In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 770 A Special Affection

As is well known, the White Lotus Sect grew and prospered through plunder.

Qingzhou was a barren land, and it was also severely affected by the cold disaster, so the local people had very little wealth for the White Lotus Sect to plunder.

This is the first reason why the White Lotus Sect abandoned Yuezhou.

The second reason is that the White Lotus Sect was able to rise up and grow in power because of the support of the Yuezhou aristocratic families. Without the financial support of the Yuezhou aristocratic families, the White Lotus Sect, no matter how many believers it had, could not have risen up so smoothly, let alone so quickly defeat the Yuezhou army of the imperial court after it rose up.

It's a very simple principle: without money and food, where would the armor and weapons come from to arm the believers, and where would the food come from to fill the soldiers' stomachs?

The White Lotus Sect, which rose to power by relying on the Yuezhou aristocratic families, was destined to be influenced by them.

As for the aristocratic families, their support for the White Lotus Sect was not purely for charity, but rather because they needed the White Lotus Sect to secure benefits for them!

For powerful and influential families, what is profit?

money?

food?

Tenant farmer?

These are all things, but they are definitely not the most important.

For prominent families, the most important thing is land—fertile fields that can continuously generate wealth and allow the family to be passed down forever!

As for fertile land... Qingzhou's land is far from being fertile. On the other hand, Qiongzhou has a warm climate and abundant rainfall, and its terrain is mostly plains. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a vast fertile land!

Under these circumstances, the prominent families of Yuezhou naturally had an even greater fondness for Qiongzhou!

Thus, driven by their own needs and influenced by powerful clans, the White Lotus Sect ultimately abandoned the readily available Qingzhou and chose to send troops to attack the more prosperous Qiongzhou.

When they first entered Qiongzhou, the White Lotus Army's offensive went very smoothly. In just half a month, they captured several counties, burning, killing, looting, and feasting on the rich.

However, just when Xiao Mingwang and the high-ranking members of the White Lotus Sect thought they could quickly occupy the entire Yuezhou, an unexpected event occurred!

If there are prominent families in Yuezhou, then of course there are also those in the even more prosperous Qiongzhou!

The powerful families of Yuezhou wanted to seize land in Qiongzhou through the White Lotus Sect, and the powerful families of Qiongzhou certainly wouldn't sit idly by and wait to be destroyed!

Half a month after the White Lotus Sect entered Qiongzhou, the aristocratic families of Qiongzhou quickly reacted.

With their support, the small rebel groups that were no match for the White Lotus Army grew rapidly to the point where they could influence the White Lotus Sect.

Moreover, the powerful families of Qiongzhou fully supported a rebel leader named Zhang Cheng within Qiongzhou.

Zhang Cheng was originally just a rebel leader with a few thousand men and a few county territories. However, after receiving the full support of the Qiongzhou aristocratic families, his power expanded rapidly. Now he controls two prefectures and has an army of 100,000. Even the White Lotus Sect, which has hundreds of thousands of troops, would find it difficult to defeat him in a short time!

After all... the White Lotus Sect's so-called hundreds of thousands of troops were a huge exaggeration. Of these hundreds of thousands of troops, less than 50,000 were truly combat-ready and could be called elites. The rest were just starving, emaciated believers who couldn't even hold a knife properly and had no fighting ability whatsoever.

Under such circumstances, the White Lotus Sect and Zhang Cheng's 100,000-strong army were evenly matched, and with Zhang Cheng's obstruction, the White Lotus Sect could hardly make any progress!

To this day, the White Lotus Sect has only conquered a few counties bordering Yuezhou, far from the White Lotus Sect leadership's expectation of quickly taking over the entire Yuezhou territory!

Some members of the White Lotus sect even suggested withdrawing their troops, but this was clearly impossible.

In my previous life on Earth, there was a term called sunk cost. The White Lotus Sect had been in Qiongzhou for several months, and the amount of food consumed and the number of soldiers killed or wounded during that time was astronomical. With such a huge cost already invested, how could the White Lotus Sect be willing to withdraw its troops?

Thus, the White Lotus Sect, caught in a dilemma, was naturally dragged into the quagmire of war. They could not defeat Zhang Cheng, and Zhang Cheng could not do anything to them either. Neither side could do anything to the other, so they could only send troops to harass each other from time to time and plunder the people in the other's city.

"King Ming."

A high-ranking member of the White Lotus Cult said with a worried expression, "Now that we have Zhang Cheng in front and Yang Zheng behind, what should we do?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the room fell silent. Yang Zheng had already taken over the entire Qingzhou region and could pose a threat to Yuezhou, the White Lotus Sect's stronghold, at any time. Meanwhile, the White Lotus Sect's main force needed to stay in Qiongzhou to counter Zhang Cheng's army. Once Yang Zheng sent troops to Yuezhou, Yuezhou would likely be in danger.

Xiao Mingwang remained silent for a long time. He had always regarded Yang Zheng as a formidable rival and had been paying close attention to Liangzhou. He knew that given the situation in Liangzhou, it was impossible for them to have enough food and supplies to send troops to Qingzhou.

This was one of the reasons why the White Lotus Sect's leadership unanimously chose to abandon their plan to send troops to Qingzhou.

however……

Yang Zheng surprised everyone. Not only did he gather enough provisions for the expedition, but he also appeared in the heart of Qingzhou as if by divine intervention, quickly taking over the entire province. So much so that the White Lotus Sect didn't even learn of it until Yang Zheng had conquered the whole province...

This puzzled Xiao Mingwang greatly. Where did the Yang family army get their supplies? And how did they suddenly appear in the heart of Qingzhou?

"Do you know where the Yang family army got its supplies? And how did they suddenly appear in the heart of Qingzhou?"

Little Ming King looked at the crowd and asked.

"Your Majesty is unaware of this."

At this moment, an elderly high-ranking officer stood up and said, "According to the news brought back by our scouts, the provisions for the Yang family army's expedition were supplied by Taicang County in Qingzhou."

"Taicang County?"

"Not bad!"

The high-ranking official nodded and said, "Zheng Qing, the prefect of Taicang County, had already betrayed the court. He not only helped the Yang family army to raise supplies, but also helped them conceal the news of their deployment. As a result, the Qingzhou army in the prefectural city did not realize what was happening until the Yang family army entered Taicang County."

"Zheng Qing!"

Xiao Ming Wang gripped the armrests of the seat tightly with all ten fingers, his eyes contorted in a ferocious expression.

If Zheng Qing were to appear in front of him right now, he would absolutely crush Zheng Qing's head without hesitation!

"call!"

After a long while, Xiao Mingwang finally calmed down. Now that things had come to this, there was no use saying anything more or being angry. The most important thing now was to guard against the threat from the Yang family army.

Elder Jiang.

Looking down at Jiang Canghai, Xiaoming Wang ordered, "I command you to immediately lead 20,000 troops to Qingyue County to resist the Yang family army. You must not allow the Yang family army to enter Yuezhou even a step!"

"I will obey the King's command."

Jiang Canghai accepted the order and quickly turned to leave.

Twenty thousand soldiers isn't a lot, but it's definitely enough to resist the Yang family army.

After all, the Yang family army did not have many troops stationed in Dingnan County. In addition, Jiang Canghai could defend the city with 20,000 troops. Even if an army of 100,000 attacked, Jiang Canghai was confident that he could defend Qingyue County.