The second thing mentioned in Xu Shao'an's telegram was about the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Army, which the crossing team was most concerned about now. According to Xu Shao'an's telegram, the preparations for the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Dynasty have been proceeding step by step. Whether it was the preparation of grain and grass equipment, the assembly of the forbidden army, or the training of the recruits of the "Divine Machine Army," they all went very smoothly. Although Chai Rong has not yet made an official decree on when the Northern Expedition will be carried out, based on his statement in the court and his private exchanges with important ministers and generals, it can be roughly judged that the day when the Zhou army will move north will not be later than the end of the first month of next year. In other words, from now on, the crossing team will have about a month at most to prepare for the cloud war.

For the time-traveling team, the closer and closer start of the Cloud War did not cause them much pressure. Instead of feeling nervous about the battle at their hands, they felt the urge to try it out - the brothers hoped that through this battle, they could completely lay the foundation for the survival and development of the team in this era and in this land.

Different from the calm and calm when they learned the approximate time of the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Army, the brothers who participated in the meeting were extremely dissatisfied with the fact that Xu Shao'an presented to Chai Rong that the "Qingyuan" brothers were willing to use the huge financial, material, and human resources they had at their disposal, especially the "private soldiers" in their hands to help the Later Zhou army, and to contribute to the Later Zhou court and the people of Youyun, and did not get a positive response from Chai Rong. According to Xu Shao'an's telegram, although Chai Rong gave him a certain amount of praise and praise for his performance, he expressed a tactful but firm refusal to the request of the "Qingyuan" brothers who were willing to send troops to help the imperial court.

When Chai Rong explained to Xu Shao'an that Weishenme did not agree to the request of the "Qingyuan" brothers to send troops to help, he said that Wang Aiqing, Zhang Aiqing and their brothers had undoubtedly shown their pure heart for the people of Youyun and their fierce loyalty to the Great Zhou court as early as when they went south to meet me. Now, for the sake of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the people of Youyun, regardless of personal interests and losses, you are willing to do your best to support the Northern Expedition of the imperial court, and I am very grateful. It's just that the Northern Expedition of the Imperial Court has its own rules and regulations of the Imperial Court, although there are thousands of private soldiers under you and many elite soldiers. However, no matter how elite these private soldiers are, they are only your family members and nurses after all. Although there are many brave and fearless people among them, whether it is military discipline or marching formation, after all, it is different from the regular forbidden army of the imperial court. If the two sides join forces, it will inevitably cause a lot of unnecessary trouble. Instead of influencing and interfering with each other, it is better to leave the task of dueling with the Khitan army to the forbidden army of the imperial court. The "Qingyuan" brothers were only responsible for guiding the way for the imperial army and providing support in terms of grain, grass, weapons, and money. This not only expresses the willingness of the "Qingyuan" brothers to be loyal to the Great Zhou court and contribute to the people of Youyun, but also retains their own liliang and contributes more to the prosperity of the sixteen states of Youyun in the future.

Although Chai Rong's statement was not unexpected by the crossing crowd, it also made the brothers feel a little incomprehensible. In the eyes of the traversers, even if Chai Rong didn't really want to cooperate with their group of "Qingyuan" brothers, at least they should take the opportunity to take the initiative to ask for battle, and use the pretext of fighting Youyun together to let the "Qingyuan" brothers take their "private soldiers" to participate in the battle, and assign the most difficult cities and the most difficult "hard bones" to them, so that they can charge into battle and be cannon fodder. In this way, it can not only consume the strength of the Khitans and reduce the burden on the Later Zhou army to attack the city, but also greatly weaken the strength of the "Qingyuan" brothers, so that they will not hinder the rule of the Later Zhou court over the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun after the war - and even take advantage of the situation to eat the "Qingyuan" brothers, a wounded and exhausted place that has been fighting with the Khitans, in one fell swoop.

Although Chai Rong asked them to be cannon fodder and fight with the Khitans, it would also make the traversers unhappy, and secretly scolded "the court is insidious and Chai Rong is cunning", but out of trust in the combat effectiveness of the "Flying Dragon Army", the traversers will still go to the battlefield with high morale to show their true strength to the Khitans, to the people of the sixteen states of Youyun, and to the Later Zhou court. But now Chai Rong does not know whether he is full of confidence in the combat effectiveness of the forbidden army under his command, or full of confidence in his own wisdom and martial arts, eloquence, he did not choose this kind of strategy commonly used by the rulers of the past dynasties to drive the tiger and devour the wolf, so that both sides will lose, but very rare choice to directly decline the request of the "Qingyuan" brothers to fight side by side with the imperial army. This somewhat made Shang Shu full of confidence before, thinking that through his own performance, Xu Shao'an, who could bring a righteous name to the crossing team leading the army, had a feeling that his fist was hitting the cotton - he couldn't use his strength at all. ,

