After lunch, the Queen Mother left Xiaoyu in Yongle Palace, and the Son of Heaven took Li Hong to the Jiade Hall to discuss matters. ∮ Yan Moxuan ∮ ad-free ∮

The two of them chatted while walking. Li Hong followed the Son of Heaven and found that he was much thinner than two years ago. The thin body of the Son of Heaven was like a bamboo pole, and his neck became more and more slender, as if a breeze could blow it off. Thinking that the Son of Heaven had barely eaten at lunch, Li Hong couldn't help but be very worried, and whispered, Your Majesty should take care of the dragon body, don't be too tired.

"I have a little more breakfast, so ......," the Son of Heaven smiled, "Don't worry, Aiqing, I'm doing well." ”

The Son of Heaven immediately asked about the preparations for the Great Battle in Northern Xinjiang, and Li Hong respectfully replied one by one, and then said cautiously: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that in the middle of next month, the army can completely go out of the fortress. Now that the Xiliang rebellion has been basically pacified, and the ant thieves in the Qingxu area are also about to be defeated, the conditions for fighting out of the fortress are basically met, except for ......"

The Son of Heaven glanced at him and asked, "Except for what?" ”

"Except for the Emperor." Li Hong whispered, "The matter of the emperor's reunification, the minister thinks that His Majesty should be fast rather than slow, and he should canonize the crown prince as soon as possible and tell the world ......."

The Son of Heaven waved his hand and said lightly: "This matter should not be rushed, if you are in a hurry, there will be chaos, it is better to be slow, and the same is true for fighting out of the fortress, take your time, don't be in a hurry." ”

Li Hong was speechless.

When they arrived at the Jiade Palace, Li Hong and the ministers greeted them one by one. He has not returned to the DPRK for two years, and the DPRK and China are already things and people, and many people he has not only never seen, but has not even heard of them. Weiwei Liu and the monk Shangshu ordered Lu Zhi to accompany Li Hong and introduce him one by one. The main hall was very lively. Da Changqiu Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang, the central attendant, also participated in the court meeting today, and the two old lieutenants affectionately pulled Li Hong and chatted a few words. Zhao Zhong also repeatedly invited Li Hong to sit in the house when he was free.

Li Hong was instructed to first report to the Son of Heaven on the recent situation in northern Xinjiang, then described in detail the specific course of the Youzhou War, and finally reported on the reorganization of the army and the preparations for the operation out of the fortress. He talked for a long time, and after his debriefing, he took the trouble to answer many of the questions raised by the ministers.

Lu Zhi said: "Can the general explain in detail the specific strategy of the Northern Xinjiang War?" ”

Li Hong nodded. Then he walked to the map of the northern frontier hanging on the side of the main hall, and said to the Son of Heaven and the ministers: "The purpose of the battle is to recover the four northern counties, recapture the cities occupied by the Hu people, and rescue the Han people who were captured by the Hu people. In order to achieve this goal, we must annihilate the army of the Hu people as much as possible, and wipe out the Hu people south of Yinshan, so as to prevent them from escaping Yinshan and continuing to plague the border counties in the future. ”

"At present, the four northern counties have the army of the Dongqiang people Xu Kui, the Xiongnu rebels Xubu Guduhou and the army of Baima Tong, and the army of the Xianbei Tuoba Feng, the total number of Hu coalition troops is about 120,000, of which the Xiongnu rebels occupy more than 80,000 people. If the war began, the Hu would recruit all the men from within the clan who could go on horseback to fight, so that their army would expand to about 150,000 in a short time. ”

"There are so many Hu people?" Taiwei Ma Riyan asked in surprise, "If the big war starts and the Xianbei people stop fighting and shake hands and make peace, how many troops can they gather to go south to support Tuoba Feng?" ”

Li Hong thought for a moment and said: "Now there are not many troops in the Danhan Mountain Royal Court, and the most powerful Xianbei people are currently the most powerful ones in the central Xianbei Lord Murong Feng, followed by the Xianbei Lord in the west and the Xianbei Lord Mica in the east, if they respond to the Kuitou's call to gather in Danhan Mountain, they can gather about 50,000 to 80,000 troops." Of course, this already includes all the men of the Xianbei tribe who can ride horses into battle. Li Hong explained, "The Xianbei people have been defeated in Western Xinjiang and Yanmen Pass, plus the casualties on the battlefield in Youzhou in recent years, they have lost at least about 100,000 troops, so if they can still raise 100,000 people, then the Xianbei people have all gone into battle except for women, children, old and children." In other words, even if Tuoba Feng took the initiative to pay tribute to Danhan Mountain, it would be impossible for the head of the Xianbei Great King to recruit the Prairie tribes to go south to support. He would never lose the entire Xianbei country for the sake of a few pieces of land south of Yinshan. ”

