Hearing that Zhang Shao and all the generals of the Wei Mansion had rushed to the Admiral's Mansion, Shang Cheng's heart immediately jumped uncontrollably. Something must have happened!

He took a deep breath, tried to restrain his emotions, and tried to keep his voice as steady as possible: "Zhang Shao didn't say it, what is the matter with me being in such a hurry?" ”

"Nope. General Zhang just asks you to go back as soon as possible. ”

Didn't say what it was? Shang Cheng muttered in his heart. Although he didn't know what was going on, he felt that something big must have happened, so Zhang Shao and the others were so anxious to find him! No matter what it is, it will definitely not be good news, otherwise Zhang Shao would not be so anxious......

Suddenly, a terrible thought suddenly jumped into his mind, could it be that something happened in Fangzhou?

As soon as this thought came to him, it was inexorably amplified in his mind, and in an instant it occupied all his mental activity.

It's Fangzhou, it's definitely Fangzhou! The Turks went to Fangzhou! Since the beginning of June, the Wei government has been constantly receiving news that the Turks have increased their troops in the Alegu area, and Zhang Shao has repeatedly reminded and suggested that he needs to increase his forces in the direction of Fangzhou, but he has vetoed them. At present, the left army stationed in Fangzhou is completely an empty shelf, from Lankou to Fangzhou along the way of more than 400 miles, there are more than a dozen fortresses, passes and seven cities, but the total strength is only eight battalions and more than 3,000 people, many places are pretending to be the border troops of the guards and the village brave to support the scene, and from Fangzhou to the south of the five or six counties, there are almost no garrisons...... It must have been the Turks who saw through the reality of the left army and prepared to attack Lankou in a big way. Perhaps the Tuqi people have now succeeded, and are heading south to wreak havoc in the Yanzuo region......

Cold sweat broke out from his forehead.

He almost trotted all the way out of the workshop. Because he was too nervous, when he moved the saddle at the door of the teaching workshop and got on the horse, he didn't step on the stirrup twice in a row, and almost fell off the horse, and finally a guard came to help him, and he turned on the horse.

He raised his whip and whipped it down the horse's crotch......

However, to his surprise, when he rushed back to the small courtyard where he worked in the Admiral's Palace, sweating profusely, he found that everything here was no different from usual. There were still four soldiers at the door, and the officials and officials who were going to and fro were also going in and out, and several officials saw him come in from the outside with a dark face, and they didn't know what was going on......

He suddenly became confused. Baokan is not guarded, isn't there an emergency military situation?

He ignored those people, hurriedly entered the main hall, bowed back to a few generals who stood up with his crossed arms, and then asked Zhang Shao, who was in the lead, "What happened in Fangzhou?" ”

Zhang Shaoleng paused. He did bring the military intelligence of Fangzhou, but the official document written by Ximen Sheng arrived later, and now it is still in his hands and has not been handed over to Shang Cheng, and the content of the official document is not clear to anyone except for the chief official of the Weifu Si Cao here, how can Shang Cheng be sure that this must be the news of Fangzhou?

He took out the official document and said, "This is the official letter that I received at the beginning of the afternoon." I have inspected the flowers, and they were sent from Fangzhou three days ago, and they were in a hurry for 400 miles. …… It is written by Simmen. As he spoke, he handed the official document to Shang Cheng.

Shang Cheng did not answer the official document. He glared at Zhang Shao twice, and then carefully examined a few generals of the Weifu next to each other like strangers, then walked to the back of the table and sat down with the handle of the chair, and then said nothing with a dark face.

If he doesn't say anything, a few generals can't sit, and if he doesn't ask, a few generals can't speak. The atmosphere in the main hall suddenly became heavy and frozen. From Zhang Shao and below, the rest of the people stood solemnly with their hands down, their eyes, noses, noses, mouths, and mouths holding their breath, staring directly at the opposite feet, and there was no movement from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet. Only Zhang Shao was the most embarrassed, holding the paperwork in his hand and not knowing what to do. You can't take the paperwork back; I wanted to hand the paperwork to the side of the table, and see that Shang Cheng's face was so black that he could almost wring out the water at the moment, and I felt that it was quite inappropriate to think about it...... He didn't have a solid idea when he thought about it, so he had to hold the paperwork and swallow on the spot.

