The room was not big, and after everyone sat down, it seemed a little too crowded. Lu Wan could only move a small bench and sit near the threshold. Although the door was closed, the wind blowing in from the crack in the door was still there.

It makes your back feel cool.

But he was still very happy.

Look who is sitting in the room?

Xiao Cheng, the first assistant,

Luo Xin from the Sixth Section: Don’t underestimate this position. It’s not a high-ranking position, but it’s in a key position and it’s a real person with great power.

Xie Hong, Governor of Liangjiang,

In the eastern marching camp, Gao Yingxiang, the general manager of the march, and Wei Wu, the deputy general manager.

All of them are high-ranking officials,

He was the only one who was only a seventh-grade county magistrate. No, he had been promoted two levels in a row and became a sixth-grade county magistrate.

But there is still a distance between these people, the boss.

If instead of this meeting, it was held in Qiao County, and the few things he did happened to please the chief minister, I am afraid that for such a meeting, he would have to wait outside the door from a distance.

The meeting of elders is over.

"Now, I still prefer the soldiers from the southwest." Xiao Cheng said straight to the point. "Do you know why?"

Xie Hongdao: "Southwestern soldiers are better at fighting!"

"Yes, the soldiers from the southwest are better at fighting now. Why?" Xiao Cheng said: "Because the natural conditions and economic conditions in the southwest are far worse than those in the Jiangnan area. If people want to survive, they have to fight.

If you want to live a good life, you have to fight. Fight with heaven, fight with earth, fight with ferocious beasts, and fight with people."

Baimeng book

"What the First Assistant said makes sense!" Xie Hong said: "Everywhere in the south of the Yangtze River has always been wealthy. Ordinary families have little savings. After living in a comfortable home for too long, they naturally lose their desire to win and just want to be comfortable and stable."

"Everyone wants to be comfortable and stable, but without a strong army to protect them, all of this is very likely to be lost in the blink of an eye. Just like the millions of people in Tokyo, they have undoubtedly been

They were the happiest group of people in the entire Song Dynasty, but what about now? They have become the most miserable group of people." Xiao Cheng's voice gradually became louder. "Director Xie, do you know how many people there are in the Forbidden Army in half of the country in our hands now?

How many people are there in the army?”

"I really don't know about this!" Xie Hong shook his head.

"Before I set off, Lu Wenhuan gave me a statistic!" Xiao Cheng said: "There are more than 120,000 people in the Forbidden Army, and the number of the Xiang Army is over 300,000."

"So many?" Xie Hong, Gao Yingxiang and others were shocked.

"The number of people sounds like a lot, but they are all supported by the state with money! But tell me, among these hundreds of thousands of people, how many of them are really capable of fighting?" Xiao Cheng sneered: "Director Xie, in your family,

Have you ever used Xiang Jun to help you with things?"

Xie Hong was speechless and embarrassed. Lu Wan, who was sitting on a small bench at the door, immediately lowered his head, fearing that Xiao Cheng would hit him next.

"I'm not criticizing you!" Xiao Cheng leaned back with some disappointment and said: "You are all the main war faction, the imperial court's Qiancheng, my confidants, but you are all using these people, as you can imagine

, what does the whole south look like?”

"Chief Assistant, come back to me..." Xie Hong whispered.

Xiao Cheng waved his hand: "So, we need military reform. What does the army do? It is used to fight, to protect the home and the country. It is not a servant of officials at all levels, nor is it used by the court to eliminate disasters.

Idle people who are supported by money. The Imperial Army must be reorganized and the Xiang Army must be disbanded!"

Xie Hong swallowed, "Chief Assistant, I will naturally support you, but this will ruin the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people, so we need to be careful. Whether it is the Forbidden Army or the Xiang Army

It doesn’t matter, they may not be able to resist foreign aggression, but they are noisy on the inside, but they are all heroes!"

"Chief Assistant, these people are going to punish people without blaming others. They will definitely make trouble when the time comes. If there are still people who connive or even encourage them, it will be really difficult to control them!" Gao Yingxiang also advised: "We need to take a step.

One step at a time.”

"I know, so isn't this the first thing to come to Liangjiang?" Xiao Cheng said: "Military reform must come first and must be completed. If military reform is not completed, nothing else will be done well."

By using the military reform to completely peel off the army from various local forces and mountains, and put it all under the control of the imperial court, Xiao Cheng would have the confidence to carry out the official reform next.

Scholars rebelled, but it took ten years to succeed.

Without the barrel of a gun, can Xiao Cheng still be afraid of people like you making noises?

"What Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangxi can do, there is no reason why other places cannot do it!" Xiao Cheng said: "Director Xie, can Liangjiang do it?"

