Fu Shanhe

Chapter 191 Greedy for merit and rash advancement
When the Governor-General's death order was issued, the coalition forces from various provinces complained bitterly.

Now we can only hope that God will give us some more sunny days, otherwise there is no way we can fight the war.

Fighting against the will of heaven will come at a price.

……

"Master Jia, why are you here?"

Li Mu asked doubtfully.

Ever since he suffered during the last march, he no longer asked to join the army and focused on logistics in the rear.

Running to the front line in wind and rain is not his style.

"Commander Li, His Majesty has sent an imperial decree ordering the rebellion suppression army to wipe out the rebellion within the year.

The cabinet has also issued a strict order that results must be achieved before September."

Jabo said with a wry smile.

Being on the front line in Guangxi, he was fully aware of the army's current predicament, but the orders from above did not allow for bargaining.

The emperor's edict was actually transmitted directly to all the provinces. One can imagine the pressure that Lord Xu was under.

The head coach can't handle the pressure, so he naturally has to transfer the pressure downwards.

"Oh!"

After simply saying one word, Li Mu stopped responding.

Compared with before, Lord Xu's attitude has obviously softened.

He only asked the provinces to show results and did not reiterate the need to recover the two prefectures. I think he also knew the difficulties faced by the army on the front line.

But this is just Li Mu's personal interpretation.

The word "official" has two "口" in it. As this official term has not been clearly changed, the final right of interpretation still lies in the hands of Lord Xu.

Afterwards, you can choose to let it go or make a big deal out of it.

In fact, the summer offensive had inherent flaws from the very beginning of its strategic formulation.

An experienced commander should take the impact of climate into consideration before formulating a battle plan.

Under normal circumstances, it is time to activate the backup plan, or simply postpone the operational plan.

"Commander Li, don't you have any ideas?"

Jabo asked anxiously.

As a trusted younger brother, he dared not neglect the task assigned by Lord Xu.

After receiving the order, his first reaction was how to complete the task.

However, due to his limited knowledge, he really didn't know how to recover the lost land in the rain.

"Master Jia, isn't it obvious?"

“The court and the emperor put pressure on Lord Xu, and Lord Xu had no choice but to put pressure on us.

As for whether the mission can be completed, it depends on whether God gives face.

I am not very clear about the situation in other areas, but Zhen'an Prefecture will not be able to make a breakthrough in a short time.

The heavy rain stopped, but God still sent some rain every day, and the muddy roads were never dry.

Even if the soldiers could advance in the rain, the convoys carrying food and fodder would be stuck in the mud.

Once the army penetrates deep into enemy territory, the logistics will definitely not be able to keep up.

For safety reasons, I withdrew the troops that had successfully crossed the river from the front line two days ago.

If nothing unexpected happens, General Jing will also choose to withdraw his troops at this moment.

Now all we can do is hope that the weather clears up.

As for Lord Xu, you can handle it yourself!

If we really can't cope with it, we will say that we have discovered the food route used by the rebels and the Annamites, and we are trying to cut off this food route.

You can compile the detailed battle report yourself and give us a copy later."

Li Mu lied seriously.

The muddy roads targeted both warring parties, delaying the government troops' movements while also affecting the rebels' food transportation.

In this situation, the ones who should be most anxious are not the government troops.

When it comes to strategic material reserves on the front line, the two are not on the same level.

A devastated Guangdong and Guangxi could not possibly support a million-strong army.

If we just drag on, the Holy Kingdom of White Lotus will be the first to collapse.

"Commander Li, this won't work.

If the elders find out about this, the consequences will be disastrous!"

Jia Bo quickly rejected it.

Li Mu was not following Lord Xu, so he could naturally choose to fool him, but he was Lord Xu's younger brother.

If we deal with it in such a perfunctory manner, we will inevitably lose the trust of Lord Xu.

Not to mention his future career, he couldn't even get over the current accountability.

"What are you afraid of? You are not the governor of Guangxi.

According to Dayu's tradition of using civil officials to control military power, the supreme commander of the Guangxi Front Army was Governor Zhang.

Even if there is accountability, he is still the first person responsible.

As the military supervisor, you only need to urge Governor Zhang."

After hearing Li Mu's excuses, Jia Bo rolled his eyes on the spot.

He and Zhang Sihan fought for many rounds over the power struggle, and he always lost more than he won.

It is simply impossible to use Zhang Sihan as a scapegoat.

If the imperial court really wanted to punish him, he would accompany Zhang Sihan and be escorted to Beijing together.

On the contrary, Li Mu and Jing Yifeng, because of their outstanding achievements in the previous battles, will most likely be kept to make amends for their crimes.

