At the beginning of the battle, it was very smooth, and the three-way army won one after another, recovering several cities in a row, and it seemed that it was about to recover Hedong and lift the siege of Taiyuan overnight.

The rewards of the imperial court continued to be sent, and the army was filled with joy.

However, Zhao Pu saw the crisis and saw some inappropriateness.

The Jin army had few but elite soldiers, and was good at field warfare but not good at defending the city, which made the Jin army not disperse its forces, as if it were sprinkling pepper noodles, scattered on various key points. In order to besiege Taiyuan, the Jin army did deploy some troops in some cities, but these troops were all auxiliaries, all of which were the Khitan army, the Xi army, and the Han army in the Jin army, not the main force of the Jin army.

After recovering these cities, it seems that one big victory after another has been achieved. In fact, in the eyes of the Jin Army, it is only the death of some cannon fodder troops, no one will be sad for the cannon fodder, and the death of some cannon fodder troops will not hurt the root of the Jin Army.

However, in the eyes of the Song army, this was a big victory.

It seems that Jingkang is prosperous, and the day and night are just around the corner.

…………

Zhao Pu looked at the moon and drank the wine sullenly, and the bad premonition in his heart became stronger and stronger.

At this time, the planter came out and said, "Your Highness, you seem to have something on your mind?" ”

"I do have something on my mind!" Zhao Pudao: "When Emperor Taizong made a three-way northern expedition to recover the sixteen states of Youyun, how brilliant the momentum was, all the way to victory, and the victories continued, but the Eastern Route Army was only defeated, the whole army was defeated, there were countless casualties, countless captured soldiers, and Emperor Taizong was almost taken prisoner; At that time, Emperor Shenzong also besieged Western Xia in five ways, but he was defeated only one way, and he was defeated on all fronts. I wonder why? Even if the Liao army and the Western Xia army have repeated defeats, they are not afraid, and only the last time they won the battle, they turned over; Even if we win countless times, as long as we lose once, we will lose everything, why is this? ”

As he spoke, Zhao Pu's eyes were questioning.

This is why, why Song Jun can't help but fight like this. The Song army seems to be born to fight a tailwind war, and it can't encounter a headwind, as long as it encounters a headwind, it seems to be a complete defeat, why is this?

The planter sighed: "This ......"

He was speechless for a moment, and it was indeed a problem, as if it were a puzzle.

"Do you think that our army will once again stage the crushing defeat of the Sorghum River?" The middle way of the planter, the words are not polite: "Our army is advancing in three ways, and we will overcome Hedong and drive out the Jin army in ...... overnight."

"Ninety is half a hundred, marching and fighting is like playing chess, the key to victory or defeat is not who wins more, but... In the final game, who wins! Even if the winning streak continues, once the last battle is over. It's still changing hands! ”

"In that Northern Expedition to Liao, General Yang Jiye was killed; This Northern Expedition to the Jin Kingdom, ...... general? Zhao Pu poured a basin of cold water, "Fighting a war pays attention to concentrating superior forces and breaking them individually." The combat strength of our Song army is already weaker than that of the Jin army, if the main force is concentrated, it may also have a fight with the Jin army, if the forces are dispersed into three forces, attacking from three sides, it seems to be majestic, but in fact, the crisis is incomparable! If I am the general of the Jin Army, I only need to lure the enemy deeper, constantly stretch the war supply line, and let our army fall into the situation of being alone in the depths, and then I don't need to use too much wisdom to wrap our army in dumplings! ”

Lure the enemy deeper, cut off supply lines, concentrate superior forces, and annihilate the enemy strongly.

Although it is a very old-fashioned tactic, the applicability is very strong, and this old-fashioned tactic makes one strong enemy fall below.

The seed master was not convinced, and said: "Your Highness, I am not far from the gathering of the three armies, once one of them is attacked by the Jin army, the others will rush to reinforcements one after another, and the Jin army will definitely lose at that time!" ”

"Old general, if our army is besieged by the Jin army, the other Western armies will not come to the rescue, not because they don't want to, but because they don't have enough mobility. With the strength of a few thousand gold army iron cavalry, it is enough to contain tens of thousands of troops, unable to reinforce, and may even be wiped out! Zhao Pu said unceremoniously, "Back then, Emperor Taizong's Northern Expedition failed like this!" ”

Along the way, Zhao Pu continued to observe and discovered some shortcomings of the Western Army, or a common feature of all Song armies: lack of offensive power.

The Song army lacks horses, this is common knowledge for everyone; Because of the horse, the offense is insufficient, which is also common sense for everyone.

When common sense is taken for granted, there is no way to recover.

The Song army's combat methods were very old-fashioned, whether it was against the Liao, Western Xia, and Jin states, they were all in front of several soldiers and horses and attacked in and out, and were accustomed to fighting in large armies; It's easy to say that you have won a battle, but if you lose a battle, as long as there is a rout in one way, and there are several other roads, the first reaction is to retreat, so as not to be dumpled by the enemy, instead of thinking about attacking, surrounding the enemy, or rescuing friendly troops.

In the Song army, the phenomenon of rescuing friendly troops rarely appeared, and they often fought their own battles, and once there was an accident, they took the lead in running away, not seeking merit, but seeking no fault.

"I'm a general, I'll think about everything, Your Highness is too worried!" The middle way of the planter, the road with a gloomy face.

Zhao Pu nodded and turned to leave.

