Chapter 971 Not much worse than Brother Jingxuan!
Just when Liu Zhi realized Ye Mingsheng’s idea, Ye Mingsheng also looked at Liu Zhi······················

After Guo Zhiping and Ye Fu left one after another, Liu Zhi, general of the 13th Division, became the only remaining senior general around Ye Mingsheng. So before making an important decision, Ye Mingsheng wanted to hear his opinion!

Under Ye Mingsheng's gaze, Liu Zhi felt very conflicted. He knew what answer Ye Mingsheng wanted.

If I give the answer that the Marshal wants, then I will undoubtedly be appreciated by the Marshal and may even be given an important task!

From a purely military perspective, now is indeed a good opportunity. If we send troops to fight at this time, it is not impossible to completely defeat the enemy!
But although the enemy is at a disadvantage now, it has not reached the point of desperation and still retains the ability to fight to the last. The Fengwu Army is not sure of victory. With the combat effectiveness of the Cuman Tiger Division, as long as they seize an opportunity, they may be able to turn the tables with their strong combat power.

Liu Zhi believed that the probability of both sides winning the decisive battle was 50-50. The Fengwu Army had a slight advantage by virtue of being well-rested, but the chance was at most 60-40.

The outcome of the decisive battle between the two sides is very open. It is possible that anyone will win or lose. No one knows what will happen...

If the Fengwu Army wins, everything will be fine. They can settle the score with the Cumans for the massacre. It is even possible to keep the Cuman Khan, Estjan.
However, once the war is lost, the current good situation will be wasted, and the Fengwu Army will once again fall into a very passive situation. If it were just like this, it would be fine. After all, there is no such thing as war. If you don't want to take any risks, you might as well go home to your wife and children!
But the problem now is that the Marshal is in the army. If the battle is defeated, it may affect the Marshal's life safety, and this is something Liu Zhi must carefully consider!
If the Marshal was not in Dagu County at this time, but in Yijing, Liu Zhi would try to send troops without hesitation, thinking of whether he could keep Asdogan and establish this unprecedented feat for the Fengwu Army. As long as this was accomplished, Liu Zhi would undoubtedly go down in history and be praised by future generations!

But after all, the Marshal is here now, so he must put the Marshal's safety first and consider the overall situation of the Fengwu Army. So facing this 50-50 situation, he is a little hesitant to act freely!

Therefore, even though he knew what answer the Marshal wanted to hear, Liu Zhi still stood up and said:
“Your Excellency, I think what Commander Li said is very true. Although the enemy has suffered successive defeats and their morale is low, their main force is still there and should not be underestimated. Our army should still seek stability and not compete with the enemy for a short period of time, but should erode the enemy step by step…”

Ye Mingsheng was very disappointed when he heard Liu Zhi's words. He didn't know why the generals under his command didn't even have the courage to fight a decisive battle with the enemy?

As the saying goes, when two brave men meet in a narrow road, the brave one wins. Now that the enemy has shown signs of decline, it is time for the Fengwu Army to take advantage of the victory and pursue them!

After Liu Zhi finished speaking, he also quietly observed Ye Mingsheng's expression, trying to see some clues from Ye Mingsheng's expression.

Therefore, although Ye Mingsheng concealed his emotions very well, Liu Zhi could still feel Ye Mingsheng's disappointment and confusion from some subtle changes in his expression!
Liu Zhi knew that although the Marshal's idea did not have the support of the soldiers, given the Marshal's character, he would definitely not give up. Thinking of this, he came up with a plan and said:
"General, since Lord Guo has returned with his troops, why don't we let Lord Guo's troops test the strength of the Cumans? If things go well, we will go out to fight them. If things don't go well, we can make long-term plans."

Although Ye Mingsheng was still somewhat dissatisfied with Liu Zhi's idea, he felt that his subordinates were still too conservative.

