"Whether the war in Dajinshan is beneficial to me, the key is whether the Hexi army is determined to enter the southwest of the desert from the direction of Yiwu and give strong support to the Western Turks from the flanks." Yu Shiji looked bitter, "However, Tuyuhun succeeded in the counterattack last year, the countries in the Western Regions turned against each other, the Hexi army was defeated, Qiemo, Shanshan, lost the city and lost the land, and was in a mess. It was because the Western Turks launched a full-scale attack east of the Pamir Mountains under the name of attacking Tielle, and the two sides were deeply hatred. In this case, can we still expect the Hexi army and the Western Turks to cooperate tacitly?"

"Didn't Li Yuan, the left-behind Honghua, go to Dunhuang to take charge of command?" The Holy Lord said dissatisfied, "Can he not even do such a small thing?"

"Although the Duke of Tang came from Longxi, compared with the Chengji Li family in Longxi, his influence on the Northwest Army was very limited. He could not command the Longxi Army, nor could he order the Hexi Army."

The Holy Lord's face gradually became gloomy.

Duan Da looked at Yu Shiji and couldn't help but slander himself. The people of Jiangzuo are too shameless, so don't just openly attack your opponents, right? If you attack Li Hun, Li Yuan, and Northwest Army, you won't even let Pei Shiju go, you won't be afraid of being angry and becoming the target of public criticism? The Holy Lord trusts you, and can only protect you for a while, and can protect you for a lifetime? If you don't give yourself a way out, you will always leave a way out for your descendants, right?

"What are the consequences that are very unoptimistic?" the Holy Lord asked suddenly.

Yu Shiji sighed, "Wenxi Gong returned from his journey to the west and said it very clearly. What he was most worried about was that the Turks in the East and West compromised and formed an alliance."

"What then?" the Holy Lord asked.

"The worst result is that next year, the war between the North and the South will break out." Yu Shiji said in a heavy tone, "We have been conquering for years, and the soldiers are exhausted and the national strength is exhausted. This is the weakest moment, and it is also the best time for the desert captives to move south to invade. At that time, as long as the Western Turks firmly restrain the Northwest Army from the direction of Hexi, the northern army, mainly the Northern Army, will have to face the crazy attacks of the desert captives alone, and the situation will be more unfavorable to our Middle-earth Army."

The Holy Lord's eyes were cold, "In this way, the third Eastern Expedition must be terminated immediately?"

Yu Shiji hurriedly shook his hand, "Master, this is just a pessimistic prediction. How the situation this year develops seems to depend on the result of the third Eastern Expedition, but in fact it depends on the Battle of the Great Jinshan of the Turks, which is thousands of miles away from the east and west. Whether this battle can achieve the expected results depends on the determination of the Hexi Army, and whether the Hexi Army is willing to do its best depends on the position of Xijing."

Duan Da's back felt cold and his heart was thrilled. He was amazed at Yu Shiji's invisible means of killing people.

In the harsh situation of the two capitals breaking, Xijing's position is self-evident, so if you want to achieve your goal, the Holy Lord has only two ways: either put a knife on Xijing's neck, hold him to his life, or compromise with Xijing and exchange interests. However, if these two methods are to be implemented, the premise is that the Holy Lord must return to Dongdu immediately, because now, no one except the Holy Lord can turn the tide and save the crisis of the two capitals breaking.

The Holy Lord's eyes were cold and he was very unhappy.

Yu Shiji's words contain puns, which is actually to tactfully persuade the Holy Lord to return to the capital. However, as a confidant of the Holy Lord, he must support the Holy Lord and must stand on the side of the Holy Lord, even if the Holy Lord is wrong. This is the difficulty of being a close minister. Considering wisdom, those with low wisdom are either treacherous or disheveled. Only those with high wisdom can be at ease. Yu Shiji did not directly persuade the Holy Lord to return to the capital, but warned the Holy Lord with pessimistic predictions in the future that Xijing is a disaster, and you must return to the capital immediately to eradicate the disaster.

"I remember that Prophet Pei is optimistic about the war between the north and the south." The Holy Lord said coldly.

