Chapter 233: The Chess Game

No one wants to be a pawn at the mercy of a chess game.

The one who defended the western front of Yunzhou for the Northern Liao was Gao Pei, the general of the Northern Liao. Although the Gao family began to gradually take over this matter after the Northern Liao purged the original chariot and cavalry general Yin Lu Junyi, it took no less than ten years to gradually quell the dissenting opinions in the armies of the Western Front of the Northern Liao, gradually purge the remnants of the Yin family, and establish a whole defense system on the Western Front loyal to the Gao family and the Northern Liao. It took the Gao family nearly a generation to do this, and it took another generation of time and countless dollars to greatly strengthen the armament of the Western Route Army. The Western Route Army is now a force that cannot be ignored in Northern Liao, both in the court and in the military.

But after all, the Western Route Army was a little bit worse, and it was not tough enough to speak, so it was coerced and lured by the old general Xu Jingtian when Yunzhou was in the most crisis that year, and finally did not make a move against Yunzhou. Although the return of Dalun Mountain to the control of the Western Route Army did greatly correct the defensive weakness of the Western Route Army and the entire western part of Northern Liao, the obvious recovery momentum of Yunzhou now made the Western Route Army forces led by Gao Pei feel even more crisis.

Yunzhou's military strength has indeed undergone a large number of reductions, and the number of people is much smaller than before. In Yunzhou now, there are very few decent troops outside the fifty battalions. In various localities, only a few or a few hundred officials were left behind to manage the security of the towns, to maintain the city's defense facilities, and to carry out the most basic lookouts and patrols. The other is a small scale of private armed forces formed in the name of some wealthy families and families, because Yunzhou has always had a tradition of rich and wealthy families sending troops to help in the war, even if the new policy in Yunzhou now has stricter restrictions on the private soldiers of rich and wealthy families, but this part of the number of people still has to be included in the total military strength of Yunzhou. Outside the fifty battalions, it seems that there are only these military forces, but in fact, those invalids farms and pastures, even if the Yunzhou Jingluo Prefecture does not advocate to maintain military training. But in reality there are hardly any farms or ranches with exception, and almost all of them maintain a fairly good level of military training. And the fifty battalion plan in Yunzhou made Gao Pei sleep and eat hard every time he thought about it.

What does fifty battalions, a hundred thousand professional soldiers, mean? Moreover, the standard of equipment and training of these fifty battalions is so high. With the Gao family's operation on the Western Front, it is natural to be able to understand a lot of content in this regard. Not long after the change of equipment began, the equipment replacement standards of the Yunzhou armies were passed to Gao Pei. At the time, he couldn't have said how uncomfortable it was. The equipment of the eight garrison battalions in Yunzhou. may not be worse than the Flying Tiger Battalion under his command that he leaned on as an arm of the Western Route Army, and the equipment and training standards of the main battle units such as the Tieyun Cavalry and the Jingyun Cavalry reported by the detailed workers are even more breathtaking. Before the rise of Dongping, Northern Liao was also one of the four powerful countries in the world, and it was naturally different from Yunzhou, where the cavalry was strong and the infantry was weak. Although the Northern Liao were superior to Yunzhou in terms of the quality of military horses, their infantry army was also very strong. But now, even this advantage over Yunzhou seems to be gradually reversed. Although the heavy equipment battalion and the heavy infantry battalion, which have high requirements for the quality and training level of the soldiers, have not yet been formed, Yunzhou already has two combat infantry battalions and a longbow battalion. This adds up to less than 10,000 infantry troops, which makes Gao Pei very worried, because up to now. Hosaku has not yet sent any analysis of the combat power of the three battalions.

Gao Pei Chen's troops on the western front were not to launch an offensive against Yunzhou at this moment, whether it was combat strength or logistical supplies, he was not ready. But sometimes, I had to consider something else, such as the dispute between the two operational strategies of the Western Front in the Northern Liao Dynasty and the Southern Front to defend Beining Pass. For example, whether to set up an army on the eastern coast to prevent Dongping's powerful navy from breaking through the water and transporting troops to land, such as the accusation that countless people in the Northern Liao court compromised with Xu Jingtian at that time and did not send troops to cut a large piece in Yunzhou to strengthen the strength of Northern Liao...... He had to be tough to ensure that the Western Route Army could maintain its best combat effectiveness under his control, and to guard against threats from Dongping and Yunzhou.

