Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1184 – Expedition to Great Qing
The envoys from Qin and Tang were just a small episode, and Ouyang Shuo quickly controlled his emotions.
“There are two paths ahead of us. We either teleport troops to Fallen Phoenix City to help Great Jin, or we directly declare war on Great Zhou, opening up the path to Zhongyuan. Give me your thoughts on how we should choose.”
Jia Xu stepped up to speak, “I do not support sending reinforcements to Great Jin.”
“Reason.”
“Grain.” Jia Xu headed directly toward the crux of the problem, “Great Jin dynasty only has one province, and Hedong Province is also not one that produces a lot of grain. Their grain supply itself is limited. After supporting the logistics of the Leopard Legion Corps, to also support their own Blazing and Guards Legion Corps, their grain usage would have reached its maximum.”
“To force back the Great Zhou army, conservatively speaking, the Imperial Court has to send 500 thousand troops. If things go wrong, and the battle is dragged out, the moment a grain crisis happens, the outcome would be catastrophic.”
“If I was Great Zhou, I’ll try to drag out the battle. I predict they will make use of their grain advantage to fight a drawn-out battle with our troops to gain easy benefits.”
“There is also one more point. In the whole wilderness, the storms are endless and are showing no signs of stopping. The first season of rice and malt will definitely show signs of a fall in production.”
“Due to these few points, I do not agree with us reinforcing Great Jin.”
Ouyang Shuo kept silent.
He did not expect that the grain crisis of Gaia’s 6th year would affect the most well-prepared Great Xia first. Although Great Xia had amassed a huge quantity of grain, they were unable to transport it to the front lines.
In between them were the enemies of Great Xia.
“That means we can only attack.” Ouyang Shuo accepted his advice, “Should we attack from the north or the south?”
Attacking was to save the damsel in distress and pull them away from Great Jin.
Jia Xu replied, “From a strategic standpoint, they both have their pros and cons. If we attack from the north, once we take down Great Qing, we can threaten Handan City and force them to retreat.”
“If we attack from the south, we would have to face the combined efforts of Great Song and Great Ming. The pros would be that if we attack from the south, be it moving troops or grain provision, both would be really smooth. Furthermore, if we break the south defensive line and head into Zhongyuan Province, not only can we regroup with the Leopard Legion Corps, but we can also form up a grain transport route to Great Jin.”
Simply put, the strategy from the north was fixed; it was a move to pull Great Zhou back and save Great Jin. The one on the south was complicated and more difficult, but it had greater rewards.
The moment the grain transport line was open, Great Xia could use the chance to fight an all-out war against Great Zhou and the six country alliance and decide the new situation in China in one battle.
It was not difficult to see that Jia Xu was leaning toward the south.
However, did Great Xia have the ability to take down both Great Song and Great Ming? In order to wipe out the million guards before Great Jin was lost, Great Xia had to at least mobilize 1.5 million troops.
Was Great Xia prepared to do that?
Ouyang Shuo was not in a hurry to come to a conclusion. He looked toward Zhang Liang and said, “Zifang, speak your thoughts.”
In terms of strategy, Ouyang Shuo trusted Zhang Liang the most.
Zhang Liang did not dodge the question. Jia Xu and he were in charge of different aspects, so there was no competition, “I am thinking that if Great Zhou cannot take down Great Jin, how will it fulfil its promise toward Song and Ming?”
Ouyang Shuo’s eyes lit up, continuing along with Zhang Liang’s line of thinking, “With his character, he will most likely deny it. However, with the strength of Song and Ming, that does not seem like a good decision.”
“The king is wise!”
Zhang Liang praised Ouyang Shuo and continued, “The south attack must be slow and not rushed. If we make them too desperate, it’ll only cause the unstable alliance to be more closely united.”
“As for the north, we should rush it instead of taking it slow. With the Mongol Empire suddenly ending their silence, one Turkish Khanate is not enough to satisfy Genghis Khan’s appetite. War in Liaojin Province might break out at any moment.”
“If we do not take care of Great Qing before the Mongol Empire acts, and the two end up working together, Beijiang would be in a dangerous situation and become a hot potato for us.”
Zhang Liang’s words astonished everyone.
It was then that they realized that if Great Xia wanted to unify China, not only would they need to face many enemies, but the enemies might even work together, which would allow them to have the ability to go against Great Xia.
Facing such a group of enemies, they could not be careless.
When Jia Xu was analyzing the pros and cons, Baiqi, Sun Bin, and the other generals were more supportive of the south battlefield. They were looking forward to going head on with Great Zhou.
Now, it seems like the matter was not so simple.
