On the eighth day of the ninth month, it is advisable to hunt and capture, and on this day, the Great Song Dynasty broke out a full-scale war against the party, and Zhou Mei, who was a pioneer officer, led 5,000 elite soldiers, and the number of soldiers marched hand in hand, uprooting countless tribes of the party and the party along the way.

Behind the vanguard army, is the main army of 50,000 led by Zhao Zhen, this time the target is directly aimed at Xingzhou City, that is, the nest of the party members, since Li Ji moved to Xingzhou Mansion, he has been working hard to run there, it can be said that as long as Xingzhou is still there, the foundation of the party is there, even if most of the troops are lost, they may stand up again in the future.

However, this time the Great Song Dynasty plans to completely solve the party items, so the goal of this operation is to take Xingzhou City, as for whether to kill or capture Li Yuanhao, it is secondary, after all, no matter how strong Li Yuanhao's ability is, if he has no foundation, it will only become a rootless fire, and sooner or later it will be extinguished.

Just when the soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty pointed directly at the party, Zhao Zhen and Li Zhang, who were far away in the capital, also received the news, the reason why the news came so quickly was because the Imperial City Division used the way of flying pigeons to pass the book, so they could bring the news of the war back to the capital within three days.

The way of using flying pigeons to transmit messages is ancient, the Tang Dynasty called the carrier pigeon as the flying slave, there was a record of flying pigeon transmission at that time, but the use of flying pigeon transmission is not very stable, especially the carrier pigeon to go through special training, some carrier pigeons are reliable, some carrier pigeons may fly to the middle of the way to escape, of course, they may also encounter birds of prey or human bows and arrows on the road, so the scope of use of this communication method is also limited.

However, there have been carrier pigeons fed in the Imperial City Division, because the Imperial City Division is actually the intelligence department of the Great Song Dynasty, originally the Imperial City Division was mainly set up by the emperor to supervise hundreds of officials, and later developed into an intelligence department that spreads all over the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, and even extends its tentacles abroad.

"The first battle was won, Zhou Mei really deserved to be a person from the palace, and in just three days, more than 30 party tribes were wiped out, clearing the way for the rear army, and it seems that the party people are not very good." Zhao Zhen looked at the information in his hand and said excitedly.

"Your Majesty, don't underestimate the party members, this time we took them by surprise, and General Zhao deliberately chose the time in September, that is, he concluded that the party members thought that this time was very close to winter, and no one would choose to risk sending troops at this time before, so he relaxed his vigilance, which is also one of the main reasons why General Zhou was able to achieve these results!" Li Zhang saw that Zhao Zhen was a little contemptuous of the party members, and immediately reminded him.

"I know, cousin, can't you make me proud?" Zhao Zhen said half-jokingly and half-seriously at this time, in fact, he found that since he became pro-government, Li Zhang has become much more serious, and often points out some mistakes in his governance, although this is not a bad thing, but Li Zhang's changes still make him a little unable to adapt.

Li Zhang also smiled apologetically when he heard Zhao Zhen's words, in fact, he also discovered his own changes, but this can't be completely blamed on him, because now Zhao Zhen is no longer the puppet emperor who has no power in his hands before, but controls a huge empire, and his words and deeds are related to the well-being of countless people, so Li Zhang can't help but remind him from time to time.

Zhao Zhen also understood Li Zhang's thoughts, so he didn't care too much, and then he asked Li Zhang again: "Cousin, do you think General Zhao can achieve our goal of capturing Xingzhou this time?" ”

"It's a bit too early to say this, the party people didn't have any preparations before, so they were caught off guard, and now it's just General Zhou's forward and the party people, the real main army is still behind, and we can't judge their performance on the battlefield, so whether they can occupy Xingzhou or not, it still depends on General Zhao Zhen's next performance." Li Zhang pondered for a moment before answering.

"My cousin is similar to what I thought, but since General Zhao Zhen is the person recommended by General Cao, it must be no worse, and this time I also transferred the most elite troops in the northwest to his command, and even handed over the musket army to him to command, if you can't achieve satisfactory results, it will be too disappointing." Zhao Zhen said softly at this time, although he has not been in power for a long time, he already has a bit of an imperial aura at this time, and he also gives people a lot of pressure when he speaks, if Zhao Zhen is here, I am afraid that he will be frightened and kowtow to excuse himself.

However, Li Zhang was not affected at all, I saw him read the information twice again, and then he spoke: "I don't think Your Majesty needs to worry too much about the war on the front line, after all, there is no need to suspect people, and there is no suspicion in employing people, and the northwest is so far away from the capital, it is useless for us to worry, it is better to think more about the next thing?" ”

"What's next?" Zhao Zhen heard Li Zhang's words, but looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Yes, for example, General Zhao Zhen defeated Xingzhou in this way, so how should we rule next, in case the war does not go well and fails to defeat Xingzhou before the heavy snow closes the road, how to deal with it next, these are the issues that Your Majesty should consider." Li Zhang said with a smile again at this time.

