Yue Lengqiu, Yue Zhi and his entourage marched eastward along the tightly frozen Guanshui River, stayed overnight in Guanyun County, and then galloped north of Shanghai from Haitang in the east of Guanyun County.

The sea pond gallop road is built on the Huaibei Han seawall, the snow stops and clears, standing on the sea pond that is high above the flat ground on both sides, you can see the rippling blue waves more than ten miles away, there are sail masts floating on the sea, but it is not to say that the sail stands like a forest.

In order to facilitate the discussion of military and political affairs, Yue Lengqiu and Yue Zhi rode in the same carriage, opened the curtain of the carriage and looked at the situation on both sides of the Haitang gallop.

Some people say that Lin Tie used the Northern Expedition to cover up the usurpation, and some people say that Lin Tie used the usurpation to cover up the Northern Expedition - it is difficult to distinguish between true and false, but the closer to Haizhou City, the more Yue Lengqiu can feel the breath of slaughter.

In addition to the closer to Haizhou, the stricter the checkpoints along the road, Haizhou Tun District in the winter, unlike previous years at this time will concentrate on building embankments and paving roads, Yue Lengqiu left Guanyun County along the Chi Road to the north, on both sides of the Chi Road can be seen in the training of the guards.

Soldiers are more expensive, not more expensive.

Speaking of the Northern Expedition, Lin Jian gathered 200,000 elite descendants on the Eastern Front to attack the city and plunder the land, which should also be enough.

However, the success of the Northern Expedition will regain a large area of the homeland, including the garrison of the city and the local rectification, the elimination of the defeated troops, and the extension of the logistics supply line, which will require the dispersal of a large number of generals; At this time, if you don't want the elite troops to be dispersed, you need to have a large number of reserve soldiers to make up for it - if Lin Jian wants to go on the Northern Expedition, he must first expand the military equipment on a large scale, and it is this part of the military equipment that will be expanded.

In addition to the soldiers in the early days, the Huaidong Army established a perfect system of industrial camps and military cantonments. In the past two or three years, in the Lianghuai region, the reserve soldiers of the Huaidong Gonggong Battalion and the military cantonment system will never be less than 200,000, and even if the surplus Ding is added to the battalion in order not to make up for the current military cantonment cultivation and the basic defense potential of the Lianghuai region, it should still be able to increase the Huaidong Northern Army on the Eastern Front by another 100,000 horses.

Moreover, Lin Jian ordered these horses to be added to the camp very quickly.

Walking through Nanyuntai Mountain, Haizhou City will reveal the shield of the horizon and show in front of you.

Compared with the small coastal city that Yue Lengqiu inspected when he was the governor of Jianghuai, Haizhou at this time was much more majestic.

Although Haizhou has little contact with Guanyun and other cities in the south, and Haitang Chidao is not too busy after winter, but from Haizhou to the west, the Chidao that goes straight to Yizhou, as well as the port in the east of Haizhou City, are displayed in front of Yue Lengqiu and others, but they are rarely crowded in the world.

It is rumored that Haizhou City has surged to 100,000 residents in just two years, which does not seem to be an exaggeration at all.

"If during the Northern Expedition, Chongguo Gong learns the news of the emperor's death, what should he do?" Yue Zhi saw the majestic Haizhou City with his own eyes, and he could also believe that Lin Bin's ambition for the Northern Expedition had not disappeared, if it wasn't for the Northern Expedition, why would it be necessary to build a logistics support base of such a scale? But Emperor Yongxing will die at any time, will Lin Jian really risk missing the best opportunity to usurp the throne and claim the throne first, and go on the Northern Expedition first? Yue Zhi couldn't help but ask his uncle Yue Lengqiu.

"If Chongguo Gong is sure that the Northern Expedition can achieve a great victory, Zen or not Zen will not have much impact," Yue Lengqiu said, Jingxiang's great victory made Lin Lian have the ability to completely empty the imperial family, if Lin Lian's Northern Expedition recovers the Central Plains, even if Emperor Yongxing does not die, Chan Rang is his only choice. Yue Lengqiu raised his forehead and looked at the fortifications on Houyuntai Mountain, and said as if muttering, "This is confusing right now, how to use troops from Haizhou to the north?" ”

Yue Zhi was also puzzled by this question.

