The Tao River has been frozen, and the market outside Xizhou City has also been suspended for a few days due to snow.
In Xizhou City, Li Xian and Quan Fa sent Gao Zunyu, the military envoy to Xihe Road and the general manager of military affairs, and Zhang Kai, the deputy economic envoy, to eat roasted mutton around the stove.
Gao Zunyu looked like a warrior and even rough. He pulled out a large piece of freshly roasted lamb leg and chewed it. The juice of the lamb dripped down the corners of his robe.
As for Zhang Kai, he ate so gracefully that he cut the mutton bit by bit with a knife.
Li Xian watched the movements of the two men, personally held the candles for them, and then said: "Xiangong Wu said that we should tell the northwest that nothing is going on, so as to report to the court, what do you think?"
Gao Zunyu chewed the plump and juicy mutton, drank a large glass of wine and said, "I think it's okay."
Gao Zunyu thought to himself that this was a good time to make friends with Wu Chong, and he could also give Zhang Yue a favor, so why not?
Li Xian nodded, looked down at Zhang Kai and asked, "What do you think of the hostage?"
Zhang Kai said: "I think this letter was written incorrectly."
Hearing this, Gao Zunyu glanced at Zhang Kai, smiled and continued to cut a piece of fatty sheep tail oil with a knife and ate it.
Zhang Kai said: "Now that the 20,000 cavalrymen on Xihe Road have been transferred to Daizhou, Xixia can take advantage of it at any time. And as far as I know, Liang Yimi, the Prime Minister of Xia State, is obsessed with Xihe Road and always wants to take it back.
Once I say that there is nothing wrong with Xihe, what should I do if Liang Yimi sends troops in the future?"
Li Xian thought to himself, I heard that Zhang Kai, Zhang Yue, and Zhang Dun are both cousins, but they are closer to Zhang Dun. But this position of deputy economic envoy of Xihe Road was obtained by Zhang Yue's recommendation.
When he came to Xihe Road this time, Zhang Yue wrote to him again and again, saying that Zhang Kai had extraordinary talents and could be reused. If something happened to Xihe, he could let go and leave all the rights to him.
Li Xian was different from other eunuchs in that he was good at recognizing people and talents. When they were at Xihe Road, he and Zhang Yue cooperated well with each other. They were promoted to Xuanzhou Observation Envoy, Xuanqing Envoy, and deputy capital magistrate.
Zhang Yue asked him to trust Zhang Kai, and he was ready to use it with the attitude of giving it a try.
Li Xian said to Zhang Kai: "What are you going to do once Liang Yimi comes to invade Xihe?"
This question should have been asked by Gao Zunyu, but Li Xian is now the top person in charge of the Qinfeng Road Economic Envoy and the Xihe Road Economic Envoy, and Gao Zunyu has actually been ignored by Li Xian for a long time.
Zhang Kai said: "The Xixia soldiers and horses come and go without a trace. If we defend everywhere, we will be in vain everywhere. This was the case with previous defeats. Therefore, we must first collect enemy reports so that we can know the direction of the Xixia troops in one day."
, it will take one more day to prepare.”
"Once a bandit invades the west, don't fight with him first. When the thief enters one house, I will retreat. After the thief retreats, I will wait for an opportunity to attack him when he returns."
After speaking, Zhang Kai took a cowhide strap and several wine cups and placed them on the table for Li Xian.
Zhang Kai first put a cowhide strap on the table and said: "This strap is the border between me and the Western bandits. In the past, when we attacked the bandits, we used to defend the enemy from the border. But the disadvantage of this method is that once the Western bandits break through a little, they can penetrate all the way."
Moreover, our troops are far away from the rear to attack thieves. Without unclear intelligence, they are easily ambushed, as was the case at Sanchuankou in the old days."
"So we can let the Western thieves enter and guard a few key cities, such as Xizhou City and Hezhou City..."
Zhang Kai used a wine cup as a weapon for Xizhou. Behind the cowhide straps, Hezhou took a lamb bone that had just been trimmed and put it aside. He said: "We gathered our troops outside. After bypassing the strong city, we used this bone to
The sheep's stick bones attacked the rear of the Western thieves."