"We suffer losses on the Huns. Last year, due to various reasons, we were unable to kill or wound a large number of Xiongnu rebels in the area of Henan (now the Hetao area). This originally did not affect the battlefield of the four northern counties, but then an unexpected thing happened, the Marquis of Xubu Gudu actually abandoned Meiji and led the entire right tribe of more than 100,000 tribes to cross the river to the north. The Xiongnu called to help Tuoba Feng, but they actually took the opportunity to control the four northern counties, and they took the four northern counties for themselves without much effort. Tuoba Feng's strength was lost, and in order to get the help of the Huns to defeat the leader, he didn't care about it. However, I think Tuoba Feng may have wanted to give the four northern counties to the Huns. There are Huns blocking him south of Yinshan, which is of great benefit to his recovery and future comeback. ”

"After the Xiongnu rebels went north, they immediately reversed the unfavorable situation of the Hu people in northern Xinjiang and completely destroyed the strategy we set for the war in northern Xinjiang last year. Now the Xiongnu rebels, Xianbei and Dongqiang people gathered in the four northern counties have formed an alliance, and the strength of the Hu people has increased dramatically. In the current situation, the difficulty of our attack has increased exponentially, and it is impossible to easily take the four northern counties. In fact, today's situation in northern Xinjiang has far exceeded our expectations last year. ”

"Considering the purpose of the Northern Xinjiang operation and the strong strength of the Hu coalition army, after careful planning, we plan to attack from three ways to encircle the Hu coalition army, and strive to take the four northern counties in the shortest possible time, completely annihilate the Hu coalition army, and prevent the war disaster in northern Xinjiang." Li Hong pointed to the Yin Mountain on the map and continued: "The best way to completely annihilate the Hu coalition army is to surround and annihilate the Hu coalition army in the area of Wuyuan and Yunzhong. And there is only one way to encircle the Hu coalition army, and that is to rush to the foot of Yin Mountain first and cut off their retreat. ”

"The closest path to Yin Mountain is to cross the Yellow River from Heyin, and then our army will open a bloody road from Jiuyuan City to Manyi Valley, and then quickly move north from Manyi Valley to occupy Sheephorn Mountain, Weizhu and Qingyue Canyon in turn, so as to complete the encirclement of the Hu coalition army." Li Hong pointed to Jiuyuan City of Wuyuan County on the map and said, "At present, Shan Yuting of the Marquis of Xubu Gudu is in Jiuyuan City, and the Huns consider that we have to cross the river to attack, so they have deployed heavy troops along the north bank of the Yellow River in Xi'anyang, Chengyi, Yiliang, Jiuyuan, Linwo, and Chouyang, and we want to cross the river north from Jiuyuan City, it is almost impossible." ”

"Then how can we successfully cross the river from the direction of Jiuyuan?" Li Hong pointed to the fortress on the map and said, "We marched north from the direction of Yanmen Pass with a group of men and horses, and launched a fierce attack on the two counties of Dingxiang Yunzhong, so as to lure out the main force of the Xiongnu rebels. The second group of men and horses pretended to cross the river from the direction of the Duliao River and went north, making a situation of attacking the clouds with the first road of people and horses. As long as the main force of the Xiongnu stationed in Wuyuan County was lured to Yunzhong County to support, the people and horses could turn around and rush west to Heyin to forcibly cross the river. ”

Li Hong pointed to Helan Mountain on the map, and said, "The third group of men and horses set out from Lingwu Valley in Beidi County, crossed Helan Mountain, went straight to Shuofang County, crossed the Gongxian Desert (today's Kubuqi Desert), quietly rushed to Yangshuhu (today's Wuliangsuhai), and then suddenly launched an attack from behind the Xiongnu rebels. This must be a one-hit hit. After the third group of people and horses occupies Jiuyuan, they can cover the second way of people and horses to cross the river quickly. ”

"As long as the river crossing is successful and the two roads meet, the army will immediately go north to Yinshan with superior forces, cut off the retreat of the Hu people, and force the Hu coalition army to fight a decisive battle with us in Wuyuan or Yunzhong. If the decisive battle is successful, the four northern counties can be recovered. ”

Li Hong then gave a detailed explanation of the specific details.

