On April 15, Guo Rong, the general of the right guard, and Xue Shixiong, the general of the left imperial guard, led the main army across the Liaoshui, and arrived at the city of Liaodong at dusk of the same day, and met Cui Hongsheng, the general of the left guard.

Cui Hongsheng first gave Guo Rong and Xue Shixiong a detailed introduction to the military situation of Liaodong City, and then took the initiative to ask Guo Rong for help, asking him to lead the Feng Feng Army to continue to advance eastward tomorrow, rush over the thousand mountains, and directly kill the important town of Wugucheng on the west bank of Yalu Water, so as to approach Yalu Water as quickly as possible, and pose a serious threat to Pyongyang.

Cui Hongsheng actively attacked, and did his best to seize the initiative on the battlefield, which was beneficial to the country and himself, Guo Rong and Xue Shixiong were of course happy to see it happen and fully supported it, but Cui Hongsheng's main concern was obviously not to speed up the wind on the battlefield of the Eastern Crusade, but what kind of rough interference the Holy Lord and the center of the Linyu Palace would exert on the Eastern Crusade that had begun, so after Cui Hongsheng expressed his position clearly and won the strong support of Guo Rong and Xue Shixiong, he immediately asked bluntly, "Does the Holy Lord have the latest edict?" What extraordinary news is coming from the palace? ”

Guo Rong and Xue Shixiong comprehended, and the two looked at each other, and a trace of gloom flashed in their eyes.

"In the past few days, there has been neither an edict nor any news from the palace." Guo Rong shook his hand and said worriedly, "Things are abnormal, which makes people uneasy and very worried. ”

Xue Shixiong hesitated for a moment, and said with a pun, "There is no news, in fact, it is news, it represents a certain attitude of the Holy Lord and the center. ”

Guo Rong was silent. Cui Hongsheng also did not speak.

The attitude of the Holy Lord and the center is clear, and they must firmly grasp the military power, but the first two defeats of the Eastern Crusade have severely damaged their authority, and now they are unable to grasp the military power, and their words are not very effective, such as the arbitrary behavior of the King of Qi, such as the Yang Feng Yin of Anton's army, such as the Eastern Expedition Command's change of strategy, etc., are all openly or implicitly challenging the authority of the Holy Lord and the center, so the more acute the contradictions, the more chaotic the situation, the Holy Lord and the center can no longer find effective countermeasures in this unfavorable situation, and can only express their anger and helplessness in silence, Wait for the counterattack opportunity to arise.

This is obviously not a good thing, and the forces of all walks of life that are fighting bloody battles on the battlefield of the Eastern Crusade will inevitably be under heavy pressure as a result, which will inevitably affect the process of the Eastern Crusade and even the results of the Eastern Crusade.

Xue Shixiong saw that Guo Rong and Cui Hongsheng were silent, so he continued, "We can't turn a blind eye to this attitude of the Holy Lord and the center, we must pay attention to it, and we must come up with corresponding countermeasures, otherwise the consequences may be far more serious than we imagined." ”

When Cui Hongsheng heard this, his expression became even more solemn, and his eyes showed hesitation.

Xue Shixiong's words were aimed at Cui Hongsheng, that is, to warn Cui Hongsheng not to charge into battle regardless of his thoughts. The Third Crusade is not to consider military victory, but to ensure that political interests are not lost, and now the contradictions between the Holy Lord and the Center and the military are getting bigger and bigger, and the conflict is becoming more and more intense, you can imagine the reason for their sudden silence, so from the perspective of ensuring the political interests of the Holy Lord and the Center and the military, the three parties should take the same position and work together as one, instead of openly opposing each other as they do now.

What's going to happen? Xue Shixiong asked questions, but did not give an answer. But everyone understands people, even if Xue Shixiong doesn't say it, Cui Hongsheng can think of it. In fact, the countermeasure is very simple, it is impossible for the army to compromise with the Holy Lord and the center, and the command will find a reason to urge the Holy Lord to rush to the Liaodong battlefield to drive the expedition in person, just like the previous two Eastern Crusades, and hand over the command of the battlefield.

