Although the decision has been made to fight, the question of how to fight still needs to be discussed.

For the time being, the strength of the Wu army is still very strong, with both troops far exceeding the infantry of the Jin army, and at the same time, the advantage of the Jin army in cavalry is not obvious.

At present, the cavalry of the Jin army concentrated near Yang Liu has nearly 10,000 cavalry, and although the size of the cavalry of the Wu army cannot be determined, it is conservatively estimated that there are five or six thousand people, and it is not almost entirely infantry like the Liang army.

With 10,000 cavalry against five or six thousand cavalry, it seems that the cavalry of the Jin army has an absolute advantage, but the problem is that most of the cavalry of the Jin army is in Hebei, and the time to transport one cavalry is estimated to be enough to transport five or six infantry, after all, the space occupied by horses is too large.

It would take too long to transport all the cavalry across the river in small boats, and it was impossible for Wu's navy to leave them that much time.

Therefore, when the war starts, it would be good for the Jin army to send the number of cavalry to the battlefield to be on par with the Wu army, which is a problem that cannot be ignored.

At this time, the generals who remained in Hebei rushed one after another without orders, and gathered in the main camp of the Chinese army to wait for Li Cunmiao's military orders.

Li Cunmiao rubbed his forehead, raised his eyes to look at the generals, and saw that they all had worried looks on their faces, knowing that they were all worried at this time, and they were panicked about the battle situation.

He said in a deep voice, "What do you generals look like when they are so panicked? Could it be that a fire will burn away your guts? ”

The generals look at me, and I look at you, and they don't know how to answer.

In the end, it was the general Li Shaoxing who replied: "The king, the last general is not cowardly, but now that the pontoon bridge has been destroyed and the situation is critical, please make plans as soon as possible!" ”

"Humph!" Li Cunmiao snorted coldly and asked, "I made plans earlier, what other plans can I do in the current situation besides crossing the river?" ”

"This ......" the generals were silent.

Under the current situation, the generals present did not advocate an immediate decisive battle across the river; After all, without the pontoon bridge, the passage between the north and south banks may be cut off at any time, and it is too risky to rush across the river at this time for a decisive battle.

However, seeing Li Cunqing's resolute attitude, the generals didn't know how to persuade for a while.

Li Cunmiao ignored the hesitation of the generals and asked directly: "If our army gathers all the ships to transport troops, how many troops can be transported across the river in three days?" ”

Li Shaorong pondered for a moment and said, "If you keep transporting troops day and night, it should be no problem to transport 30,000 troops across the river within three days." But with more troops, it's hard to say; Moreover, the enemy's naval army is afraid that it will not allow our army to transport troops; If the enemy interferes, it would be good to be able to transport 10,000 troops over. ”

"Thirty thousand? At present, the strength of our army in Henan is a total of 20,000 infantry troops and 2,000 cavalry, and if 30,000 people can be transported across the river, it will be 50,000 troops. Li Cunqiao calculated in his heart.

An army of about 50,000 people, of which the cavalry can reach five or six thousand people, it is not bad.

But with only such a small number of troops, it is a bit suspenseful to defeat twice as many enemy forces; Even Li Cunmiao himself did not have the slightest confidence in winning.

What's more, Li Shaorong also said just now that it was only when the Wu army's navy did not interfere that so many troops could be transported across the river; If the Wu army interfered, then there would be far less troops capable of crossing the river.

"The king, the last general thinks that if you want to cross the river for a decisive battle, you don't have to cross the river now, you should wait for a while." At this time, one of the generals spoke.

Li Cunqiao looked at the man and saw that the person who spoke was Meng Zhixiang, and immediately asked, "Tell me your reason?" ”

This Meng Zhixiang was originally Li Keyong's niece and son-in-law, who once served as a Zhongmen envoy, and was considered a close confidant of Li Cunqiao; However, because the previous Zhongmen envoys were all killed due to negligence, Meng Zhixiang was worried that he would also be killed in this position, so he asked to change his position and was appointed as the capital of Ma Bujun.

"Great King, the main strategy of our army in this battle is to use the fortified city of Yang Liu Nancheng to consume the enemy army, and wait until the enemy army is exhausted before breaking the enemy in one fell swoop. But now the enemy army has just begun to besiege Nancheng, not only morale, but also physical strength, far from exhaustion. If we cross the river at this time and fight a decisive battle with the enemy, even if our army is vying for the lead, I am afraid that we will not be able to break the enemy. Meng Zhixiang said.

"Yes, the king, at present, our army is not ready for a decisive battle across the river, the decisive battle is too risky at this time, please be cautious!" The other generals chimed in.

