Thanks to the long winter nights, Song Jun had enough time to complete his plan.

After Bei Yan sacrificed two of his only three hot air balloons, the Song Army had roughly completed two of the most critical tactical steps tonight... dozens of large and small ships with small gun carriages and bed crossbows. They have successfully crossed this narrow piece of land, from the North Fork of the East Yellow River to the East Fork of the North Yellow River, and they are still coming.

Of course, there are still a lot of losses. At least one-seventh to one-eighth of the ships have anchored on land due to various strange reasons. It is not known when they will be repaired. Moreover, there is a ship directly at the entrance to the east channel of the Yellow River. The ship capsized, causing one of the four docks to cease operations.

However, this is enough.

In fact, long before the first balloon was lit, and more than ten ships had successfully entered the East Fork of the North Yellow River, the Song Army had no way to turn back, and the Song Army's second key step was also At that time, amid the twilight and common winter mist in Tian Shizhong, tens of thousands of the main force of the Song army began to cross the river at the same time in the south and north of the city. The north of the city was especially large, because as the soldiers crossed the river, There are also countless Song soldiers and civilians and building materials.

As soon as they crossed the river, except for a very small number of elite troops who were asked to rest and prepare on the spot, everyone else, both soldiers and civilians, directly built fortifications on the spot.

The ground is a little stiff in winter, but it is not frozen soil, and it is not to the point where it cannot be done. One strong swing of the long iron chisel head can dig out a shallow pit; twenty swings can dig out a shallow pit. He can dig out a long and shallow pit with enough space for three trees to stand side by side. If he can swing it two to three hundred times and have a person to help him clear out the soil in the pit, it will be enough to dig out a plank that can successfully stand up the previous Tian Shizhong. of deep pit.

But it is not enough. Almost every such board needs cowhide ropes to connect other boards. There are also other shallow holes on both sides to insert individual pieces of wood for auxiliary fixation. There are also wooden boards to nail the connected boards to form a complete structure. As a whole, in this way, a plate is completely fixed, successfully buried, and becomes part of the traditional camp fence.

Compared with this slightly complicated job that requires experience, the act of digging a trench in front of the fence seems simpler... Just dig a trench, everyone can dig it, it doesn't have to be too deep, two and a half feet deep, three feet deep If it is wide, just dig along a line from east to west along the fence. Then the excavated soil can be piled up in front of the fence. At the same time, you have to go to the river to get water for cultivation... At this time Water from the river will definitely have a miraculous effect.

Of course, there are difficulties. The most important thing is lighting. Considering the scale of the operation here, for the sake of caution, even if it is several miles away, the Song Army has to strictly restrict the lighting sources and the predetermined defense line construction line. There is a torch only every twenty steps, and wooden boards and other light-blocking materials are added on the south side. On the transportation road, there is a torch only every forty steps, and there are also light-blocking arrangements on the south side.

But even so, it still looks a bit strange from a distance.

Moreover, as more and more soldiers and civilians cross the river, the scale of the operation becomes larger and larger. Not only the light, but also the noise becomes increasingly uncontrollable. In this situation, in the second half of the night, that is, during the two After the fighting between the city and the river came to an end, it became extremely obvious.

There is no way, there are too many people.

"What is this? The breath of someone breathing? Or the breath of sweat?"

After visiting Xiao En and a group of old brothers, Zhang Rong, casually wearing a coat, hurriedly climbed to the north city of Daming City to join Yue Fei. However, as soon as he arrived at the city, he noticed a strange visual phenomenon.

It turned out that when looking north from the brightly lit Daming Castle and Yuancheng, there was clearly a strange mist dancing between the light and darkness, as if some living creature was waving its teeth and claws toward the light in the darkness.

"All of them."

Yue Fei, who was fully clothed, had a calm expression. The moment of surprise and panic when he unexpectedly appeared in the middle of the night had long since disappeared. "It should be that the heat... mixed with the air-conditioning, so it showed... there are too many people."

"In other words, if the heat is so clearly displayed here, it's hard to hide it from the people in the city?" Zhang Rong frowned tightly.

"Even without this heat, we can't hide it after all this trouble." Yue Fei replied with a sigh. "However, Gao Jingshan doesn't know that we have warships going over to control the river, nor does he know that we are standing.

With Xiao Tongzhi's desperate delay in building a stronghold, he probably won't take any more risks in the dark...Based on his temperament, he might have thought we were setting up an ambush in the north of the city to lure him."

"What if he insists on taking risks?" Zhang Rong frowned. "What if there are other suspicious people in the city trying to persuade him?"

"Then fight!" Yue Fei turned around to look at each other. "If he dares to leave the city, we will take advantage of the situation and fight! The troops holding him down will roll back! If he goes around the city overnight to ask for reinforcements, we will wait for the reinforcements to arrive and fight back! Reinforcements will arrive at dawn anyway.

