Liu Yujue opened the tent and walked in. Seeing Xia Xun still scratching on the ground, he called out: "Brother!"
"Oh! Yujue is here, sit down. What did you gain today?" Xia Xun saw him and hurriedly patted the felt blanket beside him.
Liu Yujue was originally from the circus, and according to what he said, he and Xia Xun had a master-servant and brotherly relationship. It was reasonable to see him often, and Guo Yixuan had no doubts about this.
Liu Yujue sat cross-legged on the carpet and sighed listlessly: "I haven't heard any useful news. We are so close to Timur now, but it's hard to make any progress. It's really discouraging to think about it."
Xia Xun smiled and said: "Don't worry, there are always ways. Any clues may be used by us, but they don't necessarily have to be directly related to our purpose. I have taught you this truth a long time ago, how to
Forgot again? Tell me, what did you gain today?"
Liu Yujue told Xia Xun exactly what he heard and saw today.
Xia Xun poured him a cup of tea and sipped the tea slowly while listening to his story. Hearing him mention the lack of military discipline when drinking was allowed in the army, his eyes suddenly lit up and he just raised his hand.
Liu Yujue knew what he had already thought, so she immediately shut up and stared at him quietly.
Xia Xun tilted his head slightly and stared at the corner of the tent, where Tang Sai'er was practicing. Her illusion skills required extremely high flexibility. Like martial arts, she needed to practice diligently every day. Tang Sai'er was practicing in the tent at the moment.
She was sitting there, holding a teacup in her hand. Sometimes the teacup danced nimbly between her fingers, sometimes it disappeared, and then it magically appeared again when she moved her hand.
Xia Xun seemed to be staring at her. But gradually his eyes lost focus, as if looking through Tang Saier's body into nothingness. Liu Yujue looked at Xia Xun seriously, and saw him sometimes nodding, sometimes shaking his head.
Sometimes he frowned and thought deeply, sometimes he nodded and smiled. This thought alone lasted half an hour. His legs were numb from sitting, and Xia Xun was still thinking.
Liu Yujue couldn't help but think: "Is the eldest brother trying to take advantage of this? However, even if the army is drinking and the order is chaotic, Timur's pro-military guard camp cannot be unorganized and abnormal, let alone allow people to approach Timur.
It was impossible to approach him in full public view, let alone assassinate him.
Furthermore, if you want to get the army to ban alcohol, unless something big happens that would make Tamerlane extremely happy, what can the eldest brother do to make Timur happy and ban alcohol? With the Duke's
Ability, I'm afraid unless it can make our army fake defeat and let Timur's army win a big victory.
However, this is the first battle between the two great powers in the East and the West. It is very important for the morale of the troops. If they pretend to surrender, only the general will know, and it will be impossible to tell the soldiers that the morale will be extremely depressed. I am afraid that it will be self-defeating and really ruined.
The victory of the entire war. Not to mention that the Duke is now trapped in the enemy camp. How can he possibly contact the Ming army and ask General Song Sheng to act according to his ideas? "
"Brother, what's going on? Have you figured out a solution?" After a long time, Liu Yujue couldn't help but ask. Xia Xun shook his head and said, "I need to think about this matter carefully."
Liu Yujue sighed and said: "Brother, it is really difficult to get Timur's idea, especially because the time is tight, which does not allow us to think carefully and make careful preparations. Brother, if it really doesn't work, let's implement the next step, no matter what
Whether it is successful or not, just carry out the assassination, leave evidence pointing to Hari Sultan at the critical moment, and force Timur's right army to counterattack, this is also a wonderful feat!"
Xia Xun shook his head and said: "You can only take this strategy if assassination is impossible. But if you have a chance, you must kill Timur as much as possible. Timur's empire is too huge, and such a huge country cannot maintain it."
Even Timur alone, if Timur does not die, Harry Sultan cannot take too many people away, nor can he cause civil strife in Timur's empire."
"Conquering such a powerful force from the outside requires heavy sacrifices, but starting from the inside can get twice the result with half the effort. We finally have Harry Sultan as an internal agent, how can we give up so easily? What's more, I am very concerned about the assassination.
Muer, we already have several cases, and the success rate is over 30%!"
Xia Xun took a deep breath and said: "If there is a 10% chance of assassinating a king, it is worth taking the risk, let alone 30%. However, these few cases of mine cannot make the murder invisible. Yujue, the highest realm
As an assassin, you don’t kill with one hit, and no one knows you killed the person.”
Liu Yujue was shocked and said: "One hit is sure to hit. You are already a master. When you are done, you throw away your clothes and leave your body and reputation behind. You are even a first-rate master. This is not enough. So what is the highest level?"
