Crossing the Yangtze River has always been the established policy of the General Staff, and this argument is now supported by the majority of officials. This is not surprising, compared to other forces in East Asia, the two puppet Qing kings can almost be regarded as on the verge of desperation both politically and militarily, nominally these two Manchu princes still control the territory of the two provinces, but in fact their power has long been greatly reduced, after the official fall of the Kangxi government, Jiangsu, Fujian and other places have already entered a semi-autonomous state, and they can really call the shots may only be some cities around the provincial capital.

Killing a dog is something that everyone is willing to do, not to mention that the great merit and honor of killing this dead dog are really unimaginable, just measure it: after a thousand years, the name of the Qing history, General Moumou of the Han Dynasty led the army to attack, regain the lost territory and completely exterminate the remnants of the alien race, and whether it can be compared with Yue Feihuo's illness, the name of a national hero alone is worth a fight.

Zhou Peigong is fighting this idea now, but he doesn't have any 'selfish' intentions, as far as the current situation is concerned, he doesn't think that he will have the opportunity to lead the army, so the benefits will eventually fall on others, from the perspective of the chief of general staff, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are undoubtedly much more important than Sichuan. In the past, the reason why the Han and the Southern Zhou did not pull down their faces to grab the territory, in addition to Wu Sangui's own reasons, another important reason is that the two sides, as a neighbor with a poor foreign 'relationship', both need a political buffer for each other, so the two countries rashly bordered each other without a stable foundation and unresolved internal affairs, which is not a good thing for either side, so now that the Southern Zhou is in a civil war, it is basically a logical thing for the Han to seize these two rich provinces.

Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the wealth of Suzhou and Hangzhou has been the crown of the world, and winning these two provinces has been self-evident to the help of the Lin Han Empire.

As the head of a country, of course, Lin Feng would not even have this vision, but now he was thinking about something else.

Judging from the current situation, whether it is Prince Jian Rabu or Prince Kang Jieshu, the current strength has shrunk greatly, according to Wang Shirong's ordnance and grain statistics Ya 'Gate' said, since the Lin and Han Empire's troops went out of the two Huai and officially consolidated the country's capital, most of the Han 'traitors' who were originally surrounded by the two princes felt pessimistic and disappointed about the future'traitor' status, and pay a certain amount of taxes on time, but it is impossible to mobilize them to go to war. The current identity of the two Manchu princes is not so much a prince, but the leader of the alliance of two warlords, those military leaders of various sizes who were originally unified under the banner of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, now divide the territory according to the strength and official positions of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and basically have nothing to do with Labu and Jieshu, and most of their external work is at most to mediate or mediate between conflicts between each other, so as to maintain a general peace and unity.

It is conceivable that if two armies like this really fight a big battle, only God knows how many people can really give their lives to the two princes. According to the words of Wang Dahai, the governor of Anhui, as long as there are two armies, the custody can be fought from Anhui all the way to Fujian.

But the problem lies in Fujian. As we all know, the province of Fujian was originally Geng's 'fine' loyalty's territory, because of some changes has now fallen into the hands of Taiwan's Zheng Jing, and now the Zheng Jing Group's plan is to use Fujian as a springboard, sweep Guangdong in the south, and go north to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so as to "recover the Ming Dynasty". This slogan is undoubtedly very loud, but in terms of strength it seems unrealistic, everyone in the world knows that the Taiwan fleet is strong, but the army is quite weak, which can be seen as early as a few decades ago, Zheng Chenggong concentrated superior forces to besiege Nanjing, and in recent years, their performance has no intention of turning the tables, the letter of the monk in the south is not holding, and there is no way to take the book in the north, although Zheng Jing has also made some efforts, but throughout the army, counting, in addition to Liu Guoxuan's Marine Corps can also fightOther army units cannot be called "strong armies" in the substantive sense in terms of equipment or quality.

According to the current situation, if the Han army moves south, it is estimated that it should not be difficult to defeat Fujian. However, if they succeed in taking these two provinces, they will immediately fall into a state of frontal contact with the Taiwan bloc, of course, the Han army will never think that the Taiwanese army will pose a threat to itself on land, but the elusive Taiwan fleet that dominates the East China Sea is really a big head.

Despite this, the Lin Han Empire was not afraid of the Zheng group, and the Fujian army was powerless to fight back in a land war; In a naval battle, according to the current strength of the Han Navy, it is not necessarily certain that it will lose. The conundrum is not about the military, but about the economy. Since Lin Feng personally advocated the opening of the port, China's coastal trade has entered a fairly prosperous stage after several years of development, which is also a specific product of the current Chinese political environment, if it is developed according to the fixed thinking of the Chinese, the current commercial activities should generally rely on inland rivers and provincial official trade, but with decades of war' Chaos', this road has been dealt an extremely heavy blow, you must know that now the warlords of the divided side can not have a few market awareness, in short, they can loot as much as they can, almost no difference from robbers and bandits, like the Shandong bureaucrats in the past, only collect a little protection money, and those who pass through the road are still enlightened people. Therefore, when Lin Feng called for it, it immediately got the support and support of the industrial and commercial groups, so the coastal trade in the Han Dynasty under the strong support and protection, with high safety, low cost, large profit margins and reputation in the industry, over the past few years, Liaodong, Zhili, Ningjin coastal has developed countless commercial groups specializing in maritime business, with hundreds of thousands of employees, and the rapid growth is very.

