Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 410 404. No Northern Expedition

"This... Prime Minister, Third Uncle, was the Northern Expedition the Grand Commander's idea?"

Liu Chan above was also shocked by this shocking news, but he was a kind-hearted man with a strong ability to accept things, so he recovered immediately.

Liu Chan had a relatively good understanding of the situation under his rule. The area he actually controlled now was actually Yizhou. It was not that the other three states would not obey his orders. On the contrary, Huang Quan, Li Hui and Li Yan were all loyal ministers and generals of Ji Han, and there was no such thing as betrayal.

It was simply because of the poor communication between Sichuan and the outside world that the timeliness of many orders was problematic. It was very likely that a messenger would take ten days to leave Sichuan while the situation outside would change with each passing day. Therefore, the three states were actually led by the provincial governor and Feng Xi as the auxiliary, and they assisted each other in handling various issues.

At present, there was only a small matter like Meng Huo's rebellion in Sichuan, and Liu Chan had never heard of any rumors of a northern expedition. When Zhuge Liang suddenly did this, Liu Chan could only think that it was Feng Xi's suggestion.

"Your Majesty, please allow me to report this. Now that the Han Dynasty has just ended the war, the Grand Commander has not thought about sharing the country's worries and sympathizing with the people. Instead, he has wasted people's money and resources and recklessly started a war. If the Northern Expedition succeeds, it will be fine. But if the Northern Expedition fails, there will be heavy casualties. Countless soldiers died because of the Grand Commander's selfish interests. Isn't the Grand Commander's guilt too numerous to mention? I implore your Majesty and the Prime Minister to reconsider."

Liu Chan was still wondering what was missing, but now Yang Yi took the initiative to speak passionately, and Liu Chan remembered that it was the opponents. It was unrealistic to say that all the civil and military officials in the court agreed to such a big thing. However, this matter was proposed by Zhuge Liang, and everyone was willing to give Zhuge Liang face and was too embarrassed to speak out to stop it.

But who is Yang Yi? He was a military officer in the Prime Minister's Office, and he had an old grudge against Feng Xi. Of course, Feng Xi might not remember when Yang Yi had a conflict with him, but Yang Yi clearly remembered that he had been confronted and humiliated by Feng Xi.

In addition, Yang Yi always looked down on military men and felt that such national plans had been taken care of by Prime Minister Zhuge and other officials. Why were you, a general who only commanded troops, joining in the fun? So, with all these factors combined, Yang Yi jumped out impatiently and attacked "Feng Xi's strategic opinions."

"Your Majesty and the Prime Minister have the final say on state affairs. Why is Yang the military officer?

Although Yang Yi was arrogant, he was not the only one in Chengdu. Zhuge Liang's nephew Zhuge Ke was still in Chengdu at this time, serving as the commander of the cavalry of Shu County, which was considered an official position. Of course, because of his special status, who would not call him Master Zhuge when they saw him?
His father Zhuge Jin was well versed in Jiangdong politics, and his entire family had been held hostage by Sun Quan, so naturally he would have no problem being loyal, so he was sent to Jiangdong to assist Yangzhou Governor Li Yan in dealing with the mess in Yangzhou. As a hostage and also Zhuge Liang's good nephew, Zhuge Ke naturally stayed in Chengdu.

As mentioned before, Zhuge Ke was also a proud and conceited person with a bad temper, but overall he tended to be on the side of "martial arts".

Originally, Zhuge Ke was somewhat dissatisfied with Feng Xi's easy victory over him. Without Feng Xi's knowledge, Zhuge Ke regarded Feng Xi as his destined opponent.

As a result, the Eastern Wu collapsed, and Zhuge Ke followed his father and became a cavalry commander of the Han army, and became on the same side as Feng Xi. Of course, this did not affect Zhuge Ke's mentality of regarding Feng Xi as an opponent.

Now that he saw a pedantic scholar like Yang Yi come out to discredit Feng Xi, Zhuge Ke was unwilling to do so. His logic was also very simple.

I consider Feng Xi as my opponent, which means that Feng Xi and I are at the same level. You, Yang Yi, said that Feng Xi is not good and Feng Xi is trash, which means that I am not good and I am trash even though I am at the same level as him. And if Feng Xi is trash, then he won against me once by chance, so what am I? You called me trash, so why don't I fight back?

In short, under Zhuge Ke's magical logic, he jumped out and became the one who spoke for Feng Xi.

"Your Majesty and the Prime Minister are concerned about the situation of the Han Dynasty. The general is also in charge of military dispatches. How can you, a mere military officer in the Prime Minister's Office, have the courage to command the Prime Minister and His Majesty to act on your behalf?" Zhuge Ke did not mention the Northern Expedition. Instead, he made a big fuss about Yang Yi's disrespect, which scared Yang Yi so much that he quickly knelt down and apologized to Liu Chan.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me. I am only thinking about the interests of the Han people. I have no intention of overstepping my authority. I hope Your Majesty will understand."

"Alright, alright. General Yang was just overly worried about the Han Dynasty and spoke in a hurry. I forgive you."

Liu Chan waved his hand. He was too lazy to say anything more about this boring drama of factionalism. Let them attack each other as they like. The final decision still lies in his hands.

"Prime Minister, was it really the Grand Commander who proposed the Northern Expedition?"

Liu Chan's two words also quieted the noisy hall. At this time, Liu Chan naturally controlled the situation in the hall. As he spoke, the originally chaotic noises all subsided.

"Your Majesty, that is exactly the case. However, the Grand Commander proposes to postpone the Northern Expedition for two years, that is, to make plans in the fifth year of Jianxing."

Zhuge Liang was neither anxious nor slow. He told Feng Xi what he meant, and Yang Yi and the ministers who had just jumped up and down were embarrassed. The Grand Commander didn't say that we should march north now, did he?
Liu Chan was not too surprised by this, and even chuckled in his heart. The prime minister loved to talk with heavy breathing, and he would deliberately break down the various stages of a matter into separate parts, and never finish it in one breath, as if he really enjoyed the feeling of everyone's heart beating fast.

Liu Chan had been tricked by Zhuge Liang many times and was prepared for this. When Zhuge Liang started talking about the Northern Expedition, he knew that this would never succeed. Otherwise, Zhuge Liang would probably have mentioned Jingzhou and Feng Xi more instead of talking about the Northern Expedition right away.

The result was just as this "Zhuge Liang scholar" had expected. Zhuge Liang took a deep breath and told everyone that the Northern Expedition would be postponed for two years, causing those who were impatient to oppose it to choke themselves.

"Oh? What do you mean, Grand Commander? Are you in trouble?"

Liu Chan was not naive enough to think that Zhuge Liang had finished talking here, but with his ability, he could not figure out what Feng Xi was trying to do for the time being, so he could only follow Zhuge Liang's meaning and bring up the topic to avoid it falling to the ground.

“Your Majesty, although the Grand Commander’s Jingzhou Army has only recently conquered Meng Huo, the losses are almost zero, and all of the Grand Commander’s wonderful ideas are being implemented in an orderly manner, so there are no difficulties internally.

On the contrary, the Grand Commander considered it from the perspective of Wei State and thought it would be better to launch a northern expedition two years later. "

Zhuge Liang stopped talking here. Liu Chan raised his eyebrows, thinking that he might have only talked about half of the topic, so he could only patiently continue to support Zhuge Liang.

(End of this chapter)