Ma Yun convened the ministers to discuss the joint dispatch of troops, originally wanting to listen to everyone's opinions and engage in democratic centralism. As a result, Wang Yun's words completely touched Ma Yun and made Ma Yun make a decision: "Wang Aiqing is reasonable, I must not leave Pseudo Zhou a chance to breathe!" I have made up my mind, and united Shu to send troops to the Central Plains in the north. ”

Ma Yun glanced at Xu Zhongya, Fan Zhen and the others, and saw that their faces were gloomy, knowing that they had concerns in their hearts. As Wenchen, the word "reckless and unbridled" is difficult for them to accept.

Ma Yun pondered for a moment and explained: "Everyone, I also want to take a break from the army to support the people, but Wang Aiqing said a little bit just now, which is very good. We are developing, and so is the pseudo-week. Moreover, all dynasties have taken the Central Plains as the basis of their rule, and they have worked hard to manage it, and the foundation of the Central Plains is much better than ours, not to mention that the people in Hebei and other places are fierce, and the pseudo-Zhou can easily get hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers, and our Jiangnan people are extravagant, and it will be difficult to deal with them for a long time. For the sake of future generations, even if we suffer a little now, it is much better than the destruction of the country in the future. Besides, fighting a war and raising the people really don't think there is a conflict. ”

The reason why Ma Yun is easily moved by Wang Yun's words is because he knows history, and he knows that Guo Wei, Guo Rong, Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi, Song Zhenzong, and Song Renzong are not easy to deal with. These people can be regarded as Ming Jun, and what their descendants will be like, then I can't say.

Ma Yun's words are reasonable, and many people nod frequently, of course, whether these people really agree in their hearts or not, it is not easy to explore, after all, the supreme leader has been determined, and he is against it, but it is a bit out of step with the situation.

Even so, Tuoba Heng, who had been silent, stood up: "What Your Majesty said is sincere, worried about the country and the people, but the minister still has to say that sending troops to harass the pseudo-Zhou is a double-edged sword, which can not only disrupt the defense deployment of the pseudo-Zhou, but also lead to the disruption of our development." Sending troops, it has always been 'a cannon sounds, ten thousand taels of gold'. In order to deal with the emptiness of the treasury, it can only increase taxes, and if taxes are increased, the life of the common people will become extremely difficult. Your Majesty has always governed the country with benevolence, and you will definitely not break your word, but with the surge in military spending and the unchanged taxation, I wonder if Your Majesty has any good solutions to it? ”

Tuoba Heng's words are retreating as advances, and it seems that he is really praising Ma Yun for his foresight everywhere, but in fact he spreads out the difficulties one by one, saying that he is listening to Ma Yun's opinions, but in fact, he is persuading Ma Yun. Tuoba Heng didn't know that Wang Yun was reasonable, but in his heart, he still thought that the way of the sage was to rule by hanging the arch. As long as there is no mistake in the administration of Da Chu, then under the confrontation, the pseudo-Zhou may not be able to ensure that the monarch is virtuous.

Ma Yun naturally understood Tuoba Heng's intentions, and he smiled: "Not to increase taxes is a promise made when I ascended the throne. Naturally, I won't go back on my word. There are many ways to maintain fiscal balance, and the widow has his own good strategy. Everyone said just now, our big Chu Qiang is strong in the water master, so the money naturally comes from the sea. I have heard that the Wa Kingdom is rich in silver, and the South Seas are rich in grain. In this case, I thought that we could go to the Wa Kingdom to do business, exchange tea, ceramics, and silk for silver, and use silver to buy grain in Nanyang. Of course, this is just a brick throw, as long as we look farther and move from the inland to the sea, then it should not be a problem to solve the problem of our military spending in Dachu. Fan Aiqing, what do you think? ”

Fan Zhen is in charge of the economy, he is quite familiar with maritime trade, and Ma Yun can use the money from maritime trade to fill the gap in military spending, which is feasible in Fan Qian's view. Fan Zhen lowered his head and quickly calculated: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that from the perspective of maritime trade, the problem of military spending can be solved. ”

