The Western Expeditionary Army fought vigorously, but the 'trap' carefully laid by him was in danger of falling short, which made Zhao Hao deeply surprised and anxious. He couldn't figure out why this was the case, the battle plan formulated this time was said to have no mistakes, and it could be said that all kinds of situations were taken into account, but since the deployment of the Song army, the Mengyuan army has become hesitant, just like a fish in the river, and it is not to enter the net in every possible way.

Now that the various units of the Song army had been deployed, Zhao Yu understood that the longer the movement of nearly 100,000 troops dragged on, the greater the danger of exposure, and once their attempt was discovered by the enemy, the entire battle plan would fail; On the other hand, with the onset of winter, the living conditions of the soldiers who leave the camp and are stationed in the field will become even worse, and as the standby time is extended, the morale will also decline and the thinking will be relaxed.

"Official, don't worry, maybe the Mongols won't go out because of the cold!" Wang De has been with the little emperor for more than ten years, and knows that he has always been very positive about eating, and once he can't eat, he is either sick or worried.

"Eh, after following me for so many years, why don't you even know a little military common sense, how can Mongolians be afraid of the cold when they are born in the north!" Zhao Yu didn't say angrily when he heard it.

"Hehe, the Mongols have occupied the Central Plains for decades, and they are no longer tolerant of the cold. Although the winter in Jiangnan is not as good as that of Jiangbei and the Central Plains, I heard the old man in the palace say that the wet and cold in Jiangnan is even more unbearable than in the north. Wang De said with a smile.

"Hehe, you have a point, but I thought they wanted it to be colder. You ordered someone to send a message to the chief officials of the Ministry of Edict and the Privy Council to enter the palace to discuss matters, and what they said was much more reliable than yours! Zhao Yu smiled when he heard it, and the modern society in the previous life also circulated a joke about the Northeast men who were frozen and cried in Jiangnan and wanted to go home for the winter. But he knew that even if the Mongols had settled in the Central Plains for more than 40 years, they would not have degenerated to such an unbearable state, and there must be another reason for this.

In fact, everyone knows that weather has a great impact on war. The same is true for marching battles, such as the famous Battle of Sanfeng Mountain in Jinmeng, because the weather suddenly became cold, which led to serious non-combat attrition of the Jin army. In addition, there was also the Battle of Snake Water in the Tang Dynasty to Goguryeo, where the Tang army froze and broke its knees.

And what about the hot weather? A typical example of the hot weather affecting the war occurred when the Northern Song Dynasty attacked Vietnam, and it is reported that in this war, the Northern Song army made smooth progress at the beginning, successfully recovered the lost territory, and broke the Vietnamese army in a row. However, as they penetrated deep into the enemy's territory and faced the hot and humid weather in Vietnam, the Song officers and soldiers from Hebei and Shanxi appeared to be unsuitable, and more than half of the 300,000 soldiers and men died. As a result, the Song army had to withdraw its troops because of too many non-combat attrition.

As for the northern minority armies living in cold regions, such as the Khitan army, the reaction to the heat is even more obvious. In the late Liao Dynasty, Emperor Daozong Yelu Hongji had the habit of taking refuge in the "summer bowl" and discussing politics. In mid-April, the tent is used as a cool place. From the end of May and the beginning of June, it is in the fifties. Discuss state affairs with ministers from the north and south, and spend their days hunting. It can be seen that in the Liao Dynasty, people living in the northeast also chose a place to escape the heat, and the Mongols also inherited this tradition after occupying the Central Plains, and generally went to Shangdu every summer to escape the heat.

In terms of dispatching troops, "History of Liao" also has a clear record: "Its southern expedition points are mostly in the north of Youzhou. …… If. Advance in September, retreat in December, and do the same. If spring (sending troops) is in the first month, and autumn (sending troops) is in September, it will not be ordered." From the perspective of time, the September of the lunar calendar is often equivalent to the current October of the Gregorian calendar. At this time, it is already autumn in North China, and it is the time to cool and dry. December is the cold season. For North China, it is the coldest time of the year, and it will be thankless to stay any longer. Therefore, the Khitans will be accustomed to marching in September and retreating in December.

In addition, for the nomadic army, the dispatch of troops in June and July is not only hot, but also may face heavy rain. In the event of a heavy rainstorm, many weapons, especially bows and arrows, are unusable. In addition to this, heavy rains are often accompanied by various infectious diseases. In the course of the Kaixi Northern Expedition in the future, when the Song army was besieging Suzhou, the barracks were flooded due to heavy rain, and the internal chaos was finally broken by the Jin army.

In addition to the Khitan army, the Jurchen army was sometimes uncomfortable in the face of the humid heat and humidity of the southern region. When Jianyan of the Southern Song Dynasty crossed to the south, there was a dispute between Lin'an and Jiankang when choosing the ruling center. In the end, the Lin'an faction gained the upper hand, which was to consider the situation of the Jurchen army's difficult summer heat. In addition, since ancient times, the Huai River must be guarded, but with the dry and cold climate, the freezing period and dry period of the Huai River have begun to advance.

