Dugu Cheng raised the banner of "purging the court of corrupt officials" and dispatched the Wuwei Army to besiege the capital, which immediately caused panic in the capital.
Even Zhou Deyuan, who came up with the idea, did not expect Dugu Cheng's reaction to be so intense.
What's the difference between this so-called "purging the emperor's inner circle" and rebellion?
In the imperial court, Zhou Yuan looked worried: "I have always said that General Dugu Cheng was also a minister entrusted to me by the late emperor. How could he collude with rebels?"
Now look what's happened! We've angered General Dugu Cheng. If he rebels, what will become of our Great Zhou?
When Zhou Deyuan discussed it with him before, Zhou Yuan was not very willing to invite Dugu Cheng to be interrogated, for fear of offending Dugu Cheng.
Perhaps it was because he was more familiar with Dugu City, or perhaps it was because Empress Dowager Zhang and Zhang Xuansu were always whispering in his ear about how excessive and arrogant Yang Cheng was, which made him tolerate it.
Therefore, Zhou Yuan had a better impression of Dugu Cheng than of Yang Cheng, who was often in the capital and had resolved two major crises for the Great Zhou.
Zhou Deyuan said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, Dugu Cheng's actions just prove that he is arrogant and domineering, has a guilty conscience, and does not take the court seriously at all!"
It's good that we discovered this in time. If we had waited until later, Dugu Cheng would have completely controlled all of the Great Zhou's military, and we would have been nothing more than puppets of him, aside from occupying the capital!
After speaking, Zhou Deyuan turned his gaze to Yang Cheng and said in a deep voice, "Grand Commander, Dugu Cheng's actions are enough to prove his wolfish ambitions. Now the Wuwei Army is also a powerful force. I wonder if the Grand Commander is confident that he can stop Dugu Cheng?"
Yang Cheng squinted and said, "Don't worry, Your Highness. It would have been better if Dugu Cheng hadn't come to the capital. Now that he's here, he won't be leaving alive."
Dugu Cheng's reaction was not what Yang Cheng expected; he was far too arrogant.
In fact, the best response for Dugu Cheng in this situation would have been as Yu Ziqi suggested: to use all available resources to engage in a war of words with the court, simply to deny everything, while also attacking Yang Cheng and Cai Yan, and shifting the topic.
It's possible for the two sides to wrestle over this for a year or two, but the imperial court doesn't have the guts to directly abolish his military forces and confiscate his military power.
In this way, the Wuwei Army can still develop steadily, and when the situation in the Great Zhou Dynasty deteriorates to a certain extent, the Great Zhou Dynasty will naturally collapse without a fight.
As a result, Dugu Cheng, because of his arrogance, gave up the opportunity for slow development and insisted on entering the city to force the emperor to abdicate, forcibly killing Yang Cheng and threatening the royal family.
Even if he raised the banner of "purging the court of corrupt officials," his true intentions were obvious to everyone.
Therefore, in terms of the greater good, Dugu Cheng's position is unstable.
Moreover, the ministers in the court all breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Yang Cheng's attitude.
They didn't know when it started, but whenever they saw Yang Cheng's relaxed and nonchalant attitude, they knew that Yang Cheng was confident in handling the matter.
With this Grand Commander taking action, even the strongest enemy seems to pose no problem for him.
The idea that Yang Cheng was invincible when he made a move had even subtly taken root in their minds.
After returning to Zhenwu Hall, he asked Ye Meiniang for detailed intelligence on the Wuwei Army, as well as the Wuwei Army's current attack targets.
The Wuwei Army of Dugu City consists of four parts. The First Army is located in the capital and belongs to Pei Shixiong, who was killed by Yang Cheng. At this time, it has been incorporated into the Imperial Guards of the capital.
The other three generals, Li Daogan, Yu Wuyai, and Zhang Jun, led their Second, Third, and Fourth Armies, each with approximately 60,000 to 70,000 men, and attacked the capital from three different directions.
Dugu Cheng's trusted Wuwei Army, on the other hand, numbered over 100,000 and was personally led by him.
The Wuwei Army was divided into four groups, which surrounded the capital from four directions with an extremely domineering attitude, leaving the capital with almost no room for resistance.
When the Thirty-Six Great Bandits attacked the capital, they wanted to take it down in one fell swoop, but in reality, their foundation was somewhat unstable.
But the Wuwei Army was different. It attacked the capital from four directions at the same time. The prefectures and counties along the way either obediently let them pass, or if they dared to say a word of 'no,' they would be immediately crushed by the army, and their officials would be beheaded as traitors.
This steady and methodical approach, gradually chipping away at the enemy's strength, ensures that the offensive proceeds in the most secure manner.
Even the armed forces don't need to worry about external enemies.
The elite border troops were defending the frontier against the Golden Horde and the Jurchens of the north.
Those second-rate troops in the heart of the Great Zhou Dynasty posed no threat to the Wuwei Army.
Yang Cheng flipped through the documents and then tossed them aside.
Dugu Cheng's rise to power was not unusual, and his strength soared to great heights, but his foundation was much more solid than that of Zuo Yuan and others.
Most importantly, Dugu Cheng had clear goals and decisive methods, which is why the Wuwei Army developed so rapidly under his leadership.
However, Dugu City's rise to power was still too short-lived.
In just three years, he became the Grand General of the Wuwei Army, and the number of soldiers under his command increased more than tenfold, which was already somewhat exaggerated.
Therefore, his foundation was only relatively more stable than Zuo Yuan's; in reality, there were some internal problems as well.
For example, Dugu Cheng hasn't actually cultivated many trusted confidants over the past three years.
Pei Shixiong was one of his trusted subordinates, whom he had brought with him since the Wuwei Army days. That's why Pei Shixiong was sent to the capital to compete for power with the Zhenwu Hall.
Unfortunately, this guy was unlucky and ran into Yang Cheng, whose strength had increased by leaps and bounds and who had just returned to the Great Zhou World. Yang Cheng defeated him in one move.
The remaining three people were not Dugu Cheng's true confidants; they were merely people recruited from other second-rate armies after Dugu Cheng rose to power.
They served as loyal subjects of the Great Zhou for decades, but only served under Dugu Cheng for a few years.
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