No one is willing to be a chess piece to be manipulated at will on a chessboard, and no one likes to play the role of a piece destined to be eaten.

Gao Pei, the Cheqi General (General of Chariots and Cavalry) of Bei Liao, is the one guarding the western defense line of Yunzhou. Although the Gao family gradually took over this position after Bei Liao purged the original Cheqi General Yin Lujun's family, it took them no less than ten years to gradually quell dissenting voices in the various armies of the western defense line, gradually purge the remnants of the Yin family, and establish a western defense system loyal to the Gao family and Bei Liao. The Gao family spent nearly a generation to complete this, and then spent another generation and countless amounts of money to greatly strengthen the military equipment of the Western Route Army. The Western Route Army is now a force to be reckoned with in Bei Liao, both in the court and in the military.

However, the Western Route Army was still a bit short, and its voice was not strong enough, which is why it was coerced and enticed by the old General Xu Jingtao when Yunzhou was at its most critical moment, and ultimately did not attack Yunzhou. Although taking Dalun Mountain under the control of the Western Route Army did greatly correct the defensive weaknesses of the Western Route Army and the entire western side of Bei Liao, the obvious recovery momentum of Yunzhou now makes the Western Route Army forces led by Gao Pei feel even more threatened.

Yunzhou's military strength has indeed undergone a large-scale reduction, and the number of people is much smaller than before. Now, outside of the fifty battalions in Yunzhou, there are very few decent armies. Only a few to a few hundred yamen runners (local government runners) are left in various places to manage town security, maintain city defense facilities, and conduct the most basic patrols and lookouts. The rest are small-scale private armed forces formed by wealthy households and aristocratic families under the name of retainers. Since Yunzhou has always had the tradition of wealthy families and powerful clans sending troops to help in battles, even though Yunzhou's new policies have stricter restrictions on private soldiers of wealthy families and powerful clans, this part of the number still has to be counted into Yunzhou's total military strength. Outside of the fifty battalions, it seems that there are only these military forces, but in reality, almost all of the Rongjun (Veteran Settlement) farms and ranches maintain a fairly good level of military training, even though the Yunzhou Management Office has not advocated maintaining military training. And Yunzhou's fifty-battalion plan makes Gao Pei feel uneasy every time he thinks about it.

What do fifty battalions, hundreds of thousands of professional soldiers, mean? Moreover, the equipment and training standards of these fifty battalions are so high. With the Gao family's management in the west, they can naturally learn a lot about this aspect. Not long after the re-equipment began, the re-equipment standards of the Yunzhou armies were passed to Gao Pei. At that time, he felt extremely uncomfortable. The equipment of Yunzhou's eight garrison battalions may not be much worse than his Flying Tiger Battalion, which he relies on as one arm of the Western Route Army. The equipment and training standards of the main battle troops such as the Tieyun (Iron Cloud) Riders and Jingyun (Mirror Cloud) Riders reported by the spies are even more amazing. Before the rise of Dongping, Bei Liao was also one of the four powerful countries in the world, and naturally could not be compared with Yunzhou, which had strong cavalry and weak infantry. Although Bei Liao was superior to Yunzhou in terms of the quality of military horses, their infantry was also very strong. But now, even this advantage over Yunzhou seems to be gradually reversed. Although no heavy equipment battalion or heavy infantry battalion, which have high requirements for the quality of soldiers and training level, has been formed, Yunzhou already has two melee infantry battalions and one longbow battalion. This adds up to less than 10,000 infantrymen, which makes Gao Pei very worried, because until now, the spies have not sent any analysis of the combat power of these three battalions.

Gao Pei's deployment of troops on the western front is not to launch an offensive against Yunzhou at this moment. He is not prepared in terms of combat power or logistical support. But sometimes, he has to consider other things, such as the dispute between the Western Route Army's combat strategy of attacking Yunzhou and the Southern Route Army's combat strategy of defending Beining Pass in the Bei Liao court, such as whether to set up an army on the eastern coast to prevent Dongping's powerful navy from suddenly entering from the water and transporting troops to land, such as the countless accusations in the Bei Liao court that he compromised with Xu Jingtao at that time and did not send troops to cut off a large piece of Yunzhou to strengthen Bei Liao's strength... He must be tough to ensure that the Western Route Army can maintain the best combat effectiveness under his control, and to prevent threats from Dongping and Yunzhou.

