"The wind is sluggish and the water is cold, and the strong man will never return", Pei Du came to Huaixi with the determination to die. Of course, Pei Du is not Jing Ke, for Huaixi, he still has the confidence and courage to win the battle. This confidence and courage do not stem from blind self-confidence, but from his accurate analysis of the current situation.

First of all, the war has been going on for four years, and although life in Chang'an is not very easy, life in Huaixi is even more difficult. It turned out that Huaixi had been in the army for several years, and in order to solve the problem of grain and grass for the army, Wu Yuanji gathered all the grain and supplied it all to the soldiers on the front line. As for how to fill the stomachs of ordinary people, this is not within Wu Yuanji's consideration at all.

There was no food, so the people had to dig lotus roots, water chestnuts, and catch fish, turtles, birds and beasts to satisfy their hunger. Soon, these things were also filled into the Five Organs Temple, and when they saw that they were about to starve to death, the people remembered that they were originally the people of the Tang Dynasty, and fled to the official army; Wu Yuanji was distressed by the fact that these people had consumed food in vain, so he did not prohibit it. But Wu Yuanji, who thought he was shrewd, made a mistake, an extremely stupid mistake, because he ignored the most basic truth: his tens of thousands of soldiers did not jump out of the cracks in the stones, but were raised by their fathers and mothers, and most of their fathers and mothers were ordinary people discarded by Wu Yuanji. Therefore, the defection of the common people will inevitably have an effect in the army, and will inevitably cause or accelerate the defection of the Huaixi soldiers. By the time Wu Yuanji figured out this most obvious truth, the situation was out of control.

Seeing that the general trend had gone, Wu Yuanji began to pray to God to save his old life, and he hurriedly apologized and was willing to return to himself. But it was too late, not because Chang'an refused to agree, but because his son-in-law, the general Dong Chongzhen, refused to agree. Dong Chongzhen, who has a heavy army, seems to have become the real person in charge of Huaixi, and as for Wu Yuanji, he has been reduced to a puppet. Today's Wu Yuanji has lost the freedom to enter and leave Caizhou, and has become a lamb, a lamb to be slaughtered, and it is either Chang'an or Dong Chongzhi who slaughters him.

Secondly, the reason why Huaixi, which has become the end of a strong crossbow, has not been pacified is not because of how fierce the Huaixi soldiers are, but because the government army is unwilling to move forward. Those who held the power of the military and the envoys of the observer patrolled and watched with various mentalities, and refused to make the rafters of the head. But Pei Du understood that once he went to the front line, those generals who commanded the army would be afraid that they would take away their credit, and they would definitely move forward, and at that time, the pacification of Huaixi would be just around the corner.

Third, Pei Du is very clear that the government army has a drawback, the eunuch supervises the army. Speaking of which, this glorious tradition with all kinds of disadvantages and no benefits has been tossed in Datang for many years. Those eunuchs who have defective parts in a certain part of the body think that they are the red people around the emperor, showing off their might in the army, and commanding their command. If they win, they will report to Chang'an first, and the credit will go to him; If they are defeated, they will be insulted in every way, and the responsibility will be on those generals who command the army. There is such a master in the army, the generals cannot be self-dictated in the military, and they are often to blame, they simply do not seek merit but seek no fault, more things are better than less things, and official affairs can be delayed, resulting in the current situation of stagnation. In fact, it seems easy to solve this drawback, and Pei Du drove these dead eunuchs who were neither men nor women back to Chang'an.

Of course, Pei Du was not the first to discover this malpractice, nor was he the first to petition for the removal of the eunuchs and the army. As early as when Gao Chongwen was pacifying Shu, Prime Minister Du Huangshang once asked Li Chun to dismiss the prison army, and Gao Chongwen was able to march forward and quickly quell Liu Pi's rebellion in Western Shu.

Fourth, before Pei Du, the former commander-in-chief of the Huaixi Campaign was Han Hong, the envoy of Xuanwu Jiedu, and Han Hong was Yan Shou, the envoy of Shannan Dongdao. Whether it is Han Hong or Yan Shou, they are not very competent, no, it should be said that they are very incompetent, which is also the main reason why Pei Du took the initiative to ask Ying and walked from behind the scenes to the foreground.

First of all, let's talk about this Shannan Dongdao Festival Envoy Yan Shou. It should be said that Yan Shou is basically a good person, and there is no shortage of fierce generals who can fight in battle, and Li Guangyan, who had a nervous breakdown who tossed Wu Yuanji, and his brother Li Guangjin were all from his command. At the beginning of the Huaixi Campaign, Yan Shou was appointed as the Huaixi Envoy and became the former enemy commander-in-chief of the Huaixi Campaign.

But Yan Shou is a civilian official, he doesn't understand military affairs at all, and he doesn't have any combat strategy. After taking office, Yan Shou only did three things: first, he spent money, and spent a lot of money: rewarding soldiers, he squandered several years of savings in the government warehouse, and Yan Shou, who threw a lot of money, did not have the determination to buy the majority of soldiers to serve on the battlefield as he wished. Second, it still spends money, a lot of money: this is a bit obscene, because this money is given to the eunuchs, the eunuchs in power, as solidarity. It seems that although Yan Shou does not understand military affairs, he has studied the unspoken rules and explicit rules of officialdom. The third is to stand still. Militarily, Yan Shou pursued a conservative strategy, not seeking merit, but seeking no fault, he had the people of eight states, led tens of thousands of elites, and stationed on the Huaixi border, but he just lived his own small life behind closed doors, and he did not fight a battle for more than a year, let alone make meritorious contributions. For Yan Shou, it was not a war at all, but a sightseeing, a year-long publicly-funded tourist tour for tens of thousands of people!

