In the Battle of Huliupo, although Li Cunqiao won the victory with the cavalry charge at the last moment, the price of this victory was too great.

The first point is naturally the death of the general Zhou Dewei, the meritorious veteran of the Jin Kingdom, I don't know how much credit he made for the establishment of the Jin Kingdom, and he played the most critical role in major battles, but he died on the battlefield in this war, and this kind of loss is really heavy.

In addition to the loss of Zhou Dewei, a veteran, the losses of ordinary soldiers of the Jin army were also extremely staggering, reaching two-thirds.

You must know that in this military operation to raid the rear of Liang State, Li Cunqiao chose the most elite soldiers, most of whom were veterans who had fought for many years.

The losses of these veterans of a hundred battles are not even smaller than the losses caused by the death of Zhou Dewei.

In addition, the Jin army lost countless grains, grasses, armor and other materials.

These materials may not be anything to Liang or Wu, but they are extremely heavy losses for Jin.

It can be said that although the Jin Kingdom won the final victory in this battle, it was also a great loss of vitality.

When Yang Wu learned the news, he was worried in his heart, after all, he and the Liang army had also fought many times, but fortunately he had not encountered such a tragic battle.

And those generals in the DPRK and China, who originally despised Liang State, were also awe-inspiring after learning the result of this battle.

At the same time, they also admired Yang Wu's decision to "sit and watch Jin Liang compete for hegemony and let them both lose".

If Wu had made a northern expedition to the Central Plains immediately after unifying the south, perhaps the Liang State would have perished quickly in the case of a northern and southern attack with the Jin state.

However, firstly, Liang's dying counterattack may also hurt Wu, and secondly, Jin will get a big advantage, which is naturally not as beneficial to Wu as the current situation.

After the Battle of Huliupo, Li Cunmiao suffered heavy losses and was unable to continue the offensive, so he had to return to the north and recover.

At that time, Yang Wu once wanted to take the opportunity to raise an army to the Northern Expedition and destroy the Liang State in one fell swoop, but later due to various considerations, he finally did not do it.

In the next three years, the Jin army could only confront the Liang army across the Yellow River and fight each other, which was the most unfavorable way to fight for the Jin army, but Li Cunmiao did not dare to take risks again, so he could only bite the bullet.

So the situation in the north today is that the Liang State rules the Central Plains, that is, Henan, Shandong, and Guanzhong; The Jin state and its allies Wang Rong and Wang Chuzhi jointly ruled over vast areas such as Hebei and Shanxi.

And now, as Li Cunqing's staunchest ally, Wang Rong was killed by Zhang Wenli, although Zhang Wenli then asked Li Cunqiao to ask for canonization, but secretly Zhang Wenli was also colluding with the Liang State and the Khitans, hoping to get their support.

In this way, the Jin State will inevitably attack the Zhao State.

At the same time, since the Zhao State has been in chaos, then the Beiping King Wang Chuzhi, who has always been in the same breath as the Zhao State, is afraid that it will not be good, and out of the consideration of the cold lips and teeth, I am afraid that Wang Chuzhi will also try to save the Zhao State, which will inevitably conflict with the Jin State.

In other words, in a short period of time, the forces of the Jin State will be dragged in Hebei and unable to move south; This provided Wu with a good opportunity for the Northern Expedition.

If Wu launched the Northern Expedition during the period when the Jin State re-pacified Hebei and eliminated the Liang State in one fell swoop, then the Wu State would be able to control the entire Central Plains alone, thus blocking the Jin State from Hebei.

Of course, if the Jin State was unwilling to be taken by the Wu State alone, and they also wanted to go south to get a piece of the pie, then they would definitely not be able to concentrate on eliminating Zhang Wenli and the Beiping Kingdom, which was very likely to be in turmoil.

When the time comes, after the Wu State captures the Central Plains, it will be able to send troops to support Zhang Wenli and others, which is an even worse situation for the Jin State.

I believe that as long as Li Cunmiao is not stupid, then he will not go south regardless of the turmoil in Hebei, so that Wu State can deal with Liang State alone.

As for whether Wu Guo had the strength to defeat Liang alone, Yang Wu felt that there was no need to doubt this.

After so many years of preparation, Wu now has a large number of troops, including 300,000 troops in the forbidden army alone, in addition to more than 100,000 Xiang troops, more than 20,000 Xiaoyi troops, and 9,000 Yulin troops and tens of thousands of sailors.

In addition, the cavalry of the Wu army has also developed greatly, relying on the war horses supplied by the horse farms on Tamna Island, as well as the war horses obtained from various other sources, after so many years, the cavalry of the Wu State has reached its peak, with a number of as many as 10,000.

These cavalry soldiers have undergone the most rigorous training, and their strength on horseback may not be comparable to those nomads, but their discipline, toughness, morale, etc., are definitely stronger than those nomadic cavalry, even compared with the cavalry of the Jin Kingdom, I am afraid that it will not be much worse.

With such a powerful cavalry force, coupled with the fact that the infantry of the State of Wu has always been very strong, it can be said that the current State of Wu is already the strongest country in the world, whether it is economic strength or military strength, it is far above the State of Liang.