However, if a war with the Taiwan fleet is rashly started now, this excellent situation will undoubtedly no longer exist.

Taiwan's Zheng clan was created from the former Ming giant Kou Zheng Zhilong, and later by the Chongzhen Emperor Fu, entrusted as a party of heroes, passed down to this day, there have been three generations, although it has experienced ups and downs, by the Qing court, the Netherlands, South China Sea pirates and other many blows, but the power is always thriving, Taiwan's Zheng Jing Group relies on a huge fleet to run rampant in Chinese waters, almost invincible, the merchant ships under its command monopolize Chinese mainland and Japan, the king of Korea and even Southeast Asia international trade, the income is extremely rich.

Since the beginning of Lin Feng's business, Taiwan Group and Lin Han Group have maintained a rather delicate foreign 'relationship'. From a political point of view, both sides are warlord organizations that have attracted the attention of the world, and both have ambitions to unify China, so they are naturally hostile. Militarily, in order to achieve their respective goals, the two sides had to form a short-term alliance for a period of time, so for a long time, because there was no direct conflict of interest, the relationship between the two sides was quite good on the surface.

But this is only on the surface at this time, no matter how big a hat he wears, no matter what tone of nationalist hymn he sings, Lin Feng's appointment of Shi Lang as the commander-in-chief of the imperial navy is an extremely dangerous signal, and this matter is not only known to everyone in Taiwan, but even Geldan and Bur Yagma, who are far away outside the country, are clear in their hearts. Just a few years ago, on the occasion of the wedding of the Han Dynasty, the "radical" faction within the Taiwanese warlords tried to detain Mrs. Ake, although the doves stopped it in time, and the Han officials also acquiesced to this "misunderstanding" statement, but after all, it cast a dark shadow on the foreign "diplomacy" relationship between the two sides.

The current military and political situation in China is like a game of dominoes. Either the wind is calm and the waves are calm, maintaining a delicate balance with each other, or the wind and waves are strong and the waves are overwhelming.

From the point of view of the Han military alone, Lin Feng currently has two choices. First, the troops went out of Hanzhong, drove the horse harrier Wang Fuchen as the front, and the troops entered Sichuan, including the southwest; The second is to gather the main force in Anhui, completely exterminate the remnants of the pseudo-Qing Dynasty, annex the anointed lands of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and enter into direct contact with the Southern Zhou Dynasty, Taiwan's Zheng Jing, Shang Zhixin, etc.

The first option, if the Lin Han Empire succeeds in seizing Sichuan, in addition to obtaining a large area of vast and 'fertile' territory, it also goes to a springboard to attack the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but it is not easy to do this, because at present, the great enemy of the Lin Han Empire is not only the princes in the interior of the Central Plains, but also the Geldan Zungar Khanate entrenched in Gansu, northern Tibet, Qinghai, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, before that, the Lin Han Empire stationed tens of thousands of troops in Shaanxi and eastern Gansu, It was to clamp each other with the Southern Zhou Dynasty and the Junggar Khanate. According to the military system of the Han army, in a place like Shaanxi and Gansu, there is no reason to put two leading generals with the rank of lieutenant general no matter what, and the mystery is here-the Eighth Infantry Army and the Tenth Infantry Army Xiongzhen Xijing under Anxi General Daniel Zhang, and tens of thousands of troops under Wang Fuchen; And Koubei general Zhao Liangdong repeatedly broke through the Zhungar, the prestige in the army was outstanding, the Fifth Army of the Han Infantry under his command was famous, and the Western 'Mongolian' ancient was terrified, and he was the best candidate to guard the front line of Lanzhou, Gansu.

However, if this delicate situation is broken, then the consequences are really unpredictable, although Wang Fuchen surrendered, but there were 60,000 troops under his command, it was good to drive to the front, but who can guarantee that after he broke through Wang Ping Domain with the support of the Han army, he would not bite back?! You must know that Sichuan is dangerous, its plank road is rugged, known as "one husband is the pass, ten thousand people are invincible", this horse harrier bandit started, has surrendered three or four masters, there is no faith at all, who can guarantee that after he seizes Sichuan, will he kick the big 'door', hide in Sichuan as the boss.

Therefore, putting aside the logistical factors, only from the perspective of soldiers, to seize Sichuan, in addition to driving Wang Fuchen's department as the vanguard, the Han army must follow at least two troops, otherwise there will be no other accidents, but the total military strength of the Lin and Han Empires in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces is only 40,000 or 50,000 horses, of which the number of the three infantry corps is about 45,000 or 6,000 people, plus the three brigades of 6,000 local troops controlled by Zhang Ying, the governor of Shaanxi, and one brigade of 2,000 guards of the Shaanxi garrison of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Although the Han army is world-famous for its courage and skill, it is really dangerous to use troops in this way.

