Chapter 1 Ye Tao

Ye Tao stood firmly with his personal guard battalion in the front ranks of the battle formation. Instead of dismounting to fight, Ye Tao, surrounded by his guards, quietly assessed the situation and dealt with military intelligence coming from all directions. Xie Bo'an had mobilized heavy troops to attack this position fiercely, but this angered the Dongping army guarding the flanks. One of Xie Bo'an's three remaining intact ten-thousand-man teams was annihilated at an unprecedented speed. The heavy ordnance battalion concentrated more than half of its firepower on the enemy in front of Ye Tao, and when the artillery fire ceased, the ground seemed to be burning, every stone and every pebble scalding hot. The few warriors who managed to charge to the front of the personal guard battalion were killed one by one. Every member of the personal guard battalion had unique skills; even excellent archers were not considered special here. No one could get within fifty paces of the personal guard battalion.

After this failed attempt, the morale of the Northern Liao army, already low, finally began to retreat slowly. But Ye Tao did not let Xie Bo'an off the hook. The infantry naturally consolidated their formation and tallied the casualties and battle results, but the cavalry pursued with all their might.

This battle, which lasted a whole day, achieved Ye Tao's expectations perfectly. The Northern Liao army was reduced from two hundred thousand to ninety thousand. Due to the cavalry pursuit, Xie Bo'an was unable to even take the wounded with him when he retreated. On the Dongping side, the total casualties amounted to thirty-seven thousand men. However, due to the great advantage in equipment and the thoroughness of the medical preparations, the actual number of deaths was only six thousand four hundred. Of the remaining thirty thousand plus casualties, more than half could recover from their injuries and return to the ranks within a short period of time. Four thousand four hundred people needed observation and rest. Only two thousand three hundred people suffered serious disabilities. Such a result made the tribes overjoyed. They had originally thought that after such a great battle, even if they won, more than half of the tribal warriors would return to bliss. They had come to fight with such preparations and such resolve. But the result was many times better than they had anticipated. As for the casualties, Ye Tao had already stated that they would all be compensated according to the Dongping army's standards. For the tribes who had been trapped in the mountains, the Dongping standard of compensation was astronomical. A one-time payment plus an annual subsidy could allow a family who had lost its breadwinner to live a fairly decent life.

During the retreat of the defeated Northern Liao army, Xie Bo'an suddenly discovered that his retreat route had been sealed off by the Dongping troops departing from Fuyu Port. Although each garrison consisted of only three to five thousand troops, Xie Bo'an would have taken them down with a single order in normal times. But now, with morale scattered and pursuers behind him, Xie Bo'an could only choose to detour. But how could Chi Lei let Xie Bo'an have his way? He personally led five thousand elite cavalry, conducting continuous harassment and raiding operations, especially continuous night raids for two days, greatly delaying Xie Bo'an's progress, finally allowing the pursuing army from behind to catch up. Helpless, Xie Bo'an had no choice but to fight the pursuers again, and after another defeat, he retreated from the battlefield with less than fifty thousand remnants, under the cover of friendly Northern Liao forces. From then on, the northeastern border of Northern Liao, north of the Fuyu Port line, all belonged to Dongping. A more serious consequence was that the tribal coalition army could now threaten the flanks and rear of the Western Route Army, which was fighting hard against the main army under the Northern Frontier Pacification Office attacking from Yunzhou. Although the Western Route Army had sufficient tactical depth and would not allow the two Dongping armies to connect, having to divide troops to take care of the rear was enough to give Gao Senqi a headache. What he lacked was troops.

Having mastered a large amount of new territory, and with ample experience in occupation, Ye Tao gradually launched various treatment projects. After all, the current control area was still quite far from the Dongping mainland. Even with Fuyu Port, which greatly shortened the distance of sea transport, relying on a large number of ships could only ensure the supply of the army. As for the various civilian needs, only the most urgent food and medicine supplies could be guaranteed. The cities destroyed by the war were gradually being repaired, and Ye Tao attached great importance to the restoration of agriculture, with many incentives. Those large families who had spared no effort in supporting the Northern Liao in the war against Dongping were originally worried that Ye Tao would attack them, after all, the foundation of a family could not be easily moved. But Ye Tao was obviously very tolerant in this regard. He did not settle accounts after the autumn harvest, but required all tribes in the control area to implement the Dongping agricultural tax system. As for the wasteland left behind by the families who had fled, Ye Tao did not hesitate to issue a notice, gathering displaced people to form villages for cultivation, granting land to families and villages as units, and stating that even if the original owners returned in the future, the government would not return the land to the original owners. As soon as this measure was announced, a large number of hiding displaced people came out one after another, eagerly pulling up relatives and friends, gathering into units of hundreds of people, applying for land. In practice, not only the fields, but even the houses left behind by the fleeing families were all used as village public property. However, these new villagers needed to pay a portion of the cost for this part of the assets over ten years.

