The northwest has already been covered with heavy snow, and it has officially entered the hibernation period.

There was no need to wait for news from the imperial court, Wang Yan was earlier than the imperial court, and obtained the news that the Liao State had deployed a large army to move south in the cold winter from the Beijing Garrison Division under Zhang Fangping.

It's really hard to say what the purpose of the Liao State is for the time being, and even Wang Yan can't judge. It is not surprising that the two-pronged diplomatic and military stick is used, but this "team" is very strange.

Xiao Hui's diplomacy must be a pretense. A person who is not trusted by Emperor Liao, even if he reaches any consensus with him, it is useless, and the consensus will be invalid in the blink of an eye after he returns to China. It's as hilarious as Sima Guang's diplomacy.

Judging from Xiao Yanshan's appointment as the head of the march, Damn, this really has the meaning of going to war.

But no matter how many guesses these things are, there is one thing that Wang Yan can be sure of, that is, in this situation, it will put heartbreaking pressure on the first three rows of the Song Kingdom.

When they couldn't bear it, the court trembled, and the Song volunteers knelt down and would be recalled at the moment of victory. That is for the Liao State and the Western Xia.

"We must completely end the Battle of Hehuang before the blackmail of these evil forces succeeds!"

Residing here, Wang Yan began to enter the winter battle in early December, and the plan entered the implementation stage.

There is no need to maneuver now, because in the snow, and under the severe cold, Song Ma's bloodline determines that even after enough warm-up, he still can't run.

Under such conditions, the cavalry had lost its significance, so Wang Yan cut down all the cavalry troops, and instead divided the infantry phalanx into three routes, and officially deployed westward under the conditions of severe cold.

Ma Jinxi's two reorganized armies of 5,000 men crossed the frozen Ruhe River and advanced to the front line of Suiyuan Pass.

Chen Ergou led two reorganized armies of 5,000 people, also crossed the Ruhe River, and had advanced to the front line of Gude in heavy snow.

Di Yong led two reorganized armies of 5,000 people to the north and drove to the southern line of the Ancient Bone Dragon City.

At this point, basically the winter was not conducive to the marching season, which exceeded Manba's expectations, and officially locked the Western Xia Expeditionary Legion. It is considered to be a large area closed pockets.

Starting from Di Yongbing's southern route to the Ancient Bone Dragon City, it means that Manba's fastest and closest route home has been blocked.

Everyone understands the intention of the Great Demon King to rush into the army in the severe cold, and now in view of the scale and flow rate of the Huangshui has not frozen, it has become a natural barrier to block the Manba, if it continues, the time will be pushed to the first month, when the Huangshui may freeze, and the carriage and horses are feasible, it means that the Manba Army has a broader depth, and it is not easy to seal.

In everyone's mind, there is no suspense about winning the Battle of Hehuang so far, but after the tragedy in Xining Prefecture, it is the time for the Great Song Dynasty to establish the prestige of a great power, for the sake of national dignity, in order to win the hearts of the people in the Hehuang area, the Great Demon King's demand is not to win, but to annihilate everything!

"It must be annihilated! Manba's body must be left in the Hehuang area, and he must not be allowed to return to Xingqing Mansion, otherwise it will bring greater variables to the situation in the world! ”

This is the request of the Great Demon King, and it is also the oath of the three military formations when they come out in early December.

Wang Yan and Mu Guiying were not idle, and they also went out in the bitter cold.

However, the first line was not deployed for the time being, and Wang Yan personally led two artillery members of the integrated army, carrying a total of 255 fire dragons, to maneuver in the middle line of the rear. Maintain a state of being close to the main forces of front-line operations, not too far and not too close.

In the event of a battle, Wang Yan's responsibility is to determine the real needs of the three positions, find out where the main force of the Manba Division is pressing, and then quickly respond to artillery support.

This is the approximate deployment of the Song Volunteer Army, since the cavalry is not mobile enough, simply do not move, all the war horses have been withdrawn from the second line, become a tool for transporting auxiliaries, and must achieve the logistics supply of the main force of 20,000 operations on the front line.

The auxiliary troops who participated were composed of the people of Hehuang who gathered in Zongcheng, and the remaining guerrillas led by Dong Yu also participated in commanding and maintaining order......

"Hurry up, run for me. Brothers, we must go out of the Thirsty Donkey Ridge and enter Baosai before December 23rd, so as to cooperate with our other military headquarters and complete the contraction of the Manba encirclement! ”

Ma Jinsi shouted like a traffic commander, and quickly pounced on the thirsty donkey ridge after leaving the Suiyuan Pass.

This is the marching requirement of the Great Demon King, and the current battle line is too long, and only three troops of 15,000 people are not enough to seal Manba.

