On the 16th day of the first lunar month, the Zhenguan Hall of Ziwei Palace in Luoyang, the first military discussion in the third year of Hongwu, was a bit depressing.

The reason for the depressed atmosphere is of course the bad news coming from the front line!

There are three bad news:

First, the Mengwu tribe that migrated from the northern part of the desert did not invade Hedong in large quantities, but settled down in the three states, including Yunneizhou, Fengzhou, Dongshengzhou, Tiande Army and other three states on Xijing Road of the Jin Dynasty. A khan tent was also established at the foot of Jiashan in Fengzhou, and the White Tatar tribes north of Yinshan were conquered by marriage, alliance, expedition and other methods to expand their strength.

After settled down, the Mongols tentatively launched several tentative attacks on Hedong under the rule of the Northern Song Dynasty, but the scale of the attack was not large, and the troops were limited. Moreover, those who acted as cannon fodder were all stupid raw Tatars... Zhao Kai wanted to lure the enemy deeper, and his plan to solve Hebule in the hinterland of Hedong was completely lost!

After testing it several times with raw Tatar cannon fodder, Hebule sent a caravan mainly composed of white Tatars in the twelfth month of last year, hoping to exchange iron tools with the Zhe family occupying the Mansion, Lin and Fengzhou.

It is obvious that Hebule is not stupid at all. He would not invade a large scale before he could find out the reality of the Northern Song Dynasty and find an opportunity.

However, Hebule did not invade in large quantities, which does not mean that Zhao Kai could not set up tight defenses on the Hedong front line. Now there is no Great Wall wall on the Hedong front line that can block this group of barbarians who will come south to grab things at any time.

It has to be said that Wu Qimai fooled the Mengwu people from the banks of the Onan River, which was very painful to hear, to Yinshan Mountain, which was rich in water and grass, and at the foot of the mountain, which was really a wonderful step.

In fact, the trick of Wu Qi bought was taken for granted - in the original history, the Jurchens occupied the entire northern China except for the land of Xixia. Naturally, they became the first target of robbery for most grassland nomadic tribes, including the Mongols.

The conflict between Jurchens and Mengwu is difficult to reconcile, and it is even more impossible to become friends.

But now, Yinshan, the plump grassland at the foot of Jiashan and Hedong under Zhao Kai can become bargaining chips for the Jurchens to pull the Mongols and some other grassland tribes.

These people were originally a problem for the Great Jin Kingdom, but now it has become a problem for the Northern Song Dynasty!

The second bad news is that Xiao Heda, who went north to try to contact Yelu Dashi, suffered a big defeat at the foot of Black Mountain!

The one who defeated him was the Jurchen-Mongolia coalition led by Wanyan Loushi, the southwest recruitment envoy of the Jin Dynasty!

Wanyan Loushi and Hebule were both veterans fighting on the grassland. Although Xiao Heda was also a long-time general, he became famous among the mountains in the northwest and was not very familiar with the grassland. As a result, his troops were sneak attacked by the enemy at the foot of Heishan Mountain. Before Zhao Kai could throw out the bomb pot for him, more than 100 people were stolen by Loushi and Hebule. Xiao Heda's subordinates (including the Khitans who fled to Heishan Mountain) also lost tens of thousands... The remaining tens of thousands (including their families) retreated across the Yellow River and then fled south to Lingzhou.

The third bad news was caused by Wanyan Loushi. After the victory, Wanyan Loushi went south along the north bank of the Yellow River and the west bank, and captured the Keyi Gate, the gateway to Xingzhou, the old nest of the Hexi Jiedushi (Xixia), in one fell swoop!

Now the plains between Helan Mountain and the Yellow River are all exposed under the military front of Lou Shi!

Li Ganshun, the governor of Hexi, had sent envoys to inquire and asked the Northern Song court for help... This really made the Northern Song court die of embarrassment!

If you don’t save it, Li Ganshun might turn against the enemy and become a soldier from Dabai Gaoguo!

Save it...not only does it cost a lot of troops to send out, but it also has the risk of defeat! Lou Shi is a famous general of the Great Jin Dynasty, and he is also the Jurchen powerhouse.

Moreover, Li Ganshun is a cruel person who wants to kill even his own mother, his own son and his wife! Who knows if he will join forces with Lou Shi to cheat Da Song?

As for the front battlefield where the Northern Song Dynasty and the Jin Kingdom confronted each other, that is, the section of Hebei West Road, it remained stable as expected.

The Jin army was obviously shocked by the rapid defeat of the Western thieves and the power of the blow-up pot. They dared not attack the three important iron smelting towns of the Northern Song Dynasty, namely Xinde Prefecture, Cizhou and Xiangzhou. Instead, they took the initiative to retreat about 50 miles from the front line, retreated to the former Yellow River path between Puyang and Nangong, and began to build a fortification and defend.

This section of the Yellow River Old Road is the west road among the Yellow River Old Road. The Yellow River North River River is a lot of forks. This one is the west-facing one. It flows from Puyang northward and flows into the Hulu River. Then it is through the Hulu River channel to merge into another Yellow River North River.

Now the Yellow River has diverted its route and went south to get intimate contact with the Huai River, so the river flowing north has become the "waste Yellow River"... The river channel is still there, the water is gone, and it has become several "high ditches", which are high ditches.

After retreating for dozens of miles, the Jin army used the westernmost one of these "high ditches" to start building a line of defense.

