Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 242 Deep Planning
Pei Yuan was also angry when he heard this, and said in a sarcastic tone, "I am a captain who won the first place in the military examination and has experienced many battles. I can discuss world affairs with the Minister of War in Nanjing and understand the changes in military affairs."

"Who are you? How do you know the benefits?"

Gu Dayong almost couldn't hold it in.

Could you please not mention the matter of winning the first place in the martial arts examination in front of me?

"You!" Xiao Yan was so angry that he couldn't speak for a moment.

He was the nephew of Eunuch Xiao, and relied on this identity to become a deputy captain.

Usually, people mentioned Eunuch Xiao vaguely, but Xiao Yan didn't think it was a big deal.

That is his backing, so he is not afraid of being talked about.

But now Pei Yuan directly criticized his ability, which made him a little unbearable.

Because Xiao Yan knew it very well.

——What Pei Yuan said is true.

Xiao Yan was so angry that he lost his temper, but Xu Feng was overjoyed when he heard it.

The little black guy showed his chicken feet!

Before, he even dared to lie in front of Lu Ting.

Now we have Gu Dayong and Xiao Yan to testify.

He shouted directly, "Pei Yuan, you are so arrogant! Say it again if you have the guts!"

Pei Yuan looked at them with contempt. "Instead of going to Caozhou Prefecture and Henan, are you planning to go through Juye, Yanggu, and Dongchang Prefecture? Even if you are inflexible, you should understand the benefits of the canal, right?"

Xiao Yan suddenly remembered something Lu Ting had mentioned to him before, and immediately retorted as if he had caught something, "Now that the tributaries that lead to the canal are frozen, the transportation of grain ships in the canal is slow. If we really encounter an emergency, won't it be a dead end?"

Pei Yuan took a deep breath and ignored Xiao Yan, continuing to persuade Gu Dayong, "Eunuch Gu, let's go to Caozhou Prefecture and go through Henan. Going there, I have a better chance of success."

When Xiao Yan saw Pei Yuan turn to lobby Gu Dayong, he became even more angry.

Gu Dayong has now lost his power. It took more than a year to suppress the rebellion in Bazhou, which not only wasted money and food, but also caused most of the north to be ruined.

Just based on this incident, even if Gu Dayong managed to survive, he would never be able to easily ascend to a higher position in this life.

And behind Xiao Yan is Eunuch Xiao.

Isn't it annoying that Pei Yuan can't even tell which is bigger?

Xiao Yan deliberately waited until Gu Dayong opened his mouth to speak before interrupting him coldly, "Go past Juye, go to Yanggu, and go to Dongchang Prefecture."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Xu Feng and said, "Commander Xu, you are the highest-ranking military officer here and you have the best strategy. Tell me, which side should we go to?"

Xu Feng said as a matter of course, "Of course Captain Xiao is right. This kind of thing is self-evident."

He didn't know how to argue.

After listening to this, Xiao Yan looked at Pei Yuan with burning eyes, as if he wanted to subdue him.

Pei Yuan looked indifferent and said to Gu Dayong, "Please..."

Halfway through his words, Xiao Yan said rudely, "It's settled!"

After saying that, he looked back and walked away.

Xu Feng did not have as strong a background as the Xiao father and son, so he said goodbye to Gu Dayong very politely. However, he did not give a good look to the defendant Pei.

Gu Dayong was furious, but thinking about his current situation, he could only hold it in.

After a while, he came to his senses and sneered at Pei Yuan, "If this is your way of provoking me, then you succeeded."

Pei Yuan kept watching Xiao Yan and the others' departing backs, and answered subconsciously, "Those who succeeded did not succeed, and those who failed did not fail."

Gu Dayong was confused and asked, "What do you mean?"

Pei Yuan came to his senses and realized that he had said too much.

But it doesn’t matter, the Western Factory is an important part of the checks and balances in the imperial court.

The reshaping and ideological transformation of Gu Dayong is also a matter of course.

Pei Yuan smiled and looked at Gu Dayong, "Eunuch Gu, do you think Xiao Yan fell for my provocation?"

Gu Dayong felt that there was something else behind this, and asked incredulously, "Isn't it?"

Pei Yuan smiled and said, "Eunuch Gu, please don't look down on others. Sometimes smart people may not be so smart, and stupid people may not be so stupid. It's just that everyone wants different things."

"What do you mean?" Gu Dayong was stunned.

