The exact news that the Jin State was about to carry out the southern expedition had already reached Jiankang in the form of scriptures, and the people of the Great Song Dynasty were once again convinced by Yang Yan's keen insight and judgment. At the same time, Zhao Chen also immediately began to recruit civil and military officials to discuss how to deal with the invasion of the Jin army.

This time, the movement of the Jin army's southern expedition was not small, and the strength was also very strong, more than 400,000, although it was not as good as the last southern invasion, but it was also the largest army faced after the restoration of the Great Song Dynasty.

However, this time the Song court did not show too much panic, because after the restoration of the Great Song Dynasty, the external conquest almost without exception maintained a complete victory, and successfully collected the two regional powers of Dali and Western Xia, the overall combat effectiveness of the Song army was strong, even surpassing the early Shaoxing period, and now the dynasty is full of Chinese and military forces, so Zhao Chen and Qunchen are very high-spirited, and did not regard the southern expedition of the Jin army as much of a threat, and they all thought that this time the southern march of the Jin army was just self-destruction.

Of course, not everyone can maintain an optimistic and calm attitude, and there are still a few ministers who are not very sober when they hear that Jin Jun is calling again, and they immediately panicked and wrote to Zhao Chen, asking for peace with Jin Guo. As a result, Zhao Chen took it as a typical treatment, reprimanded them severely in the court, and then they were all relegated to distant places. It is intended to show all walks of life in the Great Song Dynasty that the court is determined to fight a decisive battle with the Jin army to the end.

Zhao Chen's resolute attitude naturally won the unanimous praise of the ministers, after all, at this time, those who remained in the Great Song Dynasty were basically the officials of the main battle, and they only rushed forward and slowed down. Therefore, in the face of the invasion of the Jin Kingdom, they naturally advocated one word "fighting".

After the attitude of the imperial court was unified, it immediately made active preparations, first sending people to inform Mongolia, asking Mongolia to provide support to the Great Song Dynasty. In fact, the monarchs and ministers of the Great Song Dynasty all knew that civil strife was happening in Mongolia, but as a member of the alliance, they informed them that this scene was still gone. But no one expected much from Mongolia.

Subsequently, the imperial court immediately issued an order to all parts of the front, requiring the officials of the border provinces, prefectures, armies, and counties and the twelve imperial garrisons to raise their alert in case of an attack by the Jin army. Several prime ministers of Zhongshu Province also began to divide the labor, with Han Yanzhi and Zhang Yan sitting in Jiankang and unified dispatch, grain, grass, materials, civil service, and military horses, while Zhao Ruyu and Fan Chengda separately looked at various places to inspect and supervise the implementation of local work.

Of course, the specific defense plan was still formulated by the Privy Council, and the two Privy Council chiefs, Wang Yan and Yang Yan, together with Chen Liang, the secretary of the military department, and Li Xianzhong, Chen Min, and Qi Fang, the three officials in charge of the forbidden army, were also recruited to discuss together.

First of all, it is necessary to determine the scale and strategic objectives of the Jin army's southern invasion, and only after these two things are clear, can the Great Song Dynasty arrange and mobilize troops, materials and civilian service in a targeted manner. It is not difficult to judge the size of the Jin army, because now the Great Song Dynasty has a complete spy network in the Jin army, and the dispatch of hundreds of thousands of troops and the movement of personnel and materials are simply impossible to completely conceal.

According to various signs and analysis of the situation, the Jin army used about 400,000 to 500,000 troops in this southern invasion, which was slightly inferior to the scale of the last southern expedition. And Yang Yan also judged that the primary goal of the Jin army in this southern invasion was not to cross the Yangtze River in one go and completely annex the entire Great Song Dynasty, but to capture the entire Jiangbei region first, because so far, the Jin army has not dispatched a naval army. Obviously, he did not plan to cross the Yangtze River, so he could only target the land north of the Yangtze River.

Judging from the current situation, the current military strength of the Great Song Dynasty is not comparable to the past, and it is basically impossible to swallow the Great Song Dynasty in one go, with the current strength of the Jin State. I believe that Wan Yan Changzhi will not fail to understand this. And to seize the land north of the river, this goal is also more in line with the actual situation.

The role of the Yangtze River natural danger is not only to be able to block the enemy's attack, but also to make full use of the Yangtze River waterway to transport materials and soldiers, to save a lot of manpower and material resources, to ensure the supply of Houle, so since ancient times, the regime that is partial to the south, the Yangtze River must be guarded, once the Jianghuai frontier is lost, on the one hand, the convenient conditions for the Yangtze River water transportation are lost, on the other hand, the entire Yangtze River water system, stretching for thousands of miles, no matter how powerful the water army, can not be completely controlled, as long as it breaks through a little, it can be driven straight in. Therefore, once the southern regime loses the buffer zone in the north of the Yangtze River, it is basically not far from extinction.

From another point of view, the southern invasion of the Jin State was actually just a military operation to replace defense with attack in order to get rid of the situation of Song and Mongolia being attacked from the north and south. Taking advantage of the current civil strife in Mongolia and the lack of time to look south, the power of the Great Song Dynasty was limited to the south of the Yangtze River, and the Jin State was also able to obtain greater space for depth in the future, so as to attack and retreat, and would completely grasp the strategic initiative.

Everyone who participated in the discussion was familiar with the art of war and history, and Yang Yan's judgment was naturally unanimously agreed by others. Then the next step is to discuss the direction of the offensive of the Jin army.

