"Oh, there is such a thing," Zhao Jiong said with great interest, "If the people of all the cities in the north can go to the city to help the battle like the strong men of Lanzhou, it will be very difficult for the Khitans to attack the walled cities." ”

Seeing that the emperor's thinking suddenly turned to the side of fighting with the Liao State, Cao Bin continued: "Lord Wang's words are a little biased, although the people practice archery in their spare time, it is difficult to compare with the army, not to mention the forbidden army, even the box army is inferior, it is extremely easy to have chaos, mutiny, etc., and it is not good for the enemy to take advantage of it." He looked at Zhao Jiong's expression, and didn't seem to disagree, so he continued: "The moon in Lanzhou has not fallen, and it must be Wu Yingying who secretly left more soldiers and horses to guard." Since Taiyuan does not save Lanzhou. Hundreds of thousands of forbidden troops in the imperial court are waiting for the day, and they can send additional soldiers and horses to overcome this lonely city. ”

"Your Majesty," after Wang Yu saw Cao Bin's report, Zhao Jiong still did not say anything, but looked at himself, and said: "What the minister is more worried about is that in addition to Ding Zhuang in Lanzhou City, there are more than 10,000 barbarians who have been captured from the grassland, and many of them are warriors who are good at riding and shooting. At this time, the Central Plains went through the five dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty, although it still regarded itself as the Celestial Empire, but it had lost some self-confidence since the Han and Tang Dynasties in terms of force, and it was the consensus of the Han and Tang dynasties that the Hu people fought fiercely.

If you push Lanzhou too hard, the rabbit will kill the eagle. Xiao Jiu armed his group of grassland slaves in the artisan camp, whether it was plundering or fighting, it would cause trouble for the Song army. As for whether slaves can be armed to become soldiers, it is not within the scope of consideration of the Great Song Dynasty monarchs, in their minds, soldiers and slaves are originally two levels that are not far apart, as long as these slaves were once good soldiers, they are much stronger than those strong men who practice archery in their spare time. If there were thousands of war horses in Lanzhou City to arm these slaves into cavalry, it is estimated that Tian Qinzuo would consider retreating.

"In this way, in this small Lanzhou city, there are thousands of soldiers, as well as the Hu people, and there is no shortage of equipment, grain and grass. Zhao Jiong muttered, Tian Qinzuo has already had a military report, the defenders of Lanzhou are far more than 1,500, the forbidden army has been attacking with all their strength in the past ten days, and the casualties are not light, but the enemy army at the head of the city seems to be uninjured, Tian Qinzuo even accused Wang Yu of giving information in the city to mislead the army. However, Zhao Jiong and Wang Yu are good friends since the end of the year, since ascending the throne, the ministers used, either do not understand military affairs, or have a shallow foundation, or in fact have emerged when Taizu, only Wang Yu is not only a confidant, but also a long time of experience, in addition to the belief in Zoroastrian is not beautiful, Zhao Jiong is still very satisfied with him. Therefore, the slander of others, and even Wang Yu's belief in Zoroastrianism, could not affect Zhao Jiong's reliance on him for the time being.

In the opinion of the old minister, since Wu Yingying had the heart to surrender, he announced that he would be an official in the court, first isolate him from his subordinates, and then the court slowly appointed officials to Hexi to change the selection of soldiers. In this way, the soldiers can win thousands of miles west of the river without blood. Zhao Pu said.

"The prime minister's words are fallacious, then Wu Yingying is ambitious, the above peace is just forced by the situation, he has tens of thousands of troops in hand, thousands of places, orders are free, and Anken sincerely surrenders to the court?" Cao Bin did not wait for Zhao Jiong to speak, and then refuted it, which was contrary to his usual modest and gentlemanly style.

Zhao Pu shook his head slowly, and said leisurely: "Does Cao Shumi know Wu Yingying very well? Moreover, there are not only his dependents in Lanzhou City, but also his henchmen, and the families of more than 10,000 troops. Hexi is centrifuged up and down, and it is not very difficult for the imperial court to withdraw another day and send troops to break it. He stroked his chest with one hand, his beard trembled slightly, as if he was an old man seeking a country, and the demeanor of the prime minister was heartbreaking.

"What if that Wu hero refuses to come to the court?" Cao Bin was not to be outdone, and asked rhetorically. His privy envoy is not a paper paste, if he only knows only promises, Zhao Jiongyan, who is bent on the Northern Expedition, can let him eat in the corpse.

Although he was imposing, Zhao Pu looked calm, and replied calmly: "Then according to the request of Cao Shumi and General Tian, we will send additional troops and horses to conquer Lanzhou." The family members of the Wu heroes will be connected to Bianliang, and His Majesty will build a Shuofang Jiedu Envoy's mansion to live in, and as for the other men and women in the city, reward the forbidden soldiers and soldiers, and be slaves and maids. The appointment of the Shuofang Jiedu envoy was awarded to Lanzhou together with the situation of Lanzhou. At the same time, he ordered Dong to retreat from Lingzhou to Huanzhou, there are still tens of thousands of forbidden troops on the five roads of Shaanxi, nearly 100,000 Xiang troops and native soldiers, which is the heart of the Central Plains, and it is difficult for Wu Heroes to invade within a few years. When he had finished speaking, he laughed dryly and stroked his beard.

"Shuo Fang Jiedu envoy," Zhao Jiong muttered, "The former Shuofang Jiedu envoy was stationed in Lingzhou, does the prime minister want to abandon Lingzhou and give up Wu Yingying?"

Zhao Pu said in a deep voice: "Lingzhou is lonely outside the Hanhai, surrounded by barbarians, it is difficult for reinforcements to arrive, and it is extremely inconvenient to transport grain and grass from Shaanxi. Although Wu Yingying was given the title of the imperial court and entered the court, his subordinates were the northwestern feudal towns of the imperial court, so why should he not build a festival with Shuofang? If he did not enter the court, Lingzhou would be besieged on all sides, and it would be a matter of formality. ”

At this time, the power of the Han people in the Central Plains has been greatly shrunk to the interior after the war of the late Tang Dynasty, although there are still a large number of Han people living near Lingzhou, but the desert Gobi between the Central Plains has been a place for the cattle and sheep of various ethnic groups, as the prime minister, Zhao Pu privately did not know how many times for the supply of the Liangzhou garrison headache, the heart has already complained bitterly, taking advantage of the opportunity of Wu Yingying to besiege Lingzhou, simply put it up together. According to his reasoning, if the imperial army maintained a eastward trend, those jiezhen in the west, which was inconvenient for supply, would take the initiative to shrink back, lest they be inexplicably dragged into a war that was neither fighting nor not fighting, as it was this time. If the imperial forbidden army turned to the west, with the continuous support of the Central Plains' manpower, financial and military forces, these lost festival towns could naturally be easily recaptured.

Zhao Jiong nodded slowly when he heard this, if it is just according to Wu Yingying's current territory, when he is the envoy of Shuofang Jiedu and the envoy of Hexi Jiedu, and the four states of Guasha in Gansu can be observed, the weight of authority is beyond can't be added, Zhao Pu only mentions Shuofang Jiedu envoy, but he is the shallowest foundation to him, and many departments in Hexi have already had various Jiedu envoys, regimental training envoys, and observation envoys whose titles have not been cut, which is also the meaning of laying a nail for Wu Yingying to rule Hexi.