Guo Chongtao's words made Li Cunhou and Feng Dao, He Ning, Shi Jingjiao and Liu Zhiyuan all fall silent.

This problem has always been an unavoidable problem, and the aggressiveness shown by Xuzhou is enough to arouse anyone's vigilance.

Straddling rivers, Huaishui, and rivers, a huge new regime, with more than 20 prefectures and counties, and a population close to or even more than 20 million, has surpassed Daliang in this regard alone.

Perhaps many of them are still newly annexed, and their rule is not yet fully secured, but what about time?

It stands to reason that the primary enemy of the Great Jin Dynasty should be Xuzhou, and the threat to be solved should also be Xuzhou, and it should be strangled at a stage where it has not yet fully grown, which is the wisest thing to do.

But in theory, is it possible?

Not to mention that the Xuzhou army is in full battle, it can be seen from their attitude towards Shi Jingjiao's entry into Caozhou, they are not afraid of a war.

Zhu Mao's Tianping Army alone has 16 armies of more than 40,000 people, and Zhu Mao's original Taining Army has also dealt with the Jin Army many times, although at that time it was still an ally side by side against the Great Liang, but they also know each other well, whether it is a cavalry army or an infantry army, the combat effectiveness of the Taining Army is worth a thumbs up, and now that they have become enemies, of course they will not leave their hands because of the old friendship.

The original Pinglu army and the Ziqing army are also similar, perhaps slightly less than the Taining army, but the difference will not be too big, and then with the abundant military support of Huainan, it is conceivable that the strength of these armies will inevitably be improved to a certain extent, if the Great Jin Dynasty wants to choose Xuzhou as the enemy of the first war, then it is conceivable that this battle must be a protracted war.

Moreover, Jiang Feng's foundation is not in Ziqingping Lu Yanyun, not even in Xu Si, but in Huainan, even if the Great Jin Dynasty can really defeat the Xuzhou army and occupy Ziqingping Lu Yanyun, but to take Xuzhou, even if Li Cunhou is confident in his unparalleled force, Feng Dao boasts that he is old and calculating, and he does not dare to have this certainty, not to mention the states south of Huaishui, which is the foundation of Jiang Feng.

Therefore, once the war with Xuzhou starts, the Great Jin must devote all its strength to fight with it, if it is only north of Huaishui, the chances of victory on the side of the Great Jin may be open to Xuzhou, but with Huainan, the odds of winning may fall to less than thirty percent.

In addition to this factor, Li Cunhou knew that starting a war with Xuzhou would never get the support of people like An Chongrong, Kang Yicheng, Zhang Jingda, and even Shi Jingjiao and Liu Zhiyuan, because their subordinates needed gold and silver to reward and appease, and they were never willing to gnaw on the hard bone of Xuzhou and there was not much oil and water.

Similarly, Feng Dao and He Ning also knew that a war with Xuzhou could not be done, and a long-term war was impossible for the Great Jin, which had consumed a huge amount of money in the battle of conquering Daliang, and the reason why Nanyang was chosen was to take a fancy to Henan Mansion and Ruzhou, Xuzhou, and the richness of the Nanyang Basin, which was to collect money and grain from these places to maintain the survival of the 200,000 army in the Central Plains.

Only by annexing the entire Central Plains plus Nanyang, and digesting it, so that it really becomes the fundamental place of the Great Jin, can the Great Jin have the strength to compete with Xuzhou for the world, which is the idea of Li Cunhou and Feng Dao.

But Guo Chongtao's words also poked such a worry, yes, the Great Jin can expand and consolidate the basic strength in this way, so will Xuzhou just watch the Great Jin grow and do nothing? Definitely not, they will also continue to conquer the city, consolidate their rule, increase their strength, and make all kinds of preparations for competing with the Great Jin, so the Great Jin has to think about how to strengthen itself while limiting the development and growth of the opponent.

"Xuzhou is indeed a big problem, and it must be taken seriously. Feng Dao stroked his long beard and said in a deep voice: "Previously, we have always listed Daliang as the number one enemy, ignoring Xuzhou, we never thought that Jiang Feng would swell in just a few years, we all underestimated him before, but now we have destroyed Daliang and occupy the vast land of the Central Plains, and the land of Bianluo has become our hinterland. ”

Feng Dao is still quite cautious, and he does not exaggerate, he knows very well that the advantage of the Jin army lies in the cavalry, and the cavalry army can indeed be invincible in the plains north of Huaishui, but once it crosses the Huaishui, the hills and mountains and rivers and lakes and swamps in the south will put the Jin army in a disadvantageous situation, even the Han army in Hedong is also difficult to adapt to the terrain and climate there, if you want to cross the Huaishui southern expedition, you must form a new Han army infantry army along the Huaishui area, so as to have a greater chance of victory, and this will take time.

Li Cunhou and Guo Chongtao both nodded in approval, Liu Zhiyuan and Shi Jingjiao also nodded at each other, knowing that this was Lao Cheng's words to hold the country, the Jin army did not have much war experience in the south, and the climate and geography of the south were definitely a big challenge for the northerners who were accustomed to the bitter cold climate, and they were more threatening than any army.

