The Western Expedition first and then the Northern Expedition was not only the suggestion of the General Senate Department, but also the strategy set by Li Zhongyi.

However, after Lin Renzhao surrendered to Western Shu, the Yangtze River defense line that strengthened the Han Dynasty was immediately tightened.

Meng Chang is not a fool. After the Wu Yue and Tang Kingdoms in Jiangnan were destroyed one after another, based on the geographical logic of losing their lips and cold teeth, it was the turn of Shu Kingdom and Northern Han.

The Northern Han was leaning against the powerful Khitans, while Meng Shu could only rely on himself. More importantly, Lin Renzhao took over with 60,000 naval troops, making Meng Chang feel like a thorn on his back.

Shu Kingdom also has naval troops, but the number of naval troops is quite small, only a few thousand people.

After Lin Renzhao surrendered to Shu Kingdom, Meng Chang was overjoyed and ordered him to be the commander of the navy. However, the originally weak navy of Shu Kingdom was not handed over to Lin Renzhao.

Lin Renzhao was not stupid because of such obvious fear. He simply submitted a report to Meng Chang and took the initiative to apply to camp in Kuizhou.

Kuizhou is now Fengjie County, Chongqing City. From the Han Dynasty to the early 20th century, Fengjie was the capital of Badong County, Bazhou, Xinzhou, Kuizhou, Kuizhou Prefecture, Jiangguan Duwei, Sanba School Commander, etc., and has always been the political, economic, cultural and military center in northeastern Bashu.

At the beginning, in order to prevent Lin Renzhao from being likely to harassed, Li Zhongyi specially ordered Yuan Laoyao to lead the main force of the navy to station in Xiazhou to prevent Lin Renzhao from moving eastward along the river.

The Yangtze River in this era is quite different from the Yangtze River in later generations. The main thing is that the water flows fast within the Three Gorges, and strange rocks are gathered in the waterway at the center of the river. If you are not careful, you will hit the reef and sank the ship and the people will die.

Simply put, even if Lin Renzhao went straight down the river and did not pay the price of sinking a few ships, it would be difficult for Lin Renzhao to capture Xiazhou.

This is based on the fact that both sides did not start a war. If Lin Renzhao was defeated and fled west, the losses of the warships would definitely not be a small amount.

Therefore, after Yuan Laoyao stuck to the gateway of Xiazhou, he was equivalent to shaking Lin Renzhao's throat.

Originally, the strategy of destruction of Shu was to destruction of the cavalry and infantry in the north, and the navy in the east went out of Fengzhou and went south along the Jialing River, and the navy in the east went out of Guizhou and attacked Kuizhou and Yuzhou.

However, after Lin Renzhao suddenly led 60,000 naval troops to surrender to Shu, the troops leaving the state was obviously a delusion.

Lin Renzhao was not an ordinary person, but a famous navy general. He only needed to use more fire ships upstream to resolve the water attack of the powerful Han Dynasty invisibly.

As a result, the plan to destroy Shu was a long way to go back to the old way of Cao Wei's destruction of Western Shu, that is, the troops were from Hanzhong or Fengzhou.

The road to Shu is difficult than climbing to the blue sky, which refers to the difficulties and obstacles of land.

However, coincidentally, the multiple destruction of Shu in history were completed by land as the main force.

When Qin State seized Shu, Cao Wei destroyed Shu, he took the land route; when the Northern Song Dynasty destroyed Shu, he still relied on land route.

More importantly, most of the confidant senior generals under Li Zhongyi were hunters or mountain people from Shu. For example, Yang Lie, Li Yunxiao, Li Haodong, Li Yanqing and others were all hunters from Shu.

For Shu people who are native to the country, whether they are from Hanzhong or from Fengzhou, there are no blind spots in the terrain that they do not understand.

Everything has both advantages and disadvantages!

The battle against Shu focused on logistics support rather than combat. The senior generals of the Li family army all understood this deeply!