Even with this portion of the cost included, the burden on farmers was still much smaller than the original burden under Northern Liao control after implementing the Dongping agricultural tax. Not to mention that in recent years, when dealing with Dongping's huge military and economic pressure, the Northern Liao side also had a large number of donation burdens. Now, due to Dongping's relatively complete economic management system and budget settlement methods, it was not so easy to increase taxes. If taxes were to be increased next year, there would definitely be corresponding clauses promulgated this year. Moreover, this type of tax burden varied from region to region. The governors of each state only received the total tax revenue figures that needed to be turned over to the central government, and the specific amount of additional levies was controlled by the governors themselves. In the second year that Lu Dan was the governor of Yicheng, when faced with a requirement to increase the tax revenue to be turned over to the central government by a not very large amount, he used flexible means to cleverly mobilize agricultural resources and merchant resources, bringing the two sides together, and streamlined and reduced the three thousand seven hundred old and weak city guards, without levying a single penny more on ordinary farmers and merchants, and completed the central government's instructions, fully demonstrating his administrative skills, and also allowing a considerable number of displaced people to settle in Yicheng in the following years, making Yicheng's prosperity even higher. In Dongping, a country with a vast territory and a relatively sparse population, the population itself was a resource. And in Dongping, which did not restrict migration, a people-oriented governance strategy could be truly implemented...

It might take several years to consolidate the rule of this part of the region, but at least from the reactions of the people, officials, and gentry at present, it was relatively successful. Although it was tantamount to requiring landlords and wealthy families to reduce rent, it did not temporarily change the affiliation between land and tenants, and the newly built villages that completely belonged to Dongping were integrated into local production with a new look and became a solid foundation for Dongping's rule. All that Dongping had paid was the work of land surveying and document issuance. It was impossible to see how much benefit there would be in a short period of time, but as long as a year or half a year passed, this kind of treatment would show its power. Just like the governance implemented by Ye Tao around the Central Military Town. Of course, there were still differences. In the Central Military Town, Ye Tao could quietly wait for those governance measures to take effect and stabilize Dongping's rule, but in this northeastern frontier, Ye Tao obviously did not have the patience to wait. Destroying Northern Liao was probably only a matter of time. The current treatment was more to prevent the rear from catching fire during the strategy of Northern Liao.

After all, Ye Tao could not stay in Tianmeng City for a long time and leave only after completing all the work. After Chi Xianping arrived, Ye Tao handed over the large pile of work in his hands and left calmly. Chi Xianping was already scheduled to be the future governor of the Northern Liao border. Now, letting him take over the tribal coalition army was both to allow him to familiarize himself with the various affairs of Northern Liao and to allow him to accumulate enough merit, so that he could sit firmly in the position of governor in the future and not be attacked by too many people. Chi Xianping's merit, on the other hand, was a deterrent to the Northern Liao side. Without such a deterrent, how could he rule this fierce land that had just fallen into Dongping's hands in the future?

Ye Tao, on the other hand, took a blimp and flew straight to where the Central Military Camp was currently stationed. After the end of the Battle of the Hanging Fragrance Woods, another battle was about to begin in the main attack direction here in Yunzhou. When Ye Tao was deploying the Battle of the Hanging Fragrance Woods, he only intended to have Dai Yun exert considerable pressure in the main battle direction. He did not expect that Dai Yun would actually win several small victories in a row during the continuous advance, which made her suddenly see the somewhat disjointed combat effectiveness of the Western Route Army. Although Gao Senqi was powerful, the Flying Tiger Battalion's strength was limited after all. Apart from the Flying Tiger Battalion, whose combat power was roughly equivalent to that of the Blood Kirin Army, the combat power of the remaining troops was not so strong. Dai Yun decisively mobilized heavy troops to attack and won several major victories in a row, also forcing Gao Senqi to the point where he had to fight with all his strength. Now Gao Senqi's camp was on the shore of Thousand Lake, and once the Thousand Lake line was broken through, with the Yunzhou army's ability to attack cities, it would not be difficult to capture Li'an City. And between Li'an City and Yanjing, there was almost no suitable terrain for defensive operations. It was an entire open plain. In those years, Northern Liao set its capital in Yanjing because it valued the strong grain production capacity of this plain, but now, this had become a rather fatal matter. For Gao Senqi, what was even more embarrassing was that the area east of Li'an was not under the jurisdiction of the Western Route Army. Once the Thousand Lake Li'an line was broken through, then Northern Liao would even face being divided into three major blocks, which were difficult to communicate with each other. Once the Western Route Army was divided in the middle like this, then being annihilated by concentrated forces was only a matter of time.

