Yue Fei only took three days to capture Dingnan Mansion, and the good news reached Xingzhou, which made Zhang Suo and Sun Ang even more embarrassed, although they used explosives to break the city outside Xingzhou City, but Richard Brother set up another camp in each castle, so that the Song army's attack was not as smooth as imagined;

As a staff officer in the army, Li Jinyi's subordinate Shi Quan, who delivered the letter, found Zhao Kai's camp and planned to inquire in detail about the war in Dingnan Mansion; Li Jinyi believed that there must be a difference in the methods. Zhao Kai was angry, saw Li Jin bring Shi Quan in, and asked, "Is there something wrong?"

Li Jin smiled and said, "This Shi Ti Zhi also participated in the battle against Northern Suizhou and Northern Xia Prefecture, I think we should see what Yue Fei did?"

Liu Ziyu is the person in charge of the siege now, the battle is not going well, and the officers under Sun Ang have thrown the pot on Liu Ziyu's head, so he is more concerned about the situation in this regard than anyone else, nodded and asked: "Shi Tixia, you are in the Dingyan Mansion, enter the castle, what if there is still a camp?"

Shi Quan is tall and big, with two eyes and a tiger, and at first glance he is the kind of tough person; Shi Quan began to follow Yang Zhi from Gyeonggi Road, and now he is also Wu Baichang under Yue Fei, Yue Fei asked Shi Quan to come, it is precisely because of Zhao Kai's consideration that he asked here, let a pure soldier come over, I am afraid that he will not be able to explain it clearly. Shi Quan replied: "There is also such a setting on the side of Dingyan Mansion, there is no way, only to use archers and shield troops to open the way, and use rockets to burn all these woods, so our army has only attacked in Dingyan Mansion for three days, just because it is impossible for the whole army to press, that's it, our army has lost more than 5,000 people this time." ”

Shi Quan's answer makes sense, but this answer is useless, judging from Yue Fei's battle report, the defenders of the five cities plus the common people are only more than 10,000 people, and Yue Fei still pays the price of 5,000 elites in the case of victory, and there are more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians in Xingzhou, according to such a ratio, even if Yue Fei presides, at least 70,000 or 80,000 losses, and Zhang Suo and Sun Ang's ability is far inferior to Yue Fei, I am afraid that 100,000 is a conservative number.

No wonder Yang Zhi would rather go to Chang'an than come to the troubled waters this time; Zhao Kai waved his hand to signal Shi Quan to go down and rest, turned around and asked Zhang Suo: "What are your good ideas?"

Sun Ang interjected, "Let Yue Fei send the hot air balloon over." ”

Qu Duan sneered, and Li Jinyi hurriedly persuaded him: "General Sun, the use of attacking the hot air balloon in the city is not great, in case a hot air balloon falls into Xingzhou City, such a secret is leaked out, even if Xingzhou is captured, the gain outweighs the loss;

Everyone understands that the destruction of the Western Xia by the Dingbei Army is only the first step, and there is still the behemoth of the Jin State behind, if the secret of the hot air balloon is leaked out and the Jin State is imitated, then in the later war, the Dingbei Army will lose an absolute killing weapon; Xingzhou is just an appetizer in the final analysis, and the risk is not worth it. But Sun Ang was still unwilling: "Since Yang Zhi invented this thing, he shouldn't hide it and promote it in the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Sun Ang's words wanted to provoke a dispute, and Li Heng didn't intend to give a good face, shook his head and said: "When Bianliang was lost, 20,000 war horses and hundreds of thunderbolt artillery pieces fell into the hands of the Jin army without use, and good things must be in the hands of those who can be used." At least I don't have the brains to use these things. ”

Li Heng was the most successful person in the city of Xingzhou, after clearing the fortress on the east side of Xingzhou city by the Yellow River, Li Heng's army was transferred to the west of the city by Zhang, Li Heng also broke through the two castles on the hillside, killed more than 1,000 Western Xia troops, and obtained a large number of supplies. Sun Ang was so angry that he slapped the table and stood up, Cai Suitian grabbed Sun Ang and said: "General Sun, some things are like this, even in Yang Zhi and Yue Feijun, the two of them are actually not in charge of hot air balloons, they are all used by special officers, officials, and soldiers, and even Yang Zhi is not qualified to change the rules, so you see them, they are not used in every battle." ”

What Cai Suitian said is not a secret, Zhao Kai and the others all know this, the special operators are all from Guanzhong Academy, and so far, there are only so many people in total; this is also the reason why Yang Zhi and Yue Fei have no intention of promoting, if these people fall into the hands of people who don't know what to do, it is easy to become an independent department and become the object of accusation. Zhao Kai walked a few steps in the tent, stopped and only asked one sentence: "Qu Duan, if you are in Zhang Suo's position and you are the commander of this army, what should you do?"

Zhao Kai rarely paid so much attention to Qu Duan, and the audience was full of surprise for a while, Sun Ang sat down stupidly, Qu Duan stood up and said: "Before winter, clear all the outlying strongholds, and then spend the winter, waiting for the moment when the spring flowers bloom and the food in Xingzhou City is cut off; If it is decided to withdraw the army at that time, it is better to retreat now, after all, the grain has been harvested, and we can not leave a grain of rice for the Western Xia army. ”

Sun Ang asked passionately, "What if Brother Richard attacks us in turn?"

Qu Duan said in a deep voice: "The Dingyan Mansion is already in the hands of Yue Fei, if Brother Richard dares to attack Beilingzhou and Lingzhou, it will just give us the opportunity to fight a decisive battle with him." As long as the main force of Brother Richard is eliminated, it will not be possible to fight as much as you want in the spring of next year. ”

Sun Ang was speechless, the war was ruthless, but the politics were even more ruthless, how many invincible generals on the battlefield in the Great Song Dynasty fell into the hands of their own people without the power to fight back; Sun Ang knew that what Qu Duan said was the best policy, but in this way, no matter how Zhao Kai chose, Xu Huiyan, who was responsible for the defense of Yunzhong, and himself, who was responsible for attacking Xingzhou, would definitely become the object of discussion by others, and once the situation changed in a bad direction, the two would be ready-made back-stabbers.

Zhao Kai is a politician, and he also sees himself as a king, from the perspective of a king, of course Zhao Kai does not want to see his subordinates die meaninglessly on the battlefield, and he does not want to be said to be stepping on a lot of white bones for his own personal gain; Zhao Kai pondered and said: "Sun Ang's troops are tired, I mean, change Qu Duan, Liu Ziyu's troops to attack, Zhang Shen's army to cooperate, Qu Duan to replace Sun Ang as the commander of the capital." ”