Li Chen's rejection was not due to a woman's kindness.
Rather, we should truly consider everything from a global perspective.
If this plan fails, then the Crescent Pass will be broken, and the hinterland of the Central Plains will directly face the threat of the Liao army. At that time, Great Qin will face the greatest threat since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Therefore, Li Chen could not make a wrong move, and could not make any mistakes.
This is inconsistent with Zhou Pingan's bold and radical strategy.
Zhou Ping'an added: "But Your Highness, now the Liao army is also on the line. They have to take action. Even if they have doubts, they will not be able to resist the temptation of breaking through the Crescent Pass."
"You can't help it. What you're talking about is the human heart. That's right."
Li Chen then said: "If the benefits are big enough, they will take risks selectively, but the key lies in this selectivity."
"What I want is for them to win after trying their best and rush through the Crescent Pass without any worries or doubts, instead of tentatively entering the Crescent Pass with one step and three looks."
"If I were Yelu Shenxuan, I would definitely divide my troops and enter the Yueyang Pass. Once there is a change, I would retreat immediately, and I would never easily cross the Yueyang Pass and rush into the Gansu-Shaanxi Basin."
These words made Zhou Ping'an relax his brows, and he said sincerely: "This official is not thinking carefully."
"It doesn't matter."
Li Chen said calmly: "You have never had contact with Yelu Shenxuan, nor have you had contact with the Liao army. You are not good at military affairs, so you can understand."
At this moment, Wu Qingcang asked: "But Your Highness, how difficult is it to achieve the effect that Your Highness just said?"
"Yes, it is difficult."
Li Chen nodded and said: "So how to truly deceive the Liao army and Yelu Shenxuan is the key to the success of the plan, and this..."
Turning to look at Zhou Pingan, who had remained silent, Li Chen smiled and said, "I guess Pingan has a clever plan?"
When Zhou Ping'an saw everyone's eyes turned towards him, he spread his hands and smiled bitterly: "I'm just a mortal, how can I have a magical plan? Your Highness really praises me too much."
Li Chen smiled and said nothing, just looking at Zhou Pingan.
In the end, Zhou Ping'an couldn't stand it any longer.
He smiled bitterly and said, "Please come to the sand table."
Li Chen stood up, followed closely by Wu Qingcang and Wu Banshan, and everyone came to the front of the sand table.
Zhou Ping'an disrupted the troop layout on the sand table and simply divided it into the enemy and ourselves, and then said: "Let's first take a look at the comparison of strength between us and the Liao army."
"The Liao army has 600,000 cavalry. After successive battles, I would like to ask Commander Wu and General Wu, based on your experience, how many troops are left in the Liao army that can fight at this time?"
Wu Qingcang frowned and said solemnly: "A conservative estimate would be at least 450,000."
"Okay, let's count it as half a million."
Zhou Ping'an smiled, gathered together the forces representing the Liao army, and counted them as half a million.
Then he pointed at Crescent Pass and said: "Our power here is mainly divided into four components."
"The first component is the Crescent Pass garrison, the most loyal force. Counting the Liaodong Army, there are about 110,000 soldiers left who can join the battle. If we ignore the injured soldiers, we can squeeze out 130,000 soldiers.
Come on, Wu Shuai, is my guess accurate?"
Wu Qingcang nodded and said: "Very accurate."
Nodding, Zhou Ping'an sorted out another group and said: "This part is the support from Gansu and Shaanxi, 80,000, but those with actual combat effectiveness are less than half, so we count 40,000."
"The other part is King Ning's Sixteenth Cavalry of Yanyun, 150,000. They are also the most powerful group, but they have almost no loyalty."
