After confirming that he had established contact with Anxi Jun and Guo Xin, Li Xu's situation was extremely excited and excited, but after taking the letter and seeing the contents inside, Li Xu's brows furrowed slightly, and then Li Yan's expression became strangely calm.

However, under the calm on the surface, Li Yu was a little worried, he could sense the danger from the letter sent by Guo Xin, but he did not have the ability to interpret the danger and how to deal with it from a military perspective.

So, after reading through the entire letter, Li Yu set his eyes on Guo Rong, this is the commander he has worked hard to cultivate, and hopes that Guo Rong, who has never let himself down, will not let him down this time.

"What do you think? What do you think the Tibetans want to do? ”

Come, come, and sure enough, this question was asked, Guo Rong complained helplessly in his heart, Chisu Renxie didn't tell himself these things before mobilizing the troops and horses.

Of course, this is just a complaint, in fact, because of Li Chen's deliberate exercise, Guo Rong has made great progress in strategy and vision, and more importantly, before coming to Xingqing Palace, Guo Rong has also prepared and rehearsed what Li Yu might ask.

After a slight pause and thought, Guo Rong said softly

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the behavior of the Tubo people in shrinking their forces is not too unexpected, and large-scale civil strife is an extremely depleting behavior for anyone, and Tubo is no exception."

"The coup d'état in the city of Luo, coupled with the real year of pursuit and suppression in the next year, the losses of the Tubo people are not insignificant, and in the case of damaged strength on paper, shrinking the force is a decent strategy!"

"Strength on paper?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, it's just paper strength, if the Tubo people withdrew their troops in order to stabilize the important places of Tianzhu and Hexi, it can be seen that their hard power has suffered heavy losses, but this time they quietly withdrew their troops, so that the big cannibals didn't notice it at all."

"Therefore, the minister believes that when the Zampu line and the Tianzhu sect are almost wiped out, the minister thinks that the real strength of Tubo may not decline, on the contrary, because there is no longer the constraint of the opposition, but the combat power may be stronger, and this time the transfer of troops from the Western Regions to Hexi and the Central Plains is the most direct proof."

"Such an abnormal move, the minister thought that it could be seen that the Tubo people clenched their fists, took their arms back, and prepared to fight out!" As he spoke, Guo Rong raised his arm and made a posture of recovering and preparing to punch.

"At this time, there are only two possibilities for them to transfer troops from the Western Regions and Tianzhu, the first is to attack Qiuzi and remove the nails inserted in their arteries, and the second is to attack the Central Plains, since Dadu Hu has determined that the Tubo people have no intention of attacking the Anxi Army, then they can only attack the Central Plains!"

Then, Guo Rong walked straight to the huge map of the Tang Dynasty that Emperor Li Yu hung in the study of Xingqing Palace.

"Your Majesty, in the first year of Yuanhe, taking advantage of Wei Gao's illness and the unstable heart of the Jiannan army, Chisu Renxie concentrated the soldiers and horses of the Eastern Border Dao, the Southern Dao and other families, and nearly 250,000 besieged the Jiannan Dao!"

"This time, the soldiers and horses mobilized from the Western Regions are not yet known, but the number of Tubo people who are on the opposite line with my Tang Dynasty is basically clear."

"At the border between the South Tubo Road and the Jiannan Army, there are roughly 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers, 13 to 150,000 in the Eastern Border Road, and 20,000 Tubo cavalry in the Xue Yantuo Department of the Monan Grassland, and 30,000 Tubo cavalry in Juyanhai, just this part of the infantry and cavalry combined has a full 250,000."

"In addition, there are at least 30,000 to 50,000 garrisons on the native side of Tubo, if you can transfer 50,000 to 70,000 troops from the direction of the Western Regions and Tianzhu to the Central Plains, Tubo can invest no less than 350,000 soldiers and horses in my Tang Dynasty this time, with the consistent habit of the Tubo people to drive civilians, and finally 500,000 soldiers and horses invade my Tang Dynasty, I won't feel strange!"

If you hear 500,000 at first glance, I'm afraid everyone will be surprised by this number, but when Guo Rong listed all this with the exact data, Li Yu felt a lot more relaxed.

"So, you think it's a war of the nation?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, the Tubo people are the most dangerous enemies since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, and there is no one."

"The minister fought with the Tubo people in Qiuzi for three years, and also fought large-scale battles with the Tubo people in Longxi and Longnan, in the minister's opinion, the Tubo people are the best among all the foreign races around the Tang Dynasty to learn the Tang Dynasty, and the elite heavy infantry of the Tubo people is also the most elite in addition to the foot soldiers of the Tang Dynasty that the minister has seen!"