However, seeing that all the generals did not support going out of the city to fight, Ye Mingsheng thought deeply for a while and could only follow the advice and make the next best choice, letting Guo Zhiping go to test the waters first to see what the situation was like. He then gave the order:

“Send a message to Guo Zhiping to harass the Cumans from both wings. I don’t ask him to take a lot of enemy heads, but I want him to consume the enemy’s morale and supplies as much as possible…”

"Yes!"

Following Ye Mingsheng's order, all the soldiers responded in unison. Ye Mingsheng glanced at Liu Zhi, who looked respectful, and announced the end of the meeting, asking all the generals to return to their respective bases.

After the meeting, Ye Mingsheng returned to his study. Looking at the sand table in the room, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but wonder why the generals around him were becoming more conservative than each other recently.

When he was not by my side and led the troops to fight alone, each one was more fierce than the other! I had to repeatedly warn them not to underestimate the enemy and rush forward before I could stop him from charging!

Why is it that when they are around me, everyone is so restrained and becomes so mature and cautious and unwilling to take risks?
Ye Mingsheng had been somewhat aware of this problem before, but the situation at today's meeting made Ye Mingsheng start to pay attention to this issue!

After thinking carefully for a while, Ye Mingsheng still couldn't figure out why these generals and commanders had such changes. Just at this time, Ye Cheng came in and brought Ye Mingsheng a new memorial document. Ye Mingsheng asked:
"Ye Cheng, why do Liu Zhi and the others become so conservative now? They were not like this before!"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Ye Cheng seemed to be hesitant to speak, as if he wanted to say something, but didn't know where to start. Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng waved his hand and said directly:
“Ye Cheng, if you have anything to say, just say it directly. There is no need to be reserved…”

After receiving Ye Mingsheng's instruction, Ye Cheng continued:

"My Lord, the generals and commanders really respect you too much, so they care too much about your safety. They don't want your safety to be at risk, so they are so conservative!"

After hearing what Ye Cheng said, Ye Mingsheng suddenly realized something and shook his head in self-mockery. It is true that those who are involved are often confused while those who are not involved can see things more clearly. So this is what is going on!
Seeing that Ye Mingsheng had figured it out, Ye Cheng also cautiously advised:
"In my opinion, General Liu Zhi and his men are right. Although the enemy has suffered heavy losses in a series of defeats, its main force is still there and it has the strength to fight back. It's like a hungry wolf that has been forced into a corner and wants to fight to the death with our army!"

"If our army leaves the city to fight the enemy, it will undoubtedly play into the enemy's hands. They want to fight our army to the death in close combat!"

Hearing this, Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly. Seeing this, Ye Cheng introduced the memorial he had just taken to Ye Mingsheng and said:

"Sir, these are some memorials sent by the Central Council. They are mainly about the control of the locust plague in Hebei and Henan, the situation of grain reserves in granaries, and some opinions of the Finance Department on the Dadongsheng Company's preparation for issuing a new round of bonds..."

Hearing this, Ye Mingsheng became interested and asked:
"Is that the one for the grain storage?" Ye Cheng picked up the top book without hesitation and handed it to Ye Mingsheng, saying:

"Sir, this is it!"

Ye Mingsheng took the memorial and started reading it. Because there was a lot of data in it, Ye Mingsheng read it very carefully. Food is the primary need of the people, so Ye Mingsheng did not dare to be careless when it came to the issue of food.

After reading for nearly half an incense stick of time, Ye Mingsheng finally put down the memorial, with a very serious expression on his face.

In this memorial, the news conveyed to Ye Mingsheng by the Central Council led by Cui Shao was mixed. The good news was that, as expected, under the Fengwu Army's strict market supervision and increased market supply, the rise in grain prices in various parts of Fengwu Army caused by negative news such as locust plagues had been effectively controlled.

The bad news is that the total amount of grain reserves in the Fengwu Army’s more than 100 granaries across the country has dropped by nearly half!
This situation is slightly more than what the Central Institute had originally expected, but generally speaking it is still similar. However, it is still worth Ye Mingsheng's high vigilance.

