Xiuzhou Xingying, under the auspices of Prime Minister Chen Kangbo, put aside the emperor Zhao Gou, a group of courtiers discussed the current situation, how to fight the Jin people, and turned defeat into victory.

The soldier's squire analyzed and concluded: "Judging from the battle reports in the past few months, there is no need to worry about the Sichuan and Shaanxi areas of the West Road, Wu Lin even sent people to recover Fengxiang Mansion, Jingzhao Mansion, Huazhou and other places. On the front line of Xiangyang, Zaoyang, and Xinyang in the middle, our army and the Jin army won and lost each other, and now it is also a stalemate situation, and the Jin army has limited strength, and it is difficult to seize Hanshui. In short, on the west and middle roads, we can hold on to the Jin people, and if the Jin people do not increase their troops, the battle situation will not change much. Obviously, at the beginning, the Jin people set the main direction of attack in the Lianghuai area, and the two roads were just a response, and we initially put the main defensive direction in Lianghuai and Jingxiang, and the troops were relatively scattered, and compared with the two, our troops in Jingxiang were relatively sufficient, with a total of 150,000 garrisons and reinforcements, while the total number of Huaidong and Huaixi garrisons and reinforcements crossing the river to the north was less than 200,000. ”

The head of the household said: "The main direction of the Jin people is in Jingxiang or Lianghuai, and none of us knew at the beginning. The deployment of troops is relatively even, and the collection and transportation of grain and grass are also relatively even, so only the two routes can pay equal attention. Now that we know that the main direction of the Jin people's attack is not in Jingxiang, how about transferring the army back to Jiankang and Zhenjiang? ”

The soldier said: "The Jin people are moving Chen Bing Guazhou crossing, the far water does not save the near fire, the army in Jingxiang and Ezhou is thousands of miles away from Jiankang and Zhenjiang, and there are many soldiers and horses returning to help, and the speed is bound to be slow. ”

Chen Kangbo said: "Then how to break the game? ”

The squire of the military department replied: "The Jin people are thousands of miles south, and the logistics supply will not last long, as long as we can rely on the Yangtze River to delay them for another month, it will be difficult to supply grain and grass, and we will definitely have to withdraw the army." We have hundreds of thousands of troops in Zhenjiang, and there is a great chance of defending the river, but it is unlikely that we want to cross the river to counterattack in the short term and recover Yangzhou, Hezhou, and other places. Xiangyang, Zaoyang, Xinyang and other places are equivalent to the Jin people, if the 50,000 troops stationed in Ezhou go north to support, our troops in the middle will be better than the Jin people, with superior forces to seize Dengzhou, Caizhou, and then through Xinyang all the way to the east, directly take Shouchun, once Shouchun is recaptured, the Jin people in the entire Huaixi region will definitely flee to the east after breaking the retreat route, recapture Huaixi, the Huaidong Jin army will not be indifferent, then they will have to consider, if the Great Song army from Shouchun along the Huai River eastward, occupy the main ferry, The hundreds of thousands of Jin people in Huaidong are sandwiched between the Huai River and the Yangtze River, there is no way to retreat, if they want not to be trapped, they will immediately lead their troops to the north of the Huai River after Shouchun and Luzhou are recaptured! ”

"What does Master Zhang mean is that we should immediately send an order to Cheng Min and let him lead the army stationed in Ezhou to Xinyang in the north, and then go east to capture Shouchun and Luzhou? He only has 50,000 troops, can he defeat the Jin people stationed in Shouchun and Luzhou? Also, if Cheng Min failed to attack Shouchun from Ezhou to the north, or if the news leaked and the Jin people in Xiangyang and Zaoyang learned the news, they took the opportunity to increase their forces to break through Zaoyang and Xiangyang, seize the Han River, and go south along the Han River to the Yangtze River? The Ezhou defenders hold the Yangtze River and the Han River, once the water is lost, the Jin people's materials and grain and grass in the north can pass through the Han River, and arrive at the Yangtze River in a steady stream, the Jin people will not have to worry about logistics and supply, they can firmly occupy the north of the Yangtze River, once this situation is formed, not to mention whether we can recover the land of the two Huai, even the south of the Yangtze River can not be defended. Cheng Min's 50,000 troops in Ezhou must not be transferred! "The Ministry of Works' squire is resolutely opposed to the rash advance.

The squire of the military department said: "If you don't mobilize the troops in Jingxiang and Ezhou to put pressure on the Huaixi Jin army, the Jin people in Huaixi and Huaidong have no worries, and they will be unscrupulous, and they will launch when they want to cross the river, Zhenjiang and Jiankang have less than 100,000 troops, how long can they hold it?" What's more, the Great Song army retreated from the Huai River to the south of the Yangtze River within a month, with no morale at all, and countless deserters were scattered, and the Jianghuai originally had nearly 200,000 troops, but now it is not even half. Jiankang has no coach for half a month, not long ago, Li Xianzhong of Chizhou rushed over to take over temporarily, and then look at the Zhenjiang Marshal's Mansion, Liu Qi is seriously ill, and he has been unable to deal with military affairs for half a month. If the troops on the middle and west routes do not come back to help, even if we can hold the Yangtze River, the Lianghuai region will be occupied by the Jin people for a long time. ”