After a long time, Shang Chengcai took off his hat and threw it on the table, and asked coldly: "What did Simon Kezhi say in the official document?" Seeing Zhang Shao's expression suddenly relaxed, he raised his foot and wanted to send the official document over, the word "reading" swirled on the tip of his tongue, after thinking about it, he still held his breath, gritted his teeth and said, "My eyes hurt, I don't want to read it now." You give me a rough idea first, and I'll go back and read it carefully. He reached out and untied the leash of the blindfold at the back of his head, casually put the blindfold on the table, and stared at Zhang Shao with squinted eyes.

Zhang Shao hesitated for a moment, withdrew the foot that he stepped on, coughed and said dryly: "Simon Kezhi feels that the troops in the direction of Fangzhou are too weak at the moment, and wants to return the three brigades of the Left Army to the formation. In fact, the document also mentioned the grassland news collected by the Left Army recently and Ximen Sheng's worries about the situation in Yanxi, and finally mentioned that he wanted to return his three brigades. However, Zhang Shao saw that Shang Cheng took off his head and took off the blindfold, obviously looking like he was about to be angry, where did he dare to be wordy, and quickly said the key points he thought concisely.

Shang Cheng stared at him, was silent for a moment before looking away, leaning over to look for the medicine box in the drawer of the table.

The two of them spoke, and the tension in the room eased slightly. Several generals had no expression on their faces, but they all secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"What's his reason for this time?" Shang Cheng asked as he rubbed his eye sockets with a wet medicine handkerchief. Ximensheng wanted to get back those three brigades, and it was not a matter of one or two days. On the one hand, the general's mood of loving soldiers is understandable, and on the other hand, the emptiness of Yanxi's defense is also a reality. It's not that Shang Cheng doesn't want the soldiers of those three brigades to return to the formation, but because the enemy's next move has not been judged so far, his forces dare not disperse......

"Fangzhou is opposite the grassland is the Da Tengliang Department and the Wannuer Department of Tu Quanci, and the total number of the two departments is no less than 20,000, which can be converted into at least 16,000 soldiers. Now there are less than 3,000 troops stationed in Fangzhou, and there are only 8,000 people in the border army and Xiangyong. Eight thousand against sixteen, the advantages and disadvantages are clear at a glance. Simon thought that once something happened, the Wei Mansion would be beyond the reach of the whip. ”

"That's an old saying." Shang Cheng said. There are a lot of soldiers from the two tribes, but the Da Tengliang Department and the Wannuer Department are sandwiched between the left and right wings of Tujici, not only to cooperate with the left wing to maintain the deterrence of the Dingjin Guard, but also to cooperate with the right wing of the King of Donglu Valley to harass and attack the two guards of Yanshan and Bohai, and fight for many years, the burden will definitely not be small, and there may not be no opposition in the tribe. During the spring campaign two months ago, these two tribes would rather travel hundreds of miles to join forces with the three Alegu tribes to reinforce Mogan, rather than engage in any tricks to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao at the first time, which is very revealing. Some time ago, he had also considered the possibility of getting in touch with these two tribes. He wanted to see what kind of attitude they had towards Da Zhao, towards Tu Tu Ci, and about the war and conflict between Da Zhao and Tu Tu Ci, and what kind of thoughts they had in detail. It's a pity that Da Zhao didn't know much about the situation on the grassland, and he didn't know much about the history of the major tribes in the Turbids, and he was even more aware of the relationship between the tribes, and he couldn't find a reliable intermediary in his hurry, so he couldn't get it done in the end.

He slowly put on a new cotton patch for the blindfold, and said lukewarmly, "Say something fresh." ”

Until now, he has not given up his seat to several generals. He can now see that Ximensheng's official document is just an introduction, and the root is that he and Zhang Shao do not agree on military opinions. Zhang Shao saw that one person said that he could not move him, so he used Ximensheng's official document to call all the people in the Wei Mansion who could speak, probably because he wanted to rely on the strength of the people to fight with him and "coerce" him to adjust the existing military deployment. Hmph, these people think it's beautiful! Want to sit and "negotiate" with him? Dream on, stand and talk to me!

"Ximen Sheng's official document mentioned that more than 20 days ago, someone saw the royal banner of the king of Donglu Valley in the river valley settlement of the Great Tengliang Department."

