With the help of Wang Zun, Ma Yuan and others went out of the city smoothly, and then marched all the way to the southeast and went straight to Chang'an. When Ma Yuan, Lai She and others arrived in Chang'an, the 100,000 Han troops led by Liu Xiu also happened to arrive in Chang'an.

There are many imperial palaces in Chang'an, just the large imperial palaces, there are Weiyang Palace, Changle Palace, Jianzhang Palace, and small imperial palaces are North Palace, Gui Palace, Mingguang Palace, etc.

Among them, Weiyang Palace, Changle Palace, and Jianzhang Palace are the main places where the Son of Heaven works and rests, and these three palaces are also known as 'Three Palaces of the Han Dynasty' and 'Han Palace'.

However, this title is somewhat inappropriate, after all, the Han Dynasty is divided into the East and West Han Dynasty, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty is Chang'an, located in Chang'an's Weiyang Palace, Changle Palace, Jianzhang Palace should be called the Three Palaces of the Western Han Dynasty, and the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty is in Luoyang, and the imperial palace of Luoyang is the North and South Palace.

Liu Xiu came to Chang'an in person, and the place to settle was in Weiyang Palace. Weiyang Palace is the main palace of the Western Han Dynasty, which was built by Xiao He and was also known as the West Palace because it is located in the west of Chang'an.

There is no specific explanation for the word Weiyang, but in ancient texts, Weiyang usually appears with blessings such as long live, so it can be inferred that Weiyang should have the meaning of blessing.

Liu Xiu summoned Lai She, as well as Ma Yuan, who had returned to Shun, in Weiyang Palace.

As Laishu assured, Liu Xiu was very happy about Ma Yuan's defection and treated him with courtesy. Liu Xiu praised Ma Yuan's abandonment of darkness and surrendered to the light, and rewarded many gold, silver and jewelry.

However, Liu Xiu only gave rewards, but did not have an official or a knighthood.

Liu Xiu did this, out of two considerations, first, Ma Yuan has just returned to the Shun, whether it is true or false, it takes a period of time to investigate, second, although Ma Yuan brought his immediate family members to Chang'an, but the relatives outside the immediate family are still in Liangzhou, if Ma Yuan is an official and a knight on the side of the Han family, the angry Kui Huan may be angry with those relatives of Ma Yuan, and in the end, I am afraid that there will not be a few people alive.

Ma Yuan didn't have any complaints about Liu Xiu's approach, and temporarily lived in the house that Liu Xiu rewarded him.

On this day, Liu Xiu summoned all the generals under his command to come to the palace to discuss military affairs.

After Geng Yi's generals and ministers arrived, Liu Xiu asked people to spread a large map of Liangzhou on the ground in the center of the main hall. He stood up, stepped down from the throne, came to the map, took a wooden stick from Long Yuan's hand, pointed to the map, and said: "The soldiers of our army originally planned to borrow the Longdao of Kui Huan, go south to Shudi, and fight to the death with Gongsun Shu, but Kui Huan sent his henchman Wang Yuan to garrison Longdi, cut down trees, pile up stones and soil, and block the road. ”

Ma Wu, Wang Ba, Sai Zun, and Fu Jun generals all bowed their hands and said: "Please give an order to Your Majesty, and Weichen is willing to take the lead!" ”

Seeing that the generals under his command were full of spirit and high morale, Liu Xiu nodded with satisfaction. His gaze fell back to the map on the ground, pointed with a wooden stick, and said, "To attack Xiliang, you must first capture Hanyang Longdi." Take Hanyang County, to the west, our army can attack Jincheng and Longxi two counties, to the north, our army can attack Wuwei County, and to the south, our army can attack Wudu County. As long as Hanyang is taken, our army can attack, retreat and defend, and take the initiative! ”

"Your Majesty, Weichen is willing to take the lead!" The generals spoke in unison again. In recent years, the Han army has been smooth sailing militarily, destroying Deng Feng, Qin Feng, Peng Chong, Liu Yong, Pang Meng, Dong Xian, and Zhang Bu...... Wait a minute.