Yang Yan pointed to the map and said, "This attack of the Jin army must be based on Xiangyang Mansion as the primary target. ”

But this time Yang Yan's judgment made everyone a little puzzled, since ancient times from the north to the south, although they are all using the strategy of attacking Bashu in the west, taking Jinghu in the middle, and invading Huaidong in the east, but after the Song Dynasty crossed to the south, since the Jin army failed to attack Sichuan and Shaanxi in the second year of Shaoxing (32 years), it was basically based on the Huaidong region as a breakthrough, on the one hand, because the terrain of Sichuan and Shaanxi was dangerous, difficult to capture, and Yue Fei was in charge of the Jinghu area, and the Jin army did not dare to plunder its edge easily, so it could only take the two Huai regions as a breakthrough. In the fourth year of Jianyan (30 years), Yan Zongbi broke through alone, searched the mountains and picked up the sea, and broke through with Jianghuai and directly took the two Zhejiang.

In the tenth and eleventh years of Shaoxing (40, 4 years), Wanyan Zongbi invaded the south twice, and basically followed this route. Moreover, the enterprising Jianghuai has almost become a fixed pattern of the southern invasion of the Jin State. Even after Yue Fei's death, the Jin State did not change this pattern, and the southern invasion of Yan Liang in the 31st year (year) of Shaoxing, and the southern invasion of Yan Yong in the 6th year (70 years) of the main road, were also the same tactics. As a result, the Great Song Dynasty basically fell into a fixed thinking, believing that the Jin army invaded the south and must be the land of Jianghuai.

Yang Yan said: "The former's Jin army invaded the south, all with the goal of annexing the Great Song Dynasty, so once it broke through the Jianghuai and crossed the Yangtze River, it was simple and direct to Lin'an, which was simple, direct and effective." But this time the Jin army is only aiming to capture the land north of the Jiangbei, the Jianghuai region is vast, easy to attack and difficult to defend, and the water network is dense, the army is difficult to deploy, Wan Yan Changzhi is a person who knows the art of war, and he will not fail to understand this truth, so he will definitely not stick to the rules, and will definitely turn to attack Xiangyang as a breakthrough. ”

After everyone heard this, although they felt that what Yang Yan said was reasonable, but they didn't believe it very much, Li Xianzhong frowned and said: "Although Xiangyang Mansion is an important road for demolition and chong, it is accessible on all sides, bordering the Han River, and Yingzhou, Jingmen, Jiangling, and Ezhou are each other's horns, and they may not be able to attack easily. Will the difficulty of finishing the face be difficult to give up the easy? ”

Yang Yan said: "It is precisely because Xiangyang Mansion is an outpost of Jiangfang, connecting Sichuan and Shaanxi in the west and connecting Jianghuai to the west, that it is a place where soldiers must fight." As long as Xiangyang Mansion is not breached, the defense line along the river will not be lost, and at the same time, it can attack from three sides, connecting Sichuan, Shaanxi and Jianghuai, so the talent of the long face will come to fight. ”

He made a gesture on the map again: "And the Jin army only needs to send some troops in Jingzhao Mansion to attack the Lizhou East Road, which can contain the people and horses of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and cannot go out of the gorge to the east to help, and then capture Suizhou, which can contain the Han River, so that the people and horses of Jianghuai cannot go up the river, and they can isolate Xiangyang Mansion." Then divide the troops and encircle, first take Fancheng, and then attack Xiangyang, and then you can fight down. As soon as Xiangyang is obtained, you can enter the river along the Han River, and go down to the east along the river, and the entire two lakes and two Zhejiang places will be in the middle of the river. Since ancient times, the north has collected the land south of the Yangtze River. You have never forgotten that in the sixth year of the main road, the Jin army invaded the south, and the land of Huai and Zhejiang was lost, but we just held Xiangyang so that the whole line would not be defeated. Only later was the counteroffensive successful. ”

Wang Yan also nodded and said, "I think what Zihao said is very reasonable. Xiangyang is a heavy land, and it is necessary to guard against it. ”

Chen Min said: "Yang Shumi's words, although reasonable, but there is one in ten thousand miles, if we concentrate heavy troops to guard Xiangyang Mansion, and the Jin army does not capture Xiangyang, and the rest of the place is not empty?" ”

It is not unreasonable for Chen Min to raise this question, although so far, Yang Yan's prediction is very accurate, but after all, it is only speculation. Therefore, no one, including Yang Yan, dared to play 100% of the package tickets, and the primary target of the Jin Kingdom was Xiangyang Mansion. Moreover, this is a major military event, not a child's play, once the wrong treasure is pressed, it may cause the overall passivity.

Wang Yan said: "This is not difficult to do. The Jin army should not transfer all the hundreds of thousands of troops to Xiangyang Mansion at once, and there are always traces of the army's movements. Moreover, Xiangyang Mansion was originally defended by the imperial garrison, and it was impossible for the Jin army to capture Xiangyang Mansion at once, so as long as more scouts were sent to find out about the Jin army's movements, we would deploy troops to help. ”

Yang Yan thought for a while and said, "I think we can divide the army into two parts, one is stationed in Gwangju and the other is stationed in Haozhou, and once the movement of the Jin army is discovered, it can also be immediately rescued." ”

When the others heard this, they all nodded yes. At this moment, someone from outside came in and said, "Yang Shumi, Supervisor Zhou of the Ministry of Staff, please go and discuss something urgent." ”

Everyone also knows that Yang Yan is still in charge of the Ministry of Staff, and now that someone is looking for him, there must be important information, so Wang Yan said: "If there is something in the Department of Staff, Xiao Hao will go first, we will discuss here today, and we will continue to discuss tomorrow." ”