"Your Majesty, if there is no Southern Wu State, the old minister thinks that this time Zhang Wenli came to ask for help is an opportunity for our army to launch a counterattack and recover Hebei; But with Wu Guo here, we don't dare to act rashly at any time. In the Chongzheng Palace, Jing Xiang, who was already white, sighed softly.

Yes, if there is no Wu State, this is indeed a good opportunity.

Since the defeat of Weizhou and the complete fall of Hebei, the Liang army could only rely on the dangerous place of the Yellow River to barely block the attack of the Jin army.

But how difficult is it to defend the thousands of miles of the Yellow River? Defending everywhere means that everywhere can be broken by enemy forces.

After losing Hebei, the Liang army lacked the depth of defense, which was like Wu losing its territory north of the Yangtze River and could only defend the Yangtze River; Or like when the Jin State lost Luzhou and other places, Jinyang directly faced the attack of the Liang army, which was an extremely dangerous situation.

If this situation cannot be reversed for a long time, one day the enemy will find a hole in the defense line and break in.

At the beginning, the Jin Kingdom finally turned the corner because of the Battle of Luzhou, and began to recover the situation step by step; For Liang Guo, the rebellion of Zhang Wenli also had the opportunity to become an opportunity for Liang to save the situation, but Wu Guo in the south was a problem that Jing Xiang had to consider.

"If the main force of our army crosses the river to recover Hebei, but the Wu army takes this opportunity to launch a large-scale northern expedition, at that time, the rear strength of our army is empty, and the Wu army will be defeated without certainty." On the side, Li Zhen also showed pity.

Zhang Hanjie and Zhao Yan said directly: "In my opinion, even if there is no Wu Guo peeping on the side, there is no need for us to send troops to rescue Zhang Wenli." Our army's strength to defend the Yellow River is somewhat insufficient, how can we divide our troops to rescue Zhang Wenli? ”

Whether it is Zhao Yan and Zhang Hanjie, or Zhu Wen's old ministers such as Jing Xiang and Li Zhen, they all unanimously believe that it is not advisable to send troops to rescue Zhang Wenli now.

As a result, Zhu Youzhen, who was not very interested in this matter, even extinguished the idea of sending troops to Hebei.

However, he was still worried about the Northern Expedition of Wu that Li Zhen had just mentioned: "You all mentioned Wu just now, what I want to know is, how long can the peace between us and Wu last long?" Will Wu Guoguo take advantage of this Zhang Wenli rebellion to launch the Northern Expedition? ”

When did the Wu Kingdom go on the Northern Expedition, this is almost a topic that is often debated in the court of the Liang State, and the ministers basically argue about this topic every year.

In the Battle of Weizhou, when the news of the annihilation of Liu Jun's entire army reached Luoyang, many people thought that Wu would take the opportunity to go on a northern expedition, and even some ministers suggested that Zhu Youzhen immediately assemble an army to prepare for Wu's attack; However, Wu did not launch the Northern Expedition in the end.

In the following years, the Jin State and the Liang State confronted each other on the Jiahe River, and the two sides almost did not fight for a day, and most of the main forces of the Liang army were pinned down by the Jin army near the Yellow River; So at that time, there were also many people who thought that Wu would go on a northern expedition; However, in the end, Wu Guo still did not make any moves.

Later, in the battle of Huliupo, the armies of the Jin and Liang countries were defeated, and the Liang army suffered heavy losses, but the Jin army also suffered extremely heavy losses, losing the ability to continue the offensive and could only return to Hebei.

At that time, the ministers of the court and China were almost unanimous in believing that Wu would take advantage of the opportunity to go on a northern expedition.

After all, in the previous few times, although the Liang State suffered great losses, the losses on the Jin side were not large, so it is reasonable that the Wu State did not take the opportunity to go on the Northern Expedition; However, the Jin army also suffered heavy losses in the battle of Huliupo, so almost everyone thought that the Wu army would take the opportunity to go north.

Jing Xiang even made a decision at that time, once the Wu army went on a northern expedition, he suggested to Zhu Youzhen to directly abandon the Central Plains, try to preserve his strength, retreat to Guanzhong, and hold on to it by virtue of the geographical conditions of Guanzhong, while sitting and watching the war between Jin and Wu in order to compete for the Central Plains.

However, what everyone didn't expect was that Wu Guo still didn't do it in the end that time.

And what about today? Zhang Wenli launched a mutiny and killed Wang Rong, the king of Zhao, which did not seem to be directly related to the state of Wu in the far south, but this incident meant that something was wrong in Hebei, Li Cunqiao's staunch allies would betray him, and the power of the Jin state would be contained for a short time.

Faced with Zhu Youzhen's question, all the ministers were pondering why there was no Northern Expedition for so many years after the unification of the south, and even there were several good opportunities for the Northern Expedition during this period, but Yang Wu still held back.

So, what time is Wu waiting for? The generals were silent one after another, and there was silence in the Chongzheng Hall for a while.

After a while, I don't know who whispered: "Then Yang Wu, the king of Wu, could it be that he was addicted to the days of drunkenness and gold, and gradually lost the heart to go in, so he didn't want to send troops to the Northern Expedition, right?" ”

"Ahem...... The ministers seemed to be choked, and they all looked at each other unnaturally.

In fact, many of them have this kind of thought in their hearts, could it really be that Yang Wu or the people in the court of Wu Guo are addicted to the luxurious life in the south, so they don't want to make progress, right?

