Chapter 1 Talk

If Xiangning could be called the front lines, this would be the first time in many years that Tan Xiaopei had set foot on the fighting front. Even though the nearest Northern Liao enemy army to Xiangning, whose size was enough to warrant attention from the elite Dongping army around Xiangning, was over a hundred and ten *li* away, they were still cautiously retreating. Tan Xiaopei's arrival at the front was obviously not to indulge in the thrill of battle, but to have a good talk with Ye Tao about the current situation and see how to swallow Northern Liao whole. From this perspective, although Gao Senqi's operation failed, his intention had been achieved. Northern Liao had demonstrated their fighting will and had almost tripped up a strong army like the Blood Kirin Army. Fortunately, the Blood Kirin Army made the decision to divide their forces and fight separately at the first opportunity, and fortunately, they both responded appropriately after splitting up. Otherwise, it would be hard to say what the situation would be now. If the Blood Kirin Army had really been wiped out, it would have been worth it even if all 300,000 Northern Liao troops had been sacrificed, because that would have meant they had annihilated the number one army in the world.

"In general, although Northern Liao's combat power is not much different from what we expected, their morale is much better than we thought," Tan Xiaopei said with a sigh after listening to Ye Tao's account of the fighting during this period. He then said, "Western Ling is restless. I guess your Northern Frontier Pacification Office feels it even more strongly. Now, you can't spare much force to deal with Western Ling, can you?"

Ye Tao smiled and said, "After taking the Zhenbei Army Command, it is indeed very hard to defend such a large area, but fighting in such an environment is not a big problem. Your Majesty, it's just that you must be receiving a lot of complaints there."

As soon as Ye Tao said this, Tan Xiaopei immediately understood. That large area of land was barren to begin with, and apart from a few important strongholds, it was all endless wilderness. Under this kind of geology and landform, the mobility and reconnaissance capabilities of the troops could almost determine half of the victory or defeat. "I plan to abandon the strategy of resisting step by step and let the Western Ling army in. Although I don't have much main combat force to play with them now, I have at least put 30,000 elite cavalry, six old garrison battalions, and eleven new garrison battalions there, which is almost more than 60,000 troops. The garrison battalions are enough to defend a few cities and provide support operations around the cities. In addition, all the student pilots from the research institute have been fully equipped with airships this time. There is definitely no official establishment; at best, it can only be regarded as their graduation assessment. But one-third of the airships are Snow Owls, and there are plenty of fire oil bombs… If this is still not enough, I can mobilize tens of thousands of tribal cavalry from the Benlang Plains. Actually… haha, they are clamoring to come. Because I promised that hired troops would have priority in distributing spoils of war and priority in compensation. After all, no matter how good they are at fighting, they are still civilians here…"

Hearing what Ye Tao said, Tan Xiaopei shook his head. With these troops working together, although the 300,000 Western Ling army sounds scary now, it would probably be impossible to swallow these troops. Tan Xiaopei asked, "Where are you going to let them fight?"

Ye Tao said with a smile, "I don't plan to engage in a decisive battle until we reach the city of Guiyi. Instead, I will have the troops harass them in units of battalions. Those guys patted their chests and guaranteed that of the so-called 300,000 troops, it would be good if half of them still had combat power when they reached the city of Guiyi… Moreover, the Western Ling army doesn't have 300,000 troops at all."

Ye Tao didn't continue. They had a super spy like Sun Boping, so everyone knew what was going on. This kind of thing would never be said casually under any circumstances. Sun Boping was the Minister of Revenue, in charge of military appropriations, and no one knew better than him how many people there really were.

Tan Xiaopei said with a smile, "In that case, I can rest assured about the northern route. But we still have to rely on you on the Northern Liao side. I will concentrate a force to set out from the Xuanshan Pass to see if I can find trouble for Western Ling, eat a few battalions, and entangle them a little. I won't go too deep. After all, this route from the Xuanshan Pass cannot supply a very large force. Tong Bingwen will not sit idly by and watch us widen the road. Everyone is not very happy with this kind of war of attrition, but there is no way. Some people in the court are clamoring to pacify Northern Liao in three months… Haha, that's just the opinion of scholars."

Tan Xiaopei also felt a little apologetic to Ye Tao. This time, sending the Zhenning Pass garrison, the Tianxuan Army, and a part of the Imperial Army was already the limit of Dongping's domestic supply for the large army. After that, coupled with the navy's landing operation in the northeast of Northern Liao, they would rely on these troops to fight to the end. The total force would reach more than 600,000. For many years, Dongping had never pushed itself to this point. But the advantage was that Dongping's current financial resources could support the large army for at least eighteen months. If there were no disasters or other big troubles, this support could continue. This allowed Tan Xiaopei to confidently let Ye Tao occupy one area and consolidate it, while Ye Tao's idea was even more radical. Occupation was of course necessary, and consolidation was essential, but what about after that? Continue like this? How long would the conquest of Northern Liao last?

Ye Tao's idea was to build up the existing territory of Northern Liao, inject huge amounts of money in a short period of time, but ensure that this money would never become a burden on businessmen and the government, but could be transformed into continuous profits in the future. However, this kind of investment required a slightly longer cycle. Improving the living standards of the Northern Liao people in these territories, perfecting local construction and systems, would become a model for other Northern Liao people. Ye Tao did not believe that anyone, except for a small number of people whose brains had been squeezed by a door, would not want to live a better life. Once this kind of awareness was formed, the internal motivation to stick to the end would slowly disappear. There was no doubt that Northern Liao would definitely not be happy to have this kind of news spread, which would test the intelligence personnel. When the consolidation and governance reached a certain level, Ye Tao would seek a decisive battle to completely defeat the main military force of Northern Liao. From now until that time, he would work hard in two aspects: one was to make the soldiers familiar with Northern Liao and know how to perform in Northern Liao operations to exert their strongest combat power. The other was that he would weaken Northern Liao's combat power through various methods. Influencing the Northern Liao court was definitely a very important part of this.

