Deploying Troops South to Initiate the Battle Against Maritime Bandits

The arrest operation was dubbed the "Fast Dismental the Network" purge action. Behind seemingly mild and simple interrogations, it almost exponentially implicated associated individuals. With the full cooperation of Minister Tian, the screening was conducted, focusing solely on the matter of communication with bandits. In the shortest time possible, the faction of Minister Cui in the capital was uprooted. However, the turmoil in the court and official circles did not reach the coastal defense city. The most critical node in the information dissemination network was in Lingshui County, where implicated officials were secretly escorted to the capital by Cheng Mo at the beginning of the interrogation, all replaced by personnel from the Hidden Guards of Cheng family guard's troops. Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the entire arrest operation was that the Yunmeng Emperor's promise to the Qiao family for exoneration after the war could now be fulfilled ahead of schedule.

Pei Zhenyan submitted the interrogation materials to the emperor, unveiling the truth behind the defeat ten years ago. This dark web had been woven for twenty years. During the reign of the previous emperor, Minister Cui, a commoner scholar, rose through diligent study and examination. He had hoped to send his only daughter to the palace as a concubine, completely changing the fortunes of the Cui family and infiltrating the imperial relatives. Unexpectedly, his daughter died on her way from her hometown to the capital. After Miss Cui's death, Minister Cui had no direct bloodline to succeed him, leading him to become obsessed with power politics. At the time, Cui Qi was only sixteen, sent by impoverished relatives of the Cui clan to become the adopted son of his clan uncle. Driven by the requests of his relatives for assistance and his own greed for money, he urged his adoptive father to accumulate wealth frantically, even volunteering to become a sharp blade in Minister Cui's hands, aiding him in assassinating court officials, colluding with pirates and bandits, and reaching out to the lucrative South Seas trade routes.

Ten years ago, maritime bandits attempted to establish a stronghold along the coastal areas. Qiao Bensan, a member of the Qiao family, betrayed his own kin by acting as an inside collaborator, solely because Minister Cui promised him the position of Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. He fabricated false evidence to frame the eldest son of the Qiao family, General Qiao, who was leading the defense against the island Wa people pirates in the coastal city, as a traitor. He also leaked information to the pirates about the southward journey of the eldest daughter of the Huo family, planning to capture her as a hostage to prevent the Huo family, the leaders of the Yunmeng military, from engaging in battle, resulting in the disappearance of the Miss Huo for over a decade. The Qiao family was convicted, and despite the Empress's intervention and support for the Qiao family, the outcome was the demotion of the elder Qiao and Qiao Ziqiu to commoners and the granting of amnesty, leading to the decline of the Qiao Viscount's household. The chaos eventually ended when the Empress requested military assistance from her maternal relatives in the southern frontier, who managed to quell the rebellion. Minister Cui later petitioned to designate the coastal city as a key military town, directly overseen by the Ministry of War.

Emperor Yunmeng issued an edict in the palace, exonerating and rehabilitating the case of the senior Qiao family general who had fled the battlefield ten years ago, restoring the name of the Qiao family's military lineage and reinstating the Qiao family's navy.

Huo Changfeng was appointed as Minister of War and took over the southern coastal defense affairs, coordinating various departments in the capital to deal with the invasion of maritime bandits.

East Shore Prince Cheng Mo was appointed as the Marshal to suppress the Japanese pirates, while the senior Qiao Viscount was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the South Sea Navy. They were tasked with rallying the old troops of the Qiao family to assist Marshal Mo in recruiting and training twenty thousand naval troops.

Huo Changlin was appointed as the General for Suppressing Bandits, with Huo Qixiang serving as his vanguard general. Leading twenty thousand soldiers and horses southward to join forces with East Shore Prince, they aimed to annihilate the invading enemies and consolidate and establish a maritime defense line in the southern frontier.

The Marshals from the capital set out for the expedition, mustering troops in the training grounds. The Emperor, accompanied by hundreds of officials, raised a toast at a ten-mile-long 'pavilion outside the city, bidding farewell to Generals Huo and Qiao as they led their naval and land forces southward.

Inside the coastal city, clear news had already arrived, causing a moment of panic and the closure of the inner city gates. With all the infiltrators from Lingshui County arrested and the officials completely replaced, all external sources of information within the coastal city had been cut off.

The soldiers guarding the city and the local merchants had their access to the inner city revoked by the Wa pirates. The government issued orders for the main commercial activities in the outer city to involve the purchase of large quantities of rice, grain, and daily necessities from the inner city residents in exchange for imported goods and their supplies.

Du YunHe noticed a significant increase in the procurement volume on the food supply list he received. After receiving the orders, Cheng Mo and his team estimated that there were no fewer than twenty thousand troops stationed in the inner city based on the daily ration data.

At this point, the coastal city soldiers would forcibly evacuate a large number of outer city residents every day to collect or purchase daily necessities. Cheng Mo and others seized this opportunity and secretly replaced the coastal city residents with three thousand members of the guards of Cheng family to live in the city. The displaced coastal city residents were mostly settled in temporary campsites behind the same-city roadsides traveler inn in sunrise bay Xiawan, participating in the accelerated construction of the new city. The remaining residents were deployed along the coastal road from the coastal city to Dongbin to repair roads and establish same-city roadside traveler inns and resettlement farms every 50 kilometers.