Chapter 683: Forming a Cabinet
As the night ended and the day dawned, this brutal battle finally ended.

Of the 300,000 Daliang troops, more than 100,000 were killed in the battle, nearly 150,000 were captured, and the rest escaped in scattered numbers.

Among the nearly 80,000 Chongshan troops, nearly 10,000 were killed in the battle, more than 3,000 were seriously injured, and more than 30,000 were slightly injured.

Although the Chongshan Army fought very smoothly in this battle and had the advantage in weapons and armor, the elite troops of the Daliang Army were not completely powerless and still caused many casualties to the Chongshan Army.

There is no doubt that the Chongshan Army won a great victory and the Daliang Army was almost completely wiped out.

Daliang, which had been founded for less than half a year, was destroyed.

When the news of this battle spread, all forces in Dayong Tianxia immediately fell into shock and panic.

The first to fall into panic was naturally the Daliang court in Hanzhong Prefecture.

When the tree falls, the hozens scatter!

Just as the morale of the people in the court of Dayong was broken in the past, the morale of the people in the court of Daliang is also broken now.

As soon as the news reached Hanzhong Prefecture, many officials in Daliang fled, and even Emperor Tianwu’s sworn brothers fled with their belongings.

Even the ministers in the court, not to mention the local officials.

Many prefectures and counties in Longnan and Longxi provinces were conquered almost immediately upon receiving an order. Even before the Beiyuan Army and the Chongshan Army arrived at those prefectures and counties, the officials of those prefectures and counties had already sent letters of surrender.

On the other hand, Chen Hengchang, who was in Jiangnan, originally wanted to dispatch a large army into Shanhe Province. However, before he could complete the mobilization of the army, the Daliang army had been completely wiped out.

In desperation, Chen Hengchang could only focus on defense and deployed a large army in the northern part of Jiangnan to prevent the Chongshan army from moving south.

On June 28th of the sixth year of Jianxing, Yang Chengye led 60,000 mountain troops into Kyoto. From then on, Kyoto fell into the hands of the Yang family.

On the second day of July, Yang Chengye issued an order, ordering Zhou Lan to lead the Beiyuan Army to recapture Longxi, and ordering Yang Qinteng and Luo Feiyu to lead the West Route Army and the South Route Army to recapture Longnan.

On July 22, the Taiping Army of Bashu defeated the Nine Heavenly Kings and unified the entire territory of Bashu.

Three days later, Taiping leader Yang Zhao announced his surrender to the Chongshan Army and asked the Chongshan Army to send officials to take over Bashu.

All parties found the Taiping Army’s surrender to the Chongshan Army somewhat funny.

Last year, the Taiping Army defected to Daliang. As a result, this year, the Taiping Army took advantage of Daliang’s attack on Kyoto to attack the Black Tiger King and the Nine Heavenly Kings, who also defected to Daliang, in Bashu.

In many people’s minds, the leader of the Taiping Army is an erratic villain.

But the Yang family knew that the Taiping Army was their real people.

In mid-September, the entire Longnan area was recaptured by the Chongshan Army, including Hanzhong Prefecture, and the Daliang court was completely destroyed.

In early October, Zhou Lan led 30,000 Beiyuan troops to recapture the entire Longxi territory.

It is said to be a recovery, but in fact it was just a stroll over there. Except for a few diehard members, there was almost no resistance.

After recovering the entire territory of Longxi, Zhou Lan did not stop, but went to Longbei Town instead. At the same time, Yang Chengze, the lieutenant general of the western route of Beiyuan Town, also led an 8,000-strong reinforcement battalion to approach Longbei Town.

As for Longbei Town and Suzhou Town, Yang Chengye’s attitude was to take down the middle and high-level military officers, and then reorganize the town’s standard battalion and reinforcement battalion.

There is no way. Longbei Town and Suzhou Town have been abandoned, and now the soldiers in the two towns are just a group of bandits.

Yang Chengye must rebuild these two border towns.

But there is no need to rush now, you can leave it to Zhou Lan to handle it slowly.

As November approached, Yang Chengye became busy.

He did not claim to be an emperor or a king, but he was already exercising the power of an emperor.

With the recovery of Longnan and Longxi, Yang Chengye had occupied two-thirds of Dayong’s territory.

The eight provinces of Liaoyuan, Pingyuan, Liaoxi, Shanhe, Longyuan, Longxi, Longyuan and Bashu all fell into the hands of Yang Chengye.

The territory expanded too much and many things were not sorted out. Yang Chengye had no intention of paying attention to other things at this time and put all his energy into the appointment of officials.

Yang Chengye’s first step was to form a cabinet.

