Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 267 Li Ming: Alas, the territory is too big and there are too many soldiers. It's so annoying.

"Ah? Hou Junji ran away with half of the people?!"

Li Shiji was eating sheep's trotters around the fire with ordinary soldiers, when he heard this explosive gossip from the mouth of a soldier.

"Well, Marshal, isn't this your order?"

The soldier was not at all restrained. He nodded while sucking the sheep's tail, with greasy fat dripping down his chin.

Due to supply reasons, the soldiers have been chewing the Li Ming Happy Children's Meal "Rice mixed with millet", a special supply from Lide Hall, for several months.

Today is a rare day, and the governor of Xiazhou has taken out several thousand sheep from his tight treasury to send over.

The chief steward Li Shiji still retained the heroic spirit he had in Wagangzhai and divided the mutton with his brothers.

Fortunately, he treated his soldiers as brothers, so he was able to keep half of them for himself, and not all of them were abducted by Li Ming.

Fortunately, he did not hide in the tent and monopolize the mutton, but chose to share it with everyone, so he heard this earth-shattering news.

"It must be fake, how can this be..."

Li Shiji's first reaction was disbelief.

No one would believe it.

Half the army, that is, 40,000 soldiers.

In addition to the military horses, baggage vehicles, and civilian laborers who followed them...

Your huge army disappeared silently in broad daylight?

Even if there were 40,000 well-trained sheep, they wouldn’t be able to move so smoothly every winter!
He is not far away in the capital, he is right here!

"Of course it's true. We all saw them leave the camp with our own eyes." The other soldiers echoed.

Someone pointed to the camp in the east and said, "Look!"

Li Shiji followed the direction of the man's finger and his face turned dark.

The military tents in the camp were neatly arranged with flags flying.

However, it was almost lunchtime and there was not a single soul in the huge eastern camp.

Except for the absence of people, everything seemed normal in the camp, as if the soldiers were just on a temporary mission and would be back soon for dinner.

Li Shiji's temple throbbed violently.

Hou Junji and his men really did run away with the soldiers, and they ran away as a whole unit... No wonder no news was leaked out.

As for the destination of this transfer, it is not difficult to guess——

Liaodong, Li Ming!
"Haha...haha!" Li Shiji was so angry that he laughed:
"They are elite troops after all! Even if they desert the camp without permission, this order will be carried out without hesitation!"

Seeing the coach's abnormal reaction, the soldiers realized that something was wrong.

"General Manager, do you want to chase them? We can set off immediately!"

This is definitely a mutiny on the battlefield. These are no longer ordinary Tang troops. We must strike hard!

Li Shiji took a deep breath and suppressed his restless mood:
"No, don't move."

Chase, what will happen if you catch it?
Persuade them to return to the camp, while everyone continues to stay in the barracks in Xiazhou?
Not to mention Hou Junji and his gang, who have evil intentions to begin with, even the grassroots officers and soldiers may not listen to them.

The final result was nothing more than an all-out war, with comrades killing each other, and both sides suffering heavy losses, draining away the family fortune that had been hard-earned over the past decade of Zhenguan.

Li Shiji still has a bottom line. Unlike some people, he is not obsessed with political struggles and puts the interests of himself and his small group above the country.

"Alas...it's going to rain, let them be."

His deputy general became anxious and pulled the coach aside:
"General Manager, what should we do next?
"How can I explain to the regent and the court that I lost half of the army?"

Li Shiji said in a muffled voice:

"I have already lost the emperor and the prince, so if I lose a few more people, that's it."

Too many lice don't make you itch, too many pots don't make you worry, Lao Li has already given up on himself.

Regent Li Zhi repeatedly ordered him not to let this elite force get out of control and not to be abducted by other forces.

Now, the worst feared scenario has occurred, but only half of it.

Xiao Li and Lao Hou were so considerate that they left him the other half, which was about 40,000 yuan.

The fact that these 40,000 people did not follow him shows that they are still comrades who can be trusted.

Moreover, Hou Junji, Xue Wanche and Li Daozon of the Fourteen Traitors also left the camp, which meant that the command of the remaining troops was completely handed over to Li Shiji.

These 40,000 people can be used by himself and Li Zhi.

Is it equivalent to detoxifying the blood?
"The Regent and the Regent each have 40,000 more soldiers. What should we do next? What should we do next..."

Li Shiji thought for a moment, and his brows gradually relaxed.

"The Northwestern States' ability to supply the army remains unchanged, but the army's personnel has been halved. Doesn't this mean that the logistics problem has been solved?"

"Ah? This..."

The general manager's unique idea made the deputy general at a loss for words for a moment.

"The logistics problem has been solved, and the factors restricting our army's range of action have disappeared. The entire army can focus on searching for His Majesty!"

