Cross the Sea in the Red Chamber

After listening to the man's words, Situ Sheng just nodded his head without saying yes or no.The military commander knew from Situ Sheng's reaction that the strategy he proposed could not satisfy His Majesty the Emperor. It seemed that there was something missing in his words.

Jiang Yuan shook his head in his heart, not only lacking something, but simply lacking too much.Half of this plan works, and half doesn't work at all.

It is of course feasible to contact the Yuezhi people to jointly attack the Northern Man. With the leadership of the Yuezhi, an ally who is familiar with the terrain of the Northern Man, it will be easier for the Dajing army to invade the hinterland of the Northern Man, and it can also eliminate more living forces. Of course, it is very valuable. of.But the effect of uniting the Yue clan to attack the royal court was not as good as the general imagined.

As I said before, not all the forces in the Northern Barbarian Kingdom are willing to obey the orders of the Great Khan. Many people surrender on the surface, but they are not convinced at all in their hearts, they just succumbed to the strength.If the royal court of the northern barbarians were trampled by soldiers and horses, and the Great Khan and even the entire royal family were captured, then these disobedient tribes would immediately raise their flags and stand up as kings.

Horses stepping on the royal court will not have a good effect, but will cause the bad effect of scaring the snakes. What if these disobedient tribes hide directly in the mountains and attack the Jing army from time to time, and rob the food road or something by the way, Or simply develop into a bandit who plunders everywhere, so the time and energy it takes to conquer the northern barbarian country will increase even more.

This method is completely unfeasible. It is too risky in the early stage, and it will get twice the result with half the effort in the later stage. It is easy to leave a breathing space for the northern barbarians. If these northern barbarian tribes are allowed to recuperate, it will be another serious problem.So it's not good at all, this general is really taking it for granted...

It’s okay just to be slow, but if it’s slow it won’t work, so it’s completely useless.

Sure enough, Situ Sheng said indifferently: "It is still feasible to contact the Yue clan. The Yue clan has obtained countless food and grass in order to survive and contact Dajing. It is time for them to repay. But..." He changed the topic, and continued: "It's too easy to scare the snake by stepping on the king's court. The folk customs of Beiman are different from Dajing. Capturing thieves and capturing the king can only restrain the morale of the army, and it is impossible to easily control the whole country of Beiman. Although this strategy has merits, it is still somewhat inappropriate."

The general was a little frustrated, saluted and retreated to his seat.

As soon as this person went down, another person stood up next to him.He walked to the center of the hall, and after saluting, he said, "Your Majesty, let me tell you that the general thought that the northern barbarian army didn't understand farming and mulberry, and they didn't do farming. Livestock is food, and there is no way of food, so the march is swift. However, when fighting, the best way to shake the morale of the army is to cut off food. If there is a way to cut off the food of the soldiers and civilians of the northern barbarians, their fighting spirit will be exhausted. The effect of subjugating soldiers."

This person obviously learned the lesson of the military general just now, and he didn't mention the overall strategy at all, and directly explained his tactics.I have to say, this is also a good way. Strategy is a big issue, and it is not something ordinary people can grasp because it pays attention to the overall situation. Tactics serve strategy. Although good tactics cannot be as outstanding as proposed strategies, they are also It is better to win the favor of His Majesty the Emperor than to say that there are too many mistakes.

After all, not everyone has the ability to consider the overall situation clearly. If they are all so powerful, wouldn't they all become famous generals?This person is very self-aware, knowing that he doesn't have this ability, so let's suggest some useful methods.

"Beiman has no way to cut off the food supply. If you want to cut off the Beiman's rations, you have to exterminate their cattle, sheep and other livestock. Therefore, I will not come up with a method. I don't know if it is feasible." The man said humbly.

"Although the northern barbarians live on grass, for the convenience of drinking water for the livestock, they must not live far away from lakes and rivers. If some sick and dead cows and horses are placed in the upper reaches of the drinking water, the livestock drinking water downstream must be They will die of illness, and the number of sick cattle and horses will increase day by day, which can be used to reduce the rations of the northern barbarians, so as to cut off food and grass."

