This light snowfall at the beginning of the eleventh lunar month in the ninth year of Jianyan was insignificant in terms of the natural changes of nature, and it did not have any direct change in the war situation that was now in full swing.

However, regardless of civil and military affairs, regardless of East and West, regardless of Song and Jin Dynasties, almost all people of insight have realized that this snow is enough to be an omen.

A crisis is brewing.

However, before the crisis came, under the gloomy winter weather, on this afternoon after snow, Daming City took the lead in welcoming hundreds of Song Army elite cavalry from the east. The leading cavalry held a field high.

Zi Qi, with another Zhang Zi Qi behind him, came to the front of the city and exchanged some questions. The people of Daming City did not dare to neglect after a little inspection of their identity, so they also opened the city gate wide and immediately let the hundreds of horses in.

The two leaders among the visitors were none other than Tongtian Shizhong, the deputy capital of the Imperial Camp Right Army. They had previously served in the imperial camp's former army, but were pushed back to the imperial camp's right army by Yue Fei's initiative. Now they lead the army.

Zhang Zigai, who carried the Wei army on his back.

When the two of them entered Daming City, they were greeted by Wang Gui, deputy commander of the Imperial Army's former army, and Tang Huai, commander of the Chinese army, who had heard the news.

"Tian Dutong." Tang Huai was not good at words, but Wang Gui greeted him face to face. "Is the road going smoothly?"

"I am the deputy capital commander, and the commander-in-chief is my family." Tian Shizhong immediately corrected him coldly. "The road was fine, but when we came near here, we encountered a little trouble... Why are there so many logging teams?

, almost blocking the road?”

"The military order issued directly by the marshal started on the second day after the city was breached. It has not stopped, and we did not ask. Anyway, the more fortifications, boards and other things, the better." Wang Gui knew that the other party liked to pretend to be cold, so he did not

I care about the other person's tone and just explain casually.

"That's true." Tian Shizhong just asked casually, and then pointed to a two-sided scroll that could be seen far away in the west of the city. "Has Zhang Dutong arrived?"

"We're here. I'm with my Marshal around the water gate in the west of the city. He said that when Deputy Tian arrives, he will invite him over directly." After greetings, Wang Gui didn't say much and directly gave guidance.

Hearing this, Tian Shizhong frowned more and more, but in the end he didn't ask any more questions. He just asked Zhang Zigai to take his subordinates and Tang Huai to use some hot soup, while he hurried away with Wang Gui.

Meet Yue and Zhang.

After crossing the two big banners and arriving near the water gate in the west of the city, I didn't see many flags or high-ranking officers. There was only a hot air balloon with a tiger face painted on it that had already been inflated. It was originally raised in one place.

The rammed earth platform that was two to three feet high was shaking slightly, as if it was ready. Yue and Zhang, dressed in homely clothes, were also standing next to the hot air balloon. When they saw Tian Shizhong and Wang Gui coming over, they were even more excited.

He raised his hand and immediately turned over and jumped into the big basket.

These days, there are many idle people who dare to float around in hot air balloons, and this kind of tethered hot air balloons needless to say. Tian Shizhong understood and had nothing to avoid. Just to prevent overheating, he hurriedly removed the outer armor

, then he and Wang Gui followed and jumped into the basket.

Immediately, under the command of the famous commander Bei Yanbei, the soldiers below carefully helped remove the counterweight and released the rope with hinges. However, they only dared to let the hot air balloon rise another four to five feet, and the ropes on all sides were not in contact with it.

The turrets on all sides of the platform and the trees were well tied up... It seems that they are still worried that something will happen. When the time comes, the four generals from Hebei will be killed with a basket, and all the luck of the Northern Expedition will be leaked.

However, this height is enough.

After all, this kind of stable and generous elevated observation tower is not comparable to the narrow and cramped wooden observation tower. The four people took out the crystal telescopes given by the emperor in the basket, and each looked at the surrounding military camps, roads, rivers, and markets.

, the trees are clearly visible, especially the layout in Yuancheng opposite Daming City. At this time, it has lost the cover of the four-foot-high city wall, and the interior layout is almost unobstructed.

Even, they could clearly see through the telescope that the Jin Army in Yuancheng was pointing at the rising hot air balloon, and they seemed to be used to it.

