His Majesty's sentence that he wanted to be a thief shocked everyone. You must know that there are many elements of luck in the Imperial Horse Battalion's ability to deceive the enemy's war horses, and now that the enemy army has been alerted, it is almost impossible to replicate the previous actions by moving the pasture north. Moreover, there are tens of thousands of horses on the other side, and I am afraid that it is too subtle to use the word stealing, and it is most appropriate to say that robbery is the most appropriate, and this is in line with the temper of the little emperor.

"Your Majesty, now that we are making peace with Meng Yuan, we are afraid that it will be inappropriate to provoke a side provocation, right?" Chen Shishi knew the little emperor's mind very well, and of course, as the head of the imperial office, he had the responsibility to remind him, and he immediately gave a salute.

"Has a peace agreement been reached?" Zhao Hao asked rhetorically.

"This ...... At present, it is only a preliminary discussion, and there is no progress, let alone an agreement! Chen Shishi was stunned and said. And secretly said in his heart that the little emperor was knowingly asking, he didn't want to reach a peace agreement at all, where would there be a result.

"That's it, if the two sides don't reach an agreement, then Song and Yuan are still enemy countries, how can they provoke border provocations." Zhao Hao spread his hands and smiled.

"That's it, the Tartars are our biggest enemy of the Great Song Dynasty, and if you want to fight for any reason, you can fight it!" Chen Fenglin interjected when he heard this.

"But stealing horses is always a bad gentleman!" Chen Shishi knew that these arrogant soldiers and fierce generals had nothing to do and wanted to find trouble, and besides, it was the emperor who proposed it, and arguing with them was self-inflicted humiliation, so he turned around.

"Chief Chen wants to talk to the enemy about the style of a gentleman? I'm afraid we won't be where we are today! Zhao Mengjin felt that he had heard the funniest thing in the world, as one of the many people who first followed the little emperor, he naturally knew how His Majesty got started, and he could not have anything to do with the style of a gentleman.

Although the little emperor wore the big hat of King Wei and the deputy marshal of the world's soldiers and horses, Zhao Mengjin also knew that he had no soldiers and no money, and the capital of the start was to pit the property of the Mengyuan enemy ship that pursued the epidemic ship on the plague ship, so as to maintain the situation after the establishment of the Shuai Mansion. When he went to Qiongzhou, he was already empty, and the little emperor's method was to rob Guangzhou; After succeeding to the throne, in order to solve the financial difficulties after the relocation of the dynasty, the method was still to rob, and then ransacked Quanzhou; After recovering Jiangnan, although he was elegant, in the name of confiscating the enemy's wealth, he actually robbed Meng Yuan of his wealth in Jiangnan.

Therefore, Zhao Mengjin and others are aware of the character of the little emperor, although his appearance is harmless to humans and animals, he never cares about the so-called gentleman in order to achieve his goal, and he can't stop the king of heaven if he really wants to do it, besides, this is just a matter of a few horses. However, the reality is that the lack of horses has affected the current war situation, and there is no more effective and realistic solution than to grab it.

"Come, let's go over there and discuss it and see how we act!" Zhao Yu pointed to a wooded road near the river bank at the bottom of the slope.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The crowd saluted in unison.

Chen Shishi also understood that the little emperor had made up his mind to do something, even the important ministers of the court could not stop it, and he was his own staff, and he also knew that his duty was that once His Majesty decided to do it, even if he was dissatisfied, he would try his best to cooperate and make suggestions, rather than respond passively, so he immediately ordered a guard to go back to the imperial boat to get what he needed.

And the little emperor's temporary intention also caught Zheng Yong and the commander of the imperial horse battalion off guard, thinking that since His Majesty was going to plan for a while, he couldn't end it for a while, so he hurriedly ordered someone to build a pergola in the forest. And it was almost noon, and His Majesty could not be allowed to go hungry, and he was busy beckoning people to prepare meals and do a good job in logistics supply.

"Zheng Yi, this is the station of your 1st Marine Brigade, and you are also the main force, let me tell you your opinion first!" Zhao Hao sat on a tree stump, reached out and took a scone cake, broke it, and asked while eating a piece of meat.

"Your Majesty, this ...... This happened suddenly, and the subordinates didn't have time to think about it! Zheng Yi didn't expect His Majesty to suddenly ask a question, and he didn't know how to answer for a while.

"Give you a quarter of an hour to think about it!" Zhao Yu swallowed the food in his mouth and said with a frown.

"Yes, my subordinates obey!" Zheng Yi hurriedly saluted, but when he retreated, he quietly gave his brother a look.

