The reasons for the generals' opposition were very simple: first, Yunling was located south of Wonju (i.e., the city where the Eastern Route Army was first defeated and only suffered a water attack at Jecheon after that), north of Chungju, and west of Jecheon, and was only two days' journey from the three cities. Secondly, although Yunling is the main road from Gangwon Province to Chungcheong Province, the terrain is steep, and the city defense is difficult to build, so so far it is just a cottage based on rammed earth bamboo grid structure, only the inner and outer cities, there are no other fortifications, and it is not suitable for defense; Finally, and most importantly, as the general of the army, Xiubao must not take risks himself. If there is an accident, the morale will be greatly lost, not to mention that the Xiu family will not be able to be saved at that time, maybe even Xiubao and Xiuzhong will have to take their lives, and the three marshals will be lost in a battle, and the next battle will be completely unfought.

Hearing such persuasion, Xiubao not only did not waver, but strengthened his original thoughts: "You only know that Yunling is located in the west of the three cities, but you forget that it is also located in the east of Zhushan, we arrived at Yangcheng from Chenghuanli via Zhenchuan, and Gaohu arrived at Yangcheng from Ancheng via Zhushan and Xinyang.

Therefore, the Ming army did not complete the occupation of the vacuum zone, but only seized the necessary transportation routes such as Yunling and Jiuquan (the ferry port on the Pyeongchang River, the main waterway connecting Jecheon and Wonju), and neglected the occupation of the surrounding cities, so as to provide our army with a golden opportunity. ”

"Once in a lifetime?" Everyone expressed their puzzlement.

"Exactly," Xiubao stood up, pointed to the map on the wall and analyzed: "Cheongju is in the southwest of Yangcheng, Yunling is in the northeast of Yangcheng, and there are Zhushan, Anseong and other places to the west of Yunling to maintain a vacuum, once our army captures Yunling, it will pierce into the hinterland of the Ming army like a sharp knife, and at that time, whether it is the 'triangular defense circle' in the east or the 'Suwon-Osan- in the west- The Pyeongtaek Gyeonggi defense line will be threatened like never before, and it will definitely attract a large number of Ming troops to attack, and out of concern about the main force of the Western Route Army, Xingjie will never use the Magui Department to defend Gyeonggi, but will choose the nearest Li Rumei Department, so that he can't solve the siege of Kowloon? ”

"How can this be?!" Qingxing stood up suddenly, looked at Xiubao in surprise and said, "In this way, wouldn't it be better for the Yunling defenders to deal with the 20,000 Ming army alone?" Isn't this just exchanging his own life for the lives of Prime Minister Bizen and Mamoru Settsu, and the lord can't do that. ”

"Please also ask the lord (His Royal Highness) to take back his order." After Qingxing said this, everyone also suddenly realized, and hurriedly bowed down and begged Xiubao not to risk himself.

"Get up for me, and listen to what I have to say." Xiubao scratched his head and said helplessly: "You think, the Ming army has a total of 20,000, even if it is a success, the loss will never be less than 2,000 (in fact, about 2,000 or so), that is to say, at most 18,000 people remain, according to the ninja report, there are 2,000 Ming troops in Qingzhou, 800 in Danyang, 1,000 in Yuanzhou, and only 500 in the abandoned city of Dichuan, so calculated, there are only 14,000 Ming troops left to participate in the encirclement. Under the circumstance of strategic intentions, he would never dare to act rashly, but would adopt passive defense, that is, send reinforcements to Yunling, Chungju and Danyang, so that at least half of the encirclement force would be consumed, and the ratio of troops in the area around Kowloon would become three to seven, with more than enough siege and insufficient attack. And I believe that if Yunling is captured, he will at least send four to five thousand troops to fight for it. ”

"Four to five thousand? Why is that? Gao Hu asked.

"As Fang Cai said, Yunling is the artery connecting the north and south of the Ming army, and it is the lifeline of Li Rumei's department. Xiubao said proudly.

But Gao Hu didn't agree, and bowed down and asked: "Capturing Yunling can indeed cut off its back road, but according to the lord's plan, only send a thousand people to go, I'm afraid it won't be able to hold it, right?" ”

"You mean, unless heavy troops are dispatched, it will be difficult to hold Yunling?" Xiubao smirked.

"Exactly," Gao Hu nodded solemnly: "If you don't use heavy troops, even if you capture Yunling, it will change hands quickly, and at that time, you will lose your wife and lose your troops." ”

"Gao Hu, suppose you are Li Rumei, and you learn that Yunling was captured without knowing the details of our army, what is your first reaction?"

"I should think that the back road has been copied, and I am going to be caught in the urn." Gao Hu replied without thinking.

"Very good," Xiubao smiled and nodded: "It's the same as my thoughts, that's right, according to common sense, if you just want to rescue the Xiu family, you only need to attack Danyang and open the passage to the north, but in fact, not only Danyang is attacked by the enemy, even Zhongzhou is also attacked, in less than two days, the army that crossed the Taibai Mountain will also attack the embankment, and what's worse is that at this time, Yunling was also captured by our army, so far, the southeast, northwest and northwest are all in danger, do you think he will still think that our army just wants to rescue the Xiu family?" ”

"Of course not, I must want to make dumplings." Hearing Xiubao say this, Qingxing couldn't help but laugh.

"At that time, what Li Rumei cares about is definitely not how many enemies each city is attacked, but how to jump out of the encirclement of our army." Xiubao said confidently: "At this time, he has two choices, first, as I just said, divide the troops and defend them, and besiege Kowloon without attacking, this is a war of attrition, and it is not easy for the Ming army to attack in a hurry, even if the Yunling line is opened, how can the military grain be delivered to the various garrison cities?" I don't think Li Rumei will use this trick. ”

"What else is there to do?" Goto Kiji, who had been silent for a long time, couldn't help but ask.

"There is another kind, right here," Xiubao said, pointing to a forest north of Fengyang and Dichuan: "Compared with the detour to Jiuquan, this jungle is a shortcut to the north to Yuanzhou, if Li Rumei wants to escape without a fight, hurry up and jump out of the encirclement, this is the best path, but the jungle here is dense, and the heavy baggage and horses may not be able to take away, but wait for the guarantor to get out of danger safely; If he was reluctant to accept the cannons and horses, he might have joined the defenders at Jecheon before heading north, crossing the Pyeongchang River via Jiuquan to reach Wonju. In fact, no matter which path he takes, as long as he chooses to escape, we will win this battle, after all, this kind of bluff can only be deceived for a while. ”

"Understood, according to what you mean, you want to force Li Rumei to go north and lift the siege of Kowloon, and then our side will also withdraw our troops south and leave the battlefield?" Gizi asked tentatively.

"That's right," Xiubao sighed, "this is also a helpless thing, if the army is sufficient, how can he escape, but now I only have 2,800 people in my hands, I am fortunate to be able to deceive the past, how dare I covet and annihilate an army of 20,000?" ”