The hall was silent, only Li Hong's passionate voice echoed in the empty room. The ministers of the Three Princes and Jiuqing Monk Shutai all looked solemn and listened attentively, lest they miss something.

"How will the general's forces be deployed?" Stuart Palace asked.

"Yanmen County currently has Yan Rou's three battalions of iron cavalry, Jade's four battalions of foot soldiers, and then my six battalions of men and horses. This was the main attack of the first road, with a total of 64,000 men from the 13th battalion. Combined with the 10,000 iron horsemen at the foot of the Upper Valley Karasuma King, it is 74,000 people. Li Hong pointed to Meiji on the map and said, "There are currently Xu Rong's four battalions of foot soldiers in Henan, the third battalion of iron cavalry of Liyi, and Yang Feng's four battalion of infantry will also arrive in Duliao later." This is the second way to attack the centaurs, commanded by Xu Rong. This is the most important way, and it depends on them whether the Northern Xinjiang War can achieve the expected goal. This road is 58,000 soldiers of the 11th battalion, plus 10,000 iron cavalry of Liu Bao, the king of Zuoxian, a total of 68,000 people. ”

"At present, Zhao Yun, who is stationed in the fortress of the Great Wall, will lead 18,000 iron horsemen out of Lingwu Valley alone, cross Helan Mountain, cross the desert, and attack Jiuyuan from the direction of Yangshu Lake. Whether his attack will be effective or not will have a direct impact on whether the second group of men and horses can successfully cross the river. Li Hong pointed to the desert in the middle of Shuofang County on the map, with a sad face, and said slowly, "This desert is called the Bowstring Desert. Ladies and gentlemen, please see, this crooked Yellow River is like the back of a giant bow, and this desert more than 100 miles long is the bowstring, so the Hu people call it the bowstring desert. There is a lake area in this desert called Qixing Lake, as long as Zhao Yun's iron cavalry can be replenished by the lake water in time, they can smoothly get out of the desert and quietly rush to Yangshu Lake. The Hun rebels would never have imagined that our iron cavalry would emerge from the desert. As long as Zhao Yun's surprise attack is successful, Jiuyuan City will definitely be captured, and the river crossing will be successful. ”

"Considering the safety of Gyeonggi and the defense of the counties and counties of Bingzhou, Xian Yufu and Zhang Yan will stay in Bingzhou, and the remaining army is an army of 40,000 infantry soldiers of eight battalions, which are stationed in Longshan and Yanmen Pass in Jinyang." Li Hong sighed and said, "If these 40,000 people can also get out of the fortress, then our frontal attack will reach 114,000 troops, which can completely lure the main force of the Hu coalition army to the area of Yunzhong and Dingxiang......"

"With an army of 70,000 to attack the Hu coalition army from the front, it is indeed a little less in terms of troops. If there is no absolute superiority to defeat the Hu coalition army, it will be difficult for the main force of the Xiongnu rebels to be completely lured out of Wuyuan County by us. Lu Zhi said, "I think the general can let Zhang Yan follow up." ”

Li Hong shook his head, pointed to Takayanagi Castle of Youzhou Daijun on the map and said: "At present, the troops of Youzhou are insufficient, and the Karasuma people of Daijun and Shanggu County have been requisitioned again, so there must be a large army left behind in the fortress. We don't know if the Kuitou will come to our aid, but if the Kuitou suddenly leads his troops from Danhan Mountain to capture Takayanagi Castle, and then quickly attacks our grain and grass transportation along the gallop road, it will be a great threat to the army. ”

Lu Zhi shook his head and sighed, "It would be nice if there were an army of 100,000 to attack from the front. ”

What Li Hong said was the truth: More than 100,000 troops went out to attack outside the fortress by different routes, and the stability of the rear and the safety of grain and grass transportation were the top priorities, and in any case, a large army must remain at the pass.

The Son of Heaven suddenly asked, "The general thinks that it will take several months to regain the border counties?" ”

Li Hong thought for a moment and said: "In mid-April, the army started to attack from the front, and the rainy season came in June, which was only about two months. If you want to attack thousands of miles in two months and recover the four northern counties, it is actually impossible. Therefore, counting the rainy season in June and July, the end of the fighting in northern Xinjiang will be at least until September or October. ”

"If the army starts attacking from August and everything goes well, it will take us about four to five months to regain the border counties. Early on, we had also proposed attacking from May, but this was no longer possible because our tactics had been completely revised. Considering the rainy season in the steppe, this time of the attack was very unfavorable for the army.

