In the evening, in the camp outside Zuocheng, the central army tent was crowded. King Yuwen of Xiyang, who had been resting for an afternoon, was summoning the generals to discuss. This time, the enemy in Caozhou was destroyed and the marching situation in the southeast road was very good, so how to fight next is the issue of concern to the generals.

For them, there was a smooth road ahead, only two or three hundred miles away from Yecheng where the pseudo-emperor was located, so the commander needed. Xiyang Wang Yuwen Wen immediately made a decision and decided to make a strategy.

Before the war, Yuwen Wen had already agreed on several different strategies with the main generals. If his Zuocheng was defeated in the battle, he would retreat to Xiaohuang, Bozhou; if his Zuocheng won in the battle, he would fight steadily and sweep across Henan, including the Qingqi land in the east.

If there is a big victory... I will talk about it then.

And now it is indeed a big victory, so looking at Yecheng, where the gateway opens in the northwest, Yuwen Wen and his generals' hearts are accelerating.

The pseudo-government of the Yuchi family now has only three armies, one led by Yuchi Qin, and confronted the imperial army in Guanzhong in Pujin, Hedong across the Yellow River; the other led by Yuchi Shun, confronted the Henan Road in Zhengzhou, Henan, and the remaining Caozhou army has now been annihilated by the Southeast Road.

Therefore, while the other two armies did not come back to their senses, the Southeast Road march concentrated its forces to attack Yecheng, allowing the puppet court to quickly destroy it and end the war in a short period of time, which is a natural choice.

This choice is a bit risky, because it is to directly place the enemy troops on the east and west wings (Qingzhou in the east wing and Zhengzhou in the west wing). It is a tactic of beheading elite soldiers. Once the elite soldiers who raid Yecheng cannot quickly go to the city, they will easily be surrounded and annihilated by the reacting enemy troops.

This beheading tactic faces a problem, which is that before attacking Yecheng, you have to take down Baimajin, the Yellow River Ferry Crossing. The defenders are likely to burn the floating bridge during battle. Then it will take time for their own crossing the river. Yecheng will have a chance to breathe, so they will not be completely caught off guard.

Even if the Yecheng defenders do not have field combat capabilities, they always have the ability to defend the city. Even if they only have one day to react, they can always close the city gate. For the Southeast Dao march, if they have no internal support in Yecheng, it will be difficult for them to break the city in one battle.

To put it bluntly, sending elite troops to attack Yecheng is a big adventure. If you succeed, the benefits will be very high. However, if you fail, although it will not hurt your muscles, it will make the future progress of the war confusing.

Because if this elite soldier is put into other directions, the benefits will be great.

For example, the Southeast Road march is not going north to attack Yecheng, but to divide the troops eastward and recover the territory of the Qingzhou General Administration, which is also a good choice; or to divide the troops westward, encircle the retreat of Yuchishun, Zhengzhou, and cooperate with the Henan Road march to annihilate it, which is also a good choice.

Compared to the strategy of rushing into Yecheng alone and attacking Yecheng, the choice of splitting troops to sweep south of the Yellow River is more stable, with small risks, but not small benefits.

The army of Yuchishun in Zhengzhou was annihilated, and the government army rushed north again. Because the army of Yuchiqin in Hedong was unable to move, Yecheng was also isolated and helpless. At that time, the number of government troops that invaded Hebei was advantageous, and it would definitely not be a situation where the army was alone.

But in this way, the war will inevitably be delayed until next year, and it is still unclear when it will end.

There are two options: one is to win quickly, with great risks and great benefits, and the other is to win slowly, with little risks and slightly small returns. For warriors, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, as long as you fight, you will inevitably have the opportunity to make military achievements. For the ruling, winning quickly is the best choice to reduce losses.

Is Yuwen Wen considered the ruler? It is not counted at the moment, but it does not prevent him from looking at the problem from the perspective of the ruler.

Since the second year of Elephant, the world has been in chaos for nearly ten years. What is suffering is the common people, and it is the foundation of the country. After fighting for so long, the people have a heavy burden. They have served in the military, labor, and various taxes. If this continues, how can the winners clean up the mess?

The war lasted for a long time, with people losing their homes, their population declining, their population declining, hundreds of miles of uninhabited, water conservancy facilities were dilapidated, a large amount of land was abandoned, and grain output dropped sharply. Such a miserable situation may take decades to recover when the war ends.

For Yuwen Wen, he was a "experienced person" and knew a "history", that is, after the end of the chaotic times at the end of the Sui Dynasty, Li Tang replaced it. However, the number of households in the world was not until the Tianbao period that it surpassed the number of households in the peak period of the Sui Dynasty.

More than a hundred years have passed.

Of course, the number of household registrations in the Tianbao period definitely did not include a large number of hidden households. It may be that the total population of the Tang Dynasty exceeded the total population during the peak period of the Sui Dynasty.