Yes, one more thing must be said here. Daming City, which gave Daming Mansion its name, is not the capital of Daming Mansion now. Yuancheng, across the water, is the current capital of Daming Mansion, which is the so-called traditional sense of the Song Dynasty.

'Beijing City'.

The reason for this change is no longer clear.

However, judging from the geographical situation that Tian Shizhong and others were watching from a high position at this time, this migration of urban subjects seemed to be natural - Yuancheng on the other side of the river is located in the narrowest area in the middle of the fork of the North Yellow River, directly adjacent to the east

The fork of the Yellow River is only about ten miles away from the other fork to the west. In addition to the Yongji Canal that passes through the western river and turns north at Damingfu, the three waterways passing through Damingfu almost run through the entire Hebei area.

This made this place a natural transportation gathering point in the Hebei region under the territorial state before the Song Dynasty.

In comparison, the Daming City at our feet, which the Song Army occupied just over ten days ago, is more like a functional companion city on the opposite side because it only guards a waterway to the east of Yuancheng.

Even more than ten miles east of Daming City, next to another fork of the Yellow River, there is an old town. Some people say that was where the original city of Daming Prefecture was.

Without further ado, Tian Shizhong looked at the basket for a while, then suddenly put away his telescope and pointed to a place on the opposite side in surprise: "Those are counterweight artillery carriages?!"

"Yes!" Yue Fei knew where the other party was pointing without even looking. "Twenty of them. It's been eight years since the Battle of Nanyang. How can we hide it? There are not only counterweight artillery carts on the opposite side, but also hot air balloons...

…”

"How come you didn't see it?" Tian Shizhong had just come back to his senses and asked in surprise.

"The Jin people know how to make artillery carts, and you can understand the principles of a counterweighted artillery car at a glance, but the hot air balloon is different." Wang Gui, who added a shovelful of charcoal to the furnace in the middle of the hot air balloon, laughed. "The enthusiasm of the Jin people is

The balloons were punctured and could not withstand burning. We came to Daming City for about ten days and released them here. Yuancheng across the street followed suit at the beginning. We released them three times and burned them twice. It seemed that there was still one left, but we were reluctant to release it again.

I guess it will be used during the siege."

"That's it." Tian Shizhong nodded, and then shook his head as if he suddenly realized. "That's not what I meant. What I originally meant was that the two cities are only separated by a river, only five or six hundred steps away.

What if they use clay bombs, or wooden bombs coated with gunpowder or oil? Wang Dutong, how dare you let the two Jiedu get into this basket?"

"No." Wang Gui quickly explained with a smile. "Not to mention whether they have that kind of wooden bullets, Tian Dutong has seen clearly that the gun emplacements on the opposite side are dead, and they are all aimed at the river... Besides,

Well, this hot air balloon flies up every day to see the military situation in the opposite city, and they have already seen it all. They don’t know that there is a big shot in this hot air balloon, so do they need to build a new artillery car specifically for sniping?"

Tian Shizhong was startled for a moment, then picked up the telescope and took a closer look. Sure enough, as Wang Gui said, the artillery position in Yuancheng, near the east port, was completely motionless, as if it had been fixed in advance. It had already been aimed at the river outside the city.

However, after Tian Shizhong saw it clearly, instead of relaxing, he became more serious. Because in his opinion, Gao Jingshan's arrangement was the right thing to do...lock the river to prevent Zhang Rong's navy from sneaking into the city from here. , and also to prevent Zhang Rong from repeating his old trick of occupying the river channel to lead the main force of the former army across the river... This is a strategic arrangement, and it is an absolutely useful arrangement.

Moreover, after fixing the gun positions, manpower can also be freed up, and only a few supervisory troops can be used to supervise civilians.

On the contrary, it would be unreasonable to point the artillery truck this way and hope to hit Daming City with two cannons, which is outside the effective range, and hope to get lucky.

"How?" Yue Fei spoke again, as if he was continuing Wang Gui's words just now.

"Difficult!" Tian Shizhong responded, but for some reason, he directly changed the topic to an inexplicable topic. "Marshal... Let me tell you something first. After the snow the day before yesterday, in a town called Sunsheng Town in the northeast of Xiajin County In this place, three thousand of our troops swept northward and encountered the Jin army. They were defeated directly and lost more than half...According to the description of the defeated soldiers, it should be the headquarters of Wang Bolong, a member of the Ten Thousand Households of the Jin Kingdom. Counting Wang Gang's previous defeat in Liaocheng, Li Baoshui made a reckless landing after the war, winning first and then losing. Although our side has made progress, we have already lost three battles."

