Late Tang

As soon as the meeting was over, Zhang Chengye immediately came to see Li Jing.

Seeing Li Jing, Zhang Chengye cut to the chase and said, "Why did the general agree to send troops? And even if it is not easy to resist the imperial court's will, the imperial court did not ask us to send a large number of troops. Isn't it okay to send one or two thousand people each to participate in the battle? Why did you suddenly mobilize troops? , actually want to fight with all our troops? The Duke of the county, Dengzhou and southern Liaoning are our foundation, we must not lose anything!"

Li Jing got up, poured a cup of green tea for Zhang Chengye himself, and handed it to him with a smile.

"Brother Jiyuan, don't worry, drink a cup of clear tea first, and make up for my newly brewed tea. It has a different flavor from Brother Sencha."

How could Zhang Chengye be in the mood to drink tea at this time, he always thought that Li Jing agreed to send troops because his adoptive father came to announce the decree and decided to send troops. "Mr. Jun, it's urgent to change the military order at this time. We must not damage the Zhendong Army because of impulsiveness."

Sitting next to Zhang Chengye, Li Jing said to him seriously: "Brother Jiyuan, do you really think that my decision to send troops this time was wrong?"

"The dispatch of troops this time was originally an evil move by Tian Lingzi's conspiracy against the Duke. Can the Duke not see clearly?"

Li Jing kept his composure: "It was originally like this, but since I decided to send troops, it is natural that I have already solved it." He said calmly, "Tian Lingzi's move was indeed a crisis for us. But the crisis, there is a danger. There is also opportunity. There is also opportunity in danger. It depends on how we look at it!"

"Crisis equals opportunity?" Zhang Chengye looked at Li Jing with some puzzlement.

Li Jing smiled lightly, and said carefully: "The Zhendong Army also has some problems at the moment, but they haven't revealed them yet. The biggest problem is that we have just annexed Liaonan and integrated 5000 troops. Although we have repeatedly compressed, but Of the 4 troops in the Zhendong Army, 3000 are Liaonan soldiers. In addition, there are as many as tens of thousands of Liaonan soldiers who have just been reorganized and eliminated. There are still [-] troops, almost comparable to our Zhendong Army."

Sighing, Li Jing continued: "This is a potential danger, and the army must be purified. Otherwise, it is very likely that there will be many mountains, and then the military order will not work, and arrogant soldiers will appear. Just like Li Keyong and Taiyuan united Just like soldiers, they would argue about salaries to reward important officials, and even raise soldiers for thousands of days. When it was time to use soldiers, they would be the first to fight back. This kind of thing is very common in other feudal towns, but our Zhendong Army will never allow it. "

Zhang Chengye seemed to realize something, since he first came to Shamen Town, he always felt that Zhendong Army was different from other troops in Datang.That is a fundamental difference from the inside to the outside, and this kind of temperament is far inferior to even the Shence Army.

"At the beginning, in order to integrate Liaonan smoothly, it was impossible to accept these Liaonan soldiers. At the beginning, they were given a separate battalion head and a separate site. However, we can't go on like this forever, we have to send them Digest it. And to digest such a large army, you need variables. Right now, the crusade against Li Keyong is such an opportunity. Pulling the army out to fight and letting them join our Zhendong Army is to digest the impact of changes When these soldiers in southern Liaoning are in war, we can also have the opportunity to integrate these soldiers again. Moreover, by pulling these soldiers out, we can also carry out a deep integration of the land in southern Liaoning. Completely integrate the southern Liaoning , and become the territory of our Zhendong Army."

Zhang Chengye thought for a while, "We just sent troops to Datong, [-] soldiers from Liaonan, and [-] United soldiers, our Zhenjiang army only has [-], can we hold them down?"

"Don't worry about this, let alone [-] Liaonan soldiers, even if there are twice as many, our Zhendong Army will be able to deal with them."

Li Jing smiled, and both of them relaxed a lot.

"Which route is the Duke planning to take to enter Datong?" Zhang Chengye asked.

"Directly land in Youzhou by boat, then cross Youzhou along the Juma River into Yizhou, cross Taihang Mountain from Feihuxing, and enter Weizhou."

This route was chosen by Li Jing a long time ago. If you take the land route, the route is too long, covering thousands of miles.It only takes one day to land on the coast of Youzhou by boat from southern Liaoning.Then arrive at Yizhou from the sea, and enter Feihu County, Weizhou.This route was chosen not only because of the short distance, but more importantly, the transportation of logistics and supplies along this route is very convenient.

"Will Youzhou allow us to borrow the territory? We have an army of [-], I'm afraid Youzhou will be a little afraid."

"It's best to be fearful. This time, let's take this opportunity to integrate the Liaonan soldiers and train troops through battle. Another main purpose is to teach Youzhou Lulong Army a lesson and give them some deterrent power." Li Jing said about Youzhou The state army couldn't help but look a little unhappy.

The last time Li Jing cooperated with Li Maoxun, Li Jing not only sold Li Maoxun a large sum of weapons and horses, but also helped him keep the secret.At the time of Guan Jian, 600 troops were sent across the sea to attack Youzhou, which helped Li Maoxun share a large part of the pressure.Although, Li Jing did not simply help by beating the rabbits, but broke through six counties in Youzhou, looted [-] million property, and returned [-] young men.