Li Xian held up his palm and said, "Yes, it's just like the city-wide battle that defeated the Liao Dynasty."
Zhang Kai said: "When Zhang Xianggong was in the northwest, he used a shallow attack method. My method is exactly the same as Zhang Xianggong. In the past, we were worried about the intruders from the west, but not the outbound ones. Now it is the other way around, and we are not worried about the intruders from the west.
If there is a thief from the West, then there will be a thief from the West."
"Once the Western thieves enter the country, they will inevitably come out full of plunder. The troops will be trapped and horses will be exhausted, and they will rush back. The soldiers will have no fighting spirit. Our army will use elite troops to attack them on their way back and cut off their heads and tails. This is called not to risk their escape."
Li Xian deeply felt that this strategy was brilliant. In the past when the Song army fought with Xixia, they guarded it like an iron barrel, guarding everything tightly, for fear that you would come and steal my things.
Now I have changed my tactics and opened up the road for you to plunder. I only need to defend a few strong cities. When you have plundered enough outside, you must take the goods home. Then I will concentrate my forces on your return.
Waiting for you on the way home.
Just like a robber, he is most vicious when he has nothing in his waist and is hungry.
Once they have robbed enough things, the robbers want to run home immediately with the gold and silver treasures. At this time, they have the least fighting spirit, so I will ambush you on the retreat road at this time.
Another point is to attack shallowly. The supply line is the weakness of the Song army, so I will not fight you on the outside, but adopt the idea of a decisive battle on the inside.
Lian Gao Zunyu couldn't stop nodding his head and thinking, this is a brilliant strategy, why can't I figure it out?
Li Xian was not a famous general and was not good at generals, but he was good at generals. The so-called generals meant that they were good at recognizing people.
He will understand as soon as he hears whether your words are reliable or whether your approach is reasonable. Powerful people all have the same knowledge. This is what the saying goes, heroes cherish heroes.
Zhang Kai's tactics can be summed up in two points: don't worry about what's coming in, but focus on what's coming out, and the other is to attack shallowly.
Li Xian immediately said: "Deputy Zhang, please sign and write down this battle plan immediately, and I will report it to the officials in a secret letter!"
When Zhang Kai heard this, he thought that Li Xian wanted to cultivate himself.
Zhang Kai said in fear: "Zhang really doesn't know what to say when a high-ranking official cultivates me like this. In fact, I am a relative of Zhang Xianggong's clan, and I was cultivated by him. Zhang is very uneasy about this."
Li Xiandao: "You are a minister of the imperial court and the deputy economic envoy of Xihe Road. It is the greatest principle to put state affairs first."
"Besides, Li is not cultivating you. Maybe Li will depend on you, Zhang Zhifu, for his future future."
After saying this, Li Xian laughed loudly. Zhang Yue was really good and recommended such talents to him. When officials hear about this kind of war strategy, they will definitely be reused. Sooner or later, this person will rise to the top.
Zhang Yue, Zhang Dun, Zhang Kai, Zhang Zhi and other children of the Zhang family are all extraordinary, and they will all become generals and prime ministers in the future.
Gao Zunyu was secretly jealous when he heard this, but he still had a smile on his face, picked up the wine cup and said: "Deputy Zhang Gao Ce, I will rely on you to promote him from now on."
That night, Gao Zunyu wrote Zhang Kai's idea of elastic defense into a letter, saying it was his own idea, and sent it to the capital for Empress Dowager Gao to review and ask him to speak to the officials again.
At this time, the official family in Bianjing also received Zhang Yue's letter.
Zhang Yue always pays attention to initiative when doing things. For many things, instead of waiting for the leader to come to you, you have to take the initiative to find the leader. Once you wait for the leader to come to you, you will usually be in big trouble.
However, although Zhang Yue has been communicating with the officials on the front line, the officials are still operating according to the traditional habits of the old Zhao family.
Just like Emperor Taizong likes to control the generals from the middle, arrange the next formation chart and let the generals below fight according to the formation chart. The officials also like to do this.
Emperor Taizong was determined not to delegate power to his border generals, even though he clearly knew that in order to win the Liao Kingdom, he must give his border generals the power to act expediently.
