On the thirtieth day of the first month, Li Fengyun was ready to rush to the Suotou waterfront with the high-level of the alliance to welcome more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians going north, but at this moment, Pei Xuanji came in a hurry, Pei Shiju was urgently called, and the Holy Lord came to give an edict.

Li Fengyun rushed to the pavilion to meet Pei Shiju. Pei Shiju did not shy away from it, and directly took out the Holy Lord's edict and let Li Fengyun see it for himself.

The Holy Lord accepted Pei Shiju's suggestion and agreed that Li Pingyuan should be the supreme commander of Anton's army, but the Holy Lord warned Pei Shiju that because the Holy Lord and the central center had already made a decision to order the King of Qi to lead the army to participate in the Third Eastern Crusade, so if there were unforeseen changes related to the King of Qi and the White Thief on the battlefield of the Eastern Crusade, Anton would bear full responsibility.

Li Fengyun sighed secretly, and the heart that had been hanging high could finally be put down.

So far, Li Fengyun's goal has been achieved, he tried his best to do everything, and finally won Anton's military power as he wished, but this is conditional, and the condition is Pei Shiju's political life, if Li Pingyuan and Anton's army have any unscrupulous measures that endanger the interests of the Holy Lord, the center, and even Middle-earth, Pei Shiju and his subordinate forces will pay a huge, incalculable and even annihilated army.

Why did Pei Shiju accept Li Fengyun's coercion to make such a sacrifice?

Li Fengyun is clear at a glance, Pei Shiju is not to release his past suspicions for personal feelings, nor to compensate for the mistake of resolutely abandoning Li Pingyuan back then, but to win the Civil War, as long as Middle-earth holds the defense line of the Great Wall in the current predicament, and even defeats the invasion of the Turks, it can ensure that the interests of Middle-earth are not lost, protect the great cause of the unification of Middle-earth, and protect thousands of Middle-earth civilians from being destroyed, so that the Holy Lord and the center can reverse the crisis and turn the tide, and he Pei Shiju can also protect his vested interests.

Of course, as for the life and death of Li Pingyuan and Anton's army, it is not in Pei Shiju's consideration. What was Middle-earth trying to appease Anton? What is the purpose of the Holy Lord and the Central Compromise with the rebels out of the Fortress? What is Pei Shiju bowing his head to Li Pingyuan for? Isn't it just to eat dry and squeeze out this emerging power? Therefore, if Li Pingyuan and Anton's army died on the battlefield of the Great War of the North and South, it would be a well-deserved death, which would be good for everyone, on the contrary, in the future, it would be necessary to hide all the birds and hide the bow, and the rabbits and dogs would be cooked, and the autumn queen must settle accounts, not only the Holy Lord and the center must be liquidated, but he Pei Shiju must also be liquidated, otherwise how to destroy the "political noose" around his neck?

Pei Xuanji saw that Li Fengyun's face was expressionless and indifferent, and the expected picture of Li Fengyun being ecstatic, kowtowing and bowing, grateful, and his master and apprentice did not appear, which made him very surprised, angry, and unbelievable. His own adults made such a huge sacrifice, and Li Fengyun didn't even have a word of thanks, how could it be reasonable!

"This still doesn't satisfy your **?" Pei Xuanji's face was like frost, and he said coldly unabashedly, "You still want to be the king of the desert?" ”

Li Fengyun glanced at him indifferently, ignored him, and then bowed to Pei Shiju, who was sitting on the throne, and said calmly, "A certain meeting will fulfill its promise, and I hope that Ming Gong can also keep his promise." ”

"Keeping promises?" Pei Xuanji pointed at Li Fengyun and asked sharply, "What promise can you keep?" Do you know what promises you want to make in the future? ”

Li Fengyun looked at Pei Shiju. Pei Shiju's expression was indifferent and he didn't say a word.

Li Fengyun turned his head to look at Pei Xuanji, and said word by word, "XX has never betrayed Middle-earth, even if XX is abandoned by Middle-earth, he has no regrets and swears to repay him to death." ”

"You didn't betray Middle-earth?" Pei Xuanji laughed angrily, "What is your identity now?" You are a white thief, the first thief in Middle-earth, and you dare to say that you did not betray Middle-earth? ”

"So-and-so has never betrayed Middle-earth." Li Fengyun ignored Pei Xuanji, but looked at Pei Shiju again, stared at Pei Shiju's eyes, and said solemnly, "A certain person was loyal to Middle-earth in the past, is loyal to Middle-earth now, and will be loyal to Middle-earth in the future." ”

Pei Xuanji was furious, and just wanted to say something to scold, but when he saw Pei Shiju nodding lightly, he actually responded to Li Fengyun's words, and he was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly closed his mouth again.

Pei Shiju pondered for a moment and asked, "If you are summoned to the east, do you do your best?" ”

Li Fengyun bowed down and responded, "As long as Ming Gong personally sits in Anton, he will do his best." ”

"Do your best?" Pei Shiju was questioning.

Li Fengyun smiled slightly, "An army of 100,000 is on an expedition to Goguryeo." ”

"An army of 100,000?" Pei Xuanji was taken aback, and didn't believe it at all, "You dare to make a promise?" ”

Pei Shiju shook his hand at Pei Xuanji, signaling him to be calm for a while, "A certain can ensure Anton's safety, but a certain must ensure the victory of the Great Northern War, so you give a certain reason." ”

Obviously, Pei Shiju did not agree with Andong's 100,000-strong army expedition to Goguryeo, but Li Fengyun could not talk nonsense, there must be a mystery in this.