Yes. Threat. If he is not in the position of commander of the Western Route Army, without the urging of intelligence documents, he will not be under the same pressure as him. In fact, everyone knows that several armies under construction in Dongping, especially the Tianxuan Army, are set up for the purpose of attacking Northern Liao. When the Tianxuan Army is completed and the 50 battalions in Yunzhou are ready, basically Dongping can launch an offensive against Northern Liao at any time. And within Northern Liao, there was no rule of war or peace. Under this kind of threat that has been laid out in the open, under this huge pressure, it is natural that someone will be responsible for why Beiliao is in this situation. It's really hard to say how alienated the Northern Liao royal court is within the Northern Liao. For example, he Gao Pei, at this time, put on the appearance of wanting to fight, but obviously did not arrange other troops into echelons that could cope with various situations, did not prepare enough grain and grass to sustain the battle for a period of time, and did not even show signs of increasing the transportation of baggage, which was to convey a message: to the interior of Northern Liao. can show his toughness. and the decisiveness of the battle against Yunzhou, I am afraid that the imperial court will not let him shrink back soon, so as not to start the war with Yunzhou and Dongping; And externally. It is to tell Yunzhou that in fact, he is not ready to fight, as for why the situation is so tense, it depends on whether Yunzhou and Dongping have the ability to discover the recent movements of the Northern Liao court.

However, even so, Gao Pei still felt uneasy. He immediately summoned his son, Gao Senqi, who is now the commander of the Flying Tiger Battalion.

"Asen, would you like to go to Yunzhou?" Gao Pei asked.

"Father, go to Yunzhou...... What does it do? Gao Senqi understood the embarrassing situation of the Western Route Army sandwiched between the Northern Liao Wangting and Yunzhou, and also understood what the purpose of mobilizing the army to put on a threatening posture to the west. But to Yunzhou? What can be done?

"You want to find a way to meet Ye Tao and try to implement two things: one is to explain that our transfer is not for the purpose of attacking Yunzhou, and it is limited to two years, and the other is to try to negotiate a trade route with Yunzhou for horses and some other things." Although he had thought about it repeatedly, Gao Pei's tone still revealed a trace of restraint. His behavior, once known to the Northern Liao royal court, may be punished as rebellious and exterminated.

Gao Senqi frowned and thought about it, but he didn't show much surprise. He said: "Yunzhou has a commerce and trade bureau, it seems that as long as it is a profitable business, they are willing to do it, although Yunzhou has recovered very rapidly, but after all, there is a war almost every year, and there is indeed a lack of money." However, can Yunzhou agree to accompany us to act? Knowing that we won't attack, if they don't react in any way, I'm afraid those guys in the DPRK will immediately find out that something is wrong, and then our Gao family will be unlucky. ”

"Hmph," Gao Pei said coldly, "It's all about disaster, do you still care about this?" If we can break Dongping, maybe our Northern Liao will be able to have a few more years of national fortune to plot. If you can defend yourself, you may still have the opportunity to make great efforts. But where is it so simple to break Dongping? If we can't take Beining Pass, our Northern Liao will always be a passive situation against Dongping. This side of Yunzhou...... It could be a breakthrough, more likely a new threat. However, if I only had the Flying Tiger Battalion in my hands, I would never rush into war with Yunzhou. I need time, in fact, Yunzhou needs it too. That's why Yunzhou might agree to put on a nervous posture, but not go to war. Yunzhou has the confidence to defeat our side in one fell swoop in a few years, and on the other hand, why don't I have the confidence to build another strong force to restrain the Yunzhou army? Their fifty battalions were already the limit of the military strength that Yunzhou could support. But how many can be used to attack Northern Liao at that time? Lakh? Estimates have come to an end. At that time, it is not yet known who will kill the deer. You just go to Ye Tao, even if he doesn't promise this, I'm afraid there won't be any big battles for at least a while. Moreover, you have to take a good look, what kind of person is Ye Tao? What kind of people are the generals like Dai Yun and Chi Lei around him...... and with them, there will be a war. ”

Gao Senqi nodded and said, "The child will take care of it." Then I'll make arrangements and leave tomorrow. ”

Gao Pei nodded and said, "Well, be careful yourself." Let you do this, I can rest assured. This trip is no different, as long as you remember not to do a battle of will. ”

After Gao Senqi left, Gao Pei stared at the huge map hanging on the wall and was stunned for a while. On the map, there are only general movements of mountains and rivers, and markers of different colors and shapes are nailed to them to indicate the location of each army. This kind of map marking method is still passed from the marching chess system of the Yi Zhan Building, and is now being learned and used in almost any army, so that all the military information can be seen at a glance. Make the vast battlefield really look like a chess game.

Gao Pei's eyes were fixed on the current position of the Flying Tiger Banner. I was thinking about whether I wanted to continue to increase troops to the front? Will your intentions be understood by both parties? Or is it a misunderstanding on both sides? …… After thinking about it for a while, Gao Pei still called the sergeant and ordered the Flying Tiger Battalion to go forward one hundred and twenty miles, approaching the buffer zone of tacit understanding between the two sides. Moreover, the Flying Tiger Battalion will have sufficient operational support. If the Yunzhou side is willing to tacitly agree with the Western Route Army, the Flying Tiger Battalion will slowly retreat, and if this is not the case, then the Flying Tiger Battalion will ensure that the rest of its troops will not suffer heavy losses due to Yunzhou's brazen attack.