————————————

Before Wang Yue finished speaking, he saw Zhuge Liang's expression and said in surprise: "Tong Pang leads the army?"

"Well.↖" Wang Yue nodded when he heard the sound: "According to a detailed investigation, the nominal commander of the Jingzhou Army was Huang Zu, but in fact, Pang Tong was in charge of the army."

After a pause, he saw that Zhuge Liang seemed to be still suspicious and did not believe his words, Wang Yue simply revealed what he knew: "It is said that when Liu Biao decided to send troops to the Northern Expedition that day, he intended to order Pang Tong to take charge of the war, but was firmly opposed by General Cai Mao. Cai Mao immediately recommended Zhang Yun as the chief general of the three armies, and the Kuai brothers recommended Liu Biao's nephew Liu Pan as the chief general. Just when the two sides were quarreling, Pang Tong recommended Huang Zu as the chief general and proposed to invite Jiangdong Army to participate in the war, proposing that the Jiangdong general be appointed as the deputy general of the central army to calm his heart.

This proposal was recognized by Liu Biao, so the battle for the commander of the Jingzhou army was settled. Huang Zu became the head coach, but he knew very well that Liu Biao chose not only him, but the military advisor Pang Tong. In this way, as a confidant general under Liu Biao, Huang Zu naturally knew what he should do, and also knew that the reason why he served as head coach was actually to suppress deputy general Zhang Yun and protect Pang Tong's leadership of the Northern Expedition."

After listening to Wang Yue's words, Zhuge Liang realized that there were so many twists and turns in it. Pang Tong's ability to lead the army this time can be said to be the result of a three-party game. He was in charge of the three armies as a military advisor. No matter how you look at it, it was a bit unreasonable and unjust!

As soon as he thought of this, Zhuge Liang's heart moved, and he immediately grasped the key veins and went smoothly along the main line. He couldn't help but think about it, and then he concentrated on his mind.

Unlike Zhuge Liang's special attention to Pang Tong's army leading the Northern Expedition. After Li Li heard Wang Yue's words, he was concerned about the Jiangdong Army and the Jingzhou Army jointly dispatched troops. The Jiangdong Army actually participated in the Sili War, which surprised Li Li and couldn't help but think like a tide. He secretly speculated about what kind of relationship there was between Jiangdong and Liu Biao in Jingzhou. Should the civil and military officials in Jiangdong really be willing to obey Liu Biao's command?

Perhaps, in the eyes of Li Xuan, Guo Jia, Zhuge Liang and others, Jiangdong was located in a corner, with only four counties, less than one million people, and only a few hundred thousand soldiers, which was not worth mentioning at all, and was not afraid of them. However, Li Li never underestimated the civil and military officials of Jiangdong. He did not ignore the Sun clan of Jiangdong because of the death of Sun Ce brothers one after another, nor did he take it lightly because Jiangdong's subordinates under Liu Biao, nor did he ignore the existence of Jiangdong's forces.

At present, the Sun clan of Jiangdong was in a state of disagreement. Sun Ce's son Sun Shao was young and ignorant, and could not control the ministers of Jiangdong at all. It was precisely because Sun Shao was young and ignorant that the civil and military people in Jiangdong were dissipated and fought for fame and fortune. In addition, the old ministers of Jiangdong Zhang Hong and Zhang Zhao and the army's generals Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and Zu Mao and others had different political views. Civil officials were in harmony, and military generals were in war. Both sides did not give in to each other, and fought openly and secretly. Internal strife was endless. This gave Liu Biao in Jingzhou an opportunity to take advantage of both soft and hard work, while the army was pressing against the border while attracting profits and temptations. In the end, Jiangdong forces were forced to submit to Liu Biao's command and bow down to his subordinates.

