The cavalry of the Xiongnu tribes, who had just set off to return to the grassland, were pleasantly surprised after learning the major news of the division of the Dashu Emperor Xiang Yanran, and they all returned to Shuofang City.

Three days later, they rushed to Shuofang City again, only to find that Shuofang City had become an empty city, and 50,000 cavalry and 30,000 border city people had been evacuated in a hurry, and there was nothing in the mess inside.

In the warehouse of the granary, there was not even a grain of rice. All the hungry people were picked up.

There wasn't even a single mouse in the granary, and I am afraid it would have been used to satisfy the hunger.

It can be seen how serious the food shortage in Shuofang City is.

The wooden defensive equipment at the gate of Shuofang and the city head were all destroyed. There are still some big characters left on the head of the city, which are ridiculed, and the military ministers are stupid and do not know that the food is exhausted, and they miss the opportunity in vain, which is ridiculous and ridiculous.

When the military minister saw Shuo Fangcheng's appearance, he scolded angrily.

"Liar!"

"King Ping, a liar, actually deceived me into having a year's worth of food. Knowing this, I besieged Shuofang City and let him run out of food and die! ”

Yizhi Wang Ye said: "Brother Wang doesn't need to be angry, now we have Shuo Fangcheng as a city base, and we can station troops." After autumn, the Central Plains will have a bumper harvest of grain and grass, and we will go into the Central Plains to loot. ”

...

The imperial capital of Jinling.

Court.

Young Emperor Xiang Yanran and several auxiliary ministers, as well as courtiers, discussed matters.

"Report!"

"There are 100,000 urgent military information from the northern Xinjiang!"

A few days ago, when he heard that the 500,000 army of the princes of the Wujiang camp had been defeated, he immediately retreated back to the grassland.

But halfway through, the Xiongnu suddenly heard that the first emperor had died, and they were ecstatic for a while, and once again led hundreds of thousands of troops to attack Shuofang, and Shuofang City was lost!

Due to the lack of food, Lord Li Rong, the chief lieutenant, led the seventy or eighty thousand soldiers and civilians of Shuofang City to retreat to Taiyuan City. Taiyuan was short of grain and urgently begged the court to deliver grain. ”

On this day, suddenly a hundred thousand urgent military information came from the north and reported to the court.

Suddenly, the court exploded.

Shuofang City is a fortified city at the forefront of resisting the Xiongnu, with nearly 30,000 people, plus 50,000 cavalry from the imperial court, a total of 780,000 soldiers and civilians.

There are not many soldiers and horses stationed in Shuofang City.

It's just that the Hun light cavalry is not good at attacking the city, and they are afraid of suffering huge losses, so they rarely attack directly, and Shuofang City has been safe and sound.

Taiwei Li Rong personally sat in charge, and Shuofang City was actually lost?

During the previous rebellion of the princes, Shuofang City was not lost. Now that the civil strife has subsided, at this time, an important frontier town has been lost, and the ministers in the court are obviously unacceptable in their hearts.

If placed before, the first emperor reigned. Having lost such a frontier fortified city, Taiwei Li Rong will definitely be able to take great responsibility and be punished.

But now, the first emperor has passed away, and the five auxiliary ministers have full authority to make decisions about national affairs.

If the city is lost, it will be lost, and no one dares to do anything to the auxiliary minister, the third prince Taiwei Pingwang Li Rong.

"The princes of the Ten Roads in the north rebelled, and the Central Plains suffered heavy losses. The supply of grain and grass in Shuofang City is very tight and intermittent.

In order to prevent the food from being besieged in Shuofang City, and for the sake of the soldiers and civilians in the city, Li Rong led 50,000 troops and 30,000 soldiers and civilians to evacuate Shuofang City while the Xiongnu temporarily retreated.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

But Shuofang City also fell into the hands of the Xiongnu because of this! Lost an important city on the frontier. This is a great loss for my Da Chu!

The heavy city of Taiyuan lacked a front-line defense, and was threatened by the Hun cavalry at any time, and the troops were approaching the city. ... In order to stabilize the frontier, Shuofang City must be taken back. ”

Kong Hanyou said with a deep groan.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The first emperor passed away, but his long-cherished wish was not fulfilled! His greatest long-cherished wish was to return to Yanran and destroy the Huns. How can we sit idly by! ”

"The Huns invaded my frontier and seized my border city! If you don't take revenge, how can you be a human being! ”

"Hit!"

