Under the blue sky, white clouds float leisurely, overlooking the endless grassland at a high place, freely crossing the mountains and mountains.

The white felt tents by the small river reflect the clouds in the sky, and the herdsmen who come in and out wander leisurely after being full of wine and food, and at this moment they are also full of the breath of freedom.

Su Yeqing was boiling butter tea, entertaining Fan Yi, who had arrived in Xiaoye.

One of the two sat dignified and kneeling, with a fresh and elegant demeanor, and the other sat upright, with a serious and rigid expression, but it also complemented each other a little.

"The army has broken through Fengming Mountain and beheaded tens of thousands, especially the Khitan soldiers. Regardless of the future war, after this battle, the youth of many Khitan tribes will decrease, and even there will be few young people. ”

After Fan Yi and Su Yeqing reported the battle situation in Fengming Mountain, he took the butter tea handed by the other party, tasted it lightly, it tasted very good, praised a good tea, drank it all in one gulp, put down the tea bowl, and asked:

"What are your plans?"

Su Yeqing said: "This is a great opportunity for us to expand our forces, according to Gongzi's earlier arrangement, of course we must seize this opportunity." ”

Before the Yanmen Army entered the war, the plan of the Tianyuan Royal Court to destroy the Dadan Department was that the Tianyuan Department and the Khitan Department each sent 100,000 troops to quickly sweep the Dadan Department with elites. At that time, the Khitan Department only mobilized young warriors from large tribes.

After it was determined that the Yanmen Army would participate in the war, in order to block the Yanmen Army, the Tianyuan and Khitan divisions were forced to increase their troops, and at this time, the young and strong soldiers mobilized by the Khitan Department were not limited to large tribes, but were almost fully mobilized.

Therefore, at this time, the large and small tribes in the Khitan territory were very empty.

On the one hand, the tribes under the jurisdiction of ****** are not large because the largest ones are only up and down;

On the other hand, they are located in a remote and barren land, and they have just been formed, and the Khitan royal court has not paid much attention to them, so most of them have not been conscripted.

At present, compared to the relatively wealthy small and medium-sized tribes in the vicinity, the number of warriors in the tribes under the jurisdiction of the ****** is not much of a disadvantage, and some tribes even have an advantage.

In addition, the tribe of the ****** has a large number of elite cultivators, and its strength is far from being comparable to other tribes of the same size, which makes the tribe occupy the absolute upper hand in combat power.

The power in the grassland must be strengthened after all.

The chess pieces have been placed in remote and barren areas, and they will never be able to contact the center of power, and they will never be able to get the truly useful core intelligence of the military state in time.

There was no chance before, but now it is different, taking advantage of the Khitan army fighting at the front, the royal court has no time to take care of the local small-scale battles, ****** should show its strength.

Su Yeqing looked at Fan Yi: "I plan to order all the rudders from now on to immediately annex the small and medium-sized tribes around them that are empty of troops." ”

Fan Yi was noncommittal: "In this way, it is not difficult to succeed, and the rudders can also develop rapidly." ”

Su Yeqing took in Fan Yi's complexion, "But you don't agree to do this?"

Fan Yi: "Yes. ”

"Worried that it won't end up afterwards?"

"After the return of the Khitan army, the soldiers of all departments will inevitably rise up and attack when they find that their homeland has changed hands, and the royal court will not sit idly by. ”

"It's not hard for civilian fighters to cope. We are only annexing some small and medium-sized tribes, even if we have an impact, it will not be big, even if the royal court sends people to lead the army to solve the problem, bribing their officials and generals is enough to solve the problem. ”

"Money doesn't solve the problem. ”

"If you have enough money, there are still problems that can't be solved?"

"Yes. ”

"What's the problem?"

"Ruling power. ”

Su Yeqing was stunned, and couldn't quite understand it for a while.

Fan Yi looked at the one in front of him, the outstanding chivalrous warrior in the rivers and lakes, the immature novice in the power field, and explained it one by one:

"The power to rule the country is greater than anything else. Money corrupts officials, but it cannot corrupt kings. ”

Su Yeqing frowned and pondered: "The Khitan Khan, the Tianyuan Royal Court, will personally intervene in the battle between tribes with a scale of only a few dozen or a few hundred?"

