"Great King, according to the information received, the Wu army has now captured most of the areas south of Songzhou and east of Huizhou, and only a few areas are still resisting; If we don't go south again, I'm afraid that the Central Plains will completely fall into the hands of Wu State. ”

"It has been thirteen years since the king started his army, and he has not been disarmed, and the purpose is to pacify the Central Plains; Now that the time has come, if the king hesitates, the Central Plains will eventually fall into the hands of Wu. The king's more than ten years of hard work were ruined. ”

"My lord, the rebellion in Zhenzhou is nothing but a disease of ringworm, and it only needs to be contained with a small army; Wu's Northern Expedition is the trouble of the heart. Please also ask the king to make a decision early and go south to fight with Wu! ”

……

During the trip to Weizhou, listening to the advice of the generals, Li Cunqiao couldn't help but feel a little moved.

Soon after Li Cunmiao took over the throne, he personally led the troops to lift the siege of Luzhou, and since then to the present, the Jin army has almost never fought for a day, and Li Cunmiao has personally led the troops to fight in all directions all year round.

Although the territory of the Jin State has now expanded to the entire north of the Yellow River, the Liang State relied on the natural danger of the Yellow River to block the Jin army, so that the Jin army could not go south, and there is still no hope of seizing the Central Plains.

Now the Wu army's northern expedition has been like a bamboo, and most of the Central Plains has fallen into the hands of Wu; If the Jin army does not take this opportunity to cross the river to the south, it is afraid that the Central Plains will eventually be swallowed by the Wu State.

In that way, not only will the more than ten years of fighting become futile, but at the same time, Wu will replace Liang and once again rely on the Yellow River to block the Jin army from Hebei.

Dealing with one Liang State is enough to give everyone a headache, and if it is against another Wu State that has completely integrated the south, I am afraid that no one will have the confidence to win, and the capture of the Central Plains is even more unexpected.

Not only that, after the Wu State integrates the entire south, its strength will inevitably far exceed that of the previous Liang State, and even if it is delayed, it will be able to drag the Jin State down at that time.

These truths are sufficient, Li Cunqiao nodded again and again after listening to it, quite moved.

However, the opposition to crossing the river to the south also had enough reasons to make Li Cunqiao hesitate.

If you want to send troops south, the first thing you have to do is to solve Dai Siyuan, who is stationed in Yang Village.

Although the Liang army had already divided its troops to the south to rescue Songzhou, Dai Siyuan's troops were still sufficient; The Jin army also divided its troops to attack Zhenzhou, unless the troops attacking Zhenzhou were transferred back, the remaining troops were only enough to defend, but it was not enough to attack.

In addition to the lack of troops, there are two other important issues to pay attention to, the first of course is Zhenzhou Zhang Chujin.

Zhang Chujin openly raised troops against the Jin army, and if he could not eliminate it, it would inevitably cause other ambitious people to follow suit; At the same time, if Zhang Chujin cannot be eliminated, he will cross the river south with the main force, and then Zhang Chujin will become a cancer in the rear of the Jin army, which may break out at any time, affecting the stability of the rear of the Jin State.

In addition to Zhang Chujin, another force that gave Li Cunmiao a headache was naturally the Khitans.

Four years ago, the Khitan army invaded Youzhou and besieged the veteran Zhou Dewei in Youzhou City for nearly 200 days, attacking day and night.

That time it was the veteran Li Cunxun who led an army of 70,000 to help, and finally defeated the Khitan army and expelled it from Youzhou.

In recent years, the Khitan people have not wanted to avenge the revenge of the day, and now Hebei is in turmoil, Zhenzhou is rebellious, if the Khitan people do not take advantage of this opportunity to go south, it is Li Cunqiao who feels unlikely.

If the Jin army crossed the river to the south and fought for the Central Plains with the Wu army, but the Khitans sent troops to Youzhou to make trouble in the rear of the Jin State, coupled with Zhang Chujin, who had not yet been pacified, and Wang Chuzhi, the king of Beiping, who had always been friendly with Zhenzhou and could betray at any time, this situation would make people feel chilling when they thought about it.

Just like Kong Qian, the envoy of rent, said, "If the king goes south to fight with Wu, once the battle situation is not smooth, and the northern Khitan enters Kou Youzhou, Zhang Chujin will be difficult in Zhenzhou, and the rebellious king of Dingzhou will be straight, and then not only will the Central Plains be unavailable, but Hebei will no longer be owned by the king." ”

There are two options, if you choose to cross the river and go south to compete with the Wu army, it is very risky to do so, but once you win, you can end so many years of crusade; Of course, if it fails, it is also likely to bury the entire Jin Kingdom.

If you choose to pacify Zhenzhou first and then go south, it is relatively safe, but it also means that the Jin army's efforts over the years have been in vain, not only is it far from the Central Plains, but it also means that the Jin army has to face an enemy stronger than Liang.

