The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 884
In fact, real national affairs are rarely decided on the court meeting, but this time the court meeting is different.

Before the court meeting, Liu Xie did not call the ministers to discuss matters in the Dongming Hall, but directly chose to hold the court meeting.

At least Wang Yun didn't receive the news of being summoned.

All the ministers entered the hall, and after seeing the ceremony, the atmosphere in the hall was still dull and terrifying.

Wang Yun's brows were tightly frowned. The imperial conquest can indeed boost the morale of the army, but the current situation has deteriorated to the point where it is difficult to deal with it.

The morale of the Ming army is now like a rainbow, and the best is out. The leader of the army is not some unknown Ming court general, but Xu An personally leads the army.

Wang Yun narrowed his eyes slightly, Xu An's current power has reached the peak of the sky, and his reputation has already surpassed Huangfu Song and Sun Jian, even if it is powerful in China, it is not an exaggeration.

Although today's son has outstanding abilities, he cannot compare with Xu An in terms of military strategy.

Even if the Son of Heaven does not personally command, there are no brave and skilled fighters in the court who can command the army compared to Xu An.

Yuan Shuyuan was in Yanzhou, and Xu Rong, a general of the Ming army who had defeated Sun Jian, was now leading his troops in Jizhou, although Xu Rong was acting as a partial division to contain the Yanzhou army.

But once Yuan Shu leaves Yanzhou, I'm afraid that Xu Rong's partial army will also become a regular army, directly crossing the frozen and dried-up Yellow River and driving straight into Yanzhou.

The Ming army conquered Qingxu and went south to capture the Huaihe River, which already cut off the possibility of moving south.

Yanzhou must not be lost. Once Yanzhou, which can barely be regarded as a barrier, is lost, the situation will undoubtedly worsen.

Now they have no way to retreat, Jiaozhou is in a hurry, Jingzhou is sticking to it, Yangzhou is empty, only Yuzhou temporarily occupies the center without any threat.

As long as the Yanzhou barrier disappears and Xuzhou Pengcheng Kingdom is taken down, then everything will really be over.

Wang Yun raised some heads, looked at Liu Xie who was sitting high on the head seat, and felt extremely helpless.

It's too late to say anything now, the emperor has already released the news of the royal conquest, and even issued an edict of King Qin, summoning all the soldiers and horses from all over the world to gather in Pengcheng.

At this moment, even if he is unwilling in every possible way, he can only pinch his nose and approve the decision of the emperor's personal conquest.

Sun Jian and Liu Chong had the most contact with Liu Xie, and Liu Chong had had conflicts with Liu Xie due to some problems before, so he was gradually alienated. It was not until after the reform that Liu Chong stood up and supported him again that he regained Liu Xie's support.

Wang Yun is a Situ, but when he meets Liu Xie, Liu Xie is also business-like, and only respects him as an adult and veteran.

Although he doesn't know much, Wang Yun has also figured out Liu Xie's temper and character.

After all, Liu Xie is too young and looks a little arrogant. Before he makes an opinion, he will really listen to other people's opinions carefully.

But once it has made a decision and issued a decree, it is unacceptable for someone to disobey it.

Wang Yun knew Liu Xie's consistent behavior style, so naturally he would not stand up to oppose it at this time.

Sikong and Zhang Xi had always seldom spoke in Chaoyi and Dongming Hall, and were taciturn.

Only once, when Liu Xie announced the political reform, he stood up and stood for the emperor. At this time, everyone knew that Zhang Xi was on the side of the emperor.

As Sikong, although Zhang Xi's influence is not as good as that of Liu Chong and Wang Yun, he still has a certain amount of weight in the court.

Since the reform, Liu Chong has been firmly on Liu Xie's side.

After the court meeting began, the three of them kept silent about the Yujia's personal conquest, and the remaining Jiuqing also didn't say anything about it.

The Sangong and Jiuqing did not express any opinions, so how dare the rest of the courtiers stand up and speak out against it?
The time of the court meeting passed bit by bit under this weird atmosphere.

In the end, the topic of the court meeting inevitably shifted to the imperial conquest.

Sikong and Zhang Xi stood up first, and briefly explained the current situation. Although everyone knew about the situation, hearing it from Zhang Xi made the atmosphere in the hall even more dull.

Afterwards, Zhang Xi read out an extremely fierce call to action in the hall.

Accused Xu An of insulting the world, disobedience to the Tao and reason, and at the same time pretending to be the destiny, forging a talisman, deceiving the people, and talking about the government.

The proclamation was promulgated, the imperial edict had been conveyed to all directions, and the matter of the royal conquest had been decided.

"Use Situ Wangyun as the temporary supervisor of the country..."

