Do you know: I am Yuan Wenshao

Chapter 317 Discovery
Feng Rushan was stunned when he heard this and said in surprise: "Your Majesty, are you too hasty? Now, although the leader of the Tubo Kingdom is seriously ill, he is still alive, and Hehuang has not yet completely become chaotic. According to the original strategy, it is not necessary to fight with the enemy first. The Liao Kingdom made good friends with the Zhou Dynasty and paralyzed them. When Tubo fell into civil strife, he quickly captured Hehuang.

It is not practical to send troops hastily now, and the Liao Kingdom and Zhou Dynasty have not let down their guard yet. Once the troops are noticed by them, the two countries will definitely not watch Xixia take the land of Hehuang.

I beg your pardon to be bold, but now is really not a good time to send troops to Hehuang. "

In total, Xixia is the weakest of the three countries.

It is said that the Great Zhou Dynasty had too many troops, but if we really talk about it, the Great Zhou Dynasty was far behind.

When Xixia was founded, it had a population of less than two million, and now it has a population of less than three million, but it has an army of four to five million.

This is basically the rhythm of all the people becoming soldiers. After all, the 300 million people include the elderly, women, and children. There are so few real adult men!

Dazhou has a population of about 100 million and supports one million troops, which is only 1%.

Like during the Three Kingdoms period, when princes fought in a melee, the ratio of troops to civilians was basically one to ten.

Looking at it this way, Dazhou's troops are not even redundant, let alone redundant.

The only flaw is that because the Zhou Dynasty implemented a recruitment system, military expenditures were very large.

In addition, the north and northwest are infinitely defensible and require a large number of soldiers to be defended.

Many people may not understand that they are raising millions of troops anyway, and it doesn’t seem to make any difference where they are stationed.

In fact, this is not the case. Where the army is stationed makes a big difference.

Take Bianjing as an example. The original western suburbs camp, plus the imperial army, the Five City Army and Horse Division, and the city defense camp were all in disarray, and together they amounted to almost half a million troops.

More than half of the imperial court's one-million-strong army defended the capital. This proportion had never appeared in any dynasty.

Some people think that so many troops are stationed because there is no danger to defend the border. In addition, the Great Zhou Dynasty emphasized culture over military affairs. This was also done to prevent military generals from relying on their own troops.

It is true that these two factors exist, but there is a more important factor which is good support.

Relying on water transportation, it can provide the food and grass needed by the army.

But the border army needs to warn the people to transport them, not to mention that this will delay the people's farming and affect tax revenue.

Just if people eat horse chews during transportation, a lot of it will be consumed.

There is a saying that transporting food thousands of miles does not save even one out of ten.

In ancient times, transportation conditions were backward, and transporting grain and grass required a large number of civilians.

The food and drink for these people are all paid for by the imperial court.

In history, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty conquered Goguryeo three times and ended up subjugating the country. The main reason was because of food and grass.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty brought millions of people together, and with the army, such a large population overwhelmed the Sui Dynasty.

In fact, these problems also exist in Xixia.

The Liao Kingdom of the Great Zhou Dynasty was hostile to Xixia, and Xixia was also hostile to the Liao Kingdom and the Great Zhou Dynasty.

With a population of less than three million and supporting hundreds of thousands of troops, Xixia was also under great pressure.

The conditions in Xixia are difficult, so the fighting ability of the soldiers is not weak.

The three kingdoms have been in conflict for hundreds of years, with constant wars. Regardless of whether they faced the Liao Kingdom or the Zhou Dynasty, Xixia had more victories than defeats.

However, even though Xixia often won battles, its territory did not expand much over the years.

It's not that Xixia doesn't want to expand, but that Xixia's national power cannot support Xixia's expansion.

To put it bluntly, it means poverty. As the saying goes, if you kill one thousand enemies, you will lose eight hundred.

For Xixia, winning or losing is actually a loss.

Moreover, facing the Zhou Dynasty and Liao Kingdom, Xixia had to hoard a large number of troops at the border. Xixia's own burden was also very heavy.

According to Feng Rushan's idea, making good friends with the Zhou Dynasty of Liao State first would not only paralyze the other party, but also reduce the number of troops stationed on the border, allowing Xixia to breathe a sigh of relief.

During this period, they can also accumulate strength and wait for the civil strife in Hehuang to capture Hehuang in one fell swoop.

"I know An Guogong's worries, but as Sun Tzu said in the Art of War, soldiers are unpredictable, and water is unpredictable. The reason why I am eager to take action against Hehuang is because there is no time to care about the internal turmoil in the Zhou Dynasty. In addition, the Han people have the best reputation, so they have As long as the alliance is there, it is unlikely that Zhou Dynasty will send troops to stop it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Xixia," Li Xingze said.

After Li Xingze came to power, he implemented Han rites and placed emphasis on Han people.

In addition to the fact that he came to power because of the help of many Han officials, more importantly, he himself liked Han culture very much.

He also studied Sun Tzu's Art of War and so on.

"Your Majesty, I still feel that something is wrong. Even if there is an alliance, Dazhou will not just watch me Xixia annex Hehuang. After all, Dazhou cannot not know the importance of Hehuang." Feng Rushan shook his head.

