"The key to whether the battle of Dajinshan is beneficial to me lies in whether the Hexi Army is determined to enter the southwest of the desert from the direction of Yiwu and give strong support to the Western Turks from the flank." Yu Shiji's face was bitter, "However, last year, the Tuyuhun counteroffensive was successful, the countries of the Western Regions defected, the Hexi Army was defeated and Shanshan, lost the city and land, and was embarrassed, all because the Western Turks launched a full-scale attack east of the Green Ridge under the pretext of attacking Tiele, and the two sides had a deep grudge, in this case, we can still expect the Hexi Army and the Western Turks to cooperate tacitly?" ”

"Didn't Honghua stay behind Li Yuan go to Dunhuang to take command?" The Holy Lord said dissatisfiedly, "Can't he even do this little thing?" ”

"Although Tang Guogong is from Longxi, compared with the Chengji Li clan in Longxi, his influence on the Northwest Army is very limited, and he can't command the Longxi Army, and he can't command the Hexi Army."

The Holy Lord's face grew gloomy.

Duan Da glanced at Yu Shiji and couldn't help but secretly slander himself. Jiang Zuoren is too shameless, don't be so direct and open when attacking opponents, right? If you hit Li Hun, Li Yuan, and the Northwest Army, and even Pei Shiju didn't let go, you weren't afraid of making public anger and becoming the target of public criticism? The Holy Lord trusts you, and he can only protect you for a while, and can he protect you for a lifetime? If you don't give yourself a way out, you have to leave a way for future generations to live, right?

"What are the possible consequences of being very unoptimistic?" The Holy Lord asked suddenly.

Yu Shiji sighed, "Wen Xigong returned from his westward journey, and he made it very clear that what he was most worried about was that the two Turks in the east and west would compromise with each other and form an alliance hand in hand. ”

"And then?" The Holy Lord asked.

"The worst outcome is that next year, the Great War of the North and the South will break out." Yu Shiji said in a heavy tone, "We have been conquering for many years, the soldiers are tired, and the national strength is depleted, which is the weakest moment, and it is also the best time for the desert captives to invade the south, and at that time, as long as the Western Turks firmly contain the Northwest Army from the west of the river, then the northern armies, mainly the Daibei Army, will have to face the crazy attack of the desert captives alone, and the situation is more unfavorable to our Middle Earth." ”

The Holy Lord's eyes turned cold, "So, the Third Crusade must be stopped immediately?" ”

Yu Shiji hurriedly shook his hand, "Holy Lord, this is just a pessimistic prediction. How the situation unfolds this year seems to depend on the outcome of the Third Eastern Crusade, but in fact it depends on the Battle of Dajinshan, the two Turkic tribes in the east and west, which are thousands of miles away, and whether or not this battle can achieve the expected results depends on the determination of the Hexi Army, and whether the Hexi Army is willing to do its best depends on Xijing's position. ”

Duan Da's back was cold, his heart was pounding, and he was amazed by Yu Shiji's invisible means of killing people.

In the bad situation of the split between the two capitals, Xijing's position is self-evident, so if you want to achieve the goal, the Holy Lord has only two ways, either put the knife on Xijing's neck and threaten him with his life, or compromise with Xijing and exchange interests, but if these two methods are to be implemented, the premise is that the Holy Lord must return to the Eastern Capital immediately, because now it is difficult for anyone except the Holy Lord to turn the tide and save the crisis of the split between the two capitals.

The Holy Lord's eyes were cold, and he was very unhappy.

Yu Shiji's words contain a pun, in fact, it is a euphemism to persuade the Holy Lord to return to Beijing, but as a close confidant of the Holy Lord, he must support the Holy Lord and must stand on the side of the Holy Lord, even if the Holy Lord is wrong. This is the difficulty of being a close minister, considering wisdom, those with low wisdom are either traitors or in different places, and only those with high wisdom can be at ease. Yu Shiji did not directly persuade the Holy Lord to return to Beijing, but warned the Holy Lord with a pessimistic forecast for the future that Xijing was a scourge and that you must immediately return to Beijing to eradicate the scourge.

"I remember that Pei Daduhu was very optimistic about the Great War between the North and the South." The Holy Lord said coldly.