Wang Yun kept his eyes on his nose and his heart, and bowed down to agree. He had expected this result a long time ago.

He looked sideways at Liu Chong who was standing not far away. Liu Chong's expression was as usual at this time, and there was nothing unusual about it.

Wang Yun felt cold in his heart, Liu Chong was not a person who could hide things, this kind of expression probably had been ordered by Liu Xie, the same was true for Sikong and Zhang Xi, only he was excluded.

The court meeting ended, and the ministers withdrew from the court.

Wang Yun walked in the crowd with a normal expression, but his heart was extremely heavy.

Everything seems to have returned to the original situation in Chang'an, and the world was overthrown in an instant.

It's just that Dong Zhuo controlled the government and controlled the Sili at that time, but now it is the Ming army who is eyeing it, wanting to dominate the world.

"Wang Situ stayed behind..."

Just when Wang Yun was about to leave the palace, an eunuch hurried over and stopped him in time.

"What's the matter?"

The eunuch Wang Yun knew him, and he was one of Liu Xie's close servants.

Running all the way, the eunuch seemed out of breath, and after calming down a little, he said.

"Your Majesty summoned Wang Situ to Dongming Palace to narrate."

Wang Yun raised his eyebrows slightly, and Liu Xie summoned him to Dongming Hall to discuss matters at this time, which made him feel a little strange.

But doubts are doubts, Wang Yun naturally will not disobey orders, he followed the eunuch who sent the message all the way to the direction of Dongming Hall.

After Wang Yun arrived at Dongming Hall and walked into it, there were not many people in Dongming Hall, except for Liu Xie, there were only five people, and all of them were familiar faces to Wang Yun.

The five are Sikong Zhang Xi, Taiwei Liu Chong, Wuguan Zhonglang General Lu Yu, Zhongba General Fude, and Captive General Huang Zhong.

Lu Yu, General of the Five Senses, and Fu De, General of the Middle Base, commanded the Forbidden Army, while Huang Zhong, the general who sought captives, commanded the Jingzhou Army from the north. I heard that it was Yuan Shu's general Ji Ji who led part of the Yanzhou Army to the south this time. spirit.

The later general Sun Jing was not in the hall. According to the news Wang Yun had received before, it seemed that Sun Jing had already gone to Pengcheng first to stabilize the morale of the army.

This time Wang Yun was appointed as the country supervisor, Zhang Xixie was in charge of administration, and Liu Chong went with the army.

Although the military power of the newly recruited Yuzhou Army is now in the hands of Liu Xie, Liu Chong still has a wide reputation in Yuzhou, and this time the Yuzhou soldiers were also handed over to Liu Chong's jurisdiction.

Seeing Wang Yun walking into the Dongming Hall, Liu Xie did not neglect, but went to greet him in person.

"I didn't discuss with Situ about this personal conquest. Please don't hold grudges, Situ. I understand that Situ is loyal to the country, but I know that if I discuss with Situ, I will definitely be blocked. That's why I didn't discuss with Situ. .”

Wang Yun didn't expect Liu Xie to come to apologize to him in person, and even forgot how to play right for a while.

Wang Yun's heart turned a thousand times, and he finally sighed. He thought he was familiar with Liu Xie, but he didn't want Liu Xie to know him well.

"Your Majesty doesn't need to worry about it. As His Majesty said, if Your Majesty consults with the minister in advance, the minister will indeed stop the personal conquest."

"Right now, the matter is a foregone conclusion, and the personal conquest has been decided, but there are some things that His Majesty is willing to listen to, but as a subject, I still have to say them."

It's a done deal, and Wang Yun is helpless.

"Situ, please speak."

"Your Majesty's personal conquest, although it can boost the morale of the frontline soldiers, but even so, if it is against Xu An, the chances of winning are probably less than [-]%. I think..."

"I am clear."

Wang Yun was going to continue talking, but he saw Liu Xie nodding and heard Liu Xie's words.

"Chendu has [-] forbidden soldiers, Yuzhou [-] soldiers, Yanzhou reinforcements [-], Jingzhou [-] soldiers, and Pengcheng garrison [-], totaling [-]."

"The Ming army captured Qingxu and Xuzhou this time, and the total casualties were only more than [-] people, and these casualties were all caused by the attack on Zhu'a, Licheng, and Yuquanting, as well as the initial casualties in the Luoshui offensive and defensive battle. Qingzhou soldiers."

Most of the Ming army casualties in the offensive and defensive battles were surrendered troops under Qu Yi's command. In fact, the Ming army did not lose many elites at all.

