Zhang Yubo and Ma Zhen left with their front feet, and Lin Jian invited Liu Tingzhou to come.

Lin Jian didn't explain the matter thoroughly, he didn't trust Dong Yuan unreservedly, and told him all the hole cards, only saying that Zhang Yubo offered a strategy of deception, and Chen Hansan had the possibility of making plans and fake tricks. However, in order to solve the crisis of Hehuai, Huaidong could only take a risk, and agreed that Dong Yuan would lead his troops from Wuyang to Suiyang and Yucheng in the north, so as to limit Yanhu from having more soldiers and horses from entering the vicinity of Xuzhou from the western front in the later period.

Liu Tingzhou rushed back to Wuyang non-stop to meet Dong Yuan, and it was already the cold season in late October.

Hearing that Lin Jian wanted to deceive and lure the enemy, Dong Yuan was full of doubts and said: "Every strange strategy in Huaidong seems to be a dangerous plan, but in fact, there is a great chance of winning before doing it. On this trip, what kind of thoughts Huaidong was thinking, but people couldn't understand it. ”

Dong Yuan is also a newcomer to Huaixi, and Liu Tingzhou has a high reputation, so Dong Yuan is willing to discuss everything with him.

"Knowing that Chen Hansan has the possibility of doing a fake show, and he also transferred the main force of Huaiyang Town to Xuzhou City, he will face the danger of attacking Chen Hansan and the southbound captives on both sides," Xiao Kuian also frowned, and said puzzledly, "Even if Lin Huaidong has confidence in the combat power of the Huaiyang Town Army, Chen Hansan sees that the opportunity is wrong, and he can still welcome the southbound captives into Xuzhou City, which is enough to make Huaidong have nothing to ......do."

Liu Tingzhou speculated: "Maybe Lin Huaidong believes that Chen Hansan will definitely surrender to the enemy, but at this time, he is suffering from the fact that the division is unknown - instead of dragging it out until the situation collapses, hundreds of thousands of Yanhu soldiers and horses will press and let Chen Hansan surrender to the enemy, it is better to force Chen Hansan to surrender to the enemy at this time, so that the situation will be clear first." Even if Chen Hansan sees that the opportunity is wrong and retreats to Xuzhou City, the situation cannot be regarded as the worst for Huaidong......"

At this time, the main force of Yanhu's soldiers and horses was still dragged in the Dongping area, which was 300 miles away from Xuzhou, and it was impossible to go south for a while.

One of the main reasons why Yanhu's soldiers and horses could not go south for the time being was because Liang Cheng, the Duke of Lu, had 20,000 or 30,000 remnants of troops besieged in Dongping, while Liang Chengchong led his troops to garrison Jining, intending to relieve the siege of Dongping at any time. Another is that the areas west and south of Jinan have been damaged by the war in the past few years, and they have not been able to resume production, even the landlords and wealthy households have also ploughed the displaced army over and over again, and after tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of Yanhu entered, they could not get sufficient grain and grass supplies from the local area in time. This requires that the main force of Yanhu soldiers and horses must be centered on Jinan and transfer a large amount of grain and ordnance from Yanji and other places.

In the case that Dongping City was not uprooted, the main force of Yanhu's soldiers and horses could not go south for the time being.

Although Huaidong had no hope of capturing the heavily defended city of Xuzhou, he could first uproot the walled city on the periphery of Xuzhou, and would not wait for the main force of Yanhu Nan's troops to come over, and fall into complete passivity.

Dong Yuan held his chin with a short beard and said: "What Lord Liu said should indeed be an aspect of Huaidong's consideration, but if the main force of Huaiyang Town suffers a heavy setback under Xuzhou City, even if it only wins a narrow victory, it will do far more harm than good to the next situation on the Eastern Front - as far as the situation on the Eastern Front is concerned, if you are not sure of seventy or eighty percent, you would rather lose Xuzhou City than risk the Huaiyang Defense Line that has taken two years of effort and invested a lot of resources to construct. ”

The key to the situation in Huaisi is in Xuzhou, the gateway is in Xuzhou, and the topography of Xuzhou is important, needless to say. However, Xuzhou was controlled by Chen Hansan, and Huaidong was hostile, which was the reality that Huaidong had always faced when operating the Huaisi defense line. Therefore, in the past two or three years, Huaidong has focused on strengthening the cities of Huaiyang, Suining, and Suyu in the south of Xuzhou, and has also built a fortified city on the west bank of Bianshui between Suining and Huaiyang, which is to resolve Xuzhou's suppression of the Huaisi region in terms of topography to a certain extent.

The situation was so critical, Lin Jian gave up several years of hard work, obviously he didn't have much certainty, and he had to take the risk to seize Xuzhou City, which naturally made Dong Yuan puzzled.