Li Cunmiao nodded, deeply agreeing with Meng Zhixiang's view.

At this time, the time for a decisive battle was not yet ripe, and if they rashly crossed the river for a decisive battle, it would be too difficult for them to achieve victory with the absolute superiority of the enemy's troops, and Li Cunqiao knew this very well.

But even if they know this, the problem is that they don't cross the river now, and when the river is completely blocked, it will be difficult to cross the river in the future.

Perhaps seeing Li Cunmiao's hesitation, Meng Zhixiang continued: "The king is worried that the enemy army will completely block the river? In fact, the king's worries were a little too much. The waterway of the Yellow River is so long, even if the enemy army can block the river of Yang Liu here, can they really block the entire Yellow River? ”

"This ......" Li Cunmiao's eyes lit up, and he suddenly understood that he was concerned just now.

It is true that the Wu army and the navy are very strong, but their forces are there, and at most they can block the vicinity of Yang Liu, but they can't take care of more places.

In the future, even if it is not possible to cross the river in Yangliu, it will not be a problem to cross the river in other places.

"Great King, the last general thinks that our army should continue the previous plan, use the southern city to consume the enemy army, wait until the enemy army is exhausted, and then cross the river downstream or upstream, defeat the enemy army, and lift the siege!" Meng Zhixiang said.

"King, Yang Liu Nancheng's money and grain reserves are sufficient, even if it takes another half a year, you don't have to worry about running out. What's more, there are 20,000 troops in the city to defend, no matter how good the enemy army is at attacking the city, it is impossible to break the city in a short time, so we don't need to be so anxious. ”

"The town guard of Nancheng makes General Li Zhou good at defending the city, and he is good at pacifying the soldiers, and he can share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers, with him, there will be no problem in the defense of Nancheng!" Li Shaoxing and other generals also persuaded him.

"What if the enemy army does not attack the city, but mainly besieges it? In this case, if you want to use Yang Liu Nancheng to consume the enemy's army, you won't be able to achieve it! Li Cunqiao frowned and asked, but he had already begun to accept Meng Zhixiang's opinion in his heart.

"Great King, if the enemy army does not attack the city, but mainly besieges the city, as long as it takes a long time, the enemy army will definitely slack, and there will be an opportunity to take advantage of it, which is the same as the reason for Yan Bao's defeat!" Meng Zhixiang said.

The reason for Yan Bao's defeat outside the city of Zhenzhou was that the siege lasted too long, causing the soldiers to be tired and slack, which was well known to everyone present.

"If the enemy is besieged for a long time, and at the same time does not leave any fighters for our army, then the enemy must remain vigilant for a long time; After a long time, the army will surely be tired! What's more, even if none of this happens, the situation will not be worse than it is now, what does the king think? Meng Zhixiang continued.

Li Cunmiao finally nodded slowly, "Okay, then continue to wait and see for a while." However, in the past two days, we should seize the time to transport the army and money and food materials, and we must ensure that the money and food reserves in Nancheng are sufficient, and we can hold on for a longer time! ”

"Don't worry, the king will not dare to relax in the slightest!"

……

In the next day or two, the Jin army used the remaining ships to send money, food, ordnance and other materials, so that the materials in the southern city reserve were enough to be used for more than seven months; In particular, the grain reserve can be eaten for more than eight months; If the guard Li had been tightly controlled from Monday, he might have been able to hold out for a longer time.

During this time, the Wu army used small boats to load soldiers and constantly attacked, blocking the movement of the Jin army.

As Sima Fu said, after losing the solid platform of the pontoon bridge, the Jin army was not an opponent at all in a regular water war.

It was not easy for these northerners, who were not familiar with the nature of water, to gain a firm foothold in the undulating boats, let alone let them fight the Wu army with bows and arrows; However, the soldiers of Wu flew back and forth in the small boat, as if they were walking on the ground, and their advantage was too obvious.

In just two days, the remaining ships of the Jin army were basically burned or captured by the Wu army, and the waterway of the Yellow River near Yang Liu was completely blocked.

At this point, the first phase of the Wu army's operational objectives has been achieved, and the next time is to besiege Yang Liu Nancheng.

……

"My lord, if we attack the city directly, our army will not only suffer huge casualties, but it is also very likely that it will not be able to break through the city; Therefore, it is necessary to focus on a long-term siege. However, if the method of long-term siege is adopted, our army may be slackened because of the prolongation of the war, so I think that our army cannot concentrate all the troops outside the southern city, but should take turns to fight! In the camp of the Wu Army, Guo Chongtao spoke loudly about his views.

In the past two days, the operation of the naval army has been very smooth, which makes the generals full of optimism about the battle situation.