The military is unwilling and unwilling, but the Holy Lord and the center threaten each other with silence and political interests, causing the military to fall into passivity, and it cannot but weigh it carefully, so it is in a dilemma and difficult to make trade-offs.

Cui Hongsheng thought for a long time and turned his eyes to look at Guo Rong.

Xue Shixiong represents the position of the military and protects the interests of the military, while Yuwenshu and Guo Rong are both close ministers of the Holy Lord and represent the interests of the Holy Lord in the Wei Mansion, so the attitude of Yuwenshu and Guo Rong is the most important.

Although Yu Wenshu and Guo Rong have a tacit understanding with Cui Hong ** in terms of attack strategy, they are close ministers of the Holy Lord, and they must consider the interests of the Holy Lord in everything, and they cannot deviate from the position and attitude of the Holy Lord, so they are restrained, and their thoughts and actions are relatively conservative. Now that the army has set out, the Holy Lord and the Central Center are unexpectedly silent, and the first to bear the burden and bear the pressure are Yu Wenshu and Guo Rong.

Guo Rong looked at Cui Hongsheng, hesitated a little, and said cautiously, "Our offensive must be fierce, but we can't go deep alone, the risk is too great." ”

Guo Rong's attitude is conservative, militarily speaking, he hopes that the Holy Lord will not drive the expedition in person, the headquarters can calmly command, and the army can directly kill Pyongyang, but politically speaking, he can't help but urge the Holy Lord to rush to Liaodong to take charge of the overall situation, so that the command will hesitate in the attack strategy, look ahead, and prevent Cui Hongsheng from rushing into the east to cross the Yalu Water, so as not to deviate from the will of the Holy Lord and cause irreparable consequences.

To put it bluntly, I don't want to take responsibility. If the Holy Lord gives up the Imperial Expedition, the Command will naturally bear all the responsibility, on the contrary, if the Holy Lord will definitely come to the Imperial Command, and the Command will act on his behalf before he comes, and he will be happy if he fights well, and the Command will be held guilty if he does not fight well. Now that the Holy Lord has not said that he will not come, nor has he said when he will come, this makes the command very "uncomfortable", and can only choose the lesser of two evils, and stop in moderation, while waiting for the Holy Lord to drive the expedition in person, attack conservatively to ensure that the situation is within a controllable range and not dig a "pit" for the Holy Lord.

Cui Hongsheng understood as soon as he heard it, and immediately said, "Hurricane rush is not the same as a lone army to go deep, whether the army can cross the Yalu water eastward, and when to cross the Yalu water eastward, depends on the water 6 in parallel, if the Anton army and the naval division fail to form an effective response on the two flanks of our army, then our army does not have the conditions to cross the Yalu water eastward." ”

Cui Hongsheng's secret agreement with Li Fengyun is that he will hit Yalu Water first to create conditions for Li Fengyun to attack Pyongyang, so it is absolutely impossible for him to cross the Yalu Water to the east, let alone go deep and take risks, but this is a secret, he cannot say it publicly, and he can only cover up his true purpose by rushing in with indomitable and hurricane, so the impression created by the four generals Yu Wenshu, Guo Rong, Li Jing and Xue Shixiong is that Cui Hongsheng wants to use the Eastern Expedition to make meritorious contributions, and he decided to attack Pyongyang at any cost. And with this crazy adventure of his own, he coerced the high command to give full support, and then pushed the whole situation in the direction of Middle-earth.

Now that Yu Wenshu and Guo Rong have a conservative attitude, the headquarters is looking forward and backward, Guo Rong even clearly hinted that Cui Hongsheng can't go deep alone, in fact, he doesn't want him to cross the Yalu water eastward, and Cui Hongsheng's goal is the Yalu water, so he couldn't ask for it, so he just pushed the boat down the river and agreed.

Xue Shixiong sighed secretly, his cold face showed a trace of helplessness, and his eyes became more gloomy.

Originally, the king of Qi and the army of Anton could not be counted on, and they could burn high incense without adding to the chaos, and the sailor was subject to too many conditions, and whether it could give the 6th Route Army a strong cooperation depends largely on luck, but the sailor was obviously unlucky, the start was unfavorable, Zhou Fashang died before he set out on the expedition, and the morale of the sailor was hit hard before he went to sea, so he didn't dare to expect too much, so whether he could capture Pyongyang could only rely on himself, but as far as the current situation is concerned, the command is greatly constrained, and it is difficult for the army to implement the established decisions, if this dilemma cannot be quickly reversed, The outcome of the Third Crusade will not be rosy.

