As soon as the enemy army in Liang County withdrew, Xiao Gongyi breathed a sigh of relief, and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in Liang County and the recovered wounded soldiers were able to free up their hands to reinforce Cuicheng and Jinye, so as to reduce the pressure on the Liang army and Yuke, so he quickly asked Baili Yan to move to Cuicheng and Jinye to fight the armpits.

However, things are far from simple, and Oka and Cross now occupy a large area of the mountains and forests west of the port of Jinye, and they no longer intend to expand their offensive because of the Xian army.

Oka is well aware that even if he wins the final victory, the Communists will still have to pay a considerable "large" cost of casualties, and although he is not leading the armies of his own allies, it is his responsibility to avoid casualties of his own people under the political rules.

Therefore, after Liang County closed its stalls, the armpit front army outside Cuicheng and Jinye moved to comprehensive defense, and began to build more complete defense facilities on the spot, preparing to stay in the local area.

With less strength than humans, the armpits dared to launch a frontal attack, and they could also inflict heavy damage on humans, causing more than four times the casualties.

Bailiyan stayed in Liang County until late December, leaving Mo Yunfeng with 20,000 men, and ordered Zhu Youchen to lead the continued defense of Vortex Bull Beach, while the rest of the main force went to Cuicheng and Jinye.

At the same time, after Oka withdrew his troops from Liang County, the main forces of the Cross Front Army were put into Jinye and Cuicheng respectively, making the total strength of the two places reach 140,000 people, and the four combined forces of the Sun Army, the Xian Army, the Liang Army, and the Yuke Army on the coalition side are about 700,000 troops, according to the experience of the Liangxian Campaign, more than 700,000 people are not enough to attack head-on, at least one million people are needed.

From a tactical point of view, it is impossible for 700,000 people to be deployed on the battlefield, so it is destined to be a wave attack, and the probability of victory will be much lower, which is equivalent to sending them to death in batches.

On the twenty-eighth day of December, Bailiyan arrived in Jincheng, the original capital of the Son of Heaven, and now it is dilapidated and scarred, no longer the prosperity and hustle and bustle of the past, and all you see is full of devastation and ruins. The city walls of the west gate and the north gate were seriously damaged under the bombardment, and the south gate and the east gate were slightly better.

The base camp of Xiao Gongyi and Gu Ruquan is still located in Jinye City, but it is located in the southeast corner, which is the farthest away from the armpit howitzer and is safer.

When he saw the two of them, his face was full of haggardness.

"Master Xiao, Captain Gu, Ben Hou is polite here."

"Yongxing Hou, hurry up and excuse yourself, please take a seat." Xiao Gongyi motioned for Baili Yan to sit down, and when he was young, he brought the sand table and placed it among the people, "And now the west port of Jinye City and Yaojin have all fallen into the hands of the armpits, and I don't know if Yongxing Hou has a good strategy to retreat from the enemy." ”

Bai Liyan didn't pay attention to the sand table situation in front of him, he kept twisting his short beard with a gray chin, and remained silent, because he was considering whether to raise a political issue of a very serious nature.

Seeing that Bailiyan was silent, Taiwei Gu Ruquan couldn't help but be anxious, he said

"The Marquis of Yongxing is resourceful, the enemy of Liang County can still retreat without a fight, and the enemy here is not impossible to break."

Bai Liyan couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart, it wasn't that the armpit people were afraid of him, giving him face, it was a strategic contraction.

Its purpose has been achieved, and continuing to attack is just a good fight for Liang County before this, which can achieve a breakthrough in the eastern flank defense line and better achieve the strategic goal. Now the retreat, only to encounter a setback, does not intend to continue the strategic return of wasting resources

"Taiwei Gu, Master Xiao, Ben Hou doesn't know whether to say a word or not."

"Yongxing Hou, but it doesn't hurt to say it."

Xiao Gongyi said frankly, Bai Liyan got up and walked into the sand table, first pointing to the northeast of Cuicheng

"Most of the northeastern part of Cuicheng is flat and open, and the armpit people occupy the few high points of the mountain, and relying on this, they have built tight fortifications, and our army will attack and capture, and the casualties will be extremely heavy.

