From a tactical point of view, it is a good choice to replace defense with offense, but Zhao Hao believes that strategic consideration is not the best way. In the attack on Huainan, he was not more out of military reasons, but from economic reasons. He thought that although Meng Yuan had lost Jiangnan and had a certain loss in terms of troops, most of the troops that were annihilated were the Song Dynasty army, the Han army in Jiangbei and a small number of Mongolian Tanma Red Army.

Therefore, Zhao Yu thought that the greatest significance of recovering Jiangnan was that he occupied a larger land, had more population and wealth, and enhanced the war potential. At the same time, Meng Yuan lost an important place of wealth, and his ability to wage war was weakened, but it still did not reassure him, and the capture of Huainan could further tighten the noose in his hand and choke Meng Yuan's channels for obtaining wealth.

Zhao Yu had flipped through the seized old files of Mengyuan, and through his data analysis, half of the taxes obtained by Mengyuan came from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and 20% came from Huainan and Huainan. In this way, Meng Yuan can still get supplies from the Huainan area, so as to continue to survive. And he knew very well that with the current strength of the Great Song Dynasty, he wanted to defeat the Mongolian army that had not yet been injured in a battle, and his own strength was still insufficient.

Of course, Zhao Yu had no choice but to avoid a war, even a protracted war. But he knew that war was not a child's game, it cost money, and it was crazy to burn money. Now that he occupies the rich Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, if he seizes Huainan again, he will rob Meng Yuan of the last straw. Then the longer the war drags on, the more supplies and money will be consumed, and he can conclude that he will win this money-burning game and survive to death.

The reason why Zhao Hao had such an idea was also based on the way the Mongols rose, when Genghis Khan personally led an army of 100,000 to the south to attack Jin. At this time, the Mongol cavalry was still a typical nomadic light cavalry. In the face of the Great Wall of the Jin State, Genghis Khan took advantage of the speed advantage of his lightly armed cavalry, attacked the east and the west, ordered his three sons to lead an army of 30,000 to contain the Jin army, and personally led the main force to break through the weakly defended Jin defense line in one fell swoop.

Wanyan Chengyu, the general of the Jin state, was shocked by the speed of the Mongol advance and feared that the Mongols would attack the rear, so he abandoned the three wealthy cities of Huanzhou, Changzhou and Fuzhou on the front line, and gathered 400,000 heavy troops to defend the mountain fortresses around Yehuling. This not only gave a large amount of grain, grass, equipment and military horses to the Mongols for nothing, but also allowed hundreds of thousands of troops to be scattered and stationed in mountain fortresses, which were inconvenient to communicate with each other, but gave the fast and mobile Mongols the opportunity to advance with heavy troops.

Genghis Khan also used this method to gather superior forces to break through the Jin army fortresses one by one. It can be seen that during this period, the victory of the Mongols still relied on the excellent command of Genghis Khan's unborn tactical master, as well as the "brainless send-off" of the Jin State. It was also through the invasion of the Jin State that the Mongol cavalry became rich and began to have the capital to create a new cavalry combat model.

The current situation was actually even more unfavorable for the Mongol and Yuan regimes, and the four khanates had already existed in name only, and it was almost impossible to replenish the consumption by plundering Central Asia and Europe. In recent years, Kublai Khan has been fighting foreign wars, and almost all of Kublai Khan's losses have been spent, and the family funds he got from the Song Dynasty have been almost spent. If the economic blockade is further imposed on them, Meng Yuan, who is in a hurry to jump over the wall, will definitely launch a southern invasion, which will cause their economy to enter a vicious circle. And a country without an economic base, can it still be called a country?

In addition, Zhao knew that the political elites of later generations would often erect an enemy whenever internal contradictions were difficult to reconcile to strengthen internal unity and external unity. This method of transferring contradictions, though not clever, is often very effective. And under the crisis, people will also huddle together to warm up and reach a unity of opinion. He felt that in the face of a chaotic court dispute, an unexpected war might be the best glue to unite the people and take the opportunity to eliminate those who dissided.

Zhao Yu knows that his vision should be conservative and relatively prudent in strategy, but it is also the most difficult for everyone to accept. Being on the defensive first will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the warriors who are eager to make meritorious contributions; And the constant intrusion of Meng Yuan will definitely make the ministers think that it is the disadvantage of the warriors to fight, which leads to the continuous war, which costs the people and money. Therefore, this plan is not good on both sides, and it is also the reason why he did not dare to show his hole cards, so he could only wait for the time to come.

However, it is imperative to pass through Huainan, and only by capturing Huainan can the defense line be advanced to the Huaihe River valley, increase the strategic depth, and ensure the security of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Huguang. On the other hand, part of the economic war was realized. Therefore, Zhao Yu is looking forward to the arrival of this war, but he is still a little hesitant about the tactical design of attacking instead of defending, because it is difficult to achieve his original intention......