Yu Shiji said quietly, "At this time and that time, the situation is constantly changing, what looks optimistic today, it may be pessimistic tomorrow." For example, Anton, which yesterday was a vassal of the Turks, today has become the territory of Middle-earth. Anton's army is the same, yesterday there were only tens of thousands of people, today it has become more than 100,000 people, in addition to the four town garrison armies, there is an expeditionary force of 100,000 people, who would have thought? Of course, this is a good thing, and the reason why Wen Xigong turned a blind eye was that he wanted to use Andong's expeditionary force to attack Goguryeo, so as to reduce the damage of other expeditionary soldiers, reduce the loss of grain and grass weapons, and reduce the loss of national strength, so as to prepare for the possible outbreak of the Great War of the North and South next year. ”

The Holy Lord's brow furrowed even deeper, "The Third Crusade cannot afford to fail. Order Yu Wenshu and Guo Rong, if the conditions are met, they will immediately attack, and if there is any delay, military law will be involved. In addition, he told them that as long as the Andong expeditionary force arrived at the battlefield in Liaodong, he would provide them with enough food, grass and weapons, and ordered them to rush to the front and kill Pyongyang directly, and if they did not obey the order, they would be severely punished. ”

Yu Shiji still wanted to speak, but the Holy Lord decisively raised his hand to stop him.

"Pass my order and march east tomorrow."

＝

March 15, Huaiyuan Town, Liaodong Base Camp.

Yu Wenshu, the general of the left Yiwei, and Guo Rong, the general of the right guard, came in the dust.

Li Jing, the general of the Right Wuwei, Xue Shixiong, the general of the Left Imperial Guard, and Cui Hongsheng, the general of the Left Wuwei, who had just arrived in Huaiyuan Town five days earlier, led the generals of the expeditionary force and the generals of the towns of Liaodong to greet them.

The welcome ceremony was very brief, and after the supreme commander of the expeditionary force, Yu Wenshu, made a mobilization for the Eastern Expedition, the meeting ended, and then there were five generals left in the tent.

Li Jing and Xue Shixiong, as the chief and deputy commanders of the Liaodong base camp, gave Yu Wenshu and Guo Rong a detailed briefing on the latest situation in the Far East, the latest developments between the enemy and us on both sides of the Liaoshui River, and the preparations for the Eastern Expedition.

The situation in the Far East was due to the successful opening of Anton in Middle Earth, Xi, Khitan and Xia and other Eastern Hu tribes subservient, Xue Shixiong led the army to patrol the border in the wilderness, and the captives of Muwei and Yan fled when they heard the wind, showing a thriving atmosphere, but this brought about an embarrassing situation, that is, the face of the Weifu was lost, and the faces of the bigwigs of the Weifu such as Yuwenshu were beaten by Pei Shiju and Li Pingyuan.

The facts are clear, the million-strong army of Weifu went east to Goguryeo, failed, and the attack for two consecutive years, the people and money were lost, and the soldiers were lost, but the result was nothing, on the contrary, Pei Shiju used the power of the secret army to raze and conquer Anton in one fell swoop, won the greatest result at the minimum cost, and built a great martial arts to expand the territory.

Comparing the two, the judgment is too great, especially after the grand event of opening up Andong is widely spread, it proves that the failure of the Eastern Crusade is not the decision-making error of the Holy Lord and the center, but the ineffective conquest of the Wei Mansion, just imagine that Pei Shiju and Li Pingyuan and others swept Anton at a very small cost, and the millions of troops of the Wei Mansion failed to destroy Goguryeo with the strength of the whole country, what does this mean? It shows that this is the problem of the Wei Mansion and the responsibility of the military, so the prestige of the Wei Mansion has been hit hard again and has plummeted.

The most fierce reaction was the expeditionary force, this face was too bad, ashamed, and humiliated, shameless to see the Jiangdong fathers, no face to see the ancestors under Jiuquan, up to Li Jing, Xue Shixiong and other generals, down to ordinary guards, and even the soldiers and craftsmen, all held their stomachs, vowed to capture Pyongyang, to slaughter Goguryeo, to wash away the shame of the defense of the palace, to wash away the shame of the expeditionary force.

This raises a new problem, one that is bound to be a serious blow to the morale of the army.

