We have fought to the Arctic Circle, and you want me to inherit the throne?

Yelu Yuan looked at Yelu Daha in astonishment. He never thought that such words would come from his father's mouth.

In his heart, Yelu Dahe is still the invincible king.

He was still the Khitan's greatest warrior who could shoot with both hands, was invincible on the battlefield, and broke through the enemy's formation with only dozens of cavalrymen.

How could a Yelu Dahe like that admit defeat?

He only thinks about how to defeat his opponent!

However, in fact, Yelu Dahe was already seventy years old.

He was already in his twilight years, and had been fighting all over the country for years, with countless hidden injuries on his body. The pain tortured his body all the time, and at the same time, it gradually destroyed his will.

Yelu Yuan gritted his teeth and replied, "How could my father possibly lose?! Please don't say such things!"

"Everyone will fail. I just want to ask you..." Yelu Dahe stared at his eldest son, "What if that day really comes?"

Yelu Yuan said stubbornly, "If that day ever comes, I would rather die than surrender. I will fight the Fengtian Army to the death!"

silence.

Yelu Dahe looked at his eldest son with an angry face, as if he saw his younger self.

After an unknown amount of time, he finally sighed deeply, his eyes full of disappointment.

It is easy to fight to the death, and although it takes courage to destroy both you and your enemy, it can be done in a moment of passion.

This is not what Yelu Daha wants to hear.

He would rather hear Yelu Yuan say that he would flee far to the north and ask the Shiwei people for protection in order to restore his country.

Or surrender to the country, endure humiliation, and wait for a comeback in the future.

But, Yelu Yuan finally gave him the stupidest answer.

Yelu Dahe was silent for a while, then said hoarsely, "Father Khan knows, I will not lose."

When Yelu Yuan heard this, he felt as if he had been pardoned.

However, before he could catch his breath, Yelu Dahe's next words made his heart sink.

"But, if that day ever comes, I hope you can survive, no matter what means."

"That King Feng is indeed powerful, but he is ultimately a Qing person, a Central Plains person, a Xia person. Since ancient times, the Central Plains people have defeated us countless times, but they have never truly conquered this land."

"We Khitans are wolves, and the people of the Central Plains are sheep. Perhaps a few strong outliers will occasionally appear among the sheep, but sheep cannot survive in this land. Only wolves can!"

Yelu Dahe looked at Yelu Yuan and said word by word, "Remember, living with humiliation and bearing heavy burdens requires more courage than dying tragically!"

Yelu Yuan shuddered slightly, then lowered his head and said, "Your son, I will remember this in my heart."

Yelu Dahe didn't know whether his eldest son could understand what he said, but he didn't have time to care about these things at the moment.

"I will leave Shangjing tomorrow. You will be in charge of domestic affairs. Please don't let me down."

Yelu Yuan was shocked: "Where is my father going?"

Yelu Dahe said calmly, "The youngsters from other tribes thought I was old, so they pretended to obey my orders but secretly disobeyed them, delaying them again and again."

"The tribe's livestock are nearly extinct, and they're on the verge of dying this spring. Yet, these cowards would rather starve to death than fight the Feng King."

"I'm going to go there myself and gather the troops to march south!"

. . . . . .

In April of the first year of Xuanwei, Yelu Daha, who had not personally led an expedition for more than ten years, left Khitan and went to Shangjing.

He led the Pi Shi Army and went to various Khitan tribes, forcing them to send troops.

The Khitan's power was based on military force. They called themselves the Great Liao, but in reality, it was difficult for Yelu Daha to maintain the order that a country should have, and the tribal leaders had great power.

However, at this moment, Yelu Daha's influence was still there, and although the leaders of various tribes were unwilling, they had no choice but to follow him to send troops.

The Khitans became civilians when they dismounted and soldiers when they mounted. They quickly assembled a large army and continuously sent reinforcements to the border between the two countries.

At the same time, Li Che's strategy was to mobilize troops, continuously march to the front line, and consolidate border defense.

It happened that the Fengtian Army was undergoing restructuring, and Li Che organized the troops into regiments, each with a thousand men, and sent them to the border.

This not only served the purpose of running-in, but also reduced the pressure of logistics and marching.