Gao Senqi was never a person willing to swallow his anger, and in this situation, he did not hesitate to ask the Northern Liao court for reinforcements. After all, it was not only Gao Senqi who saw the crisis in the main battle direction now. Gao Senqi was able to get reinforcements of sixty thousand people in fifteen days, which was probably the maximum force that the current Northern Liao lord could muster while ensuring the safety of Yanjing. Apart from the two directions, the Western Line and the Northern Line, and part of the troops assisting in the defense of the Zhenning Pass line of attack, the remaining forces in the rest of Northern Liao's territory were now quite dangerous. In this situation, the Special Operations Battalion was making waves in the almost undefended Northern Liao territory. Although Gao Senqi knew the power of the Special Operations Battalion, he was also constrained by his forces and unable to eliminate them.

A great battle was imminent on the Thousand Lake and Li'an line, and at this time, it was best that Ye Tao could return to the Central Military Camp.

Ye Tao had just returned to the Central Military Camp, and he was not in a hurry to read the battle reports from this period of time. He pulled Dai Yun, who had been shouldering the heavy responsibility of commander-in-chief during this period of time, out of the central military tent and accompanied her on a walk along a scenic little river not far from the Central Military Camp.

"Why is it that the military intelligence I received is always missing a piece?" Ye Tao asked with a smile.

"It's nothing. You were in Tianmeng City, so I told them not to give you reports about cities and public opinion. Now, someone is spreading rumors and causing trouble, and the intelligence agency is overwhelmed. In order to prevent your prestige from being affected by those small things, I withheld this part of the intelligence first. Do you want to see it?"

Ye Tao's curiosity about the complex military intelligence was actually not very great. However, as a commander, this was a task that had to be completed.

"About what?"

"Someone is spreading rumors that Sophie and her little apprentice have an affair."

"Sophie? And...Ye Yunjing?" Sophie was now neither a maidservant nor simply managing all of Ye Tao's documents and drawings. Instead, she often represented Ye Tao in various construction sites or manufacturing projects, checking designs and finished products. She now occasionally designed an item independently, building courtyards and pavilions, and even participating in the design of specialized civilian airships. She had been following Ye Tao for twenty years, and now her understanding and summarization of Ye Tao's various design ideas was even clearer than Ye Tao himself, who often did some strange things. As for Ye Yunjing, this child who was brought back from Nanyang, after a long period of training, was now already a technician. He was not very good at ordnance, but in terms of courtyard design, his schemes were full of romance and imagination, incorporating many artistic qualities from other categories. Although he was still relatively young, especially his understanding of the relationship between design schemes and specific construction was not very clear, it was conceivable that this guy would definitely be a garden master in the future. Ye Yunjing had also been a bookboy in Ye Tao's study for a few years when he was a child, helping Sophie sort out documents and drawings, and had a very close relationship with Sophie. Now, when Sophie was busy, she always told Ye Yunjing to help. After all, it was really impossible for a guy who came up with schemes to be so busy that his feet didn't touch the ground when it came to garden design. In Dongping, design and construction were already two completely different industries.

What was the purpose of spreading such rumors? Ye Tao couldn't figure it out. Sophie was naturally the closest person to Ye Tao, but if you wanted to hurt Ye Tao through this kind of thing, you would have to be stupid enough to believe it. Sophie and Ye Tao had been together for many years, and although they had no children, their relationship had always been very good. In those years, Ye Tao had even lost his temper with Tan Weixin for Sophie. And in these years, Sophie was almost Ye Tao's spokesperson in the technical field. Sophie even compiled her entire learning design process and experience from drawing into a series of books. And this set of books was now probably the only design books with textbook properties in this era. When compiling this set of books, the trust, admiration, and admiration for Ye Tao that was unconsciously revealed in the books, although it was the material for many people to cancel and ridicule Sophie, Sophie was not a Central Plains person, and she did not consider it a crime to reveal this kind of feeling, but she seemed to be a little proud.

As for Ye Yunjing, that was even more absurd. Although Ye Yunjing and Sophie were close, that kind of relationship was more like that of a teacher and student, and Ye Yunjing even relied on Sophie as a mother. Although Ye Yunjing was an orphan from Nanyang, his little girlfriend was the little daughter of the Qian family, a wealthy family in Danyang.

Anyway, the whole rumor was so unreliable. But no matter how unreliable it was, in this world, three men make a tiger was equally valid. I don't know where this rumor started to spread, or why, but it was later used by some people with ulterior motives. There were those who fueled the flames, those who took the opportunity to cause trouble, and even some people who were afraid that the world would not be in chaos, fabricating even more exaggerated versions of this matter and spreading them everywhere. Many people were not concerned about whether things were true, or where the rumors came from, or what kind of impression they would make on people, but only concerned about what they could gain from such remarks. For some people who had always regarded Ye Tao and the vast power he possessed as a thorn in their side, they really took advantage of this opportunity to launch an attack. Tan Xiaopei's desk was piled up with relevant memorials, which was just what Ye Tao had expected.

