Chapter 753 Determination! Red Line!
Facing Ye Mingsheng's inquiry, Pei Zhixiu's beautiful eyes flickered for a moment, but she still asked Ye Mingsheng in a low voice:
"Husband, how are you going to deal with those uncles..."

Ye Mingsheng was quite surprised to hear Pei Zhixiu ask this. Although the women around him never interfered in politics openly under his orders, they were more or less involved in politics secretly. Only Pei Zhixiu was not interested in politics at all, never cared, and never asked!
Why are you asking about the Ye clan today, contrary to your usual behavior?

If I remember correctly, a few days ago, those clans sent people with generous gifts to the clinic to find her, but Pei Zhixiu didn't even see her!
After a brief pause, Ye Mingsheng seemed to realize something and asked Pei Zhixiu:
"Did mother look for you?"

After hearing Ye Mingsheng reveal the key to the matter, Pei Zhixiu hesitated for a moment but ultimately chose not to conceal it. Under Ye Mingsheng's gaze, she nodded helplessly and said:
"You guessed it yourself. I didn't tell you. Mother specifically told me not to mention her!"

Because of Ye Mingsheng’s identity and power, the affairs of the Ye family are no longer simple family affairs, and it can even be said that it has evolved into a political event. Pei Zhixiu is the one who is most reluctant to have anything to do with such things, but Ye Cui found her two days ago...

Ye Cui and Pei Zhixiu played the emotional card. They told Pei Zhixiu that blood is thicker than water and how much contribution the Ye clan had made to the Fengwu Army. Ye Mingsheng's punishment of the clan now would cause disunity within the clan, which would be a matter of great joy to the enemies and sorrow to the relatives.

So Ye Cui hoped that Pei Zhixiu could persuade Ye Mingsheng. She told Pei Zhixiu that Ye Mingsheng doted on her the most and if she persuaded Ye Mingsheng, he would definitely listen.

To be honest, Pei Zhixiu was not interested in Ye Cui's words. She knew that Ye Mingsheng had his own arrangements for this matter and there was no need for her to get involved.

However, what Pei Zhixiu cares about is that the relationship between her and Ye Cui is not very good. Ye Cui usually dislikes her. Now Ye Cui, as a mother-in-law, takes the initiative to ask her for help, which is already a great sacrifice.

If I don't help, Ye Cui, who already dislikes me, will definitely hate me even more!
Although he had Ye Mingsheng’s help, Ye Cui was his mother-in-law and the elder after all. In this society that advocates filial piety, it was not a good thing to have a strained relationship with his mother-in-law. Besides, even if he was not considering himself, he should consider his son Ye Jingxuan…

So when faced with Ye Cui's request, Pei Zhixiu agreed to help. However, knowing Ye Mingsheng's character, Pei Zhixiu was very rational and did not make a promise to Ye Cui. She only said that she would try her best to persuade Ye Mingsheng. As for what decision Ye Mingsheng would make in the end, it depended on Ye Mingsheng himself!
After Pei Zhixiu confirmed his guess, Ye Mingsheng was also very surprised. Ever since he released the news that he wanted to set some rules for the Ye clan, his mother Ye Cui found him and said that blood is thicker than water and that the Ye clan members have made great contributions to the Fengwu Army. In short, she wanted Ye Mingsheng to let the clan go.

Ye Mingsheng dealt with it by playing Tai Chi, and then continued to collect evidence in secret and continued to release news to see how these people would react.

And his mother Ye Cui seemed to know that she had failed to persuade him, so she actually came to Pei Zhixiu to persuade him. This was really beyond Ye Mingsheng's expectations!
The conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law may be one of the most unsolvable problems in the human world. Although Pei Zhixiu has cured Ye Cui several times and is still recuperating her health, Ye Cui just looks down on Pei Zhixiu. Ye Mingsheng has tried to mediate many times, but with little success. This is also one of the few things that makes Ye Mingsheng feel helpless.