Fortunately, the crossing team, especially Wang Kunjun, Zhang Weixin and others, has always been active and prudent, and multi-handed preparation. Although Chai Rong's direct refusal of the request to cross the team to participate in the battle was not the main direction predicted by the brothers at the beginning, the relevant response plan for this situation has long been formulated. And there is only one core content of this plan, that is, the Later Zhou Dynasty court gave the crossing team a direct opportunity to take advantage of the situation, and the crossing team should take advantage of the situation; The Later Zhou court did not give the crossing team a direct opportunity to take advantage of the situation, so the crossing team created its own opportunity and took advantage of the situation. As for how to create opportunities and how to take advantage of the situation, it is up to the committee, the military department, the intelligence department, and other departments to operate and judge according to the time and situation, and there are no certain rules.

Therefore, although the second part of Xu Shao'an's telegram surprised the travelers present, it was not enough to affect their confidence in achieving the set goals, let alone their fighting spirit to build a foundation and establish a career.

The third part of Xu Shaoan's telegram is about Lin Xiaoyu. According to Lin Xiaoyu's handwritten letter delivered by Ma Ping'an, the "hardcore informant" of "Dark Feather" in the Later Zhou Palace, after her repeated pleas, Chai Rong has agreed that she will accompany the king and go north with him.

Lin Xiaoyu's letter did not write how she persuaded Chai Rong, but according to Ma Ping'an, who passed the letter, this virtuous concubine was really a stubborn and determined strange woman. Although her request to go on the expedition with Chai Rong was rejected many times, she still launched an offensive against Chai Rong again and again with the spirit of never giving up until she reached her goal. As a result, with her perseverance and hard work, Chai Rong finally lost the battle and had to agree to her request.

Of course, the reason why Chai Rong was able to agree to this matter was on the one hand Lin Xiaoyu's insistence, and on the other hand, it was also based on Chai Rong's affection for her, Concubine Lin Xian, who was very different from the style of women in this era and full of mystery - if it was other concubines, I was afraid that she would have been punished by the grumpy Chai Rong a long time ago. In addition, Lin Xiaoyu has an advantage that other concubines, including Queen Fu, the lord of **, do not have, that is, her superb martial arts that have been passed down by the old fairy of Fuyaozi - according to Ma Ping'an, this Lin Niangniang will practice martial arts in the palace every day without interruption. According to the palace guards who have seen Lin Xiaoyu practice, if they talk about fighting alone, they are ordinary Ouchi guards, even if they are the master and commander who is known as the number one master in Ouchi, they must bow down.

And it was the guards' respect for Lin Xiaoyu's martial arts that made Chai Rong, who had been a horse all his life and liked martial arts, change his previous judgment that Lin Xiaoyu was only a few fists and embroidered legs. Not only did he love this concubine, who was estimated to be the highest martial arts in ancient and modern China and abroad, but also watched Lin Xiaoyu practice martial arts in his spare time, which became the most comfortable way for him to relax. In a sense, one of the important reasons why Chai Rong was able to agree to Lin Xiaoyu to go on the Northern Expedition with him this time was that Lin Xiaoyu, who had martial arts, could gallop with him on the battlefield and even kill the enemy in front of the battle, instead of becoming a burden that needed the protection of the army like other concubines.

In Chai Rong's opinion, Lin Xiaoyu's insistence on going with him may just be worried that he would make a mistake in the battle, or that he was bored in the palace, and wanted to take this opportunity to come out and breathe. In the eyes of the crossing team, Lin Xiaoyu's purpose of being so persistent in the Northern Expedition with Chai Rong was by no means, or not just worried about Chai Rong's mistakes in the battle, but worried that the eloquent emperor was as recorded in the history books of his previous life, fell ill during the Northern Expedition, and finally died young. The reason why she insisted on accompanying Chai Rong on the Northern Expedition was that she wanted to save the life of her husband, who was praised by later historians, and also because she wanted to grow old with him. As Lin Xiaoyu's sworn brother, the other members of the crossing team couldn't help their sister-in-law (sister) in this matter. What's more, not only could the other members of the crossing team not be able to help Lin Xiaoyu, but some of their actions in the future were likely to make the Chai Emperor, who had always had a more violent temper, rage, and thus aggravate the condition of the emperor who had been in poor health, making Lin Xiaoyu's efforts for Chai Rong's health all in vain.

However, for the traversers other than Lin Xiaoyu, when the future and fate of the entire traversal team and the future and fate of a team member are placed in front of them, and they are asked to choose, they will not hesitate to choose the former. Therefore, while wishing Lin Xiaoyu what he wished this time, the brothers of the crossing team still devoted themselves to the preparation for the upcoming battle of the clouds, and fought for a broad world for the crossing team and for themselves.