Chapter 112, Jose's real purpose
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On April 16, 999, the empire's central and southern provinces, Tianxi Valley.
"The brother who was slightly injured has moved without any hindrance, and the injuries of the brother who was seriously injured have stabilized. Xu Dao prepared three days of dry food for us and raised a batch of crossbow arrows for us. He will also lead the crowd to go out with us." Zhang Ce introduced the situation of the Han soldiers in the valley to Lei Dongfeng.
"Well, the whole army will start after noon this day. If Sun Desheng and his side should have no delays, the Yellow River Camp should have been conquered. We can go to Rongyang Prefecture to welcome the Jiang army. You are planning to ask Xu Dao to send someone to tell the nearby rebels to gather in Rongyang Prefecture." Lei Dongfeng Dao.
"It should have been like this long ago. This valley is not fun at all. I have had some trouble these days." Li Yanxi said, and his mouth widened.
"General Li, these two houses in the valley were damaged by practicing martial arts, and the woods were all over the land, and they also trampled a lot of herbs planted by the master. Instead, you think the valley was not good..." The little Taoist Hao Cangxu happened to go into the house to pour water. Hearing Li Yan say this, he couldn't help but say.
"You little Taoist priest, you have sharp teeth and sharp mouths. You just break a few quick wooden boards and stomp a few flowers and plants. As for this, you keep talking all day long?" Li Yan said dissatisfied, glaring at the tiger's eyes, deliberately scaring the little Taoist priest.
"Jingtao, why are you pretending to be a rough person? Is the Taoist priest wrong? The eldest brother said that in the place where people live, no matter the people or officials, you must take good care of them. Don't disturb the people. If you are good, you will be the most disturbing in this valley." Zhang Ce shook the folding fan and snorted.
In the past few days, Zhang Ce and Xu Huanzong and Hao Qingyuan had a great conversation. The imperial literati believed in various schools, especially Taoism and Legalism, which were a compulsory lesson for many literati, but Confucianism often only serves as the basis for writing enlightenment. After a few days, Xu Huanzong and Hao Cangxu were both very happy about Zhang Zhengmou, who was graceful, talked extraordinaryly, and had unique insights into cultivating Taoism and cultivating nature.
Li Yan sighed: "It's better to say what you can do than do in this world. You are just trying to be with them all day long, and you are learning to be so sensible."
At this moment, Hao Cangxu saw Zhang Ce talking, but his expression slowed down. He smiled and said, "Mr. Zhang can speak. For Mr. Zhang's sake, I will tell you a secret."
When Li Yan heard this, he snorted disdainfully. Seeing Li Yan's dissatisfaction, Lei Dongfeng and Zhang Ce smiled and looked at Hao Cangxu without saying a word.
"Don't you want to know what the secret is?" Hao Cangxu couldn't help asking.
"You said that, at such a young age, you will definitely lose your mouth when you grow up." Li Yan shouted.
"Hmph, okay, let me tell you, my master just received a message from a flying pigeon. I heard that Jose had captured Wanghai Mansion in the East China Sea Province, but he had stopped his troops. For this reason, my master was about to come to discuss with you."
"Tsk, your master will come to discuss it later. What's the secret?" Li Yan said angrily.
"Although Wanghai is also an easy place to defend, Jose stopped there and did not move. What exactly did he want to do?" Lei Dongfeng and Chuck looked at each other, and both saw a hint of hesitation in each other's eyes.
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"Where has Jose's army been?" In the temporary camp of the Kuanglan Army, Li Ruoxi looked at the map in front of him and asked Jiang Zhuying.
At this moment, Jiang Zhuying and others had been out for more than a day and temporarily camped in this forest to rest.
"It is reported that Wanghai Mansion in the East China Sea Province has been captured." Jiang Zhuying pointed his slender fingers on the six places on the east side of the map, which is one of the important sea outlets of the empire - Wanghai City.
"Although Wanghai only has the second-level Imperial legion Boyang Army, and the Boyang Army has been transferred to Central and South China, it is a major city in the country and is even more famous for its naval forces. The Jose army is out, so why doesn't the imperial naval forces resist?" Li Ruoxi frowned.
"Oh, you don't know this. As early as a year ago, a large number of pirates from the Eastern Japanese vassal state of the Empire attacked me along the coast. Wanghai and Pingtao City's naval forces were concentrated in Zhenhai Mansion by the military headquarters to participate in the clearance of the pirates. At that time, I heard that the Emperor's unit had the intention to take the opportunity to occupy the Eastern Japanese and completely subscribe it as a province of the Empire." Jiang Zhuying said.
Even though Li Ruoxi was wise, she had lived in seclusion in the mountains all year round before. If she was the big 6th road, she could still hear the situation through her elder brother Li Yan in the business and travelers, but she had no means of source for news on the coast. Especially the secrets of the emperor's politics, there was no way to know.
After hearing what Jiang Zhuying said, Li Ruoxi's brows became more and more tight.
"Pirates were at work and led the troops of Wanghai to the south... However, now the Wanghai Mansion was lost, but from Wanghai to the imperial capital, there is a direct waterway from the Grand Canal to the rivers and mountains of the imperial capital, which is only 800 miles away. Could it be that Jose really just wanted to bypass the blocking army of Yanbei Province and head north?" Li Ruoxi pondered, but he was very suspicious of this inference.
According to the previous battles, Jose is a man who often uses one link to another, and often uses appearance to conceal his real purpose. Today, in the situation in Central and South China, Lei Dongfeng and others are calculating on Als everywhere, but it cannot be said that Jose is not calculating what the Han soldiers do.