After thinking for a while, Ye Mingsheng instructed Ye Cheng:
“Write a reply letter to Cui Shao and tell him that I already know the situation. Let him go ahead and do his job. He must guarantee the basic needs of the people and maintain stability in all places. I will be his strong backing…”

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Yijing, Ye Mansion

At three quarters past ten in the evening, An Miaoyi, who had been busy all day, finally had time to check Jingren's homework.

Yesterday, Gu Sansi gave Jingren the homework of previewing Zou Ji's Advice to the King of Qi in the Strategies of the Warring States. Therefore, An Miaoyi asked Jingren to at least memorize the article before Gu Sansi came to lecture him, and not wait until Gu Sansi started to lecture.

Although An Miaoyi made the request, Jingren was at the age when he was most playful. Among a series of games such as climbing trees to catch birds, catching crickets, playing hide-and-seek, etc., his favorite was digging ditches and building dams. In simple terms, it was playing with water in the mud, sometimes building a dam with mud, and sometimes digging a piece of land to divert water.

Although An Miaoyi was speechless about her son's hobby, she let Jingren have fun because it was not as dangerous as climbing trees or diving into rivers!

But what An Miaoyi didn't expect was that Jingren not only played by himself, but also asked Jingcheng to play with them. The two of them were often covered in mud but had a lot of fun. It had been raining a little in the past few days, so some rainwater had accumulated in some low-lying areas in the back garden. So it was a good time to dig canals and build dams...
So the two children played for a whole day under the care of the maids and servants. When Jingren returned home in the evening, he was still reluctant to leave and remembered the homework his mother had assigned him, so he started to cram for it.

Therefore, even though Jingren memorized the article quite quickly and managed to memorize it when An Miaoyi checked it, his stuttering made An Miaoyi very dissatisfied.

An Miaoyi felt that she had clearly relaxed the requirements for Jingren and gave him a full day to memorize the article, but he ended up memorizing the article. This was really wrong!

Thinking of this, An Miaoyi looked at Jingren's hands. She saw that although Jingren's hands were white and tender, there was some black dirt between his nails.

Feeling his mother's gaze, Jingren felt guilty and wanted to hide his hands behind his back to avoid An Miaoyi's gaze, but how could his little actions be hidden from An Miaoyi?
"Did you go out to play in the mud again?" An Miaoyi asked with a serious expression, her words full of disappointment.

Jing Ren instinctively wanted to deny this, but under An Miaoyi's sharp gaze, Jing Ren could only lower his head and say:
"Mother, I was wrong!"

Listening to his son's apology, An Miaoyi continued with a serious expression:
“In my opinion, you shouldn’t touch that mud, but your father…”

An Miaoyi paused for a moment, but she didn't say anything in the end. She just sighed and continued to speak to Jingren earnestly:
"Son, that mud can't help you, it can't make you successful!"

"Do you know that when you were playing in the mud, your brothers were studying hard just to perform well in front of your father? How can you be content to lag behind others? Why can't you fight for your dignity?"

Facing his mother's words, Jingren said naively:
"Mother is wrong, my brother Jingcheng is playing with me, and my sixth brother is still nursing in Aunt Bai's arms!"

An Miaoyi was even more speechless after hearing this, and quickly continued to educate:

"Jingren, can't you compare yourself with a good person? You have to compare yourself with Jingcheng. Jingren has no future in his life. Do you want to be as useless as him?"

"Can't you compete with Jingxuan? Jingxuan is more talented than you, and he works harder than you. If you want to surpass him, you have to work harder. While you were playing in the mud, he was reading and studying!"

"This piece of Zou Ji's Advice to the King of Qi could be memorized in just one stick of incense. I gave you a whole day, and you still memorized it like this. Jingren, don't you think you're going too far?"

Looking at his angry mother, Jingren hesitated for a moment and then argued in a low voice:

“Mother, it only took me half an hour. It’s not much slower than brother Jingxuan…”

(End of this chapter)