With Haizhou as a base, the Jinghai Division harassed the coastal areas of Shandong and Liaodong, which can be done - but if it is only used as the basis of logistics support for the Jinghai Division and its stationing in Hong Kong, why does Haizhou need the scale it has today? The previous coastal town was sufficient.

Yue Lengqiu, Yue Zhi, Deng Yu, Tao Chun and others, although they could not lead the Northern Expedition, they had repeatedly deduced the possible strategies of the Northern Expedition before.

The best strategy that Yue Lengqiu and others could think of for Huaidong was to divide the troops into two ways to carry out the Battle of Shandong:

All the way from Xuzhou, along Bianshui, Surabaya to the north, to seize the western part of Luxi and eastern Henan, the front of the army pointed directly to the Yellow River; All the way from Yizhou troops, take Yishan Mountain, Menggu Valley Road, attack the broken Chexian Pass, enter and capture Linqu, Qingzhou. As long as the Huaidong Army can capture Tai'an, Qingzhou, Linzi and other places, it will be able to occupy an advantage in the Battle of Shandong. Next, the troops can sweep Jiaozhou, Dengzhou, and Laizhou to the east, threaten Jinan, Pingyuan, and even Yannan to the north, and trace the river to the west to attack Daliang and Hezhongfu.

Because the Yishan and Menggu Valley roads go all the way to the broken car pass in the south of Linqu City, the road is Shaanxi and dangerous, so the Huaidong Army of the two roads still needs to take the direction of Biansi as the main force.

According to the opinions of Yue Lengqiu and others, if Lin Jian wants to go on a northern expedition, he should run Xuzhou on a large scale, rather than a small city in Haizhou, which is five or six hundred miles away from Xuzhou.

There is also the problem of large-scale confrontation between cavalry and infantry.

In the Battle of Jingxiang, the main cavalry force in the Yanhu Western Front Corps was mainly concentrated west of Hanshui, and almost failed to play any role. At that time, Yan Hu's cavalry department on the east bank of the Han River was mainly composed of Meng Anchan's department, and there were only 20,000 people, and it was actually not able to play a role, because of the heartfelt stabbing of Huaidong's ambush in Chaishan, which caused the eastern defense line to collapse in the blink of an eye.

In fact, after gaining absolute strategic superiority, the sniper soldiers and horses of the Huaidong Army took advantage of the complex terrain at the northern foot of Dahong Mountain to intercept and encircle the cavalry of Meng Anchan's department; In addition, the Huaidong Army also invested no less than 5,000 elite cavalry, which also played a vital role.

Jingxiang's great victory can only be said to be a surprising strategic success of the Huaidong Army, achieving the strategic goal of luring the enemy deep into the country and winning by surprise, but it does not mean that the Huaidong Army, which is dominated by foot soldiers, can effectively suppress the Yanhu cavalry corps on the frontal battlefield.

Lin Tie wants to go on a northern expedition, and there will be no particularly serious problems when he fights Shandong.

Especially in the central part of Shandong, the mountains of Tai and Yi are vertical and horizontal, and the terrain is complex, which has quite strong restrictions on the operation of the Yanhu cavalry corps, but after the Huaidong Army can take the central part of Shandong, which is dominated by hills, the next army will spread to the north, that is, the Yanji Plain; To the west, it is the Hehuai Plain.

At this time, the Huaidong Army will face the problem of meeting with the main cavalry corps of Yanhu, and it is obvious that it will not be in a hurry.

In other words, even if Lin Jian decided to go on the Northern Expedition, he would take Shandong first in stages, and it was impossible to drive Yanhu away and recover the Central Plains in one go.

Since he can't recover the Central Plains in one go, and there is no certainty of victory in Shandong, Yue Lengqiu also thinks in his heart that Lin Jian will not risk fighting Shandong at this time, but should patiently wait for Emperor Yongxing to die of illness, and establish a new dynasty with the gift of Zen first.

Yue Lengqiu has won and lost battles over the years, and his record is far less brilliant than Lin Lian's, but there are many practical constraints in defeating the battle; When it comes to understanding military affairs, Yue Lengqiu doesn't think that he is much inferior to Lin Bin......