And now his mother actually took the initiative to look for Pei Zhixiu, whom she had always looked down upon. It seems that his mother is really anxious. Ye Mingsheng also feels a headache about this. Ye Cuishi does not interfere in government affairs in most cases, but she pays special attention to the affairs of the Ye and Cui families. In addition, it may be the limitation of the times. Ye Cuishi has a strong sense of family sentiment in her heart, and always puts family interests first in everything····································
Feeling the helplessness in Ye Mingsheng's eyes, Pei Zhixiu said softly with some distress:
"My husband, you have done well enough. Every emperor in history could not have done better in your position, so please believe in your choice. My child and I will support you behind you!"

Ye Mingsheng was very moved when he heard this, and immediately took Pei Zhixiu in his arms. After a while of tenderness, Ye Mingsheng said slowly:
"Most of the Ye clan members are kindhearted. Even if some of them are corrupt, they are just trying to improve their lives. They don't have any bad intentions. Even if they make mistakes, I will give them a light punishment and a heavy warning to give them a chance to reform!"

Ye Mingsheng paused for a moment, his eyes gradually became sharper, and he said:
"But there is a small group of people who are so greedy that they are unforgivable! They are so bold that they dare to have ideas about military weapons and firearms. If I let these people continue to go unpunished, it will damage the foundation of Fengwu Army's rule and be irresponsible to the people!"

"They must pay the price! I will use their heads to tell everyone that there are some red lines that cannot be crossed!"

...
...
Just as a major political storm was quietly brewing in Yijing, the conflict between the Yunbing Fengwu Army and the Imperial Guards thousands of miles away was also intensifying.

With Ye Mingsheng's declaration of war and the frequent troop movements of the Fengwu Army in Jinzhong, it was a sign that the Fengwu Army would soon launch a large-scale military operation.

In response to this, the current Yunbing Governor Wang Muzhi also dispatched hundreds of scouts to monitor the movements of the Fengwu Army around Jinzhong day and night. He required his scouts to report any movements of the Fengwu Army as soon as possible.

On the one hand, the Fengwu Army did not want to be watched every day, and on the other hand, they also wanted to spy on the strength of the Imperial Guards in preparation for the next counterattack, so they sent a large number of scouts to strangle the Imperial Guards' scout troops.

Against this background, although the two sides have not officially started fighting in the past seven days, the scout troops of both sides have already engaged in fierce fighting.

At three quarters after noon, five soldiers dressed in the uniforms of the imperial guards were riding their horses towards Lingyuan County, north of Jinzhong.

"Captain, how come we haven't seen any trace of those bastards along the way?" Li Datou asked the middle-aged man with a scar in front of him:
In response to Li Datou's question, the middle-aged scarred Zheng Dapeng said coldly:

“How do I know what tricks these Imperial Guards are playing?” Seeing Zheng Dapeng’s unfriendly tone, Li Datou could only lower his head in disappointment and hurried on his way silently, while Zheng Dapeng kept looking around, checking the movements around him. Although he was wearing the skin of the Imperial Guards now, it was still unsafe·····································

Zheng Dapeng and others are scouts of the Fengwu Army's Provisional Third Division. They are now ordered to march to the vicinity of Lingyuan County to investigate the garrison situation of the Lingyuan County Imperial Guards. In order to better complete this task, Zheng Dapeng and his men changed into the uniforms of the Imperial Guards. The Fengwu Army also sent out several scout teams like them.

At this time, three hours have passed since Zheng Dapeng set out from the vicinity of Jinzhong. They are now less than thirty miles away from Lingyuan County. If nothing unexpected happens, they can reach Lingyuan County before dark!

Zheng Dapeng was very confused at this time. Although they changed into the uniforms of the Imperial Guards in order to complete the task more smoothly, to be honest, he was prepared for the worst. However, what surprised him was that they did not see any trace of the Imperial Guards scouts along the way.

You know, in the past few days, the scouts of both sides had engaged in extremely brutal fighting over this area. This is why Zheng Dapeng and his team have to disguise themselves. But now this area is calm, as if the fighting between the scouts of both sides a few days ago had never happened at all.