In this series of foreign wars, even if the Han army lost, it only lost a part of the battle, and never lost the entire war.

These brilliant achievements made the officers and men of the Han army complacent and high-spirited, but they were also somewhat inflated.

Even in the face of the hustle and bustle of dominating the west, people did not take him seriously at all, believing that the hustle and bustle of the people was completely a rabble, vulnerable to a single attack, and even as soon as their own army arrived, the hustle and bustle of the soldiers and horses had to be scattered.

Among the many generals of the Han army, Geng Yi was relatively calm. He said to Liu Xiu: "Your Majesty, according to our report, Kui Huan is constantly transferring soldiers and horses into Hanyang, the enemy army in Hanyang is no less than 100,000 people, and the terrain of Hanyang is precipitous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, if our army attacks Hanyang, I am afraid that the casualties will be very large." ”

In Geng Yi's opinion, it was too risky for his side to attack Hanyang with 100,000 soldiers and horses.

Liu Xiu rubbed his chin, thought for a while, and asked, "Where is Gongsun now?" ”

Geng Yi Zhengse said: "The Western Army is fighting in the area of Quanyin and Quanyang in Bingzhou! ”

"But the westward march is blocked?"

"It's not that the westward advance is blocked, but the remnants of Jia Lan's more than 50,000 people are trapped between the two cities of Huanyin and Huanyang, as long as it takes time, the western army can completely annihilate the enemy!" Geng Yi said: "Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that our army does not need to rush to attack Hanyang, but can stay in Chang'an, recuperate, and wait until the Western Army annihilates the remnants of Jia Lan, and then jointly conquer the Western Army, attack Hanyang on two roads, and the 200,000 army is enough to destroy the withering and decaying in Hanyang County and completely annihilate the enemy army!" ”

In Geng Yi's opinion, if his 100,000 soldiers and horses attack Hanyang County, the battle will be very difficult, but if the Western Expeditionary Army led by Feng Yi arrives, the battle will be much easier.

Without waiting for Liu Xiu to speak, Ma Wu glared and said, "Bo Zhao thinks that our army can't defeat Hanyang?" ”

Geng Yi Zhengse said: "I think that with our current strength, the battle will be very difficult to storm Hanyang, and the casualties of our soldiers will be very large. ”

"No matter how difficult the battle is, we have fought it, and since it is a war, casualties are inevitable." Wang Ba answered.

Ma Wu and Wang Ba are both militants, and only when they ask for war, the opinions of these two people will be highly unified.

Liu Xiu pondered for a moment and asked, "How long will it take for Gongsun to lead his troops to Hanyang?" ”

Geng Yi was about to speak, but Ma Wu continued: "Your Majesty, from the perspective of Weichen, it will take at least a month, even if it is until Gongsun leads the Western Army to Hanyang, it is impossible to join the war immediately, and it will take ten days and half a month for the soldiers to rest after such a long journey." ”

That is to say, if Feng Yi led his troops to participate in the battle, his own soldiers would have to wait for a month and a half, and for such a long time, the Kui Huan army would definitely be fully prepared to face the battle, and his westward march would be even more difficult.

Liu Xiu knocked on his forehead and fell into deep thought, Ma Wu and Wang Ba said in unison: "Your Majesty, we can't wait that long!" Now the morale of the soldiers is high, if they stay in Chang'an for a long time and avoid the Kui army, the morale of the soldiers will only be gradually eroded. ”

When the people present heard his words, they all nodded their heads again and again, indicating that Ma Wu and Wang Ba's opinions were not unreasonable. Fighting a war is a heart, once the heart is gone, how can this battle be fought?

Liu Xiu looked at the generals, and then at Geng Yi, who had opposing opinions, and finally, his eyes fell on Wenchen's side, and asked Laixi: "Come to the doctor, what do you think?" ”

Lai Shu is a civilian official and does not know how to fight, but as far as his original intention is concerned, he is willing to launch an attack on Kui Huan immediately.

