Chapter 801: A dramatic change in Jingchu! (Thanks to the book friend 28290 for the reward!)

Yi Jing, Fengwu Army General Staff
As Ye Mingsheng walked into the conference room, all the senior generals of the Fengwu Army in the conference room bowed and saluted. Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly and sat on the main seat...

After looking around at all the generals in the room and seeing that everyone who was supposed to come had arrived, Ye Mingsheng looked at Zhao Han standing in the first row and said:

"Let the meeting begin!"

"Yes!"

Zhao Han, the deputy chief of the general staff, received Ye Mingsheng's order and immediately took the command pole and came to the sand table to introduce:
"Commander, my colleagues, according to the news sent by the Coordination Office from Huainan and Jingchu an hour ago, the situation in these two places has undergone earth-shaking changes!"

At this point, Zhao Han said with great hatred:
"Xu Zhaojie is really a cunning guy. He played a trick under the nose of the First Division!"

"He used the heavy rain in Sanlinyuan to delay the First Division, and he led his troops to abandon Shunde and all the baggage, and returned to the south bank of the Nanjiang River by boat with light equipment. In addition, Hou Zhen of the Chu Army died unexpectedly in the battle with our Fourth Army. Currently, his deputy general Zhao Wendong's men have taken over the 30,000 Chu troops. He blamed our army for Hou Zhen's death!"

"As for the Jingchu side, it is rumored that Sun Liangyu suddenly fell seriously ill and his life or death is unknown. Hanyang has been taken over by his eldest son Sun Chenggong! And the Chu army general Wang Dayu is said to have hidden in the stone hill next to Hanyang!"

“The Coordination Office believes that the trigger for this situation is that Sun Liangyu’s health has deteriorated. So in order to allow Sun to take over Jingchu smoothly, and also to prevent him from becoming too successful, he plans to get rid of Wang Dayou, a veteran general of the Chu army…”

"In addition to preparing to get rid of Wang Daou, Sun Liangyu also planned to hand over Lin Shize's family to the Luo'an court in order to let Sun Chenggong take over, so as to ease the relationship with the Luo'an court and reduce external pressure. Sun Liangyu has been secretly operating this matter in recent months, but the news of this matter still leaked out and was known by Lin Shize!"

"Lin Shize was unwilling to surrender, so he revealed the news to Wang Dayu. After discussing it, they decided to strike first!"

"In order to deal with Sun Liangyu, they also contacted Xu Zhaojie and used our army's attack on Huainan as an opportunity to persuade Sun Liangyu to send 30,000 Chu troops to Huainan to participate in the war. They took the opportunity to take over the military power of the 30,000 Chu troops, and finally poisoned Sun Liangyu, and returned to Jingchu with Xu Zhaojie to defeat Sun Chenggong, whose regime was not stable!"

"So from this point of view, after Xu Zhaojie's planned ambush in Kangyin failed, he did not intend to compete with our army to retake Kangyin!"

"The reason why he challenged our army to a duel is that he is worried that once he leads his troops north to Jingchu, our army will take the opportunity to attack him from behind. So he wants to use Sanlinyuan to challenge our army to a duel, to attract our attention and to cover his march north to Jingchu. At the same time, it is also a way to consume the First Division's limited supplies!"

After hearing Zhao Han's analysis, Ye Mingsheng felt quite emotional. This bastard Xu Zhaojie was really difficult to deal with. As long as he saw an opportunity, he would pounce on him like a hungry wolf seeing meat...

Lin Shize, this bastard, really deserves to be the Prime Minister who has been in charge of the Great Zhou for more than ten years. He is really cunning and can even make things happen with a wave of his hands even after the person is dead!

In order to protect his entire family from being sacrificed by Sun Liangyu, he used a trick of driving the tiger to devour the wolf to create civil strife in Jingchu, giving Xu Zhaojie a chance to swallow up Jingchu. However, under his successive attacks, Xu Zhaojie, who was already on the verge of death, naturally would not miss such an opportunity to make a comeback!

If he could take over Jingchu, he would have the capital to continue fighting with me. Otherwise, with only half of Huainan left, his life would be in countdown.