"What the Lu minister said, but the lower officials did not dare to agree, Meng Yuan already knew the strength of our army's naval division, if it landed from Jiangzhou, it would send a large army to cross the river quickly, and only large ships could be used, otherwise it would be crossed by small warships, and the army would be intercepted by our naval division if it was less than half of the army, and it would be difficult to do anything by relying only on a small number of troops who crossed the river in advance." At this time, Zhang Hao, the deputy commander of the Imperial Protector Army, got up and questioned, at present, Zheng Yong led the army to escort the caravan to Nanyang, and he temporarily led the navy.

"Tell me about it!" Zhao Yu did not stop it, but let him speak freely.

"Your Majesty, Lu Xiang!" Zhang Hao pointed to the sand table road, "At present, Meng Yuan ordered Goryeo to build warships, if they want to reach the Yangtze River, there are two ways to choose: one is to take the sea route from Goryeo to the mouth of the river; The other road is to reach the sea off the coast of Andong Prefecture by sea, enter the Huai River from the mouth of the river, and then enter the canal from Huai'an to the south and enter the Yangtze River from Yangzhou. Now that the south bank of the Yangtze River is controlled by our army, and the river is also controlled by the navy, it is difficult for a large number of enemy ships to escape the surveillance of the navy. ”

"Therefore, my subordinates think that Meng Yuan is most likely to attack Zhenjiang Road from the south of the canal, and even if he attacks from Jiangzhou, he will be a partial division, so as to contain our armies in the middle reaches, and he does not dare to draw troops to the east for reinforcements."

General Zhang's words are reasonable, but there are many tributaries of the Huaishui, and although it is difficult for large ships to pass during the dry season, the river water rises sharply after the rainy season, and it may be uncertain. And there is a thunder pond on the north bank of Jiangzhou, which is vast for hundreds of miles, and you can build ships, train sailors, and hide soldiers. If you take advantage of the water to cross the river, you can go directly to the city of Jiangzhou, you can also rush into Poyang Lake to occupy Duchang City, you can detour back to our army's river defense, and once you stand on your foot, you can occupy the upper reaches and move eastward. Lu Xiufu was not annoyed, but said with a smile.

"This ...... Did Xia Guan really ignore this, or was Zuo Xiang thoughtful! Zhang Hao looked at the map and pondered for a moment, and said in recognition of what he said.

"General Zhang is too modest, this is just my superficial opinion!" Zhang Hao has always served as the captain of the Warrior, and this ship is also the exclusive car of the little emperor, and they have also taken many rides, and the two are also familiar with each other, and Lu Xiufu also bowed his hand and said humbly.

"We can't afford to make this mistake again!" Zhao Yu also nodded after hearing this. Everyone is familiar with the idiom 'can't cross the thunder pool', which can be said to be well-known, and it is used to describe those insurmountable boundaries, and Lu Xiufu said that the thunder pool is this.

There is a big river called Lei Shui in Hubei, which accumulates into a large pond when it flows through the Wangjiang River, and the pond is named Lei Chi because of the water. The radius of the thunder pond is 100 miles big, the water level is extremely deep, because of the control of the Yangtze River, the Eastern Jin Dynasty set up a big thunderbolt, has always been the important place of river defense. Although the thunder pool is large and deep, but it is not insurmountable, at least before the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the thunder pool is still arbitrarily let people "cross", the reason why it can not be "crossed" later, this is completely from a strategic mistake, and this time the decision-maker's extremely wrong strategic arrangement, almost ruined the entire Eastern Jin Dynasty.

"Your Majesty's intention is that Meng Yuan will attack from Jiangzhou?" Zhao Mengjin frowned and said.

"If I command this battle, Jiangzhou will also be used as a breakthrough. On the one hand, this is the junction of our two theaters of operations, east and west, and it is inevitable that there will be omissions in defense; The two broke through from Zhenjiang, which was close to Gyeonggi and must have been heavily defended, and even if they were breached, it would only take two days at most for reinforcements to arrive quickly to block it. Moreover, the east is the sea, there is no room for maneuver, once you can't quickly expand the results of the battle and quickly go south, there is a danger of being surrounded and driven into the sea! Zhao Yu pointed to the map.

"In this way, Your Majesty has a strategy to defend against the enemy!" After a little thought, Jiang Cheng knew that what the little emperor said was good, breaking through from Jiangzhou could quickly advance eastward and surround the Song army deployed along the river. The breakthrough from Zhenjiang is the result of being surrounded by people, when there will be a large river to block, there will be a large army to intercept, to the east is the sea, and there is a strong city in the west, which can be said to be a place of death, so the only advantage of marching into the army is that it can directly threaten Lin'an, but the risk is too great.

