Chapter 213 Shi Miyuan’s Strategy

Luojing, palace.

It was already late at night when Meng Yan received the urgent delivery of the flying pigeon jointly delivered by Ye Haotian, Ye Xiao and Yue Meng. Ye Haotian mentioned his concerns in the letter, believing that Meng Hu suddenly led his troops to leave Qingniu Tun might be related to the King of Yan, which was of great importance. Meng Yan did not dare to neglect him and urgently summoned Shi Miyuan to the palace to discuss countermeasures.

After reading the urgent letter, Shi Miyuan pondered for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Ye is the current national uncle after all, and his heart is still on you."

Meng Yan frowned and said, "So, Mr., thinks Meng Hu's actions are related to the emperor's uncle?"

Shi Miyuan shook his head and said, "This is not good, but one thing is certain. Between His Majesty and King Yan, Ye Haotian has chosen His Majesty, and Ye Haotian is the younger brother of the contemporary head of the Ye family. His choice is largely the choice of the entire Ye family, which means that the Ye family has chosen His Majesty now."

"Oh?" Meng Yan couldn't help but say happily when he heard this, "Sir, take this seriously?"

It is no exaggeration to say that the Ye family is the second most powerful family in the entire Guanghui Empire after the Meng family. Among the Ye family's children, Ye Haotian is the minister of the Ministry of War of the Empire, Ye Zhendong is the governor of the south, Ye Dingguo, Ye Dingbei is the left and right deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, Ye Dingnan is the chief of staff of the Southeast Army and the commander of the First Division, and the governor of the Southeast also obeys him.

Originally, the forces of the Ye family had penetrated into the western provinces, but unfortunately, in the battle of Duanhun Valley, Ye Wentian and Ye Dingxi's uncle and nephew became prisoners of the Qingzhou Army. Until today, both of these uncles and nephews were still locked up on the northern border of the Mingyue Empire with more than 50,000 western soldiers who were captured at the same time and worked as a hard worker.

However, even so, the Ye family's power is already very powerful. It can even be said that as long as the Senate is controlled and then the Ye family is loyal, Meng Yan will basically hold the throne. Even if King Meng Ke of Yan returns to Luojing, it is impossible to take back the power fight from Meng Yan.

Shi Miyuan said with great confidence: "In half a month, the Governor of the South, Ye Zhendong, and the Chief of Staff of the Southeast Army, Ye Dingnan, will definitely return to Beijing to report their duties. At that time, Your Majesty will know whether what I said is true or false."

"Okay, very good, very good!"

After hearing Shi Miyuan's words, Meng Yan seemed very happy and shouted three times, but soon his face became solemn again, and he said with concern: "But it is still a bit strange that Meng Hu suddenly led his army to leave Qingniu Tun. If it is really related to the Emperor's Uncle, then we must be prepared in advance."

Shi Miyuan's eyes turned and he said in a dark voice: "Your Majesty, I think this is an opportunity."

Meng Yan asked in confusion: "Opportunity? What opportunity?"

Shi Miyuan said sinisterly: "A chance to get rid of the King of Yan and take the opportunity to integrate the local tyrants of the eight provinces. If handled well, not only can you get rid of Your Majesty's confidant King of Yan, but you can also uproot the remaining forces of the King of Yan who are hidden very deeply and those local forces that are as ill as Meng Hu."

"Oh?" Meng Yan became interested as soon as he heard this and asked anxiously, "Sir, how can it be integrated?"

Shi Miyuan said: "The empire has nine provinces, and the status of the Gyeonggi provinces is far above the other eight provinces, but the importance of the eight local provinces is unquestionable. Before His Majesty fully controls these local provinces, anything is possible. Now His Majesty has controlled the imperial capital and Gyeonggi provinces. The most urgent task is to control the eight local provinces."

Meng Yan nodded and said, "I know that I have mentioned this more than once in the previous court meeting and the Senate meeting. But didn't you say that the time is not right now, so you can't be too hasty? You also said that if you are too quick, it may lead to counterattack from local forces and eventually lead to local rebellion?"

