Duan Da reported his worries but did not report good news, not only did he not arouse the disgust of the Holy Lord, but made the Holy Lord very much? Comfort.

In times of crisis, telling the truth is true loyalty to the monarch. Only those who speak outright can place high hopes on each other and be entrusted with important tasks, while those who speak cleverly can only mislead the king and the country, and the harm is endless.

The Holy Lord pondered for a long time and said slowly, "If there is a crisis, it must be solved, does Aiqing have a solution?" ”

"There are priorities, if you avoid the important and the light, it will not help, only by facing the difficulties and avoiding the light can we turn the tide."

Duan Da believes that what needs to be solved is the crisis in the eastern capital, and only when the crisis in the eastern capital is resolved and the political situation in the eastern capital is stabilized, can the central government free up its hands to solve other crises. The resolution of other crises can be carried out at the same time, in various parts of the country to suppress thieves and ensure the smooth flow of the Grand Canal; Passive defense in the northwest, making every effort to resist the counterattack of the Tuyuhun people in the west of Longxi, and blocking the invasion of the Western Turks and the Western Regions in the west of the river; In northern Xinjiang, it implemented an active defensive strategy, launched the Third Eastern Crusade, completely destroyed Goguryeo, completely conquered the Far Eastern captives, and used strong force to deter the desert northern captives, delaying the deterioration of North-South relations, and delaying the outbreak of the North-South War.

When Yuwen Shu passed through Zhuojun before, he deliberately revealed that the Holy Lord had the intention to continue the Eastern Crusade, which was actually a hint that Duan Da would resolutely support the Holy Lord. In his opinion, the defeat of the two Eastern Crusades actually added to the deterioration of relations between the North and the South, which was indeed a good opportunity for the ambitious Northern Capture to invade, so from the perspective of national defense and security, the Third Eastern Crusade was necessary and could play the role of killing multiple birds with one stone. Therefore, Duan Da took the opportunity of the Holy Lord to summon him alone and made it clear that he supported the Third Crusade.

The Holy Lord's expression was gloomy, his brows furrowed, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "The Northern Captives can also guess the strategies we can think of, and make corresponding countermeasures to prevent us from winning the final victory of the Eastern Crusade. ”

Duan Da understood. The Holy Lord is determined to launch the Third Crusade, but he is worried that the Northern Captives will deliberately obstruct it and stab him in the back of Middle-earth, which will be troublesome.

Once the Third Eastern Crusade fails to achieve the expected goals, the situation between the North and the South will be very unfavorable to Middle-earth, and a major war between the North and the South may break out at any time. What is serious is that because of the three consecutive years of the Eastern Crusade, the loss of national strength is too great, and the vitality is greatly damaged, and it may not be able to defeat the Northern Captives in the Great War of the North and the South, and once China is defeated in the Great War of the North and the South, the situation will be grim. The successive defeats of the Holy Lord and the Central Committee in foreign wars will be fatal to the authoritarian power of the central government, and their ruling position will inevitably be shaky and precarious, with unimaginable consequences.

Duan Da hesitated. As far as the current situation between the north and the south is concerned, as far as the current domestic situation and the current situation of the northern Xinjiang suppression are concerned, it is indeed not possible to launch the Third Eastern Crusade. Although theoretically speaking, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, at this moment Middle-earth still has the ability to launch the Third Eastern Crusade, and has the strength to destroy Goguryeo and conquer the Far Eastern captives, but it does not have the ability to fight on two fronts, and it does not have the strength to attack the Far Eastern captives at the same time, but also fight with the desert northern captives.

