Chapter 218: Battle of Yunxiang [Please give me a monthly ticket! ]

"My father?" Liang Yue's eyes flashed with a hint of doubt.

The Liang family is full of loyal and brave people. People who know him have heard of it, and Liang Fuguo must know it. When I handed him the evidence of the Lu family, he must have investigated me thoroughly.

Is there something strange about my father's death during the Southern Expedition?
But even though he had a lot of thoughts in his mind, he still told the truth when he opened his mouth: "He died for his country when he was conquering Yunxiang Kingdom in the south."

"I heard that according to the pension decree of that year, you should have been able to get the position of Imperial Guard immediately after you came of age, but you have been waiting for a long time in vain. Is this true?" Liang Fuguo suddenly asked again.

"There was indeed such a period of time." Liang Yue nodded.

"When I was in the Ministry of Justice, I took over such a case. The family members of the martyrs complained to the Ministry of Justice that the Imperial Guards had appropriated pensions and denied them positions. I personally investigated the matter." Liang Fuguo said slowly, "Later, I found out that the matter had nothing to do with the children of the rich and powerful occupying positions. It's not that there weren't any, but the number was not enough to leave so many descendants of loyal martyrs without vacancies."

Liang Yue listened to what he said and thought about it for a moment.

"I took the initiative to investigate, and after a lot of hard work, I found something strange. That is, the vacancies prepared by the Imperial Capital Guards and the number of people who should actually get the vacancies are completely inconsistent. The descendants of the martyrs in Longyuan City are much more than the number given by the decree and prepared by the Imperial Capital Guards. Tell me, is this a strange thing?" Liang Fuguo said slowly.

"The actual number of soldiers killed in the battle is different from the reported number of casualties?" Liang Yue immediately understood what he meant.

Liang Fuguo smiled and nodded, very satisfied with his sharpness. "At that time, Jiang Zhenye drew 60,000 troops from the three major military towns of Zhongzhou, Nanzhou, and Yuezhou, with a total of 180,000 armored soldiers. The entire Yunxiang Kingdom only has 50,000 armored soldiers, and the level of elite soldiers is definitely not comparable to that of our Celestial Empire. I checked the files of the Ministry of War. This battle destroyed the Yunxiang Kingdom in three months, more than 10,000 soldiers were injured, and more than 6,000 were killed."

"Although this record cannot be compared with Tang Wei who led 100,000 people to destroy more than a dozen countries, it is still pretty good. Moreover, the people of Yunxiang are still united. The elderly, children, women and children have all gone to the city to resist. The actual number of people who participated in the battle is large. It is acceptable to win at this price."

"But……"

His smile gradually faded. "After visiting many veterans of that year, I came to a shocking truth. The actual number of casualties in the Southern Expedition Army far exceeds the reported number. At least 30,000 deaths were concealed."

"Is it really like this?" Liang Yue was shocked.

Falsely reporting casualties and turning them into merits is a crime of deceiving the emperor. Moreover, this number far exceeds the reported number, and Jiang Zhenye actually dared to conceal it?

Liang Fuguo continued, "After I found out, I was as surprised as you. The situation in Yunxiang Country is complicated, and the timing of the war is not ripe. There were many voices in the court opposing the war, and it was also very difficult. If the casualties were simply beyond expectations, Jiang Zhenye would not have been so bold as to conceal it. I guess there are two reasons why he took such a risk."

Liang Yue could guess the reason he was going to say.

First of all, it is impossible for the emperor not to know about such a large-scale concealment.

Sure enough, Liang Fuguo told the story: "Although I was a low-ranking official back then, I was able to attend the court and have some impression of the situation at that time."

"At that time, Bashan Hou Tang Wei had just resigned from his military power, and many of his former subordinates hoped that he would return to the army, but Your Majesty was afraid of his prestige and ability, and did not dare to let him lead the troops again."

He was completely open when talking to Liang Yue in private. He spoke bluntly about the tacit secrets of the imperial court.

Since you want Liang Yue to get involved in such a dangerous matter, there is no need for me to hide it anymore.

"The only person in the army who can rival Tang Wei in terms of prestige and experience is the old minister of state, but he is firmly opposed to the war with Yunxiang. He said that the war in the northwest has not been settled for long, and if the country starts another war, it will waste people's money and money, and the disadvantages will outweigh the advantages."

"But your majesty is determined to fight this battle, so he needs a sword that he can hold in his own hand to fight for him when he needs it." Liang Fuguo said: "Until this time, Prince Dinggou was entrusted with the important task."

Liang Yue had known this before. Although Jiang Zhenye was made a king and a general for blocking the golden hook for His Majesty in the Northwest War, he did not have enough prestige in the army, and the power of his subordinates had never been large, but had only been steadily increasing.

It was during the battle at Yunxiang Kingdom that he was promoted to the position of commander-in-chief of the three armies for the first time. He established his position by taking over Yunxiang, and soon after his return, he was promoted to the leader of the Three Guards of Longyuan.

