In the afternoon, the dukes came to the Hall of Convention. Before the emperor came, more than a dozen people quickly gathered in small circles during the chat. There were only fifteen people, six generals, three guards, and three guards, and nine civil servants, two Privy Councils, three political affairs halls, and four cabinets.

As soon as Zan Jurun came in, Zuo You asked, "Doctor Zan is done with important matters?"

A trace of disappointment flashed across Zan Jurun's face, and he hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "It's done."

As soon as they spoke, the two of them started talking. People should be group creatures, and they could feel much more comfortable in a group; especially on such occasions, everyone was talking, and if someone was isolated, they might feel very uncomfortable.

Han Tong and Shi Yanchao are the kind of isolated people. Han Tong was waiting for a pair of big eyes, as if someone owed him money, and no one talked to him for a while because no one wanted to put a hot face on his cold butt, and for no reason he came up and felt disappointed. Of course, he would talk to someone who was close to him and would like to talk to him.

Shi Yanchao held his head up and sneered from time to time, looking at people with contempt. The style of "the number one general in the Great Zhou Dynasty" was sufficient.

Han Tong and Shi Yanchao didn't speak, and they seemed to look down on each other.

Yang Biao's legs are almost healed. Recently, he returned to the front office of the palace and was not as good as a crutch, and his injuries seemed to have recovered well.

At this moment, a eunuch came in first and said, "The emperor is here!"

Everyone immediately dispersed, divided into civil and military positions, and ranked according to their positions. When Guo Shao walked in, everyone knelt on the ground and shouted that they had a long life.

Guo Shao had almost no show on this occasion. He wore an old purple round necklace and a black veil head. He didn't know that he was just a civil servant. He sat in the upper rank and greeted the ministers, so he said, "Give him a seat."

Guo Shao looked at Lu Duosun, "Lu Fuzheng is a person who went to the northwest personally. I want to hear your opinions first."

Lu Duoxun hurriedly stood up and bowed to the superiors, and then held courtesy to the left and right ministers. His voice was a little nervous and he said cautiously: "The northwest strategy is particularly important in Hexi. The land here is fertile, rich in cattle, sheep, horses, and sufficient food and fodder. It is a place to be guarded for a long time. In addition, the Han family has been in charge of this place for hundreds of years, making it easier to surrender. As long as our dynasty can occupy Hexi, we can guard against the tribes of Xizhou and other tribes to the west, which is a long-term plan. To the east, we can attack the tribes of Longyou, so that they are enemies from both sides and dare not advance east easily..."

Guo Shao asked: "How to occupy Hexi?"

Lu Duoxun pondered for a moment and said, "I thought I could only slow down my mind, and I could establish prestige among the tribes, such as alliances, trade, and tribute, first..."

Before he finished speaking, Shi Yanchao said coldly: "You are such a tuberculosis! When you come back, you are bribed and robbed, and you are killed all your life. You almost lost your life. You don't invite soldiers to revenge, but you are so troublesome."

Lu Duosun's words were hit in his stomach, his face turned pale and he looked at Shi Yanchao and couldn't speak.

Wang Pu, Wei Renpu and others looked at each other.

Wang Pushi couldn't stand it and asked, "Then General Shi thought, how should he use troops to retaliate?"

Shi Yanchao thought for a moment and said, "Just take tens of thousands of elite cavalry from Longyou to kill all the Tubo and Dangxiang in Longyou; then kill to Ganzhou in Xiliang, expel the barbarians, take back the entire Hexi, and meet with the Guiyi army in Guasha."

After hearing this, everyone didn't say a word, Han Tong stopped glaring and rolled his eyes there.

Wang Pu said coldly: "General Shi said it was so light. More than 2,000 miles from Tokyo to Hexiguazhou, how much does it cost to fight tens of thousands of cavalry in the west? Do you know how much it costs to fight the Northern Expedition this year, and how much does Cao Bin need to build the Jiangnan Camp? I won't talk about these, can you conquer Hexi with tens of thousands of cavalry?

Before crossing the Yellow River, attacking Dangxiang people; Dangxiang in Xiazhou could no longer sit still. General Shi had to come up with a strategy to attack Xiazhou."

Shi Yanchao frowned and said, "The Dangxiang tribe in the south is the same as the Dangxiang in Xiazhou, and the Dangxiang in Xiazhou, exhaled his anger?"

Wang Pu said: "General Shi, the file brought back by the envoy Lu, must have not read it. The Dangxiang tribe in the west went to Lingzhou (Yinchuan Plain) to the north and Shanzhou (Xining Plain) to the south. The Li family in Xiazhou was the same species and language as these tribes. Not only did they have frequent exchanges, but they also had marriages. Shanzhou is of good iron quality, and most of the armor and weapons of Dangxiang in Xiazhou were obtained from the south. When fighting Dangxiang, what would happen to the Li family in Xiazhou?"

Shi Yanchao didn't say anything.

Guo Shao discovered that Shi Yanchao looked down on civil servants and rarely contradicted Wang Pu; and Wang Pu had no good tone when he spoke to him.

At this moment, Wei Renpu said: "If you want to fight the West, it will take time and cost a lot. The court must first deal with the Youyun Liao army, and cannot easily fall into the quagmire in the west. I attached the proposal of Minister Lu, and should focus on appeasement."

Wei Renpu is also a pro-war faction. He often advocates winning by force, and even he says so. This makes Guo Shao even more convinced that the mess in the western region cannot be easily solved.

