On March 25, Shang Shuling, Henan Yin, Liaodong Comfort Ambassador, and Yang Hui, the King of Qi, led an army to Huaiyuan Town.

Yu Wenshu, Guo Rong, Li Jing, Xue Shixiong, and Cui Hongsheng five generals jointly greeted them.

According to the edict of the Holy Lord, the official position of the King of Qi in the Eastern Expedition Command is the ambassador of Liaodong, and he actually assumes the responsibility of supervising the army, and participates in confidential information and decision-making, and the King of Qi also has the right to command the army and the battlefield command, so that in the case that the Holy Lord is not in charge in person, the distribution of power in the Eastern Expeditionary Headquarters is complicated, which makes the chief and deputy commanders of the expeditionary force, Yu Wenshu and Guo Rong, have a headache and feel tricky.

The King of Qi has a noble status, is the only prince of the Holy Lord, although he has not been able to sit in the position of the prince, but the inside story of the imperial battle is only known to the high-level power, in the eyes of most people, the King of Qi is the crown prince, is the future emperor of Middle-earth, and now he is promoted to the inner history order because of his meritorious service in opening up the territory of Anton, and entering the core layer of the center, it is obvious that the Holy Lord is deliberately cultivating, and the message conveyed to the outside world is that the Holy Lord is paving the way for him to enter the East Palace, and when the time is ripe, he will definitely soar into the sky, under one person, above ten thousand people.

The goal of the king of Qi is the same, he wants to enter the East Palace, to become the king of Middle-earth, for this he wants to win the trust and respect of his father, but three feet of freezing, not a day of cold, if you want to resolve the contradictions and conflicts between father and son, not only need time, but also need to use facts to prove your infinite loyalty to the country and father, and the success of opening up Anton has pointed him to a path, that is, to make contributions on the battlefield, sacrifice life and death for the country, and solve problems for his father, so winning the third crusade has become the peak that King Qi must conquer, can only succeed and not fail.

King Qi came ambitiously, but he was not blindly arrogant, and he did not dare to get carried away, major political setbacks, as well as the embarrassing situation in the past few years, "left rush and right rush", so that he was tempered, and he grew up rapidly in all aspects, which can be seen from his decisive abandonment of the United Flying Fox rebels to seize control of Yanbei, which can be seen from his political maturity.

From the standpoint of the King of Qi, if he cooperates with Li Fengyun and the Flying Fox rebels in Anzhou, forming a tripartite echo inside and outside the Great Wall, in order to coerce the Holy Lord and the center to make compromises and concessions, and openly embark on the road of confrontation with the Holy Lord, it is not himself who actually benefits, but the group of ill-intentioned people who carry his banner and do bad things, his future is still uncertain, and even more pessimistic. Li Fengyun's "painting cake" is very likely to be poison, not only can not "satisfy hunger," but will kill him; in that case, why should he seek benefits for those with ill intentions by harming the great interests of the country and even endangering the great cause of reunification?

What Li Fengyun, Li Zixiong, and Li Hun want to seek, and what they think is profitable is not necessarily what the king of Qi needs, and what is beneficial to the king of Qi, so the countermeasures taken by the two on the same matter are completely different.

The same is true in the matter of the Eastern Crusade, it seems that everyone has the same interests and wants to win the victory of the Eastern Crusade, but what the King of Qi seeks is the destruction of Goguryeo, the merit of opening up the territory and expanding the territory, and his own interests, so he will do whatever it takes, of course, the interests of others are sacrificed; What Yuwenshu and Guo Rong sought was to win the maximum result at the minimum cost, and it was not important whether to destroy Goguryeo, the important thing was to ensure that the hegemony of the Far East obtained by the three-year Eastern Crusade was the interest of the national Zuo, so this battle only required to force Goguryeo to surrender, and there was no need to fight bloodied and lose troops, after all, the Third Eastern Crusade was a political need, and it was impossible to break out, and the upcoming Civil War was a military necessity, and it was a war that exhausted the national strength, so it was necessary to preserve the existing strength of the defense to the greatest extent; As for Li Jing, Xue Shixiong and Cui Hongsheng, as the commanders of the Wei Mansion and wealthy nobles, they want to have the interests of both the military and the family, so their position is conservative, not seeking merit, but seeking no fault, it is best to destroy Goguryeo, if the conditions are not met, then retreat to the next best and be undefeated.

