Chapter 375 Gongsun Zan Conquers the Western Regions
Seeing that Lian Tianze had set the tone, Zhang Zhao stopped struggling.
Compared with Chen Gong, he is a more pure domestic policy faction and has little interest in expansion.
In his opinion, the territory under their rule is already large enough, so there is no need to rush to expand it.
Anyway, Tian Ze is still in his prime and there will be plenty of time in the future. There are so many domestic affairs to deal with now, so there is no need to rush into a foreign war.
"We are going to fight this year, what about Xuan Gao?" Cheng Yu asked.
Tian Ze took stock of the situation and sighed, "If we fight Gaotang again, I'm afraid we will still be in a passive position."
"After all, it is we who want to unify the world. If we take Liang Province a step later, the princes of the Central Plains will have more time and opportunities."
"Let Xuan Gao make his own decision in the Taishan Mountains. The battle of Xiliang should be brought forward a little bit, and it should start before the autumn harvest."
Hearing Tian Ze's words, Jia Xu and Cheng Yu smiled slightly.
It’s long overdue!
They have always felt that Tian Ze was a little too kind to the princes of the Central Plains.
The original plan to start the war after the autumn harvest was partly to prevent the autumn harvest of the princes in the Central Plains from being affected and causing a food shortage.
The soldiers under their command were all fully unemployed, so there was no need to worry about the autumn harvest being affected.
However, the soldiers under the command of Yuan Shao and other princes have almost recruited all the young and strong men under their command. Once the war breaks out, most of the autumn harvest will be lost.
Tian Ze's broad-mindedness and long-term vision are good things in their eyes, but they are also obstacles to some extent.
He only thought about the overall situation of the world and ignored the possibility of a turnaround by the princes in the Central Plains. Although he was confident, he was also arrogant.
Who knows what will happen until the last minute?
Even if we are almost certain to conquer the world, we still cannot relax a bit as this has not become an accompli.
Their attitude has always been to focus on attacking the princes in the Central Plains while taking into account the people's livelihood, which is the opposite of Chen Gong.
There is no right or wrong between the two parties, it is just a matter of weighing and choosing.
Tian Ze could naturally see what the ministers were thinking.
After he became emperor, the mentality of his ministers inevitably changed.
The factional struggle, which had already shown some signs of existence, has now become even more obvious.
But Tian Ze knew that this was inevitable.
Wherever there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and there is struggle.
Internal struggle is not entirely a bad thing. It is a good thing as long as it is well controlled.
In his position, he no longer looks at problems in black and white, right or wrong terms, but considers more the gains and losses.
There is no right or wrong in many issues, it’s just a matter of different choices.
At this moment, he deeply felt the infinite mystery of the true doctrine of the mean.
"Gongtai."
"Chen is here!"
"Take advantage of the fact that the war has not yet started to speed up the progress of the projects in various places and squeeze out as much time as possible to repair the water conservancy facilities in various places, so as not to affect this year's autumn harvest."
"promise!"
"Zi Bu. Officials in all places must be assessed as soon as possible and readjusted. At the same time, a set of official systems must be prepared to ensure that they can take over immediately after Xiliang is conquered."
"promise!"
"Zini, prepare Xiliang's farming and animal husbandry plan, and prepare the corresponding supplies."
"promise!"
……
As Tian Ze issued orders one after another, each unit quickly began to take action.
Now that the country has been established and its power is growing, Tian Ze is no longer as casual about preparing for war as before. Before the war begins, everything must be prepared to ensure that it can be taken over and operated as quickly as possible to avoid affecting the progress.
At the same time, the Ministry of War must also prepare various corresponding plans, even including plans for defeat.
Always think about defeat before thinking about victory. Every time Tian Ze went to war, he would keep enough troops and make sufficient preparations before going into battle. He never fought a battle without confidence.
Make sure to keep the initiative of the war firmly in your hands and keep the occupation and control within your own plan.
After arranging everything, Tian Ze turned his gaze to Jia Xu.
"Wenhe, how is the situation with Gongsun Bogui?"
Tian Ze knew that Gongsun Zan marched to the Western Regions on Fa Zheng's advice.
Tian Ze was naturally happy to see this. After all, this was helping him expand his territory and was doing Lu Bu's work in advance.
Compared with other princes in the world, Gongsun Zan's awareness is much higher.
Of course, this is also due to Gongsun Zan’s own personality and ideas, as well as his close relationship with Tian Ze.
At this time, Gongsun Zan was not yet the White Horse General who dominated the world.
Although he had made a great reputation in Xiliang, Gongsun Zan only had the upper hand but had no ability to win against Li Jue and Guo Si who were defending Chang'an, so the two sides could only keep to themselves.
Li Jue and Guo Si were easily defeated by Tian Ze.
Although there were many planning factors involved, Gongsun Zan was also aware of the gap between himself and Tian Ze.
Having never become overly inflated, Gongsun Zan at this time did not have the same ambitions as before.
Even Gongsun Zan, who dominated the north in history, never showed any desire for that position.
For Gongsun Zan, unifying the world and becoming emperor were not that attractive.
The reason why he killed Liu Yu and dealt with Yuan Shao was more because these two people affected the speed at which he slaughtered foreign races.
This is a thorough nationalist, much more radical than Tian Ze.
But at the same time, Gongsun Zan highly approved of Tian Ze's actions of sweeping away the Xianbei, annexing the Wuhuan, and destroying Goguryeo and other countries.
Therefore, Gongsun Zan had no objection to losing to Tian Ze and joining his army.
Even though he guessed Fa Zheng's intention, Gongsun Zan still chose to focus his attack on the Western Regions.
"The progress is quite smooth. We have now reached the vicinity of Dayuan." Jia Xu said with a slight sigh.
I have to admit that Gongsun Zan is really good at fighting against foreign races.
In particular, the White Horse Volunteers under his command shocked many small countries as soon as they appeared in the Western Regions.
They had never seen such a powerful cavalry.
Moreover, the Baima Yicong's ability to come and go like the wind made it impossible for these small countries to fight back.
Gongsun Zan didn't even use his full strength. He just led a thousand white horse volunteers and easily slaughtered a small country that disobeyed him.
Even before the war, he invited generals from many small countries to visit.
He watched helplessly as a thousand White Horse Volunteers easily launched guerrilla raids, infiltrated and divided the enemy, and in less than two hours, they wiped out an army of several thousand in size.
Moreover, there was almost no damage after the war, and the combat effectiveness remained the same, as if it was just warming up.
All the generals of the small countries were stunned and dared not say a word of objection.
Due to Fa Zheng's influence and advice, Gongsun Zan began to restrain his temper a little. He did not kill them all, but focused on subduing them.
Relying on absolute strength and the remaining power of the Han Dynasty, the countries in the Western Regions basically surrendered and were directly pushed all the way to Dayuan by Gongsun Zan.
(End of this chapter)
