Chapter 789: Selfless!

Yijing, Ye Mansion

In the study, Ye Cheng handed the latest Huainan battle report to Ye Mingsheng and said with great joy:
“Sir, news has been sent over from the First Army and the Fourth Army. Both are progressing very smoothly. The First Army has captured Bozhou, and the Fourth Army has also captured Zhucheng. Here is the detailed battle report sent from the front…”

Ye Mingsheng took the battle report after hearing this. After reading the introduction in the report, he couldn't help but exclaimed:
"Zhang Meng is truly as good as his name suggests. He is a rare and powerful general!"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's praise, Ye Cheng also smiled and echoed;
"Your Excellency is right! Although Zhucheng is not big, the Zhennan Army has 3,000 garrisons, plus the recruited young and strong men, there are nearly 5,000 of them. Zhang Meng took Zhucheng in one day. The combat effectiveness of the Fourth Army should not be underestimated!"

Looking at the battle report in his hand, Ye Mingsheng could already imagine Zhang Meng's smug look on his face.

When the battle plan was being formulated, Zhang Meng was arguing with the General Staff Headquarters that he wanted to seize the lead attack of the First Army. When the General Staff Headquarters did not agree, he even brought the lawsuit to himself.

He took into consideration that the Fourth Army had only been established for less than a year, part of the troops were left in Qi and Lu, and they had to guard Anqing, so only more than 20,000 troops could be dispatched. Therefore, he insisted on the strategy of the General Staff. Now it seems that both the General Staff and himself have underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Fourth Army and his Zhang Meng's ability!
If Zhang Meng's rapid capture of Zhucheng was a pleasant surprise, then Ye Mingsheng's view was that the First Division under Ma Zhongjun captured Bozhou as a matter of course. As the top trump card division of the Fengwu Army, it was equipped with hundreds of cannons. The entire division was equipped with the most advanced Fengwu guns of the Fengwu Army. It should have been so unstoppable...
After hesitating for a while, Ye Mingsheng arrived. Seeing Ye Mingsheng's movements on the sand table in the study, Ye Cheng immediately quickly arranged the coordinates of Ma Zhongjun and Zhang Meng's troops on the sand table.

After observing the situation for a while, Ye Mingsheng locked his eyes on a place called Shunde on the sand table. It was a prefecture capital under the jurisdiction of Huainan and the gateway to Kangyin, the second largest city in Huainan. If Shunde was taken, he could go straight to Kangyin.

Although more than 20,000 people from the First Division and the Fourth Army were mobilized this time to attack Huainan together, to be honest, Ye Mingsheng did not expect to completely capture Shouchun and Huainan in this battle. After all, Shouchun had the natural barrier of the Nanjiang River. Although the Fengwu Army was good at land warfare, it knew nothing about naval warfare.

Therefore, Ye Mingsheng’s combat goal is to capture the Huainan land north of Nanjiang in this battle, and Kangyin is the top priority of this goal!

According to Ma Zhongjun's battle report, after the First Division took Bozhou and made some adjustments, it set out towards Shunde as planned. Zhang Meng of the Fourth Army also continued to advance southward as planned, trying to cut off the connection between Shunde and Kangyin, and ensure that the First Division would not be disturbed by any Zhennan Army during the attack on Shunde.

According to the intelligence sent by the Coordination Office, the Zhennan Army has about 7,000 garrisons in Shunde. In addition, Shunde, as the capital city, has a permanent population of tens of thousands. Therefore, if the Zhennan Army recruits young and strong men, it will not be difficult to gather 10,000 people to defend the city!

However, according to the intelligence from the Coordination Office, Shunde City is not a strong city, and its fortifications are not particularly complete. With the heavy siege artillery equipped to the First Division, it is not difficult to capture Shunde. The only suspense is how many days it will take to capture Shunde...

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng's expression became serious. In his opinion, in this Huainan battle, the resistance of the Zhennan Army was not the most critical factor in determining how far the Fengwu Army could advance. The biggest problem for the Fengwu Army was still logistical supply!

Although the Yunbing battle ended with the Fengwu Army conquering all the land, it lasted one and a half months longer than expected, which almost exhausted all the money and grain reserves of the Fengwu Army Center. The various departments of the center are now left with silver to maintain department operations and pay officials' salaries.