At this point, what else could Xie Hong say? Naturally, he could only puff up his chest and say: "It can be done!"

"Okay, this is how you are willing to do things, want to do things, and dare to do things. It's not in vain that I tried my best to transfer part of the original Jiangnan Road to Liangjiang!" Xiao Cheng laughed: "First of all, let's go to theirs.

Pry a hole in your sphere of influence."

Xie Hong let out a long breath. Only then did he understand why Xiao Cheng decided to transfer a large area of ​​​​the original Jiangnan Road to Liangjiang regardless of the objections of those people. The original focus was here.

In fact, the original land of Jiangnan Road has been almost divided. Some of it went to Liangjiang, some to Lianghu, and most of it went to Fujian and Zhejiang. Of course, the Fujian and Zhejiang areas became those people's.

Base camp.

The original pacifiers of Jiangnan West Road and Jiangnan East Road were all moved to the center by Xiao Cheng. Si Junchao, the pacifier of Jiangnan East Road, was appointed as the second assistant, and his status was only lower than Xiao Cheng. Xu Xiangqi, the pacifier of Jiangnan West Road, became the household secretary.

It seems that Xiao Cheng has given them great power, but in the long run, they have become water without a source and a tree without roots.

If they don't leave, the imperial court will be unable to carry out major operations in these places.

Now that they are greedy for higher power and position, leaving the place will facilitate Xiao Cheng's subsequent regional divisions and corresponding personnel arrangements.

Liu Jun and Liu Liangchen, for example, have now become the envoys of Fujian and Zhejiang, specializing in the finance of this region. Do you think he can obey the advice of Xu Xiangqi, the Minister of Household Affairs?

Moreover, in the Fujian and Zhejiang areas, there are tiger and wolf divisions led by navy commander Zheng Zhihu who is loyal to Xiao Cheng!

"General Manager Gao, how many combatable troops do you have in the east now?" Xiao Cheng asked.

"The troops that came from the southwest to support last year totaled 15,000 people. This is undoubtedly the main force." Gao Yingxiang said: "The troops that Governor Xie and Liu Liangchen transferred from there totaled 8,000 people. These people have experienced

The battle to defend Xuzhou was quite effective."

Speaking of this, Gao Yingxiang smiled and said: "The last general is still in the Forbidden Army within the scope of Liangjiang. It is funny to say that we are selecting people from the Xiang Army to form a new army. Many officers and soldiers who seem to be pretty good actually refused to come.

Serving in the new army. In the end, a total of 5,000 people were selected. For more than a year, the general's main focus was on the training of these people. Now they are barely available, at least to defend the city and fight against the wind.

There is no problem at all in fighting."

"In other words, the other Forbidden Army and Xiang Army are just decorations!" Xiao Cheng said coldly.

"Some of them just don't want to fight." Gao Yingxiang said with a smile: "To put it bluntly, they are just afraid of death."

"Those who are afraid of death often die first!" Xiao Cheng stood up and walked a few steps in the room. The words seemed to float from a distance, but they made everyone in the room covered with a layer of darkness.

chill.

"Military reform will be implemented in Liangjiang first!" Xiao Cheng said: "Before that, General Manager Gao, the Eastern Branch will launch the Northern Expedition within the next two months, taking over Songcheng, Shangqiu and other places first, and then

Then we planned to take Tokyo directly. All the imperial troops and Xiang troops in the Liangjiang area must be transferred to the front line for use."

Hearing Xiao Cheng's words, Xie Hong was shocked at first, but after thinking about it, he suddenly understood.

I'm afraid that the general attack on the Kaifeng area is a sham. Helping Gao Yingxiang complete the military reform in the Liangjiang area is the real purpose of the first assistant, right?

Is it difficult to say that those who are afraid of death often die first?

You want to get the salary from the court, but you are unwilling to pick up a sword and fight for the court. How can there be such an easy thing in this world?

Moreover, the Northern Expedition, recovering the old territory, and restoring the old capital was the right thing to do politically.

Who dares to object?

No matter it is those in the imperial court or the local forces in the Jiangnan region, they can only remain silent.

Then next, all the imperial troops and Xiang troops in the Liangjiang area will be sent to the front line.

Gao Yingxiang began to analyze the problem from a military perspective: "For the first assistant, it will not be a problem to capture Songcheng, Shangqiu and other places, but then, I am afraid it will be difficult. The political significance of Kaifeng, Tokyo and other areas is extraordinary.

