Once the eastern front cannot be held, Linzi will face a threat.

The Mo family only needs to capture Jimo, Gaomi, and Zhucheng, so that the remaining cities can be left alone, and they can use Weishui to transport grain and advance to a place hundreds of miles away from Linzi.

This is the reason why the State of Qi made Tian Zhongshou the capital doctor and stationed a standing army in Jimo, but there were only 7,000.

More is useless, less worried, 7,000 standing troops are no more, no less, and the 20,000 peasant soldiers recruited with the conscription can just deal with the 10,000 troops of the Mo family in the direction of Jucheng.

Before the Marquis of Qi went to Luoyi, he went to Shangqiu, and requisitioned troops to gather in the Song Dynasty, so Qi naturally did not expect that the Mo family would attack Jiaodong by sea.

No matter how you look at it, it looks like the Mo family is preparing to defend the northern front and solve the Yue Kingdom in the south first.

The strength of the two divisions was at the mouth of the Huai River, and they also claimed to the outside world that they were going to conquer the Yue country and train them to take boats.

But who would have thought that the upper echelons of the Mo family would infer that the Yue State was unable to go north, so they would first solve the Qi State and make the princes break the alliance.

The Mo family did not have many field troops in the direction of Guangling, Yangzhou, Jiangkou, and Haiyang.

However, there is a large population there, and the population of the reserve is also large, and it is not possible to fight in the field, and there is no problem in defending the city.

The number of field troops that the Mo family could pull out was limited, and the number of militia that could defend the city was enough to cope with the possible northward advance of the Yue Kingdom.

One brigade of full-fledged field troops can be called up, but if the enemy attacks and defends, two brigades of reservists and retired soldiers can be pulled out to defend the city, and it is enough to hold it.

Moreover, the advantage of the boat division is on the side of the Mojia family, and the Yangtze River is a natural risk for the north, which is a natural risk for the south; For the south, it is also a natural danger to the north.

Therefore, the Yue Kingdom was not destroyed, and even let it go, and first dealt with the northern princes with all its might.

Shi was originally preparing to play a defensive counterattack, using the advantage of the inside line to eat the main force of the Han and Qi coalition forces, so as to break the alliance in one fell swoop.

However, as more and more information came from Naeui, the conscription and rule in the Nanyang area of Jianghan went more smoothly than expected, and the strategy was changed.

Taking the initiative to attack, turning passive defense into mobilizing enemy forces, forcing Korea to be unable to go down to Nanyang and Qi to be unable to attack the Song land, thus dividing the princes' coalition army into three parts using the vast land of Kyushu.

If the coalition of princes wants to take the initiative to attack, they can only take into account two directions.

The Han and Qin coalition forces attacked Nanyang; The combined forces of Qi, Zhao, Wei, and Wei attacked Song and Sishang.

This is a sure thing, it's not a strange scheme, it's the alliance of princes can only fight like this.

Both of these parties have the ability to take the initiative to attack, and the central axis of this active offensive alliance is Korea, but in fact, the core is the state of Qi.

The breakthrough lies in Jiaodong.

If the princes take the initiative to seize Jiaodong before they are ready, then the Qi State will inevitably support Jiaodong from the Jishui region in the southwest of Qi and defend Linzi, intending to drive the Mojia to the Yimeng Mountains.

As soon as the main force of Qi left, the door of Han and Wei was wide open, and it was not worth mentioning to defend the country, so Korea would not send troops to Nanyang, but would choose to guard Zheng Di on the eastern front, so as to prevent the Mo family from taking advantage of the main force of the Qi army to leave and storm the Central Plains.

South Korea does not attack Nanyang, Qin has no ability to go down to Nanyang on its own, Qin State can't gnaw on the Mo family's Chu army now, and there is no South Korea to cover the flank, even if the six fingers give up Danyang, the Qin army will not dare to chase - for fear of being cut off in Nanyang and wrapping dumplings; With the cover of South Korea, the Qin army would dare to storm into Nanyang if Danyang was captured.

If they are ready, the princes and soldiers will divide into two routes and concentrate their forces, and they can take the initiative to attack.

If the Mo family prepares in advance, it is easy for the princes to change their strategy.

Only when the princes were about to prepare to attack, the Mo family suddenly turned the defense into an attack and struck first, which was the best way to ruin the princes' plan.

In this way, the princes can only divide their troops into three ways.

Once the troops are divided into three lanes, neither of them has the ability to take the initiative to attack.

Korea did not have the ability to conquer the Song land alone, and the Qi State did not have the ability to capture Ju and Yishan alone.

Of course, in this situation, it is not easy for the Mo family's troops to continue to attack at this time, so they have the strategic idea of attacking Jiaodong but not defending.

