Chapter 1222: War breaks out again

Chapter 1222: War breaks out again

The war three years ago not only brought great changes to the confrontation between the two countries, but also had a great impact on the situation within Northern Qi.

First of all, the political structure of Northern Qi has changed greatly. Originally, the capital of Northern Qi was Yecheng, and the court and various officials were also concentrated in Yedu. However, as the Western Wei advanced towards Hebei, although Yedu still retained the name of the capital, its governing function became weaker and weaker.

Qi Lord Gao Yan was stationed in Jinyang all year round, so many officials also went to Jinyang with him. Bingzhou Shangshu Province was further expanded, replacing most of the functions of Yedu Shangshu Province.

Now Yedu is mainly guarded by Changguang Wang Gao Zhan, and his administrative powers have been greatly reduced. He is mainly responsible for ensuring the logistics needed by the soldiers on the Yenan defense line.

In this way, even if the Wei army breaks through the Yenan defense line and attacks near Yedu, the losses and damage can be reduced, so as not to paralyze the government and personnel directly.

However, there are reasons for the formation of the two-capital structure within Northern Qi. With Yedu no longer serving as the administrative center of Northern Qi, this directly caused the Guandong nobles to lose power.

In the past, although the Guandong nobles were relatively weak, they could still maintain a situation of competing with the Jinyang nobles in the court of Yedu, and sometimes even overwhelmed the Jinyang nobles in the right to speak on major government affairs.

But now that the court has moved to Jinyang, the home of the Jinyang nobles, the Guandong nobles' right to speak and influence in the court has naturally decreased sharply, and their sense of existence has become increasingly weak. It is difficult for them to participate in the discussion of government decision-making, and only a part of the function of executing government orders has been retained.

On the contrary, a large number of Jinyang nobles entered the court and held various court positions, and their influence on the court situation has been unprecedentedly strengthened.

Qi Lord Gao Yan originally ascended the throne with the support of these nobles, and then lived in Jinyang for a long time due to the pressure brought by the Western Wei Dynasty, and his court was filled with a large number of military men.

However, these warriors did not have the qualities required to handle government affairs. Some of them could not even recognize all the characters, let alone handle various complicated documents. Moreover, they lacked various administrative experiences, had little vision and pattern for decision-making matters, and handled the execution in a mess.

Another key point is that most of these Jinyang nobles were of low character, and corruption and dereliction of duty were rampant and could not be stopped despite repeated prohibitions. Qi Lord Gao Yan tried to rectify the administration of officials several times, but failed because of too much resistance.

The only thing to be thankful for is that in the past two or three years, there has been good weather and good harvests, and the food shortages and material shortages caused by various natural and man-made disasters since the end of Tianbao have been greatly improved.

And although Gao Yan's prestige was not as high as his brother Gao Yang, his temperament and methods were more restrained than Gao Yang's extreme brutality, so the situation was relatively stable and there was no major chaos. Some places did have various problems such as mismanagement, but overall it could still be maintained.

Although the political situation was chaotic and the Northern Qi relied on the weather for food, the military measures and actions of the Northern Qi were relatively positive. Although the newly built Yenan Defense Line in Hebei had not yet been tested by the war, it was still able to block the threat of the Western Wei and ensure the stability of the Hebei region.

In addition to the Yenan Defense Line, the Northern Qi also built city fortresses in Jiexiu, Wusu and Xingyang, so that the Northern Qi border defense was re-established to prevent the Western Wei from invading again.

In terms of foreign affairs, after the Western Wei and the Northern Qi reached a peace agreement last time, they did not start a war again. There were only some small-scale frictions in some disputed areas, and most of them were disputes and fights caused by local powerful armed forces attached to both sides, but both regimes maintained a restrained attitude and had no intention of expanding the war.

However, this peaceful situation was only temporary, and both sides were still actively preparing for war. Not to mention the various military measures taken by the Western Wei over the past two years, in the Northern Qi alone, every year, people have continuously reported to the court to launch retaliatory military actions against the Western Wei. Various combat plans have been discussed many times, and some have even started preliminary preparations.

For the current Northern Qi, it has become somewhat unrealistic to want to destroy the old enemy of the Western Wei in one fell swoop, and recovering the lost territory at the end of the Tianbao period is a goal that both the monarch and his ministers are looking forward to.

In the past few years, the two sides were closest to the edge of resuming war in the early winter of last year, when the Xiazhou troops of the Western Wei suddenly crossed the Yellow River and appeared near Baidao, Wuchuan.

At that time, Hulugu, who was stationed at the Beishan Great Wall, planned to attack this group of troops, and take advantage of the situation to attack Xiazhou, northern Shaanxi and other places of the Western Wei, and contact the Turks to send troops together, so that the Turks could engulf the Yinshan Hetao area and destroy the Western Wei's defense line in the north of Guanzhong.

Gao Yan was quite interested in this. He dreamed of reversing the current strategic passive situation to avenge the humiliation of being forced to sign a nearly humiliating treaty last year.

