The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 546: Already in possession of divine weapon
"Han, Hanzhong does not need so many troops stationed there. The only place in Shu that needs to be heavily guarded is Nanzhong. Let Huo Yi lead 30,000 elite troops to garrison there, pacify the local barbarians, and be ready to march to Jiaozhou at any time. That's enough."

"The most important things in Shu are the checkpoints. Yong'an and Jiange need troops to stay behind, and the rest of the cities can be just like the counties in the Central Plains."

"Also, Wudu County needs some soldiers because it is close to the Wai Qiang tribe, who may come in and out from Dazhong Gansong."

"The Yongliang Legion's headquarters can be moved forward. Now that Shu has been pacified, there will be no more unrest within Yongzhou. The core of governance should be placed in Liangzhou. Guzang, Jincheng, Zhangye, Jiuquan and other places can all be appropriately stationed with troops."

"Since the establishment of the Western Regions Governor's Mansion, the road has been blocked and destroyed by foreign Qiang and Hu tribes several times, and merchants have been robbed many times. Ensuring the safety of the road from the Western Regions Governor's Mansion to Liangzhou is what we need to do next."

"There's a high possibility of unrest in Shu, but since Your Majesty has already realized this, even if unrest were to occur, it wouldn't be so severe that it would sweep across Bashu and draw the attention of the court."

At this moment, Deng Ai was pointing at the map in front of him and explaining it to many officials of the Ministry of War.

Chen Qian sat in the upper seat, listening to Deng Ai's analysis, feeling extremely complicated.

There's nothing wrong with what Deng Ai said, but there's just one thing: I never fucking asked you to be responsible for these things! !
After Deng Ai arrived at the Ministry of War, Chen Qian did not assign him any tasks in order to suppress him. He just asked him to familiarize himself with the affairs of the Ministry of War. In fact, he also wanted Deng Ai to understand who had the final say here.

But he didn't expect that Deng Ai's understanding of getting familiar with things might be somewhat different from what he thought.

In Deng Ai's view, to get familiar with everything, he just had to ask what the Ministry of War was doing, and then solve these problems!
So, when Chen Qian gathered everyone together to discuss important matters, Deng Ai suddenly came out and began to express his many ideas.

The first thing is the re-planning of the Yongliang Legion.

The purpose of establishing the Yongliang Legion was to deal with the Shu Kingdom, but now that the Shu Kingdom has perished, the responsibilities of the legion naturally have to be redivided.

Deng Ai believed that the seat of government should be moved forward and the core area should be changed from Yong to Liang.

As Chen Qian listened to Deng Ai's story, he actually wanted to interrupt him or refute him.

But what makes Deng Ai so difficult to deal with is that his words are always reasonable and he never speaks without purpose.

Just like the original plan to attack Jianye, it seems a bit outrageous and fast-forwards to the decisive battle, but if you think about it carefully, this is definitely the best way to force the Wu State to withdraw its troops. Even if the Wu State clearly knows that Cao Wei is just pretending and may not really attack, they will still come back.

This is the strength of Deng Ai.

The same is true today. Deng Ai's suggestions to Shu and the Yongliang Legion are very pertinent.

Many officials in the Ministry of War pondered his words in their hearts and couldn't help but nod slightly.

They all felt that they could proceed according to Deng Ai's ideas.

Deng Ai now looked at the map again and said, "The key to the future lies not in the west, but in the south and the north."

"The main reason for the south is Wu. There's no need to elaborate on that."

"While war is still raging in southern Jing, the situation is gradually becoming clearer. The uprising in Jiaozhi County has completely thwarted the Wu commander's plan to pin Wang Ji down in Wuling. Several counties surrounding Wuling have already mobilized their troops to defend their borders with Wuling."

"Jiaozhi County is on fire, leaving their rear completely exposed to Jiaozhou."

"Therefore, the Wu commander will definitely give up Jingnan at this moment and establish a new line of defense through Nanjun. The strategy will change from preventing Wang Ji from advancing south to preventing Wang Ji from advancing east."

"In this way, we have surrounded Wu from three sides. Wu's situation is like a fish in a pond, quietly waiting to die."

"There's no need to talk about the south for now, but what we need to talk about is the north."

Deng Ai looked at the many officials in front of him. For some reason, Deng Ai entered that high-spirited stage again. He no longer had the symptom of stuttering, and he began to loudly talk about his new ideas.

"The most important issue in the north is the Xianbei."

"Everyone!! Don't underestimate me!!"

Seeing these officials who disagreed, Deng Ai suddenly raised his voice.

"The Xianbei are the problem we should be most worried about! The Duan tribe of the Xianbei in Liaodong speaks a language that's practically indistinguishable from ours. Their leaders are required to study classical texts, read military tactics, and learn the Five Classics! They've learned farming and smelting in Liaodong!"

"They appear to be loyal to the Wei Dynasty, but they are definitely not the Southern Xiongnu. When have their tribal leaders ever personally visited Luoyang? They are unwilling to be the Southern Xiongnu. They have simply learned to endure and look for opportunities!"

"The Tuoba Xianbei of the north!"