I have to say that although the loss is a bit of a loss, it is really a worthwhile method.Jiang Yuan nodded inwardly. He really thinks the same thing. This idea is good, but it has its own characteristics.

He took a closer look and found that the person who had just spoken in the hall was a lieutenant named Sun Li who had returned to Beijing from Beijiang.Compared with the completely inoperable proposal of the previous person, this time Sun Li proposed a method that could be implemented, and in the history of the previous life, someone actually used such a method and achieved success.

There is a record in the unofficial history that I don’t know if it is true. It is said that Hou Huo Qubing, the champion of the Western Han Dynasty who sealed the wolf and lived in Xu, died young because the Huns buried the dead cattle and sheep in the water source. And Huo Qubing drank the water in the water source, and that's why he got the plague and died.

Of course, this is just unofficial history, and whether there is such a thing is still a matter of debate, but there are also related records in the official history of using epidemics to defeat the enemy.

In the middle of the fourteenth century, when Mongolia moved westward, it once attacked a city called Kafa (now Feodosia in Ukraine), but it was still unable to capture it.Angry Mongols used trebuchets to throw the bodies of people who died of the plague (Black Death) into the city of Kaffa, which led to a large-scale plague outbreak in history.

This plague raged in Europe for more than three centuries. The people of Kaffa City, which was attacked by Mongolia, almost died, and the whole of Europe fell into the panic of the plague. Even the Grand Duke of Moscow died of the plague.The great plague claimed the lives of 500 million Europeans and caused the death of more than 500 million people worldwide.

It is said that this plague has affected Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and India, killing about one-third to one-half of the population in these regions. Even the United Kingdom, which is across the sea, has not escaped, let alone other countries.

Thanks to this huge plague disaster, rumors spread from nowhere, saying that not taking a bath can prevent the Black Death. Therefore, the whole of Europe, from the princes and nobles to the common people, basically insisted on an extremely unhygienic diet. The way of life caused the perfume to be out of stock forever, which indirectly saved those merchants who were engaged in the spice trade...

It is said that King Louis XV of France, who bathed three times in his life, was a victim of this rumor. Of course, their entire family seems to be believers in this rumor, which makes it hard to imagine the daily life of European nobles.A king always "prevents diseases" in this way. One can imagine the hygienic situation in Europe at that time... Cough cough, but think about the fact that all surgeons in Europe were barbers at that time. This is really...

Well, far away.

This strategy can actually exist as an auxiliary strategy. If a large number of cattle, sheep and horses in the Beiman Kingdom die, it will definitely be a great boon for Dajing's army. Even if it kills his own horses, it is quite cost-effective.

Dajing's strongest military strength lies in the infantry and new weapons and equipment. The cavalry only exists as an auxiliary force and cannot become the dominant force. However, the northern barbarians who have lost their mobility are lambs to be slaughtered.Without the bonus of horses, even ten northern barbarians could not match Dajing's army together. This is indeed a quite feasible strategy.

It's true that it's a bit insidious to think negatively, but who stipulates that you can't make harmful moves in war?In this era where there is no lower limit, if you don't hurt, others will treat you badly. As long as you control the range of cattle and horse diseases, only poisoning livestock and not harming humans, Jiang Yuan has no psychological burden at all.People from the northern barbarians can be killed, so how about killing some of their cattle and horses?Are there any Humane Society these days...

Sun Li also retreated, but he was in a good mood. His Majesty the Emperor was obviously satisfied with his strategy. Although he didn't praise him too much in his words, he didn't object to it either. This proved that this strategy was affirmed by His Majesty the Emperor. He has added a lot of opportunities for promotion.

The third person to speak out was Wu Yuanqing, the guard of the Yongding Gate in the capital city. He was Situ Sheng's old subordinate when the San Francisco rebelled. From the beginning, he made many military exploits, and even defended Situ Sheng when the enemy army of Wei State rushed to the top of the city. He was trusted by the emperor, so he was able to lead the duty of guarding the gate of the capital at such a young age.