Yu Shiji said calmly, "The situation is constantly changing. What seems optimistic today may be pessimistic tomorrow. For example, Anton was still a vassal of the Turks yesterday, but today it became the territory of Middle-earth. The same is true for Andong's army. There were only tens of thousands of people yesterday, but today it became more than 100,000 people. In addition to the four town garrison troops, there was an expeditionary army of 100,000 people. Who would have thought of it? Of course, this is a good thing. The reason why Wen Xi Gong ignored it was that he wanted to use Andong's expeditionary army to attack Goguryeo, so that he could reduce the damage to other expeditionary soldiers, reduce the loss of food and grass weapons, and reduce the loss of national strength, so as to prepare for the possible outbreak of the North and South Wars next year."

The Holy Lord frowned even deeper, "The third Eastern Expedition cannot be misunderstood. Order Yuwen Shu and Guo Rong, if the conditions are met, launch an attack immediately. If there is any delay, military law will be carried out. In addition, tell them that as long as the Anton Expeditionary Force arrives at the battlefield in Liaodong, they will provide them with enough food and grass weapons, and order them to rush to the front and kill Pyongyang directly. If the anti-order is not followed, severe punishment will be made."

Yu Shiji still wanted to speak, but the Holy Lord decisively raised his hand to stop him.

"Tell me my order and move eastward tomorrow."

=

March 15th, Huaiyuan Town, Liaodong Base Camp.

Yu Wen Shu, the general of the left guard, and Guo Rong, the general of the right guard, arrived in great dust.

General Li Jing of the Right Martial Guard, General Xue Shixiong of the Left Martial Guard, and General Cui Hongsheng of the Left Martial Guard who had just arrived in Huaiyuan Town five days ago led the generals of the Expeditionary Army and generals of the Liaodong towns out to greet each other.

The welcome ceremony was very short. After Yu Wenshu, the Supreme Commander of the Expeditionary Force, made a mobilization for the Eastern Expedition, the meeting ended, and then five generals of the Guard Mansion were left in the commander's tent.

As the chief and deputy commander of the Liaodong base camp, Li Jing and Xue Shixiong introduced the latest situation in the Far East, the latest developments of the enemy and us on both sides of the Liaoshui River, and the preparations for the eastern expedition.

The situation in the Far East was because the Central Plains successfully opened the borders of Andong, Xi, Khitan and Wu, and other Donghu people bowed down to the emperor. Xue Shixiong led his army to patrol the border in the wilderness to attack the bandits. Shiwei and Mohe were fleeing when they heard the news, showing a thriving atmosphere, but this brought an embarrassing situation, that is, the faces of the Wei Mansion were completely lost, and the faces of the Wei Mansion were beaten by Pei Shiju and Li Pingyuan.

The facts were clearly stated that the millions of troops in the Weifu Army failed to fight against Goguryeo. The attacks for two consecutive years were exhausted, and the people were damaged and their soldiers were lost, but they had nothing to do. On the contrary, Pei Shiju used the power of the secret army to control the barbarians and conquered Anton in one fell swoop, winning the greatest victory at the minimum cost, and building a great martial arts to expand territory.

Compared with the two, the difference between the high and the low is too great. Especially after the spread of the prosperous Xinjiang Andong, Guangwai further proved that the failure of the Eastern Expedition was not the decision-making error of the Saint Lord and the Central Committee, but the failure of the Weifu Conquest. Just imagine that Pei Shiju, Li Pingyuan and others swept Andong at a very small price, and the millions of troops in the Weifu could not destroy Goguryeo with the strength of the whole country. What does this mean? It shows that this is the problem of the Weifu and the responsibility of the military, so the reputation of the Weifu was severely damaged again and plummeted.

The most intense reaction was the Expeditionary Army. The face was so slapped so hard that it was too shameful and felt very shameful. He had no face to see the elders of Jiangdong and the ancestors under the storm, from Li Jing and Xue Shixiong to ordinary guards, and even the craftsmen, all of them were full of anger and vowed to capture Pyongyang, slaughter Goguryeo, and use the blood of the captives to clean up the shame of the Guard Mansion and the expeditionary army.

This leads to a new problem, and a problem that will inevitably seriously damage the morale of the army.