"Their leaders hold the past leaders of the Hu people in great contempt, believing they only know how to plunder and kill, and have no idea how to govern the world!"

"Their leader has begun to practice benevolent rule! Isn't this the most terrifying thing?!"

Deng Ai said seriously, "Many people are even very happy, thinking that I have educated them well. They think that if the Xianbei people know etiquette, the world will be peaceful!"

"But you must understand, a tribe that knows only to plunder and kill, no matter how powerful, can only rise for a short time and is destined to be short-lived. But if they learn the classics and understand benevolent governance, their harm will go beyond plunder." "The State of Wu doesn't even understand the principles of benevolent governance, forcing its people into forced labor, while the one to the north has already understood. Isn't their threat greater than Wu's? It's simply because they lack population. What if they had enough?"

"To resolve this matter, we must defeat their tribe, kill their leader, and distribute their people to different parts of the Central Plains, preventing them from traveling to each other."

The officials of the Ministry of War were listening very seriously at this moment, and even seemed to enjoy it.

Deng Ai was the first general to think of launching a northern expedition against the Xianbei.

Deng Ai mentioned the issue of the border people being converted to barbarism several times. In the eyes of his ministers, this was simply because these unruly people were unwilling to pay taxes, but in Deng Ai's view, this was because their enemies had begun to grow rapidly.

Chen Qian finally couldn't help it at this moment.

"Lord Deng, the Xianbei have always been friendly with our dynasty. The various Xianbei tribes in Liaodong are all loyal and willing to follow us to suppress evil. The Tuoba tribe in the north has never sent anyone to plunder our land and has actively restrained its own troops."

"Why do you insist on thinking they are enemies?"

Deng Ai glanced at him and continued, "The Southern Xiongnu once fought against the Xianbei. Despite being of equal strength, they were tragically defeated."

"What does Mr. Chen think is the reason?"

Chen Qian said confidently, "The commanders of the five Xiongnu tribes were addicted to pleasure. They hadn't ridden a horse or drawn a bow in a long time. Their generals were also like this, living in the city and neglecting military affairs. That's why they were defeated miserably."

"No, the Right Wise King who served as the commander-in-chief at the time was a commander who had participated in many wars and fought against many generals from the Central Plains. Such a person cannot be said to be obsessed with pleasure and never rode a horse or used a bow."

"And the generals under his command at that time did not dare to be as negligent as they are now. As for his people, they are still nomadic today. What difference is there from the past?"

"Even if we're slightly inferior, it shouldn't be a crushing defeat."

Chen Qian hesitated and asked, "That's probably because of the terrain."

Deng Ai smiled and said confidently, "This is because the Right Wise King of the Southern Xiongnu is unpopular, while the Tuoba leader is benevolent."

"The Tuoba leader reduced the taxes his people had to pay, used lenient punishments to curb the nobility, promoted those from the lower classes who had made military achievements, made the leaders of each tribe familiar with the classics, and even took the initiative to provide relief to the poor tribes."

"Under such circumstances, his troops were willing to fight to the death for him. On the other hand, the Southern Xiongnu commanders were only concerned with their own enjoyment, completely disregarding the lives of their subordinates and not even providing them with any benefits. How could they not be defeated?"

"The reason why the Xianbei were able to defeat the Xiongnu was because they were more popular!"

After hearing Deng Ai's words, Chen Qian wanted to call it ridiculous.

Do the Hu people still have the support of the people?

are you crazy?

An official laughed and said, "So what if he is more popular?"

Deng Ai narrowed his eyes and said slowly, "Whoever wins the hearts of the people wins the world."

“Mr. Deng!!”

Chen Qian almost called him by his name.

Deng Ai's words made him a little unbearable. What do you mean? Can the Hu people be more popular than us?
Deng Ai looked at the horrified crowd and said calmly, "I'm not saying they are more popular than us. I'm just saying they've learned how to fight for the world. Their harm is no less than that of the Wu."

"If we continue to stalemate with them because they haven't plundered, if there is any unrest in the future, they can easily enter the Central Plains by winning the hearts of the people. If they can promote those who have made contributions and punish those who have made mistakes, they can continue to implement benevolent policies."

"Then Zhuolu is no longer a country in the Central Plains."

"Mr. Deng is being overly concerned!"

The officials shook their heads and did not agree with Deng Ai's idea.

At this time, officials still treated the Hu people outside the Great Wall as bandits. They felt that these people had no idea how to govern the world and only knew how to rob, kill, set fire, and then run away after robbing.

They also didn't think these bandits could establish a country or government in the Central Plains.

This was probably because they could not imagine that a dynasty in the Central Plains could lose to the Hu people outside the Great Wall in terms of winning the hearts of the people. But Deng Ai had already kept a close eye on these people because he felt that these people had mastered the method of building a country.

These are no longer robbers. If we continue to deal with them with the previous perspective, we will definitely suffer a great loss.

Chen Qian narrowed his eyes. For the sake of military merit, he even boasted about the Xianbei. Fine, you forced me to do this. Do you really think I can't win a debate with you?!
(End of this chapter)