How to fight and how to fight, all the generals expressed their opinions one after another, some said that they wanted to attack in an all-round way, and some said that they wanted to focus on attacking.

The overall tendency is to support "smashing the Yellow Dragon", and there are more generals who have completed their work in one battle, that is, they have taken Wuchang directly.

Representative figures include Wan Chaoxing, the general of Jingzhou, Ruilin, the deputy commander of Rehe, and Zhang Dabiao, the general soldier of Sichuan.

The reason why Wan Chaoxing wanted to attack Huanglong directly was that they believed that the Qing army had a great advantage in terms of strength.

Intelligence shows that although the Xinghan Army has the main force of six armies in Hubei after the reorganization of the army, and there are also some local troops, with a total strength of nearly 100,000 troops, the Xinghan Army is actually very short compared with the Qing army in terms of the quality of its soldiers and combat effectiveness.

Zhang Dabiao analyzed that the 100,000 men and horses of the Xinghan Army could really fight only 30,000 or 40,000, and their Seventh Army and Ninth Army were actually formed by their own troops, so as long as Master Jia made up his mind to fight, these two armies could completely declare that they were right and shake the morale of the Xinghan Army.

You can also stab the Xinghan army at a critical time, just like dealing with Fengsheng at the beginning.

No matter what actions these two armies take, it will be a fatal blow to the Xinghan army, and it is impossible to end the war before the Spring Festival, and the officers and men of the whole army will have a good Chinese New Year's Eve dinner in Wuchang.

Ruilin, the deputy commander, also believed that once the war began, the Qing army might make significant progress.

After all, the fundamental reason why the Xinghan army won a series of battles in the previous series was not how capable the Xinghan army was, but how incompetent the Qing army was.

This incompetence is mainly concentrated "internally".

That is, the release of water within the Qing army has led to the current situation, once the Qing army no longer releases water, it really has to fight hard with the Xinghan army and carry out a strategic decisive battle, and the Xinghan army is actually at a disadvantage if it lacks a stable base area.

On the other hand, the arrival of the Eight Banners of the Qing Army in Beijing made the main force of the Qing army gathered around Xiangyang reach more than 80,000 people for the first time.

Among them were the elite soldiers of Sauron, who had never been put into battle, and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Gansu Green Battalion, which arrived from Shaanxi.

The size of the force is even more impressive than it was at the time of Fengsheng, and at least a quarter of the troops are really capable of fighting.

In terms of personnel and equipment and ordnance logistics, the advantages of the Qing army are also obvious.

Therefore, the situation is completely capable of a decisive battle.

There's no need to tie your hands and feet yourself.

If Wuchang is really taken, the remnants of the Xinghan army will have to negotiate peace.

But how to fight, it still needs Jia Liu, the general, to make the decision.

Maybe the subordinates have doubts about the military command ability of Jia Liu, the leading brother, but it is undeniable that Jia Liu is the top strategic genius of this era.

After carefully studying the map and combining the military dynamics of the two sides, Jia Liu proposed the concept of a key offensive - "Crab Offensive".

He believes that although the Xinghan Army now has three provinces, the core place is around Wuchang and Jiujiang.

That is, these two places gathered the Xinghan army heavy army group, as long as these two Xinghan armies were dismantled, the Xinghan army in other places should not be worried.

Therefore, it is necessary to "plough the court and sweep the holes and capture them in earnest."

The specific strategy was to first concentrate on recovering Jingzhou, purging the Han army forces west of Wuchang, and ensuring contact with Sichuan and Shaanxi.

Immediately after taking Jingzhou, he captured Wuchang and destroyed the political and military command center of the Xinghan army in order to "shake its military morale, disintegrate its intentions, and weaken its position."

Secondly, the Qing army in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River also had to launch a counterattack in Anqing to contain the Xinghan army group in Jiangxi, so that they could not return to Wuchang at all.

The campaign deployment of the "Crab Offensive" was unanimously agreed by the participating generals, and they praised Lord Jia for using his troops like a god and being a martial artist in the world.

