The strategy of Hanzhong is obviously a foregone conclusion.

Although the prince did not say it in public, the ministers had followed him for a long time, and they probably already knew what was going on.

It must still be prepared openly and secretly; Political, military, economic, and people's livelihood are multi-pronged.

The only difference is the strength of the force, the morning and evening of time, the similarities and differences in methods, and the life and death of King Rui.

However, after taking Hanzhongfu, Jiezhou and other areas south of the Qinling Mountains, if you want to continue to advance north, I am afraid it will be unrealistic.

Guanzhong and Sanbian (Note 1) are the nests of thieves and the Qin army. Chuang Xian and Sun Chuanting are not soft peaches that can be kneaded casually. The thieves will not fight with the Qin army to defeat both, and the shrewd prince will never use the limited family background of the Protector Army to fight hard.

In short, the northward advance is a plan with limited objectives, a short-range attack plan that can be attacked and defended. As for the main battle zone in the future, most of them are Jingxiang who can speak freely......

At this time, the ministers all stared at the ugly Bumpman, watching the debate between him and Shu Guoming in the land of Jingxiang, who lost and who won.

……

"Mr. Gu said in his strategy, Jing Xiang is the voice of the world. But from the perspective of students, Jingzhou is important, but Xiangyang is dead......" Shu Guoming took the lead in clarifying the differences between himself and Gu Jiang.

Gu Jiang had sharp teeth and a sharp mouth, and quickly counterattacked.

"What is the voice of the world? The Land of the Four Wars is also! It is said that the emperor must not defend, and the attacker must not take it! ”

"Xiangyang, choke the upper reaches of the Han River, and then you can peek into the Central Plains, and retreat to defend the Jianghan. If the thieves seize it, then the grain of Jianghan and the people of the Central Plains are all thieves! If the thief has been in possession for a long time, the king may be angry!

If there are one or two Wang Meng (Note 1) and others who offer a plan to the thief chieftain, or enter the Sanqin in the west, and swing 800 miles of Pingchuan; or cross the Yellow River in the north, bracket the mountains and rivers in the table; Or go east to the south of the Yangtze River and sail downstream. Ay! Outside the mountain, the Qingshan Building, when will the Jinling song and dance be closed...... If so, the world is in danger! ”

Gu Jiang's concern about the thieves taking advantage of Xiangyang's land to become big is very reasonable, but Shu Guoming's argument is placed on the Protector Army itself.

He argued without giving an inch:

"Xiangyang, an important town in the world, Mr. Gu knows, students know, thieves know, and Zuo Liangyu also knows!

Last year, thieves entered Xiangyang and blackmailed the people to demolish the city, which was a move to destroy the city and go to danger! Now Xiangyang is in ruins. Even if our national protector army attacks and takes it, how can it be defended?

Moreover, the thieves are powerful, and there are hundreds of thousands of people. If Kaifeng is not defended, the thieves will take the power of the new victory, and the whole army will attack, won't our national army have a division to worry about?

The art of war is cloudy, avoiding the real and attacking the false. Mr. Gu used our weak army to attack a strong enemy, how could it be done by a wise man? ”

"Mr. Shicaishu's so-called must be taken, not now. Can students borrow one? Xiangyang has the existing left army to hold on, why rush to take it? Kaifeng is in danger, but do you know that the left army will not abandon Xiangxiang? In the future, Xiangyang will be empty, and the Protector Army can take advantage of the weakness to enter......"

"Are we not talking about the future when we speak of today? I don't know what Mr. Gu's future is, but when will it be? ”

The two of them went back and forth in front of Zhu Pingjin, arguing with each other, and killing was inseparable, just like a debate competition in college. However, this kind of debate competition is purely a contest of eloquence and eloquence, and has little practical significance.

Zhu Pingjin, as a superior person, quietly watched everything that happened in front of him, but did not immediately say anything to stop it. He thinks about things and looks at people.

Shu Guoming's words pierced the window paper of the combat strength of the Protector Army, which caused different opinions among the ministers.

Yes, the Protector Army is already a dominant force in Sichuan, but when it is placed outside the province, in the face of the complicated situation, in the face of powerful enemies, and in the face of an unfamiliar geographical environment, can it continue the glory of the battlefields in the province?

Zhu Pingjin has no bottom, and the generals under him are also bottomless.

It is rumored that there are 500,000 troops in the invasion army, 200,000 in the left army, and a total of 16 infantry regiments and 4 cavalry regiments in the Protector Army, with a total strength of less than 60,000. The local army was poorly equipped, lacked field combat capabilities, and had to garrison the province; Hanzhong needs 20,000 infantry and artillery soldiers, so there are only 30,000 to 40,000 troops left at most who can go east to Kuimen.

