Chapter 613: War and Peace
Everyone stood there in a daze. Those who advocated war and those who advocated peace glared at each other for a while, then dragged their feet out of the hall in a disorderly manner.
In fact, Hubili had already been planning to retreat.
Ever since the Shenwei Army crossed the Yellow River and began its counterattack, he found that the New Song Dynasty was becoming more and more powerful, and the Shenwei Army was becoming more and more unstoppable. After that, he quietly dispatched and arranged to expand the city in the rear and recruited civilians to open up wasteland and cultivate land.
The girl angrily retreated to the back hall and called Dong's personal guard to give him instructions.
Half a month later, Zhao Yulin returned to Taiyuan Prefecture.
Commander Lai Chuanfang was eager to march east to Zhending Prefecture, but Zhao Yulin said : "Why are you in such a hurry? The brothers have just finished a major battle and are about to start another one. We need to give our men and horses a rest."
Yang Xingyun, who came over with them, said excitedly that General Feng urged Li Tan to capture Waqiao Pass, and Shi Tianze retreated to Qigou Pass. If we capture this pass, the door to Daxing Prefecture will be opened.
When Zhao Yulin saw his brothers, he felt as if he had found a fat sheep in front of him. He smiled and said, "Why rush? Once Hubili finds out that the strength of our Eastward Corps on the Great Wall cannot be underestimated, the battle will be easier to fight."
Now, let Da Kui and his men fight to the death with the Hebei Army of the Grassland Empire, delay them as much as possible, and annihilate their manpower. As I said before: the enemy is not a soft persimmon, we must act after careful planning. The failure of our ancestors' northern expedition to Youzhou is a good example.
Yang Xingyun was no longer excited and called his brothers together to make plans.
At present, the Shenwei Army has transferred Hao Xiaoming 's main force to Datong Prefecture. Zhang Zhi is the commander, leading the cavalry and infantry, plus the newly formed Second Battalion, advancing eastward along the Great Wall. This is considered the Western Army of the New Song Dynasty. Feng Guiqi's group is considered the Shandong Corps of the New Song Dynasty and is advancing both by land and water. This is considered the Eastern Army.
Taiyuan Prefecture is the central army with strong men and horses. It doesn't matter how to attack. Zhao Yulin believes that the important thing is to choose the right time and give the enemy the final blow.
He sat down and carefully sorted out the battle reports of the past few days, thought about how to govern the recovered areas, and honestly wrote reports to the king's wife, Zhao Feiyan.
At this moment, Zhao Feiyan in Chengdu was slumped in a chair, crying, feeling powerless.
The chief of the navy sent a top-secret intelligence written by General Feng Guiqi: Zhao Yulin's eldest son Ma Yuan was unfortunately shot in the battle with the Mongolian army in Zhuozhou and died for his country after unsuccessful treatment.
After Ma Yuan returned from Thang Long, Zhao Yulin personally arranged for him to be the captain of Li Da Kui's guard. The kid was determined to go into the battlefield and kill the enemy, and Da Kui couldn't persuade him, so he promoted him and released him. Unexpectedly, he still collapsed in front of Waqiao Pass.
Da Kui was stunned when he heard the news that Ma Yuan had sacrificed her life.
Who is Ma Yuan?
He was the first child of Zhao Yulin and his first wife Ma Ling. In the previous dynasty, he would have been the crown prince. How come he died in his hands?
This guy immediately ordered the news to be blocked and no one was allowed to talk about it.
Li Da Kui couldn't sleep for several nights in a row. He was so anxious that his black hair turned gray. He went to report the secret to the head coach Feng Guiqi in person.
As soon as Feng Guiqi caught her, he started scolding her and blaming her for being stupid. He knew that Yuanzi was brave enough to fight and the third young master had placed the child by his side as a guard because he was worried that Yuanzi would get hurt again and didn't want Ma Yuan to go to the battlefield again. So why did he let her go?