"Outside Xiaoguan, under the city of Jingzhou, with the elite level of the Changying army, it was almost disabled under the impact of the elite heavy infantry of Tubo, and the Tubo people also used the Tang people in Hexi to have a very strong siege ability, which is incomparable to other people's alien races."

"Moreover, Your Majesty, one thing is undeniable, even if the Turks were strong for a while, they only came to the banks of the Weishui River, and the Tubo people really broke through Chang'an!"

"With the style and habits of Chisu Rinche, it is often laid out in advance, and if it does not move, it will be like thunder, and if it moves, it will be like thunder, and the minister thinks that Chisu Rinche and the top management of Tubo are likely to ......."

In front of Li Xu, with the help of the map, Guo Rong revealed his previous thoughts.

When Guo Rong finished talking about all his speculations, Li Yu nodded, at least he understood, and he felt that Guo Rong had taken into account almost everything he could think of.

looked up at Guo Rong seriously, Guo Rong at this time seemed to have grown a little taller and stronger than when he first saw him outside Chang'an City, if these were his own speculations, Li Yu felt that he had cultivated a commander for Li Chun who could guard the Tang Dynasty for at least thirty years.

"Did you calculate it yourself, or did it go through your wargames?"

"Huh?" When Leng Buding said such a sentence, Guo Rong was directly stunned, and then reacted to Li Yan's question.

"Your Majesty, logically speaking, these are all to be deduced, however, this letter was just delivered two hours ago, I was called back by Yan Qing from the Forbidden Garden, and I rushed directly to Xingqing Palace when I saw the content of my father-in-law's letter, so ......, eh, is there anything Your Majesty is not thoughtful?"

Seeing that Guo Rong suddenly felt a little weak, like a student who had not done his homework well, Li Yu was completely relieved.

"Guo Rong, if you are asked to command you, do you have ideas, what do you think we should do now!"

The expected question, Guo Rong did not hesitate and answered immediately.

"Since the focus of the attack of the Tubo people is not clear at present, and the central army, which is the core combat force of the Fourth Army of the Northern Ya and the Twelfth Guards of the Southern Ya, has not yet been formed, I suggest that the defensive counterattack should be carried out with fortified cities, fortresses, and passes in the early stage...... As for the most important ......"

"The most important thing is to completely establish the Central Army dominated by the Fourth Army of the Northern Ya and the Twelfth Guard Army of the Southern Ya, with this army, the minister believes that the Tang Dynasty will be invincible! But ......"

Originally, Li Yu had been nodding his head with satisfaction, until Guo Rong was quite surprised, Guo Rong was rarely like this.

"But what, don't twist it."

"Yes, Your Majesty, the amount of money and food that needs to be consumed in a short period of time is probably an astonishing amount, and the minister is worried about ......"

"Aha!"

Li Yu immediately laughed out loud until he laughed a little out of breath, so that he was forced to stop after alarming Zhang Jiaxuan.

"You Guo Rong has actually started to count money and food, and you have grown, but your growth is not enough from this angle!"

“……”

"Why do you think I took the Long Silk Army out to patrol the world?"

“？？？”

, Guo Rong seems to have suddenly understood, no wonder Guo Rong felt strange from the time he set off, why was Li Chen's thinking so clear when he blackmailed the wealthy family in Shandong.

No wonder the original requirement for himself was to look like he could fight, and his feelings began with the founding of the Changying Army, and Li Yu had already made the idea of ripping off the bamboo, first in the military parade in Chang'an, then his own wedding, and then the wealthy family in Shandong......

The expansion plan that he has always been very proud of is just a reasonable reason for Li Yu's extortion of bamboo and a more acceptable reason for the Shandong giants.

At this time, Guo Rong found that his thinking was still narrow, and he took his forbidden army to collect protection money, and used the protection money received to continue to expand the army.

Just when Guo Rong was stunned, Li Chan suddenly burst out with a sentence

"The husband who does not fight and the temple is considered the winner, and the temple is counted as the victor without a fight, and the temple is counted as the winner, and the one who is not victorious is counted as less. More wins, less wins, and nothing counts! ”

"Since it is a battle for the country, the temple is indispensable, so don't tell me your inference alone, let the Son of Heaven, several Zaifu, and the senior generals of the forbidden army also hurry over."

"Yes!"

Of course, after looking at the flat map in front of him, when he actually notified, Guo Rong called a few more people, after all, sometimes the plane is flat, which is far less intuitive than the three-dimensional one.

An hour later, the empty room was already full.

And Guo Rong stood quietly in front of the map in Li Chen's study, looking at the real high-level of the Tang Dynasty in front of him, but the person in front of him had changed a lot compared to the former Xingqing Palace.