After Wu Yuanqing stood still and saluted, he said, "Your Majesty, the last general privately thinks that the strategy for attacking the northern barbarians is up to you, Your Majesty."

This sentence is very interesting. What kind of strategy you want depends on your majesty. Does it mean that your majesty should figure out a way by yourself, and we will go back and rest now?Or you can play whatever you want, Your Majesty, we are not at the same level, so you can't understand me?

The generals here couldn't help but twitch their eyes, thinking, Wu Yuanqing, you speak too straight, don't say what you said is unreasonable, even if it makes sense, at least turn around and talk about it...

Those who know say that you are outspoken, don’t know how to restrain yourself, and those who don’t know will drag you out immediately and send you to Yazhou, and you will never come back in the next life... Your Majesty is a Mingjun, but he is not made of dough, he has a big temper Come on, chopping off the heads of officials in Jiangnan is like chopping watermelons, who knows if they just click you because they don't like you.Come on, let's see if anyone is willing to save you...

"Oh?" Situ Sheng didn't get angry when he heard this, and his words were astonishing. Wu Yuanqing was far behind Jiang Yuan. Even being so bold has been frightened before, Wu Yuanqing's speech is much better than Jiang Yuan's.So he nodded to signal Wu Yuanqing to continue.

Wu Yuanqing gave another salute, and continued: "The purpose of the strategy is to achieve a certain result. It is necessary to formulate a corresponding strategy for the desired result. If Your Majesty wants to destroy all the people in the entire Northern Barbarian Kingdom, That requires a specific strategy, and if His Majesty only wants to take the northern barbarians for his own use, he needs another strategy to deal with them. Different results require different strategies, so the final decision is made What kind of strategy depends on you, Your Majesty must first say what kind of results you want, so that the ministers can come up with corresponding strategies for the results of the battle."

Jiang Yuan's eyes lit up, this Wu Yuanqing's force level is very average, but his thinking is not bad!Jiang Yuan remembered that he had "picked Wu Yuanqing under the horse" countless times back then, but he really didn't pay attention to this person's level of strategy. Now it seems that Situ Sheng has a lot of foresight in promoting this person, and he is indeed not as good at finding talents. Situ Sheng's place.

Jiang Yuan must admit that Wu Yuanqing's mind is really good, and his angle and depth of seeing problems are also different from the previous two. Although he doesn't know his other abilities, he can listen to what he said just now. It turns out that this is a talent, at least he is not rigid in his mind, he is a smart person!

Situ Sheng didn't express what was in his mind, but asked directly: "If I want to completely destroy the Beiman clan, how should I send troops? If I only want to take the Beiman people for my own use, how should I deal with it?"

Wu Yuanqing thought for a while, and then replied: "The general's intelligence is limited, and he really can't think of how to completely destroy the northern barbarian clan."

As soon as he uttered these words, some of the generals sitting below secretly laughed and insulted secretly, and most of them stared at Wu Yuanqing with wide eyes in amazement. You don't even know, so what did you say? ah.At the beginning, I talked so much, I thought you were so loud, what good ideas could you come up with!So you actually said you didn't know what to do? !

Jiang Yuan twitched the corners of his mouth, and couldn't help coughing twice, cough cough, what he said just now was too early, this Wu Yuanqing is not only a talent, but also a rare wonderful person, do you dare to tell jokes when facing the emperor , Do you think you are a stand-up comic artist...

Wu Yuanqing went on to say: "Although the last general doesn't know how to completely destroy the Beiman clan, he knows how to weaken the strength of the Beiman country."

You are really out of breath, you know what to say earlier, this technique sounds more like a cross talk... Jiang Yuan couldn't help but rubbed the temples on both sides of his forehead, he really didn't know how to evaluate the person in front of him, there was a kind of What should I do if I feel itchy and want to punch someone...

"The country of the Northern Man is like a school of fish. If you want to attract the fish, you must catch all the fish with the right bait. If the last general plots, he will definitely use Zhang Yuan as the bait to attract the army of the Northern Man."

