In the summer of the fifteenth year of Yanxi, while the Jingzhou family was still complaining about their losses during this period, the land of Jizhou in the north was already quietly igniting smoke.
After three years of recuperation, Zhuge Liang basically settled the big families in Hebei, ensuring the implementation of his decrees. At the same time, he also accumulated enough food and grass to launch a war.
Under this situation, Zhuge Liang decided to write to the court and launch a campaign against Wei to conquer Youzhou and completely destroy the small court of Cao Wei.
This matter actually caused fierce controversy in the three central provinces of Han Dynasty.
Shangshu Ling Li Yan was the first person to express his opposition to Zhuge Liang's use of troops.
The Northern Territory has finally been quiet for a few years, and it has just seen that taxes can be sent from Hebei to Chang'an. Doesn't Zhuge Liang just intercept all the taxes from Hebei and use them for the Northern Expedition? !
What to do with the court's expenditure? There is suddenly a huge tax gap. Where can we make up for it? !
Furthermore, Li Yan believed that with Zhuge Liang's military proficiency, since he dared to launch an attack on Youzhou at this time, he must be very confident that he could pacify Youzhou in one battle and wipe out the small court of Cao Wei.
But when Youzhou was pacified, Zhuge Liang took advantage of the victory of destroying the country and returned to the court. In addition, Li Yan, his original identity as prime minister, didn't know whether the emperor Liu Chan would be embarrassed. Li Yan would definitely be embarrassed.
At that time, all rights will be lost and you will be completely reduced to a tool.
Therefore, Li Yan firmly opposed Zhuge Liang's northern expedition to Youzhou, whether it was out of public motives or private interests.
If there were objections, there would naturally be those who were in favor. The new Zhongshu Ling, Jiang Wan, expressed his approval.
The reason why Jiang Wan agreed is also very straightforward - Cao Wei is a traitor to the country. If Cao Wei is not destroyed, how can he be worthy of Emperor Xiaomin and the ancestors of the Han Dynasty? How can he be said to be the Three Rebellions of the Han Dynasty? !
This is the foundation of the country and the foundation of politics, and no ambiguity is allowed.
In the past thirty years, the Han Dynasty has gone through Emperor Zhaolie and today, step by step, it has finally pushed Cao Wei into a corner and can destroy it in a single battle. If we don't seize this opportunity to stamp out the rebellion, will we? Should we wait until Cao Wei regains his composure? !
Therefore, Jiang Wan firmly agreed with Zhuge Liang's northern expedition to Youzhou and wiped out Cao Wei.
Li Yan is very angry. Does the Emperor know that your surname Jiang is so public-minded? !
But, there are some things that Li Yan can't say much. After all, Jiang Wan's reason for support is really Ji Han's political correctness, and no one can deny it.
Therefore, the attitude of Fei Yi, the last of the three provinces and the minister under his command, is particularly important.
Fei Yi's attitude towards this is actually very complicated.
Actually, Fei Yi is really not a Northern Expeditionist, he is actually a conservative.
The Han Dynasty was founded for more than 20 years, and it was basically a period of more than 20 years of fighting in various places. On average, a war was launched every two years, and a war often lasted more than a year.
Therefore, strictly speaking, the national power of the Han Dynasty is basically used in war, and it does not help much to improve the livelihood of the people in the world.
Apart from anything else, it is still impossible to conduct thorough statistics on the population of each state, and taxes are vague and sometimes high and sometimes low. All this is because the Han Dynasty pays too much attention to external expansion and lacks internal governance.
Because the Han Dynasty had won many battles over the years, and the land recovered could barely balance the financial needs of the imperial court, Fei Yi had no opinion on the Northern Expedition. But as Fei Yi took charge of the provinces in the past two years, he became more and more Lai Yue felt that the Northern Expedition actually did not need to be rushed at this moment.
Menxia Province is the department responsible for supervising the implementation of the six ministries. Therefore, it is extremely sensitive to the financial expenditures of each ministry, and it is necessary to keep abreast of the facts of government decrees. The more he stayed in Menxia Province, the more Fei Yi felt, Military expenditures are too high, resulting in severe reductions in fiscal allocations to other departments, resulting in low efficiency in the implementation of government orders and the inability to quickly restore people's livelihood.
And the people's livelihood cannot be restored quickly, which means that the people's lives cannot be improved, and the people's lives cannot be improved, which means that the country is still in turmoil, and taxes cannot be increased. As a result, in addition to the Ministry of War, the other five ministries, the financial tax allocation quota Being compressed again. This is an endless loop.
Therefore, Fei Yi's idea was actually to oppose the Northern Expedition. Apart from other things, how could the small court of Cao Wei become successful? !
With Prime Minister Zhuge sitting in the north, if the small court of Cao Wei could really turn the tables, Fei Yi would eat his own desk.
Anyway, he is not in a hurry. It is better to suspend the use of troops. It doesn't take much. As long as the court gives five years to recuperate, Fei Yi believes that the country's fiscal taxes can be increased by another 30%.
