Chapter 336 Serving Heaven to Punish the Rebels

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was the summer of the fifth year of Qiande. After more than half a year of rest and reorganization, the Beiwei Army had fully recovered its combat effectiveness, and naturally, it was time to launch an offensive without delay.

At sea, the Weng Prefecture base had been stabilized, allowing for a direct assault from the sea at any time upon the current core of Southern Qian—the Capital City of Hangzhou.

This spring, his two brothers-in-law, Song Yehong and Zheng Ting, made their way to Panyu and brought back definitive news: the emperor in the Capital City was indeed a fake, not even possessing the bloodline of the Zhao royal family.

With this information, Gao Yuan immediately had the two of them draft a proclamation to be issued to the world.

Now, it wasn't just Gao Yuan; even Gao Wu and Lu Kuan had a legitimate excuse to march south. The Great Qian, which had just stabilized, was once again plunged into turmoil.

To resist the impending three-pronged siege, the Powerful Families, represented by Xiao Yu, finally hardened their resolve. They liquidated their assets, scraped together money and grain, and used both coercion and inducement to recruit nearly 100,000 troops, drilling them day and night.

One had to marvel at the deep pockets of these Powerful Families. Otherwise, given the current grain, provisions, and tax revenue from only a dozen or so prefectures under the Southern Qian imperial court, maintaining an army of over 100,000 would have been impossible.

To show his respect for his opponents, Gao Yuan committed all his elite forces this time. He appointed Wen Pin as the Grand Marshal of the Expeditionary Force, with Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing as Deputy Grand Marshals, and Zhang Xun as the Transport Commissioner, overseeing grain and logistics.

Fifty thousand Beiwei Army troops, five thousand Xiaoguo Army troops, plus twenty thousand Xuanjia Army troops, along with various auxiliary units, laborers, and the navy ready for deployment at any moment—the total exceeded 120,000 men.

The money earned from selling spices years ago had long been spent. If it weren't for the bumper harvests of new grain varieties these past few years, coupled with the lucrative tax revenue from the Maritime Trade Office, Gao Yuan would have truly had to sell everything he owned to launch an offensive campaign of this scale.

However, before making his move, Gao Yuan sent a message to Cai Jing and Qin Hui through his secret guards. The content was simple: have the two of them incite Northern Yan and Northern Liang to fight each other.

Gao Yuan had assessed the strength of both sides. Despite Southern Qian possessing 170,000 to 180,000 troops, most were newly recruited and had extremely limited combat effectiveness; to put it bluntly, they were a soft target.

Since he was squeezing a soft target to eat the meat, Gao Yuan naturally wanted to swallow this fat piece of meat all by himself; he couldn't let Gao Wu and Lu Kuan get a share.

At a time like this, it was best to let the two families fight each other so he could enjoy the spoils without worry. Otherwise, if he attracted the main force of Southern Qian while those two took advantage of the situation to march south, wouldn't he just be benefiting them for nothing?

It must be said that Cai Jing and Qin Hui were truly exceptionally clever and were experts at stirring up trouble.

Gao Yuan issued the order at the end of the seventh month, and by the end of the eighth month, signs of conflict between Northern Yan and Northern Liang had already appeared.

The specific operations were unknown; all that was known was that it started as minor friction on the border, which quickly escalated into small-scale battles between the two armies.

Northern Liang suffered losses, with hundreds of men killed, which made Gao Wu very angry. With Cai Jing fanning the flames on the side, Gao Wu quickly issued an imperial edict ordering Gao Hu to lead the Flying Tiger into Jizhou.

Since Gao Wu had made the first move, Lu Kuan naturally couldn't fail to respond. He immediately dispatched Lou Jin and Zhang Su to lead troops into Zhao Prefecture and Shenzhou, forming a pincer movement against Jizhou.

Even so, Gao Yuan was still not at ease. He ordered Wu Ban in Chencang to frequently launch attacks to harass various parts of the Guanzhong, forcing Gao Wu to dispatch the Dragon Soaring army to the Chang'an area.

With all preparations complete, Gao Yuan could finally launch his offensive with confidence.

In the ninth month of the fifth year of Qiande, Gao Yuan raised the banner of "Acting in Heaven's Name to Punish the Rebellious," mobilizing 75,000 troops—claiming 150,000—and launched an offensive in two prongs against Tingzhou and Raizhou simultaneously.

Southern Qian reacted quickly as well. Xiao Yu, Cui You, and others immediately issued an order appointing Zhu Song as commander-in-chief, with Jiang Huaizhen, Mao Biao, and Song Ren as deputies, and Xiao Heng as the Transport Commissioner, leading 130,000 troops to station in the Raizhou area.