Shang Cheng didn't even bother his eyelids and asked, "Is the news reliable?" ”

"The messenger is a spy we have sent to mingle with the smugglers selling salt and iron......"

Shang Cheng interrupted him and asked mockingly, "I mean, can you be sure that there is the royal banner of the King of Donglu Valley there?" "Have you ever seen the royal banner of the king of Donglu Valley? At least he hadn't seen it. He only listened to Shao Chuan, and he had seen with his own eyes at the White Wolf Pass three flags of the king of Tuqi with a purring wolf's tail. As for whether it is the royal flag of the king of Donglu Valley, Shao Chuan said that he couldn't tell one by one, "Separated by more than one mile and two miles, who can see clearly what words are written on the flag?" I remember that he praised Shao Chuan at that time for being "tireless in learning". He felt that in fact, Shao Chuan was not easy, and he didn't know a few Chinese characters handed down by his ancestors, so he had already begun to learn the Tu Chuan script......

Zhang Shao's face didn't blush, he kept a straight face, and continued to say dryly: "We also received the same news the day before yesterday. It's just that the news can't be confirmed, so I didn't report it to the governor. ”

"You mean that with Ximensheng's official letter, the news can be confirmed?"

"Yes. The two messages came from different spies, which is enough to prove ......"

"It is enough to prove that the royal banner of the King of Donglu Valley arrived at the Great Tengliang Department twenty days ago." Shang Cheng's voice fell heavily on the word "Wang Qi". "Wang Qi has been to the Great Tengliang Department, so what can it do? Could it be that Wang Qi has been to the Great Tengliang Department, so he can be sure that the king of Donglu Valley is there? If I were to put it by the Deer River now, would you say that I would be in the Deer River? ”

Since Shang Cheng entered the main hall, Wen Mu, who was standing beside Zhang Shao, had not spoken, and at this time, seeing that Shang Cheng's speech was almost child's play, he couldn't help but interject: "Commander, I thought that it was not a simple matter for the king of Donglu Valley to appear in the Great Tengliang Department. You have said many times that the king of Donglu Valley is cunning, deep, thoughtful and resourceful, and he is more familiar with military affairs and military affairs, so he must not be ......taken lightly," he said, raising his head and staring at Shang Cheng. Shang Cheng nodded and said, "You go on." ”

Wen Mu paused, sorted out his thoughts, and said: "Since the king of Donglu Valley is familiar with military affairs, of course he will not know the truth of 'knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent in a hundred battles'. If we can send a spy to the grassland, then he can naturally send people to sneak into Yanshan to spy on it. And after our army withdrew from Luhe, all the armies and brigades were still hoarded in the border passes and villages, and did not return to the pre-departure station, which could not be concealed and could not be concealed, so I speculated that the king of Donglugu must have known about it for a long time. Therefore, he appeared at the beginning of the month of the month in the Great Tengryabu, and we may speculate as follows......"

Shang Cheng nodded and motioned for Wen Mu to continue.

"I thought that in the battle two months ago, it seemed that we and the Turquoises did not take advantage of anything, but if you think about it, we actually won. As we all know, the Turks are only good at nomadic herding, and spring is an important season for livestock to grow fat and estrus, and our troops are divided into two routes to fight in the grassland, resulting in incalculable actual losses of various tribes and tribes on the front line of Luhe Mogan and the four parts of Shanzuo. In addition, this year's drought and the lack of pasture grass will inevitably ...... livestock."

Hearing this, Shang Cheng's face was already showing impatience. These truths that Wen Mu said are also clichés. Because of the war, the livestock missed the season, and the drought caused the pasture to grow poorly, which was the reason why the Turks wanted to fight. But these are not fundamental reasons. The fundamental reason is that since the Tuqi people suffered losses in the Spring Festival Campaign, then they must retaliate against Yanshan; Otherwise, there will be a crack in the foundation of their rule in the steppe. As for livestock and pasture, they are only used as a pretext for waging war.

As early as when the Zhao army retreated to Liuzhen, Shang Cheng and the Wei government were soberly aware that a new war was definitely brewing on the grassland. Both he and Zhang Shao believed that it was inevitable and inevitable that the Turks would invade the south in retaliation. They even speculated that the scale of this battle might be greater than any battle that Yan Shanwei had encountered in a few years, so in recent times, both men have been doing their best to ask the imperial court for more troops. But all of the submissions were rejected one by one by Shangjing, not to mention the increase in troops they had hoped for. However, in order to appease the Yanshan Guards, who had just experienced the war and suffered from Li Shen's case, the Ministry of War finally approved the addition of two cavalry battalions.