If we use troops at that time, the court will be much more comfortable.
Therefore, after repeated hesitation, Fei Yi raised objections to the Northern Expedition at the meeting of the three provinces.
In this way, the three provincial centers of the imperial court, with a ratio of two to one, the opponents of the Northern Expedition gained the upper hand. But unfortunately, this was not an era where voting was important in deciding national affairs.
The three provinces each perform their own duties.
The Zhongshu Province is responsible for decision-making, the Shangshu Province is responsible for implementation, and the Menxia Province is responsible for supervision.
Therefore, in theory, the decision-making power lies in the hands of Zhongshu Ling Jiang Wan, and Jiang Wan is a staunch Northern Expeditionist.
In addition, as the prime minister, Zhuge Liang's own opinions are a kind of weathervane. Moreover, Zhuge Liang's comments and the opinions of the three provinces must be submitted to the emperor for decision.
Liu Chan, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, didn't even think about Zhuge Liang's request for the Northern Expedition. He directly replied with a pen - the prime minister can act cheaply.
There is no need to think about what the father-in-law wants to do, it must be right.
This is Liu Chan's truest thought.
It was during these years that Liu Chan gradually began to manage the government himself. Zhuge Liang also persuaded Liu Chan to pay attention to maintaining the dignity of the emperor, otherwise Liu Chan might directly reply with words such as "Everything is decided by the prime minister."
The current "acting on expediency" has already been approved by Liu Chan with some reservations.
As for Liu Chan's reply, no matter how dissatisfied Li Yan was, no matter how persistently he opposed it, he still had to do what he should do as Shangshu Ling. Coordinate the logistics for Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition to Youzhou.
On Zhuge Liang's side, after receiving Liu Chan's formal edict, he did not hesitate and immediately launched an army.
Deng Ai was ordered to lead an army of 30,000 men, approaching Jieqiao, attracting Sima Yi from the east of Jizhou to send troops for a confrontation.
Of course, the soldiers and horses along this route were just a cover. In fact, even if Deng Ai only brought 10,000 soldiers and horses, Zhuge Liang was sure that Sima Yi would not choose to return to Youzhou to aid.
Zhuge Liang has already figured out what this old fox is planning, and Zhuge Liang doesn't mind giving this old fox a reputation. As long as he doesn't delay his own destruction of Wei.
The main reason why Deng Ai was asked to take 30,000 troops to Jieqiao was because he was worried that Sima Yi, an old fox, would be greedy and really defeat Deng Ai and counterattack Yecheng, greedy for heaven's credit.
Although Zhuge Liang is very satisfied with the current Deng Ai, considering that the opponent is Sima Yi after all, it is not a bad thing to give Deng Ai more troops.
After detaching Deng Ai to go to Jieqiao to attract Sima Yi's attention, Zhuge Liang personally led 20,000 soldiers from Jizhou County to the north and joined Jiang Wei's 50,000 soldiers and horses stationed in Fanyang County, for a total of 70,000 people.
Then, wait for Wei Yan, the governor of Bingzhou, to lead 20,000 Bingzhou cavalry to come to the rescue. With a total of 90,000 people, the official Northern Expedition to Youzhou can be launched.
After all, it is impossible to attack Youzhou without the help of cavalry.
Even Zhuge Liang was worried that the cavalry was not enough, so he sent people to contact the Xianbei Tuoba clan north of Youzhou, asking them to attack Youzhou from north to south and meet at the foot of Jixian City.
The reason why it is the Xianbei Tuoba clan is that there is a small problem.
Three years ago, the largest tribal group of the Xianbei people was Bu Dugen's tribe.
However, in the past three years, on the one hand, Zhuge Liang deliberately balanced the grassland forces and supported the Tuoba clan against the Butugen tribe. On the other hand, Butugen was really unable to support the wall.
In just three years, Bu Dugen's troops were defeated three times by the Tuoba clan. Now they have shrunk their sphere of influence to the north of Youzhou and west of Goguryeo, and are barely surviving.
Although Zhuge Liang did not want to see the rise of the Tuoba clan, Zhuge Liang did not take it seriously at this point.
After all, none of the surrounding foreign races in these days can fight. Even if the Tuoba clan rises and has the momentum of Ke Bineng, as long as the big man frees his hands, it will only be destroyed in one battle. That’s all.
Zhuge Liang has this confidence.
This time, asking the Tuoba clan to send troops to attack Youzhou was also Zhuge Liang's test of the Xianbei Tuoba clan to see if the hound he had raised in captivity still listened to him.
It should be said that the Xianbei Tuoba clan is worthy of being the foreign tribe in history that can make such a big fuss, and they know the principle of being able to bend and stretch.
This time Zhuge Liang made a move, and the Tuoba clan of Xianbei responded without hesitation and sent 50,000 elite cavalry to attack the northern part of Youzhou.
And with the Tuoba clan of Xianbei sending troops to the border of Youzhou, the Han Dynasty's Northern Expedition to Youzhou finally started.
(End of chapter)
