In the early hours of the morning, a huge roar sounded over the sleeping capital. The deafening explosion woke everyone in the capital. Sleepy-eyed, people got up, opened the windows, and went out into the courtyard to see what was going on.

At first, many people thought it was the sound of thunder, but the sky was clear and dark, and the fish belly in the east was white, but it was a sunny day, and it was not thunder at all. Soon, people realized that it was the rumbling sound of cannons coming from the military camp outside the capital. There was a lot of speculation about what was going on, because in general, there would be no cannon in the barracks unless something major happened. The cannon is the order to mobilize troops and horses, and it is a signal that a major change has occurred.

Soon after, a large number of black-pressed forbidden soldiers and horses flowed through the streets, and when the noisy sound of orders and noisy horses' hooves resounded through the market, the people also got a shocking news from various sources.

The news came to the capital at the fifth watch, first from several counties in the northwest of Gyeonggi. This was followed by news from the adjacent Jingxi Road. The flying pigeon brought these news from all directions from all directions in the vast dark night, breaking the comfortable sleep of the soldiers and civilians in the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty in the cool morning, and bringing the news that the Qingjiao sect members occupied one after another in the Great Zhou Prefecture.

The news of the Qingjiao's official rebellion finally arrived in the capital in the early hours of the morning.

At midnight, in five or six prefectures and counties, including Changheng County, Yincheng, Dongming County, and Fengqiu County on Gyeonggi Road, Qingjiao followers gathered to attack the local yamen and garrisons, and seized the local prefecture and county seats. At the same time, the Qingjiao cultists in more than 20 prefectures and counties, such as Tianfu, Ningling, Zhecheng, Xiayi, Dangshan, Shanzhou, Xingrenfu and Dingtao, rose up at the same time and carried out a surprise attack on the local garrison and the Yamen city.

Halfway through the hour, bad news came one by one, all the five counties northwest of Gyeonggi Road were lost, and most of the more than 20 prefectures and counties on Jingxi Road fell into the hands of the Qingjiao, except for a few state capitals such as Xingrenfu because they were located in the north and had a large number of garrisons that resisted the sudden attack of the Qingjiao congregation, more than a dozen prefectures and counties all fell, including Yingtianfu, which had a population of hundreds of thousands.

In the Daqing Palace, Guo Chong sat on the throne with red eyes and a haggard face, and more than a dozen important ministers of the court stood below. This is not a formal court meeting, Guo Chong is not willing to announce the news to the ministers, after learning the news, Guo Chong personally sat in the main hall, and all the news is gathered here one by one. Every time bad news came, Guo Chong's face turned pale.

At the end of the day, the bad news finally stopped, but it wasn't something to celebrate. Because up to this time, eighteen prefectures and counties on Jingxi Road had been lost under the attack of the Qingjiao last night. The five counties north of Gyeonggi Road fell, and even the two state capitals of Yongcheng, Bozhou, north of Huainan East Road, were affected. Fortunately, it has not yet fallen.

In the main hall, on the sand table map made by Yang Jun, the sand dunes representing the state capital of Gyeonggi Road and Jingxi Road are full of small black flags, representing the small red flags that have not yet fallen and are drowning alone in the sea of small black flags. In the hard-hit area, almost all the states and counties of Jingxi Road were exhausted, and the whole road fell.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem." Guo Chong, who was sitting on the throne, looked at the sand table below, and suddenly his throat itched for no reason, his chest was stuffy, and he coughed violently.

"Your Majesty, don't be anxious, take care of the dragon's body." Lu Zhongtian stood up from the chair and said with concern.

In fact, Lu Zhongtian's face was also pale, not only because he stayed up all night, but also because he was just going to Changheng County to light a fire, in order to achieve his own purpose. He believed that this fire would not burn too much, but would only cause the emperor's attention and a little panic, and then it would be quickly extinguished. But what I didn't expect was that this fire actually burned into a prairie fire, and the Qingjiao actually took advantage of this to cause a big mess in the world. What's the matter? If the emperor knew the truth, he was afraid that he would be exterminated by the Nine Clans.

"The emperor doesn't have to worry, the minister has already made arrangements. The soldiers and horses of the forbidden army in the capital have begun to be mobilized, and from now on, the gates of the inner and outer cities of the capital will be doubled to guard them. Checkpoints will also be set up in the city to ensure that the capital is safe and secure. The soldiers and horses of the counterinsurgency will also be deployed, and the minister's arrangement is that the 60,000 forbidden troops of the Guards Infantry Division will be the main force of the counterinsurgency, and the troops will be divided into two routes. All the way to pacify the five northern counties of Gyeonggi Road. The other way went directly to Jingxi Road and took Yingtianfu first. The minister is stepping up preparations for the expedition, and the campaign can be started by this evening at the latest. Wherever the army goes, the rebellion of the Qingjiao will be quickly quelled, please don't worry about it. The privy envoy Yang Jun also said in a deep voice.

Guo Chong clutched his chest and gasped, and said in a dumb voice: "Do you only plan to mobilize the 60,000 soldiers and horses of the Guards Infantry Division?" Such a small number of troops...... Is it enough? ”

Yang Jun said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, can't the 60,000 army quell this rebellion?" Don't look at their big noise, it's just that they are unprepared and take us by surprise. The number of local soldiers was originally small, and all the soldiers and horses in the Jingdong area relied on the north to defend the Liao people in the border town, so they took advantage of the loophole. The minister's dispatch of 60,000 troops to deal with them was already a great face-saving process. It's just a rabble. Besides, the minister could not transfer a large number of forbidden troops abroad. The transfer of 60,000 of the 200,000 forbidden troops in the capital is already the limit, and the rest should be responsible for defending the capital and defending the emperor, so you can't transfer as many soldiers and horses as you want. ”

Guo Chong frowned and nodded, he was really worried about the situation in the capital, who knew if the capital had been infiltrated by the Qingjiao sect. If the soldiers and horses are empty and the Qingjiao followers take advantage of the situation to cause chaos, wouldn't it be to endanger the imperial court.