The Zhenbei Army Command hesitated to move forward, luring the enemy in, and then slowly advancing here in Northern Liao, making many arrangements. No wonder Ye Tao said that Tan Xiaopei would definitely receive a super amount of complaints. Tan Xiaopei only had to think about the officials in the court to imagine what kind of situation he would face when he went back.

"When are you going to advance to the central route? Is there any news from the northern route?" Tan Xiaopei asked.

Ye Tao sighed and said, "Your Majesty, if you hadn't come… I would have had to wait for you here. I would have set off yesterday."

Tan Xiaopei said with a chuckle, "Don't worry, your family's Dai Yun fights really beautifully. He doesn't need your reinforcements."

Ye Tao then said, "I know that Gao Senqi has transferred 300,000 troops here, so there must be a gap in the central route. Even if I go back now, it's not that easy to fill the gaps on the battlefield… As for the northern route, I haven't received the battle report yet, so I don't know how Weiran and Chi Lei are progressing… If something happens to Weiran, I won't be able to explain it."

Tan Xiaopei said frankly, "Worry is worry, but we don't have the final say on this matter. The Tan family's children were not afraid of death in the past, and they can't be in the future… except for that little brat in Weiran's generation. I'm not worried, so what are you worried about? If Weiran dies in battle, that's glory. What do you have to explain to me?"

Ye Tao said helplessly, "I can't explain it to Xin'er…"

Tan Xiaopei was stunned for a moment, then chuckled and said, "That's… but Weiran should be fine. That guy is very shrewd. If he was really a reckless man who charged forward in every battle, how could anyone in the court worry about him competing with Weiming for position?"

In the past, they were a little taboo when they talked about this topic, but now they were completely open about it. The father-in-law and son-in-law chatted about the unfounded guesses of the court officials, not taking it seriously at all, just treating it as a joke. Tan Xiaopei continued, "What's more, there's Chi Lei there. With this super ace scout master there, how could anything happen? Although they don't have air cover on that route now, and they can't contact the rear in time, safety shouldn't be a big problem."

However, different people will encounter different problems. Now, Tan Weiran and Chi Lei are facing a dilemma. They are leading less than 20,000 elite cavalry, and their combat power is naturally good. They were worried about the supply problem at first. But after a few days, they began to worry about what to do with so many things. Although the marching speed could not be said to have dropped in a straight line, the impact was still obvious. In order not to alert the enemy, they were taking the edge of the so-called traditional Northern Liao control line. There were not many people in the north, so it was difficult to obtain supplies. On the southern wing of the control line, there were many Northern Liao military stations and supply teams that could be robbed.

And Tan Weiran and Chi Lei, under their confused circumstances, ended up taking one of the four major warehouses in the north of the Western Route Army in the first battle, seizing countless supplies. With Chi Lei's scouts and sentries, they were lying in wait and marching quickly, and they were now less than four days away from their destination. But they had to fight a tough battle in front of them: the 17,000 troops of Bi Wenxin, the Zhenbei General of the Eastern Route Army of Northern Liao and the Northern Route Inspector.

Bi Wenxin's troops were a mixture of cavalry and infantry. Their existence was meant to suppress the resistance of these tribes in the northeast of Northern Liao. In the years of tax collection and plundering operations, the morale of this army had naturally deteriorated, but its combat power was extremely strong.

Chi Lei had personally observed twice and concluded that they were stronger than most of the Western Route Army and slightly inferior to Gao Senqi's Flying Tiger Camp personal guards. This was a super high evaluation, especially in the Eastern Route Army of Northern Liao, which was regarded as cannon fodder. Through this incident, they also put away their contempt for the Eastern Route Army. Since there was such an army in the Eastern Route Army, there might be a second or third army, and they had to deal with it carefully.

The tribal warriors who were with them had long been awed by their victories along the way. They wanted to bypass those tribes, and those tribes would not say anything, but would actively lead the way for them. But watching the hateful gazes and gnashing teeth they showed every time they mentioned Bi Wenxin, Tan Weiran seemed to understand something. He said to Chi Lei, "Let's not detour. It's a pity to lose things and hurry to detour. Anyway, even if they don't know we're coming now, it won't be a few days off. We're worth an eight-hundred-*li* urgent report here, right? Let's take down Bi Wenxin and give these brothers a big gift."

Chi Lei looked at Tan Weiran, a little strange, and then he understood. Indeed, whether to fight this battle was no longer a military issue, but a political mission. Taking down Bi Wenxin would establish a lofty image in front of those tribes. They were here to be liberators and saviors, and they had to show their strength to make everyone understand. Otherwise, who would believe them based on the descriptions of a few tribal warriors?

Chi Lei sighed and said, "No one has died along the way. It's estimated that this time will be a little difficult. Be careful when fighting, and try to reduce the losses of the brothers."

When the two tribal warriors behind them heard this, they couldn't believe it. Bi Wenxin, whom they couldn't resist, had arrived at Chi Lei's place, and he was still considering the possibility of zero casualties? The facts proved… that there really wasn't much difference. Tan Weiran and Chi Lei almost did it…

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The author's zone was stuck, and I didn't make it before 12 o'clock to post, I'm depressed.

Hu Die Lan