The so-called defense line is of course not to pull out the limited troops for 400 miles long, but to build a fortress and a beacon tower every 10 miles and 20 miles. At the same time, heavy troops are stationed in several big cities behind this "high-groove defense line" - if the Northern Song army launches an attack, they can attack in time.

The Northern Song army stationed in Hebei did not push the front line before the Jin army's "Gaogou" defense line, but built a defense line along the old path of the Zhang River and Yongji Canal flowing north. At the same time, they took down the castles in Liyang, Linhe, Neihuang, Weixian, Julu and other places abandoned by the Jin soldiers as frontier bases.

In addition, the Jin army now launched an active attack on the battlefield facing the Southern Song Dynasty on the eastern front and attacked the south of the Huai River.

So looking at the entire map, it is not difficult to find that the Great Jin Kingdom has given up its plan of a full-scale attack and instead launched a key attack on the Western and Eastern fronts. Since the distance between the east and west battlefields is too far, it is impossible for the Song army to move back and forth on these two battlefields. Moreover, the main battlefield in Hebei on the middle road is still confronting, and it has to maintain a considerable amount of troops...

It is obvious that in the current "post-Three Kingdoms Controversy" between the "Two Songs and One Jin", the Great Jin plays the powerful Cao Wei, while the North and South Songs are relatively weak Sun Liu.

But one of the two Song dynasties has black technology and the other has the ability to make money, but they are actually suppressed by the big gold with only the barbarian warriors, both of them are passive. It is really unpleasant!

Under such circumstances, the atmosphere at the Zhenguan Palace Military Conference was inevitably suppressed.

However, Zhao Kai, the official, looked good, and sat on the imperial throne with a smile, listening to the ministers below speak one by one, but they had no objection. I really don’t know what he was thinking about?

After everyone below finished speaking one by one, the official who didn't know if he was listening to it said with a smile: "Well, it's great... Our Song Dynasty is getting stronger day by day, while the Jin thieves are getting worse day by day! It seems that it's time to launch a big counterattack!"

"The official...this is not the time to counterattack, right?" Yue Fei jumped out to sing the opposite tune with Zhao Kai.

Although the martial officials here in Zhao Kai are quite well-behaved and dare not beat people in the court, they still dare to say anything!

Yue Fei said: "My brother went to see the test shot of the 'Casserole Cannon' yesterday. The power is already satisfactory and it is quite lightweight. You can use two to four horses to drag and move on the battlefield... If each general can be equipped with four such 'Casserole Cannon', the time for a large counterattack will be ripe."

Yue Fei now likes black technology and is obsessed with the "casserole cannons" all day long. Under his supervision, Xijiacheng Casting Factory has cast 20 various "casserole cannons" in front and behind. These "casserole cannons" are becoming more and more like guns, and their performance is gradually approaching the actual combat requirements.

It won't take long to set the shape!

However, the requirements for "four guns per general" are a bit high!

Zhao Kai had more than 160 generals in the palace, and one general and four cannons were needed to cast more than 600 casserole cannons!

Of course, more than 600 cannons are not a problem, and there is still some copper. The problem is to pull a horse, plus an ammunition truck and a blacksmith cart, at least 16 horses are required to drag it. If you want to move from a long distance, you have to prepare the same number of horses, which is 32.

More than 600 cannons require more than 20,000 horses to pick up horses... This is not a small number!

Although the number of official horses currently in the Northern Song Dynasty was far more than 20,000, cavalry and baggage soldiers needed horse supply. Moreover, the herdsmen had to shed a sufficient number of horses to give birth to horses. Due to the lack of excellent and fixed horse breeds, only a small number of the foals produced by the herdsmen were suitable for war horses. Therefore, more stallions were needed, and mares were used for breeding...

So it was impossible for Zhao Kai's hundreds of thousands of soldiers to have enough horses to hold horses and war horses in five or six years.

However, the strategic counterattack cannot be delayed until five or six years later! Because the Jin thieves will not stop, they will not wait for the Song Dynasty soldiers to counterattack, and will definitely launch key attacks on the north and south Song dynasties to prevent them from preparing for war.

Zhao Kai smiled and said, "Yesterday, I met the Southern Envoy Yuwen Xuzhong in Shangyang Palace. I learned that the Southern Army now has the power to fight against the Jurchens. So I have developed the idea of ​​advancing together with the sea and land to surround the Jurchens... I want to unite the Wu Kingdom, the Goryeo Kingdom, the Hexi Jiedushi Linya, and establish a great anti-Jin alliance together! This will limit the Jin people to the situation of being attacked from all sides and being unable to attack our dynasty. In this way, our dynasty can be calmed down and prepared for war. Within five years, the Northern Expedition will be successful! What do you think I think?"

"Official family," asked Privy Councilor He Guanchaoban, "Will the King of Wu agree? In addition, the Goryeo and the Jurchens have no grudges, so I am afraid that I will not deal with the Jurchens with us?"

Zhao Kai said: "I can send troops to Songzhou to relieve the dangers of Huainan for Wu... In return, Wu should cooperate with my anti-Jin siege. As for Goryeo... As long as the envoys of Wu bring the navy army to talk to them, they should join us."

Bring a navy?

Can you still speak well?

The ministers in the hall all don’t understand Zhao Kai’s diplomatic ideas... Could it be that if the Goryeo people don’t join, they will ask Zhao Huan to send a navy army to fight Goryeo? Isn’t Zhao Huan so unreasonable?
Chapter completed!