After three days of study in Yicheng, the senior military and political officials of the various departments of Jingxiang were ordered to return to the station together with the officials of the supervision group dispatched. Zhao Yu adjusted the current operational direction of the various units, and the operational direction of the Sixth Army was still the southern part of Xiangyang, the operational direction of the Seventh Army was the western part of Xiangyang, and the operational direction of the Eighth Army was Gucheng on the other side of the Guanghua Army.

At the same time, Zhao Yu ordered the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Artillery Division to go to Fancheng to assist the 1st Brigade of the Protector Army in defending the city; Ordered the 2nd Cavalry Division to launch an attack in the direction of Nanyang, and made a gesture of seizing Nanyang, so that the enemy of Nanyang did not dare to move recklessly to send reinforcements to Xiangyang. In the name of Xingying, a general mobilization order was issued to capture Xiangyang, and the governor's office issued a campaign preparation order, ordering all garrisons in Jingxiang to carry out pre-battle training and reconnaissance and battle plans against Xiangyang.

After the order was issued, under the guidance of the supervision regiment, all units carried out training in view of the mountainous terrain and high cities around Xiangyang, and required to strengthen the command ability of regimental and battalion commanders in mountain operations and infantry and artillery coordinated operations. the command ability of the commander of the detachment in attack tactics and mortar use; Strengthen the training of soldiers in assassination, bomb throwing, climbing the city, crossing trenches, swimming crossing, and detachment attack tactics, and improve the level of melee skills and tactics.

Senior officers lack a sense of the overall situation, their command ability is weak, and they lack foresight in the course of operations. Through the analysis of the entire battle situation and the investigation of the geographical situation of Jingxiang, they strengthened their overall view; When formulating operational plans, they preset possible problems and formulate different plans to improve their command level.

After more than ten days of intensive training, the armies launched attacks on their respective targets, and the Sixth and Seventh Armies began to carry out point operations against the enemy fortresses on the outer edge of the Han River, clearing the obstacles to enter the hinterland of Xiangyang; The Eighth Army, with the assistance of the Imperial Navy, forcibly crossed the Han River and launched an attack on Guseong; The 2nd Cavalry Division was based in Fancheng and launched raids and harassment operations against the Mengyuan occupation zone in the north.

During this period, Zhao Yu was not idle, as the camp was stationed in Yicheng, the communication channel with the Beijing division was re-established, and the official documents began to be sent to his case again. Although the Empress Dowager supervised the country, Lu Xiufu and others assisted in dealing with it, there were still some things that he still needed to deal with as an emperor, or tell him to deal with them.

Therefore, in two months, a lot of official documents and recitals have been accumulated, not to mention that they have been given instructions one by one, but it takes a lot of time to read them through. And Zhao Yu obviously doesn't have that much energy, but fortunately, the Imperial Front Office has been classified according to priority. Urgent reports and official documents that require the decision of His Majesty must be sent to the Imperial Court every morning.

As for the official documents that have been pre-processed by the Queen Mother and the Zaiac, if you only need Your Majesty to use the seal, you must also inform Your Majesty in time and reply as soon as possible; As for the official documents that have been approved by the court and the Queen Mother, they are only informative documents and inconsequential greetings, and other things are only briefings, and your Majesty should know them immediately.

Even these official documents, which have been filtered several times, are several feet thick every day when they are sent to Zhao Hao. After all, the country is big, and I don't know how many things are going to happen every day. And these have to be summarized layer by layer, and he has to coordinate and make handling suggestions. It can be seen that the daily workload is huge, but who made him the emperor, the centralizer of this country?

After a few days of forgetting to sleep and eat, Zhao Yu finally dealt with the backlog of urgent official documents, and took the time to write letters to the Queen Mother and several wives respectively, so that he could be appeased. Although new official documents are still being delivered, after all, there are many fewer of them, and they have returned to their daily level, allowing him to deal with them calmly and be distracted from the current war.

"You have done a good job, you have completed the reconnaissance of the periphery of the Xiangyang area in more than ten days, and obtained detailed information!" Zhao Yu looked at the sand table in the Xiangyang area placed in the inner hall and the map hung on the four walls, and looked at Xu Wuqian very pleased.

"Your Majesty, your subordinates have not been able to penetrate deep into the north bank of the Han River and enter the hinterland of Xiangyang to conduct reconnaissance, and I ask Your Majesty to allow your subordinates to explore again!" Xu Wuqian did not take credit, and said politely.

"Do you have any ideas?" Zhao Yu asked with a little surprise.

"My subordinates know that the current situation is very urgent, and Your Majesty wants to conquer Xiangyang as soon as possible, so I suddenly had an idea when I was scouting." Xu Wuji replied.

"Well, although I think so, the use of soldiers is a big deal, and we can't rush it because of this!" Zhao Yu nodded.

The current situation is generally not optimistic, and this is not only because of the combat effectiveness and command level of the armies. They traveled a long way from Yingtianfu, and in order to pursue speed, they did not carry a lot of baggage, and although there were supplies along the way, they were only enough for the headquarters for a month. Although the Imperial Sailor later transported a batch of baggage, it was a drop in the bucket for the 200,000 army, which was not enough to support the consumption of the entire campaign.

However, the ammunition in the Jingxiang Theater is not sufficient, and the loss is large due to poor preservation, so there is a shortage of ammunition, and it will take time to transfer it from Lin'an. And Xiangyang City is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the city is thick, if you want to break the city, you must rely on fire support, the gunpowder and cannonballs consumed cannot be estimated, but it is certainly a number beyond imagination. In addition, there are heavy enemy troops in the city, which increases the difficulty of attacking fortifications, and there are concerns about enemy reinforcements coming to attack.

