On the morning of the seventh day of the first month of June, Sun Yi summoned several leaders of Jiuyuan, Yang Ritian, Sun Dingliao, Zhu Pingwa, Bu Shijiu, and Wen Shen, to briefly report on Mo Rigen's situation in Dabansheng, and then discuss the next deployment of the coalition forces.

The meeting quickly reached an agreement: the core task of the coalition forces in the next stage is to hold Jiuyuan.

The key to defending Jiuyuan is to hold the throat for two and a half miles.

Just like the incision of Qingshan Hall sings, "Qingshan Qing, Yellow River yellow." Two and a half miles, short and long": two and a half miles in the narrow sense refers to a distance of only two and a half miles from Daqingshan to the Yellow River, and two and a half miles in the broad sense refers to a narrow corridor between Qingshan and the Yellow River that is narrow from north to south and 25 miles long from east to west.

This long and narrow corridor has been known as "Zhiyang Road" since the Han Dynasty. "Zhiyang Road" is the throat that connects the ancient Jiuyuan County and the ancient Yunzhong County, and the Han Dynasty once set up a fortress city in the narrowest two and a half miles, and the name is called "Zhiyang", so it is named.

Today, the ancient road traverses three rivers that flow from Daqingshan into the Yellow River. The westernmost one is called the Botuo River, which is about five or six miles long, and flows into a wide section of the Yellow River, which is the westernmost end of the Qiyang Road.

Ten miles to the east of the Botuo River, it is the narrowest two and a half miles, and there is a second river here, called the two miles and a half river. On the west bank of the northernmost part of the Erli and a half River, there is an ancient earthen city, one mile long and one mile wide. The east wall of the north wall of the ancient city still exists, about two zhang high, the west wall is a remnant wall, about one zhang high, and the south wall does not exist. Everyone at the meeting agreed that this should be the Qiyang City of the Han Dynasty.

Two and a half miles of the river to the west, the Yellow River meanders to the southeast, and the corridor gradually opens up, forming a trumpet mouth. After about fifteen miles, you will encounter a third river gushing out from between the stone canyons of Daqing Mountain, called Xiaoshimen Water. The water is about 15 miles long and is the easternmost section of Zhiyang Road. Xiaoshimenshui to the east, is the endless prairie, along the foot of Daqingshan Mountain straight drive 80 miles, you can reach Dabansheng City.

The plan of the General Staff Department, the first line of defense to defend Zhiyang Road was set up on the west bank of the Erli Banhe River. Relying on the ancient city of Qiyang, the frontal defense line was shortened to a width of one and a half miles.

The second line of defense was set up along the Botuo River, and at the same time, the wide estuary where the Botuo River flows into the Yellow River could be used as a base for the naval division and a transit point for supplies.

Even Sun Dingliao had a bold idea, under the right fighter plane, he could let the Manchurian soldiers cross the Erli and Ban River, and then rely on the Erli and Ban River, the Yellow River, the Botuo River, and Daqing Mountain to form a large encirclement and annihilate the Manchurian soldiers in one fell swoop!

The General Staff planned to move all the people in the triangle between the Erli and Banhe rivers and Xiaoshimenshui to the west of the Erli and Banhe, and the east of the Erli and Banhe would be used as an area for the coalition forces to harass the guerrilla attacks on the Manchurian troops.

There is a mountain road in the Daqingshan valley that only allows one person and one horse to pass along the small Shimenshui to the north, which leads to Liushugou, which is the location of the iron ore mine in the mountain of Erli and Bancun. A group of men and horses can be arranged in advance in Liushugou, on the one hand, to cut off the attempts of small Manchurian soldiers to drill through the ravine to bypass the Qiyang Road, and on the other hand, to attack the Manchurian soldiers from behind when necessary as an ambush.

Sun Yi was a little worried about whether the plan of the staff was too much of an appetite.

