lady, please calm down

Lin'an Imperial City, Qinzheng Hall.

Lin'an was not warm in November, and the vast and empty Qinzheng Hall was even colder.

The elderly Qin Huizhi sat on the brocade stool with his shoulders hunched, like an old monk in meditation.

In my ears was the argument between Wan Qixi, the minister of Dali Temple, and Wang Shu, the Minister of War. The difference between the two was naturally over whether to take advantage of the turmoil in Qi to send troops to occupy Huaibei.

This is not the first time this matter has been discussed.

As early as half a month ago, Qin Huizhi had secretly inquired about Wang Shu's story.

At first, Wang Shu was very opposed to cooperating with Jin Xia to destroy Qi. His reason was, "Jin Kingdom has a wolfish ambition, and joining forces with it is like seeking the skin of a tiger. The two of them, Qi, are the barrier between Zhou and Jin. If they are destroyed together, we, the Zhou Dynasty, will have to face the Jin Kingdom directly." "

At that time, Wan Qixi's rebuttal was equally valid, "Now that the Jin-Qi trend has reversed, the ambition of the pseudo-Qi King Chu can be seen in the title 'Chu'. He is warlike and has repeatedly used the name of scholarship to win over Huaibei." If we don’t take the opportunity to destroy the human heart, this will be the one who destroys our Great Zhou in the future.”

Wan Qixi made it very clear. No matter what, the subjects of the Zhou Dynasty were somewhat resistant to the uncivilized Jin people. Even if the Jin Kingdom gained half of Huaibei, the Zhou Kingdom could continue to serve as the father's country and would always be able to settle down in a corner.

But Qi was also a Han regime. If we allowed him to win this battle, with the prestige of "expelling the Tartars", wouldn't the whole country be won over?

The harm done to the Qi State is especially greater than that of the Jin Xia!
Wang Shu was a loyal minister, but he was loyal to Chai Zhou. Wan Qixi's words made him a little shaken.

Then, in early November, Lu Yanzhong led his disciples to sneak to Huaibei and organized the so-called "Zhou Guo Anti-Jin Yong".

Although this matter was suppressed by the court and no newspapers were allowed to report it, it had already spread among scholars, which greatly stimulated the court of Zhou Dynasty.

Today, several important ministers discussed the matter publicly for the first time in front of the emperor. Wang Shu was keenly aware that Emperor Zhou seemed to be inclined to send troops.
At this point, Wang Shu's attitude has begun to change, but in order to pursue his political ambitions, Wang Shu still raised a few questions based on practical difficulties, "If we take Huaibei, it is most convenient for our army to leave Huainan. But now, there is no food and grass." The troops and horses have not yet been assembled. It will be later in the year when preparations are made along the Huaisan Road. Perhaps the battle for Tokyo will be decided by then."

Indeed, even if Huaibei is empty of troops, it is not a weak force that can be manipulated by anyone. As long as tens of thousands of people are mobilized, it will take at least a month to make logistical preparations.

But Wan Qixi smiled confidently after hearing this, and even looked at Emperor Zhou on the dragon throne.

His expression was quite proud.

Just listen to him say: "There is no need for Wang Shangshu to worry about this matter. This year's autumn blessings on Jinghu North Road and Jinghu South Road are still there."

Wang Shu was immediately stunned.

Jinghu North and South Road and Jiangzhe Road have always been key grain-producing areas in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The rice grown locally is harvested around August every month. According to previous practice, the grain harvested in September every year has to be shipped eastward.

Why did you stay there this year?
Combining Wan Qixi's expression just now, Wang Shu suddenly thought: Could it be that the army is going north from Jinghu Road?
There are more than 30,000 troops stationed on the two routes. If we go northward, we can also pass by Xiangyang, where the Zhou Dynasty has a heavy army. If these armies are combined into one, we can make up 60,000 to 70,000 troops!
Not only did they not need to collect food and grass again, but they could also bypass the Huai River natural moat and go straight to Dengzhou in Qi State. To the east of Dengzhou is Tangzhou. After passing Tangzhou, you can attack the city of Caizhou.

After suddenly realizing it, Wang Shu looked at Wan Qixi and Qin Huizhi with complicated eyes. This was no coincidence. The grain harvest was in August. Without the order of Prime Minister Qin, the local people would never dare to withhold grain and not distribute it.

