When Yu Yunwen told Yang Congyi the news, the expression on his face was extremely disappointed, the front line was desperate, but the rear was thinking about escaping, how to fight this battle?

Yang Congyi also frowned, but he had already guessed that the situation in front of Da Song was like this, this was the norm, and it was not unexpected. Before the war, didn't Lin'an's group of lords and fugitives already start to encourage Zhao Gou to escape? Now that there is a war, it is strange that someone like Yu Yunwen does not run.

After a few words of relief, Yang Congyi immediately gave Yu Yunwen a more detailed introduction to the defense situation in Jiangzhong and Jiangbian.

Yang Congyi told him that if the enemy insisted on landing from Taipingdu, even if there were no reinforcements, the Jingwu army, the Yangwu army and the local defenders could hold out for about ten days, and the enemy's losses would be very large, and they would not take too much advantage, but if the enemy army divided a force to cross the river from Wuwei, Wuhu and other places in the upper reaches to outflank Taipingdu, if there were no other troops to come to support, Taipingdu would not be able to defend.

With only more than 7,000 people to resist hundreds of thousands of enemy troops, it is simply impossible, there must be enough strong reinforcements, and the enemy army cannot be allowed to copy the back road of Taipingdu, otherwise it will be difficult to defend this place.

But Yu Yunwen is just a military staff officer, where can he bring reinforcements?

Jiankang Prefecture, which is the closest to Taiping Prefecture, although there are several armies, there are also enemy troops on the opposite side of Jiankang, and they can't be transferred at all. Not far from here, the Wuwei Army is in Jiangbei, what is the situation now, no one knows, although there are garrisons in Chizhou, which is farther away, but they also have to establish river defense, and there will be no surplus troops to adjust.

In other words, Yang Congyi's request for reinforcements could not be met.

Without reinforcements, blind defense could not be held no matter what, and "taking the initiative to attack instead of defending" became the only way to hold Taipingdu.

Therefore, Yu Yunwen ordered to supervise the military staff of Jianghuai soldiers and horses, and ordered the Jingwu Army to control Yang Congyi to lead the entire army in Taiping Prefecture, and launch an attack on the enemy army within five days.

Yang Congyi received the order, immediately convened the generals to discuss the matter, assigned tasks, and began to prepare for the battle of crossing the river and took the initiative to attack.

After finding more people from the vicinity as guides, sixty warships took turns to enter the Yangtze River and arrived close to Hezhou to familiarize themselves with the nearby waters.

As a large number of warships appeared in the field of vision of the enemy on the opposite bank, the enemy quickly became vigilant and sent a large number of ships to come forward to encircle, they knew that their ships were small and could not resist the weakness, so they tried not to approach the Great Song warships, and stopped their ships at a distance of thirty or forty zhang, and opened their bows to shoot.

The enemy's ability to drive a ship is not good, but the ability to shoot arrows far exceeds that of the Song army, their arrows can shoot the Song army warship, but the Song army can not shoot them, and so the Song army warship wants to get close to them, they will directly drive the boat back, between the two sides, the Song army warship can not take advantage.

In the contact with the familiar waters, although the Jingwu army did not bargain, they also estimated the location of the enemy's naval army, and the place where a river flows outside the state city, and the enemy ships should be anchored in that river.

After learning the news, Yang Congyi immediately ordered the spies to quietly cross the river from the upstream at night to find out the specific situation.

Two days later, the spies came back and reported that all the enemy ships had stopped on the north bank of the river that joined the Yangtze River, and that there were no less than 500 large and small ships lined up along the riverbank. Not far from the river bank is the enemy camp, their entire barracks are built along the river, stretching for more than 50 miles from the mouth of the river to the west, and the preliminary estimate is that the number of enemy troops is no less than 500,000.

Yang Congyi, who learned the exact news, was shocked, Wan Yan Liang was able to invest such a large capital and command an army of 500,000 to go south, it seems that he really planned to destroy the Great Song Dynasty in one fell swoop and take the land south of the Yangtze River for himself.

I don't know what happened to the rebellion instigated by Shen Jin in Liaoyang, if it can't succeed, with less than 100,000 troops in Zhenjiang, Jiankang, and Taiping, it is impossible to stop Yan Liang, and the Yangtze River, no matter how you defend it, it is impossible to prevent it.

No matter what happens to Liaoyang, Wan Yanliang must be stopped in Jiangbei, once he is let go south, the Great Song Dynasty will be finished, although Yang Congyi does not like the Great Song Dynasty very much, but he also does not want to see the Great Song Dynasty die at the hands of the grassland people!

After learning the details of the enemy's army, he immediately summoned the generals of the Jingwu Army, the Yangwu Army and the Taiping Defenders to discuss the matter of crossing the river and fighting.

"You all know the current situation of the enemy army in the state, let's discuss together how to cross the river and destroy the enemy's ships." Yang Congyi placed a map on the table.

