Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 314, Three Points on the Advantages and Disadvantages

"Oh, what do you say?"

Fang Yong asked.

Tan Yi knelt on the ground, desperately trying to save his life.

"Your Highness, Liaodong has no intention of rebellion. The barbarian tribes of the grasslands harbor wolfish ambitions and should be punished! The chieftains of Sichuan and Guizhou are not subservient to the king and should be punished even more! I am willing to do my utmost to persuade my lord to send troops to assist Your Highness and help Your Highness achieve your great cause!"

Upon hearing this, Fang Yong asked calmly:

"How many troops can you persuade Chu Yuqi to send?"

Tan Yitong said, "With my advice, it would be easy to raise an army of ten or twenty thousand men."

Fang Yongdao said, "Men, take him away."

The imperial guards entered the palace again.

Tan Yitong's face immediately turned terrified, and he hurriedly said:

"No, no, no, thirty thousand, forty thousand, fifty thousand, fifty thousand, fifty thousand soldiers!"

Fang Yong then stopped the guards.

With Tan Yitong's help, the plan became much simpler.

The other party was Chu Yuqi's confidant and had helped Chu Yuqi defend against Fang Yong's "sneak attack" in advance, so his position in Chu Yuqi's heart was naturally extraordinary.

Of course, even without Tan Yitong, Fang Yong's plan wouldn't have gone too far. Since most of the plan was already complete, Chu Yuqi certainly didn't want to actually start a war at this point; Tan Yitong's help simply expanded the scope of this achievement.

Afterwards, in a letter to Chu Yuqi, Tan Yitong wrote the following:
Your humble servant Susheng respectfully bows to Your Lordship:

My lord is well. I have long been entangled in the capital region, dealing with the Fang rebels. However, the Fang rebels have long coveted Liaodong, and now their troops are mobilized and their supplies are prepared. Conventional strategies are insufficient to quell their wolfish ambitions.

Now that our lord has just conquered Liaodong, his foundation is not yet secure. If we hastily start a war, regardless of victory or defeat, we will surely become easy prey for the fishermen who are waiting to take advantage of us. This is not the wise course of action.

The Book of Changes says, "A wise man keeps his talents hidden until the right time to act."

The situation is urgent, and there is no time to ask for orders. I, Su Sheng, have dared to overstep my bounds and make a pact on behalf of my lord, kneeling before the enemy and offering troops in obedience.

I know that I have overstepped my bounds and deserve to be executed; death is no pity. However, this plan has three benefits for my lord, and I hope that my lord will consider it.

Those who submit to the emperor do so to conceal their true intentions.

By yielding and temporarily avoiding their sharp edge, I can nurture my strength; this is how Goujian chose to retreat to Kuaiji.

Those who pay tribute are deceiving the enemy.

Although the annual tribute was a small loss, it could weaken their resolve and corrupt their hearts; this is how Zhang Yi deceived Chu Huai.

Those who pay tribute to soldiers are those who train troops.

By using their conquests to hone my military skills, and upon their return, my elite troops still serve their lord, this is the principle behind Sun Tzu's strategy of visiting the Wu palace.

If all three are in place, then hegemony can be expected. If these three advantages are abandoned and one only acts on impulse and brute force, then one careless move could lead to total defeat.

"May my lord consider this carefully!"

All I can say is that he truly deserves to be an envoy.

Even Fang Yong couldn't detect anything wrong with this sincere advice; it seemed like he was completely considering the other person's best interests at heart...

Not long after, Chu Yuqi received a letter from Tan Yitong.

After watching it, he had no doubts whatsoever; on the contrary, he was deeply moved.

Besides trusting Tan Yitong, it was also because this letter resonated deeply with him.

It solved his immediate problem.

He genuinely doesn't want to go to war with Fang Yong right now.

As long as peace talks are possible, the costs of submission and tribute are nothing to him; they are merely minor losses.

The only thing that made him hesitate was the last condition.

"Send troops to help Fang Yong in battle."

In chaotic times, soldiers and horses are the most important thing, and one cannot afford to be careless.

Moreover, this faction numbers 50,000.

