On the twenty-seventh day of the first month, the Flying Fox Left Defenders went north to select the front army under the command of Shi Chen Rui, the left chief of the alliance, and Wang Bo, the head of the left side of the alliance, and successfully arrived in Fangcheng.

At the same time, Shi Hanyao, the right chief of the alliance, and Hao Xiaode and Sun Xuanya, the commanders of the two roads before and after the alliance, led more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians to cross the Great Wall of Gubeikou and enter Anzhou safely.

At the same time, the right Sima Xiangtai Wuyang, Han Shou, the head of the Alliance's Xiao Cavalry Army, and Huo Xiaohan, the head of the Alliance's Right Route Army, also led the rear army into Anle County, which was less than 200 miles away from Gubeikou.

Li Fengyun, Li Zixiong, Yuan An and other high-level members of the alliance went out of the city early and greeted them ceremoniously.

After half a year, the two armies met, and the soldiers were excited and thunderous.

That night, Li Fengyun and Chen Rui talked to each other, telling each other about the expedition in the past six months, and then the topic turned to the future of the alliance. Under the current situation, Chen Rui's greatest concern is, of course, what the alliance will do after Anton is included in the territory of Middle-earth.

"This year's goal is to participate in the Third Eastern Crusade and win the victory of the expedition to Goguryeo." Li Fengyun said succinctly, "Next year's goal is to participate in the Great Civil War, do everything possible to defeat the Turks, and win the Civil War at any cost." The future of the alliance depends entirely on the victory or defeat of this war, if this battle is won, the future of the alliance is the division of feudal towns, on the contrary, if this battle is lost, the world is in chaos, Middle-earth is once again divided and war, and the future of the alliance is to compete for hegemony. ”

Chen Rui was surprised, although he heard Li Fengyun predict more than once that the Great War between the North and the South was about to explode, but it was the first time he heard Li Fengyun say with great certainty that the Great War would break out next year, "The Eastern Capital will be the Northern Expedition next year?" Is there any exact news on this? ”

Li Fengyun pondered for a moment, and then gave a detailed account of the current situation in the western soil, the crisis in Longxi, the rebellion in Guanzhong, the break between Xijing and the eastern capital, and the deteriorating domestic situation.

Under this predicament of internal and external troubles, the Holy Lord and the Central Committee should end the foreign expedition, stabilize the political situation, and recuperate, but the situation is not up to others, first of all, politically, the Holy Lord and the reformers must defend the centralized reform, and cannot compromise and retreat to the conservatives, as a result, the Eastern Capital and Xijing will fight, and the domestic situation will deteriorate sharply, and there is no possibility of saving and reversing it in the short term; Secondly, in terms of national defense, because the Holy Lord and the center implemented an active defense strategy before, took the initiative to conquer the outside world, and successively went west and east, so that the Turks in the east and west felt a serious existential threat and had to prepare for the Civil War, which led to the Civil War roaring, like an arrow on the bow, and had to be, just at this moment Middle-earth fell into the dilemma of internal and external troubles, and gave the Turks a good opportunity to invade the south, so the real situation now is that it is not Middle-earth that is eager to go north, but the Turks who are eager to invade. Middle-earth had no choice but to passively face the battle, and even if it was difficult, it had to rush forward.

In the end, Li Fengyun returned Pei Shiju from his westward journey, and then rushed to Anton non-stop to explain the matter. Pei Shiju's westward journey did bear fruit, but the question is, is the Western Turks trustworthy? Will the promises of the Western Turks be fulfilled? The answer is obvious, Pei Shili himself does not believe it, so he rushed to Anton regardless of the arrival of the New Year, and even spent Chinese New Year's Eve in the carriage, which shows that Pei Shili is anxious and anxious to achieve Anton's ambition.

What Li Fengyun said, Chen Rui can understand, but what he can't understand is that since the situation is so deteriorating and the Civil War is about to break out, Pei Shiju will go to Anton in person to seek the overall situation, why do the Holy Lord and the Central Center still want to launch the Third Eastern Crusade? Why can't we end the Eastern Crusade and concentrate all our national resources on preparations for the Civil War?

Chen Rui raised his own questions.

"Authoritarian." Li Fengyun said solemnly.

Two simple words are enough to explain the current political predicament of the Holy Lord, the Central Hub, and the Eastern Capital.