Wen Pin was very steady. He did not rush to clash head-on with the main force of Southern Qian at the first opportunity but instead redeployed the defenses along the line from Jiangzhou and Hongzhou to Fuzhou.

At the same time, he detached 10,000 Xuanjia Army troops to coordinate with Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing, and others to launch an offensive against Tingzhou, Jianzhou, Quanzhou, and Fuzhou.

Gao Xianzhi's characteristic was that his offensives were very fierce. With 30,000 troops in his hands and sufficient logistics, he quickly launched a storm-like assault.

The defending general of Tingzhou was clearly inexperienced. By dividing his few thousand troops to defend, he allowed Gao Xianzhi to defeat them one by one. Soon, most of Tingzhou had fallen, and Gao Xianzhi quickly surrounded the last two thousand or so Southern Qian troops in Changting County.

Before the expedition, Gao Yuan's order to Gao Xianzhi was not to worry about the cost of money and grain, but to capture cities and seize territory at the fastest possible speed.

And this guy really strictly followed Gao Yuan's highest directive, building all kinds of siege equipment as if money were no object, then dismantling them immediately after use before moving on to attack the next county seat.

The cost was so high that even Zhao Xiyao, who was holding down the fort in Panyu, felt a pang of heartache. However, she dared not interfere in military matters for fear of ruining Gao Yuan's plans, so she could only grit her teeth and continue to ship the necessary supplies to the front lines.

It is good to be willing to spend money; under the fierce assault of three linchong siege towers and over twenty scaling ladder trucks, Changting County held out for only three days before falling.

Upon receiving the news, Zhu Song was also greatly shocked. He had not expected the Yue Army's diversionary force on the southern front to attack so fiercely, capturing Tingzhou in less than a month.

One had to know that they had spent a huge sum to imitate the linchong siege towers and scaling ladder trucks for the attack on Jiangzhou, yet it took them a month to capture just one county seat, with casualties nearing 20,000.

However, they did wipe out over two thousand of the Beiwei Army that Gao Yuan was so proud of, and captured over a thousand sets of complete iron armor, which could be considered a small but significant gain.

Seeing that Fuzhou, Jianzhou, and other places were about to be defeated one by one by the troops led by Gao Xianzhi, after consulting with Jiang Huaizhen and others, Zhu Song ordered the abandonment of most of the territory in Quanzhou and Fuzhou to contract the defensive line.

At the same time, Mao Biao led 10,000 troops to quickly march south, hoping to block Gao Xianzhi's offensive pace along the line from Jianzhou to Wenzhou, avoiding the risk of his main force being attacked from both front and rear.

Having abandoned a large swath of territory, Southern Qian finally stabilized its defensive line, and Gao Xianzhi's fierce offensive finally came to a halt.

On the Jiangzhou side, after fighting for a full two months and paying the price of nearly 40,000 casualties, the Southern Qian Army had barely managed to capture the two county seats of Pengze and Pucheng, eliminating less than 6,000 Yue Army troops.

Never having found Wen Pin's main force, Zhu Song had a feeling like punching into cotton, which made him feel completely frustrated.

In reality, how could they have known that the reason Gao Yuan chose Wen Pin as the commander-in-chief was not to launch an active offensive, but to tie down the main force of the Southern Qian Army.

Otherwise, if he had allowed the Beiwei Army to be stationed everywhere and defeated one by one, Gao Yuan would have flown into a rage long ago. One had to know that among those 5,000-plus casualties, 4,000 were from the Beiwei Army—those were his precious treasures.

What everyone, including confidants like Wen Pin and Xia Luqi, did not know was that Gao Yuan's killing move was only just beginning to be deployed at this moment.

Having avoided the most dangerous typhoon season, one day at the end of the eleventh month was calm and beautiful, with only a gentle breeze on the sea.

At the main island port of Weng Prefecture, Gao Yuan stepped onto his flagship, the Southern Yue, which had a displacement of 1,500 tons. Following an order, the naval soldiers released the mooring ropes, and the Southern Yue slowly sailed out of the port.

One hundred and eighty heavy Treasure Ships and fifty light Treasure Ships, carrying 20,000 naval soldiers, 20,000 Xuanjia Army soldiers, and ten newly crafted mother-and-son cannons, embarked on their journey.

This time, Gao Yuan's objective was very clear: the Capital City of Hangzhou. No matter how arduous or deadlocked the fighting on the front lines was, as long as he could behead those people inside the Capital City, the war would end immediately.