The prince's wedding is a great joy for Qingguo, and in the advice of some ministers, Emperor Qing issued a decree on the second day, amnesty to the world, and the whole world celebrates.

The afterglow left by this marriage naturally did not disperse in a day or two, and the red silk on the front of every household was not taken off as soon as the wedding was over, at least for ten days.

The envoy of the Yan Kingdom began to prepare to return to the Yan Kingdom after the wedding.

It's just that on the third day after the wedding, it began to rain heavily in Shangjing, which delayed the return of the mission for two days, and also to take care of Red Sleeves' injuries.

Red sleeves because of the excellent physical fitness, the recovery of the injury, is much faster than imagined, but after all, it is almost fatal serious injury, so it will be a while and a half to heal, it is naturally impossible, this way back to Yanjing City, rarely have to be bumpy on the way, a day or two late, although it will not let the red sleeves have much recovery from the injury, but it is good to be able to recover more, and to be able to withstand the bumps on the way.

Determining the date of returning to Beijing, Han Mo didn't have much to say, since the princess had already married, the duties of the mission had been completed, and there was no reason to continue to stay in the capital.

It's just that when Cao Yin proposed the return route, it made Han Mo a little surprised.

In Han Mo's opinion, returning along the way should be the best choice.

Although there was an attack on the way to the capital, on the whole, this road was not too dangerous, and it was far away from the war zone, not to mention that it had already been traveled once, so it was naturally very familiar with this road, and it would speed up the trip.

However, Changde Hou Cao Yin summoned Han Mo and Song Shiqing, and when mentioning the route back to Beijing, he proposed to return to Yanjing City from the western route.

From Shangjing City to Yanjing City, there are two official roads that can be passed, one is the way to come, and it is also the main trade route between Yanqing and Qingqing, passing through the two counties of Changqing and Wuping in Qingguo, and arriving at Huiji County where Yanjing City is located through Wu County of Yanguo.

The other is the western route, but the road is doubled, the most important thing is to pass through Nanyang County of Qingguo, but also through Linyang County of Yan State, in this period, whether it is Nanyang County or Linyang County, there are countless Chen soldiers, and the murderous spirit is strict.

Cao Yin's choice to take such a path was indeed unexpected by Han Mo.

Song Shiqing even persuaded: "Master Hou, now Nanyang Pass is about to be broken at any time, and it is really not peaceful to pass through Nanyang County." Hou Ye's noble body, how can he be in danger? ”

Han Mo also nodded and said, "What Lord Song said is extremely true. Hou Ye, Nanyang County is in chaos, according to the minister's report, a few days ago, Qingguo actually made a decree to move the people on the periphery of Wancheng in Nanyang County to the neighboring counties, and now Nanyang County must be a mess. At this time, I am afraid that it will be a little dangerous to return to Beijing from there! ”

Cao Yin smiled gently: "Ben Hou also knows that Nanyang County is in chaos now. The migration of millions of Li people is chaotic...... Because of this, Ben Hou wanted to go to Nanyang County to see what the situation was over there......! With a smile on his lips, he said softly: "If the Wei army breaks through Nanyang Pass and enters the pass, then Nanyang County will be more chaotic and more heavily guarded, I am afraid that at that time, it will not be easy for us Dayan to know the situation of Nanyang County...... ”

Han Mo and Song Shiqing glanced at each other, and seemed to understand Cao Yin's thoughts.

Cao Yin obviously wanted to pass by in the name of passing through before the real big war in Nanyang County, but in fact, he wanted to observe the current situation in Nanyang County, such as the deployment and deployment of the Qing army in Nanyang County.

No one dared to guarantee what the direction of the war would be, and no one knew whether Yan Guo would eventually be involved in this war.

Taking precautions and getting to know Nanyang County in advance is naturally a beneficial and harmless thing.

Cao Yin smiled slightly and continued: "Nanyang Pass is indeed in danger, and it is only a matter of time before it is breached, but judging from the information obtained by Ben Hou, within ten days and eight days, the people of Qingguo will still be able to hold on. The one guarding Nanyang Pass is not an ordinary general, it is one of Shang Zhongli's three beast generals, the Tiger Thunderbolt Lin Chengfei, this person is not good at fighting on the plains, but what he is best at is sticking to the pass. Nanyang Pass is the first pass of Qingguo, it is a moat, for so many years, although the people of Qingguo have not done much in armament, but ...... For this pass, I still put a lot of thought into it. There are 30,000 defenders there, the pass is strong and abnormal, it is said that the rocks used for building and reinforcing are all taken from the extreme north of Qingguo, which is not comparable to the general pass city wall, Qingguo people claim that Nanyang Pass is the first pass in the Central Plains, but it is not a lie. ”

