Chapter 711

After all, since the opening of the Great Contending Era, with the return of forces such as Yunzhou and You Dongying,

it had been a long time since any major war had broken out in the realm.

The ministers of the Great Yuan were mostly men who lived their lives on horseback.

Without war, that meant there were no merits to be earned.

Without merits, how could they rise in rank and title?

Therefore, this launching of the southern campaign against Great Tang was not merely for the purpose of making contact with the Yin Yue Imperial Court.

In the eyes of the various senior ministers of the imperial court, this was a grand feast of military merit.

So this southern campaign was also vigorously pushed from behind by these senior ministers.

That was why it could be carried out so swiftly, from top to bottom.

At first, everything proceeded according to their plan.

Borhu's detachment, yet it managed to thrust into the two northwestern prefectures of Great Tang, surrounding Yanmen Pass completely.

Almost in an instant, it encompassed the two northwestern prefectures within its grasp.

The Central Army's Mu Huali also advanced with astonishing speed.

Directly seizing the northern heavy town of Youzhou from Great Tang.

When the two reports of victory reached the imperial court, countless high officials of Great Yuan were overjoyed.

In their eyes, it was as if countless military merits, jewels and jade wares, cultivation resources and the like were beckoning to them.

At that time, the imperial city was in an uproar of celebration.

Even Tie Muzhen felt that the southern campaign was going exceedingly smoothly.

Little did anyone know that everything would take a sudden turn for the worse.

The Tang Army, which should have collapsed at the first touch, suddenly did the opposite.

From both flanks of Youzhou, they suddenly launched a major offensive northward.

In an instant, they seized all the passes and strategic points both inside and outside Yinshan.

Now, if Mu Huali's army wanted to retreat, they could either turn back and fight their way through the Yinshan passes,

or they could take a detour and attempt to withdraw via the Hetao region.

Yet, as luck would have it, misfortunes never come alone.

At this moment, urgent military reports came from Hetao: due to the Garrison Commander's absence, Great Tang's great general Su Dingfang suddenly led the elite central forces of Great Tang to thrust into Hetao.

Now the Hetao plains had completely fallen into Great Tang's hands.

That is to say, Mu Huali and even Borhu had, without realizing it, become turtles in a jar.

They could now only return along the original route, attempting to fight their way through the strategic passes.

If the Great Yuan side cooperated as much as possible, there might still be a slim chance of survival.

And because of this sudden reversal of the situation, the air in the imperial court at this moment was solemn, and none of the senior ministers dared to even draw a breath.

"Has everyone gone mute? Speak!"

After learning of all this, Tie Muzhen was so furious he leaped about in rage,

"When it was first proposed to go to war, weren't you all overjoyed?

Why is it that now that you've run into a bit of trouble, none of you dare speak?

Yelu Chu Cai, you explain to this Khan — is this your damned plan?"

In fact, the southern campaign plan was jointly plotted by the Great Yuan nobility, formulated by Mu Huali, and executed after being submitted to Tie Muzhen for approval.

Although Yelu Chu Cai had participated, he had ultimately not foreseen this step.

The original southern campaign plan was actually a two-pronged eastern and western advance, with Borhu and Borzu both serving as feints.

Their task was not to storm Great Tang's border towns, but to draw Great Tang's attention.

So as to facilitate Mu Huali leading the Central Army to strike directly at Youzhou, or at the very least Beizhen.

Who could have known that as the battle wore on, things would change completely.

As for Borzu in the northeast, Great Tang's defenses were tight and there was no opportunity to exploit — that could be let pass.

But on Borhu's side in the northwest, it was clearly supposed to be a feint; who could have known that because the two northwestern prefectures of Great Tang were left undefended,

he would, on someone's instigation, directly attempt to Gongxiayan Sect.

Now this army was still trapped beneath Yanmen Pass.

As for Mu Huali, strictly speaking he did indeed execute the plan and stormed into Beizhen.

