Chapter 404 The war resumes
"Lu Gao Qi Wan, this is a brilliant plan. Your Majesty's vision is far beyond the understanding of a dull person like me."

After Dou Shi figured it out, he no longer felt that there was anything wrong with "aiding the enemy."

However, after seeing Dou Shi being so optimistic, Li Yuanhui was very sober and did not show any sign of worry: "This strategy is actually just taking advantage of the situation and pushing the boat with the current. Do you think that if I don't use this strategy, I can stop the private exchanges and transactions between the two sides? The Zhang family has always had business dealings with Jiangdong, but I can't pursue these matters too much. I can only turn a blind eye. Some things cannot be banned by government orders alone. It is better to use this matter to do something so that we can have a clear idea."

Dou Shi nodded when he heard this: "I understand what the king said. I will definitely not tell anyone else. Please rest assured, the king."

Li Yuanhui said: "You and I are close relatives. If I don't trust you, who else can I trust?"

Dou Shi felt a warm current in his heart after hearing this. After they had finished talking and had drunk just enough wine, Li Yuanhui personally escorted Dou Shi to the gate of the Xingtai Yamen and told him to be careful on his way home.

Afterwards, Li Yuanhui returned to the study in the inner hall with a clear expression, and asked people to summon Li Baishi, Dugu Ying and Li Qinglian, and discussed the layout in Jiangdong with them.

"My cousin is quite talented. He wrote down his experiences in Jiangdong on the way. It is very clear and detailed. You can circulate it. Cao Yan is a man of great talent and strategy. If he succeeds in reforming the system, it will definitely not be a good thing for the unification of the Tang Dynasty. So even if we cannot send troops at the moment, we cannot let Cao Yan do it. We must find something for him to do."

After the intelligence brought back by Dou Shi and the mutual confirmation of intelligence from the Zhang family and Jianghuai, Li Yuanhui had a general understanding of the current situation in Jiangdong. He knew that it was indeed not a good time to send troops now, and there was a high possibility of failure or getting stuck in a dilemma.

But for Jiangdong, simply guiding them to switch from rice to mulberry is not enough.

Jiangdong is also a rich place, and now it can grow rice three times a year. That is, during the Cao Wei period, people were sent to Jiaozhou and Southeast Asia to look for Champa rice. After hundreds of years of evolution, it can now grow three crops a year.

So he actually had no idea whether this strategy would succeed.

After all, the entire Jiangdong territory is not small, and the Taihu Plain is the main grain producing area. For a long time, the Central Plains and Guanzhong needed to replenish the grain from the Taihu Plain.

Therefore, it is unlikely that the strategy of "Lu silk and Qi silk", or replacing rice with mulberry, will be effective.

But as long as it can have an adverse impact on Jiangnan and trigger their internal struggle, it is worthy of it.

Moreover, at present, the grain output in the vast plains of the Central Plains and the Huaihe River area is already considerable, enough for him to implement this strategy which may take a long time.

And this is profitable for Li Yuanhui and the Jianghuai forces.

After a bumper harvest, low grain prices can hurt farmers, so trade can help stabilize grain prices so they don’t become too low after a bumper harvest.

And currently, grain trading is only a part of it, not all transactions involve grain.

As for how to further weaken the national strength of the Eastern Wei, Li Baishi's ideas were relatively positive. They were the same idea as Jia Xu's advice to Cao Cao and Deng Ai's letter to Sima Yi to develop military farming in Lianghuai.

It is to accumulate national strength and rely on accumulation to crush the Eastern Wei's national strength.

After all, Li Baishi was only good at strategic planning and internal affairs. Although Dugu Ying also had some strange ideas, his thinking was generally very similar to Li Baishi's. But compared to Li Baishi, Dugu Ying was more comprehensive because his military strategy was also quite outstanding.

As for Li Qinglian, his suggestion was more specific, which was to send spies to sow discord and divide the people.

Use large sums of money to win over and lure some Eastern Wei ministers to work for me.

After listening to it, Li Yuanhui felt that this method might not be useless, but generally speaking, it was the same approach as replacing rice with mulberry trees.

It is not something that can be achieved in the short term, and even if it can be effective, it will have to wait until later.

However, as far as the current situation is concerned, deploying spies and accumulating strength have never been in conflict, so we might as well do both.

As for when the effect will be seen, Li Yuanhui is not in a hurry. What he lacks the most now is patience. He is the youngest of three brothers.

Compared with Liu Xuanji, Cao Xuan and Cao Yan, he is still the youngest. In fact, Liu Xuanji is already forty years old this year, Cao Xuan is nearly fifty years old, and Cao Yan is thirty years old.

Whether it is an internal competitor or an external enemy, he is the youngest one.

If you can win, fight; if you can’t win, just endure and rely on it.

Four crosstalk performers are swearing at each other, and the one who survives to the end is the veteran artist.

In terms of age, I have the advantage!

On the other hand, the situation in Hedong was finally stabilized by Li San. Liu Xuanji immediately withdrew his troops after Li San led his troops there.

Pingyang and Yubi, these two cities blocked the waterway transportation of Fen River.

Now if Northern Yan wants to attack the Tang Dynasty, it will be very difficult to take the road from Hedong into Guanzhong. At least compared with the current strength of both sides, it will be difficult to gain an advantage in Bingzhou without a military advantage, even if Jinyang has been occupied now.

On the other hand, it is now easier for Northern Yan to use military force against the Central Plains.

So after Liu Xuanji returned to Jinyang, he discussed with several aides and they all decided not to try to attack Hedong for the time being. After all, it would take a large army to take down Pingyang City.

Liu Xuanji had previously led 20,000 men to attack Pingyang, but the Pingyang garrison had only 5,000 men with sufficient weapons. With such a comparison of troop strength, it would be somewhat hasty to want to capture Pingyang in one go.

But the location for building the city proposed by Wang Sizheng is indeed dangerous, so Liu Xuanji must give it a try.

Now it seems that Wang Sizheng's strategy was completely fine, because the Tang army also built a city in that place.

During the latest military meeting held by the powerful official Liu Xuanji in Jinyang, Li Yuanzhong proposed a new attack route.

Now that Xihe County has been taken, we can attack Shuofang and Beidi counties, threaten the north of Guanzhong, and at least tie down a large part of the Tang Dynasty's military forces.

But the difficulty lies in the fact that the distance is very long. It is necessary to pass through Shangjun, where the Qiang and Hu people gather, and then attack and cross the Yellow River to attack Shuofang, which requires a lot of food and grass.

If there are too many people, they may lose their concealment; if there are too few people, they may not be able to effectively suppress the Tang army in this direction.

These generals who are capable of leading troops are having a headache.

At this time, Ling Jing, a new military officer who had just joined Liu Xuanji's mansion, said, "This is just a small army. Why are we arguing about it? The King of Han is now in charge of Hebei. Shouldn't he send a large elite army to Luoyang? Only in this way can the heroes from all directions understand the ambition of the King of Han. For Shangjun, Beidi, and Shuofang, we can send a general to lead thousands of elite troops to cross the Yellow River to the west to contain the Tang army. If we send a large army, the food and grass supply alone will be enough to drag down the current national strength of our Great Yan."

Liu Xuanji was very impressed by Ling Jing's words.

"General Ling is right. I have lost track of priorities. Now that Jinyang has been taken, Hebei will no longer have any worries. It is better to head south to the Central Plains and recover Luoyang!"

In the autumn of the fourth year of Wude, the Yan army marched south.

Li Yuanhui personally led his army to Hanoi to fight against them.

(End of this chapter)