"Does the king of the county know about the changes in Heluo?"

Emperor Jing's gentle tone resounded in the upper study.

Qing Yugong was not in Dadu before, but in Wufeng, the capital of Zhao State, and recently some Zhao people conspired repeatedly, he presided over the overall situation there, and was summoned by Emperor Jing to hurry over, so he was in the dust.

He replied unhurriedly: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister received a battle report from the south on the way back to Beijing, and he already knows the reason for this. ”

"Then you should take a look at this letter first."

Emperor Jing glanced to the side, and the fireman hurriedly folded the three pieces of letter paper on the imperial case, held them in both hands and handed them to Qing Yugong.

The king of Changshan County, who was in charge of nearly three-thirds of the military power of the Jing Dynasty, took the letterhead, swept the contents of the letter with a contemplative gaze, and then bowed his head slightly and said: "Your Majesty, the minister has finished reading." ”

"Sagai."

Emperor Jing turned to look at the Marshal of the Northern Courtyard and said lightly: "Repeat what you just said." ”

Sa Gai was stunned for a moment, and met the eyes of the Son of Heaven like a deep lake and a quiet pool, and said respectfully: "Yes, Your Majesty." ”

He just didn't quite understand the intentions of the Son of Heaven, not because he was afraid of Qing Yugong.

Although everyone in the world calls Qing Yugong the god of war of the Great Jing, within the Jing Dynasty, Sagai and others can still compete with him, which involves complex forces within the Jing Army.

Since the founding of the country 53 years ago, the Jinglian people have been said to have nine armies, which refers to the nine armies formed by the warriors of the Jinglian tribe as the main body and recruiting talents from all over the world.

Among them, the Xiaojie Army and the Loyal and Righteous Army were directly subordinate to the Son of Heaven, and the generals of these two armies were all from the royal family Alihe.

Qing Yugong has the Xiashan Army and the Fangcheng Army under his command, the former is mainly cavalry, and the latter is mainly infantry, which is the core of the military force of the Southern Yuan, and it is also the main elite of Qing Yugong's pacification of Zhao State.

Sagai had in his hands a cavalry army of half a cavalry army, originally formed by the most famous marksman of his own Hui Luo clan, and now stationed in the northwest of the Jing Dynasty to shock the country.

The military system of the Jing Dynasty was different from that of the Southern Qi Dynasty, with only more than 10,000 people in the first army of the Southern Qi Dynasty, while the first army of the Jing Dynasty ranged from 40,000 to 50,000 and 780,000 at most, which was roughly equivalent to the Governor's Mansion of the Southern Qi Dynasty in terms of rank.

In addition to the five armies led by the royal family of the Jing Dynasty and the two courts of the north and south, the other four armies were all commanded by the nobles with the most power of the Jing Lian clan, and two of these four people were relatively close to Sagai, and their attitudes towards Qing Yugong were almost the same, thus forming a relatively balanced state within the Jing army.

“…… King Changshan, this official is not forcing you to give up rescuing the county lord of Yongping, but compared with the great cause of our dynasty, someone has to make sacrifices, and please consider the overall situation. ”

Sagai repeated the previous words, and finally emphasized the tone.

The other important ministers all held their breath and stared, and did not take the liberty of participating in the battle between these two military marshals.

However, they will inevitably be a little curious about how Qing Yugong responded.

Qingyu Huaijin is his most beloved daughter, and now she has fallen into the hands of the Qi army, and she wants to coerce Jing Chao to sit at the negotiating table, this kind of matter is really difficult to handle.

Being too tough may threaten Qing Yu Huaijin's life, and being too weak will cause anger within the Jing Dynasty, after all, since the capture of Heluo City fifteen years ago, Jing Ren has long been accustomed to his invincible posture of being invincible in the world.