When we came back, Commander Xiao had bought a lot of time. At this time, the fastest was only an hour earlier... At this point, there were already boats in the river, strongholds had begun to be set up on the bank, and the entire army had passed. Is it still necessary?

Are there any worries?!"

"Too!"

Zhang Rong sighed. "At this moment, there is no burden in my heart! The soldiers will stop us, and the water will cover us!"

"We still need to make some decisions." Yue Fei said sternly. "Brother Zhang, do you know how I came up with this strategy?"

"this……"

"This is actually a common operation, siege the city... setting up a stronghold to lock the city, starting from Nianhan and locking Taiyuan, is a common routine in the world. The only commendable thing is to prepare the plan in advance, ferry overnight, and build the city overnight.

Village, the so-called tiger's mouth pulls teeth, but opens the mouth to face each other." Yue Fei's tone softened slightly, and the white air he exhaled continued to float in the night sky. "But it was just the old wisdom of Zhongli's battle with Wei Rui that day..."

"What story?"

"The old wisdom can also be regarded as a story, that is, what someone did and recorded it in a book."

"If there is such a story...why didn't Gao Jingshan think of it?"

"Because there are too many stories like this, this idea is actually not very eye-catching. The key is to be decisive and prepare early...I said before that I had this idea on the first day I came here."

"You go on."

"As for what I was thinking about that day, after I arrived at Daming City on the first day, I was worried that the Jin army might attack from the north. However, our army was too large, and there were so many civilians coming and going. The two towns of Daming and the old city could not accommodate it.

There will be a flaw at that time, so we prepared to build a ten-mile-long giant stronghold, connecting the river from east to west, with a tight seal, covering 40,000 to 50,000 front troops of the imperial camp, navy soldiers, plus 50,000 civilians, and even the boats in the river.

." Yue Fei continued. "It was also at that time that he realized that Daming Mansion was heavily defended, and that the Jin Army brigade might gather in winter, so he wanted to spend the winter and survive the possible siege by the Jin Army brigade..."

"I understand!" Zhang Rong suddenly interrupted. "You must have been standing in the hot air balloon at that time, looking at the terrain on both sides of the river. You were thinking about setting up a stronghold and attacking the city at the same time. Suddenly you thought to yourself, since you can be here on the river

Why don't you go to the other side of the river and build a huge stronghold like this? Can you isolate the Jin army and take advantage of the situation to attack the city?"

"Yes!" Yue Fei looked at the other party seriously, as if he still didn't finish his words.

"I know what decision you still have to make." Zhang Rong untied his new coat and put it on his body, shaking his head. "I also know what you mean by asking me to tug a land boat... But if it comes like this

Come on, are there enough food and grass supplies?!"

"Brother Zhang, you are the most familiar with the Yellow River. How long can the freezing period last, including the Lingshui period?" Yue Fei asked in return.

"The freeze can be frozen at the beginning of next month at the earliest, and the freeze can be released at the latest after the Lantern Festival next year. It can only last forty days at most...but in fact, it has never exceeded thirty days in the past few years." Zhang Rong couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

"Counting forty days!" Yue Fei continued seriously. "The strength of our hedgehogs gathered here is slightly less than 70,000 soldiers and 50,000 civilians... We already have cotton clothes, food, ordnance, fuel... What do you think before the freeze?

Can you save enough?"

"It's the middle of the month. Let me do the math." Zhang Rong thought for a moment and gritted his teeth. "This place is only three hundred miles away from Tokyo and only two hundred miles away from Wushan Camp. Most of them are downstream, but

The river mouth itself is still inaccessible here, and we have to go to the old city... Let’s put it this way, there will definitely be enough food and weapons, but I really don’t know how to use charcoal and firewood for heating in the winter!”

"There is no need to go back to the old city." Yue Fei reminded slightly. "And these are not necessarily the only ships."

Zhang Rong was startled, then realized it, but nodded heavily, and lowered his voice again: "One is that it is not yet stable to say so now, I have to take it one step at a time, but I think it is feasible... But even so, the other one is still

We have to ask our husbands in Tokyo to cooperate..."

Yue Fei was silent for a moment, and then said seriously: "The princes in Tokyo may be angry, and there will be noise in the secret palace, but Zhao, Zhang and Hulin will never disobey the official, and the official gave me full authority for the war before leaving...

…These four people, plus the Prime Minister Lu, will never go wrong.”

"The other three are good, except for the one named Zhang. I heard my son-in-law say privately that he is a well-intentioned and bad-tempered person who will do the wrong things." Zhang Rong continued to remind. "I'm just afraid that he will interfere randomly. I want to help, but at the same time

Instead, something went wrong..."

In the dark night, there suddenly was some commotion in Yuancheng across the river. It was obvious that the movement in the north of the city still caused uneasiness in the city.

