Chapter 442: Initial Discussion of the Northern Expedition
The man's back was turned to her. Qin Lingjun didn't recognize him for a moment, so she didn't go in immediately.
After a while, the man surrendered.
Zhang Yangquan smiled slightly and said: "General Liu, I accept the concession."
General Liu smiled and said: "I am not good at playing chess. If your majesty likes to play chess with others, you can find Brother Sheng. He is very good at chess."
When Qin Lingjun heard this, she recognized the man as Liu Futong and walked in casually.
"Your Majesty doesn't like to play with people who are very good at chess. He only likes to bully people who are worse at chess than him!"
Liu Futong stood up quickly, cupped his hands and said, "I pay my respects to the Queen."
Qin Lingjun sat down next to Zhang Yangquan and said with a smile: "No need to be polite."
When Liu Futong saw Qin Lingjun coming over, he expected to discuss something with Zhang Yangquan. He cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I will retire first."
Zhang Yangquan said: "That's fine. Commander Yang will send someone to escort General Liu out of the palace."
Yang Sanqiang agreed and left with Liu Futong.
Zhang Yangquan squeezed Qin Lingjun's hand and said with a smile, "How's it going with Ma Yulin?"
Qin Lingjun smiled slightly and said, "Sister Deng has already moved into Ma Mansion, and it's up to them to decide what to do next!"
Zhang Yangquan nodded and said: "Do you know why Liu Futong came to me?"
"Did you hear about Pan Cheng and come here to ask for details?"
"No, I only told him about Pan Cheng after he came over."
"Is that asking for news from Dadu? By the way, is there any news from the Military Intelligence Agency?"
"It came in an hour ago. Mrs. Guo did not lie. Polo Timur did indeed surround the capital with troops and forced the prince's party to kill Xisi Jian and Pu Buhua! Liu Futong did not come here for this matter."
Qin Lingjun asked curiously: "Then what is he doing?"
Zhang Yangquan smiled and said: "He came over and analyzed the general trend of the world to me, and then gave me some advice!"
As he said that, he used chess pieces to lay out a simple topographic map of the world on the chessboard, with the white pieces representing the Chinese army and the black pieces representing the Yuan army.
The Huaxia Army currently occupies the entire Jiangnan and part of Huainan, while the Yuan Army occupies the entire Hebei and part of Henan.
The Guanzhong area was controlled by the Yuan Dynasty warlords Li Siqi and Zhang Liangbi, Sichuan was occupied by Ming Yuzhen, and Yunnan was under the control of the Yuan Dynasty Liang Wang.
Zhang Yangquan placed Jeju Island overseas again, and piled sunspots on top of Jeju Island to build the Kingdom of Koryo.
"This is the current situation in the world. Strictly speaking, except for Ming Yuzhen, most of the world is still under the control of Yuan Ting."
Qin Lingjun looked at the chessboard, her heart moved, and she said: "Isn't Liu Futong here to present the strategy for the Northern Expedition?"
Zhang Yangquan smiled and said: "Absolutely. He has experienced the Northern Expedition once, so he knows the key points of the Northern Expedition best, and he also knows the mistakes that are most likely to be made in the Northern Expedition!"
Qin Lingjun thought for a while and said, "The biggest mistake is to divide the troops, right?"
Zhang Yangquan nodded, then shook his head.
"The division of troops was indeed a mistake, but it was not the most important mistake! In Liu Futong's view, their biggest mistake was strategically!"
"Strategy?"
"Yes, the division of troops is just the wrong result of a wrong strategy. Liu Futong's goal at the beginning was too big. He hoped to regain all the territory in the north at once, so he attacked Guanzhong, Hebei, and Shandong at the same time!"
Qin Lingjun pondered: "In this way, his problem is still too urgent. Just like the first uprising, he expanded rashly when the foundation was not stable, resulting in a huge defeat once the battle situation was unfavorable."
Zhang Yangquan nodded and said: "Liu Futong is actually aware of this problem, so he came to me this time to advise me to be cautious in the Northern Expedition and not to rush to gather troops."
Qin Lingjun said happily: "This person is willing to say this, which shows that he is sincerely attached to him!"
Zhang Yangquan smiled and said: "Liu Futong is different from Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhang Shicheng and others. He is more like Uncle Chen. He has no worries and just wants to drive away the Mongols!"
Qin Lingjun looked at the chessboard again and said, "Then what do you think? Should we rest and recuperate for a year or two, or should we immediately go on an expedition to the north?"
Just as Zhang Yangquan was about to speak, Yang Sanqiang suddenly walked in, cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, Duke Qin and Duke Ying are waiting in Zhengyang Hall to see them."
Zhang Yangquan smiled at Qin Lingjun and said, "I guess we are here to discuss the Northern Expedition. It seems that we generals are very anxious!"
The two left Qianyang Palace together, came to Zhengyang Palace, and entered from the back hall.
Zhang Yangquan passed through the corner gate and entered the main hall, while Qin Lingjun stood behind the door.
Xu Baisheng and Zhu San were waiting in the main hall. When they saw Zhang Yangquan coming in, they both raised their hands in greeting.
