Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1413 Active Defense
In the pavilion.

Yao Guangxiao then continued:
"In fact, the king is not a good person. He just pretended to be submissive because he didn't see any hope. When I gave him hope, he showed his true colors. He began to frequently contact those ministers who were loyal to him, secretly trained assassins, and waited for the opportunity."

"Last month, the opportunity finally came. The Champa king, Tse Pong E, who had been silent for many years, once again launched an expedition to the north. As a general, Hu Jiyi naturally had to go south to lead the command and took away all the imperial guards in Thang Long City." Yao Guangxiao said lightly, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him:
"I told the king that this golden opportunity had come. The king was worried about what would happen if Hu Jilin returned with his troops. I told him that the battle was at a stalemate and Hu Jilin could not return. Otherwise, as soon as he withdrew his troops, Zhi Peng'e would catch up with him."

"Then the king took action. Because he was well prepared, the action was very successful. He successfully killed the entire family of the Supreme King. He killed them all, leaving no descendants for his uncle's family."

"As a result, Hu Jinlei launched a surprise attack upon hearing the news?" Zhu Zhen asked slowly.

"Your Highness is still knowledgeable." Yao Guangxiao said with a smile, "Annan is known as the Little China, but it is a pity that it is a monkey in human form. It still suffers from lack of education. It doesn't even understand that if the rear is unstable, the front line will not be willing to fight."

"Hu Ji Ti led the Annan imperial army under the banner of revenge for the late emperor. All the guards of the pass along the way defected, and even the gate of Thang Long City opened without a fight." He went on to narrate: "The king mobilized the iron sickle army, iron armor army, and iron spear army loyal to him to fight a fierce battle with Hu Ji Ti's imperial army in Thang Long City. Half a day later, they were defeated by the imperial army with superior forces."

"After hearing the news, the king knew that the situation was hopeless, so he decided to surrender. But before surrendering, he found me and asked me to ask for help from the Celestial Empire." Yao Guangxiao finally said, "I left the palace in a hurry, found the representative of the Maritime Customs in Thang Long, showed him the token that the prince had given me, and he arranged for me to leave Thang Long, and I came to ask the prince for help."

"That happened half a month ago." Zhu Zhen asked, stroking his mustache.

"Yes." Yao Guangxiao nodded.

"So where do you think the situation is now?" Zhu Zhen asked again.

"Your Highness, Hu Jinyi is probably already cleaning up Thang Long City." Yao Guangxiao said, "And he finally got the chance. I don't think he will be able to kill all the members of the Tran Dynasty royal family this time."

"Including King Chen Riwei?" Zhu Zhen asked.

"Definitely." Yao Guangxiao nodded and said, "For Hu Jili, Chen Riwei's life is a hidden danger. Now that he has such a good excuse to avenge the King, he will definitely kill the king!"

"That's an attempt to usurp the throne." Zhu Zhen said in a deep voice, "Since Annan is a vassal state of our country and the king has sent envoys to ask for help, we do have an obligation to help them."

After a pause, he asked, "How many troops do you think we need to mobilize?"

"An army of eight hundred thousand." Yao Guangxiao replied.

"How much?" Zhu Zhen opened his mouth and said, "I only claimed to have 400,000 men in the Northern Expedition, and you're asking for 800,000."

"Eight hundred thousand is just a claim. In reality, eighty thousand is enough." Yao Guangxiao gave him a 10% discount.

"Eighty thousand is too much." Zhu Zhen shook his head.

"How much can there be?" Yao Guangxiao asked back.

"Twenty thousand." Zhu Zhen gave Yao Guangxiao an 80% discount on top of the amount he offered.

~~
Although Yunnan had 320,000 troops, 250,000 of them were garrison troops. The latter were 30% prepared for drills and 70% farmed, and were not in combat mode at all. They were far from being prepared physically or mentally.

Of course, the foundation of an invincible army is there, and fighting bandits and disobedient chieftains is no problem, but expedition to a foreign country to fight is absolutely impossible.