"My lord, our warships are all sharp-bottomed sea ships, with a deep draft, and although the river is stable and can resist wind and waves, there are some places in the Yangtze River that are shallow and easy to run aground. We can fight in the river, but we can't get to the mouth of the river where the enemy ships are, let alone enter the river, and it will be difficult to destroy the enemy ships. Su Zhong said it quite tactfully.

Pan Cheng said directly: "The enemy army has 500,000 people, and their barracks are all next to the river where the ships dock, once they find other ships approaching, they will immediately be alert, our ships will not reach the mouth of the river at all, even if we land elsewhere, we will not be able to reach the vicinity of the river, and it is estimated that we will not even see the enemy's boats." ”

Yang Congyi knocked on the map on the table and said: "I came to you to discuss how to destroy the enemy ships and block the enemy army from crossing the river, not to let you say how powerful the enemy army is. How powerful are they, I don't know? Although there are many difficulties, can't we find a way to defeat them? We can't get into the river, and they can't get out? ”

The generals look at me, and I look at you, and for a moment no one speaks.

"Since our advantage is in water battles in the sea and rivers, and now that our forces are at a disadvantage, we cannot take the initiative to give up our advantage. Landing on the opposite bank, or changing boats to enter the river occupied by the opposing party, is not the best option. We should find a way to lure the enemy out of the river and gather and annihilate it! ”

After a slight pause, Yang Congyi continued: "We are in a hurry, the enemy is more anxious than us, they have 500,000 people camped in Hezhou, how much grain and grass do they have to consume every day, since they have tried to cross the river, although they have failed, it is impossible to give up, they must cross the river, since they can't stop them from crossing the river, let them cross the river according to our intentions." After the previous battle, one thing the enemy must understand is that if they do not destroy our ships, they will not be able to cross the river safely. In that case, we will send some of the ships to them and lure them out to destroy. As long as their boat comes out of the river, don't think about going back! ”

As he spoke, he pointed to the map and said: "Look here, this is a desert island sandwiched between Hezhou and Taiping Prefecture, the length of the north and south is nearly ten miles, and the distance from the east and west river banks is more than one mile, if we hide some of the warships in the southernmost part of this island, and wait for the enemy ships to sail out of the estuary, we will go around from behind the island, go straight downstream, and intercept their back road, and the enemy ships entering the river can only be at our mercy." What do you guys think? Or is there a better way? ”

The generals looked at the map and thought silently.

Soon after, a general suddenly said: "My lord, since our warships can't enter this river, and we don't want the enemy to cross the river, why don't we block this river?" If they can't get out of a boat, how can they cross the river even if they have a million troops? ”

Yang Congyi's heart moved, and he immediately nodded: "This idea is good, but the Yangtze River is rolling, and it is very difficult for warships to stay at the mouth of the river for a long time, and it is difficult to stop where day and night." But it's not that I can't find a way, it's just that in this way, the river may be abandoned. ”

After glancing at the generals, he continued: "The width of this river is no more than twenty zhang, and the depth of the water is not more than one zhang, if two large boats are sunk at the mouth of the river, it can be cut off from the Yangtze River, and the boats in the river should not come out, unless they can go into the water and break the wrecked ship." Everyone knows that no matter how much strength you have in the water, it is difficult to use it, and it is simply impossible to dismantle the ship in a short time. In addition, if they can dismantle ships, we can also sink ships, and no matter how fast they dismantle, they will not sink as fast as us. Even if they dismantle the two ships within two days, and we sink two more ships on the third day, and delay them for two days, the enemy's 500,000-strong army goes south, wanting to occupy Jiangnan in one go, and will not waste time with us here, after we block them several times, in a hurry, they will inevitably cross the river with all their might, and at this time, we can take advantage of the advantage of water warfare to fight the enemy's river-crossing army in the river, and destroy their ships, as long as the enemy's ships are destroyed, even if the enemy has 500,000 troops, they can only look at the river and sigh! ”

"My lord, the last general understands that we are now sinking ships at the mouth of the river occupied by the enemy, and pretending to block the river to prevent their ships from entering the Yangtze River. So it is equivalent to saying that when we sink ships at the mouth of the river, we are forcing them to cross the river as soon as possible, and then it will be the best time for our whole army to go out and annihilate them? Xue Wang led people to patrol the river for several days, and he also thought a lot about water warfare, and he really understood at this time.

"Yes, that's it. Our battle plan should be slightly modified, we should select two warships to load them with sand and stones, prepare for the sinking of the ships in advance, and follow behind the warships that are lying in ambush at the southernmost tip of the island, and after the warships in front of us block the retreat of the enemy ships going out for battle, the two warships that are ready to sink the river quickly occupy the position of the estuary, sink the ships in the river, block the passage of the enemy ships in and out, and other arrangements remain unchanged. What do you think? After Yang Congyi sorted out his combat ideas, he glanced at everyone.

Su Zhong asked with some confusion: "Our number of warships is limited, and we can sink two at a time, is it too much price." If we sink ten times or eight times, and the enemy does not come out, when we sink all the boats, and the enemy crosses the river again, how can we resist? ”