However, the large area of hills west of Jinye City fell into the hands of the enemy, and our troops could not be deployed, so they could only fall into close exchanges of fire and even fighting, and our artillery was inferior to the range of its artillery fire, and it would be difficult for the coalition forces to attack with the certainty of victory. ”

Gu Ruquan and Xiao Gongyi had already understood Bailiyan's intentions at this moment, and Gu Ruquan couldn't help but be a little annoyed, he said

"Yongxing Hou wants to sit idly by and ignore it, and he won't save him when he dies, hum!"

"Taiwei Gu doesn't want to misunderstand, it's not that Ben Hou doesn't save him when he sees death, and sometimes thinks about the coalition forces. Judging from the first battle of Liangxian, if our army wants to recapture the two places, at least 600,000 casualties will be lost, and there is no guarantee that the two places will be captured. ”

At this time, Xiao Gongyi answered

"The salty army has poisonous gas and empty boats, which are of great use, and such a delay may make the princes of the world feel cold."

"Master Xiao, as far as Ben Hou knows, the axillary eyes have a way to resist poison gas, and the empty boats have little effect, and the number is seriously insufficient, and they are not enough to pose a threat to the axillary eyes in the short term. However, if we attack the armpit and dampen the elite of our army and are unable to overcome it, the consequences will be even more unimaginable, so Ben Hou proposes a long-term siege. ”

"But if the armpit is based on Jinye Port and attacks westward, how can Yan and Qi Guo parry, Yongxing Hou has ever thought about it."

Gu Ruquan asked, and Bai Liyan said calmly

"This is exactly what it means, no matter whether our army can capture Jinye and Tianyungang, with the current strength comparison, it is absolutely impossible within half a year. But if our army attacks strongly, it will inevitably lose its vitality within half a year, and so it can unscrupulously attack and plunder Yan and Qi to the west.

It is precisely because of this that it is all the more necessary for our army to preserve its strength in the face of its westward attack. ”

Bailiyan believed that the axillary should have discovered that the coastlines of the Xian and Jin kingdoms east of the Central Plains were well defended and fortified, and they were the core hinterland of industry, while the coastal defenses west of the mainland were weak and there were hardly any coastal defense facilities.

In October, instead of using the main force to sneak attack the military port of the Xianjun army in the Qinjiang River, it has obviously changed its strategy, trying to inflict heavy damage on the main force of the Xianjun navy at the minimum cost, cut off the worries about the future, and then go all out to deal with the countries of the West Sea, land in the West Sea, tear a huge opening, and open up a second main battlefield.

With the current balance of forces in the Central Plains, it is barely enough to maintain a relative strategic balance with it in one main battlefield, and once it is caught in a fight in the second main battlefield, this balance will be broken.

The forces east of the Central Plains had to maneuver westward across twenty or thirty thousand miles, and the armpits occupied the Changsun Peninsula and traveled much faster by sea than on the ground. Of course, there is also a premise in this, that human communication is slow.

But even if the West Sea has been connected now, if the east of the Central Plains wants to reinforce the Central Plains, it will take three months to ride horses in the west at the earliest, and the infantry will need more than half a year or even a year, unless they all move by car, it will take more than a month.

Considering the pros and cons of many parties, it is advantageous not to fight Jinye and Tianyun for the time being, if it is attacked, it is really a ploy for armpits, and hundreds of thousands of elite forces are consumed in vain, coupled with the loss of labor and economic losses, the actual damage and impact are much greater.

Compared with Gu Ruquan's strategy, Bai Liyan's opinion was more convincing to Xiao Gongyi. Although the royal guest has a thicker family background than thirty years ago, he cannot withstand such heavy casualties and attrition, and he cannot achieve his strategic goals, which he cannot accept. But Xiao Gongyi must also give an explanation to the Son of Heaven and the princes, at least in the past, otherwise the reputation and deterrence of the royal guest will be damaged.

"If the two places are not recovered for the time being, what good strategy does the Marquis of Yongxing have to defend against the enemy?"

"Encircle, encircle, encircle."

