Chapter 923 Untitled!

At night, Ye Mingsheng fell asleep beside Murong Qingwu in the Ye Mansion, feeling a little tired.

During the day today, he first dealt with matters concerning settling down, and then began to deal with some matters concerning the locust plagues in various provinces.

For some reason, the locust plague this year was much more serious than in previous years. At first, it only appeared in Qingzhou, Qi and Lu, so Ye Mingsheng asked the Qi and Lu Provincial Government to deal with it.

But soon the locust plague showed a trend of spreading, from Qingzhou to the whole of Qi and Lu, and from Qi and Lu to Hebei, Henan, Jingchu and other areas.

This year is the year when the Fengwu Army launched a large-scale war, so many laborers went to fight. The young and middle-aged laborers in the fields are not very abundant, so the task of maintaining grain production is very difficult.

In such a situation, a locust plague occurred, which undoubtedly made the situation worse, so Ye Mingsheng also attached great importance to it. During this period, in addition to solving the problem of attacking Wei Pass, Ye Mingsheng also organized various meetings to discuss with officials from the Government Affairs Bureau and other departments how to solve the problem of the locust plague.

Through these meetings, Ye Mingsheng mainly learned that there are two major difficulties in dealing with locust plagues among the people!
First of all, a few people deified the locust plague, believing that locusts were a punishment from God to the rulers. Not only could they not be killed, but they were allowed to destroy crops.

The second point is that the public lacks effective methods and technologies to kill locusts. Ordinary people do not know how to kill locusts, and often spend a lot of effort to kill locusts but with little effect.
In response to these two major pain points, Ye Mingsheng discussed with officials and came up with solutions.

First, the central government and local provincial governments jointly sent officials to various places to carry out propaganda, so that the people would abandon their misconceptions about locusts, and issued locust extermination laws to reward people who actively exterminated locusts.

If you kill a certain number of locusts, you can exchange them for various prizes including tax benefits, food, meat, cloth, etc. at local government offices.

The second is to recruit experts in catching and killing locusts from all over the country, and have them go to various regions to publicize their experience in killing locusts, so that people from all over the country can better kill locusts.

After the meeting on the locust plague, it was already evening. Ye Mingsheng went straight to meet Murong Yuliang and hosted a family dinner in his mansion to entertain Murong Yuliang. He also invited Ye Cui, Murong Qingwu and Xiao Kexin to attend the banquet, which made Murong Yuliang feel flattered!
During the dinner, Ye Mingsheng also talked about family affection with Murong Yuliang, and expressed that he had long heard of Murong Lun's great name, and that the Fengwu military regime lacked a minister with the experience and outstanding talents like Murong Lun.

Therefore, if Murong Lun is willing to join the Fengwu Army, Ye Mingsheng will be very happy and say that everything can be discussed.

Murong Yuliang was also very pleased with Ye Mingsheng’s attitude, and immediately expressed that he would communicate well with Murong Lun and try his best to make Murong Lun abandon evil and join the light...

The meal was a great pleasure for both the host and the guests, and everyone was very happy. After the banquet, Ye Mingsheng stayed overnight at Murong Qingwu's place.

Because Ye Mingsheng hadn't rested that day, he wanted to have a good sleep at night to save energy for working tomorrow.

However, seeing Ye Mingsheng like this, Murong Qingwu was not happy. Although she had the best family background among Ye Mingsheng's wives and concubines, and she was also beautiful and talented, Ye Mingsheng did not dote on her very much.

In the past month, Ye Mingsheng has been resting alone in the study for about seven or eight days, spending five or six days with An Miaoyi, and five or six days with Pei Zhixiu. The remaining ten days or so are allocated to other female members of the family.

Ye Mingsheng usually only spends one or two days with Murong Qingwu every month. Before today, Ye Mingsheng hadn't come to spend the night with her for nearly twenty days, which made Murong Qingwu feel helpless and puzzled.

Didn’t An Miaoyi say before that she was Ye Mingsheng’s dream lover, and that she even hid her own portrait in the early days so that she could meet him in her dreams?

Why is it like this now that I got it?

Does this mean that domestic flowers are not as fragrant as wild flowers, so we shouldn’t cherish them once we get them?