Lu Wenyuan was the chief minister of the cabinet.

Lin Zhan was the second assistant of the cabinet and concurrently served as the Minister of Personnel.

Li Wenchun was a cabinet minister and concurrently served as the Minister of Revenue.

Zheng Yulin was a cabinet minister and concurrently served as Minister of Rites.

Qin Jing was an assistant minister of the cabinet and concurrently served as the Minister of Works.

The reason why Li Wenchun was allowed to join the cabinet was to appease the civil and military officials of the Taiping Army.

Although Yang Mingzhao was one of their own, the Taiping officials were still inevitably worried. Allowing Li Wenchun to join the cabinet represented Yang Chengye’s attitude that he would not exclude the Taiping officials.

Not only Li Wenchun, Yang Chengye also transferred many officials of the Taiping Army to the court. Of course, more officials were transferred to Longnan and Longxi.

Although the Taiping Army seemed to be a makeshift team, Yang Mingzhao had trained many capable officials over the years.

This capable official had extensive experience in land distribution and local administration.

They just held lower official positions before, but now Yang Chengye has promoted them. It is time for them to show their abilities.

Yang Chengye’s attitude was very clear. He appointed a large number of officials from Chongshan Town, Liaodong and the Taiping Army, and transferred all the surrendered officials back to the capital. He did not assign them official positions yet and let them rest.

Yang Chengye also wanted to distribute land like the Taiping Army did. At the same time, he also wanted to screen the former officials, using those who were capable and not using those who were not. As for those who committed many evil things, they would naturally be punished.

It’s just that there are so many things going on right now that Yang Chengye needs to sort them out bit by bit.

As Yang Chengye gradually straightened out the government affairs, the current situation of Darong became more and more clear.

In the seventh year of Jianxing, no, Emperor Jianxing had died and Dayong had collapsed.

The 20th year of Shenmu, early February.

The Qu family of Nanjiang Town and the Guo family of Yunling Town surrendered to the new dynasty and asked the new dynasty to confer titles to them and send officials such as governors, provincial governors, and provincial judges.

The surrender of the Qu and Guo families not only represented Nanjiang Town and Yunling Town, but also the entire Nanyun Province and half of Zangyuan Province. At this point, the situation in Darong entered a new phase, with Yang Chengye being the only one in power.

In the southeast, Chen Hengchang occupied Jiangnan Province, Fuhai Province and half of Yungui.

The Sun family of Anxi Town in the southwest occupied Anxi Town and Wusi Town, as well as half of Zangyuan.

The three towns of Longbei, Suzhou and Tingzhou in the northwest are still a mess.

Judging from the current situation, the Yang family seems to be doomed.

However, this is not the case in reality. The Yang family still faces many challenges if they want to maintain their rule.

Before Dayong could stabilize internally, many dynasties surrounding Dayong had already begun to stir.

Kyoto, in the imperial study.

Yang Chengye frowned and looked at the letter in his hand.

Although he has not yet proclaimed himself emperor, he has now entered the imperial city. The court institutions such as the cabinet and the six ministries are already being improved, and the Six Military Governor’s Office is also being established. The framework of the new dynasty’s court has almost been completed, and all that remains is to fill it in slowly.

The memorial in front of him was sent by Zhou Lan, and its content was about some recent military actions of the Dayue Dynasty in the west of Dayong.

In recent years, the Dayue Dynasty has been expanding wildly, annexing several small dynasties in succession. Now, the Dayue Dynasty has the potential to become the overlord of the Western Regions.

Just two months ago, the Dayue Dynasty suddenly began to dispatch troops to the border of Dayong. In just one month, the Dayue Dynasty mobilized an army of 100,000 and stationed them outside the border of Dayong.

Their intentions were self-evident; they clearly wanted to take advantage of the civil unrest in Dayong to launch an invasion.

At present, Anxi Town, Tingzhou Town and Suzhou Town are still in a mess. Once Dayue launches an invasion, the three border towns will find it difficult to resist.

Just as Yang Chengye was thinking about how to deal with the problem of the Dayue Dynasty, Yang Zhengshan slowly walked into the imperial study.

“Master~~”

Seeing Yang Zhengshan coming, Yang Chengye quickly stood up and shouted.

“Yeah!” Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly, then sat down at a tea table.

He looked up and looked around the layout of the imperial study. It was still the same as before. Although many decorations had been replaced, the overall layout had not changed.

Wang Lei brought the tea, and Yang Chengye took it and poured it for Yang Zhengshan himself.

There were no eunuchs or palace maids in the imperial city at this time. Apart from Wang Lei and a few others, there was a group of soldiers around Yang Chengye.

