sbdcsierra Chapter 254 Is this reasonable?
Chapter 254 Is this reasonable?
Min Xueer was missing. The letters that the Min family had sent to inform Min Wenshan were all withheld by Yingli, so that Min Wenshan knew nothing about the fact that Min Xueer had been in Zong Yanli's army for such a long time.
No wonder, no wonder...
Yingli took advantage of her being Min Wenshan's woman to do many things secretly.
She used Min Wenshan's slogan to command his personal soldiers and secretly instigated the relationships among his generals. Those tiny and seemingly insignificant things, as they infiltrated a little bit, were like termites and borers, and disintegrated the Qi army.
Min Wenshan continued to investigate and even found out that the accidental murder of a soldier under Quan Liangpeng in the water account was actually instigated by Yingli.
So early in the morning...
“Bitch!!!” Min Wenshan raised his hand and slammed the table hard, his face turning blue with anger.
Many generals and their personal soldiers also looked unhappy. Most of the people who could still stay with Min Wenshan were his confidants, and there were only a few left. Someone said with a gloomy face: "General, I persuaded you in your early years that you should not bring a woman into the barracks."
Everyone nodded as they listened, with a hint of resentment in their eyes, and snorted, "The sage said that only women and villains are difficult to raise."
"That woman will always cause trouble..."
"He is just a little clever and does this. The general should have chased him away or killed him long ago."
Everyone in the tent was talking to each other. Min Wenshan's expression became even uglier when he heard this. Finally, he raised his voice and shouted, "Enough! You two can't even keep an eye on a woman, and you are being played around by her. How good is that?"
Min Wenshan snorted and said, "In the final analysis, it is still due to the unrest in the military. Now that the situation has come to this, what else is there to say?"
He took a deep breath, looked up at everyone and said, "The most urgent thing is to think about how to deal with Zong Yanli next."
"What is the general afraid of? Didn't Zong Yanli take that woman in?" Someone at the end shouted, "Why not wait and see? It may not be long before the enemy army falls into civil strife!"
"Do you think Zong Yanli is a fool like you?" Min Wenshan almost laughed out of anger after hearing this.
Yingli is indeed a good woman, but Min Wenshan sometimes has to admit that Yingli is indeed capable in being knowledgeable. Now she is not hesitant to use such means and even sent her to Jifeng City, where Zong Yanli treated her as a guest of honor.
It was obvious that Zong Yanli had also witnessed Yingli's abilities, so he treated her with courtesy.
Min Wenshan frowned and said, "That Yingli is quite pretty, but... Zong Yanli is treating her as a guest of honor now. I wonder what he will do if the soldiers in the army criticize him in the future?"
This is also what Lu Peibai is thinking at this moment.
In the military tent, Lu Peibai was very satisfied with her current situation, but she also felt a little uneasy, because Min Wenshan had once given her such courtesy, but what happened later?
She didn't want to believe a man's lies again, so even though she stayed under Zong Yanli's command at this moment, she was always thinking about her way out in her heart.
A mistake made once must never be made again.
"Mr. Mingxi?" Huo Wenqi's voice came to his ears. Lu Peibai looked up and saw Huo Wenqi handing him the military register. He said, "The military affairs are very busy. The general has a lot to deal with. I can only trouble Mr. Mingxi to handle a few things."
"These? All of them?" Lu Peibai looked at Pei Liang, Zhan Haoyue and others. They found a place to sit down very skillfully. Zhuang Chengbi even brought a pillow and leaned on it beside him. He looked like he was going to work all night. Lu Peibai was really shocked.
"Mr. Mingxi, don't think that you can get any preferential treatment just because you are a woman." Pei Liang stared at Mingxi with a gloomy look and said, "These, and these, are the lists submitted by the bookkeeper."
"Let's get familiar with it first." Pei Liang took a sip of tea and said in a low voice: "If you have any questions about the distribution of military supplies, you can ask me. After it is sorted out, it will be sent to the general..."
"Oh, busy..."
"Let's take a look at the military merit book first. Are there so many war horses lost?"
"hiss……"
Zhan Haoyue and his companions skillfully began to divide the work and organize the military registers reported by the lower levels in more detail. This was probably the specific and core content of the number of military personnel in the army, so they handed it over to Lu Peibai with confidence and boldness.
Lu Peibai, who was still thinking about his escape route in the previous second, was already dizzy from the blow.
