After the victory in Meizhou, Ouyang Xuan did not order to pursue the victory, but ordered to strengthen the defense, which made insiders, including many high-ranking people, quite puzzled. In their opinion, even if the current Thunderbolt infantry is defeated by the Mongolian cavalry, but the Battle of Pengshan completely crippled the Mongolian naval army in western Sichuan, why not send the naval army to go up the water and have another great victory in Chengdu? In fact, only a few people such as Ouyang Xuan, Li Shuang, Huang Dagen, and Le Quanan knew that although the morale of the army was high at this time, it was also the weakest time for the Thunderbolt army, and it was very likely that the risky use of troops would encounter failure.

From the material level, fighting a war is money and food. In the case of food, soldiers consume more than three times as much as they do during war. "The emperor is not bad for hungry soldiers", in the case of high-intensity combat, appropriate meat, vegetables, sugar, salt and vinegar and other condiments are also needed to ensure the combat effectiveness of soldiers. Compared with combat soldiers, the civilian men in charge of logistics consume an astonishing amount of food due to their heavy physical work. Because of the large number of civilians, they are often more than three times or more than the number of combat soldiers. The mules that carry the baggage are very powerful, and the amount of grain consumed is not small.

Although the grain is not a problem soon after the summer harvest, if it is not used sparingly, the grain will be depleted before the autumn harvest. Once the war starts, in addition to food, a large amount of other war materials are needed, such as bandages, alcohol, medicine, etc. Compared with materials, the expenses of bereavement payments, disability allowances, and treatment required for fighting a war are much easier to manage. There is also a large amount of fertile land under the rule of the Perak Army, and some of it can be allocated free of charge to compensate the families of the fallen or wounded soldiers.

Recently, the Perak army has been fighting against the Mongolian army in Guankou Village, Maozhou Widow's Cliff, Changqiu Fort and Jiangyuan County, and the consumption of money and food is huge, and there is a deficit before the battle of Pengshan Meizhou. Fortunately, the Perak Army adopted a wartime economic model, and used financial means such as credit purchases and account posting—in other words, tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall, and using goodwill as a guarantee, the money boss used goodwill as a guarantee to collect sufficient resources, which ensured the logistics of the war. If the war continues now, it will seriously squeeze out the development of industry and mining and the people's living resources, and damage the long-term development of the Perak army.

From a human perspective, both the Perak soldiers and the people under their rule need to recuperate. After descending the mountain, the industry, mining and agriculture are in a period of rapid expansion, and the labor force of various industries is in the labor of the stars and the moon, and even during the Spring Festival, it is only a day off. Especially during this period, in addition to all staff participating in the harvest of summer grain, farmers must also prevent floods and waterlogging, and rush to plant rice in time; Industrial and mining personnel are working overtime, and even palm lamp production; The merchants and traders had to participate in the transportation of war materials in front of the support, and they were already exhausted. Although they can be fed and clothed, and there is a certain amount of medical security, the people have no complaints about this, most of them are still in good spirits, but there are still a few people who fall ill due to overwork.

If the above-mentioned difficulties in terms of personnel and materials can be overcome, then the difficulties faced by the army, especially the naval army, cannot be solved at all in the short term. In fact, in the previous battles with the Mongolian army, the number of casualties of the Perak army was not large, and most of the wounded returned to the team after treatment, and the combat effectiveness of the army was not weakened, but was enhanced by the accumulation of experience. At present, the biggest problem facing the Thunderbolt Army is the serious consumption of weapons and ammunition, and the number of available weapons and ammunition stocks has reached a dangerous situation.

There are two reasons for this, the first of which is the lack of capacity. In addition to the reasons for the relocation and expansion of the arsenal, the main reason is that raw weapons take longer man-hours. Taking barrel production as an example, the barrel produced by boring and milling is completely crushed and cast in terms of performance and safety, but the man-hours required are more than five times that of it. The same is true for the production of new grenades, which alone add a number of processes such as the production of mercury, the drawing of copper wires and the encapsulation of glass slag. Of course, the new grenades produced in this way are much more convenient to use than the old grenades, and they are not affected by bad weather such as rainy days.

The second reason is the overuse of weapons. This is not due to the improper use of the Thunderbolt soldiers, but due to the lack of artillery, muskets and other equipment, in order to ensure the density of firepower and the lethal effect, it is necessary to increase the frequency of firing. Taking artillery as an example, the Thunderbolt Army attaches great importance to its production quality and implements a strict quality system, but the life of the barrel produced is still only about 300 rounds, and the effective use of the barrel is about the same. After firing more than 300 rounds, the barrel will be distorted and the rifling will wear out. At this time, although it could still be fired, the shells and bullets fired were no longer accurate, and the range was greatly reduced.

Due to frequent fighting, many of the guns of the Thunderbolt main battle unit have reached or are nearing the end of their service life. The situation of field brigades and garrison brigades is not yet prominent, but the current artillery situation of special brigades and naval brigades is very worrying. In particular, in the Battle of Pengshan Water, due to the fierce fighting situation, many unconventional means were adopted to cool down the gun barrels, so that one-fifth of the gun barrels were scrapped after this battle. Because of the lack of new barrels, these barrels were not removed, but were still mounted on the ship to scare the enemy. But if there is a real war, these cannons do not have much lethality, just listen to the sound, and may even explode.

Therefore, Ouyang Xuan and the others did not want to take advantage of the victory to attack the Mongolian army, but they were really powerless. He had already made clear to everyone that he would not share the sky with the Mongol army, and would never give up until the Mongols were expelled from the Central Plains. It's just that the Mongol Empire is a behemoth at the moment, and even the vast Southern Song Empire is weak in front of it. The Thunderbolt army is not even strong enough to deal with the Mongol cavalry in western Sichuan, so the only way to accumulate strength now is to give Liu Heima a fatal blow when the time is ripe, recapture Chengdu in one fell swoop, and recover the entire western Sichuan.

Ouyang Xuan believes that there are several key conditions for the ripe timing. The first is that the Thunderbolt cavalry can protect the infantry in the plains. He did not expect the cavalry to defeat the Mongol cavalry, but hoped that its infantry and artillery would calmly form a formation, and let the artillery come to face the Mongol cavalry. The second is that the Perak Army should be properly equipped with firearms, especially the number of artillery and muskets in the naval brigades and field brigades, which should reach at least 90 percent of the total number of troops. If the density of fire is not enough, it will not be able to withstand the attacks of the Mongol cavalry or fire-like ships. The third item is to take Genting City. This fortified city overlooks the western Sichuan Plain, and if the Mongol army uses it as a stronghold to attack everywhere, even if the Perak army captures the city of Chengdu, it will not make much sense. And to take Genting City, it is obviously impossible to rely on a strong attack, even with artillery. Ouyang Xuan had given this task to the special brigade that was good at sneak attacks, and asked them to simulate the drill in advance.

According to Ouyang Xuan's plan, at least for a period of time before the autumn harvest, the Thunderbolt Army would not take the initiative to start a war. He is not worried about the large-scale attack of the Mongolian army, on the one hand, Liu Heima's army has been disabled, and in this season of the river rising in midsummer, the possibility of the Mongolian army breaking the blockade of the Perak army is very small. On the other hand, the arrival of the summer and rainy season, the western Sichuan Plain became slippery and muddy, restricting the movement of horses, which would cause the Mongol cavalry to drop sharply, and they might plunder the countryside in small groups, but it was unlikely that they would attack the Thunderbolt forts in groups.