Pei Yuan explained a little, "Everyone just cares about different things, so I said that those who succeeded did not succeed, and those who failed did not fail."

Gu Dayong was confused. "Aren't you using the trip to Henan as an excuse to deliberately provoke Xiao Yan?"

Pei Yuan thought about the sneer Xiao Yan gave him when he left, and said calmly, "He didn't fall for my provocation."

Gu Dayong was a little surprised when he heard this.

He was not in a hurry to ask, but first asked Pei Yuan, "When you said that just now, were you trying to provoke me?"

Pei Yuan did not deny it, "That's indeed what I meant."

Gu Dayong wanted to ask more immediately, but thinking about Pei Yuan's reaction just now, he pondered for a while before saying, "But in the end, didn't Xiao Yan still follow your idea, Pei Yuan, and refute the Henan route, and choose the route of Juye, Yanggu, and Dongchangfu?"

Pei Yuan then pointed out the key to Gu Dayong.

"They want face, not substance."

Pei Yuan said calmly, "They don't understand either route anyway, so why should I take both the face and the substance?"

"So for Xiao Yan, there is no need to calculate too much, just have fun."

"That's what I say, 'Those who succeeded didn't succeed, and those who failed didn't fail.'"

Gu Dayong thought for a while and looked at Pei Yuan with a strange look.

The fierce confrontation between Xiao Yan and Pei Yuan had little to do with him.

What worries Gu Dayong is something other than the emotional dispute between the two sides.

He concluded, "That is to say, regardless of whether you were provoking them or not, your intention was to make them go to Juye. Regardless of whether Xiao Yan fell into the trap or not, judging purely by the results, did you agree on the final choice?"

Without waiting for Pei Yuan to answer, Gu Dayong asked doubtfully, "What is the basis for your choice of this route? Isn't Henan inappropriate?"

When Pei Yuan heard Gu Dayong's question, he jokingly said to Gu Dayong, "If I say that I just randomly drew two lines on the map, would you believe me?"

Gu Dayong thought about the effort and performance Pei Yuan had wasted on this, and shook his head, "I don't believe it."

Pei Yuan glanced around and saw that no one was approaching, so he said calmly, "There is indeed no difference." "I just hope to make these two choices a little more special through this form."

"So no matter which path they choose, it will achieve a wonderful effect."

"For example, if we take the Juye route and encounter a few setbacks along the way, they will wonder in their hearts whether this is within my expectations. Or, would it be smoother to take the Henan route? They will even wonder whether there will be other troubles on the way forward?"

"In this way, my opinions will unconsciously carry more and more weight."

"If they follow my advice and take the Henan route, and run into trouble along the way, that would certainly bring doubts to me, but as the main person responsible, the criticism that forces me to face and solve problems would also give me some say."

“So when I throw my two routes, I win the first move.”

"In this way, I can rely on external troubles to maintain my status."

Gu Dayong was a little confused after hearing this.

Just these few words made him feel that it seemed even more complicated than when he participated in Lu Wan's military meeting.

Gu Dayong couldn't help but ask, "What if the subsequent changes are not what you expected, but everything goes smoothly along the way?"

Pei Yuan was speechless after hearing this, "Isn't that what everyone expects?"

Then he added with a hint of sarcasm, "It's nothing more than letting them be arrogant for a while and satisfy themselves. After all, the capital is their territory."

Gu Dayong was stunned.

He thought about it for a while before he finally understood.

In this team now, Pei Yuan only has 20 to 30 combatants, and a few of them are from the underworld.

In addition, there is this old eunuch who has fallen from power, and he can barely serve as a support.

Facing the powerful backgrounds of Xiao Yan and Xiao Tong, father and son, and Xu Feng who commanded a large number of troops, Pei Yuan had almost no say in this operation.

It would be fine if the journey was safe.

Now that trouble was clearly brewing, Pei Yuan had no choice but to step out and fight for the right to speak.

But in this competition, he had almost no advantage.

So Pei Yuan created a card out of thin air, and with just a few words, he made the two originally logical courses of action artificially special, and then began to lay the groundwork for regaining the right to speak in the later stage.

Just when Gu Dayong felt that he had to overturn his previous opinion of Pei Yuan, he heard Pei Yuan say, "Of course, it's not just that."

Facing Gu Dayong's gaze, Pei Yuan explained to him, "I have to try to get them not to go to Jining and stay away from the Grand Canal."

