Chapter 334 Settlement of the Incident: The Worthless Third Brother

As his territory in the Jiangnan West Circuit continued to expand, the Jiannan Corps and the Lingnan Corps alone were no longer sufficient to handle the defense. Consequently, the moment Gao Yuan returned to Panyu, he began planning the formation of a new corps.

As the saying goes, it is easy to find a thousand soldiers, but difficult to find a single general. With his territory growing ever larger, Gao Yuan found that he was increasingly short on talent capable of managing things independently.

Gao Yuan even considered putting his own unlucky kid in the position—he was, after all, a B+-rank talent—but he ultimately rejected this idea.

He reckoned that if he actually dared to do such a thing, Zhao Xiyao would surely come at him wielding a forty-meter-long machete to have a good "talk" with him.

After much deliberation, Gao Yuan decided to transfer Wen Pin over.

Historically, Wen Pin had been stationed in this very region, and his expertise in naval warfare was a significant advantage.

After discussing it with Zhao Xiyao that evening, the transfer orders were issued shortly thereafter.

Mu Shun took over as the commander of the Diannan Corps, with Xian Chong as his deputy, while Wen Pin was transferred to become the commander of the Jiangnan Corps.

The Jiangnan Corps would oversee four divisions with a total strength of 33,000 troops, with 10,000 personnel drawn from various regions to serve as the backbone.

Before the Jiangnan Corps was fully formed, 10,000 troops would be drawn from the Beiwei Army to assist in garrison duties.

By the end of March, as Wen Pin arrived to take over various responsibilities, this matter was officially on the right track.

In Luoyang, within the Imperial Palace's Mingde Hall, Gao Wu sat on the dragon throne, panting heavily after having just vented his rage.

The head eunuch by his side, Wuyou, kept gently patting Gao Wu's back to help him catch his breath.

"Your Majesty, please do not be angry; take care not to damage your health."

"Not be angry? How can you expect Us not to be angry? We should have strangled that rebellious son, Gao Yuan, right from the start!"

Whenever his son Gao Yuan was mentioned, Gao Wu's anger would flare up, and this time was even worse.

Gao Yuan had stirred up trouble in the Guanzhong, lined his pockets, and then walked away, leaving a pile of messes behind for him.

Two empty county towns, the loss of over ten thousand elite troops, and a thick stack of bills.

To appease those Powerful Families in Western Liang, especially the Ma and Fa clans, Gao Wu had emptied half of the national treasury.

Thinking of the national treasury, Gao Wu's anger subsided slightly.

"Fortunately, there is Yuanzhang; were it not for him, where would the treasury get so much money and grain?"

Ever since Cai Jing came to power, the Northern Liang treasury had become increasingly full. Otherwise, how could he have afforded such heavy bills in the past?

After calming down for a while, Gao Wu decided to continue entrusting Cai Jing with important responsibilities.

"Issue an edict: Appoint Cai Jing as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and a Participant in Government Affairs."

Cai Jing had not expected that his terrible idea, which caused Gao Wu to suffer such a great loss, would end up getting him promoted. This was truly an unexpected joy, and he became even more self-satisfied as he collected "tributes" from other officials.

The war led by Liu Rengui against the Mughal had paused for two months during July and August to avoid the summer heat, but it resumed once September arrived.

However, this time the Mughal had finally found a way to deal with Liu Rengui: turtling up inside their cities and firmly refusing to engage in the field.

Faced with this tactic from the Mughal, Liu Rengui had attempted a few forced sieges. While the results were decent, the losses were not insignificant.

Not to mention, the expenses for building large siege equipment like linchong siege towers and scaling ladders were immense. Yet, these large machines were basically one-time use; once a city was taken, they had to be abandoned, and they had to be built all over again for the next one.

The war continued until the end of the fourth year of Qian'de. Seeing that the gains were already immense and the troops were long exhausted, Liu Rengui finally concluded this offensive campaign.