It seemed that the plan for the Northern Expedition had been decided at least as early as July.

However, Prime Minister Qin and others kept it secret and never disclosed it to anyone.

Wang Shu would not believe this without the support of Emperor Zhou.

As the Minister of the Ministry of War, he did not even have the right to know about such a major military and state matter. Wang Shu could not help but sigh silently.

Qin Huizhi, who had been silent all this time, seemed to see that Wang Shu was disappointed, and then he said: "Don't be upset, Sir Wang. The truth is not to be hidden from you, but to hide important military and national affairs from the world. It must not be kept secret. If I, the Great Zhou Dynasty, The large-scale military mobilization and collection of food and fodder will inevitably cause Huaibei to be vigilant.

Wang Shu subconsciously wanted to ask, "Is it possible for the Qi State to work carefully in the court?" '

But the next moment, he realized. Chen Bokang has been in charge of Huainan Road for many years. Now the local area not only has excellent soldiers, but also has sufficient food!

The emperor and Prime Minister Qin did not invite him to discuss such a big matter. Could it be that Chen Bokang and Huaibei
While he was secretly frightened, Emperor Zhou slowly came down from the throne and said, "Master Wang, I will entrust this heavy responsibility to you."

Wang Shu felt a warning in his heart. After hesitating for two breaths, he finally bowed deeply and said, "I accept your order! I will not give up even if I die!"

"Okay! You will go to Jingmen today to take charge. Wu Xuanfu has received my secret order and will cooperate with him. After all the armies are assembled, they must be fast and swift when heading north, so as to catch Huaibei by surprise!"

Emperor Zhou gave his instructions seriously, and even accidentally showed a hint of urgency.

In fact, whether they were worried about Qi's struggle for orthodoxy or worried about Qi's victory over Jin Xiaxia, they were just superficial reasons.

What Emperor Zhou was most worried about was the fact that the Qin Emperor fell into the hands of Huaibei.

The most important thing in attacking Huaibei is to find the Supreme Emperor and secretly bring him back to Dazhou!
After Wang Shu left, Wan Qixi bowed and said goodbye, "Your Majesty, I am leaving for Quanzhou now! Your Majesty and Prime Minister Qin please sit down and wait for the news of our army's victory!"

Quanzhou was the most developed place for shipping in the Great Zhou Dynasty, with a large number of shipping ships outside the city.

Wang Shu went north from Jinghu Road, but Wan Qixiu wanted to take the local Xinghua army from Quanzhou to the north by sea ship and land in Sizhou.

In order to attract the Huaibei army from the two western prefectures in Huaibei, they will not be able to aid Caizhou in the west.

Whether it is Jinghu Road or the distant Fujian Road, they are not bordering Huaibei, so they can be kept secret to the maximum extent to achieve unexpected effects.

If we set out from near Lin'an, there is no guarantee that Huaibei will not detect it.

Before Wan Qixi left, there was no doubt that the emperor and his ministers would be virtuous. This operation had been secretly prepared for three or four months. Not to mention that the people did not know about it, only a few of the ministers in the court knew about it.

Although the elite imperial army was not used in this expedition, but was handed over to the three-district Xiang army, Emperor Zhou and Wan Qixi were sure of victory.

After all, Huaibei's military strength is deployed there. Daling River occupies part of it, and Tokyo City occupies a large part. How many troops can Huaibei have?
On Zhou's side, more than 80,000 soldiers, one by sea and one by land, were attacking from east to west. How could they lose?
At the end of the afternoon, Emperor Zhou and Qin Huizhi were the only two monarchs and ministers left in the palace.

Without any external ears, the two finally talked about the most intimate topic, "Prime Minister Qin, what should we do with Chen Bokang?"

"Your Majesty." Qin Huizhi stood up slowly from the brocade stool, cupped his hands and said: "Don't scare the snake, and don't let him stay in Huainan anymore. Your Majesty took advantage of the end of the year to recruit him to Beijing to report on his duties. He took the opportunity to imprison him."

Emperor Zhou nodded, and then said with a slight worry: "When the news of our army's Northern Expedition spreads, I wonder what the public opinion will be like."