"I have already told you about the Bazhou bandits before."

"The leaders of the Bazhou bandits this time are just two small leaders. Although their army has grown rapidly, they were not in that position before, so naturally they could not see the scenery they should have."

As Pei Yuan spoke, he became interested. He took a burning piece of wood, put out the fire, and drew a rough sketch of Shandong on the ground.

Then he pointed out several places to Gu Dayong.

"If Liu Liu, Liu Qi and other bandit leaders were leading the troops, they would not go to these places. Because they have led large-scale troops before, they know that these lands that have been ravaged by them cannot support many soldiers."

"But if it's Big Tiger or Starry Sky, they might do the exact opposite."

"Because they won't know the difficulty of feeding so many soldiers, they will only remember the sweetness they tasted here."

"So if I'm not mistaken, these places are likely to become their main attack directions."

Pei Yuan circled several places one by one, hesitated at the end, and then circled Linqing.

After Linqing was broken, the Bazhou army took away a large amount of food.

Gu Dayong noticed Pei Yuan's hesitation and asked, "Where is this?"

Pei Yuan replied, "Linqing."

Gu Dayong has been blocking the Bazhou army in the north for more than a year, and he has a general impression of each area.

He thought for a moment and said in surprise, "Isn't Linqing in Dongchang Prefecture?"

Pei Yuan replied, "Yes. Dongchang Prefecture is a place we cannot avoid, and it is also the place where we are most likely to avoid the enemy's attack. We can only take a gamble."

Seeing that Pei Yuan still had some ideas in his mind, Gu Dayong could only sigh secretly. He didn't expect that he had been chasing the rebels before, but now he had to act like a rat when facing the remnants of the Bazhou Army.

Pei Yuan saw that Gu Dayong was not in good spirits, so he could only comfort him, "Don't panic, eunuch. Lu Ting has just taken over the military power. Even if he needs time to reorganize the military affairs and cannot immediately pursue the main force of the Bazhou army, there is no reason to keep letting the remnants of the Bazhou army in Shandong go. I think it won't be long before the court army will send troops to Shandong to wipe out these bandits."

Gu Dayong sighed.

"I hope we won't be so unlucky as to run into those bandits before this."

Pei Yuan is somewhat confident about this.

"It's okay. Even if we encounter any problems, it won't be a big deal. Only a small number of those bandits are former Bazhou soldiers. Although the main force is quite young and strong, they are all civilians from nearby villages and towns. In terms of combat effectiveness, they may not be able to display it."

"The troops of Xuzhou Guard here seem to be very powerful. The Big Tiger and the Starry Sky may not dare to fight with us."

"Besides, there is a reason why I chose to go to Juye first."

Gu Dayong heard the details and couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean?"

Pei Yuan calmly explained, "Juye has a large swamp and the terrain is low-lying, which is not conducive to the movement of a large army. If we really meet the rebels head-on, we can rely on the terrain to deal with them properly."

"When I was in Huai'an before, I learned about the changes in the waters in this area."

"I heard that when the Yellow River flooded during the Hongwu period, the entire Juye County was submerged for two years. Later, the Yellow River receded and finally Juye County was exposed."

"If there really are 20,000 or 30,000 rebels, they may not dare to go to Juye. Where would they have room to maneuver?"

Gu Dayong felt a little relieved when he heard Pei Yuan's confident words.

After thinking for a while, he asked Pei Yuan again, "What if we encounter the enemy when we go to Yanggu?"

Pei Yuan also considered it and said calmly, "Then we will retreat back to Juye. At worst, we can just wait and see whether the imperial court succeeds in suppressing the bandits. And if the rebels escape, they might come to Juye."

"If we are really lucky, we might be able to trap the big tiger and the starry sky in the huge wild swamp."

Gu Dayong was slightly moved, then he sighed.

He has already lost his military power, so what is the use of this little achievement?
The imperial court gave him hundreds of thousands of troops and countless money and food so that he could wipe out the main force of the bandit army in Bazhou, not to capture these few young and strong minions.

If we really catch these few small characters and bring them back to the capital, I'm afraid the current emperor will feel ashamed. It would be better for us to go back quietly and admit our mistakes to the emperor.

Besides, with the few people we have, there is a greater possibility that we will be captured by others.

The more Gu Dayong thought about it, the more disheartened he became. He said lazily, "I don't want that little bit of credit. I just hope I can return to Beijing smoothly this time."

(End of this chapter)