knife

Chapter 831 Decent
The atmosphere inside the room was extremely somber.

Or rather, it's heavy.

A month ago, all the news that came in was extremely encouraging.

Chang Lei's unexpected move filled Linghu Ye with confidence for this decisive battle, and he was even less eager to fight Li Dachui. He wanted to know if Chang Lei would get angry and take the initiative to come after him when he was running rampant in the south, making his empress dowager lover look disheveled and living in constant danger.

But what they received was devastating news that shocked everyone.

Due to geographical and temporal factors, a lot of intelligence arrives almost simultaneously.

First, Li Wei's 70,000 to 80,000 troops were inexplicably annihilated by Jiang Qian within Liyang City.

Then, under duress, Chang Lei was forced into a final showdown with Jiang Qian.

However, the result was that it was sent back along with all the intelligence from before.

Chang Lei was defeated, and many generals, including Chang Lei, Linghu Yong, Chang Wei, and Kou Wenhai, all died in this battle.

The situation reversed instantly.

The south is now entirely under Jiang Qian's control.

So what will happen next?

Everyone knows what's going on.

"Fortunately, all our original preparations were for a decisive battle with Li Dachui!" In the deathly silence, Linghu Ye's voice slowly rang out: "So even if the situation in the south collapses, it won't affect us now. It's just another battle!"

"This humble general has now blocked all roads from the south. Anyone or any letter coming from the south will be detained and only allowed to pass after verification!" A middle-aged man in a black robe whispered from below.

Linghuye nodded: "These messages must be kept strictly confidential to avoid affecting morale. Guohua, what are you looking at? You've been going through this intelligence for a while now, do you think you can find anything interesting in it?"

Li Guohua raised his head, his expression somewhat grave: "General, when I look at the dates on these intelligence reports, the last intelligence report issued by Yan Su was a month ago!"

Linghu Ye didn't react for a moment: "What do you mean?"

Li Guohua took a deep breath: "I suspect that something has happened to Yan Su! Otherwise, he should have sent a report here every five days. It's understandable if one report is missed occasionally, but it's hard to explain why six reports have been missed in a row!"

"What do you mean?" Linghu Ye slowly clenched his fist.

Li Guohua nodded: "Yan Su is meticulous and quick-witted. It's practically impossible for outsiders to touch him. Besides, very few people outside know him, not to mention he's skilled in disguise and can impersonate countless people. So, the only person who could touch him is someone he knows well, and someone he trusts very much. This person must also be of a high status!" Linghu Ye reached out and took the last intelligence report that Yan Su had sent from Li Guohua: "He said he needs to rush back immediately to organize a large army to defend Tongguan. At the same time, he needs to supervise Cui Cheng in building up the army and collecting supplies to provide strong support for Tongguan. He also said that he might use the Wolf Fort's action team left in Chang'an to detain some of the close relatives of key figures to create a check and balance. He asked for my authorization!"

"So if something happens to him, it will be either in Tongguan or in Luoyang!" Li Guohua's voice was somewhat bitter. "If something happens to either of these places, Commander, then Luoyang will be in grave danger, and Chang'an will be in imminent peril! If we lose these two places, we will lose our righteous cause and become nothing more than local tyrants!"

"The tree hasn't fallen yet, the boat hasn't sunk yet, and they're already thinking about running away!" Linghu Ye sneered. "Huang Shijie of Tongguan doesn't have the guts. It's probably because Cui Cheng has turned against him again. Under Cui Shu's leadership, isn't the Cui family of Boling just Li Dachui's lackeys now?"

"General, we must act immediately!" Li Guohua said, "We can't afford to delay. If Cui Cheng has truly betrayed us, the impact will be enormous. Chang'an, the eastern capital, will surely follow suit. If Jiang Qian organizes another army to quickly march north at this time, many places will likely be pacified immediately. General, we need a resounding victory. Only in this way can we reverse our disadvantage!"

Linghuye nodded and said, "In the end, everything will come down to the battlefield. As long as we completely defeat Li Dachui, then the current threat from the south or the internal betrayal will be nothing more than a piece of cake. Let's gather all the generals and make final preparations for the attack!"

“There’s no need to recall Wang De from Fanyang!” Li Guohua said.

Linghu Ye pondered for a long time, "If we don't notify him to come back at this critical juncture, won't it cause some problems for the other generals?"

“General, I’m afraid that even if you send someone to summon him back for the meeting at this juncture, he won’t come back!” Li Guohua said slowly. “If that’s the case, it will damage your prestige. It would be better to use the excuse that time is tight, the task is heavy, and the strength in the Fanyang direction is still there and we cannot be careless. That’s why we asked Wang De to hold the victory there and wait for an opportunity to take Fanyang County completely to appease the generals!”

Wang De cannot be considered a direct follower of Linghu Ye.

Back when Linghu Ye was still in charge outside the Great Wall, Wang De, Wan Feng, and Xiao Changche were all generals appointed by the imperial court. In principle, they were all qualified to establish their own government offices and command an army independently. In fact, the troops outside the Great Wall were indeed commanded by the three of them.

However, Linghu Ye was powerful, so apart from Xiao Changche being arrogant and daring to go against Linghu Ye, and Linghu Ye appreciating his ability and simple mind and wanting to recruit him for his own use, Wang De and Wan Feng were always suppressed.

Wan Feng had long been killed by Linghu Ye with a legitimate reason, and his subordinates and property were also taken into his possession. Ru Ru's grave is probably already overgrown with weeds.

Wang De was even smarter and more cunning, and managed to stay by Linghu Ye's side until the end. In the end, Linghu Ye had no choice but to use him, since this guy was quite good at fighting and had deep connections in the area outside the Great Wall.

With Chang Lei sidelined due to the Chang family's influence, Wang De was the only one qualified and capable of leading a large army.

Given the current situation, Wang De probably has his own ulterior motives. If he goes back, he'll definitely worry that Linghu Ye will take this opportunity to deal with him, or at least strip him of his military power and put him under house arrest.

At this point, would Wang De relinquish his military power?
of course not.

He will stay in Fanyang and keep a close eye on this decisive battle. If Linghu Ye wins, he will definitely launch a fierce attack on Fanyang immediately. But if he loses here, the 30,000 men he fought in Fanyang will be the capital he uses to defect to Li Dachui.

Rather than letting Wang De fail to respond to orders and damage Linghu Ye's prestige at this crucial moment, it would be better to give each other a respectable way out and maintain this tacit understanding.

If they win, Wang De will naturally come back obediently. If they lose, there's nothing to say. At that time, there's no need to complain about the other party kicking him when he's down, because Wang De will definitely not be the only one to step on Linghu Ye. There will be countless people like fish crossing a river.

(End of this chapter)