Indeed, after the siege of Tokyo, the pseudo-King of Qi and Chu wrote a letter saying, "Invite thousands of Chinese men to go to the mountains together" and "Save our descendants in this life no longer have such suffering", which made many Zhou people excited and looked forward to a time of common resistance. Difficult atmosphere.

If you suddenly knew at this moment that when Qi was resisting the Tartars, your own country stabbed Qi behind its back, the Zhou people might not be able to accept it.

Qin Huizhi had a calm expression, "Your Majesty, as long as we win, a little noise is nothing to worry about. Even if the public opinion becomes more violent, won't Your Majesty be deceived by his ministers?"

The so-called being deceived by the ministers refers to the concubine Wang. If the criticism becomes louder in the future, the concubine Wang can be pushed out to take the blame.

The battle hasn't started yet, and the back-up people have been found.

Emperor Zhou thought of everything, except what he would do if he failed to defeat him.
In the evening of that day, when Qin Huizhi returned home, Wu Weizheng was already waiting in the study. When they met, he asked anxiously: "Prime Minister Qin, what's going on?"

Qin Huizhi sat on the chair, took a sip of tea slowly, and then showed a rare smile, "Fortunately, I did not disgrace my life."

After Zhe Yanwen and Zhang Shuye made a sneak attack on Luoyang North Camp on the second day of November, Wanyan Mouyan launched a retaliatory attack on Wang Yishi, the field service outside the city.

Chen Chu ordered his infantry to retreat and rely on the walled city for defense.

An open area about a hundred miles wide was opened outside Tokyo City, allowing the horse armies of both sides to fight in it. If the opponent has more people, he will retreat into the walled city; when his own troops are superior, he will surround and annihilate him.

After more than ten days of entanglement, both sides hurt each other.

Wanyan Mouyan saw that the king's army outside the city just wanted to kill them.

After all, although there were granaries in Luoyang, they could not sustain the consumption of nearly 300,000 Jinxia troops after one of them was burned down.

Because of being constantly pulled, the tight encirclement of the Jin Xia Army finally became a little looser.

On November 16, several subordinates in Lao Bai's scout camp finally quietly passed through the layers of defense and arrived at the foot of Tokyo City for the first time, and were pulled into the city by hanging baskets.

Then he brought the news that "The King of Chu has arrived."

After Fan Gongzhi learned about it, he posted official documents throughout the city that day, as if he had received good news from the front line, informing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians.

The imperial capital, whose hearts were filled with excitement, couldn't help but be shaken up!
Here, Wanyan Mouyan was very annoyed by the Qi army's sparrow wars and harassing wars. He also knew that if he continued to use up the food and grass in Luoyang, he would really be in trouble.

Ren Dejing suggested at the right time, "If we attack him, we will save him and force him to fight decisively!"

As the saying goes, if you attack it, you will save it, isn't it talking about the city of Tokyo?

But now, with a large Qi army cruising behind them, it would be quite risky to attack the city by force.

However, if you continue to waste money, it will be even harder to see the chance of victory.

After thinking hard all night, Wanyan Mouyan finally decided to take the risk.

On the 17th, Wanyan Mouyan ordered the entire army to shrink and re-deployed the troops that were originally evenly distributed around Tokyo.

Only more than 10,000 people were left on each side of the east, west and south to monitor, and 150,000 Jinxia troops were assembled in Beicheng to attack.

The Jinxia army was claimed to be 500,000, but in fact it was only 300,000, including 70,000 Xixia retinues and 30,000 captive Luoyang minzhuang.

The two hundred thousand soldiers have been used to their limit.

Early on the morning of the 18th, Wanyan Mouyan almost didn't test it, and ordered the Xixia Capture Army to cooperate with Bu Bazi to start attacking the city outside the wall of the North City, which was twelve miles wide.

On the same day, after Tie Dan led his troops to quickly clear out the Jinxia peripheral security forces, the King of Chu's army followed up.

However, the Qi army did not go to rescue the northern city of Tokyo. Instead, they attacked the surveillance force of more than 10,000 people in the south of the city.

The Jinxia army in the south of the city was huddled in the camp and wanted to rely on the camp to hold on.

Lao Bai led the brothers in the scout camp, all wearing double armor, and each carrying a cube wrapped in burlap.