Yue Fei frowned slightly when he heard this, without any extra expression, he just nodded in response.

Zhang Rong, on the other hand, finally stopped observing the surrounding area of ​​the river. While carefully putting away the telescope, he couldn't help but ask on the spot: "I have heard of this Wang Bolong's name a long time ago. I only know that he is Wanhu of the East Route Army... …Should he be a Han Chinese? What is his origin?”

"Although Wang Bolong is a Han, he has always been living outside the Great Wall." Seeing that it was Zhang Rong who spoke, Yue Fei explained a little, but he opened his mouth with countless treasures, as if he knew them by heart. "In the second year after the founding of the Jin Kingdom, tens of thousands of people were gathered together. After Aguda was surrendered, he immediately became the hereditary Meng'an... However, at that time, there were many Liao thieves who surrendered gold, including Han people, Khitan people, Xi people, and Bohai people, but it was nothing... Only later , Twenty years after the First World War of the Jin Dynasty, all Aguda was dead, and these bandits had long since met their fate. Only Wang Bolong participated in the entire process of destroying the Liao Dynasty. He was the vanguard of the army, fighting all the way from Baihe to Tokyo City. His treatment, bravery, and bravery were all the same as those of the Jurchens. He also stood out and became the pillar of the Jin Army... In these years, he has been stationed in the Hejian Prefecture area, and because of He often went up first in person, so he was known as the most powerful general of the Eastern Route Army, even above Zhen Lubu."

Zhang Rong suddenly understood, and then sighed: "With such a person and soldiers, it is normal to lose in the wilderness... And the river is not directly north... The current situation is that Tiandu's subordinates are colliding with each other on the Qingshui side. superior."

"Both Jiedu, I'm not asking for favors." Tian Shizhong still looked unhappy. "Winning or losing is common in military affairs. If you lose, you will lose... The key is that Wang Bolong didn't go south before. Wouldn't it be right to go south now? Is it consistent with the military situation reported to the marshal before? The Jin army seems to have made a big decision and mobilized in large numbers, preparing to surround us from all sides."

"Yes." Yue Fei held on to the thick rope of the hot air balloon and spoke seriously. "A few days ago, there was a messenger from the Royal Cavalry in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, saying that the Jin Army in Longde Prefecture suddenly sent out a cavalry force of thousands to lock Taihangxing.

, pressing Huaizhou, seems to be worried about reinforcements coming from the east of the river; the Sentinel Cavalry has also recently discovered that there is a large-scale recruitment of troops on the other side of the river... It is said that they want to recruit 300,000 people... From this point of view, plus you collided in the northeast of Xiajin the day before yesterday

When you go to Wang Bolong, you basically know that the Jin army will attack in a large scale, and it is impossible to say that there will be 13 or 40,000 households!"

Master Tian had already expected this, but he couldn't help but change his expression at this moment.

"What's there to talk about?" Zhang Rong was a little impatient. "In the past few years, didn't the officials and the court make many plans? According to those calculations, eight out of ten times would be the result...

...It is indeed like this...Pengju, you called us here to formulate a response strategy, not to scare people."

"According to the official, there is nothing to discuss about the response strategy." Tian Shizhong shook his head. "In the past, the martial arts school and the Privy Council discussed various plans, and the official was fully aware of them. Now the Jin Army has dispatched the east and west to come together.

, with almost twice as many troops as me, and even more cavalry, we are almost unable to fight in the field. We can only find a line of defense to survive the winter when the rivers dry up and freeze, and then plan for the future..."

"That's right." Yue Fei responded calmly. "We can't win a field battle at all, and a wasteful battle will only ruin the overall situation... But how to defend? Where to defend? This is why I called Tian Dutong here today."

Tian Shizhong felt a little relieved, but then he seemed a little hesitant: "Marshal, General Shu Mo will bluntly say that if you want to maintain the situation at the moment, it is nothing more than to occupy the city, and if you want to do something after guarding the winter, what else can you do?

Dezhihe..."

"good."

"Here in Hebei, the Yellow River is divided into two forks and five forks. Counting from south to north, Damingfu is right in the middle of the third and fourth forks... We are equivalent to taking all the two forks of the east road, right in the second and third forks.

In between..."