Xia Xun said: "The highest level is to make the deceased not look like he was killed. Only in this way can the most successful assassination be achieved and the greatest benefits can be obtained! This is where I am in trouble. If one day
I still can't think of a more appropriate way, so I will implement one of the several plans I have already thought of."
Speaking of this, Xia Xun unexpectedly remembered how he got rid of the four Jinyiwei spies in Qingzhou. Zhang Shisan was ruthless, Feng Xihui was good at martial arts, Liu Xu was cautious by nature, and An Litong was cunning and suspicious. But he put these stumbling blocks in his mind.
They were all eliminated one by one. The method he used at that time had already reached the state of "getting done and leaving without leaving any body or name". Everyone knew that they were killed, but they could not find out the murderer.
people!
Killing with one strike is a brilliant killer, and it is also the realm that many killers pursue throughout their lives. But killing without a name is an even more brilliant realm. If a killer is famous in the world of killers, he will even be ranked first or second.
This person is not far from death.
A truly brilliant killer is one in which no one knows you are so brilliant. And this is not the highest realm. A more brilliant realm is to kill someone but make everyone think that the person killed was just a natural death. This requires wisdom.
, requires extremely high intelligence, careful thinking and rigorous logical reasoning ability.
Since coming out of Qingzhou, Xia Xun has fought against the sky and against people. He has been full of wits, courage and strategies. He has overcome every hurdle and hurdle. But this time, he still needs to fight against himself, but he has to fight against himself.
Only by surpassing himself can he design a flawless murder plan.
He needs to break through many security guards to assassinate a king!
He needs to successfully kill this king who is under strict protection!
He needs to disguise this assassination as a natural death!
He needs to try his best to ensure that his people escape unharmed from the murder scene!
Finally, he needs to get rid of his "allies" and return to the Ming Dynasty safely with men and women, seven or eight people of all sizes!
The plan he designed must try his best to ensure that he can pass five levels in a row, and any of these levels is an almost insurmountable peak!
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Timur was in good spirits today. The sixty-nine-year-old man sat quietly on his white bear leather seat, leaning sideways with his cheek against the soft fur. He listened carefully to the opinions of his subordinates.
Shaharul's left army arrived belatedly and finally arrived at the assembly point. For this, Timur did not criticize him too much. He was a cold-blooded, iron-fisted king, but he was also the leader of a big family.
A parent, a father, an old son, or an eldest grandson, are always particularly loved by their elders, and the great emperor Timur was no exception.
He only has two biological sons left, the third one is frail and sick. He has been staying in Samarkand for many years. All his outstanding achievements were made by him or his other descendants. He dislikes this third son who has made no achievements.
, and the fourth child is brave and good at fighting. He is also the youngest among his sons, and he is most favored by him.
Besides, his plan was already planned in advance. He chose to march in winter because crossing the desert in summer was almost an impossible task. The heat was so intense that even birds did not dare to fly over the desert. But he did not want to choose
Fighting in winter is obviously more disadvantageous to the attacking party and will add a lot of unnecessary troubles to him. The time is just right now, spring is warm and flowers are blooming. The glaciers have thawed and the climate is suitable.
Another point is that the commander-in-chief of the Right Army, his grandson Harry Sultan, has been deprived of his military power. If he punishes the commander-in-chief of the Left Army at this time, then he will need to completely redeploy the army. Time has already passed.
He is not allowed to do this.
The generals are arguing, and there is only one focus left in their dispute: the main direction of attack.
Some generals insisted that they should cross the Pamir Plateau, attack Gaomi, occupy the sandbar, and use this as a base to seize Jiayuguan and enter Shaanxi, seizing all the land in Guanzhong and looking eastward at the hinterland of the Central Plains. Those who insisted on this opinion included those who had already rushed to receive the troops.
Qasuyeddin, who was under the military power of Hari Sultan, were from the princely faction.
Another group of generals believe that the right army, commanded by Gesuyedin, will capture Hami and Shazhou and storm Jiayuguan. The main force of the Chinese army will cooperate with the left army to detour to the north of the Tianshan Mountains and attack the northern defense line of the Ming Empire from the north of Shanxi. This group of generals are mainly
People who tend to be the fourth prince, Shaharul.
Those who support using Jiayuguan as the main offensive route believe that Qin Shihuang used Guanzhong as his base to destroy the six eastern kingdoms and gain the entire world. The Timurid Empire's army could follow Qin Shihuang's example. With their powerful force,
As long as you take Guanzhong into your own pocket, you will be able to gain the entire Ming Dynasty.
