As the saying goes, apart travel is like a mountain. Zhang Jin is an intelligence officer who is good at lurking and collecting intelligence, but he is an amateur in strategy, tactics, marching and fighting. Even if he is very knowledgeable, it is difficult to understand strategic and tactical arrangements from a deep level. However, he can provide Zhao Bing with what he sees and hears truthfully, so that he can understand the deployment and intentions of the two sides to the war.

According to Zhang Jin, Zhao Bing understood Jiang Jin's strategic and tactical deployment of regaining Xiangyang with a brief analysis. He basically followed the strategy of the Mongolian Yuan breaking Xiangyang more than ten years ago. He first wanted to lure the enemy troops out of the city by luring the enemy troops out of the city and using their own equipment advantages to annihilate the enemy outside the city, so he attracted the enemy troops out of the city through continuous point-drawing tactics.

However, the enemy Xiangyang defender did not fall into the trap, but took the initiative to give up the outer strongholds and shrink the main force into the city, and deployed them in Gucheng, Xiang, Fan and three cities of Xinghua Army. He also defended Fenglin Pass with some of his troops to guard Xianshan and Yanggushan, thereby blocking the Song army's access to Xiangyang from the west and south. In fact, there was nothing new to the deployment of both sides. It was almost a copy of the battle between Song and Meng in Xiangyang that year, and it was just a mutual change in offense and defense.

Zhao Bing thought that the two sides had not escaped from the confinement of their predecessors in this way, but he had to admit that this was an extremely mature strategy, which was also determined by Xiangyang's unique terrain. Xiangyang was surrounded by water on three sides and surrounded by mountains on one side. If the enemy wants to attack this city, they must attack from the side of the backing, while the other three sides are surrounded by water on the other side has increased the difficulty of invasion; and if the people inside want to defend Xiangyang City, they only need to defend more on the side of the backing.

The Han River coast on the south and west sides are mostly tidal flats and sandbanks, which are not conducive to crossing the river. The nearby ferry is at the foot of the city wall in the north, downstream of Xianshan and on the other side of Fancheng. Moreover, the city wall in the north is less than 50 meters away from the Han River, and the height of the river bank determines that it is extremely difficult to attack from the water, so all dynasties have chosen land to attack Xiangyang.

There are two main land passages, which go west through Wanshan, lead to Shiyan and Hanzhong; south through Xianshan, lead to Jingzhou. The two mountain roads are narrow, which is conducive to defense. Especially the southwest corner of the city is less than 300 steps away from the foot of Yanggu Mountain, which is just within the range of the strong crossbow and the stone thrower, which can cut off the connection between the two land routes.

In this way, Wanshan, Xianshan and Yanggushan divided the open space outside Xiangyang City into two relatively narrow, closed, isolated spaces. This terrain is conducive to defense. The Xiangyang defenders easily divided the attacking sides outside the city into three with their geographical advantages. Whether from the west, south, or north bank naval forces, it is difficult to echo each other. If the attacking side lacks one direction, the defending side will have one more reinforcement. As long as Gucheng is not lost, they can obtain a steady stream of personnel and materials from the Han River.

From this we can see that the strategy of the Mongolian and Yuan defenders was to fight a protracted war with the Song army and drag the battle until the rainy season arrived, so that the river could be used to block the enemy's attack. After Xuzhou fell, the court had already proposed peace with the Song court. As long as they ensured that Xiangyang would not be lost, the two sides could only use their existing actual control zones to demarcate the boundaries last year. In the end, the two sides concluded an alliance under the city, and Xiangyang would be saved.

After a series of battles, the Song army cleaned up the surrounding strongholds and found that the Mongolian Yuan was not concerned about this, and refused to send troops to fight them in decisive battles, and even sat on the loss of the surrounding strongholds. Then they had to re-take the old path of the Mongolian army's besieging the city, use the Baihekou, and capture Lumen Mountain to cut off the Mongolian army's liaison with the eastern Han area; use the fort built by the Mongolian Yuan in that year to surround Xiangyang to cut off the road to pick wood in Xiangfan; at the same time, they seized thousands of mountains to cut off the traffic to the west of the Han River and eliminate the passage of eastward flowing...

"Who is the Xiangyang Guard?" The enemy's proper arrangements for the Song army's attack were not only to make full use of the geography and terrain, but also to combine the current overall situation. Zhao Bing felt that the guard was not simple, so he took a sip of tea and asked Zhang Jindao.

"Your Majesty, now the chief manager and military officer of the General Administration of Xiangyang Road, Mengyuan is Shi Bi, and the prefect of Xiangfan is Alihan." Zhang Jin replied.

"Shi Bi? No wonder, he participated in the attack on Xiangyang City in his early years and made great contributions!" Zhao Bing nodded and said.

