Of course, the Khmer central leadership is not entirely made up of fools.
Although senior officials often argue with each other in the court on the grounds of each other's lack of intelligence, everyone knows that idiots cannot enter the court.
To do otherwise would be an insult to all officials.
After all, there is that sentence "How did you match me when you are so good?"
Therefore, Lin Hai's treaty with evil intentions was seen through at the first time. Even those who did not see through it opposed it based on the principle that "the suggestions made by the enemy must not be good."
Well, to be precise, it was the civil servants who opposed it.
After clearly stating that they would rather die than sign this humiliating treaty, the civil officials reaffirmed a principle with the Cambodian Ministry of War: "Warfare is the job of military commanders, and to demonstrate their trust in them, there is no need for civilian supervision in wars fought on home soil."
The military generals were quite open-minded. Many of them expressed their opposition to the treaty and signed a military order on the spot, saying that they could lead the army to fight until victory. Of course, the prerequisite was that the garrison guarding Taijing be assigned to them.
Due to Khmer ancestral system, the Thai capital garrison was not allowed to leave the capital, so the generals had no choice but to express their devotion to the country. However, as a cook cannot cook without rice, they could only wait until the mobilized civilians were trained before going to fight the invading Qinghe Army to the death.
"What do you think, Right Prime Minister?" The Khmer King on the throne watched his ministers' performance very carefully. He felt that this was the most interesting moment of the day. A group of the best talents selected from all over the country were performing a reality show in front of him. If he were not the king, he would definitely not be able to see this scene.
According to the Khmer system, the left prime minister is in charge of civil affairs while the right prime minister is in charge of military affairs. This is what is meant by "left civil and right military." Therefore, the right prime minister was not frightened by the sudden question.
"Your Majesty, I believe we should fight." The Right Prime Minister Yang Yizhen was a civil official, but because he was in charge of military affairs all year round, he mixed with a group of warriors. Over time, it was hard to tell that he was also a scholar who had studied hard for ten years and became famous in the imperial examination to become an official. Although he was over fifty years old, because he learned to train his body like a military general, he seemed much stronger and more rugged than the Left Prime Minister of the same age.
Of course, if you think of Yang Yizhen as a crude warrior, you're wrong. Yang Yizhen passed the imperial examination at the age of 20, and in the subsequent 30 years of his career, his appearance deceived many people. Those who were less discerning paid the price for this. Most of them were beheaded for various crimes, and a few were exiled to the frontier and never allowed to return to Beijing.
So when Yang Yizhen said the words "we must fight", the court fell silent. Everyone was waiting for his next words, and no one was stupid enough to stand up and oppose him.
There was a saying that went, it’s not that no one in the officialdom tells the truth, it’s just that those people can’t tell the truth a second time.
Sure enough, seeing no one objected, Yang Yizhen continued, "Liang's brazen invasion of our country is a provocation, but the prestige of our Khmer nation is inviolable. Therefore, no matter what the reason, we should fight back. Even if we want to negotiate, we should do so after driving the Liang people out of our borders."
Regardless of Yang Yizhen's original intention, at least these words sounded very encouraging. The Khmer King could not help but nod and said, "Then according to your opinion, how should this war be fought?"
"Your Majesty, I have two strategies for both urgent and slow response."
“What is urgent and what is slow?”
"If it's urgent, recall some troops from the Chongzuo defense line. It doesn't need to be too many. In my opinion, between 30,000 and 50,000 will be enough. This is an elite force that has been through many battles. If they launch a decisive attack, they should be able to easily defeat the Liang army."
"Slow down, meaning we can let the Chongzuo army continue to hold its ground and counterattack after the Chen Dynasty reinforcements are exhausted. In short, we will not transfer troops internally, but first stabilize the Liang people at home and speed up the training of newly recruited soldiers. Once the new army is trained, we can draw some officers from Chongzuo to form a punitive force and then attack the Liang people."
Well, it’s the same old story again.
In fact, before Yang Yizhen spoke, everyone could guess what he was going to say. After all, Cambodia is so small, and there are only a few buckets of rice in the pot. Everyone knows what dishes can be made.
However, as the king and the head of the Xinyue family, Xinyueping had to consider more. He did not respond to Yang Yizhen's words, but asked:
"I heard that after occupying Mengyang, the Liang people did not stop and continued to plunder everywhere. There are even signs of attacking Jingdong and Daqili. Left Prime Minister, do the local officials have any military information to report?"
As the head of the civil service, Left Prime Minister Gao Shengtai always looks calm and composed.
He stepped forward and spoke slowly, "Your Majesty, this is indeed the case. Local officials in Jingdong and Daqili have reported that they were attacked by Liang troops. The attack was severe, and the local garrisons attempted to drive them out, but were instead annihilated. The local officials speculate that the Liang troops may be looking for a loophole in our defenses."
"Hehe, that's hard work for these Liang people. My land is full of loopholes. It's easy for them to find them, but they will probably have difficulty making a choice." Xin Yueping said self-deprecatingly.
"We are willing to die." The ministers knelt down and apologized.
Although everyone knows that people can only die once, and it is also clear that the king will not really punish everyone for this matter, the necessary procedures must be followed. After all, everyone has knelt down, and if you are still standing, it means that you are not sociable. Such a person will have only one end - to take a machete and recapture Meng Yang alone.
"Stand up. If kneeling can drive away the people of Liang, then all of you should go to Mengyang City and kneel down," Xin Yueping said calmly.
Although His Majesty the King's words were golden and everyone had to do what he said, no one paid attention to it at this time. They just lowered their heads and stood up. No one actually knelt down to Meng Yangcheng.
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