In essence, Li Cunmiao is actually a very adventurous person, and the battle of Huliupo, and later the battle of destroying Liang, are all his adventurous attempts; As long as he sees something, even if it is a big risk, he will unswervingly do it.

However, in the face of the two choices in front of him, even Li Cunqiao could not make a decision, and could only hesitate repeatedly in the palace.

"King, a messenger came from Jinyang, saying that he was sent by the envoy of the prison army." At this moment, Li Shaorong came in to report.

"The Overseer? Seventh brother? Li Cunqiao was stunned when he heard this.

At the beginning of this year, he sent people to buy jade in Weizhou and began to prepare for the emperor's title. Since then, Zhang Chengye, who was deeply distressed, was bedridden and no longer gave advice to Li Cunqing.

Unexpectedly, now he actually sent someone to deliver a letter again, is it for the current situation?

Li Cunmiao's heart moved, and he hurriedly said, "Where is the messenger?" Let it in, and ask him personally. ”

Soon, the messenger presented Zhang Chengye's handwritten letter, looking at the familiar font, Li Cunmiao couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion.

He can have today, Zhang Chengye has contributed a lot in the middle, but this old guy is upright, and he wants to revive the Tang Dynasty, and even refuses all the official positions given to him by Li Cunqing, which makes Li Cunqing particularly unhappy, which is also an important reason why he and Zhang Chengye are gradually estranged.

But now that the situation is critical, and at a major moment related to the future of the Jin Kingdom, Li Cunmiao really didn't expect that Zhang Chengye, who was far away in Jinyang, would actually send someone to send a letter to advise.

After putting down the letter, Li Cunqiao was silent for a long time.

Li Shaorong on the side saw it and hurriedly asked, "I don't know what the prison envoy said in his heart?" But what are the suggestions for the current situation? ”

Hearing this, Li Cunmiao glanced at Li Shaorong and said, "See for yourself." With that, he handed the letter over.

This Li Shaorong's original name was Yuan Xingqin, who was originally the confidant of Liu Shouguang, the king of Yan, and was extremely brave in battle. Later, Liu Shouguang and Liu Shouwen met in front of the two armies, and Yuan Xingqin suddenly came out, captured Liu Shouwen alive, and dramatically helped Liu Shouguang to achieve victory.

After the Jin State destroyed Yan, Yuan Xingqin also surrendered to the Jin State and became a member of the Jin army.

Two years ago, Li Cunmiao was defeated in Panzhang and surrounded by the Liang army, and the situation was critical.

At a critical moment, Li Shaorong saw the banner of the King of Jin, galloped on a single horse, cut off two enemy spears, beheaded one level, and rescued Li Cunmiao.

Since then, Li Shaorong has been deeply favored and has followed Li Cunmiao's side for a long time.

After reading Zhang Chengye's letter, Li Shaorong was surprised: "It seems that the military envoy also advocated pacifying Zhenzhou first, stabilizing the situation in the rear, and then going south to compete with Wu State." I wonder what the king plans to do? ”

"What else can I do?" Li Cunmiao said angrily: "Although I have the heart to go south to compete with the Wu army, it is too risky to do so, and it is very likely that I will die without a place to bury." So in addition to doing what Brother Qi said, what else can Lone do? ”

"This? Does the king really plan to make peace with Liang Guo? Li Shaorong was even more surprised.

It turned out that Zhang Chengye pointed out in the letter that the Northern Expedition of the Wu army was menacing, and the troops mobilized were numerous, and there should be at least more than 200,000 troops.

Although the total strength of the Jin army is also large, because the Jin State faces many enemies, especially the Khitans in the north, it has restrained a large number of military forces of the Jin State.

The strength of the Jin army that could really be used along the Yellow River was only about 150,000, including tens of thousands of troops from Zhenzhou and Dingzhou.

Now that Zhenzhou has betrayed, the attitude of Dingzhou is unclear, and the Khitans may invade at any time, if they cross the river to the south and fight for the Central Plains with Wu now, the real strength of the Jin army may only be about 100,000 people.

It is too risky to use 100,000 troops who have been tired from fighting for a long time to deal with the Wu army, which may be as high as more than 200,000 and has been recuperating for many years.

Once the war was unfavorable after crossing the river, the turmoil in Hebei did not subside, and if it was coupled with the invasion of the Khitans, I was afraid that the fall of the Jin State was close at hand.

This is not an alarmist thing, the land of Hebei has been fighting for so many years, the people have a heavy burden, many have fled, and all kinds of dissatisfaction have already accumulated within it.