Pei Du couldn't stand it anymore, and repeatedly wrote to accuse Yan Shou of not having the talent to be a handsome general, and asked for replacement. Yan Shou left the Huaixi battlefield in this way, and was not punished, but returned to Chang'an in a beautiful manner, and sat on the throne of the prince and the inspector. It seems that those dead eunuchs not only take money, but also really do things for you!

Looking at what Mr. Yan Shou has done, compared with Liu Gongxuan, who is also a civil servant, we have to sigh, why is the gap between people so big?

Compared to his predecessor, Xuanwu Jiedu made Han Hong's military talent not a problem, but unfortunately, his loyalty was very problematic. This person who has not entered the court for more than ten years, this person who has reached the high position of prime minister by blackmailing Chang'an, is naturally not a good bird. For Huaixi, he has his own wishful thinking, which can be summed up in nothing more than four words: relying on the thief and respecting himself. Therefore, the last thing he wants to see is the pacification of Huaixi, the reason is very simple, if the thief who relies on his self-respect is gone, then what does he use to blackmail dear Chang'an?

The leader has a ghost in his heart, naturally he will not command well, and the various armies that encircle and suppress Huaixi are basically fighting on their own, despite this, Wu Yuanji is still beaten enough, especially that Li Guangyan is even more excessive, Wu Yuanji and you have neither the hatred of killing your father, nor the hatred of taking your wife, but you are not biased against the Huaixi soldiers. Han Hong saw that this was worth it, and in the long run, Wu Yuanji would soon finish playing. No, we must find a way to kill Li Guangyan's fighting spirit. What's the solution? Hey, there is, Han Hong rolled his eyes and came up with a clever plan, a stinky trick: seduction, the hero is sad to pass the beauty pass! Do it when you think of it, never hesitate, Han Hong showed his vigorous and resolute side, he immediately sent someone to turn Daliang City upside down, not to mention, he really collected a stunning woman, taught singing and dancing silk bamboo, blowing, playing and singing, decorated with pearl agate, gold and jade jade, carrying incense cars and BMWs, all the way around the ring, and sent this stunning woman to Li Guangyan's military camp.

If you want to say that this Li Guangyan is really unambiguous, he immediately held a feast and warmly entertained the condolence group sent by his superiors. After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Li Guangyan began to give an impromptu speech: the long night is long, the lonely pillow is sleepless, thanks to the favor of the leader, and the beauty is very honored, grateful. However, the husband was born between heaven and earth, and he should share the worries for the country, and now Huaixi is not peaceful, and the rebels have not been eliminated. Besides, there is only one beauty, but there are tens of thousands of soldiers, although Li is dull, how can he abandon tens of thousands of soldiers and be greedy for joy alone? Therefore, the general's good intentions, the sincerity of love, but the money beauty, not what I want, the original is returned, forgive the sin!

Li Guangyan's words were impassioned, righteous and awe-inspiring, full of soldiers, crying for it, Han Hong's envoy, full of shame, and went away.

Li Chun is not unaware of what Han Hong is doing, and Pei Du knows it even more, but what can he do? Looking at all the generals, who has a higher official position than him, is older than him, and has stronger strength than him, which is enough to make him bow down to his ears? Unless, unless Pei Du! So, Pei Du came.

Fifth, once upon a time, there was a weakness and a fatal weakness among the people and horses who surrounded and suppressed Huaixi, and that was the West Road. At the beginning of the Huaixi War, Chang'an divided Shannan Dongdao into two sections, with Li Xun, the head of the household, as the envoy of Xiang, Fu, Ying, Jun, and Fangjie; Gao Xiayu, the general of the right Yulin, was the envoy of Tang, Sui and Deng. and ordered Gao Xiayu to specialize in attacking, and Li Xun was in charge of grain and grass. But Gao Xiayu lightly advanced against the enemy, and after a small victory, he was followed by a big defeat, and the defeat was so miserable that he was spared. Afterwards, Chang'an was held accountable, and the two passed the buck to each other and both degraded.

Although the responsible person was duly punished, the shadow of defeat still hung over the hearts of every soldier on the Western Road, lingering. It's just Gao Xiayu's successor, Yuan Zi, the original Jingnan Jiedu envoy, yes, it is Yuan Zi, the Jingnan Jiedu envoy who sees the wind and makes the rudder, is a timid person like a mouse. He came to Tangzhou, not to fight, nor to travel, but to act as a messenger of peace. Because, the first thing he did when he took office was to stop his soldiers from invading Huaixi. Wu Yuanji sent troops to surround Xinxingzha, and Yuan Zi actually nodded and begged him to retreat, losing the face of the Tang Dynasty. Since then, Wu Yuanji has never treated him as a dish anymore, no, he has already treated him as a dish, he can eat it as he wants, and he can eat it as he wants. However, now the situation is different, because before Pei Du rushed to Huaixi, a person had already rushed to Huaixi one step ahead of him, and became Yuan Zi's successor, the new envoy of Tang, Sui, and Deng Jiedu, and had already entered the battle, and achieved initial results. This is a person who was still unknown at the time, but he is also the most relied on and trusted person by Pei Du, he is the first general in the Tang Dynasty, the son of Li Sheng, the king of Xiping County, and the prince Zhan Shi Li Yu. Pei Du believes that with his own central dispatch, with Li Guangyan and Li Yu's two-sided attack, and with the iron wall of the armies of all walks of life, Huaixi will be pacified, and it will be just around the corner.