It was precisely because of the different positions and interests of all sides on the Eastern Crusade that the high-level leaders of the High Command once again had a fierce debate on the strategy of attack.

After listening carefully to the preparations for the Eastern Expedition and the attack strategy initially drawn up by the General Command, King Qi immediately questioned, "Where is the Anton Army?" Where is Li Pingyuan? Why is there no Andong Army in your attack deployment? ”

Yu Wenshu and Guo Rong were expressionless. Li Jing and Xue Shixiong's expressions were grim, and their eyes were fierce. Cui Hongsheng's eyes wandered, not knowing what to think.

King Qi knew the true identity of the white-haired thief, and because of this, he was persuaded by Li Zixiong and Wei Fusi to cooperate with the secret, and as a result, in a short period of time, he got the rich reward he needed, however, this return was not in the interests of Li Fengyun and ran counter to Li Fengyun's expectations, so the two "parted ways", Li Fengyun did not want to be dragged down by King Qi, and King Qi did not want to be coerced by Li Fengyun, and the secret cooperation between the two was immediately suspended.

However, the Holy Lord didn't know that the two had "parted ways", and even if he knew, he didn't believe it, so in order to prevent trouble, it was natural to find ways to hit the two, and this was one of the important reasons why the Holy Lord ordered King Qi and Li Pingyuan to participate in the Third Eastern Crusade.

Of course, the King of Qi is clear about this, his countermeasures are very simple, act as the vanguard of the attack on Li Pingyuan, as long as Li Pingyuan is severely damaged or even eliminated, he not only helps the Holy Lord to eradicate the hidden dangers, but also proves his loyalty to the Holy Lord, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

It's just that the facts in front of him tell him that his wish may be frustrated, and the Eastern Expedition Command is not willing to accept Anton's army at all, and even in the deployment of the attack, it has not considered Anton's army, what does this mean? It shows that Anton's army may not come to Huaiyuan Town.

Who is Li Pingyuan? Turning his hands into clouds and covering his hands into rain, even if such a character jumps into the trap of the Eastern Expedition battlefield, he will leave a way out, and now the Eastern Expedition Command has openly stated that it does not welcome Anton's army, and will even set up obstacles in many aspects such as grain and grass, doesn't this just give Li Pingyuan an excuse not to be delayed? And what is even more serious is that if the Third Crusade is affected because of the delay of Anton's army, won't the high command shoot itself in the foot and bring disaster upon itself?

King Qi looked at Yuwenshu, waiting for the commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Army to answer.

Yuwen Shu is not good to answer, although he is the commander of the Eastern Expedition army, the King of Qi is just the Liaodong consolation envoy who acts as the supervisor of the army, and he is subordinate to the Eastern Expedition Command, but the identity of the King of Qi is too noble, and the King of Qi is now also the nominal internal history order, one of the most powerful rulers in the center, and his identity and official title are higher than Yuwenshu, so Yuwenshu has no choice but to raise the King of Qi. Power can be withheld, but no authority is given in rituals.

"King, as of today, we have not heard any news from the Anton Army." Yu Wenshu replied calmly, "We don't know where Andong Jun is now?" I don't know where Li Pingyuan is now? We also know when they will arrive in Huaiyuan Town, but we are in full swing to prepare for the attack, and we must not make the slightest mistake before the attack, so we must not put the uncertain variable of the Anton Army into the attack deployment, so as not to delay the fighter plane and delay the major event. ”

King Qi secretly sneered and continued to ask, "Gu wants to know, when do you plan to cross the river to attack?" ”

"If all goes well, the army will be able to cross the river and march east in mid-April." Yuwen Shu glanced at King Qi, paused for a moment, and added, "Extrapolating from the time, the Holy Lord should arrive in Beiping, and in half a month, the Holy Lord will be able to arrive in Huaiyuan." As soon as the Lord arrives, he can attack. ”

