Ji Han Da Sima

Chapter 660 I trust Kong Ming!
July of the third year of Jianxing.

Wuhan Palace, the meeting of the imperial court.

"Your Highness says: At the end of the Central Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo caused chaos in the capital, causing the country to fall apart... Then Cao Cao usurped the throne and terrorized the whole of China, putting the Han Dynasty in danger and the Han dynasty in disarray. This is why people far and wide are in great sorrow and grief over the past."

"I humbly wish that the late emperor had the natural disposition of heaven and earth... After the battle of Zhongli, he was in a state of embarrassment and lost his position, and luckily gained power in the Central Plains. The evil and rebellious people knew that they would be destroyed soon, and they would have given full play to their desire for obedience and encouraged the momentum of thunder and lightning. If Cao Rui's fate was not executed, he would have ended on his own!"

"People are confused about their feelings and it is difficult to start a plan; unusual things are suspicious to everyone. ... Therefore, those who follow the right path will follow each other, while those who establish integrity will continue to follow without regret."

"I humbly hope that Your Majesty will make a wise decision, make a decision beyond the usual balance, and ask me to restore the country and entrust me with the final mission. Although I am mediocre and incompetent, I am willing to take over the important task and devote my energy to the vanguard, clearing away the thorns and driving away the wolves."

"If this is accomplished, your majesty's achievements will be comparable to those of the Han Dynasty during the Longzhong Period and the revival of the Zhou Dynasty. If it is not successful, it will be my fault. I will be willing to throw myself into the cauldron and eat shepherd's purse!"

The assistant minister held the memorial and read it, first reciting the "Northern Expedition Memorial" and then chanting the "Leaving the Capital Memorial". His voice was loud and powerful, and his tone was full and emotional.

The authors of the two memorials, Huo Jun and Zhuge Liang, each held a tablet in their hands and stood in the hall, asking Liu Chan for an imperial decree to attack Wei.

Wang Can "polished" Huo Jun's memorial, and his "Northern Expedition Memorial" was as good as Zhuge Liang's "Departure Memorial". In fact, because Wang Can was good at writing poetry and prose, his text was even better in terms of wording and arrangement.

When the two memorials were read, Zhuge Liang glanced at Huo Jun, then looked at Wang Can who was sleepy in the crowd, and he knew who wrote the memorials!
Putting down the memorial, Liu Chan said: "You two gentlemen wrote a sincere and heartfelt memorial, and I almost cried when I heard it. The current situation is just as you said, Han is prosperous and Wei is declining. However, you two gentlemen have been fighting for years, and you will have to travel north and south again soon. I can't bear it!"

"His Majesty!"

Zhuge Liang held up the Hu tablet and said, "Your Highness and I have been entrusted with the important task of serving the emperor, and we have worked tirelessly day and night. Now that the southern land has been pacified, we no longer need to worry about the internal affairs. The rebellious Wei is in turmoil, and the external enemies are weakening. If we don't do this now to defeat the enemy and restore the Central Plains, when will we do it?"

"The current situation is very favorable to our country. I have been able to communicate with Xianbei Kebi. When I send out troops, I can have four routes to attack Cao Wei, making them surrounded on all sides and in constant fear."

Huo Jun said: "I sent troops to Huai and Si as the eastern army; Ge Xiang attacked Jing and Wan in the north as the southern army; Lu Xun tried to take Guanzhong as the western army; Xianbei raided Hebei as the northern cavalry. If these four routes are used, even if Wei has hundreds of thousands of strong soldiers, it will not be able to resist."

"His Majesty!"

The white-haired Zhang Zhao stepped out of the line, clasped his hands and said, "I fled from my hometown to Jiangdong during the chaos of the Han Dynasty. It has been more than 30 years since then. If we do not attack now, I am afraid that in another ten years, the children and young people who come after me will be accustomed to the Wu and Chu dialects and will no longer be able to go to the Central Plains."

"Your Majesty, I beg you to march north!"

Xu Shu, Liu Yan, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and other civil and military officials who had wandered to the south came forward one after another and begged Liu Chan to send troops to the north to fight.

The old ministers may have different opinions, but they all have the same attitude towards the Northern Expedition. If the Han wants to attack the Central Plains, it should take advantage of the fact that the Central Plains people who have fled to the south are still alive. If they die, their descendants will get used to Wu and Chu, and there will be fewer people who want to attack the North in the future.

"good!"

