Seeing that Zhao Zhen and his two husbands were confused, Wang Xuezhai couldn't help feeling uneasy.

Lu Yijian first reacted and said to Zhao Zhen with a smile: "Your Majesty, the battle between the two armies is not just about the bravery of the soldiers, otherwise why should the court spend so much money on military equipment and armor? The 100,000 troops in Longyou are not only the support of Longyou, but also most of the money and grains in Sichuan and Shu were invested there. Speaking of the money and grain spent, the equipment used, and the money spent in the military exercise, the five armies of Longyou are several times more than the entire army. Even if not talking about these, the people in the army were also selected from Longyou and Sichuan and Shu. The population of these routes is probably not ten times the population. But Xu Duhu’s selection of soldiers is not just about personal courage, but has its own reasons. After these soldiers are trained, they are actually nothing."

How to estimate the combat power of the army? Lu Yijian has no idea, but he has a lot of money to spend in the army. Xu Ping's 100,000 soldiers cost less than the same imperial guards, but it is not comparable to that of the poor place Dangxiang. If you count the money and materials you spend, Wang Xuezhai said that it would be more conservative. Longyou, which used to be controlled by lack of horses and occupied several large horse farming lands, is now not short of them. In addition, nearly 10,000 large chariots, artillery, and various technical weapons, the Longyou Protectorate has an absolute military advantage over Dangxiang along the way. It is estimated that combat power is no longer the time to count the heads.

Zhao Zhen thought about it, nodded, and then shook his head: "When it comes to spending, the three imperial guards in the three yamen are more than twice as expensive as the Longyou army. But why have they not fought a beautiful battle until now?"

Lu Yijian said: "In the past, Xu Ping was in charge of money and grain in the Three Departments. He liked to say that everything in the world has capital. No matter what he did, the court should calculate the capital first and then calculate the profits every time he issued a government order. He also said that the same capital and different methods of doing things will have different results. How to do things, we should try to choose a method that costs less and achieves a lot of results. In the past, many people said that he was a habit of a minor official in money and grain, and was too petty in the court affairs. Now it seems that people say this is pedantic. The cost in the army cannot be only looked at, but also how the money is spent and how much results it has been achieved."

Speaking of this, Lu Yijian paused for a moment and said, "It seems that the money of the Three Imperial Guards is a bit worthwhile!"

At this time, the matter was clearly revealed. The Imperial Guard of the Three Yas spent too much money and did too little. As the war progressed, public opinion on military reform had already arisen, and Zhao Zhen and the Three Yas were both under tremendous pressure. But this matter was really not something that Zhao Zhen could solve in just one sentence. He had to face a series of difficult problems. If the conditions were not mature, he would just pretend to be stupid.

Turning around the topic, Zhao Zhen looked at the map and said, "If Sang Yi has enough troops, Longyou's strategy will be feasible. Go out of Xiaoguan, block the road of the thieves in Tiandu Mountain, and surround and annihilate them!"

Li Di and Lu Yijian looked at each other and shook their heads together. As the two highest officials of the government, they could understand the resistance and difficulties faced by Zhao Zhen, so they just made indirect measures and did not directly propose to adapt the three imperial guards. However, this problem will still be faced one day. I don’t know how long it will take for Zhao Zhen to pretend to be stupid. My husbands are old and able to understand Zhao Zhen’s situation. The young officials below may not be, and they will have a greater momentum in their quarrels.

Putting on reading glasses and approaching the map, Li Di said: "I don't know if there is a road to Weizhou south of Xiaoguan."

Li Zhang crossed his hands: "Report to my grandfather, there should be a small mountain road. However, they are all occupied by Qian Qiang, and the court is not clear about it."

"Oh, are there any small roads?" Li Di and Lu Yijian came forward and looked at the map carefully. Unfortunately, the map of Jingyuan Road is not as detailed as Longyou Road. There is neither the detailed roads nor the location of Fanluo, and the terrain is only rough, so there is no name.

After watching for a while, Lu Yijian took off his reading glasses and said, "If there is a mountain path, you must be wary of the Hao thief leaving Tiandu Mountain and run from the small path to Weizhou. The Longyou army will be empty. It will not be easy to find such an opportunity to surround the Hao thief."