He said with a straight face: "Your Majesty, the clamor is plotting rebellion, the news will soon spread all over the world, if the court can't quell the clamor in time, I don't know how many people in the world will raise troops to follow suit, which is extremely unfavorable to the court!" ”

Liu Xiu was silent. Lai Shi continued: "Weichen thinks that General Ma and General Wang are reasonable, and now we should take advantage of the lack of preparation of the Kui Huan army, our army should immediately launch an offensive, as long as Hanyang is conquered in one fell swoop, as Your Majesty said, our army and soldiers, advance can be attacked, retreat can be defended, and they will be in an invincible position!" ”

It is rare that now even the opinions of the civilian officials are in line with the military generals, and they all ask for an immediate attack on Hanyang. Liu Xiu thought about it again, nodded, and said, "Okay!" In your opinion, three days later, our army attacked Hanyang! ”

"Your Majesty Shengming!" The ministers bowed in unison. Geng Yi didn't think that now was a good time for his side to attack Hanyang, but Liu Xiu had already spoken, so he didn't say more.

At this time, what is most needed is the unity of one's own side, and any opposing opinions and voices will cause internal friction on one's own side.

Liu Xiu set the time for the attack, and the ministers withdrew from the main hall one after another and went separately to prepare. After the ministers left, Liu Xiuren hung up the map, and he sat cross-legged in front of the map, looking at it while sketching in his mind.

The Battle of Hanyang is a battle related to the success or failure of one's own side, and it is very important, to put it bluntly, this battle can only be won, not lost.

Liu Xiu sat in front of the map for more than an hour, Luo You walked forward slowly, handed Liu Xiu a cup of ginseng tea, and whispered: "Your Majesty, drink a cup of ginseng tea!" ”

"Hmm!" Liu Xiu's gaze still fell on the map, but he responded absentmindedly, waved his hand to the side, and motioned for Luo You to put the tea aside.

Luo You also wanted to persuade Liu Xiu to rest for a while, and Zhang Kun on the side glanced at her and signaled her to talk less. Luo You was helpless, walked out of the main hall, stood outside, looked back at the hall, and whispered: "Your Majesty has been sitting there motionless for almost two hours. ”

Zhang Kun said: "On the eve of a big war, Your Majesty is always like this. ”

Liu Xiu fought well, it was not by luck, on the eve of the war, he would think out several sets of plans in his mind in advance, and what kind of plan to use in any situation, he had a whole set of ideas in his mind.

With his current 100,000 soldiers and horses, he will attack Hanyang, which is garrisoned by 100,000 enemy troops, and this battle will be very difficult, as Geng Yi said, but it will be difficult to be difficult, and it is not without a chance of victory.

You can use the tactics of dividing your forces to fight, so that you can disperse the enemy's main forces throughout Hanyang to the greatest extent, so that you have the opportunity to break them one by one.

It's just that this division of troops is also very dangerous, and if it is not done well, it will evolve into stealing chickens and not being able to counter the rice, so that your own soldiers will fall into great passivity.

Liu Xiu sat in front of the map for more than two hours before he stood up, stretched his muscles and bones, and the joints up and down his body rattled and cracked.

He walked out of the main hall, the sky outside had already darkened, and looked at both sides of the hall door, Zhang Kun and Luo You stood on the left and right, these two, their bodies were standing on the ground, but their eyes were closed, and it seemed that they were asleep standing up.

Seeing this, Liu Xiu was angry and funny, and coughed dryly.

Zhang Kun and Luo You's bodies were shocked, and they immediately opened their eyes, and when they saw Liu Xiu standing in front of them, the two of them were startled, and hurriedly knelt on the ground, and said, "The slave (slave) should be damned!" ”

Liu Xiu waved his hand and motioned for the two to get up. During this time, he has been in a hurry to go, and he is very tired, not to mention Zhang Kun and Luo You? He said, "You can both go down and rest." ”

"Your Majesty......"

"Just call a few chamberlains to come and serve."

"During this time, Your Majesty is very tired, and Your Majesty should rest early." Zhang Kun reminded in a low voice.

Liu Xiu smiled and said, "I still have to look at the map again, and then think carefully and ponder." He waved to Zhang Kun and Luo You, signaling that both of them could retreat.