In the early morning, when the golden sunlight swept over the mountain beams in the east, climbed the tall city walls, and lit up the streets and alleys of the city with dappled spots, Shang Cheng was already sitting in the public office across the west courtyard of the Admiral's Mansion.

At present, he has processed several more important official documents, and is standing in front of the Yanshan geographical map on the wooden frame next to the wall with a frown. Warm sunlight streamed in through the window lattice, dragging long pillars of light through the room; Tiny floating dust flew up and down in the pillar of light. Because he was so distracted, he stood still for a long time, looking exactly like a statue bathed in light and shadow.

He was nervously thinking about things in the north.

After the beginning of spring, Liuzhen and Ruqi found that there were scattered herdsmen in the family unit on the grassland opposite the two military villages. Because the entire focus of the Health Department at that time was on post-war reconstruction, and the range of activities of the Turmuts was relatively far from the garrison posts, Shang Cheng asked the garrisons of the two places to "closely monitor and act cautiously" in this regard. In the next two or three months, the number of Turks has been slowly increasing, but the steppe people have deliberately kept their distance from the Zhao army, and the range of activities has remained outside the range of the Zhao army's assault. Obviously, these are all small settlements on the grassland, and in a more strict sense, they may not be the Tuqi tribe yet, and they are not capable of posing a threat to Da Zhao at all. The garrison also found something that deserved special attention.

Entering May, the situation has changed. First of all, as Qizhai reported, the left four parts of the Tuqi Mountains began to move southward on a large scale. Subsequently, Liuzhen and Lankou also reported one after another, and the three departments of Alegu, the left and right Da Tengliang tribes and the Nahan Wang tribe also moved to the pastures outside the north entrance of Yanshan. Since mid-June, tens or hundreds of troops from the Turgitz tribe have advanced to the vicinity of the first-line beacon to conduct reconnaissance and testing. In July, the activities of the Tuqi people became more and more frequent, and the garrisons in several places had "contact" with the enemy, and there were some casualties among each other, and at the same time, the direction of Liuzhen, which was closest to the summer horde of the king of Lugu in the east of the Tujici, reported that black flags were found on the grassland.

Shang Cheng had expected this situation, so he was not surprised at all. The Tuqi people suffered such a big loss in Yanshan last winter, and sooner or later they will come to retaliate. Even if the Turks don't come, he will come to the door sooner or later......

The question now is, what will the Turbidians do today, who are taking the initiative? This time, what tricks will their Donglu Valley King make?

His gaze lingered on the top of the map for a long time. There is a large blank area, marked with only a few rivers and mountains and a few insignificant place names. But these place names are unusually eye-catching: Mogan, Alegu River, Lu River, Heishui River, Heishui City......

Black Flags and the Big Tent were no strangers to him. Tang Cheng in the upper reaches of the Heishui River, he has also heard many people talk about it. However, the image of the king of Donglu Valley of the Tuqi people is vague, and the origin, age, experience, personality, and preferences of this opponent are ...... He knew almost nothing. The man was as inscrutable as a mystery hidden in the fog. In order to understand his opponents, he consulted the materials collected by the Health Department and applied to the imperial court for relevant documents. But to his disappointment, whether it was in the Yanshan Guard Mansion or in the Ministry of War, he couldn't find what he was looking for. He didn't even know whether this man's name was Geleng or Ubulu, and he didn't know whether this man was the brother or uncle of King Tukutsikhan. He wasn't even sure if this King of Donglu Valley was the same person as the King of Donglu Valley who had "dealed" with Li Wei, the previous governor of Yanshan, a few years ago. The information is too confusing. Bohai, Yanshan, and Dingjin Sanwei each have a Wei Mansion, and each has a set of situation system, and the translation and naming of personal and place names are also "self-contained". The imperial court also has a military department and a ritual department, and they also have their own sources of information. The true and false information was completely mixed together, which made him more and more confused the more he looked at it. After flipping through several large volumes, the only thing he could be sure of was that the left wing of the Tuqi Ci under the jurisdiction of the King of Donglu Valley was extremely large, stretching from the Bohai Sea in the east to the Qilian Mountains in the west, and almost facing the entire four guards in the north of Dazhao. On the other hand, the power of the king of Donglu Valley is also very great. In addition, judging from the two successive battles last year, this man has a very good set of methods in military affairs, is patient, has a fierce vision, is good at surprises, and dares to take risks; It's a terrible opponent.

He pursed his lips and lowered his gaze, his pupils shimmering in a deep glow behind his eyelids.

He suddenly remembered a conversation with Zhang Shao very early.