This amount of force can only accomplish a limited number of objectives. But if the enemy doesn't cooperate and puts all his strength on the ground up, what then?

Hold the spot! A spark flashed in Zhu Pingjian's mind.

When he marched into northern Sichuan last year, he only guarded the Xinzheng Dam a little. whether it is possible to find a key point that can be held continuously on the vast land of the lake, and use this point as a support to control the surrounding area; Based on this point, we will penetrate into the wider surrounding area!

This point, for the National Protector Army, for the newly rising Zhu Pingjian, is the "voice of the world"!

……

The people in the temple have been slaughtered. The originally clear boundaries have been blurred into a pot of porridge.

Wu Tai, first deputy director of the General Logistics Department, believes that in addition to the dilapidated walls, there are two other logistical factors in Xiangyang City that are not conducive to long-term entrenchment.

One is a lack of food and a lack of salary.

After Xiangyang was attacked by thieves early last year, the food and wealth in the city were looted. After that, the left army and the two thieves repeatedly fought in the vicinity of Xiangyang, the officials and soldiers recruited soldiers, and the thieves were coerced and killed, which caused great damage to Xiangyang's agricultural affairs.

Previously, the grain of the left army mainly relied on the two prefectures of Xiangyang and Yunyang, and later the Huguang government was unwilling to cooperate, so the left army robbed itself. The two sides brought the lawsuit to the imperial court, and the imperial court supported Zuo Liangyu, and after that, Zuo Liangyu was even more fearless in the name of "robbery by order".

At present, the left army has 200,000 troops, consumes 100,000 stone of grain a month, and has countless beans, biscuits and grass, and the supply is completely dependent on robbery. They are like locusts crossing the border, Yunyang robbed Xiangyang, Xiangyang robbed Nanyang. The governments and people of Huguang and Henan provinces hated the Left Army to the core, and gave the Left Army a nickname, called "Left Locust."

But now even the left locust can't grab food. The local supply situation can be imagined.

Second, it is said that the grain is transported against the water, and the grain road is easy to break.

Hanshui is a big river, so it is called "Jianghuai River Han". The Han River stretches for hundreds of miles from Xiangyang to Hankou via Chengtianfu. Every time the summer and autumn floods are discharged, it is necessary to rely on manpower to pull the fiber upward. If a major war breaks out, the enemy patrols the shore with iron cavalry and crosses the river with iron chains, and it is completely impossible to pull the fiber by manpower. Once the waterway of the Han River was cut off, the defenders of Xiangyang were in danger of running out of food.

Wu Tai also reminded everyone in the palace that in the battle of Xiangfan in the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Yuan army used Liu Quan's strategy to besiege the city with the city, block the river with fortifications, destroy the city with back artillery, and finally force Lu Wende, who was starved of food, to surrender. Xiangfan was lost, and the Southern Song Dynasty perished within a few years. This is a profound lesson, so please don't forget it.

"If the army has no food, it will disperse itself", this simple truth is understood by everyone. A simple lack of food is enough to negate any other reason, no matter how rosy it may sound.

Therefore, the cry of the world must be a place where grain and grass will not be cut off. For example, Jingzhou is not only a big city, but also on the riverside. As long as the Jingjiang River is controlled, the city's military rations can be continuously replenished.

Wu Tai argued the difficulty of holding Xiangyang from a logistical point of view, and Sun Hong, who was in charge of the military department, made up for it and politically demonstrated the difficulty of holding Xiangyang.

Sun Hongdao, the people of Xiangyang Mansion fled south to Jingzhou and Yiling, and later fled to Sichuan. Presumably Xiangyang is already quite bad. As for how bad it is, the Intelligence Bureau has accumulated quite a lot of detailed information......

It must also be explained that due to the corruption of the military discipline of the officials and the army, the people of Xiangyang and the nearby provinces hated the officials and the army far more than the thieves. If the Protector Army rushes into Xiangyang and cannot quickly benefit the local people, the people will not only not support the Protector Army, but will join the thieves to attack the Protector Army.

With the bad example of the Left Army, the local government and gentry were also very repulsive to foreign officers and soldiers. They are to be paid voluntarily, unless the thief puts a knife to their necks......

In short, because there is no element of "people," the united front work in Xiangyang Prefecture will inevitably encounter many difficulties, and it will also require more time and create more conditions.

How to deploy troops is in charge of the General Staff. As chief of the General Staff, Shu Guoping opposed not only the garrison of Xiangyang, but also the garrison of Jingzhou.

Shu Guoping said, Xiangyang City has been an important town in the world since ancient times, which is true. But no matter how important a city is, it needs an army to defend it to be valuable.