Despite the scolding, the two brothers still set out the food and wine to drink together, and Feng Guiqi seemed to have aged a lot.
He told Da Kui that swords have no eyes, and there will always be casualties in war, and he believed that the Third Young Master would understand. However, the Young Master was still commanding the battle in the army, so he couldn't let this distract him.
We shouldn't let this cause us to lose our composure.
The two of them discussed it together and reported it to Zhao Feiyan.
This news was like a bolt from the blue for Zhao Feiyan. She collapsed in her chair before she even finished reading. Dongmei, who was delivering the letter, hurried forward to support her. Both women had tears in their eyes.
She asked Dongmei what to do?
Dongmei was at a loss and thought that she had to let Sister Ma Ling know. Ma Yuan was gone, and the news would leak out sooner or later, but Brother Yulin was still commanding the battle at the front, so we could only keep it a secret for one day.
Feiyan stood up and said that she would go back to Cuiping Mountain to talk to Sister Ma Ling in person, and would stay with her for a few days before coming back.
Dongmei disagreed, believing that the court needed stability at this critical juncture and the king could not leave at will.
At this time, the maid reported: Vice King Miao and General Fenghuang have arrived.
Zhao Feiyan immediately stood up and came in, pulling Fenghuang to ask what to do.
When Dongmei sent the secret report of Ma Yuan's sacrifice, it was also sent to the Privy Council. After reading it, Miao Gui immediately brought Fire Phoenix to find Feiyan. Phoenix told her not to worry, and she and Brother Miao would go to Cuiping Mountain to tell Sister Ma Ling that Sister Ma Ling had worked hard with Brother Miao and others at the Yibin dock and would definitely be able to hold on.
Miao Gui nodded heavily and asked King Feiyan to guard Chengdu while he would accompany Madam Fenghuang to Yibin immediately.
Everyone dispersed.
Feiyan felt upset and went into the study to look through the manuscripts written by Zhao Yulin in the past. A draft with big characters "It is better to use the remaining courage to pursue the enemy than to seek fame by imitating the tyrant" fell to the ground. She picked it up and looked at it, and immediately had an idea.
Feiyan locked herself in the study and wrote furiously, and soon completed a manifesto to attack the grassland empire.
When Shunzhidi returned home, she saw Zhao Feiyan, whose face was filled with grief and indignation, still revising the article. When she learned that her eldest son Ma Yuan had died for the country, she became furious. She slammed the table with her fist and said with gritted teeth: We must defeat and recapture the Northern Barbarians to comfort countless passionate warriors like Ma Yuan.
The royal court of the northern grasslands welcomed the first snow, which was also a strange scene.
The Khan Mengge had been vomiting blood all the way back to the palace, and only a few of his fingers could move with difficulty after he moved into the palace. Now, the Khan's body was actually cold, but it still had a little warmth because he was lying on the heated kang with burning firewood.
People in the palace came and went in a hurry, without greeting each other, and only communicated with eye contact. However, someone still leaked the news: Mengge Khan ascended to heaven.
The Khan's mother, Sulukhnidi, was worried about changes in the royal court, so she wiped away her tears and appointed the temporary regent to take charge of the situation. However, Mengge's eldest wife, her daughter-in-law, was dissatisfied and complained in the palace.
Because, according to the ritual system, she, the daughter-in-law, should be the regent.
How could this young woman know that there were already undercurrents in the royal court, not only did she want to monopolize power, but even her youngest son wanted to inherit the throne and become the Khan.
However, in order to become the Great Khan in the grassland empire, one not only had to have the orthodox procedures for succession, but also had to have a stronger fist.
To put it simply, it is a comparison of comprehensive strength. Whoever is stronger can sit on the throne of Khan.
Suluhenidi discovered signs of instability in the royal court. While making arrangements to stabilize the situation, she sent a messenger to urgently summon her fourth son, Hubili.
Hubili was still commanding the battle against the Shenwei Army on the southern front.
This time, the Shenwei Army attacked his Hebei Province, and the military action was both resolute and steady.