Liu Tingzhou also said: "Lin Huaidong took the condition of sending troops to Xiapi, and agreed with Chen Hansan to deceive the enemy into a strategy to lure the enemy into depth, and it is also possible that Lin Lian will not move after sending troops to Xiapi......"

"This is also possible, but in the end, let Chen Hansan dedicate Xuzhou to Yanyu, even if Huaidong gets one more Xiapi City, it may not be able to take advantage of much!" The so-called "winning with righteousness and oddity", when Huaidong did not reach the end of the mountains and rivers, Dong Yuan would not easily believe that Lin Lian, who was assisted by Gao Zongting, would take the safety of the entire Huaisi defense line to fight for a chance to seize Xuzhou that had no chance of victory.

Dong Yuan unfolded the map piled up on his desk, took the charcoal produced by Huaidong, drew a mark on the direction of Xiapi, and said to himself: "Huaidong sent troops to Xiapi, and Yuan Lishan sent a partial division to take Xuzhou, so he could only approach Xuzhou City by the western route." To the west or northwest of Xuzhou City, there is no terrain that is particularly conducive to winning more with less! ”

Xuzhou west of Bianshui, Surabaya flows from its north and east, and there are low mountains such as Jiuli Mountain and Quanshan in the west, mostly between tens of zhang and more than 100 zhang. The river will gradually freeze in winter, and although several mountains appear quite high in the flat Hehuai Plain, the mountains are cramped, far from the danger of locking.

"No, you see," Dong Yuan pressed his hand on the direction of Jiuli Mountain in the northwest of Xuzhou, and said, "If Huaidong wants to capture Xuzhou this time, only before the division sent by Yan Hu approaches Xuzhou City from the northwest, the main force of the Huaiyang Town Army will be inserted into the vicinity of Jiuli Mountain in a timely and decisive manner, so as to block the passage of Yanhu's partial division into Xuzhou - Chen Hansan will inevitably go out of the city to attack the Huaiyang Town Army with Yan's partial division in order to win the trust of Yan Yu. ”

"Isn't it that the Huaiyang Town Army has to defeat the alliance of Chen Han's three divisions and Yan Yu's division near Jiuli Mountain to have a chance to capture Xuzhou City?" Xiao Kuian asked.

"Maybe as long as you defeat Chen Hansan's department, but the Yanyu division commander must be stupid to the core, so he will stand by and watch the Huaiyang Town Army defeat Chen Hansan's department first and take no action." Dong Yuan said.

At this point, Dong Yuan also understood that even if Huaidong had any arrangements, it should be in the Jiuli Mountain area, but he never figured out what kind of tricks Huaidong had to ensure that he could have a greater chance of winning under Xuzhou City.

Dong Yuan's eyes were staring at the location of Jiuli Mountain on the map, the map was relatively brief, but he traveled through Xuzhou in his early years and had some impressions of Jiuli Mountain.

Jiuli Mountain is also known as Jiuning Mountain, it is named after nine miles long from east to west, there are nine mountains in the main vein plus the branches, but the highest is only forty zhang, and there are two tributaries that flow into the Bianshui River in the west - such a terrain is not much favorable.

*************

"Nine Mile Mountain?" Chen Hansan's voice raised an octave, staring at Zhang Yubo who was in the center of the conversation, "Lord Lin wants to send someone into Jiuli Mountain to arrange first?" ”

"That's right," Liu Xilin, who walked into the Yamen of Xuzhou with Zhang Yubo, stood up and explained, "My Huaidong soldiers and horses are stationed in Xiapi, and Chen Shuai lures Yanhu soldiers and horses to go deep with a trick of surrendering, and he can only approach Xuzhou City from the western front, and Jiuli Mountain is the place where he must pass. Looking at the terrain around Xuzhou City, there is no place more suitable for annihilating captives than Jiuli Mountain. The captives in the south should be mainly cavalry, and my family thinks that this battle cannot be regarded as a great victory without a war of annihilation. Waiting for the captives to enter the area south of Jiuli Mountain, the Huaiyang Town Army and the Xuzhou soldiers will attack the captives from the east and west, from the flanks, and the terrain extending from the east and west of Jiuli Mountain will effectively prevent the captives from escaping from the battlefield - since the battlefield is selected in Jiuli Mountain, we naturally have to use these two or three days to further explore the terrain around Jiuli Mountain, and there is also to hide half of the battalion armor in Jiuli Mountain, so that it can be effective to suddenly kill in the fierce battle! ”

"Lord Lin has no last resort, no last resort, this official should fully cooperate......" Chen Hansan's face was gloomy, and he immediately accepted this matter.