Ma Yun smiled: "In this case, we will decide to jointly send troops today." Well, Wang Yun, Li Xiang, Cao Yun, Xu Zhongya, Fan Zhen, and Zhao Pu stayed, and the rest of Aiqing retreated. ”

Seeing that the other ministers had withdrawn, Ma Yun continued: "Now let's discuss how to send troops?" Our Northern Expedition to the Central Plains is nothing more than three methods, one is to send troops to Wancheng, the second is to send troops to Huainan, and the third is to attack Dengzhou, now Penglai, Shandong and other places by sea, do you think that method is good? ”

"Your Majesty, the pseudo-Zhou is vast, there are many generals, and the army is extremely combative, no matter where we send troops, we have no certainty of victory, and if we are not careful, we may even be defeated by the enemy. I'm afraid it's not easy to hurt the pseudo-Zhou. Xu Zhongya said worriedly. Although he is a civilian official, he is not ignorant of soldiers. has been the actual prime minister for many years, and Xu Zhongya is also very concerned about the military: "Huainan, Shannan, the Zhou soldiers are ready for battle, and they are basically impeccable. If you attack hard, I'm afraid that our army will suffer heavy casualties. ”

Zhao Pu said on the side: "Xu Xiang's words are very right, according to the current intelligence, there are only Dengzhou and other places, and Zhou Bing is relatively alone. If our army arrives by surprise, we will have a great chance of conquering Dengzhou. What's more, the area around Dengzhou and Laizhou, the hills are undulating, which is not conducive to cavalry combat, and it is also convenient to defend when capturing Dengzhou and other places, and at the same time, it can also echo with the inevitable Haizhou and Xuzhou. Aren't we going to fatigue Zhou Jun? After taking Dengzhou and Laizhou, now Ye County, Shandong, it was equivalent to stretching the entire Chu and Zhou fronts, so that the Zhou soldiers had to fortify everywhere. ”

Ma Yun nodded, Zhao Pu's words were exactly the same as the thoughts in his heart, if he broke through from the front of the Huai River, his elite soldiers could still complete it, but after crossing the Huai River, they were all Great Plains, and in the face of the brave pseudo-Zhou cavalry, he would suffer a big loss The five generations are due to the fact that the Khitan has just emerged, the party has not yet developed, and the Central Plains Dynasty still has a large number of cavalry. Even if you don't suffer a loss, it's not yet time to fight the pseudo-Zhou.

Li Xiang, the privy deputy envoy, shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Lord Zhao's strategy is not the best plan to advance the army. Taking Dengzhou and Laizhou, the pseudo-Zhou needs to be guarded against is bigger, but we are also equivalent to carrying Dengzhou and Laizhou on our shoulders. It is far inferior to now, just relying on the sailor, you can contain some of the Zhou soldiers. What's more, the pseudo-Zhou gatekeeper is regarded as the key to the rise and fall. Whether Guanzhong is revived or not is the key to Chu Zhou's victory or defeat. I am afraid that the Shu army will be defeated when it enters the customs. And will the pseudo-Zhou take the opportunity to attack Longyou and other places in Shu? ”

Ma Yunhuo stood up suddenly. This Qinzheng Hall is not the location of the early dynasty, the palace is smaller, and a simple map is hung on the wall on the left. Ma Yunsan walked to the map in two steps, muttered, and said after a while: "Ladies and gentlemen, you can also take a look, Qinzhou in Longyou is located in the northwest of Chang'an, Fengzhou in present-day Shaanxi is located in the southwest of Chang'an, and Hanzhong is in the south of Chang'an. The terrain of Hanzhong is steep, and it is the gate of Shudi, so the pseudo-Monday and a half will not necessarily fight the idea of Guanzhong. But just like Li Aiqing said just now, if after the defeat of the Shu army, the white-clothed army in Guanzhong took advantage of the situation to seize Longyou, then the threat in Guanzhong would be greatly weakened. ”

