Victory came too quickly and easily, so that while the rebels cheered, they seemed to be in a dream, with a strong sense of unreality.

At the same time, the prestige of the white-haired coach Li Fengyun rose again. He used victory and miracles to prove his invincible and powerful strength, and stabilized his position as the supreme commander in the Southwest Shandong Rebel Alliance. His authority gradually became established in the minds of the soldiers of Qi and Lu Rebel Army and began to win their respect and trust.

However, in the rebel command, although the joy of victory was also permeated in the sultry air, the atmosphere in the camp was quite tense. The fierce debates from the military tent made the officials and guards of the General Administration secretly nervous. They were careful and tiptoed, for fear of making a sound that disturbed the commander's tent.

The rebel army broke through the Jiyin defense line and captured the capital of Jiyin. One foot had already stepped onto the Central Plains. However, at this moment, the rebel army was nearly 700 miles away from Zhuanyu City in the center of Mengshan and nearly 300 miles away from the border of Lujun. It was very far from the rear. Although there was He and Sishui Road, the material transportation was still smooth. However, it was necessary to consider that Duan Wencao and Pengcheng Cui Deben took advantage of the main force of the rebel army to fight against Han Yao and Chen Rui who were staying in Mengshan and cut off the return of the Western Expedition Rebel army, the situation would be dangerous.

For all the heroes, their strength is limited. Although this time the Rebel Alliance fought together to destroy the Jiyin defense line and created a miracle, this was directly related to the fact that the main force of the Jiyin Yingyang Mansion went to the battlefield of the east expedition, and the garrison power was seriously insufficient. The Jiyin local village clan regiment was unwilling to obey Wei Baoluan's orders. It does not mean that the strength of the Rebel Alliance was strong enough to compete with the official army. Therefore, the heroes and generals suggested slowing down the pace of advancing westward, first gaining a foothold on both sides of Heshui, while strengthening the team, and seeing how the situation develops. In addition, keeping an appropriate distance from the rear of Mengshan Da, you can advance or retreat, so that you can always take the initiative.

After entering Jiyin, all the rebels actively recruited troops to expand. There were many exiles and the expansion speed was very fast, but the number of people was too high, but the combat effectiveness decreased. This problem was very serious and directly affected the survival of the rebels. Therefore, it is necessary to take time to train the team to improve their combat effectiveness and strive to develop the strength of the Rebel Alliance to a new height in the shortest time. Developing the rebel strength is the real purpose of this Western Expedition to the Central Plains. If you are blinded by the victory in front of you, blindly confident, and continue to advance to the Central Plains without digesting and absorbing the current results, it is obviously not good for yourself and deviating from the original intention of this Western Expedition to the Central Plains.

Xiao Yi objected to this.

The Eastern Expedition is in full swing. As the front line is lengthening, military consumption is getting bigger and bigger, and the demand for food and supplies is also increasing. The Dongdu’s important task is to ensure that food and supplies can be continuously transported to the battlefield to meet the needs of the Eastern Expedition. In this way, the smooth flow of the Grand Canal is crucial. If the Rebels fail to destroy the Jiyin defense line and are dragged down by important Henan towns such as Jiyin, Dingtao, and Chengshi, then it will not be able to pose a substantial threat to the security of the Dahe and Tongji Canal. The situation is different now. After the Rebels broke through the Jiyin defense line, there is no danger to defend the Jishui River line. The Rebels can directly kill Xingyang and kill the defense line of the Central Plains, which poses a serious threat to the security of the Dahe and Tongji Canal. Therefore, the Dongdu must send troops, either directly enter Jiyin and attack the Rebels on the front line, or Chen heavy troops on the defense line of the Tianqian defense line, and while blocking the rebels from the capital, they will strengthen the garrison of the Dahe and Tongji Canal.

"In a certain opinion, it is not likely that Dongdu will directly send troops to quell the rebellion, because Dongdu must take into account the battlefield of the Eastern Expedition and must make every effort to ensure that the Donglai Naval Division crosses the sea for an expedition within the scheduled time." Xiao Yi said, "If Dongdu directly sends troops to quell the rebellion and attacks us with heavy troops, we will then retreat and withdraw back to Lu County. This will affect the situation in Qilu and even the situation in Xuzhou. Once the situation in Qilu continues to deteriorate, or the situation in Xuzhou is in turmoil, then even if the Donglai Naval Division crosses the sea for an expedition within the scheduled time, it will also affect the military supply of the navy's baggage fleet to the Eastern Expedition Army."

After the land army and the navy joined forces on the east expedition, they had to besiege Pyongyang, Kyoto, Goguryeo. At that time, if all the food and supplies were transported by land, the journey would be too far, not only would the number of military supplies be guaranteed, but the safety was also not guaranteed. Therefore, sea transportation became an important supplement, and even directly determined whether the expeditionary army could capture Pyongyang before winter came.

"Based on this, I concluded that Dongdu would definitely want Chen to fight against the defense line of heaven and the Tongji Canal to guard the river and the Tongji Canal, and let us burn, kill and loot in Ji and He. This would not only drag us to the periphery of the capital, help the Donglai Navy to successfully complete the expedition mission, but also intensify the conflicts between us and the Henan people, use our hands to severely damage the local forces in Henan, and at the same time find excuses to blame all the local government for its poor disaster relief."

Xiao Yi paused for a moment, his eyes slowly swept across everyone's faces, giving everyone time to think about his words.