Shi Miyuan smiled sinisterly and said, "Just a moment ago, I still thought the time had not come, but now, the opportunity has already appeared."

Meng Yan suddenly said, "You mean... to borrow Meng Hu to integrate local forces? But this is too difficult, right? We don't know the real purpose of Meng Hu's troops this time, let alone where he is going to send troops this time? Moreover, he only has three or four thousand soldiers, which is not enough to threaten the landlord forces of major provinces. Isn't it too far-fetched to find such an excuse?"

"Not far-fetched at all."

Shi Miyuan said solemnly, "Your Majesty knows Meng Hu's ambitions. If you know his strategy again, you will never underestimate his threat of sending troops this time."

"Strategy?" Meng Yan said disapprovingly, "Now Meng Hu is only under tens of thousands of defeated soldiers. Besides being able to be a mountain king in Qingniu Tun, what other strategies can he have?"

Shi Miyuan shook his head and said, "Your Majesty thinks so much, that's really underestimating Meng Hu."

Meng Yan frowned and said, "Tell me about your analysis, I want to hear if it makes sense."

Shi Miyuan said: "Before retreating to Qingniu Tun, Meng Hu had abducted almost all the craftsmen in the six western prefectures. Your Majesty also knew about this. I wonder if Your Majesty had ever thought about why Meng Hu did this? Before retreating to Qingniu Tun, Meng Hu did not abduct the strong men to expand his army, but instead abducted the craftsmen. Why is this?"

Meng Yan asked, "Why do you think it is?"

Shi Miyuan said: "I have carefully analyzed Meng Hu's intentions for this move, and I came to only one conclusion, that is, Meng Hu is preparing to march into the Great Wilderness!"

"Entering the Great Wilderness?" Meng Yan said in a deep voice, "Are you saying that Meng Hu is going to enter the Great Wilderness?"

"Yes." Shi Miyuan nodded, "Meng Hu is ambitious and will never be willing to be a local governor. This time, even if His Majesty and the Prince do not move him, he will take the initiative to rebel. But the problem is that the empire is very strong now. Once His Majesty takes over the scepter from the King of Yan, the empire's political situation will be smooth. With Meng Hu's current strength, it is impossible to challenge the empire, so he must find another way out."

Meng Yan said: "Sir, do you think Meng Hu's way out is in the Great Wilderness, just rely on those millions of unarmed barbarians?"

Shi Miyuan said solemnly: "Your Majesty, don't underestimate these millions of barbarians. Now these barbarians are unarmed and have no tactical qualities. But once Meng Hu brought hundreds of excellent craftsmen and advanced strategies and tactics, it will take a few years to pose a great threat to the northern border of the empire."

Meng Yan nodded and said, "So that's the case. You can't take it lightly, but what is the connection between this and the integration of local forces? This is completely different."

Shi Miyuan scolded Meng Yan as a stupid pig, but on the surface he couldn't help but explain: "Have you ever thought about it? Meng Hu wanted to take so many craftsmen to the Great Wilderness. He had only two major directions to go, either across the northwest, north, and northeastern provinces, or across the capital, or across the eastern two major provinces from the Death Desert north."

Meng Yan disagreed and said, "Meng Hu can also enter the southern desert grassland of the Galaxy Empire through the northwest province, and then enter the great wilderness from the southern desert grassland to the east."

Shi Miyuan said: "Meng Hu will not follow that path."

Meng Yan asked, "Why?"

Shi Miyuan said: "Because Meng Hu does not have any war horses now, if he dares to lead an infantry into the southern desert prairie, we only need to pass on the news that Meng Hu will accompany the army and thousands of craftsmen to the Xinghe people. The Xinghe people will never let Meng Hu go, because they are also lacking in craftsmen with superb skills, especially blacksmiths."

Meng Yan nodded and said, "This is true that Meng Hu's infantry is really going to be hunted by the Xinghe Cavalry in the southern desert prairie. There is really no place to hide. Unlike the mountains and rivers in the empire, Meng Hu's three or four thousand people will find them again as long as we drill into the mountains."