You must know that during the period of the two Jin and Northern Dynasties, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Liu Song also launched the Northern Expedition from time to time, aspiring to dominate the world; However, as the division between the north and the south lasted for a long time, almost all the dynasties of the Southern Dynasties became one of the unenterprising, from the princes and ministers to the ordinary people, they did not want to send troops to the Northern Expedition, or even opposed the Northern Expedition.

After all, the south is rich, ordinary people live a relatively stable life, and some well-off families even have a lot of surplus grain.

Maybe now Wu is also stable for a long time, so the whole court and the central government are reluctant to go on a northern expedition?

Some ministers could not resist standing up for such statements.

However, those people were dizzy, but Zhu Youzhen, the emperor, did not faint, he directly reprimanded: "Ridiculous! So who is Wu Wang Yang Wu? If it is possible for others to indulge in the luxury and stability of the south and lose their enterprising spirit, it is absolutely impossible for Yang Wu to do so. ”

"What Your Majesty said is very true, Yang Wu has always been ambitious, and has monstrous ambitions for the Central Plains, if this person has given up the plan of the Northern Expedition, this is absolutely impossible!" Zhao Yan, Zhang Hanjie and others also stood up to refute it.

The officials who had stood up before immediately retreated with a scornful face when they heard this.

Will Yang Wu give up his plans to go on the Northern Expedition? What a joke.

Not to mention that Wu has been working hard to strengthen its military strength in the past few years, let's just talk about the current situation of Liang State, it is impossible for Wu State to give up the plan of the Northern Expedition.

After all, although many Southern Dynasties were reluctant to go on the Northern Expedition during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was because they saw that every Northern Expedition was costly, but it ended in failure, not only wasting resources, but also suffering heavy casualties, so they opposed the Northern Expedition.

But the current situation is that the Liang State has been struggling to support under the suppression of the Jin State, and if the Wu State is a Northern Expedition, it can almost be said that it will win, in this case, will the southerners still oppose the Northern Expedition? Will Yang Wu still give up the idea of the Northern Expedition? Apparently impossible.

Not only that, but the civil and military ministers in the Wu Dynasty were afraid that they would take this matter as a good opportunity to make contributions, so instead of opposing the Northern Expedition, they would unanimously support the Northern Expedition.

After refuting the views of those officials, as Zhu Youzhen's confidant, Zhao Yan spoke: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Wu Guo should not go on a northern expedition now. ”

"Is there any reason for Zhang Aiqing to make such a judgment?" Zhu Youzhen said.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the main purpose of the reason why Wu did not send troops to the Northern Expedition before was to let our country and Liang fight to defeat both sides, while Wu Guo would accumulate strength and reap the benefits; Wait until our country and the Jin state are exhausted before sending troops to the Northern Expedition and take both our country and the Jin state in one fell swoop. This is the plan of King Wu. Zhao Yan said.

He frowned, and then said, "And now, although our country and the Jin country have suffered great losses, they are far from the extent of losing the ability to resist; If Wu State is on the Northern Expedition now, it will still be difficult to take our country and the Jin State in one fell swoop. Therefore, the minister felt that at present, Wu State should not immediately go on a northern expedition, but would continue to wait for the opportunity. ”

"Well, you have a point." Zhu Youzhen nodded, and looked at Zhang Hanjie again: "What does Zhang Aiqing think?" ”

In the past few years, he has become more and more trusting of Zhao Yan and Zhang Hanjie, even to the point of obeying his words, but he has become more and more estranged from Jing Xiang and Li Zhen and others.

Although Zhu Youzhen still asks Jing Xiang and others for their opinions after each discussion, when he finally makes a decision, he rarely follows Jing Xiang's opinions.

"Your Majesty, the minister also feels that the Wu army will not immediately go north now. King Wu's Northern Expedition, even if he has no intention of taking our country and Jin at the same time, at least he will choose a suitable time. For example, the Jin State was dragged by something and could not go south for a long time, at this time, the Wu State took the opportunity to go north, so as to defeat our country and occupy the Central Plains alone, so as to avoid the Jin State from reaping the benefits. ”

Zhang Hanjie said: "And now Zhang Wenli's rebellion, of course, can drag the Jin State for a while, but the power of the Zhao State is limited after all, even the Khitans also went south during this period to harass the north of the Jin State, but with the strength of the Jin State, it will not be long before these turmoil can be quelled." Therefore, the minister felt that Wu would not go on a northern expedition during this period. ”

Zhu Youzhen's eyes lit up, obviously very interested in the reason Zhang Hanjie said.

Indeed, if Wu wanted to go on a northern expedition, they would have had a good opportunity after the Battle of Huliupo three years ago, but Wu did not make a move at that time; Now Zhang Wenli's rebellion is at most a small trouble for the Jin State, and it is even more impossible for the Wu State to do it at this time.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen nodded again and again: "What you said makes sense, it is indeed unlikely that Wu Guo will take this opportunity to go on a northern expedition." ”

It was Jing Xiang and other old ministers who agreed with the reasons put forward by Zhang Hanjie.

After all, they never imagined that now Wu Guo had secretly colluded with Zhu Youneng, the king of Hui, and was sure to defeat the main force of the Liang army on the southern front in a short time; The second and more important point is that they ignore the strength of Zhao State.