Longzang

Chapter 774 Heavenly Thunder Accompanying
Wei Yuan summoned his generals again and showed them the Sixth Princess's reply. The generals and ministers in the hall were naturally filled with righteous indignation, declaring that a subject would die for his lord, and vowing to lead his troops into battle, even at the cost of their lives!
Looking at the group of generals, their blood boiling with enthusiasm, Wei Yuan suddenly had a rather strange feeling. The generals' attitudes were clearly divided into two factions and three groups of people. Among them, the group of generals who were cultivators, led by Cui Yu and Xu Yi, stood quietly, their minds undisturbed.

Of the sixteen young masters and ladies who came with Cui Yu back then, only eight remain, the oldest of whom is approaching thirty.

In contrast, most of the young generals in the hall were extremely excited, yearning for battle from the inside out. These generals were mostly promoted from the army and had completed two full terms of military academy training. Now, with increasing demand, the Qingming Military Academy has launched a six-month basic officer training program in addition to its initial three-month intensive officer training.

The crash course taught basic knowledge of marching and fighting, as well as the basic elements of leading a thousand-man unit. Subsequently, these officers all served as captains of a hundred-man unit, with a few of the most outstanding serving as captains of a thousand-man unit.

After the basic course, the accelerated course was also known as the pre-training course. The six-month basic course taught the basic elements of joint operations between different armies and the command of a force of ten thousand men, and significantly increased the content on logistics and supplies. According to convention, after completing the course, all officers would be appointed as captains of a thousand-man unit.

After two training sessions, the young officers' average quality has significantly improved, and they have performed exceptionally well in some small-scale battles. The top dozen or so have been promoted to brigadier generals commanding three thousand-man detachments, and another five or six have been promoted to deputy generals commanding five thousand-man detachments. However, due to the short time elapsed, no guerrilla generals capable of commanding ten thousand men have yet emerged.

Besides the radical and passionate young officers, there were also half of the older generals. Most of them had joined Qingming later in life, many of them came from the Western Jin government army and Xu family private army, and a few were bandits and Zhao soldiers.

Although these people were shouting loudly, Wei Yuan could sense that they were actually unmoved, meaning they were just expressing their loyalty.

Sitting in his high seat, Wei Yuan suddenly understood some of the feelings of the Prince of Jin. Although he was high above and everyone below seemed to be loyal and righteous, how could he distinguish who was loyal and who was treacherous without the ability to read minds?
Wei Yuan possessed the power of the Azure Nether Realm, and being in the Azure Nether, he could sense some of the thoughts in people's hearts. However, the Prince of Jin did not have such assistance, so he could only sit on his throne every day, guessing the thoughts and positions of his ministers based on the slightest clues.

Cui Yu and Xu Yi appeared calm, but they were the truly loyal ones. However, Wei Yuan thought a step deeper. If they were old foxes of the Left and Right Prime Ministers' caliber, they could probably provide him with all the loyalty he desired.

Whether the Left and Right Chancellors had truly devoted themselves to the Western Jin Dynasty was something Wei Yuan hadn't been sure of before. However, after inspecting the five southwestern prefectures, especially Xiangrong Prefecture, Wei Yuan finally concluded that while they might have contributed to the court, their true concern was for their own families.

As for those young officers, they were indeed very loyal, and Wei Yuan had already received their good fortune. However, this loyalty was conditional: Wei Yuan's actions had to meet their expectations. If Wei Yuan decided not to fight, their loyalty would immediately vanish by half.

However, the wishes of these young officers did not necessarily align with Qingming's interests, and in many ways, did not. Therefore, history is replete with cases of people being swayed by young officers to make foolish decisions.

Wei Yuan composed himself, pressed his hands together to quiet the hall, and then said, "This military governor has already shown his sincerity, but the other party has not accepted it. So don't blame me for trying to be polite first and then resorting to force. Issue a proclamation throughout the land listing the Zhao people's impolite behavior, and give them three more days to correct their mistakes, or else they will not say they were not warned!"

Liu Tong took on a new job.

Wei Yuan then began to arrange for the army to set off, with the main force heading straight for Hanyang Pass, while the supply troops were divided into one hundred teams, each with fifty light cavalry and ten wagons, to assemble at designated locations. After assembling, they would receive further orders.

Many of the younger generals were completely baffled, but only veterans like Cui Yu guessed what Wei Yuan was planning.

In the Xu family ancestral home, Xu Lanshan's study was brightly lit. She had been handling official business for several days without a moment's rest. However, the documents awaiting approval were still piling up like a mountain.

She read and reviewed each document carefully, as if she never tired. She picked up an official document, glanced at it, and suddenly ordered her servants to invite in the elder who had delivered the document.

