Late Tang

"Yiding two prefectures, do you think it's time to fight now?" Li Jing was presiding over a military meeting in the political affairs hall of Yanjing City.The main officials from the Staff Council, the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, and the Ministry of War participated in the meeting. In addition, ministers and cabinet members also participated in the meeting.Gai Yu, who had just returned from Daibei, was also among them. In addition, Sun Lan, the Prime Minister of the Supervisory Office, attended the meeting as a non-voting delegate. As the main intelligence reporter, she participated in almost all core meetings and provided intelligence analysis.

After Li Quanzhong spent the New Year in Zhuozhou, he led 5 horses and took his family and left Zhuozhou. He passed through Mozhou and Hejian, and was escorted by the Qin army all the way to Cangzhou and Dezhou, and then crossed the Yellow River to Jinan.He will rest in Jinan for a whole day, and then go to Tianping Town to join Marshal Yu Yu, Marshal of Henan, the King of Dispute Qin.

Li Jing has now sent Guo Zhenhai to lead troops in Zhuozhou, and the Shangshu Province and the cabinet have also selected a group of local officials to go there.

It can be said that although Li Quanzhong took away tens of thousands of horses, at this time, he was able to take over Zhuozhou without bloodshed, which made Li Jing very satisfied.After all, Li Quanzhong's departure can be regarded as the removal of hidden dangers. The local powerful forces in Zhuozhou lost their roots and could only surrender completely.

With the victory of Zhuozhou, the next target before the Qin army is Yiding Erzhou in Hebei, the original Yiwujun Town.

Yiding two prefectures are adjacent to Taihang, guarding Puyin Xingfeihu Xing, and leading directly to Yuzhou in Hedong.

After Li Keyong's defeat, Li Siyuan has now taken Liu Yuniang's daughter and Li Keyong's eldest son, Gai Yu, back to Yanjing as hostages.Moreover, Li Siyuan accepted the title of Yanmen County King that Li Jing asked for him, acting as the governor of Peking University, and the commander of Shatuo University. The two sides signed a truce agreement, using the existing territory boundary as the boundary.

As long as Li Jing doesn't take the initiative to use force against Li Siyuan, Li Siyuan will never provoke Li Jing now.

But now there is a very critical matter between Li Jing and Li Siyuan, that is, the issue of Yizhou and the Shatuo army in Yizhou.

After the last war, Li Sizhao, Li Cunzhang, Li Sien, Li Siben and other Shatuo generals were blocked in Hebei and cut off their way back.After Li Keyong disappeared, Wang Jingchong returned to Chengde Town, and the Yizhou Shatuo Army suddenly became alone.

This army is not small, with a total of 3 horses. Although it is all infantry, it is not a small force.Especially for the Shatuo people at this time, these [-] infantry are very important.

Li Siyuan wanted to get back this army, but he didn't want to give up Yizhou.

Li Jing, on the other hand, wanted to capture Yizhou, and at the same time planned to annex this Shatuo infantry, so as to continue to attack and weaken the strength of the Shatuo people.

In the original plan, Li Jing planned to send troops to forcibly launch an attack on Yiding after taking Zhuozhou, quickly capture Erzhou by force, and completely control northern Hebei.However, the southward movement of the Khitan people disrupted this arrangement.

After he surrendered Li Quanzhong's soldiers without a fight and forced him to withdraw from Hebei, the Shatuo army in Yizhou reacted greatly. The Shatuo people sent spies one after another to inquire. mutual damage.

The morale of Guo Zhenhai's troops stationed in Zhuozhou was so high that he repeatedly asked to send troops to Yizhou to directly annihilate this Shatuo army alone.

Today, this is what we are going to discuss.

The Shatuo Army in Yizhou is alone, but not completely alone.Behind them is Dingzhou, which is Wang Jingchong, the son and daughter of Li Keyong.Now that the Shatuo people in Yizhou have become the northern barrier of Chengde's army, they will never sit back and watch Li Sizhao and others be wiped out.

