Then, after the temporary military meeting held in Tongguan City, some people were thick eyebrows or worried, and some people were smiling or difficult to hide, and they rushed out, and became messengers and messengers galloping to their respective stations.

With the union of the Western Army, the seventeen family leaders or important representatives who led the troops to the east successively expressed their positions and made speeches, and it became quite a fierce dispute and texture and almost staged a full martial arts, and finally the commander-in-chief Zhao Xi came out to coordinate properly and finalize the word.

There seems to be no controversy about whether the next strategic direction will be difficult before easy, or easy before difficult.

In the end, it is to solve the Huaizhen Town, which has just emerged from the Southern Dynasty and has just risen in the north, and embrace a piece of ruined mountains and rivers in the north with a strong force; Or take advantage of the emptiness and chaos of a large area in the south, take advantage of the situation to go down Jinghu Lake and Shuzhong and sweep the Jiangnan provinces where the control of the Southern Dynasties is weak.

As the leader of the alliance and the leader of the Western Army, the commander-in-chief of the Zhao clan recruited the generalissimo's mansion, which was naturally more biased towards the former, because Huaizhen had just annexed and occupied a huge territory, and in any case, it could be said that it was unstable and uncertain.

Therefore, it is precisely because of the situation that it should be weakened and struck in one go, so that it cannot be taken care of inside and outside and cannot be obtained, and the occupied land is given a respite to be stabilized; Even if it can't annihilate the culprit and severely damage its scattered strength, at least it can force it to withdraw from the widely occupied land of the two rivers, and retreat to a corner of Huai in order to protect itself, which is the more ideal result.

However, after the failure of the battle of Baiya City, and the successive defeats of various offsets such as the attack on the Dayang Bridge, the cries within the Western Army for agreeing with the latter also began to rise all of a sudden; And their reasons and justifications are also very upright and reasonable.

After all, Huaizhen is a newly rising foreign force in the north, and the time that it can be used for operation and development is still short and obviously shallow; Even if it occupies the vast territory of the Central Plains, it will take a long enough time to pacify and govern, and there will not be much spare power before that, which can pose a corresponding threat and obstruction to the victory and vested interests of the Western Army.

On the contrary, before the Huai army preemptively occupied various passes, it lost too much strength under the strength of the struggle at any cost, and instead cheapened the behemoth of the Southern Dynasty, which has always been thinking about the north and has been launching attacks for generations.

Or rather, on the contrary, it helped it in disguise, cutting off and weakening this rebel force that was like a fish in the throat, so that it had nothing else to do in the southeast corner, and had more spare energy to devote its hands to cleaning up the internal troubles.

You must know that although the Southern Dynasty has exhausted its troops, it is obvious that most of the eight roads outside the Ling, which are the basic plates, are still intact. What Huaizhen can occupy is a large area of disasters rampant, war-torn and constantly resisting the remnants of the two rivers.

And once there is a buffer opportunity to recuperate, so that the Southern Dynasty can gradually recover and regain itself from the damage of the Northern Expedition and the civil strife outside the ridge, and then increase troops and support to the southern provinces in the Jingluo Ridge, it will be a great regret and resentment that will be even more difficult.

You must know that if the northerners are good at horses and the southerners have long boats, if they can't take advantage of the opportunity of Jinghu Lake and Shu being seriously weakened, and the local chaos and war are unbearable, it will easily fall back into stalemate and confrontation in the dangerous places of the rivers, lakes and seas that are quite unfavorable to the western army; That also means that the strategy and goal of the west's eastward advance have been partially failed.

Of course, behind this seemingly market-like rhetoric and cries are those in the vast Western Army Alliance who are accustomed to a smooth journey, and once they are frustrated, they hope to preserve their strength and avoid the important and light; began to agree and call for a plan that was obviously easier and more profitable to fight and was haunted by the selfishness and desires of many middle- and lower-level generals.

After all, compared with the Huai Army, which was once known as "the first to defend in the field" and was the strongest army of the Southern Dynasty in the north, it was much easier to deal with the chaotic local forces in the south, and it was easier to obtain land, goods, and population.

And these generals under the joint name of the Western Army are willing to raise troops, and the Xining Imperial Court, which followed the Zhao family's initiative and force, has no reason to advance eastward for the most ordinary fame and fortune, and moves with the general trend; is not as high-sounding as the verbal claim of "recovering the rivers and mountains and protecting the Tang Dynasty".

Of course, it is rare to be united in Tongguan City to be forced into the palace in disguise, and Zhao Xi, the commander-in-chief of the Western Army, who has compromised once, does not have much frustration and dissatisfaction, or since he said that this result is not unexpected by him.

In the early stage, under the rule of the Western Army's brave eastward march, the generation in Guannei and Hedong fought a little miserably, although the soldiers were quickly replenished, but the morale and spirit consumed by this were not so easily replenished.