Shi Miyuan said: "So I believe Meng Hu will not go to the southern desert grassland."

Meng Yan asked again: "But what does this have to do with integrating local forces?"

Shi Miyuan breathed a long sigh and continued: "As long as your Majesty tells Meng Hu's sinister intentions at tomorrow's noble veteran meeting, I will ask the Ministry of War to make suggestions to form two special condemnation teams to chase Meng Hu's lonely army, and then build a blockade line in the five major provinces in the northwest, northeast, northeast, capital and eastern regions. I believe that the noble veterans of the Senate will definitely agree with each other. At this time, Your Majesty can achieve the purpose of integrating local forces through the preparation of the special condemnation team and the operation of the five major provincial blockade lines."

"So that's how it is." Meng Yan seemed to realize it, "Mr.'s plan is really high."

Meng Yan finally felt sorry for it now. Shi Miyuan's strategy was actually to use Meng Hu's knife to eliminate the opposition forces in major provinces.

From the current situation, Meng Yan has controlled the imperial capital Luojing and the entire Jingjin province. If the Ye family turns to Meng Yan again, then he will be equivalent to controlling the southern and southeastern provinces. According to Shi Miyuan's analysis, the commander of the western legion Ye Xiao and the new northern governor Ma Sifeng are pure soldiers. These two people cannot get involved in the political struggle between the court and the royal family, so there is no need to worry about the western and northern provinces.

Then there are only four provinces in the east, northeast, northwest and southwest, which are no longer under the control of Mengyan.

Among them, the Governor of the Northwest, the Governor of the Southwest, Le Yi was newly appointed by King Meng Ke of Yan, and the Zheng family in the Northwest, and the Zheng family in the Northwest has always been the power of the eldest prince, and the Le Jia in the Southwest is the power of the third prince. The Governor of the East, Li Yu, is apart from the former Governor of the West, and has long been interested in owning troops and resigning. The Governor of the Northeast, is even more arrogant and domineering. Although he has no intention of rebelling, he does not obey the military and political orders of the court.

Therefore, what Meng Yan urgently needs to integrate is these four local provinces. It can be said that as long as Meng Yan completes the integration of this local province, he will completely control the entire Glorious Empire. Of course, in the end, whether the military and political power of the central government of the empire is in the hands of Meng Yan or Shi Miyuan, it will be a question mark.

If Meng Hu knew Shi Miyuan's strategy, he would be surprised.

No matter which time and space it is, human wisdom is always similar. The old thief Shi Miyuan's strategy is completely consistent with the strategy of deploying the Central Army to enter Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan in the name of pursuing the Central Red Army. However, Jiang's strategy ultimately lost the big picture due to small losses and lost thousands of miles of country. I wonder if Shi Miyuan would repeat the tragedy of Jiang?

The next day, the noble senate.

According to the political system of the Glorious Empire, the emperor generally did not have to deal with government affairs. All government, military and military affairs were handled by the prime minister and ministers of the Ministry of War. Only at the beginning of each month, mid-month and the end of the month did the emperor personally inquire about military affairs. In fact, it was just to coordinate the relationship between military and political ministers.

In addition, the nobles and elders in the Senate usually only care about military and political affairs. Only when the empire encounters major military and political affairs such as foreign invasions and large-scale local rebellions, the emperor will convene more than 700 nobles and elders in the capital to convene a senate meeting. Of course, the nobles and elders in the Senate can also take the initiative to request the emperor to convene a senate meeting, but the premise is that more than half of the nobles and elders agree to convene a senate meeting, and the chief senate makes a request to the emperor. If more than half of the senate praise the establishment, the emperor cannot refuse.

However, in the history of the nearly 1,000-strong Glorious Empire, the Senate offered to convene a senatorial meeting very few times. Most of the time, the emperor took the initiative to convene aristocratic elders. For example, today's Senate meeting was already the second veteran meeting held after Meng Yan returned to Beijing.

In the huge hall of conferences, except for the sick few who did not come, the other more than 700 nobles and veterans had arrived.