Although he gave Xu Zhaojie a chance, Lin Shize was not optimistic about Xu Zhaojie, so before he died, he arranged for his family to find him and told him all his ideas. He planned to let the Fengwu Army take advantage of the confrontation between Xu Zhaojie, Wang Dayu and Sun Chenggong to take over Jingchu, and use this as a token of their Lin family's allegiance to the Fengwu Army!
It has to be said that Lin Shize's plan was very good, but the only pity was that he did not expect that after the Battle of Yunbing and the invasion of Huainan, the Fengwu Army no longer had any financial resources left, and was simply not enough to support another major war to capture Jingchu!
Although Ye Mingsheng felt it was a pity when he thought of this, he was also somewhat helpless. He was not a god and it was impossible for him to predict everything.

The Fengwu Army is now exhausted. If they want to launch an invasion of Jingchu, they have to wait until at least after the spring plowing tomorrow...
Just when Ye Mingsheng was secretly feeling regretful, after Zhao Han finished his introduction in the conference room, a young staff officer stood up and said:
"Marshal, based on the current situation in Jingchu and Huainan, I think we should provide Sun Chenggong with a batch of firearms!"

Ye Mingsheng was a little surprised when he heard this, and immediately looked at the young staff officer. Looking at his young face, Ye Mingsheng felt familiar, but he couldn't remember his name. At this time, Ye Cheng introduced him in a low voice:

"Sir, his name is Shen Hao. He is a second-class staff officer of the General Staff and has made contributions in the Battle of Hebei and Henan!"

After hearing Ye Cheng's introduction, Ye Mingsheng suddenly realized what was going on. At this moment, Luo Gang, the first-class staff officer of the General Staff, stood up and refuted:
"Sun Liangyu and Sun Chenggong have surrendered to the Luoan court and even accepted rewards from the Luoan court. How can our army sell firearms to them?"

Facing Luo Gang's rebuttal, Shen Hao remained calm and replied:

“The Marshal once said that there are no eternal friends, nor eternal enemies, only eternal interests. I deeply agree with this. I think the reason why the Sun father and son did not really intend to be loyal to the Luoan court is that they just wanted to improve the antagonistic relationship with the Luoan court…”

"Although I don't know the specific situation of Sun Liangyu yet, I think he is very likely dead now, and Sun Chenggong is keeping his death a secret!"

"Wang Dayou is a veteran general of the Chu army. He has a strong appeal in the Chu army. If he and Xu Zhaojie join forces, Sun Chenggong will most likely not be their opponent. Xu Zhaojie is a man with evil ambitions. He will definitely not share Jingchu with Wang Dayou. After defeating Sun Chenggong, he will definitely attack Wang Dayou."

"Our army cannot accept Xu Zhaojie taking over Jingchu, so I think our army should sell firearms to Sun Chenggong so that he will not be quickly defeated by Xu Zhaojie and Wang Dayu!"

"My Fengwu Army is now exhausted and powerless. At this critical moment, we are completely unable to intervene in the situation in Jingchu. Therefore, it is in the interests of our army to keep Jingchu in chaos. What we need to do is to keep Jingchu in this chaos. After the beginning of next spring, we can regroup and take down Jingchu in one battle!"

After hearing Shen Hao's idea, Luo Gang opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but finally chose to shut it. He was good at planning specific battles rather than macro strategies.

After convincing Luo Gang, Shen Hao looked at Ye Mingsheng very confidently. He believed that his ideas were completely in line with the interests of the Fengwu Army and the Marshal would definitely support his point of view.

Under Shen Hao's gaze, Ye Mingsheng thought for a moment but did not make up his mind. Instead, he announced the end of the meeting.

In Ye Mingsheng's opinion, Shen Hao's suggestion was indeed a good choice, but Ye Mingsheng felt that the gamble had just begun and there was no need for him to place a bet so early, so Ye Mingsheng wanted to observe and then decide what to do next!
In addition, the Fengwu Army does not only have the trick of selling firearms to his opponents to contain Xu Zhaojie. Although the Fengwu Army cannot launch a large-scale war now, it is no problem to dispatch two or three thousand cavalry to cause damage to Xu Zhaojie's rear...
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While Ye Mingsheng was attending a meeting at the General Staff Headquarters, the Governor's Office was also experiencing a turmoil. Nanny Wang from the General Affairs Department of the Governor's Office handed a thick account book to Pei Zhixiu and said respectfully:
"Mrs. Pei, the mansion spent 985 taels of silver last month. Here is last month's account book for you to take a look at!"