King Qi was a little surprised. If you can cross the river in mid-April and attack, there must be a mystery in this. According to his estimates, even if the Third Eastern Crusade does not need to requisition Zhu Yingyang from all over the country, and is not in a hurry to transfer grain and grass from the south of the Yangtze River, the soldiers of the expedition have also been recuperating in Liaodong for a long time, which can greatly save the preparation time, but this kind of large-scale foreign war, there are too many preparations, and the slightest negligence in any one aspect may lead to fatal consequences, so from the Holy Lord's order to the army to cross the river to attack, two months is definitely not enough, unless the goal of the Third Eastern Crusade is not to destroy Goguryeo, Instead, it was a huge offensive to coerce Goguryeo to surrender, and it was okay to be so hasty, bluffing, and not a battle.

But this is clearly not the desired outcome of the Holy Lord and the Center.

The main force of the Holy Dynasty disagreed, and the central labor division mobilized the people, and finally launched the Third Crusade, but the result was just a surrender document? If Goguryeo is not destroyed, the three-year crusade is not successfully concluded, the territory is not expanded, and the lost losses are not made up, how can the Holy Lord and the center explain to the people of the world? Goguryeo's surrender could not hide the truth of the defeat of Middle-earth, and the Holy Lord and the Center would inevitably lose their authority because of this, and finally smashed their own pots, cut off their own paths, and were defeated.

However, the core contradiction between reform and conservatism has led to a rupture between the two capitals, and this rupture has a huge impact and is rapidly undermining the great cause of the reunification of China and Turkey, and the Wei government is even more suffering.

The military was originally full of factions, but now it is even more scattered, which is reflected in the Third Eastern Crusade, that is, it does not seek merit, but seeks no fault. The military commanders were unwilling to be the sword of the Holy Lord to fight the Andong army, so as not to have a head-on conflict with the political forces led by Pei Shiju, and they were unwilling to let the Andong army rob the credit for the destruction of Goguryeo, and slapped the face of the guard, but only relying on the expeditionary army of the guard, and there was no certainty of the destruction of Goguryeo, and the slightest carelessness may lead to no success or even defeat the battle, so they were passive and conservative, and advanced by land and water, attacking from three directions, and putting on a mighty battle to coerce Goguryeo to surrender, so that the face of the defense was barely saved. As for the interests of the Holy Lord and the Center, then leave it alone.

Again, this is not in the interests of King Qi. King Qi wants to use the Third Eastern Crusade to expand his territory and create a better future for himself with his accumulated merits, how can he allow the military bosses to destroy his hope?

"Gu also wants to know, if there is no Andong 100,000 army, relying only on the existing expeditionary force, can you conquer Pyongyang and destroy Goguryeo?" King Qi was blunt and asked sharply.

Yu Wenshu's expression was cold and he didn't say a word. Guo Rong, Li Jing, Xue Shixiong, and Cui Hongsheng also looked cold and silent.

"If you don't answer, can you understand that you don't have the certainty of conquering Pyongyang and destroying Goguryeo?"

The five generals of the Weifu still did not speak.

"If you don't have a chance of winning, why are you attacking in a hurry? Why not wait for the arrival of Anton's army? ”

Yu Wenshu hesitated a little, and said with a pun, "King, as soon as the Holy Lord arrives, the attack will begin, otherwise the Wei Mansion will bear the responsibility for the delay." ”

As far as Gu knew, Li Pingyuan left Anzhou with his army on February 15 and began to march east into Liaodong. If all goes well, at the beginning of April, or by mid-April at the latest, Anton's army will be able to reach Huaiyuan without delaying the attack. ”

"King, what if Li Pingyuan doesn't go well? Can't Anton's army arrive in Huaiyuan in time? Yu Wenshu asked rhetorically.

King Qi pondered for a moment and said resolutely, "Gu immediately sent an envoy to the north, urging Li Pingyuan to hurry up and arrive in Huaiyuan in mid-April." ”

＝