As Jurchens who live in the cold areas of the White Mountains and Black Waters, they prefer to choose when the weather is cool. In the third year of Jianyan, the Jurchens sent troops in the first month, successively went down to Chuzhou, Sizhou, and finally went south to Yangzhou, which frightened Song Gaozong to hurriedly cross the river south. After the Jin people failed to catch Song Gaozong, they instead plundered and slaughtered on a large scale, making a prosperous Yangzhou so that "there are only thousands of people who survive". And in March, after plundering the Jurchen army, they began to withdraw their troops back to Huaibei. When the Southern Song Dynasty confronted the Jin and Mongol Yuan regimes in Huainan, the rainy season in Huainan caused problems not only for the Jurchens, but also for the Southern Song army.

Anyway, in general, both cold and hot weather will have a great impact on the marching operations of ancient armies, but if you are well prepared, the cold is still easy to overcome. For example, in the Battle of Sanfeng Mountain, the Mongol army prepared a large amount of materials to cope with the cold, thus defeating the Jin army. But it's not easy to do when it's hot. For example, in the later battle of Kublai Khan to destroy the Song Dynasty, the Yuan army was stuck with the Song army in the heat of the day when Xiangyang had surrendered in March, and it was not until August, September and October that great progress was made. Therefore, Zhao Yu still felt that this should be the best time for Meng Yuan to move his troops, and his inaction may be due to another reason......

Due to the congenital insufficiency of Zhiyuan Hall, there is not much space for renovation, and Zhao Yu uses this as his main office space and residence. He not only handled official business here, but also became a frequent place for concubines to come and go, so it was inconvenient for foreign ministers to meet him. In summer, it is still in Lengquan Hall, but not in winter, so Zhao Yu made a new two-story warm pavilion on the east side of Zhiyuan Hall as an office space, and the two places are connected by corridors, and it is also very convenient to come and go.

"Your Majesty, the minister thought that Meng Yuan's refusal to cross the river for a long time should have been discovered, so he had already given up his attempt to use troops in Jiangnan!" After the ministers who came in response to the edict sat down, Chen Renweng answered the questions raised by His Majesty bluntly.

"Chen Shangshu thinks that the fighter plane has been lost, so there is no need to prepare for war?" Zhao Yu frowned when he heard this, he understood that although he said it was vague, it meant that his strategic intentions had been exposed, so there was no need to waste troops and financial resources in vain.

"A few days ago, the minister was ordered to go out of Beijing to pacify the army and inspect the front-line departments. It was found that the living conditions of the officers and men who were preparing for war and setting up ambushes in the Kunshan area were very bad, and they went out of camp to camp in the wilderness, and in order not to expose their targets, they could not camp on a large scale, so they could only scatter in the wilderness. The troops close to the front line were even more difficult, they could not live and cook for the sake of concealment, and they did not dare to raise a fire to keep warm, so they could only endure hunger and cold, and their physical strength was greatly consumed. In addition, the people who moved inward are also full of complaints, they have been away from home for a long time, homesick, and some even secretly return to their hometowns. Now that the weather is getting colder and colder, and the wind and snow are mixed with camping in the wilderness, the number of wounded and sick will increase day by day, and the minister thinks that it is no longer necessary to wear it down, so it is better to order the troops to return to the camp. Chen Renweng said sincerely.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks what Chen Shangshu said is very true." At this time, Lu Shiwen, the commander of the naval army of the Ministry of War, continued, "The minister was ordered to go to the first naval army to inspect, and they are currently avoiding the sea off the mouth of the river to stand by, they have been adrift at sea for more than two months, and they have not been able to dock at the port to recuperate, and it is very difficult to replenish. With the monsoon approaching, storms are becoming more frequent, and the risk of fleets staying at sea for long periods of time is increasing. ”

"The opinion of your military department is to abandon this campaign?" Zhao Yu looked at the generals of the Ministry of War and asked, seeing that they all nodded yes, he turned his face and asked Han Zhen, "Does the Privy Council also agree with the opinion of the Ministry of War!" ”

"Your Majesty, the minister has objections to the military department giving up this battle!" Han Zhen Shili said clearly.

"Oh, please!" Zhao Yu's face did not fluctuate in the slightest, he knew that he had to fully listen to the opinions of all parties, but he could not show his own attitude and affect the thoughts of others.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the current preparations of all units of our army are very sufficient, and our strategic intentions have not been exposed. Although Mengyuan did not launch large-scale combat operations, small-scale conflicts occurred frequently, especially in the recent period of more than 100 troops, there have been more than ten battles, and most of them have occurred in the areas we have set. Therefore, the ministers judged that the enemy's attempt to invade Jiangnan was not dispelled, and it was only waiting for the opportunity or stumbling on other things that caused them not to take large-scale action. Han Zhenyan said.

"What do you think caused the Meng Yuan side to delay in mobilizing troops?" Zhao Hao took a sip of tea and continued to ask.

"There may be two reasons for the minister's consideration: first, the Mengyuan side wanted to use troops when the severe cold came, because at that time, the land and streams were frozen, so that the cavalry could move quickly without considering the obstacles of the marching roads and rivers; The second is that there may have been a problem within Meng Yuan, but due to the limitation of intelligence, Kechen can't know about it for a while! Han Zhen pondered for a moment and replied.

"You guess that there is turmoil within Meng Yuan, what should you guess it is? It's okay to be wrong, though! Han Zhen's words made Zhao Yu's mind flash, he knew that the coldest winter in the south of the Yangtze River would not freeze the land three feet like the north, although the small streams would freeze, but the rivers with large water would still not freeze, so the biggest possibility was civil strife.

"I think the biggest possibility is money!" Han Zhen licked his lips and said......