The first person in the front row was the chief senator Han, who said that as mentioned earlier, Han said that he was the former emperor Meng Yuan, and it has become a convention for the imperial teacher to serve as the chief senator of the Senate. Therefore, according to convention, Han said that the chief elder will soon step down, and the current imperial teacher Shi Miyuan will soon take over his position.

But now, Han said that he is still the chief elder of the Senate.

By the time Meng Yan, Shi Miyuan and a group of military and political ministers in the court sat on two rows of chairs opposite more than 700 noble elders. Han Shuo, the chief elder, stood up tremblingly and asked Meng Yan with his seniority: "Your Majesty summoned all noble elders this time, I wonder what major matter is it to discuss?"

Meng Yan told the story of Meng Hu leading his army away, and then recounted Shi Miyuan's analysis last night, and finally said: "I won't say much about how harmful Meng Hu is. I believe that all the elders here know that the barbarians on the Great Wilderness were originally not worth worrying, but once Meng Hu colluded with the barbarians, the consequences would be unimaginable."

Because of the relationship between his grandson Han Feng and the unhappiness in the Military Academy, Han said that he had already hated Meng Hu deeply and immediately expressed his opinion: "I fully agree with Your Majesty's opinion. You must not take this Meng Hu lightly. This is a tiger that can eat people. We must be vigilant. However, I also want to ask Your Majesty, has the Ministry of War formulated a response? If there is a suitable response, I believe that the Senate will not object."

Han said that the chief senator still had some prestige in the Senate, and he said so that he set the tone of this matter, which means that no matter what kind of countermeasures Meng Yan proposed, as long as it was used to deal with Meng Hu and as long as it did not harm the interests of the noble senators, the Senate would never object.

A sinister smile appeared on the corner of Shi Miyuan's mouth. Han Shu's reaction was actually as expected.

Shi Miyuan turned his head to the Deputy Minister of War beside him. The Deputy Minister of War understood and quickly stood up and said, "Dear veterans, this officer and the senators of the Ministry of War have formulated a set of response strategies overnight. Given that Meng Hu had only more than 3,000 troops led by him this time, the empire should not be deployed to mobilize large troops to suppress the enemy. Moreover, even if it was to dispatch large troops, the effect might not be ideal. After careful review, the Ministry of War proposed the following idea, specifically, to build five solid blockade lines in the five major provinces in the northwest, northeast, northeast, capital and eastern regions, intercepted and killed them in front, and then formed two special condemnation teams to follow and chase them, in order to attack them from front to back, and to fight to kill Meng Hu's lonely army before they escaped into the Great Wilderness."

"Yes." Han Shuan nodded happily, "I see this proposal from the Ministry of War, but how should these two chasing and suppressing special condemnation teams be formed? Which army was drawn from? Who will be the commander?"

The Deputy Minister of War looked back at Shi Miyuan, and Shi Miyuan nodded slightly. The Deputy Minister of War said loudly: "The Ministry of War plans to draw two divisions from the eastern corps temporarily stationed in Xiling as the Northern Special Condemnation Team, with the Eastern Governor Li Yu as the commander, and then the First Imperial Guards temporarily stationed in Xiling, and the Third Division formed the Southern Special Condemnation Team, with Yue Meng, the Chief of Staff of the Western Corps as the commander, and then Mr. Shi Miyuan was in the center to coordinate the overall situation."

Han Shuo and the nobles of the Senate nodded in agreement. In fact, among the more than 700 nobles of the Senate, not many had a keen political sense. Most of the nobles were mediocre people who were full of mind and only knew how to eat, drink and enjoy. The few nobles of the nobles who had a keen political sense were either bribed by Meng Yan and Shi Miyuan, or they were slight, and no one listened to them at all. If they said too much, other nobles would think they were speaking out in danger.

In this way, the Ministry of War's proposal was successfully approved in the Senate, and Shi Miyuan also began his second step of strategy - taking the opportunity to integrate local forces in the eight provinces of the Glorious Empire. Once the integration of local forces is completed, Shi Miyuan will continue to implement his third and fourth step strategy, and his ultimate goal is to make Meng Yan a puppet in his hands.