On April 16, Cui Hongsheng led his army eastward and went straight to Yalu Water.

At the same time, in Fuyu City, Anton's deputy capital protector Li Hun, as well as Li Zixiong, Chen Rui, Han Yao, Guo Ming, Lu Xingxing, Xu Shisan, Han Shige, Zhou Zhong and other high-level military and political leaders of the alliance gathered in the Shuai tent to discuss the plan to advance eastward into Huichuan.

They had just received a letter from Li Fengyun that the Xuanfeng Ma army had swept across both sides of the Hui River, slaughtered the Hui tribes, and forced the Zhu tribes with the end of the Su Dynasty to bow down and form alliances and cooperate with strong force. Next, Li Fengyun wanted to continue to advance eastward, and he wanted to kill Yalu Water at a gallop, so he ordered Li Zixiong to immediately lead the main force of the infantry army to rush to Haochuan day and night, without any delay.

There is no problem with this, Li Fengyun opened the way in front, and they followed up, this is an established decision, but now that King Qi is uninvited, the situation is complicated, and the problem is here, what should King Qi do? Did the king of Qi follow the main force of the infantry army eastward to the Huichuan, or did he stay in Buyeo City and act with the rear army led by Li Hun, which was mainly composed of the heavy and the young and strong people of the Han Dynasty?

The answer is self-explanatory. Except for the Holy Lord, no one can order and command the King of Qi, and if the exhortation is effective, the King of Qi will not travel thousands of miles to Fuyu, so as long as the main force of Andong's infantry army enters the east of Haochuan, the King of Qi will definitely lead the army to accompany him.

There is no problem with this, the king of Qi is the pacification envoy of Liaodong, and he has the right to supervise the army, of course, he has to go with the Anton expeditionary force, but now the emerging force of Anton belongs to the political group with Pei Shiju as the core, and this political group not only does not support the king of Qi, but also draws a clear line with the king of Qi, so the question comes, the king of Qi and the Anton expeditionary force, is it the king of Qi who pulled Anton on his ship, or does Anton have other plans to take the king of Qi as the banner?

Li Fengyun's attitude is Anton's attitude, and Li Fengyun's attitude is clear, Anton cannot be kidnapped by King Qi, even if the alliance has secretly cooperated with King Qi in the past, but the alliance is an alliance, Anton is Anton, today Anton has many forces, the alliance is just one of Anton's many forces, the alliance cannot represent Anton, and the alliance cannot damage Anton's interests, so Chen Rui, Han Yao, Guo Ming, Lu Xingxing, Xu Shisan and other Li Fengyun's generals publicly stated that they must find ways to prevent King Qi and the main force of the infantry army from going to Huichuan.

In the face of resistance, Li Hun bluntly told that as far as the king of Qi rushed to Buyeo to join Anton's army, it was a fait accompli, and no matter what position Anton took, it could not change the negative judgment formed by the Holy Lord and the center on this matter, and even if the Holy Lord and the center knew that Anton was an innocent victim, the Holy Lord and the center would not reverse their attitude towards Anton, on the contrary, they would only fall into the ground, and use this as an excuse to intensify containment, attack and weaken Anton.

"Cooperation can be a win-win situation, victory can make contributions, and merit is strength, and only strength can determine everything." Li Hun finally admonished, "The capture of Pyongyang and the destruction of Goguryeo are our goals, and the best opportunity for us to expand our efforts, and in order to seize this opportunity, what we must do and what we cannot do, all the princes are clear, do we still need to repeat one by one?" ”

Li Zixiong, Han Shige, Zhou Zhong and others, who were originally ambiguous and wavering, listened to Li Hun's admonition, and immediately made a decision, faced up to the power of the king of Qi, put themselves in a correct position, and for the victory of the Third Eastern Crusade, put aside everything that should not be thought and done, and cooperated with the king of Qi, and made every effort to march eastward.

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