Zheng Yong naturally understood what his brother meant, the emperor is not someone who can see him if he wants to, and he can't be a person who can follow the emperor, there is no staff around him at the moment, but suddenly the emperor asked him to come up with a battle plan in a very short time, which caught Zheng Yi off guard. But there was no one to talk to, so I had to ask my brother for help.

"Erlang, isn't Your Majesty embarrassed? How can you make a plan in such a short time! Seeing that his brother retreated to the outskirts of the camp, Zheng Yi saw that there was no one else left and right, and complained in a low voice.

"Brother, don't think about it, Your Majesty's intention is not to make things difficult, but to test you. Check out your ability to deal with the unexpected as a military commander! Zheng Yong sighed lightly and explained, he often followed the little emperor Hu, so he naturally knew what he meant.

"I see!" As a veteran of the war for many years, Zheng Yi of course also understands that the battlefield is changing rapidly, and the battle plan formulated in advance cannot cover all situations, which requires the commander to respond in a timely manner according to the situation on the spot, which is also the most test of the commander's ability to respond to the situation.

"Brother, don't panic, Your Majesty also knows that it is impossible to complete a detailed battle plan in a short period of time, you only need to state the general direction of the battle and roughly explain how to organize the battle. It doesn't matter if you say something wrong, but don't panic when you answer correctly, what Your Majesty hates the most is that the war will be caught off guard! Zheng Yong hurriedly mentioned some matters that his brother should pay attention to, after all, not everyone can always be by His Majesty's side.

"yes, I see!" Zheng Yi had a bottom in his heart after hearing this, and nodded. Waving his hand to let his brother go back first, so as not to arouse the suspicion of others, he paced around the tree, forcing himself to calm down as quickly as possible, and his mind was also racing fast, wondering how to fight this battle and win it......

"Your Majesty!"

"No courtesy, talk while eating!" Zhao Hao was already in the stomach of two Hu Biscuits at this time, holding the third one in his hand, and he was still chewing food in his mouth, a little vague.

"Your Majesty, my subordinates think that it is difficult to complete this task with the ability of our department alone, and they still need the assistance of friendly forces!" Zheng Yi also sat down around the table, but he knew his identity, how dare he go to take the things on the table to eat, so he could only swallow and salivate first.

"There are not only commanders here, but also an army and a navy are all here, and no matter what the soldiers or generals are, they will do their best to cooperate!" Zhao Yu took a hu cake and handed it to Zheng Yi, pointing to the people around him and said.

Zheng Yi can be said to be the lowest military rank among the generals in this group of entourage, and he asked him to preside over this operation is also intended to test his command ability, and at the same time he also knows the truth that flowing water does not rot and does not rot the household, and no matter how hard an army is trained, it is difficult to test its level without experiencing actual combat for a long time, especially when there are constantly new recruits to fill in, actual combat is the most effective way to maintain the combat effectiveness of a unit. As a sharp knife in Zhao Yu's hand, the Marine Brigade will rust if he is not used for a long time, so he wants to use this to sharpen it.

"Your Majesty, your subordinates are disrespectful!" Zheng Yi stood up and walked to the map that had been hung up and saluted everyone, and said, "The subordinates of this battle think that the focus is to be fast, quickly break into the enemy pasture, quickly defeat the defending enemy and turn to the defense, and then drive the horse across the river to complete the task before the enemy reinforcements arrive......"

At this time, there was a somewhat funny scene, whether it was explaining or listening, holding a piece of Hu Biscuit in his hand, taking a bite from time to time, sometimes chewing thoughtfully and slowly, and sometimes swallowing the food in his mouth tightly and asking questions. If you don't know the inside story, no one can imagine that this is a group of people discussing battle plans and pondering each other's tens of thousands of war horses.

Zhao Yu was no exception, he listened to Zheng Yi's eloquent conversation while examining the map. At this time, the Yangtze River Delta was not as fully developed as in later generations, if the Yangtze River estuary is compared to the dragon's mouth, then Tongzhou in the north of the Yangtze River is like the upper jaw of the dragon's mouth, and the Chongming Islands where they are located are like a few beads in the dragon's mouth. But the 'upper jaw' of the moment is too thin, and it is still a narrow peninsula jutting into the sea, more like a slender tongue.

According to Zheng Yi's introduction, Tongzhou is only 40 miles wide from north to south and about 60 miles long from east to west, because it is a 'new land' formed by the accumulation of sediment carried by rivers, and it is close to the coast, it is seriously salinized, and it is not suitable for farming. And because of this, it was selected as a pasture by Meng Yuan to domesticate war horses. Horse breeding is inseparable from abundant water sources, so the pastures are chosen on the side near the Yangtze River, where not only the water is abundant, but also the pasture grass is more lush.