But no matter what, Li Jing also helped Li Maoxun.

But after the matter was completed, Li Maoxun did not send the 30 shi of grain or 100 million guan money to Li Jing's hands that had been agreed earlier.Instead, pretending to forget, Li Jing sent several envoys over, but the Uyghur was always laughing and refused to keep his promise.

In fact, Li Jing also understood very well that Li Maoxun was feeling sorry for the six county towns that had been robbed and looted by Li Jing, and still had a population of 10.But when Li Jing started, Youzhou was not Li Maoxun's.Li Jing doesn't care about that, he has to hand over what he promised.

This time, Li Jing was going to take advantage of the crusade against Li Keyong to enter Youzhou first to frighten Lu Longjun.Get the money back first, if Li Maoxun dares to attack, since Li Jing helped win the position of Lu Long's commander, he doesn't mind spending a little more effort to support a somewhat prestigious general in Lu Long's army to come out to compete with him.

"If Li Maoxun refuses to give in, don't we have to fight Lu Longjun? Although this Lu Longjun is chaotic, it is a veteran and powerful!" Zhang Chengye said worriedly.

Li Jing didn't take it seriously: "We have an innate advantage over Lu Longjun. Although we face each other across the sea, the reality is that Lu Longjun doesn't have any powerful navy, but we have an elite navy that dominates the sea. Let's fight against Lu Longjun , they can land and attack from any point on the long coastline at any time, and leave after grabbing. But they can only look at the sea and sigh, except for the sea, they can't get close to us by land. To the northeast, the Liaoxi Corridor and the northeastern part of Liaodong are now all Khitan people and The Goguryeo people occupy them, and they can’t get through. If they go south, they are blocked by the Yichang Army and Ziqing Town, and they can’t get through. So, it’s okay if Li Maoxun is more acquainted, otherwise, our Zhendong Army I will abuse him thousands of times. Make him regret it!"

In war, Li Jing was never afraid, even if the opponent was Lu Longjun, one of the top three towns in Hebei.What's more, in the current strategic situation of the two sides, Li Jing can be said to be completely in the upper hand.

This time to send troops, we must take the opportunity to integrate the Liaonan soldiers and further speed up the digestion of these soldiers.On the other hand, these soldiers were also transferred so that the Zhendong Army could further control the land in southern Liaoning.Thirdly, now that the end of the Tang Dynasty has come to the time when troubled times are approaching, the Zhendong Army also needs to test itself with actual combat, to support war with war, and to train troops with war.Another one, of course, is to teach the ignorant Li Maoxun a good lesson, and by the way, also let the Zhendong Army gain more prestige and strive for more prestige.

"Then what is the general's intention of sending troops to the east of Zhejiang?" It is a little puzzling to send [-] troops to the east of Zhejiang.

Li Jing smiled, "I didn't go to Zhedong to fight a war, but to do business."

"Business, what's the point?"

"It has been raining for nearly a month recently, and the sea and land routes have been blocked for a long time. Many of our goods have been backlogged in the warehouse. Second, all along, our goods have been handed over to Cui, Han, Xiao and other aristocratic families. The agent sales have added such a link, and we have lost a lot of profits. Right now, I plan to let the navy use the name of this southern expedition to cooperate with Xiao Hancui and other major merchants to form a huge sea caravan to go south. Once in Jiangnan. Take our goods and go to Jianghuai and Lingnan to exchange for other commodities, especially some materials such as grain and copper."

Because of the rebellion of Wang Jingwu in Ziqi, there were also rebellions of Cao Jun in Puzhou and Jeju.The commercial routes from Dengzhou to Luoyang, Chang'an, Hedong, Shannan, and Bashu were all threatened, and now this main commercial route is threatened.The commodities that Dengzhou is now producing in large quantities are facing sales problems.

Dengzhou is not a big place, and the current output in southern Liaoning is not enough to be self-sufficient. Li Jing's Zhendong Army can be so strong, it depends entirely on the way of commercial production and trade.Once the business route is cut off, Li Jing will die.

And there is another one, Li Jing's recent gold mine has dug up a lot of gold.But gold is not money, it is only a kind of treasure.In the North and Central Plains, it is not easy to use.However, it is different in the Lingnan coast. Since Lingnan produces a large amount of gold and silver, and there are a large number of Arab and other Hu merchants in coastal cities such as Guangzhou, gold and silver are actually currencies that can be directly circulated in Lingnan.Besides, there is still food that Li Jing urgently needs in Lingnan.And Lingnan, the trade transfer station of the Arab world in Asia, Li Jing's goods can get a better outlet there.

It was under such considerations that Li Jing was going to let the navy fleet escort him and lead the joint caravan all the way south from Dengzhou along the coast to open up a more direct and better business route.By the way, Wang Ying made a lot of trouble in the east and west of Zhejiang, and robbed many states and counties. Li Jing planned to let the Zhendong Army [-] soldiers and horses go and rob Wang Ying.

After hearing Li Jing's plans, Zhang Chengye was dumbfounded for a long time, and finally had to admire Li Jing's breadth of mind.

(To be continued)