The Song Dynasty has been deliberate for 16 years, only to know that it is the Water Margin

The next day, Zhao Tong sat in the hall and watched the military report, his expression solemn.

The scouts have detected traces of large groups of troops moving back and forth in Mingsha City in the northeast.

Zhao Tong thought that the reinforcements from Xingqing Mansion had arrived. The other party did not choose Yingli City, but stationed in Mingsha City, which was within his expectation.

Yingli City belongs to the Xishou Baotai Military Division. It is at the northernmost boundary of the military division. It is backed by the ancient Great Wall. It is in a lonely location. There is only the town of Shatuo around it. The distance is not too close. It is easy to attack and difficult to defend. It is not the best garrison. Place.

Mingsha City is different. Mingsha City is a subordinate city of Jingsai Army. Although it is on the western border of Jingsai Army, it is not far from Weizhou and Xiakou Pass of Xiangqing Army above. The main road of Qing Mansion occupies the throat, suitable for guarding and fortifying troops and horses.

Therefore, even if Zhao Tao leads his army south, he will basically choose Mingsha City instead of stopping somewhere else.

After reading the military report and thinking for a moment, Zhao Tong immediately summoned the generals to discuss matters.

Du Bo, Zhang Xian, Li Yanxian, Lu Da, and Xu Ning are the five generals under his command at the moment. Shi Jin and Yang Zhi have gone to Liangzhou and are not with him.

In addition to the five people, the commanders of the guards in each army who were in charge of thousands of people also came over. There were more people in this group, more than forty. After all, there were more than 40,000 troops and horses in Huizhou.

These thousand-man guard captains can be regarded as the mainstay of the army. Although they cannot be said to be more important than the generals, it does not matter if there are one or two fewer generals, but these guard captains are absolutely indispensable.

After all, the military structure established by Zhao Tong in Xining is implicitly based on an independent unit of thousands of people, so for each thousand-man guard, the team, battalion, and guard leaders are indispensable.

As soon as the situation in Mingsha City was mentioned, the people below immediately started talking. They were not afraid of the Xixia reinforcements, but were eager to give it a try.

Zhao Taohu said with a face: "The opponent will have at least 50,000 troops, but this is not the most important. The most important thing is that the opponent has Tie Yao Zi and Bu Ba Zi, two elites who have fought in hundreds of battles. Tie Yao Zi is a heavy armored cavalry. Once on the battlefield, The charge is invincible and unstoppable, and Bu Ba Zi is even faster. Among the ancient foot soldiers, in terms of speed alone, there is probably no one around him."

A guard commander of the vine armor soldiers below said: "Your Majesty, the hooks and sickles we have been training during this period are not vegetarian. No matter how powerful their iron kites are, can they still block the spears and hooks from cutting the horse's feet? A horse has four legs, as long as they are broken If there is only one, then his ride will be completely useless and will no longer be of any use. Moreover, if the horse falls on the battlefield, it will also affect the other cavalry's ability to continue running."

The new hook-scythe gun developed by Luda and Xu Ning is different from the past. Not only is the gun body longer, but the sickle-like chisel blade on it is wider and wider, and it can be opened on both sides.

Its shape is that of a large gun shaft. Under the front of the gun head, a sickle head that is more than a foot long comes out horizontally. However, this sickle head is sharpened both inside and outside, with edges on both sides. Whether it is pushed forward or hooked back, everything can be done. Can cause great harm.

If it were the position of the war horse's legs and hoofs, once pushed up, the hoofs of the war horse would be cut off directly.

If when pushing forward, the horse steps to avoid it, then just hook it back. Now the hook is solid, and the horse's hoof will be hooked directly.

Therefore, combined with the elastic rattan armor, it is simply the nemesis of armored cavalry such as Iron Kites.

Another guard chief also said: "My lord, the hook and sickle can break the iron kite, and our shield-branded ground knife can also break the Bubazi. The ground knife is not afraid of the opponent's speed. The faster the Bubazi, the better." , it will hit the ground knife directly!"

The Tengpai ground knife was developed by Zhao Yan and Li Yanxian, but in the past few days, Li Yanxian modified the ground knife in the army and created a small Tengpai ground knife array.

Every three people in this sword formation can cooperate to form a small formation. If they are not close to each other on the battlefield, that's fine. But as long as three people are close to each other, they can immediately form a formation. Although it cannot be said that the combat power is doubled immediately, it is at least better than singles. Fighting alone should increase by 30 to 50%.

Then many guardsmen expressed their opinions. Ever since they participated in the discussion for the first time during the Battle of Shikawa, they all knew that Zhao Tao was kind, especially when it came to military matters. He liked to listen to discussions, right or wrong. It doesn't matter, as long as you say it, he will be happy, so everyone can express their opinions and speak freely.