"If a certain inference is correct, before the Eastern Expedition is victorious, the entire force of the Gyeonggi garrison must be used to ensure the safety of the Dahe River, Tongji Canal Waterway and the Gyeonggi area, rather than actively entering Ji and He to suppress the rebellion, then what reason do we have to stay away from Jiyin and miss this best opportunity for development and growth in vain?"

Xiao Yi was full of energy and talked freely, revealing the innate confidence and arrogance that the children of aristocratic families were born with.

Those who are qualified to sit here to discuss the decisions of the alliance are all commanders of various rebel armies, and they can more or less guess Xiao Yi's true identity. Although Li Fengyun has never revealed that he had secret interactions with the Cui family in Shandong and the Xiao family in Jiangzuo, and has never revealed Xiao Yi's identity as a secret envoy, everyone's eyes are all sharp. With Li Fengyun's talent and the strength of the rebel alliance, he has not yet gained a foothold in Lu County, so he hastened to the west to the Central Plains. There must be ulterior secrets here, and this secret must be direct with the political game of the Dongdu.

The relationship, and the power of those who are qualified to join the political game of the Dongdu can be imagined. Thinking of the heavy mist that enveloped Li Fengyun, and thinking of the actions of Cui Deben and the Lanling Xiao family during this period, it cannot help but give people infinite imagination. If there is some connection between Li Fengyun and the rich Cui family in the Central China, the Xiao family, and behind him is the huge Shandong and Jiangzuo noble groups, then there is still a lot of potential in the future. In this way, the identity of the young handsome man next to Li Fengyun is about to emerge.

If Xiao Yi represents the huge group of forces behind Li Fengyun, then the many reasons he proposed for continuing to advance westward are worth discussing. What is his purpose? Should he use the sharp knife of the Rebel Alliance to cut off the military supply of the Eastern Expedition army, which led to the failure of the Eastern Expedition, or should he take advantage of the emperor, the main force of the Central and the Guard Army on the expedition battlefield, and when the capital was empty, he would deal a heavy blow to the Eastern Expedition to achieve some important political intention?

"The garrison army in the Jingji community has a great responsibility and obeys the emperor directly. The emperor will not rush to mobilize the garrison army in the face of Jiyin and He in a hurry to suppress the rebellion." Han Jinluo spoke. Although his tone was peaceful, there was obviously a sense of questioning Xiao Yi in his words. You said that you infer that the garrison army in the Jingji community would not leave Beijing to suppress the rebellion. In fact, it is just treating us as idiots. Do you think we don't know that the only emperor can mobilize the garrison army in the Jingji community?

"In a certain opinion, when we move westward to the Central Plains, our real opponent is not the most powerful garrison in Jingji, but the Duweifu of Xingyang, Dongjun and Liangjun, Yingyangfu and the local township Tuanzong. These three counties are located outside Jingji. They not only bear the important task of defending the Eastern Capital, but also directly responsible for the security of the Dahe and Tongji Canals. Therefore, whether the East Capital is threatened or the transportation channel is blocked, the military and political chiefs of these three counties are directly responsible."

"We will continue to advance westward and will inevitably advance along the two sides of the Ji River. If the Xingyang army uses the natural barriers to block us head-on, while the Dongjun and Liangjun troops attack us from both north and south, we are very likely to be surrounded by the official army."

Han Jinluo looked at Xiao Yi with a smile on his face and said slowly, "The purpose of our approach to the Central Plains is to grow and grow, to be able to survive tenaciously in the future, rather than to shake trees by shaking trees, not to fight head-on battles with the government troops several times more than themselves, and to defeat themselves."

Xiao Yi smiled and looked sarcastic, "In the eyes of General Manager Han, we can grow and grow by stopping in Jiyin and sweep Ji and He? I asked you, how long can the food we seize now last? How many troops can we support? What should we do if the victims flock to us? If we ignore them and let them die in sorrow, we are the butchers who kill people and are the culprits of the devastation of life. They will lose the hearts of the people and quickly become defeated. They will have many helps to gain the hearts of the people, but they will lose the hearts of the people since ancient times, those who win the hearts of the people will win the world. If we want to survive, we must win the hearts of the people, and we must do our best to save the disaster, and we must save people at all costs. Only in this way can we defeat the government morally, win the support of the people to the greatest extent, and successfully unite the morale of the army and the hearts of the people."

"If we want to save people and disasters, we must have enough food. If we want to obtain enough food, we must move westward and enter the Central Plains. We must plunder the rivers and Tongji Canal waterways, and there is no other way."

"So, stopping in Jiyin is a way to die. If you want to survive in death, you can only make great strides into the Central Plains, and fight the government army to the death with the determination to burn the boat."

The heat in the tent increased and everyone was sweating profusely. Especially after Xiao Yi said, "With the determination to burn the boat and fight to the death with the government army", the anger and irritability suddenly spread. The rich and powerful generals could not accept this view. The development and growth strategy of westward advance changed after the situation of conquering Jiyin, but changed the "decisive battle to the death". This was purely pushing the rebel army to a dead end, and simply putting the rebel army to death for the political purposes of some people.

However, facing the influx of disaster victims, facing the pair of desperate eyes, and facing the purgatory of starving people all over the wild, the heroes felt very painful. The capture of Jiyin was not a victory, nor did they bring substantial development to the rebel army. On the contrary, the rebel army fell into the abyss of defeat. In order to survive, the rebel army really had to burn its boats.
Chapter completed!