Li Fengyun asked without hesitation, "May I ask Ming Gong, is the purpose of the Holy Initiative Third Eastern Crusade the purpose of destroying Goguryeo, or is it the purpose of forcing Goguryeo to submit by force?" ”

Pei Shiju suddenly understood, and Pei Xuanji also had an epiphany.

For the sake of shame, in order to gain face, and in order to save authority, of course the Holy Lord wants to destroy Goguryeo, but what the Holy Lord wants to get, he will definitely be able to get?

The central government has not yet been able to form a decision on the Third Crusade, and there are many obstacles, why? Of course, the Holy Lord can also "Yiyantang", but without the support of the center, from the Central Government Office, the Twelve Wei Mansion to the local government office, and the Yingyang Mansion, if everyone has a tacit understanding to obey the yang and the yin, obstruct and hinder, or even put a knife in the back, the Third Crusade will definitely end in failure, and at that time the Holy Lord will be shooting himself in the foot and bringing disaster upon himself.

Therefore, the Third Crusade must be decided by the center, and the opponents in the center will not "fight to the end" with the Holy Lord, and will make concessions sooner or later, but as long as it drags on until March, even if the Third Crusade is decided, it will be difficult to implement, the reason is very simple, it is too late. The Eastern Expedition, whether it is the conscription of troops and people, or the transportation of grain, grass and weapons, will take time, and when everything is ready, the best time to attack will be missed, and as long as the expeditionary force fails to cross the Yalu River and rush to the city of Pyongyang before the rainy season arrives, then it will not be possible to have enough time to attack Pyongyang, so as long as the Goguryeo people hold on until winter and hold on until the heavy snow comes, they will once again have the last laugh, and the authority of the Holy Lord and the center will once again suffer a heavy blow.

It is now the end of the first month, and the center has not yet made a decision on the Third Crusade, but the situation is already very clear, and the results of the Third Crusade are already very unoptimistic. Of course, there is also a third option, that is, to retreat and insist on the Third Crusade, but to change the purpose of the Eastern Crusade, that is, to find a step for Middle-earth and Goguryeo to shake hands and make peace, Goguryeo took the initiative to sue for peace and continued to submit to Middle-earth, while Middle-earth swallowed his anger and accepted Goguryeo's "surrender" in humiliation. From the Holy Lord's point of view, it is better to get this result than to return to the East with the shame of the defeat of the Eastern Crusade.

Now Li Fengyun told Pei Shiju that he was going to go on an expedition to Goguryeo with an army of 100,000 and to destroy Goguryeo, so he was not just going to do his best, but to save the authority of the Holy Lord and the center at any cost. Once this became a fact, Andong's army single-handedly destroyed Goguryeo, and not only the Holy Lord and the central reformers benefited, but also Li Pingyuan and Andong, and more importantly, this matter would effectively improve the mistrust between the Holy Lord, the central reformers, and Li Pingyuan, which obviously helped Middle-earth to increase its chances of victory in the Civil War.

"Good." A slight smile appeared on Pei Shiju's face, "What do you want?" ”

"If Ming Gong is appointed as the protector of Anton, please give Ming Gong the greatest trust, and Ming Gong will live up to Ming Gong's expectations and shed blood for Middle-earth."

＝

On the first day of the second lunar month, Han Yao, Li Min, Hao Xiaode, Liu Heimin, Sun Xuanya and other alliance commanders led more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians to Fangcheng and celebrated in the city.

At the same time, Zhen Baoche, Shentai Wuyang, Huo Xiaohan, Han Shou and others led the guard corps to cross the Gubeikou and smoothly enter Anzhou.

At this point, the Flying Fox left behind the army and civilians to get out of the fortress safely, and completed the northward transfer without danger, and successfully joined the main army of the alliance that fought in the early stage, and the strength of the alliance reached a new level.

That night, the high-level leaders of the alliance gathered in the Grand Governor's Mansion for a military discussion.

Chen Rui specifically described the difficulties of the Flying Fox garrison in the past six months, Yuan An gave a detailed account of the main force of the alliance to go out of the expedition, and Yang Gongdao gave a detailed account of the entire process of the return negotiations.

Then Li Fengyun took Anton as the fulcrum and the north-south confrontation as the main line, conducted an all-round analysis of the current general trend of the world, and then deduced the trend of future development on this basis, and made a bold prediction that the Civil War is very likely to explode in the spring and summer of next year, so the alliance seems to have grown stronger and has a foothold, but in fact, the existential crisis it is facing has not only not been slowed down, but has become more serious.

In the past, whether it was in Qilu or Youyan, whether in Mengshan or Flying Fox, there was only one enemy of the alliance, the government, now out of the fortress, occupying Anton, it seems that the sky is high and the birds can fly, and they can fly freely, but when they look around, the environment is more bad, and there are more enemies, not only the official government in the Great Wall, but also the Turks in the desert, and even the Donghu tribes who have already surrendered to the vassals, as well as the Goguryeo and the Yan in the Far East are all potential or open enemies, and they are attacked on all sides.

What to do? Again, strength determines everything, the strength of the alliance is still too weak, and we must seize the opportunity to desperately speed up our own development, otherwise once the Civil War breaks out, the weak alliance will definitely be swept away by a huge storm.

"This is the fundamental reason why we accept the conditions of the Eastern Capital and participate in the Third Eastern Crusade." Li Fengyun waved his hand and said solemnly, "Only by capturing Pyongyang and destroying Goguryeo can we maximize our strength in the shortest possible time." ”

Killing Goguryeo, sacking Goguryeo, and using Goguryeo to fatten Anton is Li Fengyun's wishful thinking.

＝