Anton's army is coming, 100,000 Anton's army, and the number of expeditionary forces in the Liaodong base camp is basically the same, and it also comes with the prestige of opening up Anton, which will inevitably cause heavy pressure on the soldiers of the Weifu, in this unfavorable situation, if the Eastern Expedition Command orders the Andong army to be the front, so that the Andong army rushes to the front, it is foreseeable that the morale of the expeditionary force will be fatally hit, the reason is very simple, the soldiers will decide accordingly that now not only the Holy Lord and the center do not believe in them, even the commanders of the Weifu do not believe in them, What else can they do? Once they fall into despair, give up on themselves, have low morale, and lose the morale of the army, how can this battle be fought?

Yu Wenshu realized that the problem was serious, weighed it for a long time, and decided to tell the truth, the Third Crusade could not afford mistakes, and the decision-making level of the Command Department must be highly unified.

"I can understand your feelings, and I can also understand the expectations of the soldiers for the Third Crusade, but ......" Yuwen Shu changed his words and said in a low tone, "The biggest crisis we are facing at present is the Civil War, and in order to win the Civil War, we must not only stabilize the domestic situation, but also ensure the combat effectiveness of the Expeditionary Force, that is, the expeditionary force can no longer have major losses." ”

After a pause, Yu Wenshu continued, "From the standpoint of the center, the Third Eastern Crusade is not for military victory, or in other words, military victory is secondary, the important thing is to use the final victory of the Eastern Crusade to consolidate and strengthen the absolute control of the Eastern Capital over the government, only in this way can we effectively alleviate the crisis in the two capitals and concentrate on the Great War between the North and the South." ”

Li Jing had an understanding, but he had an upright temperament, and his heart was clogged and unhappy, so he asked, "Duke Xu, the ultimate goal of the Third Eastern Crusade is to overwhelm the territory with large troops and coerce Goguryeo to surrender by force, or do you do everything to destroy Goguryeo?" ”

Yu Wenshu was a little unhappy, and said coldly, "So-and-so has made it very clear. ”

Li Jing was unrelenting, "With all due respect, if the goal of the Third Crusade is only to coerce Goguryeo to surrender, what is the difference between this and the failure of the Eastern Crusade?" Self-deception? ”

Yu Wenshu was angry, his eyes were cold, "So-and-so said, our biggest crisis is the Civil War. ”

"In that case, why the Third Crusade?" Li Jing asked angrily, "Wouldn't it be better to simply admit the failure of the Eastern Crusade, move to the north, and prepare for war with all your might?" ”

Yuwen Shu held back his anger and shook his hand at Li Jing, "Hua Gong, you have a complaint, you understand, but this is the will of the Holy Lord, the central decision, you and I, as subordinates, have no other way but to implement it faithfully." ”

Li Jing glared angrily and was speechless.

Xue Shixiong was worried that Li Jing's "unscrupulous words" would cause trouble, so he hurriedly interjected to change the topic, "Duke Xu, according to the report of the Protectorate of the Metropolitan of Andong, Li Pingyuan and Li Hun have left Anzhou on February 15 and led the army eastward, if everything goes well, they will arrive in Fuyu City in the near future......" Speaking of this, Xue Shixiong and Li Jing exchanged glances and continued, "Fuyu City is more than a thousand miles away from Huaiyuan Town, if they stay in Fuyu, or march slowly, and do not reach Huaiyuan until mid-April or even late April, the attack time will be seriously delayed. ”

Yuwen Shu understood it and understood it as soon as he heard it. Li Jing and Xue Shixiong still had illusions about the Third Eastern Crusade, trying to destroy Goguryeo with their own strength and save the "face" of Weifu with their martial arts, so they didn't want Andong's army to come to rendezvous, let alone Andong's army as the front, they only needed Andong's army to attack and advance from the direction of Buyeo, form a two-way parallel trend with their own side, and effectively contain and disperse Goguryeo's blocking force.

However, this policy went against the will of the Holy Lord and the center, and Yuwenshu could not agree to it.

"How are you going on your crusade?" Yu Wenshu looked at Li Jing and Xue Shixiong and asked, "If everything goes well, when can you attack?" ”

"Mid-April." Li Jing said without hesitation, "By mid-April at the latest, we will be able to attack." ”

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