However, this situation will undergo fundamental changes as Sun Shao grows up day by day. In addition, the sub-class members of the Sun clan of Jiangdong were not dead. Sun Ce's mother, Wu clan, sisters Sun Shangxiang, Wu Jing and Sun Benhe and other Sun clan relatives are still alive. As long as they support Sun Shao behind their backs, the Sun clan will not be destroyed. Sooner or later, they will escape the clamping of Liu Biao in Jingzhou, reorganize Jiangdong, and occupy Jiangdong.

Li Li clearly realized that the Jiangdong forces would not always act as vassals of Liu Biao in Jingzhou, and the Jiangdong civil and military officials were not willing to act as lackeys, and they were even more unwilling to be called by the ministers in Jingzhou and be driven at will.

But at present, the Jiangdong Army and the Jingzhou Army were mixed together to send troops to attack the Western Jin Dynasty, which greatly encouraged the Jingzhou Army's momentum, and its combat power surged and its strength became increasingly stronger. This was definitely not the situation that Li Li wanted to see. It invisibly increased the difficulty and pressure for the Western Liang Army to resist the Jingzhou Army's northward resistance and increased the pressure. At the same time, the Western Liang Army had to resist the attack of the Cao army of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and faced the attack of the Jingzhou and Jiangdong Alliance forces, fighting on both sides of the north and south. The situation was extremely grim and dangerous.

Faced with the joint advance of the Jiangdong Army and the Jingzhou Army, Li Li was both worried and expectant of the upcoming Second Sili War, and was in a complicated mood. On the one hand, he did not want to see the Jiangdong generals and the Jingzhou Army get together, which prompted the Jingzhou Army to gather and increase its strength, thereby greatly enhancing the combat effectiveness of the Southern Han army; on the other hand, he also did not want to see the Jiangdong Army watching the fire across the bank and stay out of the matter, because this would allow the Jiangdong Army to preserve its strength, and in the future it would grow stronger and stronger, adding many variables to the pacification of Jiangdong in the future.

Although Li Li was very conflicted and had mixed joys and sorrows about the participation of the Jiangdong Army in the war, since the matter had already happened, he had to face it. Whether it was joy or sorrow, since he had come, he would not have to go back. All those who waited for them were to stay in Sili and stay here forever.

As his thoughts turned sharply, Li Li said in a deep voice: "The Jiangdong Army and the Jingzhou Army were mixed together. It is not difficult to see that Liu Biao further strengthened his control over the Jiangdong forces and had already taken the Jiangdong Army for his own use and allowed it to drive them. In this way, Liu Biao in Jingzhou was not inferior to Cao Cao of the Northern Wei Dynasty in terms of military strength, and was still above the Northern Wei Dynasty in terms of food, supplies and the prosperity of prefectures and counties. He truly became a southern giant crocodile that dominates Jingchu. His strength should not be underestimated."

Li Xuan nodded with a deep understanding and said, "As Your Majesty said, Jingzhou Liu Biao was in charge of Jingxiang and wealthy Shuzhou County, and has been dormant and waiting for more than ten years. However, with the power of one state alone, he could not compare with the two major vassal states of the Western Jin and Northern Wei. However, as Jiangdong forces depended on his command, the military, horse, money and food increased by 40%, which prompted the power of the Southern Han Dynasty to surge, and it already had a strength that was no less than that of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Nowadays, the overall strength of the Southern Han and Northern Wei countries is comparable, but they are far less powerful than that of our Jin Dynasty.

However, once the two countries join forces, their strength is almost equal to that of our Western Jin Dynasty, and the two countries, one in the south and one in the north, have formed a double-faced attack on our Jin Dynasty. In this way, the situation facing our Jin Dynasty is not optimistic, and we are currently in a passive and unfavorable situation, forcing us to deal with it carefully and not have any mistakes; otherwise, the favorable situation we currently occupy will be lost again and suffer huge losses again, thus completely losing the dominance of the leader.