"Your Majesty, I am very worried. However, in addition to the remote terrain and little impact on Shu, there is another point worth our idea. That is, Fengzhou, Qinzhou, Chengzhou, Chengzhou, now Chengxian, Gansu, and Xingzhou, Luoyang, Shaanxi, were all six years ago, when the Khitan went south, the Xiongwu Festival made He Jian unwilling to pay tribute to the Khitan, so he surrendered to Meng Chang. In order to encompass He Jian, Meng Chang transferred very few officials from the four states of Longyou. If Zhou Bing came in a big way, how many of those officials were willing to defend Meng Chang? What's more, we can't reach it. Zhao Pu said.

"Why don't we attack Huaibei on a large scale, so that Zhou soldiers don't dare to attack Longyou?" Fan Zhen suggested on the side.

Cao Yun shook his head and denied: "Fan Xiang, if you don't have enough money and food, how can you attack on a big scale?" What's more, the puppet Zhou has hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Huai River, even if our army attacks, can we mobilize the army in Guanzhong to come to support? I can't see it. The army of the puppet Zhou in Huaibei is obviously against us. There are many famous generals in the pseudo-Zhou, and there are famous generals Wang Yin and Guo Chong in Huaibei, and Guo Wei himself is also good at fighting, we want to defeat the Huaibei Zhou army in a short period of time, and let the pseudo-Zhou mobilize the soldiers and horses in Guanzhong to rescue, it is unlikely! ”

"It is necessary to mobilize the Zhou soldiers in Guanzhong not to attack Longyou, unless Guanzhong is threatened." Ma Yun muttered, he thought for a moment, not only shook his head with a wry smile: "If Guanzhong is threatened, unless it is the Dingyan army in the north that goes south, but the Dingyan army is honest now, how can it listen to us?" What's more, in the case of the defeat of the Shu State, send troops? ”

"Your Majesty, it is better to ask for others than for yourself. In the opinion of the ministers, as long as the Shu soldiers are defeated in Guanzhong and lose Longyou, I am afraid that Shu will become like Liu Chong in Hedong going south, fearing the enemy like a tiger, and no longer dare to send troops easily. When the time comes, it will be difficult for us to destroy Guanzhong Tuntian. Li Xiang said.

Destruction of Guanzhong? Ma Yun's heart moved, and he suddenly had an idea. And "It is better to ask for others than for yourself?" This sentence made his eyes light up even more, Li Xiang said this, there must be a clever plan. Ma Yun hurriedly asked: "Li Aiqing, do you have any good plans?" ”

"The minister thought, we might as well send Cao Bin to make a feint in Xuzhou, and create the illusion that Chu and Shu will jointly send troops, Shu will attack Guanzhong, and Chu will send troops to Huainan. However, the four secretly mobilized their troops and followed the Han River to attack Jinzhou and Ankang City, Shaanxi. As long as you take Jinzhou and cross Zhongnan Mountain, it will be the Guanzhong Plain. If we take Golden State, we will be able to control the key to attacking Guanzhong. As long as our army walks around the edge of Chang'an City, the people are in turmoil, and the plan of the pseudo-Zhou Tuntian Pass will be difficult to realize. ”

"Who is the Golden State's guard?" Jack Ma asked. Now Guanzhong is concentrated on most of the famous generals of the future Great Zhou, and the shadow of the famous tree of people. He couldn't help but ask clearly, in case this Golden State was a hard bone, leaking the army into the slits of the Qinling Mountains and being saturated by the white-clothed army, it would be too late to cry.

"Jinzhou is a remote place, whether it is Shi Jin, Liu Han, or pseudo-Zhou, they don't pay much attention to it, and the assassin history of Jinzhou calls Li Xiangmin an old bureaucrat who eats and drinks. Nothing to fear! Li Xiang said.

