Chapter 1869 Renzijuan is in danger, lips and tongues are clashing

 When she received the letter from her father, Feng Ziying was discussing the situation in the north with Wang Wenyan.

Su Shengdu's incompetence directly led to the overnight loss of the 50,000-strong army in Shanxi Town. This was as painful as cramps and skin peeling for the imperial court, which already had insufficient troops.

 The news coming from Liaodong shows that the Jianzhou women are ready to make a move. They have constant secret exchanges with the Chahar people. They are obviously colluding. The target can only be Dazhou, and they are preparing to cooperate with them.

 This put a lot of pressure on Liaodong Town and Ji Town.

It can be said that the current Liaodong Town and Ji Town cannot allocate troops to deal with it. The court even needs to consider reserve teams in case of unexpected events, especially from Ji Town, which has already drawn more than 20,000 people. Extremely stressful.

 The situation when the Chahar people invaded last year is still fresh in my mind. If this year is like the year before last, I'm afraid it won't be so simple to end.

Xuanfu Town has just begun to rebuild. Sun Shaozu took away most of the elite of Datong Town. Shanxi Town, the only town with all beards and tails, lost most of it to Su Shengdu, a fool. They were also severely damaged and it was impossible to draw out more troops. In addition, The northwest army formed in the three sides and four towns is attacking Shandong in the south. It is impossible to divide its troops to the north, so the situation in the north is very dangerous.

Of course, for the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army, their forces are limited. If they want to go further north, such as occupying Hejian Prefecture, Zhending Prefecture, and Guangping Prefecture, they are still unable to do so. They can attack instead of defend. Threatening the surrounding areas to the north would be considered as achieving the goal.

 What they have to do is to delay as much time as possible. As long as the war can be delayed until the second half of this year, it will be considered a victory without a fight.

The Northland, which was already affected by drought, has now lost most of Shandong, which has the best conditions. Water transportation has been interrupted and there is no supply of food, cloth and other materials from Jiangnan and even Huguang. The entire Northland will surely fall into chaos, and the court will be unable to If it continues to be supported, the bureaucracy will collapse, the nine-sided army will mutiny and rebel, the people in the north will swarm out of food and clothing, and the entire Zhou regime will naturally fall apart. This does not include the Jianzhou Jurchens and Chaha who came from outside the customs. You are taking advantage of the situation to rob you.

Although Feng Ziying had long expected that something would happen on the northern front, she did not expect that such a big thing would happen as soon as it happened.

More than 50,000 Shanxi Town elites were defeated without a word. This was even more unacceptable than the defeat of Santun Camp the year before last. After all, everyone knew the situation in Jingying, but Shanxi Town was also considered one of the strongest towns in the world. One, why did it collapse so silently? It cannot be the same if one general is incompetent and a thousand troops are exhausted.

It is meaningless to think about other things now. Even though You Shilu was bold, he did not dare to be rash now. He retreated to the line from Botou Town to Nanpi, and even prepared to attack Sun Shaozu once the Datong Army continued to move north. We must retreat to Cangzhou.

 This is really embarrassing.

"Master You has no choice. He only has more than 20,000 people in his hands. They can still fight together. But once the Shanxi army collapses, Niu Jizong's partial army will no longer be restricted. Xie Wensheng can go north from Jiaohe at any time. A side spin and then around to the back to cut off Mr. You's retreat. At that time, Sun Shaozu will go north along the canal, and Mr. You will be a threat. Therefore, anyone in this situation can only protect themselves and preserve their living strength. is the most important thing, otherwise this army will be destroyed as soon as it is surrounded, then either the Jizhen Army will have to completely abandon its northern defense and allow the Chahar people to go south to block Sun Shaozu and Xie Wensheng, or they will have no choice but to Let Sun Shaozu march into Shuntian Mansion."

Wang Wenyan looked at the map and said while flipping through the messages passed back.

"Sun Shaozu and Xie Wensheng will not go north. They don't have the strength or the courage." Feng Ziying shook her head, "They are just pretending to go north, which scares these people and they can only retreat first. Look, this is exactly what they want to achieve. Time has passed in a flash. It is already March. When You Shilu and the others re-raise their troops, assemble and prepare for the offensive, when will it be? Five Moon? Then it’s time to harvest the summer grain again. Doesn’t this give the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army a chance to breathe? My father’s purpose of cutting off the water transportation is to make the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army have no food to eat and force them to commit suicide. It was a chaotic situation, but now that we really have to wait until the summer grain harvest, Niu Jizong and Sun Shaozu can hold on for a while, and this effect has been greatly reduced."

"If Niu Jizong and Sun Shaozu really have to rely on food from the places along the canal, I am afraid that the tacit understanding between them and these places will be broken, and these places will obey and disobey the various demands of Niu Jizong and Sun Shaozu." Wang Wenyan pondered. Said: "I think Niu Jizong has attached great importance to maintaining relations with the local authorities in Shandong in the past six months. Although he knows that Shandong is unlikely to surrender to them, he has always maintained this tacit understanding..."