Although the current strength of the enemy and us is equal, it is also contrary to the principle of doubling the siege force. However, if the organization of a strong offensive is victorious, it will inevitably pay heavy casualties, which is very unfavorable to the future transfer to defensive operations, and it is also not in line with Zhao Hao's principle of employing troops. However, if the rash siege fails, and the loss of troops and materials is serious, it will take longer to organize an attack again, and it will not be able to reach it quickly.

"Your Majesty, please allow your subordinates to be clear and see if this is appropriate!" Xu Wujian did not give up because of His Majesty's attitude, and spoke again.

"Okay, let's hear me!" Zhao Yu looked at him fixedly, and after half a month of field reconnaissance, Xu Wuyan's face had lost a lot of weight, and there were still marks of scratches on his neck, but his gaze was still firm, and he agreed with his stubborn appearance.

"Your Majesty, my subordinates thought that our army could launch an attack from the west of the city." Xu Wuyi pointed to the sand table and said.

"Director Xu should not be unconventional, the previous dynasties attacked Xiangyang because the mountain road west of the city was difficult, which was not conducive to the movement of the army, so the siege of the city was taken to the south of the city, are you more clever than the famous generals of the previous dynasties?" Wang Yinglin frowned when he heard this.

Wang Xiang is right. However, the lower officials thought that it was precisely because the previous dynasties attacked Xiangyang by the south of the city, so they gathered heavy troops in the south of the city and relied on Da Xian Mountain to set up a fortress to block the attack route. And if our army wants to attack the mountain first and then attack the city from the south of the city to the bottom of the city, the attack speed will be slow, and one place will be blocked, which will affect the entire battle plan! Xu Wuqian pointed to the fortified roads in the south of Xiangyang on the sand table.

"In the west of Xiangyang City, the enemy army also built a lot of fortresses on Wanshan Mountain, guarding the passage to Xiangyang, and if you want to get to the city, you must also uproot them one by one. Moreover, the mountains here are steep and the trees are abundant, so it will be more difficult to attack the mountains. Zhao Hao asked rhetorically.

"Your Majesty, there is Hutou Mountain five miles southwest of Xiangyang City, this mountain is choking the mouth of the White River, and it can cut off the Xiangyang grain road!" Xu has no difficulty.

"Well, Ah Shu besieged Xiangyang City back then, built Lumen and Xincheng forts here, blocked the passage, and there will inevitably be heavy guards here." Zhao Yu nodded.

"Your Majesty is looking to the west, there is a mountain called Pipa Mountain here, connected with Turtle Mountain in the east, looking at Wanshan Mountain in the west, seeing Hanshui in the north, belonging to the remaining veins of Hutou Mountain, and the enemy army has a fortress here. But if we pull out of this fortress, we will be able to avoid the rest of the fortress and open the way to the west. And it can be defended with a small number of troops, which can block the enemy army and keep the road open. "Xu Wuyi.

"Exactly, go on!" Zhao Yu looked at it from the sand table, but it was like this, as long as he occupied this small mountain, he would be able to retreat, and whoever possessed it would be able to control this section of the passage to Xiangyang City.

"Your Majesty look again, this mountain is called Turtle Mountain, four miles away from the west gate of the city, not very tall, and the location is excellent, the northwest of the Tanxi boundary, the city is in the southeast, the mountains are surrounded on the right, and the Han River lingers for it." With His Majesty's approval, Xu Wudifficult was even more confident, and continued.

"Yes, this mountain lies in the southwest of the city, like a barrier to protect the city. As long as we occupy this mountain, we can shade the peaks of the five mountains, Hutou, Huashan, and Phoenix behind it. Not only did they avoid the enemy fortresses they had set up on the hills, but they also cut off their connection with the city. Having lost supplies from the city, they collapsed without a fight. Zhao Yu listened and nodded repeatedly.

"Exactly, as long as we control these two hills, we will open the passage to the west of Xiangyang City, as long as we conquer the big village located in the west of the city, we can go straight to the city." Xu Wuqian said excitedly.

"Is this it?" Zhao Yu nodded and said.

"Yes, this village is set up on the main road into the city, guarding the west city gate." Xu Wu is not difficult, "after the former Qin Fujian captured Xiangyang, captured the monk Shi Dao'an and brought it back to Chang'an, and then Shi Dao'an was invited to Xiangyang by the monk Xi Chisel Tooth, and cast an open-air iron Buddha statue outside the west gate of Xiangyang, after the Tang Dynasty Zhenguan monk Huai tried to build a temple, called the Iron Buddha Temple, the temple was repeatedly destroyed and repaired, and this village was called the Iron Buddha Village. ”

"Your proposal is very good. As long as our army uprooted the two strongholds of Pipa Mountain and Guishan Mountain, a corridor was opened, and then a small number of troops and firepower were used to stifle the enemy on the mountain, and the main force approached the city wall, "the tiger dug out the heart", and directly attacked the city by skimming the mountain. Zhao Yu praised after hearing this, and drew a line on the sand table with his fingers.

"You are really clever in this, and you have taken the enemy by surprise and attacked the enemy unprepared, and completely smashed the enemy's attempt to consume our army by virtue of the outer heights and delay time to hold on to and wait for reinforcements. Secondly, I focused the siege on the west side, so as to avoid the well-defended high ground south of the city, and directly hit the enemy's weak points, and at the same time gain time to turn the disadvantage into an advantage. If you can implement it, you should be the first to take the credit! ”

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