This offensive had captured three prefectures, relocated nearly 300,000 people, and seized vast quantities of grain, livestock, gold, jewelry, and other supplies, resulting in a very bountiful harvest.

As for the Mughal weapons, which were forged with backward technology, they were all melted down into molten iron and fashioned into farming tools, which conveniently helped the immigrants quickly restore local production.

Before the New Year, Gao Yuan received Liu Rengui's report. For this occasion, he specifically filled his large bathtub, had the maids prepare wine and fruits, and while soaking in the bath and enjoying the delicacies, a thought occurred to him.

"System, settle the event rewards."

"SS-rank Life Section: 'Little Notebook of the Hegemon' exclusive event: Resource Dumper (Completed). Currently calculating comprehensive score based on war scale, opponent strength, and achieved results. Please wait..."

The system began to whir frantically like an ATM, as if it had a massive amount of data to process.

About a quarter of an hour later, the sound of the system's operation finally ceased, and Gao Yuan opened his eyes to await the final verdict.

"Host annihilated over 14,000 Northern Liang elites, over 20,000 Western Liang coalition troops, failed to kill high-value officers, captured over 40,000 people, various other supplies, and occupied one county town. Comprehensive rating: S-."

"Host annihilated over 20,000 Nanqian elites and over 10,000 regular soldiers, failed to kill high-value officers, captured various supplies, did not occupy any cities. Comprehensive rating: A."

"Host annihilated over 20,000 Mughal soldiers, failed to kill high-value officers, captured over 290,000 people, various supplies, occupied three prefectures. Comprehensive rating: A+."

"The Host's comprehensive rating for this offensive campaign is A+. Congratulations to the Host for obtaining one Random-Rank Talent Summoning Card and three Mysterious Keys."

"A+? How is it only A+? System, you aren't messing with me, are you? Liu Rengui took away nearly 300,000 Mughal people!"

"Host, please do not question the fairness and impartiality of the system. Because the value of the Mughal land and population is relatively low, the system rating obtained is relatively low."

"Damn, just how much do you look down on the Mughal?"

Gao Yuan felt a bit indignant on behalf of the Mughal; it seemed that in the future, if there were similar events, he would just have to treat the Mughal as an after-dinner dessert.

"Forget it, forget it. At least there are three keys... System, open the shop."

With a thought, the familiar shop interface appeared before his eyes. Gao Yuan immediately spotted something glittering with gold light. Without even looking, he put it into his inventory, and then he discovered with horror that his shop coins had decreased by two billion.

Thinking he had encountered a scam, Gao Yuan quickly glanced at the item he had just bought in his system space: "Loser's Gift Package." The name left him completely confused.

"What kind of thing is this? Could it contain Yang Yuhuan inside?"

"Forget it, forget it. Since I can't understand it, I'll put it aside for now and use the other two keys first."

Scanning through, there were no more glittering items, so Gao Yuan had to settle for second best and chose two epic-tier items to purchase: 100 pairs of Shire horse breeding stock and a Guide to Making Explosive Shells.

These were both things Gao Yuan needed. Cannons were on the verge of being produced, but currently, they could only produce solid shot—in plain terms, using a cannon like a giant, high-powered slingshot.

Solid shot was effective for hitting people and horses in field battles, but using it for sieges was a pure waste of resources, so this explosive shell was quite necessary.

As for the Shire horses, despite their massive size, well-developed muscles, and incredibly thick legs, their backs were very stiff, making it impossible to install standard saddles. They were also extremely difficult to control, and on top of that, they were slow.

Most fatally, despite their large size, Shire horses were true cowards.

Therefore, this horse breed, which seemed suitable for heavy Cavalry, could not be used as a warhorse, but the Shire horse was the highest quality breed of draft horse; the load-bearing capacity of an adult Shire horse could reach an astonishing five tons.

With the development of future wars, the scale of the armies he deployed would become larger and larger, and the pressure of transporting grain, forage, and supplies would also increase, so a draft horse breed like this was quite necessary.