There was a gleam of excitement in Li Shiji's eyes.

Unlike what a certain cunning prince slandered, Comrade Li Shiji was quite loyal to the Tang Dynasty and the Emperor.

Welcoming back the two saints and rebounding his historical reputation from the bottom is still Li Shiji's top priority.

Secondly, it is the little tricks of the young master Li Zhi.

"Your Majesty's safety is indeed a top priority, but..."

The deputy general put on his own armor first, then lowered his voice:
"But His Highness Li Ming will be even more powerful if he gets those 40,000 men. How should we respond then?"

Li Shiji glanced at him:
"Logistics is a problem for us, but isn't it also a problem for His Royal Highness the Regent?
"The Tang Dynasty has used the whole nation's strength to build up an army of 80,000 fully-armored elite troops.

"Can the regent afford to support Liaodong and Goguryeo, the bitter cold land, and at most half of the destroyed Hebei?"

One word woke the deputy general up, and he suddenly understood.

"So, we have to buy time and try to deal with them as much as possible to avoid a head-on conflict."

Li Shiji has already formulated the next strategy:

"They fight as they please, and we fight as we please. As long as we can find His Majesty..."

Having said that, Li Shiji sighed.

"We can put an end to this farce of the Eight Kings Rebellion..."

The deputy general immediately became alert:

"Follow the order!"

In the afternoon, the originally lifeless elite troops of the Tang Dynasty came back to life, jumped out of the camp in full vigor, and launched a fan-shaped search of the vast wilderness outside the Great Wall.

After a few months of boring idleness, they finally have something to do!

…………

To the north of Hetao, at the junction of Shengzhou and Yunzhou.

A small group of Tiele remnants were fleeing in panic to the northwest.

They ran into a Tang army head-on.

The Tang army had neat formations, the square formations were endless, and their armors were flashing with cold light.

The leading general had an owl crown on his head and a pair of big copper-bell eyes sparkling with clear stupidity. It was Xue Wanche.

Xue Wanche, the civil engineer, also discovered this small group of Tiele people and was overjoyed:

"All troops, listen to my order, kill..."

Before he finished speaking, the Tiele people had already dismounted from their horses and knelt on the ground, begging for mercy in broken Chinese:
"We...will be slaves!"

Xue Wanche: “…”

Surrendering too quickly left him with no sense of accomplishment.

"What's the point of having you as slaves? You're just eating our rice for free. Kill them all!"

The Tiele people's faces changed drastically.

"Minister Xue, you are too reckless." Hou Junji persuaded Old Xue to stop and asked him three philosophical questions:
"What do you do? Where are you from? Where are you going?"

Li Dao Zong, one of the three giants, also came up:
"Aren't the Xueyantuo still causing trouble in Hebei? These small fry who have been excluded probably can't get any information."

Zhenzhu Khan held an awesome military recruitment in Hebei, and all the powerful tribes came to participate. Guess which useless little tribe was not invited?
"I haven't seen even a single Tiele person along the way, but now I've finally caught one. Let's make do with that."

Hou Junji glared at the kneeling tribal leader:

"Answer honestly!"

"Yes, yes! Master Han, I am Zhenzhuke... I am Yinan's son, Bazhuo."

Then, under the shocked gaze of Hou Junji and his party, the young leader who claimed to be the eldest son of Yi Nan reported the current situation of Xueyantuo in halting Chinese.

It was nothing more than being annihilated by the Red Turban Army, Zhenzhu Khan and the entire command structure were wiped out, the tribes of the Khanate were torn apart, and they were chased and hacked everywhere by the Red Turban Army.

The three of them wondered if they were peeping at an immortal playing chess on the side of the road.

How come the country has changed?

Xue Wanche scratched his head in confusion:
"Such a big thing happened, why didn't Your Highness write to tell us?"

"The battle report should be sent to Liaodong first, and then sent from Liaodong to the Xiazhou camp. It takes time, brother." Li Daozon was speechless to Lao Xue.

Apart from fighting and playing, this guy is really stupid. No wonder Princess Danyang disdained to sit at the same table with him at first...

"Then... where is the Red Turban Army?" Hou Junji asked after collecting his thoughts.

Ba Zhuo pointed tremblingly to the back:
"Mr. Han, look..."

Just behind the Tiele people, another army suddenly appeared.

The armor and equipment of this army is in no way inferior to that of the elite troops of the Tang Dynasty. The same armor is worn by both men and horses and is just as solid and reliable.

The soldier was a little shorter, but he was very energetic, with a light in his eyes, and he was not inferior in momentum. He was wearing a helmet on his head, so he was not a Red Scarf Army soldier?!
The three giants looked at each other and became secretly alert.

