Li Xuanqing and his wife went to Fengzhou for a vacation, but the busyness of the Chang'an base camp did not dissipate at all because of the departure of the supreme ruler of the Tang Dynasty. The armies of Qian Ning and Li Tianyi arrived in Ganzhou and joined Wan Yi's army headquarters. At the same time, Gao Siji's cavalry corps also began to set out from Fengzhou to Haizi and other places in Sanfeng, preparing to cross the junction of Helan Mountain and Yinshan Mountain along the way, enter the grassland, and then march from the grassland.

The news that the Second Route Army had arrived at the front line was naturally because of the fact that the General Staff of the First Staff, who had been nervous about the front-line battle situation in the east of the Guiyi Army, relaxed, and even took Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun to begin to plan to go to Fengzhou to accompany Li Xuanqing on vacation. But then it was interrupted by Zuo Tiancheng and Cen Tianshi.

"I said Tiancheng, if you also want to be lazy, I will go to the emperor to denounce you and let you go to Brother Tuoba as an assistant." Cen Tianshi was obviously a little helpless about the laziness of these two guys, and scolded with a smile: "Anyway, you must be a war minister to go to the front line to work in the army, right?" ”

"I'll go, I said sir, you can't do this, I have done a lot of things this year except for leading the army, I finally want to take a break and see if I can find a daughter-in-law, you can't do this." Yang Tiancheng kicked away Wang Houchun, who was snickering beside him, and muttered: "This can make you catch you all the time, and make people unable to live?" ”

"I'll leave the matter of finding a daughter-in-law to me, and I'll make sure you're satisfied when the time comes." Cen Tianshi was unmoved, and glanced at Zuo Tiancheng beside him, who nodded and said, "Several, although the railway leads to Liangzhou, the traffic in the area east of Wuwei County has been greatly improved. However, it is still a long way to go to Ganzhou, and the logistics department has done its best, but now it is still understaffed, and there is no choice but to pull the prime minister to the General Staff to arrest people. ”

"Lao Zuo, you don't want the two of us to go to Liangzhou to supervise logistics, right? This is not enough, but I saw the information sent by Wan Yi before, although the previous war consumed a lot, but basically it was military supplies such as ordnance and shells and bullets, and other money and food baggage did not hurt our foundation because of a large number of captures, it can be said that not only has the losses not been reduced since the start of the war, but has increased a lot, and they are all concentrated on the Ganzhou front, how can so much baggage may be needed? Looking at Zuo Tiancheng's eyes, Yang Tiancheng didn't have any consciousness at all, but instead competed against each other. He is the head of operations, and basically he was the first to get the military reports and intelligence from the General Staff Department, so he knew more and more carefully about the situation on the front line than others, and Zuo Tiancheng's words were not lethal to him at all, but were directly refuted. But before he finished speaking, Wang Houchun beside him frowned and said, "Your logistics department won't start planning to prepare winter supplies from now on, right?" It's too early, right? It's the middle of June now, even if it's snow in August in the northwest, it won't be so early, right? Besides, we only need to fight a battle, and the materials that the righteous army has hoarded on the sandbar for so many years are not enough for us to consume? ”

"No, there is a problem with the layout of the logistics department, is it possible for you to think about Gao Siji's supply from Ganzhou, right?" Wang Houchun's words reminded Yang Tiancheng that Gao Siji's third road men and horses would immediately set out after receiving the first batch of supplies in Sanfeng and other places, so how to ensure logistics and supply in the thousands of miles of grassland is a difficult problem, and there is no good way for the General Staff here, so Yang Tiancheng directly threw this problem to the logistics department and asked them to solve it themselves. Could it be that this guy is planning to let Gao Si go on an expedition after resupplying in Ganzhou?

"Yes, this is the idea of the logistics department and the cabinet, relying on the railway line in the west of the river, we have accelerated the speed of transporting materials a lot. However, Tiancheng said that the materials of the Guiyi Army can not be grabbed smoothly, even if they can be obtained, Guazhou and other places have gathered a large number of Han people's materials, but I am afraid that there may not be many of them to support the military at that time, and our policy is not like the Guiyi Army to loot the people. Cen Tianshi glanced at Yang Tiancheng and nodded: "So a large number of materials still need to be transported by us from Guanzhong." I can't imagine that if there is no railway, I will have to persuade the emperor to hit Suzhou this year. ”

