Wuyueyao and his men went to carry supplies.
Ning Wanjun held a new meeting in the villa. In addition to the people from the evil horse country, the participants were basically the same people from the previous Secretariat, Mechanism Bureau and the army.
The theme of the meeting was Gyeonggi's reaction.
"I believe that war is inevitable." Xu Sanzhong was the first to speak. "Deposing the government and taking back power is no different from treason in the eyes of the court. It is only a matter of time before the army invades the country. The key is time."
This is the first time that the word "rebellion" has been openly uttered in a high-level meeting.
Needless to say, the military were all natural supporters of Ning Wanjun. They knew what they were going to do from the moment they followed her and left the border army.
Mo Yun has the final say in the Mechanism Bureau, and most of the backbone members are elves, so they don't care about the power disputes in Qi State. For them, Jinxia City, which can allow the new machine-building game to develop stably and vigorously, is obviously much more important than Shangyuan City, which they have never heard of.
The only thing that was more complicated was the Secretariat founded by Xia Fan.
In addition to himself, the attendees also included Xue Zhigeng, the chief of the Privy Council, Li Eunuch, the chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Hong Siqi, the head of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Xia Fan is one of the masterminds... Anyone who has worked with him would find it difficult to tell whether it was the princess who was more rebellious or him who was more rebellious.
Eunuch Li is the princess's man.
Xue Zhigeng and Hong Siqi instantly felt the focused attention of everyone.
It was not an accident that such a day occurred.
When Ning Wanjun led his army to sweep through the Shenzhou border, they all knew it.
But on the day when the window paper was broken, the two of them still felt the pressure.
Once this is clicked, there is no turning back.
"I will always be loyal to Her Royal Highness Princess Guangping!" Hong Siqi replied decisively without hesitating for too long.
To be honest, his guilt was relatively mild.
The news about Qixing Privy Council has not yet spread in Shenzhou due to heavy snow and road closures, but everyone in Jinxia's senior management knows it. And the sophisticated Hong Siqi realized that the court that he used to be beyond his reach was no longer in name only. Since the Privy Council can stab the imperial court in the back, why can't he
What's more, Xia Fan is quite interesting. The ostracism he received here was actually much less than in all previous officialdom experiences.
While making money, Hong Siqi actually had the illusion that he was making great achievements.
Xue Zhigeng's feeling was completely different.
The alliance and growth of the Privy Council Office was good news for him, but now that he has to sever his relationship with the General Office, to be honest, he is quite conflicted.
But under the roof, he chose to seek refuge with Xia Fan. This "stain" will be remembered forever by the Privy Council. It can be said that there are hidden dangers on both sides. What's more, no matter what you think in your heart, you still have to express your attitude now. "The Privy Council has made preparations and can cooperate with Lord Xia's instructions at any time."
Their eyes dispersed, and the two of them suddenly felt their shoulders relax a little.
"When do you think Gyeonggi will take action?" Ning Wanjun asked.
"The army has not moved, but food and grass have to go first. This depends on the speed of their logistics preparations. Since it is a domestic battle, they can use the towns around Shenzhou as camps. Generally, they can be disposed of in one or two months." Xu Sanzhong analyzed, "In addition, there will be a round of spring plowing after the snow melts. Recruiting soldiers at this time will easily affect the harvest, so they should choose to start the plowing in April or May. The weather has warmed up by then, and a lot of cold-proof materials can be saved."
"The lower official agrees with Xu Youyi's judgment, but it is difficult to have an exact start and end time for a war. The enemy should also know the principle of surprise, so he still has to be prepared for a sudden attack." He Guicai added, "I suggest His Highness has strengthened the protection of the villa, and at the same time established checkpoints on several main roads in Shenzhou to monitor the flow of people in surrounding towns."
"The villa also needs to be protected?" Ning Wanjun frowned.
"Your Highness, the opponent is the Privy Council. We cannot rule out the possibility of the enemy using high-level alchemists to assassinate us." He Guicai glanced at Xia Fan before saying this, "If possible, I hope that the high-level alchemists from Jinxia City will also be stationed in the villa. , in case something unexpected happens.”
Then everyone discussed the issue of "How should Jinxia meet the enemy if it is discovered that Qi Guo's army is approaching Shenzhou?"
Compared with the conservative and cautious attitude two or three months ago, the military at this time appears to be full of confidence.
The game with the West Pole Empire allowed them to see another level of three-dimensional combat. At the same time, conquering the entire territory of Shenzhou seemed to be unstoppable and greatly boosted the confidence of the generals.
Now that the Evil Horse Kingdom has arrived with a full load of silver, the warehouse has been refilled, and this last trace of worry has dissipated. There are people, money, and weapons... plus playing at home, everyone is full of expectations for victory.
In addition to Shenzhou, Qiguo also has nine additional states, namely Leizhou, Suzhou, Youzhou, Lingzhou, Ganzhou, Yazhou, Jinzhou, Liuzhou and Qingzhou.
Among them, Ganzhou, Liuzhou, and Qingzhou bordered Shenzhou, not to mention Ganzhou in the west. The junction of the two places was a mountainous area, which was not suitable for large armies to pass. Liuzhou and Qingzhou are just sandwiched between Gyeonggi and Shenzhou, and they are two of the three states in the south of the Yangtze River. They have many large towns, developed transportation, and a lot of grain and money stored in the city, so they are very suitable as the advance station of the army.
The military generals and staff also unanimously judged that if Ning Qianshi wanted to take action, the army would most likely leave these two states. Among them, Liuzhou has the highest possibility - after all, this state has the most developed water system and is suitable for transporting luggage by ship.
By dispatching informants to these two states, you can know the enemy's movements as soon as possible.
After all, the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops cannot be carried out quietly. By then, troops traveling long distances will definitely be seen on the official roads.
At the end of the meeting, a warning plan was determined with Liuzhou as the main focus and Gyeongju as the supplement.
Xia Fan did not raise any objection.
But compared to this war, he was more concerned about what the Seven Star Privy Council would do beforehand.
The second prince has also just taken control of the capital and does need time to consolidate his power, but this does not mean that he will do nothing in the next month or two and just sit back and watch Jinxia swallow up Shenzhou bit by bit.
Rather than setting up formations and fighting head-on to decide the outcome in a battle involving tens of thousands of people, those unpredicted hidden arrows are the things that need to be guarded against the most.
He agreed with at least strengthening the defense of Fengyang Villa.
As for other threats, they can only be dealt with on the spot and based on their own abilities.
…
Shenzhou, Baihe City.
Under the pouring rain, a carriage drove into the dark alley. Rain poured down the eaves and formed rapid streams on both sides of the ground.
The first heavy rain since spring cast a gray shadow over the entire city and turned the unpaved roads into mud.
The wheels turned slowly on the dirt road, and the ruts were deep enough to see the weight of the cargo it carried.
Arriving at the door of an inconspicuous bungalow, the coachman sighed and stopped the horse. Immediately, four or five people walked out of the house, lifted the straw mat covering the car, and moved heavy wooden boxes into the house one by one. .
One of them took out a dagger and pried open the lid of the box. The silver ingots neatly arranged in the box were displayed in front of everyone.
Then he pried open several other boxes.
Almost every box contained a thousand taels of silver.
As long as ordinary people take one piece, they can guarantee food and clothing for a year.
But everyone was not distracted by these white silver ingots. They took out a few pieces in an orderly manner and put them in their arms, put on their hats and raincoats, walked out of the bungalow, turned around and disappeared into the rain.