Hou Junji shouted:
"Who is coming? Is he a friend or an enemy?"

The leader of the other side responded with a loud shout, but the accent was strange, not like that of a Han Chinese, but also not like that of a Tiele or Turk.

"His Highness Li Ming's kindness is not over yet!"

Oh, our own people... The three of them let down their guard.

A rider suddenly jumped out from the enemy team, wearing a fiery red turban.

We are old acquaintances.

It was Xue Rengui, the young general who had fought against the invasion of Goguryeo together with Hou Junji and Xue Wanche.

"Three generals, you are finally here! Thank you for your help, so that we can capture the son of Xueyantuo Khan alive!"

Xue Rengui bowed while riding his horse.

"It's just a little effort."

Hou Junji is not being modest; that is just not his character.

It was really the Red Turban Army that broke the backbone of the Xueyantuo, so that when they saw the military flag of the Tang Dynasty, they could not hold back their trembling legs and the urge to urinate.

"You must have been exhausted from the long journey. Please lead the army back to Liaodong to rest first!"

Xue Rengui said something polite and continued to lead his troops in pursuit.

He was stopped by Hou Junji:

"No, we have been resting for several months. Where is your army's camp, who is in charge, is there anything we can help with?"

Xue Rengui curled his lips and said with passion:

"The main camp is in Yunzhou, the commander is Li Jing, and the mission is to devour Xueyantuo!"

…………

As we all know, the Xueyantuo Khanate was a loose tribal alliance formed by the Tiele tribes.

Zhenzhu Khan is just a role similar to "controlling shareholder".

After his death, his son was captured, and the entire Khanate immediately fell into a situation of leaderlessness.

Not to mention fighting against the enemy together, they have already been fighting each other internally for the position of Great Khan.

The remaining forces in Hebei are not worth mentioning.

They were still happily looting even before they learned of the Xueyantuo's humiliating defeat, but suddenly, they were wiped out by the Red Turban Army.

After wiping out the remaining bandits and "recovering" the entire Hebei Province, the Red Turban Army from Liaodong and Goguryeo joined forces and launched a full-scale attack on the Xueyantuo Khanate.

It is better to chase the poor bandits bravely!
"We should have lured the Xueyantuo main force into Hengshan and killed them. It would take a long time to catch them in a cavalry battle on the prairie."

Li Ming happily flipped through the battle reports from the front line.

The combined Northeast Army was indeed unstoppable, cutting down the unorganized and undisciplined Tiele people along the way and making them cry out in pain.

It occupied a thousand miles of territory, beheaded hundreds of thousands of people, and took countless prisoners!

What’s even more gratifying is that Hou Junji and other fourteen veteran traitors successfully completed the task of bribing the Tang army, and brought back as many as 40,000 elite soldiers!
This elite force, enough to occupy half of the Tang Dynasty, is joining forces with the newly formed Northeast Army to launch a frantic liquidation of the Xueyantuo!
What's even happier is that after defeating the large Xueyantuo despite the small Liaodong, he played the role of savior in Hebei.

The people of Hebei, who had been driven into despair by the outrageous actions of Li Shimin, Li Tai and Li Zhi, father and son, supported him so much that it made him feel embarrassed.

In addition, his family relationship with the Hebei gentry was another layer of blessing.

Due to multiple factors, he not only achieved military occupation of the vast Hebei region, but also made the local officials and civilians submit to him.

The generous and tragic people of Yan and Zhao finally completely recognized him, a native of Guanzhong who came from the old Li family.

Triple the joy!

"This will benefit future generations. I have eliminated a hidden mine that could explode in the future for our Tang Dynasty."

Li Ming estimated that he could avoid such "history" as the Anshi Rebellion and the separatist regime of the three towns in Hebei.

Of course, children and grandchildren have their own blessings, and he will not be able to witness what happens a hundred years later.

Taking Hebei into our possession will mainly benefit the present.

From today on, Li Ming finally had the capital to challenge Li Zhi and compete for the legitimacy of the dynasty.

Otherwise, although the Northeast was relatively warm and rich during the interglacial period, it would be wishful thinking to want to fight against the entire Chinese mainland.

“After Hebei comes the Central Plains region of Henan, and the power vacuum left by Li Tai needs to be filled.

"That is the territory of several other illegitimate princes. Li Zhi's tentacles have not yet completely covered those areas...

"The most urgent task is to race against time with Li Zhi, cross the Yellow River, and unify the entire Tang Dynasty!"

Li Ming had endless imagination about the geomancy map with mottled colors.

At this moment, the Chief Financial Officer Fang Yize came in, threw a stack of account books on his desk, and said quietly:

"If this continues, the Northeast will be finished."