At this time, it was not a good plan for the Qin army to finally fight the Chengde army and Shatuo army in Yiding.

Gai Yu took the lead and said: "When he is sick, he will die. In the current Shatuo army, Li Keyong is missing, Liu is captured, and the Shatuo army is divided into two. It is the time when the morale is weakest. I agree. According to King Qin's previous discussion, it is really not suitable to attack Yanmen Town at this time. Although Li Siyuan is young, he has the toughness of Li Keyong, and even has a bit of the wisdom of King Qin. He has basically controlled the mind of Shatuo's army now. With the dangers of the Dai, Xin, Yun, and Shuo prefectures, if we fight him, it is very likely that it will be a protracted battle, and it will be difficult to win without a year or two."

He paused and said: "If we can get the support of the Hedong Army and the Zhenwu Army, we may still break through Yanmen Town in a short time. But now that Mr. Zheng is planning to go south to attack Luoyang, Li Siyuan is very good at posing, He has repeatedly expressed to Zheng Xianggong that he is willing to send troops to go south with the Hedong Allied Forces. Therefore, Zheng Xianggong will never cooperate with us to attack Yanmen now. However, Li Siyuan is not easy to fight, but we cannot underestimate him because of this, and we must not give him a chance to start again. Recovery. In this case, I think that instead of sending troops to Yanmen in Hedong, we can directly send troops to Yizhou. Annihilating the Shatuo infantry in Yizhou will also inflict heavy damage on Li Siyuan. Moreover, we can regain Yizhou and further expand Hebei's territory .”

Li Jing also nodded, "Yizhou Shatuo's infantry is indeed a weakness of Shatuo, and if we can kill Li Sizhao, Li Cunzhang and other Yizhou generals, then there will be no generals for Shatuo. In the end, Li Siyuan It is also difficult to support alone. It is just that the Shatuo Army in Yizhou has 18 infantry, and behind them there are 18 soldiers from the Chengde Army. Although the Chengde Army has [-] soldiers and horses, many of them are recruits, but our main force is now fighting in the north, and there are another A large army is in Jianghuai. Although there are [-] heavy troops in Hebei, it is already all we have. This army is the only force that can maintain the situation in Hebei and suppress the Hebei army. We brought him to fight against Chengde Town , Yizhou Shatuo, is it too risky to put all your eggs in one basket? And, if we put all our eggs in one basket, will Wei Bo’s army go north to join the battle? These are all variables, and we need to carefully consider them.”

Pull the hair and move the whole body!

The Qin army wanted to eat the Yizhou Shatuo army, but Li Siyuan would not sit idly by, Wang Jingchong would not sit idly by, and even Han Jian might not sit idly by.

Wang Pu, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, frowned, "It's better to waste time with them. Now [-] Shatuo people in Yizhou are blocked in Hebei, and the supply of military supplies depends on Yizhou, a tiny place that has been turned into white land by several families. It will not last long. Even if Wang Jingchong It’s not common to be willing to support them with food and grass, right? Besides, Shatuo’s soldiers were blocked in Hebei. After a long time, the army’s mind will return, and people’s hearts will be tired of fighting. We spent half a year with him, and they would be in chaos if they didn’t fight.”

Li Jing glanced at the sand table in the center, Yizhou and Daizhou are separated by Weizhou, a Puyin Xing and a Feihu Xing connect the two places, Zijing Pass, Feihu City, Lingqiu City, Taixi Pass, although this passage is dangerous , but it is not foolproof.After a long time, maybe there will be long nights and more dreams.

In addition to taking this route back to Yanmen, Li Sizhao also had another route, which was to cross the Taihang Mountains from Zhenzhou in Chengde Town via Jingxing, enter Taiyuan, and then return to Daizhou.

On both sides of Jingxing, Chengde Town is to the east, and Taiyuan Hedong Army is to the west.

