Do you know: I have a different surname: Wang, uncle Minglan.

Chapter 294: When to use it is a science

Within a month, the Liao Kingdom successively captured three important cities: Bazhou, Xiongzhou and Baoding.

Half of the northern territory was in danger, the Han men were slaughtered, and the women were enslaved and prostituted to be bullied and played with by the Liao people.

Whether it was the well-read scholars or the common people living at the bottom of society, at this moment, they all became the four-legged slaves of the Liao people.

The men were tied up with iron chains and used as laborers to support the Liao army.

The women were naked and gathered in the streets. If a Liao soldier took a fancy to a woman, no matter what her previous identity was, she would become a tool for him to have fun with.

However, surprisingly, the Liao people did not attack the children.

They gathered the unenlightened children together and began to transmit a horrifying idea into their minds - the Liao Kingdom was the orthodox one in the Central Plains, and the Great Zhou was doomed!

For a time, not only some prefectures in the north, but even Bianliang and the entire Central Plains were in panic.

Only in the south of the Yangtze River, there was still peace and prosperity, and it was not affected by the war at all.

It was not until then that the scholars and officials in the capital city suddenly realized that this war was not just a simple local conflict.

The Liao Kingdom really wanted to rule the Central Plains and become the next orthodox regime to succeed the Central Plains dynasty.

This is no longer a simple war between nations, but a competition between civilization and barbarism, a war that will determine the future direction of the Central Plains.

At this moment, people in Bianjing City were in panic.

Crown Prince Zhao Xi appointed Xu Changzhi as General Zhenbei and led 200,000 cavalry to rush to the aid of Hejian and Zhending prefectures, officially kicking off the campaign against Liao and Xia.

One country is fighting against two countries, and the war is going on three fronts at the same time. The court is under great pressure.

Inside Zhao Zhen’s bedroom.

Crown Prince Zhao Xi sat in front of the dragon couch, occasionally acting as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Seeing this, Zhao Zhen, who had just woken up, couldn't help but sigh after listening to Wang Anshi's report on some prefectures in the north.

"No one knows a son better than his father. I know that you want Wei Yuan to return to the capital."

Zhao Xi nodded, "In a national war like this, the loyal and brave marquis should not be left idle in the wild."

Zhao Zhen nodded slightly, "You have to use it, but when to use it and how to use it is a science, you have to judge the situation."

Zhao Xi frowned, stood up and bowed, saying, "Father, please teach me."

Zhao Zhen shook his head and said, "This war is a disaster for our dynasty, for you and me, and even more so for you."

"How to fight this battle and how to employ men, you should think about it yourself. Your father believes in you."

He did not call himself 'Father Emperor'.

Zhao Xi took a deep breath and said, "I understand. Father, what you mean is that it is not the right time to use Marquis Wei yet?"

Zhao Zhen remained silent.

Zhao Xi did not dare to disturb his rest, and then he and Wang Anshi left the hall.

He asked in confusion: "The emperor has agreed to let Master Wei return to the capital, but the emperor doesn't want Master Wei to return to the capital as soon as possible."

"In terms of fighting, Master Wei is better than General Xu, and even better than General Qin. Why didn't you transfer the Guard Division back to the capital in time?"

"As long as the guards can lead the troops, I believe that fewer people will die among the soldiers and civilians of our Great Zhou."

Wang Anshi stroked his beard and said, "The emperor said that when to use the Marquis of Wei is a science."

"I presume to speculate that in this critical moment, someone needs to step forward to save the situation, and this person cannot be the Marquis of Wei."

"If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had transferred the Marquis of Wei to the capital at this time and entrusted him with important tasks, then after repelling Liao and Xia, the people would only attribute the credit to the Marquis of Wei."

"If the situation really becomes extremely critical, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will go against the opinions of others and transfer the Marquis of Wei back to the capital, and personally take charge of the central government to command the overall situation. At that time, the credit for repelling Liao and Xia will only be attributed to the Crown Prince."

"When the crown prince takes the throne, even if you are young, no one among the officials of our dynasty or even the barbarians inside and outside the country will dare to say that our new ruler is young and can be bullied."

As a minister, Wang Anshi's words were already extremely treasonous.

But he needed to give Zhao Xi an explanation.

Otherwise, the moment he entered the Xuan Zheng Hall, Zhao Xi would be impatient to recall Wei Yuan back to the capital.

Zhao Xi frowned and said, "Because of me? Because of the so-called overall situation? What if we lose the battle?"

Wang Anshi bowed and said, "The current situation is still under control. It has not yet reached the point where it is out of control."

Zhao Xi asked, "How many more people will die, Master Wang, have you calculated it?"

Wang Anshi shook his head.

Zhao Xi said: "Since the fall of Bazhou and Xiongzhou, there is a bill that you haven't calculated, but I have."

"The number of casualties among the people in the north has reached nearly 400,000. This is only the number reported by the Imperial City Bureau. What about the number that has not been reported?"

