Chapter 146: Military Governor of Yangzhou
Yuwen Tan was the grandfather of the Princess of Wu, a noble of the Xianbei clan, and also a close confidant of the late Emperor Murong Ying, who had been in charge of Jiangnan for more than ten years.

Maybe it was because he was old and senile, or maybe it was because the misty rain of Qinhuai River had softened his bones.

When Cao Yuanjing led his army to capture Jingkou and the Acropolis outside Jianye, Yuwen Tan did not respond at all.

It was not until Cao Yuanjing's army besieged Jianye that he realized the seriousness of the situation by looking at the huge number of rebel troops outside.

Yuwen Tan was horrified and hurriedly organized the Jianye garrison to defend the city.

However, the defenders of Jianye had been at peace for many years and had low combat effectiveness. They had been defeated repeatedly by Cao Yuanjing. In addition, Yuwen Tan was extremely corrupt, and his subordinates followed suit, resulting in a serious lack of military preparations and morale.

In less than ten days, they captured the core of Jiangdong, Jianye, which was also the capital of two dynasties.

Of course, there was also the factor that the government soldiers were instigated to open the gate.

But in general, the land of Jiangdong is naturally opposed to the north. After so many years of chaos caused by Dayan, both the Jiangdong nobles and the common people complained about the heavy taxes and onerous corvee in Jiangdong and suffered terribly.

Therefore, Cao Yuanjing, who claimed to be a relative of the Wei clan, actually received support from many wealthy families in Jiangdong.

Among them are the great families of Jiangdong such as Gu, Lu, Zhu and Zhang.

For the Jiangdong nobles, the most comfortable time in life was definitely when they were in Dongwu.

At that time, all the big families in Jiangdong were like vassal states.

Later, when Eastern Wu was gone, the Wei Dynasty recruited many famous people from Jiangdong to serve as officials in the Central Plains in order to appease the Jiangdong families.

Therefore, the Jiangdong nobles gradually integrated into the circle of Central Plains nobles.

But by the end of the Wei Dynasty, the world was in chaos and the situation changed again.

The Xianbei Murong entered the Central Plains, the Wei Dynasty fled south to avoid the chaos, and the Jiangdong aristocratic families rose again.

However, the good times did not last long. After accumulating national strength, the Murong clan crossed the river to the south to pacify Wei. As a result, the Jiangdong family fell into silence again.

Moreover, the court was already occupied by the newly emerging Guanlong and Shandong gentry at this time, and there was no chance for the Jiangdong family to intervene.

Murong Ying also imposed heavy taxes on Jiangnan, so that people in Jiangdong were very dissatisfied with the rule of Dayan.

A big reason why Cao Yuanjing's power expanded rapidly in the past few months was because of the direct support from these Jiangdong clans.

They didn't dare to do that when Murong Ying was alive.

After being captured, Yuwen Tan still had some backbone. Perhaps he was afraid of implicating his family, so he chose to die calmly.

Most of his generals and soldiers surrendered.

Cao Yuanjing officially proclaimed himself emperor in Jianye, named the country "Wei" and established the reign "Longchang".

He then made his son Cao Yan the crown prince, and his brother Cao Cheng the general and King of Chu, and he also bestowed many titles on his old ministers and Jiangdong nobles.

No one expected that while the fighting in Hedong in the Central Plains was so intense, Jiangdong would directly stage a good show to restore the Wei Dynasty.

After the urgent report was delivered to the palace, Murong Chao immediately summoned Li Yuanhui to the palace for discussion.

There was no way. After Jiangdong fell, Jianghuai, under the control of Li Yuanhui, was the first to bear the brunt.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured for now. When I went north to Luoyang, I left elite soldiers and generals to guard Hefei, Guangling, and Jiangdu. Moreover, the southern bandits have just entered Jianye, and there are still many cities in Wujun, Kuaiji, and Yuzhang in the hands of the court. There is no need to worry too much. However, Jianghuai is in danger, so I request to return to Hefei to take charge of defense to resist the southern bandits."

Not only Li Yuanhui was in the hall, but also two old ministers who had just come out of retirement, Prince of Wei Murong Xianzong and Prime Minister Duan Shihuan.

After hearing this, Murong Chao was a little surprised. It seemed that there was something wrong with what Li Yuanhui said.

Is there something wrong with being in charge of defense? It seems not.
Murong Xianzong said directly: "Yuan Hui, you can defend Jianghuai, but you can't pacify Jiangdong?"

"Your Majesty, please allow me to report. I am currently the military commander of Jiangbei. According to the court's laws, I cannot march across the river. Secondly, the southern bandits are powerful, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Jiangdong will be occupied by them sooner or later. I only have more than 10,000 infantry, more than 1,000 cavalry, and 3,000 naval forces. I am good enough to defend Jianghuai, but I am not good enough to cross the river to quell the rebellion."

