Chapter 71 Accident
They have only been married for a few days and are still in their honeymoon period.

Li Yuanhui was about to return to the Xiaoguo Army to prepare for the western tour.

On the other hand, Li Yuan was also preparing to go to Bingzhou to take up his post, and everything seemed to be going as planned.

But accidents always happen.

On the 27th day of the first lunar month, just before Li Yuan was about to enter the palace to bid farewell to the emperor, his two sons, Dalang and Silang, were called to his side and given instructions.

The saint suddenly summoned Li Yuan into the palace.

In addition to Li Yuan, there were many trusted ministers and important officials of the royal family.

Prince of Wei Murong Ding, Prince of Wei Murong Xianzong, Prince of Qi Murong Ju, Shangshu Ling Gao Shize, Zuo Pushe Pei Hongde, etc.

Li Yuan returned home two hours after entering the palace. It was already late, and Li Silang even sent someone to the princess's mansion to inform her that he would not be returning tonight.

Seeing that Aye didn't look well, Dalang Li Xiaoyan held the tea with both hands and asked, "Aye, what happened?"

Li Yuan took the tea bowl from his son's hand, took a sip and said, "Bingzhou's Guangling Prince Murong Xu intends to rebel."

"what?"

"what?"

The brothers were extremely surprised when they heard this. Li Yuan, the military governor of Bingzhou, hadn't even taken office yet, and already the current Bingzhou governor, Prince of Guangling Murong Xu, was about to rebel?
"The saint ordered me to go to Yizhou and take over the military command of Yizhou."

Li Yuanhui felt bad after hearing the news. The difficulty of advancing to Guanzhong from Shuzhong was several times higher than that of attacking Guanzhong from Bingzhou.

That was the road out of Sichuan that even Zhuge Wuhou had not completed.

Li Yuan continued, "The situation in Bingzhou is urgent now. The court has just received news that many officials in Bingzhou have reported that Prince Guangling is recruiting soldiers and hoarding food. In the past, he has always been very submissive in front of the saint. If he had no support, he would not dare to do such a thing. Moreover, he has only been operating in Bingzhou for a few years and has only tens of thousands of people under his command. I originally wanted to go with the army, but Your Majesty is too wary of the royal family. Shu County Governor Murong Changmin is from the same branch as Prince Guangling. The saint asked me to stabilize the situation in Shu and not let Shu be in chaos."

Yizhou is a land of abundance. Although it suffers from poor transportation, it is rich in land and has the benefits of salt and iron. Therefore, it is one of the few regions that has not fallen into chaos.

The reason why Murong Ying appointed Li Yuan as the governor of Yizhou was mainly because he was steady and careful in his work. In addition to leading troops, he had also served as a prefect and had rich experience in military administration and government management.

However, this also made many of the Li family's plans come to nothing.

"The Saint intends to personally lead the army to eliminate the rebellion, and he will still set out in the name of a western tour, but his goal is to go north. Silang will still follow the Xiaoguo Army to the north.

Murong Xu will not sit and wait for death. Bingzhou is surrounded by mountains and rivers. Sending troops from Guanzhong, the terrain is unfavorable to the court. Although the sage's strategy is not stated explicitly, I guess it should be that the army pretends to go west and sends out surprise troops to attack Taiyuan, attacking them by surprise and attacking them when they are unprepared. The camp supervised by Silang is full of cavalry, and it must be used as a surprise force. You have been on the battlefield, so you must be more careful in your actions and remember not to be greedy for merit and rush forward. "

"Da Lang still needs to stay in Chang'an this time. You must be careful in your actions and just take care of the household chores. Don't make a fuss."

"Erlang and Sanlang will still follow me to Yizhou"

After Li Yuan's plan was disrupted, he gave his instructions and let his sons leave.

After leaving the main hall where Li Yuan lived, Li Er did not return to his own small courtyard on the east side, but followed Li Yuanhui directly to the west courtyard.

Li Si naturally knew that his second brother had something to say, so he asked Tan'er to warm up a pot of tea as soon as he entered the house. However, as soon as Tan'er left the house, his third brother Li Xuanqing came again.

"I say, second brother and third brother, are we three planning something to hide from eldest brother?"

Li Si looked at his two brothers and made a joke.

Li Er said seriously, "Of course I have something serious to say. It's not convenient for Aye and Big Brother to know about this."

Li Si rolled his eyes. This hasn’t even reached the Xuanwu Gate plot yet. Is it necessary?
Who knew that Li San also nodded in agreement, and then gave a reason: "Big brother has a righteous character, and it is not appropriate for him to know what we are planning here."

Li Si nodded when he heard this: "Second brother, please tell me what you want to say."