Han Mo said: "Your Majesty has read the book of war, and the history of Nanyang Pass is also recorded in the book of war. This pass has a history of hundreds of years, and during the pre-Qi period, there were many soldiers and generals. Sixteen years ago, the Wei people and Qingguo had a big battle, at that time it was to see that Nanyang Pass was easy to defend and difficult to attack, so it did not attack from this line, but suddenly sent troops from the north, and suddenly attacked the Beidi County of Qingguo, at that time Sima Qingtian led his Cangcai army to the wind to sweep the earth, when the Qingguo people have not yet reacted, they successively conquered the three counties of Qingren's Shanbei, Wudu and Wuguan, when the Qing army suffered heavy losses, Qin Xiaofeng, the commander of the Northwest Army of the Qing Army, was also surrounded in the Lantian City of Wuguan, and later the Wei people broke the city, Qin Xiaofeng committed suicide and died, and the entire Qingguo also fell into the situation of destroying the country. ”

Cao Yin's eyes showed appreciation, and he smiled: "Reading is always useful. ”

Song Shiqing said with a smile on the side: "The situation in Qingguo back then was even more critical than now. At that time, his subordinates were only studying, but they also knew that at that time, Qingguo was afraid that my Dayan and the Wei army would be flanked back and forth, so they married their Princess Xuanqing to our Dayan...... At that time, this Emperor Chongren seemed to be just a crown prince! ”

Cao Yin picked up the teacup, took a sip, put down the teacup, and then said softly: "At that time, Shang Zhongli was already a member of the Qingguo general, but he was just ...... is not a world-famous general, nor is he a one-handed master of Qingguo's military power. At that time, Shang Zhongli was the commander of the front line of the Qingguo border army, and the soldiers in charge of the southern border pass of Qingguo. Qin Xiaofeng committed suicide, the Wei army was like a wolf, and Qingguo was about to destroy the country, and it was at that time that Shang Zhongli mobilized 30,000 horses from the border pass, rushed to the front line, and served as the general general. Speaking of this, Cao Yin sighed and said, "Now that I think about it, Shang Zhongli's victory is not only the luck of Qingguo, but also the luck of my Yan country. At that time, my Da Yan was not in favor of sending troops, seeing that the Wei army attacked Qing without taking any measures, and now I think that if there was no Shang Zhongli at that time, the Wei army really captured Qingguo, then our Yan Kingdom will also face a catastrophe next! ”

Han Mo didn't speak, but he understood in his heart that at that time, the emperor of Yan State was using strong means to weaken the family, and the relationship between the royal family and the family was extremely tense and internally unstable, so he had no energy to transfer troops north and unite with Qingguo to attack the Wei army.

"Shang Zhong deserves to be a generation of famous generals." Cao Yin continued: "He won several battles in a row, stabilized the morale of the Qing army, gathered the remnants of the defeated Qing army, and continuously counterattacked the Wei army. It took only half a year, under his leadership, the Qing army miraculously recovered Wudu and Wuguan two counties, forcing the Wei army to retreat to the west bank of the Wumu River...... It was this battle that established his identity as a famous general! ”

"It seems...... Although the Qing army recovered the two counties of Wudu and Wuguan, they were never able to cross the Wumu River and recover their Shanbei County! Han Mo looked at Cao Yin and said.

Cao Yin said with a smile: "Although Sima Qingtian is not as old as Shang Zhongli, he became famous earlier than Shang Zhongli. Although he was beaten by Shang Zhongli suffered heavy losses, but he still had some ability, with the defeated army in his hands, he stuck to the Wumu River, and he simply blocked Shang Zhongli's intention to subdue Shanbei County...... This is naturally an exaggeration, but it can be seen that the battle of Weiqing was indeed extremely tragic back then. Since that war, the elite of the Wei people has been lost, and the Qing people have also suffered a great decline in national strength, and then there have been rebellions in the country, Shang Zhongli can only lead the army to quell the chaos, and no longer has the ability to recover Shanbei County. The twelve counties of Qingguo became the eleven counties of Qingguo, and the people of Wei got Shanbei County, which changed from five counties to six counties. After the Battle of the Wumu River, the two countries have never had a major war in the past 16 years! ”

After listening to Cao Yin's words, Song Shiqing sighed: "The people of Wei have been thinking about revenge all the time in the past sixteen years...... This time it has made a comeback, and the momentum is stronger than it was back then, and now the national strength of Qingguo seems to be not as ......good as that year. At this point, he did not continue.