Five submissions were exchanged for only two cavalry battalions, which was tantamount to a drop in the bucket compared to the large-scale war that Shang Cheng and Zhang Shao had imagined! Considering that these two battalions are only a formation, they are not even a drop in the bucket!

While unable to convince Shangjing, serious disagreements also arose between Shang Cheng and Zhang Shao. Zhang Shao believed that when the direction of the attack could not be accurately judged, the Yanshan Guards should all return to their respective formations, and then only retain appropriate alert troops on the first line, hoard heavy troops in the second-line fortified passes and third-line prefecture counties, rely on them, and implement defense one by one, while holding on to and waiting for reinforcements, while waiting for opportunities to counterattack. Shang Cheng insisted that the purpose of the Turgites' southward march was to retaliate, so the destruction of military and political targets must be the primary focus of the attack. However, it is also true that the tribes suffered losses in the spring campaign, so economic goals must also be taken into account. In this way, the main direction of attack of the Tuqi people is obvious, and it must still be in Yandong, Beizheng, Duanzhou, and Yixian, which are their targets; Beizheng is a military target, Duanzhou is a political target, and Yixian is an economic target because there is a large reservoir in Nanguan. Among the three prefectures of Duanyan Fang, only the three targets in the direction of Duanzhou are close to each other and lack defensive depth. At the same time, Yandong is hilly and has many rivers, and the geographical conditions are very suitable for the cavalry maneuver of the Tuqi people.

According to his own judgment, Shang Cheng basically did not make any adjustments to the existing deployment of the guards. Sun Zhongshan's right army, the main force is still deployed in Yi County, North Zhengduanzhou; Sun Huan's Chinese Army and the three brigades of the Left Army temporarily included in the command sequence of the Chinese Army, one in Liuzhen and one in Yanshui, Liuzhen is mainly infantry, and Yanshui is mainly cavalry; The Left Army maintained the status quo, and of course they could not make any adjustments......

There is no doubt that this kind of gambling behavior, which is close to desperate betting, has been mercilessly questioned and criticized by Zhang Shao. He even sarcastically said that in the battle for victory and defeat with the earth as a chessboard, there is no such thing as regretting chess.

Shang Cheng was also polite, claiming that it was not impossible to change his mind. As long as Wei Fu correctly judged the direction of the main attack of the Tu Tsu people, then he could completely change the deployment.

Both of them felt that they were right, so neither could convince anyone. As a result, several of the generals in charge of the Wei Mansion were divided into two factions, and they had been arguing for almost a month. However, it should be pointed out that Zhang Shao's comprehensive and solid defense strategy was supported by the vast majority of people, while Shang Cheng's key defense plan was rarely sung and harmonized. This is not surprising. In the past tens of hundreds of years, Da Zhao has been implementing the strategic idea of "comprehensively consolidating and gradually defending" in the north, and the long-term imperceptibility makes it difficult for people to accept new views, new ideas, and new views for a while. This will not change in any way just because Shang Cheng is the fake commander of Yanshan. It can even be said that even if he is now the Admiral of Yanshan, these generals will still question his judgment and oppose his deployment.

Now, Wen Mu, the only person in this Wei Mansion who had ever supported Shang Cheng, had also changed his position. He said to Shang Cheng, "...... After hoarding heavy troops on the second and third lines, the Zheng 7th Brigade of the Left Army, the Qian Lao 3rd Brigade of the Chinese Army, and the Ji Zhengfan Quan Brigade, these three brigades could be transferred to Yanzhou and directly commanded by the Admiral's Mansion as mobile forces. In this way, no matter which direction of the three states of Duanyan and Fang is urgent, the Admiral's Office has a way to deal with it. ”

Until Wen Mu finished saying his thoughts, Shang Cheng didn't say a word.

He sat in the chair and looked at Wen Mu with complicated eyes.