But this is the truth. War is an opportunity for military men to make achievements, but it is a disaster for ordinary people. The country is people-oriented. If it can win quickly, it is the best choice for quickly restoring national strength and allowing people to cultivate their lives and rest.

From a combat perspective, raiding Yecheng is like "shooting a man first, shooting a horse first, capturing a thief first", and it is best to give it a try when you have the chance, and get the greatest victory with the smallest casualties.

When Yecheng comes, all parts of Hebei can make an edict to make a decision. When the war is over, the soldiers can celebrate the New Year in Yecheng.

At this time, there were many generals who advocated elite troops to raid Yecheng, and Shi Wansui, the general manager of the marching, was one of them. He was willing to lead cavalry to raid Yecheng, and even if there was a danger of annihilation of the entire army, he would not hesitate to do so.

The military strategy is said to be that all warriors should win with the right combination and the strange victory. Shi Wansui strongly advocated winning with the strange victory, and did not give the Yuchi family a chance to rekindle and end the war as soon as possible.

Other generals believed that "with the right combination", the best choice was to divide their troops to sweep Henan and gain a foothold. When the army's army in Zhengzhou was solved, and then crossed the Yellow River with its superior forces to attack Yecheng north, Han Qinhu, the marching chief, held such an opinion.

He believed that according to the current situation, it would be a matter of time before the court could wipe out the traitors, and it was not at the point where one had to take a risk to turn the situation around. Since the official army was sure to win, there was no need to take risks and add variables in vain.

Even if the troops garrison in Yecheng and its surrounding areas are unable to fight in the field, they will definitely have the ability to defend the city. They are not sure whether their elite troops can successfully attack Yecheng, and they will waste the opportunity to open up the situation.

The collapse of the enemy in Caozhou is an excellent opportunity for one side to recover Qingqi's land and annihilate the Yuchishun army. If the troops are rashly divided and the raid of Yecheng fails, it will be difficult to recover the prefectures and counties south of the Yellow River in a short time.

Both opinions make sense. Both sides argue and can only wait for the coach to make a decision. Yuwen Wen, who has always been good at making a decision, is now hesitant.

To put it bluntly, because there are too many interests that he cannot make up his mind.

As the commander of the entire army, from a combat perspective, attacking Yecheng and quickly destroying the pseudo-official court is a great achievement. There is no reason not to give it a try, but the success rate is not high.

As an idea person, Yuwen Wen certainly hopes that when he holds power, there will be no desolate scene in the world where there is no rooster crowing thousands of miles and white bones are exposed in the wild. Therefore, it is a good choice to win quickly and let the people cultivate their lives and rest.

But in this way, the strength of the noble families in Hebei is still intact and the five surnames and seven hopes are still the objects of respect for scholars. Everyone will be proud of marrying a woman in the five surnames.

The family politics will continue. All the civil and military officials in the court are in-laws or uncles and brothers. If you want to reform in the future, it will probably be several times more difficult, and you even have nowhere to start with a knife.

Therefore, as a "witness" of history, Yuwen Wen hopes that his side will win slowly and get a chance to eradicate the roots.

If the Yecheng court survives, the other party will inevitably decentralize power in order to save his life, so as to attract noble families and powerful families from all over Hebei to come to serve the king. The local powerful factions in Hebei may be on the side of the Yecheng court.

At that time, the Chang'an imperial army, which crossed the river in large numbers, could wipe out these people and make a general liquidation.

In terms of regional groups, it is the general liquidation of the Shandong Group by Guanlong Group. The confrontation between East and West Wei and Zhou Qi at that time must be completely divided at this time.

At that time, Yecheng would turn into a sea of ​​fire, the inner trunks would burn into ashes, and the sky streets would be covered with the bones of the ministers and ministers. Countless elites from high-ranking families would be thrown into the Zhang River, and floating corpses would block the river to distinguish clear and turbid flow!

The disaster of the white horse will occur more than 300 years ahead of schedule. The children of elite families of aristocratic families are completely injured and killed. The family is broken, the incense and blood are cut off. The family politics, which are born with noble people, will withdraw from the stage of history early!

This is to lead the snake out of the hole and cut off the roots. Yuwen Wen could not rely on the soft knife of the imperial examination, but instead use a steel knife to let the aristocratic families exit early in the name of pacifying the thieves.

This approach is very tempting for him.

However, the price is most likely that the war will last. Hebei, in this era, has a developed area with a large population and abundant resources, and is the richest essence of the Central Plains. Once wars continue, life is likely to be devastated.

Thousands of miles of land, people's livelihoods are withered, and the population will take dozens or hundreds of years to recover. Such a broken Hebei is like a broken flower and willow.

What if the Yecheng court was in a hurry to seek medical treatment, led the Turks to the south, or hired a large number of Khitans, Marin (Wuji), Xi and other Hu people on the border to fight, what would that be?

Perhaps, I can decide when such a war will begin, but I certainly do not have the ability to decide when such a war will end.

