Chapter 786: Help out!

Hearing Shangguan Hongyuan asking about Jiang Kuang right away, Chen Jingyu also realized that the failure of the Yunbing battle must have deeply hurt Shangguan Hongyuan's nerves...
Understanding this, Chen Jingyu took a deep breath and bowed to preach:

"Reporting to the Prime Minister, Jiang Kuang sent back a message saying that he is carrying out the established plan. He has successfully made Ye Mingsheng suspect that Cui Shao is behind this matter. He is continuing to fuel the conflicts and discord within the Fengwu Army. At present, everything is going smoothly!"

Chen Jingyu's story obviously did not satisfy Shangguan Hongyuan. The nearly 70-year-old Prime Minister of the Great Zhou Dynasty spoke coldly:
"The plan must be accelerated! There is no time to wait for you to complete the plan step by step!"

Although he was aware of the situation after hearing this, Chen Jingyu still felt a sinking feeling in his heart. Although he wanted to advise the Prime Minister to be patient, he also knew that Yun Bing's failure again had added a lot of pressure on the Prime Minister!

Part of this pressure came from the Fengwu Army, and the other part came from within the court. So as the Director of the Supervisory Department, I should help the Prime Minister solve his problems instead of causing him more trouble. Thinking of this, Chen Jingyu swallowed his words of advice and bowed, saying:
"Understood, sir. We in the Inspection Department will do our best to speed things up!"

After hearing what Chen Jingyu said, Shangguan Hongyuan was still a little dissatisfied, but he also understood that Chen Jingyu was already putting all his efforts into it, so he nodded.

After thinking for a moment, Shangguan Hongyuan asked again:
"What's the news from Murong Lun?"

Seeing Shangguan Hongyuan asking this, Chen Jingyu also organized her words and introduced:
“Master Prime Minister, we have managed to let Murong Lun know the news that his brother Murong Yuliang was excluded from the Fengwu Army…”

Shangguan Hongyuan also showed some interest in this and continued to ask Chen Jingyu:
"What's Murong Lun's reaction?"

Having followed Shangguan Hongyuan for decades, even though Shangguan Hongyuan's voice was very calm, Chen Jingyu could still sense his emotions. After hesitating for a moment, Chen Jingyu decided to say something nice to make Shangguan Hongyuan happy, and then she began to speak:
"Murong Lun seemed a little impatient. According to our spy next to him, Murong Lun even smashed a tea set he loved very much!"

Shangguan Hongyuan couldn't help but smile after hearing this. Although Murong Lun was very capable and talented, the reason why he let Murong Lun, a surrendered minister, take up such an important position as the Minister of Personnel and also let Murong Lun enter the cabinet after destroying the Southern Tour Court was not because he valued Murong Lun's ability and talent, but because he valued the Murong family's extensive network of contacts and influence!

Since the failure of the Eastern Expedition, there have been many voices within the Luoan court regarding the Fengwu Army. Although Shangguan Hongyuan did not like these voices, he also understood that this situation was inevitable because the war was lost!

However, what caught Shangguan Hongyuan's attention was that after the defeat, Murong Lun never expressed any opinions and remained silent on the development and trend of the war!

Although it was unclear what Murong Lun was planning, the only thing Shangguan Hongyuan could be sure of was that Murong Lun's silence about the defeat did not really support him or the Luoan court...

If Murong Lun was really 100% loyal to the Luoan court, then at the beginning of the war, he should have used his influence on Lu Jianchao to completely cut off the Fengwu Army's financial resources in Jiangnan. If Murong Lun really did this, without the support of Jiangnan's financial resources, the Fengwu Army would never be able to successfully train those three divisions.

Without the reserve troops of those three divisions, he would not have suffered such a tragic defeat in the Yunbing Battle at the beginning of the year. Whenever Shangguan Hongyuan thought of this, he wanted to chop off Murong Lun's head with his own hands, and then kill the entire Murong family to vent his hatred, so that everyone would understand what the consequences of having an ambiguous relationship with the Fengwu Army would be.

If I were twenty years younger.

No! When he was ten years younger, Shangguan Hongyuan would have guaranteed that he would do so. However, now that he is nearly seventy years old, Shangguan Hongyuan no longer has the courage and determination he had back then.