The land of Hehuang is a long strip, with very little bordering the Zhou Dynasty. Instead, it borders a large area and Xixia.

The reason why Xixia was able to defend Liao and Zhou with hundreds of thousands of troops was because there were not many places bordering the two countries.

Once the Great Zhou occupies Hehuang, the area bordering Xixia will become larger. Even if it is not as large as Xixia, just stationing troops on the border can bring down Xixia.

In Feng Rushan's view, the reason why the Zhou Dynasty did not mobilize troops in Hehuang was because of the constraints of Xixia and Liao, which allowed the Tubo and Qiang people to survive in the cracks.

Xixia took the lead in mobilizing troops. If they could not capture it quickly, when Zhou Dynasty reacted, they would also march into Hehuang and compete with Xixia for Hehuang.

For Dazhou, even occupying a part of Hehuang is enough.

After all, the land of Hehuang is not a wealthy place. The Zhou Dynasty has such a large land area, and whether it can take Hehuang is of no great significance.

Just occupy part of it and expand the border area between Dazhou and Xixia.

By then, even if Xixia occupies most of Hehuang's chassis, it will become very uncomfortable.

"It is precisely because the land of Hehuang is very important to us, Xixia, and is even related to the survival of Xixia, that I want to capture it as soon as possible. Now that there is no civil strife in Tubo, Duke An Guo feels that it is not a good time to send troops to Hehuang, so naturally the Great Zhou Dynasty will You will feel so. Instead, you will relax your vigilance.

If they were really waiting for Tubo to break into chaos, Zhou would naturally know that it was a good opportunity and would definitely send troops. Although Hehuang is further away from Bianjing of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the response is not as quick as that of Xixia. But don't forget Anguo Gong, the commander of the northwest border of the Great Zhou Dynasty is Sun Qi. This man is proficient in all kinds of military tactics and strategies, and he is also a veteran general. How could he let go of such a good opportunity. "Li Xingze said calmly.

Li Xingze's decision to launch troops against Hehuang was not made because of Liang's sudden enthusiasm.

It was a decision made after long consideration.

"Your Majesty, Sun Qi is indeed very capable and a strong enemy. But in my opinion, he is not something to be afraid of." Feng Rushan said.

"Oh?" Li Xingze said in surprise: "At first, taking advantage of the internal turmoil after the new king of the Zhou Dynasty took over, he sent troops to sneak attack and occupied several important cities, but they were all taken back by Sun Qi. After that, Duke An Guo praised this person very much. Why? Isn’t there anything to be afraid of now?”

When Xixia learned that there was a rebellion in Dazhou, the new king had just succeeded to the throne, and there was internal turmoil. He sent troops to attack several fortresses in Dazhou.

According to Xixia's idea, they wanted to take advantage of the civil strife in the Great Zhou Dynasty to break through the northwest defense line and take the opportunity to occupy several states.

However, Sun Qi reacted very quickly and quickly stopped Xixia.

Later, reinforcements from the Zhou Dynasty arrived. Xixia knew that nothing could be done, so they resisted for a while and then withdrew their troops.

It's not that Xixia didn't want to occupy these fortresses. Although the fortresses had no actual value, they blocked the way for Xixia to send troops to Dazhou. However, when the fortress was built, the side facing Xixia was very tall, but the back side was basically undefended.

Because Sun Qi reacted quickly and kept attacking even if he did not have enough troops, Xixia had no time to reinforce. When reinforcements from the Zhou Dynasty arrived, Xixia had no choice but to give up.

This time, Li Xingze also saw how difficult Sun Qi was.

"I am not underestimating Sun Qi's ability. Your Majesty, you should know that the Great Zhou Dynasty values ​​civility over military affairs, and often likes to send civilians to lead the army. Although Sun Qi is the commander-in-chief of the northwest border of Great Zhou Dynasty, there are civilian officials and eunuchs as supervisors in the army. military.

Although Sun Qi is relatively smooth, he is still a soldier and has no dealings with the supervisors sent by the Zhou Dynasty. When Xixia made a sneak attack on the fortress, the supervisors knew that the matter was serious and did not dare to hinder him. However, the attack on Hehuang was a proactive attack, and they would definitely stop it.

If Sun Qi sends troops forcefully, the emperor of Zhou Dynasty will definitely not let him go.

Therefore, I feel that Sun Qi would not dare to rush to Hehuang even if he knew that Xixia was sending troops to Hehuang without the order from the Emperor of Zhou Dynasty. There is no need to be so urgent. "Feng Rushan expressed his thoughts.

Feng Rushan knew the system of Da Zhou very well, and as he was a soldier himself, he could understand Sun Qi's helplessness even more.

Don't look at what military commanders always say about generals who have not given orders to foreigners.

In fact, this stuff is all nonsense.

If a general disobeys the emperor's orders, he will be jealous of the emperor if he wins, and his life will be lost if he loses.

There are so many generals in history, how many of them had a good ending after disobeying the emperor's orders?
Don't mention your magnanimity, it's Mingjun's.

