It was clearly still afternoon, and the sky suddenly became much darker.
Li Xia turned around to look, stood up, closed the window, lit two candles, and invited Li Zengbo to sit down and talk.
Sending troops is not a trivial matter. The idea of going west only came out of nowhere in the few days after defeating Ashu. It is immature. Obviously there are too many things to consider.
But Li Xia opened his mouth and set the tone with one sentence.
"Fight, we have to fight, and we have to strike first while Kublai Khan and Li Fen and Brother Ali are the two enemies. Hit them with one punch to avoid hundreds of punches."
Li Zengbo was refreshed.
On the way from Chang'an Avenue, he had also considered that Li Xia might not be willing to support this strategy, but now he could feel the other party's spirit of rising to the challenge.
It was this kind of spirit that the Lin'an court did not have that made Li Zengbo gradually feel like a fish in water after arriving in Guanlong. Just as Wu Qian said, "Just cheer up."
It is indeed exciting.
…
If we use an analogy to the current situation, Kublai Khan is like a strong man. He first waved his big stick to drive away the cruel and cowardly strong man Ali Buge, and then grabbed the thin neck of the thin man Li Fen with one hand.
, holding Li Xia's head with one hand.
Song Ting looked like a sickly man with a sallow face and skinny muscles. He took the opportunity to rush forward and wanted to stab Kublai Khan, but when he got in front of him, he was kicked away.
Among all the forces, Li Xia was like a young child whose head was held down by Kublai Khan. Although he bit Kublai Khan hard and struggled to get out, he fell heavily.
When I got up, I saw that the patient had been kicked away, the thin man was about to be strangled to death, and the other strong man with a fierce look and a soft heart was still missing.
If it were any other child, it would be time to run away.
Li Xia didn't run away, but wanted to stab Kublai Khan.
Of course, he had no savings and insufficient food, grass and troops, which is why he was compared to a child.
This knife is not easy to stab.
Where to poke it? How to poke it? This has become a question that must be carefully considered.
…
"Fight east or west? There is a big difference."
Li Zengbo came in half way through the meal. There were still soup stains on his beard. He wiped it and said: "The Mongolian army in the east is on guard, and the city is high and the wall is strong, and the army is gathered. Shi Tianze and Dong Wenbing are waiting to be destroyed."
After capturing Li Fen, they dealt with us; the west is different, the land is vast and sparsely populated, the Mongolian army is insufficient, and they don’t know that we have 20,000 cavalry. This is to catch them by surprise and attack them unprepared..."
Li Xia picked up the pen and wrote a few strokes on the paper.
At this time, the conversation with Li Zengbo basically explained at the strategic level why we should attack, and why we should not attack the east but the west.
Moving the pen tip further down, there are many issues that need to be considered.
"It's okay to fight to the west. First, decide the target. Where should we hit? In other words, how big of a piece of meat should we cut back?"
"The four counties in Hexi, Hetao." Li Zengbo did not hesitate.
This is probably the territory of Xixia, bounded by the Yellow River in the east, Yumen in the west, Xiaoguan in the south, and the desert in the north.
Li Xia was surprised.
He only marked the location of Liangzhou on the map, and he really had no intention of conquering the entire Hexi Corridor now, let alone the Hetao.
Judging from the map, the area from Liupan Mountain to Liangzhou is already much larger than Guanzhong.
"Do we have this strength? With our strength, we can conquer Liangzhou at most, right?" Li Xia asked.
"The Hexi Corridor and the Hetao region are of great significance. If they are gained, Guanzhong will be as stable as Mount Tai; if they are lost, the Central Plains will not be defended."
Li Zengbo did not answer whether he had such strength, but first talked about the meaning.
"The Hexi Corridor is a natural barrier against the Tibetans in the west. It connects Guanlong to the east, the Western Regions to the west, Hehuang to the south, and Mongolia to the north. It is the strategic hub of the world and the national vassal guard..."
Li Xia knows the strategic significance of the Hexi Corridor.
To put it simply, this is a choke point, with the Central Plains Dynasty in the east and the nomadic peoples in the west, the former Xiongnu and now Mongolia.