In the eyes of many people, he, the fake commander, is a person with clear rewards and punishments, and he will be rewarded for his merits and punished for his mistakes. And a lot of the time, he did. However, he was just an ordinary person, not a saint who had no selfish intentions at all, so he could not be truly just. But unlike what people imagined, he didn't take care of Sun Zhongshan or Huo Shiqi the most, but Wen Mu in front of him. Sun Zhongshan stood out among the generals of Yanshan by virtue of ability and merit; Huo Shiqi from a poor country talent, overnight to the general's seat, although there is an opportunity given by his junior, but more rely on Huo Shiqi's own ability to dare to take Li Shen's head directly in the North Zhengcheng army, its courage, insight, courage, are far beyond the ordinary people can compare. And Wen Mu, just because the two of them can talk very well, he promoted Wen Mu all the way, and in just one year, he was promoted from an eight-rank lieutenant to the current guerrilla general and Weifu Zhan Shi...... But it was Wen Mu who also stood up against him when he needed support the most.

He couldn't accept this fact for a moment. Even if Wen Mu did not directly oppose him, but euphemistically proposed that two or three main brigades could be transferred as mobile forces under the direct command of the Admiral's Mansion, he still couldn't accept it.

He can't accept it either!

He sat down in his chair and slowly wiped his eyes. After wiping it once, fold the medicine handkerchief, and then wipe it slowly. His eye disease has been good and bad, and recently, there have been some signs of recurrence. The disease seems to have a lot to do with his mood and mood changes, this month, he is very nervous and in a bad mood. In the final analysis, it was because of his worries about his own military judgment.

Yes, worried......

Because he lacked the necessary intelligence resources, he was unable to make a truly accurate judgment. He could only analyze the enemy's possible next move based on his own analysis of the character of the king of Donglu Valley, his inference about the national habits of the Tuqi people, and some common sense of military operations that he knew.

But these are not real things, they are not reliable enough facts to be convincing, they are only a way to analyze the problem. However, what else can he do besides doing so?

In the past 20 days, while repeatedly discussing, arguing and even arguing with Zhang Shao, he has also been doubting himself. There were many times when he was almost about to agree with Zhang Shao. But he didn't do that. He felt that if, as Zhang Shao insisted, a comprehensive defense was carried out in three directions at the same time, it would be completely too good news for the Turks to attack from any direction calmly, and they could also use both routes as the main direction of attack at the same time; If the king of Donglu Valley is more well-informed, bolder, and more poisonous, he can even do it at the same time with three lines. He was sure that if this really happened, not to mention keeping only three mobile brigades in Yanzhou, even if three more brigades were left, it would be useless......

But he also had to think about what if his judgment was wrong.

In the past 20 days, he has been in this situation, sometimes he feels that he is doing the right thing, and sometimes he feels that Zhang Shao's idea is correct; Sometimes I doubt myself, worrying that something terrible will happen to Yanshan, and sometimes I doubt Zhang Shao, feeling that Zhang Shao's brain is simply rigid to the point of incorrigibility. In the fierce denial and self-denial, his emotions are sometimes high and sometimes low, one moment he is still looking forward to the situation of Yandong's victory, and the next moment he may become depressed by his terrible conjectures......

He also thought about attacking. Offense is the best defense, he understands that. But the troops on hand are too small, and the morale is not high, what will he use to attack? According to his estimates, in order to crush the enemy's offensive intentions and defend the enemy against the grassland, Yanshan's strength would have to be increased to at least 60,000 to 80,000 men. But how many soldiers does he have now? There were only 37,000 people......

"Governor, it's time to make up your mind." Zhang Shao said, "If it is a little later, I am afraid that even if we want to adjust, the team will not be able to complete the deployment." We...... It will take at least a month for the ministries to readjust their deployments. ”

Shang Cheng instigated his lips and did not open his mouth.

He didn't want to make a decision now. There are many details that he still needs to think about and weigh carefully.

He asked Zhang Shao: "Does Guo Da Sima know about this?" ”

Zhang Shao shook his head. At this time, who cares about the surname Guo. This guy is still staying in Yanshan with a dead face, probably wanting to take over Shang Cheng's position as the commander and go crazy.

"Then I'll go back and ask him for his opinion." Shang Cheng said. His gaze looked at several Weifu generals coldly, and he frowned and said, "There is one more thing." I will not pursue this matter for the time being, and each of you will write a complaint later. Remember, the understanding in the discernment should be profound......"

…… It wasn't until the send-off banquet that Shang Chengcai saw Guo Biao again.