"Perhaps, we can use other methods to hold back the Beiyu, such as the Discord Scheme." Duan Da cautiously offered advice, "There are many factions and contradictions within the desert tooth tent, and there are also constant conflicts between the Turks and various tribes such as Tiele and Xue Yantuo. ”

The Holy Lord shook his head, "There are no great opportunities to take advantage of right now. More than ten years ago, the northern captives had already fallen into our hands once, and the various departments were killing each other, and the tooth tent fell apart. The lessons of the past and the future are the lessons of the future, and now the northern captives must be careful to take precautions, and the possibility of repeating the mistakes of the past is very small. ”

Duan Da hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Assassination, bribery, burning and plundering with a small group of men and horses outside the fortress, doing everything possible, trying every means to confuse the situation in the desert, so that the northern captives are in a hurry, anxious, and too busy to take care of themselves." ”

The Holy Lord dismisses it and scoffs. These methods are too clumsy, have very limited results, and have no impact on the overall situation. Duan Da is obviously poor in donkey skills, and he has no choice but to come up with the next three indiscriminate tricks, which also shows that the current northern Xinjiang town is very passive, and he is helpless in the face of the northern captives who are watching on the side.

"It is the best policy to surrender the army without a fight." The Holy Lord's tone was a little uneasy, "Someone once suggested to me that we should meet the requirements of the Northern Captives for the return of the North and the South, and exchange the benefits needed by the Northern Captives for the time we need, which can be regarded as a surrender without a fight. ”

"This is a traitorous ploy." Duan Da unceremoniously shouted angrily, "If you feed the tiger with your body and raise the tiger as a problem, you will definitely bring disaster upon yourself and kill yourself in the future. ”

The Holy Lord was silent and sighed for a long time, "If we want to win the final victory of the Eastern Crusade, we must strengthen the Northern Frontier Suppression Force in order to reverse our unfavorable situation in the confrontation between the North and the South, so it is imperative to find a proper solution. ”

Duan Da sighed helplessly, "Your Majesty, I am afraid it will be difficult to have a good plan in the short term." ”

"If we can't find a countermeasure, the northern captives will become more and more rampant, and the situation in northern Xinjiang will become more and more severe, and once a few tribes, under the instruction of the Turks, deliberately go south to Koubian to provoke in order to probe the truth of our northern Xinjiang, then the relations between the north and the south may deteriorate and even break down, and the situation in northern Xinjiang will be in danger of getting out of control." The Holy Lord glanced at Duan Da when he said this, and said in an undoubted tone, "I want to stay here and deter the northern captives to ensure the stability of the situation in the northern frontier until a proper solution is found. ”

Duan Da was taken aback and blurted out, "Your Majesty, what we need to solve at present is the crisis in the Eastern Capital. ”

The implication is that Your Majesty must return to the Eastern Capital as soon as possible, first solve the crisis in the Eastern Capital, and stabilize the political situation in the Eastern Capital, and then it is possible to consider the Third Eastern Crusade, and only then can it be possible to strengthen the military forces in Northern Xinjiang and reverse the unfavorable situation in Northern Xinjiang, otherwise everything is empty talk.

The Holy Lord was expressionless and said nothing.

Duan Da saw resentment, unwillingness, and persistence in the eyes of the Holy Lord, and in a flash of his mind, he had vaguely guessed the reason why the Holy Lord was very "willful" to stay in Zhuojun.

The key to resolving the crisis in the Eastern Capital was not to quell Yang Xuangan's rebellion, but to give way to conservative compromise in reform. Yang Xuangan's mutiny represents the opposition and counterattack of the powerful conservative forces in China and Turkey to the reform, and the conservatives and reformers finally tore their faces and fought hard, in this case, in order to quell the civil strife, to ease the contradictions, and to stabilize the political situation, the reform must give way to conservative compromise, and the reformists must pay a considerable price for this, not only to concede political interests, but also to suspend the pace of reform, and the reform will inevitably fall into stagnation or even regression.

This is unacceptable to the Holy Lord, but in the face of the cruel reality, it must be accepted if it is not accepted. Even if there are a hundred unwilling people in the eastern capital, they cannot make a compromise and make concessions to Xijing at this moment. But neither the dignity of the emperor nor the arrogance of the reformers allowed him to go back, and handed his "face" to his political opponents, allowing them to "crackle" and beat his nose and face so swollen and bloody. So the Holy Lord decided to stay in Zhuo County, let the central ministers go back to negotiate with "Xijing", and put on a "desperate" posture, and as a last resort, he took the expeditionary force back to the Eastern Capital, even if both sides were defeated and the jade was burned, he had to rely on absolute force to "take a pot" to the conservatives, and not one was left.