However, the ministers still had different opinions on this. After all, the advantage that the Western Wei had in the south was too great. If they could not quickly destroy its northern defense line and force its troops to return for assistance, then they would suffer crazy revenge from the Western Wei, and the entire Hebei would be in danger.

Although Hebei is not as important as before in the strategic layout of the Northern Qi Dynasty, it is still an important area for obtaining material supplies. Once Hebei is disrupted, the situation in Jinyang will become greatly uneasy.

At the same time, there is another very important point, that is, there is a blockage in the contact with the Turks.

Although Gao Yan has attached great importance to the exchanges and interactions with the Turks in the past few years, he even made the daughter of the Turkic Uzun Khan the queen, and sent envoys to Mobei every year to transport heavy goods to bribe the Turks.

However, when it comes to this kind of actual military cooperation, Uzun Khan still refuses to respond directly. Even though the Western Wei has taken many sanctions against the Turks in recent years, Uzun Khan still refuses to agree to send troops together.

Gao Yan knew that Uzun Khan was waiting for the two tigers to fight each other. At least, the Northern Qi would cause great consumption to the Western Wei before he would lead the Turkish army to join the battlefield. However, without the assistance of the Turks, Gao Yan did not dare to tear up the previous peace treaty easily and rashly go to war with the Western Wei with the current Northern Qi.

Because once the war starts, the result will be a miserable victory at best, and he will have to face the Turks who will reap the benefits. However, if the battle fails, the entire Northern Qi regime may be doomed!

The Northern Qi was hesitant, but the situation in the Western Wei did not stagnate, especially in Jianzhou, which was captured by it. In the past two years, the Western Wei has been active there, carrying out large-scale reclamation and equalization of fields, and building many granaries.

There is no doubt that the Western Wei is building Jianzhou into a forward base for the next war. Jianzhou's geographical location also has the ability to play this role, but the Northern Qi is somewhat helpless about it.

As the season entered autumn, Duan Shao, the King of Pingyuan who guarded Yenan, proposed a new battle plan, which was to recapture Jianzhou. The loss of Jianzhou allowed the Western Wei to easily threaten the hinterland of the Northern Qi. No matter how much energy other parties invested in arranging defense lines, as long as Jianzhou was still in the hands of the enemy, the Northern Qi's defense line would have huge loopholes.

Duan Shao's idea was to first gather armed forces from Shandong, Henan and other places, and carry out some harassment activities against Yiyang and other places in the upper reaches of the Huai River, so as to attract the attention of the Western Wei to Henan and Huainan areas, and then gather troops from Yenan and Jinyang to attack Jianzhou from both sides at lightning speed, and take Jianzhou back in one fell swoop, and by the way, collect the food and supplies accumulated by the Western Wei in the territory.

If Jianzhou can be recovered, then the Northern Qi will have more strategic options. Whether it is to drive away the Western Wei army in Hebei, or to recover Jinzhou along the Fen River, it can quickly invest its strength and not be afraid of the counterattack launched by the enemy.

After Duan Shao submitted this plan, it also won the support of many generals in the country. Even Gao Yan was quite enthusiastic about it: "Although the former king of Xianyang offered a grand plan, there were many things that could not be controlled. Moreover, the Turks were greedy and timid, and they dared not work together, so the plan failed.

Now we have more than 100,000 soldiers in the two places, and they suddenly came to the border, which is difficult to stop! Wei State has many granaries in the border, and the garrison troops are bound to be dispersed. Even if the Wei army is fierce and stubborn, and Jianzhou is difficult to conquer, if we can collect the stored grain in the border, the gains will be considerable, and it can also greatly delay Wei State's plan against me!"

Duan Shao's plan is indeed quite reliable, but if you want to attract the attention of Western Wei to the Huainan area first, you need to integrate and promote the power in Henan area now.

Although Henan is still under the rule of Northern Qi, with the loss of Heluo, Northern Qi's control over Henan is not as solid as before. It is difficult to achieve the effect of containment and attraction with the local armed forces in Henan alone, so a reliable general needs to be sent to Henan to control the situation and implement the plan.

In the current Northern Qi, most of the founding heroes have died. Among the older generation, only King Anding Heba Ren is still alive, but he is too old and sick to take on the heavy responsibility. The most outstanding of the next generation, Duan Shaojin, is in Yenan, and Hulugu is in Beishan Great Wall. If the battle plan is to be implemented, these two are Gao Yan's preferred candidates for commanding the army, so they naturally cannot be sent to Huainan.

After weighing the pros and cons, Gao Yan ordered She Dixian, the son of King Zhangwu, She Digan, to Annan to serve as the governor of Yuzhou, responsible for raising forces in Henan and launching an invasion against Yiyang.

At the same time, Gao Yan secretly transferred Hulugu back to Jinyang and ordered him to lead the Jinyang troops to prepare to attack Jianzhou in the south. So after a few years of peace, the war machine of Northern Qi started again.

Just as Northern Qi was rubbing its hands and preparing to recapture Jianzhou in one fell swoop, a banquet was being held in Shangyang Palace in Tongzhou, Western Wei, with a scene of singing and dancing.

Kawenka's headache, I will update one chapter today. . .