As for the harem.

Don’t even mention it, the harem is still in ruins and it’s impossible for anyone to live there, so Yang Chengye’s wife and children all live in the Marquis Jing’an Mansion, and Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi also temporarily live in the Marquis Jing’an Mansion.

Since Chongshan’s army entered Beijing, Yang Zhengshan once again stayed at home and completely retreated behind the scenes.

An Yuxing, Jian Chengfeng and others lived in the Three Valleys.

The Sanhuang plum tree in the Sanshan Valley is still there. Although it has changed hands several times in Kyoto, no one has touched the Sanhuang plum tree.

As for the spiritual fruit, everyone wants to take it for themselves, and no one is willing to destroy a spiritual fruit tree unless it is absolutely necessary.

Even when Daliang was looting the capital city’s property, he deliberately avoided the Sanhuangli.

Of course, the Xingyuan Fruit Tree far away in Cuixia Valley is still there. At present, Yu Tonghai is leading the soldiers of Tenglong Guard to guard near Cuixia Valley.

“Have the officials of the Six Military Commander’s Office been appointed?” Yang Zhengshan asked.

Yang Chengye took a memorial from the desk, handed it to Yang Zhengshan and said, “This is what my grandson thinks after careful consideration!”

Yang Zhengshan opened the letter and glanced at it, frowning and saying, “Why are they all from Chongshan Town?”

The Six Military Governorates was established by adding the Navy Governorates to the Five Military Governorates.

“There’s nothing we can do about it. We have no one available right now!” Yang Chengye was also very distressed.

The Yang family has a profound foundation and has many elite soldiers and capable officials under its command, but that was in Liaodong, in Chongshan Town. If the Yang family were placed in the entire Darong world, these people would seem a little too few and not enough.

Yang Zhengshan thought for a moment and said, “The Six Military Governor’s Office must be changed in the future. We cannot let it become a mere decoration. We must make use of it.”

“Although the Six Military Commandery does not have the power to mobilize troops, it must have the power to command them!”

“Well, strengthen the power of the Governor’s Office and clearly divide the responsibilities of officials at all levels. For example, the Left Governor is responsible for commanding troops, the Right Governor is responsible for training troops, and many Governor’s Associates and Governor’s Assistants are responsible for various logistics!”

“The garrison system has become so corrupt that it is beyond recognition. We should simply abolish it and switch all nine border towns to a recruitment system. Then, we can set up garrison troops and city defense troops in each province. The number does not need to be too large. Twenty thousand garrison troops and twenty thousand city defense troops in each province will be enough!”

“Of course, the people in the border towns still need to undergo military training, but it will be changed to militia training. The local government offices will be responsible for organizing the training of the young and strong during the slack season.”

“Forget it, I can’t explain it clearly right now. I’ll give you a charter in two days!”

Yang Zhengshan felt that many of Dayong’s systems were problematic, especially the Weisuo system, which was too harsh on military households.

Therefore, he planned to take advantage of the establishment of the new dynasty to completely abolish the Wei Suo system and reorganize all military organizations.

However, this matter needs to be slowly considered. Yang Zhengshan plans to spend a few days to make an outline for Yang Chengye.

Yang Zhengshan continued to look at the list of officials in the Governor’s Office in his hand and said, “It’s no problem for Yu Tonghai to be promoted to the Left Governor of the Navy Governor’s Office. Let’s change the others!”

“Zhou Lan is the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Central Military Commandery, Qu Changkong is the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Front Military Commandery, and Guo Ying is the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Rear Military Commandery.”

“Liang Shengze is the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Left Military Commandery, and Yang Mingwu is the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Right Military Commandery!”

“Zhang Luan is the Minister of Shangwu Temple. Well, Shangwu Temple is upgraded to the Martial Department, which is on the same level as the six departments. It governs the Shangwu Divisions and Martial Arts Pavilions in various places, and also has the Honor Court and Sect Division, which are responsible for managing the innate warriors and the forces in the martial arts world respectively!”

Yang Chengye pondered for a moment and said, “But if that’s the case, wouldn’t all innate warriors be able to serve as officials?”

Although there were innate warriors holding powerful official positions before Dayong, during the reign of Emperor Chengping, the appointments of innate warriors were temporary. It was not until the reign of Emperor Yanping that the restrictions on the appointment of innate warriors were gradually relaxed.

This is mainly because many places are no longer under the control of the court, such as Chongshan Town and Beiyuan Town.

It was precisely because the restrictions on innate warriors holding official positions were lifted that many border towns became separatist regimes, such as Yunling Town, Anxi Town, Nanjiang Town and Chongshan Town.

(End of this chapter)