"Wuchang is a big city, but also the political center of Huguang, the Xinghan army got it, it must be defended, in this way, Wuchang is a heavy burden for the Xinghan army, as long as we fight a few victories, not only Wuchang will return to our hands, Yuezhou, Changsha, Jiujiang, Nanchang will also return to our hands!"

Jia Liu is very confident.

The specific use of troops is a three-way march.

Huguang Admiral Zu Yingyuan is the left road;

Shaanxi and Gansu Admiral Wang De used the department as the right side;

Jia Liuqin led the main force of the Eight Banners Army with 50,000 as the middle road.

The middle lane of the three-way soldiers and horses is the main force, which is the largest fist.

The left and right roads are pincers, so that the situation looks like a crab waving its double pincers towards Wuchang.

Of course, relying solely on military offensive is certainly not the best policy, and Jia Liu proposed a political offensive again, and for the first time put forward the "Three Loves," that is, loving the country, loving the people, and loving the enemy.

"Loving the country" means loving the Qing Dynasty, "loving the people" means loving the people, and "loving the enemy" means treating enemy prisoners well.

"Enemy prisoners and those who come and return, our army must treat them well, and must not kill prisoners, and we must properly resettle the enemy troops who are willing to return, and those who are unwilling to continue to serve in the army must be given travel expenses and sent back to their hometowns..."

Jia Liu hoped to break down the fighting spirit of the Xinghan army more at the political level, so as to reduce the loss of personnel and property.

The political effect of preferential treatment of prisoners has been proven by history.

After the meeting, a military meeting of the great general Wang Xingyuan will be held.

This meeting was attended not only by the generals of the Communist Association, but also by other officials of the Qing army who went on this expedition, such as the Minister of the Interior, Niu Lunbao, the Minister of Protector Management, Urshi Balan, and the Governor of Hubei, Zheng Dajin.

Before the formal all-round military meeting, Ji Yun quietly made a small report, saying that Zhang Dabiao, the chief soldier of Sichuan at the meeting just now, had a grudge against the prince, and extremely contemptuous of the prince, saying that the prince was too naïve, and this was not done by the ministers.

Jia Liu closed the manuscript of "The Song of the Prince's Training" that he had newly composed for the military song of the new army, and asked Ji Yun: "Do you know what I can rely on to get to where I am today?" ”

Ji Yun thought for a moment: "Regard dignity as nothing? ”

"Superficial!"

Jia Liu was displeased, and told Ji Yun that he was able to get to where he is today because of his open-mindedness and good attitude to accept all criticism.

"Good medicine is bitter, some words sound harsh, but the harsher it is, the more people are right."

Jia Liu admits that his unrealistic fantasies about the peace talks are wrong, so of course he will not hold a grudge because his subordinates pointed out his mistakes.

"You pack up and prepare to fight with this king."

"The prince wants to recruit in person?"

Ji Yun was stunned.

"When I left Beijing, I said that all the soldiers of our Qing Dynasty must be Yue Wumu, and everyone must be loyal to the country, so of course this king must take the lead."

Jia Liu didn't brag about the conquest himself, but really wanted to personally command the battle of Zhong Xiang.

In order to prove to the world that his invincible Baturu is by no means in vain, Jia Liu asked Ji Yun to go to Zhongxiang to have a secret talk with Qiu Ba, the general of the Xinghan army, and was willing to exchange 100,000 taels for the other party's initiative to retreat.

It's called dressing people.

In this way, not only can he capture Zhongxiang without spending a single soldier, but he can also build momentum for himself, the great general, in propaganda, so that all rumors that doubt that he will not fight, and even accusations of passive slackness in the war will disappear.

However, Qiu Ba, an anti-Qing element of the civil society, was a bit stubborn, and refused to take the money and leave, but instead shouted to the envoy that he wanted to use the head of the Qing general Wang as a ball.

This made Jia Liu very unhappy, and he lost his temper and said: "If you can't buy Qiu Ba, just buy Zhang San and Li Si below, I don't believe that this king's money can't be spent!" ”