Of course, as the front line of the confrontation between the two countries, it will inevitably be stationed with heavy troops, but in the past, the military operations of the Song army were aimed at relatively wealthy areas or agricultural areas along the river, so as to attack and weaken the economic strength of the Mengyuan Dynasty. However, most of the area of Tongzhou is still in a primitive state, and it is not suitable for farming, so it seems that there is no economic value, so it is not like other areas along the river to build a large-scale river defense fortress, but a thousand people are stationed in Jinghai, Zhouzhi.

However, Zhao Yu thought that the reason why Meng Yuan was like this was not because he despised the military value here, but because it was not unrelated to the special terrain of Tongzhou. On the one hand, it is close to the mouth of the Yangtze River, the water surface is wide, and the river bank is gentle, there is no deep-water port, and it is not suitable for the naval army to carry out landing operations; Even if the Song army successfully landed on a large scale, the Jinghai Prefecture just held the throat connected to the interior, and as long as Jingzhou was not lost, the landing troops could only be trapped on the peninsula, and it was difficult to develop in depth.

Zheng Yi's idea of this battle was very simple, that is, to use the navy to land from behind Tongzhou, control the road from Haimen to Jinghai, and complete the encirclement of the pasture. In order to achieve the purpose of a rapid assault, he intended to use the cavalry brigade of the First Army as the main force to undertake the task of defeating the defenders of the pasture and collecting the horses; The other way is to land at Jiangkou Town with the main force of the Marine Brigade to cut off the road from Jinghai to the pasture, block the mission of enemy reinforcements, and at the same time block the retreat of the enemy in the pasture.

And Zheng Yong also thought that it was unrealistic and impossible to use the navy's warships to transport tens of thousands of horses back to Chongming. Therefore, he planned to use the baggage battalion of the Marine Brigade as the main force, supplemented by the engineering team of the First Army's baggage brigade, to erect several pontoon bridges on the river as a passage for horses and the withdrawal of troops. After completing the mission, the pontoon bridge was burned and transferred to defensive operations.

After listening to Zheng Yi's explanation, Zhao Yu did not rush to express his opinion, he thought that the 1st Marine Brigade had been stationed on the Chongming Islands for more than a year, and it would inevitably carry out reconnaissance in the place in front of him, and he was very familiar with the enemy situation and terrain. But his gaze remained on the familiar and unfamiliar map, where he had worked in the shipyard in his previous life and had been here many times during sea trials, when the sea gate was far from what it is today. As the name suggests, Jiangkou Town is the location of the former Jiangkou, but now it is also at the western end of the peninsula, adjacent to Jinghai, and in the previous life it had been renamed Nantong.

"Zheng Dutong, your plan seems to be feasible, but can you ever think that although the current flood season is nearing the end, the downstream water is still not small, the river is still wide, and it is difficult to erect a pontoon bridge. And Tongzhou lacks a suitable port for landing, how to ensure the success of landing? Zhao Yu said after thinking about it.

"Your Majesty, my subordinates have already thought about it." Zheng Yi didn't seem to think that His Majesty's question was abrupt, and said with a smile, "Your Majesty also knows that this place is close to the mouth of the river, and the amount of river water will be affected by the tide. On the contrary, when the tide rises, the sea water pours into the river, the water surface becomes wider, and the water depth increases, which is convenient for landing operations! ”

"Well, it's good to take advantage of the window period when the tide rises and falls, and to carry out landing and retreat operations separately. But the grasp of time is also very strict, and the slightest mistake will be wasted! Zhao Yu nodded. He already understood the arrangements for his operation, but this battle was a joint operation of the three armies, namely the water, infantry, and cavalry, and the requirements for commanders were also set to a higher standard.

"Your Majesty, today is the seventeenth day of the seventh month, and tomorrow will be at the end of the sub-hour when the tide rises and reaches a climax in the ugly hour, and this is the most suitable time for landing. The low tide is at the end of the day, and two of the hours can be used for the landing and deployment of troops, as long as the organization is well organized, and the time should be sufficient. After the low tide, the pontoon bridge was immediately erected, and according to the results of previous training, it was not surprising that it was possible to build two kilometers long and half a wide boat bridge in one hour! "Zheng Yi has always commanded the Marine Brigade and is very proficient in landing operations, so he is confident.

"Yes, then this battle will be under your full command, and it is up to you whether you can steal those horses back!" After Zhao Hao asked a few questions, he handed over the task to him.

"Your Majesty, subordinates ......" Zheng Yi was a little stunned, he thought that he would cooperate with the battle, but he didn't expect that in the presence of many high-ranking generals, the little emperor handed over the heavy responsibility of command to himself. He wanted to excuse himself, but seeing that the little emperor had already picked up the cake and ate it with relish, he swallowed the words back......