Han Mo pondered for a moment before asking, "Master Hou, since the Wei army knows that Nanyang Pass is extremely strong, why don't they march from the Wumu River, but break through from Nanyang Pass?" ”

"The Wei people are not good at water warfare, they are mainly cavalry, and their favorite thing is to raid on the plains." Cao Yin obviously knows the national conditions of the two countries very well: "The Wumu River is extremely wide, and the river water is fast. After the last war, the Qing people are already heavily guarded on the front line of the Wumu River, and the Qingguo people are on the Wumu River, but there is a type of sailor wandering, although the Qingguo sailor has never been good, but compared to the Wei people who are not good at water, this type of water division cruising on the Wumu River is still enough to deter the Wei people......! Cao Yin said this, took another cup of tea, and said slowly: "And the one guarding the east bank of the Wumu River is another one of the three beast generals, Yuan Mu, who is known as the wolf whirlwind, where 30,000 elite soldiers are stationed, and strong fortifications have been built on the east bank of the Wumu River...... The Wei people had no way to attack from the Wumu River. The Wei people deliberately deployed troops on the side of the Wumu River, but it was just to contain Yuan Mu's Northwest Army! ”

"Northeast Legion? Northwest Corps? Han Mo was a little stunned, he really didn't know much about military matters before, and he didn't know much about the military composition of Qingguo.

Cao Yin saw Han Mo's doubts and said with a smile: "For a long time, Qingguo's military strength was composed of three legions. The four counties in the northeast, Gaoyang, Yangping, Zhongshan, and Hexi, are the four counties in the northeast, in addition to the counties and counties, there are a total of 34 county seats, and there are about 40,000 to 50,000 troops deployed there, which are under the command of Yanping, the ruthless king of the eagle. In addition to guarding the counties, the most important responsibility of the Northwest Army is to defend the line of the Wumu River, in addition to the naval army of about 2,000 people, there is also a Northwest Army of about 50,000 people, which is commanded by Yuan Mu, the wolf whirlwind. ”

"Three legions, in addition to these two, the other one should be Qingguo's border army, right?" Han Mo understood.

Cao Yin said: "Exactly." My Dayan has more than 100,000 troops on the northwest front, stationed on the border line of my Dayan, and the people of Qingguo are naturally afraid. Many years ago, the number of border troops of the Qingguo people was several times that of my Dayan, and at its peak, the border army of the southern line of the Qingguo was as high as nearly 300,000 people...... Fortunately, my Dayan still has the military god Xiao Huaiyu, he is a young hero, since he went into battle, not only will the Qingren be expelled from my Dayan territory, but since then, the Qingren will not be able to attack an inch of my Dayan's land......! ”

Speaking of this, Cao Yin's face showed a look of respect, it was Song Shiqing, and he was also full of awe.

Such a magical name, Han Mo has heard it countless times, every time he says it, no matter who the talker is, his tone will be full of respect, which also makes Han Mo, who has never seen Xiao Huaiyu, feel respect in his heart when he hears this name.

"It's just that the support of the army needs to have strong national strength." Cao Yin said slowly: "There was a big war in Qingguo sixteen years ago, and the loss of national strength was huge, and then civil strife broke out again, and it took Shang Zhongli several years of effort to stabilize Qingguo. But in those years, it has consumed too much national strength of Qingguo, and before the war, Qingguo was claimed to be 500,000 troops, and after that battle, the national strength could not support the expenditure of 500,000 troops. The Northeast Army has been reduced by half from the original 100,000 people, the Northwest Army Corps originally had 150,000 people, and in the end only 50,000 people were retained, as for the border army, when there were Chinese New Year's Eve 10,000 troops, there were only more than 100,000 people left, which was on par with the Northwest Army of our Dayan, and the military strength of the entire country was ...... half of it! ”

Song Shiqing sneered: "Qingguo is rich in land and resources, and it is not difficult to recover." It's just that the monarch is faint and mediocre, the wind of luxury is prosperous, the greed for ink is rampant, and the appearance seems to be powerful, but in fact, there is not much silver available in the treasury. My Dayan is only half of his area, and his products are not as rich as theirs, but the soldiers he raises are not much less than theirs. If they work hard, an army of 500,000 may not be able to support ......! ”

Cao Yin said solemnly: "Lord Song's words are good, and the extravagance of the people of Qing has led to the emptiness of the treasury, but it is also one of the important reasons. If it weren't for Shang Zhongli's insistence, I'm afraid Qingguo's troops would be much smaller now. The Wei army attacked Qing on a large scale this time, but in fact, in the hands of Shang Zhongli, there really didn't ...... too many troops available! ”

Song Shiqing was a little curious, and asked: "Master Hou, although the strength of the Qing people has been greatly reduced, but at present, there are still more than 200,000 people in the three major legions, which seems to be more than the Wei army, how can there be no soldiers available?" ”