"yes, fuck it!"

The courtiers were filled with righteous indignation one by one, rolled up their sleeves, and scolded loudly.

And on the other side.

The ranks of military generals in the court were surprisingly silent.

Not a single person shouted and beaten.

The civilian officials shouted and beaten, but they just talked casually, and they did not need to go into battle in person. The military attache shouted and beaten, and he was going to fight in person.

500,000 Huns, how difficult is it to fight?

They are all elite light cavalry on the grassland, growing up on horseback since childhood, and they are skilled in bows and horses, which is by no means comparable to the 500,000 troops put together by the princes and kings of the Ten Roads.

Tai Lieutenant Li Rong personally went to the border pass to sit in the town, and the towns on the border were scattered with as many as 300,000 elite cavalry of Great Chu. But he did not go to fight the Huns, but to defend against the invasion of the 500,000-strong army of the Huns.

Even Tai Lieutenant Li Rong did not support the initiative to attack, but only defended.

Not to mention these generals.

Besides, Taiwei Li Rong gave up Shuofang City because of a lack of food.

Now there is a large shortage of grain in the entire Central Plains, where is there still much rich grain and grass to supply military rations and counterattack Shuofang City.

Lack of food and grass, front-line soldiers, how to stabilize the morale of the army? If you don't have a strong enough military spirit, you have to worry about the lack of food supply as soon as you send out the army, how can you fight!

Wenchen shouted.

But none of the generals were willing to speak out.

Chu Tianxiu was also silent.

He thought about it, how could he wait until after the autumn harvest to greatly alleviate the shortcomings before he could send troops.

"As soon as my father left, the Huns bullied me! The biggest long-cherished wish of my father in this life is to conquer the Xiongnu in the north and return to Le. Since I ascended the throne, I have not yet made an inch, and I have lost a border city... Shame on the emperor. ”

Xiang Tiange's eyes were red, and he looked at Chu Tianxiu, "Xiao Duhou, you say, can we fight the Huns?" ”

All the civil and military ministers couldn't help but look at Xiao Duhou.

The first emperor has gone, and Li Rong, the king of Ping, is not in the imperial court when he stays on the frontier.

The best soldier in this court is the hussar general Xiao Duhou. Whether to send troops to attack the Xiongnu or not depends to a large extent on Chu Tianxiu's judgment.

They still have a lot of trust in Chu Tianxiu's combat effectiveness.

Chu Tianxiu glanced at the young emperor who was full of expectations, as well as the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, sighed, and said: "The minister should prepare as soon as possible, and after the autumn grain is harvested, hurry up and send a large amount of military grain to Taiyuan City to recapture Shuofang."

After taking back Shuofang, you can counterattack the grassland...... Realize the long-cherished wish of the first emperor! ”

Today's Great Chu Dynasty was very different a year ago.

This month, after the fall of the Ten Road Princes, the territory of the counties actually controlled by the Great Chu Imperial Court was at least doubled, and the grain, grass, taxes, and soldiers privately owned by the vassal states were naturally dispatched by the central court. This doubled the strength of the Great Chu Imperial Court.

In addition, half a year ago, the minting of copper coins and the monopoly of salt and iron were all taken over by the central government. This has also enabled the central government's fiscal revenue to quickly double in a short period of time.

In this rough calculation, the strength of the Great Chu Imperial Court has increased by at least 3~4 times.

This is quite terrifying strength.

This means that after the autumn harvest, in addition to disaster relief, the Great Chu court still has a huge surplus of money to invest in the military.

And this was obviously extremely beneficial for the attack on the Xiongnu.

"Wait, support!"

Kong Hanyou and Wang Su glanced at each other and nodded tacitly.

The combat effectiveness of the 500,000 elite cavalry of the Xiongnu is probably more than 10 times stronger than that of the alliance of the princes of the Ten Routes. It only took two or three months for the Great Chu Dynasty to destroy the princes of the Ten Roads, but it has been fighting with the Xiongnu for decades, and there has been no victory or defeat so far.

Let Xiao Duhou go to the north and fight with the Huns, I'm afraid it will not be seven or eight years, and it will be difficult to distinguish the winner from the loser.

Keep the little dusk marquis away from the court, and also let their ministers have a little less pressure. As for seven or eight years later... They have long since retired from old age, who cares so much.