Guo Shao recognized that Xiazhou Dangxiang was the Xixia Kingdom that would be difficult to deal with in the future and regarded it as a thorn in his side. But at this time, he could not move it casually... It was already very difficult to deal with the Liao Kingdom. If he was trapped in another difficult war quagmire, wouldn't that betrayal?

Lu Duoxun glanced at Shi Yanchao and said with his fist: "There are pastures and large areas of cultivated land in the five prefectures such as Xiazhou. There are also salt, iron, copper, and food and fodder in the north. Moreover, the entire Dangxiang people are soldiers, and the troops are strong. If the war is to start, it is probably not light."

At this time, Wei Renpu said: "These two officials have some ideas..."

Guo Shao said: "It's okay to say Deputy Envoy Wei."

Wei Renpu stood up and looked back and said, "According to the wishes of Your Majesty and the court's officials, the court is currently committed to stabilizing the west and expanding the war horses from the northwest. There is no plan to attack the northwest. Therefore, the war cannot be opened lightly.

I looked at Dangxiang, Xiazhou, even when the Central Plains was in war, and I had been paying respect to the Central Plains for decades. It can be seen that the Li family in Xiazhou still had awe of the great powers of the Central Plains. Last year, the Great Zhou attacked the Eastern Han Dynasty (Northern Han Dynasty), and the Li family sent troops to the Yellow River to support the Great Zhou army. No matter what their intentions were, they were interested in making friends.

Therefore, if the court did not force Li, Xiazhou would not easily take the risk of becoming enemies with our dynasty.

The Tubo tribes and the Hexi Uighurs were in a mess at this time and were both in power. They did not threaten the strength of Guanzhong yet, and they were far apart. The court should first join forces with each other to make alliances."

Wei Renpu bowed to the superiors: "Your Majesty can choose a minister and lead a team of people to tour the west.

One of the itineraries was to summon the people of Dangxiang in Hexi to discuss the robbery of the Great Zhou vassal states and the Dangxiang tribes to ease relations. You can also invite the Li family of Xiazhou to participate in the peace talks... In recent years, the border conflicts have been constantly, and if you ignore them, there will inevitably be hidden dangers of intensification and chaos.

The second trip was to summon all the troops in the northwest to join forces, open trade and trade for horses."

Everyone was not very happy after hearing this, but no one opposed it.

Back then, the Han Dynasty and the Huns and the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo were in order to ease relations, either because the enemy was too strong and could not be destroyed or could not cope with it. Compromise, at least temporary compromise, is a necessary strategy, otherwise the war will begin in all directions and the national strength of the Central Plains has not yet been stronger.

Guo Shao felt uncomfortable, but when he thought that his current primary goal was Youyun, he remained silent.

The feeling of cage became stronger, and Guo Shao finally couldn't help but say, "I want to go there in person during the Western Tour."

As expected, the ministers dissuaded them one after another. Guo Shao did not say anything decisively, but said: "Deputy Envoy Wei proposed the proposal, contact the ministries for this matter, and arrange the matters by Deputy Envoy Wei..." He turned to look at Lu Duoxun again, "Shilar Lu is the only person here who has been to Hexi, so you are the deputy."

The two received the order.

When the group broke up, Guo Shao summoned Wang Pu and Wei Renpu to Yangde Hall for secret talks.

Guo Shao was concerned about the northwest. In addition to preventing chaos in the barbarian tribes, he was also resentful of the northwest vassal states... Especially the Jie family of Jingnan Army, because he had a personal grudge with Guo Shao.

When Guo Shao ascended the throne, in order to reduce resistance, he did not dare to touch those powerful vassal states, and everything remained true. Now, these vassal states should be gradually begun to be clarified.

...The northwest strategy is basically taking shape. It can be implemented after just checking for omissions and weighing for a while.

Guo Shao stood in front of the big map beside the wall, and the topographic map on the west has been filled; there are several large separatist territories on the south. However, Guo Shao finally looked at Youzhou, Hebei.

Regardless of the north and south strategy, it is all for the purpose of re-exploding the Northern Expedition!

What you do is nothing more than accumulating strength and reducing threats elsewhere to concentrate your fingers.

At this time, the threat from the northwest was not urgent, and the remaining countries in the south had never had the strength to advance north to threaten the Central Plains... Even the Liao Kingdom showed no signs of large-scale south plunder due to internal chaos.

The Great Zhou was in an offensive period.

Although others have not come to beat themselves now, the attack cannot be stopped; if you don’t take the initiative now, you will be passive in the future. Should you hold on to the things in your hands safely and live a life of ease, or move towards a higher place? Opportunities are always hard to come by!

Guo Shao used to be the best at detecting opportunities, but they were all opportunities for small things. This time, he was feeling the opportunities of history in the dark...

Youyun is the most important place. At this time, Liao's internal chaos was at a time of weakness; while the Central Plains had just stabilized slightly from the war, and the territory's strength was expanding and rising. Usually, dynasties were most powerful at this time. When one was rising and the other was getting worse, they would not occupy the key places at this time and take the opportunity to establish their position. When would they?

Guo Shao thought to himself: My judgment should be correct.

He turned his head and looked out the window of Yangde Hall. The towering palace of the imperial city, the double-eaved palace, and the wide brick and stone avenue were quietly in sight, solemn and grand. In the static landscape, time seemed to be stagnant.

The people here cannot notice it, as if time is passing by for granted; but Guo Shao knew that everything was gradually moving away and was moving in an unknown direction.

Where is it heading? Guo Shao didn't know, he just felt that everything was still in a place that was off the track.
Chapter completed!