Yang Tiancheng nodded, thinking about the cabinet's approach, the real descendants of Han people in the northwest are now only afraid that there are still a large number of Guiyi army territories such as Guazhou and Shazhou, and only by taking this territory can Tiance Army and Datang really gain a foothold in the northwest. This is a question related to the governance of the Northwest after the war. So he looked at Wang Houchun and said solemnly: "In this case, we will leave for Hexi as soon as possible, and if time permits, we will go to the front line to counsellor the military situation." However, since the logistics department is thinking about it like this, I am afraid that a large number of military supplies need to be shipped in advance. ”

After sending the two away, Cen Tianshi also shook his head, turned around and began to discuss the specific material transfer with Xu Tianxiang and the others. Because the transportation network in the interior of the Central Plains has basically been connected into a network, a large number of materials purchased by the logistics department can be continuously transported to Guannai, and then transported to Hexi by railway. Thanks to the opening of the Fengling Railway, a large number of weapons and ammunition produced in Fengzhou were also transported to Hexi along with the railway. But it is indeed too difficult to involve the dispatch of materials across the country, and Zuo Tiancheng is really busy, not only to take into account the military needs in Hexi, but also to take care of the circulation of other materials within the empire. In the face of the vigorous internal economic development, the pressure on transportation is too great, if it were not for the Grand Canal in the Central Plains, most of the ships have now been replaced by powered freighters, I am afraid that it will be more difficult to mobilize materials. Today's momentum is already maximizing without delaying economic development.

"I now know the true meaning of the traffic that the emperor said. In the past, I thought that our transportation conditions were already very good, at least much faster than the previous generation, but now this situation still can't keep up with the demand. Cen Tianshi smiled bitterly after discussing this. In fact, if the requirements of internal economic development and commerce for transportation are suppressed, it is not difficult to mobilize materials. But now it is a great economic development in various places, in the great development of commerce today, the improvement of traffic conditions means the acceleration of circulation, the most basic business is the circulation speed and cycle of goods.

"Next year, the Cabinet will increase its allocation to the Ministry of Transport to build more railways, which will surely reduce a lot of pressure." Cen Tianshi also knew that he was only afraid that the big war in the northwest would really enter the climax next year, so he also hesitated and said with a smile: "You two can rest assured, no matter how much it happens, it will not delay your military's major affairs, isn't there still the benefits of overseas trade?" Great, I'll throw it all in the northwest, and as long as the Railways Department has a way to build a railway even in the desert, I will support it. ”

Cen Tianshi's appearance made Zuo Tiancheng and Xu Tianxiang laugh, and they were secretly amused to be able to make Cen Tianshi, the prime minister of the cabinet, say such a thing.

However, just when the Chang'an base camp was discussing the follow-up material transfer and letting Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun rush to Hexi in advance, Wan Yi on the Ganzhou front began to redeploy after meeting with Qian Ning and others, preparing for the Suzhou raid that was about to take place in the near future. However, to the surprise of his generals, Wan Yi didn't seem to be very optimistic about the decisive battle in Suzhou.

"Dashuai, could it be that Xuan Yingwei's plan can really be realized?" Xue Wanli saw that Wan Yi had drawn a lot of lines on the map, but the end point was not Suzhou, but the surrounding Yumen Pass, Guazhou, and Juyanze in the north were included in the attack range by Wan Yi, and couldn't help asking.

"That's right, Dashuai, now that Tianyi's second-way people and I have arrived, the three families gathered in Suzhou are only 100,000 people, can they stop us?" Qian Ning agreed with Xue Wanli's opinion, nodded and said: "Yes, Dashuai, let's push all the way over, isn't the local snake like the Long family still handy?" ”

"The marshal is worried about our follow-up opponent returning to the rebel army?" On the other hand, Liu Xuan, the chief of staff on the side, saw that Wan Yi still didn't answer, and thought of something, so he stepped forward and asked.

"Yes and no." Wan Yi put down the work in his hand and turned around and said: "With the arrival of the Second Route Army, our strength has been unprecedentedly strengthened, and there is naturally no problem in dealing with the enemy in Suzhou, but the Guiyi Army has always been a big problem. Everyone, please see, the 14 prefectures of Guazhou and Shazhou, where the Guiyi Army is located, connect Suzhou and Anxi, and are the key points of our march, and according to the current posture of the Guiyi Army, eighty percent of them use Suzhou as the front line to drag us down, and then the internal army will block layer by layer, and even hook the Anxi Uighurs to advance eastward, so as to prevent our army from attacking the sandbank in the west. It is important to know that Guazhou and other places are the largest gathering places of Han people in northwest China, and once the Uighurs advance eastward, it will inevitably interrupt the gathering of Han people since the establishment of the Guiyi Army. ”

