The two cities of Yifeng and Jinwu were easy to attack and difficult to defend, and the rebels were intimidated by the strong combat power of the main force of the Jin army, so they took the initiative to abandon these two cities and retreated to Xupu City, the capital of Jiuzhen County.

Xupu City is a fortified city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the rebels retreated all the way continuously, and finally had a foothold here, the rebels gathered the scattered troops on the one hand, and mobilized reinforcements from the rear of Rinan and Jiude two counties, after all the troops were assembled, the rebels had as many as 80,000 men and horses.

This is almost all the strength of the rebels, and the reason why the rebels will gather so many soldiers and horses to defend Xupu City is because Xupu City is extremely important to the rebels, and it is the bridgehead for the rebels to attack north.

Looking at the map, you can find that Jiuzhen County is located in the middle of Jiaozhou, completely stuck in the main road of north-south traffic in Jiaozhou, occupying Jiuzhen County to the south can control a large area of land in the south of Jiaozhou, and to the north can invade the north of Jiaozhou at any time, and Xupu City, as the capital of Jiuzhen County, is in the center of the entire Jiuzhen County.

Moreover, in addition to the city of Xupu itself, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the special terrain of mountains and dense jungles around the city is also very suitable for the rebels to give full play to the advantages of jungle warfare.

All the 80,000 horses of the rebel army, in addition to 20,000 garrisoned in Xupu City, the remaining 60,000 troops were divided into two and set up camp in the northeast and northwest of Xupu City.

As for the deployment of the rebels, the Jin army scouts have completely grasped the strength and deployment of the rebels after some careful reconnaissance.

The rebels have strong troops, relying on the finished zigzag formation of the Xupu City, which is a big challenge for the main force of the attacking Jin army, in order to completely exterminate the rebels, the generals of the Jin army discussed the action plan in the Chinese army tent in Hua'an.

Hua'an first asked his adjutant general, Wang San, to carefully describe all the enemy situations detected by the scouts, and then expressed his own opinions on the characteristics of the rebels' deployment, and asked the generals of each army to express their opinions and find out the best plan to break the enemy.

A general of the Canton Army first said: "The strength of the rebels is superior to ours, and if our army divides its forces to attack, its strength will be insufficient, and it can only be defeated by concentrating on attacking one of them." ”

Another general of the Northern Expeditionary Army objected: "General Da False, the three main forces of the rebel army are arranged in a zigzag formation, if the main force is concentrated to attack one of them, the other two armies of the rebels will definitely go to the rescue, our army has the risk of being surrounded, or divide the troops to attack the enemy has a better chance of victory." ”

"Xupu City is easy to defend and difficult to attack, which is not conducive to our troops, in the opinion of the last general, it is better for our army to divide into two routes, attack the left and right flanks of the rebels respectively, and wait to break the two wings of the rebels, and then launch an attack on Xupu City, it is the best policy." A general of the Jiaozhou Legion said.

"Xupu City is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but our army is not good at jungle warfare, attacking the left and right flanks of the rebels may not be able to defeat, it is better to concentrate the main force, rush to attack the Xupu City in front of you, and then clean up the left and right flanks of the rebels." One general retorted.

The opinions of the generals were very disagreeable, and there was no result after discussing for a long time, Hua An and Deng Yue beside him glanced at each other, and stretched out their hands to signal the generals to stop the discussion.

"General Hua, tell me about your high opinions!" Deng Yue complimented Hua An and motioned for Hua An to speak first.

Hua An grinned, stood up, pointed to the topographic map of Jiuzhen County that had just been drawn beside him, and analyzed: "Deng Tingshi, generals, you see, Xupu City is in the center of Jiuzhen County, and controlling Xupu City is equivalent to controlling the entire Jiuzhen County, therefore, the rebels will never give up Xupu City lightly, and the determination to defend must be great, and the generals must not underestimate the enemy." ”

The generals of the various armies listened to Hua'an's words and all nodded yes.

Hua An paused, and then said: "The rebel army of 80,000 horses is distributed in a zigzag shape, and the momentum of the horns can rescue each other, and the shape is extremely unfavorable to our army, just like some generals just said, the strength is insufficient to divide the troops and attack separately, if you concentrate the main force to attack one of them, it is easy to be flanked by the remaining two armies of the rebels, if you want to completely solve this problem, the only way is to increase the troops." ”

"Reinforcements, do we still have reinforcements in our army?"

"General Hua's intention is not to let the 20,000 troops stationed in Jiaozhi City go south to reinforce us."

The generals under the tent were suddenly a little inexplicable, and looked at Hua'an with frowns one by one.

"General Hua, aren't you worried that the army of Shu will attack Jiaozhi City in a hurry." Even Deng Yue, the assassin of Guangzhou, was a little skeptical of Hua'an's idea, because he really couldn't think of any more troops besides the 20,000 horses in Jiaozhi City.

"Deng Tingshi, generals, you have been thinking too much, the general has no intention of letting the 20,000 troops of Jiaozhi City go south." Hua An smiled slightly, his eyes full of confidence.

When Deng Yue heard this, his face was full of suspicion, and he hurriedly said: "Since it is not the 20,000 army of Jiaozhi City, what other troops does General Hua have to adjust?" ”

"Haha! There are only 30,000 soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army under the command of this general, and there are still surplus soldiers to adjust. Hua An smiled and said slowly: "The position of the rebels has been fixed, but our army's offensive plan has not yet been determined, and the rebels naturally don't know how our army will attack and how to allocate troops, which gives our army a chance to bluff and break through." ”

"General Hua, hurry on." Seeing Hua An pause, Deng Yue, who had not fully understood, hurriedly urged.

Hua An pointed to the topographic map of Jiuzhen County beside him, and said: "This is the camp of the left wing of the rebels, here is the camp of the right wing, Xupu City is here, there are many rebels and horses, if our army wants to win, we must concentrate the main force to break the rebels in various ways, this will build yì first break the left wing army of the rebels, and the remaining two rebels will use part of the strength of our army to contain them, and the small number of troops to contain must create the momentum of the main army, so that the rebels do not dare to act rashly, and win time for our main army to annihilate the enemy, When the left flank of the rebels is completely defeated, the victorious division of our army will carry the momentum of victory straight to the right flank of the rebels, as long as the left and right flanks of the rebels are broken, the rebels trapped in Xupu City 20,000 horses will inevitably be broken, become panicked birds, if not flee will become a turtle in the urn, let our army fish. ”

"Good, good, great, what a good idea! In this way, our army will inevitably win, and the rebels will inevitably be defeated on all fronts. Deng Yue said excitedly: "General Hua, tell me about the specific plan of action." ”