Jiuxi

Chapter 325 323 [Planning strategies]

"Does the prince know about the changes in Heluo?"

Emperor Jing's gentle tone sounded in the study room.

Qing Yugong was not in Dadu before, but was sitting in Wufeng, the capital of Zhao State. Recently, some Zhao people had conspired repeatedly. He was in charge of the overall situation there. He was summoned by Emperor Jing and rushed here, so he was in a dusty state.

He replied unhurriedly: "Reporting to your Majesty, I received the battle report from the south on my way back to Beijing, and I already know roughly the whole story."

"Then you should read this letter first."

Emperor Jing glanced aside, and Huo Zhe quickly folded the three pieces of letter paper on the imperial desk and handed them to Qing Yugong with both hands.

The Prince of Changshan County, who was in charge of nearly 30% of the military power of the Jing Dynasty, took the letter and glanced at the content on the letter with a calm gaze. He then slightly lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, I have finished reading."

"Sa Gai."

Emperor Jing turned to look at Marshal Beiyuan and said calmly: "Repeat what you just said."

Sa Gai was stunned for a moment, then faced the emperor's eyes that were like a deep lake and a still pool, and said respectfully: "Yes, Your Majesty."

He just didn't quite understand the emperor's intention, and it wasn't that he was afraid of Qing Yugong.

Although the world calls Qing Yugong the God of War of Dajing, within the Jing Dynasty, Sa Gai and others can still compete with him, which involves complex forces within the Jing army.

Since the founding of the Jinglian people fifty-three years ago, they have had the theory of the Nine Armies, which refers to the nine armies formed by the warriors of the Jinglian people as the main body and recruiting talents from all over the world.

Among them, the Xiaojie Army and the Zhongyi Army were directly subordinate to the emperor, and the generals of these two armies were all from the royal Alihe family.

Qing Yugong had the Xiashan Army and the City Defense Army under his command. The former was mainly cavalry and the latter was mainly infantry. They constituted the core of Nanyuan's military power and were also the main elite force used by Qing Yugong to pacify Zhao.

Sa Gai has a victorious army composed of half cavalry and half infantry. It was originally formed from the most famous marksmen of his own family, the Hui Luo clan. It is now stationed in the northwest of Jing Dynasty to frighten the Dai Kingdom.

The military system of the Jing Dynasty was different from that of the Southern Qi Dynasty. The First Army of the Southern Qi Dynasty only had more than 10,000 people, while the First Army of the Jing Dynasty ranged from 40,000 to 50,000 to as many as 70,000 to 80,000. In terms of level, it was roughly equivalent to the Governor's Mansion of the Southern Qi Dynasty.

In addition to the five armies commanded by the Jing Dynasty royal family and the North and South Houses, the other four armies were commanded by the most powerful nobles of the Jinglian clan. Two of these four were relatively close to Sagai and their attitude towards Qing Yugong There is almost no difference, thus forming a relatively balanced state within Jingjun.

"...Prince Changshan, I am not forcing you to give up rescuing Princess Yongping, but compared with the great cause of our dynasty, someone has to make sacrifices. Please consider the overall situation."

Sa Gai repeated what he said before, emphasizing it at the end.

The other important ministers all held their breath and focused their attention, keeping their eyes and noses in mind, and did not rashly participate in the fight between the two military marshals.

However, they would inevitably be a little curious about how Qing Yugong would respond.

Qingyu Huaijin was his most beloved daughter, but now she fell into the hands of Qi Jun, and they used it to threaten Jingchao to sit at the negotiating table. This kind of thing was really difficult to handle.

Being too tough may threaten Qing Yu Huaijin's life, and being too weak may cause anger within the Jing Dynasty. After all, ever since they conquered Heluo City fifteen years ago, Jing people have long been accustomed to being invincible. attitude.