This is also the previous intelligence, although it has been emphasized many times that Lin Lian regards Haizhou as the general base of the Northern Expedition, but Yue Lengqiu has not seen it with his own eyes, and always subconsciously thinks that running Haizhou is a trick for Lin Lian, and it is Lin Lian who consciously wants to force Yanhu to invest his limited resources in the area east of Qingzhou, in fact, in order to reduce Yanhu's investment in Luxi and Xuzhou's frontal defense line.

However, standing in front of Haizhou City, which has a population of more than 100,000, Yue Lengqiu's previous judgment was shaken again.

Just for an eyesore, it is necessary to run Haizhou City like this, and the cost may not be too great - but how to fight by sending troops from Haizhou to the north?

In the north of Yizhou, from the valley road between Yishan and Mengshan to the broken car Xian Pass, the road is very dangerous, and it cannot accommodate tens of thousands of elite infantry of the Huaidong Army to squeeze in; And from Haizhou directly to the northeast, all the way to Jimo, in the southern foot of Kunyu Mountain, there are mostly roads along the beach. Obviously, the Huaidong Army will not have the patience to build a sea pond between Haizhou and Jimo at the same time as the Northern Expedition.

Sea route?

Two years ago, Lin Jian forcibly captured Dengzhou and opened the gate of Bohai Bay without relying on the absolute superiority of the Jinghai Division, and obtained a rare two-year recuperation time in Yanhu.

Yan Hu's naval division in Dengzhou also has 30,000 people, although it is not enough to compete with the Jinghai division on the vast sea, but it still has a certain combat effectiveness by relying on the strong sea-locking defense line.

At this moment, Yue Lengqiu was also puzzled: Is Lin Jian the first emperor or the first Northern Expedition?

Just when Yue Lengqiu and Yue Zhi's uncle and nephew were puzzled, there was a faint sound of thunder in the east, on the sea beyond Houyuntai Mountain-Yue Lengqiu was startled, why did thunder suddenly start in this winter?

"It's going to change!" Yue Zhou, who was in charge of guarding along the road, rode over, looked at the place where the thunder sounded suspiciously, and said superstitiously.

Yue Lengqiu naturally didn't believe in the theory that ghosts and gods changed the sky, thunder was rare in winter, but it was not absolutely absent.

At this time, a group of horsemen galloped out of Haizhou City, led by Wu Qi, deputy chief of staff of the Northern Command Department, and Zhang Gou, deputy commander and staff officer of the Fengli Army-Yue Lengqiu was no stranger to Wu Qi and Zhang Gou.

Seeing that the two of them went out of the city to greet Lin Lian on behalf of him, Yue Lengqiu got out of the car and waited: "General Lao Wu and General Zhang went out of the city to greet ......."

"The privy envoy was supposed to come to greet him in person, but today he set up a test firing of the fire crossbow on the island, and it is difficult to reschedule; The privy envoy and Master Gao went to the Dongxilian Island, and instructed Wu Qi to wait for the Yue Governor and General Yue to come over, and then invite the two of them to meet each other on the Dongxilian Island......" Wu Qi said.

"Fire crossbow?" Yue Lengqiu was stunned for a moment when he heard the name of the new type of weapon that had never been known before, and then asked, "There is a faint sound of thunder in Shicai, is it a test firing of a fire crossbow?" ”

"Exactly," Wu Qi said, "Originally, there would not be such a big movement, but this time we have to test fire a six-mile long target, and the movement is extra big......"

Yue Lengqiu didn't hide his surprise on his face, and looked at Yue Zhi face to face—what kind of weapon can shoot a six-mile target?

The Zundong Army was developing the Fuhuo Sulfur Dan, and Yue Lengqiu had also heard about it.

The fact that the Fuhuo Sulfur Pill was passed on to the alchemy of the previous dynasty, and Song Shixian, who was among the scholars of the Chongxue Pavilion, was admonished for learning the Danshu and did not make progress in his career for a lifetime, is not a secret - Hearing Wu Qi say that the new weapon tested by Huaidong is called the Fuhuo Crossbow, Yue Lengqiu immediately thought of the Fuhuo Sulfur Dan - how could the Fuhuo Sulfur Dan banned by the two dynasties be so powerful?

Yue Lengqiu looked east, they were still eleven or twelve miles away from the harbor, and the harbor was still eleven or twelve miles away from the east and west islands. The sound of the test firing of the Fuhuo crossbow could be transmitted to twenty-two or three miles away, how could this make Yue Lengqiu not shocked?