King Jing Residence, night.
Li Lin received a secret letter from Youzhou.
After reading the secret letter, Li Lin shook his head gently and handed it to Zhang Zhao and Fa Zheng.
The two of them frowned after reading it.
"Young Master, in my opinion, the Emperor is testing the King of Yan.”Zhang Zhao said.
"Other than probing, if Li Yi doesn't make a move, the Emperor can also control Jingzhou with his trusted generals. With the addition of an elite army, he can pose a threat to Youzhou, which is close at hand.”
"In that case, even if Li Yi doesn't want to move, it will be difficult.”
Fa Zheng sighed.
"Is it impossible to transfer Li Yi to Jingzhou?”Li Lin frowned and asked.
"It's possible, but the chances are very small." Fa Zheng shook his head. The Emperor had just ascended the throne, and Youzhou was of great importance.”
"If Youzhou moves, the Outsiders in the north will also be in turmoil.”
"An emperor who didn't get the throne properly doesn't want problems to appear at the border at this time.”
"At the very least, we have to wait until he has complete control of the situation.”
"Thus, I believe that the governors and managers of Jingzhou, Bingzhou, and other places will be replaced within a year. They will be replaced by his trusted generals and elite troops.”
"In case the various tribes of the grassland lose their intimidation after dealing with the Prince of Yan and move south.”
Saying this, Fa Zheng looked at Li Lin carefully.
This small action naturally could not be hidden from Li Lin.
"What else do you have?"
"Here." Fa Zheng bowed and said," According to my observation, the number of foreign races coming to White Cloud City to trade has been decreasing recently. Moreover, they are buying medicinal herbs, ferocious beasts, and food on the market.”
"Hmm? Do you mean that there are signs of the grassland tribes invading the south?”Li Lin asked.
"This subordinate thought so."
"Zibu, what do you think?"
"Young master, Xiaozhi and I have discussed this matter.”Zhang Zhao nodded.
"But it's already October, and the temperature has dropped drastically. The northern grasslands and Tianzhu Mountains will soon be covered in snow.”
As everyone knew, there were only three roads to the south of Tianzhu Mountain.
One was to the north of White Cloud City, one was near Bingzhou, and one was outside Jingzhou.
Compared to the passage north of White Cloud City, the other two passages were not suitable for large armies to move through. They were only suitable for small groups of troops to pass through.
In addition, the terrain was complicated. If they took those two roads, they would not be able to pass through at this time.
Even if they passed, they would suffer heavy losses.
This was because, apart from the terrain, the ferocious beasts in the Pillar of Heavens Mountains would also be particularly hungry in winter and their ferocity would be triggered. If they passed through the Pillar of Heavens Mountains, they might even be attacked by countless ferocious beasts.
Zhang Zhao and Fa Zheng naturally understood.
However, the strange behavior of the alien races in the city made them wary.
"Er 'Lai."
"I'm here." Dian Wei, who was standing not far away with his halberd, responded.
"Order the Shadow Secret Guards to strengthen the reconnaissance in the north.”
"Here."
Dian Wei went out and ordered his soldiers to pass on the orders to the Shadow Secret Guards.
"Zi Bu, Xiao Zhi, pay more attention to the changes in the city. If there is any news from the Shadow Secret Guards, I will immediately send someone to inform you.”
"Here."
"Alright, that's it. It's late now. You guys go and rest first.”
"Yes, we will take our leave."
……
The next day, in the west market of White Cloud City.
Not long after the market opened, several groups of Outsiders started to drive their carts and sweep through ordinary medicinal herbs, food, and other resources.
However, in White Cloud City, there were not many of these materials stored.
These Outsiders quickly left after clearing the area. Each team escorted more than ten carriages to the north gate.
After leaving the city, these foreign tribes gathered and escorted over a hundred carriages towards the north.
Behind the convoy, several figures appeared in the shadows. Then, they disappeared into the shadows.
The sky quickly darkened.
A troop of about 1,000 people escorted over 100 carriages and set up camp outside Tianzhu Mountain.
The sky was already dark. It was very dangerous to pass through the Pillar of Heavens Mountains at this time.
All the merchants traveling between Youzhou Province and the prairie knew this.
The leaders of the various teams entered a tent and chatted, eating beast meat and drinking the horse milk wine unique to the northern grasslands.
An hour later, the leaders dispersed and returned to their respective tents to rest.
The next morning, the group got up early and packed up the camp. They continued to set off and increased their speed, preparing to use one day to pass through the tunnel ahead.
This was the shortest distance between the north and south of the Pillar of Heavens Mountains. With their speed, the convoy could travel more than two hundred miles a day without any problems.
…….
Five days later, the group entered a medium-sized Turkic wolf tribe.
This tribe had hundreds of thousands of people. Adding on the ten or so small tribes that were affiliated to it, the population was over a million. Among them, there were more than 100,000 people controlling the bowstrings.
If they were to start a war, they would be able to get 300,000 soldiers.
It was basically five to one.
Only the Grassland Wolf Tribe, which had all its citizens as soldiers, could recruit soldiers at such a rate.
In the Great Tang, a ten-to-one ratio was extremely high.
Usually, it was a ratio of ten to one, or even twenty to one.
Border Town would be slightly higher, but it would not exceed ten to one.
Take White Cloud City for example. Currently, the North Manor Army had 50,000 soldiers and generals, and the entire city's resident population was 600,000 to 700,000 people who belonged to White Cloud City.
The ratio of conscription was higher than ten to one.
And this was also the case with Li Lin's own large subsidies.
If he relied solely on the taxes of the citizens of White Cloud City to raise his army, he could afford to raise it, but the lives of the citizens would definitely be affected.
"Ha, hehehe…"
Seeing the convoy arrive, thousands of armored soldiers rushed out of the tribe to welcome them.
Then, carriages of supplies were sent into the tribe, and the leaders of the carriages were called to the golden tent of the tribal Khan.
……
A few days later, Li Lin, Zhang Zhao, Fa Zheng, Li Cunxiao, Gao Shun, Dian Wei, Xu Chu, and Zhang Han were all present in the main hall of King Jing's residence.
After listening to Zhang Han's explanation of the information the Shadow Secret Guards had gathered from the Yellow Ferret Tribe, everyone's eyes flashed with a cold light.
It turned out that the change in the Outsiders that Fa Zheng had noticed earlier was caused by the yellow marten tribe that was closest to the Pillar of Heavens Mountains.
The reason was that the Khan of the Yellow Marten Tribe wanted to enter Youzhou to plunder before winter arrived to ensure that the tribe would survive the winter safely.
Although this tribe only had a regular army of a hundred thousand, it was still twice the strength of White Cloud City.
Besides, other than the 10,000 veterans of the North Manor Army, the remaining 40,000 soldiers were all new recruits who had just entered the camp.
Although these soldiers were not ordinary young men, many of them had practiced martial arts.
Now, after joining the army, he had completely cultivated martial arts.
However, the two armies would often engage in a battle of tens of thousands, or even a hundred thousand soldiers. For the North Manor Army, if they were not familiar with military formations, these ordinary soldiers would not be a match for the foreign tribes who had been fighting tigers and wolves on the grasslands for a long time.
As for the Yellow Marten Tribe's invasion to the south, White Cloud City would be at the forefront.
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