"So, August is the best time to attack." The Son of Heaven said, "Not only is the weather good, but it can also save a lot of military funds." ”

Before Li Hong could speak, Shangshu Han Fu said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that it is better to attack the mid-April fortress proposed by the general." Although it would be a waste of two months' military resources to leave the fortress in April, there is a big concern about the exit in August. The general has just said that if the attack of the army goes well, it will take four to five months, but what if the attack does not go well? If it doesn't go well, the war will drag on until the snow season comes, and then it will be troublesome. One of the main reasons for the defeat of Sunset in the sixth year of Xiping was that the heavy snow came ahead of schedule, and we must not forget this painful lesson. Taking a step back, even if the army is safe, it will have to wait until next spring if the war resumes. The cost of military spending is even more staggering. ”

The Son of Heaven frowned slightly and looked at Li Hong.

Li Hong said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Lord Han is very right, and the minister has repeatedly advanced the time of the attack from the fortress, and it is precisely because of this worry. There were several considerations as to why the minister began to attack in mid-April. First, if Zhao Yun's iron cavalry set off from the Great Wall fortress at the end of March and traveled more than 2,000 miles, it would take at least a month, which means that he would probably start attacking Jiuyuan at the end of April. In order to cooperate with his surprise attack, we had to go out of the fortress in mid-April, and the army spent half a month storming the two counties of Dingxiang and Yunzhong, in order to lure out the main force of the Xiongnu rebels. ”

"The Hu coalition forces have taken into account that our offensive will be forced to stop after the rainy season, and that the situation in northern Xinjiang may change after the long rainy season, so they will concentrate their main forces to block our attack in any case, in order to hold out until the rainy season comes in June. In August, if the situation was still unfavorable for them, they would have plenty of time to evacuate Yinshan. Therefore, the main force of the Xiongnu rebels will definitely leave Wuyuan County and rush to the area of Yunzhong and Dingxiang to block us. ”

"Second, after Zhao Yun took Jiuyuan and Xu Rong led his troops to cross the river to the north, there were nearly 90,000 soldiers and horses, and the amount of grain and grass to supply the army was very large. Once the rainy season comes, the river water will swell, and the transportation of grain and grass will become a big problem, so we must rush to send enough grain and grass baggage across the Yellow River before the rainy season comes. This was the main reason why the minister gave up the May Expedition. Without enough grain and grass to carry the burden, it was difficult for Xu Rong's army to hold out until after the rainy season. ”

"Thirdly, the minister feared that the attack would be blocked. The Xianbei tribes proceed from the safety of the Xianbei country itself, if they join forces to go south again, we will fall into a bitter battle, and the war will inevitably drag on and on, if it drags on until the snow season, the war in northern Xinjiang may fall short. Therefore, the minister believed that the best way to avoid these disasters was to start a war in advance. ”

Sikong Liu Hong asked: "General, you are fighting on two battlefields at the same time, although you have no worries about grain and grass, is it enough to follow the army and civilians?" I remember that General Xu once said that he would not be able to recruit enough people until after the spring ploughing in April, does the general have a solution now? 200,000 troops out of the fortress, at least 600,000 to 800,000 people, if the general recruits the people of the state in advance, then what about the spring ploughing of the state? ”

Li Hong sighed and said: "Since the riots of displaced people in Qingxu and Xuzhou, more and more people have fled to Bingzhou, especially in the past two months, which have almost flooded. We had no choice but to do everything we could to get more than 400,000 victims to the Great Wall Fortress. Now, from Chang'an to the Great Wall fortress, and then to Henan, these people are the ones who transport grain and grass. They carried nursing babies on their backs and eighty-year-old men on their backs, all the way to get enough to eat. Although we don't have enough money for disaster relief, we have a war to fight, as long as there is a war to fight them, they will have something to do, as long as there is something to do, they can temporarily solve the problem of food, this is probably the most unique disaster relief strategy in my Han Kingdom. ”

The Son of Heaven and the ministers were dumbfounded, and they couldn't believe their ears. In Li Hong's mouth, fighting a war turned out to be a disaster relief strategy for the Great Han Kingdom. The influx of disaster victims has not only solved the problem of hundreds of thousands of people, but also solved the problem of disaster relief by the way.

