Zhang Jin said that it was the Shandong Raptors who crossed the river and forced the snake in Hebei. Seeing that he successively annexed Sun Anzu and Liu Badao, I am afraid that this person has a lot of appetite, and it is estimated that he has the idea of Hejian County again. Chen Kefu frowned, and as he spoke, he was still pacing in the hall.

The ministers in the palace also frowned, and Gao Shida occupied Hejian County. And Hejian County borders Zhuo County, just south of Zhuo County. If Gao Shida is also defeated in the hands of Zhang Jincheng, then Zhang Jincheng will bring hundreds of thousands of peasant troops at that time, even if the Beijing court is not afraid of him, it will be very passive.

Li Jingdao, the secretary of the Ministry of War, said, "That Gao Shida occupies the river, and I have heard that his subordinates are fierce, and their power cannot be underestimated. If Zhang Jin said that he really went to attack Gaoshida, it would be fine, but he was only worried that Zhang Jin said that he would turn west to attack Qinghe County and Xindu County, or cross the Yellow River to the south and attack Shandong Qi County and Beihai County. If he attacks to the south, then the nine counties that are now empty in the southwest of Hebei are very likely to fall into his hands. Even if he has always been, Shandong at this time is the same emptiness, and it is also possible to defeat Qu Tutong and capture Shandong. It may even lead the Chen Dynasty in Jiangnan to move north, and the situation will be troublesome. ”

Everyone understood what Li Jing meant, although Zhang Jin said that most of his subordinates were rabble. But they are outnumbered, and if they really attack to the west or turn back to Shandong, then the now empty Shandong and the southwestern counties of Hebei will really not be able to stop them.

Their fear was not anything else, but that these peasant armies, known as peasant rebels, who were actually bandits, would plunder the counties. At that time, these locust-like peasants swept through the counties one by one, and even if they rushed to defeat Zhang Jincheng, they would not be able to undo the damage caused by these bandits for a while.

It's hard to build a county, but it's too easy to destroy.

Although the Liaodong Army is not a regular army, it has also had strict military regulations over the years. In addition to fighting Goguryeo in Liaodong, more often than not, it was construction. Everyone knows how difficult life has been in today's troubled times. Even in all parts of Liaodong, life is a lot more difficult because the Liaodong Army and the imperial court have long been opposed. Not to mention the Central Plains like Hebei and Shandong. Years of oppression by the imperial court and the peasant army have already made life difficult for the people everywhere.

Now that the Liaodong Army has entered Hebei, these Hebei people will also be the people under the rule of the Liaodong Army in the future. Eighteen counties in Hebei, with a population of more than one million, if Zhang Jincheng is allowed to loot, this mess will still have to be taken over by the Liaodong Army in the future. If nothing else, more than a million mouths can empty a mountain every day.

Li Benlei, chief of staff of the General Staff Headquarters and general of Jin Wuwei, naturally understood this, but he still told the truth about the current Liaodong Army, "Your Highness." The 40,000 soldiers and horses transferred from Liaodong had already arrived outside Beijing, but the original 60,000 troops of the Khitan and other allied troops would have to reach Hebei in about a month. At present, although we have nearly 500,000 soldiers and horses in Hebei, in fact there are not many troops available. ”

Half a million people, which sounds like a big number. At the very least, during the reign of Emperor Renshou of the Great Sui, the standing army of the Great Sui was only six or seven hundred thousand. If the Liaodong Army has 500,000 people in Hebei alone, that number is not huge.

But actually. Chen Kefu and the generals all understood that this was just a number on the books.

Among these 500,000 people, the surrender of troops in Hebei reached 230,000, and the allied troops of Khitan and other tribes reached about 50,000. The real Liaodong Army only had about 220,000 soldiers and horses, but among these 220,000 people, there were about 30,000 Turkic prisoners. Among the remaining 190,000 people, more than 120,000 troops were stationed at the five major passes of Linyu Pass, Jundu Pass, Feihu Pass, Puyin Pass, and Jingcheng Pass. Less than 70,000 horses remained. Among them, 30,000 had to be stationed in the city of Beijing. And 10,000 horses were stationed in six counties. The only available opportunity was the Liaodong Army, which was 30,000 men.

In addition to the garrisons in Guancheng and Beijing, the Liaodong Army, the Turkic captives and allied troops, and the Hebei army added up to more than 300,000 people. However, there were too many surrendered troops in Hebei, and after a complete reorganization, Chen Pojun did not dare to use such a large army to fight with confidence. On the contrary, the Liaodong Army now has too many troops, which are used to monitor and reorganize the Hebei Army.

"How is the reorganization of the Hebei army?" At the very moment, Chen Pojun also knew that he couldn't come step by step as originally planned.

Li Benlei said, "According to the original plan, the Hebei Army will be disrupted and reorganized. I have to train here for three months. Then, according to the performance, about one-third of it will be sent back to Liaodong and other places to garrison. At present, the training has only been completed for about half a month, and 100,000 surrendered troops have been integrated into the Liaodong Army as planned. The Liaodong Army couldn't digest too much for a while, so it could only come step by step. Otherwise, I am afraid that there will be too many of them after the surrender of Hebei, which will not only affect the combat effectiveness of the Liaodong Army, but also easily cause instability in the army. ”…,

Chen Kefu shook his head. "We don't have that much time, and now that the situation in Hebei is changing, we have to start preparing for the next offensive. News came from the Secret Service Division that the situation in Taiyuan City was getting clearer and clearer, and I was afraid that it would not be long before. The battle for Taiyuan City will decide whether to win or lose. At that time, no matter who wins, it will be impossible to discard this half of Jiangnan. They will definitely lead their troops south. At that time, the situation in Hebei and Shandong will be different, and we cannot afford to miss the great time we have now. Only by grabbing Hebei and Shandong first can we really have the strength to compete for the world. ”

"Director Li, how is your Investigation Department's recent investigation of Luo Yi?" Chen Kefu said to Li Wusheng, director of the Investigation Department.