Seeing that the old ministers were determined to fight the Northern Expedition, Liu Chan stopped pretending and stood up from the couch, saying in a deep voice: "There is no two suns in the sky, no two masters on earth, the Han Dynasty must be revived, and the Han thieves must be eliminated. Now the Grand Marshal and Prime Minister Ge have spared no effort and are willing to lead an army to fight the Northern Expedition for the Han Dynasty. How can I not allow it?"

"Come here, issue an edict!"

"promise!"

Not to mention that Liu Chan gave ceremonial guards, canopies, drums, and carriages to Huo and Ge respectively. Huo and Ge each moved their troops to Jinling and Xiangyang and ordered all the troops to gather at the front line.

According to the arrangement of Huo Jun and Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wan was appointed as the Grand Marshal's Chief Clerk, in charge of the Ministry of Personnel; Zhang Yi was appointed as the Prime Minister's Chief Clerk, in charge of the Ministry of Revenue. Jiang and Zhang were in charge of the affairs of the imperial court, while the Minister of the Chancellery Chen Zhen concurrently led the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works to handle daily affairs.

Pan Jun was the Chief Justice, Zhang Fei was the Inspector of the Imperial Guards, and Xu Shu was the Chief Censor, and they were in charge of state affairs together with Zhang, Jiang, and Chen.

The Shizhong and Shilang were Fei Yi, Dong Yun, Huo Yi, Zhang Xiu, etc. They were managed by Wang Can, the Secretary, who was responsible for advising Liu Chan on his behavior.

When the court was about to leave, the veteran general Zhao Yun approached Huo and Ge and asked them to lead the troops into battle.

"Grand Marshal, Prime Minister!"

Zhao Yun reached out and took Zhuge Liang's hand, and asked, "My Lords, although I am old, I still have the courage of Lian Po and the heroism of Ma Yuan. Lian Po held Bai Qi, and Ma Yuan conquered Jiaoling. Both of them refused to admit their age. Now that we are moving our troops to the north, all the officers and soldiers have military orders, why didn't I get the military orders issued by you two?"

"This~"

Zhuge Liang glanced at Huo Jun and said, "It's not that Liang and the Grand Marshal are unwilling to give the military command to Zilong. We are just worried that Zilong is old and it is not appropriate for him to go on a long expedition. Zilong is famous for his bravery and strategy. If he is lost now, it will damage Zilong's reputation and also dampen the morale of the army."

The Southern Han of today is not the Shu Han. In addition to the commander-in-chief, the Southern Han currently has many brilliant generals and Mesozoic officers, such as Zhu Ran, Shi Ran, Wei Yan, Wang Ping, Tai Shi Heng, Huo Fan, Zhuge Dan, Xu Sheng, Tang Zi, Huo Youzhi, etc.

It is not like the historical situation when Shu Han was conquered, with few talented people and few generals, except Zhuge Liang, only Zhao Yun was capable.

Considering the physical condition of the Yuan followers, Huo Jun and Zhuge Liang not only did not allow Zhao Yun to go to the battle, but also did not allow Zhang Fei to go to the north. As Zhuge Liang said, if Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei went to the battle, if there was any mistake, it would definitely hit the morale of the army because of their high reputation. Zhao Yun said in an excited tone: "Since I followed the late emperor, I have always been at the forefront of every battle and never retreated. Now that we are in the battle to restore the Central Plains, how can I retreat behind!"

Zhao Yun bowed to Zhuge Liang and Huo Jun and said, "I am from Changshan, Jizhou. Since I followed the late emperor, I have traveled to Pingyuan, Weijun, Runan, Nanyang and other Ji, Qing and Yu provinces. People often say that an old horse knows the way. Although I am not an old horse, I still remember the terrain of the prefectures and counties in the Central Plains."

Zhuge Liang was tempted, but still didn't want Zhao Yun to go to the battlefield.

"Da Sima!"

Seeing that it was difficult to convince Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun could not help but look at Huo Jun.

Huo Jun smiled and said, "There are many rivers between Huai and Si, and General Zilong has never been there. If we can get Kong Ming's approval, we might as well follow him to the battle."

When Liu Bei rescued Xuzhou, Zhao Yun did not follow him. Instead, he left Liu Bei to mourn his brother's death. Liu and Zhao were separated for several years until Liu Bei defected to Yuan Shao and reunited.

"It is a blessing for a man to die on the battlefield!"

Zhao Yun said proudly: "If the Prime Minister thinks that I am old, can you allow me to draw the strong bow to prove myself?"

Zhuge Liang felt Zhao Yun's eager eyes and said with relief: "Since the old general has the ambition to march north, how can I not agree? In the past, the general followed the late emperor from Runan to Nanyang. Now I will lead the general to go the other way and return to the old capital!"