Xu Lanshan put several official documents together and threw them at the elder, coldly saying, "I said I wanted to gather 500,000 private troops, and that's what I mean! You can give me all the new troops to make up the numbers, but not a single one of the 500,000 can be missing!"

The elder hurriedly replied, "All 500,000 are registered on the list, not one is missing!"

Xu Lanshan sneered: "The number of pots you set up in your camp is wrong! And although you've been secretly distributing the extra grain, so the consumption isn't noticeable, you've forgotten about firewood and charcoal! Based on the daily consumption of firewood and charcoal for cooking, the 500,000 people on your roster are probably less than 300,000! Do you want me to take you on a tour of the camp now?"

The elder paused for a moment before saying, "Everyone did it this way. Blaming only me won't convince everyone! I just wanted to meet the quota, but the elders who recruited soldiers at the front wouldn't agree, and the elders who distributed grain at the back wouldn't agree either! Everyone has been doing it this way for years. You've only been in power for less than three years, and you want to overturn everything? Unless you disband the entire council of elders!" Xu Lanshan coldly replied, "I've already made the biggest concession by not holding you accountable for what you did in the past. If you want to continue now, forget it! I can't disband the entire council of elders, but I can still pick two of the most vocal ones and kill them as a sacrifice. Those guys from Qiuniu will at most complain to me a few times. Do you really think they'll fight me to the death over this?"

Seeing Xu Lanshan's murderous intent, the elder immediately broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly said, "What I mean is, even if I wanted to do these things alone, I would be powerless to do them!"

Xu Lanshan said, "Three hundred thousand are to be sent to the northern frontier, and two hundred thousand are to be used to recover Hanyang and Huangping counties, so not a single person can be missing! Just go ahead and do it. If anyone obstructs you, come and find me. As I just said, we need a few heads to establish our authority! Oh, by the way, I heard there's a guy who's Qiuniu's son-in-law. Go tell him that if he continues to oppose me, Qiuniu's daughter will have to remarry."

The elder quickly agreed and hurried away.

After the elder left, a young cultivator who had been standing still asked, "Aunt, we still have more than 200,000 private troops in the two southern prefectures under the control of the Zhao people. Didn't you say that Wei Yuan would recover the two prefectures? After he recovers them, we can just buy those people back. It seems unnecessary to recruit another 200,000 new troops. Forgive my bluntness, but we have recruited too many new soldiers now, and they are completely of mixed quality."

Xu Lanshan was quite patient with the young cultivator, saying, "You only know one side of the story. Things are completely different now than before. We can buy back those new troops that fell into Wei Yuan's hands. For my sake, Wei Yuan won't ask for too high a price. But..."

The young cultivator became curious: "But what?"

"...However, they may not be willing to come back."

……

At Hanyang Pass, the Great Zhao army flag now flies atop the city tower, and the military spirit within the city soars to the sky, a far cry from what it used to be.

A group of Zhao generals stood atop the city wall, gazing westward. In the center of the group was a female general wearing a ferocious demon mask and clad in bright red armor, like a phoenix soaring from the flames.

At this moment, a cultivator appeared in the distance, shooting a sword towards the city wall. A message tube was attached to the flying sword. A general retrieved the sword, checked the message tube for safety, and then delivered the letter inside to the female general.

The female general opened the letter and read: "I was shocked to learn that the Sixth Princess has gone on a trip to Hanyang Pass. With military affairs approaching soon, I am sending you a map of your escape route. The Princess can follow this route to escape back to Zhao. This will prevent you from being captured in defeat and losing face for Great Zhao. The Princess can escape with peace of mind; the route is absolutely safe and there will be no ambush. If I am lying, may I be struck by lightning!"

Although the mask concealed her face, she tore the letter apart without hesitation, so her expression must have been quite something. After a moment, she managed to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth: "If Wei Yuan dares to come, I'll make sure he doesn't leave alive!"

Several days later, the Qingming army appeared at Hanyang Pass.

In a deep mountain valley in the south, a Dharma Aspect cultivator stretched and stood up, muttering to himself, "It seems the Sixth Princess isn't coming. Let's all leave."

At the same time, several bolts of lightning struck down from the sky, directly hitting the Qingming Central Army Camp, causing shock to all the troops!
Many soldiers turned pale, feeling it was an ominous sign. But the core veterans were used to it, saying that whenever the realm lord went to war, the central army was often struck by lightning, yet they had never lost a battle.

The new recruits were skeptical, but seeing the veterans' unwavering conviction, they had no choice but to believe them.

At this moment, the central command tent flap opened, and Wei Yuan stepped out, glancing around. Seeing that the eight lightning rods standing around the central command tent were undamaged, he returned to the tent and said to his generals, "I am certain that the Zhao princess is in the Hanyang Pass army! Issue the order to send another 50,000 lightly armed troops to besiege the city, ensuring that no one from Guanzhong escapes!"

(End of this chapter)