Qing Yugong didn't seem to feel the undercurrent in the study room, and there was no trace of anxiety on his face. Faced with Sa Gai's awe-inspiring righteousness, he said calmly: "The marshal's words make sense. No one can harm the majesty of the emperor, let alone the prestige of Dajing. Qingyu Huaijin was caught by others because of her lack of academic skills. No matter what happens to her in the future, it is her own problem. I will not hurt my loved ones because of it. Haters make quick decisions.”

Sagai narrowed his eyes slightly and said slowly: "The king's intention is that our army should go south to wipe out the Southern Qi border army?"

Qing Yugong bowed slightly in the direction of the imperial case and said: "This matter should be judged by His Majesty."

Sa Gai choked, and couldn't help but feel a little angry in his heart.

If it had been before Emperor Jing ascended the throne, he might have scolded the other party on the spot for being cunning and cunning. Anyway, at that time, martial arts fights were often staged in the Jing court, and it was a very common scene for nobles to draw swords against each other over disagreements.

Emperor Jing looked at the two of them with great interest and said slowly: "The prince thinks that I should directly send troops south?"

Facing the emperor's question, Qing Yugong thought for a moment and replied: "Your Majesty, in fact, no matter whether our government mobilizes troops or not, the Huaizhou Army of Southern Qi will not stay in Heluo City for too long. In my opinion, the most they can do is We will stay for about a month and then withdraw to Dongyang Road."

Emperor Jing said: "Why?"

Qing Yugong pondered: "Because the Central Committee of Southern Qi was not ready to take back Heluo, Lu Chen acted arbitrarily in this battle, but he used gunpowder to blow down the Heluo city wall and succeeded. This was an unexpected change that no one could have predicted. Details Looking at the situation in the south, the Moyang Road defense line is still under the control of the Yan army. If Southern Qi wants to support Heluo, it needs to travel all the way from Huaizhou, Dongyang Road, and the east line of Heluo, a distance of more than 2,000 miles. Their previous reserves, It is only enough for the Huaizhou Army to attack the Dongyang Road of Yan State." He paused for a moment, looked up at Emperor Jing, and continued: "Therefore, if the Huaizhou West Route Army led by Lu Chen insists on defending Heluo, what we really need to worry about is not our court. , but the Southern Qi monarchs and ministers in Yongjia City. Looking at the decisions made by Xiao Wangzhi and Lu Chen in the past two years, they will not make any moves that put them in danger, so they only need to wait for a while, and the crisis in Heluo will be resolved automatically. .”

Sa Gai couldn't help but curl his lips.

Emperor Jing nodded slightly and asked: "Since Lu Chen can't defend Heluo, and this is a situation that can be deduced beforehand, why did he go through this?"

"There are probably three reasons."

Qing Yugong's tone was calm: "First, he wanted to use this move to preserve the spark of the so-called Northern Expedition, prove that the Southern Qi frontier army did have the ability to successfully counterattack, and prevent those Jiangnan aristocrats from maliciously obstructing the frontier army from going north in the future. Second, Huaizhou West The road army controlled Heluo for about two months, which was enough for them to leave many ambushes in the city. If they attack the city again in the future, their chances of breaking the city will be greatly increased. Thirdly, Heluo City is extremely rich, and there are many The aristocratic families who betrayed Southern Qi back then had no burden to the Huaizhou Army in plundering them, and were morally blameless. This move would also greatly ease the financial and taxation pressure on the Southern Qi court."

Emperor Jing fell into deep thought.

From beginning to end, Qing Yugong never mentioned his daughter. It seemed that as he said before, no individual was insignificant compared to the interests of the Dajing Dynasty, even if it was his most beloved daughter.

After a while, Emperor Jing said slowly: "The prince is trying to say that there is no need for me to use troops hastily against Southern Qi for the time being?"

Qing Yu respectfully bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, in fact, the current situation seems to be dangerous, but it is extremely beneficial to our country."

Emperor Jing didn't say anything, and Sa Gai finally couldn't help but sneer and said: "The words of the prince are really hard to understand. According to you, Nan Qi is making great progress now. From last year's capture of nearly half of Moyang Road, to now Taking back the entire Dongyang Road, and even Heluo City, is a good thing for our country? Do you still want to say that the kid from Yongping was captured by the Qi army-"

"Sa Gai!"

