After seeing off Jia An and Chen Ximing, Du Zhongxiao recruited important officials to the General's Mansion and sat down, saying, "It's March now, the ice of the Yellow River has melted, the climate is pleasant. When the weather is good, there will naturally be more things. Last year, the Khitan Yelu Chongyuan attacked Youzhou Hongji, and the two sides fought in Ruzhou. The war was stalemate for several months. According to the news ahead, if Chongyuan could not capture Ruzhou, the situation would be gone. The two sides would have a great battle in the following days. The troops of this route were concentrated in Shazhou and Zhenwu, and the Datong Prefecture was controlled from afar. If Yelu Chongyuan was defeated in Ruzhou, he would meet him immediately and fight for the Datong Prefecture."

Bao Zheng said: "This time the two Khitan emperors were aligned, which was different from before, and it was particularly terrifying. Although Chongyuan was ineffective in the battle of Ruzhou, Hong Ji was not easy to defend. No matter who wins and who loses, I am afraid that it is not easy to decide the outcome."

Du Zhongxiao said: "This kind of civil war cannot be treated the same as other wars. Both sides do not have the determination to fight to the death and fight to the death. They must prevent them from getting along at any time. After nearly a year of training, although the army still has many unsatisfactory areas, it is not lacking in the power of fighting. If Chongyuan is defeated, our army will enter Datong and seize the mountain and behind the mountain area first. If Hongji is defeated, the Hebei Road will occupy Youzhou, which is the same. Yang Wenguang's troops are stationed in Fengzhou to monitor Datong and cannot be ignored."

Bao Zheng bowed: "Jie Shuai said that. I just thought that the civil strife in Khitan had not subsided so quickly."

Du Zhongxiao said: "This long-term civil strife in Khitan is the most likely thing. However, military deployment cannot be based on this, but various situations must be considered. The most important thing for Yang Wenguang's troops is that when Yelu Chongyuan was defeated, he could not let Datong Prefecture go, and other things were not under his control. Well, this is the way of deployment of the Khitan."

In the civil strife of the Khitan, neither Yelu Chongyuan nor Yelu Hongji could fully control his soldiers. The war between the two sides mainly revolved around Ruzhou and Changping. If Chongyuan captured the two places, Hongji's troops might be defeated quickly. If they could not capture, Chongyuan would face the pressure of splitting within him.

The Song Dynasty had absolute strategic advantages. No matter which side failed, it could occupy one part in front of or behind the mountain in advance. However, the court now has no idea about the combat effectiveness of the other troops except Du Zhongxiao's troops. At least in the past or two years, it was not capable of starting a war against the Khitan.

It is not easy to complete the training and reorganization of the old imperial guards with more than 800,000 training. Recently, Du Zhongxiao felt unhappy after looking at the situation in the Hequ Road Army. Due to the lack of abilities of officers at all levels, the combat power of the Song army is much lower than that of the Hequ Road Army before the year. When can it be completely transformed? Du Zhongxiao has no idea. If there is a big war, it may be eliminated quickly. If there is no big war and it will be dragged like this, it will be the old army, and it is not impossible.

After talking about the Khitan, Du Zhongxiao said again: "Dangxiang in the west has not recovered since the Battle of Hue, and has lost a lot of losses. The court has trained the army and can attack Dangxiang. However, like the Khitan side, this is not a short-term matter. Dangxiang is now divided into three parts, and Xingling Prefectures south of Hequ Road is the core area of ​​Dangxiang. Over the past year, Dangxiang has built high cities and deep control bases in this area, and has cast a lot of artillery to settle on the city walls. Especially Hezhou

In Shanhe Pass in the south, Dangxiang built a Great Wall, which was the most difficult to deal with. In the east, the Hengshan area, after we occupied the upper reaches of Quye River and Dijinze, its power was reduced and now it retreated to the mountainous area. A few days ago, Jia Kui was newly in charge of the military and horse affairs of Goulin Mansion Road, and Linfu Road was marked into Hequ Road. The court intended to let Linfu Road to face south, Fuyan Road to face north, and to attack Hengshan from north to south. It was just that the troops had not yet been spared, and the railway had not yet been built to Yan'an Mansion, which was just an idea."

