Imperial warlords: Cannons are the only truth

July 19th, Yongsheng 9th year.

Wearing a dragon robe, Xie Kangnian held the fastest enthronement ceremony in history at the Chengtian Hall of the Imperial Palace.

Ambassadors from countries such as Georgia to the capital also personally attended the event to support Xie Kangnian.

The main focus remains on speed.

After quickly completing a series of procedures, Xie Kangnian immediately announced that the following year the reign title would be changed to Xinrong, and the Yongsheng Emperor, who had abdicated the throne, would be named Duke of Yiguo.

The name of the Great Qian Dynasty remained unchanged, and Xie Kangnian declared himself the fiftieth emperor of the Great Qian Empire, adopting the reign title Xinrong, signifying that the Great Qian would prosper again under the leadership of this "wise and virtuous ruler."

At noon that day, news that Xie Kangnian had accepted the abdication and proclaimed himself emperor in the capital spread throughout the country in the form of a telegram.

At 12:30, Zhuo Yongwang announced to the whole country the establishment of the "Anti-Rebel Army" and declared that he would lead the army to suppress the rebellion and rescue the emperor!

Once Zhuo Yongwang issued his "punishment of the rebels" proclamation, a total of 16 out of the 36 provinces under Zhuo Yongwang's control joined the campaign against Xie Kangnian.

Five provinces, including Youzhou Province, remained neutral by not expressing their opinions.

Xie Kangnian's side, on the other hand, had the support of fifteen provinces.

Judging from the data on paper, the forces of the punitive expedition led by Zhuo Yongwang and the Xie faction led by Xie Kangnian were basically evenly matched.

However, Zhuo Yongwang was full of confidence in this battle to win Xie's favor.

Because, in the past two years, the Salo people and the Yi people have provided Zhuo Yongwang with great military assistance, allowing him to play both sides effectively.

This included sending a large number of military instructors to Zhuo Yongwang's troops to improve the shortcomings of the Five Provinces Allied Army, which, despite having decent equipment, lacked combat effectiveness.

However, the shortcomings of Zhuo Yongwang's troops were deeply rooted.

Zhuo Yongwang always treated the Five Provinces Allied Army as his own private army, and his nepotism in personnel appointments was extremely serious.

Therefore, over 90% of the main military commanders in the five-province allied forces were people with connections.

A truly capable officer is not necessarily given important responsibilities; the closeness of one's relationships is the most important factor in determining whether you can be promoted within the Five Provinces Allied Army.

The generals under Zhuo Yongwang followed suit and treated their respective troops as private armies.

This resulted in the fatal flaw of numerous factions within the Five Provinces Allied Army.

During the warlord conflicts, there were numerous instances of the five-province allied forces sabotaging each other.

There were even more Allied generals who were terribly betrayed by their own people...

However, Zhuo Yongwang did not pay enough attention to this issue and continued to do things his own way in terms of personnel.

Furthermore, Zhuo Yongwang had excessively high expectations for the military instructors of the Salo people and the Yi people.

After observing several model troops trained by the military instructors, Zhuo Yongwang expressed great satisfaction with the training results of the five-province joint army.

This gave Zhuo Yongwang a lot of confidence in the upcoming campaign to demand gratitude.

In Zhuo Yongwang's view, Xie Kangnian's move was tantamount to handing over the reason for the Five Provinces Allied Army to enter the capital for free.

Zhuo Yongwang believed that his five-province allied army possessed the largest arsenal in the Great Qian Dynasty, and that his troops had undergone professional training by the Salo people and the Yi people, so he was fully capable of defeating Xie Kangnian.

However, Xie Kangnian always greeted Zhuo Yongwang with a smile and even gave him the official title of "Grand Governor of Five Provinces".

It was precisely for this reason that Zhuo Yongwang, who had always wanted to "wander around" the capital, did not break off relations with Xie Kangnian.

However, things have taken a turn for the better now—Xie Kangnian has proactively delivered the reason for resorting to force right to his doorstep.

Although they knew that Xie Kangnian had the support of countries like the Gelian, they had already formed an alliance with the Salo people and the Yi people.

Moreover, his five-province allied army was backed by the best arsenal in the Great Qian Dynasty.

Even if the foreigners provide Xie Kangnian with some weapons, so what?

If things really came to a head, Zhuo Yongwang believed that his side had a much better chance of winning than Xie Kangnian's side.

Anyway, Zhuo Yongwang, who has been the "perennial runner-up" for a long time, has had enough.

This time, we must take care of that old bastard Xie Kangnian and experience what it's like to control the emperor and command the princes!

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Jizhou Province – Jicheng.

The Five Provinces Grand Governor's Office.

"Thanks to your trust and recommendation, I have been appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Anti-Rebel Army."

"Xie Kangnian is a wolf in sheep's clothing, a traitor who sells out his country for personal gain, and a usurper of the throne. He deserves to die a thousand deaths!"

"Over the years, Xie Kangnian has been using the emperor's name to boss people around in Daqian, acting all high and mighty."

"In the past two years, they even stopped all military funding that should have been allocated to the provinces."

"As for where the military funds that should have been distributed to the provinces went, everyone knows the truth."

"We thought it was better to avoid trouble, so we decided to just tolerate it."

"But this old bastard is still not satisfied—holding the emperor hostage to command the feudal lords is no longer enough to satisfy Xie Kangnian's ambition. Now he wants to kick the Jiang royal family off the throne and become emperor himself!"

"How can this be tolerated?"

"Letting him be the chief minister is already not enough to save us. If Xie Kangnian becomes the emperor, wouldn't he confiscate our property and exterminate our entire families?"

Zhuo Yongwang slammed his fist on the table: "Nothing we say is worthless. Stopping Xie Kangnian from becoming emperor is the only way we can save ourselves."

"Everyone sitting here today is one of our own! All that talk about purging the court of corrupt officials, upholding the legitimacy of the Great Qian Dynasty, and suppressing rebellions and serving the emperor—that's all just talk for outsiders..."

"In front of you all, I, Zhuo, will speak my mind."

"After the rebellion is successfully suppressed, I guarantee that you will all receive the benefits you desire."

"There is one thing you can all rest assured of—I, Zhuo, will absolutely not hog the benefits."

"Our goal in this campaign against the rebels is—to share the meat!"

As he spoke, Zhuo Yongwang looked around at the warlords from various provinces who had come to participate in the alliance meeting, and said solemnly, "After Xie Kangnian is overthrown, the territories of the Xie faction will be redistributed according to the size of everyone's contributions!"

"Everything is judged by battle achievements, which is reasonable and no one can say anything about it."

"Therefore, for our common good, you should all work together to punish the rebel Xie!"

“The territories occupied by the Xie faction are all incredibly wealthy.”

"In short—the sooner we bring down Xie Kangnian, the sooner we can enjoy the fruits of our victory!"