"Master Jiang, can you give me a real idea of how many people are listening to your greetings in various parts of Posuo Mansion now?" After chatting for a long time, Xing Dalin didn't have much patience anymore and asked Jiang Chong directly:
Hearing Xing Dalin's question, Jiang Chong also understood that if he wanted to get benefits from Song Wenhui, he must prove his worth and strength to Song Wenhui. Such a very simple truth, he pondered for a moment He immediately spoke and said:
"The most elite two thousand cavalry team in Baihu Mountain was brought out by me. They don't recognize anyone except my orders!"
"My brother Jiang Yuan has 1,500 men under his command, and they are all ruthless and murderous men. My brother-in-law Jia He also has a thousand men under his command!"
"Brothers Sun Wen and Sun Bao, I have saved their lives and given them a lot of benefits. They have been following me. They have two thousand men under their command. They must listen to my orders!"
"In addition to these people, if you give me enough money, I can also bribe a few leaders, and I can recruit one or two thousand people, no problem!"
Hearing the troops listed by Jiang Chong, Xing Dalin's expression became somewhat solemn, which made him look much better. The total number of troops under Zhen Sanshan would not exceed 20,000, and the ones Jiang Chong listed There are already seven or eight thousand of these soldiers and horses, accounting for almost half of Song Wenhui's soldiers and horses...
From this point of view, Jiang Chong is quite powerful. He is feared by Zhensanshan and it is not unfair to distrust him. This guy still has some value that can be exploited.
Because the original plan was no longer realistic, and making a new plan required long-term planning, Xing Dalin spent the rest of the banquet mainly asking Jiang Chong about the situation of Zhen Sanshan's subordinates, such as What is the combat strength of each department, the deployment of troops in Posuo Mansion, etc.
Seeing the three thousand taels of silver as a meeting gift, Jiang Chong also selectively answered some of Xing Dalin's questions, making Xing Dalin generally satisfied.
After finishing his secret meeting with Zhen Sanshan, Xing Dalin returned to Posuofu City and immediately wrote a secret letter about what he saw and heard, as well as his own opinions, and passed it on to people in flying pigeons. The letter was written to Song Wenhui, the governor of Liaoyang who was far away in Dongning.
As the Zhenwu Army grew stronger in the hands of Chen Dechang, although Song Wenhui's Liaoyang Army still had the advantage, Song Wenhui himself had already realized that due to his indecision, he had missed the best opportunity to deal with the Zhenwu Army. Now the Zhenwu Army has become a serious problem for him...
Song Wenhui has made up his mind to launch a spring offensive after next spring to eliminate the Zhenwu Army without giving the Zhenwu Army a chance to continue to develop. However, in this case, Song Wenhui will face some new problems!
The first of these is the goal Song Wenhui set for himself!
What Song Wenhui wants is to cut through the mess quickly and achieve a quick victory. It is best to completely resolve the battle within a month!
Song Wenhui also had his own reasons for doing this!
Liaoyang Province was in the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty, although it ranked first among many provinces in terms of area!
However, because it is located on the border, the weather is cold, the population is sparsely populated, and it has to face the eager eyes of Luobei, Khitan, Shiwei and other foreign races, so Liaoyang Province has never been a wealthy place in the past dynasties. poor province!
Although Song Wenhui is now the governor of Liaoyang, commanding the entire territory of Liaoyang, and the local emperor of Liaoyang, his control over the vast rural areas in Liaoyang is not very high because of banditry.
In those important towns, there are also those aristocratic families who suck blood, and Song Wenhui, who needs the support of the aristocratic families to maintain his rule, is really afraid of infringing on the interests of the aristocratic families. He has the thief heart, but does not have the thief courage, for fear of his actions. , pushing the nobles of the aristocratic family to oppose him...
If he didn't dare to offend the family members, Song Wenhui could only get money from the people who were already hungry and cold.
Although Song Wenhui has tried his best to squeeze the poor people, and the taxes have been collected for five years, and in some places they have been collected for ten years, these poor people who already have difficulty eating are full of energy. How many pieces?
Therefore, the amount of money and taxes that Song Wenhui could collect every year was not very large. After excluding the part that was handed over to the court for fear of Shangguan Hongyuan's troops, the money and food that actually fell into Song Wenhui's pocket was only enough for Song Wenhui to support tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under his command. There is rarely a surplus...
Therefore, one of Song Wenhui's difficulties was that he was afraid that if the war dragged on for too long and fell into a tug-of-war, his financial situation would not be able to support it, and he would have no money and food for his wolf-like warriors. Song Wenhui's plan for Liaoyang The rule is naturally in danger!