As mentioned before, it would take at least two or three months of restorative training for the garrison troops to regain the sharpness and discipline that a combat unit should have. Anyone who directly drags them to Annan is committing naked murder. Therefore, Yunnan is currently in a state of war readiness, and there are only 70,000 troops that can be mobilized at any time, of which 40,000 are still in Outer Yunnan... Ruili Prefecture, where Mengmao was originally located, needs 10,000 troops to garrison to prevent the remnants of Luchuan State from rebelling.

Ava is the center of Outer Yunnan, and 10,000 troops must be left to guard it to prevent the tribes from causing trouble. In addition, Pegu in the south is the seaport of Yunnan, where a port and shipyard are being built, and 10,000 troops are also needed to garrison and supervise.

In addition, there were natives on the Malay Peninsula who refused to surrender, so Mu Ying led 10,000 troops south to suppress the rebellion. In fact, even if he did not suppress the rebellion, Mu Ying was too far away from Annan, and distant water could not quench nearby thirst.

As for the 30,000 troops in Inner Yunnan, at least 10,000 must be kept just in case, so at most 20,000 troops can be dispatched immediately.

At the time of the Dingbian War, Yunnan could only muster 30,000 combat troops. Now they have to divide their forces to suppress Outer Yunnan, so it is not an exaggeration for Lao Liu to say that they can only muster 20,000 troops.

But then again, if he could easily take out more than 300,000 troops, some people in Beijing would be unable to sleep. So even if Boss Zhu loved him, he would never give him so many troops.

Zhu Zhen thought Yao Guangxiao would be very depressed after hearing this, but the evil monk actually laughed and said, "Twenty thousand is not impossible. I can still guarantee to take Annan. But we must send troops quickly. It will be difficult if we miss the opportunity. And we need the cooperation of the prince's Maritime Fleet."

"Oh, by the way, we also need a general, because in the end we will have to fight with real swords and guns." Yao Guangxiao added.

"Tell me about your plan first." Zhu Zhen said to Yao Guangxiao calmly.

"Yes." Yao Guangxiao then laid out his plan in full, and even used the cups, plates and chopsticks on the table to form a sand table so that Zhu Zhen could have an intuitive feeling.

After listening to his plan, Zhu Zhen had only one feeling, that is, this guy was really wicked and evil. He really made the right choice by asking him to cause trouble in Annan.

"As for the Maritime Customs Fleet, there is one in Yazhou. As for generals, I have no shortage of generals." Zhu Zhen said with great pride.

Even if we don't count Lan Yu and Wang Bi who have not arrived yet, just the generals in Yunnan and Mu Ying who are on the expedition, he still has eight or nine marquises such as Hu Quan and Jin Chaoxing at his disposal.

"So, the prince agrees?!" Yao Guangxiao said excitedly, "That's great! I can guarantee you that this battle will be decided by Annan!"

"Okay, let's sign the military order." Zhu Zhen then ordered the eunuch to bring writing brush and ink.

"I don't think this is necessary?" Yao Guangxiao said embarrassedly.

"Is this kind of thing a joke?" Zhu Zhen raised his thick eyebrows.

"Well, well, I'm asking for trouble." Yao Guangxiao wrote the military order while muttering, "I should have gone to Nanjing to report it earlier."

"You will be sent back to Kunming if you go to Nanjing." Zhu Zhen said calmly, "I forgot to introduce you. My current official position is the Governor-General of Military Affairs and Food in Yunnan and Guizhou. You are allowed to act at your own discretion!"

"But Your Majesty, Annan is not in Yunnan and Guizhou?" Yao Guangxiao asked.

"But Annan borders Yunnan, and their internal rebellion has seriously threatened the survival of the people of the Ming Dynasty, so I decided to take the initiative to defend and strangle the Annan rebellion in its early stages!" Zhu Zhen said in a deep voice, and gave an order:

"Please invite Dingbian Hou and Zhu Qianhu to come!"

(End of this chapter)