Therefore, they must be given some lure sweetness and direction in order to have the motivation to continue the attack, and he is only skillfully taking advantage of this trend, and secretly guiding it under the cover of nominal concessions and compromises.

After all, although the combined momentum of the Western Army is numerous, there are too many armies that need to be maintained and guaranteed, for the prosperous land of the Central Plains that the times yearn for, or the world of flowers in the south of the Yangtze River, many small and medium-sized generals under the rule of many feudal towns have almost mobilized three generations of fathers, sons, grandchildren and grandchildren, and together with the children of the relatives have put on armor and gone into battle.

Although everyone knows that soldiers and horses are not expensive, once it is implemented on specific targets, it will not be the case, no one will feel that the number of troops in their hands is too large and voluntarily reduce it, even those local forces that are subordinate to the Zhao clan or foreign feudal domains that have close relations for generations;

Especially if the great cause of the union of the Western Army is about to rise, and weaken the strength of the feudal towns in the name of eliminating the old and weak, I am afraid that no matter how strong the Zhao clan is, it will not be able to resist and counterattack from all the generals.

Therefore, through the means of internal resource adjustment and allocation, it is necessary to compete for power and profit under relative competition and confrontation, so as to maintain Zhao's transcendent position as an arbiter and decision-maker. It is also necessary to lure them from time to time to take advantage of them to cut down and eliminate those that are already out of date, so as to reduce the drag and restraint for the great cause of the Eastern Crusade.

Of course, this is a relatively upright conspiracy. After all, even if everyone knows that it is likely to be the result of making a wedding dress for the king, there are still many people who are willing to join the king, driven and induced by sufficient interests.

You must know that when Li ****, the ancestor of the Northern Tang Dynasty, was ordered to set off from Anxi and Mozhen, he was surrounded by just two chamberlains and eight relatives brought out by the local government, as well as more than 100 rangers of various ethnic groups who spontaneously followed and sought fame.

However, after he entered the Guanzhong, he was already the master of several cronies and the lord of the people who had the real authority to give orders; Not to mention that after he became the ruler of Luodu, he was able to use all kinds of vertical and horizontal means, and he was stunned to pack up the soldiers and horses of all walks of life who entered the Central Plains, which created the Zhongxing atmosphere of the new dynasty.

But these generals of the Western Army, who followed the Gongwei and drove in front, cannot be said to have been deceived or demolished by crossing the river and demolishing the bridge.

Except for a few unlucky ghosts who died on the journey, or were unruly, or committed taboos and public anger, and were cleaned up by private means, they each got enough benefits and benefits from it;

Not to mention the most basic land, wealth, and population that ordinary soldiers can get, those generals with a little status, the most unfortunate of them were also raised by the Northern Tang Dynasty and the new dynasty with the title of fame and fortune, and continued to become the lineage of the new dynasty;

And those powerful factions of the Western Army who drove south for the Northern Tang Dynasty also called the feudal towns and towns, and under the premise of respecting and respecting the name and righteousness of the Northern Kingdom, they were able to inherit wealth and local authority.

Although the Zhao family did not dare to hope that it could be replaced, it still had some hope and realistic basis for following the history of the hegemony or the story of the Southern Dynasty and maintaining the supreme authority of several generations in the name of respecting the Son of Heaven.

After all, this time, the great cause of eastward expansion led by his family also stood behind the fact that he did not want the Central Plains to appear together, nor did he want to see the Southern Dynasty, which was the source of the same ancestor, and truly won the important existence of the homeland.

Therefore, the only thing that has been ignored and lost in this turmoil of strategic adjustment is undoubtedly the new Shunyi King Zhang Dekun's department;

In fact, when he got the news through a public announcement a few days later, all that was left was a certain feeling of bewilderment and scolding;

He was in the situation of the death of his lips and teeth or the sorrow of the rabbit and the fox, so he removed the king and led his troops to defect to the Western Army, in order to follow the shadow and preservation of its general trend;

Who knew that in the blink of an eye, the style of painting changed, with the decision of the western army to gradually turn to the defensive in the east, and gradually divide the troops to the south, it is likely that he will have to use a corner of the force to confront and block, and the Huaizhen threat from the north side of the east of Taihang will come.

And for this he has paid for this, except for the title of the head of the East Road and a batch of armor and materials, there is nothing to gain;

Or rather, it was not completely nothing, at least the Western Army still sent a few units to cooperate with him; It's just that these obviously can't even be equipped with equipment, and there is no shortage of old people and young soldiers, who also need the supply and food of the territory occupied by him.

Although there are many dangers in the Eight Paths of the Ether, he may not need to worry that in the short term, the Huai army will really threaten his base in Hedong; But in the confrontation and conflict, the resulting losses and expenses have to be borne by himself.

This is different from the good things and conditions he said before, he only felt that he had fallen into a bottomless pit, but he could only continue to persist under the general trend.

(End of chapter)