After receiving the report, Ni Liang decisively ordered the suspension of the river crossing and ordered the advance regiment of the cavalry brigade to send a guard in the direction of the enemy to find out the enemy situation. The army lined up on the east bank of Baishui, sent scouts and cavalry on the opposite bank to the north to search north, in case the enemy had an ambush on the river, and would take advantage of the opportunity to cross the river to launch a sneak attack. After the order was given, the various units acted quickly, and the reconnaissance cavalry went out in all directions, and prepared for battle in an arc formation of chariots on the river beach. The driving force was placed in the formation, and the personal guard regiment and the baggage regiment formed the second line of defense.

Zhao Hao had also gotten off at this time, he was a little strange, according to the battle report of Jingxiang, at this time the Song army had completed the cleaning of the periphery of Xiangyang and trapped the enemy in the city. Xiangyang is surrounded by water on three sides and mountains on one side. There are two main land passages, westward through Wanshan, leading to Shiyan and Hanzhong; To the south through Da Xian Mountain, to Jingzhou. The Suizao Road they walked on was passing by Fancheng on the north bank of Xiangyang, where it was said that the enemy would not appear.

"Your Majesty, the last general and others thought that the enemy army found should be sent by Fancheng!" At this time, someone had already set up a pergola under the car, which could not only shade the sun, but also prevent the arrows from falling.

"Why are you so sure?" Zhao Hao looked down at the map and asked without raising his head.

"Your Majesty, Xiangyang is located at the confluence of the Tang River and the White River, and then the confluence flows into the Han River. Xiangyang is located at the confluence of the three rivers, and Xiangyang City is backed by many small mountain ranges such as Da Xian Mountain, Hutou Mountain, etc., which makes Xiangyang an easy place to defend and difficult to attack, and achieves the name of solidity. The surrounding mountains divide the open space outside Xiangyang into two relatively narrow, closed, and isolated spaces, but also make the road in and out of Xiangyang by land narrow, with only two roads in the west and south entering the city. Our army came from the south, and these two land passages should have been closed long ago, so the last general judged that the enemy army was from Fancheng. Xu Wudifficult explained.

"It's too verbose, I can read the map!" Zhao Yu frowned and said in a deep voice. And I have agreed with this in my heart, and I am still satisfied with it after a few days of observation.

After Xu Wunan was ordered to set up a military affairs office, he came up with a plan the next day, that is, to first integrate the military-related business and personnel of the various offices of the Imperial Front Office, and then use this as the basis to divide the corresponding affairs, and the insufficient personnel were transferred from the nearest Imperial Front Protector Division to make up for it. In this way, it is possible to set up a shelf quickly, and the old people who are still familiar with the business will not let the work stand still.

Directly from the Imperial Front Protector Division, you can skip the cumbersome review, because the Guardian Army is His Majesty's pro-army, and the personnel are all selected through layers of selection before they can enter, and they all have actual combat experience, which can make up for the lack of the original Imperial Front Office. In Zhao Hao's view, although this plan is suspected of being tricky, it is the most pragmatic approach, so that the team can be set up in the shortest possible time.

Of course, this may not be as capable as a thousand choices, but the military affairs office set up is enough to deal with the current situation, which shows that Xu Wudao has the talent to adapt. In the face of an emergency that has just occurred, the Military Affairs Office can respond at the first time, make an analysis based on a small amount of information, and put forward its own opinions, indicating that it has initially possessed the capability of 'actual combat'.

"Your Majesty listens to the report, and he doesn't like to be complicated and verbose, just a brief explanation of the situation!" Chen Zhishi reminded on the side. At present, Zhuang Gong has resigned, and his commander-in-chief has the responsibility of raising and teaching the affairs of the imperial front, and he has the responsibility of mentioning and teaching the new subordinates.

"Yes, the last will remember!" Xu Wudifficult saluted the emperor and Chen Shishi successively. But there was a little flutter in his heart, this was the first time he had made a suggestion, and His Majesty looked at his face without worry, which made him uneasy.

"However, Jingxiang Zhan reported that Fancheng had already been occupied, wouldn't it be inconsistent for you to say that the enemy army was from Fancheng?" Zhao Hao asked rhetorically.

"Your Majesty, the last general thought that Fancheng had been lost, and Jinghu had no time to tell him. Or our army took the initiative to withdraw from Fancheng and reoccupy it for the enemy. Xu Wuqian replied.

"Your guess is bold, but which do you think is more likely?" Zhao Hao sat down and asked with a smile.

"Hmm...... The last general thought that it was the most likely to quit voluntarily! Xu Wudifficult naturally knew that if he lost important land for no reason and concealed it and did not report it, it would be a big crime in the army, so he thought about it and told the truth.

"How so?" Zhao Hao asked again.

The last general once read the "Fancheng Chronicles", which recorded that Fancheng was frequently flooded in the past dynasties, and the water was several zhang deep, often flooding the city. And there has always been a saying in Xiangyang: Xiangyang of iron, Fancheng of paper paste. It means that because of its geographical topography, Xiangyang is still the same for many years. Fancheng is as fragile as paper, and once the flood comes, it will be unrecognizable, and the entire city may be covered by water. Xu Wuyi replied, "Now is the time when the rain is frequent, it is very easy to cause floods, I think the commander of our army is worried about being attacked by the enemy, so he takes the initiative to withdraw from Fancheng, so as not to repeat the mistake of flooding the Seventh Army during the Three Kingdoms!" ”

