Three days later, Zhao Yu returned to Yicheng, drew a map, and made changes to the sand table. After a short rest, the camp officials were convened to discuss the matter, Wang Yinglin, Ni Liang, Zhang Ba, Lin Zhiwu and others should attend the edict, and the military officials of the military supervision regiments stationed in each army were present, and the group of people quickly gathered in the camp.

"Your Majesty, what's the matter?" Wang Yinglin was taken aback when he saw the emperor, and saw that His Majesty's face was swollen and had not disappeared, and the skin had broken in many places.

"It's not a big deal, the mosquitoes in the mountains may be jealous that I am too handsome, and they take turns biting endlessly!" Zhao Yu touched his face and said with a wry smile.

"Alas, they are all incompetent, and they let His Majesty personally get into danger!" Wang Yinglin said with a look of shame.

"The ministers (subordinates) are incompetent, I hope Your Majesty takes care of the dragon body!" The Emperor went deep behind enemy lines to reconnoitre, a matter that only a few close ministers knew about, and it was kept under strict secrecy. Although many people don't know the inside story, the emperor's face was bitten like a broken watermelon by mosquitoes, and everyone knew that His Majesty must have gone to the front line.

"I'm just a little skinned on my face, what do I have to do with you, and what is my sin." Zhao Yu raised his hand a little helplessly to let everyone be polite and said, "Let's talk about the situation of the whole army and training first!" ”

Wang Yinglin and others successively reported on the situation of the whole army and the leadership of the troops in the past 20 days, and on the whole it was still very good. Through the rectification of some generals who were good at commanding and leading troops, they were promoted, and those officers who were in trouble were dismissed or transferred from command posts, which greatly boosted morale. With the opening of the entire waterway and the uprooting of the enemy's forts that threatened the land lines of communication, the situation improved day by day, and all kinds of supplies were smoothly delivered to the front line.

On the military side, through the development of combat training and under the guidance of the supervision group, a series of forts were selectively captured, the individual skills and tactics of the soldiers were strengthened, and the tactical command ability of the grassroots officers was enhanced. The overall level of campaign command and planning of middle and high-ranking officers and the level of coordinated operations of various arms of the armed forces has improved somewhat as a number of capable officers perform their duties.

However, some problems were also exposed during the battle, and officers and men generally complained that the support firepower was insufficient. In mountain warfare, heavy artillery and medium artillery are not easy to carry, the field of vision is obstructed by trees and the use is limited by the terrain, and it is either difficult to open up artillery positions or it is difficult to hit targets. Mortars have the advantages of being lightweight, easy to carry, simple to set up positions, and capable of striking at hidden targets, and are welcomed by officers and men at the grassroots level.

However, the mortar has a weak lethality and a short projectile distance, and it is not possible to destroy the fortress built of stones and logs, and even if it is prepared for a long time, it is difficult to conceal the enemy troops in it, causing large casualties, and it can still form a great obstacle and cause large casualties in the subsequent attack.

Zhao Yu had a bottom in his heart after hearing this, and expressed satisfaction with everyone's work. Later, Xu Wuqian introduced the idea of abandoning the inertial style of attacking Xiangyang and taking the outer hills first, avoiding the mountains heavily defended by the enemy, and choosing to attack Xiangyang City from the weak point in the west. Then he moved out the detailed sand table, gave a detailed description of the terrain in the west of the city and the enemy's defense, and finally asked the generals to discuss the feasibility of 'taking Xiangyang directly'.

"Your Majesty, judging from Meng Yuan's defensive posture, his main force will be in the south of the city, and he will defend it on the basis of the old castle, which will indeed cause great obstacles for our army to attack the city from the south road. Breaking through from the west of the city, as long as you avoid the well-defended Hutou Mountain City, you can drive directly to the city by pulling out the two mountain forts of Pipa Mountain and Guishan Mountain. However, the narrow ground to the west of the city is not conducive to the deployment of troops, and as long as one place is blocked, it will fall into a dilemma, which will be self-defeating. Please think twice! Zhang Ba spoke first, obviously not supporting the idea of breaking the convention and risking the siege from the west of the city.

