He folded his hands on the desk and stared at the small mountain on the map.
After Li Huaizhong pointed out the marching route of the army, Ning Yongnian immediately noticed the Niutoushan area.
"Your Majesty, the Niutoushan line is the shortest road to Shuzhou City. If you take other roads, it will take more than five days."
Li Huaizhong on the side guessed what Ning Yongnian was worried about, so he explained in a low voice: "Although Niutoushan is a mountainous area, there are not many natural dangers in it, and everything in the southeast and northwest is smooth."
"I think the Shu army will not set up an ambush here."
"..."
After briefly introducing the situation in Niutoushan, Li Huaizhong stopped talking.
His analysis is actually correct. Although Niutoushan is more dangerous than other places, it is far from being called a "natural danger". It is very difficult to set up an ambush in it.
What's more, the Shu army now only has more than 30,000 people, and it simply does not have the ability to ambush an army of 300,000 people.
Therefore, Li Huaizhong felt that the Shu army would definitely not do such a thing of "sending death", and would definitely return to Shuzhou City to defend the city with Dali's reinforcements.
The old eunuch's idea is reasonable, but in fact this is the "illusion" that Wei Changtian wanted to create.
After all, if you find a very dangerous area to set up an ambush, even a fool can tell there is a scam, and this problem is less likely to occur in the Niutou Mountains where the "danger factor" is not that high.
That's why he chose to set up a trap in Niutoushan and formulated a complete combat plan.
Of course, in the original plan, the imperial army should have pursued the army to Niutoushan immediately after the Shu army broke through, and Ning Yongnian would not have been given time to think about the order.
But now, due to the appearance of Zhenshan Camp and Qin Zhengqiu, the imperial army set off two days late, so "pursuit" became "advance", which somewhat affected the smoothness of the entire plan.
Wei Changtian believed that such a small "accident" was not a big problem and should not affect the overall situation.
But in fact, when the opponent is someone like Ning Yongnian, any small flaw may be infinitely magnified.
"..."
Looking at the map, Ning Yongnian remained silent for a hundred breaths.
In fact, he did not doubt Han Zhao, nor did he question Han Zhao's decision to go to Niutoushan. He also understood that he should interfere in the war as little as possible.
After all, Han Zhao is on the front line and knows the situation far better than himself.
But Ning Yongnian always felt a little uneasy in his heart.
Although except for the master who "killed three thousand soldiers with one sword", there was nothing unusual about the war in Shuzhou, and it could even be said that it went very smoothly.
But just because it went so smoothly, he felt the crisis hidden in the darkness.
"Tell Han Zhao..."
Suddenly, Ning Yongnian finally stopped hesitating and reached out to another location on the map: "Let him take the Jinyuan line instead."
"Jinyuan?"
Li Huaizhong looked at the map in surprise and whispered: "Your Majesty, the army has been marching for half a day. If we turn around at this time, it may greatly affect the marching speed."
"In addition, the route to Jinyuan is a little far away, so it may take several days for the army to reach Shuzhou City."
"It will be a few days late."
Shaking his head, Ning Yongnian said calmly: "I don't want any accidents in Shuzhou."
"This... old slave understands."
Since Ning Yongnian had already decided, Li Huaizhong naturally couldn't say anything more. After a pause, he asked again:
"Your Majesty, what should Fengyuan do? Do we want to have peace talks with Li Qi?"
"We must talk, but it is not a peace talk."
Ning Yongnian narrowed his eyes: "Send an order to Wu Ding to escort Li Qi to Huailing Mansion immediately."
"yes."
Li Huaizhong lowered his head and responded, already understanding in his heart what Ning Yongnian was going to do.
Huailing Prefecture is located on the border of Dafeng and Yuanzhou, separated only by a Mang River and a stretch of the Western Desert.
Ning Yongnian obviously wanted to "negotiate" with Li Qi here.
Of course, now that Dafeng has surrendered and Li Qi has become stupid, this is just a matter of "taking by force" in the name of "negotiation"...
"emperor."
Looking at Ning Yongnian, Li Huaizhong asked softly: "I wonder when you plan to go to Huailing Mansion?"
"There's no rush, let Wu Ding escort Li Qi over first, and just wait."
Ning Yongnian waved his hand and said casually: "By the way, we will tie Li Qi to the top of Huailing City when the time comes. Just don't let him die."
"..."
Tie Li Qi to the top of the city?
Hearing this, Li Huaizhong couldn't help but be stunned.
Hanging a person on the city wall to show the public is a common warning method, which is generally used on prisoners who have committed serious crimes such as rebellion and collaboration with the enemy.
But now Ning Yongnian actually wants to hang Li Qi on top of the city. This is clearly to humiliate you, Dafeng.
After all, although Dafeng surrendered, Li Qi is still the king of a country no matter what!
What's more, you want to hang someone else's emperor on someone else's territory??
"Your Majesty, this..."
Li Huaizhong opened his mouth hesitantly, as if he wanted to persuade Ning Yongnian to think about it again.
He didn't feel sorry for Li Qi or anything, but he felt that this approach would undoubtedly arouse the anger of the people of Dafeng, which would be quite detrimental to taking over Dafeng's territory in the future.
However, Ning Yongnian interrupted directly:
"Follow it, I have a reason for doing this."
"yes......"
His Adam's apple squirmed, and Li Huaizhong said nothing.
Because he suddenly understood who Ning Yongnian wanted to expose by doing this.
It is not to serve the common people, nor is it the Wei family.
But Li Wutong.
...
...
At that time, it was fifty miles outside Guanghan City.
Setting off at nightfall, more than four hours have passed since then. More than 200,000 troops have left Guanghan County and are marching quickly towards Niutoushan.
The torch stretched for miles, like a fire dragon, illuminating the dense yellow armor on the road.
Of course, as the general, Han Zhao could not "run forward" or ride a horse with the ordinary soldiers. Instead, he sat firmly on a large carriage and discussed with the lieutenants how to capture Shuzhou City as quickly as possible.
Although Han Zhao knew that there was a high probability that he would not even be able to see the shadow of Shuzhou City, he still had to pretend.
"Report!"
Suddenly, a cavalry messenger came galloping from behind, holding high a small iron cylinder sealed with fire paint.
"General! Secret report from the capital!"
"Um."
Han Zhao opened the car curtain, reached out of the car window to take the iron cylinder, and immediately saw the three dragon patterns printed on the paint.
The three lines mean that this is a top-level secret report, and no one except him and the messenger who received the information will know its contents for the time being.
This was the first time he had received a three-mark secret report since the start of the Shuzhou War.
His pupils shrank slightly, and Han Zhao suddenly had a bad premonition.
He did not open it in a hurry, but ordered the lieutenants to leave the carriage. After he was the only one left in the carriage, he slowly opened the small iron cylinder.
Shake out the paper and look down.
Han Zhao's expression suddenly froze for a moment, and then he hurriedly put the note back into the iron tube, took out a piece of jade from his arms and sent a message to Wei Changtian.
[Ning Yongnian suddenly ordered the army to move to the Jinyuan front line. Now I am the only one who knows about this. 】