Last year, the First Eastern Crusade was defeated, and nearly 200,000 elites of the Wei Mansion were buried in Sashui, which dealt a heavy blow to the Holy Lord and the center, and the authority of the Eastern Capital began to collapse. And this collapse in the critical moment of reform and conservative fierce fighting, it is irretrievable, so this year Yang Xuangan mutiny, resulting in the second Eastern Crusade fell short, at the same time Tuyuhun crazy counterattack, the Western Turks swept through the Western Regions, the Northwest Army was defeated and retreated, and the Middle Earth lost five counties in one go, which is a real shame, compared to the blow caused by Yang Xuangan's mutiny to the Eastern Capital, the loss of the vast territory of the five counties is a fatal blow to the Holy Lord and the center, and the authority of the Eastern Capital collapsed.

In the spring of the fifth year of the Great Cause, the Western Expedition was carried out, the Tuguhun was destroyed, the Western Regions were subjugated, and the five counties of Xinjiang were opened, which brought great glory and martial arts to the Holy Lord and the center, and the authority of the newly built Eastern Capital also reached a new peak, but the good times did not last long, only more than four years later, last year, that is, in the autumn of the ninth year of the Great Cause, these five counties were gained and lost, and the glory became a shame, and the martial arts of the opening of the frontier disappeared, and the authority of the Eastern Capital, which was established on the martial arts of the opening of the frontier, also overturned in an instant, which directly pushed the holy lord and the center into the bottomless abyss.

For the Holy Lord and the Center, the premise of turning the tide is that Supreme Authority is required, and without Authority, it is impossible to command the world, and of course, there is no way to save the crisis, so when Anton changed drastically, the Holy Lord and the Center immediately went all out to appease them, trying to save the authority and rebuild the supreme authority with the martial arts of Anton.

However, Anton was not defeated by the Middle-earth Guards, and the decision to attack Anton was not made by the Holy Lord and the center, so even if the appeasement is successful, even if he gets the martial arts of opening up Anton, this martial art is not very large, and the effect that can be waved is also limited, which can prevent the continuous fall of authority, but it will definitely not be able to restore the authority to the height before the fall. If the authoritarian power is insufficient, it will definitely not be able to control Xijing, solve the struggle between the two capitals, stabilize the domestic political situation, and cannot ensure the victory of the Civil War, and the Civil War is the last "life-saving straw" of the Holy Lord and the center.

What to do? Under the current situation, the only way is to be ashamed, and to get up from where you fall, although the merits and demerits are offset and there is no martial arts to be gained, but it is still helpful to repair and restore the central authority.

Now the biggest shame of the Holy Lord and the center is to lose the five counties of the Western Frontier, if you want to be ashamed, you have to go west again and recapture the five counties, but this is impossible, first the external conditions are not available, the Western Turks and Tiele were both defeated, they were too busy to take care of themselves, and they couldn't take care of Tuyuhun and the Western Regions at all, and as a result, they gave the Middle Earth the opportunity to expand their territory, and now the Western Turks have already defeated Tiele and actually control the Western Regions, which can give Tuyuhun strong support; Secondly, the internal conditions are not available, the political situation in Liangjing was stable, the domestic situation was good, the national strength was strong, and the soldiers were sufficient, and now the two capitals have broken up, domestic rebellions have arisen repeatedly, and the national strength has been greatly damaged due to the continuous defeat of the Eastern Expedition, and the Weifu Army has killed nearly 200,000 elites on the battlefield of the Eastern Expedition, and the vitality has been greatly damaged; Again, time does not allow, the difficulty of the Western Expedition is far greater than that of the Eastern Expedition, it requires careful preparation, and it will not work at all without two or three years, but the Turks will not give Middle-earth such a long time, and the Turks will not miss the opportunity while you are sick and want your life.

In this way, the Holy Lord and the Central Pivot had no choice but to continue the Eastern Crusade and use the destruction of Goguryeo to wash away the shame of their two defeats on the Eastern Expedition battlefield. Now the Eastern Expedition army is in Liaodong, and the grain and grass weapons prepared for the Eastern Expedition are also hoarded in Youyan, Liaoxi and Liaodong and other places, and Goguryeo has been dying after two years of war.

Chen Rui finally saw clearly the political predicament of the Holy Lord and the center.

If you think about it, no matter who is in the position of the Holy Lord, there is no good way to solve the problem, even if you compromise with the conservatives, or even terminate the centralized reform, liquidate the reformers, and drive the reformers out of the court, what will be the final result? The end result is that the Holy Lord has finished playing with himself, and even the country has perished. After all, after the reunification of China and Earth, the national strength is strong, and the dead camel is bigger than the horse, as long as they stick to the Great Wall in the Civil War, keep the enemy out of the country, do not defeat the battle, do not let the authority suffer another fatal blow, do not shake the foundation of the national Zuo, and safely survive the biggest crisis in front of them, the Holy Lord and the reformers will be able to free up their hands to concentrate on solving the "internal troubles", and then what if the civil war breaks out? As long as there is no external trouble, no predicament of being attacked on the back of the enemy, and no need to fight on two fronts, the Holy Lord and the reformers have nothing to fear.