In a short period of time, Song Wenhui may be able to rely on his prestige in Liaoyang for more than ten years to suppress him, but if time goes by, Song Wenhui himself cannot guarantee what will happen!
The second reason for this difficulty is that Song Wenhui is worried that after fighting the wolf, the tiger will come again, one wave after another!
It can be said that Liaoyang Province is surrounded by wolves. On the surface, foreign races such as Luobei people and Khitan people are eyeing it, and secretly there is the Black Dragon Society who also wants to get a share of the pie!
Therefore, if the Zhenwu Army cannot be eliminated quickly and the Zhenwu Army is eliminated as soon as possible, then even if the Zhenwu Army is finally eliminated and this hidden danger is resolved, then he who will suffer heavy losses will most likely be spied on by aliens and invaded by aliens. !
In addition to facing the dual threats from the outside and the inside, Song Wenhui also faced the threat from the imperial court and the threat from the 200,000 elite forbidden troops built by the Zhou Dynasty with all its efforts... ····
Although the situation in the court has been treacherous recently, and there is a sign that a storm is coming, as long as Shangguan Hongyuan is not dead, the military power of the 200,000 forbidden troops of the Great Zhou court will still be in Shangguan's hands. Hongyuan's hands.
So when Song Wenhui killed the Zhenwu Army, he would have to face Shangguan Hongyuan's thunderous wrath. The powerful Shangguan Hongyuan could publicly declare Song Wenhui a traitor and control the name of righteousness, and then use the imperial court to In the name of the emperor, he mobilized the soldiers and horses from all over the world to conquer Song Wenhui!
Therefore, Song Wenhui's third reason for wanting a quick victory is to avoid being attacked from both front and back as much as possible. If the Forbidden Army and Zhenwu Army are allowed to meet in Liaoyang, then Song Wenhui will definitely die!
Fear of conquest by the Forbidden Army was one of the important reasons why Song Wenhui had always dared not take action against the Zhenwu Army.
Of course, now Song Wenhui is determined to take action against the Zhenwu Army. On the one hand, he realizes that Shangguan Hongyuan is slowly cutting his flesh with a knife...
If we don't take advantage of the advantage and fight now, when the Zhenwu Army slowly grows stronger, we will be waiting for the kill, and we will definitely be killed by Shangguan Hongyuan.
On the other hand, it was also after contact with people from all parties that Song Wenhui was confident that the situation in the court would undergo earth-shaking changes in the near future. Even if Shangguan Hongyuan did not die, he would be too overwhelmed and too busy to take care of himself. Liaoyang's Zhenwu Army!
Because of these three difficulties, although Song Wenhui wanted to make a quick decision and get rid of the Zhenwu Army quickly, wanting to do something and being able to do it are two completely different concepts!
According to the information collected by Song Wenhui, the strength of the Zhenwu Army in Changqing Mansion and Fengzhou has reached more than 45,000. Not only that, their strength is continuing to grow. It is expected that after the spring of next year, their strength will It will definitely break through the 50,000 mark, and may even reach 60,000 people...
Although Song Wenhui was forced to participate in the arms race, he was constantly recruiting troops, and his military strength reached nearly 90,000.
But who put Song Wenhui on the offensive and Zhenwu Army on the defensive?
Sun Tzu said in The Art of War that if you are ten, you can surround it, if you are five, you can attack it, and if you have doubled it, you can divide it!
As the defender, the Zhenwu Army was hiding in the city and was protected by the city wall, which offset Song Wenhui's military advantage. And the most important point was that Song Wenhui was anxious, but the Zhenwu Army was not anxious. They could completely hide in In the city, we slowly spent little by little with Song Wenhui, waiting for possible reinforcements to arrive...
Song Wenhui certainly knew this, so he hoped to find an ally who could help them deal with the Zhenwu Army!
Song Wenhui, who has always been ruthless and unscrupulous in order to achieve his goals, preferred foreign races like the Luo Bei and Khitan people!
The reason is very simple. Changqing Mansion, where the Zhenwu Army is located, is Liaoyang's first line of defense against the Luobi people. When Song Wenhui transferred the Zhenwu Army to Changqing Mansion, he wanted the Zhenwu Army to act as a shield for him. idea!
But unfortunately, the Luobi people and the Kipchak Khanate suffered a lot after a collision in the Elonqen Grassland. The main force of the Zhenwu Army, under the command of Wang Muzhi, was tightly deployed in the counties under the jurisdiction of Changqing Prefecture. Give the Luobei people any opportunity to take advantage of them.