The Anton army is coming, and the 100,000 Anton army is basically the same as the expeditionary troops in the Liaodong base camp. And it is also coming with the power of Kaijiang Anton, which will inevitably put heavy pressure on the soldiers of the Guardian. In this unfavorable situation, if the Eastern Expedition Command ordered the Anton army to be the selection of the front and let the Anton army rush in the front, it can be foreseen that the morale of the expeditionary army will be fatal. The reason is very simple. The soldiers will determine based on this that not only the Holy Lord and the Central Committee do not believe them anymore, but even the Commanders of the Guardian do not believe them anymore. What else can they do? Once they fall into despair, give up on themselves, have a low morale, and have a disintegration of the army, how can they fight this battle?

Yuwen Shu realized that the problem was serious and weighed it for a long time, but decided to tell the truth. The third expedition should not be missed, and the decision-making level of the commander-in-chief must be highly unified.

"I can understand your mood and the soldiers' expectations for the third Eastern Expedition, but..." Yuwen Shu changed his tone and said in a low voice, "The biggest crisis we are facing at present is the Civil War. In order to win the Civil War, we must not only stabilize the domestic situation, but also ensure the combat effectiveness of the Military Administration. In other words, the Expeditionary Force cannot suffer any more major losses."

After pausing, Yuwen Shu continued, "From the central point of view, the third Eastern Expedition was not for military victory, or in other words, military victory was secondary. The important thing was to use the final victory of the Eastern Expedition to consolidate and strengthen the absolute control of the Eastern Capital over the government. Only in this way can the crisis between the two capitals be effectively alleviated and the efforts can be concentrated in the war between the North and the South."

Li Jingruo had some understanding, but he was upright and had no pleasure in his heart. So he asked, "Mr. Xu, the ultimate goal of the third Eastern Expedition is to force the army to surrender with force, or to destroy Goguryeo with all his might?"

Yuwen Shu was a little unhappy and said coldly, "I have already made it clear."

Li Jing refused to let go, "Shuh, I said frankly, if the goal of the third Eastern Expedition was only to coerce Goguryeo surrender, what is the difference between this and the failure of the Eastern Expedition? Do you deceive yourself?"

Yuwen Shu was angry, with a cold look on his face, "I said, our biggest crisis is the Civil War."

"Since that's the case, why do we have to launch the third Eastern Expedition?" Li Jing asked angrily, "Wouldn't it be better to simply admit that the Eastern Expedition failed and move to Daibei to prepare for the war with all our might?"

Yuwen Shu suppressed his anger and shook his hand at Li Jing, "Your husband, you have complaints, I understand, but this is the will of the saint, the central decision. As subordinates, you and I can only implement it faithfully and have no other plans."

Li Jing glared at him, speechless.

Xue Shixiong was worried that Li Jing would cause trouble by "no words" and hurriedly intervened and changed the topic. "Host, according to the Andong Protectorate, Li Pingyuan and Li Hun had left Anzhou on February 15th and led their troops eastward. If everything goes well, they will arrive at Fuyu City in the near future..." Speaking of this, Xue Shixiong and Li Jing exchanged their eyes and continued, "Fuyu City is more than a thousand miles away from Huaiyuan Town. If they stay in Fuyu or march slowly, they will not arrive in Huaiyuan until mid-April or even late April, the attack time will be seriously delayed."

Yuwen Shu understood it and understood it as soon as he heard it. Li Jing and Xue Shixiong still had fantasies about the third Eastern Expedition, trying to destroy Goguryeo with their own strength and save the "face" of the Wei Mansion with their own strength. Therefore, they did not want Anton's army to come and meet, nor did they want Anton's army to serve as the selection. They only needed Anton's army to attack and advance from the direction of Fuyu, forming a two-way trend with their own side, and effectively restraining and dispersing Goguryeo's blocking force.

However, this policy violated the intention of the Holy Lord and the Central Committee, and Yuwen Shu could not agree.

"How is your Eastern Expedition going?" Yuwen Shu looked at Li Jing and Xue Shixiong and asked, "If everything goes well, when can you attack?"

"Mid April." Li Jing said without hesitation, "We can launch an attack at the latest in mid-April."
Chapter completed!