Wu Yuanqing didn't feel any embarrassment at all, and continued: "Zhang Yuan is a place where Dajing and Beiman traded, and the products are rich, gold and silver are everywhere. The Beiman tribe has been coveting Zhang Yuan's land for a long time. If Dajing uses Zhang Yuan as bait , sent a giant merchant to secretly contact the Northern Man, pretending to serve the Northern Man, willing to be an internal response, and offering Zhang Yuan as a step up."

"At that time, a large army will be ambushed near Zhang Yuan, and it will be encircled and wiped out. When the northern barbarian army arrives, they can take the opportunity to cut off their retreat and destroy the bandits under the city of Zhang Yuan. The northern barbarians are always greedy and don't care about production. They only know about plundering, if they hear that Zhang Yuan can be easily obtained with internal support, they must be unsatisfied, and definitely want to seize the opportunity to capture several cities near Zhang Yuan, so the commander must be the Great Khan of the Northern Man, and the soldiers he leads must be It will not be less than tens of thousands, and may even be more than 20. If all of them are left in Zhang Yuan, the power of the northern barbarians will be greatly weakened!"

This strategy is not an exaggeration at all. The people in Zhangyuan City may not have much wealth, but that was before it became a place of trade between the two countries, and it is very different now.

Because of the large-scale trade of tea and salt between Dajing and Beiman, Zhang Yuancheng took this opportunity to become a well-known and prosperous place in Dajing.Thinking about Yangzhou, why did it become so rich? Isn’t it because all the salt merchants from all over the world gathered here to make this blessed land?If there were no rich salt merchants gathered there, where would such a prosperous city come from?

Since Yangzhou can be so prosperous, Zhang Yuan is not too far behind.As a place of trade between big countries, Zhang Yuan's wealth is hard to describe.Great merchants from all over the country gathered here, and the gold and silver goods that circulate here every day are hard to count. It is no worse than the prosperity of the capital city, and it can be compared to the prosperity of some commercial ports on the southeast coast of later generations.

I don't know how many merchants from the Great Jing Kingdom and the Northern Man Kingdom gathered there. There are rich merchants from the Western Regions and even distant Europe who come here to trade. Seizing Zhangyuan City is more cost-effective than looting the treasury of a big country. The bait really has enough weight.

With fat meat like Zhang Yuan who absolutely cannot refuse as bait, not to mention attracting the 20 troops of the Northern Man, it is possible to attract more.If the nets can be set up to catch these big fish in advance, it will be like cutting off half of the northern barbarian country.

Jiang Yuan said silently in his heart: Mayi's plan!

That's right, Wu Yuanqing's strategy is almost the same as the Ma Yi's strategy of Nie Yi in the Western Han Dynasty that he had heard in his previous life.Nie Yi was a wealthy businessman of the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. He once offered the plan of Mayi, using the city of Mayi of the Han Dynasty as a bait, hoping to attract the Huns to destroy it.This strategy worked so well that even the Xiongnu Shanyu's army officials were attracted and almost captured him alive.

The reason why this strategy failed was because Yanmen Weishi was arrested. Under the threat of the Huns, he leaked the whole plan of Mayi's plot in advance, so that the Huns who had not yet entered the encirclement escaped with their lives, otherwise the Huns who came I am afraid that more than half of the people will die under the city of Mayi.

The plan was very good, but it is a pity that "if you don't keep a few things secret, you will be harmed." Once the matter was leaked, not only did the military minister Shan Yu not be caught, but it also angered the invading Huns and attracted a large-scale attack by the Huns.In order to retaliate against the siege of Mayi, the military minister Shanyu launched countless attacks on the border counties of the Han Dynasty, and continued to plunder the Han people. /fire/cable.

Although many people in later generations criticized Mayi's plan in various ways, such as laboring teachers and wasting money, or being lucky for a while, they almost didn't point their noses at Nie Yi and Wang Hui who were in charge of the strategy.But in fact?No matter what the result is, if the original plan of Mayi was successful, would the Han Dynasty need to sacrifice the lives of so many soldiers and go through 30 years of fighting to achieve a comprehensive victory over the Huns?Those who criticized Ma Yi's plot, why didn't they try to wear it back to fight?Easier said than done.