This time the officials received Zhang Yue's notes, mainly to analyze the Khitan intelligence obtained from him.
That means the Khitan Eagle Road is unstable.
When the Khitan Yelu Abaoji established the country, he targeted the Jurchens on the Eagle Road. After destroying the Bohai Kingdom, he continued to send large armies to attack various Jurchen tribes.
The Liao Kingdom won a lot at the beginning. For example, the famous general Yelu Xiezhen was not only good at fighting the Song army, but was also an expert against the Jurchens.
After that, Jurchens were divided into raw Jurchens and mature Jurchens.
Mature women do perform military service and pay taxes, but women who give birth can only be governed by the system of restraints.
At the same time, there is also a Five Kingdoms tribe in the northeast of Shengjurchen. The Five Kingdoms tribe was conquered by Wugunai, the leader of Wanyan tribe of Shengjurchen.
Wanyan Wugunai was also a great person. At that time, the Zhenzhen tribe was divided into two factions: pro-Liao and anti-Liao factions. Wanyanwugunai regarded himself as a pro-Liao faction and constantly annihilated the tribe of Zhenzhen who were in the anti-Liao group, and protected the Liao Kingdom's Yinglu.
At the same time, the Wanyan Department always regarded itself as a Jurchen, and refused to seek refuge with the Liao Kingdom like the Mature Jurchen. At the same time, it prevented the power of the Liao Kingdom from invading the Jurchen, and maintained a semi-independent posture.
Now Wanyan Wugunai passed away due to illness, and his successor was Wanyan Qilibo.
The Liao people liked the Triton from the Five Kingdoms, and only the emperor of the Liao Kingdom could raise the Triton. During the Spring Bowl Ceremony, the Liao Emperor would let the Triton go to catch swans.
Afterwards, the monarchs and ministers of the Liao Kingdom held a goose feast, where they drank freely.
Therefore, the Liao Kingdom ordered the five kingdoms to pay tribute to Haidongqing every year. This tribute route was called the Eagle Road.
Haidongqing's tribute is just in name, but the most important thing is to ensure that the Five Kingdoms Department and Shengnuzhen on Yinglu Road will surrender to the Liao Kingdom. It is just like the original state of Li Yuanhao's father Li Deming's surrender to the Song Dynasty when Xixia was not independent.
Once the Yingluo becomes unstable, the Jurchens and the Five Kingdoms will become the next Xixia.
Today's Liao Kingdom is naturally not the same as when Yelv Xiezhen was in power and swept the world. The Liao Kingdom's direct control over the Northeast only ended at Huanglong Mansion.
Later, in order to maintain the five thousand-mile long Eagle Road, the Liao Kingdom also racked its brains.
The tribes that relied on the Liao Kingdom were canonized and rewarded, and the tribes that resisted the Liao Kingdom were punished. The Jurchen Wanyan tribe was appreciated for this.
Later, the silver-ranked husband of the Liao Kingdom went in and out of Ying Road to search for Haidongqing and Beizhu. At the same time, he asked the women of various tribes on Ying Road to contribute unmarried girls for them to play with. After that, they would take away any girl they liked.
Zhang Yue analyzed it with the officials in his post.
The Liao Kingdom was not the Song Dynasty. There was no unified ideology to restrain the top and bottom, and various internal factions fell apart. In such a loose management system, only high-pressure rule internally and externally could be suppressed, which would inevitably trigger rebellions one after another.
In a nutshell, the Hulu have no luck for a hundred years.
This remark first came from Yang Su, but throughout the ages, the Liao Kingdom was the only country to break the Hulu's century-old fortune so far.
But even so, the Liao Kingdom passed its most powerful period.
Therefore, Zhang Yue strongly advised the officials in his letters not to be tolerant to Liao anymore, but to strive for courtesy in this demarcation.
The officials looked at Zhang Yue's letter and couldn't help but said to the people around him: "In the past, the courtiers knew everything about Yuying Road and the birth and maturity of Jurchen, but it is really rare for Zhang Yue to find out the situation in Liao Kingdom so clearly in just half a year.