At this time, Liaodong was not as prosperous as it would be in later generations. Even if Chu Yuqi sold everything he owned, he could probably only muster an army of around 100,000 men. Sending out 50,000 men, which was almost half of his army, was simply too much.

However, Tan Yitong also offered an explanation for this in the letter.

"By using their conquests to hone our weapons, our elite troops will return to serve their lord."

Currently, Liaodong has not experienced any major battles for a long time, and the combat capabilities of Chu Yuqi's troops are not strong. Sending troops to help Fang Yong fight can be a good way to train his troops.

Anyway, the troops are his, and he can't escape that fact.

Although assisting Fang Yong in battle would inevitably result in some losses, training ordinary soldiers into elite troops wouldn't be too much of a loss. After much deliberation, Chu Yuqi finally agreed to this condition.

And so, the turmoil of war gradually subsided in Liaodong.

The two sides quickly reached a peace agreement and completed the settlement.

Chu Yuqi dispatched 50,000 troops, personally led by his son Chu Renfeng, to be at Fang Yong's disposal.

As for why he put his son in charge of the army, it was naturally because he was afraid that if he used other generals, Fang Yong might turn them against him.

As for Fang Yong, he didn't pay any attention to Chu Yuqi's little scheme.

His troops have almost been assembled.

The long-planned large-scale sweep of the grasslands is about to begin.

A few days later, it was the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Shanxi troops, closest to the grasslands, were the first to arrive at Hezhou, the advance station on the grasslands.

In a foreign land, gazing at the bright moon in the sky, the soldiers from Shanxi couldn't help but feel a little sad.

At that time in the capital, a young man shared the same feeling.

Zhuo Erkang lay alone in the animal park, recalling the happy times of the past, his father, mother, and sister Yimin. How did the happiness disappear?
Looking at the bright moon in the sky, he felt it wasn't as bright as the moon over the grassland.

The weather was already a bit chilly, and as the night wind blew, Zhuo Erkang felt a cool sensation in his groin, accompanied by a faint stinging pain.

His injuries have not yet healed.

Yes, he became a eunuch.

This is obvious; if he weren't a eunuch, he wouldn't have been able to stay here.

Fang Yong assigned him to work specifically in the animal park, feeding animals.

The Animal Garden is a park built on the edge of the Forbidden City, which is specially used to keep some ferocious beasts, including tigers, leopards, lions, crocodiles and other animals that were presented as tribute by foreign envoys.

This job was quite dangerous and a tough one, and it was a reward that Fang Yong specially arranged for Zhuo Erkang.

"Ouch!"

A wolf howls at the moon.

Zhuo Erkang felt a chill run down his spine and hurriedly walked back to the workshop with his unsteady legs.

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival moon is a waning crescent.

It looked as if someone had taken a bite out of a round mooncake.

Daiyu and the others were a little disappointed.

Fang Yong took Daiyu's hand, condensed a small ball of water at his fingertips, and enveloped Daiyu's eyes, using the principle of light refraction to make the moon appear full.

"So, does your little sister like it?"

Fang Yong asked with a smile.

Daiyu gently raised her chin and said with a touch of pride:

"What seems real becomes fake, and what seems real becomes fake; I don't like that at all!"

Upon hearing this, Fang Yong leaned close to Daiyu's ear and whispered:

"My sister doesn't like it? I've seen how much water she uses in her daily life, I thought she would like this water ball."

Upon hearing this, Daiyu's face instantly turned red.

A small fist punched at Fang Yong's chest.

"You bad guy, all you do is bully me!"

South China Sea.

As Fang Yong implemented his ban policy, fewer and fewer merchant ships went to sea.

The Siamese fleet gradually lost opportunities at sea and could only resort to sending some soldiers ashore to plunder.

"Quick, there are houses over there!"

A dozen or so Siamese sailed a small boat ashore, robbed a wealthy family along the shore of everything, and then quickly left.

"Let's see if the Chinese people can tolerate this!"

"That's what the captain of the Siamese fleet said."

He was ordered by the governor and came with the governor's support to test the strength of the Zhongxia people, but he did not expect that the Zhongxia people would hide and not come out, which caused his plan to fail.

Fearing he wouldn't be able to complete the task assigned by that person, he had no choice but to use this method to force the other party to fight.

(End of this chapter)