Whoever occupies this place will take the initiative.
When the Central Plains' national power was strong, the Hexi Corridor was a springboard for northwest expansion; when its national power was weak, it was a strategic location to resist foreign enemies.
For comparison, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered Huo Qubing to march into Hexi twice, establish four counties in the Hexi Corridor, and push the defense front to the Mongolian Plateau, which effectively guaranteed the stability of the entire Han Dynasty. On the other hand, the Song Dynasty could not control the Hexi Corridor and could only shrink back.
In a corner, he finally fell into the embarrassing situation of being surrounded by everyone.
"Let's talk about the Hetao. If the Mongolian army goes south to Yanshan Mountain, they will have to pass through the desert. Even they can't attack thousands of miles without supplies. Where can they resupply? The Hetao. The Mongols occupy the Hetao, so they can graze horses and save money here.
We have the strength to attack the Central Plains at any time; and if we occupy the Hetao, we can use this place as a strategic granary and use the high mountains and mountains to retreat and defend..."
Li Xia didn’t need Li Zengbo to explain the meaning of the Loop.
Still in the same comparison, the Han Dynasty occupied the Hetao, and the Xiongnu would be killed no matter how far away they were.
The Song Dynasty did not occupy Hexi, Hetao, and perhaps the sixteen states of Yanyun. Therefore, it was always strategically passive and could only be beaten.
This is why the Song army won battles every year, but could not reverse the strength and weakness of Mongolia.
It has been many years since Li Xia was reborn, and it is only now that he gradually realizes that his previous vision was too small.
In the past, it was said that Sichuan and Shu were the gateway to the Song Dynasty, and Hanzhong was the gateway to Sichuan and Shu.
When the Central Plains Dynasty didn't even have the Central Plains, it was really bitter to want Sichuan and Shu as its gateway.
Only by looking at where the gateways of the Han and Tang Dynasties are, can we understand why the Song Dynasty was constantly being beaten.
Only then can we understand why the Huns and Turks could not bully the Central Plains dynasty like that, but the Mongols could.
This time Li Zengbo was beaten in Longxi and learned the hard way. Or maybe after talking with Wu Qian, he gradually became excited when he thought that he was more than sixty years old and wanted to seize the last years and finally achieve something.
.
Even if he didn't dare to be better than Huo Qubing, he still wanted to imitate Zhang Yichao who regained Hexi for the Tang Dynasty after the Anshi Rebellion.
"Hexi has been in decline for more than a hundred years, and there are few roads blocking Xiao Guanyan. General Lai De opened the old road and became famous all over the world."
If it is said that Zhang Yichao conquered the Hexi Corridor after "a hundred years of Zuo Ren, he was restored to Guanchang; ten counties left Li, all of them came out of soup and fire", to this day, after five dynasties, Xixia, Mongolia, Zuo Ren for hundreds of years, that's several hundred years.
Too many to count.
Li Zengbo not only wanted this achievement, but also felt heavy pain and heavy responsibility because of the thought of it.
The two talked for a long time...
Li Xia really didn't want to swallow up an area as big as the Hexi Corridor and the Hetao at first.
After hearing what Li Zengbo said, he was indeed a little moved.
Capturing such a strategic location was a heavy blow to Kublai Khan.
This is indeed the only last chance.
But he was still very calm. He picked up a pen and marked a few more points on the paper, and said thoughtfully: "The next question is, can we attack these places? How can we defend them after we conquer them?"
Although Li Zengbo only thought about this issue today, he already had a general idea.
"If there are 20,000 cavalry, it will be enough to attack. This area is basically the hometown of the Xixia Kingdom. Although it looks large, in fact it has a small population..."
When it comes to the population of the Hexi Corridor and Hetao, since the Song Dynasty basically never occupied these places, we can only make inferences based on our understanding of Xixia.
The Song army fought against Xixia and suffered repeated defeats. It was believed that Xixia had 500,000 troops. Considering that Xixia "has no distinction between soldiers and civilians, and when there is an incident, the whole country comes together", the population of Xixia was only about two million at its peak.