"The minister thinks that what Senator Zhang said is very true, now that our army is well fed, there is no need to rush to a quick victory, but it is more prudent to attack the city from the south steadily. Once the march from the west fails, not to mention the morale of our army, it will also damage the reputation of His Majesty for winning a hundred battles. Wang Yinglin didn't approve of the emperor's risk from the beginning, and he was even more reluctant to see His Majesty personally explore the way and come back from the way back to make it like this.

"Wang Xiang, now that autumn has begun, it will enter mid-autumn a month early, and it is the time when the Mengyuan war horses are fat and strong and the autumn grain is harvested, and the army of the kings of the grassland will march south. If our army is still unable to conquer Xiangyang, we will have to divide our troops to block the enemy reinforcements coming from the north, and our troops will be stretched thin, and we will fall into a protracted war, and the amount of money and food consumed is also unknown. Lin Zhiwu said.

"And Meng Yuanqi and the embassy have arrived in Lin'an, and the battle in Xiangyang is undecided, so we can't hold peace with it, and after the Mengyuan side gets reinforcements from the grassland king's army, it will definitely send troops to Huaibei to exert pressure, so that the armies deployed in Lianghuai will bear more pressure and cannot increase troops to Jingxiang. In turn, it will affect His Majesty's strategy of ending the Northern Expedition as soon as possible, consolidating Lianghuai and Jingxiang, and recuperating with the people. ”

"The subordinates thought that they could give it a try if they drove directly from the west!" At this time, Ni Liang got up and said, "Now the enemy army is weak in defense in the west of the city, and there is no need for a large army, just send an elite army to break through the two villages, open the passage, and then immediately attack the city." ”

"Du Shuai, our army only attacked the city with one army, and the disparity between the strength of the troops and the strength of the enemy defending Xiangyang is huge, and it may be difficult to win quickly." Zhang Ba shook his head and said.

"Not necessarily, the defenders of Xiangyang have about 30,000 troops in the city, and most of the troops are deployed in the city of Da Shou Mountain, which is difficult to return to help at a moment. And on the way to withdraw the troops, they will also be pursued by the troops deployed by our army in the south, so that Xiangyang will be attacked on both sides, and they will not dare to withdraw their troops easily. And once our army captured Xiangyang in a short time, they cut off the grain route arranged in the mountain city of Da Shou, and at that time they could starve to death in the mountains except for surrendering. Xu Wuyi got up and pointed to the sand table.

"What Du Shuai said is reasonable, there is no need to mobilize all the forces of Jingxiang to capture Xiangyang, and the Eighth Army will continue to capture Gucheng, so as to cut off foreign aid from Xiangyang. The Sixth Army still exerted pressure on the enemy troops in the mountains south of the city, making an aggressive stance, so that they did not dare to return to help easily. With the assistance of the naval army, our army stationed in Fancheng can make a siege posture at the same time, forcing the defenders in the city to fortify on both sides, disperse their forces, and create conditions for the Seventh Army to attack the city from the west. ”

"What needs to be solved urgently now is how to connect the two villages of Pipa Mountain and Guishan before the arrival of the enemy's Xiangyang reinforcements, otherwise there will be no way to talk about the westward march." Ni Liang also saw the problem and sighed.

"The key to quickly breaking through the two villages is to use firearms to destroy the passes set up by the enemy in a short period of time, so as to inflict huge damage on the enemy!" Xu Wunan said in embarrassment this time, he also knew that there was no weapon with such power in the army at the moment.

"If I solve this problem, can you guarantee that you can take the city directly after two levels!" Zhao Hao asked in a deep voice at this time.

"Your Majesty, my subordinates think they can do it." Ni Liang thought about it, raised his head and said.