"Cousin, do you think General Zhao may not be able to defeat Xingzhou?" Zhao Zhen is young after all, and his experience in governing is also short, so when he heard Li Zhang's words, he also asked a little uncomfortably.

"Don't think about victory, think about defeat first, and victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, so Your Majesty should think about the consequences of defeat before sending troops, although in my opinion the possibility of defeat is very small, but also make preparations in case." Li Zhang smiled again.

"Makes sense, if it really fails, what do you think you should do, cousin?" Zhao Zhen also nodded again and again when he heard this, and then asked again.

"Your Majesty, do you know the old things about Tang Taizong's expedition to Goguryeo?" Li Zhang did not answer Zhao Zhen immediately, but asked rhetorically.

"Naturally, I know that when Tang Taizong conquered Goguryeo for the first time, it went smoothly in the early stage, but unfortunately it was blocked under the city of Anshi, and the morale of the Tang army was also affected after a long attack, so in the end, Tang Taizong had to retreat." Zhao Zhen nodded at this time and said, history is a compulsory course for the emperor, and even he still remembers that this history was studied with Li Zhang.

"Yes, originally with the national strength of the Tang Dynasty at that time, coupled with the weakening of Goguryeo, it was still very possible for the Tang Dynasty to decide Liaodong in a war, but the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and no one knows what will happen in the next moment, so when the battle situation was blocked, Tang Taizong also immediately and decisively ordered the withdrawal of troops, but Tang Taizong did not give up, but did one thing in the next few years, does Your Majesty remember?" Li Zhang asked again at this time.

"I remember that Tang Taizong adopted the strategy of his subordinates to attack Goguryeo, and ordered the generals Niu Jinda, Li Tao, Li Haihai and others to take turns to attack Goguryeo, which made Goguryeo exhausted and the national strength was not as good as day by day, and later after Tang Gaozong succeeded to the throne, he destroyed Goguryeo in a battle!" When Zhao Zhen said the end, his eyes slowly lit up, because he had already understood Li Zhang's intentions.

"Yes, Goguryeo was originally a strong country in Liaodong, even with the national strength of the Tang Dynasty, it took nearly twenty years to extinguish, and a party item naturally cannot be compared with Goguryeo, but if this time the division is unfavorable, Your Majesty does not have to be discouraged, you can completely regard the party item as a training place for the Great Song Dynasty, and take turns to send generals to attack the party item, compared to our Great Song Dynasty, the party item is just a small land, and usually mainly lives on nomadism, if the war for many years, it is easy to cause them to be unable to get enough food, and finally the strength is getting weaker and weaker, Maybe then there will be no need for our Great Song Dynasty to send troops, and the party itself will die. ”

When he said this, he saw Li Zhang deliberately pause and then said: "Of course, the above is just the worst situation, I still believe in General Cao's vision, so if General Zhao Zhen takes Xingzhou Mansion in one fell swoop, then we may face two situations next." ”

"What are the two situations?" Zhao Zhen asked again with some puzzlement when he heard this.

"The first situation is relatively worse, that is, although he took Xingzhou City, he let Li Yuanhao escape, although this person was disabled by me, but his heart is extremely tenacious, and he will never give up so easily, so he will definitely try his best to recapture Xingzhou, and then our defenders in Xingzhou may have to face the attack of the party."

"As for the second situation, it is much simpler, if General Zhao can kill or capture Li Yuanhao alive after capturing Xingzhou, there will be no troubles above, but no matter which of the above situations occurs, the imperial court will have to face another problem."

"What's the problem?" Zhao Zhen was almost a little weak-hearted at this time, because he had never considered what Li Zhang said before, of course, this was also related to the fact that he was usually too busy, after all, he was the emperor, and his main energy was still on handling government affairs, and it was impossible for him to focus on the northwest like Li Zhang.

"It's easy to fight, but it's hard to rule!" Li Zhang said earnestly at this time, Xingzhou is the base camp of the party members, and since Li Jiqian, the party people have started to operate there, so even if the Great Song Dynasty defeats Xingzhou, unless everyone in Xingzhou is killed, it is a huge problem to rule here.

Zhao Zhen also immediately came to his senses when he heard Li Zhang's words, only to see that he pondered for a moment at this time and immediately spoke: "Governing Xingzhou is indeed a problem, but we have a large number of officials in the Great Song Dynasty, if we send more officials there, and then let the army be stationed there, it should be able to stabilize people's hearts quickly, right?" ”

"Heavy garrison and stationed officials can indeed have a certain effect, but if you rule a place for a long time, there is still a very crucial factor missing!" Li Zhang also sat up straight in the end, he is now instilling some ideas and ideas that he brought from later generations to Zhao Zhen, hoping that these can have some impact on Zhao Zhen, to be precise, on the Great Song Dynasty.

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