After saying that, he thought for a while and said, "To be on guard, we should order the troops from Jingyuan Road and Huanqing Road to move to the Zhenrong Army area to garrison. As long as we defend the Zhenrong Army, the Hao bandits will become birds in cages and wait for Sang Yi's army to move south."

Xia Shouyun led the main force of the three yamen to attack Baibao City, but there were still many imperial guards stationed on Jingyuan Road and Huanqing Road. Like Longyou, they could gather 30,000 to 50,000 people to the front line. They did not expect them to fight head-on with Yuanhao. Tens of thousands of troops rely on the complete fort system to defend the Zhenrong Army.

As the front line of confrontation with Dangxiang, Yuan Hao urgently built a number of forts after rebelling against the Song Dynasty. Especially when Fan Xiang was the chief magistrate of the Zhenrong Army, he built several forts against the enemy from Tiandu Mountain, all of which occupied important places and strong strongholds.

After discussing, Zhao Zhen said decisively: "This time the opportunity must not be missed. The Privy Council immediately drafted Xuan's orders, left the city overnight, and went to Jingyuan and Huanqing routes, and asked them to concentrate their troops to Zhenrong Army. Tell them the strategy of the Longyou Protectorate's Mansion that the Hao thief was already in the jar this time, and a great victory was expected. Let them be afraid of the thieves, and they will do their best to reorganize the army north and west, and defend the Zhenrong Army!"

Lu Yijian received the order and left the palace and returned to the Privy Council to draft the Xuan order.

All major events in the court were from the Secretariat, and the Privy Council claimed that Xuan was required to paint the emperor. Of course, Xuanhe was used as the most appointment. This time, Jingyuan Road and Huanqing Road were allowed to join forces to join the army in Zhenrong Army to prevent Yuanhao from reaching the specifications. Lu Yijian directly used a letter to send a letter to the two routes to deploy the department. The official documents of the Song Dynasty were extremely complicated, and there were many special names between different yamen, such as letters, notices, resolutions, orders, etc. from later generations. There were dozens of types of letters, notices, resolutions, orders, etc., and it was difficult for officials to figure out their details. Zhao Zhen asked Lu Yijian to draft Xuan's orders, but he just said it casually according to custom.

Lu Yijian left the palace, Zhao Zhen and Li Di took their seats again, saying: "The Longyou memorial also mentioned that it is best to fight and decide quickly against Dangxiang quickly, otherwise it may change later. It is particularly mentioned that once the Hao thief showed signs of defeat, the Khitan would only take advantage of the situation. What does the prime minister think?"

Li Di held the scepter and said, "Xu Ping said this very much. Previously, the thieves had won and lost with us. The Khitan was sitting on the mountain to watch the tiger fight and would not participate. If we occupied Tiandu Mountain and annihilated most of the Hao thieves, they would definitely not ignore it. At least they would take the opportunity to blackmail us. Therefore, it would be best to destroy the Hao thieves in Tiandu Mountain. At that time, the overall situation was decided. How could the remaining states of the thieves defend our thieves? What we were afraid of was that if an accident happened, the battle was won, but the Hao thieves ran away."

"The Prime Minister said it. But we have to consider this in everything, so as not to be at a loss when we get it. If the thief is really run away by the Hao thief and the Khitan takes the opportunity to threaten it, the Prime Minister thinks how will this dynasty deal with it?"

Li Di was a little embarrassed. This matter was really difficult and it was hard to say death in one sentence. If this happens, if you strongly refuse, you will face the risk of going to war. You can't just give in and explain it to the government and the people, and the measure in the middle is not easy to grasp.

After pondering for a long time, Li Di said: "According to what I saw, when I really arrived at that stage, my dynasty was taking the big victory, it was unreasonable that the Khitans would seek. If the Khitans were not too much, I might as well agree that they could concentrate on using troops in the northwest. If the Khitans were insatiable, they could not give in. As for whether to use troops or not, they should still ask the frontline soldiers what they thought."
Chapter completed!