Lu Qiming was the only stunned, looking at Wang Miao's eyes intriguingly.

What does Wang Miao mean by this?

Hasn't he always been a strong promoter of the northward expansion strategy?

Why is there now such a sign that there seems to be a change?

Thinking of the meaning of the words that Lu Qixiu revealed to himself before, Lu Qiming estimated that there might be some changes on the side of the county king and the Privy Council.

"But the attitude of the county king has changed, do you want to go south first and then north?" Lu Qiming pondered, "Since the attitude of the Shatuo people can be ignored, there must be some reason for the south first, right?"

Lang Kun also chimed in, "Yes, Privy Envoy, hasn't the northern strategy been determined? How long will this delay be put on hold? Will the preparations on our side continue, or be suspended?"

"You two may also be clear about the attitude of the king of the county, the northward strategy will not change, and the time has only changed slightly, as for the reason, you may also be able to guess some, from the battle of Xuzhou to the Yanyunyi strategy, and then to the recovery of Pinglu, a series of wars, the consumption of grain and grass and military resources is very large, and even the price of grain in Shouzhou, which has never been short of grain, has risen sharply, plus this time the Liang collapsed, a large number of Bianluo people went to Xuzhou, according to preliminary statistics, at least 300,000 people from Luoyang, In the past six months, Bianzhou has been evacuated from the territory of Daliang to the prefectures of the Xuzhou Governor's Office. ”

This time, in addition to inspecting and inspecting the military affairs of Pinglu, Wang Miao also wanted to reassure Lu Qiming and Lang Kun that they could not be affected by the changes in the situation in the south.

Because due to some subtle changes in the situation in the south, the Privy Council has also adjusted its strategy, and it is necessary to have a wave of large-scale military operations in the south, but it is not expected to take too long, and it is necessary to strive to completely solve the southern problem within three to five months, and no more than half a year at the longest, and then go all out to plot Heshuo, and it is even possible that the northern strategy will be launched before the military operation in the south is over.

"Therefore, the county king asked me to come this time to check the preparations here, including the progress of the formation of the Pinglu army cannot be slowed down, but can only be accelerated, according to the opinion of the county king and the Privy Council, all preparations must be made before the end of June, that is to say, the northward advance may be launched before mid-July, you must have this preparation. ”

Lu Qiming put down the wine bowl again, and weighed it: "Privy envoy, but do you want to take Chu Yang?"

"Well, yes, but it depends on whether some other conditions are ripe. Wang Miao patiently explained: "There are some new trends in the southern Yue Kingdom and the ant thieves, and Wuwentang and the Privy Council are paying attention to it, so there will be some minor adjustments, but the county king and the Privy Council have not changed their attitude towards Mou Heshuo, and from the information obtained from the Khitan side, the Khitans are seeking to put pressure on Liu Shouguang and ask Lu Longjun to withdraw from Danzhou and Jizhou, which has caused a lot of pressure on Liu Shouguang, and it is estimated that Liu Shouguang will not be able to withstand the pressure of Yelu Deguang and will withdraw from Danzhou and Jizhou." ”

"Danzhou and Jizhou have actually been almost infiltrated by the Khitans, Liu Shouguang in Danzhou and Jizhou is only stationed in the state city with two soldiers and horses, it is better than nothing, Yelu Deguang is not doing this for Tanji, but for Youzhou!" Lu Qiming changed slightly, "Youzhou is Yelu Deguang's ultimate goal, if you take Youzhou, there will be no danger in the Hebei Plain, and the Khitan iron horse can come and go freely." ”

"Yishui and Juma water can't stop at all, if Youzhou is occupied by the Khitans, the entire Heshuo will be in danger. Lu Qixiu also added.

"Youzhou is lost, Yizhou, Quanzhou and Mozhou are difficult to keep, Hutuo River and Zhangshui and in Moxian and Waqiao around the fox lake can have some blocking effect, but this line of terrain is too vast, the Khitan iron cavalry can cross the river from the east and west hundreds of miles or even thousands of miles of waterway, even if we control Cangzhou, it is difficult to control Shenzhou, Quanzhou and Mozhou, the Khitan iron cavalry can cross the river in the west and insert it in the east, we have to deploy troops on the Yongji Canal defense line, protect Cangzhou, it is very difficult to defend. ”

After learning about the next task of the Pinglu Army, Lang Kun has been pondering the situation in Heshuo, especially the geography and topography of the three prefectures of Di, Cang and De, and even recruited several guides who are very familiar with the situation of Cang, Mo, Ying and Youzhou to explain to him, and then study them against the map and sand table.

Even Lu Qiming was very touched by Lang Kun's performance, and he still had some opinions on Lang Kun's appointment as the deputy governor of the Pinglu Army, in his opinion, this was a bit like Jiang Feng's compensation to Yu Mingzhen, because Yu Mingzhen only served as the governor of the Yajun Army, and Lang Kun and Yu Mingzhen had some kinship, but they were arranged to the position of deputy governor of the Pinglu Army, and Jiang Feng did not even assign Zhang Yue and Qin Zaidao to these old ministers.