"According to the previous situation of the Ming army, the losses suffered by the infantry of the Ming army, such as the military pawn battalion, the sharp soldier battalion, the trapped camp, and the yellow angels, are only about [-] people, and the casualties of its cavalry troops are about [-] people. It's at Yuquan Pavilion."

"In other words, Xu An still has [-] elite troops under his command, including more than [-] elite cavalry and more than [-] auxiliary soldiers. This number is not much different from our army."

"Our army seems to have a large number of people, but in fact its combat power is far inferior to that of the Ming army. Those brave men from the countryside are good enough to defend the city, but they can't be counted on in field battles."

"I know all of this."

Liu Xie looked dignified and said solemnly.

"This……"

Wang Yun's face changed slightly, what Liu Xie said was exactly the same as what he thought.

If this is the case, then it seems that Liu Xie's personal conquest of the imperial driver was not made because of his youthful vigor and enthusiasm.

"Since Your Majesty knows this, why did you choose to personally conquer and fight the Ming army in Pengcheng?"

"Who said I'm going to fight the Ming army?"

Liu Xie shook his head and denied it.

"Ok?"

Wang Yun was slightly taken aback.

It seems that Liu Xie did not say that he was going to fight the Ming army in Pengcheng.

It's just that as soon as he heard that Yu Jia personally went to conquer and issued an edict to call all soldiers and horses to gather in Pengcheng, Wang Yun subconsciously thought that Liu Xie chose Pengcheng as the battlefield to fight the Ming army, and the first battle would determine the world.

"Situ, sit down. This military meeting is to perfect the details of the battle of Pengcheng. Now the Taiwei will explain the general outline to you."

Wang Yun was pulled by Liu Xie to sit down, and then Liu Xie returned to the first seat.

After everyone sat down, an embroidered envoy brought a huge Kanyu map into the hall and hung it in a place where everyone could see it clearly.

Liu Chong, who was the Taiwei, also stood up at this time, walked to the near side of Kanyutu, and started the military discussion.

"The Ming army is powerful. If it confronts head-on, the probability of our army winning is less than [-]%..."

"Thus, the purpose of this battle is not really to fight the Ming army."

"The Battle of Pengcheng was just a bait to lure the Ming army to come to the decisive battle. If Xu An knew about His Majesty's personal conquest, he would never let this opportunity go, and he would definitely lead the army to march to Pengcheng."

"And what we have to wait for is the outbreak of the Battle of Pengcheng."

"Although the morale of the Ming army is like a rainbow, and there are many elite soldiers and strong generals, but because of Xu An's policy of elite soldiers, this time they brought [-] soldiers, but the land of Qingxu captured by him has a total of nine counties and ninety-seven towns. There are millions of people under his rule."

"Most of these cities are newly acquired. If the Ming army wants to control them all, they must continue to divide their troops. To maintain law and order, each city needs to leave a certain number of soldiers."

Wang Yun narrowed his eyes slightly. Fighting is not a child's play. It is quite difficult to quickly restore the pre-war order after the siege of the city. Even if he voluntarily surrenders, he cannot completely rest assured that the original defenders will guard the city. Otherwise, if there is a change, these The city will change its banner again in an instant.

Xu An's use of troops is indeed top-notch, whether it is to attack Bingzhou, Liangzhou, Sili, Yizhou and other places, they are all in the bag with a thunderbolt.

However, due to the size and nature of Taiping Road itself, it took quite a long time to digest these vast sites.

After all, Taipingdao really used knives to cut flesh and food from those local powerful families, [-]% of the family wealth, [-]% of the fields, and all the mines, forest farms, and all the privileges. How can this not make them feel sad? accept.

The aristocratic families in Qingzhou and Xuzhou and the cities were willing to surrender, but not many really wanted to join the Taiping Dao. All of them chose to surrender because of the overwhelming power of the Ming army.

This time, Xu An changed from usual and captured Qingzhou and Xuzhou one after another. The purpose was to capture Huai River, and he didn't want to give the Han court a chance to move south.

Therefore, if Xu An does not divide his troops and let go, the defense at the rear must be empty at this time, and if Xu An divides his troops to defend, then the frontline troops must be insufficient.

No matter what the situation is, Hanting can take the next step
"The purpose of this battle is to recover the cities along the Huai River."

"After our army was stationed in Pengcheng, it mainly focused on defense. Once the Ming army took the bait and fought our army, the Huaishui Navy immediately moved eastward and tried its best to regain control of the lower reaches of the Huaishui River."

Wang Yun's heart moved slightly. At this time, the most correct action was indeed to immediately mobilize the navy and army in the rest of the Huai River to find opportunities to regain control of the Huai River.