At this time, Gu Ruquan was furious

"It's a joke, the armpits are endless on the sea, what's the point of surrounding it."

"How did Taiwei Gu know that there was no point in surrounding him."

Bai Liyan asked rhetorically, and Gu Ruquan said angrily

"The enemy is coming from the sea in an endless stream, and if it is trapped on land, it will be impossible to cut off its roots."

"According to common sense, this is true, but Taiwei Gu has asked Ben Hou how to surround him."

"Hmph, can you still come here for a decisive battle with the Xianguo Navy, do you have an ironclad ship?"

Gu Ruquan said contemptuously, Bai Liyan didn't think so, he said

"Things are dead, people are alive, we don't need to cut off their ships at sea, we just need to slow down the method of strangulation, and slowly trap them to death."

Xiao Gongyi didn't know Bailiyan's intentions, so he asked him

"What is the method of delaying strangulation?"

"Since the armpit is defended on the spot, it is better for us to build a high wall to avoid its harm."

Before the words fell, Gu Ruquan sneered

"Yongxing Hou has a big breath, and now the armpits occupy a huge place, isn't it possible that they are all surrounded by earthen walls."

"Yes, exactly."

"Hehaha......" Gu Ruquan sneered, and asked rhetorically, "Jinye is still like this in the world, and the earth wall can resist it." ”

"But what if it's a mountain!"

Xiao Gongyi's heart sank when he heard the news, he seemed to understand something, but he really didn't know how Bailiyan could move the mountain over, he hurriedly asked

"Yongxing Hou has a magic method, which can build mountains and rivers!"

"Hehe, there is no magic workmanship, but my country has a machine, which can dig dirt and mounds of mountains, and one is better than manpower millions of times."

Bailiyan's determination to besiege is not without confidence, and his confidence comes from loaders, excavators and forklifts. Xianguo is producing loaders, excavators, cranes, forklifts, and next year hundreds of construction vehicles will roll off the assembly line, which will be used for earthmoving operations, which is worth millions of manpower. In a short period of time, it is simply easy to artificially change the topography in a theater of operations, pile up strategic points, and close off the battlefield.

In addition, in view of the poor bombing effect of the air boats, Baili Yan decided to produce the king of zhà dàn, using large heavy zhà dàn, judging the victory or defeat by weight, one went down to kill a living target within a radius of one or two miles, whether it hit or not, if it didn't work for two days, if one didn't work, ten ships would go together, and there would be non-stop harassment and air raids every day.

Xiao Gongyi had reservations about the plan, since the fierce battle in May, the Yuke and Liang armies have suffered heavy casualties, and they really need time to recuperate and breathe to restore their morale, so it is better to wait and see what happens and wait for three or two months, while Gu Ruquan is more inclined to Bailiyan is perfunctory to him.

But Bai Liyan has already made up his mind, and no one can change his attention, not to mention that Zhongyuan Yunei relies on the arms and equipment of Xianguo, and in the absence of Xiao Gongyi's clear statement, Gu Ruquan really has no confidence and capital to compete with Baili Yan.

The lessons of Tian Yun, Tongshang, and Mengteng are deep enough, and Gu Ruquan really doesn't want to offend Xianguo at this juncture.

The next day, Bailiyan inspected the city defense and the situation outside the city of Jinye non-stop, and two days later rushed to the southwest Soviet Xinying to survey the terrain.

When Xiao Gongyi reinforced Jinye in August, the west of Jinye Port had been lost, and the Yuke and Liang armies fought bloodily for half a month before barely holding the Wài Wéi defense line, which also benefited from the fact that Liang County did not deteriorate, and the arrival of Sun's army on the battlefield made up for the lack of manpower, and Jinye City was not surrounded from Wài Wéi.

In the first month, Bailiyan began to rearrange the Xian army to go to defense, Zhoukong's eighth town and Jiang Jie's first column were deployed between Jinye and the southwest Sufangxin camp, Mo Yunfeng's second town army of 40,000 people was deployed in Cuicheng, and the field hospital and thousands of troops to be replenished were placed in Nanpi County, south of Tianjin.

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