Prime Minister

Chapter 1121 Yanei Generals

Chapter 1121 Yanei Generals

A few days later, news came that Mingsha City had been broken and Weizhou had been lost again.

At the same time, Western Xia sent envoys to negotiate peace, and the Liao ruler sent people to mediate the dispute between Song and Xia.

Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but worry about the court's future strategy for war and defense.

All the generals in Huanzhou did not understand the court's intentions. Even Xu Xi, Lu Dazhong and others were hesitant and it was hard to say what the court would do next.

Zhang Gen said to Han Zhen and Cai Yanqing: "The newly established Huaide Army Pingxia City and Lingping City, one guarding Huluchuan and the other guarding Haoshuichuan, echo with Xi'an Prefecture occupying Tiandu Mountain, cutting off the passage of the Dangxiang to the south. As for Lanzhou, it is even more of a thorn in the side of the Western Xia."

"These three places are also the source of Tangut troops, money and food. As long as we hold on to these three places, Xixia's national strength will surely decline day by day. Therefore, if Tangut cannot take these three places, there will be no talk of peace talks between Song and Xia, and even the mediation of Liao will be useless. We don't need to attack him, he will come to attack me."

After Zhang Gen made these suggestions to Han Zhen and Cai Yanqing, they both smiled and nodded.

"The signing court is really knowledgeable and hits the nail on the head."

Cai Yanqing said so, Han Zhen nodded, and Zhang Gen couldn't help but think to himself happily, although these people praise me because of my father, I also have extraordinary talents and knowledge.

Zhang Gen said, "I have an unwelcome request. The troops in Huanqing Road are mostly weak. After we captured Weizhou this time, we went to rescue Mingsha City, but everyone was afraid of the enemy and did not move forward. Instead, we were ambushed by the western bandits."

"I sincerely believe that we should first organize and train the troops, eliminate the weak and retain the strong, for future use."

After Zhang Gen finished speaking, he saw Han Zhen's brows frowned almost imperceptibly.

Cai Yanqing also stopped talking. Zhang Gen was suffering from a common problem among new officials. He was too proud for a moment.

Is this what you, Zhang Gen, were discussing?

Given Han Zhen's narrow-minded and stubborn character, he would definitely teach the other party a lesson.

but……

Han Zhen said: "Although it is a bit hasty, it is also a successful method."

"Training troops requires money and food. You can discuss this with General Zhao Cao."

Han Zhen said this just to give Zhang Gen face, and Zhang Gen was already impatient to say: "I recommend Zhao Long! This person can do the job."

Han Zhen looked a little embarrassed.

Seeing that Han Zhen remained silent, Zhang Gen realized that he had said something wrong and immediately apologized and stepped aside.

After the meeting, Zhang Gen felt a little depressed.

He could see that Han Zhen was indeed as difficult to get along with as the rumors said, and it was quite difficult to get things done around him.

He didn't understand why Zhang Yue insisted on sending him to train under Han Zhen.

He was riding in the city and saw a tavern with a fragrant smell of cooking sheep's heads.

Zhang Gen immediately dismounted and tied his horse outside the door, then went in alone.

Several waiters in the store were chopping mutton and mutton bones in the hall.

Zhang Gen ignored all this and sat down, ordered a glass of wine and a bowl of mutton, and started eating. After a while, a group of more than ten strong soldiers came in.

When several soldiers saw that Zhang Gen was sitting alone at a table and there were no empty seats in the restaurant, the leading soldier immediately pointed his mouth at Zhang Gen.

The subordinate understood and immediately walked to Zhang Gen's desk, stepped on the bench next to his desk and said, "Brother, please move your legs and make room. All the expenses today will be charged to our account."

But Zhang Gen raised the corner of his mouth and ignored the other party's request.

The soldier was furious but was stopped by the leading soldier. The leading soldier saw that Zhang Gen had an extraordinary demeanor and immediately wiped the boot prints on the bench with a horse whip. He sat down next to Zhang Gen and bowed, saying, "I am Yao Gu, may I know the name of this Gao?"