Looking at Ye Mingsheng who fell asleep and snored loudly, Murong Qingwu felt very resentful. After hesitating for a while, she came up with a good idea...
Murong Qingwu knew that Ye Mingsheng doted on his daughter very much, so she let Xiao Kexin come to Ye Mingsheng's side.

Although little Ke Xin is relatively quiet by nature, she becomes playful when she sees her father so close by. She either pinches Ye Mingsheng's nose, pulls Ye Mingsheng's ears, or even opens Ye Mingsheng's mouth and curiously touches his teeth.

With this method, Ye Mingsheng was soon awakened from his sleep. Although he was a little annoyed about being disturbed, looking at his daughter's happy smile in front of him, Ye Mingsheng also realized that he was busy with work during this period and was lacking in accompanying his child's growth. The anger in his heart gradually dissipated and he began to play some small games with Xiao Kexin.

Looking at Ye Mingsheng who had just woken up, Murong Qingwu, the instigator of all this, was also laughing secretly. Then she started to wash and dress up. Murong Qingwu was a beauty in herself, and after giving birth to a child, she even had more charm as a married woman.

Murong Qingwu snuggled up to Ye Mingsheng, and her faint body fragrance drifted into Ye Mingsheng's nose. Although he was very tired, facing such temptation, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but cheer up, and his eyes looked at the graceful curves intentionally or unintentionally.

It was getting dark and little Ke Xin was a little tired from playing. She was taken back to her room by the nanny. Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng became more and more fearful. While Murong Qingwu begged for mercy, the maids shyly closed the door.

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Jiangnan, Chishan Prefecture
"Kill! The Governor has issued an order that whoever kills the bandit Xu will be rewarded with 10,000 taels of silver!" "Brothers, charge! The moment of achievement is just around the corner!"

"Anyone who climbs up the city wall will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver! Ten taels of silver for each enemy head! Brothers, let's fight for wealth and honor at the risk of our lives!"

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Under the temptation of silver, countless Jiangnan Army soldiers raised their shields and charged towards the Chishan Prefecture City in front of them, facing the bullets and arrows from the Zhennan Army soldiers on the city wall.

At the same time, Xu Zhaojie, the "Xu thief" who was rewarded with 10,000 taels of silver, also came to the city wall. His appearance undoubtedly boosted the morale of the Zhennan Army soldiers who were resisting, and gave them more motivation and courage to resist the attack from the Jiangnan Army.

Although not like Ye Mingsheng who intentionally deified himself in the army to strengthen his control over the army, Xu Zhaojie had accumulated a very high prestige in the Zhennan Army through his repeated victories.
Although they suffered several defeats in a row at the hands of the Fengwu Army and were beaten into a miserable state, in the hearts of the vast majority of the Zhennan Army soldiers, the appearance of Xu Zhaojie meant victory!

Even though they were surrounded by the Jiangnan Army in Chishan Prefecture at this time, they were still willing to believe that their Lord Xu would lead them to victory and fulfill his promise of conquering Jiangnan and having fertile fields and beautiful concubines!

Surrounded by many guards, Xu Zhaojie calmly swept his gaze across the battlefield, thinking about the situation at hand.

A month has passed since the last retreat from Chizhou. Lu Yun and Gao Cheng, the general of the Jiangnan Army who came to support, have joined forces.

After a short rest, Lu Yun and Gao Cheng led their troops towards Chishan Prefecture. Xu Zhaojie also ambushed their vanguard at this time and killed more than 3,000 Jiangnan soldiers, which restored some of the morale lost in the retreat from Chizhou...
But unfortunately, Lu Yun and Gao Cheng had more than 50,000 soldiers and horses under their command, and the loss of 3,000 people was not a big blow to them, so they still marched to the city of Chishan Prefecture in a mighty manner.

At this time, the Zhennan Army under Xu Zhaojie's command had been reduced to less than 20,000 people from the initial 30,000 people, and this was not the worst!
The navy of the Jiangnan Army has completely blocked the Nanjiang River, and the navy of the Zhennan Army in Shouchun has average combat effectiveness and cannot break through the blockade of the Jiangnan Army at all. This means that Xu Zhaojie and the Zhennan Army soldiers of Chishan Prefecture have become pawns crossing the river with no way to retreat!
There are only two endings for them now. The first ending is a complete defeat in Jiangnan, and the second ending is a bloody battle in Jiangnan.