"Report to the emperor, at present, the production of wheelbarrows is 1,000 per month. According to the plan, starting from next month, it will reach 2,000." Ye Tongming, who is a director of the Logistics Department, reported in detail the logistics preparation progress of the attack on Shu.

"Well, after the wheelbarrow was produced, it was secretly transported to Fengxiang Mansion and Jingzhao Mansion..." Li Zhongyi nodded and whispered to Ye Tongming.

"Your Majesty, the 30 6-pound cannons that were shipped two months ago have been secretly transported to Jingzhao Mansion." As an old logistics officer, Ye Tongming knew very well that the city built by the Shu army in the mountains must rely on the support of the 6-pound cannon to speed up the pace of the attack.

Li Zhongyi nodded and smiled, "Fengxiang Mansion has 30 6-pound cannons, and Jingzhao Mansion has 30. This is a country's important weapon, so you can't be careless at all."

Ye Tongming bowed his fists and said, "Your Majesty, my subordinates understand. If it weren't for the Shu Road too difficult to move, the 12-pound cannon could also be operated with the army."

Li Zhongyi shook his head and sighed: "The Shu Road is too difficult and dangerous, and the 12-pound cannon is too heavy. If you march with you together, it will not only fail to play a role, but will become a burden."

"Oh, yes..." Ye Tongming was also a hunter of Shu Kingdom before, so he naturally knew that crossing the Qinling Mountains with 12-pound cannons was simply a delusion.

After the summons, Li Zhongyi took a sip of tea and picked up a secret report on the table. The reporter was Li Yanqing, the Minister of Police and Temple. The content of the report was the whereabouts of the Marquis of Yiyin yesterday.

The Marquis of Yiyin, Liu Xiang, was originally the closest general of Zhou Taizu Guo Wei. Because he was very close to the Privy Councilor Wang Jun, he was deprived of his real power before Guo Wei died and since then he sat on the bench.

Li Zhongyi felt a little strange. In terms of interests, Yiyin Hou, who was abandoned by Guo Wei, had no reason to participate in the rebellion.

However, things are unpredictable. Liu Xiang, the Marquis of Yiyin, played the game without reason. After Li Zhongyi destroyed the two countries of Jiangnan, he actually jumped out and started with Li Zhongyi's most taboo army.

According to Li Yanqing's secret investigation, Liu Xiang's two sons were successively cleared out of the imperial guards, resulting in the lack of successors of the Liu family. It is likely that Liu Xiang's resentment to Li Zhongyi.

In this year, all those who play politics understand one thing: wealth for generations is truly wealth.

After Liu Xiang's sons were far away from the power circle, the wealthy days of the Liu family were just like Wang Xiaoer's New Year, and they were getting worse every year.

In Li Zhongyi's opinion, Liu Xiang's small moves, although not much progress is actually a concern for digging his roots.

Compared with the attack on Shu, Li Zhongyi attached more importance to Liu Xiang's behavior of privately attracting imperial guards. After all, only one supreme commander was allowed in the army, and only Li Zhongyi himself was allowed.

Unlike the army of the same era, since the founding of the Li family army, it has emphasized the skill of footboards.

To be honest, I have been marching for 20 miles three times a day with full armed force three times a day.

In terms of the work under his feet, the Li family army ranked second, who dared to claim to be the first?

After eating a few pieces of snacks, Li Zhongyi began to review the memorials handed over by the cabinet. Due to the large amount of military supplies, it was continuously transported to the west, and the cabinet's affairs became particularly large.

Let’s not talk about it any more. Just transporting grain to Fengxiang Mansion and Jingzhao Mansion to the west is not a small amount.

Long before the establishment of the Later Zhou Dynasty, the local grain produced in Shaanxi Road could no longer be self-sufficient. It had to rely on the Central Plains to transport grain to feed nearly one million people.

The most important factor is that since the Qin Dynasty, the land of Shaanxi Road has been continuously developed, and the land capacity has gradually become poor and grain output has been decreasing day by day.
Chapter completed!