Chapter 991: Four Five Six: Yuwen Gai Captured! Fang Qingyi Caught!
"In this battle, you must rally some nobility and officials to join you in rebellion." Fang Qingyi from Yin Zhou said, "Finance Minister Suofu should have left behind a ledger that contains all the data of officials and nobles embezzling from the national treasury over the past few years."
Upon hearing this, the expressions of the City Defense Army generals present changed again. Over the years, these generals had not only embezzled military pay but also misappropriated military resources and occupied civilian property. Over the years, the amount of Gold Coins pocketed by the hundreds of generals present amounted to at least over a million.
However, they then thought, having already committed the great crime of rebellion, what does mere embezzlement count for?
Fang Qingyi continued, "Even if Suo Lun finds the gold reserves, there’s still a deficit of over four million; plus over one million needed to run the kingdom, he needs another five or six million Gold Coins. Suofu’s secret ledger lists ten to twenty excessively corrupt officials; each could be beheaded ten times over. Suo Lun won’t let them go; he will surely eradicate their entire families. And these people also know they have no way out but to follow you in rebellion to the end."
City Defense Army Great Admiral Yuwen Gai asked, "These excessively corrupt officials, how many people can they organize?"
Fang Qingyi said, "At least over thirty thousand. I have already sent someone to notify them. As soon as you raise your troops, they will respond immediately!"
Yuwen Gai closed his eyes to calculate, then said, "Our City Defense Army has fifty thousand soldiers participating in the uprising, plus over thirty thousand corrupted nobility and officials, and also fifteen thousand from the Sanctuary Legion, making a total of one hundred thousand!"
Fang Qingyi said, "Suo Lun has sixty thousand soldiers in the Forbidden Army, but they are dispersed everywhere. Over three thousand in the Princess Mansion, over five thousand in the Imperial Gold House, and over ten thousand maintaining the order in Zhi Du and guarding the city gates. Thus, only about forty thousand Forbidden Army soldiers are guarding the imperial palace, which is less than half of our number!"
Yuwen Gai nodded and said, "One hundred thousand against forty thousand, and we also have the elite Sanctuary Legion on our side. This battle is ours to fight!"