end song

Chapter 1277 Frontline
The carriage slowly stopped.

"Old prime minister, you've arrived in Kaifeng."

The coachman called twice, but saw a young man in a Chu-color official robe approaching in front of him, waved his hand, and said, "No hurry, let the old prime minister sleep more."

"Then how can it be done? I heard that the emperor personally picked it up in front."

"It doesn't matter, let's unload things first."

"Well, it stands to reason that I don't know who you are, but I'll just listen to you once."

"..."

When these conversations came to his ears, only faint and broken voices remained. Han Chengxu opened his eyes, noticed that the carriage had stopped, sat up, wiped his face with a handkerchief, and prepared to get out of the carriage.

Only when he reached the edge of the carriage with his hand, someone supported him.

Looking up, Han Chengxu was slightly taken aback, and said, "Your Majesty?"

"Mr. Han is here, take a look at Kaifeng City."

Han Chengxu then slowly got out of the carriage, and seeing Yang Guo standing behind Li Xia leaning on a cane, he couldn't help laughing at himself.

"I have thought about the situation of recovering Kaifeng countless times. Who would have thought that I would fall asleep when I came to the front, and I would like to ask Your Majesty to help me."

"You can still sleep, so it shows that you are not too old." Yang Guo pretended to be indifferent, "The reason why I left Kaifeng back then is because I knew that I would come back one day."

All three of them smiled, and walked towards the ten-mile long pavilion on the side of the road, intending to sit for a while and wait for the queue to enter the city to be arranged.

There are many things to talk about, about the Northern Expedition, about logistics, about the situation in the court, Han Chengxu mused, but he said first: "I heard that His Majesty has accepted another Concubine Kang."

Li Xia had a rare guilty conscience and asked, "Is the queen angry?"

"I don't know, old minister." Han Chengxu said with a smile, "but I think your majesty can tell from the family letter whether the empress is angry."

In fact, Gao Mingyue's letter said that Yan Rong was very angry about this, but Li Xia didn't know how angry he was, so he asked casually.

"What's the reaction from the DPRK and China?"

"Some people are happy, and some are worried. In short, it's the time of the Northern Expedition, and the officials in the court don't care about these things. The old minister wants to say that if His Majesty still has things to change customs, you can do it now."

"Mr. Han understands me."

"Your Majesty doesn't like to be restrained, and has many strange habits. The old minister is worried that there will be too many people who will persuade you in the future, which will annoy Your Majesty."

"Let's talk about it later, don't worry." Li Xia couldn't think of any ancient bad habits that he wanted to get rid of for a while, and said, "Qiaoer also said that in a few days, I will accompany Mr. Han to his hometown in Guide Mansion."

Han Chengxu quickly waved his hands and said, "I won't go, I won't go. Only when this battle is over and the north is settled, can I go back to my hometown with peace of mind."

After the chat was almost over, Han Chengxu put on a serious expression, and said: "There are a few official duties that have to be reported to His Majesty face to face, and the cotton armor, firearms, medicinal materials and other things that are lacking in the army must not be available before the spring. Your Majesty, please do not blame the officials of the Armory Workshop and other workshops for this matter, and the veterans alone will be responsible for the punishment."

Yang Guo said: "The old minister can assure His Majesty that the relevant officials have done their best. However, to supply more than [-] troops, we must proceed step by step."

"That's because I'm too demanding."

"Absolutely not."

Han Chengxu hurriedly said: "The veteran thinks that we only need to wait until the beginning of spring to attack Yanjing. One piece of cotton armor and cotton clothes does not need such a large amount, and the other is that other supplies can be made up by then."

"When it comes to difficulties, I understand." Li Xia said: "But this battle can't wait until spring, so it must be fought now."

"In terms of the right time and place, Yanjing is cold, which is not beneficial to our army."

"Cold is worse than hunger. Both Mr. Han and Mr. Yang understand the situation, but they just look at how to measure it. This year, relying on the capture and military settlement and asking for some compensation from Zhao Song, they can barely supply the army with food and grass. When the spring begins, who can guarantee it?" When will the warm sun come out? How will the situation change? Our soldiers are all farmers, and they will worry about their fields in February and March, and their soldiers will be robbers, so there will be no psychological burden at that time. Ken decisive battle, waiting is when we are weakest. He is a leopard that is retreating, gathering strength and waiting to pounce. Since we are sure that the more we go, the hungrier will be, so we have to beat him to death with a stick while we have strength. .”

Han Chengxu and Yang Guo are the group of people who have been with Li Xia for the longest time. They glanced at each other at this time and knew that Li Xia's mind had been made up, so they stopped persuading and only mentioned the troubles to be solved.

"The minister will urge the supplies again. If there is no cotton armor, prepare a cotton coat."

"If there is no cotton-padded clothes, furs, furs, and cloths will be sent to the north, and whatever is available."

