The war on the Eastern Front has fallen into a phase of confrontation, and the development of the situation has gradually departed from Zhao Xing's original plan and moved forward in a direction that no one can predict.

Zhang He stuck to the city of Liaotao, directly delaying the pace of the Xiongwu army to the south, causing the Xiong Zhen army and the dragoon army to face the counterattack of Yuan Shao, Zhu Jun and Xiahou Dun with a total of 90,000 troops on the frontal battlefield. Although the combat power of the Xiong Zhen army and the dragoon army is higher than that of the opponent, the combat intention of the Jizhou coalition army this time is to defend and counterattack, and they can rely on the strict defense of the city to cause great trouble and casualties to the Xiong Zhen army and the dragoon army, not to mention that Yuan Shao has now mastered the method of making gunpowder.

According to the intelligence detected by the Shadow Members, Yuan Shu of Yangzhou, Liu Yan of Yuzhou and Liu Biao of Jingzhou have responded to the call of the imperial court and sent a total of 80,000 troops to reinforce Jizhou, once this army crosses the Yellow River and enters the Jizhou Plain, the advantage that the Jin State occupies in Jizhou will no longer exist, and the 90,000 people of the Xiongwu Army, Xiong Zhen Army and Dragoon Army will face a total of 190,000 coalition counterattacks.

The more serious problem is that the defense in the Jin State is now empty, with only 20,000 Crouching Tiger Army and 10,000 Han Army Divisions of the Dingyuan Army.

The war in Liangguo on the Western Front was also extremely unfavorable, the Yizhou Army Sima Yi and Zhang Ren had a total of 50,000 horses besieging Xiabian City, although Ma Chao's 10,000 Xiliang cavalry went to reinforce, but they could not get in touch with Han Wei's heavy infantry division in Xiabian City, and now they can only fight separately.

The 10,000 infantry led by Gao Shun has arrived in Gaoping City, the arrival of this army has undoubtedly alleviated the problem of insufficient troops in Liangguo, as long as Guan Yu and Jia Xu can quickly solve the hidden danger of Han Sui, then Liangguo can free up at least 30,000 troops to go south to Wudu and drive Sima Yi and Zhang Ren away. The question is, will Huangfu Song, who led the army stationed in Chang'an City, sit back and watch Liang Guo make a move against Han Sui and be indifferent?

At that time, more than 400,000 allied troops besieged and annexed the state, and finally the Jin State was able to win, mainly because the territory area of the Jin State was only less than one-third of the current one-third, and it occupied the two major fortresses of Keiguan and Huguan, and carried out defensive operations. Now the actual strength of the Jin Kingdom, Youzhou and Liang Kingdom together has exceeded 240,000, but after the average to the three places, there are only 80,000 troops in one state, so the troops are still stretched and not sufficient.

If it weren't for the nomads who had already subdued the north, with only 20,000 people from Yan Sheng and Yao Xing guarding the vast steppes in the north, they would not be able to control the situation at all. Although the Flying Tiger Army has considerable combat strength, it has to guard against the Gongsun degree in Liaodong and the alien peoples in Liaobei, and the 15,000 cavalry is simply unable to go south.

Speaking of which, at present, Zhao Xing is short of about 50,000 troops to open up the situation. As long as there is a breakthrough on the Eastern Front or the Western Front, the next battle will be much easier.

In the combat command room, Zhao Xing looked at the military map for a long time, and seemed to have made up his mind.

Zhao Xing held the command pole in his hand and drew a straight line from west to east in the hinterland of the Jizhou map, and the places north of the straight line, except for the Liao Tao City, the rest had been occupied by the Jin army; and the places south of the straight line, there are now three places that have been heavily marked with red marks, with the words "Yuan", "Zhu", "Xiahou" and so on.