If Li Sizhao wanted to go back this way, Chengde Town would definitely borrow the way.But on the Hedong Army's side, it's a little hard to say.On the surface, it seems impossible for the Hedong Army to let the Shatuo people use Taiyuan, because the Hedong Army and the Shatuo Army are old opponents who have fought several times.But this is not certain, Zheng Congxuan is now focused on going to the king, if Li Siyuan does what he likes and makes some promises, Zheng Congxuan may not always refuse to let him go.After all, Zheng Congxuan is not a warlord, but a literati prime minister, who puts the interests of the court first.Historically, Li Jing remembered that Zheng Congxuan finally handed over Hedong Town to Li Keyong because of an imperial edict.

Li Jing really wanted to eat the Shatuo soldiers in Yizhou, but he was worried about sending troops by force, which would eventually lead to a war in Hebei.But now, Li Jing doesn't have much confidence to fight a large-scale battle in Hebei.

It feels like a tiger is facing a hedgehog, wanting to eat, but unable to eat.

If the war is forced, if the Hebei war is lost, it may be a catastrophic consequence for Li Jing.For this reason, he must not be more cautious.

"What does Mr. Jing think?" Li Jing turned to ask Jing Xiang, the envoy of the Staff Council. He was in charge of the Staff Council. To a large extent, Li Jing needed to listen to his analysis on whether to fight or not to fight.

As the envoy of the Staff Council, Jing Xiang is Li Jing's first military adviser.Most of Qin Jun's strategic plans came from the Staff Council he led.In the past few years, according to his strategy of using Liaodong as the rear base and Dengzhou and Liaonan as the economic pillar, first Liaodong and then Hebei, supplemented by sending troops out of Shandong, and managing the Yellow and Huaihe Rivers, the Qin army has advanced step by step, which can be described as stable. Played steadily and achieved a series of victories.Among them, Jing Xiang contributed a lot.

It is precisely because of this that now Jingxiang is firmly seated as the number one counselor under Li Jing, and is in charge of the Qin army's troop deployment.

Hearing Li Jing's roll call, Jing Xiang thought about it for a while, and then asked: "Sometimes, you can't have both. Right now about Yizhou, someone also thought that the land of Yizhou, or the Yizhou Shatuo Army , You can have one of the two, you can’t have both. Now it depends on what the king of Qin wants, whether he wants to seize the land of Yizhou, or wants to annihilate the Yizhou Shatuo army?"

"Someone thinks what the King of Qin said just now is very reasonable. Right now, our three armies are coming out to reject the Khitan coalition army in the north. The remaining soldiers and horses are concentrated in Jianghuai and Hebei respectively. The Jianghuai soldiers and horses are thousands of miles away from Hebei, so , if we start the Hebei war with the towns at this time, our chances of winning are at most [-]-[-]. In a certain view, [-]-[-] is actually tantamount to taking a huge risk, which is contrary to our usual strategy. A certain object The use of troops at this time is not only because of our lack of troops, but also because our internal affairs and civil affairs are not going well at the moment, and the logistics and military supplies cannot simultaneously supply the four routes of troops and horses to fight."

Wang Pu was taken aback, and asked back: "If you don't use soldiers, how can you capture Yizhou or annihilate the Shatuo Army in Yizhou?"

"If you want to destroy the Shatuo army, you can immediately go to Shanhaiguan to issue an order to transfer back [-] cavalry under Guo Chongtao's command, and then mobilize [-] troops from Hejian Mozhou and Yanjing. The blitzkrieg method is to attack Yizhou directly, attack quickly, and then leave quickly. Before the Chengde Weibo reinforcements come up, they will withdraw from Yizhou. According to this plan, there is a [-]% chance of winning the [-] Shatuo army in Yizhou, but If we want to finish this battle in a short period of time, we may have to suffer additional casualties, and the transfer of Guo Chongtao's army will affect the entire strategic layout of the Khitan, so someone thinks that it is not suitable and can only be regarded as a bad policy."

"What about the middle policy?" Li Jing didn't directly ask the best policy. Since there is a bad policy, there must be a middle policy. As a superior, you must listen to it.