The wiser the ruler, the more suspicious he becomes. When a general refuses to obey orders, even if there is a reason, he will not be tolerated.

In his opinion, Sun Qi was a smart man and could not risk his wealth and life by sending troops without an order.

Li Xingze shook his head and said, "Although what Duke An Guo said makes sense, the land of Hehuang is related to the survival of Xixia. I don't dare to bet on it. Do you understand?"

Even if Sun Qi only had a one in 10,000 chance of sending troops, he would not dare to gamble.

Even though Sun Qi was killed after sending troops, the Zhou Dynasty seized part of Hehuang City, and Xixia would face endless threats.

Feng Rushan opened his mouth and wanted to persuade him again, but finally sighed silently in his heart.

He had already seen that Li Xingze was very determined to send troops and could not be persuaded at all.

After a moment of silence, he said: "Your Majesty, I can lead the troops, but I need some autonomy."

Hearing this, Li Xingze smiled and said: "I am very confident in An Guogong's ability. Since I have ordered you to lead the army, I will naturally not interfere too much. However, this matter cannot be delayed for too long, otherwise the internal peace of Da Zhou will be noticed. That’s troublesome.”

Feng Rushan naturally understood what Li Xingze meant.

Although Li Xingze said that he had great trust in him, his hidden meaning was that I can ignore it, but you have to give me a time limit.

"Thank you for your majesty's trust. I promise that we will capture Hehuang within half a year, otherwise we will come to see you!" Feng Rushan said solemnly.

"You don't have to be like this, Mr. An Guo. I'll leave this matter to you. I promise you a hundred thousand soldiers and horses, as well as all the food, grass and equipment. I'm waiting for your good news!" Li Xingze said with a smile.

"Yes! If your Majesty has no other instructions, I will go back and prepare." Feng Rushan said.

"Yeah!" Li Xingze nodded.

After Feng Rushan left, Li Xingze summoned some officials to make arrangements for the army's logistics.

After all the busy work, it was already noon.

Liang sent someone to ask if he was coming to have a meal.

Seeing that everything had been arranged, Li Xingze went directly to Liang's palace to have dinner.

After finishing the meal, Mrs. Liang dismissed everyone in the palace and said, "Your Majesty, I went to see the eldest princess this morning."

"How is the imperial sister?" Li Xingze asked.

Liang opened her mouth and hesitated.

"What's wrong? Is the emperor's sister very ill?" Li Xingze asked anxiously.

"Your Majesty, don't be anxious."

Mrs. Liang said: "The eldest princess is not sick, but she looks like...like..."

"What does it look like?" Li Xingze asked anxiously.

"It seems like she is pregnant." Mrs. Liang gritted her teeth and said.

"What!" Li Xingze stood up suddenly and said in disbelief: "My beloved, do you know what you are talking about?"

Even if the Xixia royal family belongs to the Dangxiang clan, they don't care about chastity as much as the Han people.

But Li Xuan was a princess who wanted to get married after all. If she really got pregnant out of wedlock, it would be a royal scandal.

"Your Majesty, I don't dare to confirm, but the eldest princess has lost a lot of weight since she came back. Although she tried her best to hide it, I can still see that her lower abdomen is slightly bulging. I really can't think of any other possibility." Liang said .

Mrs. Liang is nearly thirty years old. She had a husband before and naturally gave birth to children.

Li Xuan's abnormality could not be hidden from her eyes at all.

"No, I'm going to ask her!" Li Xingze's face turned pale, and he was about to walk out after saying that.

Because his biological mother's private life was chaotic, Li Xingze was very angry about this kind of thing.

"Your Majesty!" Ms. Liang quickly stopped him and said, "With the character of the eldest princess, will you tell her directly if you ask her directly? And if you do so, it will be known to everyone, which will be detrimental to the reputation of the royal family."

Li Xingze stopped when he heard this and said angrily: "Can you pretend that I don't know?"

"That's not what I mean. What I mean is to pretend not to know first and investigate in secret before making any calculations." Liang said.

Li Xingze's expression softened a little, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Thanks to my concubine for reminding me, I want to see who is so brave!"

"By the way, Your Majesty, the eldest princess also said that she would like to stay in a courtyard outside the city for a while to relax." Mrs. Liang said.

"Is she trying to hide and give birth to that bastard?" Li Xingze sneered.

"Your Majesty, there are guards everywhere in the palace, and the eldest princess lives deep in the palace. If she comes into contact with outsiders, she cannot hide it from Your Majesty." Madam Liang reminded.

Li Xingze was startled and quickly understood what Liang meant.

The maids around Li Xuan would help hide it, but there were so many guards, eunuchs, and maids in the palace. If he really had an affair with someone in the palace, it was impossible for him not to discover it.

In other words, Li Xuan probably had an affair with someone outside.

Li Xuan usually makes excuses to leave the palace, but sometimes he would sneak out of the palace if he doesn't allow it. It's not impossible.

Li Xingze was silent for a while and said, "Go and tell her later that I am sure about this. But I don't trust her comfort and will send five hundred forbidden troops to escort her."

(End of this chapter)