Chapter 319: Chapter 185: Pacifying the Three Mansions
Translator: 549690339
After sending Chu Wei to Yangshan Prefecture, Lu Yuan continued to stay in the Fu City for another day before receiving ten thousand civilian workers from Hengyang Prefecture. The nearly thousand soldiers who had fallen behind also caught up one after another.
He left a thousand soldiers and five thousand civilian workers to defend Jiuyi Prefecture, and sent the remaining five thousand civilian workers to Yangshan Prefecture to follow Chu Wei’s army and take over the conquered cities.
After arranging all of this, Lu Yuan led Yan Wangqiu and the remaining five thousand elite soldiers to attack Lingling Prefecture in the west.
After spending two or three days in Jiuyi Prefecture, news of the imperial army’s attack had reached Lingling Prefecture.
Therefore, although Lu Yuan had tried to be as fast as possible, by the time he attacked Lingling Prefecture, the Miao People there were clearly prepared for the attack.
However, even with their defenses, there were only just over three thousand Miao People in Lingling Prefecture.
With such few soldiers, spread out over ten cities, no matter how prepared they were, their strength was limited.
Under Lu Yuan and Yan Wangqiu’s leadership and with the elite soldiers following in their city attack tactics, there was hardly any resistance within Lingling Prefecture.
Even though the Miao People in Lingling Prefecture City had gathered two thousand soldiers to guard it, they were still killed by the hundreds under Yan Wangqiu’s Wanta’s external influence. Their entire army then disintegrated, and the Prefecture City was taken immediately.
By this time, only two days had passed since Lu Yuan’s entrance to Lingling Prefecture, yet three cities had been conquered.
With the remaining Miao soldiers guarding the various counties in the Prefecture now all but depleted, only a hundred or so soldiers needed to be sent to take over the city’s defenses easily.
However, Lu Yuan had no interest in doing those flag-planting tasks himself and instead handed them over to the second batch of Hengyang civilian workers who arrived.
After assigning five thousand civilian workers and letting several named disciples lead them to take over the county towns, Lu Yuan’s attention shifted.
Lingling City, in the Prefecture Yamen.
In the main hall, Lu Yuan, with a cold expression, stared at the bound Miao man kneeling below and asked, “Is what you said true?”
This Miao man was none other than Lei Tongtian, the Poison Sect’s elder in charge of Lingling Prefecture. His strength was at the peak of the second-rate, having cultivated ten meridians.
When the city was taken earlier, this man was instantly frightened upon seeing Inborn Grandmaster Yan Wangqiu and didn’t dare to resist. He immediately knelt down and begged for mercy.
So, instead of killing him outright, Lu Yuan spared his life and interrogated him for information.
Unexpectedly, doing so yielded valuable results.
“General, every word this humble one speaks is true,” Lei Tongtian kowtowed heavily while trying to please. “Just two days ago, after learning of General’s attack on Jiuyi Prefecture, I immediately sent people to inform Elder Yang and urgently asked for reinforcements for defense.
By now, two days have passed, and the message should have reached the Shaoyang Prefecture army.
At this moment, Elder Yang should have led his troops back and will be able to withdraw to Lingling Prefecture in less than two days.
If General leads the troops north now, it may be possible to intercept the army in Dong’an County.
There are many mountains in Dong’an County, and the road to Lingling is blocked by the Xiang River. Elder Yang’s return to Lingling with his troops will have to pass through mountain ridges and rivers.
If General seizes this opportunity to ambush, it is certain to cut them off and attack them while they are crossing, ensuring their defeat.”
In order to save his life, Lei Tongtian no longer cared about appearances.
He began to actively offer strategies, helping Lu Yuan think of ways to defeat his fellow tribesmen and sectmates.
“Good!” Lu Yuan couldn’t help but be pleased after listening. He appreciated the Miao elder below, personally untied his ropes, and offered, “If this time you can truly help me defeat the fifty thousand Miao soldiers led by Yang Yukjin as you said,
Then after this battle, I will not only pardon your crime of rebellion but also grant you a high official position as a military officer.”
Yang Yukjin, mentioned by Lei Tongtian, was a newly-appointed Left or Right Elder and a top martial artist in Jianghu.
After the Right Protector responsible for the southern three prefectures was transferred back to Qianling Main Hall, this Left Elder became the de facto governor of the southern three prefectures, in charge of all military and political affairs in Jiuyi, Lingling, and Yangshan Prefectures.
So, if they could defeat this Poison Sect Left Elder and capture or kill Yang Yukjin, the three southern prefectures occupied by the Miao People would be completely thrown into a headless chaos.
This would undoubtedly greatly benefit Lu Yuan’s plan to quickly eliminate the Miao People and recover the three prefectures.
Originally, Lu Yuan’s plan to deal with Yang Yukjin was to defend Lingling Prefecture City after capturing it.
After Yang Yukjin had suffered head wounds and morale losses from attacking the city, with depleted troops,
Li Liang would lead twenty thousand soldiers from Wugang County to support them, and the master and disciple, with a combined force of twenty-five thousand elite soldiers, would defeat Yang Yukjin’s fifty thousand Miao soldiers.
But now,
With the help of this traitorous Miao, perhaps there was no need for such trouble. They could use the five thousand soldiers and five thousand civilian workers in their hands to clean up the fifty thousand Miao soldiers under Yang Yukjin’s command.
After accomplishing such a feat, awarding Lei Tongtian a military officer position was not a big deal; it was just a sixth-ranked official.
Furthermore, the Miao People were so vulnerable that after winning this battle so easily, perhaps the original plan to massacre all the Miao People in the three prefectures could change.
Although the Miao People were arrogant and untamed, not all of them were hard-boned and unafraid of death.
If they could win over some of the cowardly ones, and then pick out some people to lead them, they could have a decent disposable force