"Humph, classical Chinese, times have changed. Niu Jizong had such a low-key attitude in the early days because he needed to maintain this situation and avoid affecting their survival in Shandong. But once it was delayed to the second half of this year, the Northland was in chaos, and the court It is difficult to maintain the situation. Do you think he will still be polite to Shandong? Although the Shandong gentry's inner emotions are inclined towards the imperial court, when they find that the chaos in the north makes it difficult for the imperial court to maintain, they will give up that emotional inclination, and I fell in love with Prince Yoshitaka, family interests will always outweigh pure emotional inclinations."

 “What should we do?” Wang Wenyan was also a little anxious.

"My father's purpose is very clear, which is to force Niu Jizong to lead his army south to open up water transportation and recapture Xia Town. My father plans to have a battle with Niu Jizong in Yanzhou to determine the war situation in Shandong and even the North." Feng Ziying said solemnly. , "If it is delayed until May and June, Niu Jizong may not be so motivated to go south to recapture Xia Town, so Sun Shaozu and Niu Jizong cannot be allowed to have so much time to consolidate their current control area and delay it until May, when the summer grain is harvested. They can drag it on."

Wang Wenyan understood what Feng Ziying meant. Sun Shaozu and Niu Jizong now control Dongchang Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture in eastern Shandong, as well as the west and north of Jinan Prefecture, the south of Hejian Prefecture, the east of Zhending Prefecture, and the east of Shunde Prefecture. Compared with the area that only controlled Dongchang Prefecture, Yanzhou Prefecture and part of Jinan Prefecture at the beginning, it is much larger, with at least more than ten states and counties. Once the food in these places is harvested, it will be enough for the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army. Support two months of income.

“But how can Mr. You take the initiative to fight against Sun Shaozu’s Datong Army with the small amount of troops he has now?” Wang Wenyan asked rhetorically: “There are no available troops around the capital at the moment.”

"It's not that there are no available troops, but it depends on whether the imperial court dares to take this risk." Feng Ziying said solemnly: "The Beijing camp, as well as the new Xuanfu army being formed, are not unable to use some of their troops."

Wang Wenyan was horrified, "Sir, is the Beijing camp available? Also, the new Xuanfu army has just been formed and has not yet become an army."

"So I said it depends on whether the imperial court dares to take this risk, or draw the Third Family Army?" Feng Ziying sneered, "Can they not see the bad situation at hand? If they really want the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army to If Shandong survives until the second half of the year, the situation will be dangerous."

Feng Ziying's guess was correct. All the princes in the court were not stupid. They all saw the danger of this situation. Especially Zhang Huaichang, Zhang Jingqiu, Chai Ke and other people who were knowledgeable in military affairs felt strongly uneasy.

"We can't drag it on like this, we must let You Shilu come forward. Sun Shaozu put up this posture just to scare You Shilu away, and then achieve the purpose of delaying time. Sun Shaozu only has a total of 50,000 to 60,000 people, and the main force is still In Dezhou and Linqing, why do you dare to go out to Jiaohe and Dongguang?" Chai Ke was furious, "Ningjin was also occupied by Sun Shaozu, and how many thousands of soldiers were sent? Are there two thousand? If we continue to delay, we may not even be able to defeat him. Will Yanshan and Qingyun be lost?"

 Xu Dahua strongly recommended Su Shengdu as the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary army in Shanxi Town, which led to the defeat of the Shanxi army. He was impeached by many censors and took the initiative to take the title. Now there is a vacancy for the left minister of the Ministry of War.

Qi Yongtai suggested that Sun Chengzong, who had just returned from Sichuan, be directly appointed. This suggestion also caused some controversy. Ye Xianggao, Fang Congzhe and Li Sancai all urged caution. After all, Sun Chengzong was only a fifth-grade doctor two years ago, and now he was suddenly promoted. Zuo Shilang, the third-rank official, was a bit out of line, but Qi Yongtai insisted and the situation was deadlocked for a while, so he had no choice but to shelve it.

Xiong Tingbi, the right minister and commander-in-chief of Jingxiang Town, was in full battle with Yang Yinglong in Sichuan.

"Feng Tang can't be too conservative. It's a good thing to capture Xia Town, but water from afar can't quench the thirst for nearby people. What is Liu Baichuan who is stationed in Jize doing? He didn't even see the shadow of the enemy, so he was so scared that he peed his buttocks. Liu Liu, in one breath he abandoned Julu and Guangzong and ran south. By the way, there were also Wei County and Qinghe. Needless to say, they gave them to Niu Jizong without a single blow." Li Sancai said in a deep voice: "This guy himself They are rebel generals, and the imperial court gave them a chance, and they behave like this? Didn’t the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Long Jinwei examine it carefully?"

As a cabinet minister in charge of military affairs, Li Sancai was also under great pressure. When Xu Dahua recommended Su Shengdu, many people were opposed to it, including Zhang Huaichang, the Minister of War, and Ye Xianggao and Fang Congze among the cabinet ministers. Yongtai did not express his position because he did not understand Su Shengdu. However, it was Li San who obtained Xu Dahua's repeated assurances and finally supported Su Shengdu, which led to this situation.

Although Xu Dahua resigned and took most of the responsibility, Li Sancai also knew that many censors from the Metropolitan Procuratorate were watching and preparing to impeach him, so he knew very well that if he could not If he comes up with the right advice and wins a victory, I'm afraid it will be time for him to resign and leave next time.

 (End of this chapter)