Therefore, the central government could not provide any money or food for the Huainan campaign, and supplies for the front line had to be raised locally in Hebei, Henan and Anqing.

Although Ye Mingsheng has ordered Qi and Lu to help raise money and food, it is still unknown how much they can raise. According to some predictions from the General Staff and the Finance Department, the Fengwu Army can only hold out for half a month at most in the Battle of Huainan.

In half a month, the Fengwu Army’s offensive may be unsustainable!
Therefore, the Fengwu Army at this time can be said to be racing against time, trying to capture Kangyin within half a month and complete the set goals of this operation!

Therefore, although the current situation is very good, we still cannot relax. Moreover, based on Ye Mingsheng's understanding of Xu Zhaojie, he will never accept failure like this. If he successfully captures Kangyin this time, the destruction of the Zhennan Army will almost be inevitable. Xu Zhaojie will definitely struggle and try to do something...

Although he was still a little worried, Ye Mingsheng also understood that he was thousands of miles away, and even if there were any changes on the front line, he could do nothing. So the only thing he could do was to trust the generals under his command!

After thinking this through, Ye Mingsheng slowly exhaled, then asked Ye Cheng:
"Is it Gu Sansi who will come to report later?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Ye Cheng, who was in charge of Ye Mingsheng's schedule, thought quickly and said:
"Yes! According to Master Gu's custom, he should be waiting now!"

Ye Mingsheng knew that Gu Sansi was a very punctual person. Every time he came to report on his work, he would come an incense stick of time in advance, so he also instructed:

"Go and see if Gu Sansi has arrived. If he has, let him come in now!"

"Yes!"

After half a cup of tea, Gu Sansi walked into the study and greeted Ye Mingsheng:

"Your Highness, I have seen you!"

Ye Mingsheng waved his hand to signal him to stand up, then threw the battle report that Huainan had just sent to Gu Sansi and said:
"Huainan just sent it, think twice before you read it!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Mingsheng looked at Gu Sansi with an amusing expression. Gu Sansi had been a very firm opponent of the Huainan campaign this time. He believed that the Fengwu Army had finally ended the Yunbing campaign, and now it was the time to recuperate and accumulate strength, instead of mobilizing troops to launch a new war against Huainan... Ye Mingsheng also understood what Gu Sansi said. To be honest, the battle of Huainan was not in his plan. But no one expected that Xu Zhaojie was so courageous that he directly wiped out the big families in Huainan headed by the Cao family, causing large-scale unrest in Huainan.

Although this unrest seemed to be very serious and had brought great trouble to Xu Zhaojie, after fighting with Xu Zhaojie for so many years, Ye Mingsheng knew that if he did not rush up to kill him at this time, then with Xu Zhaojie's ability, he would be able to deal with the unrest in Huainan quickly. By then, without the interference and constraints of the Cao family, Xu Zhaojie would be able to develop fully in Huainan.

Huainan is one of the few wealthy places in the world. If Xu Zhaojie can give them full operation, then Xu Zhaojie and the Zhennan Army will have a great chance of taking off!
This is something Ye Mingsheng cannot accept, so he wants to send a large army to the border at this time to cut off Xu Zhaojie's wings and make him trapped in his own web!

Gu Sansi strongly disagreed with Ye Mingsheng's idea. He believed that it would be difficult for Xu Zhaojie to clean up the mess, and the Fengwu Army should rely on itself. As long as it developed strong enough, even if Xu Zhaojie had wings, the Fengwu Army would be able to pull him back to the ground!
After a debate, neither Ye Mingsheng nor Gu Sansi could convince the other, but Ye Mingsheng had made up his mind, so he asked Gu Sansi to reserve his opinion and he made the decision to send troops directly.

Although he did not agree with Ye Mingsheng's decision to send troops to Huainan, as Ye Mingsheng's minister, Gu Sansi was still very diligent and tried his best to raise food and money for logistics...
Looking at the report of the victory in the first battle, Gu Sansi fell silent under Ye Mingsheng's gaze. Seeing his trusted adviser like this, Ye Mingsheng smiled and shook his head, and then did not tease him but asked:
"Think carefully, what do you have to report today?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Gu Sansi calmed down and said:
"Sir, the underground gambling dens and money houses have been on the offensive recently. The Censorate has arrested a lot of these criminals recently. The owner of the old-fashioned restaurant Yu De Fu in Yijing lost 3,000 taels of silver in the illegal gambling dens. Although he later used 7,000 taels of silver to fill the hole, he still owed 10,000 taels of silver after two months of compounding interest!"