After hearing what Nanny Wang said, Pei Zhixiu did not take the account book immediately, but looked at the Nanny Wang in front of her. Although she lowered her head and looked very respectful, Pei Zhixiu could feel that this Nanny, who was An Miaoyi's confidant, was very disdainful of her in her heart.

She thought she couldn't understand the account book at all and could just muddle through it to get by!

Thinking of this, Pei Zhixiu said lightly:
"Put the account book here. I'll take it back and take a closer look. Nanny Wang, can you tell me what the biggest expense in the mansion was last month?"

Hearing Pei Zhixiu's order, Nanny Wang seemed a little surprised, but she quickly recovered and said:
"In reply to Madam Pei, the biggest expense in the mansion is the allowances for the wives of the various courtyards and the servants. This accounts for about half of the total expenses, which is 550 taels of silver!"

"Apart from the regular allowance, the biggest expense in the mansion is food. Every day the kitchen purchases fresh vegetables, chicken, duck, fish and meat from special channels. Last month, we spent a total of 270 taels of silver..."

"In addition to the regular money and food, the reception and farewell in the mansion every month, as well as the repairs of the house, all cost a lot of silver. All these together cost more than one hundred taels of silver, and the rest are just miscellaneous miscellaneous expenses!"

Pei Zhixiu nodded slightly and said:

"How many servants are there in the mansion?"

Upon hearing this question, Nanny Wang was stunned for a moment, then hesitated for a moment and said:
"There should be two or three hundred people. I haven't calculated the exact number yet!"

Pei Zhixiu didn't care and continued to ask:

"Does the Internal Guard and the Imperial Guard keep records of every ingredient that comes into the palace every day?"

Although she didn't know what Pei Zhixiu meant by asking this, Nanny Wang still nodded honestly and said:
"Yes! To ensure safety, everything is recorded!"

After getting this answer, Pei Zhixiu asked again:

"The expenditure account is here, but where is the monthly income of the Governor's Office?"

Nanny Wang did not hesitate at all and answered without hesitation:
"The expenses are accounted for by this old servant, and the income is accounted for by the Madam!"

Hearing this answer, Pei Zhixiu's eyes flashed with a barely perceptible strange color, and then nodded and said:
"I roughly know the situation. I'll give you the account book in a few days!"

After hearing this, Nanny Wang seemed to want to say something, but in the end she just said:
"Understood, Mrs. Pei!"

Pei Zhixiu got up and left after picking up the account book. Looking at Pei Zhixiu's leaving back, Wang Ma's eyes showed some worry. Although she was very confident in her account book and believed that Pei Zhixiu would definitely not find any problems, but feeling Pei Zhixiu's calmness, she felt a little worried for no reason in her heart································

At this moment, a slender beauty walked into the room. When she saw Nanny Wang, she asked directly:
"Did you give her the account book?"

Hearing this, Nanny Wang quickly came to her senses and said:
"Yes, the account book has been given to her! But Miss Qiqige, I'm still a little worried."

Upon hearing this, Qiqige glanced at Nanny Wang and said:

"What are you afraid of?"

"Do you really think that just because the Lord has given her the power to assist in the affairs of the palace, she can turn the world upside down?"

Sensing the displeasure in Qiqige's words, Nanny Wang quickly said:
"Miss Qiqige, you misunderstood. I was promoted by the Madam, and I only have the Madam in my heart!"

"Although Pei Zhixiu is favored by the Marshal, she is just a concubine who was born as a female doctor. She is like the Monkey King. No matter how powerful she is, how can she climb over the Five Finger Mountain of Tathagata Buddha?"

After hearing what Nanny Wang said, Qiqige nodded in satisfaction and said:

"Just be aware of this! Bring me this month's money!"

When Qiqige mentioned this, Nanny Wang respectfully took out a silver note worth fifty taels of silver from her bosom and handed it over. Only after Qiqige received this did a slight smile appear on her face.

After receiving the silver, Qiqige said:
"Send the money over here next month, don't wait for me to come to you!"

Nanny Wang said with a smile:
“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I will deliver it to you early next month…”

(Today's chapter fills in the gaps left by the past few chapters. I hope everyone will be satisfied. I saw some book friends suggested writing more about Pei Zhixiu. What do you think?)
(End of this chapter)