"Yes. In addition, many people in the DPRK judge that this battle will have to wait until winter is over."

"It's human nature to want to put it aside when encountering difficulties. Let them dispel this idea, and I will personally go to Yanjing to sit in charge."

"Your Majesty is going north again?" Han Chengxu was taken aback, and immediately understood that the reason why Li Xia transferred him to Kaifeng was to be able to get away and go north, so he could only ask, "When will Your Majesty leave?"

"Come on, I'm still waiting for some news before I can rest assured."

~~
In fact, Li Xia was already anxious to go north, but the strange thing was that he hadn't received the news of Jia Sidao's retreat.

Logically speaking, if the Song court changes, it will inevitably cut off food and grass and recall the army to conquer Shu.Jia Sidao is obviously not yet to the point where he can incite the army to rebel, and it is impossible to continue fighting due to insufficient food and grass.

Li Xia calculated that there are only a few possibilities.

Or Jia Sidao's food and grass can last for another two or three months, and he is deliberately putting pressure on him; Can use other methods to stabilize Song Ting after Han Zhen's death; there is even a possibility that now only two months have passed since Han Zhen's death, Jia Sidao's news is too slow, and he has not made a decision at this time...

Li Xia couldn't tell for sure, so he could only wait.

But what he waited for first was not news from Sichuan and Shu, but a box.

The style of this box is a bit strange, with very complicated patterns engraved on it, and several red, green, and blue gemstones are inlaid on it, and the handle to open the box is made of leather.

Lin Zi stepped forward, opened the box himself, looked at it carefully for a while, and then handed it to Li Xia.

There was a faint smell of decay in the hall, but luckily it wasn't too strong.

Inside the casket was a skull covered in lime.

"Is he Kantyumonga?"

"Your Majesty, the Marshal said that he paid the price for his friendship with Kublai Khan."

Li Xia nodded, and instructed Lin Zi: "Pretend, I'm going to take you to Yanjing."

"Yes."

Li Xia turned to the messenger Gao Changshou sent back, and said, "Tell me about the specific situation."

"Yes, the commander-in-chief and Liu Xianggong marched in two ways after receiving the order. Liu Xianggong led 2 people to take the Tangfan road, while the commander-in-chief led 3 people to Duosima along the route that Wuliang and Taiwan attacked Dali back then. We marched, and soon after we entered Tibet, there were many casualties. When we arrived at a place called Huo Lu, we encountered an ambush from Moxie's barbarians. Our army fought back with all their might, and captured the chieftain, Huo Tuoyin..."

While listening to these, Li Xia dug out a collection of poems from the case.

This is a collection of Liu Bingzhong's poems, including dozens of poems describing the scene along the way when he followed Kublai Khan to Dali, which has become important information for Li Xia to understand the situation in Tubo.

At this time, I once again saw that most of the turbulent places were the places where Kublai Khan and Wuliang Hetai marched.

"According to Sohuo Tuoyin, Kantomaengjia gathered nearly 3 people from Duosima, Hada, Duogansi and other places, and planned to enter Sichuan and Shu from Songpan, Jinchuan, Muya, Jintang and other places. The commander-in-chief was worried that it would be difficult to encircle and suppress when the enemy soldiers dispersed, so he led us to rush to Pantuo Village. He concentrated his forces and stormed the main force of Kantomaengjia. Liu Xianggong joined forces, defeated his elder brother Zangbu and captured Mercadon..."

"Are there many casualties?"

"Your Majesty, the casualties... may be more than half, and the cattle, sheep and horses they carried lost [-]%."

The cattle, sheep and horses are fine, they were all captured in the Battle of Helan Mountain, and if they are lost, they are lost.

The casualties are a bit too great.

Li Xia slowed down, and finally asked, "Where did you go back to the teacher?"

"At the end of the day, the commander-in-chief and Liu Xianggong have already set off. It must be one month sooner, or return to Chengdu before the New Year's Eve."

Li Xia nodded and asked someone to arrange for the messenger to rest.

He wrote a long letter and asked Lin Zi to tell him, "Send someone to deliver this letter to Gao Changshou, and let him rush to Hanzhong as soon as possible."

"Hanzhong?"

"..."

After making this arrangement, Li Xia decided not to wait for news from Jia Sidao.

It's time to go to Yanjing.

~~
This time, Li Xia did not bring any other entourage, only [-] cavalry from the forward battalion.

But all the way from Kaifeng to Yanjing, all his soldiers are marching in an endless stream.

Frost had already formed on the withered grass by the roadside, and whenever the sound of horseshoes hurriedly reached the ears of the soldiers of the Tang army, some generals always turned their heads to ask which friendly army it was.

What they saw was a flying dragon flag.

"Is that... Your Majesty?"

In a short time, this small group of cavalry has been from far to near, and quickly disappeared in the wind and snow further north.

(End of this chapter)