On the tenth day after Xie Shaoling led his troops to quell the rebellion, voices of impeachment against him emerged in the court.
Jizhou is a thousand miles away from the imperial city. If they march quickly, they can travel about a hundred miles a day. In about ten days, Xie Shaoling's guards should be arriving in Jizhou soon.
However, military intelligence reported that the army had disappeared while passing through the Taihang Mountains.
Sixty thousand troops vanished into thin air!
The 200,000-strong guard force stationed in the outskirts of Beijing was composed of a diverse group, many of whom were sons of noble officials who came to the army to gain prestige.
But even if it's for gilding, there has to be gold to gild.
Since the rise of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, the northern frontier has been stable, and Dayuan has enjoyed decades of peace with few wars.
The only place where the guards could accumulate military merits was by suppressing bandits.
But in this peaceful and prosperous era, if there were no famine, where would there be so many bandits to suppress?
Even if it's a bandit suppression operation, how many guards would be needed to protect dozens or hundreds of bandits?
Therefore, this rebellion by the Jiang family and the governor of Jizhou has truly resonated with many people.
Of the 60,000 guards led by Xie Shaoling, at least 6,000 were related to various mansions in the imperial city.
These 60,000 people, each with their own agendas, entered the Taihang Mountains, and then no news of them emerged.
One day, two days...
By the third day, many people were losing their patience.
They included their own sons in the 60,000-strong pacification army simply because they valued Xie Shaoling's abilities and wanted to use this pacification campaign to accumulate military merits for their sons.
While accumulating military merits is important, it is not as important as their own lives! What use are military merits if they lose their lives?
Many officials impeached the emperor in court, but the emperor did not respond immediately. Instead, he suppressed the impeachment voices.
This time, Xie Shaoling led his army to quell the rebellion, and the emperor sent Sun Yan out to monitor his every move.
That's why he wasn't flustered at all.
Sun Yan would send him information every day, reporting on the march's progress.
Three days ago, Xie Shaoling led 60,000 guards into the Taihang Mountains, found a secluded place, and began training them.
After the Jiang family raised the banner of rebellion, they only occupied Jizhou County and did not expand their influence to the surrounding areas.
The Jiang family has been operating in Jizhou for hundreds of years and knows the Jizhou prefecture like the back of their hand. Their current entrenched position is simply a way to win the first battle against the imperial court by taking advantage of the terrain and the people.
If they win this battle, the imperial court will lose not only its army, but also its morale and the hearts of the people. After that, powerful families will naturally attach themselves to them.
Therefore, they are unlikely to launch a preemptive strike before engaging the imperial army.
In that case, there's no need for the guards to rush into battle.
Although all eyes in the Great Abyss are focused here, the court's prolonged inaction is indeed likely to shake the people's morale. However, the people's morale can be won back with just one overwhelming victory.
As for the people of Jizhou, they had always been under the rule of the Jiang family. Whether the Jiang family rebelled or not made little difference to them; it would just mean that life would be harder and more people would die. The emperor would not care about the lives of ordinary people.
He wished Xie Shaoling could train soldiers for a longer period of time.
Firstly, the longer these soldiers train, the stronger they become, and the greater their chances of winning against the rebels.
The emperor had long coveted Xie's army's training methods and had long wanted to implement them in the guards.
Unfortunately, the men he sent to learn from him never quite grasped the essence, only managing a superficial imitation that was merely superficially similar. Over the years, the guards haven't made much progress either.
Now that Xie Shaoling is willing to take the initiative to train troops, the emperor is naturally more than happy to oblige.
In any case, there are many people with their own agendas among these 60,000 guards. Even if Xie Shaoling is good at winning people's hearts, ordinary soldiers are easy to win over, but those noble families and officials' sons will not be easily won over by him!
The reason the emperor was willing to give Xie Shaoling 60,000 guards was that the extra 10,000 were not ordinary soldiers, but rather people from various families who had been placed there to gain prestige.
The emperor was fully aware of the matter, but did not stop it, because as long as there were these 10,000 soldiers with their own stances and ulterior motives, it would be difficult for Xie Shaoling to bring this army under his control.
Secondly, the longer Xie Shaoling trained his troops, the easier it would be for him to use this as an excuse to hold Xie accountable afterwards.
After all, Xie Shaoling did not submit a memorial to him when he trained his troops; it was considered unauthorized training. If he accused Xie Shaoling of treason, who would dare to defend him?
In short, the emperor was not angry at all about this matter; on the contrary, he was quite pleased with himself.
In order to demonstrate his trust in Xie Shaoling in the court, he also severely reprimanded the officials who impeached Xie Shaoling.
He's already defended Xie Shaoling so much, so if he holds him accountable afterward, surely no one will jump out and say he can't tolerate meritorious officials?
"Where we come from, there's a famous saying, 'Let the bullets fly for a while.' Calm down, stay calm, and we can see who's lost their composure and revealed their true colors." After learning about the situation in the court, Ye Jingchen comforted Xie Chang'an.
Xie Shaoling's training of troops was originally part of their plan.
Even though Xie Shaoling was very good at leading troops, if he led a rabble into battle, he could only win a Pyrrhic victory.
After all, according to the information they had gathered, both the Jiang family's 10,000 private soldiers and the 50,000 troops under the jurisdiction of Jizhou County were well-equipped and well-trained.
Therefore, these soldiers must be trained.
However, given the current tense situation, it would be a waste to train troops solely for the purpose of 'winning'.
Therefore, Xie Chang'an arranged for his men to stir up trouble in the court by taking the lead in impeaching Xie Shaoling, wanting to see how many people in the court would follow suit.
This action will allow us to identify those who harbor ill intentions towards the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion and Xie Shaoling, and take preventative measures in advance.
In addition, Xie Shaoling can be used to rectify the military discipline of the Guardian Army.
If this continues unchecked, and noble families and officials are allowed to arbitrarily send people in, can we really expect a bunch of pampered young masters to protect the capital?
Ye Jingchen only knew the general outline of events in the imperial court, as his status put him in a passive position in this regard.
However, Xie Chang'an clearly had his own channels. He knew exactly what was discussed at the morning court every day, and he didn't know how many of the officials standing in the Taiji Hall had been controlled by him.
Since voices began to impeach Xie Shaoling in the imperial court, Xie Chang'an began to share information with Ye Jingchen.
It contained information not only from the imperial court but also from the imperial guards.
"Uncle Xie is really good at leading troops. These 60,000 men are of such a complex background, yet he didn't give a single person a chance to pass on the message. I bet they get a lot of pigeon meat as a side dish every day!" Ye Jingchen exclaimed sincerely.
This training exercise not only exposes those with ulterior motives in the court, but also reveals the weaknesses of those with ulterior motives within the guards; it is a two-way test.
This probing lasted for more than ten days.
By the time the people in the court received information about this army, the Imperial Guard had already appeared in Jizhou County and was at the city gates.
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