Ma Yun pondered for a moment and asked Zhao Pudao: "What is the distribution of the Zhou soldiers in Guanzhong?" ”

Zhao Pu said: "Your Majesty, Guo Rong is training troops in Guanzhong, he is in the name of strengthening the forbidden army, and he has transferred elite soldiers from various feudal towns in Guanzhong, and now the elite soldiers in Guanzhong are concentrated in two places, one is Lingzhou in the north, with an army of thirty or forty thousand people, one is near Chang'an, with an army of more than 70,000 people, and the rest of the states and counties, the largest garrison is only one or two thousand people. Although Jinzhou is located on the border, it faces Shu in the west and inevitably in the east, and our Great Chu in the east. However, the terrain of Jinzhou is precipitous, with the Qinling Mountains in the north, Daba Mountain in the south, the Meridian Valley in the west, and the remaining veins of Hanshui, Funiu Mountain, and Dabie Mountain in the east, so it is not easy to capture Jinzhou. Therefore, the army of Golden State is not large, but only two thousand. ”

Ma Yun hesitated: "The terrain of Jinzhou is so dangerous, if our army attacks Jinzhou, the Zhou soldiers cut off my way back, and then ...... It's hard to talk then......"

"Your Majesty has filtered, you see that the loess town in the east of Jinzhou has long been under our control, and if the enemy wants to cut off my way back, it will be difficult to do so. The white-clothed army is famous all over the world, but except for the cavalry, our army of Dachu is not afraid of them, and even if the cavalry really fights, it may not be defeated. Besides, there is also the Shu army in front of us to charge into battle, although the Shu army is weak, but at the moment the pseudo-Zhou categorically has no intention of taking the initiative to attack, and when the Shu army enters the north of Guanzhong, it will attract the attention of the white-clothed army, and then we will take the opportunity to attack Jinzhou, effortlessly. After the defeat of the Shu army, we can send troops to Zhongnan Mountain to threaten Guanzhong, so that the white-clothed army does not dare to attack Longyou. In this way, we have not only kept the Longyou of Shu State, but also got the springboard to threaten Guanzhong, and it will be difficult for the pseudo-Zhou to think about Tuntian. Li Xiang said confidently.

At this moment, Ma Yun was relieved, and he said with a smile: "Li Aiqing is worthy of being my Zhuge Kongming." In a word. ”

Ma Yun praised Li Xiang while thinking about who to send the troops. The famous generals of Chu State are Zhu Yuan and Ma Guangmeng, these two can be said to be victorious generals, followed by Ding Sijin, Cao Yun, Liu Yantao and others, these people are high-ranking and prominent, and a small Jinzhou will definitely not need them, as for Zhang Wenbiao, Shentu Congjian, Qian Qing, Shi Da, Liao Renyong, these fierce generals also have their own responsibilities. It seems that there is no need for them to deal with only 2,000 people, and they can't always be used in wars, but they must always train some novices.

Greenhorn? A name suddenly appeared in his heart: Lu Jiang. Ma Yun said with a smile: "Well, Fan Qian, I will draw up a decree for me, and transfer the defense of the 207th Division of Jiangnan West Road to make Lu Jiang enter Beijing, and I will teach him face-to-face." Let him lead his troops to attack the Golden State. ”

"By the way, Zhao Aiqing, how is the situation of the wind catching room dealing with Tuntian in Guanzhong?"

Zhao Pu's heart jumped, the wind catching house has suffered a lot of losses in the Central Plains in the past two years, especially when Shi Hongzhao was in power, he didn't kill a lot, and there were signs of breaking his muscles and bones. In the pseudo-Zhou era, Guo Wei and others also learned to be smart, and the teahouse and wine shop had staff, and it became difficult for the wind catcher to spread rumors. Now the wind catcher has really evolved into a reconnaissance agency.

Seeing Zhao Pu's embarrassed face, Ma Yun suddenly smiled and said, "Zhao Aiqing, I just thought of an idea. It's called terrorism! ”