, if we can seize it, I am afraid that all the areas south of Kaifeng will be defeated, and Quzhen's rule in places such as South Jing Road and North Jing Road will fall apart. Therefore, the people of Liao will definitely not sit back and watch such a thing happen.

, in Huazhou, the Liao people stationed tens of thousands of troops, and the Hebei Road was completely controlled by the Liao people. It would not take a long time to gather tens of thousands of troops to help. At the same time, the Liao people would also order the puppet Qi King Liu Yu to attack Xuzhou.

We will launch an attack at other places to attack what we must save. If we really want to attack Tokyo, I'm afraid we won't be able to do anything without an elite army of more than 100,000!"

Luo Xin from the Sixth Section said with a smile: "General Manager, what we need is to give the enemy the illusion that we really want to open the seal. In this way, the imperial court can kill two birds with one stone. First, solve the military reform on Liangjiang Road

A difficult problem. Aren’t those soldiers in the army afraid of death and afraid to go to the battlefield? Then once the military operation starts, these people will probably try their best to find a way to go on their own, and those who can’t find a way will just be afraid of being killed.

Not to mention a deserter. Even if these people automatically make way for us, there are still some who want to cause trouble. Hehe, as soon as the war begins, there will be military law governing it! At this time, if the military reform is carried out according to the trend, more people will not want to

Those who participated in the war will flee the army one after another, and instead they will spend money on food, wages, and funeral expenses for the young master!"

"So it's just a show?"

"You have to do this in a real way, and you have to be able to deceive others! King Yeluzhen of Zhennan has rich military experience and is a man of both civil and military skills. If you don't do it well, he will definitely see your flaws!" Xiao Cheng

He smiled and said, "Luo Xin, go on!"

Luo Xin nodded, and waited until everyone's eyes were focused on him before saying: "The first purpose of the first phase is very clear, which is to take this opportunity to complete the military reform. The second purpose is to force

The puppet State of Zhao transferred its troops stationed in Chenzhou and Caizhou back to support Kaifeng, leaving these places empty of military strength."

Gao Yingxiang suddenly jumped up: "The real military targets of this war are Chenzhou and Caizhou? Chief Assistant, as the commander-in-chief of the central march, why don't I know about this?"

Xiao Cheng smiled and said: "General Manager, please be patient. So far, only Luo Xin and I know about this matter. It was only after Luo Xin came back that I hatched this plan with him. Moreover, this plan

Apart from the few people in the room now, I have no intention of telling anyone else!"

"What is the reason that the chief minister suddenly came up with such a military action plan?" Gao Yingxiang looked at Luo Xin doubtfully. Luo Xin had just returned from his mission to the Western Army. The birth of this plan must have been because he was on the mission.

Something unexpected happened during the operation.

"Tang Song, the governor of Yingzhou, Yu Sheng, who is under the control of the imperial army, has surrendered to us!" Xiao Cheng said: "On his way back from the northwest, Luo Xin went to Yingzhou to discuss this matter."

"Could it be a scam?" Xie Hong asked.

"Yu Ke is still in Yingzhou now." Xiao Cheng said concisely and concisely, but everyone was stunned.

Yu Ke of Zhiqiuyuan is the big leader of the imperial court in the dark front. If anything happens in Yingzhou, it will definitely not be hidden from his eyes and ears.

"So Gaodu, the more fierce and realistic your next attack is, the easier it will be for us to seize Chenzhou and Caizhou's plan. And after seizing these two places in one fell swoop, the attack on Kaifeng will become more obvious."

It’s more real.”

"Where did the army come from?" Gao Yingxiang asked: "I am hammering home every nail. If I want the enemy to believe my true purpose, the Eastern Army cannot move the army away at will, but must increase it."

"Of course!" Xiao Cheng nodded: "The army to recover Chenzhou and Caizhou will be completed by the Forbidden Army led by Yingzhou Yu Sheng, and the three thousand Forbidden Army who came with me this time. Next, Han Quan will also greet them

When my cover comes out, Han Tong will bring another thousand people over."

"Han Yu is a guard in Jiangning. He left Jiangning Mansion so easily, I'm afraid it will make people suspicious!" Gao Yingxiang said.

"It won't make anyone suspicious, because it won't be long before I'm assassinated in Liangjiang!" Xiao Cheng said with a smile: "That's why Han Zuo will come to greet me, and then I will go straight back to Jiangning. As for Han Zuo, he will continue to investigate the assassination.

He stayed because he was the mastermind, and when the war started and everyone suddenly realized it, it didn’t matter anymore. But Senior Manager, Governor Xie, you can take the blame!"

Xie Hong and Gao Yingxiang looked at each other and laughed.

"We want to bear more scapegoats like this."
Chapter completed!