"Your Majesty, what Lord Xu said is exactly what he said." Chen Shishi answered, "Fancheng is located on the north bank of the Han River, standing with Xiangyang and the river. After passing through the city for about ten miles between the two cities, the Han River turned around and headed south. In addition, on the boundary of Fancheng, there are several large and small rivers, which converge in the flow from north to south, and eventually form two main rivers, and they are respectively at the turn of the Han River to the south, and flow into the Han River at intervals of several miles. ”

On the land on the west and north sides of Fancheng, there are hills that are tens of miles long. The height of these posts can reach more than ten zhang, and the low ones can also be several zhang, and the elders stretch for dozens of miles, and the short ones are also several miles long. The distance between the two posts is dozens of zhang to several miles, which makes Fancheng face the water on both sides and rely on the geographical situation of the posts on both sides. In addition, compared with Xiangyang on the other side of the Han River, Fancheng is located in a relatively low and flat terrain. ”

Therefore, whenever the water news comes, the Han River rushes down, and the two rivers outside the city go up, causing the river to drain down, and then forming a flooding trend in the Fancheng area. And the overflowing river water around the city and washed the city wall, and the rammed earth wall is not afraid of drought, but it is very afraid of floods, especially afraid of long-term soaking and scouring of floods. Although the walls of Fancheng were built very tall, whenever the river overflowed, it often collapsed under the long-term immersion of the flood and the strong erosion of the swirling current, affecting the soldiers and civilians in the city. ”

Chen is right. At that time, Guan Shengren was stationed in Jingxiang for a long time, so he must be familiar with the local geography and meteorology. The conquest of Fancheng coincided with the rainy season in Dalian for more than ten consecutive days, and the Han River swelled and overflowed, and the low-lying area of the riverbed along the old road of the Han River flocked to the area of Yankouchuan, Liangzhangang, Yujiagang and Tuanshanpu in three ways; In addition, the flash floods in Qinshui, Baishui, Chunshui and Putuogou, Huanglonggou, Heilonggou and other places in the northwest made the horizontal land in the areas of Yankouchuan, Yanzhangang, Yujiagang, and Tuanshanpu five or six zhang deep, so that Yu Ban and other seven armies stationed in Fancheng were all flooded and the whole army was annihilated. Xu Wujian added.

"Are you excusing them? Once Fancheng is lost, the northern part of Xiangyang will be opened, and the enemy in the city will be able to get reinforcements from then on, which will surely cause great difficulties and uncertainties to our army to attack the city, and lose a great opportunity. Zhao Yu looked at the two of them and said solemnly.

"The subordinates don't dare, it's just that!" The two hurriedly saluted.

"However, the last general thought that Jiang Shuai would not understand the consequences of withdrawing from Fancheng, and would definitely take measures to prevent enemy reinforcements." Xu Wudifficult said again.

"Oh, what's the remedy?" Zhao Yu asked with some curiosity.

"Your Majesty, the reinforcement of Xiangyang to the enemy is nothing more than the two directions of Nanyang and Junzhou, and our army can cut off the enemy's reinforcement road as long as it occupies Dengcheng and Gucheng. In particular, Gucheng is located in the west of Xiangyang, on the west bank of the middle reaches of the Han River, and at the southeast foot of the Wudang Mountains. It is bordered by Jingshan Mountain in the south, Wudang in the west, Hanshui in the east, and the two rivers in the north and south and the county flow east into the Hanjiang River, and control the Hanshui thousand-year-old crossing. And this place is rich in rice, has always been the Jingxiang military food supply place, as long as you occupy this place, you can control the water and land transportation, cut off the aid to Xiang. Xu Wudao pointed to the two places on the map and said.

"Well, I hope so, but once Fancheng is lost, our road to Xiangyang has been cut off, and we can only fight it!" Zhao Yu snorted, and said without commenting on it.

"Probably can only hit the past, the surrounding roads are difficult for cars to drive, if you take the big road, you have to retreat to Suizhou, and then detour for hundreds of miles, through Yingzhou into Xiangyang." Xu Wunan nodded with a wry smile when he heard this, obviously he had no good plan for a while, and then said, "The last general thinks that the enemy army must also know the suffering of the flooding in Fancheng, and will not garrison heavy troops to prevent our army from flooding the city. ”

"Hehe, you can boldly imagine the march and fight, but you can't make bold guesses, but you must be careful to verify, otherwise there will be no pieces of armor left that will be defeated!" Zhao Hao laughed a few times when he heard this, and said with a straight face.

"The last general is arrogant, he must remember His Majesty's teachings, and dare not forget!" Xu Wunan suddenly felt ashamed when he heard this, and said with a red face.

"You have to understand that although you are in charge of a military affairs department of only a dozen people, it is related to the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the army. Perhaps one carelessness will lead to a mistake in my decision-making, and there will be thousands of casualties in front of us, so we must be cautious in what we say and never speak falsely. Zhao Yu said two more sentences.

"Your Majesty's words, the last general will take them to heart!" Xu Wujian was already sweating at this time, and saluted again.

"Well, our army is blocked, do you have a plan?" Zhao Yu pressed his hand to let it go, and then asked.

"This ...... The last general has been busy preparing for the construction of the military office in the past few days, and he has been negligent! "Xu Wunan is ashamed, as the head of military affairs, he plans the marching route and arranges the guards along the way, but now he is empty-handed, relying on guessing to do things, it's really damned.

"Go and check the documents left by Thirty Lang, maybe you will be rewarded." Zhao Hao sighed lightly and said.

"Your Majesty, our marching route has been notified to Jingxiang, but our army has not arrived, but the enemy army has come first, is there a problem with it?" Seeing that there were no others around, Chen Shishi asked softly......

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