Chapter 988 Internal problems of the Fengwu Army!

After meeting with Gu Sansi, An Miaoyi was busy with Ye Cui’s birthday preparations for a while. Now, there are only five days left before the old lady’s birthday. Although all preparations are proceeding step by step, more and more facts are revealed...
However, even if she was busy, when the memorials from the Central Council and the General Staff were sent over, An Miaoyi would definitely take the time to take a good look at them.

Looking at the memorial sent by the Fourth Army Commander Zhang Meng to the General Staff, An Miaoyi's expression gradually became serious.

From the memorials sent by these two commanders, it can be seen that in recent times, the Zhennan Army has been frequently gathering and mobilizing in Anqing and Huainan areas, especially in Anqing. The Zhennan Army's mobilization is extremely frequent, and it has assembled nearly 30,000 troops. Moreover, these 30,000 are all veterans of the Zhennan Army, not newly recruited young and strong men!
There are even reports that Xu Zhaojie himself appeared in the Anqing area. Because Anqing was the place where Xu Zhaojie started his career and he ruled here for several years, even after the Fengwu Army captured Anqing and carried out several rounds of cleanup, there were still some remnants of the Zhennan Army left in the area.

According to the recent report from the Coordination Office, almost all the remnants of Anqing’s Zhennan Army have recently emerged, and many of them are actively coordinating and seem to be preparing to support the Zhennan Army’s counterattack against Anqing!

In fact, the Fengwu Army in Anqing was well prepared for Xu Zhaojie's counterattack. The Fourth Army, with tens of thousands of soldiers, was stationed here, ready to clash with the Zhennan Army...
However, what is surprising is that in addition to taking actions around Anqing, the Zhennan Army also seems to be taking actions in Jingchu.

Duan Zhibao, the commander of the Fifth Army who had just surrendered and changed his tactics, also sent a memorial saying that according to his observation, the Zhennan Army had sent about 10,000 troops to support the garrison in Hengzhou, Yongshao and other places, and seemed to be preparing to plot against Jingchu!
Duan Zhibao also used this as an excuse to request the Fengwu Army's General Staff to reorganize the Fifth Army as soon as possible and provide more firearms!
In this regard, the staff led by Zhao Han believed that, judging from the current situation, it was very likely that Xu Zhaojie wanted to take advantage of the opportunity that the main force of the Fengwu Army was in the north to launch a counterattack!
However, judging from the intelligence provided by the Coordination Office, even if the Zhennan Army returning from Chishan Prefecture is included, the total number of Zhennan Army is no more than 70,000. This is already a maximum calculation. The total strength of the Zhennan Army cannot exceed 70,000!

Xu Zhaojie sent all these 70,000 troops to take charge. There must be some troops left behind in Shouchun and other rear areas, in addition to some troops in Jingchu.

Xu Zhaojie has at most 30,000 soldiers and horses that can be mobilized, and according to the investigation of the Coordination Office, these soldiers and horses have already appeared on the Anqing side, while the remnants of Anqing's Zhennan Army are secretly preparing to support them!

Judging from this situation, the possibility that Xu Zhaojie is going to cause trouble in Anqing is indeed higher,·····························
Of course, the Zhennan Army did make some moves in Jingchu, and Duan Zhibao did not lie about the military intelligence. The Zhennan Army in the southern prefectures and counties of Jingchu was indeed strengthened!

However, according to intelligence from the Coordination Office, the number of troops that the Zhennan Army sent to southern Jingchu was not approximately 10,000 as Duan Zhibao had reported!

Instead, there were about five to six thousand people, and about half of them were able-bodied men who had just been recruited by the Zhennan Army and had been trained for less than three months!

Therefore, considering all these factors, the General Staff believed that Anqing was the main direction of the Zhennan Army's counterattack!
The reason why the Zhennan Army sent reinforcements to the southern part of Jingchu was probably because they considered that once they launched a counterattack, the newly reorganized Fifth Army would launch attacks on Hengzhou, Yongshao and other places. The strategy of besieging Wei to save Zhao would make it impossible for the Zhennan Army to take care of both ends, so they were making some preparations in advance!
Therefore, the General Staff asked the Fourth Army stationed in Anqing to increase its alert level, be careful to guard against the visit of the Zhennan Army, and effectively protect the lives and property of the people of Anqing.

