It has been a long time since millions of people were mobilized to build a direct road between the north and south, but it has not yet been connected to Hengshan County and Guangyang County, and even Handan County and Julu County have not yet started.

If there had been no outbreak of the plague, Lu Zhe and the forbidden army should have returned to the south by sea in batches, and then from the mouth of the Yangtze River, that is, the current Dantu of Huiji County, directly into the Yangtze River and directly through this water system, on the way Lu Zhe might have stopped to inspect the construction along the Yangtze River, but now Jiaodong County is obviously inaccessible.

If you take the sea by sea, you can definitely reach it within a month from Jiaozhou Bay to the south unless there is a typhoon and other weather influences; If you go by land, it depends on the route you choose, but no matter which route you choose, a mixed army of infantry and cavalry will have to travel for at least three months at the earliest.

"Go to Julu and then transfer to Handan County, I want to meet Zhao Xie in Handan," Lu Zhe was not temporary, he really needed to meet Zhao Wangxie, and conduct final negotiations for the merger of the two countries: "Then go from Handan County to Dongjun to Sanchuan County." ”

In addition to meeting Zhao Xie, the king of Zhao, it was also necessary for Lu Zhe to meet Xu Yan in Sanchuan County, such a marching route happened to include most of the Central Plains, and it could be regarded as Lu Zhe's on-the-spot investigation of the actual situation in the Central Plains.

At present, there are various legions of the Han army in the Central Plains, and there are also second-line troops doing garrison tasks, but there are still some armed forces that have not been exterminated in various parts of the Central Plains, and Lu Zhe has a noble status and represents the interests of a large collective, and they actually do not approve of what Lu Zhe is doing at this time.

In addition, the merger of Han, Zhao, and Qin into a great empire has all been negotiated, and Zhao Wangxie's side has already handed over at least six or seven tenths of the army to the command of the Han general's office, but isn't there still four-third out of ten of the army that has not been handed over?

Lu Zhe's current existence is not only about the interests of a group, but also includes whether the land of China can belong to a big empire, since Zhao Wangxi and some others have compromised and handed over the vast majority of the army, there will always be some people who are unwilling, right? If there is any accident then, it will be ......

Yan Bi, a close minister, immediately expressed the worries in most people's hearts, and he even said: "Zhao Wang Xie has compromised, which is based on the trend of the king sweeping the world, and in view of the king's physical and mental health and youth. The king wants to go to Handan, and he wants to enter Handan, there are more than 100,000 Zhao troops in it, if the time comes, King Zhao will change his hexagram? ”

Kuaitong immediately stood up and agreed, Zhao Wangxie's submission was indeed based on the premise that the Han State was unstoppable, and it was Lu Zhe's generous side, not only willing to let Zhao Xie continue to be the king of Zhao, but also retaining his interests for those who had vested interests in the Zhao State. But to put it more realistically, if there is a little possibility, Zhao Xie will definitely not be willing to merge with the Han State and become the king of Zhao at the level of the feudal state, after all, everyone understands the sentence that he would rather be the head of the chicken than the tail of the ox.

Lu Zhe looked at Sima Xin: "Has the order to ask Zhao Wangxi to send troops into Dai County has been issued?" ”

Sima Xin immediately replied: "Someone has already been sent to deliver it, but it will take at least a month to get it back." ”

Lu Zhe nodded and looked at the rest of the people: "Gu understands your worries. He only said this one sentence and said no more.

Kuai Tong didn't want to bypass the topic so simply, he knew very well that once Lu Zhe made up his mind about something, it would be difficult to change it, so he said: "Since the king has already transferred the troops of Handan City, why don't you let General Xu of Sanchuan County also send troops north?" ”

Sima Xin nodded: "Yes, Your Majesty, because of the sudden accident, the Central Plains region really needs troops to maintain stability, so you can let General Xu lead the army to Dongjun first." ”

There is nothing strange to be surprised, they can feel at ease with Xu Yan, but they are very wary of Zhao Xie, and that is because Xu Yan is a general and Zhao Xie is a king.

Lu Zhe was hesitant to let Xu Yan lead the army north, at present, the source of grain for the Central Plains Army in Sanchuan County is the Han Dynasty itself, and the Qin side has completely cut off the logistics supply to the Central Plains Army. Now that the shipping in Jiaodong County is interrupted, the new shipping landing site has not yet been determined, and the transportation capacity of the Han Kingdom is already undergoing a severe test.

Sima Xin probably knew that he had made a mistake when he said it, so he smiled wryly: "The minister has misconsidered, please forgive the king." ”

Kuaitong didn't see it that way, he said, "Taiwei thinks badly. Turning to Lu Zhe, he said: "Your Majesty, we now need a large number of people to transport grain to the north, General Xu has nearly 300,000 troops in his hands, and when they go north, isn't it effective to escort the grain and straw to make the best use of things?" ”

Some others are in favor and some are against, and the Han State has always strictly controlled the amount of grain sent to the Central Plains Army, so isn't that also wary of the Central Plains Army? As long as the army in Xu Yan's hands did not accept the reorganization of the Han State like Wang Ben's department for a day, then it would not be able to really reassure people, and they were a little confused about the change of attitude towards Kuaitong, and at the same time, they wondered if Kuaitong was confused by the plague that broke out in Qidi.

