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In May, Li Hu inspected the Liangzhe area, appeased the people of various prefectures and counties, met with officials and wealthy merchants from Liangzhe, and implemented and preached Chang'an's reform strategies.

The military and political officials such as Mao army and Yan Qing were also extremely busy, while Zhang Guanyu and Song Jiang led their troops to continue to march southward. Yue Fei, Wang Yuan and Yang Keshi led their troops across the river northward, and each returned to the garrison. Southeastern generals such as Lu Yi and Liu Qi disbanded the troops in batches according to Li Hu's request.

In June, officials sent to Jiangnan Lianglu and Liangzhe were appointed one after another, and all work became formal and the southeast gradually stabilized.

In mid-June, Zhang Guanyu reported that the army's attack was smooth and he captured Jianzhou, Nanjianzhou and Fuzhou one after another. The rebels in the southeast were unable to resist and continued to flee towards Guangnan. Zhang Guanyu decided to rest in Fuzhou for a few days, rectify the army, and then advance towards Guangnan.

Seeing that the overall situation in the southeast was settled, Li Hu said goodbye to Mao and Yan Qing and led the Tiger Guards, the Palace Front Army, the Tiger Lie 2 and the Ninth Army to Chang'an.

In July, Li Hu arrived in Kaifeng and met with Ying Qin, Yue Fei and other groups of Central Plains military and political officials.

When he arrived at the inn, Ying Qin couldn't wait to take out a letter and hand it to Li Hu. "Master, this is Luo Shuai's urgent matter."

"Is there any news about Daibei?" Li Hu reached out to take the letter and asked while unpacking it.

"The Khitans launched an attack on Shangjing." Ying Qin said, "This is the news we just received. This letter was sent with the news from Datong. It can be seen that Luo Shuai and the others only learned about this matter not long ago. The Khitans seemed to have deliberately concealed the specific attack time from us."

Li Hu stopped the movements in his hand. He looked at Ying Qin, then looked at Yue Fei, and asked, "Is this your judgment or what Luo Shuai means?"

Ying Qin and Yue Fei looked at each other but didn't say anything. Li Hu was completely in charge of the matter about the Khitans. There were many unknown secrets in it. Ying Qin and Yue Fei dared not speculate on it in front of Li Hu.

Li Hu did not hear the answer, knowing that this was Ying Qin and Yue Fei's private opinion, so he stopped asking questions and opened the letter in front of them.

After reading the letter, Li Hu's face gradually became solemn. He thought for a moment and handed the letter to Ying Qin and Yue Fei, "You can take a look too."

Ying Qin glanced at him in a hurry, then shouted in surprise, "Yelu Dashi is back. He arrived at Heishui River at the end of April, and the Khitans did not tell us."

Li Hu snorted coldly, stood up, and paced back and forth in the house with his hands on his back.

After reading the letter carefully, Yue Fei shook his head, then looked at Li Hu. He was about to open his mouth to speak, but from the corner of his eyes he saw Ying Qin winking at him. He immediately thought that the Khitans were responsible for restoring the country. Now the situation in the north is obviously out of control. The Khitans are ambitions and are unwilling to surrender to Li Hu at all. The consequences are worrying. If these words are said directly, they will obviously embarrass Li Hu.

"Master, the Khitans' desire to restore the country is understandable. They finally seized such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Of course, they wanted to break free from our control as soon as possible and rise again." Ying Qin thought for a long time and said with a smile, "Besides, according to the Master's original deployment, when we march southeast, the Khitans also launched an offensive in the north to restrain the Jurchen army. Now it seems that the Khitans did not break their promises. They followed the command of the Master and launched an attack immediately after the rainy season ended."

Li Hu turned his head and glared at him, sneering, "This expected success in the southern expedition was over, and it ended very quickly, causing the situation in the world to change rapidly. Considering that our next opponent is the Jurchens, we need to recover our vitality and accumulate strength, so I hope to have a buffer time of two or three years. For this reason, at the end of April, I urgently wrote to Yelu Longqing and Yelu Ma Ge, asking them to give up the attack for the time being, stabilize the situation in the north first, and see the reaction of the Jurchens. The Khitans obviously misunderstood what I mean, or..." Li Hu's voice became louder and louder, revealing a hint of anger, "Or they ignored my opinion and decided to rise again, so they concealed the news that Yelu Dashi led his army to the east and launched an attack after the rainy season."

"This is a threat to us." Yue Fei hesitated for a moment and whispered, "We need the Khitans to restrain the Jin army in the north. Once the Khitans launch an attack, we have to provide assistance. When the crisis comes, we not only need to provide them with a steady stream of money, food and weapons, but also face the Jin army head-on. But now we have pacified the Southeast. The situation has changed, and we must temporarily avoid fighting with the Jin army. So now the Khitans take the initiative to provoke the war, and we have become very passive."

"With the current strength of the Khitans, they can't beat the Jurchens." Ying Qin shook his head and said, "But we can't watch the Khitans being eaten by the Jin army. When necessary, in order to save them, we have to take action."

The more Li Hu thought about it, the more angry he became, but he had no good idea when he was anxious.