Li Yuanhui did not beat around the bush with the old man. First, it was an official position issue. Because Yangzhou spanned the south and north of the Yangtze River and had a large territory, the imperial court separated the three counties in the north of the Yangtze River from the counties in the east of the Yangtze River, and each was supervised by a general. Li Yuanhui could only govern Jianghuai. Unless he was appointed as the governor of Yangzhou or there was an imperial edict to allow it, it would be illegal to use troops across the border.

The second is the lack of troops. Even if we don't hide them, Jianghuai only has more than 20,000 troops. The war situation in the imperial court is also quite tight. It is also unrealistic to send a large army to the south to quell the rebellion.

Li Yuanhui’s meaning was very clear, and now the matter is here.

Jianghuai's ability is only to protect itself. If they want to go south to quell the rebellion, unless they send more troops, it will be useless with such a small number of people.

Murong Chao sighed and said, "There are Liang rebels in Hedong and Guanzhong, and there are Wagang in Qingzhou and Yanzhou. The central army is already inadequate to deal with the current situation, so we have to dispatch troops from Jingzhou, Jianghuai, and Xuzhou to defend Luoyang. However, Cao Cao in Jiangdong is in rebellion and usurps the throne. Jianghuai is the land that divides Shaanxi from north to south, and we must not lose it. I originally wanted to let Li Qing serve as an official in the court and consult on confidential matters, but the situation is urgent. Now I can only let Li Qing return to Jianghuai to curb Cao Cao."

Li Yuanhui bowed and said, "Please rest assured, Your Majesty. As long as I am here, I will protect the Yangtze and Huai Rivers and force the pseudo-Wei Cao thieves to move north. If the central army cannot go south to quell the rebellion, I will recruit soldiers and train them locally, cultivate fields and store grain, and when the troops are well-trained and the food is sufficient, I will march south to wipe out the thieves in Jiangdong for Dayan."

Murong Chao nodded and said, "In this case, I will appoint Li Qing as the commander-in-chief of Yangzhou's military affairs and command all the troops. I will leave all matters concerning the two rivers to Li Qing."

"I accept your order."

When leaving the palace, Li Yuanhui followed behind Murong Xianzong, while Duan Shihuan left first in a sedan chair.

"You kid, you actually dragged me into this mess. I am now old and have to clean up this mess. It's all because of you."

In the long palace corridor, Murong Xianzong's voice was particularly loud.

Li Yuanhui smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, what you said is true. Great Yan is now facing internal and external troubles. Can you just sit back and do nothing?"

"Hmph, stop flattering me. However, considering that you are doing this for the sake of state affairs, I will not bother with you this time. How are you going to pacify the Cao thieves in Jiangdong? What are you going to do after returning to Jianghuai?"

"Gather the grain and soldiers, build the city and prepare for war."

"Gone?"

"Gone."

Murong Xianzong laughed loudly upon hearing this and said, "Good boy, I was just worried that you wouldn't be able to keep Jianghuai, but now it seems that I was worrying too much."

The old prince was actually very worried that after accepting the important post of governor of a state, this young man would be eager to establish merit and prepare to attack this place first and then that place right away.
But Li Yuanhui just said eight simple words.

Translated, it means farming, storing food, recruiting soldiers, repairing the city and waiting for the enemy to attack.

Very pragmatic.

It's totally unlike the mentality of a sixteen-year-old boy.

In fact, Murong Xianzong didn't quite believe that this junior could clean up the mess in Jiangdong, but he was really the only one who could take over the Jianghuai area now.

After all, changing generals in the middle of a battle is a big taboo.

Now the troops of the three counties of Jianghuai were all assembled by Li Yuanhui. If someone else who is not familiar with the situation were to go there, would he be able to handle the situation?
No one is willing to take this risk now, Jianye has been lost. If Cao Yuanjing takes advantage of the chaos to seize Jianghuai, the Murong family's empire will completely collapse.

Therefore, the best option is still to let Li Yuanhui return to Jianghuai. It is not necessary for him to wipe out Cao Yuanjing in Jiangdong immediately. As long as he can stop people in Jiangnan and allow the Luoyang court to free up its hands to deal with Murong Zan, it will be enough.

Now that the north is pacified, it is only a matter of time to wipe out the bandits in Jiangdong.

Everyone has a scale in their heart to measure what is important and what is not.

Therefore, even if Murong Chao decided to promote Li Yuanhui as an exception, Murong Xianzong and Duan Shihuan did not object.

The current focus must be on the north. If Murong Zhan can gain control of Guanzhong and Hedong, he will be able to truly compete with Luoyang.

What's more, he has the support of the Turks.

Murong Xianzong actually didn't care that much about who would be the emperor between Murong Chao and Murong Zan.

But the Turks are our mortal enemies.

(End of this chapter)