"We participate in the Third Crusade, which is very risky, and we may not be able to return." Chen Rui looked at Li Fengyun and said worriedly, "What countermeasures does Duke Ming have?" ”

Li Fengyun thought for a moment and asked, "In your opinion, the third Eastern Crusade is in your hands?" ”

"Of course." Chen Rui said without thinking, but when he saw Li Fengyun's serious face, he immediately thought of Yang Xuangan's mutiny, the crisis in Western Xinjiang, Xiang Haiming's proclamation of emperor in Guanzhong, and Liu Yuanjin's founding in Jiangnan, he suddenly realized that he was too optimistic, if the deterioration of the domestic situation this year is far greater than last year, the Third Eastern Crusade may not have started yet, and the expeditionary army will embark on the way home.

"Of course it's not that optimistic." Chen Rui immediately changed his words, "What is Ming Gong's prediction for the Third Eastern Crusade?" ”

"It's not optimistic." Li Fengyun said, "In a certain view, the situation has unfolded to this day, from the central government to the Weifu, from the two capitals to the localities, is moving out of control, and those with ill intentions are ready to move, so the Third Crusade, which seems to be in the hands of victory, has actually not yet begun, and is already in partial control. ”

"You mean...... Is there a problem within the Crusade army? Chen Rui will be skeptical. The credit at your fingertips, the opportunity to take revenge, if you miss it because of internal strife, wouldn't you regret it for life? The soldiers of the Wei Mansion, especially the middle and senior officers of the Wei Mansion, don't they have this awareness? If the interests of individuals and groups are put above the interests of Middle-earth at critical moments, would we not put the cart before the horse? The failure of the Third Crusade is not good for anyone, is it necessary to do anything about the burning of jade?

Li Fengyun sneered and asked, "The middle and senior officers of the Wei Mansion, are there more people in Guanlong or more people in Shandong and Jiangzuo?" ”

"Guanlongren." Chen Rui replied.

"Guanlong officers, are there more people in Guanzhong, or are there more people in Longyou?"

"Longyouren." Chen Rui realized.

"Now Xijing and Dongdu have torn their faces, and there is a big fight, and the battlefield has expanded from the court, from the central government to the Twelve Wei Mansions, from Gyeonggi to the localities, from Guanlong to Shandong and Jiangzuo, everywhere." Li Fengyun shook his head and smiled bitterly, "The army loyal to the Holy Lord, whether it is the horse army, the infantry army or the water army, its elite was lost in the First Eastern Crusade, which directly led to the Second Eastern Crusade being blocked under the Liaodong city of Goguryeo. There are no problems at all with the expeditionary force itself? ”

"Ming Gong's words are reasonable." Chen Rui nodded again and again, thinking deeply, "In this way, after the start of the Third Eastern Crusade, even if the expeditionary force conquers Liaodong City, I am afraid that it will be blocked by the Black Bone City or Yalu Water, and it will be difficult to kill under the city of Pyongyang before the rainy season and win enough time to attack." ”

"No......" Li Fengyun shook his hand, "You're still too optimistic." ”

Chen Rui couldn't believe it, "Could it be that the situation is worse than we imagined?" ”

"Although some of the great generals and generals in the Wei Mansion are the cronies of the Holy Lord, the real core force in the Wei Mansion is the Eagle Yang Lang General and the Eagle Strike Lang General of the Ying Yang Mansion." Li Fengyun sighed, "There are thousands of Eagle Yang Lang generals and Eagle Strike Lang generals in the Wei Mansion, how many of them are loyal to the Holy Lord?" They are far away from the Holy Lord, the so-called loyalty to the Holy Lord is just a joke, and their true loyalty is only to their own family and their benefactors. Therefore, according to a certain estimate, after the start of the Third Eastern Crusade, the only sailors who faithfully carried out the orders of the Holy Lord were Laihu'er and Zhou Fashang, and it was undoubtedly a fool's dream to count on other armies to kill under the city of Pyongyang. ”

Chen Rui understood, but he was also more worried, "If the situation is so bad, wouldn't it be a disaster for us to participate in the Third Crusade?" ”

"No," Li Fengyun shook his hand again, "Because ......of this, we must do our best to participate in the Third Eastern Crusade and win our own exaltation by destroying Goguryeo." This is a gift from heaven, a great opportunity from heaven that should not be missed. ”

When Chen Rui heard this, his spirits were lifted, and he asked eagerly, "What's the solution?" ”

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