At that time, he had just taken a leave of duty, and one day, after talking about official business, because he had a little spare time, he casually chatted with Zhang Shao about the Northern Expedition in the first year. Zhang Shao believes that the biggest reason for the failure of the Northern Expedition is that the imperial court does not know people, and Xiao Jian should not be allowed to serve as the general of Yanshan, an old general, but that was decades ago, and now Shangzhuguo is worried about his own name, thinking about the name behind him, and he has long been without the momentum of the thousands of troops that year, and he only seeks a stable word in everything, not only the army moves slowly, but also reluctant to delegate power, for fear that others will make mistakes, or he is afraid that people will rob him of his credit, and the result is that the generals are angry. Lao Yang Du invited himself to sit in the right army, saying that the situation of the right army was critical, but in fact, there were more reasons to avoid him. When discussing the direction of the breakthrough after the defeat of Blackwater City, many people proposed to go east to the White Wolf Pass and get closer to Yang Du's right army, but he could only give up because he did not agree to it. The reason for this is just because the distance to the east is more than half, and the grain and grass are not available for fear of causing chaos in the team. In fact, the east is the right direction - when Mogan broke through, Yang Du had already hit the White Wolf Pass, if it weren't for the right army dragging behind, the people of Tu Du would not dare to pursue boldly, but they were afraid that ten Xiao Jian would not be able to escape back.

He smiled at the time and gave Zhang Shao an evaluation: hindsight.

He remembered that he had proposed to go east when he was in Mogan, but it was indeed a big problem to go east and join the right army, and the big army ate the horses and chewed the horses. The right army was in a hurry to come to the rescue, and it was impossible to carry a large amount of food, and the middle army broke through in order to find a way out, and it was impossible to bring all the food hoarded in Mogan......

Zhang Shao rolled his eyelids and asked him, "Then where do you think we lost?" ”

"There are many places to lose. The lack of logistical preparation before the start of the war was one reason. The army has arrived at the foot of Blackwater City, and supplies are still coming from the Central Plains; There are two large warehouses in Yanshan, one in Yi County and the other in Yanzhou, thousands of miles away from Heishui City, and a lot of manpower and material resources are consumed on the way, how can such a battle be fast for General Xiao? The lack of connection between Li Wei's Left Route Army and the Middle Route Army allowed the enemy to drill Confucius, which was one reason; However, it should also be noted that the slow progress of the two flanks also slowed down the advance of the army. At this point, he paused for a long time before he said quietly, "Actually, let me say that this battle was difficult to win from the beginning......

He had just taken office at that time, and he was a fake admiral who was neither powerful nor hopeless, at most he was a puppet who was not afraid of death, so Zhang Shao was not very respectful, and asked him with a hint of ridicule if he had any other high opinions.

He can't say anything about being knowledgeable or shallow. However, when he was recuperating from his injuries, he borrowed a lot of not-so-confidential official documents from the Wei Mansion and the camp to see it, and after reading more files, he naturally gradually figured out something. Of course, there are many reasons why the Northern Expedition army was defeated, but fundamentally, the confusion between strategic intent and tactical purpose is the biggest reason. Is it a regional strategic decisive battle, or a punitive retaliation? If it is an act of retaliation, then it should be dominated by demonstrations and indiscriminate attacks. This kind of operation does not require a large army, it is enough to randomly draw one or two cavalry brigades from the Yanshan Guard. Regardless of whether the time is ripe for a regional strategic decisive battle, there are two distinctions: shaking the foundation of domination and annihilating living forces, the former can be achieved by concentrating forces to conquer a certain iconic city such as Blackwater City, and the latter can be completed by encircling points and sending reinforcements. Or avoid the main force of the Tuqi people, pick a soft persimmon to pinch in the tribes of the four tribes on the left side of the mountain or the Great Tengliang tribe, so as to make an example of one hundred in one blow, which can also have the same effect.

After listening to his opinion, Zhang Shao did not speak for a long time.

Shang Cheng believed that the defeat of the Left Route Army was not entirely the responsibility of Li Wei, and that the unclear strategic intention of the Northern Expedition and the confusion of tactical objectives were the real root causes of the defeat. Since you want to fight Blackwater City, you should go all out, and you shouldn't divide your troops to the left halfway; If you want to wait for an opportunity to destroy the enemy and inflict heavy losses on the enemy, then you should surround the point and send reinforcements, or take the initiative to find fighters. For example, at that time, the right army had been entangled with the four divisions on the left side of the mountain, and the two sides were quite inseparable, if the army did not move at this time and Bohaiwei sent a team of strange soldiers to copy the nest of the four divisions on the left side of the mountain, then it goes without saying that the results of the battle must be brilliant one by one; Moreover, after the victory of the right army, it can also free up its hands to threaten the flanks of Blackwater City......

Of course, this can only be regarded as a private conversation between the two people, and it is not the real summary of the imperial court's northern expedition. In fact, up to now, the imperial court has not given a final statement on the Northern Expedition, but only dealt with a group of generals related to it, Li Wei was confiscated, Yang Du was dismissed, Xiao Jian was idle, and a large number of generals were replaced......