After the case, Zhao Tong sometimes nodded, sometimes shook his head, sometimes smiled, but did not interrupt anyone's speech. He only asked them to argue with each other, support each other and agree, and oppose and overthrow each other.

After a full hour or two passed, the voices in the lobby gradually became quiet. Everyone present said almost everything they were thinking. Naturally, there was not much left to say, so they all looked at Zhao Tong.

Zhao Tong smiled. In fact, these guard chiefs all had the same idea, which was to take the initiative. They did not want to be trapped in Huizhou. Even if they did not go to Mingsha City, they would still set up a battle formation in the mountains outside the city and charge against the opponent.

In fact, this is not a good idea, because in this case, the opponent's elites such as Iron Yaozi Bubazi can just come in handy. If they stick to Huizhou, then at least the opponent's heavy cavalry will be useless and a lot of pressure can be reduced.

But judging from the entire battle situation, it is impossible to defend the city, because at this moment, almost all of his troops are concentrated in Huizhou, and the places such as Fuchuan and Zhuolu in the rear are almost like paper. There are only a few people in each city. The few hundred people left were simply not enough to resist the enemy.

If Li Qianshun led his troops to bypass Huizhou and attack directly to the rear, the cities that had already been conquered in the back would be lost in the blink of an eye. Then Li Qianshun would come back and send another group of troops from the Jingsai Army Division, and Huizhou would be defeated. Trapped in a desperate situation.

What's more, he has to cooperate with General Lu's plan to "leave Xiliang Mansion". Not only must the Xixia elite be trapped in Huizhou, but he must also try his best to eliminate the opponent's effective forces, especially Tie Yaozi. According to According to Zhao Tong's plan, Tie Yaozi must catch them all in one fell swoop, leaving no enemy behind and annihilating the whole army. This must not be allowed to leave alive, the only heavy horse in the world today.

Once this heavy armored cavalry returns alive, even if General Lu takes Xingqing Mansion, he will be afraid of running into the opponent and losing the advantage he finally won, because the power of the heavy armored cavalry on the battlefield is too great. .

And without Tie Yaozi, Xixia is just an aging wolf that has lost its claws and has nothing to fear. It has been fighting against the Song Dynasty for so many years. If Tie Yaozi Bu Bazi hadn't been hanging on by elites like Tie Yaozi, he would have been called Xixia. The army collapsed.

Therefore, Zhao Tong cannot stick to the city. Even if it is advantageous to stick to it, he cannot stay in Huizhou. He must fight out and fight with the opponent in the wild, waiting for an opportunity to destroy Tie Yaozi.

"Okay, you are all right!" Zhao Tong stretched out his hands and pressed down.

"I have just listened to what you said and thought a lot about it. I also decided not to stay in Huizhou this time, but to take the initiative to attack Mingsha City and have a battle with the opponent."

Everyone below suddenly became excited when they heard the words, and they all shouted: "Your Majesty is wise, your Majesty has a wonderful plan, you can conquer all attacks, and you are invincible in every battle!"

The corners of Zhao Tong's eyes twitched, and he thought to himself, who did he learn this word from? However, he did not scold these guardsmen for imitating flattery. After all, a war was imminent and a united effort was needed. Flattery could sometimes gather people's hearts. Zhao Tong nodded and looked at how late it was getting outside. He announced that the meeting would be adjourned temporarily. However, no one left the house, so they ate in the Military Supervisory Department. After the meal, they continued to talk by night light.

A long dining table was lined up in the lobby, and steaming white-flour pancakes were served in earthen basins. There were only two dishes, lamb in a basin and beef bones stewed with wild vegetables. Although it was simple, it was enough.

Zhao Tong also had these three kinds in front of him. He ate five pancakes in a row and finished all the dishes. Then he wiped his mouth and leaned back on the chair to wait for everyone to finish.

All the soldiers in the army have big appetites, some of whom can eat more than ten pancakes in one meal. Now there are big-bellied men like Luda here. When there is no wine to drink, they eat food in a hurry, which is enough. I ate nearly twenty pancakes and drank all the mutton and beef bone soup in front of me before I gave up.

After the visitors had cleared away the dishes, tables and chairs in the hall, Zhao Tong ordered the discussion to continue. He asked Zhang Xian to take out a map and hang it in an empty space for everyone to see.

This map was hand-drawn by himself. After all, maps, especially military maps, have always been a country's secret. Even the various military supervisory departments in Xixia were not complete.

Zhuoluo didn't have a complete map of Xishou, and Xishou didn't have a complete map of Jingsai. Zhao Tong worked hard and relied on the memories of some merchants in the city and the geography explored by the Tanma scouts during this period. I can't say how accurate this picture is, but it's not too wrong either.

Zhang Xian stood in front of the map and gave directions to everyone. Originally, many of the guard commanders below did not know the location of Mingsha City, but now they understood it immediately after looking at the military map, and someone shouted: "I didn't expect that the enemy would be stationed here. , this is the main route to the north, if we go to Xingqing Mansion, we must capture Mingsha City."