Xiling, the Eastern Governor Li Yuxingyuan.

Li Yu sent someone to summon the chief of staff Luo Ping'an, three younger brothers Li Chun, Li Qiu, Li Dong and only son Li Ju to his headquarters, and then handed the letter in his hand to Luo Ping'an, and said coldly: "This is a fast delivery of the flying pigeon just sent by the Ministry of War. You all take a look."

After Li Ju finished reading the letter, Li Yu asked, "What do you think about this?"

The confidant Luo Ping'an said first: "Governor General, this matter is a bit weird. We just learned that Meng Hu had left Qingniu Tun with an army of three or four thousand people, and Meng Hu's final destination was impossible to determine. Why should the Ministry of War determine that Meng Hu would definitely go to the Great Wilderness? He also had to specially prepare for the construction of a special chasing and suppressing team for this? What's the reason?"

Li Chun said: "Brother, I see that the Ministry of War is taking the opportunity to deprive you of military power. Even if Meng Hu wants to go to the Great Wilderness, even if he wants to form two special siege teams to pursue and suppress special siege teams, why only two divisions are drawn from the eastern legion? Why can't four divisions join the special siege team together, but he has to leave two divisions to station in Xiling? Isn't this intention to disintegrate our eastern legion?"

Li Qiu and Li Dong also echoed in unison: "Second brother is right, brother, we must be careful of this."

Li Yu has a disobedient heart, which is no longer a secret within his core level. Luo Ping'an, Li Chun and others naturally knew it, so they didn't have much scruples when speaking.

Li Yuwei said: "But this is a military order from the Ministry of War after all, and there is a large seal of the Senate."

Li Chun and others were speechless immediately. The military order of the Ministry of War was stamped with the seal of the Senate. This was a bit extraordinary. This shows that this military order is not only the meaning of His Majesty the Emperor and the Ministry of War, but also the meaning of more than 700 noble elders in the Senate. So Li Yu had to consider it clearly. If you offend His Majesty the Emperor and the Ministry of War, you will have to rebel like Meng Hu. If you offend the Senate, you will have to offend the 700 noble elders in my Senate. Then Li Yu can only be a mountain king like Meng Hu. Oh no, from the current situation, Meng Hu is afraid that even the mountain king can't be regarded as a bandit.

Li Yu didn't want to be the king of the mountain, nor did he want to be a bandit, so he had to think it through.

Night Owl Walking the Tower.

Almost at the same time as Li Yu received the urgent delivery from the Ministry of War, Ye Xiao and Yue Meng also received the urgent delivery from the Ministry of War.

The urgent handover to Ye Xiao and Yue Meng not only announced the appointment of Yue Meng, but also authorized Ye Xiao to call the first, third and sixth divisions of the Imperial Guards temporarily stationed in Xiling when necessary, and the two newly recruited divisions just recruited to disarm the Eastern Army with lightning speed. Of course, the necessary time here refers to when Li Yu raised an army to rebel.

After reading the urgent delivery, Ye Xiao looked at Yue Meng and said enviously: "Brother Yue Meng, you are going to be promoted again so soon. It's really enviable, and it's even more jealous."

Yue Meng said calmly: "All the soldiers of the empire and they all serve the empire. Why do you have to distinguish between the positions and the ranks of the army?"

Yue Meng's words are the truth. His life creed is similar to that of Ma Sifeng. He doesn't care much about the level of his position, nor does he have much desire for power. They just want to be a pure and competent imperial soldier, that's all.

Ye Xiao also knew that Yue Meng was indifferent by nature, and immediately smiled and said, "This brother naturally knows it, but I'm promoted. After all, it's a happy thing. I'll ask the chef to prepare wine and food, and you and I will stop drinking."

Yue Meng waved his hand and said, "Drunk is a mistake. Now the situation in Xiling and even the entire western provinces is extremely complicated. You should avoid drinking."

"That's true, then I owe this wine for the time being. You have to make up for it if you have the chance in the future."
Chapter completed!