Emperor Jing's tone was cold and stern, and he said in a cold voice: "Presumptuous!"

Sa Gai was shocked, and he quickly bowed and said: "Your Majesty, if I speak indiscriminately in a moment of excitement, I will be punished by death!"

Emperor Jing said word by word: "This is the study room, not your martial arts arena in the North Courtyard. If you dare to talk nonsense again, get out of here!"

Sa Gai's face was full of fear and he bowed his head repeatedly: "I know I have sinned, and I will never dare to do it again."

Qing Yugong was not angry. Seeing Emperor Jing looking towards him, he lowered his head slightly to show respect. Then he took over Sa Gai's words and said, "Marshal Sa Gai misinterpreted my meaning."

After being scolded by Emperor Jing, Sa Gai naturally did not dare to continue talking nonsense, but he still said unconvinced: "Then I would like to hear what Prince Changshan has to say."

Qing Yugong said calmly: "Excuse me, Marshal, last year my army defeated the Zhao State. Why did it go smoothly at the beginning, but then it became difficult every step of the way, and I even conquered one city after another?"

Sa Gai said coldly: "In the early days, Zhao's troops were quite scattered. There were too many cities that needed to be garrisoned. Relatively speaking, the troops in various places were relatively weak, so they could not stop our army's offensive. Later, they lost more and more territory. , the defense line continues to shrink, and the troops gradually concentrate, it will naturally form-"

The words stopped suddenly, and his face looked a little ugly.

As the Marshal of the North Campus who has spent half his life in the military, he is certainly not ignorant. How could he not understand the other party's thoughts at this moment.

A faint smile finally appeared on Qing Yugong's face, and he nodded and said: "That's the truth. From ancient times to the present, the two countries have always fought with each other. It is difficult to attack and defend, especially since Dajing and Southern Qi are not small countries. It is not unusual for the war to destroy the country to last for more than ten years. If Southern Qi’s border defenses shrink to a certain extent, for example, to maintain the state they were in two years ago, our army will have to pay a lot of losses to open a few gaps."

He looked around at the more than ten important ministers here, and finally his eyes fell in front of Emperor Jing, and said calmly: "It's different now. The Southern Qi border army has made a lot of gains in the past two years and captured a lot of territory. This means that they need more troops." Stabilize the defense line, and the longer the line, the more weak points there will be.”

"Two years ago, we wanted to compete with Xiao Wangzhi. There were only two battlefields where we could do it. One was Panlong Pass in the northwest corner of Huaizhou, and the other was the Lai'an Defense Line due north of Huaizhou. These two battlefields There is no geographical advantage for our army, and we cannot use our ability to attack the cavalry. In the end, it will only fall into a quagmire of fierce fighting. After your Majesty supported the establishment of the Yan Kingdom, we tried to invade Huaizhou several times in those years, but in the end we were unable to do so. The success was returned, which shows that it is very difficult to break in."

"But now the battlefield between our army and the Qi army has become Dongyang Road and Moyang Road. The enemy has lost the barrier of terrain and must fight our army on an extremely long border. Under the decline of one and the other, our army has more There are many opportunities to eliminate the enemy’s effective forces.”

Qing Yugong stood tall and looked calm.

After hearing this, Emperor Jing couldn't help but smile and said: "The prince is right, we cannot let Nan Qi shrink into a turtle shell and tempt them to stick their heads out, so that my army can behead them at the minimum cost."

He looked at Qing Yugong thoughtfully, and gradually realized in his heart that this was the explanation Qing Yugong gave him, about why he didn't pay too much attention to the battle situation on the southern front.

Facing the emperor's meaningful gaze, Qing Yugong knew that these inspiring words had some effect.

However, the emperor still seemed a little dissatisfied, as if he was dissatisfied with his disregard for his daughter's safety.

Thinking of this, Qing Yugong sighed quietly in his heart.

(End of this chapter)