Zhao Xing said in a deep voice: "Now the situation is critical, we must rush before the 80,000 coalition troops in the south arrive in Jizhou, at least completely occupy all the territories from Huguan to the north of Linxian, Pingxiang, and Jingxian, and remove the nail of Zhang He in Xiatao City, and only leave the area of Wei County, Qinghe Kingdom, and the southern part of Julu for Yuan Shao's coalition army!"

Pang Tong reminded Zhao Xing: "The Dragoon Army and the Xiong Zhen Army cannot return to the Xiongwu Army, if the 30,000 troops of the Xiongwu Army alone attack the Taocheng City, I am afraid that the casualties and losses will be too huge!"

"I am going to let Zhang Yan lead the Black Mountain Army out of the mountain, let Tai Shici lead the sailors ashore, and gather 40,000 troops to assist the Xiongwu Army in attacking Xiatao City. In addition, mobilize about 100,000 migrant workers to build fortifications in Nanhe, Pingxiang, Jingxian and other cities, and the next step will be to withdraw the Xiong Zhen army and the dragoon army to the north, and no longer expand to the south for the time being, mainly occupy the northern part of Jizhou, and then do their best to attack Yuan Shao after the situation in Xiliang is stabilized in the next step. Zhao Xing said his considerations, which were very different from the original battle plan.

"If we attack the city with 70,000 people, we can get miraculous results, but this will also expose our hole cards, and there will be no mobile forces available in the future. Guo Jia put forward his own different opinions.

Guo Jia continued expressionlessly: "I suggest that the water division should not be used for the time being, the original plan to cut 20,000 from the 50,000 people of the Black Mountain Army and return to the place can be postponed, you might as well let these 50,000 people go into battle together, I believe that after the battle of Xiatao, what is left is the available army!"

Zhao Xing listened to Guo Jia's suggestion, and was a little hesitant in his heart, feeling that it was a bit cruel to do so, but reason told him that Guo Jia's suggestion was right. Now if even the Jin State Sailor is dispatched, then Zhao Xing will no longer have any cards to play in his hand, which is not a good thing. Although the Montenegrin army had nearly 50,000 men, some of them were weak and had to be eliminated. If Guo Jia's suggestion is adopted, and the battle becomes a means of streamlining the troops, although it is somewhat cruel, there is no doubt that the soldiers who are truly capable of fighting will be selected.

"Okay, just suspend the reorganization of the Montenegrin Army according to Fengxiao's suggestion, and order Zhang Yan to lead the army to immediately go to Liao Tao to join Li Jinwu, and I will personally command the siege of Xiao Tao!" Zhao Xing finally adopted Guo Jia's suggestion with difficulty, and decided to personally take command of the battle, trying to avoid unnecessary casualties of the Montenegrin Army.

Soon after, Zhang Yan and Jia Mu, who were busy training their subordinates, received a secret letter from Zhao Xing, in which they asked Zhang Yan to immediately lead the army out of the mountain and undertake the task of attacking Xiatao City with the Xiongwu army.

Zhang Yan asked Jia Mu with some doubts: "Military Master, why did Master Taifu give such a strange order? The Xiongwu Army has 30,000 male soldiers, and now with my 50,000 brothers in Montenegro, is it a bit of a fuss to attack a Xiatao City with an army of 80,000?"

Jia Mu didn't think so, he calmly analyzed: "The lord suddenly exposed the Black Mountain Army to the world in advance, which shows that the battlefield situation in Jizhou has undergone major changes, and the defense of Liao Tao City must be very solid, otherwise how could it be besieged with an army of 80,000? I am afraid that this battle is not as easy to fight as imagined!"

Seeing what Jia Mu said cautiously, Zhang Yan put away his contempt, and after a moment of silence, he said: "Since the Black Mountain Army was annexed to the Jin Kingdom, it has not achieved an inch. This time we were ordered to attack Xiatao City, even if it was a mountain of swords and a sea of fire, no matter how many brothers were killed or wounded, we must take it down!"

Jia Mu nodded and said decisively: "It is precisely this reason, the prestige of the Black Mountain Army is established by Xiao Taocheng and Zhang He!"