After the Shenwei Army captured Yunzhou in one fell swoop, it did not immediately move eastward to attack Daxing Prefecture, but instead moved westward to capture Jiuyuan, connecting the controlled area with Shaanxi Road, establishing a stable rear before encircling along the Great Wall.
This is what Hubili smelled danger.
He just received the news that the Shenwei Army, with cavalry as the main force, was rapidly maneuvering and had already reached the city of Wuzhou. It was only a matter of time before Wuzhou fell. The Shenwei Army did not advance from the south to the north and from the west to the east, but chose to come from the Great Wall first. What was it for ?
Even a fool could see that the Shenwei Army was going to surround him and wipe him out.
"Mad, what a big appetite."
"Aren't you afraid of bursting your belly?"
Hubili cursed inwardly, then held the lamp in his right hand and fumbled with the map hanging on the wall with his left hand to think about how to deal with the enemy.
In Baozhou, Shi Tianze, commander of the southern front of the Mongolian army, was also making plans. His troops had fought successively with the Shenwei Army, but due to lack of military strength, they were defeated again and again and were very tired. They had no choice but to shrink their front line and were at the last barrier of Daxing Prefecture, where they could no longer retreat.
However, the military situation became increasingly critical.
This guy had long heard that the Khan of the grassland had failed in the battle of Yunzhou and that the Shenwei Army had swept across the entire Datong Prefecture. From that time on, this guy felt that he could not stay in the Central Plains for long.
However, he was very reluctant to give up his ancestral home in the Central Plains and go to the grasslands outside the Great Wall . So he tried his best to stop Li Tan from going north, and in the battle of Waqiao Pass, he cleverly set up a magic array and ambushed Li Tan's vanguard, causing Zhao Yulin's eldest son Ma Yuan to be shot and died.
Seeing the Shenwei Army attacking Qigou Pass fiercely, this guy found that fighting was just a waste of manpower. He could not bear it, so he took the initiative to withdraw his troops to Baozhou.
Deputy General Zhang Xi said slowly: I heard that the civil officials of Daxing Prefecture and the immortals of Quanzhen Sect are moving and going outside the Great Wall.
The "outside the Great Wall" this guy mentioned all the time refers to the area north of the Great Wall.
Hubili had quietly arranged for his personal guards to mobilize and move away the ministers and civilians he considered useful, in order to reserve talent for his future comeback.
Shi Tianze said expressionlessly: "How can I make the decision without permission if Lord Hu didn't tell me to retreat?" Besides, General Zhang can go back to his hometown, but my roots are right under my feet, where can I move?
While they were talking, the personal guard came in to report: Cao Shaoqing, the leader of the Cao Gang, has arrived.
The fellow immediately ordered him to come in.
Cao Shaoqing, the leader of the Cao Gang, led 100,000 members of the Cao Gang. Although they were almost completely destroyed by the Shenwei Army's continuous advance northward, they were not alone. As the saying goes: Even if the boat is rotten, there are still 3,000 nails, and there are still a bunch of minions under his command.
This guy and Shi Tianze are good friends. He came to find him immediately after receiving the secret report from his subordinates.
Cao Shaoqing sat down, picked up the tea bowl, took a sip of tea to moisten his burning throat, and then said: Brother, something terrible is happening. The Shenwei Army is invading from the south, and Lai Chuanfang's troops from the west are also coming. Brother, I am worried. The building is about to collapse.
Shi Tianze glanced at Cao Shaoqing, then calmly picked up the teacup and drank tea.
When the deputy general Zhang Xi saw that Shi Tianze didn't say anything, he immediately said goodbye and left.
The fellow continued: There are rumors in the martial arts world that the Shenwei Army's cavalry is very powerful, and the army is advancing eastward along the Great Wall. If this is true, then the news that Prince Hu is moving cannot be false, so big brother, you'd better make a decision quickly.
It's too late, we are all trapped in a jar.
