The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 386 Granaries and Horse Ranches

After digesting the contents of the urgent letter, General Xiong suppressed his excitement and summoned all the commanders of the Nine Guards of Guanzhong and those of higher rank to the General's Mansion once again.

He announced the contents of the letter to everyone and asked for their advice: "What should be done in Kansai right now?"

Everyone: "."

My brain cells, which I don't usually like to think too deeply, have become active.

What then?
The little emperor is gone!
The kingdom of Bei has changed hands.

The generals of the nine important border towns also joined in.

Then, our prince is one of the strongest contenders for the throne!
If the King of the Northwest were to become the ruler of a country, wouldn't his direct descendants rise to power along with him?
Just thinking about it makes me want to yell a couple of times!
More than half of the generals immediately volunteered for battle, repeatedly saying:

"His Highness personally led the army to attack Shangdu, how could he forget about our Guanzhong Army?"

"Fight if you want! Anyone who dares to stop the Prince from sitting on that chair in the Golden Palace of Shangdu, we dare to cut them down! When it comes to fighting, there isn't a single coward in our Northwest Army!"

"Fight! Those eunuchs and their cronies in Shangdu are nothing to fear."

"Bah! Prince Dingnan, isn't he just that leader of the refugees appointed by the imperial court? The Three Qin regions aren't far from our northwest. Why don't we go and wipe out that bastard's lair first, and take over his territory?"

“I’ve met Lai Su, the King of Youzhou. His border troops are indeed formidable, but they are severely lacking in firearms. The few thunderbolts they have in stock were obtained in exchange for transporting grain to our border cities. If we were to engage in a firearms battle, they would undoubtedly lose!”

"."

When a group of people talk about war, they can't wait to grab a sword and go to the battlefield.

General Xiong was still somewhat rational; he tapped the letter in his hand:
"The prince's letter means that we should guard Guanzhong and prevent the Hu and Tatars from taking advantage of the chaos to enter the Hexi Corridor through Heping Pass. If we withdraw troops from Guanzhong, how can we defend against the Hu's archer cavalry, given the hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians?"

Didn't the Uyghurs of Huozhou trick them last time?

If the garrison in Huozhou makes any unusual moves, the news might reach the capital of the Kashgar Khanate.

Ordinary people are no match for the holy warriors of the Hu people.

Then, one of the generals, who had gotten carried away with the issue, gave his opinion on it:

"Didn't the Hu people just come to sue for peace with us a few days ago? Where would they get the strength to launch an attack now that things are in such a mess? Besides, if we only leave one-third of our troops to defend Guanzhong, we can definitely spare two-thirds to come to the Prince's aid!"

Transfer?

The best of both worlds!
A lieutenant immediately echoed:

"The key to an army is quality, not quantity. The vanguard's three thousand elite soldiers are enough to hold off tens of thousands. If we select another seven thousand of the best soldiers from other garrisons, along with our adjutants and generals, we can easily crush Shangdu with over ten thousand elite troops! General Gan, don't you agree?"

So, in the end, they want the vanguard battalion to be at the forefront?
The generals still want to bask in some military merit by following the vanguard battalion?
The abacus beads were practically flying into Gan Minglan's face. Hearing this, she took a deep breath and rolled her eyes countless times in her mind.

Express your views in a calm and composed tone.
"First of all, I want to say that we, who are thousands of miles away on the frontier, have no idea how many border generals, local leaders, martial arts sects, and private armies are involved in the struggle for the throne. How can we, who are involved in this struggle, follow along?"

Secondly, the prince clearly stated in his letter the mission of guarding Guanzhong. Are we not the direct descendants of the Northwest Guanzhong Army? Should we not obey the prince's orders? Even if we gain great military merit by disobeying military orders, it will be in vain.

Next, let me ask you, what is war about? To put it bluntly, it's about soldiers, horses, money, and supplies! But what is the situation in Guanzhong right now? We only have 80,000 soldiers and no more than 100,000 horses. As for money, needless to say, all the expenses for military pay and city construction depend on squeezing money from the coal mines!

Once the interior is embroiled in conflict, coal will only be consumed within the Nine Guards of Guanzhong. Finally, considering food, even a bumper harvest this year will struggle to feed over 700,000 people.

Moreover, to maintain a state of war, how many kilograms of food do men and horses need per day? Are we supposed to make the people of Kansai go hungry and tighten their belts to save up food to support the front lines?
Finally, I would like to say that we have never been lenient in dealing with the invasion of the border by the Tatars, Hu people, and Luosha people. Even if only I am left in the vanguard battalion, I will still stand in front of the people to defend against the enemy.

But who are these people fighting amongst themselves inside the pass? They are from the State of Bei! They are Han Chinese too! They share the same blood as us; they are also descendants of Yan and Huang. Are we, the vanguard, going to treat our own people the same way we treat the barbarians? Regardless of the stance of these border soldiers, or which general or prince they represent, I just want to say one thing: those who die in civil war are our own compatriots and brothers!
Unlike peasant uprisings, this kind of organized, disciplined, and methodical civil war will inevitably drag on for a long time. It will be a constant back-and-forth, with one side rising and another falling, and it's quite normal for it to last three to five years, let alone a year.

Ultimately, there can only be one winner.

If our prince were to unify the country and ultimately ascend to the dragon throne...

Then the problem is coming!

During such a long war, who among ordinary people had the mind to farm? After the war, how would the war-torn land be restored? Would the people have enough to eat, wear, and shelter?
The worst outcome, of course, is defeat!
That would be a huge problem!

As the core of the Northwest Frontier Army, the Guanzhong Army, which emperor would tolerate us?

The only way out for the Nine Guards of Guanzhong was to follow our Prince and continue to establish themselves as kings, using Heping Pass as the boundary, and constantly expand into the territory of the Western Regions' nomadic tribes.

With the vast and sparsely populated Western Regions, perhaps the prince will have a chance to make a comeback.

Therefore, in addition to deterring the Hu, Tatar, and Luosha people of the Western Regions, our Nine Guards of Guanzhong should ideally become the granary and horse farm of the Great Northwest and even the entire Bei Kingdom.”

With just a few words, General Gan left the previously hot-blooded generals speechless, and their minds cleared up.

Yes!
Without military orders, they could not enter the pass to participate in the war.

Furthermore, General Gan referred to those Guan soldiers as his brothers.

Are they brothers?

The five generals practically swore an oath of brotherhood over the transportation of 600,000 shi of grain.

Back then, what were they if not brothers and sisters with the border troops under their command?
Once on the battlefield, can we really fight them head-on?
There are also the granaries and horse farms that General Gan just mentioned.

If the Nine Guards of Kansai can provide the Prince with sufficient supplies during the war, or even after the war, wouldn't that be a tremendous achievement?
(End of this chapter)