"But if we can seize this opportunity," Yue Fei said, narrowing his eyes. "We can control a gateway to Xingqing Prefecture. When Yelu Dashi arrives in Hexi, we can leave here and join the Khitans to the north along the river. Then Xingqing Prefecture will be gone..."
"That's right." Qu Duan nodded frankly. "But what if we can't take it right away? Yue Jiedu, I'm not saying we can't go and take it. It's not just that. To be honest with you, I've had this thought for a few days, but I'm afraid I can't take it quickly, and instead I'll be doing nothing for the Khitans... If I were Yelu Dashi, and I came to this Hexi area, and saw that Jiedu was working hard on the other side of the Yellow River, what if I took the opportunity to attack Xingqing Prefecture along the Hexi? We can't let the Khitans take advantage of this battle. So, it's better to take Zhuoluo City and occupy a piece of Hexi."
Yue Fei shook his head slowly: "General Qu, let me ask you, if we arrive at Zhuoluo City in ten days, and the flag on the top of the city wall is the Khitan flag, what should we do?"
Qu Duan was finally stunned.
Besides, in the entire military meeting, there were actually only two people who had real power to discuss matters...one was Yue Fei, and the other was Qu Duan.
Yue Fei's authority comes from his official position and status, from the central government and the government; Qu Duan's authority comes from his twenty years of experience in the Western Army and his status as commander-in-chief... All the others, including Wang De, Liu Qi, and Li Shifu, are no match for these two.
So, once Yue Fei had questioned Qu Duan, things finally became simple.
"Is Yelu Dashi so powerful?" Qu Duan was stunned for a long time before asking. "He reached Lanzhou in ten days? In less than thirty days, he penetrated two thousand miles?"
"I don't know." Yue Fei answered frankly. "But as Qu Dutong said before, whatever we say now makes sense... fast, slow, good, bad, we must keep it in mind... The government entrusted the situation here to us, allowing us to make decisions on the spot, so we must always keep it in mind."
Yue Fei finally stood up and said, "To be honest, I have made up my mind to send troops immediately. But I have three theories for this battle, which you should keep in mind... First, cavalry and infantry cannot be separated, the whole army must be united, and obey orders and not be afraid of sacrifice. Only in this way can we avoid revealing military flaws when facing the Tanguts and even the Khitans, so as to prevent being taken advantage of and losing the overall situation, and also to seize the military opportunity and strike with one blow; second, we should go to Huizhou and send out scouts continuously. If Yelu Dashi's advance is frustrated, we should attack from Zhuolu City and even Liangzhou to ensure that the Hexi passage is opened and live up to the original intention of the government; third, if Yelu Dashi advances very quickly, we must have the courage to seize the initiative without fear of difficulties... Commander Qu, do you have anything else to say?"
Qu Duan and the other generals were silent for a long time, but in the end Qu Duan nodded heavily: "Just follow what Yue Jiedu said!"
This time Yue Fei just nodded but said nothing more.
Now that this was agreed upon, the Song army had no more doubts. At noon that day, at Deshengzhai in the north of Haoshuichuan, Li Shifu, deputy commander of the Imperial Cavalry, led 3,000 foreign cavalry to go ahead, and they were almost completely deployed to serve as guides and scouts. In the afternoon, Qu Duan and Liu Qi led the remaining Imperial Cavalry to the north. Yue Fei personally raised the imperial flag of "Serving the Country with Loyalty and Devotion", and supervised the central army to advance to the northwest under the cover of cavalry. There were about 18,000 soldiers and 6,000 civilians here. At the same time, Wang De, deputy commander of the Imperial Central Army, also set off with 6,000 infantry, but they set out from Jingbianzhai in the south, deliberately deviating from the central army by nearly 40 miles to provide backup.
However, the army had been marching westward for three days and had not yet gotten out of the Quwushan Pass. Suddenly one day, the foreign cavalry of Li Shifu captured a man, who claimed to be a subordinate of Hu Hongxiu, the Minister of War of the Song Dynasty, and had important military intelligence to pass on.
The army did not dare to be negligent, and sent the man to Li Shifu in the evening of the same day. When Li Shifu saw this man, he was shocked and did not dare to be negligent, but personally escorted the man to the nearest Qu Duan's tent that night.
When Qu Duan saw this man, he was still shocked. He brought several personal guards overnight and personally brought this man to the central army headquarters to meet the commander-in-chief Yue Fei.
Even Yue Fei was equally serious when he saw this man. He bowed and saluted in the tent, addressing him as the Minister:
"Minister Hu! Why is Minister Hu here?"
"I guessed that the imperial army would definitely come here, so I climbed over the mountains to come here." Hu Hongxiu, who was covered in dust, had his hair shaved, and even smeared with smelly sheep oil on his head, did not hesitate to speak directly to Yue Fei when he saw him. "Jiedu Yue, don't go to Zhuoluo City, and don't go to Xishou Baotai Military Headquarters in the north..."
"What do you mean?" Yue Fei asked solemnly.
"Yelu Dashi is really good. When I returned to the east, he sent his general Yelu Yanshan back to Khatun City as quickly as possible, using Khatun City as collateral and promising a lot of treasures. He contacted the Mongols in the south of the desert and sent them from Yinshan Mountain to act as a decoy. Li Ganshun didn't worry about the Mongols at first, but as a result, Yelu Dashi's army set off and headed east from Shazhou as if they were in an uninhabited area. Yelu Yanshan also raised his flag in the north, and Li Ganshun finally lost his composure..."
"Minister Hu means that he is afraid that Yelu Dashi will advance too quickly and it will be too late for us to go to Zhuolu City now?" Qu Duan asked hurriedly.
"It's not just that." Hu Hongxiu quickly told the most crucial military information. "After the Khitans spread the news, I hid in the gorge, which is the only way for the Xixia people to send troops to Hexi. Then I saw with my own eyes that about 20,000 Xixia troops crossed the gorge and hurried west. I followed them all the way, but found that five days ago, this army was divided into two, several thousand people went to Xishou Baotai Military Headquarters, and the remaining more than 10,000 people hurried west to support Liangzhou."
Qu Duan slammed the table in anger: "Li Ganshun's behavior has completely blocked us! If the Xishou Baotai Army has added a few thousand more defenders, how can we take it?"
"If that's the case." Yue Fei narrowed his eyes slightly when he heard this. "Why did Minister Hu say that Li Ganshun had lost his composure? Isn't this the right way to deal with it?"
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