When dealing with such an opponent, Li Ruoxi certainly has the pleasure of meeting a good person when meeting a chess opponent, but for more lives, he will have to shed more blood and sacrifice.
"The East China Sea provinces guard the north-south passage of the coastal provinces of the empire. No matter what Jose's purpose is, if he really connects the Central and South China and the East China Sea, then he will go north and south, and then he will do whatever he wants? Therefore, this kind of thing must not be allowed to happen." Jiang Zhuying thought of Jose's clever plan and commanded the coalition forces to ravage the empire. Even if his mind is calm and gentle, he would not help but feel anger.
"I always think things are not that simple. Jiang Juntuan, think about it. If you were Jose, after you divided the troops, especially after Als suffered consecutive defeats in the Central and South Province recently, he had no reaction. If he said that he wanted to protect Zhongnan for his rear, would it be contrary to common sense to use Als so hasty and impulsive?" Li Ruoxi said in a search.
"There are often hidden behind one fact." Jiang Zhuyingxin agreed.
"What exactly Jose wants?" Li Ruoxi made a brain teaser.
"He wants whatever he lacks." Duanmu Takumi, the commander of the Kuanglan Cavalry Brigade, suddenly interrupted.
"He lacks food, supplies, and people." Lin Sanqi, the commander of the division of the Fenwu Army, smiled, and everyone laughed.
In fact, marching and fighting are nothing more than these things. Logistics supplies, stable supplies for the front, and continuous military strength, no one of them can maintain a war, especially such a protracted war. Cao Cao, the Marquis of Changguo who followed Taizu to fight the world, was even a veteran who was good at cutting off people's food. With this move, he won many times with less.
"The task Jose assigned to Als is definitely not to defend the Central and Southern Province!" Li Ruoxi's sweet face was shocked and said in a narrow voice.
"What's that?" Jiang Zhuying asked hurriedly.
"He just regarded Zhongnan as a large granary and a stable supply station. Jiangjun, I remember that last year, there were a bumper harvests of winter wheat in Qinghai, Yanbei, Zhongnan, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Huguang. If the food and grass harvested in the first year were kept in the place of origin for half a year, if there was no famine, the principle of proximity was adopted according to the principle of proximity and was transported to the imperial capital Jiangshan, Zhongdu Longyang and Dongdu Wanghai, and unified storage for the year of famine. So early in December last year, the wheat in Zhongdu Longyang was already handed over to the five provinces.
The sum of the number may be eaten by hundreds of thousands of troops for several years. And I heard from Lord Sima Nan that because of the hasty retreat that day, and the location of the granary where the grain storage was stored was very secret, they were not willing to destroy this batch of supplies. After Jose captured the southern and southern provinces, he would definitely have learned this information, and he should have been looking for this batch of food and grass, otherwise he would definitely not divide his troops. The most important part of the order he gave to Als was to safely transport the food and grass to the East China Sea to ensure the safety of transportation channels." Li Ruoxi analyzed.
"So everything Als did was to cover up this purpose. He recognized the sacrifice of these tens of thousands of people, but attracted our eyes tightly, and had enough time to ensure the absolute safety and courageous decision of the supply channel! We cannot delay it. We must speed up the marching now and overcome Longyang before they transport the food and grass out." Jiang Zhuying woke up.
"It's too late. Since Ars dared to send troops from Longyang to Anyang Prefecture, he must have found the food and grass and sent someone to secretly escort the food and grass to the East China Sea. His purpose is to attract our attention so that the food and grass can be transported out smoothly. Now a few days have passed. If they were going down the Yellow River, they are already hundreds of miles away. Moreover, our army has no naval army and no right to mobilize the naval army in the surrounding provinces to intercept it, it is already irreversible. The passage for transportation and supply does not require much force to destroy it, especially for our Han cavalry. If we dispatch thousands of troops, we can harass the food channels of the Western Allied Forces day and night. However, Ars can act like this and use the gains and losses of a province to exchange for the stability of the entire Western Allied Forces' supply line." Li Ruoxi sighed.
"This old fox Jose!" Jiang Zhuying's face was solemn.
"I just figured out this matter, and I can't blame others. Jose is indeed worthy of the title of "Fox of the West 6". He plots step by step, and when he is cut off, he can even let his favorite Ars cover it. This decisive killing is beyond my reach. I used to underestimate the heroes of the world." Li Ruoxi said lightly.
"Since he is willing to sacrifice Ars for the food and grass of these hundreds of thousands of troops, then we will be disrespectful and will leave Ars in Central and South!" Jiang Zhuying was a good child who could take it and let it go, and said resolutely.
"That's true, but Jose does not stick to Central and Southern. On the one hand, although this is a place of battle and is not easy to stick to, there are probably other plans, so we must overcome Central and Southern as soon as possible, and at least we must firmly grasp his retreat. Whether he goes south or north, we must take into account the threat behind him." Li Ruoxi looked at Jiang Zhuying with admiration. Since the girl learned that Jiang Zhuying was a woman, she has turned that admiration into appreciation. With Li Ruoxi's proud personality, it is really rare to appreciate a same-sex person in this way.
Li Ruoxi and Jiang Zhuying were like Chuck who was facing Lei Dongfeng, which was a supreme wisdom attracted by a tough, proud and decisive personality. Of course, Lei Dongfeng's figure had long been imprinted in the girl's heart.
Chapter completed!