Pear Blossom Courtyard, East Warm Pavilion.

After holding hands, Ximen Qing, who was nestled on Wu Haogu's shoulder, suddenly asked with some concern: "Master, is this battle really not easy to win?"

"It's hard to say, it's hard to say! After Renduo Baozhong's defeat, the Western thieves declined day by day, while the Song Dynasty had elite soldiers like the Sanzhi elite. Therefore, the dispute over Wuding River was almost suspense, and it could even cover the Hejian grassland in one fell swoop. The strategy of setting up Shuofang Road and garrisoning troops proposed by Lu Huiqing and Tong Guan was that it would definitely succeed in the five states of Shuofang Road. Next, whether it was to use the government troops to garrison the land or recruit archers and knights, they could develop a vibrant force. With them, not only the Western thieves would have to leave, but they also had a reliance on the restoration of Yan and Liao. However, Tao Jiefu and Zhong Fu were fond of Sichuan and stared at the fat piece of Lingzhou, hoping to achieve their contributions.

Regardless of whether the marching of hundreds of miles from east to west will make the veterans tired, and they will be defeated by the Western thieves who are waiting to be hard. If they win by chance, what benefits will it be for the Western Army?"

"What the master means is that once the Western thieves leave, the Western Army will be useless?"

Wu Haogu nodded: "Isn't the most taboo thing in this dynasty that is to be the generals? But it cannot be eliminated. The Eastern Army is the tool for the generals to make money. The Western Army relies on the utility soldiers controlled by the generals as the core, plus the archers who need to be protected by the generals, which are clearly the embers of the soldiers of the nobles of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. If they are not separated, can those civil officials and important officials in the court be willing?"

Although Wu Haogu could not fight, he had been looking for a route that could establish a reliable and useful army in the Northern Song Dynasty in recent years. Therefore, after some research in this regard, after going to the northwest, he realized that the foundation of the Western Army was actually a semi-employed and semi-real estate-supported army.

And those Western Army generals had some shadows of Guanlong nobles. Every family had a utility soldier, and most of their nephews worked in the army. In fact, each general was a group of officers who could support an army at any time.

In addition, archers from the northwest routes can hold the land firmly, and they must not rely on the control of the sect by the sect. If there is no shelter from the sect, can they hold the 200 to 250 acres of land?

Therefore, the Western Army is a kind of existence that poses a threat to the stability of the Song Empire! It can be like the Sui and Tang dynasties, without relying on the huge military pay of the imperial court.

In fact, not including each of the five borders along the Yongxing Army Road in the rear, 60,000 to 70,000 Hanfan soldiers could be mobilized during wartime! The number on the books is between 300,000 and 350,000. Among them, half of the imperial guards who needed the imperial guards to pay the imperial guards, and the rest were Hanfan archers and foreign troops who did not pay the military. Although their combat effectiveness was weaker than the elite of the Northwest Imperial Guards, they were much stronger than Kaifeng and Hebei's Imperial Guards!

Each general can rely on his own military group to support the archers who depend on his own, thereby establishing an army independent of the national military system. This is much more reliable than a warlord group that has no logistical and financial support maintained by the feelings between soldiers and generals...

"Master, after hearing what you said, I feel that Jiehe Market is no longer tolerant of the court sooner or later. Don't our market have Baozheng regiments similar to the utility sect? The so-called Baozheng is actually a general school. We also have a knight school that specializes in training general schools, a 20,000 Baoding people, and we still have money, we can recruit soldiers at any time, a horse farm, and a lot of workshops for producing weapons... It's not weaker than the Western Army Generals!"

After hearing this, Wu Haogu frowned immediately. After a while, he shook his head gently: "The Western Army Generals are still not tolerant to the court? And even if they are not tolerant, they are just a wealthy and noble to release military power. Jiehe Shangshi was established to attack Liao. The Liao Kingdom is not yet in a downturn, so there will be no problems with Jiehe Shangshi.

Besides, the Knights' School in Jiehe Shang City is not ours. It is a military academy under the Yuntai Academy of the imperial court. The military academy is used to educate warriors, and then let the warriors take the right-list Jinshi to become the country's military officers. Finally, these military officers from the right-list supported the new military soldiers who served in the military for five years... In this way, the officials will have a reliable and capable army? It is safer than relying on those imperial guards to make money? This is a loyalty!"

"But the master's loyalty is not recognized by the scholars..." Ximen Qingdao, "Except for the "Wenquxing" report we control, the rest of the newspapers are all articles opposing the Jinshi of the Left and Left List. There are not many important officials in the court who support the Jinshi of the Left and Left List, and even Mr. Ziyou has a lot of complaints."

"When Xiazhou, Youzhou, and Yanzhou are defeated, there will be no more complaints!" Wu Hao Ancient Tao, "because there is no more reliable way to raise soldiers and train soldiers than this."

Ximen Qing sighed, "I always feel that it's not very reliable! Master, we still have to be prepared..."

Ximen Qing just instinctively felt that it was not reliable, but Wu Haogu knew very well that relying on the school to train elite officers was a big pit.