Duan Da figured it out, so he stopped persuading.

Since you have to stay, take a chance on it. If you are lucky, Yuwen Shu and Lai Hu'er kill Yang Xuangan in the shortest possible time with the autumn wind sweeping the leaves, you will win the bet, because the reformers have the initiative in hand, they still have a certain advantage in the negotiations between the two capitals, the compromise will not be too strong, and the concessions will not be miserable. On the contrary, if Yang Xuangan enters Guanzhong, and this storm cannot be calmed down for a long time, you will lose the bet, and you will lose very badly, the initiative is basically in the hands of "Xijing", and the reformers will be stuck by the neck and have to be slaughtered, and their compromise and concessions can be imagined.

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On July 28, Han Shige led his army to Flying Fox, easily deceived the trust of Flying Fox City, and easily took the city.

That night, the governor Guo Ming led the first and second armies of the alliance to cross the Flying Fox City, rushed up the Taihang Mountain overnight, and went straight to Puyin.

On the same day, the chief managers Zhen Baoche, Lu Xingxing, Wang Bo, and Huo Xiaohan led the army to arrive at the Juma River. Immediately, the troops were divided into two routes, all the way to set up a formation on both sides of the Juma River, preparing to block the Weifu army coming from the direction of Zhuo County, one route was led by the governor Wang Bo, and the fire rushed to Yishui, along the Yishui north, taking advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness, directly killing Pu Yincheng, and taking down the retreat of the army with lightning speed.

On July 29, Li Zixiong, Chen Rui, and Han Yao led the alliance governor's mansion to enter the Flying Fox.

On the same day, Han Shige led his army north, passed through the Flying Fox, and went straight to Ulcheng. On the evening of the same day, Zhou Zhong and Lai Yuan led the army to follow up, and also went north through the Flying Fox and killed Qi Yishui on the front line.

On the same day, Duan Da, who was left behind in Zhuo County, received a warning from Gao Yang. Xu Hua, the supervisor of Gaoyang Palace, urgently reported that a rebel army of tens of thousands of people suddenly came from the direction of Boling and surrounded Gaoyang. The garrison of Gaoyang is weak, there is an empty city, it cannot be resisted, and if there is no news within six hours, Gaoyang will fall.

Duan Da initially suspected that Xu Hua lied about the military situation, because he had suppressed thieves in Hebei, and he had some understanding of the thieves in Hebei, and had not heard of tens of thousands of rebel troops, and in addition, this spring the Hebei ambassador Cui Hongsheng carried out a "sweep" on both sides of the Yongji Canal, Hao Xiaode, Liu Heimin, Liu Badao, Sun Xuanya and other Hebei thieves had a difficult life, and had to cross the river to the south to kill into Qi County, as a result, they were chased and intercepted by the King of Qi, Zhou Fashang and Zhang Xutuo, and they were defeated in successive battles, and then disappeared, and it is estimated that they all fled to the mountains. Therefore, if you make such a calculation, Xu Hua must be lying about the military situation, even if there are traitors attacking Gaoyang, at most, it will be a few thousand rabble, and it will not threaten the safety of Gaoyang Palace at all.

Duan Da didn't think so, but considering that the Holy Lord was in Linshuo Palace, it was prudent to be cautious, although he didn't report it, he still waited patiently for Gao Yang's follow-up news.

Six hours later, in the early morning of July 30, Duan Da did not receive Xu Hua's letter. After dawn, he still did not receive follow-up news from Gao Yang. At this moment, Duan Da finally realized that something was wrong, Xu Hua couldn't joke with his official hat, Gao Yang Shiyou** really had an accident.

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=[End of Chapter]