Chapter 425: Fighting for the Vanguard and Conquering Jiaozhou
"yes."
Qingying respectfully clasped his fists and accepted the order. Seeing this, General Peng and other veteran generals were dissatisfied. "Your Highness, I object. Whether it was against the Western Hu people or Mingzhou, Qingying was the vanguard. Isn't it our turn now?"
These veterans might not need to prove themselves with military achievements, but their men did. Without the vanguard, how could they achieve merit? It wasn't that they were arrogant or looked down on the Jiaozhou garrison. Even the 300,000 troops previously stationed in Mingzhou were no match for the Wei army's 100,000, let alone the 20,000 garrisoned in Jiaozhou. After the vanguard was defeated, they basically had nothing left to fight for.
"how do you say?"
Wei Chengyi did not change his mind immediately, but looked at Qingying with a slight smile. It was not uncommon for generals to rush to the battlefield. If Qingying was willing to give in, he had no objection.
"Qingying, you are still young and you will have many opportunities to fight. Why don't you let us have the opportunity this time?"
Before Qingying could speak, General Peng patted his shoulder and spoke in a serious tone.
"That's right. It's time to take our soldiers out for some training. Qingying, you can't just focus on eating the meat yourself. You should at least leave some soup for us."
"If the soldiers don't fight a few more battles, their bones will probably be rusted. Qingying, you can't snatch it from us this time."
"Qingying, let us do it. You can take a rest first?"
"That's right, we're all so idle that we're almost going moldy..."
General Chen followed closely behind. With them taking the lead, the other generals spoke one after another, each with their own opinions. Their only goal was to grab the position of vanguard. Qingying's mouth muscles twitched constantly because of what they said, but in order to keep the position of vanguard, he just stood there in a daze and didn't say a word. Just kidding, who knows if he will be led astray by these old foxes after he opens his mouth?
Shen Xiangwan, who was sitting next to Wei Chengyi and listening quietly, couldn't help but feel funny. As the saying goes, a strong soldier makes a strong general. The enthusiasm of the generals can also reflect the attitude of the soldiers. With them around, why worry about not being able to fight all the way to the imperial city?
"It's not Qingying, why don't you say something."
After waiting for a long time without getting a response from him, everyone, led by General Peng, gathered around him, as if they would beat him up if he didn't agree.
"Did you give me a chance to speak?"
While they weren't paying attention, Qingying evaded the encirclement and stood beside Wei Chengyi and his wife, saying loudly, "Sir, your words are true. The Second Master has already appointed the generals. How can we force him to change his orders? Generals, let me go first this time. If I can't, you will be responsible for the aftermath."
“···”
Are you sure this isn't infuriating?
All the generals couldn't help but grit their teeth. Shen Xiangwan couldn't help but chuckle, covering his mouth with a fist. Qingying's words were too infuriating. If others didn't know, didn't they know it themselves? The Wei army was incredibly fierce. Both its equipment and combat effectiveness surpassed those Jiaozhou garrisons, who had probably never seen blood. Moreover, they were 50,000 men against 20,000. If they couldn't defeat them, Qingying wouldn't have to lead the troops anymore. He should just take off his armor and go home to farm. How could he give the other generals the chance to clean up the mess?
In the end, it was Qingying who was responsible for leading the troops to attack Anyang City the next day. He lived up to everyone's expectations and broke through the Anyang city gate in just two days. However, the garrison in the city did not allow the people to evacuate. When the city was broken, the garrison pushed the people out to block the guns in order to escape. This move not only chilled the people, but also angered Wei Chengyi and his wife.
Without giving other cities in Jiaozhou a chance to react, the army did not stop in Anyang City. After instructing Yan Junling and others to pacify the people, Wei Chengyi asked the generals to lead 10,000 soldiers each to attack different cities. In just less than ten days, they took over the entire Jiaozhou and captured alive the prefect, the garrison commander and other officials who wanted to escape.
"Kill them, kill them!"
At the execution ground in the downtown area of Jiaozhou Prefecture, all the captured officials and their families were taken to the execution platform. Not long ago, Wei Chengyi had their crimes read out. The people were excited, and the shouts of killing were earth-shaking. They had been oppressed for too long, and only by seeing those corrupt officials being beheaded with their own eyes could they feel a little better.
"cut!"
"No, King Weiyang, please spare my life, please spare my life..."
"No, I don't want to die, Master, save me..."
"Wuwu... King Weiyang, please spare our lives, spare us..."
"Woo woo..."
Looking up at the sky, Wei Chengyi, who was personally in charge of supervising the execution, picked up the token and threw it out. The executioners took out sharp knives one after another. The people on the execution platform were trembling with fear and all started crying. They were pitiful, but no one present pitied them. They exploited the people and squeezed their fat and blood on weekdays, and after being defeated, they even let the people take the knife. They were simply cowards and deserved to be beheaded.
Jiaozhou Prefecture Government Office.
"Let the people grow vegetables. Besides cabbage, things like carrots can be harvested in about fifty days. The government will then buy them up. The people will have money and won't have to worry about food and clothing."
In the hall, Shen Xiangwan sat together with Yan Junling and others. They were discussing how to arrange planting for the people. It was already late August, and there was no way to plant potatoes. Vegetables were the only option.
"Okay, then let's plant carrots and cabbages. As for the seeds..."
Yan Junling did not continue speaking, but stared at Shen Xiangwan. Everyone else's eyes were also focused on her. They had cabbage seeds, and carrots were vegetables introduced from the Western Regions. They could not find so many seeds in a short time. This matter was brought up by Shen Xiangwan, so she should have a way, right?
"Leave the seeds to me. I'll also plant a small amount of other vegetables. I'll give you the seeds later. Don't forget to distribute the plows and harrows so the people can plow the land as soon as possible."
Shen Xiangwan did not refuse and was already secretly thinking about which vegetables had a short growth cycle and were suitable for planting now.
"no problem."
Yan Junling, who was in charge of overall coordination, agreed. Later, they discussed the matter of assisting the people in developing animal husbandry. Although they had not had time to punish those wealthy but unkind families, they had confiscated a lot of silver, money and land from the officials' property. They planned to use the money to buy a large number of piglets, and distribute them to the people after processing them. Anyway, the officials' money was basically the fat of the people, and this could be regarded as taking from the people and using it for the people.
It is easy to conquer a country but difficult to keep it. It took them only ten days to conquer Jiaozhou, but it took more than a month to simply resettle the troops. It was not until October that the army set out again and advanced towards Lizhou. At the same time, the potatoes planted by the people of Mingzhou were ripe. When the yield of five or six thousand kilograms per mu was clearly presented in front of them, the people were excited, and then they couldn't help but burst into tears. If they had had this high-yield grain earlier, so many people would not have starved to death in last year's drought.
[End of this chapter]
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