If it is said that the previous two battles of the coalition forces were fought by relying on natural hazards, and the frontal resistance was only a few dozen zhang wide, the general staff's plan this time was a small campaign with a depth of several tens of miles and a combination of water, land, and mountains.

In particular, the last time the coalition forces blocked the Manchurian troops from crossing the Yellow River at Qingshanzui, it can be said that the success was actually very lucky. One is that the Manchurian army did not really think about the Yellow River at that time, and the other is that the coalition army captured Duoerhong and made the Manchurian soldiers throw a mouse. Otherwise, as long as the Manchurian troops crossed the Yellow River at a distance, the coalition forces would not be able to defend themselves at all.

The core location of this battle is along the Erli and a half River, deducting the ancient city of Qiyang, the frontal defense line is still one and a half miles long, which is converted into a thousand meters of units in later generations. Even if it rains and rises in the past two days, the river surface of the Erli and a half River cannot be compared with the Yellow River. Moreover, the coalition forces are being reorganized, and recruits account for most of them.

Chief of Staff Sun Dingliao said frankly that this battle is very risky, but the chances of victory are also very high.

First, Abahai's main target was the Ming Dynasty, and the Manchurian soldiers would not devote all their forces to attack Jiuyuan.

If the four Hongyi cannons had not been captured by the coalition forces, the most rational course of action for the Manchurian soldiers would have been to abandon Jiuyuan and directly attack the Ming Dynasty.

Now that Abahai has no siege weapons, the determination to attack the Ming Dynasty may be thwarted, but the Manchurian soldiers are scattered on the steppe, and at most they can send one or three banners to plunder the west.

Second, the coalition forces had a solid rear, but the attacking Manchurian soldiers had no foundation.

The coalition forces do not have to worry about the replenishment of food, grass and personnel, and with the continuous equipment of new weapons, the coalition forces will become stronger and stronger; The Manchurian soldiers were already exhausted after a long run for more than a month, and they had eaten less than one bite of grain, and one less soldier and horse died.

Therefore, the key to this battle is actually not the frontal defense line of two and a half miles, but the rear of the attacking Manchurian troops! In other words, it's a big slab liter hundreds of miles away!

Dabansheng City is located in the hinterland of the grassland, there is no danger to defend, once Manchukuo comes to attack, according to the current strength of the coalition army, it will definitely not be able to defend Dabansheng. However, the more than 2,000 cavalry of Dabansheng could move guerrilla attacks on the grassland, cutting off the grain routes and rear routes of the incoming Manchurian soldiers, so that the attacking Manchurian soldiers did not dare to scatter their forces and plunder, and did not dare to concentrate on fighting in Erli and a half. If you are lucky, you can also lead the incoming Manchurian soldiers directly to two and a half miles, so as to keep Dabansheng.

After hearing this, Sun Yi and Yang Ritian immediately agreed to the battle plan of the General Staff and named the battle "Battle of Zhiyang".

The leaders attending the meeting agreed that in terms of prestige and origin, only Sun Yi could replace Mo Rigen's position in Dabansheng City, and the only one who could immediately move out of the coalition army was the third battalion, which supplemented a large number of Dalinghe veterans.

There are two ways to go from Jiuyuan to Dabansheng. One is the land route, along the foot of Yinshan Mountain all the way to the east, through two and a half miles to Dabansheng; The other is to use the water of Shimen Water and the Yellow River to float a big zigzag first, and after landing on the grassland, it is 50 miles away from the big board.

After thinking about it, Sun Yi decided to personally take the third battalion to Dabansheng along the land route to preside over the overall situation, and open up a "sub-battlefield behind enemy lines" to cooperate with the main battlefield of Qiyang Road: the 2,000 cavalry of Dabansheng could carry out grassland movement warfare, and the lightly armed third battalion could rely on Dabansheng City and Daqingshan behind the city to carry out guerrilla warfare.

Chief of Staff Sun Dingliao suggested: "Bring the second grandmother!" ”

Kikige is a small person with a high status, and the little girl can finally come in handy.

