Flying Clouds in Another World

Chapter 334: Easy Victory and Uneasy Heart

Shangguan Zixin, the commander of the Liangzhou provincial army, is nearly sixty years old. He is the oldest and most experienced person among all those present, and the only one whose military rank is equal to Liu Feiyun.

Liu Feiyun now only knew that this old man of the same generation as his father had been the commander of Liangzhou for a full twenty years. He hurriedly said respectfully:

"It is my honor that Uncle Shangguan is willing to give me some advice! Please speak, Uncle!"

Shangguan Zixin said quite complacently:

"You have tens of thousands of cavalry in your hands! Just charge back and forth a few times tomorrow and the rebels will naturally lose their morale!"

"Then we will rush over to clean up the mess! The big thing will be settled then! They are just a bunch of rabble, there is no need to go through so much trouble, and there is no need to hold any military meeting at all!"

Liu Feiyun was stunned at first, and then felt a little annoyed:

Damn you old thing, you don’t take the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers of my Zhenhuang Army seriously!

Of course, the cavalry could directly charge the infantry formation! But that would come at a price.

Even if the other party is a mob, there are still hundreds of thousands of them! Even rabbits will bite when they are angry, let alone humans!

As long as only 10% of the tens of thousands of people fight to the death, his own army will suffer considerable losses!

You want your Zhenhuang Army to fight in the front while you take advantage of them from behind. That's impossible.

In fact, it was not just Liu Feiyun who thought so. Many other officers and generals also felt that Commander Shangguan was too self-righteous.

Liu Feiyun suppressed his anger and said with a more respectful expression:

"Shangguan Bocong is right! I have thought so before! But then I thought about it and realized that it won't work! Our Zhenhuang Army will not stand alone and take all the credit!"

Shangguan Zixin seemed puzzled and asked: "Eat alone? Grab all the credit!? What do you mean by that, kid?"

Liu Feiyun looked around at everyone and explained:

"You all came all the way to Hanchuan City to fight the rebel army. In addition to serving His Majesty and the court, I think you all have some selfish motives, just like me, Liu Feiyun!"

"That is to gain some military merits and accumulate some experience so as to prepare for future promotion. So! I, Liu Feiyun, cannot eat alone!"

"As General Shangguan said, although the rebel army is numerous, they are just a mob! If my tens of thousands of Zhenhuang Iron Cavalry can destroy the morale of the rebel army with a single charge and make them surrender out of fear! Then how much credit can you get?"

"So that's why! Our Zhenhuang Army cannot attack with all its might and charge into the battle array and camp. We can only harass and drive the disorderly troops into the killing range of your respective units! Let everyone get credit!"

"Tell me, is this true?"

As soon as Liu Feiyun finished speaking, a young general in his twenties stood up. Shangguan Zixin saluted and said:

"General, you have accomplished all your duty now, so you naturally don't care about these few military achievements! But we, the younger generation, still hope to go a step further so that we can contribute more to the court! Please help us, General, and don't let General Liu shoulder all the burdens!"

Seeing someone taking the lead, others immediately stood up and joined in, and in a blink of an eye there were more than a dozen people.

Shangguan Zixin couldn't help but blush. Although he was a little unhappy, it was obvious that at least half of the people supported Liu Feiyun, so he could only go along with it and said that he wanted to listen to Liu Feiyun's opinion.

This time, Liu Feiyun did not refuse and directly stated his plan: use the cavalry of the Zhenhuang Army to drive the barefoot army to the foot of the city, and then shoot them with bows and arrows from the city, and select elite soldiers to set up a defense line under the city to prevent the barefoot army from fleeing.

Then, he allowed others to work out a specific plan of attacking the city from above and blocking the city from below.

The final battle plan has been formulated. If we win this battle, without any unexpected events, everyone present here will have contributed to the planning and the fighting.

The next day, the accident did not happen.

This motley crowd of hundreds of thousands of barefoot soldiers were easily driven to the city wall by the Zhenhuang Army.

Then, more than 20,000 people on the top of the city wall attacked the barefoot army with bows and crossbows, rolling logs and thunder stones. The barefoot army did not dare to run in the direction guarded by the Zhenhuang Army, so they could only attack the infantry defense lines in other directions.

The troops deployed outside the city were all selected brave warriors. Relying on their sharp weapons and strong armor, they blocked the attack of the barefoot army's only several thousand so-called elite unarmored soldiers.

And then, nothing happened. The entire barefoot army surrendered!

The entire battle went so smoothly that it seemed unreal to Liu Feiyun.

But when Liu Feiyun saw these barefoot prisoners with his own eyes and talked with them, he felt relieved, yet a little sad and uneasy.

To put it nicely, these barefoot army prisoners were called prisoners of war, but to put it bluntly, they were a group of refugees, a group of skinny and hungry refugees.

Liu Feiyun looked at them and felt a sense of déjà vu.

Back then, weren't most of the 17 barbarian tribes that attempted to plunder Anping and his Liu family skinny and starving?

The barbarians want to plunder and these people want to rebel, but to put it bluntly, it’s all for a bite to eat to survive.

As for making great achievements and leaving a name in history, those are things that only people who have enough food to eat would think about!

As for why they cannot get enough food to the point of being on the verge of starvation, the reasons are both complicated and simple.

If it's complicated, then there are a lot of reasons. There are natural disasters, the previous emperor increased taxes and levies to conquer the northern wilderness, and conscripted people to perform labor. There are also specific human factors.

Su, laziness and lack of effort, bad luck, etc.

But if you put it simply, it is very simple: corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry oppress the people too much.

In order to conquer the Northern Wilderness, the previous emperor did increase taxes and impose corvée labor.

However, the emperor said, if you don't work but pay, or work but don't pay, then there is no need for a single person to travel far.

But when it came to the local level, corrupt officials said that in order to march north to conquer the barbarians, everyone had to contribute both effort and money, regardless of gender, age or status.

The emperor originally intended to collect only five cents of silver per man, which was five hundred coins, or fifteen days of labor service.

But when it came to the mouths of corrupt officials, it became one tael of silver per person, plus one month of corvee labor. If you don't want to do the corvee, then you can add another two taels of silver, for a total of three taels of silver.

A family of several people had to hand over twenty or thirty taels of silver, and it could only be silver, not copper coins!

What, not enough money at home?

That’s easy. Those wealthy families can exchange silver for your copper coins.

If the copper coins are not enough, I can also buy out all the property in your home. If that doesn't work, you can always sell your children, your wife, or even yourself!

Selling oneself into slavery is permitted by the imperial law.

For Liu Feiyun, three taels of silver were too much to even pick up if they fell on the ground.

But for the poor people at the bottom of society, that is the food and clothing expenses for a family of several people for several months.

And if one really had savings of twenty or thirty taels of silver, who would rent other people's land or work for others?

And these were just temporary additional taxes and labor service. The usual taxes and labor service would often be doubled and distributed by these corrupt officials, who would take the opportunity to profit from them.

Those local tyrants and evil gentry would also make money by means of exchanging silver and money, buying low and selling high, and lending at high interest rates.

As a result, corrupt officials and local tyrants made a fortune, while poor people went bankrupt and their lives became increasingly difficult.