"The middle policy is to stand still and wait for the opportunity."

This answer obviously did not satisfy Li Jing, this way of sitting and waiting has never been his style.He prefers to take the initiative and grasp the situation.

Wang Pu said on the side: "Let's talk about your best strategy."

"The best strategy is to capture Yizhou, but not to fight Shatuo, and we have to let them go." Jing Xiang said.

"How to do it? King Qin mentioned it before, but Li Siyuan doesn't trust us."

Jing Xiang smiled and said, "Li Siyuan really doesn't trust us, but he trusts Wang Jingchong, and he also trusts Zheng Congxuan."

He stood up and pointed at the Jingxing between Chengde Town and Hedong Town in front of the sand table, "If the King of Qin can reach an agreement with Li Siyuan, Wang Jingchong, and Zheng Congyu, then we will let Li Quanzhong leave Hebei in the same way as before. The Marshal of the Army and Horses, under the false order of Huang Yue, ordered Li Sizhao of Yizhou to lead the Shatuo Army of Yizhou to go south to King Qin, let him pass Jingxing through Chengde Army Zhenzhou, enter Taiyuan, and belong to the Hedong Allied Forces of Zheng Congyu in Hedong Town, and go south together to King Qin , I think, Li Siyuan and Li Sizhao are definitely willing, and even Zheng Congxuan is also willing."

"Will Wang Jingchong agree? Although the Shatuo army left Yizhou as a piece of shit, they saved their soldiers and horses. Maybe they are willing. Zheng Congxuan got tens of thousands of Shatuo soldiers and horses to follow him to serve the king. Maybe he will agree. But why did Wang Jingchong agree? Now Yizhou Shatuo Army is their barrier, if they leave, Dingzhou will bear the brunt of it." Wang Pu asked.

Li Jing smiled lightly and said: "If this king really has such a proposal, Wang Jingchong can only agree to make excuses whether he wants it or not."

The thing is obvious, if Wang Jingchong refuses to give way, the Shatuo people will definitely be dissatisfied with it, and their alliance will inevitably break up. If this happens, the consequences for Chengde Town will be even worse.Agreeing to make way, he also knocked out his teeth and swallowed it in his stomach.

Although Yanmen and Chengde are allies, no matter how good allies are, they will not always agree when faced with their own vital interests.The [-] infantry, and several generals Shatuo, are very important to Li Siyuan and to the Shatuo army in Yanmen Town.It is so important that they are willing to form a temporary alliance with Zheng Congxuan and Li Jing, and it is so important that if Cheng Dejun dares not to excuse, they may fight each other.

The most critical thing now is not the attitude of Chengde, Yanmen, and Hedong, but the attitude of Li Jing.

Do you really want to let the [-] Shatuo troops in Yizhou go and let them go?

Li Jing frowned in thought, tapped lightly on the table in front of him, unable to make up his mind and make a decision for a long time.

"King Qin, Yizhou is very important to us. If we control Yizhou, we will truly have firm control over Weizhou." Li Zhen reminded us below.

Li Jing nodded. It was safe to let Li Quanzhong withdraw from Hebei earlier.Now that the Qin army has no better way to annihilate this corps, let them leave, at least they can take Yizhou at the least cost.

And Yizhou is very important to the Qin army.

"Okay, this matter will be decided in this way. However, the specific details will be handed over to the Staff Council. In addition, the Supervisory Office will send people to contact and negotiate with Chengde, Yanmen, and Hedong Townships. Even if we let Li Sizhao leave, we cannot leave. They leave easily, the initiative must be in our hands, we must not let them leave easily, and if they want to leave, they have to peel off the skin. Anyway, Li Siyuan and Li Sizhao must be more anxious than us!"

Although Li Jing felt unwilling, he felt that he had missed an opportunity to hit the Shatuo people again.But if it's just an unsure opportunity, when it's time to give up, he will still give up decisively!

Sometimes, it is better not to be greedy, but to take a step back!