At the beginning of noon, Lao Bai whistled, and hundreds of people jumped out on horseback.

As soon as they entered the camp within a hundred steps, a rain of arrows poured out from the camp.

The double armor of Lao Bai and others played a great role. When the scout camp marched a hundred steps to the camp, Lao Bai shouted "Light the fire".

The remaining people bit off the caps of the bamboo fire sickles one after another. As soon as the cap was removed, the wind speed brought by the speed immediately turned the dark fire of the fire sickles into an open flame. Then everyone aimed the fire sickles at the fuse exposed in the corner of the burlap bag.

By the time he completed this set of actions, he was already about thirty steps closer to the camp.

The knights drew an arc on the ground, took advantage of the opportunity to be parallel to the village wall, threw out burlap bags, and then quickly drove towards their own military formation.

The speed was actually faster than when it came.

It seems like something terrible is about to happen behind the scenes.
On the wall of the south city, some Xiang troops recruited near Tokyo were confused and had no idea what this group of Huaibei troops were doing. They subconsciously asked the Huaibei generals beside them, "General Wang, these Huaibei troops outside the city What are you doing, brother? Are you trying to kill the golden man with that cloth bag?"

But the Huaibei general surnamed Wang had experience. He quickly covered his ears and shouted to the robes: "Open your mouth, cover your ears! Open your mouth!"

A corps commander named Zhang from Tokyo said with a confused look on his face: "Boss Wang, why are you calling me?"

"Who the hell called you? I told them to open their mouths, not to tell you to open your mouth. Quick, cover your ears."

Before Captain Wang could finish his words, he was suddenly drowned in the huge roar from the city, which was like a punishment from heaven.

Not once, but one after another.

The city was instantly shrouded in smoke that was more than ten feet high, and sawdust from the camp and flesh and blood armor shot out from the smoke from time to time and flew farther away.

The corps commander opened his mouth wide. He felt his ears buzzing and the earth trembling, until his face suddenly felt warm. He opened his mouth wide and subconsciously wiped his face. But it was full of blood.

The blood of the Jin Xia army under the city.

In the distance, Chen Chu comforted the frightened Xiao Hong, turned to Huang Huihong's eldest son and cursed: "Huang Dalang, my gunpowder in Huaibei is free, right? Why the hell did you pack so much explosives!"

"Isn't it that the prince always complained that he was not working hard? Now that he is working hard, the prince scolds him again," Huang Dalang said aggrievedly.

The thunder cannon is bulky and difficult to move around in field operations.

But explosive packs can still break through obstacles!
The smoke and dust had not yet dispersed. Chen Chu originally planned to wait until the smoke and dust cleared to see how the village wall was damaged before letting the cavalry charge.

"Iron courage."

Chen Chu asked Tie Dan to get ready, but as soon as he called out the silly girl's name, the latter suddenly picked up the horse's reins and gave the order for the Second Guards Regiment to charge.

Immediately, a torrent of iron armor swept across the vast wilderness.

The Western Army's cavalry army, Peng Er's fifth brigade cavalry army, Geng Baoxi's ninth regiment followed closely.
"I haven't given the fucking order yet! Does Tie Dan want to eat the military stick?" Chen Chu was annoyed that Tie Dan charged before he gave the order.

Yang Dalang, who was standing next to Zhu Ma, subconsciously showed a strange smile when he heard the "military stick". He turned around and saw Brother Chu's serious face, and then swallowed his joking words.

Here, a horse suddenly came to Chen Chu's side, turned over and dismounted, and said: "Your Majesty, five miles northeast, the Xixia Iron Kites are approaching, and there are about a thousand riders."

The generals couldn't help but look shocked, especially the generals of the Western Army.

The psychological shadow caused by Tie Yao Zi and Tie Fu Tu was too great for them.

Chen Chu said, "Eldest son, Sheng Wu, let's go meet this Iron Harrier."

On the battlefield in the south of the city, tens of thousands of cavalry rolled around the hillocks, which was a spectacular sight.

The only uncoordinated thing was an old soldier wearing an orderly uniform, holding a spear in his hand, but because he had no horse under his crotch, he was left behind early.

The old man was running hard to catch up, while shouting loudly, "Good girl, wait for me. Wait for me, good girl, be careful!" (End of Chapter)