"Why are you talking nonsense?" Zhang Rong couldn't bear to listen anymore. "Just talk about how to keep it when it freezes."

"Zhang Dutong, what your official is saying is that we are now between the East Road and the North Road of the Yellow River. The bifurcation around this famous city is only about ten miles wide. The farther back you go, the wider the gap becomes, especially after passing Xiajin, and even more.

It suddenly widens, and when you reach the seaside, it covers the entire Cangzhou, nearly three hundred miles from north to south... These days, the two of you are making progress here at the fork of the river, while my imperial right army is responsible for finishing the downstream, and the troops are spread across several states.

The land is really weak... The defeat of Sun Sheng this time is proof... The area between the second and third forks is really too wide. Without reinforcements, I'm afraid I won't even be able to defend Xia Jin face to face."

"You mean, we have to retreat?" Zhang Rong couldn't help but frown. "Where should we retreat?"

Tian Shizhong held on to the long rope next to the basket and looked at Yue Fei, but Yue Fei just let go of his arms and stood there, thoughtful and silent.

In desperation, Tian Shizhong didn't bother to make any more tricks and said the truth directly: "It's up to the two Jiedu to decide where to retreat, but the forces of the right army of the imperial camp are spread too wide. After the winter freezes, there is no way to retreat."

After the river is blocked, let alone continue to advance, even the current posture cannot be maintained... Otherwise, it is impossible to say that it will be divided and swept by the Jin army! According to the official's wishes, if we withdraw to the front line ten days ago, relying on the second

By setting up defenses along the fork road, we can more or less explain it to the DPRK and China... Just don’t take the half of the famous mansion you just got!"

Zhang Rong shook his head repeatedly: "We must not abandon Daming Mansion!"

Tian Shizhong was extremely speechless, but the opponent's official position was much higher than his own, and it was normal for a water general to not understand things on land, but he was too lazy to argue with the opponent, and just stared at Yue Fei.

Yue Fei leaned against the chest-high basket and was silent for a moment, and finally spoke calmly, but first he said to Zhang Rong: "Let me tell you a few things... First of all, the right army of the Imperial Camp has few soldiers, and now it is guarding Binzhou and Dizhou.

, Dezhou, Bozhou, plus the newly acquired half of Daming Prefecture, and more than a dozen cities, which fully demonstrated the advantages of dispersed troops. Once the river freezes and the river is blocked, and the Jin army gathers in large numbers, one cannot hold it at all, and the other

Then, even if the Jin army ignores it, the right army can only shrink in the city, unable to play any role in delaying the attack... It is indeed necessary to abandon some places, and they must abandon them early, so that they can free up their hands to use their strength in key places.

The commander-in-chief is well aware of the difficulties faced by the right army in the imperial camp and takes it very seriously."

"That's what I mean." Tian Shizhong hurriedly looked at him sincerely, but only Wang Gui in the big basket smiled at him.

Zhang Rong just shook his head.

"Secondly." Yue Feifu turned to Tian Shizhong again. "I know what Zhang Dutong meant. He is not trying to embarrass your right army. What he wants is to find some cities with water ports to protect during the period when the river is frozen.

The fleet... At the moment, the best places are actually the nearby Guzheng Town, Hanzhang Town upstream, and Shanghuxun... To protect these places, whether there is a famous city or not is not the same thing."

"It's not just my own fleet." Zhang Rong also seriously interjected and explained. "The key is that only with the fleet in hand will the Jin army be scrupulous and not dare to cross the river in a large scale, so that our navy will block their way out... So

, Generally speaking, from Shaoxing (Baima) to Puzhou, and then to Daming City at the foot of this bifurcated area, we must seize as many places as possible before the freeze."

Tian Shizhong also sighed.

In fact, he came to his senses after listening to Yue Fei's words halfway... He just complained about Zhang Rong, a rough man, for ignoring the difficulties of the imperial camp's right army, but he also forgot that the imperial camp's navy also had its own difficulties.

If the Jin army takes advantage of the freeze and the ship is burned and the ship is destroyed, not to mention how the Song army will find ways to invade Damingfu in the spring, even Tokyo will be in real danger.

You must know that the Jin army is not only locking the river on the east side of Daming Mansion, but also on the west side of the river, which is dozens of miles behind Xiao Wuxi that day. There is always a fleet that was beaten by Zhang Rong before and did not dare to show its face.
To be continued...