This is caused by the military structure of Dayu.

The backbone of the army are the servants of the generals. Once these people are withdrawn, the combat effectiveness will decline rapidly.

The imperial court has always been cautious when dealing with powerful military generals.

The fact that the army's progress was hindered by the rainy season and the above tasks were not completed was not a mistake in principle at all.

"Commander Li, I'm not kidding you.

If we fail to complete the task and the court holds us accountable, it will be bad for everyone.”

Jabo said helplessly.

Other military supervisors in the army are all domineering and arrogant.

When it came to him, he could only coax the generals on the front line, and he was afraid that the other side would not cooperate.

It's simply the reverse of Tiangang.

"Don't worry, Master Jia.

I've asked around and learned that it rarely rains for two or three months in a row in Guangxi, so there will definitely be sunny days in between.

The summer sun scorches the earth, and the muddy road will be dried in two days at most.

As long as there are ten consecutive days of sunny days or half a month, we can recapture several cities.

The three prefectures of Zhen'an, Nanning and Xunzhou each recovered some territory and announced to the outside world that they had recovered the territories of two prefectures, and no one would take it seriously.

Just wait until the rainy season is over, and then send troops to encircle and suppress the rebels.

As for Lord Xu, you should also give him more advice.

Tell him not to keep urging the front line, in case some idiot is eager to complete the task and launches an attack in the rain and gets defeated.

When the summer battle failed and the court held him accountable, he was in trouble. "

Li Mu's explanation made Jia Bo feel slightly relieved, but then he felt helpless.

To persuade Lord Xu, just think about it.

Those who are able to enter the cabinet have fought their way up from the officialdom.

Once you make up your mind, it won't change easily.

What's more, the problem now is not just Lord Xu, but also the emperor and the civil and military officials in the court.

If there is no pressure from the capital, Lord Xu will not force everyone to send troops.

……

The government troops were complaining, and the Holy White Lotus Kingdom was also having a hard time.

As soon as the war began, money and food disappeared like water.

"Humph!"

"What do you guys eat?
Even something as simple as transporting food and fodder could be messed up.

Nearly 300 soldiers on the Huguang front were poisoned after eating moldy food. Soldiers on the Jiangxi front were even worse off, as they were forced to retreat to Yongzhou because they did not receive food and fodder in time.

......"

Faced with Shi Rongxian's angry curses, all the ministers lowered their heads.

Large-scale food poisoning in the military is no small matter.

Once you get involved, you will lose your head.

“Saint Emperor, there are many links between the transportation of military rations to the front lines and their distribution to the soldiers.

Under normal circumstances, the food eaten by soldiers on the front line should be from several months ago.

Moldy grain may not be a problem during transportation.

I am not intentionally making excuses for my subordinates. It is mainly because both parties will verify the military rations before handing them over.

Moldy grain cannot be stored in the warehouse at all.

Of course, this doesn't mean they have no responsibilities.

The plum rain season in Guangxi begins long before the Qingming Festival.

The soldiers had completed their mission as long as they could ensure that the food was not exposed to rain.

It is inevitable that grain will get damp during transportation.

Generally speaking, there will be no problems as long as you spread it out to dry in time.

If the officer in charge of looking after food and fodder at the front line was careless when storing the military rations, he would not notice that the food was damp.

Or it is possible that there were loopholes in the subsequent storage, causing the grain to become moldy.

The fireman is also responsible, as moldy food is so obvious that it can be spotted at a glance.

Knowing that the food was defective, he still cooked the moldy food into rice and fed it to the soldiers. His heart is damnable."

Wu Zekai stepped forward nervously and explained.

It's not that he wants to shirk responsibility, it's just that the matter is too big and he, as the prime minister, cannot afford it.

“Even if the food poisoning in Huguang was the fault of the generals at the front, how do we explain the delay in the supply of grain to Jiangxi?

Have the officers and soldiers responsible for escorting the grain and fodder been arrested?"

Shi Rongxian asked again.

The requirements for military ration delivery were very strict. If the date was delayed, the punishment might be whipping at the least and beheading at the worst.

The Jiangxi grain delay case is undoubtedly the most serious one.

All officers and soldiers responsible for escorting grain and fodder will be severely punished.

“Holy Emperor, the case of the delay of food supplies in Jiangxi has been investigated.

While transporting grain, the convoy suddenly encountered a landslide and was buried in mud.

Only one in ten soldiers and laborers who were responsible for escorting the transport survived, so it is impossible to hold them accountable.”

Wu Zekai explained helplessly.

He knew very well that such an answer would not satisfy Shi Rongxian.

However, the truth revealed by the investigation was a landslide.

It would be too inhumane to blame the survivors for such a natural disaster.

