"The Third Crusade?" Yuwen Shu pretended to be surprised, looked at King Qi and asked, "Does the king think that the victory of the Third Eastern Crusade can reverse the crisis?" ”

King Qi immediately asked, "Why did the Holy Lord launch the Second Eastern Crusade?" In that year, the first emperor went east to Goguryeo, and the sailors overturned the sea, and then the east crusade was forced to give up, but after the defeat of the first eastern crusade, the holy lord immediately launched the second eastern crusade regardless of the loss, why? Clearly, the Holy Lord has a clear goal. Now that the Second Crusade has fallen short, the Holy Lord's goal has not been achieved, but if this goal is very urgent for the Holy Lord, it is necessary, and the crisis can be reversed, then it is natural to launch the Third Crusade. ”

Yu Wenshu did not speak, thoughtful. He was "touched" by King Qi's rhetorical question.

Recently, he has been thinking about ways to turn the tide, and the "Third Crusade" proposed by the Holy Lord is one of them. The purpose of the First Crusade was very clear, to deter the Northern captives militarily, to stabilize the relationship between the North and the South, to delay the outbreak of the Civil War, and to gain more time for the establishment of a centralized system; It is necessary to increase the authority of the government and strengthen the control of the reformist government in order to speed up the progress of the reform process and speed up the establishment and improvement of the centralized system.

However, the defeat of the First Crusade and the failure to achieve the goal led to the deterioration of the appearance of the Crusade, which in turn forced the Holy Lord and the Central Authority to do everything to achieve the goal, so there was the Second Crusade. The Second Crusade had to be suspended due to the deterioration of the domestic situation of Yang Xuangan's rebellion, and the goal was still not achieved, but this time the Holy Lord and the Central Committee could take advantage of the rebellion of the radical conservatives in the country to deal a heavy blow to the conservative forces in the court, so as to weaken the opponent's power and help the reformers firmly control the government. Although the authority of the Holy Lord and the central government has not increased but decreased, as long as the reformers control the government, it can be regarded as achieving the expected goals in the government.

In this way, the most urgent goal is left, which is to stabilize the north-south relationship, and the north-south relationship is already on the verge of collapse with the continuous foreign conquest of the Chinese and Turkish armies, with the re-emergence of the desert northern captives, and it is difficult to "repair" it by diplomatic means alone, and the defeat of the Eastern Crusade in China for two consecutive years has made the North-South War a possibility of a trigger-and-snack, in this context, if the Middle Earth wants to delay the outbreak of the North-South War, it must win a heavy military victory, and immediately launch the Third Eastern Crusade to completely destroy Goguryeo, in order to demonstrate the strong national strength of Middle-earth, it has become the only means.

On the contrary, if Middle-earth stops the Eastern Crusade, stops fighting, and admits in disguised military defeats, internal and external difficulties in politics, and unbearable national strength, the results can be imagined, which is tantamount to suing the desert and the north, I can't do it, I am strong outside and strong in the middle, you can come and fight me. Once the Middle-earth army is unable to parry, retreat step by step, and completely expose its "weakness", then it must face the tide of attacks from the north, and the war between the north and the south broke out.

In other words, the general trend of China and foreign countries has developed to this point, not whether the Holy Lord and the Center will launch the Third Eastern Crusade, but whether the Third Eastern Crusade must be launched, otherwise the Civil War will come faster, the Holy Lord and the Center will have less room for maneuver, and the political situation will become more and more passive, so that the reform will be interrupted or even regressed.

Seeing that Yuwenshu was silent, King Qi knew that he had hit his "vital point", so he "took advantage of the situation to pursue", "Yang Xuangan rebelled, the domestic situation was turbulent, and the news would soon spread to the desert tent, and the northern captives were bound to move, if nothing else, the situation on the front line of the Great Wall next spring would inevitably be tense, and the northern captives would inevitably use frequent small-scale invasions to explore the truth of Middle-earth." Under such circumstances, if we give up the Eastern Crusade, withdraw all the expeditionary forces to the country, and let the humble Goguryeo people beat us to the ground, bruised, and scarred, the result will inevitably fuel the arrogance of the Northern Captives, and the invasion of the Northern Captives will become bigger and bigger, and will continue to break our bottom line, until finally we show a hideous face, cross the Great Wall, and slaughter into Middle-earth, completely destroying the relations between the North and the South. ”

Yuwen Shu's face was expressionless, and he listened attentively.

King Qi paused for a moment, and saw that Yuwenshu was still silent, so he had to continue, "Perhaps in the eyes of the Holy Lord and the Center, after the breakdown of the relationship between the North and the South, a large-scale war may not break out immediately, the two sides may fight repeatedly on the front line of the Great Wall, and it is possible that there will be a stalemate for a long time, and Middle-earth can still win enough respite, but in Lone's opinion, the Beiyu should learn the painful lessons of the past, they have just recuperated for more than ten years, and they have just recovered their vitality and re-emerged, and their alliance is still very fragile, The internal contradictions in the tooth tent are also very fierce, if Middle-earth is given time to breathe, let Middle-earth calmly implement many strategies such as long-distance and close attacks, and raze to defeat them, they may repeat the mistake of failure, so as long as the Beilu still has some brains, they will inevitably take advantage of this golden opportunity to devote all their strength to Middle-earth and deal a heavy blow to Middle-earth. Taking advantage of your illness to kill you, and taking advantage of the great injury of Middle-earth's vitality, you will hit Middle-earth hard, delay Middle-earth's attack on the desert and go north, so as to win enough time for the development of the North. When the Northern Captives are strong and can compete head-on with Middle-earth, even if Middle-earth is strong, it will be difficult to rebuild the great cause of the Han Dynasty. ”

Yu Wenshu put his hand against his forehead and let out a sad sigh.