“There is one more benefit in taking down Great Qing, which is that we can get the cauldron. Along with the Luoyang and Chengdu cauldrons that are imminent, it would not be long before we gather up all nine,” Zhang Liang added.
Once Zhang Liang finished his words, Sun Bin said, “Elder Zhang’s words make sense, but I have a worry.”
“Speak!”
“How long can Great Jin last without support in front of the Great Zhou army? Once war breaks out, can they support the grain provisions the Leopard Legion Corps needs? If the grain line is broken, what would happen to the Battle of Luoyang? What would happen to the Leopard Legion Corps?”
As the number two person of the southeast warzone, Sun Bin had to consider for the warzone.
Attacking Great Han was a mission taken up by the southeast warzone. If they messed it up, it would be the humiliation of the entire warzone, and that was something Sun Bin did not want to see no matter what.
The warzone commander Han Xin was fighting the war on the frontlines, so Sun Bin had to take up the responsibility.
“That is indeed a problem.” Ouyang Shuo did not ask for opinions this time and directly said, “On a narrow road, the courageous will win. Since the battle has reached such a stage, we cannot be afraid, and we must take out the courage to rule the world. Since our grain is limited, the Battle of Luoyang cannot be dragged on. We must end it soon.”
“Jia Xu, think of a way for the Leopard Legion Corps to end the battle early.” Ouyang Shuo pointed to Jia Xu once more.
Ouyang Shuo’s adaptive style tested the ability of the strategists to be flexible and think on their feet. In such a short time, the questions Ouyang Shuo asked made them speechless.
Luckily, Jia Xu was one of the top strategists in the world.
As a strategist, one’s ability was not only shown in the court sessions. Strategists and actors were similar with 10 minutes on stage, 10 years off it.
How so?
With Jia Xu as an example, as the top strategist in the army, although he would not personally join each military operation, he would follow through each and every one of them. He would do so to use the intel to do his homework.
The goal was to have an accurate grasp of the entire situation to come up with strategies based on what happened on the battlefield to come up with ideas for the king.
This was the role of a strategist.
They were not going to improvise when they were asked in court.
No matter how skilled one was, no one would be able to come up with a plan without understanding the situation on the frontlines. That would be bullsh*t and would never happen in real life.
Like Zhuge Liang in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he seemed to be secluding himself, but in truth, he knew about everything in the world. If not, he would not be able to come up with so many feasible plans.
Hence, when the king asked, Jia Xu was not nervous at all, gathering up his thoughts before saying, “If we use conventional tactics, Luoyang’s alleyway battles would take a long time. The grain crisis would explode like General Sun Bin has mentioned.”
When Sun Bin heard that, he looked toward Jia Xu with gratitude.
“To end it fast, we must adopt unconventional tactics. With Luoyang’s conditions, we could choose an assassination tactic. Out of Hanwu Emperor and Wei Qing, once one of them dies, the Han army would fall into chaos.”
“Alternatively, we could burn the Luoyang granary to crush their morale, engage in large scale massacre to spread panic, or poison the water. Seeing that it’s a rainy season, and there is so much rain, it’s all feasible.”
“….”
Jia Xu’s plans caused everyone’s hair to stand on their ends.
As expected from the vicious strategists, he could think of any method. However, thinking about it, with the image of Great Xia, some of these plans would not be practical.
For example, Great Xia would never do things such as large scale killing or poisoning the water.
Even burning the granary was difficult. With how careful Wei Qing was, he would defend against it. Even if the Shanhai Guards had many spies in the city, they did not have a chance of succeeding.
Even if they did, the chances of success would be really low.
Eliminating everything, assassination seemed to be the only feasible solution, but it was also the hardest. Regarding the Hanwu Emperor who lived in the palace, not to mention assassinating him, they might not even get to see him.
As the main Han army general, Wei Qing had guards beside him at all times, making assassination really difficult.
Thinking about it, they had no chance of success.
They were worrying about it while Ouyang Shuo had some thoughts. He thought back to a partner, which was the super guild that had once betrayed Great Xia. It was also the only guild that was still left in an imperial city.
Coincidentally, Tingyu Floor was in Luoyang.
Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo said, “I’ll plan the Luoyang matter. Now, let’s discuss who to send up north.”
Although Great Qing had only sent 200 thousand guards to defend the border, they needed to uproot the entire Great Qing to threaten Handan City.
If not, Jingdu City would be like a nail in their path that could cut Great Xia’s grain supply line into two at any moment.
In order to threaten Handan City, Jingdu was a problem that they had to solve.
Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to take down Great Qing to change the landscape of Beijiang.