According to reliable information, the circumference of Xiangyang City is fifteen miles, with a total of 4,500 steps. According to the method of going down the camp one step at a time, and then considering Fancheng on the other side and the surrounding passes, Xiangyang City needs to deploy at least more than 6,000 people, that is, two infantry regiments, to defend.

Since Xiangyang is guarded, is Chengtianfu guarded? If it is not defended, once the logistics supply line is cut off by the enemy, Xiangyang will become an isolated city.

Since the Chengtian Mansion is guarded, then according to this logic, the five cities of Yiling, Jingzhou, Yueyang, Wuchang, and Hanyang should also be guarded.

Yiling is the gateway to Sichuan, Jingzhou is the center of the Jingjiang River, Yueyang is the throat of Dongting, and Hanyang and Wuchang control the Jiang and Han rivers and reach the south of the Yangtze River. Seven cities were held together, and at least ten infantry regiments and 35,000 men were required.

With the current strength of the Protector Army, it is necessary not only to garrison Shudi, but also to attack Hanzhong and Jiezhou. In this way, it is a taboo to divide troops everywhere in three places!

Therefore, if the blind front goes to the front line of Xiangyang and Chengtian, it is likely to attract a flanking attack from the north and east, which is a faint move that does not reach it quickly. In the deployment of troops outside the province, it is necessary to shrink the number of troops and garrison a number of key points that are easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In Shu Guoping's view, Yiling is the voice of the world.

According to the Yiling Tomb, it can not only guard the gateway of Sichuan, but also go north to Fangxian, Zhushan, and Junzhou, and maintain close contact with Yunyang Mansion. Once the Protector Army controls Hanzhong, it will be able to form a complete arc-shaped defense line between Hanzhong, Xing'an, Jianghan, and even Lizhou and Jiuxiwei south of the Yangtze River.

Relying on this arc-shaped defense line, the Protector Army has taken defense as an attack, accumulated strength, and patiently waited for the strategy of great changes in the world, and has been approved by the prince in Boryeong Mansion. According to this scenario, part of the army has already set out and will soon be deployed in place.

Jingzhou, a big city, must not be used as an important place for troops and food.

The fiefs of King Hui and King Liao were all in Jingzhou. The garrison of Jingzhou was politically unfavorable.

In addition, the water level of the Jingjiang River is higher than that of the city. During the flood season, the river may even be higher than the city wall. The safety of Jingzhou and even the entire Jianghan Plain depends on the protection of the Jingjiang embankment.

If the thieves are mad and dig the Jingjiang embankment to irrigate the city, it will be another tragedy of flooding the Seventh Army. As a result, Jingzhou could only maintain a small garrison during the dry winter season to maintain an outpost on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Finally, Shu Guoping especially emphasized to his colleagues that the Protector Army did not want to go out of Sichuan on a large scale, which was a blatant challenge to the imperial power. The reaction of the emperor, the reaction of the imperial court, and the reaction of the local officials and citizens are difficult to predict. Once the emperor was furious, announcing the abolition of the Shu domain or the abdication of the prince, it would be a devastating disaster politically.

At the end, Shu Guoping sighed and said: The prince once said that there are six big cities in the Central Plains. Once lost, it is "the deer lost in the Central Plains".

Now six has gone to four, only Kaifeng and Xuzhou still exist. If Kaifeng fell, and the Qin army that rescued Sun Chuanting in Kaifeng and Zuo Liangyu's Chu army failed, then according to the traditional saying that "if you lose the Central Plains, you will lose the world", I am afraid that the current imperial court is really exhausted.

It is worth everyone's attention that there are also outside the tartars. If the Tartars take advantage of the danger of the new victory and enter the customs in the autumn and winter of this year to fight the grass valley, I am afraid that Gyeonggi Shandong will be another catastrophe.

At that time, the Protector Army openly wrote to the imperial court and asked to go out of Sichuan to suppress the thieves, which was justified and respected by the world.

Wu Tai's soft words, Sun Hong's kindness and cordiality, Shu Guoping's meticulous arguments, and the far-reaching military and political considerations behind them beat Gu Jiang's chest again and again like a sledgehammer.

However, Gu Jiang's ordeal is far from over.

Cheng Xiangfeng, director of the Shizi Office, gave Gu Jiang a fatal blow.

Note 1: Wang Meng, an important advisor of the former Qin Fujian.

By the way, a true joke: Hibiki took a history class as a child and talked about the Battle of Weishui. The history teacher gave birth to a child and was substituted by the physical education teacher, and the physical education teacher read the subject according to the book and read aloud "Qin, Wang Fujian......"

Until the end of class, the physical education teacher was still Wang Fujian. Perhaps, in his opinion, the probability of the surname Wang should certainly be greater than that of the surname Fu.