In the first year of Chengtian and the first year of Republic of China, February 8th, Yecheng, Military Mansion.

At this time, the officers of the five Taishan Army, the Tuqi, and the Flying Army all rushed to the shogunate in the northern district of Yecheng, preparing to participate in today's military meeting.

In fact, this is already the second large-scale military meeting this month.

The first time was two days ago, when Qu Commander Zhang Chong summoned the generals and staff to discuss whether to launch a Northern Expedition now, with the target being the Zhao lands north of Handan.

Cai Yong, who was present at the meeting, stood up and clearly opposed the Northern Expedition at this time.

The reasons are:

"Now the northern part of the Zhao Kingdom has long since paid and paid great respect to my Taishan army. Now I attack it without any reason, and even if I win it, it is not good enough. And now, I am going north to conquer all the cities in the Zhao Kingdom, but I still can't win it in one fell swoop."

Bei Di. On the contrary, although I gained a small profit, it caused the four counties in northern Hebei to unite in fear. This is a small gain at the expense of a big gain."

What Cai Yong said makes sense.

It turned out that the Taishan Army's Eastern Expedition and the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans defeated the Han Army in Hebei on the bank of Jize, and then took advantage of the situation to capture the empty Handan.

However, because the military strength was weak at that time, the two armies did not take action against the counties in the northern part of Zhao State after taking Handan.

Later at the beginning of the year, as news of the conflict between the two Han Dynasties in the Gyeonggi region spread to Hebei, the counties in the northern part of Zhao State knew that they had no so-called reinforcements and could only rely on the Taishan Army to survive.

Therefore, at the beginning of this year, envoys were sent to pay tribute.

Now what Cai Yong means is that these people have paid tribute, which actually shows his attitude. But if we attack them without reason, it will undoubtedly show our intentions to the various forces in Hebei.

That means no one is tolerated!

In this case, people will not sit still and wait for death. It is not impossible to unite to attack the Taishan Army.

Listening to Cai Yong's objections, Zhang Chong, the leader, was still thinking.

But the militant Ding Sheng couldn't help but stand up.

As soon as he came out, he retorted to Cai Yong:

"Cai Gong is really pedantic. So Zhao Guodi's surrender is also called surrender? Is it the registration map he sent or the fact that he asked us to station troops and dispatch officials? None! That is a false promise to us."

Cai Yong ignored Ding Sheng. He was a rough man and could not understand what he meant.

On the side, Cai Yong’s old partner Zhuge Gui also stepped forward to admonish:

"Commander Qu, now that spring plowing is coming, we can't miss the farming season, otherwise it will be a big deal. Moreover, if we expedition to the north of Zhao now, the people here will not be able to plow, and they will probably starve to death."

Zhang Chong looked at Cai Yong and Zhuge Gui, then at the staff behind him, thoughtfully, and then asked Cai Yong:

"Mr. Cai, as you wish, what happens next?"

Cai Yong was confident and said with enthusiasm:

"It is better for me to give advice to the commander-in-chief of Qu than to show kindness to the commanders of Zhao, so that benevolence and righteousness can spread to the north, and then the north will surrender without attacking. Now that the Han Dynasty has lost its virtue and the world is in chaos, everyone is panic-stricken and longs for the return of the hero.

Go out and stabilize the country. As long as the commander-in-chief cultivates his own benevolence and makes his subordinates live and work in peace and contentment, he will be able to conquer the north and conquer the north without fatigue."

If we were future generations, they would definitely laugh at Cai Yong's outrageous remarks.

Who really thinks that we can conquer the world by relying on benevolence and righteousness? Is conquering the world just like playing house?

However, it can be seen from the expressions of many staff present that even if some of them disagree with Cai Yong, they only think that there is a better strategy, and do not think that Cai Yong's remarks are mediocre and rotten.

Why?

Because this world has never been conquered city by city.

In fact, both Gaozu and Guangwu decided the ownership of the world after winning several important decisive battles, and other places were decided by legend.

That's why Emperor Gaozu raised his army at the age of 48 and conquered the world in just seven years. Guangwu had a slightly harder time. He raised his army at the age of 28 and fought for thirteen years. He conquered the world when he was forty-one.

The reason for this is that ancient agricultural production was highly dependent on a unified government and a stable social environment. Only a stable government has the ability and willingness to repair water conservancy.

Because agriculture is a cyclical activity, only spring planting can lead to autumn harvest. But if this force and farmers feel that autumn is not guaranteed, will they still plant in spring?

Not at all, because they have been busy for a cycle, but in the end they find that it is someone else who reaps the rewards. Do you think it is bitter or not?

Therefore, in the struggle for hegemony in the world, once a certain force shows its strength that dominates the world, it will be decided by word of mouth in various places.

Of course, history is never absolute. Human factors will always make history unexpected. Of course, this will be a matter of the future.

As for now, in the spiritual world of Han scholar-officials, unity is the main theme and people's peace of mind is the mainstream.