The passage of time has made Shangguan Hongyuan more experienced and mature, but it has also taken away his drive to break new ground in doing things!
Reason made Shangguan Hongyuan realize that he could not do this. The situation within the Luoan court was already very delicate. Many people had ulterior motives and their own little plans. The Fengwu Army was eyeing them covetously from the outside, and Ye Mingsheng was ambitious. If there was any disturbance in the Luoan court, he might pounce at any time.

The Murong family has deep roots in the court, and is intertwined with various forces. Therefore, it is easy to affect the entire body if we act rashly against them. What's more, Murong Lun has been carefully guarding against himself. Although he is in Luoan, the Murong family has three burrows, and their manpower and financial resources are scattered all over the place. Some of them have even been hiding in the dark and never surfaced...
Therefore, under these unfavorable conditions, in order to maintain the stability and unity of the Luoan court, Shangguan Hongyuan finally gave up the idea of ​​killing the Murong family reluctantly.

Although he gave up this idea, Shangguan Hongyuan, who had been in the world for decades, was very clear about the principle that a biting dog doesn't bark. Although Murong Lun claimed that the reason he did not comment on Yun Bing's defeat was because he was avoiding suspicion because Murong Yuliang, Murong Qingwu and others were in the Fengwu Army, Shangguan Hongyuan naturally would not believe his lies!
As early as more than a month ago, Shangguan Hongyuan asked the Supervisory Office to formulate a plan to intensify the contradictions within the Fengwu Army, exaggerate the rifts within the Fengwu Army, let the Fengwu Army fall into a situation of internal consumption, and end the ambiguous situation between the Murong family and the Fengwu Army.

Therefore, when Shangguan Hongyuan heard that Murong Lun was angry because of the news that Murong Yuliang was attacked in the Fengwu Army, he was naturally in a very good mood. This represented that his plan had made progress, and ending the ambiguous relationship between the Murong family and the Fengwu Army was not an impossible task!
Seeing Shangguan Hongyuan's mood gradually improving, Chen Jingyu seemed to remember something and tentatively reported to Shangguan Hongyuan:

"Sir Lin Shize is about to die in Jingchu. Sun Liangyu has recently tried to convey some goodwill to the court through some channels. He seems to want to ease the relationship between the court. In addition, there are reports that Xu Zhaojie and Sun Liangyu have been in secret contact recently..."

Shangguan Hongyuan's eyes flashed with complexity when he heard Chen Jingyu mention Lin Shize's name. If time had gone back a few years and he heard the news that Lin Shize was about to die, he would have definitely celebrated it very much. But at this moment, he did not have any joy or excitement in his heart, only sighing and helplessness.

He and the old fellow Lin Shize have known each other for decades. They have cooperated with each other and worked together to kill the crown prince of the previous emperor and put the young emperor Jiang Rui on the throne. The one civil and the other military determined the political structure of the Great Zhou court for nearly 20 years, resisted the invasion of the Golden Horde, and ensured the territorial sovereignty of the Great Zhou!

However, compared to cooperation, the two people are more in confrontation and struggle. Shangguan Hongyuan regards Lin Shize as the biggest opponent in his life. He has thought countless times that if one day he can completely eradicate Lin Shize, he can roam the world of Da Zhou as he pleases!
However, what Shangguan Hongyuan never expected was that God played a huge joke on him. When he took great pains to destroy the southern tour court led by Lin Shize and wanted to kill Lin Shize completely, he found that behind him, the stink bug that he could crush to death with one foot had turned into a ferocious and cruel tiger!

Shangguan Hongyuan, aware of the danger, finally chose to give up on solving his old rival and instead deal with the threat from behind. He did not want to give the Fengwu Army any chance to develop. However, he ultimately failed, allowing the wolf cub Ye Mingsheng to become completely powerful... Whenever Shangguan Hongyuan thought of this, he was filled with infinite sighs and regretted why he could not see through Ye Mingsheng's wolf ambition earlier and cut him into pieces and grind him to ashes!

After calming down, Shangguan Hongyuan asked:
"What are Xu Zhaojie and Sun Liangyu communicating about?"

Seeing Shangguan Hongyuan asking this, Chen Jingyu gave a detailed introduction:

"Some time ago, Xu Zhaojie destroyed the Huainan family headed by the Cao family, causing chaos in various parts of Huainan. Therefore, there is news from Yijing that Ye Mingsheng intends to take advantage of this opportunity to interfere with the situation in Huainan by force. There is even news that Ye Mingsheng has ordered the First Army of the Fengwu Army stationed in Hebei and Henan, and the Fourth Army of the Fengwu Army stationed in Anqing to invade Huainan in two routes!"