Therefore, the Luobei people did not see the opportunity to take advantage, so they never went south. In this way, Song Wenhui's wishful thinking of using the Zhenwu Army as a shield suddenly came to nothing.
However, if Song Wenhui takes the initiative to contact the Luobi people and attack the Zhenwu Army from both sides, the Luobi people will definitely agree for the sake of their own interests.
The Luobei people are the second largest force in the grassland after the Kipchak Khanate. They can be said to have strong military strength. Although they were defeated by the Kipchaks in the Elonqen Grassland just now and suffered heavy losses, they mobilized 70,000 to 80,000 people for the war in a short period of time. People, there is still no problem. With their help, the defeat of the Zhenwu Army, which is attacked from both sides, is an inevitable result...
Considering this matter purely from a military perspective, this is a masterstroke that can influence the outcome of the situation!
But the military has always served politics, and the military is an extension of politics!
As the governor of Liaoyang, Song Wenhui not only has to consider the military benefits, he also has to consider the political impact!
To simply deal with the Zhenwu Army, Song Wenhui could also find a series of excuses, saying that the Zhenwu Army's military discipline was corrupt and disturbing the people of Liaoyang, and that as the governor of Liaoyang, he was doing harm to the people, or that the Zhenwu Army mobilized secretly and did not obey orders. He has evil intentions, and even as a local snake, he can concoct a lot of evidence to give himself a moral foothold!
Even if Shangguan Hongyuan publicly declares him a traitor, Song Wenhui can still fight with Shangguan Hongyuan in the distance, saying that Shangguan Hongyuan is the number one traitor of the Zhou Dynasty for holding the emperor hostage to order the princes. Shangguan Hongyuan is incompatible with water and fire. As long as Song Wenhui is the leader, everyone will support him.
But if you unite with foreign tribes to deal with Zhenwu Army, then this is another matter!
The Great Zhou Dynasty and even the previous dynasties have had countless bloody feuds with foreign races for thousands of years. If Song Wenhui dared to risk the disapproval of the world and join forces with the Luo Bei people to deal with the Zhenwu Army, he would be annihilating himself from the Great Zhou Dynasty and the world. Total treason!
No excuses!
In terms of justice, I have already lost everything...
Song Wenhui's reputation was completely ruined from now on, and everyone in the world was ashamed to be in Song Wenhui's company!
In this way, Song Wenhui first had to face the excitement of the masses from his soldiers, the turbulent public opinion, and the disunity of the wealthy families who supported him. It can be said that more than half of the battle has been lost before it was even fought!
Secondly, although the world's aristocratic families value profit, they still want face. If Song Wenhui dared to collude with foreigners, they would be destined to die if they didn't curse Song Wenhui to death!
In addition, the saying that people who are not from my race will have different hearts is not just a saying. The Luo Bei people are also famous for their wolfish ambitions. There is no guarantee that after they kill the Zhenwu Army, they will do something wrong to Song Wenhui, their ally. thought!
Therefore, considering the political influence of colluding with the Luobi people and the risk of attracting wolves into the house, Song Wenhui and a few of his confidants decided to give up this plan after a little discussion.
Colluding with the Luo Bei people is a matter of killing five hundred enemies and damaging one thousand. There is no way to do it. Song Wenhui will never do such a thing until the end of the road and complete defeat!
The foreign race cannot be chosen, so there is only one ally left that Song Wenhui believes has the strength to help him deal with the Zhenwu Army - Liaoyang Green Forest Chief Laobaozi Zhen Sanshan!
Occupied in the Zhensan Mountain of Posuo Prefecture, although there are not many people in the headquarters, probably no more than 20,000, this old man has been living in Liaoyang Green Forest all his life, and his reputation and prestige are high enough!
He stood up and raised his arms in the green forest. The number of thieves, gangsters, bandits, caravans and other people in the green forest who could be gathered was not 100,000, but probably 78,000 or 80,000. Even if this group of people was just a mob, they could not do anything. Cannon fodder is enough...
Therefore, Song Wenhui always wanted to drag Zhen Sanshan onto his pirate ship and let Zhen Sanshan join him in the Zhenwu Army. To this end, he also wrote many personal letters to Zhen Sanshan and offered a very high price. Even he The great governor did not hesitate to lower his status and wanted to meet Zhen Sanshan, the bandit leader, in Posuo Mansion.