"Not in normal times, but definitely in defeat. ”

"At the time of defeat, the national government is unstable, the major tribes have lost more and less troops, the elite class may be rewashed, for the interests of their own tribes, the struggle for power is bound to be more intense, and the high-level still cares about the lives of civilians?"

"If the mediocre ruler is in charge, a big defeat will indeed cause the national edifice to collapse as you say. But is the Khan of the Heavenly Yuan Court a faint monarch?"

"It's not. ”

"So there's another way around. ”

"What's the situation?"

Fan Yi didn't answer in a hurry, she picked up the teapot herself, poured herself another cup of butter tea, and took a sip unhurriedly, before she was ready to speak.

The paradigm was originally Jiangmen, because of the constraints of the civilian supervision of the army, the conquest of Nanzhao failed, and in recent years he was forced to switch to the civil official sequence, and then because of the failure of the Zhao family, he became the minion of the Zhao family.

As the best young handsome man in the paradigm, Fan Yi has heard and witnessed many things in the process of family turmoil, many hardships, and all kinds of great contributions, and has grown up quickly and has insight into the world.

She said without arrogance: "As you said before, when the war is defeated, the country's internal affairs will inevitably be unstable, but you only know one thing, but you don't know the other.

"The warriors, goods, cattle and sheep of the various tribes were greatly consumed in the war, and the herdsmen could not live and work in peace and contentment and survive the cold winter, and the powerful could not maintain the luxurious life of the past, which was intolerable to the class that wielded power.

Therefore, there will inevitably be a situation: the big tribes will attack the small and medium-sized tribes, and by plundering and destroying the small and medium-sized tribes, they will obtain their wealth and pass on the war losses to these weak people.

The result, on the one hand, is that the luxurious life of the elite remains unchanged, and the common people pay for the loss of the state, but on the other hand, it will also stimulate class contradictions, make small and medium-sized tribes rise up to resist, and cause more disasters and even fires.

"The army returned with a crushing defeat, the majesty of the royal court was greatly reduced, and the loss of troops weakened their control over their territory. At this time, the small people take the opportunity to make trouble, the ambitious people take advantage of the situation, and heroes will be born.

"In the midst of the chaos, once a rare figure of wisdom and courage appears in the small and medium-sized tribes, he will lead his tribes, even the small and medium-sized tribes, to grow bigger step by step, and even threaten the rule of the royal court.

"If this brave man is strong enough, he will become a hero to all peoples. If he can erase the old magnate, he will be able to have the supreme power himself, and let his followers become the new national magnates.

"In this way, the state power hierarchy will be reshaped. ”

After saying this in one breath, Fan Yi picked up the tea bowl and drank some butter tea.

Su Yeqing listened very carefully, and she was also fascinated. At the end, she realized:

"Tianyuan Khan, in the past ten years, has grown from a small tribal leader to the overlord of Mobei and established the royal court, in other words, he is such a hero.

"Since he himself is so promising, he must know the truth of guarding against the appearance of similar figures, not to mention, Tianyuan Khan has not actually controlled the Khitan Department for a few years, and he must guard against disasters in the Khitan territory. ”

Fan Yi showed a hint of a smile, looking at Su Yeqing's eyes full of approval, and appreciating Su Yeqing's cleverness:

"Therefore, during the period after the end of the war, it was a time when the Tianyuan Imperial Court needed to be extra careful to maintain and stabilize its rule, and it would definitely not tolerate the slightest mistake.

"You have already thought of the first layer, so what measures will the Tianyuan Royal Court take next to quickly eliminate the hidden dangers caused by the defeat and achieve the purpose of consolidating the ruling power, you may speculate?"

Su Yeqing looked at Fan Yi and was surprised.

Not because of the question, but because of the smile of the other person.