…………

The battle is still going on, and he doesn't need to come forward to fight. All Zhao Pu needed to do was to watch the soldiers rush to kill, stepping on ladders, throwing stones with stone throwers, arrows raining down, fierce fire oil falling down, a soldier was killed and fell under the city, and a soldier boarded the city and slashed violently.

It looked bloody and brutal at first.

But after watching it monotonously and mechanically for a long time, the blood in Zhao Pu's heart gradually cooled down, silently watching death, watching life wither one by one.

This is war.

War is not beautiful, it is not piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, it is not so appropriate; It's not in the court, intrigues, twists and turns. War is death, and there is nothing but death. "Lupine scarves, talking and laughing and disappearing", "Strategizing, winning a decisive victory thousands of miles away" are all fantasies of the literati, and they are also the desecration of the war by the literati.

On the battlefield, soldiers are the cheapest military supplies.

Too many soldiers are dying, and it is possible to save food and relieve the shortage of food.

After three days of fierce fighting, the army captured Yuci, which was already very close to Taiyuan. But at this moment, bad news came, Yao Gu, Zhang Hao and other troops did not keep up, at this time the seed army was seriously prominent, like a wedge trapped in the depths of the Jin army's occupation area, surrounded by the Jin army, and attacked on three sides.

The scout cavalry kept coming with the news that tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of the Jin army were rapidly mobilizing and were about to come to Yuci.

Listening to the news conveyed by all parties, the seed master immediately fell into deep thought. At this time, the messenger who arrived quickly disrupted his thoughts, a letter from the Privy Council Governor Xu Han.

"Prison Army, please!" The middle way of the planter.

When Zhao Pu arrived, Lieutenant General Planter handed him a letter.

When I opened the letter, I saw that it read: "I respectfully respect the general, now Taiyuan is besieged, it has been more than eight months, there is a shortage of grain and grass in the city, and the army and people have suffered heavy losses. Summer has arrived, the Jurchen is not tolerant of heat, has retreated to the clouds to rest, Taiyuan City only left a partial division, can overcome the ...... in an instant"

The letter is sprinkled with thousands of words, it is a beautiful prose, it looks extremely beautiful, Zhao Pu sighed unconsciously, talented and talented. Isn't it just to send reinforcements to lift the siege of Taiyuan? Just say it explicitly, why say so much. It seems that he is worried that the planter will not carry out the task, and at the end he adopts the method of agitation.

"I'm done!" Zhao Pudao.

"Your Highness, I don't know whether to send troops or not?" The seed master asked.

"It's okay to send troops, it's okay not to send troops!" Zhao Pudao. He may not be able to fight, but talking on paper, rhetoric, and analyzing the situation are his greatest strengths. "The emperor is not short of hungry soldiers, but now there is a shortage of food and grass, and there is a shortage of equipment, so before the preparation is insufficient, he rashly sends troops to take the way of death, which is one of them; Second, most of the soldiers of our army are from the northwest, the northwest is mountainous, the soldiers are good at mountain combat, and the plain battle is a weakness. Third, it lies in Sticky Han, which is the most insidious, mostly in the name of refuting the heat in the clouds, to attract our army to attack. From the clouds to Taiyuan, it only takes ten days to arrive, once our army gathers under the city of Taiyuan and is surrounded by the Jin army, it will be certain death! ”

"That's a reason not to send troops, but there are also benefits. First of all, Taiyuan has been besieged for eight months, and if Taiyuan is not rescued, Taiyuan may really fall, and morally, troops must be sent to rescue Taiyuan; Second, the land east of the river is mountainous, as long as we avoid the plains and fight a decisive battle with the Jin army, our army still has a slight chance of victory; Third, the best time to send troops has come, besieging Taiyuan for several months, the Jin soldiers have long been exhausted, their spirits are slack, and their fighting spirit is weak. ”

"It's okay to send troops or not, everything needs to be decided by the general, but I tend to send troops!"

Zhao Pu looked at the topographic map of Hedong and said slowly: "The disadvantages of our army in this battle are obvious, and there is only one advantage, and that is surprise." I suggest that if troops are sent to rescue Taiyuan, the number of people should not be too large. Yao Pingzhong's defeat shows that there are not many soldiers. The rescue of Taiyuan is best divided into two parts, a part of more than 60,000 people marched forward with great fanfare, in order to relieve the siege of Taiyuan, lead the Jin army to encircle and suppress, can fight or retreat, the focus is to drag down the pace of the Jin army's attack, this is bait; In addition, draw 10,000 elite soldiers from the army to travel quickly, day and night, focusing on concealment, can not be detected by the Jin army, it is best to go to the mountains and other areas where there are few people, and the Jin army in the clouds to escape the summer south, set up an ambush where the Jin army must pass, the arrogant Jin army will not expect our army to ambush here, at that time our army attacked, is the place where the Jin army is buried, this is a fish hook! “

"In this battle, there are two points, one is the bait, and the part of the Song army that is the bait may be wiped out; The second is the fish hook, that part of the Song army focuses on concealment, on surprise, and on eliminating the power of the Jin army's iron cavalry between the mountains and mountains, and killing the enemy! The focus of this battle is on the redemption. It doesn't matter if our army dies more than 100,000, but the Jin army dies 10,000 is a huge loss; If the Jin army dies more than 50,000, it will inevitably be greatly injured; If the Jin army dies more than 100,000, it can ensure that the Great Song Dynasty will have no war for three years! ”