knife

Chapter 678 Preparing for War
Xiao Changche, dressed in military uniform, stood proudly atop the city wall. The soldiers passing by below cheered when they saw the man on the wall wearing a devil's mask.

With the arrival of Ding Ergou, Cai Ming, and other heavily armed troops, she finally completed the final assembly of her army.

Six Zhechong Prefectures, totaling 18,000 men, have arrived at Yangguan. Adding to the 12,000 men from the four Zhechong Prefectures that Gu Xiaoman brought with him, Yangguan now has a total of 30,000 soldiers.

In addition, there are the several thousand regular troops who just arrived.

The Beiting Protectorate's army was about to enter the pass to fight, which was a strategic adjustment following Li Dachui's major victories in Jiangnan.

When Li Dachui first entered the pass, the Beiting Protectorate did not have any strategic preparations for immediately entering the pass to fight.

According to Mao Daxian and others, the Beiting Protectorate should now focus on digging deep tunnels and stockpiling grain to digest the abundant spoils and heavy burdens brought about by the destruction of the Northern Yuan. This process could take at least two or three years, or even four or five years.

Sending Gu Xiaoman to Yangguan was actually a standard defensive posture.

The Beiting Protectorate was worried that Linghu Ye might take advantage of this critical moment to launch a surprise attack.

Linghuye is extremely familiar with the area outside the Great Wall, and even now, there are still many supporters of Linghuye there.

Anyone who has been operating outside the Great Wall for decades will have a lot of followers, and given Linghu Ye's nature, none of the leaders outside the Great Wall believe that he hasn't secretly kept one or two tricks up his sleeve.

These hidden tricks are usually invisible, but if they suddenly appear at a crucial moment, you will definitely not be able to withstand them.

But plans can never keep up with changes.

No one expected that Li Dachui's trip to the interior would cause such a change in the world's格局 (geju, a term referring to the overall situation or landscape). The rise and fall of various forces was dazzling, and people had to scramble to adjust their strategic deployments to cope with this dramatic change.

They advanced into the interior ahead of schedule to support and assist Li Dachui's major achievements in Jiangnan.

Although the newly formed Eight Towns of Jiangnan defeated the first encirclement and suppression by the State of Chu, and Li Dachui successfully provoked internal conflicts within Chu, plunging it into a civil war, the Eight Towns of Jiangnan also became a thorn in the side of Chang'an. If they were not quickly taken down, they might be betrayed by the Eight Towns of Jiangnan when they fought a decisive battle with the outside world in the future.

In fact, this is not a possibility, but a certainty.

The weak eight towns of Jiangnan were certainly no match for Chang'an's full strength.

In order to preserve the fruits of victory in the Eight Garrisons of Jiangnan and give them time to expand their influence to the south and strengthen themselves, the Beiting Protectorate had no choice but to mobilize a large number of troops to Yangguan, and even Xiao Changche went directly to Yangguan to take charge.

Regardless of whether the Beiting Protectorate is truly going to attack, Chang'an must take this seriously.

Warfare is based on deception; it involves feints and real attacks. You can never guess what your opponent is thinking, so you can only be fully prepared.

Indeed, after Xiao Changche arrived at Yangguan, the Chang'an regime controlled by Linghu Ye immediately took targeted action.

Such a significant strategic adjustment also poses an extremely important test for the Beiting Protectorate.

If you had to describe the attitude of the Beiting Protectorate towards Li Dachui's capture of the eight towns in Jiangnan and the reunification with Empress Dowager Jiang Qian of Southern Chu in one sentence, it would be: bittersweet.

The good news is that their leader made an extremely important move under almost impossible circumstances. This move brought Li Dachui's ambition to unify the world a big step forward.

The painful part is that such a drastic strategic transformation requires the Beiting Protectorate to bear enormous economic and military pressure.

The government had promised that the soldiers who had been fighting for years could go home and rest for two years, but before they could even settle in, another conscription order came.

Tell me, aren't people furious?
After all, in the battle to destroy the Northern Yuan, the generals didn't really gain much benefit.

Since everyone is unhappy, to appease morale, you need to compensate them in other ways, and the most effective way is naturally to give them money. Money is already tight, and then to give away so much cash...
Therefore, the Beiting Protectorate is now in dire need of funds.

This is also why, when Li Dachui was scheming against the State of Chu, he went to great lengths to lure powerful families like Jiang Chong to the border regions.

Even if Jiang Chong had seriously offended Jiang Qian, Li Dachui didn't care.
After all, Jiang Chongneng was able to inject millions of taels of silver into the Beiting Protectorate at once. Li Dachui couldn't possibly ignore such a large influx of funds.

Of course, for some people, it's a different kind of pain.

For example, Xiao Changche.

At this moment, she stood on the city wall with a frosty expression, and Gu Xiaoman, An Xuan and the others beside her were all silent and trembling.

The reason is simple,
Xiao Changche was in a very bad mood.

Ever since she arrived in Yangguan, her temper has never been good.

No one has ever seen her smile.

That makes sense when you think about it.
Li Dachui, without her knowledge, found himself another wife. Moreover, in order to protect this new wife's safety, the first wife, who was still in confinement after childbirth, had to brave the cold and travel all the way to Yangguan to scare the enemy.

No woman would be happy to be in such a situation.

But Xiao Changche was no ordinary housewife; she also had another identity: the deputy protector of the Beiting Protectorate.

As Li Dachui's wife, she could get angry, throw tantrums, and act childishly, but as the deputy protector and second-in-command of the Beiting Protectorate, she had to consider the overall situation when deciding on her words and actions.

Thus, a contradiction emerged.

To many who know the facts but not the reasons, Xiao Changche's presence in Yangguan, where he sits in command and studies how to organize the army for battle, is quite magnanimous.

These days, it's not uncommon for men to take concubines, and there are even cases where the first wife helps the man take a concubine. But the problem is, the person Li Dachui has chosen this time is just too unusual.

Jiang Qian, the Empress Dowager of Southern Chu!

Just thinking about a person like that gives everyone a headache.

For example, Mao Daxian's first reaction upon hearing the news was to collapse his armchair by sitting down on it.

Marry a virtuous wife, take a concubine for beauty.
Xiao Changche is certainly virtuous, but the problem is, is this Empress Dowager Jiang Qian of Southern Chu just a womanizer?
Although he stumbled on Li Dachui, how hard did he try to stop him in Xiangyang back then? And when he returned to China, he manipulated people like Xiang Ying and Xiong Yi with ease. Was he an ordinary person?
Moreover, he was a master of innate level.

Mao Daxian's worries weren't about the present, but about the future.

Li Dachui already has a tigress in his house, and now a female dragon has arrived. In the future, this backyard will surely be filled with the roars of dragons and the howls of tigers.

Gu Xiaoman now generally avoids getting close to Xiao Changche.

Because Xiao Changche was filled with rage, he couldn't vent it on ordinary people, nor could he take it out on someone like An Xuan, so he became the biggest scapegoat.

Who made her the person with the closest relationship to the young master?
Five days ago, Gu Xiaoman was beaten by Xiao Changche for forgetting to close the door when she left home. Yesterday, she was beaten again by Xiao Changche for making noises while eating together. Gu Xiaoman is now on the verge of tears.

While the young master enjoys a carefree and happy life outside, she suffers beatings and torment at home for him!
There is no justice!

(End of this chapter)