Taking advantage of the break in negotiations and the temporary stability of the situation in Jingzhou, Zhang Xi went to Chang'an to attend his daughter's wedding.
This is human nature.
Weddings and funerals are important things for people. How can a father not attend his daughter's wedding?
Furthermore, it was not Zhang Xi who had to come to Chang'an this time. It was Zhuge Liang who summoned Zhang Xi to Chang'an through a letter.
Of course, the main content of Zhuge Liang's letter was to discuss the etiquette of the wedding with Zhang Xi, as well as the scale of the wedding banquet. After all, when Zhang Xi was in charge of Yongzhou, he once said that if he wanted to continue marrying his daughter, at least let Chang'an The people in the city rejoiced and comforted the people who were hurt by last year's war.
But, Zhang Xi always feels that Zhuge Liang cannot write to him to discuss such a trivial matter. My wife is the head of our house, so for this trivial matter, you can just ask your wife to find me. Wife, can't the two of us just discuss it? !
It’s not like they don’t know each other, the two of them have a good relationship.
Therefore, the focus must still be on arriving in Chang'an.
Sure enough, as soon as Zhang Xi entered his residence in Chang'an, Zhuge Liang sent someone to invite him over, saying he wanted to reminisce about old times.
It's called reminiscing about old times, but in fact, it's just a meeting.
Well, this time it’s a real small meeting.
Without further ado, after Zhuge Liang saw Zhang Xi, he immediately told him the purpose of calling Zhang Xi - he was going to go on the Northern Expedition.
The Northern Expedition is to attack Cao Wei. Although Cao Wei has been forced to retreat to Sili, attacking Cao Wei again is not so much the Northern Expedition as the Eastern Expedition. But this is not important.
What really matters is - another Northern Expedition? !
The war just ceased last year, okay? It's been less than a year, and you want to go on the Northern Expedition again? !
You're really not afraid of being called "militant", are you? !
To be honest, if it were Jiang Wei, Zhang Xi would still understand. After all, except for the Northern Expedition, this guy basically didn't inherit any of Zhuge Liang's other advantages. But this is Zhuge Liang himself.
In history, Zhuge Liang made six expeditions to Qishan. Why was he able to avoid being resented by the court? However, even Zhuge Zhan opposed Jiang Wei's nine expeditions to the Central Plains. The reason is very simple. Zhuge Liang prepared sufficient preparations before each Northern Expedition. Preparation not only straightens out internal interest relationships, but also tries its best not to affect the normal domestic economic development.
Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was a confident one.
But now, Zhang Xi doesn't understand where Zhuge Liang's confidence comes from.
Yongzhou was severely crippled last year. Even if Yongzhou has a bumper harvest this year, it can only barely recover.
Last year, the elite soldiers of Yongzhou County fought against the Wei thieves and both sides suffered losses. There were more than 40,000 soldiers and less than 20,000 soldiers were left. In one year, there was only enough to make up for the shortfall. I am afraid that there will not even be too many ordnance drills. How much fighting power can the soldiers have?
If the finances don’t support it, and the soldiers don’t have the strength to support it, why would you, Zhuge Liang, do the Northern Expedition?
Zhang Xi was not polite and asked this question directly to Zhuge Liang.
Then, Zhuge Liang began to explain.
Financially, you really don’t have to worry too much.
Last year's Northern Expedition had to be hastily stopped due to the death of General Guan Yu. However, in fact, the various grain, grass and military equipment prepared for the Northern Expedition were not consumed too much.
According to the previous practice of the Northern Expedition, the food, grass and ordnance were prepared for one or even two years. However, in the end, the Northern Expedition only lasted a quarter of the time and ended in a hurry.
Half of the grain, grass and weapons used in the Northern Expedition were hoarded in Chang'an and used by Zhuge Liang to restore local people's livelihood in Yongzhou. The other half is still hoarded in Hanzhong.
Even if Yongzhou's autumn harvest grain and grass reserves are not used, Hanzhong's grain and grass supply alone is enough to support a 50,000-strong army for the Northern Expedition for a year.
In terms of military strength, the soldiers from Yizhou County have already withdrawn their troops and returned to Yizhou. If these soldiers are allowed to reorganize the army and march north, it will indeed be too laborious and mobilize the troops, and the soldiers will also complain.
However, the Northern Army of the Han Dynasty consisted of 27,000 people. After Zhuge Liang asked the emperor for permission, he still stayed in Chang'an.
At first, it was used to cooperate with the Liangzhou Army to defend Chang'an before the Yongzhou Army was rebuilt. But now, it happens to be a ready-made force for the Northern Expedition.
Furthermore, after nearly three years of rest, Qinzhou has basically restored people's livelihood. If he is worried that there are not enough troops for the Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang can also transfer troops from Qinzhou to Yongzhou to participate in the Northern Expedition.
Yes, Qinzhou is small and barren, but it is still a state. It is not a problem to gather 10,000 county soldiers.
