The four of them retreated into the train and automatically moved their standing positions back, and Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan were lowered to the level of the fourth rank of Zhizhou, and they could only stand near the entrance of the main hall.

Zhao Zhen sighed and said: "Zhong Aiqing, what is the best way to deal with the affairs in the northwest, now that the situation is tight, there is no need to say any big words, just according to the facts, what kind of countermeasures should be used next." ”

The ministers were silent, and no one dared to express any opinion on such a major matter, saying less and making fewer mistakes, and saying more about more mistakes, this is the official motto that many officials believe.

Zhao Zhen's eyes swept over the faces of the officials who were fat or thin, young or old, and his heart was weak for a while, and he couldn't blame these officials for protecting themselves, the matter in the northwest was indeed a thorny problem.

Yan Shu looked at Lu Yijian, and saw that he was sitting on a stool with his eyes, nose, nose, and heart, and seemed to have no intention of speaking; Seeing that the emperor was waiting for everyone to reply on the dragon throne but no one answered, he was extremely embarrassed and couldn't bear it, so he stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, I think that after this battle, the enemy and our forces are unbalanced, and we must plan and plan as soon as possible, and we will fear changes later."

"Yan Aiqing has something to say, but it doesn't hurt to say it." Zhao Zhen saw Yan Shu come out to speak, and his heart settled down a little, Yan Shu is not a person who likes to magnify cannons, although he is sleek, but he has never had a confused idea in major matters.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that there are two things that need to be done as a top priority now, one is to adjust the strategy of using troops in the northwest, and the other is to quickly mobilize troops to supplement strength.

Zhao Zhen frowned and said, "How to adjust the strategy of the northwest?" ”

Yan Shu said: "Non-ministers increase the prestige of others, destroy their own ambition, there is still a gap between the combat strength of my Great Song Dynasty soldiers and the soldiers of the Western Thieves, in terms of the advantages of the soldiers on both sides, the advantage of the Western Thieves lies in the strong cavalry, strong armor, vertical and horizontal coming and going is really invincible, my Great Song Dynasty soldiers are strong in the bow and arrow car crossbow, the adjustment of this strategy should be calculated from how to promote their own strengths to attack the enemy's shortcomings, originally the enemy's director put in my Great Song Dynasty Central Plains, Jiangnan and other lakes and other lakes have no advantage at all, but the war is in the northwest, the Gobi is vast, the grassland is vast, The land of a flat river is just right for their cavalry; So it's unwise to go head-to-head. ”

Zhao Zhen said: "Aiqing is saying that the previous strategy of attacking was wrong? ”

Yan Shu said: "The minister can't say that, otherwise some people will say that the minister is putting the horse in the afterthought, and the minister's military opinion is not as good as Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan's eleventh, and the minister thinks that this adjustment strategy is better for them." ”

Zhao Zhen looked at Yan Shu suspiciously, and suddenly retreated when he said well, asking Fan Zhongyan to make a statement, which was really strange.

Du Yan, Lu Yijian and others secretly scolded in their hearts: "Old fox, when it comes to a critical moment, he will shrink back, for fear that if he proposes specific measures in the future, he will not be able to work and will affect himself." ”

Yan Shu didn't care, he originally admired Fan Zhongyan more, and was ready to recommend him to the center as soon as the northwest war was over, but he didn't expect to encounter the defeat of Haoshuichuan, in fact, this defeat had little to do with Fan Zhongyan, but after all, he was punished, and if he wanted to promote him, he had to let him behave in another way, so he asked Fan Zhongyan to put forward a change in strategic thinking.

Obviously, Fan Zhongyan's strategy of sticking to the counterattack will inevitably work, because in any way, this strategy is more secure, even if it is not successful, it must be faultless, as long as it drags on for so many years, so that Yuan Hao cannot enter the hinterland, it will be a credit, and it will be a matter of course to recommend him when the time comes.

Of course, there is also selfishness here, Yan Shu is first of all from his own consideration, if the proposed strategy does not work, when the situation deteriorates in the future, there will always be people who come to him to settle accounts, so try to shrink back and avoid proposing specific measures, and the room for maneuver will be greater.

Yan Shu called by name, Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi were called to the front again, they hadn't paid attention before, but when they walked from the palace gate to the throne at this moment, everyone found that Fan Zhongyan was walking a little staggeringly, and it seemed that it was inconvenient to walk.

Zhao Zhen asked: "Why is Fan Qing's legs and feet not very bright, I remember that you don't have a leg disease." ”

Fan Zhongyan hurriedly said: "Emperor Xie cares, and the ministers are not sick." ”

Han Qi couldn't hold back and replied on his behalf: "Master Fan has been in the northwest for a long time, eating and drinking with all the soldiers, and the bites of poisonous insects on his body have been suppurated for more than ten days. ”

Zhao Zhen changed color and said, "How can this be? Didn't you let the military doctor treat him? ”

Fan Zhongyan's dark and thin face twitched and said: "Your Majesty, the army has limited medicinal herbs, and the soldiers are the same as the ministers, many of them have poisonous sores, and the ministers are better, those soldiers are all going to fight and kill, how can the ministers grab their medicine to treat themselves, the emperor can rest assured, a little scabies can't defeat the ministers." ”

Zhao Zhen showed a sad face, got up and walked down the dragon seat, came to Fan Zhongyan's side, and stretched out his hand to untie Fan Zhongyan's robe.

Fan Zhongyan hurriedly said: "Your Majesty can't, how can Your Majesty's holy eyes be tainted by this filthy disease." ”

Zhao Zhen didn't say a word, and stubbornly uncovered Fan Zhongyan's robe belt, Han Qi also helped on the side, lifted the underwear cloth pants, and saw that the three wine cups-sized ulcers on Fan Zhongyan's thighs were shocking, the poisonous sores were worn by the clothes, and the pus and blood were sticky, which was terrifying to look at.