"Silang, you should know what the world is like now. There will be great changes in the world! There are only three of us brothers here today. I will tell you the truth. You can all see that Aye has made many friends over the years, from aristocratic families to fugitives. Many of them were arranged by me. Aye saw that there would be great changes in the world early on, but he is cautious by nature, so some things have to be done by us brothers." "If there is trouble in the world, Shuzhong can protect itself. If you want to advance to Guanzhong, it is extremely difficult to leave Shu due to the influence of the terrain. You can see it from the old stories of Shu Han. Even Zhuge Wuhou was trapped in the mountains of Shu."

"The world is now filled with smoke of war, and there are signs of chaos. In a time of great strife, if you don't move forward, you will fall behind. So some things must be planned early."

"Shiro, I want you to plan a position for me."

Li Yuanhui was startled when he heard this, "Second brother, please speak."

"I want you to find me a military position in Longyou."

As soon as Li Er finished speaking, Li Si only needed a little thought to immediately understand what his second brother meant.

Zhuge Liang led a northern expedition. Why did he lead a northern expedition? From a geographical point of view, the way to advance into Guanzhong should be to advance eastwards. But why did he have to lead a northern expedition?

In fact, there are five routes to choose from when leaving Shu and marching north, but the Ziwu Road is too long and difficult to travel.

The Baoxia Road is easy to travel but it cannot achieve strategic surprise.

Tangluo Road is the shortest but has the worst road conditions. When Cao Shuang was attacking Shu, he was blocked by Wang Ping here and was defeated in the Battle of Xingshi.

The remaining two routes, Chencang and Qishan, were originally one route. The ancient Han River originated from the south of Chencang, and after reaching the Tianchi Lake in Lueyang, it split into the Han River to the east and the Jialing River to the south, and finally flowed into the Yangtze River respectively.

A great earthquake in the Western Han Dynasty collapsed the Tianchi Lake, and the Han River and Jialing River were completely separated.

In the past, one could take a boat from the Han River directly to Baoji and then enter Guanzhong. Without the convenience of water transportation, the Chencang Road became difficult to travel, so the prime minister was blocked by Hao Zhao when he went to Chencang for the second time.

Although the Chencang Ancient Road is abandoned, the section from Hanzhong to Lueyang is still easy to travel. Turning west to Lueyang is the Qishan Road, but it does not go to Chencang, but directly to Tianshui.

The Prime Minister launched the 13th and 14th Northern Expeditions all from Qishan Road or nearby. The biggest advantage was that Hanzhong was closer to Longyou than Guanzhong.

The first half of the Qishan Road can be transported by water, and the second half is also flat. However, from Guanzhong to Longyou, the Wei River is too turbulent for water transportation, so you have to take a detour via the Guanlong Avenue and pass through Longshan from the Jieting Pass to get there.

Seizing Longyou has great strategic significance, as it can attack Guanzhong from both sides together with Bashu. If we take Guanzhong directly, we will be attacked from multiple sides.

So there is nothing wrong with the Prime Minister's plan.

The first Northern Expedition had a very good opportunity. Zhao Yun's decoy troops in Xiegu delayed Cao Zhen's main force. The Prime Minister raided the three counties in Longyou, leaving only Guangwei and Longxi counties still resisting.
If they could hold Jieting temporarily, the Northern Expedition would have succeeded. But Jieting was lost in an instant, and the prime minister was attacked from all sides and had to withdraw his troops.

Strictly speaking, the second and third northern expeditions should be counted as one. This time, after the capture of Wudu Yinping, the troops were dispatched to Longyou more quickly. Later, Jiang Wei also often dispatched troops from here.

The fourth time the prime minister went to Qishan, the scale was no less than the first time. He defeated Guo Huai and Sima Yi in Shanggui, Longyou, and the situation was very good. However, Li Yan caused trouble behind the scenes, and finally he had to withdraw because of the problem of food and grass.

The only last time was because the prime minister felt that he had not much time left, so he attacked Guanzhong directly.

Li Er asked Li Si to find a military post for him in Longyou in order to put a nail in the road of leaving Shu. If Li Yuan ever had the opportunity to advance to Guanzhong, he could raise an army in Longyou to respond.

"Second brother, Longyou has to face the invasion of Tuyuhun, and it is not peaceful."

"Hahaha, Shiro, it is precisely when there is unrest that I can show my abilities."

Li Si also laughed when he heard this. Worrying about his second brother was a bit unnecessary. Shouldn't he be worried about his opponent?

"Shiro, what do you think?"

After laughing, Li Er asked solemnly.

Li Si nodded and said, "I will go to see King Wu tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)