On the tenth day of the seventh day of the ninth year of Hongwu, Jiangdu Imperial City and Chongzheng Hall.

A criticism against Li Gang, a traitor who was wronged, is in progress.

"Li Gang was a country that was wrong! Is there any reason to abandon the Huai River and guard the Yangtze River?"

"Li Gang is not just a mistake in abandoning the Huai River? He also divided the 100,000 troops into two parts, so it was weak! Why didn't he understand such a simple truth?"

"Oh, if Mr. Zhao Wenzheng was there, this would not have happened!"

"Yes, Li Gang is not as good as Zhao Wenzheng, but now there is no Zhao Wenzheng in the Song Dynasty. What should I do if I do!"

While criticizing Li Gang for his misunderstanding of the country, these ministers missed Zhao Mingcheng, who was regarded as "the second in Zhao Kuangyin" by Zhao Huan. They thought that if Zhao Mingcheng did not die, he would be able to solve the current dead situation.

After hearing their words, Zhao Huan felt so guilty!

Why did he feel guilty? Because he also has to bear certain responsibility for Zhao Mingcheng's death.

Earlier, because he suspected that Zhao Mingcheng would be the second in Zhao Kuangyin, he cursed Zhao Mingcheng in the palace for several years, and stole the dolls of his daughters, pasted Zhao Mingcheng's birth date and stabbed him with an embroidery needle. Now, he has "cursed" his important officials to death, and no one can help resist Zhao Kai.

Zhao Huan felt guilty for a while, and suddenly thought: But I once cursed Zhao Kai, that traitor! Before the Xuanhe crisis, I asked an expert to be a doll, paste Zhao Kai's birth date, and pricked his head with needles every day, cursing him to lose his soul. Why is it not effective at all? Could it be that Zhao Kai is really the one who chose God and is "preventing curses"?

Thinking of this, Zhao Huan had to sigh: "What should I do? Now there are only 50,000 mainland troops in Jinling Prefecture, how can I defend such a long coast of the Yangtze River?"

"Official family," said the Left Privy Councilor He Su at this time, and said to Zhao Huan, "I have three strategies for superiors, middles and lowers, which can solve the current difficulties!"

"Speak quickly!"

He Su said: "The best strategy is to gather the troops in Jiangdu City and Guazhou naval forces, advance west along the river, and meet with the Jinling army. You can get 150,000 naval and land soldiers. If you fight to the death with the river, the outcome is still unknown!

Zhongce urgently ordered Li Gang to retreat to Zhongshancheng and Mufu Mountain City, and to restrain the Northern Army by relying on the mountain danger. At the same time, I personally supervised the navy and land army along the river to attack the Jiangbei camp of the Northern Army, and forced the enemy to return to the rescue.

The worst strategy is to urgently order Li Gang to abandon Jinling and retreat to Zhenjiang Prefecture, echoing the river from Jiangdu, which is a support for the horn."

After listening to He Su's advice, Zhao Huan missed Zhao Mingcheng even more.

There is nothing good about He Su’s three strategies!

It seems good to have a 150,000-strong army fight to the death of the river, but now the initiative to fight or not is not in the Southern Song Dynasty, but in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Once Zhao Huan brought all the troops of Jiangdu to Jinling, Zhao Kai could go to Jiangdu and then send an edict to decide the two Huai Rivers.

Once the two Huaihe Rivers are owned by Zhao Kai, Jinghu will collapse and then Jiangnan West Road will be!

It won’t take long before Zhao Huan was left with only Jiangdong, Liangzhe, Fujian, and Guangdong. But relying on these territories, can Zhao Huan’s Wu Kingdom (Southern Song Dynasty) continue to support it? The answer is definitely not!

Let Li Gang retreat to the fortress, and He Su leads 100,000 troops from water and land to advance westward to die. In Zhao Huan's opinion, it is to die!

Because if Zhao Kai crossed the river himself, Yue Fei would definitely be the one who stayed in Jiangbei! I don’t know how many famous Jin generals have been thrown into Yue Fei’s hands over the years. Why did you, He Su, defeat him?

As for the situation of abandoning Jinling and abandoning Jiangbei, there is even a difference. Because Zhenjiang and Jiangzhong are separated by the Yangtze River, can they really respond to each other? Don’t fight each other!

Just when Zhao Huan didn't know what to say was good, there was a burst of rapid footsteps, and then he saw Cao Xun, the affairs of Zhigemen, came in from outside panting, with a look of panic.

"Cao Xun, what happened?" Zhao Huan knew that something was wrong, and his voice trembled when he asked.

"The official family has just received the report that the Northern Army of Hezhou is coming to Jiangdu!"

"What"

Cao Xun almost scared Zhao Huan with one word, and he was still shaking on the imperial throne. He saw the eunuchs serving the Imperial Medicine Academy on the left and right, and the eunuchs who were serving the left and right were nervous.

However, Zhao Huan has been hit too much now and his nerves are a little thick, so he just shook and did not fall down.

Seeing that Zhao Huan did not fall, the ministers in Chongzheng Hall finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Zuo Shumi He Su hurriedly asked: "Cao Zhige, has the Secret Court Military News brought it?"

Of course, the military newspapers on the front line were sent to the Privy Council. Cao Xun was responsible for court affairs, and was in charge of court affairs, congratulations, attending the hall, arriving in class, and Shangguan. Now the court meeting was held in Chongzheng Hall, so after receiving the emergency military newspaper, the Secret Court sent someone to hand it to Cao Xun and he sent it to Chongzheng Hall.

"I brought it, that's it." Cao Xun quickly handed a handwritten military report to He Su.

He Su took the military newspaper and frowned.