Now that the Jin army has won one victory after another, this will cover up the contradictions and prevent them from breaking out immediately; Once the battle across the river is unfavorable and Hebei is turbulent, coupled with the sudden outbreak of these contradictions, it will be difficult to calm the situation even if Li Cunmiao can fight well.

Of course, in addition to persuading Li Cunqiao to pacify Zhenzhou first and wait for the situation in Hebei to stabilize before crossing the river to the south, Zhang Chengye also put forward another important suggestion, that is, to temporarily negotiate peace with Liang.

Now the Liang State seems to be defeated by the Wu State and has no power to fight back, and the vast area south of Song Prefecture and east of Huizhou has been easily captured by the Wu State, but this is not to say that the Liang State is really so weak.

In fact, Dai Siyuan's troops stationed in Yang Village still have 70,000 or 80,000 troops, plus the Liang army that has already moved south and Luoyang and other places, the current Liang State can still mobilize at least 150,000 troops.

It's just that the main force in this, that is, the more than 70,000 Liang troops led by Dai Siyuan from the north, was pinned down by the Jin army and could not go south to confront the Wu army, so the Wu army drove straight in, all the way like a bamboo.

If he can temporarily reach a reconciliation with the Liang State and let Dai Siyuan lead the army south, the Liang army will have a large number of troops at that time, and it may not be impossible to fight a war.

No matter how strong the Wu army is, it will take a long time to completely defeat the Liang army.

The Jin side took this opportunity to transfer the main forces along the Yellow River to Zhenzhou to deal with Zhang Chujin.

In this way, it can not only make the Liang army and the Wu army lose both, but also facilitate the Jin army to reap the benefits; At the same time, it can buy time for the Jin army to pacify Hebei, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

After the situation in Hebei stabilized, no matter which side of the southern situation at that time won in the end, or was still in a stalemate, the Jin army could calmly respond according to the actual situation.

Of course, the only disadvantage of this is to negotiate peace with Liang and turn to Wu as the primary target, which will greatly disappoint the people.

"Great King, our Jin Kingdom has been committed to crusading against the Liang State and reviving the Tang Dynasty for so many years, and we are often contemptuous of the Wu State's secret peace with the Liang State. Now, should we also follow the example of Wu Guo? Li Shaorong asked with some surprise.

The slogan of reviving the Tang Dynasty has been used for so many years, even if some generals disagree with it, but this slogan is the righteousness of the Jin army's crusade against the Liang State, making the Jin army famous.

Now, if peace is negotiated with the Liang State, even if it is secretly negotiated, it will mean that the Jin State will abandon the banner of reviving the Tang Dynasty that it has been holding high, and become a warlord force like Li Maozhen, the king of Qi, and others.

Of course, all this is nothing to Li Shaorong or Li Cunqing, and the revival of the Tang Dynasty was originally just a slogan for them.

What really surprised Li Shaorong was that with Zhang Chengye's dedication to reviving the Tang Dynasty, he would make such a suggestion, which really surprised him.

"Make peace with Liang Jun? No, Lone will not directly negotiate peace with Liang Guo, but Lone will transfer the main force of the army to Zhenzhou, and at the same time abandon the southern city of Desheng, leaving only a small number of troops to garrison the northern city of Desheng, and tell Liang Guo the news. Presumably, as long as Zhu Youzhen is not stupid, he should know what to do. Li Cunqiao said in a deep voice.

Deshengdu is an important ferry in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, located in Huazhou, and is one of the two important ferries controlled by the Jin army.

In order to protect the ferry, the Jin army built the southern city of Desheng on the south bank of the Yellow River, and at the same time built the northern city of Desheng on the north bank, which was connected by pontoon bridges to support each other, and cut off the Yellow River with iron locks to prevent the Liang navy from attacking the pontoon bridge.

The main force of the Liang army along the Yellow River was stationed in Yangcun, not far from the west of Desheng Nancheng.

Li Cunmiao believed that as long as the Jin army abandoned Desheng Nancheng and transferred the main force to Zhenzhou to relieve the pressure on the Liang army in Yangcun, Zhu Youzhen would naturally transfer the main force of the Liang army to deal with the Wu people.

This tacit understanding doesn't even need to send an envoy to communicate, it only needs to try to pass the message to Liang Jun.

"The king, since the decision has been made, should you gather all the generals now and give the king's edict to the account? Presumably, the generals were also anxiously waiting. Li Shaorong saw that he had already made a decision, and immediately did not persuade him again.

"Well, go and give the order to the generals. It is not possible for the Wu army to capture the Central Plains in a short period of time, and how long can Zhenzhou hold off the lonely army? At most, the Khitans may invade and need to be guarded against; As for Wang Chuzhi, presumably this person will not be stupid enough to directly raise troops and be alone, right? As long as Hebei is pacified as soon as possible, then cross the river to the south and fight with the Wu army. Li Cunmiao finally made up his mind.