"In order to ensure that tens of thousands of soldiers and horses on the Yanyun border can be transferred to assist in quelling the rebellion?" Guo Chong asked.

Yang Jun bowed and said: "By all means, the duty of the soldiers and horses in the border town is to defend against the attack of the Liao, the layout of the soldiers and horses has been decided, and the soldiers in the border town will be transferred to quell the chaos in the interior, and I am afraid that the Liao people will take advantage of it." In fact, Lao Chen was a little skeptical that the sudden rise of this Qingjiao was a ghost trick played by the Liao people. Maybe they're hoping that we'll take the border towns away, and that will give them a chance. ”

"What Yang Shumi said is very true, the soldiers and horses in the border towns can't move, Yang Shumi firmly believes that the 60,000 forbidden troops are enough to quell the rebellion, and we should trust Yang Shumi's judgment. After all, when it comes to fighting, Yang Shumi is still the first person in our dynasty. Lu Zhongtian also spoke.

Guo Chong thought for a while, nodded and said, "Okay, since that's the case, let's do it according to Yang Aiqing's arrangement." The situation is changing rapidly, and the East and West Roads are almost entirely occupied by the Qingjiao, and I cannot tolerate them being free in my Great Week, and I hope that this matter can be put to rest as quickly as possible. ”

Yang Jun bowed and said, "The emperor can rest assured, the old minister should do his best." But...... Transferring troops to fight is not just talking, and the old minister needs a lot of assistance. I also ask the emperor to issue an immediate decree to allocate money, silver, grain and grass materials to our army. The so-called army went first before moving grain and grass, and soldiers and horses also needed a large amount of money and silver to support them. The salaries of the soldiers should be doubled, the brave should be rewarded, the wounded should be treated, and the war dead should be compensated. You can't do it without money. ”

Lu Zhongtian and the others rolled their eyes, and sure enough, if they didn't mention silver at this time, it wouldn't be Yang Jun. Although Yang Jun led the army to fight with great achievements, he rarely lost the battle. But he was notoriously lavish in spending. He was able to win the battle in large part because he was extremely generous in rewarding his soldiers and horses for participating in the battle. He believed in the principle that there must be brave men under heavy rewards, so whenever he led his army to fight, the silver was sprinkled out, only caring about victory or defeat, and not caring about how much money was spent. The last time the so-called Yanyun won a great victory, there were only tens of thousands of people fighting between the two sides, and he spent more than three million taels of silver, and he didn't care about the financial situation at that time.

"Silver? That's naturally to be given. How much money do you estimate it will take to quell the chaos this time? Guo Chong said.

"The minister knows that the court is in financial difficulties, and the minister sympathizes with the difficulties of the court, and tries to spend the least amount of silver. This time, the minister felt that 10 million taels of silver was barely enough. Yang Jun said.

"What? Ten million taels? Guo Chong said in astonishment.

"Yang Shumi, is this a lion with his mouth wide open? If you open your mouth, you will ask for 10 million taels of silver? That's too much. Fang Dunru, who had been standing on the side and had not spoken, sneered.

"What? Is that too much? Your Majesty, fighting a war is a fight for money and food, you know. At this time, counterinsurgency comes first, does the imperial court still have to be stingy with silver? Is counterinsurgency more important or is silver important? The emperor doesn't feel sorry for the silver. If the situation deteriorates, will it be comparable to 10,000,000 taels of silver? Yang Jun shouted in a deep voice.

Guo Chong frowned, he also felt that Yang Jun was indeed a little excessive, one mouth was 10 million taels of silver, and he was not merciless when he spent the silver, regardless of the situation in the imperial court. But at such a time, it is most important to calm the situation, and the money does hurt to spend, but it cannot be spent.

"I'll give you a maximum of three million taels of silver here, and the grain and grass will be counted separately. There are too many but no. Although counterinsurgency is a top priority, in addition to counterinsurgency, there are more places to spend money in my big week. You can't sprinkle the silver by Yang Shumi. Fang Dunru said in a deep voice.

Fang Dunru actually saw that Yang Jun was taking this opportunity to ask for silver. Some time ago, Yang Jun asked for more than 10 million taels of silver to change the clothes of the garrisons in Northwest and Yanyunbian Town, but was vetoed by Yan Zhengsu and Fang Dunru. Yang Jun complained a lot and said a lot of strange things. But the matter of changing clothes is not really a priority. The postponement of the replacement of weapons and armor does not have much effect. The Weapons Division will be the supervisor and they can still cope with the past, so although Yang Jun is dissatisfied, he can't jump up and make trouble. But now it's different, it's going to be a war, Yang Jun has become the backbone of the court, and his lion's mouth is actually to ask for more silver, which can't be used to quell the rebellion, but he can use it on soldiers and horses. This is called the purpose of the curve.

"Three million taels? What about you sending Hanako? Lord Fang, the old man reminds you that there is an urgent situation right now, do you want to drag down the rebellion? If you can't quell the rebellion because of this, can you be held responsible? Yang Jun sneered.