Cui Jingsheng, who was about to talk about it just now, also closed his mouth with amusement when he heard the captain's words, he originally wanted this opportunity to show Ji Qian's strength to the ministers, so that the ministers could submit to his strong strength, so as to push Ji Qian to the throne of the emperor, so that there would be less fighting, less danger, and a better reputation for Ji Qian.

But now it is impossible, because the words of this captain have completely exposed the disparity between the strength of the army in his hands and the elite cavalry of Ji Qingchen's Northern Liao, causing the established plan in his heart to be empty.

"What you said is true?" Cui Jingsheng still had illusions, he checked with the captain again, and asked, "How many soldiers and horses does Cui Qiancheng have left?" ”

"There are less than three thousand, and two thousand are no longer able to participate in the battle!" The lieutenant replied truthfully.

"Go down!" Cui Jingsheng didn't want to say anything, the captain's words were like sucking the strength out of his body, and he didn't have the strength to speak anymore.

"Now that Lao Jiu has left King's Landing City and will soon arrive in Northern Liao, he will definitely raise troops to the south, and the retainers ask the queen mother, what should we do now?" The sixth prince asked gloatingly. Just now, Queen Cui, Cui Jingsheng and Ji Qian looked very unhappy, especially when Ji Qian saw him, his high-spirited appearance made him very angry, and now seeing that these three people were deflated, he was very happy.

Just like what they discussed before, if Ji Qian became the emperor of Dayan, none of them would be able to eat and walk around, and if Ji Qingchen was the emperor of Dayan, as long as they didn't make any big mistakes, they would at least be able to be a carefree prince.

"What else can I do? A person like Ji Qingchen who is so rebellious and unreasonable, just after His Majesty died, he wanted to escape from King's Landing City and seek to seize the throne, this kind of rebellious minister and thief everyone will be punished, and we must now send troops to fight immediately. Empress Cui said righteously, then moved her gaze to Li Muzhi and asked, "What does Li Qing think?" ”

In fact, the reason why she was able to remain so calm when she heard the captain's battle report was because she had Li Muzhi, the Dinghai Divine Needle, because she felt that no matter how powerful Ji Qingchen was, it was much worse than Li Muzhi, and she had Li Muzhi, plus the thirty army, which was enough to deal with Ji Qingchen.

Moreover, in Empress Cui's heart, as long as Ji Qian ascends the throne and becomes the emperor, he can issue an order to let the border troops in various places serve the king, so that Ji Qingchen's 600,000 army is a lot, and it may be more than the strength of the Great Yan country? In addition, Li Muzhi is a master of the art of war, which is definitely not comparable to Ji Qingchen and the Northern Liao Iron Cavalry.

But Li Muzhi didn't think so, he thought about it carefully, and said lightly, "What the old minister means is that he immediately ordered the army at the junction of Hangzhou, Beidu and Yunzhou to stop Ji Qingchen if he can stop him, and if he can't stop him, he will immediately return to the division of Junlin, we are now inferior to the Northern Liao army in terms of troops, so we can only shrink the defense line and concentrate our forces to deal with him." ”

"It is true that Northern Liao has 600,000 troops, but there are only 300,000 elites that can be occupied, we have 100,000 troops at the junction of Yunzhou and Hangzhou, there are 100,000 Yulin cavalry in King's Landing City, and there are 100,000 Xiao cavalry battalions outside the city, 300,000 is enough to deal with Ji Qingchen, why do you have to shrink the defense line to show the enemy weakly?" The person who spoke was the imperial envoy of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but in three years, the power of the second prince Ji Ping and the third prince Ji Wen had penetrated into the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and now Cha Shenxing has been hollowed out, and he has no right to speak in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, so he can only roar here twice.

Of course, with Ji Qingchen's strategy for the three kings, Li Muzhi has also become an empty shelf in the Privy Council, and has been hollowed out by Ji Hongchang. However, Li Muzhi's influence in the military is too great, that is, he was vacated by Ji Hongchang in the Privy Council, and he has a very strong voice in the military, so he can still stand in the court and participate in military politics, otherwise someone else would have gone home to plant sweet potatoes a long time ago.

"Could it be that the privy envoy thinks that by concentrating the army in King's Landing, we will be able to defend against the 600,000 army of the king of Northern Liao?" The one who asked was Liu Pingyuan, the secretary of the military department, as the uncle of the third prince, he had no intersection with Ji Qingchen, and he had no deep hatred, even if Ji Qingchen's army attacked King's Landing, he had no loss, so he would behave so calmly.

However, Liu Pingyuan's words hit the nail on the head.

Indeed, could it be that by concentrating forces and defending desperately, you can hold King's Landing and defeat Ji Qingchen?

"Presumably, everyone should also know that Lu Daoji Qingchen studied under Li Qingyi and was an excellent cavalry commander, and for this reason, the Northern Liao and Beirong forces have 600,000 troops, the number of cavalry has reached more than 400,000, and the infantry is only more than 100,000. But when we arrived in Hangzhou and the Northern Capital and King's Landing, the terrain was not very flat, and the cavalry could not launch a large-scale charge, which limited the combat effectiveness of Ji Qingchen's cavalry, and we relied on the defense of tall cities, and the Northern Liao cavalry was not good at attacking the city, as long as we held for a few months, so that the Northern Liao army was tired and lacked food, and then took the opportunity to kill, we would definitely be able to defeat them. Li Muzhi analyzed to everyone.

