Ever since Dong Tianxing made an analysis of the battlefield situation last time, Li Bing had been thinking about whether he was really impatient about the idea of counterattacking the imperial capital.
Later, Murong Xue returned to Luoyi from the front line, and Li Bing specifically sought the opinion of the imperial general. Unexpectedly, Murong Xue, like Dong Tianxing, believed that it was indeed necessary to counterattack the imperial capital, but now it was too risky and undesirable to implement the strategy of advancing from east to west.
Murong Xue's weight was of course unmatched by Lao Dong. Li Bing immediately accepted the opinions of his trusted ministers and decided to issue an order to the Zhenjiang Army and Jingxiang Army, withdrawing the previous orders and replacing them with a steady and step-by-step approach. Strategy.
The imperial capital is there anyway, and it won't grow legs to run away, so just wait for the best time before taking action.
With the new purpose, Li Jiangyao finally felt relieved. After all, their Suppressing Army is also the army of Shengtang. No one wants to bear the infamy of disobeying the emperor unless it is absolutely necessary.
Now that the monarch and his ministers had temporarily reached an agreement, he immediately concentrated on arranging the army and preparing for war.
In the Battle of Zijin Pass, the losses of the troops were too great.
Five legions participated in the battle, and four of them each lost tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and countless others were injured.
The entire city was severely beaten, and the consumption of arrows, ammunition, and various supplies was almost astronomical.
However, fortunately, one hundred thousand soldiers from the Western Xinjiang affiliated army defected in the face of the battle, which was equivalent to adding an effective force out of thin air.
Li Jiangyao was not polite and immediately showed his banner as the Holy King of Western Xinjiang and reorganized the 100,000 soldiers and horses on the spot.
Sixty thousand people were transferred to the First Army, Third Army, Sixth Army and Seventh Army respectively to replenish troops.
The remaining 40,000 formed the Ninth Army of Zhenjiang, codenamed "Kangsha".
After consideration, Li Jiangyao decided to set up an expedition camp west of Zijin Pass. Wind, fire, thunder, raging waves, heavy rain, cold waves, and wild sand, seven legions were stationed here, resting and training at the same time, ready to march eastward and expedition to the imperial capital at any time.
The Fourth Army of Shenhua guards Shengyuguan, and the Fifth Army of Great Stone guards Zijin Pass. At the same time, they guard the hinterland of Western Xinjiang to prevent accidents.
Xie Tanzhi stayed in Metasequoia City and commanded the Xinjiang military government to assist various countries in restoring production and stabilizing people's hearts.
Situ Wushou was in charge of the government and city offices under the military government, and worked with Efentia to gradually resume Silk Road trade with the Western Continent.
As the chief quartermaster, Ma Mu concentrates on hoarding various war necessities and continuously transports these massive supplies to the expedition camp.
Yuduoluo adjusted the action direction of the Intelligence Department, and quickly changed from monitoring the Western Xinjiang to managing the Holy Tang Dynasty.
Xiahou Ninghan was not idle either. She assisted Xia Lian to further expand the scale of the field medical clinic, recruited a large number of experienced doctors and doctors to serve as military doctors, and assigned a dedicated team to each army. Li Jiangyao also suggested to them that at the same time, more young girls from Xijiang should be selected to join the battlefield medical center and serve as military medical assistants. In this way, he can not only effectively treat wounded soldiers, but also receive military pay to subsidize his family's life.
When it comes to military pay, we have to talk about the wealthy Emene.
After learning about the current situation of the Turks, the Persian emperor strengthened his determination to join forces with Shengtang, and immediately instructed Emene to fully support the Xinjiang Army.
With the emperor's approval, the old man personally served as the transportation captain and escorted a thousand carts of silver coins to the expedition camp. He directly distributed special allowances for Li Jiangyao to all the soldiers to celebrate the victory at Zijin Pass.
The soldiers in Zhenjiang were full of talents and got all the work done. This made Li Jiangyao feel a lot more relaxed and could focus more on the political situation in the east.
Recently, Li Jiangyao has received some very important news.
The first one is the Turks' counterattack against Wuguan.
Since Li Bing withdrew his orders and changed the strategy of active attack to active defense, the army led by Ma Hongjie did not choose to advance rashly after wiping out several counties in the northwest of Wuguan, but focused on consolidating the defense line in the Wuguan area.
As a result, the Turkic army could not find opportunities to fight in the plains and wilderness, and could only gnaw at the city walls. The Jingxiang army took advantage of its strength and took turns to defend the Wuguan defense line.
After several tough battles, the Turks gained nothing and had no choice but to return in vain and temporarily retreated to the imperial capital to rest.
The second news is about poison soldiers.
Dong Tianxing planned and organized a suppression battalion. With the help of Wu Rong and Amenta, he fought successively and successfully. A large amount of antidote smoke and detoxifying insect poison were released in the Central Plains, causing the unconscious poisonous monsters to gradually return to normal. Many of the poisonous monsters who were not too deeply poisoned in the first place took the initiative to flee to the suppression camp for help after the toxicity was relieved.
The demon that brought trouble to the Central Plains is being controlled and strangled.
In addition to the battlefield, the changes in Emperor Li Bing also attracted Li Jiangyao's attention.
As the situation against the Turks became more and more favorable to Shengtang, the new emperor's prestige also increased day by day. At this time, the Yizhou court had fully recognized Li Bing's status and began to discuss a plan to move the entire army to Luoyi, the eastern capital.