Wang Anshi was stunned.

He didn't expect that Zhao Xi would attach importance to such a number.

"You guys always talk about the people of the world, but in fact, the people who care the least about the people of the world are you, including me."

Having said this, Zhao Xi slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and continued:
"You are right. The credit for this battle to defend the country cannot fall into the hands of the guards. I must take it myself."

"No matter how many people die in this battle, I will use ten years to compensate the people of the North."

Having said this, Zhao Xi slowly closed his eyes and said in a deep voice:
"Master Wei, you often tell me that nothing is more important than life. Human life is more important than the world, the country, and the state. I agree with you, but human life is not more important than the overall situation."

Wang Anshi remained silent.

He was thinking that this year, the prince was only nine years old.

A nine-year-old child's mind is already so complicated. In the future, he will either become an emperor of all ages, or someone like Emperor Yang of Sui or King Zhou of Shang.

Fortunately, the Prince's Tutor was not someone else, but Wang Anshi himself.

Everything is still too late.

It is enough as long as the prince does not go astray.

But Wang Anshi never thought that leaving a battle-hardened general in the south of the Yangtze River for some so-called overall situation was in itself a wrong path.

In early December of the seventh year of Jiayou, Xu Changzhi was ordered to go north and fought a fierce battle with the main force of Liao general Yelu Xinxian in Qizhou City on Jingdong Road.

Because Xu Changzhi's army had traveled a long distance and was exhausted, they were defeated in the first battle and retreated to Qizhou City. It happened to be raining and snowing, which slowed down Yelu Xinxian's siege progress.

This was also the largest-scale, large-scale operation in which the Liao army captured the most territory of the Great Zhou since the founding of the Great Zhou.

Although Xu Changzhi suffered a great defeat in the first battle, his strategic goal had been achieved, which was to block the enemy for seven days in the areas of Yucheng and Linyi, cut off the plan of Yelu Xinxian and Yelu Renxian to join forces, and ease the pressure of the anti-Japanese war in various regions of the Central Plains.

In late December of the seventh year of Jiayou, Yang Huairen was ordered to lead the Shun'an Army to defend Gaoyang City and confront Yelu Renxian head-on.

In the same month, there was heavy snow in the north. Yang Huairen thought that it was impossible for Yelu Renxian to attack the city again.

At this time, on Gaoyang City.

Yang Huairen and Pan Shu, the eldest son of Duke Hanguo, were inspecting Gaoyang City at this moment.

According to folk rumors, there were many conflicts between the two grandmothers.

In fact, there were not many conflicts between the Yang family and the Pan family. After all, they were both families with military honors, so how could there be any hatred that could not be resolved?
"General Yang, this snow is falling at the right time. I'm sure Yelu Renxian won't dare to attack the city for a while."

Pan Shu said with a smile. Yang Huairen stood on the top of the city wall, looking into the distance, and said with deep agreement:

"As long as we hold out until the New Year, when all the armies arrive, we can fight back. By then, we will make these barbarians go back to where they came from."

Pan Shu said: "We don't need to worry too much. The Duke of Fuguo is in charge of Daizhou himself."

"Now we are worried about whether General Xu can hold on. As long as we don't let the two Yelu forces join forces, even if the battle drags on, we can still kill the Liao army."

Today, half of Hedong Road has been lost, and Qizhou is facing the embarrassing situation of having no strategic location to defend.

If it had not snowed heavily and frozen the city wall, it would have been difficult for the Liao soldiers to launch a large-scale siege.

Otherwise, the best way for Xu Changzhi would be to fight and retreat, taking advantage of the favorable terrain and strategic depth of Jingdong Road to fight a protracted war with the Liao army.

As the Liao army's battle line became longer and longer, there were bound to be problems with their logistical support.

As Xu Changzhi has the rich resources of Jiangnan, he will never be short of money and grain. This is his biggest advantage.

But from the overall situation, even if the two Yelu tribes could not join forces, the imperial guards of the Great Zhou were also dispersed by the Yelu tribes. It was not an exaggeration to say that they were fighting on their own. It was difficult for them to effectively unite as one and concentrate their combat power on one line.

At this moment, the scout came to report urgently, "General Yang, Yelu Renxian has ordered the camp to be moved."

strike camp?

Pan Shu frowned deeply and said, "The heavy snow blocked the road. Their horses can't move fast. Once they get stuck in the deep snow, they will be lambs to be slaughtered. Where did they go? Did they withdraw their troops?"

The scout said, "Heading towards Mozhou."

Mozhou?

Yang Huairen was horrified, and hurried to the city wall to open the detailed geomancy map of the mountains in the Hedong and Jingdong Road areas, staring at the direction of Mozhou City, and asked:
"Has the Jing'an Army defending the important towns of Nanpi and Linjin been transferred away by General Xu?"

Mozhou is only two hundred miles away from Gaoyang City, where Yang Huairen is responsible for guarding.

And all the way south from Mozhou, the thousands of miles of fertile land all belong to Hedong Road.