Because the elite officer group is not something that a feudal dynasty can handle! Moreover, if the officers are elite enough, wouldn’t civil servants seem incompetent? The ability of civil servants from the imperial examinations to the service of the imperial examinations is comparable to that of elite officers who have been systematic and strictly educated by more than ten years of systematic and strict education? The investment in education between the two sides is not the same order of magnitude at all. Moreover, the imperial examination-oriented education is basically out of reality, while the education of the Liuyi Academy, Yuntai Academy, and Knight Academy emphasizes both moral integrity and talent, and has a large number of practical courses.

Therefore, the stage of the right-listed Jinshi cannot be limited to the military field. Even the current military officers are not unable to serve as civilian positions such as magistrates and prefectures. Moreover, the right-listed Jinshi educated by Liuyi Academy, Yuntai Academy, and Knights Academy will become more likely to form cliques and invoke each other after entering the officialdom in large numbers. After all, we are old classmates for more than ten years, and naturally have deep feelings.

The future party struggles will probably begin between the left and right Jinshi!

Wu Haogu smacked his lips, "Sister, how do you think you should be prepared?"

Ximen Qing suppressed his voice to the lowest point, "The master now only has a dignified power, and there is no secret hall, how can he do it?"

"Dark Hall" is a slander, which means that it is not in the open, unknown, and specializes in doing something shameful. Sometimes it can also be used to preserve strength. The strength in the open is easily destroyed, but the strength in the secret is not easy to completely eliminate.

Therefore, the unruly powerful people like the Ximen family have secret halls.

"Okay," Wu Haogu thought for a while, "It's time to set up a secret hall... Sister, I'll leave the secret hall of Jiehe to you!"

...

When night fell, the inner hall of Cai Jing's mansion was illuminated by dozens of giant candles that were lit like daytime.

A guest is here tonight!

The visitors were Tao Jiefu and Zhong Fu who came to Beijing to report their work. Both were Cai Jing's followers. The first thing they did after entering Beijing was not to report to the Political Affairs Hall, but to visit Cai Jing and Xianggong Cai. They told Cai Jing about the Pingxia Strategy that the two of them had discussed at the Zhengzhou Inn.

"Take Qin Wangchuan first?"

After listening to the two of them, Cai Jing frowned slightly, "Is it not good to attack the two groups? Why should we start the war on the Western Front first?"

"Report to my grandfather," said Zhong Fu, "the eastern front needs to arrange military farms, transfer grain and grass, and train the government troops. We must wait until March and April to launch a large-scale army. The western front needs to send troops before the Yellow River thaws, so that it is most beneficial to facilitate the army to cross the river and attack Qin Wangchuan."

"So that's it." Cai Jing nodded, "So why should I attack Liangzhou after taking down King Qin?"

Zhong Fu replied: "The attack on Liangzhou is to lure the main force of the Western thieves to follow and facilitate the Eastern Army to capture Xia, You and Yanzhou."

Cai Jingxin said: What is the relationship between Zhong Fu and Tao Jiefu? He actually helped so much? He never thought of fighting to the city of Lingzhou first?

"Is it difficult to seize Xia, You and Yan?" Cai Jing thought about it and asked again.

Tao Jiefu nodded: "Xia, You and Yan are all strong cities. Although they were captured by the government army in the fourth year of Yuanfeng, they were restored after being captured by the Western thieves, which is completely different from the abandoned city of Yinzhou. Now the Western thieves are obviously shrinking on the eastern front, and there are no large troops stationed in Yinzhou City, Shizhou City, Amitabha Cave, and Shibao Village. However, according to the previous analysis of the Western thieves who came across Hengshan, they were still unwilling to give up the Wuding River - the land of Hengshan. It is estimated that the government army will face a hard battle in the battle between Xia, You and Yan.

Cai Jing actually didn't understand military affairs. Even if he understood, he could not grasp the dynamics in front of the Northwest Army from such a distance, so he let Zhong Fu and Tao Jiefu fool him.

"Okay!" Cai Jing nodded, "The defeat in the fourth year of Yuanfeng was all because several official troops refused to cooperate and competed for each other, so they were defeated by the Western thieves one by one. Now you two can work together, which is really a blessing for the country. However, the military officers below are bound to be competing for merit. You two should still be more restrained to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

In addition, Lu Jifu and Tong Guan seemed to have a connection, and they both proposed the strategy of garrisoning troops in Hejian to prepare for the Khitan. Among them, Lu Jifu also proposed the suggestion of establishing Shuofang Road with Yin, Yu, Xia, Yan and Shuo Prefectures. What do you two think?"

When Tao Jiefu heard this, his face looked a little bad. After setting up Shuofang Road, his Fuyan Road was no longer the front line. Who should command the battle against Lingzhou? Is Zhong Fu?

"Xiaoguan thinks it's good." Zhong Fu had already figured out the joints, "I wonder who will preside over this Shuofang Road?"

Cai Jing frowned: "The official family belongs to Tong Guan, but Tong Guan does not agree to go straight to Lingzhou. I guess he will first use Tong Guan as his deputy and focus on the direction of Hetao. The position of Shuofang Commander may be led by Zi Li (Tao Jiefu)."

Tao Jiefu breathed a little relieved. If he led both sides, his status would be far greater than that of Zhong Fu. If the two armies met in Lingzhou, he would be the unquestionable commander!
Chapter completed!