The fourth prince Shaharu's faction strongly opposed it. They said that the distance between Hami and Shazhou was too far, and it was a desert. It was not suitable to transport heavy equipment in a barren land. If Jiayuguan could not be conquered quickly and hundreds of thousands of troops were stationed outside Jiayuguan, they would
This creates an awkward situation.
During the Yongle Emperor's Jingnan Campaign, the Ming army in the direction of Shaanxi and Jiayuguan basically did not participate in the civil war. If this powerful border defense army relied on the terrain and passes to resist Timur's army, it would only last a few months, and it would be difficult to sustain military support.
The Mu'er Emperor's army will collapse without a fight, because it is obvious that the Ming army will definitely clear the sandbank and they will not be able to get enough supplies from the local area.
The last point is: if the main attack is on Jiayuguan, then the Right Army will be responsible for the main offensive task, and the commander of the Right Army, Gesu Yedin, has just taken over Harry Sultan's men, and most of the army's lieutenants and generals are Harry's old troops. I am afraid that the transfer will not be so easy.
The Four Princes believe that they should enter the Central Plains from Shanxi. Because this road is a vast grassland, the war horses and the cattle and sheep they use as food can have enough to eat. They do not need to carry a lot of pasture, and the water sources on the grassland are better than
There are enough in the desert. In addition, the north has been ruled by three generations of Liao, Jin and Yuan. The Ming Dynasty has only ruled the north for forty years. The northern Han people are not loyal enough to the Central Plains dynasty, and their resistance to foreigners is not that strong.
The prince faction raised two objections to this. One was that this road was relatively long, and the other was that Timur Khan greeted the Tatars and Oara before sending troops and expressed friendship to them. However, Oara's attitude was very
Ambiguous. If you want to go through Poyanmen Pass in Shanxi, you have to pass through Wala's territory. If Wala interferes, or even makes peace with the Ming army, and attacks them from behind, the warriors of the empire will be in the dilemma of being attacked from both sides.
Frankly speaking, although the purpose of both factions is to attack each other's main attack route in order to compete for credit, the advantages and shortcomings they mentioned are actual situations. In front of the wise emperor Timur,
If you want to suppress your political opponents, you have to show some real skills.
Timur's original plan was to attack Jiayuguan as the main direction, but to attack Jiayuguan, he had to use the sandbank as a springboard. Yang Xu, the auxiliary prince of the Ming Dynasty, made drastic changes on the sandbank and eradicated many of Timur's tendencies with bloody means.
The wealthy families of the Er empire have already dominated the local power in Shazhou. Now the situation in Shazhou outside Jiayuguan has changed significantly from what he knew before.
In the original situation, because the Ming Dynasty was worried that being too tough on the forces outside the Jiayuguan Pass would cause more people to turn to Timur, so it adopted a soft approach to the local forces in Shazhou. Basically, they believed too much in the dangers of the Jiayuguan Pass and did not treat the forces outside the Pass.
It is laissez-faire. When the time comes, as long as the Timur Empire fights for and suppresses at the same time, it will definitely be able to get the support of the local forces in Shazhou, and at least get their supplies, whether it is through plundering or forcing contributions.
But Yang Xu's stinky fish has made a pot of soup. Now as long as the army here moves, there will definitely be a solid wall and the country will be clear, and the soldiers and civilians will withdraw into the pass. The long desert is their best protection. They can retreat calmly and evacuate the sandbank.
It's like a bone that a dog has chewed, nothing is left.
The two groups were in a stalemate, and finally pushed this problem to Timur. When the two sides were arguing, Timur was already thinking nervously. When the two groups stopped arguing and both looked at him, Timur clearly understood
He coughed and said decisively in his old and powerful voice: "According to the previous discussion, the main attack will still be at Jiayuguan, and the left army will be ready to move.
When marching to fight, even if you are sure of victory, you should first consider defeat. Once Jiayuguan cannot be captured by force, the actions of the left army can contain the main force of the Ming army and prevent it from reinforcing Jiayuguan. The right army will be supported by the central army.
, retreat eight miles and wait for orders. If Jiayuguan is successfully opened, the left army will take the Yanmen Pass in Shanxi, one from the south and one from the north, and attack from both directions. By then, Wala may not have the courage to fight me!"
Timur stood up slowly while holding on to the armrest, and ordered in a deep voice: "The whole army is ready for war, and the war will officially begin in fifteen days! Send an order to Harry to hand over the army quickly! Send people to Wala and his party to make the final effort of diplomacy!"