The First Army stationed in Hebei, Henan and Huainan must also be prepared to provide support and reinforcements to ensure the smooth progress of the war!
The General Staff was also preparing to transport a batch of military supplies such as armor, firearms, medicines, etc. that were originally sent to Yunbing to Anqing as soon as possible, and actively contacted the Central Court to ensure the smooth flow of logistics channels...

Although the General Staff focused on the Fourth Army, it did not ignore the request of Duan Zhibao's troops in the Fifth Army, and urgently allocated 12,000 taels of military pay, 300 Weiyuan guns, and 10 Tiger Dun cannons to Jingchu.

Although the General Staff led by Zhao Han seemed to be fair in this matter, and gave an explanation to both the Fourth and Fifth Armies and took all aspects into consideration, An Miaoyi still figured out something different from the General Staff's handling opinions!

Nearly two months have passed since the Hanyang Incident. Although most of the territory of Jingchu has been nominally incorporated into the territory of the Fengwu Army, in fact, because the Fengwu Army's main focus has been on dealing with the Golden Horde in the north for some time, the Fengwu Army with limited energy has not yet fully entered Jingchu!
Although under the order of the General Staff, a battalion of the 1st Division of the 1st Army and a battalion of the 4th Army, totaling nearly 6,000 troops, have entered Hanyang and controlled the political and economic core of Jingchu, the Fengwu Army has not yet established effective control over more than a dozen prefectures and counties outside Hanyang!
As for the Jingchu Army, which had also changed its tune, the Fengwu Army gave it the number of the Fifth Army and planned the reorganization of the Fifth Army.

But in reality, because the Fengwu Army currently has limited energy, although there is a plan, it has not yet been implemented, and the reorganization work is still on paper······························

Therefore, although the name has changed from the Jingchu Army to the Fifth Army of the Fengwu Army, in fact the Fifth Army is no different from the previous Jingchu Army!
As for what the Jingchu Army was like in the past, everyone knows very well. They collected salaries without paying any wages, resold military equipment, and killed innocent people to claim credit. These problems can be said to be all the five evils!

It is precisely because of these problems that the combat effectiveness of the Jingchu Army is not high and its centripetal force is not strong!

This is also why some knowledgeable people, led by Duan Zhibao and Li Zhengyong, realized that the Jingchu Army could not compete with the Fengwu Army, so they finally joined the Fengwu Army and assisted the Fengwu Army in conquering Jingchu! As the Jingchu Army defected and joined the Fengwu Army, these problems of the Jingchu Army in the past also turned from the advantages of the Fengwu Army to the problems that the Fengwu Army wanted to solve. However, due to practical reasons, the reorganization of the Fifth Army could not be implemented!
Therefore, behaviors such as collecting empty salaries, reselling military equipment, and killing innocent people to claim credit still exist in the Fifth Army, and this also makes the Fengwu Army's General Staff lack trust in the Fifth Army!

And it was precisely because of the lack of trust that the General Staff believed that Duan Zhibao of the Fifth Army was using the excuse of the Zhennan Army's reinforcement of Jingchu to demand benefits from the Fengwu Army!

As for the threat from the Zhennan Army and the need to speed up the reorganization work, it was just an excuse. In fact, they still wanted silver, food, and firearms.

According to previous work experience, if you want to successfully complete a coup d'état against an army, you must first control the local situation. Unfortunately, the Fengwu Army now lacks effective control over Jingchu.

Therefore, the General Staff is worried that if they send the Fifth Army what they want now, it might end up being like throwing meat buns at a dog and nothing will come back!

Secondly, the Fengwu Army has been engaged in constant warfare recently, and its reserves of these necessary materials are running low, so the General Staff believes that things must be used sparingly and used where they are most effective, and therefore does not want to give these supplies to the Fifth Army!
However, in the view of the General Staff, the Fifth Army has already made an excuse, and it would be unreasonable for them to not give a penny. After all, the Fifth Army had only surrendered not long ago, and not giving them any face would make them feel disheartened, and might even cause some unnecessary trouble!
That's why the General Staff gave 12,000 taels of silver, 300 Weiyuan guns, and 10 Tiger-crouching cannons to fool the Fifth Army of Jingchu and save everyone's face!
After understanding the General Staff's ideas, An Miaoyi also realized that as the Fengwu Army grew stronger, there was a distinction between the regular army and the miscellaneous ones within the Fengwu Army!
The First Army, the Second Army, and the Third Army, which started out in Liaoyang with Ye Mingsheng, are undoubtedly the direct troops of the Fengwu Army. They have the best weapons, armor, and personnel treatment, and are considered to be the ace main force of the Fengwu Army.························
In comparison, the Fourth Army formed by the reorganization of the Qi and Lu Army and the Fifth Army formed by the transformation of the Jingchu Army were regarded as miscellaneous troops. Their weapons, armor, and personnel treatment might be relatively inferior!
However, this time, compared to the Fifth Army that had just surrendered, the Fengwu Army Staff still trusted the Fourth Army that had already completed the reorganization more!

