Chapter 471: Debate
The battle reports from Qingzhou and Congling were transmitted back to the Luoyang Government Affairs Office almost at the same time, and the military advisors in the office were speechless.
Everyone is a military strategist who knows some military tactics. Even if they are not proficient in commanding troops, they will definitely have no problem with the overall strategic direction.
The whole country is in a period of development, and continuing to draw people to join the army is itself a bad move, not to mention that they have previously approved the Qingzhou conscription plan.
Liangzhou, Bingzhou and Youzhou are already large unproductive states. Together with Qingzhou, one third of the thirteen states are already unproductive. The large states in the south are also developing the area, so the heavy burden finally falls on Jizhou, Xuzhou and other places.
However, these places are also responsible for the advance plan of developing the Grand Canal, and it would be too disruptive to transfer manpower to them.
In other words, all the military forces currently available to the Han Dynasty will basically not change in the short term. Even if there are changes, it is absolutely impossible to start wars on all sides at the same time, and some choices must be made.
"Tell me what we should do now!" Chen Xi knocked on the table, breaking the silence in the Government Affairs Hall.
"Send the troops. The focus of the northern grasslands in the next three years is to appease them. Let the educationists do their thing." Xun Yu spread his hands. There was nothing much to say about this matter. They had already walked out. They couldn't just abandon the Pamirs.
"Not appropriate!" Xi Zhicai retorted. Due to the long-term recuperation of his illness, he was able to concentrate more on thinking about some problems.
"The Pamirs are just an enclave. Why don't the imperial court sacrifice the chariot to save the king, temporarily abandon the Pamirs and concentrate on conquering the grasslands?"
"I also agree with Xi Zhicai's judgment. Retreating to the Western Regions is a good strategy!" Guo Jia said after a moment of silence.
He did not give others a chance to refute and continued.
"The Western Regions have just annexed the Han Dynasty. We should focus on suppressing them. We have let the Western Regions go for too long, causing them to ignore the dignity of the Han Dynasty. If the Western Regions rebel, the Pamirs will be nothing more than an enclave."
"Humph, the small country in the Western Region is nothing to worry about. If they have the intention of causing unrest, they will be killed immediately without mercy!"
Cao Cao, who was mingling in the Government Affairs Hall, had a cold light in his eyes. His ambition was to become the General Who Conquers the West, and he had long thought of suppressing the Western Regions.
"The Congling Mountains have already been given to the Han Dynasty. How can we easily give away this land?"
Xun Yu was very dissatisfied with Guo Jia's statement. Even if he was full, there was no way he would give up what he had.
"The Pamir Mountains are close to the Western Regions. After we pacify the north, we will march to the northeast. There is a large area of fertile land waiting to be developed there!"
Guo Jia and Xun Yu were competing against each other. In his opinion, the Congling Mountains were neither worth eating nor was it a pity to abandon them, so it would be better to just give them up and concentrate his strength in the east and north.
What is the value of those vast stretches of sand in Central Asia? The grasslands in the north and the fertile fields in the northeast are the real things.
"How can we compete with the world if we are complacent? The chaos among the empires in the Far West is a good opportunity to seize intelligence. If our army completely abandons the Western arrangements, what price will we have to pay in the future to obtain it?"
Cheng Yu stood up to oppose the ideas of Guo Jia and Xi Zhicai. In his opinion, the Han Dynasty would unify the world sooner or later. In fact, this was also a fact that many people tacitly accepted.
The reason why the world did not belong to us before was that we did not know. Now that we know, the world must still be ours.
This strong self-confidence comes from deep-seated confidence. In this era of upright backbone, no one will ever doubt whether the world can be conquered; they will only guess how long it will take.
Cheng Yu and Xun Yu had different starting points, but they were in the same camp.
Chen Xi looked at the people who started to express their opinions with a headache. They were all Wei family advisers, so why were the differences so big?
"I think the importance of Congling is self-evident. It would be better to mobilize a strong army to hold the fort. If things are impossible, we can withdraw." Cao Cao looked at the tense atmosphere and tried to smooth things over.
What both sides said does make sense. The Pamirs serve as a window and a bridge connecting the Han Dynasty with other countries in the world.
The importance of intelligence goes without saying. It is even possible to find a specific way to target a legion just by knowing its intelligence in advance.
Thinking back to the time when the Han Dynasty and the Huns were fighting to the death, both sides killed each other for a little information. How could we miss the opportunity to get intelligence while several empires are fighting?
Guo Jia and Xi Zhicai, on the other hand, took the approach of building high walls, storing up food supplies, and slowly declaring themselves king. In their view, the chaos in the wars among several western empires would eventually reveal some intelligence.
Compared with those things that cannot be used in the short term, the vast grasslands in the north and a brand new granary in the northeast are real benefits that are worth fighting for for the Han Dynasty.
Congling wants to obtain intelligence for the sake of immediate or future benefits, so why not get the tangible benefits first?
Chen Xi rubbed his temples. There was nothing he could do. The reality was too restrictive.
"Let's restore the veterans first! I believe that we must first stabilize the country before we can resist foreign aggression. Rather than planning to go abroad, it would be better to put the country in order first, so that development can be smoother."
Xu You took out a piece of information and placed it on the table, motioning for everyone to pass it around.
The intelligence was simple, just the whereabouts of some veterans, but the place where this whereabouts finally led to was a very profound subject.
"Changan? What do they want to do?"
Chen Xi frowned and looked at Xu You. It was definitely not an easy matter to bring it up at this time.
Chang'an can now be regarded as the gathering place of the Guanxi families, and it basically feels like the center of the family alliance. However, all the families have not done anything out of the ordinary.
In addition, the privileged class of aristocratic families cannot be eliminated, so Chen Xi can only adopt some relatively gentle methods to reform it.
However, he and Guo Hao have completely opened up the communication channels between the upper and lower levels. The issuance of government orders from the central government to local governments is no longer controlled by the aristocratic families, and the influence of the aristocratic families is much less than before.
As long as education is popularized, the influence of the aristocratic families on the country will fall to the bottom.
By the way, he also wanted to use the aristocratic families as pawns and send them out to destroy the world. After all, the abilities of these aristocratic families were really good, but they were also real bastards to the Han Dynasty.
If you can get it out, it will be a good move.
"The situation is unknown, but I think your overseas assignment plan needs to be implemented ahead of schedule!"
Xu You shook his head. This information contained too many mixed messages. Without further news, any speculation could cause the situation to fall into the abyss.
"It's too early, it's not enough, and the current cake is not big enough. The aristocratic families will not take the bait!" Xun Yu shook his head and directly rejected Xu You's suggestion from the perspective of the aristocratic families.
Chen Xi’s big cake plan is amazing. If the aristocratic families want benefits, then he will offer them huge benefits for them to fight for. This benefit must be far greater than everything the aristocratic families have now, so as to drive them to fight against other forces.
However, the proportion of this interest in the entire Han Dynasty is very small, which will weaken the influence of the aristocratic families on the Han Dynasty to the extreme.
Faced with the huge temptation of interests, the aristocratic families have to jump in even if they are unwilling.