Although its territory is vast, there are too many deserts and the population is concentrated near the city.
In this situation where the area was vast and sparsely populated, the Mongolian massacre of Xixia can only be summarized with the word "genocide."
The people living in the Hexi Corridor and the Hetao Plain were originally Dangxiang people.
The Dangxiang people were a highly Chinese ethnic group that integrated various tribes and were now wiped out.
"Destroyed" means that it has died and is gone. The entire civilization has been wiped out.
In addition to being massacred, some of the surviving party members surrendered to Mongolia and became Mongols and Semu people; some fled to the Central Plains and became Han people; some went south to Tibet.
At this point, the population of the entire Hexi Corridor was even smaller. They were basically composed of the Tanma Red Army who had been conscripted, the herdsmen who moved from the grasslands, the Semu people who were doing business in the Western Regions, and a large number of people captured from various places by the Kuoduan family.
"Although the area of the Hexi Corridor is large, it only needs to capture Xiliang, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Guazhou and other places, that is, the four counties in Hexi established by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty..."
While Li Xia was listening, he looked around and saw Li Zengbo's hands covering his knees.
I must be older. It rained today and my rheumatism broke out.
Raindrops pounded on the eaves, and Li Zengbo and Li Xia talked for a long time.
What they were talking about was anything but easy.
It will also inevitably face a strong counterattack by the Mongolian army.
Strangely, it was Li Xia who remained calm about this, while the old and frail Li Zengbo was even more impulsive like a boy.
"I have only a few years left to live to this age. I will use these last few years to recapture this northwest gateway for the Central Plains. Ban Chao has been in the extremity for a long time. He longs to return when he is old. He hopes to be born in Yumen Pass. I am different.
I am in peace, I only hope to die at Yumen Pass..."
~~
That night.
When Li Zengbo returned to the post house, he was still agitated and could not sleep for a long time.
He suddenly thought of the detailed conversation he had with Jia Sidao in Lin'an.
To protect the Song Dynasty, should we get rid of Li Ni?
Compared with the career we are discussing with "Li Ni" today, which one is more important? How to choose?
Should I "I am willing to put my sword down from my waist to kill Loulan"? Or should I "wear golden armor in a hundred battles on the yellow sand, and I will never return Loulan until I break it"? Or should I "recover the Jade Pass every year with the golden river, and use my horse and sword to dynasty"
Ring"? Or should we "just let the dragon city fly generals be there, but not teach Hu Ma to cross the Yin Mountains"?
The ambitions of Han men are written in Tang poetry.
Li Zengbo simply stood up, spread out his paper and ink, and wanted to write a letter to lecture Jia Sidao.
However, as soon as I finished writing, I felt that I had nothing to say to Ping Zhanggong from the Jiangnan water town.
So I didn't bother to talk to Jia Sidao anymore.
I simply wrote a poem I had written in the past.
It was a poem written by Zhuge Liang when he passed through Longzhong in Xiangyang.
The candlelight flickered on and off, and Li Zengbo wrote furiously, leaving behind rows of handwriting with gold hooks and iron strokes.
"I was lying on the Han Road in the evening, and the black clouds touched the sky and the moon was breaking. The hero, the lake and the sea echoed like sounds, and he sat quietly facing the south sun."
"If I didn't meet Liu Yuzhou at that time, who would be rewarded by hugging my knees and screaming? How can a brigade in this picture resume the summer sacrifices and avenge the Koreans for thousands of households?"
"..."
"After the temple has been left empty for thousands of years, those who have passed by still know that I am right. The roar of the dragon seems to be a spirit, and the emperor's envoy Hu Ying is falling to the sky dog?!"
The writing brush was thrown on the table.
Li Zengbo opened the window, looked to the west, exhaled a breath of turbid air, and suddenly felt that his mind was broadened.
This old poem talks about Zhuge's Northern Expedition, the return of summer sacrifices, the undressing of crowns and clothes, and the Yongchang of the Han Dynasty.
Many years have passed, but Yong's ambition is still there...