Before she even had time to think about it, a pen was stuffed into her hand. Huo Wenqi asked her to write, and she was immersed in military affairs so quickly.
The work was so busy that it lasted day and night. A large number of accounts were stuffed in. Lu Peibai had been very sensitive to accounting numbers since she was young, and she was very familiar with mental arithmetic. As she quickly calculated the numbers several times, Zhan Haoyue and Pei Liang looked as if they had found a treasure.
"That's great! Since Gongsun Pu is away, it has been extremely difficult for us to calculate the accounts!" Pei Liang was overjoyed and directly handed over all the military accounts to Lu Peibai for calculation.
Lu Peibai: "..."
No, didn’t she just join the army a few days ago?
Is it reasonable to let her see all the accounts?
Pei Liang seemed to have seen through Lu Peibai's thoughts, and said with a smile: "Mr. Mingxi, you can rest assured. The general has always believed in the principle of trusting people when employing them, and not employing people if you don't trust them. Since you are assisting me, I will trust you and listen to you."
Lu Peibai was silent for a moment, then she looked down at the account in her hand and laughed. She suddenly thought of the time when she followed Min Wenshan. She had never known such detailed things in the army, and even the military reports submitted to her were not something she could read at will.
But now?
Boxes of military newspapers were piled up at her fingertips, and she could just reach out and read them.
Lu Peibai couldn't describe how she felt at the moment. She just lowered her head and looked at the accounts in silence. In just two days, she had almost memorized the army's accounts by heart. She also had a general understanding of Zong Yanli's strategy of controlling his subordinates, which was completely different from Min Wenshan's.
"General, please give us two more batches of war horses!" Meng Qi begged, following closely behind Zong Yanli and said, "Shi Gan Dang killed so many enemies this time, this should be attributed to me as their master!"
"Most of the soldiers under your command are shield soldiers. It would be a waste to give you a warhorse." Zong Yanli glared at Monk without mercy. He walked into the military tent and saw Pei Liang, Lu Peibai and others handling military affairs. He just glanced at them calmly and then looked away.
Lu Peibai wanted to stand up to greet them, but found that Pei Liang and others were too lazy to even move. They just nodded casually to Zong Yanli and continued to deal with military affairs.
Lu Peibai paused for a moment, not knowing whether he should get up or not...
Mengqi was throwing a tantrum and demanding the warhorse. Zong Yanli was annoyed by his noise, so he raised his hand to suppress his noisy words and said, "In this case, I won't give you the warhorse. I have something that you must do for me."
"Ah? What?" Monkie couldn't help but stand up straight. He had never heard the general say "I must have you" before, and he became nervous and cautious for a moment.
"Qi is bound to make a comeback. Since this battle with Qi, I found that our army's shield formation is still a little lacking." Zong Yanli frowned slightly, as if he was troubled by this, and then stared at Monk and said, "The soldiers under your command are all my Daqian warriors!"
"I want to forge a brand new military shield for them, and you will personally teach and train the shield soldiers."
"How about using your shield as a spear and being my vanguard?"
After hearing Zong Yanli's words, Monk's eyes widened in astonishment: "Use the shield as a spear?"
He had never heard that a shield soldier could also be a vanguard!
Zong Yanli nodded solemnly and said, "You are the only soldier in the army who can take on such an important task. Are you willing?"
"Yes! Of course I am willing!" Monk nodded repeatedly in response.
"Hmm..." Zong Yanli nodded slowly, then looked at Monk and said, "Since you are a shield soldier, there is no reason for you to have a warhorse. Look at this warhorse..."
“No more!!!”
Zong Yanli watched Meng Qi leave with a smile. Pei Liang, Lu Peibai and others who witnessed the whole process from the side, the former shook his head and laughed without being surprised, while the latter's eyes were full of admiration and surprise, and he couldn't help but say: "General, are you so attentive to all your generals?"
If it were any other general, they could suppress the matter with just one word, but Zong Yanli was able to make decisions in accordance with the wishes of her subordinates, making them accept her decisions without any grudges.
This situation really surprised Lu Peibai. If Min Wenshan had the same skill of controlling his subordinates as Zong Yanli, Lu Peibai would probably find it difficult to shake the morale of the army even if he tried his best.
"Our general has always been like this." Pei Liang replied with a smile: "The morale of the army is also the morale of the people. If left unchecked, it will eventually breed trouble."