Furthermore, if necessary, Zhuge Liang can rely on his prestige in the northwest region to recruit the Qiang people to fight.
The name of Zhuge Grandpa still exists in this time and space, but it is not the southern Yi people who call Zhuge Liang that, but the northern Qiang people who are grateful to Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang's reputation among most Qiang tribes is now even greater than that of Ma Chao's "Shenwei Tian General".
"General Shenwei Tian" is just for fear of his bravery, but the title Zhuge Grandpa shows that the Qiang people are convinced of Zhuge Liang. If Zhuge Liang is really serious, it is not impossible to form a cavalry version of Wudang flying army.
Of course, if this were the case, Zhuge Liang would not be in such a hurry to start the Northern Expedition now.
Zhuge Liang is also a person who knows the importance of severity. He knows very well that once a war occurs, no matter how well prepared he is, the war will eventually increase the burden on the people, but he cannot wait any longer.
Sima Yi, who was left behind in Cao Wei's Luoyang, was a great talent! ! !
Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi were destined rivals. In fact, until a year ago, the two did not have much actual interaction.
But just as the two sides were sitting in each other's place, one in Chang'an and the other in Luoyang, during this year, the two people fought many times overtly and covertly, but they both felt how difficult the other party was.
Now, as Sima Yi has been in charge of Luoyang for a year, with the help of the Hedong family and the Yingchuan family, the people's livelihood in Luoyang is gradually recovering, and the military preparedness has developed by leaps and bounds.
Sima Yi was from a Hedong family, and he had a lot of say in the Hedong family.
Sima Yi's rise to power was recommended by Chen Qun, the leader of the Yingchuan family. At this time, Yingchuan County was even worse than Hedong County. They were directly facing the threat from Nanyang County of the Han Dynasty, so they had to cooperate with Sima Yi and get rid of the enemy as soon as possible. Restore armaments in the Sili area.
The power of the aristocratic family in this era is very impressive. In less than a year, with the help of the aristocratic family, Sima Yi straightened out all the government affairs of Sili and began to strengthen the army's armaments.
When Cao Rui returned to the capital, he only took with him the last 10,000 elite soldiers of his imperial army. None of the remaining soldiers were taken away, and they were all left to Sima Yi to defend Sili.
It can be said that Cao Rui still supports Sima Yi on this point.
However, after successive battles, there were only about 20,000 soldiers left in Sili County, which was seriously insufficient.
But fortunately, Cao Rui also left the 100,000 temporarily recruited troops to Sima Yi, and gave Sima Yi the right to recruit troops to fight again when necessary.
Of course, Sima Yi looked down upon those field soldiers who were recruited temporarily and could only be used as cannon fodder. But the wealthy families needed them.
They are not used for fighting. The aristocratic families need these field soldiers to work as hidden households for them to farm.
This is also an important reason why Sima Yi was able to quickly restore Sili's reputation and military equipment. Sima Yi disbanded half of the field soldiers, but instead of letting these soldiers return to farm the land, he acquiesced to the wealthy families and embezzled these people in exchange for The aristocratic families provided financial and food support for the reconstruction of the Sili area.
As for the remaining half of the field troops, Sima Yi selected the best among them and selected 20,000 troops, who were carefully trained to supplement the gap in the Sili County troops.
In this way, in just one year, Sima Yi regained 40,000 Sili soldiers, plus 10,000 Tongguan defenders, and 20,000 Yingchuan County soldiers, totaling 70,000 troops.
Sili is not short of money and food. The only weakness now is that the 40,000 Sili soldiers in Sima Yi's hands have uneven combat capabilities. More than half of the soldiers are seriously undertrained and have no actual combat experience. But if Sima Yi continues to be in charge, all of these will Won't be too much of a problem.
Therefore, after learning about Sima Yi's actual achievements in Luoyang this year, Zhuge Liang knew that he could no longer give Sima Yi time.
The Northern Expedition must be carried out as soon as possible.
And this is what Zhuge Liang needs to seriously discuss with Zhang Xi when Zhang Xi comes to Chang'an this time - he wants to persuade Zhang Xi to support him in launching the Northern Expedition again after next year's spring plowing.
Moreover, Zhuge Liang hoped that Zhang Xi's Jingzhou soldiers could send troops to help at that time.
But after Zhang Xi listened to Zhuge Liang's appeal for reasons, he was a little hesitant.
From what Zhuge Liang meant, something seemed wrong.
Zhuge Liang is the prime minister. Although he is not as "in the palace and the palace as one" as in history, his power is actually not small. In addition, Liu Chan's attitude towards him can be said to be inferior to one person to a certain extent. A position above ten thousand people.
But for such a person to launch this Northern Expedition, he actually needs to win Zhang Xi's support. It seems that things are not that simple.
Therefore, Zhang Xi asked a very critical question - what Pang Tong and Fazheng thought of this matter.
Then Zhuge Liang fell silent.
I'm a fool, really.
Only now did I realize that I wrote the wrong number of chapters.
(End of chapter)