Zhu Junshi, the king of Qin, volunteered: "I will definitely fight wits and courage with those lamas when I go here, and I am willing to help my lord!" ”

If you want to say that there are no ghosts and gods in the entire coalition army, except for Sun Yi is this fake Taoist priest, Sun Yi nodded happily in agreement.

Therefore, the General Staff urgently deployed all kinds of equipment from the 1st Battalion to strengthen the 3rd Battalion, and ordered the 3rd Battalion to carry all the explosives and gunpowder accumulated in the past few days and pull them out at noon, first go to Erli and a half for the night, and then march directly to Dabansheng the next day.

The General Staff Department also drew a cavalry squad from the 1st Battalion, plus Sun Yi's original 1st Army Nurse and Zhu Junshi's 1st Army Nurse to form Sun Yi's escort horse team.

At the same time, the General Staff Department urgently ordered the second battalion commander Batel, who stayed behind in the Wolf Mountains and Rivers, and the Goudan brothers, who were a little skilled in medicine, to take a raft directly to Dabansheng to report for duty.

After such urgent adjustments, the meeting decided that two days later, the first battalion and the second and a half battalions of the general corps Yang Ritian would go to the Erli and Banhe to build a defensive line, and the Machi battalion and the cavalry wing under the leadership of Sun Dingliao, chief of staff, would go to the Botuo River, and Bu 19, deputy commander of the naval division, would be responsible for transferring the artillery baggage to various places along the Shimen River and the Yellow River, and would use the mouth of the Botuo River as a staging port for the ships of the naval division.

The reorganization of the three units was completed while the defense was deployed, and the chief of staff was responsible for the reorganization of the entire coalition army. The general staff headquarters and the radio station were set up in the Botuo River with the chief of staff, and Yang Ritian and Bu Shijiu each held a walkie-talkie.

Wen Shen, the general manager, accompanied the staff to act, responsible for the army's material support and ordnance transformation, and coordinated the people of Jiuyuan County.

On the evening of the seventh day of the first lunar month, Sun Yi, Qi Qige, Wang Stuffy, together with the escort horse team, Zhu Junshi and all the personnel of the Second Staff Department (that is, Yu Sheng's one), and Dr. Dahai of Manchukuo arrived at Erlibancun.

After hearing the news, Dahai insisted on going to Dabansheng with Sun Yi, and then rushed to Kuku and Tun. Since Dahai stopped taking medicine, his health is getting better day by day, and Sun Yi arranged a carriage for Dahai and Zhu Junshi to ride. Dahai talked and laughed with Zhu Junshi along the way, but he didn't look like a patient at all.

Guo Jiang stonemasons from Erli and a half village warmly received Sun Yi and Qiqige to spend the night at their home. Guo Stonemason has been elected by the villagers as the head of Erli and Ban Village, and is planning to run for the head of Erli and Ban Township. As the eldest brother of Guo Stonemason Qingshan Hall, it is estimated that there is not much of a problem.

Guo Jiang first informed Sun Yi that Li Guang's third battalion had crossed the Erli and a half River to Xiaoshimenshui in the evening, and then introduced the local robe brothers to the leading uncle of Qingshan Hall.

Sun Yishao had no choice but to sneak attack the three-plate axe behind his back, stab the kidneys and cut the throat, carotid sinus back fall, dog drilling, as well as refining poisonous salts with fire and nitrate, urine cryptography, etc., and officially taught Qingshan Tang.

When there was no one in the evening, Sun Yi asked Guo Jiang about the progress of casting the iron thunder shell, and Guo Mason replied mysteriously:

"A pound of iron thunder shells was cast. That guy, loaded with explosives, the sound was terrible, and when the third battalion passed by, all the more than 100 samples were handed over to the third battalion for trial. ”

"The five-pound iron thunder shell has failed, and it will shatter if it falls to the ground, and the blacksmith is remaking the mold. More than a dozen samples of the defeat were also taken by the third battalion, and the 10,000 opponents of the third battalion said that they could be used as mines. ”