Although the morale of the Baa Department is also like a rainbow now, and it is known as a constant victory, so that there will be no idea of escaping, but just in case, the Great Demon King asks for the sooner the better.

Basically, on December 23, Di Yong's department must reach Xuanwei, while Chen Ergou's department must reach Suibian, and as for Ma Jinxi's headquarters, it must also reach the west of Baosai.

In addition, about 6,000 Tubo cavalry, which had been assembled and integrated in the Huangshui Southern District, advanced westward under the leadership of Qingyi Jiegui Zhang, at that time, the encirclement of the Manba tribe would be officially completed, making it difficult for him to fly......

Wang Yan, who marched with artillery in the heavy snow, was tortured enough, thinking that this ghost weather, it was really enough.

Fortunately, there is always an eldest lady who cares for Wang Yan and takes care of her carefully.

At the same time, including the eldest mother, everyone thinks that Wang Yan is an inscrutable person. No one knows if this is the right time to rush to a decisive battle.

If we wait until the beginning of the spring of the following year, the training and integration of the Song army will be more perfect, the equipment will be more sufficient, and relying on the unpredictable cavalry kite tactics in the early days, it will be easy to win the Hehuang War.

But now that it has entered the cold winter, the logistics line is more difficult and the mobility is insufficient, on the contrary, the battle line has been stretched so long by the Great Demon King, almost across the Hehuang region.

"This is a big taboo in military terms, and if Zhuo Luolan's evacuation is smoke, it will trap our army in a near-dead situation. Is it worth it to make such a heavy bet in a war that must be won at an inappropriate time? Mu Guiying, who was on the march, asked worriedly.

Since there is no horse, now Wang Yan is riding a lady, and it is safe and warm to pounce on her back.

Wang Yan said: "I know that this is a military taboo, but I am very helpless, not everything will obey the will of the soldiers." Now it is facing political encirclement. The way to break out of the encirclement of the Liao State and the first three rows of our country is to completely lock in the victory of Hehuang before all parties react. Therefore, this deployment is a political war. ”

"As for whether Zhuo Luolan will be a fake retreat?" Mu Guiying said.

Wang Yan said: "No. She didn't do it all of a sudden. For these, her actions in the early days of the Hehuang War have already been foreshadowed by many phenomena, and it can even be said that at every stage of her deployment, the safe evacuation of the Southern Military Division was listed as a back road. Therefore, I believe that in this incident, Zhuo Luolan really retreated. ”

Mu Guiying said worriedly: "Could it be that from the beginning, this is what she did on purpose, is it the layout of her and Wu Qian Pang?" ”

Wang Yan said embarrassedly: "Of course it exists." But if that's the case, then what is there to say? If someone really applies the strategic and tactical strategy to this point, sooner or later the world will be her and the unscrupulous, everything is in vain. ”

Mu Guiying was silent for a while, and then nodded: "Okay, you are always right, I believe that it will not be long before the battle report of the great victory in Xining Prefecture can reach the capital, I hope it will be before the Shangyuan Festival." ”

"I hope that before this, I won't die of the cold, damn as a gentleman, it would be a joke if I was killed by the cold here."

Hearing Wang Yan say this, the surrounding sergeants laughed, the Great Demon King would really be so serious and humorous a few times.

What they don't know is that Wang Yan is actually serious and not joking. Because Wang Yan is not fat, and he does not have the legendary internal strength, he does not have the physical fitness below this severe cold. It's just that he didn't say it so as not to affect the morale of the army, in fact, before going out of the battle, Wang Yan already had some sick formations.

Now only Mu Guiying could feel that his body was colder than before, so he hugged him in front from the state of his back and said: "Don't worry, with me taking care of you, you will survive, you will personally ride a war horse to the upper hall and accept the reward of my Great Song Emperor!" ”

Wang Yan still looked a little pessimistic: "I'm still worried that I will die from the cold. ”

Mu Guiying scolded: "Only good people don't live long, as for you, you will definitely live a long life." ”

the groove.

Even if Wang Yan's braincase is a little rigid because of the cold, he can understand that this is saying "traitors and villains live a long life, you are traitors".

……

In order to once again "highlight the encirclement of the political war of the great powers" and lock in the fruits of the victory of the Song army, everyone also fought hard.

Faster than expected, by December 21 and 22, Di Yong's department, Chen Ergou's department, and Ma Jinxi's department had successively arrived at the front line of Xuanwei, Suibian, and Baosai.

So far, the encirclement is not tight, but it has been greatly reduced.

Chen Ergou was too eager to kill Manba and was afraid that Manba's troops would run away, so he suggested that Wang Yan in the rear command headquarters planned to adopt the tactics of breaking up the formation, using the battalion as a combat unit, establishing their own small defense areas, and carrying out extensive encirclement.