However, on the issue of attacking Yang Liu Nancheng, the generals are still controversial.

Some generals advocated taking advantage of the enemy's blockade in Hebei to attack the city as soon as possible and take the southern city of Yang Liu and the city of Yunzhou, so as to avoid changes in the protracted war.

However, it is not so easy to break through the southern city of Yang Liu, which currently has 20,000 troops in the garrison.

With so many troops crammed into a small city with a circumference of less than five miles, the density of its troops and the strength of its defense can be imagined; Normally, if you have to break through a city defended by so many troops, if you force the siege, you will inevitably suffer heavy casualties.

Therefore, more generals did not approve of a forcible siege, but advocated the use of long-term siege methods, just like the Jin army besieging Zhenzhou.

The number of defenders in Zhenzhou City is also more than 20,000, and the city wall of Zhenzhou City is larger than Yang Liu Nancheng, the Jin army has besieged the city since August last year, and has been besieging it for eight months now, but there is no sign of breaking the city so far; The Jin army could only besiege the city, wanting to wait until the day when the enemy's army ran out of food.

Of course, after all, Yang Liu Nancheng is only a temporary city, and its solidity is still incomparable with Zhenzhou, and the money, food, ordnance, etc. stored in the city can also not be compared with Zhenzhou, which may be good news.

The bad news is that the Jin army has already suffered a nose and blood flow under the city of Zhenzhou, which has fully proved the danger of besieging a fortified city for a long time, that is: it is impossible for anyone to always be vigilant for such a long time, and there is always a time to relax and get tired.

And once you slack off and encounter a surprise attack by the enemy, it is easy to be defeated.

This is how the defeat of the Jin army under the city of Zhenzhou came; In addition, the Liang army was defeated under the city of Luzhou that year, also because the army was lax and was raided by the Jin army.

At this time, Guo Chongtao proposed another way to besiege the city for a long time, that is, to take turns to fight.

"Take turns to go into battle, specifically, only invest part of the army at a time, just ensure that the city can be completely besieged, and do not rush to attack the city, but cooperate with the naval army to block the river, mainly besieged. At the same time, the army in charge of the siege rotated every three months. In this way, the army needs to stay on guard for only three months, and it will not be slackened and tired because of the long time. Guo Chongtao explained.

Yang Wu nodded and said, "Three months is indeed not a long time, I think it should be no problem to be present to keep the generals on the highest alert for three months, right?" ”

The generals shook their heads, if they kept it tense for a long time, then no one could stand it, but in three months, this was still within the acceptable range of the generals.

Guo Chongtao continued: "According to the minister's calculations, our army only needs to invest 40,000 troops each time, which is enough to completely besiege the city from the land. As for the rest of the army, some of them stayed in Dong'e to rest and recuperate, and at the same time supported the Yang-Liu battlefield at any time to prevent the main force of the Jin army from suddenly crossing the river to relieve the siege; The other part was thought to be useful in other battlefields. ”

"Other battlefields? Does Guo Shumi mean to cross the river and attack Hebei in other places? Zhou Ben asked.

"Yes, the enemy army is now besieging Weizhou, since we want to use the means of long-term siege to break the enemy, then Weizhou will also be besieged by the enemy for a long time, and we must send troops to relieve the siege at the appropriate time; In addition, Huaizhou, Mengzhou, Hezhongfu and other places, these areas of the enemy's defense are relatively loose, our army should take it as soon as possible, and at the same time send troops to these areas to further divide the enemy's forces. Guo Chongtao said.

Yang Wu nodded, turned his head to look at Sima Fu, and said, "Don't be busy discussing the matter of dividing troops elsewhere for the time being, first discuss the matter of besieging Yang Liu clearly." General Sima, can you sailors guarantee a complete blockade of the river? ”

"Don't worry, the king, it is impossible to block the entire Yellow River, but there is no problem in blocking the vicinity of Yang Liu!"

Yang Wu was still very relieved about Sima Fu's assurance, and the two days of fighting were enough to prove it.

However, just as the soldiers on land need to rest, the officers and men of the navy also need to take turns to rest and recuperate to ensure that their morale is strong and their physical strength is sufficient.

Fortunately, there are many Wu troops and sailors, not only Sima Fu's department, but now there are many soldiers in the south, responsible for transporting money, grain, and baggage, or ensuring smooth communication with overseas.

As long as these soldiers are transferred, there is no problem in taking turns off.

What's more, the distinction between the navy and the army in this era is actually not so strict, as long as you are familiar with the nature of the water, you will naturally become a sailor after getting on the boat.

The Wu army is currently dominated by southerners, and it is not too easy to find soldiers who are familiar with water.