At present, Middle-earth must be needed. The existence of Khitans not only avoids direct confrontation between the Chinese and Chinese deserts, but also uses their willingness to restore the country to help them attack the Jurchens, thus gaining a breathing time for Middle-earth. However, Middle-earth uses the Khitans, and aren’t the Khitans using the Chinese and Chinese people to achieve their goals?

"From the current situation, the Grand Marshal still has the foresight to restore the Khitans." Ying Qin saw that Li Hu's face became increasingly ugly, so he kindly comforted, "If the Grand Marshal did not restore the Khitans, then the current attack of the Khitans would be equivalent to pulling us to declare war with the Jurchens, and the result would be even worse. Now the Jurchens are being attacked from both sides. We must take the initiative to negotiate peace with us. As long as the Grand Marshals are willing, we can immediately use the peace with the Jurchens to curb the crazy actions of the Khitans."

Li Hu shook his hand, "The Jurchens invaded my Middle Earth, and they were suffering from creatures. The court and the country were full of hatred. If peace was negotiated, it would seriously affect the prestige of the court. It was precisely because the Khitans saw this that they dared to go against my wishes and threaten me unscrupulously."

Ying Qin immediately shut up obediently and never talked about peace.

"Master Luo. Luo mentioned two suggestions in the letter. Both suggestions were discussed carefully by him and Tie Shuai and Bao Shuai. I think it is possible to consider them." Yue Fei said, "First, increase troops to Debei and give strong assistance to the Khitans. This will not only ensure that the North is not lost, but also use the power of the Khitans and the desert to continue to consume the strength of the Jin army; second, threaten Hebei from three directions, Hedong, Central Plains and Shandong, forcing the Hebei Jin army to shrink its defense, and then attack Daming Prefecture, forming a force of attacking the Khitans in the north and south."

"If one of these two suggestions is adopted, the army will not be put into the battlefield for the time being, which can effectively alleviate the heavy financial pressure of the court; if two are adopted, then war will break out in Hebei, which is another headache for the court." Yue Fei paused for a moment and said flatly, "I suggest that the general adopt a suggestion to increase troops to serve the North, forcing the Jin army to invest more troops on the northern battlefield, which should be of some help to our later attack on Hebei and Youyan."

"This will definitely raise a tiger and make the Khitans rise rapidly." Ying Qin sighed, "Before the Southern Expedition, we were determined to use the Khitans, but now the situation has been reversed. After we pacified the southeast, the Khitans saw the opportunity to rise and turned to use us." He looked up at Li Hu and said hatefully, "I think this idea was all produced by Yelu Dashi. Originally, Yelu Longqing and Yelu Mage obeyed the Dashi, but since Yelu Dashi arrived at Heishui River, things changed immediately. The Khitans suddenly became bolder and dared to threaten us. It can be seen that there must be changes here, and this change must be directly related to Yelu Dashi."

Li Hu had long thought that Yelu Dashi was extremely talented and that after this person came back, the situation in the north must have changed. But he did not expect that he would be passive if he changed so much.

"Let's increase troops first to serve the North." Li Hu said helplessly after carefully weighing the pros and cons, "The army of Central Plains and Shandong is also ready to enter Hebei to fight at any time."

Ying Qin and Yue Fei were a little surprised, but Li Hu adopted two suggestions at the same time.

"Master General, are you going to fight Hebei?" Ying Qin said anxiously, "The army fought in a series of decisive battles, both physically and mentally exhausted, and it takes time to recover. The hasty northern expedition may be detrimental to me."

"We cannot be passive, nor can we let the Khitans rise again, nor can we let the Jurchens defeat the Khitans again, so we can only grit our teeth and face the difficulties." Li Hu said very firmly, "Although this seems unrealistic, it is actually an opportunity. As long as we grasp it, we can not only unify Zhongtu in the shortest time, but also grow rapidly, posing a powerful threat to the northern foreign countries, so as to ensure that Zhongtu is recuperating in a peaceful environment."

Li Hu, Ying Qin and Yue Fei carefully discussed the possibility of this strategy. From the perspective of the army, they have such strength, but from the perspective of the court's finances, it is difficult to sustain. Therefore, they can only arrange and deploy for the time being. Whether it can be implemented in the end will have to wait for Li Hu to return to Chang'an before talking about it.

Li Hu immediately ordered the transfer of Abaddon's Tiger Lie Army and the Ninth Tiger Lie Army of Hailasu to the north to increase the strength of the Northern Army. At the same time, he wrote to Luo Qinghan and Tieying, asking them to discuss with the commanders of the various Tiger Lie Army divisions to see if they could reorganize the resentful army, the Black Mountain Army, the Shenlong Army and other troops into the Tiger Lie Army as soon as possible, so as to completely complete the reorganization of the army, so as to further enhance the court's actual control over the army and improve the combat effectiveness of the army.

Li Hu also wrote to Wang Yuan and Xin Xingzong, asking them to meet with Ying Qin and Yue Fei from the Central Plains as soon as possible to discuss specific plans for the Northern Expedition, and strive to come up with a specific plan to submit it to the court in the shortest time.
Chapter completed!