Jia Tan, a veteran of the Six Dynasties, died of illness two months after the Xingqing Palace Rebellion, Du Huangshang, the former first person in Zaifu, and Li Xun, who accompanied Li Yu to tour Luoyang, died of illness last year......

In just four years, most of the palaces of the imperial court have changed.

At the same time that the old ministers who supported Li Yu in the past passed away one after another, a group of relatively young officials in the prime of life, such as Li Jifu, Wei Guanzhi, Pei Yan, Li Jiang, Wu Yuanheng, and Pei Du, became the core of the center.

Moreover, according to Guo Rong's understanding, in the current ruling palace, in addition to the original few old ministers, the rest are all hardliners, reformers, and foreign expansionists.

The generals present, in addition to being too young, the rest of Li Rui, Zhang Jieyi, Zheng Yongnan, Gao Chongwen, and Shi Jingfeng are all young generals in their forties, who are in their prime.

Compared with Guo Rong, Li Yu and Li Chun, the two enterprising emperors, had even more smiles on their faces at this time, such a powerful center would become the foundation of the Tang Dynasty's invincibility.

In a corner of the room, Lan Miao, He Mang, Wu Pengjun, Xu Haolin, the technical elders of the Changying Army, and Li Erniu, Yu Qian, Degang, and Wang Zheng, who belonged to the reconnaissance battalion, were nervously making the final repairs to the sand table in front of them and making responsive identification items.

It wasn't until a quarter of an hour after everyone arrived, that under the combined efforts of the eight elites of the Changying Army, a huge Tang Dynasty, the Tubo sand table, was made.

"Your Majesty, General, the sand table has been made!"

While saying this, Lan Miao, who was so anxious that she was sweating, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, everyone, Guo Rong, let's start! And Lan Miao and Li Erniu, don't go, the things behind are also related to you, and Guo Rong's deduction also needs assistants, so you can stay. ”

"Yes! Ladies and gentlemen, through various efforts, we have made contact with the Anxi Army and the Anzai Daduhu, and today, a letter from ......"

With this as a beginning, Guo Rong began to tell the current situation in front of the real power core of the Tang Dynasty, explain the existing pro-treasures, and analyze his own judgments and inferences.

was suddenly in a hurry in the afternoon, and everyone was quite surprised, but with Guo Rong's narration and analysis, the expressions of everyone present changed slightly.

Especially when he heard that the final number of Tubo people who put into the attack might exceed 500,000, not to mention the Zaifu of a few civil officials, even the expressions of several generals were extremely solemn.

"The Tubo people are the only external force in this land that has the ability to really threaten my Tang Dynasty, and the situation between us and the Tubo people can be described as endless, the Tubo people have tried their best this time, in the words of Your Majesty, this time we are facing a battle from the Tubo people! ……”

“…… There are only three ways to choose from the Tibetan attack on our Datang, the first, the northern line, the direction of Longxi, Longshan, and Lingshuo, the second, the middle line, the direction of Longnan and Weishui, and the third Jiannan Road......"

Every time he said something, a few guys who were left to listen would mark them on the map and sand table according to Guo Rong's words, which made even people who didn't know much about the border situation between the Tang Dynasty and Tibet have a relatively intuitive understanding.

"First of all, the northern front, in my opinion, Longxi is the most suitable direction for the Tubo people to attack!"

"In this direction, the main garrisons of the eastern border of Tubo are concentrated in Weizhou, Suzhou, Hezhou, and Lanzhou, which means that the Tubo forces themselves are quite strong in this direction, and they can simultaneously push Longxi from the north, west, and south to carry out surprise attacks, and ...... at the same time."

Guo Rong pointed to the northwest of Longxi, where lakes were marked in several places.

"This direction is the closest to the Tubo people's cavalry in Juyanhai, Xiutuze, Baiyangze, and Xue Yantuo, plus the terrain in the west of Longxi is relatively flat, which is very conducive to large-scale cavalry battles."

"In this direction, we only have the Shuofang army under Fan Shuai, and the Shuofang army needs to guard the two governors of Longxi, Yanling, and Monan, as well as the Longshan defense line with Xiaoguan and the core, and neither the number of troops nor the number of cavalry can be compared with the Tubo people."

"If the Tubo people give full play to the advantages of cavalry and intersperse on a large scale, it is very likely that they will divide and surround all parts of our Longxi at the first time, and break them all together, which will make the already overstretched Shuofang army even worse, and may even threaten the safety of Yinzhou, Yanzhou, Lingzhou, and Xiaoguan, the gateway to Guanzhong, the base camp of the Shuofang army."

"But this direction also has certain advantages, that is, Longxi is relatively sparsely populated compared to other regions, and it is quite difficult for the Tubo people to get supplies on the spot, while the Shuofang army has relatively strong cities, fortresses and a complete Longshan defense line, and it is possible to obtain cavalry support from the direction of Anbei Protectorate."

