"Let me talk about the strength of the Huns. The army of the Huns was divided into four divisions, namely the western expedition, the southern expedition, the eastern expedition, and the escort army. Among them, the escort army was the direct force of their great chief, with about 300,000 people, and the other three divisions each had about 250,000 people. Although they were defeated in the war with the Chidi people last year, their vitality was not damaged, and the nomads were the people when they entered and the soldiers when they went out, and their troops were replenished quite quickly. It is precisely because they have suffered defeat that we judge based on various intelligence analyses that this year the Huns will invade on a large scale to make up for their losses. And we at Tokugawa will be one of their top targets. Zhuge Fang's tone was low.

There was silence in the conference room, and even those who did not understand military affairs could see that the disparity between the strength of the enemy and the enemy was so great, and the inevitable situation of a war was inevitable, and there was a suffocating atmosphere in the spacious conference room.

"Look at our surroundings again, the Northwest County also has bad intentions towards us, but now their military strength is not as good as ours, they dare not do anything to us, Meishan County and Longdong County don't have to be counted on, Gaochang Kingdom is too busy to take care of itself, it is already commendable that the Duchy of Loulan and the Mote people can not fall into the ground, the imperial army is far away in the sky, and all this qiē can only rely on ourselves." Zhuge put down the final assertion.

Looking around at the people around with a sharp gaze, Qin Duan picked up the conversation loudly: "Therefore, we can't expect any miracles to happen, even if there is, we can only rely on ourselves to create zào." ”

After Zhuge finished Qin Duan's words, he finally explained the mystery: "According to the opinions of the adults, we will launch an offensive against the surrounding targets in the near future, with the aim of expanding the territory, strengthening the strength, and obtaining the buffer land. ”

A word woke up everyone present, and instead of sitting still. It's better to take the initiative. But where exactly is the goal? All eyes are back on the big map.

"The seven surrounding forces, except for the Huns and Motts, are all grasslands, and they are worthless at the moment. The Principality of Loulan is too far away from us, the nearest city is also 800 kilometers away from us, and the road traffic is not good. Even if it is occupied, it will not help us much at the moment. The Gaochang State is closely connected with the Huns, and it cannot play a buffering role, and the countries of the Western Regions have always been relatively united, and if they rashly send troops, they are afraid that the gains will outweigh the losses. Zhuge Fang pointed to the places on the map with a wooden stick and commented on them one by one.

"The rest are the territories of the Empire. Meishan County and Longdong County are relatively weak, with an army of more than 100,000 people, with a large proportion of the old and weak, and the combat effectiveness is relatively weak. We are sure that we will take the two counties within half a month, but at present, the economic and public order situation in the two provinces is very poor, and the city defense facilities are also dilapidated. Zhuge Fang excluded Meishan County and Longdong County from the target, and the only thing left was Northwest County.

"Let's take a look at Northwest County again, the current county guard of Northwest County is Sun Dejian, with four garrison divisions under its jurisdiction. It has a total strength of less than 90,000 troops, and its combat effectiveness is not weak. Sun Dejian was nominally an imperial official. However, the empire had long since lost its control over it, and he had a very close relationship with his northern neighbor, the Sithro Empire. ”

"The capital city of the Northwest County is only 300 kilometers away from Nuremberg, the southernmost city of the Sithro Empire, where 100,000 troops are stationed, forming a pattern that echoes each other, so although the empire has long regarded the Northwest County as a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh, it has no choice but to reach it. had to swallow this bitter fruit silently. If we target the Northwest County, one of the big advantages is that we can gain the support of the Empire. Zhuge Fang first introduced the situation in Northwest County.

"However, according to the current strength, our strength is simply not enough to take the Northwest County quickly, the Northwest County has the 100,000 troops of the Kamans stationed in the Principality of Gerlok in Jiama City to the east, and it also borders the Sislo Empire and the Kaman Empire to the north, if we can't quickly take the Northwest County. I'm afraid these neighbors will send troops to help the Northwest County. Liang Qiming said worriedly.

Qin Duan nodded and motioned for Zhuge Fang to continue, and Zhuge Fang's wooden stick immediately pointed to Yinshan Mansion, the capital of the Northwest County in the east. "Located about 250 kilometers from Tokugawa Castle, Ginzan Castle is part of the Great Yokoduan Mountains to the south and west, and is home to more than 200,000 Takayama people. In the northern, eastern and central regions, there are more than 900,000 Han Chinese living in large numbers, and Yinshan Fucheng is located in the central part of Northwest County. ”

"The current county warden Sun Dejian, who has served as the county warden of the northwest county for nearly 10 years, has adopted a discriminatory policy against the Gaoshan people, strictly prohibiting the Gaoshan people from going out of the mountains to engage in agricultural work, and imposing heavy taxes on the Gaoshan people to do business, and the relationship with the Gaoshan people is very tense, and there are constant conflicts, and a garrison division is stationed all year round at the junction with the Gaoshan people's inhabited areas. Moreover, Sun Dejian was very greedy for money, and his relationship with the local gentry and merchants was also very tense, and it is said that the local businessmen were quite dissatisfied with his heavy tax policy, and they had repeatedly signed letters asking for tax reduction. He was also quite mean to his subordinates, and his relationship with the middle and lower rank officers of the Northwest County Army was not very harmonious. ”

The clear-eyed person only listened to Zhuge Fang's introduction, and knew that Qin Duan had already targeted the Northwest County, and it was not a matter of one or two days to collect the situation in such detail. The generals of the army began to ponder the question of how the battle against the Northwest County would be fought.

