Catching Monsters

Chapter 491 All the fighting spirit is gone
As Li Xiunan spoke, a look of despair crossed his face. He said with some resentment, "Everyone says officials protect each other, but after my father got into trouble, why didn't any official come to protect him?"

"On the contrary, they pushed all the blame onto my father."

“My father didn’t even have a chance to explain before he died tragically in the imperial prison.”

"Even I was exiled to the northern lands."

Li Xiunan was sent to the Imperial Prison and suffered countless tortures there. Now he has secretly escaped back to the capital, hoping to find an opportunity to overturn his father's case.

"I never imagined I'd be so unlucky as to run into a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard like you." Li Xiunan gave a bitter laugh, then suddenly slammed his head hard on the ground with a loud bang.

Bright red blood slowly flowed down from the top of his head: "I have experienced the methods of your Embroidered Uniform Guard. It is worse than death. I would rather die than suffer like this again!"

After saying that, he slowly stopped breathing.

Jiang Yun was dumbfounded. This guy was scared to death just like that?
Looking at Li Xiunan, who had already stopped breathing, Jiang Yun couldn't help but shake his head, wondering what to say.

But then, Jiang Yun paused, and couldn't help but take out the set of account books he always carried with him.

Suddenly, I realized that this set of account books could cost many people their lives in the capital.

Jiang Yun's expression shifted slightly as she carefully put away the ledger. This thing could come in very handy at a crucial moment.

Soon, Qi Da also received Jiang Yun's notification and rushed to the scene. Following Jiang Yun's instructions, he quickly and secretly disposed of Li Xiunan's body.

Then they arranged for someone to clean up the house.

Jiang Yun first went back to the Sanqing Temple, and then secretly hid the account book in a secret compartment under his bedroom in the Sanqing Temple.

After confirming that the hidden compartment was located under the bedroom floor tiles and was not easily noticeable, Jiang Yun finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Jiang Yun then poured herself a cup of tea and began to think carefully.

After all, the names of Li Wangxin and Feng Yu are still on this. Even if we really want to use this thing against someone, we have to remove the information about Li Wangxin and Feng Yu first.

If all the people involved were exposed, the entire officialdom in the capital would likely undergo a major upheaval.

……

Meanwhile, in Daegu County, south of the capital.

At this time, all the high-ranking officials and nobles, as well as ordinary people with spare money, had already left Daegu County.

The area around Daegu County is quite flat and has no natural defenses. The only thing to rely on is this not-so-high city wall.

The situation in the south is not good; the entire southwest of Zhou has fallen into the hands of Wang Longzhi.

In addition to the three southwestern provinces, it also includes six other provinces.

The nine provinces, if we count the land area, already constitute a full quarter of the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Furthermore, two of the nine provinces are coastal provinces and are quite wealthy.

In addition to the 400,000 elite troops, there were also 200,000 miscellaneous troops, making a total of 600,000 troops.

On the imperial court's side, they initially only sent 100,000 Zhenchi troops south to quell the rebellion, but later discovered that the rebels had colluded with Wang Longzhi.

The remaining 50,000 garrison troops were also transferred here.

Unfortunately, after the last major battle, the Zhenchi Army suffered considerable casualties, and now only has 150,000 men left.

With the addition of 50,000 Apocalypse Army soldiers, the total number is 200,000.

Although this army of 200,000 was highly elite, it was still made of flesh and blood, and Wang Longzhi stretched the battle lines very far.

The entire battlefront, when combined, probably exceeds four hundred miles in length. Xu Xiaogang had no choice but to divide his troops and station them along this rather long battlefront.

However, Wang Longzhi relied on his superior troop strength to secretly mobilize his forces and launch a surprise attack on a certain point of the defensive line. After breaking through, he would send his cavalry in to outflank and encircle the city.

At this point, the city is often handed over without resistance.

If they stubbornly defend the city, they risk running out of food, and the ultimate result will be the loss of the city.

This move does seem to have some unsolvable problem.

Inside the city walls of Daegu County, Xu Xiaogang sat in a house guarded by his personal guards.