Qing Yugong didn't seem to feel the undercurrent surging in the upper study, and he couldn't see the slightest anxious emotion on his face, and in the face of Sagai's awe-inspiring righteousness, he said unhurriedly: "The marshal is reasonable, no one can damage the prestige of the Son of Heaven, let alone the prestige of Dajing. Qing Yu Huaijin is not good at learning and art, and no matter what happens in the future, it is her own problem, and I will not make a decision about the relatives and enemies. ”

Sagai's eyes narrowed slightly, and he said slowly: "The meaning of the county king, should my army go south to sweep the border army of Southern Qi?" ”

Qing Yugong bowed slightly in the direction of the imperial case and said, "This matter should be judged by His Majesty." ”

Sagai was suffocated, and he couldn't help but feel a little angry in his heart.

If it was placed before Emperor Jing ascended the throne, maybe he would scold the other party on the spot for being cunning and cunning, anyway, at that time, martial arts were often staged in the Dajing court, and it was a common scene for the nobles to draw their swords against each other without saying a word.

Emperor Jing looked at the two of them with great interest, and said slowly: "The king of the county thinks that I should directly send troops south?" ”

Faced with the question of the Son of Heaven, Qing Yugong thought for a moment and replied: "Your Majesty, in fact, no matter whether our dynasty transfers troops or not, the Huaizhou army of Southern Qi will not stay in Heluo City for too long. In Chen's opinion, they will only stay for about a month at most, and then they will withdraw to the territory of Dongyang Road. ”

Emperor Jing said: "Why? ”

Qing Yugong groaned: "Because the center of Southern Qi is not ready to take back Heluo, this battle Lu Shen is arbitrary, but he used gunpowder to collapse the city wall of Heluo and then succeeded, which is a change that no one can predict." Looking closely at the situation in the south, the defense line of Moyang Road is still under the control of the Yan army, and if Southern Qi wants to support Heluo, it needs to trek all the way from Huaizhou, Dongyang Road, and Heluo East Line, a distance of more than 2,000 miles. Their previous reserves were only enough for the Huaizhou army to attack the Dongyang Road of the Yan Kingdom. ”

He paused for a moment, raised his eyes to look at Emperor Jing, and continued: "Therefore, if the Huaizhou West Route Army led by Lu Shen is defending Heluo, what really needs to be worried is not our dynasty, but the Southern Qi monarchs and ministers in Yongjia City. Looking at the decisions made by Xiao Wangzhi and Lu Shen in the past two years, they will not make a move to put themselves in danger, so as long as they wait for a while, the danger of Heluo will be automatically resolved. ”

Sagai couldn't help but pout.

Emperor Jing bowed slightly, and asked: "Since Lu Shen can't hold Heluo, and this is a situation that can be deduced in advance, why did he go through this experience?" ”

"There are probably three reasons for this."

Qing Yugong's tone was calm: "First, he wants to use this move to preserve the spark of the so-called Northern Expedition, to prove that the Southern Qi border army does have the ability to successfully counterattack, and to avoid those Jiangnan clans from maliciously obstructing the border army from going north in the future." Second, the Huaizhou West Route Army controlled Heluo for about two months, which was enough for them to leave many ambushes in the city, and if they came to the city again in the future, the certainty of breaking the city would be greatly increased. Third, Heluo City is extremely wealthy, and there are many families who betrayed the Southern Qi Dynasty, and the Huaizhou army has no burden to plunder them, which is morally blameless, and this move can also greatly relieve the pressure on the Southern Qi court's finances and taxes. ”

Emperor Jing fell into deep thought.

From beginning to end, Qing Yugong did not mention his daughter, as he said before, no individual is insignificant compared to the interests of the Dajing Dynasty, even if it is his favorite daughter.

After a while, Emperor Jing said slowly: "The king of the county wants to say that there is no need for me to hastily use troops against Southern Qi for the time being?" ”

Qing Yugong bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, in fact, the current situation seems to be dangerous, but it is extremely favorable for my dynasty. ”

Emperor Jing didn't say a word, and Sagai finally couldn't help but sneer: "The words of the county king are really incomprehensible. According to you, now Nanqi is advancing all the way, from seizing nearly half of the territory of Moyang Road last year, to now capturing the entire territory of Dongyang Road, and even Heluo City has been taken back, which is a good thing for our dynasty? Do you still want to say that Yongping's kid was captured by the Qi army—"

"Sagai!"