Under these two fatal conditions, with the retreat route cut off and nearly one-third of the casualties, if it weren't for Xu Zhaojie's presence still supporting the army, the Zhennan Army would probably have collapsed long ago!

Now, the only good news for Xu Zhaojie and the soldiers of Zhennan Army is that Jiangnan is indeed a land of fish and rice and very prosperous!
At Xu Zhaojie's order, Chishan Prefecture was forced to enter wartime control, which meant that Xu Zhaojie could forcibly requisition money and grain from all the gentry and people in Chishan Prefecture.

Under the glaring swords and guns of the Zhennan Army, the gentry and common people of Chishan Prefecture voluntarily handed over their money and grain to the Zhennan Army, which helped the Zhennan Army solve the problem of money and grain supply·······························
The Zhennan Army's siege lasted for more than an hour. Although they were given a lot of silver, the capabilities of the Jiangnan Army were really limited. They took great effort to attack the city walls of Chishan Prefecture several times, but were easily repelled by the Zhennan Army every time.

After seeing several failed sieges, the morale of the soldiers was very low. Although Lu Yun, the commander-in-chief, was very angry, he also knew that continuing to force the siege would not only fail to capture Chishan Prefecture, but would only cause more casualties.

In desperation, Lu Yun with a livid face could only signal his men to call back the troops. As the soldiers of the Jiangnan Army retreated like the sea, the Zhennan Army on the wall of Chishan Prefecture suddenly burst into thunderous cheers!
Seeing that the army's morale was high, Xu Zhaojie stood up and gave a speech, saying something like, "Brothers, you fought very bravely and fearlessly. I, Xu Zhaojie, am proud of you. We are at the dawn of victory. As long as we persist, we will win. Everyone, hold on and don't be discouraged."

After giving the soldiers a pep talk and drawing a big, round pie for them, Xu Zhaojie also took out a lot of gold and silver that he had looted from the gentry and people of Chishan Prefecture and divided it among the soldiers of the Zhennan Army.

If Xu Zhaojie's speech just now was just empty talk that was attractive but not so touching.

At this moment, these boxes of dazzling gold, silver and jewels made everyone very excited. Everyone was willing to believe that continuing to follow Xu Zhaojie would give them a bright future...

After returning to his mansion in the city, Xu Zhaojie called over Lieutenant General Xu Yong and asked:

"How much gunpowder and bullets are left in the city now?"

Facing Xu Zhaojie's question, Xu Yong said with great concern:

"My Lord, although we carried a large amount of gunpowder and bullets when we crossed the river, there is not much left after the war these days. We still have about 800 kilograms of gunpowder and more than 3,000 bullets. At the current intensity of the war, we can only hold out for ten days at most!"

Hearing this, Xu Zhaojie's expression became more serious. Although he knew that there wouldn't be much left, he was still shocked by what Xu Yong reported.

At this moment, Xu Yong gritted his teeth and continued to preach:

"My Lord, rolling stones and wooden beams are easy to deal with. We can just tear down the houses near the city wall and use them. But we don't have many arrows left. We only have more than 5,000 arrows left. Besides that, we don't have much medicine or hemostatic drugs to treat our brothers' injuries!"

Xu Zhaojie felt even more depressed after listening to Xu Yong's words. He knew that once these supplies were used up, the Chishan City would be breached soon!
Thinking of this, a self-deprecating smile appeared on Xu Zhaojie's face involuntarily. He had thought that one day he would die in the Fengwu Army, at the hands of Ye Mingsheng, but he had never thought that one day he might die in this Chishan Prefecture, at the hands of Lu Jianchao, whom he had always looked down upon!

Although he was in a very bitter mood, Xu Zhaojie was still the once powerful Marquis Zhenyuan of the Great Zhou Dynasty. He quickly adjusted his state and calmed down to think!
Xu Zhaojie knew that he couldn’t wait until these supplies were used up before taking action. These supplies were his last capital, and he had to risk his life as soon as possible...

(End of this chapter)