Therefore, Cai Yongcai proposed such a kingly model as a matter of course.

In his opinion, the strongest combat force in Hebei is the Taishan Army. After the Taishan Army defeated the Henan Han Army and the Hebei Han Army, other forces in Hebei have given up the idea of ​​defeating the Taishan Army.

At this time, other regions can basically spread the word.

But what Cai Yong didn't understand was that the war launched by Zhang Chong was completely different from the previous model of conquering the world. It was not only a war to restore social order, but also a war of change that changed the world.

Because of this, what Zhang Chong wants is not a formal occupation, but a top-to-bottom transformation.

If there is such a comparison in history, it would be the great revolution of Qin Dynasty changing Zhou Dynasty to Zhou Dynasty. It only took more than a hundred years in the past, but now Zhang Chong wants to complete it in his generation.

So after Cai Yong finished speaking, Zhang Chong stopped talking because he knew someone would speak for him.

As expected, Dong Zhao appeared behind Cai Yong.

This fat black man said solemnly:

"Cai Gong is indeed a pure Confucian, and what he talks about is the path of a king. But Zhao thinks that Cai Gong is a bit out of line."

Cai Yong also glanced at this sycophant and asked:

"Oh, that's not appropriate at all."

Dong Zhao said seriously:

"Not a bit."

After saying that, the fat man said to Zhang Chong without waiting for Cai Yong to refute:

"Now that the world is in chaos, there are so many traitors and villains. These people fear power but not virtue, fear power but not justice, fear soldiers but not benevolence. Trying to treat others with benevolence and righteousness in order to join them is no different from asking for fish in a tree.

. Therefore, I ask you to join the Northern Expedition, deploy troops in Youji, end this decadent and troubled world as soon as possible, and achieve success. This is the true righteousness."

After saying that, he took the lead and bowed heavily to Zhang Chong.

Over there, Gao Sheng, who had already seen the solemnity of Zhang Chong's thoughts, also came out, bowed to Zhang Chong and said:

"I would like to invite you to join the Northern Expedition to bring peace to this troubled world."

At this time, Cai Yong's face turned dark.

He didn't expect that Dong Zhao would use deceitful techniques to flatter him and misinterpret his meaning. Did Cai Yong say that he only relied on benevolence? Did Cai Yong say that he could not bring peace to the world? Now that Dong Zhao had misinterpreted him, he became a buffoon.

.

Therefore, Cai Yong pointed his finger at Dong Zhao and was trembling with anger.

But his colleague next to him, his student Lu Cui, quietly tugged on his teacher's clothes from behind, making Cai Yong aware of the situation.

After listening to many opinions, Zhang Chong, who was at the top, turned to the generals and asked:

"What do you think, generals?"

The four captains Yang Mao, Guan Yu, Zhang Dan, Ding Sheng, and Dong Fang all looked at each other, then walked out together and said to Zhang Chong:

"We are asking you to join the Northern Expedition to relieve the people's insecurity and bring peace to this troubled world."

Here, Yang Mao had just returned to Yecheng from Mount Tai, and was then appointed and dismissed by Zhang Chong as the second most important position in the army, Lieutenant of the Central Military Academy, with 4,000 soldiers in charge of the Central Guards.

Therefore, including Guan Yu and the four others, he represents the generals in the army.

There is no doubt that they want to fight.

Zhang Chong controlled the situation and spoke at the clearest moment:

"What you all said is good and correct, but I only have one thing to tell you."

With that said, Zhang Chong stood up with his sword in hand, and said eloquently to the respectful gestures of all the civil and military officials:

"How can I allow others to sleep soundly on the side of my couch?"

Therefore, whether the first battle of the Northern Expedition was decided was decided.

…

Today, the civil and military officials of the Taishan Army gathered at the military mansion again. This time they wanted to discuss the overall strategic plan.

Different from ordinary armies, the Taishan Army has been paying attention to pre-war military strategies since the Taishan era. But at that time, Zhang Chong was the one who spoke and all the generals listened. But now, after several years of hard fighting, many generals have grown up and have their own military strategies.

Director, it's time for a discussion.

The first thing Zhang Chong had to discuss with the civil and military officials was whether to attack the city first or to capture the territory first.

We often talk about siege of city and territory together, but in fact the two have different emphasis. To siege city is to first besiege the enemy's main city points. To capture land, it is to besiege the enemy in the city first, and then to attack other places and countryside.

occupied.

In short, the former is to fight a siege, attack hard, and win every place you conquer. The latter is to expand very quickly, embrace everything in your arms, and then taste the dishes one by one.

Guan Yu and other generals meant that they still had to fight siege warfare. This was because the Taishan Army did not have enough experience in siege warfare, and the counties in the northern part of Zhao State were weak, so they were suitable for training.

And now that the Taishan Army has absorbed the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans, it is a bit risky to rush into a joint battle. It is not as good as taking the initiative in a siege battle.
To be continued...