"But we can't let Xuzhou expand and grow so unscrupulously, we must have the means to curb its development. Guo Chongtao sighed.

"Well, does the last general think that he can urge the Khitans to go south and threaten Xuzhou from the north?" Liu Zhiyuan also asked.

"Khitan?" Shi Jingjiao and Li Cunhou both frowned, this was another dilemma.

The Khitan people going south will definitely be a great threat to Xuzhou, but the Khitan people are also wolves and tigers, once they go south, they will also be a huge threat to the Great Jin, and they are very likely to become a fierce tiger and wolf against the Great Jin Dynasty.

"Khitan, Yelu Deguang is also a suspicious person, not a good stubble. Feng Dao said quietly: "It is said that he is now forcing Liu Shouguang to hand over Tan Ji Erzhou to him, it is estimated that Liu Shouguang will not be able to resist the pressure, sooner or later he will have to hand it over to the Khitans, Tan Ji Erzhou is lost, how long can Youzhou be defended? ”

"What if the Khitans and Xuzhou are at war and then a war breaks out?" Guo Chongtao asked rhetorically: "Jiang Feng is also an ambitious hero, and he is absolutely unwilling to be persecuted by the Khitans, especially if the Khitans obtain Heshuo, it will constitute a condescending situation in Pinglu Town and Tianping Town under his control, he will definitely not sit idly by, if we can promote their war, we may be able to reap the benefits of the fisherman." ”

"It's not that simple, Yelu Deguang and Jiang Feng are not so easy to take the bait. He Ning shook his head, "But the trend of the Khitans going south to Heshuo is inevitable, which can be seen from Yelu Deguang's forcing Liu Shouguang to hand over the two states of Tanji, within three years, there will be a war in Youzhou." ”

"Three years is too long, Xuzhou has three years, the foundation is early, and it will be difficult to deal with it again, and we can't give them such a long time to recuperate. Guo Chongtao said categorically: "What if Xuzhou is allowed to go north to Heshuo?"

"Let Xuzhou go north to Heshuo?" Liu Zhiyuan was taken aback, "Is this possible? Jiang Feng won't have such a big appetite, and he actually wants to annex Heshuo? Besides, with that leisure, why doesn't he go south to Jiangnan? It is much more fertile and fertile." ”

"Not necessarily, Jiang Feng is a generation of heroes, he should see the threat of the Khitans, if he controls the important land of Heshuo first, it will be much more beneficial to resist the Khitans going south in the future, as long as the conditions allow, he will definitely have this idea. Guo Chongtao disagreed.

The inconsistency of views also makes everyone disagree about Xuzhou's future actions, but in any case, Xuzhou is indeed a big enemy of the Great Jin Dynasty now, and Khitan may be the enemy of the future.

"Can you make some trouble for Xuzhou in the south?" Shi Jingjiao asked with a frown.

"South?" He Ning smacked his lips, "The situation in the south of Huainan is very complicated, the relationship between the Huang Du clan and Jiang Feng is good, and the relationship between Wu and Jiang Feng is bad, but now Wu is restrained by ant thieves and it is difficult to pull out his hand, so Jiang Feng will take the opportunity to seize Luhao and Chu Sizhou and sign the alliance under the city, unless Wu can free up his hand." To tell the truth, there is a real threat to Xuzhou, I am afraid that only Caizhou, but now that we are going south to Nanyang, it is bound to arouse Caizhou's vigilance, Caizhou and Xuzhou are more likely to be together, and we can't release Caizhou's worries. ”

Indeed, the situation in Xuzhou is too good, there are almost no decent enemies around, Caizhou, which can be called an enemy, is more vigilant about itself, and it is too difficult to instigate Caizhou to attack Xuzhou, see how hard they fought in Songzhou, as soon as they heard that Bianliang had fallen, they immediately shook hands and made peace, and they were not all defending themselves?

The atmosphere in the hall was also a little stagnant for a while, and no one wanted to watch a big enemy beside him continue to increase his strength, knowing that the opponent would be a big disaster in the future, but now he was helpless.

"In the final analysis, we still have to strengthen our own strength, in any case, we still have a great advantage over Xuzhou now, north of Huaishui, Xuzhou can only be on the defensive forever, we now need time to consolidate our rule in the Central Plains, and at the same time to further enrich our strength by taking Nanyang, now we can only do this, if we blindly watch the development of others and ignore their actual situation and forcibly intervene, I am afraid that it will only make other families reap the benefits of fishermen. Feng Dao said in a concluding remark: "Guo Gong is right, if you want to contain the Khitans, you have to ask the Khitans, the Khitans are too slow to go south, on the one hand, we must promote the Khitans to go south, on the other hand, we must also induce Xuzhou to go north, so that they will fight in Heshuo, and consume the strength of both of them, this is the right reason." ”

"But it's easy to let the Khitans go south, but it's not easy to let Xuzhou go north, right?" Liu Zhiyuan couldn't help but say.

"Not necessarily, Jiang Feng has a huge appetite, maybe we can give him some guarantees, so that he can rest assured and boldly go north. Feng Dao had a thoughtful expression.