Chen Kangbo said: "Zhang Shilang thinks long-term, if you want to recover the lost territory in Jiangbei, you really have to force from Xiangyang, Zaoyang, Xinyang and Huaixi, more than 20 years ago, the Jin people invaded the south several times, and finally launched a counteroffensive from Xiangyang and Xinyang, Huaixi cooperated, affecting the Huaidong war, and then drove the invading Jin people back to the north of the Huai River. However, at present, the Jin man Chen Bing Jiangbei will cross the river and head south at any time, saying that it is too early to counterattack and regain lost territory, and the top priority at the moment is to stabilize the war situation on the eastern front, not to further deteriorate, and to stabilize it first before we can talk about a counteroffensive. Judging from the military reports and war reports, the location of the Jin people crossing the river has been completely transferred from Hezhou to Yangzhou, and Taizhou is still in our hands, and the east of Zhejiang has not been lost, and in addition to Yangzhou, there is no need to worry about the Jin people crossing the river from other places for the time being, at present, it seems that the purpose of the Jin people is very clear, they are to cross the river from Zhenjiang to the south. Whether the Jin people can grab the results they want in this southern invasion depends on whether they can capture Zhenjiang, capture Zhenjiang, then Jiangnan is at their fingertips, and they can't take Zhenjiang, they either retreat, or stick to Yangzhou and wait for the opportunity, continue to seize eastern Zhejiang, and then wait for the opportunity to cross the river is not very likely, they will not know how wide the Yangtze River east of Taizhou is, and they can't cross the river from Zhenjiang, the further downstream the more impossible. All in all, the top priority of the imperial court is to mobilize troops, make every effort to defend Zhenjiang, prevent the Jin people from crossing the river, and so on to stabilize the war situation, and consider other things. ”

"Chen Xiang, how many troops do we have to transfer to Zhenjiang?" Suddenly, a young man in his thirties asked.

Chen Kangbo said: "King Jian, let's be honest, there really isn't much to adjust at present, the 50,000 forbidden troops in the imperial camp can't move, the 10,000 garrisons in Xiuzhou can't move, and the 30,000 defenders of Pingjiang Mansion are the last barrier to prevent the Jin people from crossing the river to the south, and they can't be easily mobilized. ”

This king is Zhao Ming, the commander of the general camp in Huzhou a few years ago, and was elected as the prince a year ago, renamed Zhao Wei, and entered the feudal king.

Zhao Wei's slightly frowning brows wrinkled even more, so it seems that even if Yang Cunzhong leads 20,000 new troops to the north, Zhenjiang may not be able to hold it.

"Without more troops to support, can Zhenjiang hold it?" Zhao Wei couldn't help it after all, and asked the question in his heart.

Chen Kangbo did not answer directly, but replied: "Zhenjiang now has nearly 100,000 defenders, King Yang Jun will bring another 20,000, Zhenjiang will have 120,000 troops, defending the Yangtze River, which is different from guarding ordinary cities, even if the other party has more troops, it is impossible to enter the Yangtze River at the same time, there are not so many ships, it can carry hundreds of thousands of people at a time, King Yang Jun has experienced a hundred battles, and has fought with the Jin people for more than ten years, he will definitely have a way, King Jian, rest assured, there will be no problem!" ”

Hearing this, Zhao Wei sighed in his heart.

If you don't set up a prince early, you won't set up a prince later, but after hearing that the Jin people were preparing to invade the south a year ago, they elected him as the prince, is that scene more than 30 years ago going to be repeated?

Zhao Wei tried to restrain himself from thinking in that direction, but he just couldn't restrain himself.

If it weren't for Chen Kangbo and other ministers of the main battle faction, the emperor might not leave Lin'an at all, and even move to Fuzhou and Quanzhou, and now the emperor still thinks so, otherwise he would not have set up camp in Xiuzhou for ten days, and there is no sign of leaving for the north.

If the Jin people break through Zhenjiang, the emperor is the lord of a country, and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty will not agree to put the emperor in danger, and they will definitely evacuate immediately and go to an absolutely safe place, but the land of the Great Song Dynasty will not suddenly be occupied by the Jin people, and the military and people of the states and provinces will also begin to resist, in order to inspire the morale of the army and the people to resist the Jin people and gather the hearts of the people, the court will definitely leave a noble person who represents the emperor and the court outside, and the prince is the most suitable person.

When it was really necessary, the emperor left with a group of ministers, and the prince Zhao Wei could only stay, lead the army and the people, and fight against the Jin people, and the final outcome was either caught or killed by the Jin people, or the Jin people retreated, and he continued to be the prince, but the Jin people's hundreds of thousands of troops went south, if he stayed, the chances of continuing to be the prince were very slim, and he was likely to die soon.

These days, Zhao Wei is worried, he thinks about the fate he is about to face over and over again, and prays for good news from Zhenjiang every day, because he knows very well that once Zhenjiang is lost, the Jin people will cross the river and go south, and the emperor can escape far away with a group of ministers, but he will definitely be left behind, inspiring the army and the people to continue to resist the Jin people, and his end is a dead word.

If you want not to die, Zhenjiang must be defended, if the Jin people do not cross the river, the emperor will not take a group of ministers away, and he can continue to be the prince.

The situation in Zhenjiang is related to the safety of his Great Song Dynasty, and it is also related to Zhao Wei's life and death, and he is very clear about this.

"Chen Xiang, I heard that the armies in Zhenjiang have no one to command, their morale is low, and they have no fighting spirit, if the imperial court sends someone to Zhenjiang to offer condolences, will it be better?" Zhao Wei looked at Chen Kangbo and made a suggestion.

Chen Kangbo thought for a moment, and then replied, "It should be useful." It's just that the current situation is delicate and the affairs are complicated, we have to sit in the center, and we can't easily leave the camp. ”

Zhao Wei immediately asked, "What does Chen Xiang think of me?" ”