"In other words, Xuan Yingwei's plan will affect the next direction of both the enemy and us, right?" Li Lisan, who was on Liu Xuan's side, frowned and said: "If Xuan Yingwei's plan can succeed, not only will we be able to defeat Suzhou, but more importantly, it will split the forces in the northwest against our Tiance army, break the current general trend of the Guiyi army gathering, and even have a cascading effect, so as to reverse the situation of our Tiance army fighting alone, and encourage the Han people in the northwest to spontaneously join the war against the rule of a few tribes." In this way, our certainty of recovering Anxi has suddenly increased a lot. ”

After Li Lisan finished speaking, Liu Xuan continued: "In this way, Anxi's side will also set off a huge tide, and the Tiance Army's recovery of Anxi on behalf of the Tang Dynasty orthodoxy will become a storm." ”

"Since it's so handsome, do we want to make some countermeasures to Xuan Yingwei's actions?" At the end of the words of the two, all the generals present looked at the two of them, analyzing the general trend, analyzing the flow This is what a qualified staff officer should do, there is no doubt that the two people in front of him are not inferior to Liu Yi, and the talents cultivated by the first generation of the Tiance Army have emerged in the Western Expedition. Following the topic of the two of them, Zhang Sheng on the side was a little worried. He was more anxious than anyone present about how to quickly regain Ansi.

"It's not for nothing that you cooperate." Wan Yi was very interested in Zhang Sheng's proposal, and said with a smile: "Since you proposed this matter, it happens to be handed over to you." How to do it, you go and find a way to connect with Zhao Si, and he will tell you how to do it. Anyway, there is only one principle, no matter what the outcome is, all this must be ended by the end of June, if Xuan Yingwei's plan cannot succeed by then, the various armies will set off directly from Ganzhou to Yumen Pass, and fight with a dignified and upright army. ”

"Obey the orders of the commander." After Zhang Sheng received the order, he went out directly to prepare, and then set off from Ganzhou to Suzhou without stopping. On this side, Wan Yi began to continue to arrange his troops, sending Li Tianyi and Xue Wanli to lead the army from Ganzhou to the north to pursue the Tatars. Obviously, Wan Yi did not intend to let go of this group of Tatars entrenched in the steppe north of Ganzhou, and took advantage of the time when Xuan Yingwei's plan needed to be implemented during this time, and just sent troops to sweep the few surrounding tribes and deter the Ganzhou region.

In fact, Wan Yi has another purpose to sweep the grassland, although there has not yet been an order from the General Staff, but as the commander of the Western Expedition, he is fully aware of the Western Political Strategy set by the General Staff before. The geographical location of Ganzhou is just right to provide a suitable supply base for the grassland army, and after the railway from the rear has passed through Helan Mountain and arrived in Hexi, Wan Yi is even more optimistic about the logistics base in Ganzhou. The steppe army must have a solid base to replenish along the way, otherwise it will be difficult to carry out the follow-up plan.

After Li Tianyi led his troops into the grassland, Wan Yi also began to recruit Tuoba Siji, and it was necessary to let Tuoba Siji, who was in charge of the rear, know about the military's plan, after all, once the army advanced into Suzhou and even the Guazhou area to the west, the entire rear would need to be handed over to Tuoba Sijian and Yang Yi, so this plan must be supported by the two of them. However, after seeing that Tuoba Siji and Yang Yi entered the northwest, one person was responsible for pacifying the people, and the other person, in addition to exterminating the stragglers and bandits, was single-mindedly escorting a large group of prisoners to the road repair, and even repaired the roadbed in addition to the straight road many times, which seemed to be preparing to build the railway. Wan Yi didn't have too many doubts here, after all, Tuoba Siji, as the deputy prime minister of the cabinet, was only afraid that he had already received the strategic plan notified by the cabinet when he was sent abroad.

Therefore, after Tuoba Sijian arrived, the two quickly reached a consensus, and after Tuoba Sijian checked the terrain of the Ganzhou area, he quickly asked Yang Yi to transfer a large team of prisoners to start building warehouses and roads on the spot, and took the initiative to take over the government affairs of the Ganzhou area, and quickly informed Zhang Quanfu on the side of Hexi Province to speed up the manpower to rush over to arrange the surrounding civil affairs so that the army could free up their hands to deal with the upcoming changes in the war situation.

On June 22, the third year of the Apocalypse, the latest news of Xuan Yingwei finally came from Suzhou, and Zhao Si's plan also surfaced after a month of planning and layout.