"How?" Zhao Huan asked, "How many Northern Army have come?"

"I don't know there should be a lot!"

Zhao Huan asked again: "Who is the general who led the troops? Is it General Tiance?"

"have no idea"

Zhao Huan frowned, "Why don't you know what you asked? How did you become Zuo Shumi?"

How do you say that you don’t know? He Suxin said: There are only two people who don’t know!

"It's so let the officials know," He Su said with a bitter face, "There are many cavalry teams in the Northern Army. Each cavalry general has two thousand regular soldiers and one thousand auxiliary soldiers, and everyone can ride and shoot. Moreover, the Northern Army's war horses are excellent, have strong strength, and are quick to rush, and have good endurance. They are definitely not comparable to our horse soldiers. Therefore, once the Northern Army sends a large number of horse teams to lead the way, our Rangers will not be able to approach the Northern Army brigade, and naturally it will not be able to find out the reality of the enemy."

Yue Fei dispatched three armies this time. Not to mention the personal soldiers of the generals, there were nine thousand cavalrymen of the three military families, of which three were light cavalry, three thousand were red scarves, and three thousand were auxiliary soldiers of the red scarves.

However, whether it is the main soldiers, auxiliary soldiers, light cavalry, or iron cavalry, they can act as light cavalry, taking on miscellaneous tasks such as opening the road, searching, and blocking.

Although the iron armored infantry of the Southern Song Dynasty's mainland division was very strong, their "Caima Cavalry" was not enough, and they could only undertake short-term assault tasks under the cover of the infantry. If they were used as light cavalry, they would be very weak. Moreover, when dealing with enemy cavalry, the "Caima Cavalry" was also unreasonable. Their short-legged horses were nicknamed "Rabbit Horses". They could not run too far or too fast with a cavalry, so they naturally could not defeat the enemy riding a tall horse.

In addition, the number of cavalry in the Southern Song Dynasty was also small. Although the Southern Song army gathered in Jiangdu now has more than 50,000 people, there are only 3,000 cavalry, only one-third of the cavalry under Yue Fei's troops.

After hearing He Su's explanation, Zhao Huan's brows became even tighter.

"The art of war says: know yourself and your enemy, and you will never lose a hundred battles. Now we don't even know the number of enemies. How can we fight this battle?"

He Su thought for a while and said, "The government, no matter how many troops the enemy is, since they have rushed to Jiangdu, we must fight a war. I suggest that we fight back first!"

"Born with water? How to carry it?"

He Su said: "Backed by the canal, arrayed between Jiangdu Castle and Guazhou Castle!"

After listening to He Su's suggestion, Zhao Huan thought to himself: Isn't this nonsense? Jiangdu City is more than 20 miles away from Guazhou, and 50,000 people are in the array for more than 20 miles. Why do I just keep it so much? There is only one Zhao Mingcheng who can beat him, but none of the others is useful. No, it seems that Zhao Mingcheng has never been on the battlefield.

"No, no," said Zhao Huan, "Hezhou's Northern Army is known as one million, but the real number is hundreds of thousands! If we fight together, how can the 50,000 troops in Jiangdu fight over?"

"Then divide the troops to defend Jiangdu and Guazhou." He Su had another idea.

Zhao Huan's face turned dark as soon as he heard this, "It's weak to divide the troops! Isn't it enough to teach a lesson? My 100,000 elite soldiers have been dismantled into two by Li Gang, and you still have to divide them?"

He Su said again: "Then join forces and defend Jiangdu to the death!"

Zhao Huan's head was almost like a rattle, "If you don't guard the lonely city, let alone I am the lord of the Nine Five. How can I stay in this lonely city and wait for death?"

Seeing that He Su was out of trouble, Zhao Huan gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, "I am going to Guazhou Town to fight to the death with the Northern Army!"

Go to Guazhou?

Guazhou is a small town on the Yangtze River or a small port town. It is against the Yangtze River to the south, and a circle of city walls to the north. Of course, there are trenches outside the city wall.

But what should Jiangdu do?

Don't want it?

You are leaving the city and running away!

"The official family, Guazhou City is small and narrow, and it is difficult to last for a long time!" He Su said, "And once the army moves to Guazhou, Jiangdu City will not be able to defend it."

Zhao Huan glared at him, "If you defend in Jiangdu and the entire army is wiped out, you can save Jiangdu? Then you can only lose both people and cities. I will not do this stupid thing! I have decided to go south and go to Guazhou, back to the Yangtze River, and fight to the death with the enemy!"

Everyone in Chongzheng Hall looked at each other and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Because they knew that Zhao Huan's proposal was relatively safe. Although they gave up the impeccable Jiangdu City, they could ensure that the entire army could evacuate safely. This is the best way to protect the entire army!

The only bad thing is that it's a little too cowardly

When Zhao Huan turned to Guazhou, and Yue Fei got the capital of Jiangdu without fighting, Zhao Kai's army was galloping west along the Yangtze River. And it was advancing water and land!

Zhao Kai's army obtained dozens of ships on the shore of Hezhou, and also recruited some fishermen to welcome the king's army, so they drove the boats and the army to head west. During the march, there were also fishermen, gentry, and merchants from Hezhou and Wuwei Army's coastal areas "bringing ships to surrender". When his army approached Dukou Town, Lujiang County, under the jurisdiction of Wuwei Army on the other side of Tongling, the number of ships owned exceeded 200, and they were marching west in a vast array on the river surface, which was very spectacular.

On the other side of the Yangtze River, Li Gang was leading the Land Army with less than 30,000 people all the way, and also collected some ships, both of which were parallel to land and water.

A water battle is about to unfold on the narrow Yangtze River near Tongling.
Chapter completed!