The wind of the summer night blows in the city of Guyin.

The Four Seasons Palace is located in the southeast of the middle city of Guyin, and it is the important ministers and nobles in the western court, except for the old lords such as Song and Fan who settled in the old city, most of them also live in the southeast range of the middle city, Xin Er's family is in the southeast district, and Tang Ai's family is also in the southeast district.

The night has passed the second watch, and the Tang family, which is separated from the Xin family by two lanes, has extinguished the candles in several courtyards before and after, Tang Ai's wife, concubines, children, and family servants have all slept, only a small courtyard in the corner of the back house,—— which is where Tang Ai often stays alone when he is planning important military events, but it is still brightly lit. Not only are there candles lit in the house, but in the small courtyard, many torches are planted on the white walls, and the flames are jumping, illuminating the whole courtyard as if it were daytime.

Tang Ai was not in the house at this time, but was in the courtyard.

The courtyard is not large, and the ground is paved with cyan masonry. Near the door, on the side of the steps in front of the door, there is a low table with a black background and red paint, on which water and pottery bowls are placed, and on the side of the case, there is a single couch that can only be used by one person to sit alone. The low table, the water, the clay bowl, and the couch were apparently brought out of the house. There is no one else in the courtyard, there is no need to pay attention to the sitting posture, and Tang Ai is a liberal person, and it is not a matter of vulgar etiquette that can be limited, so he is sitting on the couch at the moment, but he is not kneeling, but holding a feather fan, sitting cross-legged.

His left elbow rested on the low table, leaning forward slightly, and his eyes fell on the ground in the courtyard, intently looking at something.

Under the crossfire of the moonlight and firelight, I saw that on the blue brick floor in the courtyard, there was a map of the whole world that included all the countries in the sea, from the Western Regions in the west, to the seaside in the east, to Mobei in the north, and to Jiaozhou in the south.

The place where Tang Ai is sitting is the location of Dingxi in the map.

In front of him is Guanzhong, which is now occupied by Pu Qin, and in front of him to the left is Shuofang, and the Daibei region to the east of Shuofang, and in front of the left, is the vast Mobei region now controlled by Rouran; In front of its right, there are the three counties of Qinzhou that are newly occupied by Dingxi, and then in front of the right, there is Shu and the Eastern Tang Dynasty in the east of Shu; In the east of Puqin, south of Daibei, and north of Jing and Yang Prefectures in the Eastern Tang Dynasty, this vast area of more than 2,000 miles from east to west and north to south is the territory of today's Wei State.

Judging from the size of the region alone, the jurisdiction of Qin and Wei together is roughly equivalent to the jurisdiction of the Eastern Tang Dynasty, but as we all know, the southern states and counties of the Eastern Tang Dynasty, such as Najiaozhou, Guangzhou and other prefectures, are mostly barbarians, which can be said to be vast and sparsely populated.

Needless to say.

In Longzhou in early summer, the temperature difference between day and night is large, hot during the day, and cool at night, but I only saw that Tang Ai, alone in the courtyard, wearing a crane, leaning on the case and sitting, shaking the feather fan and moving, drinking water and frowning, actually thinking carefully, borrowing the firelight, to observe the world situation painted on the bricks and stones, bathing in the moonlight, and planning to formulate the opportunity to capture Shuofang.

With his handsome appearance, this scene, if it is seen by Xin Er, it is indispensable, and it must be praised: the immortals are also!

Tang Ai's gaze swept over the Shuofang painted on the bricks and stones, stopped at the southeast of Shuofang, and Shuofang across the Yellow River Yanmen, Taiyuan and other counties, and thought in his heart: "Gou Xiong and Yang Man are currently leading the troops separately and fighting with the Wei soldiers here, as long as the troops of our army capture Shuofang are fast enough, after entering Shuofang County, divide the troops and seize several important ferries on the west bank of the river first, then even if Gou Xiong and Yang Man hear the news that our army is attacking Shuofang, it will be difficult to return to the army to help quickly. ”

He turned his gaze and looked at the east of Shuofang, the north of Yanmen County, and Shuofang, which is also across the river from Daibei, and said in his heart, "The land of Daibei is narrow, located between Rouran, Shuofang, and Youju, only a thousand miles from east to west, hundreds of miles from north to south, the Tuoba clan has been based here, and it has been a long time since then, the Tuoba Department and the rest of the Xianbei tribes attached to the Tuoba Department, the Karasuma Tribe, and some other tribes such as Rouran and Eile that were conquered by the Tuoba Department, etc., many Hu species live in this area, the population multiplies, sheep and horses multiply, and its land and pasture are no longer enough. I think Tuoba is very ambitious, he will not be willing to succumb to this, and will inevitably seek opportunities to expand outward.