But after all, some of the strange things attracted the attention of those who were interested, and Nie Rui was the first to discover that the people who were fueling the flames behind the scenes were obviously experts. The rumors first arose in Danyang. In fact, Danyang made arrangements at the beginning, and the Danyang city guards quickly arrested a few local ruffians who spread rumors and severely punished them with military sticks. But then, strange words such as the Dongping government respecting the honored and Ye Tao not wanting family affairs to be spread came out. Then, no matter what Ye Jingyun and Sophie did, or if others had any comments on this rumor, there would always be new remarks to supplement it. Obviously, the people who spread the rumors knew the whereabouts of Sophie and Ye Jingyun very well, and had contacts throughout Danyang. If it wasn't a deeply rooted wealthy family in Danyang, then it was probably enemy spies who were willing to spend money and effort to set up a layout in Danyang.

But the rumors were rampant, and it was almost impossible to draw cocoons from the complicated words and find out who was the first to publish each remark. While Nie Rui was conducting strict inquiries, he could only report the situation to Ye Tao.

"Is that little guy Ye Jingyun okay?" Ye Tao asked.

"It's okay. He is now assisting Second Senior Brother in doing the landscaping project in Danyang. After the little guy told his little girlfriend's family, he continued to work as if nothing had happened. Second Senior Brother praised him very much." Dai Yun replied, "However, during this period of time, it is not convenient for him to visit Sophie."

"Sophie...where is she now?" Ye Tao sighed and asked, "In Gondor or in Ye Family Fort?"

"Huh?" Dai Yun asked, "How did you know Sophie came back?"

Ye Tao said helplessly: "Sophie has been following me for so long. Don't I know? She really doesn't care about anything else, but she cares about two things: respect and trust. Now the rumors are rampant, and she is not like us people... She only knows that it is slander and defamation, and she will be afraid that we don't trust her. And at this time, she can only go back to a place where she can feel safe and can't hear what others are saying, and think about things by herself..."

Dai Yun smiled and said, "After getting along for so many years, it is indeed different. Sophie is now in Ye Family Fort. Are you going back once?"

Ye Tao nodded, and he sat down by the river, then patted the grass beside him. Dai Yun smiled sweetly, sat down generously next to Ye Tao, and leaned gently on Ye Tao.

"I'm going to...go back to Ye Family Fort early tomorrow morning." Ye Tao said lightly.

"A big battle...you are going to miss it. The war is about to start in the next few days. I don't want to give Gao Senqi too much time." Dai Yun said, "Why don't you wait until the fight is over? It would be best if you came to command."

"Me command? Why?" Ye Tao said with a chuckle: "I don't need to become famous, what am I doing commanding the battle? I've been away for a while, and now I don't know what the battle situation is at the front line, or which troops are strong and which need to be repaired. I won't interfere with your command. Besides, is it difficult to win this victory?"

Dai Yun tilted her head and sighed, "Yeah, it's really not too difficult to win now. It's just a matter of knowing when to advance and retreat, and not being rash. The advantages and disadvantages of the enemy and our forces have become increasingly obvious, and the Battle of the Hanging Fragrance Woods has greatly damaged the morale of the Northern Liao army. You can win a battle with inferior forces, most of whom are tribal new troops. Now I have the advantage in both troops and combat power, it would be strange if I lost."

Although she had been married to Ye Tao for a long time, and Dai Yun was already a mother, that arrogance and heroism had never changed. And in terms of commanding operations, her ability became more and more sophisticated with age, experience, and vision.

"Well, I'll leave it to you... If possible, give the operation to conquer Yanjing to Grand Commandant Chi."

"Oh?" Dai Yun frowned, but quickly understood. This battle merit was originally an insignificant matter to them, and Ye Tao was worried that there were too many troublesome things now. But for Chi Xianping, it was a good opportunity to build merit and prestige. If the generals on the Northern Liao side, whether it was Gao Senqi or Xie Bo'an, heard that the two had already begun to discuss who to hand over the battle to conquer Yanjing to, they would probably be furious, but that was probably the gap between the combat power of the two countries now.

"Don't be too tired. There are so many things now, how can you manage everything yourself? The staff team is there to make the commander relax." Ye Tao sighed and said.

"I hope so... After this battle, I think I can relax for a long time." Dai Yun closed her eyes. Leaning on Ye Tao, she quickly fell asleep. This was also the first time in a while that Dai Yun was able to completely relax and fall into a deep sleep.