"Back to Your Highness, according to the supervision of our Investigation Department, Luo Yi does not have much contact with the generals of the Hebei Army now, but takes the initiative to contact more with our civil and military officials from Liaodong every day. However, at present, the generals of Hebei are panicked, and many generals often go to him, leaving Xue Shixiong behind, and Luo Yi is regarded as the leader of the Hebei army. ”

The Investigation Division has oversight powers and monitors these demos. Luo Yi's family is naturally also under supervision, and now Luo Yi realizes that he opened Linyu Pass that day, killed Li Jing, and surrendered Chen Pojun with more than 200,000 Hebei troops. At the same time, he knew that his daughter had become Chen Pojun's person, and he was also very proud in his heart. Although it was still a little restrained for a while, he also held a banquet at home every day, and invited Wenchen and military generals from Liaodong to buy people's hearts all day long. didn't treat himself like a general at all, and he didn't go back and forth with the Xue family anymore.

After listening to these carefully, Chen Kefu also had some disdain for Luo Yi's character. But at this time, he also needs someone like him who understands current affairs, and Xue Shixiong's family, although they surrendered to him on the surface, were actually a little uncooperative. Even if it is a matter of reorganization, it is also a little unreasonable.

After turning around the hall a few more times, Chen Ke replied, "I think so, a team of about 50,000 soldiers and horses from the Hebei army will be transferred into 20,000 Liaodong troops and 30,000 Turkic prisoners of war. The troops were mixed, with Li Jing, the secretary of the military department, as the head of the march, Luo Yi as the deputy head of the march, Mao Yi as the chief of the march, and Shen Guang as the marching Sima. In addition, a group of Hebei generals who had sincerely surrendered were transferred to the army, stepped up reorganization, and prepared to go south at any time. ”

As for the situation in Hebei, there is only an early decision. However, Chen Kefu refused to send his troops south, and when the time came, there was a fire in the backyard. After thinking about it, it was better to hold it firmly, first recruit Luo Yi and the 50,000 Hebei Army into the army, and then go south after mixing. The remaining 100,000 Hebei troops still have to spend more time on training and digestion.

The next day, Li Jing and Luo Yi began to recruit troops and horses, quickly gathered 100,000 horses, and then began to reorganize and train.

"Your Majesty, Zhang Jincheng sent an envoy to ask for a meeting!" The chamberlain whispered.

Today is the ten-day court meeting, and Yang Gao is also sitting on the dragon chair, but although he sits on the dragon chair, in fact, his heart has long been unknown where he has flown to. He didn't listen to a word about the deliberations of the ministers in the palace. In a drowsiness, he suddenly heard someone interrupting the discussion of Chen Pojun and others, and he also woke up all of a sudden, looked at Chen Pojun, and saw that the prime minister Chen Pojun nodded, and said busily, "Hurry up!" ”

"The last general, Zhang Sili, visited Chen Dashuai!"

The messenger Zhang Jin called was a big man with a full beard and a round waist. When he was brought into the palace by the inner servant, he looked all the way. When he entered the Taihe Palace, he was also very rude. Seeing Yang Gao, the Son of Heaven, sitting on the dragon chair, he did not come forward to salute.

He looked left and right, looked for a long time, and finally found Chen Pojun, and walked over with his boots. He didn't bend down or kneel, but just hugged his fist lightly like a Jianghu person, even if he saluted.

Chen Kefu saw that this person was obviously a military general, but he was wearing a crimson court dress from above the fifth rank and below the third rank, but he had a gold belt around his waist, and he was wearing a small black gauze hat on his head, and the whole person looked very weird.

Just looking at it like this, Chen Kefu had already decided in his heart that this person must be afraid that he was born as a bandit, and all the miscellaneous things on his body were probably snatched from those officials. Seeing that he didn't understand the slightest etiquette, and when he came in and didn't greet the emperor, but he still called Chen Dashuai so arrogantly to himself, he already had seven or eight points of dislike in his heart.

"Zhang Jin said that he sent you here, what do you have to say to this king?" Chen Kefu looked at the envoy coldly.

The envoy Yang Sili said arrogantly, "The last general came on the order of my general, and I heard that Chen Dashuai got Yang Guang's son to ascend the throne a few days ago and made himself a prince. I also sealed more than a dozen princes in one go, and my general now occupies the land of the two counties of Hebei, with 200,000 soldiers, so I sent the last general to ask for a prince. My general has a saying, as long as he is crowned the king of Bohai, as for the official position, he can seal a Shangshu order or something. ”

Chen Kefu didn't laugh angrily, "Oh, Zhang Jin said that really said? ”

Yang Sili saw Chen Ke laughing repeatedly, thinking that he was making fun of him, and his face was annoyed, "My general also said that after he defeated Gao Shida in a few days, he would bring 300,000 troops to Zhuojun City to meet Chen Dashuai." (To be continued.) )