"But my lord, although Sun Dejian is unpopular, he is an official appointed by the imperial court after all, if we take military action against friendly neighboring prefectures and counties at will without the authorization of the imperial court, I am afraid it will provoke a strong reaction from the imperial court, although the imperial court is currently not capable of military intervention in the northwest, but it will bring extremely strict consequences to all our other work in the future." Liang Qiming worriedly put forward his own views.

"Yes, that's the biggest obstacle we want to target Northwest County. But compared with several other places, the lesser of the two harms is the most appropriate, of course, we also have to try a way to resolve this contradiction. ”

Zhuge Fang also agreed with Liang Qiming's point of view, but also pointed out the advantages of this plan, "The total strength of Yinshan Mansion is only 52,000 at present, and according to our strength, if we adopt the method of surprise attack, we should be able to control the situation within ten days." If we can reach an agreement with the Gaoshan people after taking control of the Northwest Prefecture and gain the support of the Gaoshan people, our military strength can be greatly improved in a short period of time. ”

"Because the Gaoshan people are naturally good foot soldiers, physically strong, good at running, and can go into battle with a little training. Of course, there will definitely be a lot of work to be done to gain the support of the Gaoshan people. However, according to our information, because of the discrimination against the Gaoshan people by successive governments, and because the governments of the whole continent are prejudiced against the Gaoshan people, the situation of the Gaoshan people has been quite difficult, and I think we can win their support if we can make some appropriate adjustments in some policies. ”

"What's more, we have established a good relationship with some merchants in the Northwest County, which is rich in timber and medicinal herbs, and is also a good rear supply base. As for Lord Liang's worries just now, we can take some flexible means and measures to solve them. But Zhuge Fang did not say what kind of means will be taken to solve the problem.

The generals of the army are also thinking silently, weighing the pros and cons, and only the Northwest County is the most suitable target, as for how to deal with the reaction of the imperial court, it is not in their consideration, but they believe that their superiors must have a way to deal with it, not to mention that Zhuge Fang has clearly made it clear that there will be flexible means to solve it.

Qin Du saw that in addition to the question of how to deal with the reaction of the imperial court, almost everyone agreed with the selection of the Northwest County as the next action target, and he should also make a decision: "Everyone has made a good speech, especially Liang Qiming's opinion is very important, but I already have a way to deal with it in my heart, please rest assured." ”

"Now that I've decided to target the Northwest County, there's still a lot of work to be done around the action plan, which I think is called 'Operation Thunder,' which means that once the action is going to be as fast as thunder, it will be captured. During this period, the Intelligence Bureau should step up its efforts to collect relevant intelligence, the army should be ready to go into battle at any time, the War Readiness Administration should prepare the materials needed for the war, the Security Bureau should do a good job of keeping secrets, and at the same time strengthen the monitoring of suspicious elements in the territory. I want to solve the problem in three weeks. Qin Duan made a categorical decision.

Then, Qin Duan considered that the cavalry would play a huge role in the war in the future, and not having enough war horses to replenish would be the Achilles' heel of the army's logistics, which must not only rely on external purchases, otherwise once there was an accident, the consequences would be immeasurable. Qin Du also issued an order ordering the War Readiness Administration to prepare for the construction of the Tokugawa Military Horse Farm, which was to be organized by Li Hua, and located in the northwest corner near the Northwest Prefecture, the territories of the Huns and Motts, where there was a large area of good pastureland. The stallion can be selected from the captured Hun war horses, and then can gradually buy its excellent stallions from the nomads, and recruit talents among the nomads who are good at this line with high salaries, and gradually form a pattern of self-research and development and breeding of excellent war horses. Qin Duan also specifically told Li Hua to list this work as the first priority of the War Readiness Administration, and the work should be carried out immediately without delay.

In the following days, all the personnel of Zhuge Fang's subordinate intelligence department focused all their energy on the military operations to be carried out, and a large amount of intelligence was transmitted like flowing water, which was analyzed and judged and summarized, and finally presented to Qin Dui's desk. The army was also stepping up its final preparations before the battle, and since I had not yet finalized which division would be in charge of the battle, Zhu Yongqing, Liu Xiaoshan, and Shangguan Yonglun all regarded their respective corps as the main force for attacking the Northwest County. (To be continued......)

PS: This is the correct one hundred and ten chapters, and I'm very sorry for this otaku.