Although these people are inferior to Lang Kun in terms of martial arts strength, but this is the governor of the army, and the usefulness of martial arts strength will actually become more and more diluted in the future, on the contrary, loyalty will become more and more important as Xuzhou's power continues to expand.

"That's true. Wang Miao glanced at Lang Kun with some surprise and nodded, he didn't expect that this general from the Taining Army actually knew so much about the geography of Heshuo, and it was even no less than his own son from Heshuo," Although there are several rivers in the Heshuo Plain, firstly, they should be frozen in winter, and secondly, the Hebei Plain is open, the river is straight, and there are many places to choose to cross the river. ”

"If you can, it's best for Liu Shouguang to withstand the pressure of the Khitans. Although Lu Qiming also wants to compete with the Khitans, but as a governor, he must stand at a higher height to see the problem, the Khitans are not easy to deal with, from the overall situation of Xuzhou, if Liu Shouguang's Lulong Town is in front, it will undoubtedly be more beneficial for Xuzhou to have more time to develop.

"I think so, but Zhang Chujin can't provide much help to Liu Shouguang at all, and may even drag him back, so we need to take the three states of Di, Cang, and De, first ensure that our own defense line is stable, and then consider whether Liu Shouguang is worthy of support. Wang Miao nodded.

"If the Tuyuhun people can form an alliance with us, it may be able to greatly relieve Liu Shouguang's pressure. Lang Kun said suddenly.

Wang Miao glanced at the other party appreciatively, "Well, the Privy Council is also planning the problem that General Lang is considering, but in the final analysis, we still have to rely on ourselves." ”

On March 29, the Jin army advanced along the canal and arrived at Taoling Town, ten miles southeast of Yongqiu County, which was only 15 miles away from the Songzhou border, and the cavalry could break through into the territory of Xiangyi County in Songzhou in half an hour, and the army could reach the city of Xiangyi in two hours; it was only 30 miles away from the county seat of Kaocheng in the southwest corner of Caozhou, and it could also reach the city of Kaocheng County in the same two hours.

Both Xuzhou and Caizhou are nervously watching the movements of Shatuo's iron cavalry.

The Wuning Army and the Ziqing Army, which had completed the transfer of Songcheng, had already withdrawn from Songcheng, the Ziqing Army was stationed in Yucheng and Chuqiu, and the Wuning Army had retreated to Yongcheng.

The final result of the negotiations between the two sides was that Xuzhou gave up Yingshang, but only obtained Xia Cai, and will be included in Shouzhou, now Shouzhou has added a county, across the north and south of Huaishui, with Shouchun, Huoqiu, Anfeng and Xia Cai four counties, which is a compensation for the previous cut out of Shengtang and Huoshan counties to Huzhou.

Suzhou and Shanzhou were established at the same time.

Suzhou has jurisdiction over Tong County, Qi County, Fuli, Shansang, Linli five counties, the state is located in Tong County (Tongqiao Town) Yongcheng into Xuzhou.

Shanzhou has six counties, including Shanfu, Chuqiu, Dangshan, Yucheng, Jinxiang, Fanghe, and Jinxiang, of which Jinxiang and Fanghe are included in Yanzhou, and Chengwu County, which was originally considered to be included in Caozhou, has not adjusted the state governance to be set in Shanfu, and Shanzhou is assigned to Wuning Town.

As soon as Xuzhou and Caizhou reached an agreement, Xuzhou immediately released the captured soldiers and masters of Caizhou, and even took the initiative to return a considerable part of the weapons and armor to help Caizhou quickly establish a Songzhou defense line.

Yang Kan concurrently served as the champion general as a privy envoy, served as the commander of the Three Towns Army, and coordinated and commanded the Tianping Army, the Ziqing Army, and the Wuning Army to deal with the situation in the entire western region.

It was the first time for Yang Kan to stand side by side with Zhu Mao.

The two of them stood on the head of the city wall of Kaocheng County, looking southwest.

Yang Kan and Zhu Mao are not familiar with each other.

In fact, Zhu Mao was not familiar with the generals of the original Huaiyou Army system, but he was more familiar with the generals of the Reform Army and the Pinglu Army system.

"Governor, the Raven Army is here. Yang Kan squinted his eyes and used a clairvoyant mirror to observe the black cavalry speeding by a few miles away, "Sure enough, it is a cavalry powerhouse, and a certain person who served in the Liang army has also fought with the crow army a few times, but the scale of the battle is not large, so it is not well judged." ”

"Yang Shumi, Shatuo Iron Cavalry is not in vain, but there is no need to praise too much, a certain has been dealing with Shatuo people for a long time, and he still knows a little about their strength. ”

Zhu Mao maintained a calm but respectful attitude towards Yang Kan, he could not care about Yang Kan, but he could not respect the rules and military discipline of the Xuzhou Governor's Mansion, since Yang Kan was in command of the Three Towns Army as a privy envoy, then he came on behalf of Jiang Feng, and he must give the necessary courtesy.

"I don't know what the governor thinks of the combat effectiveness of his infantry army?" Yang Kan was more concerned about this.

In his opinion, the combat effectiveness of the Shatuo cavalry is obvious to all, whether it is the Tianping Army or himself or the Ziqing Army, they are no strangers to it, but on the contrary, the strength of its infantry army is not well understood.