"The Northern Liao cavalry has extra foot soldiers, and this old minister also knows the way, which is indeed true." Liu Pingyuan nodded and said, "The Northern Liao cavalry is not good at attacking cities, this is indeed their weakness, we can make good use of it." ”

"But that's it, we still don't have enough troops!" Liu Pingyuan sighed and said.

"I don't know if Liu Shangshu has any good suggestions?" Ji Qian asked. After hearing the battle situation, he also clearly realized the gap between himself and Ji Qingchen, and then thought of the grievances between himself and Ji Qingchen, and was a little afraid in his heart, so he asked Liu Pingyuan for advice.

Liu Pingyuan did not answer Ji Qian's question, but moved his gaze to Empress Cui and Cui Jingsheng. Empress Cui and Cui Jingsheng didn't know what Liu Pingyuan was thinking, so they could only say, "If Liu Shangshu has any way, just say it!" ”

"What does the old minister mean, do you want to transfer the army of Ningzhou to rush to the aid of King's Landing City?" Liu Pingyuan said, seeing that Empress Cui and Cui Jingsheng did not speak, he continued, "There are four governors under His Majesty, in addition to the Northern Liao Governor's Mansion listening to Ji Qingchen's dispatch, like the Ningzhou Governor's Mansion and the Yizhou Governor's Mansion and the Xizhou Governor's Mansion all obey our orders, you can transfer troops from these three places, you don't need to mobilize too many soldiers and horses, one Governor's Mansion mobilizes 100,000 troops, that is, 300,000 elite soldiers, plus the 30 troops of King's Landing, we also have 600,000 horses, and we also occupy the right time, place and people, At that time, he will definitely be able to defeat Ji Qingchen's Northern Liao army in one battle. ”

"Liu Shangshu is right, the old minister agrees!" Wang You, the secretary of the ministry, came out of the ranks.

He naturally knew what Liu Pingyuan had in mind, as long as he took this opportunity to mobilize 300,000 troops to King's Landing City through the three governors' mansions, no matter whether Ji Qingchen's Northern Liao army went south or not, the strength of the three kings in King's Landing City would also reach 300,000, which was enough to fight against Ji Qian's 300,000 army, in this case, it was impossible for Empress Cui and Cui Jingsheng to forcibly use force to let Ji Qian ascend the throne and claim the emperor.

"The old minister agrees!" Chen Yan said.

"Agreed!" Guo Xing, the secretary of the Criminal Department, said.

"The old minister agrees!" Tang Jian, the head of the household, said.

In fact, for these people, no matter who ascends the throne and becomes the emperor, as long as it is not Ji Qian, their positions will not change much, and the reason why they participate in the struggle of the princes is because in the court of King's Landing, if you don't form a party for personal gain, there is only one way, that is, go home and plant sweet potatoes.

Moreover, like the Seven Great Families, they have participated in the struggle of each generation of imperial crown princes, and there is no such thing as protecting themselves. Therefore, even if the prince they support fails, the impact on them is not very much, at most it is a little less benefit. After all, the Dayan royal family also has to balance the strength of the seven great families, and the seven great families want each other to contain each other! Because of this, the kings of the Great Yan Dynasty did not prohibit the family from participating in the struggle for power among the princes, because only in this way could the previous competition between the seven great families weaken their strength. And the Seven Great Families also know that this is exactly what the Great Yan Ji Clan royal family wants to see the most, so they will participate in the struggle for power and profit among the princes. Even if Bai Jin didn't want to participate, didn't he send Bai Xiangcheng to Ji Qingchen's side, which was tantamount to letting the Bai family participate in the struggle for power between Ji Qingchen and the princes in disguise!

That's why these people agreed to Liu Pingyuan's suggestion. Of course, there is another point, even if Ji Qingchen's Northern Liao army is killed under King's Landing, there is not much grudge between them and Ji Qingchen, and they are not Ji Qingchen's mortal enemies like Queen Cui and Cui Jingsheng, so they are not afraid that Ji Qingchen will punish them.

Of course, what is said here is only most of it, like Queen Cui and Cui Jingsheng and others, with the grievances between them and Ji Qingchen, if Ji Qingchen is bound to not let them go.

This is also the price to pay for supporting a prince.

"The Ningzhou army needs to guard against leaving the country Ningwuguan Iron Cavalry, and can't leave Ningzhou City, as for the Xizhou army, it is even more necessary to guard against the Xishu elite soldiers, and they can't be transferred either, Yizhou only has 100,000 troops, and even the defense of the Lingnan Yi people is a little tight, so naturally it can't be mobilized." Cha Shenxing opened his mouth and said, "Therefore, the minister does not agree with Liu Shangshu's suggestion. ”

"But now that the four princes are not in King's Landing City, I'm afraid they have already gone to Jinju to transfer troops!" Cha Shen said in a strange manner, "As long as the four princes' 100,000 elite horsemen arrive at King's Landing City, it is enough!" ”

Cha Shenxing deliberately mentioned the Fourth Prince Ji Wen here, just to tell Liu Pingyuan and the others that you have sent someone to transfer troops secretly, don't think that we don't know the way, so you should keep a low profile now and don't mention any more troop transfers. Because the power of the three local armies mentioned by Liu Pingyuan is in the hands of the three kings, Yizhou is Ji Hongchang's new army, Xizhou is Ji Ping's new army, Ningzhou is their Liu clan's elite cavalry to support Ji Hongchang, plus Ji Wen's 100,000 elite cavalry, as long as these armies arrive in King's Landing City, they are enough to suppress Empress Cui and Cui Jingsheng.