How could it be over again? Isn’t the situation very good? Li Ming finally understood how his father felt when his father “fed him pills” every day.

"Why, the treasury is out of money again? Didn't they just issue a million strings of war bonds?"

"What's the use of one million strings of cash?" Fang Yi was not vague at all when it came to the calculation:
“You insist that Goguryeo soldiers be paid the same as Liaodong people, which is a huge extra expense.

"This amount of military funds is enough to recover Hebei. But if we want to fight against Xueyantuo in the north, it will be insufficient.

"We're fighting from Shuobei all the way to Mobei! Let alone food, horses, and laborers, how are we going to solve the problem of drinking water and water storage?"

Li Ming was so frustrated that he muttered:

“We can issue more bonds…”

"It's useless to increase revenue without cutting costs!" Fang Yi couldn't help but yell:

“Whether it’s the Liaodong Red Turban Army or the Goguryeo Red Turban Army, they all spent small amounts of money.

“Brother Ming, the 40,000 men you asked General Hou to bring here are truly a bottomless pit!
"Forty thousand elite soldiers, as well as horses and civilians... Can we in the Northeast afford them?"

It has been calculated before that, given the size of Liaodong, maintaining a field army of 2,000 would be considered warlike and unsustainable.

Including Goguryeo, at most it could support about 10,000 people.

Now there are suddenly another 40,000 gold-eating beasts.

How can Fang Yize not be bald?

This large army left the Xiazhou camp without any hindrance. Could it be that Li Shiji deliberately let them in to bankrupt our Northeast?
"That..." Li Ming also knew that he was in the wrong, so he tried to make amends for himself:
"Didn't we annex Hebei? With Hebei's tax base, it should be enough to support 40,000 troops and tide over the difficulties together..."

"Hebei? Tax base?"

When it comes to Hebei, Fang Yize gets angry:
"It is true that Hebei has a large population, abundant resources and vast arable land, and it is also true that it can develop into a prosperous and wealthy country.

“But that’s for later!
"Right now, at this very moment, Hebei not only cannot bring in a penny of tax revenue, but is also asking us to pay out of pocket!"

Li Ming was stunned: "Ah? Why?"

Oh my god, I actually sucked the toothpaste back?
Fang Yi rubbed his eye sockets helplessly:
"Brother Ming, have you forgotten? The states in Hebei were just looted by the Tiele people. Not only were all their property taken away, but their houses were also destroyed.

"Food is already being distributed, and with the support of the Goguryeo government farm, there won't be any major problems for now.

"The problem is that it's winter now, and we don't have enough warm houses, blankets, and charcoal. That's a big expense!"

After all, it’s still because of lack of money... Li Ming scratched his head.

Fang Yize's concerns are reasonable. He pointed out the fundamental problem we are facing now:

A small horse pulls a large cart.

Li Ming's strategy was too successful. He occupied too much land at once and spread his business too widely.

Starting from the two lower-level states of Ping and Ying, in just a few months, it suddenly expanded into a huge empire stretching from the Yellow River in the south to Sumo in the north, across the desert in the west, and facing the sea in the east.

Because Goguryeo had been infiltrated for a long time, it was digested fairly well, but there are still many details to be resolved in the process of integration between Liao and Gao.

As for the newly joined Hebei Province and the part of the former Xueyantuo Khanate that had just been conquered, they were purely new territories and the core had not yet been built.

"The situation in Goguryeo has basically stabilized and has been secured. It's time to let Fang Xuanling and his men return. Pingzhou doesn't have enough manpower..." Li Ming knocked on the table in distress.

Upon hearing his father's name, Fang Yize, the little boy with expressionless face, finally showed obvious emotional fluctuations.

It's a sense of relief.

"It's time to let the old husbands come back to take charge. I've been exhausted during this period."

But Li Ming's next words made him feel relieved again.

"Several old officials are scattered throughout Goguryeo, so they can't travel too fast. It may take until next month for them to return to Pingzhou."

Fang Yize's eyelids twitched.

When listening to Li Ming's speech, don't just take his words at face value.

The implication is that there is still a long time before the ministers return to their positions. Time is running out and we cannot waste it! We must seize this gap and do something big!

"I have an idea."

Sure enough, Liaodong's idea king Li Ming started again.

Alas, it finally fell on me... Fang Yize sighed resignedly:
"What idea?"

“I intend to solve the heating problem and the financial problem at the same time.”

Li Ming's eyes sparkled, and he patted Fang Yize's shoulder earnestly:

"I hope you can share my worries."

Fang Yi took his big pig's hoof off his shoulder:

"You might as well put it more clearly."

Li Ming winked at him:
"Do you still remember Taoist Yuan Tiangang who was injured by the mysterious explosion?"

(End of this chapter)