"Okay, I'll figure out a solution as soon as possible." Zhao Yu nodded, and then asked again, "Lianke two passes, and then break the Iron Buddha Village, and enter the city, this is a tough battle, who do you think can take on this responsibility?" ”

"Your Majesty, you can adjust the first brigade of the Imperial Front Protector, they can attack and defend well, and they will be resolute in battle, and they will definitely succeed in one fell swoop." Seeing that it was difficult to stop His Majesty's determination any longer, Wang Yinglin proposed.

"Well, Wang Xiang's proposal is very good, the first brigade of the Protector Army is a strong force of our dynasty, and it has not been defeated since the formation of the army." Zhao Hao asked again.

"Your Majesty, I think the Seventh Army can take on this task." Jiang Rui, the Marquis of Jingxiang's Governor's Mansion, was silent for a moment, got up and saluted. Wang Yinglin's proposal can be said to make the generals of Jingxiang feel embarrassed, this was their own task, but now they want to give way to the main attack to the guest army, it can be said that the faces of the 100,000 officers and soldiers of the three armies of Jingxiang are crackled, and they are only afraid that they will be demoted to the bottom in the future, and it will be difficult to come out again.

"Oh, the meaning of this battle, I don't think I need to say much. If you fail, what kind of responsibility you have to bear? Zhao Yu looked at him and said in a deep voice.

"The minister is willing to make a military order, if he can't complete the task, he is willing to be dealt with by military law!" Jiang Rui saluted again.

"The last general is also willing to second, if the Seventh Army can't conquer Xiangyang as scheduled, come and see you!" Zhang Ba gritted his teeth and got up to salute.

"We all want to do it!" The military and political generals of the Jingxiang Governor's Mansion all stood up and saluted.

"Okay, then the task of attacking Xiangyang will be handed over to the Seventh Army, if the army is defeated, you will decide on your own!" Zhao Hao said coldly, brushed his sleeves and left his seat.

"The minister (the last general) thank Your Majesty, send your Majesty!" General Jing Xiang saluted again and said in a loud voice......

Wang Yinglin felt that the emperor's decision was too hasty, and after the end of the meeting, he hurried to the back office to see the driver, but saw that the little emperor was fine, and everyone was sitting on the couch drinking tea, with paper and pen on the table, as if sketching on the paper like graffiti.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that you need to be cautious, although the various departments of Jingxiang have improved after training, they have accumulated disadvantages for a long time, and it is difficult to eliminate them all!" Wang Yinglin did not greet him, and said bluntly.

"Don't worry, sit down and talk!" Zhao Hao smiled and asked him to sit down, and poured him a cup of tea with his own hands.

"How can the minister not be in a hurry, if there is a mistake in it, won't all the work be wasted." Wang Yinglin sat down, still with a sad face.

"I know what the king said!" Zhao Yu motioned for him to drink tea, and then said, "Today, the generals of Jingxiang dared to make a military order in front of me, which actually made me very pleased, which shows that they are not bloodless, they still know how to be honest, and they are not cyanotic and degenerate. ”

"Is Your Majesty agitating the generals?" Wang Yinglin picked up the teacup, thought about it and put it down.

"As the saying goes: it is better to fight than to be brave. We have suppressed the Jingxiang departments very much during this time, and have aroused their arrogance, if they are still obedient and dare not resist at all, I will look down on them, and after the war, we will cancel the military numbers of the Jingxiang departments, and dismantle them and reorganize them! Zhao Yu chuckled.

"Your Majesty is so determined?!" Wang Yinglin was shocked when he heard this, the little emperor had such a plan in his heart, which shows how bold he is.

"Of course, the Great Song Dynasty spends a lot of money every year, and it is by no means a waste of raising a herd, but a strong force that can protect the family and defend the country!" Zhao Yu is authentic.

"Oh, I hope they will be ashamed and brave and not disappoint Your Majesty!" When Wang Yinglin heard this, he suffered from gains and losses, and instead began to worry about the fate of the Jingxiang tribes......