Therefore, once the capture of Sichuan is determined as the established strategic goal, then the empire is bound to 'draw' heavy troops into the Qin to participate in the war in western Jin and North China, but the mountains and rivers in Shanxi are the backbone of central China, and the strategic location is extremely important, and it is currently the front-line battlefield of the ancient Korqin Khanate in the east and the ancient Zungar Khanate in the west, and the tension is on the verge of breaking out, while the troops of the Lin Han Empire stationed in the western and northern Jin and Ordos regions are only the Seventh Army of the cavalry under the general Wang Jinbao. The two armies of the First Cavalry Army of the Mongolian general Zhao Guangyuan, plus the local garrison troops, are only in their early 30,000s, who can guarantee that if this garrison is 'pumped' into Qin, the 'Mongolian' ancient iron cavalry will not come over to fight the autumn wind?!

The rise of the Lin Han Empire has only been a few years, and others look invincible, invincible, and unstoppable, but in the eyes of experts, they know at a glance that this powerful army is surrounded by enemies on all sides, and every place is tight, and every town army cannot move.

The only strategic mobile force of this behemoth is just the guard regiment of Lin Feng, the king of Han. However, it is the mobile unit of the five armies in this area, but at the same time it is responsible for the local garrison tasks of the Beijing Division, Zhili, Shandong, and Ningjin (Note: The Ningjin garrison was originally the headquarters of Wang Dahai of the Second Infantry Army, but has now been 'drawn' and transferred to Anhui to fight; the Shandong garrison is the Ninth Infantry Army of Wang Chengye's department, which has now been 'drawn' and stationed in Henan).

At present, the only fists that the Lin Han Empire can stretch out are these two armies. This is a very frustrating situation indeed, but in terms of the current strength of the Empire, this is already the limit. Since Lin Feng unified the Yellow River Valley, although the northern provinces of Chinese mainland have generally ended the state of war and chaos, if we say that "the peaceful and prosperous era" is undoubtedly a fool's dream; except for Henan, which is politically unstable, many remote areas in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, and other provinces are still full of bandits, and the Taihang Mountains, Yi'meng' mountains, and Shangluo Mountains are full of complex terrain, and there are large and small green forest bandits, local bandits, and peasant rebels. After nearly a year of self-cultivation, although the peasants who have resumed farming have achieved a bumper harvest, it is at most only the level of "drinking scarcely in their spare time, and eating dry in their spare time"; the vast majority of peasants still cannot afford to wear clothes, light lamps, or even eat salt after paying taxes and rents; according to the most optimistic estimate of the household department, in the 'spring' of next year, there should not be a large-scale escape from famine in most areas in the north, and the peasants can survive by eating wild vegetables on rice grains.

According to Li Guang's judgment of Dizheng Fǔ, it took at least four years of cultivation for the Lin Han Empire to regain its vitality: the first year was to suppress bandits, resume farming, and reduce tenants; In the second year, 'fertilize' the field, count the households, and count the ding; In the third year, the fields are ripe, the roads are returned, and the government is passed; Only in the fourth year can the standard of the fourth year, that is, the majority of the people in the rural areas can eat dry food most of the time, and some peasants can afford to support their children to go to school, then it can barely be regarded as a "peaceful and prosperous era", and the state can be able to carry out extensive mobilization and wage foreign wars.

Judging from the current political data of the Lin Han Empire, a ruined agricultural empire with a population of just over 60 million has to bear the administrative expenses of tens of thousands of civil servants and more than 300,000 modern army and navy military expenses, which is really too heavy.

Therefore, in view of the above two choices, most officials in the imperial government and opposition believed that the best choice at present was undoubtedly to attack Jiangnan and seize two rich provinces to nourish the finances, expand the army, and prepare for the unification of the whole of China by force. Compared with this ambitious goal, the Sichuan strategy is quite small, even if it can be successful, it is only a corner of the place, and it will not help the overall situation.

However, if the second target is chosen, the difficulties will be even greater, and in addition to the political factors on the Taiwan side, the military strength is not abundant. At present, in addition to the two puppet Qing vassal kings, there are nearly 200,000 Jiangxi 'chaos' army, although this enemy army is not organized and the command is not the same, but most of them are long-trained and experienced troops, but the strength should not be underestimated.

When the chief of the general staff, Zhou Peigong, spoke generously and bluntly, the hall immediately fell into a controversy, the military and the civil and military have their own opinions, disputes, Lin Feng listened a little big, to be honest, now he is very hesitant, as far as the current situation is concerned, both options have their own advantages and disadvantages, it is really difficult to distinguish between the top and bottom, and now for a while to ask him to make a choice to decide the fate of China, it is really too difficult.