"So this is Xinyueping's imperial study. Why isn't it even bigger than our old conference room?"
Cheng Guorong rushed back in a hurry. After all, he was still responsible for pacifying various parts of Cambodia. In particular, the Cambodian defenders in various places were not good at fighting, but they were very skilled at causing destruction.
When the war broke out, although Yang Yizhen had withdrawn all the garrisons from the various Khmer provinces, in order to defend the city, officials from all over the country still recruited as many troops as possible to guard the city.
How to say it, even if these conscripts were farmers who had never left the village in their lives, or were thugs who made a living by extorting money from people on the street and molesting widows, as long as they put on the uniforms of the Khmer Kingdom and picked up the weapons of the kingdom today, they would become soldiers.
Such soldiers are completely unreliable in fighting, but they can give these bureaucrats a greater sense of security.
After all, for the local officials of Cambodia, Qinghe is far less scary than the people under their rule.
If the Qinghe people come, we can just open the city and surrender, but if the people know that the city defenses are weak...
Anyway, when the rebels attack, I will definitely not be able to escape by surrendering.
They are very clear about this.
When they heard the news that Taegyeong City had fallen and Shin Yoo-pyeong had committed suicide, some officials chose their preferred method of death at home and then went to follow their king.
Everyone has their own aspirations, and there’s nothing wrong with doing this.
But they left behind a large number of completely undisciplined but armed conscripts.
So these riotous soldiers who had no idea what military discipline was began to loot crazily, so Cheng Guorong had to take the risk of dividing his troops. The 10,000-strong army had to be divided into nearly 100 armies to go to various cities, towns, docks... to stop the riotous soldiers as much as possible.
Fortunately, the combat effectiveness of these disorderly soldiers is almost zero. As long as they see the Qinghe flag from afar, they will either scatter like birds and beasts or kneel down and surrender. Otherwise, our victorious General Cheng is likely to fail in such a security battle.
Cambodia is not a big country. If it were a big country, with the limited military force Cheng Guorong has, he would probably only be able to solve the problem by dividing 10,000 troops into 10,000 groups.
Not every local official wants to die.
There were also people who had been suppressing the army and maintaining the local situation. They even took advantage of the fact that they were not constrained by their superiors to quickly complete the suspended water conservancy and road projects. When Cheng Guorong's army arrived, these people opened the city very simply, presented the treasury list and household registration list, and then announced surrender. The process was particularly smooth, at least it had been rehearsed many times in advance.
Logically speaking, these people should be considered treacherous ministers, or at least they can be considered as being afraid of death.
After all, local officials have the responsibility to guard their territory...
But for Lin Hai and Cheng Guorong, having such a person is really much more convenient.
Therefore, before Ling Yang arrived with Qinghe's newly trained political talents, Lin Hai reluctantly acknowledged these people's official positions, and then comforted them with kind words, allowing them to continue to maintain local production and public order.
This is why monarchs of all dynasties disliked surrendering generals and officials, but had to employ them.
As for those generals who were still loyal to Cambodia, Cheng Guorong gave them three options according to Lin Hai's suggestion:
Alternatively, they could lay down their arms and surrender, and after screening, those troops who might continue to stay in Qinghe might be sent home;
Alternatively, take the team to surrender to Xinyuetu, Cheng Guorong's army will always track and monitor from the attack position;
Otherwise, Cheng Guorong will help him die.
This is why Cheng Guorong, who was in Cambodia, finally returned to Bangkok later than Wang Liang.
After all, Wang Liang led his troops forward all the way, and when he encountered the imperial army that hurriedly came to pick peaches in the central part of Hanzhong, he was unwilling to move forward even if he was beaten to death, nor was he willing to spit out the territory he had taken.
This resulted in the army, which was hastily withdrawn from the central battlefield to pick peaches and pick persimmons, having to continue advancing in order to reap the benefits. Then they were ambushed by the Xia army, surrounded and beaten.
So the result for Hanzhong was that Qinghe occupied half of Hanzhong, and Xia State occupied half of Hanzhong. The imperial army came from afar to get beaten and got nothing. They could only return home unwillingly. It was said that they would be used as suicide squads in the future.
This was the first time since the outbreak of the war that Lin Hai had gathered so many people together.
In order to reflect the standard of this meeting, he temporarily ordered the renovation of Xin Yueping's imperial study to hold the meeting. After all, important things should be discussed in a more important place to reflect their importance.
After a round of greetings, Lin Hai stopped everyone from saluting.
He stood up, as he always disliked sitting down during meetings, and said as he walked:
"I learned a lot of information from Xin Yueping."
"But due to certain restrictions, I, like other people who know the news, cannot tell it. This news does not affect me, but if I tell you, it will affect you."
"The way it affects people is very simple, it's just sudden death."
"So I can't explain the reason. I can only say that I will declare myself emperor, but I must wait until the right time. Before that, I need everyone to work hard to stabilize this country that has been born but has not yet been named."
"I need everyone to have enough trust in me, just like in the past, just like in the present, and just like in the future when we will walk together."
"So, I asked everyone to come here today not just to discuss trivial matters like becoming emperor, but more importantly, we need to make more plans for our territory, which has expanded to the limit of our control."
"Of course, before that, there's something more important, which I promised you. We can first discuss the group wedding. I believe many people are interested..."
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