The other customers in the store were all shocked when they heard this. Who in the entire Northwest didn’t know the reputation of the Yao family generals?

This is comparable to the seed family.

If it were an ordinary person, he would have left and said something rude, but the other person nodded and said, "Yao Gu? Your father is Yao Wuzhi (Yao Si), and your brother is Yao Yifu (Yao Xiong)?"

When Yao Gu heard that the other party was unmoved by the reputation of his father and brother, he became a little angry. Then he looked at the other party's dress, which seemed neither elegant nor martial, and tried to test him again.

"Yes, your accent sounds like someone from Bianjing. Where are you on business?"

"Go to the Privy Council!" Zhang Genyan said.

Yao Gu's face changed when he heard this, and so did the soldiers. Han Zhen, the acting privy councilor, was not someone to be trifled with. As soon as he arrived at Huanqing Road, he punished several generals who had been slow in attacking Weizhou and supporting Mingsha in the name of "ineffective support".

"Excuse me for disturbing you. I will take my leave now!"

"Wait, since we met by chance, it must be fate. Brother Yao, sit down and talk."

Yao Gu is not like his father and brother. He is not famous and does not hold a high official position. Otherwise, he would have met Zhang Gen in court today.

After Yao Gu sat down, Zhang Gen drank with him and asked, "The Yao family has always produced famous generals. If I want to train a group of elite troops in the northwest, what should I do?"

Yao Gu's expression changed. Why did these words sound so harsh to his ears?

"What is your surname?"

Zhang Gen smiled, immediately picked up the chopsticks, dipped them in the wine, and wrote a few words on the table.

Yao Gu immediately changed color and wanted to stand up to pay his respects, but Zhang Gen held his hand and said, "General Yao, just tell me."

When Yao Gu learned of Zhang Gen's identity, he was shocked and his mind was racing.

The Zhong family, the Yao family and the Zhe family are the three major military families in the northwest. The Zhe family originated from the Xianbei, but Zhong Shidao and Zhong Yan of the Zhong family have been appreciated by Zhang Yue and the emperor in recent years and have risen rapidly.

Yao Gu realized that this was a great opportunity and thought to himself, I'm just worried that Yanei doesn't work hard, I'm worried that Yanei doesn't want to make achievements, this is a good opportunity for us to catch up.

Yao Gu said: "I wonder if the signing office is asking about the imperial court's soldiers or private Qubu?"

"Tell me all about it!"

Yao Gu then told him everything. Finally, Yao Gu said, "To train soldiers, the most important thing is to have money and food. I heard that when Prime Minister Zhang was in charge of Xihe Road, the soldiers trained every three days, or even once a day. But the soldiers in Huanqing Road can't even train every five days, let alone ten days."

"Why not practice once every five days?"

If it were someone else, Yao Gu would definitely not dare to say it, but now he said without hesitation: "In recent years, Huanqing Road has been short of money, and the soldiers can't even get enough food, so how can they have the energy to train. Moreover, they have to run around everywhere to make a living. If you want to train the soldiers, it will cut off their livelihood."

Zhang Gen thought, no wonder, no wonder, this time to rescue Mingsha City, many soldiers and horses took less than five days to travel a three-day journey. Even walking is so difficult, how can we talk about fighting?

Zhang Gen heard what Yao Gu said and said, "I understand."

After saying this, Zhang Gen returned to the courtyard.

At this time, a letter arrived from home in Bian Jing.

Zhang Gen took a look and found that it was indeed a letter from Zhang Yue.

Zhang Gen had his own ideas. First, he was not interested in his father's method of "setting up camps and fighting a static battle". Because the Xixia soldiers were good at running back and forth, fighting mobile warfare, and moving back and forth like the wind.

If you just defend the city and lure Xixia to attack, it will undoubtedly be a strategy of waiting for an opportunity.

The most important thing is to train a strong army.

Zhang Gen returned to his room and read Zhang Yue's letter. The news that Zhang Yue's letter had arrived in Huanzhou was immediately reported to Han Zhen by someone with ulterior motives.