Although she didn't know much about military issues, An Miaoyi intuitively felt that this trend was not a good thing!
However, this does not matter much to her now. Ye Mingsheng only gave her the right to know. The operation of the General Staff still depends on the leadership of Chief of Staff Zhao Han!
After reading the memorial from the General Staff, An Miaoyi started reading the memorial from the Central Court. The Central Court has not been very peaceful recently. The locust plague some time ago caused a decrease in grain production, and the decrease in grain production also raised the price of grain.

Although the Fengwu Army used its reserve grain in a timely manner to stabilize the price of grain, the cost of living for the people still increased.

The reduction in grain production also reduced the income of some farmers. Therefore, as the worst-hit area, Jiyu Governor Murong Yuliang submitted a petition to the Central Court, hoping that the taxation in Jiyu this year and the tax payment ratio in Jiyu could be reduced!
Regarding Murong Yuliang’s proposal, Cui Shao, as the central envoy, agreed in principle with Murong Yuliang’s proposal after meeting with various departments. He suggested reducing some of the tax cuts and keeping as many taxes as possible in the local areas.

However, the two sides had significant differences on the specific tax reduction ratio. Murong Yuliang believed that Hebei and Henan were the worst hit by the disaster, so he requested a tax reduction of at least 30%.

Cui Shao believed that although Hebei and Henan had suffered considerable damage from the disaster, the Central Institute had already deployed manpower and material resources for disaster relief in a timely manner, and the disaster in Hebei and Henan had been brought under control!
The Fengwu Army is still mobilizing more than 100,000 troops to fight, and the local government has to consider the difficulties from above, so it is only willing to reduce taxes by 10% at most!
After Murong Yuliang took the lead, Qilu Governor Sun Jing'an followed suit and submitted a memorial to the Central Council, saying that Qilu had suffered considerable damage and hoped that the higher authorities would understand the people's sentiments and reduce taxes levied in Qilu!

Although Murong Yuliang had the support of Sun Jing'an, Cui Shao, as the boss of the civil service system of the Central Envoy's Fengwu Army, also acted extremely strong and directly stated that either accept the Central Council's plan or simply not reduce taxes!

An Miaoyi knew that on such an important issue as tax reduction, neither Cui Shao nor Murong Yuliang had the final say. Only Ye Mingsheng could make the final decision on such matters!

The reason why Cui Shao acted so strong was that he was acting as a shield for Ye Mingsheng to a certain extent. After all, the war with the Golden Horde had just ended, the Zhennan Army was about to cause trouble, the Fengwu Army had a considerable financial deficit, and the Dadongsheng Company was already preparing to issue new bonds...
Under such circumstances, it was already very commendable that the Fengwu Army did not collect more taxes. Cui Shao was willing to reduce the taxes by 10% as a token of his appreciation, which was already a last-ditch effort made with gritted teeth!
At this critical juncture, Murong Yuliang expressed his demand for tax cuts. An Miaoyi couldn't help but doubt his idea. She wondered if Murong Yuliang wanted to put on a show, or was using this as an excuse to implicitly suggest to Ye Mingsheng to stop the war?
An Miaoyi felt that no matter what Murong Yuliang thought, his ultimate wish would not come true. After all, even if Ye Mingsheng was willing to take a break for a while, Xu Zhaojie would not agree and was ready to knock on his door!
After taking a quick look at the other memorials, An Miaoyi asked someone to take them back. At this time, Qiqige came to her side.

Seeing Qiqige's serious expression, An Miaoyi couldn't help but have a bad premonition in her heart. Sure enough, Qiqige whispered:

"Madam, Director Huo sent me news that there are some changes over there..."

After hearing what Qiqige said, An Miaoyi couldn't help but frown. What she regretted most now was that she shouldn't have listened to Wang Huan's slander and asked Dadongsheng Company for a loan!
This matter put her in a very passive position. An Miaoyi knew very well that Ye Mingsheng attached great importance to this issue. If Ye Mingsheng knew about this matter, he would definitely not let her off easily!

(End of this chapter)