Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2481: Conquer the West? Conquer the North?

The southeastern campaign went smoothly.

In Luoyang, many court officials also sparked a heated debate on the issue of conquering the west and conquering the north.

The situation in Southeast Asia was even worse than they had initially imagined. This battle was much easier than they had initially imagined.

Therefore, originally, the Great Jin Dynasty was planning to discuss conquering the north or the west when the situation in Southeast Asia was almost the same.

However, from today's perspective, the Southern Expedition will not create too much pressure on the Jin Dynasty. Therefore, the Jin Dynasty may be able to launch the Northern or Western Expedition ahead of time.

After all, among all the forces in the world, the Jin Army has recovered its vitality and returned to its previous peak state. The other forces are still a little worse than their previous peak state.

Even for a place like Jizhou, it is hard to describe its situation in recent years.

If we fight this battle early, we can also reduce the opponent's recovery time, and this battle will be easier.

National strength is the most crucial factor in determining the outcome of a battle. The rest, how many powerful generals, famous generals, and even strategists you have, all have an impact on the outcome of a battle, and all of these factors are ranked behind national strength!

The contrast between the war in the Central Plains and the war in the South vividly demonstrates the influence of national strength.

Zhao Kuangyin, the overlord of the Central Plains, had an army of more than 400,000 at his peak. Compared with the overlord of the South, Zhu Yuanzhang was weaker, but not much weaker.

The Central Plains had no shortage of wise and brave generals. In this respect, they were absolutely on par with Zhu Yuanzhang in the South, and were even slightly better.

After all, Sun Bin, Tian Xiangju, Tian Dan, Miao Xun... these people are all rare talents!

However, the battle in the Central Plains was resolved neatly in just a few months, while the battle in the South took about two years.

There was a world of difference between the losses suffered by the Jin army in the battle in the Central Plains and the losses in the battle in the south.

At least, a major battle like the Battle of Jiangxia would never happen on the battlefield in the Central Plains. Even if Zhao Kuangyin's men could hold out for a year, their food supply would not support them holding out for a year like Jiangxia in the south.

Therefore, it would be a great relief for the Jin army to fight this battle as early as possible while the enemy's national strength has not recovered.

However, regarding the issue of whether to conquer the west or the north, it is obvious that the court has different opinions and their attitudes are not unified.

"Your Majesty, Jizhou is weak, and Yuan's son has offered Zhongshan and Changshan. If we conquer the north, Jizhou will be conquered in a snap!"

"In my humble opinion, we should conquer the north first!"

As the head of the civil servants, Wang Meng naturally expressed his opinion.

"Minister Wang's words make sense. Hebei is a land of outstanding people and beautiful scenery. Its value is incomparable to that of Xiliang!" Zhang Liang nodded in agreement.

"This is ridiculous. Are you going to ignore Xiliang?"

"Zhang Zifang, are you saying this to be worthy of the men of the Great Jin Dynasty who are buried in Xiliang?" Wei Qing said with a cold expression.

He naturally knew that in terms of value, Xiliang could not be compared with Hebei!

However, some things cannot be measured simply by value.

Eight years ago, they lost too much in Xiliang, and too many passionate and brave men of the Jin Dynasty were buried there. Even the incident that lasted for three years started there.

If he doesn't get it back, he won't be at peace!

"General Wei, it's not that we won't fight Xiliang, but we should put it after Hebei!" Zhang Liang sighed. Those who advocated conquering the north would definitely provoke a lot of people this time.

As Wei Qing said, eight years ago, they lost too much in that place, too many people were buried there, and too many people were holding their breath, wanting to avenge their previous humiliation or take revenge.

These people have been waiting for Zhengxi for so many years.

But of course, I still think they should wait a little longer!

Compared with Hebei, the current conquest of the west has no meaning.

"Temujin's health has been deteriorating over the years. If we don't fight now, when will we fight? It's not certain whether Temujin can go to the battlefield!" Li Mu also interrupted.

Although he did not intervene in the war in Liang Province eight years ago, he was still heartbroken by the huge losses in Liang Province. Moreover, many generals had talked to him about this.

"Although Temujin is old, Kublai is even better than him! Not to mention, Murong Ke, Murong Chui, and Mu Huali are all good fighters!"

"Conquering the north is much easier than conquering the west!"

Guan Zhong also expressed his opinion, and also stood on the position of conquering the north.

Temujin was indeed old, and from the news he had received, his health had indeed been deteriorating over the years, and even the political power was handed over to Kublai Khan bit by bit.

However, in the eyes of Guan Zhong, Wang Meng and others, Kublai Khan was much more difficult to deal with than Temujin.

Although Temujin's military level was strong, Kublai Khan was more of a great leader than Temujin.

"Today's Xiliang is extremely desolate. How can we conquer the west and provide a little bit of national strength for our Great Jin?"

"But if the land of Hebei falls into the hands of our Great Jin, in just two years, our national strength will increase by another three points. Now we can fight against the Yuan Mongols and take back Xiliang. Isn't it wonderful?" Wang Meng spoke again.

Wang Meng's words were polite enough. If they attacked Xiliang at this time, not to mention how much effort it would take, just taking it back would not benefit their national strength at all.

This place may even become a burden to Dajin.

A great war, coupled with a great epidemic, turned the Jin army's more than ten years of construction in Xiliang into nothing. Years of hard work were wiped out in one day, and the situation was even worse than at the beginning.

For them now, attacking Liangzhou is a completely thankless task.

They worked hard to retake Xiliang and get back the land they lost, but it was like carrying another burden on their shoulders. During this period of time, the national strength of those people in Hebei might have recovered. If they start the battle in Hebei again, the difficulty will at least double.

But if the order is changed, it will be completely different!

We should take advantage of Hebei's weakness at this time to conquer it first. Then we should spend two years to absorb Hebei's manpower and material resources.

Given the national strength of the Jin Dynasty at that time, if it had started the war to conquer the west again, the difficulty would have been at least three times weaker.

Wang Meng still has a scale in his heart to measure the difference between the two!

In Wang Meng's view, Wei Qing and his men insisted on conquering the west only because they could not swallow their anger and could not forget the blood feud of that year.

However, compared to the overall situation, these things are meaningless. How to achieve the final goal is much more important than seeking temporary pleasure.