"Now those illegal gambling dens are actually trying to take over Yu Defu's restaurant! Your Excellency, according to the decree issued by the Chief Secretary, the law does not support loans with an annual interest rate of more than 30%. And now these loan sharks are asking for interest several times the principal in just a few months. They are really too crazy!"

"Yu Defu's case is not an isolated one. The Censorate has received more than a dozen reports of this kind this month, and many families have been ruined and their children have been sold."

“Sir, I think that given the current situation, it is necessary to conduct a new round of purges and inspections to investigate and punish these illegal gambling dens and black money houses. It is also very necessary to uncover the backers and protectors of these people…”

After hearing what Gu Sansi said, Ye Mingsheng became serious. He pondered for a moment and asked:
"Think carefully, from what you said, it seems that you have found out who their backers and protectors are?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Gu Sansi shook his head and said seriously:

"Your Excellency, I am following the clues to investigate, but the amount I have found so far has exceeded 100,000 taels. With such a large amount, I think they must have a protective umbrella and a backer, otherwise they would not dare to be so rampant!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly after hearing this, and then instructed Gu Sansi:

"If that's the case, then let you, Sansi, and the Censor investigate this matter together and get to the bottom of it!"

"No matter who is involved in this matter, I will never tolerate it and will deal with it seriously!"

After getting Ye Mingsheng's approval, Gu Sansi's eyes suddenly flashed. He knew that this matter involved a huge amount of money, and the more he investigated, the more resistance he would encounter. Therefore, he came to report to Ye Mingsheng and get Ye Mingsheng's support before he could continue the investigation smoothly.

"Thank you for your trust, sir! I will definitely live up to your expectations!" Gu Sansi bowed to Ye Mingsheng with a firm expression and said:
Unlike most officials, Gu Sansi is an idealist. Like Ye Mingsheng, he dreams of establishing a peaceful and prosperous era where all nations come to pay tribute and seek welfare for the people for all eternity. Therefore, although he knows that doing so will offend many people, for the sake of his ideals, he will risk his life regardless of the dangers of thousands of people...

After getting what he wanted from Ye Mingsheng, Gu Sansi was ready to leave with full confidence, but Ye Mingsheng stopped him and asked calmly:
"Think carefully, I heard that you went to the Governor's Office some time ago to ask Governor Cui a question?"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng mention this, Gu Sansi was stunned at first, as if he did not expect Ye Mingsheng to ask this. He met with Cui Shao alone to discuss this matter. After the discussion, he did not mention it to anyone. In his opinion, Cui Shao would not tell anyone about this matter, so he was a little confused as to how Ye Mingsheng knew about this!
Although he was very confused, under Ye Mingsheng's gaze, Gu Sansi thought quickly for a moment and finally chose to tell him everything:

"Yes, I have a question for you, Master Cui!"

Hearing Gu Sansi's answer, Ye Mingsheng nodded with satisfaction. He knew that he was not wrong about Gu Sansi. In his team, although Cui Shao and Murong Yuliang were fighting for power, there were still selfless people!

After pondering for a moment, Ye Mingsheng asked Gu Sansi:
"Think carefully, what do you think of Cui Shao and Murong Yuliang?"

Seeing Ye Mingsheng asking this, Gu Sansi was suddenly shocked. He didn't know what Ye Mingsheng meant. He looked at Ye Mingsheng's expression carefully, trying to get some clues from Ye Mingsheng's expression. However, to his disappointment, Ye Mingsheng's expression remained calm and he couldn't see anything.

Seeing this, Gu Sansi had no choice but to give up and began to seriously ponder Ye Mingsheng's idea. Ye Mingsheng said to Gu Sansi who was thinking:

"Don't be in a hurry, think about it carefully and tell me the answer later!"

“But Sansi, you also know that I don’t like to hear meaningless clichés and polite words. What I want to hear is your sincere words from the bottom of your heart…”

(I took a look at Argentina so I was a little late! I have to say that West Asians are still quite capable!)

(End of this chapter)