Chapter 319 The Prince is Useless
During this year, Lu Chenyang made a lot of preparations, using sneak attacks, counter-espionage tactics, and all kinds of tricks. They even had the upper hand.
However, the Tatars occupied the natural barrier of Yanhui Pass, and even if they closed the city and refused to let anyone go out, Lu Chenyang would have no way to stop them.
The reason why Zhar was able to break through Yanhui Pass was because Dingyuan Hou made a stupid move. After the Tatars pretended to retreat, he opened the city to pursue them. As a result, he fell into an ambush and was surrounded by the enemy.
Forget it, I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
My heart aches every time I think of Lu Chenyang.
Zar is not that useless person like Dingyuan Hou. It is impossible for him to make such a mistake.
The long siege had left Lu Chenyang feeling a bit anxious, but he could only try to calm himself down. He was the commander, so he couldn't afford to be anxious.
To be honest, this was the first time since the Lu Family Army was founded that they had been stuck in a stalemate for so long. They had long been accustomed to being invincible. The soldiers in the army were also somewhat discouraged, wondering if they were not strong enough, which was why they had not been able to take the city for so long.
Lord Lu is a wise and brave warrior, a master of military strategy, so it's definitely not their Lord's fault. If it's not the general's fault, then it's the soldiers' fault.
It turned out that the soldiers of the Yanhui Army couldn't help but widen their eyes when they heard this.
"What kind of lewd talk are you talking about? This is Yanhui Pass, Yanhui Pass! I admit that our Yanhui Army was indeed very powerful in the past, but we were able to hold it for so many years without losing it because of the natural barrier of Yanhui Pass. Do you think Yanhui Pass is so easy to break? That Zar was directly crowned king just because he broke through Yanhui Pass. The Tatars have never had a precedent of crowning a king of a different surname. He is the first in Tatar history." The veteran of the Yanhui Army said, "Do you know what this means? It's only been a year, this is very normal. But I believe that Lord Lu will be able to recapture Yanhui Pass."
Another soldier followed suit, saying, "If Lord Lu can't do it, no one else can."
Suddenly someone whispered, "What about the prince of Zhenguo?"
Is that possible?
At this moment, in the general's tent, Ji Ping, Zu Xingwei, Tan Feng and Dong Zhe were all waiting for Lu Chenyang, as he had not returned from visiting the wounded soldiers.
Ji Ping looked at Tan Feng and couldn't help but say, "Why not try that method? Otherwise, this stalemate is not a solution."
In fact, they did have a way to break through Yanhui Pass, but Lu Chenyang felt that this method was too radical and would likely sacrifice the lives of a large number of soldiers, so he refused to agree.
However, Ji Ping believed that if the stalemate continued, more soldiers might be sacrificed, so why not do it in one go?
Under the current circumstances, conventional combat methods are no longer sufficient to capture Yanhui Pass, so other methods are needed.
Tan Feng said calmly: "The adults have their own ideas, don't worry about it."
Ji Ping was speechless for a moment. He almost forgot that this person always listened to the adults. But he felt that loyalty was not wrong, but at least one should have his own ideas, right?
"Your Excellency is too kindhearted, that's why he doesn't want to use that method. As subordinates, we also have the responsibility to advise him." Ji Ping couldn't help but say, "If we delay any further, there will only be more casualties. It's been a year since we started fighting, and we've sacrificed many of our brothers. Your Excellency always says it's not the right time. I know he's waiting for Mr. Qian. But Mr. Qian has been gone for more than a year. Who knows what the situation is now? What if..." What if Qian Yue is already dead? He didn't dare to say this out loud.
A year had passed, and they had fought countless battles, both large and small. The entire army was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Furthermore, they saw no hope, and they had no idea when this war would end.
Tan Feng finally looked at him and said, "Do you think adults can't think of what you're thinking of? Do you think you're smarter than adults?"
Ji Ping couldn't help but choke and was speechless.
Tan Feng snorted and said, "My Lord must have his own plans. Don't say anything more and just obey."
Zu Xingwei nodded in agreement.
Looking at Zu Xingwei with an honest face, Ji Ping suddenly realized that this bandit was quite good at dealing with people. He usually said nothing and did whatever Lord Lu told him to do. No wonder Lord Lu had become more and more trusting of him recently.
He became much more alert and felt that he had done something really stupid just now.
Lu Chenyang walked in from outside, saw them, and said with a smile: "Sorry for the long wait. It's just after the New Year, and the Tartars are coming aggressively. We were so busy fighting that we didn't have time to talk properly."
I've played several games in the past few days.
Zar's idea was simple: he wanted to rely on Yanhui Pass to attack Dagan again. However, Lu Chenyang was guarding the pass tightly, not giving him any chance at all.
The stalemate over the past year or so seemed to be evenly matched, but for Zar, he was already at a disadvantage.
The fact that they had been consuming large amounts of food and fodder without being able to plunder it from the Han people had already displeased the people at home, especially the conservatives who believed that Zar was incompetent.
Zar suddenly jumped from the bottom to become the only king of a different surname in Tatar, and many people disliked him.
So during this period, Zar was very anxious and began to launch frequent attacks.
Tan Feng said, "I heard that there was a heavy snowfall in the Tartars last winter, and many areas were affected. Zhar has been unable to break through the situation and is under great pressure."
War is a costly thing. Zar has been fighting for so long that it has been consuming national strength and has also caused many controversies within Tatar.
Therefore, Lu Chenyang and Qian Yueding’s strategy of cooperating internally and externally was correct.
Lu Chenyang nodded. He had also heard about the snow disaster because Dagan was also affected.
The areas under Lu Chenyang's jurisdiction were all okay, but the people in other places were suffering.
After the beginning of spring, more and more disaster victims flocked to the relatively stable states, which were actually the states under Lu Chenyang's jurisdiction.
Among them, Ningzhou has the largest number of people because it is the closest.
Gao Ming was very busy with this matter and applied to the court for disaster relief grain several times, but not much was approved.
Later, Lu Chenyang personally wrote several letters to several major grain merchants, asking them to help. Then, led by the Shen, Zhao, Chen, and Cui families, other merchants followed suit and collected a batch of grain to be distributed to government offices across the country to accommodate the victims.
But this incident also let the people know that the court did not take action, even if the crown prince was replaced. The reputation of the Li royal family was getting worse and worse. As one thing declined, the other gained, and Lu Chenyang's reputation among the people was now at its peak.
Lu Chenyang did not feel happy because more people were suffering.
In fact, Lu Chenyang felt that the prince was not to blame for this matter. On the contrary, he understood the prince very well.
During this year, the prince never delayed the delivery of food and fodder to the border, and delivered them on time and in full.
Even Dong Zhe said that this was the first time for him since he grew up in the Yanhui Army.
The prince has been working hard to collect these grains and fodders, and no matter how much Emperor Qianyuan's private treasury has, it cannot withstand such spending.
There were so many disaster victims from all over the country, and they all asked His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for food. Therefore, there wasn't much left for Ningzhou. At least in this matter, Lu Chenyang felt that the Crown Prince was incompetent, but he couldn't say he was heartless.
At least Da Gan still has Lu Chenyang to stabilize the situation, but Tatar doesn’t have that, so Tatar’s current situation is very bad.
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