This was the first time she had seen Fan Yixiao, before that, the two of them had been working together in the grassland for a long time, but they had never seen the slightest smile on each other's faces, she almost thought that the other party would not smile.

The other party is always very serious, very serious, like a stereotypical teacher, meticulous, as if he is facing a great enemy at all times, walking on thin ice, and has never had such a relaxed demeanor as a smile.

But now Fan Yi actually smiled, and the smile was so good-looking, like a rippling lake, suddenly sprinkled with a ray of sunshine.

It was when she laughed that Su Yeqing realized that the other party was also a woman, and she was a complete beauty, so beautiful that she was unconventional.

It's like a snowy day in the cold winter, and a little plum red appears on the leafless treetops.

It made her a little distracted.

Before Fan Yi's face was full of questions, Su Yeqing came back to her senses in time, and her cheeks couldn't help but fly two shimmers of shame, she lowered her head slightly, feeling that she was very out of shape.

She thought for a while and tentatively answered Fan Yi's question:

"After the defeat of the war, the powerful will pass on the losses to the weak civilians, and the royal court will take the public's attention away from the defeat of the war, and will also direct their attention to other things?"

Fan Yi restrained her smile - it wasn't deliberately restrained, her smile was fleeting.

But Su Yeqing's childish and innocent reaction still made her look a lot softer, which reflected the brightness in her heart:

"Yes, the royal court needs another object and event that attracts attention. In addition, the defeat of the war with the Great Qi also requires another victory to announce to the people under their rule that their ruling strength is still not to be challenged. ”

Su Yeqing instantly realized and opened her cherry mouth:

"If ****** attack other tribes at this time and provoke strife and war, then after the Khitan army returns to the division, the royal court will immediately command the army to strangle us, so as to warn all the petty people and ambitious people!"

Fan Yi said: "What else is more difficult than quickly 'suppressing bandits and quelling chaos', and it can also harvest the people's awe and gratitude?"

Su Yeqing's expression became solemn: "****** each rudder, if it is a large-scale annexation of the neighboring small and medium-sized tribes, although the scale of a single battle is not large, but there are many of them, they will inevitably become the best targets!"

"The prestige lost in the foreign war can be quickly recovered in the civil war, and the Tian Yuan Royal Court will be able to use this prestige to restrain the other Khitan tribes, allowing them to reduce their raids and destroy the small and medium-sized tribes. ”

"So ****** can't move now!"

"Of course you can't move. ”

"But ****** can't let go of this several times. ”

"It's about timing it right. ”

"Wait until the army withdraws and order is stable before making a move?"

"This winter is the best time. ”

"It's not enough. ”

"Of course. ”

"It is not advisable to send troops to forcibly annex it, so use financial temptation to attract small tribes who can't survive because of too much loss during the war to take refuge!"

"The paradigm is to run a caravan, and there may be a shortage of others, but there will be no shortage of money, and it is not difficult to get some cattle and sheep from the Dadan Department. ”

"It's time for the two of us to join forces again. ”

"Exactly. ”

Speaking of this, the two looked at each other and smiled, both raised their tea bowls to greet each other, and then drank them all.

Fan Yi continued: "This winter, there must be a lot of tribes who can't survive, but it may also be our goal, many of them can survive, and waiting for the rabbit is not the best strategy." ”

Su Yeqing's eyes lit up, "Do you want to make those tribes that can survive become unbearable?"

"That's where the cultivators come in. Pretending to be a robber or a horse thief and plundering their cattle and sheep is a good choice. ”

"We may lack others under our command, but there will be no shortage of cultivators. ”

After hearing Su Yeqing's words, Fan Yi had a bright smile on her face again, two points richer than before, and she finally added:

"If there is a conflict between the tribes near the rudder, we must also intervene at the right time to help the weak defeat the strong, and finally reap the benefits and annex the two tribes. ”

Su Yeqing blinked her big eyes, "What if the nearby tribes take the initiative to invade us?"

When you ask this question, you already have the answer in mind. ”

"The fat that was delivered to the mouth, of course, is unceremoniously swallowed up in the stomach!"