"Thank you, Grand Marshal and Prime Minister!" Zhao Yun said with a happy look on his face and bowed.

Zhao Yun’s wish had been fulfilled, and he immediately bowed and said goodbye.

Huo Jun looked at Zhao Yun's departing back and said with emotion: "Looking at what General Zilong has done, he can be said to be a righteous man of Yan and Zhao. I hope that this Northern Expedition can recover the old capital and fulfill the wishes of all the nobles!"

"With such righteous men in Han, why should we worry about not being able to restore the Han Dynasty!" Zhuge Liang said with a firm tone.

"good!"

Huo Jun stepped down the stairs with his sword in hand, and said with a smile: "Since Kong Ming has made such bold statements, does he have a plan for a northern expedition?"

Zhuge Liang stroked his feather fan and smiled faintly, "Although Zhongmiao is attacking Wei from all sides, from my point of view, it is not difficult to defeat this plan!"

"Ok?"

Huo Jun understood and asked, "Would you like to hear what Kong Ming has to say?"

Zhuge Liang waved his fan and discussed the military, analyzing: "Kebi can send troops, but he is not good at attacking cities, so he will not be able to attack Hebei for long. As for the military affairs of Guanxi, because the Shu Road is difficult and dangerous, the Long Road is long, and Chencang is strong, Bo Yan may be able to gain something, but it is unlikely to change the situation."

"So if Liang was a strategic man of Wei, he would have found an opportunity to retreat the troops from Guandong first. If the troops from Guandong retreated, Boyan and Kebi would have heard about it, and they would have retreated without fighting. But the troops from Guandong are only the Grand Marshal and Liang. The Grand Marshal's military strategy is something that many people in Wei are afraid of, Liang..."

Zhuge Liang laughed and said, "If my prediction is correct, the Wei people will find a chance to defeat me first, and then gather their troops to force the Grand Marshal to retreat!"

"It seems that Kong Ming already has a strategy to defeat Wei?" Huo Jun said with a smile.

"I dare not, I just have a plan!"

Zhuge Liang held up his fan and answered, "Liang thinks that if Wei wants to gather its troops to defeat us, I want to find an opportunity to lead my troops to attack them, so as to thwart Wei's strategy of starting with the easy and then the difficult. If the Wei army is defeated, Jing and Wan will be in danger, Xu and Luo will be shaken, and the troops in Qing and Xuzhou will be without help!"

After a pause, Zhuge Liang said, "If the troops in Qing and Xu have no help, we can wait and see how the Grand Marshal uses his troops to see if he can take Qing and Xu, and then take advantage of the Bian River to advance eastward, swallow up the various states in Henan, and recover the old capital. I don't know how the above strategy works, I hope the Grand Marshal can correct me!"

Since he decided to lead the army to the Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang did not dare to hold Huo Jun back. He read military books day and night and studied the map of the Central Plains in order to cooperate with Huo Jun successfully.

According to Huo Jun's strategy of the Northern Expedition, he first took Qing and Xu states, and then led his troops westward to cooperate with Zhuge Liang to swallow up Henan. Therefore, Huo and Ge each had their own tasks. Zhuge Liang needed to use a small army to defeat or contain the main force of Wei to reduce the pressure faced by Huo Jun.

After thinking deeply for a long time, Zhuge Liang had a hunch that in order to resist the Northern Expedition, Cao Wei would focus its military attention on him. After all, if he was defeated, Huo Jun would lose his wings, and it would not be long before the withdrawal of troops was inevitable.

Therefore, it would be better to seize the Wei army's mentality, attack while defending, and proactively defeat the Wei army that was eager for a fight, thereby suppressing the Wei army in Xu and Luo, and preventing it from going east to support the Qingxu battlefield.

Huo Jun pondered for a moment and said, "Sun Tzu said that those who were good at fighting in the past first made themselves invincible, waiting for the enemy to be defeated. The invincibility lies in oneself, and the victory lies in the enemy. If the Wei army is eager to fight, Kong Ming will use this to deploy troops, defeat the unprepared with the prepared, and be able to gain something by understanding the situation!"

"I believe in Kong Ming!"

Huo Jun believed in Zhuge Liang's judgment on the use of troops. Therefore, what he could do was not to refute Zhuge Liang's use of troops, but to support and encourage Zhuge Liang's use of troops. After all, Zhuge Liang asked Huo Jun for his opinion, more out of respect!

(End of this chapter)