In the Wude Hall of Tai Chi Palace, a tense dynasty meeting was in full swing. Li Yuan sat on the dragon couch with a gloomy face. He had been paying attention to the eastern expedition carried out by the Tang army in the south. Although an unpleasant incident occurred in Junyang County, Erlang still did not disappoint him. The autumn wind swept away the fallen leaves and occupied the entire northern part of Jingzhou, including the Jiangxia County iron ore that he had been looking forward to for a long time.

But the second step of the southern expedition was very unsuccessful. He received a quick report from Li Xiaogong this morning and only realized that the 50,000 troops of Bashu were intercepted by the Sui army on the gorge for half a month and were unable to reach Nanjun for a long time. This made Li Yuan extremely angry. The Sui army had swept Meng Haigong and was about to wipe out Lin Shihong. If they did not destroy Xiao Xian, they would probably have no chance.

"Dear friends, let's talk about it! Let's reorganize our thoughts and see what to do next?"

Li Yuan glanced at Pei Ji, "Pei Xiangguo would say it first!"

Pei Ji stood up and said, "I have been wondering, how could the Sui army kill to Zigui County? Since it can intercept 50,000 Tang troops, the number of Sui army must be short, at least there should be as many as thousands. How did such an army fly to Zigui? In fact, there is only one answer, that is, Zhang Xuan and Xiao Xian have secretly formed an alliance. The Sui army entered Yiling County through Xiao Xian's territory. The Zigui County incident is just an appearance. We must see the truth behind the appearance. If we attack Xiao Liang next step, we will face not only Xiao Xian's army, but also the Sui army behind them. Your Majesty. If we cannot see through this point, we will suffer a great loss."

As soon as Pei Ji finished speaking, Liu Wenjing stood up and said, "Your Majesty, what Pei Prime Minister said is very wrong. Please let me say a few words."

Pei Ji was furious and glared at Liu Wenjing fiercely. The court officials were no longer surprised by the dispute between Pei and Liu. Li Yuan also became accustomed to it, so he nodded and said, "Prime Minister Liu, please tell me!"

Liu Wenjing pretended not to see Pei Ji's fierce gaze and said calmly: "Pei Xiangguo had preconceived ideas. He thought that there should be thousands of people intercepting 50,000 troops. This only means that he had never been to Zigui County. He closed his eyes and said nonsense. When I learned about Bashu iron mines, I had also studied the gorge. Zigui County just blocked the gorge. The cliff road was narrow, and it was very difficult to attack Zigui County. At a time, it could only invest 2,000 troops at most. Not to mention 50,000 people, even 500,000 people. In fact, the Sui army could defend Zigui County as long as there were hundreds of troops. If Weichen was not wrong, this Sui army that raided Zigui was the group of Sui army that sneaked into Junyang County, about a thousand cavalry. They killed directly from Xiangyang County to Yiling County, rather than using Xiao Xian's territory."

Pei Ji's face turned red and glared at Liu Wenjing and said, "Will Zhang Xuan and Xiao Liang form a secret alliance? Zhang Xuan will let us attack Xiao Xian? Before, Xiao Xian sent his army to sweep away the iron ore in the Bohai Sea in Jiangxia. Isn't this what Zhang Xuan meant?"

Liu Wenjing said calmly: "I didn't say that Zhang Xuan would not form an alliance with Xiao Xian. I also think that Zhang Xuan would definitely support Xiao Xian secretly behind his back. But there is a question here, will Zhang Xuan directly send troops to fight side by side with Xiao Liang's army? If Pei Xiangguo's intention is to join the battle, but I think Zhang Xuan's army will definitely not directly help Xiao Liang's army. I think Zhang Xuan's real target is Jiangxia County. He will definitely send troops to Jiangxia while the Tang army and Xiao Liang's army are in full swing to seize the iron mine."

Liu Wenjing obviously saw more thoroughly, and Pei Ji sneered, "According to Liu Xiangguo's meaning, as long as we keep Jiangxia County, then there is no need for us to expedition east now, Jiangxia County is already in our hands anyway."

"You can't say that. If we don't restrain Xiao Liang's army from the west, then Xiao Xian will attack Xiangyang under the instigation of Zhang Xuan. Xiao Liang claimed to be a 400,000 army. Although it is a bit exaggerated, there are 200,000 people, and we only have 200,000 people in Xiangyang. If Xiao Xian's army of 100,000 troops attack Xiangyang, should the Tang army in Jiangxia go back to aid? If it returns to aid, will Zhang Xuan take the opportunity to attack the Jiangxia County mine?"

Liu Wenjing's series of questions made Pei Ji speechless. At this time, Chen Shuda stood up and smiled and smoothed out: "The specific battle should be considered by the King of Qin. We should stand a little higher and look at the problem. Your Majesty, please tell me a few words."

Li Yuan followed the river and said, "The two prime ministers sit down for a while, let's listen to what the prime minister Chen means."

Pei Ji glared at Liu Wenjing again and sat down. Liu Wenjing glanced at Pei Ji, snorted coldly in his heart, and sat down.

At this time, Chen Shuda walked out of his seat and said calmly: "The war actually fought for logistics. I believe everyone agrees with me. The reason why Zhang Xuan has been invincible in recent years is not that he has more food and food resources than us. On the contrary, his food is not as abundant as ours and his population is not as numerous as ours. However, his logistics support capabilities are far stronger than ours. The fundamental reason is that he has a strong fleet. This time we encountered difficulties in the eastern expedition. In fact, the difficulty is the same as the first eastern expedition. The problem lies in logistics. If we also have a strong transportation fleet, then whether we go to Danshui or the Yangtze River to the west, we will not be as passive as we are today. Do you think so?"

Dugu Huaien nodded and said, "Chen Xiangguo said it well, but the problem is that building ships requires time to accumulate and a large number of shipmakers. We lack both. What should we do?"

Chen Shuda smiled and said, "Instead of envying fish in the wilderness, it is better to retreat and weave nets. We have time. As long as we want to build a ship, we can start now. In two or three years, we will have hundreds of cargo ships. If we don't do it, we will never have time. As for boatmen, there may not be one in Guanlong, but there are twelve boat yards on the Minjiang River. Although most of the boat yards have been closed, people are still there. As long as we recruit at a high price, I believe boat yards will definitely flock to you, but"

Speaking of this, Chen Shuda paused for a moment, and he looked at Li Yuan, implying that he would seek the emperor's opinion, could he continue to talk about it?

Li Yuan hurriedly said: "Please continue talking about it at Chan Cecilia Cheung."

The hall was very quiet, and all the ministers were listening to Chen Shuda's analysis attentively. Chen Shuda smiled and continued: "But as Dugu Shangshu said, we really need ships urgently now. Weichen has a temporary solution that may solve this problem. We can learn from the Hu people's methods and use large leather rafts to transport goods. A large leather raft is equivalent to a thousand stone cargo ship, because we all go down the water, and large leather rafts can be fully satisfied with the use."

There was a sudden discussion in the hall. Chen Shuda's plan was not new. Some people had proposed to transport grain in sheepskin rafts before, but it was widely opposed by court officials. The dignified **** actually used the method of the Hu people to transport it. It would make people laugh at it if it was spread. Moreover, the army also collected a lot of ships at that time, so the plan for the raft was rejected.
Chapter completed!