Hedong Road is an important province that controls the Central Plains.

Pan Shu nodded thoughtfully, "It seems so."

"That is to say, there are no soldiers left to defend the important towns such as Nanpi in Hedong Road?" Yang Huairen said as if he was facing a powerful enemy:

"If the Liao army penetrates Hedong Road and Jingdong Road, Bianjing will be in danger!"

The so-called Hedong Road, Jingdong Road and other areas are now Hebei, Shandong and other places.

Now, the Liao army’s intention is very clear, that is, to first take over Shandong and part of Hebei, and then launch a general attack on the Central Plains, echoing the Xia army that is invading the border.

After understanding the main strategic intentions of the Liao army, Yang Huairen believed that the next things would be much easier to handle.

"General Pan, I will give you 80,000 troops. Go to Nanpi overnight and make sure you hold out until after the New Year."

This heavy snow is a double-edged sword.

It also caused trouble for the transportation of materials within the Great Zhou.

For example, if there is heavy snow, it becomes difficult to operate the canal, and the water conservancy project is doomed.

If the snow piles up heavily, even the land routes will be difficult to travel on.

Now, both the enemy and us are fighting to see who can hold on to the end and who can survive this period of heavy snow.

Pan Shu bowed and said, "There is no time to lose. I will set off now."

"Fuck it, ever since the Liao army came south, we have been led by them by the nose. To be honest, it's so fucking uncomfortable!"

After complaining, Pan Shu received the order and went to select the generals.

How could Yang Huairen not know about his complaints?
Yes, since they decided to fight on multiple fronts, every step they took was led by the Liao army. At this moment, they urgently needed a backbone who could carry the banner.

Now, in name, Qin Lie is the supreme commander of the Great Zhou’s resistance against the enemy. But even young generals like Yang Huairen do not obey him. What’s the use?

In addition to the North actively resisting the invasion of the Liao army, the battle in Western Xia was also in full swing.

Fortunately, the main task of Western Xia was to contain the 300,000 lions in Yanbian of the Great Zhou, so the war did not determine the winner for a while, but fell into a stalemate.

It is worth mentioning here that no matter whether the military report written by Yang Huairen and Xu Changzhi is sent to Daizhou or Bian Jing, it is indispensable to write another copy and send it to Jiangnan.

Although Wei Yuan was still in Jiangnan at this time, he always had an extremely detailed strategic planning blueprint in his mind.

Whether it is our side or the enemy's.

Suzhou, Taihu Villa.

Except for eating, Wei Yuan lived in the room where the sand table was kept all the time.

At this moment, in the room, he was interpreting the Liao army's military deployment.

Today, the Liao Kingdom's main attack direction is still the prefectures in Hedong and Jingdong Road.

Wei Yuan once asked himself, if he were to lead his troops south, the first places he would occupy would also be parts of the Jingdong and Hedong routes.

Only in this way could the Liao Kingdom seize the initiative in the war and be able to attack or defend.

But Wei Yuan always felt that the Liao Kingdom’s real goal was not Qizhou.

Even if Qizhou is taken away, what can it do?

Since I couldn't figure this out, I simply asked Lin Zhaoyuan and Chen Daniu beside me.

"If you were the Liao army and wanted to attack the city of Bianjing, what would you do?"

Chen Daniu was very reckless. "What else can we do? We just have to take over one city at a time."

Lin Zhaoyuan fell into deep thought for a long time before he responded:
"We need to build a route for transporting supplies, and then use the occupied towns to support our war. It would be best if we could directly break through the Hebei East Road area."

The so-called Hedong Road and Jingdong Road were both major roads, which were larger provincial political divisions.

And within these large provinces, there are also some branches. For example, Hebei East Road and Hebei West Road mentioned by Lin Zhaoyuan, in fact, from the overall perspective, they belong to Hedong Road.

The reason why it is so complicated is that the transformation from roads to routes has not been complete, resulting in detailed and complicated divisions among administrative regions.

"what did you just say?"

While Lin Zhaoyuan was talking, Wei Yuan entered a state of ecstasy and thought, so he didn't listen carefully to what the other person said.

Lin Zhaoyuan had no choice but to recount it, "Build a route for transporting supplies, and then fight to support the enemy?"

Wei Yuan shook his head, "The last sentence?"

The last sentence?
Lin Zhaoyuan clasped his fists and said, "I am just kidding. After all, it is not easy to drill through the entire Hebei East Road."

Hebei East Road?

Suddenly, Wei Yuan's pupils shrank, and he stood in front of the Great Zhou topographic map in an instant. Then, he clenched his five fingers into a fist and placed it heavily in the direction of Hebei East Road.
"Da Ming Mansion!"

Damingfu?!

Beijing City?
The real purpose of the Liao army was to attack Daming Prefecture?
Are they crazy, or is the Marquis crazy?

If we take Daming Prefecture directly, it will easily lead to an ambush from all sides!

(End of this chapter)