The southern expedition to Yunxiang State is his most important golden body. "Because of this relationship, Jiang Zhenye can only win this time, not lose. Even if there are shameful things in the process, we must try our best to cover it up."

What Liang Fuguo is talking about here is the game between the monarch and his subjects.

At that time, Emperor Mubei was in his prime, the new leader in the army, Tang Wei, was feared, and although the old leader Qi Kunlun was reassuring, he often disagreed with him. It was naturally difficult for him to accept two people in charge of the army.

The most reassuring are naturally the royal family, but even Jiang Zhenye, the most capable general among them, is still far inferior to Tang Wei.

Even so, we can only push it.

Jiang Zhenye is loyal, brave, kind and forgiving.

I'm afraid that Emperor Mu Bei will not be able to sleep peacefully until Jiang Zhenye takes charge of the Three Guards of Longyuan and becomes a giant in the army second only to Qi Kunlun.

"Another point..." Liang Fuguo said in a deep voice, "I suspected at the time that Jiang Zhenye had made mistakes in commanding the battle and that he was the direct cause of the deaths of these soldiers, which is why he was so afraid of making this matter public."

"Just when I wanted to investigate further, someone in the palace sent a message asking me to stop investigating the case." Liang Fuguo smiled mockingly, "It was originally just a case of inadequate compensation, but so many secrets were uncovered, which annoyed people for no reason. At that time, my status was not high enough to disobey the palace's wishes, so I wrote down the matter and sealed the file until today."

Liang Yue understood the implicit meaning of his words and thought that he was now in a position to disobey the emperor's order?
You really can't think too much about what he said today, he exploded right away.

"Not long ago, you helped me capture Haidong Hou." Liang Fuguo continued, "He happened to be the quartermaster of the southern expedition that year. I learned some inside stories from him, which confirmed my guess."

"It turns out that the army that marched south was divided into three groups. Because the Qi family's power was mainly in the north and the journey was long, the southern expedition selected soldiers from the three major military towns of Zhongzhou, Nanzhou, and Yuezhou. But the chief general who led the troops from Yuezhou Military Town was Tang Wei's old subordinate, Liu Shiying."

"The Northwest War was fierce, and your majesty dared to delegate power, and capable generals led more troops, which led to the victory over Jiuyang. But this also led to the concentration of military power at that time. Apart from the Qi family, there were Tang Wei's old subordinates, and it was difficult to completely avoid it."

"Jiang Zhenye personally led the Zhongzhou troops, and the other two left and right assisted. A total of three groups of troops were divided and marched towards the capital of Yunxiang Kingdom at the same time. According to the plan, they should have assembled under the capital and led by the commander-in-chief to attack the city together. But unexpectedly, Tang Wei's former troops were strong and brave. Although they had the smallest number of people, they were the first to reach the capital."

"Jiang Zhenye was worried that Liu Shiying would attack the city too quickly, so he would not be the first to conquer the capital and destroy the country. So he ordered the quartermaster to stop transporting food and supplies to Yuezhou Military Town. The soldiers of Yuezhou Military Town marched fast, and the army had little food in stock. In addition, they lacked siege weapons, so they could not attack. At the same time, he accelerated his march and led 30,000 elite soldiers to bypass the city and head straight for the capital. He had to be the first to achieve merit no matter what."

"But the 30,000 logistics troops he left behind were ambushed by the Yunxiang Nationalist Army in the front and back cities, and the entire army was wiped out."

When the army is on the march, it is hoped that 30,000 civilians will escort 10,000 elite soldiers, and the same is true for the Yin Dynasty army. Among the 60,000 troops, 30,000 elite soldiers are already a lot, and the other 30,000 are the accompanying soldiers responsible for logistics, responsible for escorting supplies, taking care of the wounded, delivering messages, and so on.

When he saw that great success was just around the corner, Jiang Zhenye, in order to grab credit, rode lightly and with a small entourage, and threw all the logistics personnel behind, which really pushed them into the fire pit.

It would have been fine if these people had not encountered the enemy, but once they encountered a large number of enemy troops, they would have no advantage in terms of equipment or martial arts skills. Moreover, they were ambushed and the whole army was wiped out.

It's like a warrior, in order to grab a kill, chased directly into the enemy's high ground, leaving the slow-moving auxiliary in the enemy crowd. It's really outrageous.

"Thus, he achieved his wish and made great contributions, but the 30,000 logistics soldiers remained in Yunxiang State forever, without even the chance to receive compensation. Because even though the imperial decree was issued, once large-scale compensation was provided, it would be easy to expose the actual number of casualties."

Liang Fuguo looked into Liang Yue's eyes and said, "It's been sixteen years, and no one has spoken a word for those thirty thousand soldiers."

　I was delayed today by something. The window glass exploded at night. Someone came to replace the glass this morning, but there was a power outage. Anyway, I was very busy and delayed my typing time in the morning.

　　I will post one chapter first, and the next chapter will be posted later after it is coded.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)