In his letters, Zhang Yue discussed with Zhang Gen his experience in commanding troops.

Zhang Yue told him that he liked to do things by himself, and he hated those Confucian officials who copied the military tactics to fight wars. In his eyes, there were so many military books written, but none of them were as good as actually fighting in battle.

Zhang Yue said that since ancient times, in order to compete for the world, the talents of just one county were enough.

The reason is nothing more than "practicing". As long as you can accumulate small victories, you will eventually achieve a big victory.

There is nothing special about an army that has won hundreds of battles or a general that has won hundreds of victories in the world.

Why is it that an army that has won countless battles is often able to persevere and wait for a turnaround when the situation is unfavorable, while an army that has been defeated repeatedly is very motivated at the beginning but surrenders as soon as the situation becomes unfavorable?

Because a victorious army has fought many times, and at what level, it knows where to persevere and succeed. But a defeated army, once faced with an unfavorable situation, will remember its failure experience and collapse completely.

The more you win, the easier it is to win, and the snowball gets bigger and bigger. The more you lose, the easier it is to lose, and you tend to give up halfway out of habit.

The same is true when doing things. Many people always give up for inexplicable reasons, even though they are only one step away from success.

The winner sometimes thinks that he wins too easily, but in fact it is often the other party who fails too quickly. This is because those people have not practiced enough and have too little experience of success.

So there is no need to deify the winners.

Before they succeeded, they were all ordinary people, and the same was true for their soldiers. They had all the problems that an army would have, but after they succeeded, they reached a higher level.

The defeated generals are not completely useless. In fact, before they are defeated, they may not be inferior to the victors.

Zhang Gen read Zhang Yue's letter, thought about it all night, and immediately wrote back to Zhang Yue.

The next day, Han Zhen summoned Zhang Gen to the headquarters and told him gently, "Since I am also the governor of Huanqing Road, I should supervise the training of the troops in this road, so I entrust it to the signing office."

Zhang Gen was overjoyed when he heard this, but Han Zhen was actually not happy.

Zhang Gen was a member of his shogunate and should have been handling shogunate affairs and organizing the war and defense with Western Xia. Why did he go down to train troops instead?

You have to know that his term as the Privy Councilor is only one year. Once Han Zhen is transferred away and the troops are trained, who will get the credit?

Also, you want to train your own troops. Have you already thought about leaving me in the future?

Zhang Gen said, "Your Excellency, most of the soldiers in Huanqing Road are not good at fighting. I have trained a group of soldiers. In the future, I will follow this example and extend it to other soldiers in the road. Wouldn't that be better?"

Han Zhen was unhappy when he heard this and said, "Alright, I will not force you to do military affairs in the courtyard. If you need any generals when you go to the local area for training, I will assign them to you. I will first allocate you 2,000 soldiers to be stationed in Bingzhou."

Han Zhen asked Zhang Gen not to stay in Huanzhou or Qingzhou, which were important places on Huanqing Road. This was meant to send him away and alienate him, and also to prevent him from reporting the affairs of the Privy Council to Zhang Yue.

Zhang Gen looked at Han Zhen's expression and understood a little.

But he didn't care. Although he was in a high position in the shogunate, he was out of touch with reality. He also had to obey Han Zhen's orders in everything.

Han Zhen was a stubborn and self-righteous person, and he thought he didn't have much room to display his abilities.

On the contrary, once you get to a place and have soldiers and financial resources, you can issue orders as soon as you have power in your hands.

Although two thousand soldiers are not many, once they are trained well, they will impress you one day.

Zhang Gen immediately asked Han Zhen for Zhao Long and Yao Gu, and asked Zhao Long to take the original team and Yao Gu to go to Bingzhou with his trusted Qu Bu.

Han Zhen thought Zhang Gen was just a child playing house and didn't take it too seriously.

As for whether Zhang Gen could really train an elite army that was invincible in the future, no one in the entire Huanqing Road took it seriously.

(End of this chapter)