Yuwen Wen was a little dazed when he thought of this. He looked at the generals in front of him and found it difficult to make a decision.

......

At night, Yuwen Wen sat alone in the tent, staring at a few sketches in a daze. In the evening, he did not make a decision. Because he was confused, he temporarily rested for two hours (one hour) and had to think about it carefully.

In any case, Yuwen Wen asked himself to make a decision tonight, and there were still fifteen minutes left before the last time.

On the case in front of him, there was a map drawn based on the memory of that era. Looking at this scribbled map including North China, Northeast China and the Korean Peninsula, Yuwen Wen was thinking about a problem.

Hebei is in chaos, who benefited?

Do you still need to ask? Apart from the Turks, it is Goguryeo.

When the Central Plains were in war and confronted north and south, Goguryeo, which developed in the territory of the four Han counties, was honest in front of the Central Plains dynasty (northern regime). However, when the Northern Wei destroyed Northern Yan, Goguryeo took a huge advantage.

When the Northern Yan Emperor was about to destroy his country, he fled across the sea with a large number of officials, army, people, and craftsmen, and directly allowed Goguryeo, which had no more than 100,000 households to obtain a "upgrade gift package".

The arrival of refugees in Northern Yan directly doubled the population of Goguryeo, and the accompanying craftsmen, soldiers, civil and military officials directly enhanced Goguryeo's economic and military strength.

The national strength was not as strong as that of the Northern Yan Dynasty. It absorbed Northern Yan refugees, which were equivalent to the population of its own country. The national strength suddenly increased, breaking the balanced pattern of Haidong (Korean Peninsula), and affecting the survival and migration of the ethnic groups in the Northeast.

Goguryeo, which was originally vast and sparsely populated, began to annex Baekje and Silla's territory to the south and occupied the old land of Liaodong County to the west. As the Northern Wei divided the east and west, there was another confrontation between Zhou and Qi. The Central Plains court had no time to look east. Goguryeo had already taken Liaodong into his pocket and enslaved a large number of Marine tribes, which was unimaginable in the past.

The land area of ​​Goguryeo expanded on a large scale, conquering the Marine tribe in Liaodong, and the domestic population and military scale continued to increase, and what followed was the expansion of ambitions.

Yuwen Wen could probably think of a scene, that is, Hebei is in chaos, wars are raging for years, and a large-scale famine breaks out, and to escape the war and survive, the people who fled in scattered and fled to survive, were easily absorbed or enslaved by Goguryeo, which occupied Liaodong.

The sky-blasting thunder (gunpowder) and counterweight catapult technology may also become another big gift package for Goguryeo along with the defeated soldiers.

In this way, Goguryeo, whose military equipment has been greatly upgraded and its ambitions have expanded again, is very likely to destroy Baekje, Silla, and unify the Haidong (Korean Peninsula), and national strength will reach a new level.

At that time, the other party's eyes will inevitably turn to the Central Plains. First, they will swallow western Liaoning and use this as a base to covet the flowers and rivers of the Central Plains. At that time, an enhanced version of the Jurchen Jin Kingdom will appear in the northeast corner of the Central Plains five or six hundred years in advance.

At that time, the imperial court that unified the Central Plains would have to resist Goguryeo's encroachment on the Youyan border, and would inevitably send heavy troops to gather in the Youzhou area. However, after wars, Hebei was already in ruins, with exhausted manpower and material resources, and could not support a large-scale garrison.

The extreme situation is that the crisis occurred in the late Ming Dynasty, and the Ming court "then" only had to deal with the Later Jin Dynasty, which was entrenched in the northeast. Today, the main external trouble of the Central Plains court is the Turks on the grasslands in the north, so where can they have the spare energy to support the heavy army groups in both strategic directions at the same time.

Perhaps, Yuwen Wen was thinking too much about this situation. After all, in the late Sui Dynasty, wars in the Central Plains were endless, and Goguryeo did not succeed in taking advantage of the situation.

However, it is precisely because of Yuwen Wen that gunpowder and counterweight catapults have appeared in this era in advance. In the original historical trajectory, both sides of the offense and defense were more beneficial than offense, but now, it has become more beneficial than offense than defense.

"In the past, Goguryeo defended the city with its retreat tactics, and wasted the Sui Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty army could not provide food and grass and was forced to withdraw. If Goguryeo now had offensive weapons to thunder and catapults, and its ambitions expanded rapidly, it might not be safe and would not be able to see the chaos in the Central Plains without taking advantage of the situation.

Yuwen Wen felt that the problem of the high-ranking families must be solved, and the family politics cannot continue, so it is a good way to muddle the waters and fish in troubled waters, but the risk is that the wealthy Hebei may be burned into white ground by the war and be ruined.

If Goguryeo is cheaper and create an enhanced version of the Jin Dynasty that harms the Central Plains, then isn’t you a sinner?

But the chance of such a thing happening is not very high. Could it be that I am worried about it?
Chapter completed!