Speaking of this, Du Zhongxiao stood up and said to everyone: "The third part of Dangxiang is several counties in Hexi. Last year, we destroyed the Baima Military Supervisor and seized the Heishui Military Supervisor. Dangxiang only had Gansu Military Supervisor and Xiping Military Supervisor, with less than 50,000 troops. Note that Dangxiang is full of soldiers, and the Gansu and Xiping Military Supervisor are so few, which means that the population of several counties in Hexi is not large. Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Guazhou and Shazhou were all densely populated places, and they had been in chaos for more than 200 years. Now they are afraid that only tens of thousands of households will be left."

"Our railway is in the north, separated from several counties in Hexi, and goes straight into the Western Regions. Once we receive Yizhou, you guys, the most affected are not the Heikang Kingdom and Gaochang Kingdom, but several counties in Hexi. It is very likely that the Guiyi army in the past will rise again, Ganzhou and Suzhou will leave Dangxiang, and even like Yizhou, thinking about returning to the imperial court. This is the most important thing!"

Speaking of this, Du Zhongxiao said: "Now the deployment of Hequ Road is the line of defense against Yinshan by Yang Wenguang's troops stationed by Yang Wenguang, and the front line of defense against Yinshan. Zhao Zi's troops stationed by Hezhou, heading west to the Western Regions. Zhang Ji's troops stationed by Shengzhou, which is directly under the General Administration. In response to the situation, after Linfu Road was drawn to Hequ Road, its troops were divided into one army, and it was appropriate to go forward and be arranged in Linzhou and Dijinze. Zhang Ji's troops advanced westward, arranged along the railway, and also stationed in Hezhou. Zhao Zi's troops went westward and entered the territory with all their efforts. The overall deployment was still to Dangxiang as the main goal and also to manage the Khitan."

After Du Zhongxiao finished speaking, everyone nodded together. Once the railway was built in Juyan County, it was imminent to move westward. Zhao Zi advanced westward and Zhang Ji's troops stationed in Hezhou, which means that Hequ Road attacked Shanhe Pass and went south to Xingling, which became a major detour along the railway. When war with Dangxiang, the most likely thing was that the Shaanxi Road army gathered the Zhenrong army along the railway and went north to Lingzhou.

Once Yelu Chongyuan of the Khitan was defeated, Yang Wenguang's troops quickly advanced eastward and with the cooperation of Zhang Ji's troops, they attacked Datong Prefecture. The two armies had a total of 100,000 troops, each of which pulled out most of them to attack the Khitan with 70,000 to occupy Yun, Ying, Shuo, and Weizhou. It should be possible.

Sitting down again, Du Zhongxiao said: "The plan for the year lies in spring. Now it's spring, and the plan must be re-established. If you have any opinions, you can put forward them and let us discuss together."

Fu Bi said: "There is no big mistake to make such arrangements by the general of Jie. However, is there too much force used for Dangxiang?"

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "The deputy envoy is right. Most of the troops are used to defend Dangxiang. There is no way, so the court's will is like this. I dare not say that there is a certain victory against Khitan, so I should focus on dealing with Dangxiang first."

After all, the court lacked confidence in fighting against the Khitan. Although the war between Hequ Road last year was greatly won, the Khitan was not severely damaged, and the main force was safely withdrawn. Immediately afterwards, the army of Hequ Road was demolished to pieces, and it would not be a matter of overnight training to create such an army. Although Dangxiang was much more defeated, the Song Dynasty was still more confident. Even in the Khitan civil war, the military goals of the Song Dynasty were still facing Dangxiang.

Fu Bi nodded and said, "Now Dangxiang is Gongsun, and there is no reason to fight. The officials thought it would be better to focus on the Western Regions."

Du Zhongxiao said helplessly: "The Western Regions are vast and weak, so it is indeed suitable for military use. However, when attacking the Western Regions, the railway should be built with good railways. Wherever the railway is built, the power of this dynasty can go. Before the railway arrives, it is still not suitable for large-scale military use."

It is not easy to build railways from Hezhou to the west, all of which are yellow sand. The railways are not enough. They need to be maintained at ordinary times. There must be stations along the way, and there are a lot of manpower to build and protect roads. It’s not bad in other places, but Hezhou goes west, and the maintenance costs are not small. You can only rely on the commercial roads in the Western Regions to come from the railway, collect some taxes, and there is an economic stimulus.
Chapter completed!