But then someone sneered: "Your Majesty said that Brother Richard, the King of the Jin Dynasty of Xixia, personally brought troops. This man is called the God of Military of Xixia. How could he be stationed in a useless place? This Mingsha City is a throat, and there are places like Weizhou nearby that are feasible. Support naturally comes from Chen Bing’s place.”

"Hey, where is this place that looks like a brick wall? And there are twists and turns here..." someone asked doubtfully.

Zhang Xian glanced at it: "The brick wall-like place is the ancient Great Wall, and the winding line next to it is the Mingsha River. The three are not far apart."

After hearing this, everyone nodded and understood that there was no fixed standard for military maps at this time. Most things were marked with pictograms, and these guards chiefs were basically not from serious martial arts backgrounds, so they were unfamiliar with some of the military maps. There were some things that he couldn't understand, so Zhang Xian pointed them out one by one.

After a long while, after getting a general understanding of the terrain, everyone went back and sat down. Zhao Tong asked Du Bo and Li Yanxian to list several troop dispatching plans for everyone's consideration.

The two of them had an idea, and sending troops to fight requires emotions. They had accumulated it bit by bit before, and now they just threw it out, just for everyone to evaluate.

After everyone watched and discussed several plans for sending troops, only two were left with the most support. One of them was to go north along the Hulu Road to the Mingsha River, and then go east along the Mingsha River and slowly move closer to the vicinity of Mingsha City.

This gourd road is one of the two passages leading north to the border of Xiangqing Army. This road is to the west and is not considered the main road. It is relatively narrow. There is also a road to the east, which is the Zhengdaguan Road, but it is far away from Jingsai. The boundaries of the military division are very close.

The east road is suitable for large armies and fast horses. It is a main road with fertile fields on both sides. There are several trails to the north, but they are mixed in some mountains on the middle side, which does not have much strategic significance.

Another plan is to capture Yingli City and sneak attack Mingsha City along the side of the ancient Great Wall. However, Yingli City is not directly in front of Huizhou on the way north, but to the northwest. Once you go there, you will feel a little careless about home. , always don't be awkward.

Zhao Tong stood up at this time, walked to the military map and pointed out: "The two options you chose may seem feasible, but in fact they have big loopholes."

Everyone listened attentively when they heard the words. Zhao Tong said calmly: "It is meaningless to attack Yingli City. It is far away from the main road to the north and not close to Huizhou. If the army pushes past, it will expose Jiangzhou to the opponent. Since We can sneak attack Mingsha along the ancient Great Wall, so why won’t the other side just go south to capture Huizhou?”

"As for taking the Hulu Road to reach the Mingsha River and march north, it is also inappropriate. Let's not talk about whether the Hulu Road is suitable for marching a large army. If you go there, you will also face the worry of the opponent going directly south to attack Huizhou, so these two options are not feasible. OK!"

Everyone was speechless after hearing this and began to think.

Zhao Tong put his hands on the desk, leaned forward, and said in an inspiring tone: "Don't just think about how you will march, but also think about the other party. The other party is not a dead thing. If you are Brother Richard, leading an army of tens of thousands , and there are elites like Tie Yao Zi Bu Ba Zi, wouldn’t they strike first? They may not necessarily march behind our army!”

"Your Majesty, your Majesty means..." A guard commander immediately exclaimed: "They will send troops before us?"

Zhao Tong squinted at the guard captain and smiled: "Perhaps they have already left Mingsha City by now!"

"Then, then Tan Ma..." The guard commander immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

"How can Tanma return so quickly? If the other party comes out of Mingsha, it will take at least a day for Tanma to come back. If that is the case, he will arrive tomorrow morning."

"This, this..." Seeing what Zhao Tong said, the following started talking again.

Zhao Tong sat down to drink tea and looked at the guard captains. After a while, his voice gradually fell down, and he spoke again: "So this time we are fighting against the opponent, there are not many tricks. We just send out troops openly, because we need to protect them." If we go to Huizhou later, we can't take the Calabash Road, we can only go through the east road and have a Shanyuan battle with the opponent!"

"Your Majesty, if this is the case, then don't we need to send troops as soon as possible?" a guard captain said with bright eyes.

Zhao Tong glanced at him and saw that he was a guard commander of the Tengjia Army, named Jiang Sanshui, and now belonged to the Hook, Sickle and Spear Team.

"When do you think we should send troops?" Zhao Tong asked.

"My subordinates feel that..." Jiang Sanshui scratched his head and said, "Tonight, no... it would be best to send troops tomorrow morning."

Zhao Tong smiled when he heard this: "I'm afraid it won't be possible to send troops tomorrow morning. We need to make more preparations. We won't be able to do it until noon tomorrow at the earliest!"

(End of this chapter)