King Qi's analysis is very reasonable, but what makes Yuwen Shu angry is, how could the shape develop to such a sinister place? The reason why the Holy Lord wants to change the grand strategy of national defense and foreign affairs and change passive defense to active defense is that he wants to consolidate and increase the defense capability of the frontiers on the basis of increasing national strength, win long-term stability and peace for Middle-earth, win a favorable environment for the smooth advancement of reform, and strive to establish a centralized system in the shortest possible time, so as to consolidate the cornerstone of unification, accelerate the development of national strength, and ensure that the great cause of reunification will be passed on from generation to generation. As a result, there was the Western Expedition to eliminate Tuyuhun to deter the Western Regions and the Western Turks, and the Eastern Expedition to Goguryeo to deter the Far Eastern captives and the Northern Desert captives by eliminating Goguryeo. This is all to kill chickens and set an example for monkeys, and in order to increase the deterrent effect, they all use "cattle knives" to kill chickens, as a result, the western expedition is smooth, but the eastern expedition has suffered a heavy setback, the "cattle knife" did not cut off the head of the chicken, but chopped off his own hand, a misstep into a thousand years of hatred.

History judges heroes by success or failure, no matter how strong you are, no matter how benevolent and righteous you are, no matter how grand and beautiful your ideals are, if you lose, you will have nothing, Qin Shi Huang is like this, Xiang Yu is also like this, today's holy lord is also facing this bad situation, once defeated, the country collapses, he is the second Qin Shi Huang, stinking for 10,000 years, fortunately, the holy lord still has time, and there is still the possibility of turning the tide, now what Yuwenshu has to do is to help the holy lord reverse the crisis at any cost.

"To launch the Third Crusade, we need to have sufficient conditions." Yu Wenshu finally reacted to King Qi's "lobbying", "The Third Crusade is a life-saving straw, and if it is broken, it cannot be saved, so as long as any of the conditions are not met, there will be no Third Crusade." ”

King Qi was overjoyed. Yuwenshu's words are equivalent to admitting that the Holy Lord and the Central Center have the idea of launching the Third Crusade, and Yuwenshu's implicit admission is actually a compromise with the King of Qi, which makes the King of Qi see the hope of success.

"The Lone Club will do its best to besiege Yang Xuangan." King Qi did not hesitate to promise, "The lone general will fight bravely at any cost, and strive to kill the rebels under Tongguan within a month." ”

The sooner Yang Xuangan is destroyed, the sooner the storm in the eastern capital will subside, and the more conducive it will be to launch the Third Eastern Crusade. King Qi's promise is very important to Yuwenshu, if there is no help from King Qi, it is not only difficult to kill Yang Xuangan, but also takes a long time, and the consequences are unpredictable, but this promise cannot meet Yuwenshu at all.

"The situation in northern Xinjiang, especially in Daibei, is far worse than the king imagined." Yuwen Shu sighed, "Before leaving, the Holy Lord hinted that if the situation in Northern Xinjiang continued to deteriorate, he would postpone his return to the Eastern Capital and personally sit in Northern Xinjiang until winter came. Yuwen Shu glanced at King Qi meaningfully, "If we launch the Third Eastern Crusade next spring, it is very likely that the Northern Captives on the desert will invade the Great Wall from the first line of Yinshan Mountain, putting us in the dilemma of fighting on two fronts, so as to prevent us from winning the victory of the Third Eastern Crusade." If the situation really develops like this, who can guarantee that the Third Crusade will be triumphant? ”

A hint of gloom flashed in King Qi's eyes. Yuwen said that "inch by inch" requires more commitment from the King of Qi, but the King of Qi can promise to besiege and kill Yang Xuangan, but he cannot promise to stick to the defense line of the Great Wall. This is obviously a trap, which is tantamount to suing the king of Qi, if the third crusade fails, the responsibility will be your King of Qi's, and your King of Qi will be completely finished.

However, it is difficult for the king of Qi to ride a tiger, and he said impassionedly just now that he wants to suppress the northern frontier, go north to kill the captives, and defend the country, how can he go back on his word?

King Qi thought of Li Fengyun. Wei Fusi hurried to Liyang to persuade the king of Qi to strengthen his determination to go north, one of the reasons was that Li Fengyun predicted that the holy lord would launch a third crusade to the east. Both King Qi and Wei Fusi accepted this prediction. As long as Yang Xuangan can't enter Guanzhong, it will inevitably fall quickly, and Yang Xuangan's premature destruction will inevitably give the Holy Lord the conditions for the third eastward expedition to Goguryeo. The Holy Lord concentrated his forces on the Third Eastern Crusade, and the defense of the northern frontier, especially the defense of the Dai and Yan lines, was bound to be weak, and the northern captives would inevitably take the opportunity to take advantage of the border to contain the Middle-earth army and help Goguryeo tide over the difficulties. The Holy Lord used a "bull knife" to kill chickens and make an example of monkeys, but instead of killing them, the "chickens" cut off their own hands. At this time, the king of Qi proposed to go north to the border, the timing was indeed good? And the Holy Lord and the Center really need this force to strengthen the defense of the Dai and Yan fronts, but there is only a key question, what is the result of the Third Crusade? If he loses, King Qi must be one of the scapegoats, and he can't run away.

Li Fengyun's prediction was that the northern captives would definitely want to invade the Dai and Yan lines, and they would definitely affect the Third Eastern Crusade, so although the Third Eastern Crusade would not fail, it would not have much success.

The king of Qi gritted his teeth, took a risk, and went out, "If you go north to the border, you will defend the enemy outside the Great Wall and repay the country with death." ”

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