"And if Tuoba Beijin wants to expand his territory, there are three directions to choose in front of him, namely Rouran in the north, Shuofang in the west, and Wei in the south. The desert north, which is dominated by Rouran, is also a desolate place, which is not enough to take; Shuofang is connected to my Dingxi in the west and Guanzhong in the south, and the two strong enemies are not the best choice; For him, the best choice to break through the difficulties and show his strength is to be the captive of the river.

"The Duke of Ming intends to form an alliance with Tuoba Beijin, drive it to attack and plunder Wei, and attack Puqin, this is a feasible strategy, this time our army will attack Shuofang, and probably can also borrow the power of Tuoba Beijin, but Hu Lu is Hu Lu, cunning and unjust, the courtiers rebel at night, and the rebellion is uncertain, but he must be prevented from becoming a strong enemy in my Dingxi after he sits big in the future!"

Tang Ai's gaze left from Daibei and fell to the Rouran realm north of Shuofang, and after a long time of muttering, he shook his feather fan and thought: "Gou Xiong and Yang Man, I can block them in the east of the river, don't worry too much; Tuoba double the pound of the department, I can borrow its strength; This attack on Shuofang, only Rouran, is a variable. According to Rouran's convention, every spring and summer, it will go south to plunder, this year since the beginning of spring, it has not gone south, will it be when I attack Shuofang, it just happened to invade the south? This requires some consideration. ”

As mentioned above, Rouran is actually not a formed country, whether it is the social and cultural form, the form of political organization, in the Murong clan, the Pu clan, He Hun evil and other kinds of Hu people, it is the most backward one, even the Tuoba clan can not compare, to a large extent, it is just a relatively primitive tribal alliance,—— it was once the lord of the country that was favored clean by the Western Regions, because of the filth of the Hu people in its rule, the women lick the plate with their tongues, and call it "dog country", which shows the degree of its backwardness.

At the same time, Rouran is not a mature "race", its main part is composed of some slave tribes of the original Xiongnu and Xianbei, "Rouran" is a later self-title, in other words, they are also very poor in the cohesion within the clan.

But to say, since Rouran is so backward, how can it become another overlord of Mobei after the Xiongnu and Xianbei? The reason is also simple, this is not because of its own excellence, it is completely because the previous overlord of Mobei, the current king of Xianbei, Murong Clan, is bent on expanding to the south and the Central Plains, which is equivalent to taking the initiative to give up the place of Mobei, so it is the combination of Xianbei's earlier slave tribes that can take advantage of the gap to rise.

Although it has risen and has dominated Mobei, because of its various congenital deficiencies, so in order to ensure the power and status of its royal family, and also to unite and unite all the Hu tribes in the country, every spring and summer, their royal family will lead or organize all the departments in the territory to go south to Dingxi, Shuofang, Daibei, and Wei to carry out large-scale plunder.

As mentioned above, for the relatively primitive and extremely backward tribal alliance, war is actually a mode of production to obtain production and living materials, and to put it here in Rouran, war is also a way to strengthen the centripetal force of its internal departments through the distribution of interests, so even if it has been repeatedly counterattacked by Wei and Tuoba clan, just last year, it was attacked by the combined forces of Murong Wei and Tuoba Beijin, and almost perished the royal court, but they still did not hesitate.

Probably because last year's blow was too big, this year until now, Rouran has not sent troops to invade the south, but according to their previous style of acting,—— they have not been hit seriously before, but the blow is a blow, the second year's captivity is related to the stability of its royal power in Mobei, but it must not be stopped, it will always be the same as before, as usual, so Tang Ainai has a hidden worry about whether there will be a situation of "when Dingxi attacks Shuofang, Rouran's troops go south". This is indeed something that cannot be ignored.

What should I do?

Under the moonlight, Tang Ai shook his fan and concentrated, and fell into deep thought when he looked at the Mobei painted in green and yellow on the bricks and stones.

……

The fine sand in the hourglass flowed down silently and slowly.

At about the same moment when Tang Ai was pondering, Guyin went east, crossed the Yellow River, crossed the Guanzhong area about 1,4500 miles long from east to west, and then crossed the eastern section of the Yellow River flowing north-south.