Yue Fei and Zhang Rong stopped their conversation and looked at each other. Then they turned around and Yue Fei, who was holding the steel knife in his waist, continued to discuss with Zhang Rong: "What does Brother Zhang mean?"

"Write a letter to your chief minister, Hu Shangshu. He doesn't talk about official business, but just puts his posture on the ground. He clearly says that he is worried about Zhang Jun. He is a tough man who can restrain Xianggong Zhang for you... If you ask Xianggong Zhao to come forward...

, but it’s more likely to cause trouble.”

Yue Fei thought for a moment, nodded heavily, then turned around and walked down the stairs.

Zhang Rong didn't pay attention at first and just put on his cotton-padded jacket again, but he immediately came to his senses and turned around and called to the other party: "Pengju, what are you doing?"

"Since there is movement in Yuancheng, just in case, cross the river to supervise the battle!" Yue Fei, who was going down the stairs without looking back, "I also want to urge the entire army to speed up the construction of the stronghold, cross the Yongji Canal, and continue to build westward.

"

Zhang Rong wanted to persuade him, but after thinking about it, he had no choice but to feel a little frustrated. He turned back to look at the heat, but then he thought of something again and asked again: "Where is Yue Yun?! Where is your prince-in-law?!"

"I have already crossed the river from the south of the city with the Beiwei Army behind Tanghuai. We should have reached the west of Yongji Canal by now..." Yue Fei, who had already reached the ground, still did not look back.

Zhang Rong was startled for a moment, and then he realized that Yue Yun and the imperial camp's front army were in a position behind Wei's army, so they were truly alone, and they were the first to bear the brunt.

This is because on the land sandwiched by two rivers twelve or three miles north of Yuancheng, the Yongji Canal goes east-west and then north-south. It first crosses the west fork of the North Yellow River Road from the west, and when it comes to Yuancheng, it takes advantage of the opportunity to go around the city wall to the north, and connects with the North Yellow River Road.

The east and west forks are parallel, directly dividing the land to the north of Yuancheng into two... With this kind of terrain, if the two Jin Kingdom households from Guantao came together, the wall fortifications must have been repaired for several miles to the east of the ditch.

, the flaw must be in the west of Yongji Canal.

Although Yue Fei didn't say anything, he threw one of his own troops and his son into the most dangerous place on land, just like he, Zhang Rong, threw his most trusted brother, Xiao En, into the river full of shipwrecks.

Same.

"There is a big army, but don't worry about it!"

At the top of Yuancheng North City, Gao Jingshan, who had lost his composure because of the burning hot air balloon, finally came to the top of the city wearing a fox fur coat, and then calmly made a judgment. "Since the Song Army is preparing to sneak across, they must be there.

Prepare enough support later..."

"That's right." Gao Tongshi, who was following from Gao Qing, also agreed seriously. "I just went to see the river. The Song navy was marching forward inexorably. Twenty boats were all dumped in the river. Although they were smuggling, they would definitely be saved if they were caught.

He found that he wanted to force the crossing at all costs... In this case, it is reasonable to concentrate the army and set up an ambush on the north bank to prevent reinforcements from Guantao and also to provide support."

"Commander, Commander-in-Chief, that's what I said..." Meng'an, the Jurchen in charge of the North City, pointed her finger at the mist in front of her and said sincerely. "But this movement is too big."

Gao Jingshan stared at the rolling fog in front of him and the strange light behind the fog, and listened to the strange and dense suppressed noise looming under the noise on the other side of the river and in the south of the city, without saying a word.

When Gao Qingyi saw this, he shook his head for a while, and took the initiative to analyze the Jurchen Meng'an: "Actually, the commander-in-chief didn't know that something was wrong with this formation, but there are two things that need to be made clear to the general... First, the Song Army is tonight

The key is still the river crossing, which is so tragic and cannot be faked; secondly, the Song Army has other big plans at the same time, what can we do at this time?"

Na Meng'an was about to speak but stopped.

"If we go out to raid the city..." Gao Qingyi pointed to the dark but starry twilight in the north and continued to explain. "If you send too little, it will be in vain, but if you send too much, the Song army will ambush the army here, and they will be defeated in a battle."

If we are defeated, what should we do if the opponent directly drags the defeated troops into the city? Is this the plan of the Song Army?"

Meng An half-smiled, but did not refute it in the end.

"If you call for reinforcements from Guantao, Du Tong has made an appointment with Guantao. They will send troops to sweep over at dawn tomorrow..." Gao Qingyi pretended not to see the other party's disdain. He sighed in his heart and continued to explain on Gao Jingshan's behalf. "

It was already late at night. Let them set off early. Not to mention whether there was an ambush outside the city targeting the north as Dutong suspected. The cavalry made a mistake in the dark night. It was just that they got the news and came early.
To be continued...