Such a huge contrast made Zheng Dapeng very confused. Although he didn’t know what tricks the imperial guards were playing, they still had to continue the task of investigating Lingyuan County after receiving the order...

At three quarters after yin in the afternoon, Zheng Dapeng and his companions arrived smoothly at the vicinity of Lingyuan County. Zheng Dapeng hid behind a huge rock and quietly picked up the monocular telescope in his hand to observe the situation in Lingyuan County. However, after just one look, Zheng Dapeng, who always had a serious expression, showed a look of surprise on his face.

Zheng Dapeng thought he was seeing things, so he immediately put down the telescope, rubbed his eyes, and then picked up the telescope again to look.

The scene I saw now was exactly the same as before. The four gates of Lingyuan County were wide open, and there were no more flags of the Imperial Guards on the city walls. There was no movement of any Imperial Guards soldiers on the city. A few ordinary people were walking and chatting leisurely on the city wall.

Seeing this scene, Zheng Dapeng was a little bit unbelievable. He even began to wonder if the telescope in his hand was broken!

Out of a sense of responsibility for the mission, Zheng Dapeng hesitated for a moment and then decided to go into danger alone. He asked four of his men to stay where they were, while he went to the county town to find out what was going on. If he did not come back, he would ask the four men to go back and report that there was an ambush in Lingyuan County...
After explaining the future situation, Zheng Dapeng entered Lingyuan County with the determination to sacrifice his life. Because he was now wearing the uniform of the imperial guards, the people in the city were very scared when they saw him, but there were also some brave people who asked him:

"Military, didn't you leave this morning?"

Facing this question, Zheng Dapeng didn't know what to say. After a while, he climbed up the city wall of Lingyuan County and stood on the wall looking at the empty city tower. Although he still felt a little unreal, he knew that the imperial guards had actually abandoned the city that they had captured at the cost of tens of thousands of casualties.

Although he was very confused as to why the Imperial Guards did this, Zheng Dapeng knew that this was not something a small scout team like his should consider. What he had to do was to return to Jinzhong immediately and report the matter to his superiors, who would make the decision on the rest!
The next morning, Lin Mansion in Jinzhong

More than a dozen Fengwu Army generals gathered in a side room of the mansion. Xun Ke, who was temporarily acting as the general of the Third Division, introduced the changes in the battle situation to everyone present.

“Everyone, the reason why I’ve anxiously called you back is that there have been major changes in the enemy’s deployment. According to the latest intelligence sent back by the scouts, we can now be sure that the 10,000 imperial troops originally stationed in Lingyuan County in the north of Jinzhong have withdrawn to Pingyun County…”

"And on the southern front of Jinzhong, scouts have discovered that the enemy has withdrawn from Pingrong County, and there are signs that they will continue to withdraw from Wankang County!"

The Fengwu Army generals present were all very surprised to hear the news. You know, just yesterday, in this room, Lin Huaiwu, the commander of the Second Army in charge of the Yunbing counterattack mission, determined the counterattack plan and assigned respective combat objectives to each unit.

According to Lin Huaiwu's deployment yesterday, the Second Army and the Third Division will dispatch more than 50,000 troops to launch a counterattack in three directions in three days. The goal of the first phase of the operation is to recapture the four county towns of Lingyuan, Pingyun, Wankang and Pingrong.

However, the war has not yet started, and the enemy has already voluntarily given up Lingyuan and Pingrong, and is preparing to give up Wankang. This means that before the formal counterattack, the Fengwu Army has already completed three-quarters of the goals of the first phase of the counterattack!

Although this matter seems to be a good thing, it inevitably appears a little weird. After introducing the situation to the generals, Lin Huaiwu, who was sitting in the main seat, also looked around at the generals, wanting to hear their opinions on the matter.

However, facing Lin Huaiwu’s gaze, all the generals lowered their heads. The behavior of the imperial guards was really weird. They were confused for a moment. Seeing this, Lin Huaiwu was a little disappointed. He could only look at Xun Ke, who was always known as a wise general in the Fengwu Army...

(End of this chapter)