On the side of the Liang State, after so many years of great war with the Jin State, not only the strength of the Jin State has been greatly weakened, but the strength of the Liang State has also been consumed to the extreme.

Even if the Liang State was the strongest country in the world at the beginning, no matter how prosperous the Central Plains region was, it could not withstand the consumption of successive defeats over the years.

Don't talk about the wars before the unification of the south by Wu State, let's talk about the wars in the past few years.

After the death of Yang Shihou, Wei Bo's army surrendered to the Jin State, which directly abolished the more than 100,000 troops stationed in Hebei by the Liang State, although only a part of them really surrendered to the Liang State, but the remaining Liang army stuck to the states of Hebei, and finally was wiped out by the Jin army one by one with the fall of Hebei.

In addition, in the Battle of Weizhou, Liu Cheng was defeated, and the 60,000 Liang army was annihilated, and only a few people such as Liu Cheng survived.

In the first battle of Huliupo, the Liang army won first and then lost, although the Jin army lost two-thirds of the soldiers, but the more than 100,000 Liang troops also lost two-thirds.

In these three tragic battles alone, the Liang army lost more than 200,000.

In addition, the battle against Zhu Youqian, the king of Ji, in the river was also not smooth, and many soldiers were lost, plus when the Jin army was confronted for many years, those soldiers who lost large and small battles, even if the foundation of the Liang State was solid, it could not bear this tragic attrition.

In fact, when Wu had just unified the south, although a peace treaty had been concluded with Liang, Liang still deployed heavy troops in the southern states, and it was obvious that Liang was still wary of Wu at that time, and had enough strength to guard against Wu.

But in recent years, as the war in the north has intensified, and it has been relatively stable with Wu, Liang's garrison in the south has gradually decreased, from the beginning of heavy defense, to now except for Songzhou, Bozhou and other places with 40,000 or 50,000 troops, there are basically no troops in other regions.

These circumstances are enough to show that the Liang State is now exhausted, and the only remaining strength has to be used in the north, relying on the Yellow River to barely block the Jin State.

If in this case, Wu State could not destroy Liang State alone, then the so-called Northern Expedition and the so-called unification of the world would become a joke; There is no need for Yang Wu to continue to worry about it, he can simply die by hitting his head, or simply pass the throne to the prince, and enjoy himself with peace of mind.

In short, in Yang Wu's view, the current situation is extremely favorable to Wu, and the time is ripe for the Northern Expedition.

However, when Yang Wu told Li Chengding his thoughts, Li Chengding frowned and pondered for a long time, but asked: "Great King, although it is true that the rebellion of the Zhao State may cause some trouble to the Jin Kingdom, how long can this delay the Jin Kingdom?" ”

It's not that he doesn't believe in Yang Wu's judgment, but that he really doesn't think about Zhao Guo.

is just a Zhao country, and its strength is at most compared with Ma Yin at the beginning, and even weaker than Ma Yin; Under the all-out attack of the Jin army, how long can he hold out?

If Wu is halfway through the northern expedition, he has already paid the price to wipe out the main force of the Liang army, but he has not had time to seize the territory of Liang, and at this time, the Jin State has already eliminated the Zhao State, and then quickly went south, wouldn't this make the Jin State pick up the cheap?

Li Chengding asked his doubts, and Yang Wu suddenly laughed.

"It seems that you, like Guo Shu's envoy and Yan Shangshu, also underestimated the strength of Zhao State."

In the last year, the original privy envoy Li Chengsi died of illness, Yang Wu ordered Zhu Jin to take over as the privy envoy, Guo Chongtao to take over as the privy envoy, and the remaining privy envoy was served by the original governor Wang Juan; As for Yan Keqiu, now he is serving as the secretary of the Ministry of War.

In addition to Li Chengsi's death, there are many important ministers who have died of illness in recent years, such as Shi Yan, Hou Zhan, Wang Maozhang, Gao Miao, etc., the death of these old ministers made Yang Wu lament.

Fortunately, today's Wu State has completed the preparations for the replacement of the old and the new, and now the people who are responsible for the heavy responsibilities are basically young people, and only a few veterans are still in good health and can personally lead the troops.

Li Chengding heard that Guo Chongtao and Yan Keqiu had also been puzzled, and immediately knew that Yang Wu must have different ideas.

"Don't look at the strength of Zhao as weak, but the Chengde army has been in Hebei for more than a hundred years, and it is one of the oldest feudal towns in the world, how deep is its foundation? Even the Jin army could not wipe it out in a short period of time. ”

"In addition, the king of Beiping is also likely to attack the Jin State, and the Khitan people will also not sit idly by, with these factors, I think that if the Jin State wants to eliminate the Zhao State, it will take at least half a year or more."

In fact, Yang Wu said that it was more than half a year, which is still a bit low, and the historical Li Cunqiao attacked Zhao State, and the heavy losses were unbelievable, and there were even some doubts that this was not the original Jin army that won a hundred battles.

In particular, during the attack on Zhao, Li Sizhao, the general of the Jin army, was killed in battle, which was a big loss for the Jin State, and even comparable to Zhou Dewei's death.