Lu Zhe understood the hidden meaning of Kuaitong, who reminded him of the reorganization of the Central Plains Army in an obscure way, and also indirectly advised Zhao Wangxi to take advantage of the matter of going to Handan to bring Zhao Wangxi to Nanling.

Kuaitong said that if Xu Yan wants to lead the army north, the next step must be to build a few legions that are still near Handan to move closer to Dongjun and Handan County, then with the addition of 100,000 forbidden troops, the Han army in that area will reach about 300,000, with 300,000 Han troops as the backing, to solve the trouble that has been delayed for a long time at one time.

Lu Zhe's expression of surprise made Kuaitong laugh, and Kuaitong paused for a while before continuing: "There are as many as 3 million people hired by the ruling government for the country, but there are only about 400,000 people who belong to the local people. More than 3 million people are carrying out our military management system, and if there is a time when it is necessary to use it, they are fully capable of deploying weapons to participate in combat. ”

Not everyone knows what Kuaitong is talking about, so much so that quite a few of them look at Kuaitong like crazy people.

"Winter is coming, the domestic quarterly troops have also gathered more than 2 million, and the king can appropriately transfer these troops to the north, on the one hand, to transport supplies to the north, and on the other hand, to prevent accidents," Kuaitong continued to gush: "Several national policies for the king have made our country's military strength far more prosperous than before, which can be described as unprecedented. The policy of tuntian land and the development of a large amount of cultivated land have also ensured that China's national strength is sufficient......"

Yes, what kind of compulsory soldier system, and wantonly exploiting wasteland, in a short period of time, the Han State did show a strong side, but that was also because it evolved from the ancient system of cultivation and warfare, Lu Zhe just carried out targeted improvements, and it was not considered to have come up with those out of thin air.

Kuaitong is constantly telling what the Han State has become strong because of what it has done, and he is also explaining where the foundation for Lu Zhe's hope to continue to expand comes from, and continuous expansion requires a stable homeland.

Speaking of the back, Kuaitong was already persuading Lu Zhe to appropriately suppress the increasingly obvious belligerence of the military general class, and he even took out the number of the ruling government, and the material reserves of the Han State in the past four or five years had been consumed after the Han army went north, and this was still based on the Han State's use of inland water systems and shipping.

When the topic came to the time when the generals should be suppressed, Sima Xin was the first to be dumbfounded, and then the faces of the generals and colonels became extremely strange. If Xiao He, the first civil official, should suppress the generals, it is understandable, but Kuaitong is a military advisor, and the military advisor should be a figure on the side of the generals, how could he stand on the wrong side?

This play was arranged by Lu Zhe, but Kuaitong seems to have changed the script? So much so that Lu Zhe could only listen sullenly for a while. He felt that this drunkard's style has been changing recently, obviously reminding the Han army that the benefits obtained by going north have far exceeded the capital used, but he spoke strangely and deliberately offended the generals, and used this special method to describe the contradictions within the Han Kingdom, but is it necessary?

There is really no need for that, the Han State is divided into factions, but the so-called factions are actually the Qin faction, the Chu faction, or the southern faction and the northern faction, and it is not a civil and military dispute. In addition, the ruling government and local officials, together with the Taiwei Office and the General's Office, are still doing their best to unify the Northern Expedition, and there is no situation of dismantling each other, so it is too early to say that it is too early to prevent it?

Zhang Liang, who had been listening quietly from the sidelines, saw Lu Zhe frowning, and also saw that more and more generals' faces became pale, and he quietly gave Kuaitong who was still talking, Kuaitong naturally discovered Zhang Liang's kindness, but he didn't stop talking about it.

"Okay, the military advisor understands what he means." Lu Zhe had to stop, he slowly stood up, looked around at the generals and colonels with unsightly faces, and then looked at the few civilian officials present who didn't understand what was going on: "Moving troops north can't be judged by simple current benefits, what the military advisor wants to say is this." ”

Lu Zhe, who was speaking, glanced at Kuaitong warningly, expressing his dissatisfaction.

In fact, fighting the Central Plains is not like attacking the south, it is the difference between liberation and occupation, and it is even more the difference between facing different enemies. Fighting in the south is conquering Baiyue, and every tribe that destroys Baiyue will more or less capture some spoils, but sending troops to the Central Plains can't do that, so the harvest is very little. In fact, even if there is a harvest in the Central Plains, more of it is invested in the local people's livelihood restoration, not only in the seizure of investment, but also in the follow-up additional investment. R1152