The ministers sighed, Zhao Zhen burst into tears, and sighed: "Fan Qing's patriotic heart can be learned from these three abscesses, with Fan Aiqing in the northwest, there should be no place for the thief in the west. ”

Fan Zhong was prostrate on the ground, tears in his eyes.

"Later, after going down to the court, I will go to the palace to help Lord Fan with medicine to cure the wound." Zhao Zhen wiped his tears and said to the inner servant.

The chamberlain bowed and promised, and Fan Zhongyan hurriedly said: "Why should the emperor bother, this is just a minor illness, if the emperor has a heart, why not transport a batch of medicines to the front line to relieve the illness for the soldiers." ”

Zhao Zhen said: "Yan Aiqing, can you mobilize a batch of medicinal materials to send to the northwest?" ”

Yan Shu hesitated for a moment, nodded and said, "The minister should do his best, the emperor can rest assured." ”

Zhao Zhen nodded, sat back on the dragon throne and asked, "Fan Aiqing, get up, what strategy do you have to hold the northwest frontier, teach the situation not to deteriorate, let me and all the adults listen." ”

Fan Zhongyan's spirit immediately shook up, got up and said: "Obey the order, the minister Shi only listened to Lord Yan's comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the enemy and me, and he was very concerned, what Lord Yan said was what the minister was worried about day and night, and then the strategy to promote his strengths and avoid his weaknesses was to fight steadily and steadily, not to engage with the enemy in field battles, step by step, to build a fortress and earth city, and to defend it with bows and arrows and crossbow carts in the city, and to block it with external horses and traps, if the enemy army forcibly attacked, it would suffer heavy losses; Although Yuan Hao is foolish and brave, but his Western Xia countryman Ding financial resources can not be the same as my Great Song Dynasty, as long as he suffers a few losses, the arrogance of the thieves will definitely be extinguished, and then the situation can be stable. ”

Lu Yijian said coldly: "According to this method of fighting, when will the thieves invade Hulan, Zhenrong and other prefectures and counties be recovered?" ”

Fan Zhongyan said loudly: "In such a situation, stabilizing the position is the top priority, and thinking about recovering the lost territory at this time is a joke." ”

Lu Yijian said: "If you can't recover the lost land, can you follow your method and let me be enslaved and humiliated by the people of Zhanzhou County?" ”

Fan Zhongyan said: "At present, we can only stabilize the situation, Xu Tu recovers, if Lu Xiang wants to regain the lost territory immediately, forgive the lower officials for having no other good plan, the lower officials are not ordinary and empty talkers, one is one and two is two, what can be done is what can be done, and those who can't do it will never lie to it." ”

Du Yan shouted: "Presumptuous, you and Lu Xiang are talking like this? Are you saying that Lu Xiang is talking about nothing? ”

Lu Yijian secretly scolded Du Yan for being stupid, Fan Zhongyan was thorny in his words, who couldn't hear it, and he pretended not to understand it and passed, but this idiot wanted to point it out so that he couldn't get off the stage, and it wasn't just really stupid or had other intentions.

Zhao Zhen was anxious to listen to the following, how could he say these meaningless words at this time, coughed, and said with a cold face: "Lu Aiqing, Du Aiqing, and Mo Duo, I still have something to ask." ”

Lu Yijian and Du Yan had to shut up, although the emperor was merciful, but the emperor was not a doll at the mercy of others, just by crying on the poisonous sores with one hand just now, you can know how scheming the emperor is; 'The emperor is not the emperor when the queen mother lowered the curtain', Lu Yijian suddenly sighed.

"Fan Aiqing, although the policy of sticking to it is good, what Lu Xiang said is also true, when will this strategy be able to recover the occupied state and county of my Great Song Dynasty? Whether there are follow-up considerations. ”

"Your Majesty, the right minister said, this strategy can be seen in the long-term success, I build a city to refuse, you can resist the enemy and settle the people who fled back, although the western thieves occupy several states, but there is no place for the people, it is an empty city, what is the use of coming? As long as you stick to it for a year, it will work wonders. ”

"I don't understand what you mean." Zhao Zhen is also realistic.

"Your Majesty, the western thief lives by chasing water and grass, raising horses, herding cattle, grazing sheep, fishing and hunting, rice cannot grow in the northwest, and Yuan Hao and the Khitan State are not good neighbors, how can he have the financial resources and manpower to support the long-term war; He could not send a whole army south to attack me, because he also had to guard against the covetousness of the hungry wolf of the Khitan Kingdom, so we could draw a conclusion: the purpose of the western thieves attacking me was not to occupy the barren northwestern states, but to plunder and gain benefits; When this plan comes to naught, he has no choice but to retreat, and the significance of the minister's method is not to defend, but to use the defense to drag down Yuan Hao and let him withdraw automatically; My Great Song Dynasty is vast, the southeast rice warehouse, a year-old harvest can be worth several years of food, consumed, how the western thief is the enemy of my Great Song Dynasty. ”

After hearing Fan Zhongyan's words, everyone nodded and discussed, feeling that it made sense, Lu Yi's simple beard was about to rise, and he said in his heart: "The old man asked you, but you said that there was no way, and now that the emperor asked, you put it together, and made it clear that you don't give the old man face, and you are frivolous, how can the old man let you be so contemptuous." ”

Zhao Zhen's heart did not fall back into his stomach until this time, although Fan Zhongyan's method was a little conservative, but it was absolutely effective, as long as he could block the northwest wolf and ensure that the ancestral inheritance would not be encroached upon, he would be satisfied.