"Besides, the general has always treated his soldiers with great courtesy. General Meng's request for a warhorse is just to save face in front of the general." Pei Liang said with a smile, "Mr. Mingxi has just arrived. You will understand after spending more time with the general."
Lu Peibai nodded slowly and her eyes fell on Zong Yanli who was sitting in the main seat. She had already picked up the military register on the table and was flipping through it. This was some important tasks they had sorted out that needed Zong Yanli's review.
Military affairs were complicated and could not be handled in a day or two. Zong Yanli picked out the most important ones to deal with first, distributed the seized military supplies, and began to work on the next step of the battle.
After the beginning of winter, the weather becomes cooler.
Min Wenshan was gathering troops everywhere, and Zong Yanli naturally heard some news of it. He watched secretly and did not take any action for the time being.
After traveling thousands of miles, Zong Yanli finally received a letter from home in winter.
That thin envelope crossed countless mountains and rivers before it was finally delivered to Zong Yanli who was fighting in the far north. When Sang Caijie came back with the letter, Zong Yanli was sparring with Wen Nian. The two did not use weapons, but fought with bare hands.
"You're holding back when fighting me?" Zong Yanli punched Wen Nian in the chest, causing Wen Nian to take two steps back. His face turned pale and he covered his chest. When he raised his eyes, he heard Zong Yanli staring at him with a slightly frown.
"..." Wen Nian lowered his head, his face full of apology and said: "I just want to give it a try."
Zong Yanli frowned and snorted, showing no intention of holding back at all. He took the real punch.
Zong Yanli took the handkerchief handed to him by Gao Feilin, wiped his hands, then turned and went into the tent with the letter.
The content of the letter was densely packed with words, mostly talking about family matters, mentioning A-mei's longing for her, and that her adopted son, now under the guidance of her second uncle, was becoming more courageous than she was when she was a child, but he was not as strong as her.
She also mentioned that her youngest son had grown his baby teeth, and that he was so white and chubby that Zong Yanyin loved him very much.
Everything in the court was fine and his family members were safe, so Zong Yanli could rest assured.
Zong Yanli heaved a sigh of relief after reading the letter in her hand. The feeling of missing someone in her heart seemed to become extremely clear at this moment. She pursed her lips and remained silent for a long time. It seemed that she had a lot to say, but in the end, she only wrote a few short sentences.
She simply told her family that everything was fine. She didn't even say much about the war situation. She thought her father would also be able to find out about the military reports sent back to the capital.
"Send this letter." Zong Yanli briefly wrote it and handed the envelope to Sang Caijie, saying, "Have you seen any spies from the Northern Kingdom in the nearby cities recently?"
"There are a few, not many." Sang Caijie solemnly took it and put it in his arms before saying, "General, are you going to clean it up?"
"No need." Zong Yanli shook his head slightly and said, "Just keep an eye on them secretly. Pay attention to the number of merchants from the Northern Kingdom and see if they have any moves."
"Yes." Sang Caijie quickly nodded in response.
Zong Yanli waved his hand to signal Sang Caijie to go down, and then called Gao Feilin to ask all the generals to come to the meeting camp to discuss the matter.
Zong Yanli said in a deep voice in the military tent: "Winter is coming again. The snowstorm in the north is too strong to fight. Our army is not worried about how to survive the winter since we have occupied Jifeng City. It's just that the enemy is gathering in winter now."
"I am really unhappy that they were able to gather their forces so easily." Zong Yanli raised his eyes and said, "But I have no intention of attacking the enemy."
"The general doesn't plan to attack the enemy, so that means..." Everyone looked a little confused.
"Hehe..." Zong Yanli pursed his lips and smiled, raised his chin slightly and said: "Of course, it's to do some of the old jobs that the northern soldiers can do."
"Looting." Zong Yanli said this with such righteousness that everyone in the army was stunned.
Zong Yanli straightened his face slightly and said, "I have roughly understood and observed that Min Wenshan is here, and there are official roads all around. If reinforcements arrive, these roads are the only way to go. How can we have reinforcements without food?"
She still remembers intercepting grain at that time, but what she intercepted were truckloads of sand, gravel and miscellaneous grains!
Now that Min Wenshan is going to fight here, he can't still use fake grain carts, right?
"This is a good opportunity." Zong Yanli pursed his lips and smiled, "But it is not advisable to mobilize a large force this time. We should split up and then gather here."
"This is the only way to conceal the truth from the enemy and prevent them from detecting it."