"General, we must make a decision as soon as possible. If we delay any longer, it may be too late to leave," Marquis Anjing, Qin Ziliang, reminded Xu Xiaogang from the side. Qin Ziliang had led the Zhenchi Army to storm the capital, and in order to appease him, he was granted the title of Marquis Anjing.

Given his dark past, Qin Ziliang should not have been allowed to lead troops into battle again, but Xu Xiaogang knew that Qin Ziliang was an outstanding talent in leading troops into battle.

Now that we need manpower, we summon him directly.

Xu Xiaogang glanced at the map in front of him, and his heart sank slightly.

Hwangam County, north of Daegu County, fell three days ago. If Hwangam County were to move downstream, it could completely cut off their retreat route in less than two days.

Today, 50,000 garrison troops are stationed in Daegu County.

If we don't evacuate in time, we'll all perish here.

Xu Xiaogang had been thinking of a way to defeat the enemy for the past two days, but he couldn't come up with one. He took a deep breath and said, "Order the camp to break up and retreat."

As he was about to hand over another prefecture, Xu Xiaogang sighed inwardly and said, "Even if we force a decisive battle between the two armies, with 200,000 men, we can fight to the death and still have a chance to win with fewer troops."

Xu Xiaogang has been trying to find the whereabouts of Wang Longzhi and others, hoping to gather a large army for a decisive battle.

Although the enemy had more troops, Xu Xiaogang understood that they had 200,000 ragtag soldiers.

If the two armies were to actually clash, these ragtag troops would only become a burden.

But Wang Longzhi had no such intention and used this method to continuously erode the territory of the Zhou Kingdom.

Most importantly, besides the Zhenchi Army and the Tianqi Army, there were also cities, people, government offices, and even some local militia forces along the way.

They did not resist the rebel army at all.

The rebel army's stated cause was not rebellion, but rather to support the sixth prince, Xiao Jingqi, in ascending the throne.

In this way, their actions escalated from rebellion to a power struggle within the imperial court.

As for ordinary people, it doesn't matter to them who becomes emperor...

For local officials, if someone is a rebel, these officials are, after all, scholars, and they still have to consider their reputation.

But the other party is His Highness the Sixth Prince.

I'm just taking sides in the succession struggle ahead of time. Does that mean I'm disgracing the integrity of a scholar?

Therefore, in some places, the city walls were even opened to welcome the rebels upon their arrival.

Qin Ziliang sighed and said in a low voice, "General, the gain or loss of a city or a place is a small matter, but over such a long period of time, we have lost countless territories."

Qin Ziliang's lips moved slightly, and he said in a low voice, "I'm afraid that the imperial court might do something bad to you."

"The officials from the Ministry of Revenue who brought the grain earlier were all talking amongst themselves, saying that our Zhenchi Army only knew how to hand over the city to anyone they met, and had no backbone at all..."

Xu Xiaogang gritted his teeth: "At least withdrawing can save the lives of our soldiers, which is better than a meaningless sacrifice."

"withdraw!"

……

A few days later, in the imperial court, Xiao Yuzheng sat at the head of the table with a gloomy expression.

The court officials below all bowed their heads as news came from the front lines that Huangyan County and Daqiu County had been lost.

All told, we've already lost seven county towns this month.

"Let's all speak. Do you have any suggestions regarding the battle at the front?" Xiao Yuzheng glanced down and said slowly.

Minister of Revenue Zheng Chengze couldn't hold back any longer. He slowly stepped forward, cupped his hands, and said, "Your Majesty, I have something to say. Every month, our Ministry of Revenue tries its best to raise funds for the front lines. I even set an example by eating only one bowl of white rice, four vegetarian dishes, and two meat dishes every day. All the money saved is sent to the front lines."

"But on the front lines, it's been half a year, and Lord Xu has yet to see any results."

"On the contrary, as soon as the rebels arrived, he abandoned the city and fled, burning all the grain we had painstakingly accumulated and sent to the front lines."

"The official reason is to prevent the grain from falling into enemy hands, but isn't this also a waste of our Ministry of Revenue's allocated funds?"

"If you ask me, if all else fails, let someone else go up and try, and let Duke Xu come back and rest."

(End of this chapter)