Li Che knew clearly that Yelu Dahe was more anxious than himself.

Feng State had stored food and fodder from the previous year, caravans continuously transported food from the interior, and four major production and construction corps such as Goryeo and Dalian provided support.

The most important thing is that Feng State is backed by Daqing. My father may not want Li Che to expand further, but he definitely does not want Li Che to suffer a major defeat and hand over his existing territory.

Once Emperor Qing learns that the Khitans are invading the country, he will immediately send assistance.

Fengguo can afford the loss, even if it takes another year or two, it will not suffer any damage.

But could the Khitans afford to waste time? Let alone a year or two, if they were to waste another two months, the Khitan army would starve to death!

Does Yelu Dahe have the strength to fight a war of attrition with himself?

In this way, both sides continued to station troops on the border and stockpile food and fodder.

In just over ten days, the total number of soldiers on the border between Feng State and Khitan has reached more than 200,000, and is still rising!

And on this day, imperial reinforcements arrived outside Chaoyang City.

Li Che did not go out of the city to greet him, but asked the commander to come to the government office to meet him.

Soon, a familiar figure appeared at the door.

A general in silver armor quickly walked up to Li Che and bowed respectfully, "I pay my respects to Your Highness."

Li Che glanced at him and immediately laughed: "General Xue, why don't you have a cold face today?"

Xue Wei glanced around and saw familiar faces everywhere. He couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed: "Now that we are in Fengguo, there is no need to act anymore."

Li Che's heart moved. It seemed that Xue Wei also knew that there was someone from Emperor Qing around him, and he might even have identified who it was.

But he didn't dwell on this topic, and went straight to the point: "How many people did General Xue bring?"

Xue Wei also said seriously: "I brought 20,000 men from my own army, 20,000 imperial guards sent by the court, and 10,000 Yan troops from Yan territory, a total of 50,000 men."

"Your Majesty has also ordered the various prefectures in the north to raise a total of 100,000 dan of military rations, 30,000 laborers and craftsmen from all regions, as well as weapons, armor, horses, and vehicles."

Li Che frowned when he heard this.

Although this batch of support arrived quickly, it was a bit too little.

Fifty thousand soldiers and horses are a lot, but facing a war of annihilation, it is difficult for them to play a decisive role.

As for how much 100,000 shi of grain and grass is?

Let me put it this way, during the Three Kingdoms period, Yuan Shu once wrote a letter to Lu Bu, with the purpose of asking Lu Bu to attack Xiaopei, on the condition that he provide support of 100,000 stones of grain.

Although Chen Gong felt that Yuan Shu was unreliable, Lu Bu did not listen to him and still stabbed Liu Bei in the back. Afterwards, Yuan Shu indeed broke his promise.

Lü Bu was furious and said, "One hundred thousand dan is enough for our army to use for two years."

At that time, Lu Bu had only 10,000 men under his command, and 100,000 shi of grain was only enough to feed these 10,000 men for two years.

It sounds like a lot, but in reality, when the number of people increases to 100,000, this amount of food is only enough for more than two months.

To put it bluntly, the food provided by Emperor Qing is only enough for the 50,000 reinforcements.

Xue Wei quickly said, "Don't worry, Your Highness. This is only the first batch of aid. As the war progresses, the court will surely send a steady stream of food and fodder."

Li Che smiled lightly. Emperor Qing was quite calculating.

Why separate them? Simply to control the battle situation. If the fighting gets intense and the Fengtian Army suffers repeated defeats, more and more reinforcements will naturally arrive.

But if the Fengtian Army wins battle after battle, or even defeats the Khitan effortlessly, it is estimated that there will be no support.

Li Che understood that this was the method a qualified emperor should use.

After all, in the eyes of the imperial court, if Feng State was allowed to annex the population and land of Khitan without any damage, then Feng State would become the most powerful vassal state in history, and Daqing would completely lose control of Feng State.

"Well, it seems that we can no longer count on Father. After all, we cannot rely on others' words to keep our promises in important matters."

Xue Zhen shrank his neck and pretended not to hear what was said.

"General Xue, please take a seat. Now that the imperial reinforcements have arrived, we should also formulate a strategy for this battle."

Xue Zhen bowed and then retreated quietly behind the group of generals.