It was just that Great Tang directly "handed over" all of Youzhou.

The various generals under Mu Huali, in order to compete for military merit, each led their own troops to various places.

Nominally it was to garrison or even rule a town for Great Yuan, but in reality it was to grab benefits for themselves.

So much so that the originally formidable Central Army, in the end, had only a small contingent of Mu Huali's elite troops left at Beizhen.

All of this, in turn, had to do with the various princes and ministers present here in the imperial court.

But these things — would Yelu Chu Cai dare speak of them?

Yelu Chu Cai hemmed and hawed for a long while, not knowing how to answer.

Instead, it was Boyan who spoke up at this moment,

"May the Great Khan calm his wrath! Although the loss of Hetao and some of the Yinshan passes is indeed a blow to Great Yuan,

Mu Huali and the others are still actively seeking the Yin Yue Imperial Court.

As long as we gain the aid of the Yin Yue Imperial Court, what matter if Great Tang has blockaded all the passes?

When the time comes, we shall once more raise a great army from the imperial court, coordinating with Mu Huali and the Yin Yue Imperial Court from within and without, and smash straight through Great Tang's border army.

At that point, Great Tang's northern territories would truly fall into our hands."

"Vice Chancellor Boyan speaks reason."

"Boyan is absolutely right—I think so too!"

"Exactly! As long as the Yinyue Dynasty lends a hand, the Great Tang is simply seeking its own death."

For a moment, following Boyan's words, the princes and ministers who had been silent all leaped into action.

Most of what they said, though, was flattery of Boyan.

"Do you think the Yinyue Dynasty is so easy to win over?"

Yelu Chu was indignant—he had taken the scolding, so how had Boyan earned a chorus of praise with a single line of nonsense?

In fact, the Great Yuan was close to Youzhou of the Great Tang, and ever since the Great Tang's unusual movements in Beizhen, the Great Yuan's intelligence personnel had long been conducting dense reconnaissance.

As Chancellor, Yelu Chu naturally also knew long ago.

The Great Tang had been in contact with either the Yinyue Dynasty or the Xuanxinzheng Sect, yet even before the Great Yuan began its operation, they had failed to make any substantive progress.

Now that the southern campaign had reached this stage, Yelu Chu even felt that the Great Tang knew precisely how hard the Xuanxinzheng Sect and the Yinyue Dynasty were to deal with.

That was why they deliberately gave up Youzhou and Beizhen.

After drawing the Great Yuan's attention, the Great Tang instead struck at the Yinshan and Hetao regions, consolidating their northern defense line.

Therefore, when Boyan spoke like that and the court seemed filled with an air of great prospects, Yelu Chu could not help but say,

"Fellow colleagues, the Yinyue Dynasty is extremely secretive, and it is a Modaomen Sect.

The Great Tang has spent such enormous effort, yet still has not succeeded.

General Mu Huali took Beizhen not in a single day, yet the intelligence sent before only warned us to be careful…"

That single speech made the princes and nobles of the Great Yuan, who had been cheering as though victory were assured, fall utterly silent, one and all.

Boyan was also quite helpless.

The reason he had spoken so optimistically was that the mood in court was off.

How could he not know how hard the Yinyue Dynasty and the Xuanxinzheng Sect were to deal with.

Tie Muzhen saw that after Yelu Chu's speech, the hall below had once again sunk into a deathly silence.

His gaze toward Yelu Chu also turned somewhat unfriendly, and he could not help but ask,

"Yelu Chu, since you say this won't work, then it cannot be.

As Chancellor, do you have a plan to deal with it?"

Though Yelu Chu was clever enough, his strength was ultimately meager.

In this contest between the two great powers of the Great Yuan and the Great Tang, there were also transcendent sects like the Yinyue Dynasty and the Xuanxinzheng Sect caught in between.

Even if Yelu Chu's wits were higher than the heavens, what could he do.