"Xu Zhaojie's Zhennan Army has also been badly damaged since the defeat in Ji-Yu at the beginning of the year. Coupled with the covert interference of the Cao family and others, it has not recovered much. So Xu Zhaojie feels that the situation in Huainan is very dangerous, so he plans to borrow 30,000 troops from Sun Liangyu on the grounds that the lips and teeth are cold!"

Shangguan Hongyuan was a little surprised to hear the news and said:
"Sun Liangyu is a bastard who is notorious for not releasing his eagle until he sees the rabbit. How did Xu Zhaojie think of asking him for troops? Besides, does he have the bargaining chip to ask Sun Liangyu for troops now?"

Facing Shangguan Hongyuan's question, Chen Jingyu explained:
"Rumor has it that Xu Zhaojie was willing to pay Sun Liangyu one million taels of silver in order to borrow 30,000 soldiers..."

"One million taels of silver?"

Shangguan Hongyuan was also very surprised to hear this amount. Although Huainan under Xu Zhaojie's command was also one of the few prosperous places in Da Zhou, there had been many wars in Huainan in recent years. In addition, Xu Zhaojie's aggressive military policy had almost exhausted Huainan's foundation.

Besides, Xu Zhaojie was now recruiting soldiers on his own and was spending money on it. How could he possibly spend one million taels of silver to borrow soldiers from Sun Liangyu?

Is it payment in installments?
That's not very likely. Sun Liangyu is not a fool. If the payment is made in installments, Xu Zhaojie may agree now, but when Xu Zhaojie calms down, he will definitely not continue to pay. If he can't wait for the money, he may even have to wait for the Zhennan Army to arrive!
After thinking for a while, Shangguan Hongyuan thought of a possibility and asked Chen Jingyu:
"Did Lu Jianchao pay for it?"

In response to Shangguan Hongyuan's words, Chen Jingyu nodded slightly and said:

“We haven’t collected any evidence yet, but Xu Zhaojie definitely can’t come up with this one million taels of silver, so our Supervisory Department believes that this amount of silver is most likely from Jiangnan…”

Seeing that Chen Jingyu was certain of his thoughts, Shangguan Hongyuan stroked his white beard and suddenly asked:
"How is the construction of the firearms factory built by the Fengwu Army in Jiangnan going?"

Chen Jingyu thought for a moment and replied:

"It is said that it has already been put into production, but there is news that the Fengwu Army has kept some key components secret. Therefore, the firearms produced in Jiangnan are still far behind the genuine Fengwu Army firearms in terms of quality and speed. I heard that Lu Jianchao is very angry about this!"

Upon hearing this, Shangguan Hongyuan couldn't help but say:
"In that case, how do the firearms produced in Jiangnan compare to our Shenwu Gun and Zhengdong Cannon?"

Faced with this question, Chen Jingyu thought for a while and said:
"The Fengwu Army only transferred the technology of the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Weiyuan Gun to Jiangnan, and did not give them the technology of the Red Coat Cannon. However, Jiangnan also invested a lot of money and manpower in this area. It is said that a sample cannon has been produced, but the power and range are not ideal, and it has not achieved the expected effect!"

“However, in terms of the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Weiyuan Gun, after Jiangnan learned the technology from the Fengwu Army, the progress is still obvious. They should be stronger than our army…”

Although Chen Jingyu spoke very carefully, Shangguan Hongyuan was still a little unhappy when he heard that Jiangnan's fire guns and tiger squat cannons were better than his own, and he immediately said:

"I asked you to get the Fengwu Army's technology, but your Supervisory Department either couldn't get it or could only get part of it. Now that Jiangnan has the Fengwu Army's technology, Jingyu, think about getting it from them!"

"Yes!" Chen Jingyu bowed and replied:

After receiving Chen Jingyu's affirmative answer, Shangguan Hongyuan pondered for a while and ordered;

"Sun Liangyu, that bastard, said he wanted to ease the relationship with us, so why not give him this face? And we can assure him that if he lends troops to Xu Zhaojie, the court can guarantee that it will not take action against him!"

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Ye Mingsheng is a wolf cub with too much ambition. He wants to take a bite everywhere. Since he wants to take a bite in Huainan this time, the court should help Xu Zhaojie…”

(Does everyone want to see some minor character plots? A reader mentioned this yesterday, and I think it’s very constructive!)
(End of this chapter)