"I wonder if the enemy breaks through from Jiangzhou, can we take the opportunity of the enemy in Huainan to come out and launch a battle to recover Huainan." Zhao Hao smiled. He felt that this should be an opportunity, and the enemy's invasion of Jiangnan across the river would definitely make the government and the opposition feel a crisis, and understood that the current Great Song Dynasty was not a time to sit back and relax, let alone a time of internal strife, and only by uniting together to resist foreign enemies could the land south of the Yangtze River be kept.

"The subordinates are so stupid, please elaborate on Your Majesty!" The generals present were surprised and confused when they heard this, and they didn't understand what the little emperor meant, so they looked at each other, and Zhao Mengjin Shili asked.

"This is also my temporary intention, and there is no belly case, so I will talk about it roughly first, and refer to each other in detail!" Zhao Yu pressed his hand to let Zhao Mengjin sit down, he got up and picked up the long pole and pointed on the sand table, "If the enemy wants to cross the river and invade Jiangnan, it is our consensus that he will send a large army, and I imagine that if the enemy crosses the river from the Jiangzhou area to attack, he will inevitably use the Huaixi army, so that we can avoid the enemy's edge and get out of the way to lure the enemy into Poyang Lake." then seized Dagu Mountain with ambush troops to block the enemy's retreat to the mouth of the Yangtze River; In the south, Duchang was held with heavy troops to cut off the enemy's southward advance. At the same time, all the waterways leading to the outside world of Poyang Lake were blocked, and then the enemy was decisive on the lake with a naval army. ”

"Your Majesty's intention is to lure the enemy deeper, then close all the passages, and gather and annihilate the enemy in the south on Poyang Lake!" Jiang Cheng also got up and pointed.

"Yes, if this battle can be won, then all the elites of the enemy in Huaixi will be annihilated, and at the same time, a fighter will be created for me." Zhao Yu said, "Huaixi is empty, and we will send the troops stationed in Jiankang, Wuhu, Chizhou, and Ezhou to cross the Yangtze River into Huaixi, quickly control the strategic points, seize Shouzhou, Luzhou, and Guangzhou, and advance the defense line to the Huaishui line." ”

"Your Majesty's plan is indeed unexpected, but if there is a mistake, it will also put Jiangnan in a crisis!" Jiang Cheng was really taken aback when he heard this.

At first, when they were discussing how to recover the Lianghuai region, they formulated the policy of steadily advancing to the north of the Yangtze River, and once blocked, they would withdraw to the south of the Yangtze River, so as to continuously consume the strength of the enemy army and destroy their means of production, and use the Lianghuai region as a training ground, but it became a purgatory for the enemy. But at the moment, the little emperor changed his previous plan and turned to a battle to complete the work. He thought that the idea was good, but the risk was not small, if he could not wipe out the enemy who invaded the south, the enemy would go deep into the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River and threaten Gyeonggi.

"Otherwise, the minister thinks that His Majesty's plan is feasible!" Lu Xiufu agreed with the little emperor's idea, "Most of the enemies in Huaixi are Mengyuan strong forces, brave and good at fighting, and they are not comparable to the enemies in the south of the Yangtze River." However, after previous wars, the elites of the two Huai Navy armies have been lost. His Majesty's luring of the enemy from the south into Poyang Lake forced them to abandon their long and short ties to fight with us on the water, and the enemy's rear roads were cut off, and there was no food and grass to carry all the baggage, and even if they were besieged for more than ten days, they would collapse without a fight. ”

"The elite of the enemy in Huaixi is trapped by me, as long as our army moves quickly and seizes Shouzhou, we can block the enemy's reinforcements according to Jiancheng, which is also the key to whether this battle can be fully successful." Lu Xiufu continued, "As long as we occupy Huaixi, the enemies of Huaidong will be isolated, and it will be difficult for them to help each other, but they will always be surrounded by us from the flank. And as long as the time is ripe, our army can go north along the canal to fight for it, and put the rich land of the two Huai into the hands of our dynasty! ”

"Well, the terrestrial analysis is good. The key to this battle was whether the land that invaded Jiangzhou could be trapped in Poyang Lake; Can we seize Shouzhou as soon as possible and take the strategic initiative! Zhao Yu didn't expect that it would be Lu Xiufu who supported him, so he nodded at him and said.

He knew that the land of Shouzhou could be sent to the Central Plains, and the retreat was the Jiangnan barrier, no matter which side occupied it, the other party's strategic hinterland would be undoubtedly exposed. There is also the saying that guarding the river must first guard Huai, and guarding Huai must guard Shouchun. If you get Shouchun, you only need to defend a little to achieve the purpose of defending a rear area, and conversely, if you attack, you can get Shouchun to strike at the enemy's vast front. Therefore, Shouzhou has always been the outpost and focus of the north-south struggle for hegemony, and a strategic point for both the north and the south to fight......