Zhaojie to invade Ji, Yu, Yun and Bing. Although Ye is not talented, he is willing to eliminate this traitor for the people of the world and help the Zhou Dynasty to clear the emperor's side!"

"Today, tens of thousands of fellow villagers came to attend our army's oath-taking ceremony. Mingsheng is grateful beyond words. Here, Mingsheng also swears to the heavens and the earth that he will not turn back until the enemy army is defeated! He will definitely give the people of the world a peaceful and prosperous world!"

As Ye Mingsheng finished speaking on the platform, more than 20,000 soldiers below the platform shouted in unison:
"I will not turn back until I defeat the enemy army!"

"I will not turn back until I defeat the enemy army!"

Tens of thousands of people shouted loudly, and at this moment, someone on both sides of the road took the lead and shouted:

"Marshal Ye is mighty! The Fengwu Army will surely win!"

"Marshal Ye is mighty! The Fengwu Army will surely win!"

"Marshal Ye is mighty! The Fengwu Army will surely win!"

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After finishing his speech, Ye Mingsheng on the high platform saluted to the people around him, then walked down the platform and set out on his journey again surrounded by guards.

"Madam, this Marshal Ye is very courageous!"

Qiao'er, the maidservant who was watching the ceremony with Jiang Yuyan, whispered:

Jiang Yuyan, who was also shocked by this, was silent for a while and said with some emotion:

"If he didn't have such courage, he wouldn't have been able to bring the Fengwu Army to such a high level and go to war with Shangguan Hongyuan and Xu Zhaojie at the same time. Ye Mingsheng is either an arrogant madman or a man of destiny!"

Hearing her wife say the words "the man of destiny", Qiao'er looked at her wife in disbelief. Feeling Qiao'er's gaze, Jiang Yuyan smiled bitterly and said with some self-mockery:

"You little girl, you don't really think he wants to support the Zhou Dynasty, do you?"

Qiao'er blinked her beautiful eyes and said:
"He is a real man. How can what he said in front of so many people be false? If he goes back on his word, how will he face the world in the future?"

Looking at the little girl who believed in Ye Mingsheng so much, Jiang Yuyan shook her head helplessly and said with emotion:

"Back then, Shangguan Hongyuan's words were better than Ye Mingsheng's. They were more touching and sincere, making people believe that he would become a great story of monarch and minister. But what about now?"

Jiang Yuyan paused for a moment, and after a while, she, who was born in the Jiang royal family, had tears in her beautiful eyes and said in a very sad tone:

“This is fate! This is fate! The three hundred years of the Great Zhou Dynasty have truly come to an end. I can only hope that God will be merciful and will not let my Jiang family suffer more hardships and disasters…”

(End of this chapter)