"If I were Chisu Renxie, there would be only one purpose for the main attack from this direction, and that would be to break through our army's defenses as quickly as possible and march to Chang'an!"

"The second is Jiannan Road, which is the most unpredictable and dangerous direction for me."

"Why?"

It was not Li Yu who asked the question, but Li Jifu, who took over Du Huangsheng after Du Huangsheng died of illness.

"Li Xiang, in the first year of Yuanhe, the strength of Jiannan Dao lost more than half, although a full three years have passed, but the strength of Jiannan Dao is still not the same as when Wei Gao was alive."

"The problem is that Liu Bi can barely defend Chengdu Mansion and Yizhou with the foundation left by Wei Gao, and now, if the Tubo army is dispatched, the current Jiannan Army may not be able to hold up even a month."

"Once Jiannan Dao and Chengdu Mansion are lost, the entire southwest gateway will be opened, and once that situation is reached, the battle situation between my Tang Dynasty and Tubo may develop in an unknown direction."

"The Tubo people can march westward into Lingnan and Fujian, threatening the money, grain, finance and taxation of our Tang Dynasty; To the north, it can attack the four prefectures of Fencing North and South and Longnan, causing a crisis in Longnan and Guanzhong; To the northeast, you can march into Shannan Road to threaten Guanzhong, and directly threaten the henchmen of our Datang. ”

"It stands to reason that we should replenish our troops to Jiannan Province as soon as possible, but in the past two years, many feudal towns such as Huaixi, Xuanwu, Pinglu, and Henghai have been recovered in various ways, and many jiedu envoys, including Liu Pi, are afraid that the imperial court will suddenly come to the city......

"Unless Liu Pi asks the imperial court for help, we can't send troops to Jiannan Dao at all, once we insist on going our own way, it may lead to a sense of sadness for the rabbit and the fox."

"Huh!"

Before Guo Rong's words were finished, a voice with sarcasm and helplessness came into everyone's ears.

"It's too difficult to get Liu Bi to take the initiative to ask the court for help, unless the south and south provinces of Jiannan are reassigned to Jiannan, and then let Liu Bi take charge of Sanchuan alone, this bastard raised by a dog!"

The only white-haired general present who spoke, Gao Chongwen, a veteran who was over sixty years old.

Gao Chongwen was born in Youzhou, simple and quiet by nature, not able to write, but smart and sensitive, intelligent, familiar with military affairs, since Pinglu served in the army for 40 years, often led the division as the forward, the meritorious champion of the army, is the head of the 12 guards of the South Ya reserved by Li Yu.

Gao Chongwen's words were very difficult to hear, but everyone knew that what he said was the truth, with the current situation of Liu Pi in Jiannan Province, it was really inconvenient for the army to press the border, otherwise with Liu Pi's character and ambition, it would be even more of a headache if he was forced to the side of Tubo.

"Okay, Guo Rong, you go on!"

"Yes!"

Hearing Li Chen's words, Guo Rong continued the topic interrupted by Gao Chongwen and pointed to the most central location of the entire map, Weizhou-Qinzhou.

"The last is the middle line, Longnan, Qinzhou-Weishui direction, this direction is the greatest threat to Guanzhong, because once this direction is penetrated, it will directly endanger Guanzhong and Chang'an, but this direction is the lowest probability of becoming the main attack direction of the Tubo people in my judgment."

"Weizhou and other prefectures opposite Qinzhou are the main grain producing areas and economic lifelines of the Tubo people walking in Hehuang, and the eastern border of Tubo is heavily garrisoned, and most of them are the elite heavy infantry of the Tubo people."

"In this direction, the terrain is flat and the population is relatively dense, which is very suitable for the opponent's heavy infantry to play, and it is also convenient to supplement the siege equipment, which is the most convenient direction for the Tubo people to attack head-on!"

"It's just convenience! The advantage of the Tubo people is also the advantage of our army, and the Longyou defenders are also easy to get support from Guanzhong, if the Tubo people choose this direction, the two sides are likely to engage in a protracted tug-of-war in Qinzhou, and Qinzhou is likely to become a meat grinder. ”

"If you fight for attrition, the Tubo people will never be the opponent of my Datang, and the main attack in this direction will only dry up the blood of the Tubo people, so I deduce that Chisu Rinche and Nima Bazar should not attack from this direction, unless they ......"

After hesitating for a moment and looking at the entire intertwined line of contact between the two sides, Guo Rong finally said.

"Unless Chi Su Ren Xie uses Yang Mou, with an astonishing number of troops, to attract the attention of our army with Qinzhou and force our army to fight a decisive battle, but actually the driver will carry out a sneak attack from the south, north or other directions."