But Di Yong, the son of a famous general, clearly realized that the current Manba is known as a frequent victory, and his morale is victorious, and he has not been taught the Song army, and he has a dominant main force of 35,000. Therefore, Di Yong's conclusion is: Manba he will not run for the time being, the Song army is not the Western Xia army, nor is it cavalry, and the flintlock pistol combat method that can be relied on must be fought in groups to have an effect. So Di Yong opposed the dispersal of this campaign into a "Battle of 100 Battalions".

Di Yong suggested: still maintain the initial "three clusters plus one" tactics, deploy in the three throat areas, wait for Manba to take the initiative, only after seriously injuring Manba once or twice, it is necessary to encircle, at that time, relying on the formation of the stronghold encirclement, and then disperse, officially launch the battle of 100 battalions is the right way.

The suggestions of the two generals were like tearing up, and they kept reaching Wang Yan's headquarters behind, and on December 24, Wang Yan made a decision, adopted Di Yong's tactics, and ordered to stop the advance, temporarily rest in the snow, and wait for the temptation and trial and error of the Manba Division.

Then adjust it according to Manbaa's style of play and decide the follow-up tactics.

Even at this moment of illness, Wang Yan's brain was not confused.

To be reasonable, the tactics of both sides are reasonable, but there is an objective condition that although Manba is strategically stupid, his tactics are quite sharp, and since he has been circling with the guerrillas in the northern region for half a year, he will be more accustomed to scattered tactics.

So at this time, Di Yong's thinking is better, three clusters plus one battle method, although it will cause an overly obvious target, but it will not suffer a big loss after forming a cluster.

This "plus one" in the three clusters plus one is the artillery unit, which is the killer weapon for reducing casualties and annihilating all the troops in this battle.

But it must not be used indiscriminately, basically there is only one chance, because it will not work after using it once, once it scares Manba, he is not a stupid person, in the case of only 20,000 Song troops surrounding, if he wants to break through and escape, he can't stop it.

There is no obvious evidence that Manba can't fight, he just has a lot of morale, so there is a chance that he will take the initiative. But in the case that the results of Wang Yanbu's battle are also so godly, he will not be stupid enough to fight a decisive battle with Wang Yanbu without trial and error.

In the case that he couldn't run, Wang Yan set up the tactics of three clusters, just to instill the mind of "it's better to cut off one of his fingers than to hurt his ten fingers" and attract him to take the initiative to attack.

Then the three clusters are also more convenient, and when they are about to win, they will be broken up into a hundred battalions to encircle the tactics.

Under the judgment that he can't run, of course, the 20,000 army formation that is concentrated is safer. But the current situation determines that the volunteer army has no time, once the 20,000 army formations are concentrated, Manba will not be stupid enough to take the initiative to attack and steal food, which will drag on into a protracted war. Then being recalled because of political pressure is a certainty.

Splitting into three clusters will also give Manba a chance to see the points and break them, so as to attract him to attack quickly.

But with his tactical progression, he will not attack blindly, he will have reservations and make many trial and error. From trial and error, he will gradually analyze the Song army's tactics, reactions, the time for the three clusters to rescue each other, and the characteristics of each unit due to the different commanders.

In the words of later generations, this is his master tactician in continuous operation, constantly looking for a sense of disk and regularity.

The "plus one" artillery cluster will be relatively lagging behind in maneuvering and reacting, and when to put it into the battlefield for fire dragon assistance, this needs to be judged by Wang Yan. From the beginning of the battle, it is possible that the three clusters will enter a state of engagement together, or it may be that there will be continuous high-frequency battles in just one location.

It is very important to find clear signals from these labyrinths of information and to determine which ones are "virtual" and which are "real".

Only one chance!

As soon as Wang Yan judged that it was really the main force of Manbaa, and planned to gather superior forces to eat one of the three clusters, the fire dragon assist of the artillery phalanx would be violently unfolded.

If Wang Yan misjudged, it would not be possible to lose the battle, but it can basically be concluded that the opportunity to completely annihilate Manba was lost, and the battle losses of the Song army would be infinitely increased.

That's why Wang Yan needs to follow him when he's sick.

This is the pressure of the commander-in-chief.

As for the other officers, they were also under pressure, because after deciding to adopt General Di Yong's tactics, there were rumors that the Great Demon King had fallen ill.

Wang Yan's illness did not affect morale, because by now, the automatic rate of this army is basically there. On the contrary, they are even more bloody, wanting to win the war as soon as possible, believing that the good news will turn the big demon king into safety.

This is the prestige of the Great Demon King, and the faith of the Demon Army......