Emperor Jing's tone was cold, and he said coldly: "Presumptuous! ”

Sagai was shocked in his heart, and hurriedly bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, the minister is excited for a while and does not choose to speak, capital crime!" ”

Emperor Jing said word for word: "This is the upper study, not the martial arts arena in your North Courtyard, if you dare to talk nonsense, you will get out!" ”

Sagai's face was full of fear, and he repeatedly audited: "The minister is guilty, and he won't dare anymore." ”

Qing Yugong was not angry, and when he saw Emperor Jing looking at him, he bowed his head slightly to show his reverence, and then took over Sagai's words and said, "Marshal Sagai misinterpreted what I meant. ”

Sa Gai was reprimanded by Emperor Jing for a few words, so he naturally didn't dare to continue to talk nonsense, but he still said unconvinced: "That official wants to hear what the king of Changshan County has to say." ”

Qing Yugong said calmly: "May I ask the marshal, last year, when I swept the Zhao State with a large army, why did it go smoothly at the beginning, but then it was difficult step by step, and even gnawed down city by city?" ”

Sa Gai said coldly: "In the early stage, the troops of Zhao State were quite scattered, there were too many cities that needed to be garrisoned, and relatively speaking, the troops in various places were relatively weak, so they couldn't stop our army's offensive. Later, they lost more and more territory, the defensive line continued to shrink, and the forces gradually concentrated, and naturally formed-"

The words stopped abruptly, and his face was a little ugly.

As the marshal of the North Courtyard who has been Rong Ma for half his life, of course he is not ignorant, how can he not understand the other party's thoughts at this moment.

A faint smile finally appeared on Qing Yugong's face, and he said, "That's the truth." From ancient times to the present, the competition between the two countries has always been difficult to attack and easy to defend, especially Dajing and Nanqi are not small countries, and it is not uncommon for the war to destroy the country for more than ten years. If the border defense line of the Southern Qi Dynasty were to shrink to a certain extent, such as maintaining the status quo of two years ago, our Korean army would have to pay a lot of losses to open a few gaps. ”

He looked around at the more than ten important ministers here, and finally his eyes fell on Emperor Jing, and said calmly: "Now it is different, the Southern Qi border army has gained a lot in the past two years and captured a lot of territory, which means that they need more troops to stabilize the defensive line, and the longer the battle line, the more weak points there will be." ”

"Two years ago, we wanted to compete with Xiao Wangzhi, and there were only two battlefields to play, one was the Panlong Pass in the northwest corner of Huaizhou, and the other was the Lai'an defense line in the north of Huaizhou. Neither of these battlefields is advantageous for our army, nor can we give full play to our ability to rush towards the iron cavalry, and will only end up in a vicious battle like a quagmire. After His Majesty supported the establishment of the Yan State, we tried to enter Huaizhou several times in those years, but finally returned in vain, which shows that it is very difficult to attack it. ”

"But now that the battlefield between our army and the Qi army has become the Dongyang Road and the Moyang Road, the enemy has lost the barrier of the terrain and must engage our army on an incomparably long border. Under the circumstances of this situation, our army will have more opportunities to destroy the enemy's living forces. ”

Qing Yugong stood tall and calm.

After hearing this, Emperor Jing couldn't help but smile and said: "What the county king said is right, we can't let Nanqi shrink into the turtle shell and induce them to poke their heads out, so that my army can be beheaded at the smallest cost." ”

He looked at Qing Yugong thoughtfully, and gradually realized in his heart that this was the explanation that Qing Yugong gave him, the explanation that he had not paid too much attention to the situation on the southern front before.

Facing the Son of Heaven's meaningful gaze, Qing Yugong knew that this encouraging rhetoric had some effect.

It's just that the Son of Heaven still seems to be a little dissatisfied, as if he is dissatisfied with his disregard for his daughter's safety.

Thinking of this, Qing Yugong sighed quietly in his heart.

(End of chapter)