"Humph!

You have enough reasons.

Anyway, if it's not a natural disaster, it's someone else's problem, and it has nothing to do with you, the Prime Minister!"

Shi Rongxuan taunted.

It is only a matter of time before the power of the emperor and the power of the prime minister come into conflict.

The reason why they chose to find fault at this time was that Wu Zekai's power was expanding too fast, and half of the officials in the court were his disciples.

Recently, someone even wrote to him, asking him to confer the title of King of Gui on Wu Zekai.

In terms of achievements, he was able to use the land of Guangdong and Guangxi to supply a million troops for fighting.

By managing internal affairs in an orderly manner, Wu Zekai's contribution to the Holy Kingdom of White Lotus is no less than that of the three kings on the front line.

According to the White Lotus Holy Kingdom's standards for conferring titles on kings, he is absolutely worthy of being the King of Gui.

Shi Rongxian also wanted to clearly distinguish between rewards and punishments, but the problem was that it was the monarch's instinct to prioritize maintaining the balance in the court.

Wu Zekai's prestige is already high, and if he is crowned as a king, it will be even more difficult to suppress him.

"Holy Emperor, forgive me!"

Wu Zekai said with a gloomy face.

It was clearly not his responsibility, so he naturally couldn't accept anyone trying to pin the blame on him.

Deep down in his heart, he was already thinking about how to counter-attack Shi Rongxian.

In essence they are partners, not simply rulers and subjects.

Before the rebellion, the two men's status in the White Lotus Sect was comparable.

Shi Rongxian was able to ascend the throne because he was the first to lead a rebellion.

Including Wu Zekai, a group of dignitaries from the Holy White Lotus Kingdom were the original shareholders of the business.

Each of them brought a group of people and joined the rebellion one after another.

Under such circumstances, it is natural that the Holy Emperor Shi Rongxian cannot make his words final.

"Okay, let the past be the past!

Prime Minister, although the food supply between the Holy Kingdom and the Annan people has not been cut off, transportation has encountered difficulties.

In addition to the impact of the muddy road, the group of thieves from the Pseudo-North Korea also discovered our food route.

Without these food supplements, the Holy Kingdom’s stored food and fodder could only last for three months at most.

If we can’t open up the situation during this period, the situation will be completely out of control later on!”

Shi Rongxian changed the subject.

Just give it a knock and it will be enough. The current Holy White Lotus Kingdom still cannot do without Wu Zekai.

No matter how fearful you are, you have to admit his ability.

If someone else were to take over, it would take a lot of energy just to straighten out the internal situation of the Holy White Lotus Kingdom.

It is even more difficult to raise large amounts of strategic materials from the country.

“Holy Emperor, both the weather and the geography are on the defensive side.

In this horrible weather, whoever takes the initiative to launch an attack will have to pay a greater price.

What we need to do now is to stay calm, make preparations, and wait for the enemy to take action.

The combat plan of the pseudo-dynasty required the armies of each province to recapture the two prefectures before September.

It is now July and the enemy has gained nothing. The pressure they are under is no less than ours.”

Wu Zekai said calmly.

In a sense, this is a big gamble.

Bet that your enemy will make a mistake first and attack them proactively.

……

Time flies, and it is August in a blink of an eye. The deadline set by Lord Xu is getting closer and closer.

Nothing was gained at the front line, and all the provinces were in a panic. The governor and military supervisor of Guangxi were also stamping their feet in anxiety.

Li Mu, the commander-in-chief of the army, ate and drank as usual, as if nothing had happened.

"Commander-in-chief, I just received news that the armies of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces launched an attack on the rebels five days ago.

As a result, we were lured into deep territory by the enemy and lost three thousand soldiers and horses."

Li Mu was not surprised at all when he received the news.

Even during the same rainy season, different regions face different situations.

Among the provinces participating in the war, Jiangxi naturally had the highest average annual rainfall, followed by Guangdong and Guangxi, and then Huguang and Yunnan and Guizhou.

The rainfall in Yunnan and Guizhou will be slightly less, and there will be more sunny days.

The government troops of the two provinces seized the opportunity of the clearing sky and launched an attack to recover lost territory. Everything was very reasonable.

It was also very reasonable for the rebels to take advantage of the situation and set up an ambush in advance and wait for them to arrive.

"Governor, this is the battle report that just came in.

Facts have proved that being greedy and reckless will come at a price.

Three thousand soldiers may not sound like a lot, but a defeat at this critical juncture would be a huge blow to the morale of the army."

Li Mu turned and said to Zhang Sihan and Jia Bo.

Over the past month, every time they saw the sun, the two of them urged him to send out troops.

(End of this chapter)