When the princes' soldiers were divided into three routes, the Mo family's field forces would also show their flanks no matter which side they attacked.

Nanyang was too far away, so the field corps in Sishang could not choose many offensive directions.

If the Qi army retreats to Jiaodong, then if you want to annihilate the main field force of Qi, it is not enough to rely on the strength of those two divisions, so you have to mobilize the main force.

And once the main force is mobilized to cross the Yimeng Mountain, Korea may attack the Song Land.

The reverse is the same for attacking South Korea.

But the initiative is in the hands of the Mo family.

Qi didn't know that the Mo family had a strategy of attacking Jiaodong and not defending it, so Qi had to transfer troops back, after all, it couldn't be gambled that the Mo family would not dare to attack Linzi, and if Linzi captured Qi, most of it would be over.

South Korea also did not dare to bet on whether the Mo family would not give up Jiaodong, in case the Qi army retreated, the Mo family would give up Jiaodong, retract to Jucheng, and rely on Yimeng Mountain to resist, then South Korea may be attacked by the Mo family, so South Korea can only give up the plan to go to Nanyang.

The initiative in war is very important, because the passive side cannot be sure what the active side wants to do, especially in a situation where the initiative is suddenly passive because the other side has changed hands.

At the beginning, the strategy formulated by the Mo family to abandon Shangqiu to lure the enemy into the depth of the counter-encirclement was based on the idea of giving full play to the advantages of the inner line as much as possible in a weak situation.

However, the fact that the grassroots rule in Jianghan, Nanyang, and Huaixi went more smoothly than expected changed the contrast between strength and weakness.

In another year at most, the Mo family will be able to pull out another field army dominated by Huaixi soldiers.

With perfect control over the grassroots level of the city and a reasonable training system, even if these Huaixi soldiers were not as good as the most elite divisions in Sishang, it was not a problem to line up in the field.

At that time, the power of the Mo family will have the advantage, and the strategy of the princes to take the initiative to attack will naturally abort.

This year's time has to be won by various means.

It seems that the Mo family did not plot to fight this time, but in fact they are still plotting.

Now in July, if you can annihilate the army of Qi in Zhucheng, you will definitely be able to capture the whole of Jiaodong before September.

Food supplies and the distribution of land among the people cannot be supported by enough soldiers in a short period of time, but they are enough to get the support of the people.

If Linzi is threatened in October, the Qi army will also be transferred back from the Western Front.

If the Qi State took the initiative to counterattack and attack Jiaodong, and the Mo family fought and retreated, the Qi army would not dare to advance rashly, at least until the next year.

The two fortresses of Jiaozhou Bay and Lai are enough for Qi to gnaw for a while.

The main force withdrew to Jucheng, relying on Yimeng Mountain, and the Qi State was not able to take the initiative to attack, which would be a stalemate.

The Sishang Field Corps in the Song region always maintained a threat to Jishui and Zhengdi, relying on the advantage of the long border to take the initiative to attack, which would make South Korea concentrate its forces on the eastern front.

In this way, at least until June next year, the princes will not have the opportunity to unite and send troops, or at least they will not have the opportunity to send troops according to the optimal strategy, so they can only passively defend or attack rashly.

After this toss, the time when the princes can jointly send troops will be delayed until at least next winter...... Maybe even longer.

After this battle, Qi would never dare to transfer the main force to the west until it captured the fortress in Jiaozhou Bay. The Jiaozhou Bay fortress is backed by the sea, the iron cannon is sufficient, and the food supply is not a problem to support for half a year without supplies.

It can be bought for at least another year and a half.

A year and a half later, Huaixi could pull out another 30,000 field troops; Nanyang can pull another 20,000; There are 30,000 Jianghan, and the Huaihe River and Jianghan have been completely stabilized, so it makes no sense for the princes to meet again.

The worst case scenario is that the Marquis of Qi gave up Linzi and resolutely did not transfer troops back to Jiaodong, but chose to fight to the death, and attacked the Song land with Han, Wei, Wei and other countries, which was just the situation of the previous defensive counterattack strategy, and it could not be worse.

However, this situation is also very difficult for Qi Guo.

The main reason is that the Jiaodong area is the fief of many new military nobles and nobles, and most of the standing army are conscripted numb farmers in the Jiaodong area, rather than the citizen class of Linzi...... They will not let their fiefdoms be divided by the Mo family, and instill the spirit of rebellion in the fiefs to the farmers in the fiefdoms.

The battle of the cities is very important.

It seems that the battle of the princes against Mexico that the black clouds crush the city and want to destroy it, but it is necessary to decide the future trend in a corner battlefield where there may be only 20,000 or 30,000 people on both sides.