The hegemony. If the situation deteriorates to this extent, our Jin State is in a worrying situation, and it is indeed a danger of losing one's front." Li Xuan said this last sentence more implicitly. In fact, if the Western Jin Dynasty loses in this contest, then what is waiting for the Western Jin Dynasty is not the horse's front, but the rivers are falling and falling. Obviously, Li Xuan's words are actually a hidden advice, advising Li Li not to underestimate the enemy and advance rashly, and not to be careless. If you are not careful, the consequences will be unimaginable.

After Li Xuan finished speaking, Jia Xu continued: "As of now, in terms of military combat effectiveness alone, our Xiliang army has far better combat power than the other two countries, followed by the Northern Wei, and the Southern Han ranks at the end. In terms of the number of troops, the Northern Wei currently has more than 500,000 infantry and cavalry, and the Southern Han has 600,000 soldiers (including the Jiangdong Army); compared with that, our army currently has 22 main combat battalions, with a total of more than 700,000 troops and three armies, and there are nearly 500,000 county government soldiers, with a total force of up to one million, which is the top." This set of numbers undoubtedly makes everyone present feel proud and excited, because they are poured into their efforts and are the result of their years of hard work.

Seeing that everyone looked different, Jia Xu immediately paused and drank a tea without any rush. Then he changed his mind and continued: "However, our Jin State has a border line that is thousands of miles long, from Wusun to Dingling to the north, from Fuyu to the south, and from Heishui River (now Vietnam). The border stretches for thousands of miles. All border passes need to be stationed in guarding, especially in the Western Regions, the northern plateau and the Liaodong area, and heavy troops are still needed to be stationed in the face of sudden outbreaks at any time.

To fight and resist barbarian invasions. Because of this, although our Jin State has a million soldiers, more than half of the troops are stationed at border passes. The actual force used to fight against the Central Plains is only 300,000 troops, that is, 400,000 troops. Fortunately, most of the border guards stationed at the border are county government soldiers. Now, in addition to the main battle camps stationed in various prefectures and counties, the available soldiers are the soldiers under the tents of the generals present, totaling 320,000 troops.

Compared with our Western Jin Dynasty, the two forces of Southern Han and Northern Wei Cao Cao were not at risk of the border. The border was all within our Western Jin Dynasty, and their border was a place where our army was confrontation and stalemate. In this way, the two countries could send troops to attack our Jin State without any scruples. When necessary, they could carry out decisive battles with our army. However, if we had no choice, our Western Jin Dynasty could not mobilize border troops to participate in the war, and could only fight with them with their existing forces.

This is the real situation facing our country. The border is too long and the troops are scattered, so we originally had the strong military strength to destroy the two countries in one fell swoop, but now we are not strong enough. With the current military strength of our Western Jin Dynasty, it is not a big problem to defeat one of the two vassal states, but at the same time, facing the joint attack between the two countries, we are very stretched and have the will but lack the strength."

As the Minister of War, Jia Xu knew very well about the deployment of troops in the country, and it was not an exaggeration to say that he was aware of it. So he told all the situations and difficulties he was facing so that the generals could understand the specific deployment of the army so as not to blame him for the slow mobilization of his troops, unfavorable rescue or delay the opportunity for war.

At present, the national strength of the Western Jin Dynasty was indeed strong, with the states and counties stable and peaceful, with a lot of treasury, with millions of troops, thousands of soldiers and strong horses. However, these are all appearances, but this is not the case.

Many people only saw that the Western Jin Dynasty had many war cavalry and troops, but ignored that the Western Jin Dynasty's border was extremely narrow and long, occupying all border passes of the Han Dynasty, and expanded its territory many times, constantly extending the border. On any border, it needed to send troops to garrison. Even if there were only dozens of soldiers at a pass, it could not withstand the infinite stretching of thousands of passes. Hundreds of thousands of troops scattered on the border of thousands of miles was like throwing sand into the sea, and it sank to the bottom of the sea without even a splash of water.

————To be continued————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

ps: [Heartly thanks: Book friend "President Flat Head" for his monthly ticket support, thank you!]
Chapter completed!