Once the government offices of the three provinces and six ministries returned to Li Bing, a complete court system could be re-established. After being separated for nearly a thousand days and nights, Emperor Shengtang was finally able to become one with his court again.
The dynasty will also be awakened.
Regarding this situation, Li Jiangyao is certainly happy to see it happen.
Without an efficient governance group, neither war nor people's livelihood can be discussed. If the time drags on a little longer, let alone fighting against the Turkic foreign enemies, I am afraid that the entire Shengtang will be torn into pieces.
However, behind the stability of Emperor Li Bing's throne, there is also something that worries Li Jiangyao.
For example, Shen Lie.
Ni Lin's loyalty and contribution to history are naturally self-evident. However, when the world was not yet completely stable and the internal and external enemies were still very powerful, Li Bing hurriedly attacked the heroes. This was not a good sign.
In addition, the upstart ministers favored by the emperor also had problems. Intelligence shows that young officials from the Eastern Capital, headed by Wei Zixuan, Tian Mu, and Gong Chengze, are forming a secret force and are gradually taking over important positions in finance, supervision, and the military.
Especially Tian Mu, who took over from Shen Lie to lead the Beiya Nilin Division. Many commanders and flag commanders were replaced or excluded, and his cooperation with the Intelligence Department was no longer as close as before.
Even Yuduoluo reported that the Nilin Division actually sent spies to sneak into Western Xinjiang and began to collect targeted intelligence about the Xinjiang Army.
The smell of hostility is getting stronger and stronger.
Li Jiangyao wrote to Murong Xue specifically for this purpose, asking what was going on? Unexpectedly, Murong Xue was also at a loss, and reminded Li Jiangyao that he was also under the supervision of Nilin Division. In the future, he should try not to communicate if possible. If there was any important matter, send a special person to deliver the message to avoid being stolen by spies.
The dark clouds in the Eastern Capital forced Li Jiangyao to worry about Murong Xue's situation, and the drastic changes in the situation in Jiangnan also made him worry about Shen Lie's safety.
The 80,000 Shengtang navy suddenly deployed at several fortresses on the south bank of the river, effectively cutting off the connection between the south and the north of Shengtang in disguise. Fortunately, Shen Lie warned in time, and the state governments on the north bank properly protected the boats in advance, so they were not destroyed one by one by the navy. Otherwise, the entire river would have been completely blocked by the other side.
And Shen Lie went deep into the tiger's den. Although they had the full support of the personnel of the Intelligence Department, they were weak after all, and his opponent Lao Jianhua was also a master in this area. Therefore, Shen Lie suffered heavy losses in recent battles. Not only did he lose Puma and others, but he was also injured twice, trying his best to avoid Lao Jianhua's search.
The most disgusting thing is that the situation is so bad that Tian Mu actually refuses to help and strictly orders the Nilin Division not to deal with Shen Lie.
In desperation, Yuduoluo had to cooperate secretly with Zhou Xing and continued to dispatch a large number of masters to rush to Jiangnan.
Of course, this was not only to support Shen Lie, but also to spy on and monitor the Xuanjia Army.
Since he was far away from the battlefield in the Central Plains, Lao Jianhua's strength was growing in Jiangnan. When they first arrived in the south, their total strength was only 120,000 to 30,000. However, in more than two years, the rebel army has expanded to 250,000, which has doubled.
Moreover, with the cooperation of Bao Yuchunshui's army, the Xuanjia Army attacked from all sides and successively occupied important cities such as Yuzhang, Minzhou, and Ezhou, and their troops reached Lingnan.
It can be said that half of the south has now become Lao Jianhua's territory. A large number of people, resources, and finances are controlled by the rebels, and their foundation is getting stronger and stronger.
This also became one of the reasons why the Yizhou court considered moving to Luoyi as soon as possible.
If you don't leave, you may be blocked by the Xuanjia Army in Bashu and unable to get out!
The situation in the world is unpredictable. Basically, the north is in favor and the south is unfavorable, and the outcome is still between 50 and 50. Anyone who takes it lightly will cause the hard-won victories ahead to fall short.
Just as Li Jiangyao was thinking about how to deploy next, a series of unexpected events suddenly occurred in Luoyi, the eastern capital, which was pulling Murong Xue and Dong Tianxing into the abyss of a conspiracy.
And the source of all this is Tongguan.
Although there is no rush to launch a decisive battle and attack the imperial capital now, it is natural to regain Tongguan. Whichever party controls such a choke point will be more proactive.
In order to prevent the Turks from leaping over the wall and suddenly concentrating their troops to advance into the Central Plains, both Murong Xue and Dong Tianxing agreed to use troops against Tongguan.
The question is, where to use the soldiers.
Murong Xue's idea was that the problem of the poisonous soldiers was being alleviated, and Huaiyang King Li Kuang had been beaten into submission, so he should concentrate the troops directly under the emperor to attack Tongguan.
However, Tian Mu and Gong Chengze put forward different opinions.
They suggested that the Southern Army under Ma Hongjie be mobilized and put under the command of Murong Xue.
Of these two ideas, Li Bing certainly prefers the latter. Moreover, he also wanted to use this incident to test whether the Jingxiang army's current attitude towards the emperor had changed compared with before.
However, no matter how stupid a person is, they understand one thing:
Military power issues usually cost lives.