This Wu Yuanqing did have some skills, no wonder he was only a pawn, but he was able to stand out in the chaos of the San Francisco, he was indeed a capable person.

Although Wu Yuanqing's strategy was not in line with Situ Sheng's ideas, his strategy was indeed good.Situ Sheng nodded to him, praised Wu Yuanqing a few words, and then asked the other generals for their opinions again.

The appearance of the first three people had the effect of attracting others, and after that, military generals continued to stand up to clarify their ideas.Some of them are feasible, and some of them can be known as soon as they heard it. However, Situ Sheng didn't discourage their enthusiasm too much. His willingness to speak at least proves that they are willing to think about it and do it, and they are willing to do things for him, the emperor. Don't want to think about it, it's better to directly oppose the battle.

This discussion lasted from the morning to the beginning of the night lights. Although there was no result in the discussion, everyone was brought onto the boat step by step by Situ Sheng and Jiang Yuan.

Hehe, at the beginning everyone was obviously thinking about whether to go to the Northern Expedition, but in the end, everyone was thinking about how to go to the Northern Expedition.The proposal of the Northern Expedition easily won the support of all the generals in Beijing, so the next thing we need to do is to see the reaction of the civil service system at the time of the Great Court Assembly.

Dama returned to Guanyinghou's Mansion, Jiang Yuan sat in the inner study, staring blankly at the tiles on the roof, sorting out the thoughts in his mind.

He and Situ Sheng had discussed the conquest of the Northern Barbarian Kingdom as early as the beginning of their acquaintance, ten years ago, and with the enrichment of various strategic conditions over the years, the overall strategic layout has become more and more perfect.Today Situ Sheng was nominally asking the generals about their plan to conquer the northern barbarians. In fact, it was just to test the thoughts of the officials, listen to their opinions, and see if they could make up for some shortcomings in their strategy. The grand strategy of the northern barbarian country has been established bit by bit by them in the past ten years.

Going to war against a big country like the Northern Barbarians is not a matter of slapping your head, a flash of inspiration, and a few big words. The preparations in the early stage alone will take at least decades, and then you need to collect information and formulate a sound strategy It will take a few more years.

This war is bound to happen, there must be a victory or defeat between the two superpowers, then Jiang Yuan must ensure that this inevitable war will bring everyone a perfect result, can bring Dajing, Dajing Jing's countless subjects have enough interests, so that in the future, more soldiers and people can be tied to Dajing's chariot to complete all his plans.

Attacking the Beiman country or even completely occupying the Beiman country is only the first step of a grand plan. Before stepping on this first step, Jiang Yuan must think about all the consequences of the war and determine the goal of the war.

This game needs to be played against the whole world's chess game. Only Situ Sheng and Jiang Yuan know all about it, and only these two can establish it.Although I don't know if it can be completed in the lifetime of the two of them, or it will take a few generations to realize it, but once this game of chess is played, the whole world, the whole world will move forward, and no one can stop it. come down!

Jiang Yuan closed his eyes, as if he could see a road stained red with blood in the future.

For the sake of clean government, Situ Sheng and Jiang Yuan were able to send countless officials in the south of the Yangtze River to the guillotine and wash the land of the south of the Yangtze River with blood.

For the prosperity of Dajing, they will continue to be stained with the blood of the northern barbarians, the blood of Qianxiang country, the blood of the countries in the Western Regions, and the blood of the whole world... Jiang Yuan hopes that they can use these bloods to exchange for everyone in Dajing. Come to a bright future, eternal Kangtai, eternal peace!

For this reason, he will spare no expense, even if he is lost forever, even if he enters the underworld, even if he cannot be reborn forever.He still remembered that before the assassination on New Year's Eve, he was able to sacrifice his own life for this chess game, to keep Situ Sheng, and to keep their plan.He also remembered that Situ Sheng was willing to sacrifice his reputation and the rule of the Situ family to complete this plan.They have paid too much and they will never allow the Northern Expedition to fail. This big game must have the best start!