"Meet Your Majesty."
Zhang Yangquan raised his hand and said: "No need to be polite. You are asking to see me in the evening. What do you have to say?"
Xu Baisheng said: "Your Majesty, our army's scouts have discovered that the Mongolian army in Shandong is heading south, and it seems that they intend to invade Huainan!"
Zhang Yangquan raised his eyebrows and said: "Expand Timur's troops?"
Xu Baisheng said: "Yes. After expanding the territory and capturing Yidu, we harvested 60,000 to 70,000 surrendered troops, and integrated other troops in Henan. Now the total strength exceeds 300,000, and our army has to guard against it!"
Zhang Yangquan pondered for a long time and said: "Do you think Kao Kuo will attack Yangzhou again?"
Xu Baisheng said: "The total strength of our army in Yangzhou is close to 400,000. We are not afraid of confronting the Yuan army. There is only one thing to worry about at the moment."
"What?"
Xu Baisheng said: "Kuanjiao sent people to secretly arrest Zhang Shicheng, and then used Gaoyou to raid Jiangdu Prefecture. Our army will be very passive!"
Zhang Yangquan crossed his hands and said, "In your opinion, how should we deal with it?"
Xu Baisheng said: "Conquer Zhang Shicheng first, and use Gaoyou Mansion as a barrier. If we expand, we will have no choice but to fight us head-on!"
Zhang Yangquan was silent for a moment and sighed: "I'm afraid Zhang Shicheng won't join."
Zhang Shicheng did not even send anyone to congratulate him on this enthronement ceremony, which shows his attitude.
Zhu Sandao: "Your Majesty, the topography of Gaoyou Mansion is extremely important and must be in our own hands!"
Zhang Yangquan pondered for a while and said: "Let's discuss this matter in the court tomorrow!"
Xu Baisheng and Zhu San had no choice but to agree.
Zhang Yangquan asked again: "What do you think about the Northern Expedition?"
Xu Baisheng said: "I think that if we want to drive away the Mongols once and for all, we should focus on eliminating their effective strength. If we just capture Dadu and let them retreat to Mobei, there will be endless troubles in the future!"
Zhang Yangquan's eyes lit up and he said: "You mean to take the initiative to ask them for a fight?"
Xu Baisheng nodded: "Yes."
Zhang Yangquan looked at Zhu San again: "What do you think, Mr. British?"
Zhu San stood up straight, raised his head and said: "Your Majesty, throughout the ages, all dynasties have been invaded by barbarians from the north. Only the Han Dynasty severely damaged the Xiongnu in the north and drove them away, and they achieved hundreds of years of peace."
"The Tang Dynasty split the Turks into eastern and western parts, and divided the western Turks into ten parts, so it could always suppress it. However, after it weakened, it was counterattacked by Beidi. The Song Dynasty failed to recapture the land of Yanyun and was humiliated by the northern barbarians for several years.
Hundreds of years."
"So if you want to stabilize the northern border, you must adopt the Han Dynasty strategy, either massacre the Mongols or drive them away, otherwise you will suffer from them forever!"
Zhang Yangquan said: "So your opinion is also to eliminate the effective forces of Mongolia?"
"Yes, it is best to eliminate their main force on our land. If we let them escape back to the grassland, and then try to eliminate them, it will be half the result with twice the result!"
Zhang Yangquan nodded and said: "I understand your opinions. Regarding the Northern Expedition, let me think about it again. For now, I should give priority to Zhang Shicheng's matter."
Early the next morning, Chinese officials began to go to court for the first time. Only officials of fourth rank and above could participate in the court meeting.
The place of worship is in the second main hall, Qinzheng Hall.
Before Chen hour, all the officials who came to court had arrived. The official uniforms of the officials had been unified. They were all cyan, only the patterns on the official uniforms were different.
The officials stood in four rows, with military commanders on the left and civilian officials on the right. They stood according to their official positions. The number of military commanders was obviously more than that of civilian officials.
Not long after, Zhang Yangquan came to the main hall from the corner gate, sat on the dragon chair, and the officials bowed and bowed.
Zhang Yangquan raised his hand.
"You don't need to be polite. Last night, a military general reported to me that the Yuan army in Shandong has begun to move south. I wonder how you should deal with it?"
Liu Bowen walked out of the queue slowly and said with cupped hands: "Your Majesty, Gaoyou City is our army's barrier. To fight against the Yuan army, we must first take Gaoyou to prevent Zhang Shicheng from joining the Yuan army!"
Civil and military officials expressed their agreement one after another.
Zhang Yangquan said: "Then how to get Gaoyou, you may have some suggestions!"
As soon as he finished speaking, four civilian officials and six military generals came out at the same time.
"The last general is willing to lead the troops to capture Gaoyou Mansion!" Wang Da spoke first.
Not to be outdone, Li Shanchang spoke for the second time: "I am willing to persuade Zhang Shicheng to join me with my sharp tongue!"
Several other people also rushed to speak. The military generals all wanted to lead the attack, and the civil servants all wanted to surrender with words.