"Last year, instead of 600,000 victims, 800,000 people moved to the state." Li Hong smiled bitterly, "This is still our approximate calculation, and the real number may be far more than that." Jizhou Mansion has a problem for me. However, Jizhou escaped a catastrophe because of this, and it can be regarded as his Yang Qiyang's foresight. Last year, there were riots in Qingzhou, Xuzhou and Yanzhou, but not in Jizhou. Later, although Jizhou was also chaotic, it was mainly because the ant thieves in Yanzhou crossed the Yellow River and mixed with the Yellow Turban Army of Montenegro, which was not a riot of the victims of Jizhou. This Lord Yang has hurt us. We have barely arranged 200,000 people in Xihe County, and the other 600,000 victims have already left the border one after another. Some of these people served as people's husbands, and some went to Pingcheng Tuntian, and they can basically eat enough for a while. ”

"Do you know how many people there are in the state now?" Li Hong laughed more ugly than crying, "According to Lord Zhao Qi Zhao, if you count all the captive population in the border county, it will be about three million. Million! And what will the state take to feed these people? I remember that at its peak, there were 2.2 million people. And the state can't feed them, do you know? What is the result of not being able to feed them? Northern Xinjiang is likely to collapse in an instant. ”

"The general must have a way." Taiwei Ma Riyan smiled reluctantly, "The general is sitting in the northern Xinjiang, and the general will definitely solve such a matter related to the safety of the country." ”

Li Hong shook his head again and again. Facing the Son of Heaven, he bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, the solution is still to fight." ”

"Bingzhou Tuntian has just begun, and there is no effect, but the imperial court and the states and counties seem to regard the merger as the largest granary in the world. I heard that all prefectures and counties have written notices saying that Bingzhou has land and grain, and that it is richer than the capital, and calling on all the victims to go to Bingzhou. I don't know what they mean, but I do know that there will be more and more people in the state. Based on the monthly influx of about 100,000 victims, the population of the state could exceed 4 million by the end of this year. If there is another disaster this year, or if the victims from Qingxuyan and other places cross the river to the north, they will flock to the state with the call and help of Lord Yang of Jizhou, and the state will become the largest gathering place of displaced people in the Han Kingdom, and the situation in northern Xinjiang will become more and more critical. Li Hong waved his hand excitedly and said, "Bingzhou is overwhelmed, and there is a possibility of riots at any time." In order to resolve this crisis, there is now only one solution, and that is to go to war, and to keep fighting. ”

"Fighting a war can seize land, deplete the population, plunder wealth, allow the Great Han State to resettle the victims at the least cost, stabilize the northern frontier, and even quell the continuous rebellions caused by too many displaced people, and can completely eradicate the root causes of these rebellions. This is something that no amount of money can do in the countryization of the Han Dynasty. ”

"At present, several places in Bingzhou that can be tuntian are already overcrowded, Taiyuan, Shangdang, the banks of the Yellow River of the West River, Pingcheng of Yanmen County, only the land of Henan remains. The land of Henan is now the territory of the Huns, and in order to regain this place and resettle the disaster victims, we must go out of the fortress as soon as possible to fight. ”

"The battle out of the fortress is not only to recover the border counties, but also to kill a large number of Hu people, but also to make the land beyond the Great Wall rich in water and grass become the pasture of our Han people, so as to settle more and more people as much as possible. But the four border counties outside the Saiwai are far from enough, we still need more land and territory, we have to fight to the north of Yinshan, we have to take advantage of the civil strife in Xianbei, Tuoba Feng's strength is greatly damaged, occupy all the territory of Xianbei in the north. ”

"After seizing the territory north of Yinshan, the Xianbei people were driven to the depths of the prairie by us, so that we could move the Huns to the north and south of Yinshan, and the area of Henan could be tuntian, and Xiliang Beidi County would also be protected from invasion because of the Hu people's dissent, and the banks of the Yellow River in Beidi County could be tuntian. During the period of Emperor Wu, there were 800,000 people in Lingzhou, which was a huge granary. ”

"I beg Your Majesty to immediately order the armies of Northern Xinjiang to go out to fight, recover the border counties, expedition to the prairie, and expand the territory for the Han Kingdom."

The Son of Heaven and his ministers were shocked. The general of the expedition to the north of Yinshan Mountain?

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