Even if Lin Tie did not have the right to control Xuzhou, since he had set a strategy to deceive and lure the enemy, Chen Hansan had no excuse to prevent Lin Tie from choosing the battlefield in the area of Jiuli Mountain in advance.

Zhang Yubo and Liu Xilin negotiated the matter and left, Chen Hansan frowned and said, "The East China Sea Fox is not shallow!" ”

"It's strange if Lin Jian is unsuspecting," Ma Zhen said, "but Jiuli Mountain is thirty or forty zhang high, even if it is occupied by the Huaiyang Town Army in wartime, how long can they hold out under the attack of the elite soldiers and horses sent by Shuai Ye and Yuan Dashuai?" The terrain of Jiuli Mountain spreading from east to west is just right to prevent the Huaiyang army from retreating? Even if the battle can't be fought and the Huaiyang army can't be neatly solved, before its reinforcements arrive, it is convenient for our army and the elite sent by Yuan Dashuai to withdraw into Xuzhou City! ”

Chen Hansan nodded, and said: "The Huaiyang Town Army sent half a battalion of ambush soldiers to Jiuli Mountain, and we also followed the same example and sent half a battalion of ambush soldiers to Jiuli Mountain, keeping an eye on them, so as not to do anything to them in Jiuli Mountain?" ”

Ma Zhen didn't believe that Huaiyang Town sent three to five hundred people to hide in Jiuli Mountain, but what Chen Hansan said was also the way of old Cheng and what it should mean. This is a war about the situation in the world, how can people be a little sloppy?

****************

"Nine Mile Mountain!" Zhou Zhizhong turned over and dismounted, and took the secret report from the Xuzhou army, and Chen Hansan's envoy sent the secret report, not to say that the Huaidong Army chose Jiuli Mountain as an ambush battlefield, but also to attach a detailed topographic map around Jiuli Mountain to the secret report.

Zhou Zhizhong was originally transferred to Chen Zhihu's jurisdiction, but Chen Zhihu lured the main force of Dengzhou Town out for deception, and got the soldiers and horses sent to death under Qingzhou City, most of which were Zhou Zhizhong's subordinates - Zhou Zhizhong turned his face with Chen Zhihu because of this incident, although he did not dare to disobey Chen Zhihu's military orders during the war, so he rushed to Ye Jiduodi to complain afterwards, Ye Jiduodi was also afraid that the generals would not be in harmony, so he not only made up for Zhou Zhizhong's soldiers and horses, but also transferred him to Yuan Lishan, who used relatively mild military methods.

Ye Ji Duodi sent someone to Xuzhou as early as half a year ago to say that Chen Hansan would surrender, Ye Ji Duodi was in Jinan, and Yuan Lishan was responsible for the war on the periphery of Dongping - in order to further persuade Chen Hansan to surrender as soon as possible, Yuan Lishan even asked Gao Yi, who had several relationships with Chen Hansan, to sneak to Xuzhou through Ye Ji Duodi to sneak to Xuzhou to say surrender.

Chen Hansan promised to dedicate Xuzhou City this time, and he would also set a trap for the plan, and he would join forces with Dayan to lure the main force of the Huaidong Army to defend Huaisi to the city of Xuzhou to annihilate it, such a good opportunity, Yuan Lishan naturally would not miss it, and asked Zhou Zhizhong to ride 20,000 steps, pass between Caozhou and Jining, and come to Xuzhou.

"Is Chen Hansan reliable or not?" The deputy general of the partial division was Mo Jiben, the general of the Linqing Dynasty that year.

Although Chen Hansan agreed to lure the main force stationed in Huaidong to enter the trap and join forces to annihilate it, it is not impossible that they are a big fish swallowing bait along the way, and Mo Ji seems to be a little worried.

"Chen Hansan shouldn't be stupid," Zhou Zhizhong said, "Seeing that he was capricious in the past, he shouldn't be the kind of person who would block his retreat - he helped Huaidong eat us, and it didn't have much impact on the current situation in Hehuai; And once we cooperate with us and eat the main force of Huaidong guarding Huai, the whole situation will be completely tilted towards Dayan. Which merit is high and which merit is low, how can Chen Hansan not be able to see it? Moreover, the secret agents of our department who infiltrated Xuzhou also found that hundreds of sergeants had entered and exited Jiuli Mountain in the past two or three days, and there was something abnormal, which verified that Chen Hansan was not lying. ”

"But one thing should be clear, before Chen Hansan made a move, it was better for us to stay put. Although the three kings promised to replenish the manpower after the war, once the descendants and cronies are all exhausted, what is the point of adding some miscellaneous pieces? Mo Jiben said.

Zhou Zhizhong nodded, admitting that what Mo Jiben said was reasonable.