The tributaries of the Jianghuai Plain are densely covered, which is conducive to the patrol and mutual support of the navy. Using the densely covered waterways can slow down the attack of the Ming army, supplemented by harassment by guerrillas, and firmly defend the city.

The warships of the Ming Dynasty Navy entering the Huaihe River are extremely limited, because most of its seagoing ships are sharp-bottomed warships, which are easy to run aground, and it is still winter.

The Huai River is different from the Yellow River in that its flow rate is greater than that of the Yellow River, and there is no freezing period, but even so in winter, the water level of the Huai River will still drop a lot.

There are still few warships of the Ming army that can enter the Huai River from the sea, and the warships of the Ming army were originally designed to fight at sea, and all the shapes are blessing boats and soft sail boats.

The combat effectiveness of these warships is naturally not as good as the Huaishui navy deployed by the Han army on the Huai River. On rivers and lakes, in an era without artillery and firearms, the combat effectiveness of inland warships such as Louchuan is still stronger than that of Fuchuan.

"The Jingxiang navy was also ordered to head east. They will sail to the Huaishui River via the Dajiang River, all the way to the surrounding area of ​​Shouchun, and build a line of defense here."

The core towns of the Huaihe defense line are Shouxian and Hefei.

Historically, Soochow intended to take Hefei, which was controlled by the Han and Wei dynasties, pushed the defense line to the front line of the Huaihe River, and launched five large-scale offensive campaigns.

However, because the Southern Song Dynasty defended Hefei, Meng Yuan, who was extremely powerful at the time, was unable to cross the Huai River and defeat the Southern Song Dynasty. It was not until the fall of another important town, Xiangyang, that Meng Yuan was able to defeat and stick to the Southern Song Dynasty.

Although the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River have different water systems, they are actually connected by waterways.

This is the most important reason why it is said that guarding the river must guard the Huai River.

The navy of the Yangtze River can continuously transport supplies and soldiers to the vicinity of the Huai River through these rivers.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Southern Dynasties could use the Huaihe River and Surabaya and other systems to form convenient water transportation lines, transport grain, supplies, and fight for a long time.

Once crossing the Huai River, you will enter the hilly area from the gentle area. At the same time, the dense water network will also greatly restrict the cavalry in the north.

As long as a few important strongholds are guarded, a link can be formed. If the attacking army chooses to destroy the strongholds in the Lianghuai area one by one, it will inevitably fall into a war of attrition.

The dense water network and the harassment of the navy will make it miserable, and the long supply lines and unsafe waterways will greatly increase the logistical costs of the enemy.

However, if they bypass the strongholds along the Huai River and attack Yangzhou, they will inevitably fall into a situation where they are attacked from both sides.

"Your Majesty has already decided to retreat to Huainan and move the capital to Liyang?"

Liu Xie's expression darkened, and he lowered his voice a little.

"Qingxu has been lost, and Yanzhou is surrounded by three sides. Even if you don't give up, you will fall into the hands of the Ming army sooner or later. It will only cause more losses. It is better to give up voluntarily, and you can still save some troops."

"In Yan and Yu prefectures, I have arranged for embroidered envoys and officials to transfer the people to the south."

Yan and Yu prefectures are doomed to give up. The population of these people is wealth, and naturally they will not stay. Even those cities, Liu Xie is going to burn them all. Burn them all.

Leaving a mess for the Ming court can slow down the speed of the Ming army and buy more time.

"The best situation now is to retreat to the south..."

Han thieves are not at odds, and Wang Ye is not partial.

But sometimes even if you are unwilling in every possible way, there is no way not to bow your head. This is the reality.

Everyone in the hall was silent, and the best situation was to be able to retreat to the south smoothly, stay in a corner temporarily, and keep a small fire.

Truth be told, the outlook is bleak for all to see.

Sitting on Qingxu's fashion and failing, now that his strength is greatly weakened and he retreats to Huainan, how long can he last?
But what else can they do, they can only take one step at a time and do their best...

The military discussion is still going on.

In fact, there is one thing that Liu Xie didn't tell anyone.

Even with this seemingly high success rate strategy of attacking the West, Liu Xie didn't have much confidence in his heart for success, and he knew exactly where the gap lay.

If the attack on the Huai River fails in this battle, then everything will end, and there will be no chance of half a point.

As the emperor, he has to choose his own way of death.

King Zhou of Shang burned himself to death in Lutai, King Nan of Zhou knelt down on his knees to end his life, Qin Ziying surrendered and was killed by Xiang Yu.

He didn't want to die in the same way as the last emperors of these dynasties.

If he wanted to die, he chose to die on the battlefield like a man.

The monarch died in the country, the doctor died in the public, and the scholar died in the system.

Die for the country.

This.

This is the way the emperor dies.

(End of this chapter)