Time always flies quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it's July again.

In the past month or so, the 60,000 elite soldiers led by Zhao Guogong have indeed brought great pressure to Xiao Qingyun's cadres. The two sides fought a number of battles in Xiapi City. Although Xiao Qingyun relied on many years of experience in leading the army in the northwest and the loyalty of the cadres to defend the occupied territory of Xuzhou with great difficulty, it was difficult for him to advance in the direction of Yuzhou.

Zhao Guogong saw that Xiao Qingyun was well defended, and he was currently hiding in the strong Xiapi City, so he had to use the method of besieging the city, hoping to exhaust Xiao Qingyun's grain and grass, in order to catch turtles in the urn.

On this day, everyone discussed the next march direction in Xiao Qingyun's marshal tent. Several people spread out the map and discussed it carefully.

The first to speak was Zheng Rong, a veteran who had served as a general of the Qianguo Army: "Marshal, now Zhao Gou's army is biting too tightly. If we stick to our bottom and can't get out, we will soon run out of ammunition. If we continue to advance in the direction of Yuzhou, the losses will be very large. At present, only the east of Xiapi City is adjacent to Surabaya, and the other party has no way to besiege it. Why don't we go around Surabaya and retreat to Guangling first, accumulate strength and then make plans? ”

Feng Gu, the current left pioneer, has a different view. He was the former leader of the Xuzhou Peasant Army, and in the Battle of Guangling, he surrendered to Xiao Qingyun. He shook his head and said, "Although I agree to break through from Surabaya, I think that if I retreat to Guangling now, I will definitely grow the morale of others and destroy my prestige." Dayong has more military horses than us, and we have fought until now, mainly relying on one breath. If the morale of the army is shaken, I am afraid it will be difficult to advance. I think that since the other party has blocked Yuzhou, then we will change direction and attack Yanzhou through Lanling. ”

As the chief military division, although Shen Rongzhi is young, his thoughts are different from those of everyone: "What the two generals said makes sense. I also agree to break through the encirclement through Surabaya. But after that, I think the march route is still through Kaiyang to the north, find a way to enter Qingzhou, and capture Qingzhou first. ”

When everyone heard him say that he was going to attack Qingzhou, they were taken aback. The right general, Chen Yang, said unceremoniously: "I'm afraid the military advisor hasn't woken up yet, right?" Qingzhou is currently the territory of King Ding, don't forget that King Ding is also surnamed Yuwen. Even if he rebels now, as long as we attack Qingzhou, I am afraid that he will join forces with Zhao Gou's army to deal with us. When the time comes, we will be sandwiched between Qingzhou and Yanzhou, and we will definitely die. ”

Shen Rongzhi shook his fan and said confidently: "No, no." The men of the Yuwen family are always amiable on the surface, and the infighting is the most powerful. At present, Emperor Wei is seriously ill and is in power by the crown prince. For the crown prince, King Ding is afraid that he is more terrible than us, and he is happy to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and see that we are both defeated before making a move. ”

Next, he analyzed it carefully: "First, King Ding is now playing the name of Qingjun, and he is a generation older than the prince in terms of generation. If the crown prince immediately intervened to help the king, the royal family would only think that this was what the prince should do, and it would not benefit his reputation. And the king will not let Qingzhou out because of this. Therefore, the prince will definitely just stand by until the last moment. ”

From King Ding's point of view, he was also reluctant to ask Yuwen Moyuan for help easily. King Ding has always been a particularly conceited person, and he has always looked down on Emperor Wei, how can he look down on the prince? And if he helps him deal with us this time, he still has to worry about whether the prince will take Qingzhou. After all, he committed a major crime of killing his head, and once he fell into the hands of Yuwen Moyuan, he would definitely be beheaded. So he would rather fight to the death with us than ask for help from Yuwen Moyuan. ”

"Let's talk about Qingzhou here. Qingzhou has always been a battleground for soldiers. Not only because of its important terrain, but more importantly, Qingzhou has excellent fertile land and iron mines, and the men in Qingzhou are tall and brave enough to fight, so they can be said to be good candidates for conscription. Compared with the south in the past two years, Qingzhou has not caused much disaster, and there is enough grain. If we can take Qingzhou, it will definitely be beneficial to the battle after that. ”

Speaking of grain and grass, Bai Qingfeng chose to support Shen Rongzhi's choice without hesitation. The soldiers and horses did not move the grain and grass first, and for him, a person in charge of money and grain, there was nothing more suitable for him to take it first than Qingzhou, which had millions of grains. And if Qingzhou can be won, the iron ore near Linjiang is famous since ancient times. Compared with the south, the iron ore smelting method of Linjiang is more mature, and the swords and spears produced are sharper and not easy to break, which can be said to be the best military supply.

After listening to Shen Rongzhi and Bai Qingfeng's analysis, everyone also felt that if they could obtain Qingzhou, it would probably be of great benefit to the war in the future. But Qingzhou is not so easy to take. Although King Ding's soldiers and horses are not many, but there are only 5,000 people, Qingzhou's recruits are claimed to be able to weigh 200,000. With only 30,000 of them, and facing the encirclement and interception of Zhao Guogong's 60,000 army, how can they take Qingzhou? Thinking of this, everyone shook their heads again.

Xiao Qingyun already had an idea after listening to everyone's analysis, he felt that since Qingzhou was important, then he had to take Qingzhou first no matter what. He had one more reason than Shen Rongzhi, if he didn't take Qingzhou and attack Yanzhou directly, King Ding would take advantage of their unpreparedness and sneak attack from the east road. And once you enter Yanzhou, if you can't take it smoothly, you are likely to be attacked from three sides, and there will be no way out except for retreat.

As for how to take Qingzhou, Xiao Qingyun has his own ideas, he thinks that although Qingzhou is difficult to take, it is not impossible.

Qingzhou's biggest weakness is that King Ding is in command, not Emperor Wei or the crown prince. The most important thing in war is that the division is famous. King Ding would rather use the name of King Qin in the name of Qingjun, which shows how much he doesn't want to be in the same boat with Emperor Wei and the crown prince in his bones. And in his name, even the common people know that it will inevitably cause the dislike of the emperor or the crown prince, so the loyalty of the lower-level sergeants must be insufficient.

And another factor is the people of Qingzhou. The people of Qingzhou have always attached importance to farming, and actually have their own demands for conscription, always hoping that in the case of each family, they can still leave enough labor to cultivate the fields to support their families. In order to consolidate his strength, the king forcibly conscripted 200,000 soldiers, and basically took away all the strong laborers, leaving only the old and young women and children in the family. This means that the people of Qingzhou are very likely to be very dissatisfied with King Ding.

In addition, King Ding is a person who is more arrogant and lascivious than Emperor Wei and greedy for beauty, and he wants to bully the people on weekdays. It is estimated that if one or two important cities with lax defense can really be captured, the people of Qingzhou will quickly re-establish their positions.

And if you want to use troops against Qingzhou, the first point is to be fast, and fight before King Ding reacts. The best way is to feint to attack Yanzhou, attack Qingzhou, and open up the situation while King Ding is not ready. The second point is the pacification policy after the siege, if the pacification policy is done well, so that the people spread the word, it is estimated that other places in Qingzhou will soon take refuge. If it is possible to surrender the army without a fight, then it is also possible for 30,000 elite soldiers to take down more than 200,000 troops.

After listening to Xiao Qingyun's analysis, everyone began to rejoice again, thinking that maybe they could try it. And Shen Rongzhi came up with a perfect attack plan in the next few days, and even Chen Yang, the right general who had doubts before, nodded yes and agreed to go north to Qingzhou.