Yes, threats. Without being in the position of commander of the Western Route Army, without those life-threatening intelligence documents, one would not have as much pressure as him. Everyone actually knows that the several armies being built within Dongping, especially the Tianxuan Army, are set up to conquer Bei Liao. When the Tianxuan Army is completed, and when Yunzhou's fifty battalions are fully prepared, Dongping can basically launch an offensive against Bei Liao at any time. And Bei Liao's internal debate over whether to fight or make peace has not been settled. Under this obvious threat, under this enormous pressure, someone naturally has to be responsible for why Bei Liao has fallen into this situation. It is really hard to say how alienated the Bei Liao internal factions are from the Bei Liao royal court. For example, Gao Pei is now putting on a look of wanting to fight, but he obviously has not deployed the other troops into an echelon that can cope with various situations, has not prepared enough food to maintain operations for a period of time, and has not even shown any signs of increasing the transportation of supplies. He is sending a message: to the Bei Liao internal factions, he can show his toughness and his decisiveness in fighting Yunzhou. I am afraid that the court will soon ask him to shrink back to avoid starting a war with Yunzhou and Dongping; and to the outside world, it is to tell Yunzhou that he is not prepared to fight. As for why the situation is so tense, it depends on whether Yunzhou and Dongping have the ability to discover the recent movements of the Bei Liao court.

However, even so, Gao Pei still felt uneasy. He immediately summoned his son, Gao Senqi, the current commander of the Flying Tiger Battalion.

"Asen, are you willing to go to Yunzhou?" Gao Pei asked.

"Father, what are you going to Yunzhou for?" Gao Senqi understood the embarrassing situation of the Western Route Army sandwiched between the Bei Liao royal court and Yunzhou, and also understood what the mobilization of troops to the west to show a threatening posture was for. But going to Yunzhou? What can he do?

"Find a way to meet Ye Tao and try to implement two things: first, explain that our mobilization is not to attack Yunzhou, limited to two years; second, try to negotiate a trade route for horses and other things with Yunzhou." Although he had repeatedly considered it, Gao Pei's tone still revealed a hint of restraint. If his behavior is known to the Bei Liao royal court, he may be accused of treason, and his family will be exterminated.

Gao Senqi frowned and thought for a while, but did not show much surprise. He said, "Yunzhou has a Bureau of Commerce, and it seems that they are willing to do any business that makes money. Although Yunzhou has recovered very quickly, it has been fighting almost every year, and it is indeed short of money. However, will Yunzhou agree to act with us? If they don't react at all knowing that we won't attack, I'm afraid those guys in the court will immediately notice something is wrong, and our Gao family will be in trouble."

"Hmph," Gao Pei said coldly, "When disaster is imminent, do you still care about these things? If we can defeat Dongping, perhaps my Bei Liao can have a few more years of national fortune to plan for it. If we can hold on to self-preservation, perhaps there will be an opportunity to be diligent and strive for governance. But how easy is it to defeat Dongping? If we can't take Beining Pass, my Bei Liao will always be in a passive position against Dongping. Yunzhou... may be a breakthrough, or it may be a new threat. However, if I only have the Flying Tiger Battalion, I will never rashly start a war with Yunzhou. I need time, and so does Yunzhou. This is why Yunzhou may agree to put on a tense posture, but there is no need to start a war. Yunzhou has the confidence to destroy us in a few years, and conversely, why don't I have the confidence to build another elite army to restrain the Yunzhou armies? Their fifty battalions are already the limit of the military strength that Yunzhou can support. But how many can be used to conquer Bei Liao at that time? One hundred thousand? It is estimated that it will be the limit. At that time, it is still unknown who will win. You just go to Ye Tao, even if he doesn't agree to this matter, I am afraid that there will be no major battles for at least a period of time. Moreover, you have to take a good look at what kind of person Ye Tao is? What kind of people are the generals around him, such as Dai Yun and Chi Lei? There will be a battle with them."

Gao Senqi nodded and said, "I understand. Then I will arrange it and leave tomorrow."

Gao Pei nodded and said, "Well, be careful. I can rest assured that you are doing this. This trip is different from others, just remember not to be driven by momentary impulses."

After Gao Senqi left, Gao Pei stared blankly at the huge map hanging on the wall for a while. The map only had a rough outline of mountains and rivers, with different colored and shaped markers pinned on it to indicate the locations of the various troops. This was still passed down from the Yizhanlou (War Chess Tower) marching chess system, and now almost every army is learning and using this map marking method, making all the military information clear at a glance. It makes the vast battlefield look like a chess game.

Gao Pei's eyes were fixed on the current position of the Flying Tiger Banner. He pondered in his mind whether to continue to increase troops to the front line. Will his intentions be understood by both sides? Or will both sides misunderstand? ... After thinking for a while, Gao Pei still called the soldiers and ordered a unit of the Flying Tiger Battalion to advance one hundred and twenty miles, approaching the tacit buffer zone between the two sides. Moreover, this unit of the Flying Tiger Battalion will have full combat support. If Yunzhou is willing to continue to cooperate with the Western Route Army, the Flying Tiger Battalion will slowly retreat. If this is not the case, the Flying Tiger Battalion will ensure that the other troops of its side will not suffer heavy losses due to Yunzhou's sudden attack.

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I can't write fast, and I'm even busier during the New Year, so I don't have any manuscripts. I'm working hard. Tomorrow is the cover promotion, and there will be two updates.