"It was him who was brave in fighting and did not fear death, and killed countless generals. He was famous in Huguang area. Even if our officers and soldiers heard about it, they were still frightened!" Zhang Jin replied.

"When he was in Qiongzhou, he worked in Huguang and Yangzhou, but by chance he was unable to fight with him, making him free and unrestrained. I feel deeply regretful that he can finally kill this villain!" Zhao Bing said in a deep voice.

Shi Bi was a savage from Lizhou, and should be considered a survivor of the Jin Dynasty. Zhao Bing thought that he should be a Han person from his hometown, but he was good at Mongolian. He said that he had extremely powerful leopards and could hold strong bows. He once raised a stone lion of 400 kilograms. In the 15th year of Zhiyuan, he was promoted to the Jianghuai Secretariat to participate in politics, and went to Huaidong and Zhejiang Xuanwei envoys, and was appointed as the general manager of the army to attack the Song Dynasty with Liu.

When attacking Xiangfan, Shi Bi once went out to challenge, shot and killed two people one after another and shouted with a sword: "I am Shi Fengyu!" He scared the Song army away with one sentence. Attacked Fancheng, he was ordered to attack the northeast corner of the city for a total of fourteen days and nights, break the city, and kill the Song army commander. After Xiangyang surrendered, Shi Bi was awarded silver, brocade clothes, golden saddles, and promoted to General Huaiyuan and deputy generals of Wanhu.

Then he followed Boyan to the south and attacked Shayang Castle, and was shot in the arm by an arrow. He still fought hard. When the city broke, his sleeves were already filled with solidified blood. When the city was attacked, Boyan announced: "The people who climbed the south bank first are the best." Shi Bi led his elite troops to attack and defeated the Song army. After Boyan climbed the south bank, he ranked first in terms of Shi Bi and promoted him to General Dingyuan.

After the Yuan army captured Ezhou, they marched to Dagu Mountain. Suddenly, the strong wind blew. Boyan ordered Shi Bi to pray to the god of Dagu Mountain. The strong wind stopped immediately. So the wind and rumors were afraid of it, and their reputation became even more serious. The Yuan army entered Guazhou. Shi Bi was ordered to lead 3,000 people to build a wooden fort at the main road of Yangziqiao. He led only dozens of cavalry and drove straight to Yangzhou City.

Jiang Cai led more than 10,000 troops to attack that night, Shi Bi defended closely and killed more than 1,000 people. Jiang Cai retreated, Shi Bi sent troops to pursue, Yuan general A Shu and others also led troops to support, Jiang Cai retreated. Later, he led his troops to attack at night, and Shi Bi won three battles. After dawn, Jiang Cai saw Shi Bi's young soldiers lead his troops to siege. Shi Bi was invincible in the fight and killed dozens of people. After breaking the siege, hundreds of cavalry of the Song army chased after him. After Shi Bi's palace, the Song army did not dare to advance after seeing him.

After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Song Dynasty, Shi Bi was granted the title of General Zhaoyong, Daluhuachi, the Yangzhou Road General Administration Office, and also the Wanhuhu. Later, Ali Hague, the right prime minister of Huguang in the Yuan Dynasty, was defeated and died when he attacked Qiong, and he was transferred to the position of Xuanwei envoy of Huguang Province. After that, the Song army counterattacked Jiangnan, and the Yuan army was defeated, he retreated to Jiangbei. After Zhen Jin ascended the throne, he was demoted to the Xiangyang Road General Administration Office. Therefore, by chance, Zhao Bing attacked Jiangnan and failed to meet him in Yangzhou.

Shi Bi went to half of China, fought in Xiangfan, defeated Huguang, attacked Yangzhou, seized Huaidong, and killed the enemy. It was a very famous reputation. The soldiers and civilians of the Song Dynasty were afraid of it like tigers. All the units of the Song army that attacked Jingxiang were stationed in Huguang, and the troops also came from all over Huguang during the expansion, and they were familiar with what they did. Zhang Ba, as the chief general of the army, was born in the Huai Army, and he was likely to have fought with Shi Bi. Therefore, what Zhang Jin said, "The army was afraid of it" was still credible.

"Your Majesty, I don't know if I should report it!" Zhang Jin thought about it and said.

"Speak just for the sake of bluntness. I think what you said just now is very beneficial to your judgment of the current situation." Zhao Bing said.

"Your Majesty, when our army recovered Fancheng, my subordinates heard someone in the army that in addition to the officers and soldiers who were afraid of Shi Bi, they were also very afraid of the 'Xiangyang Cannon', so they all strongly opposed the strong attack on Xiangyang. Zhang Ba was particularly serious about this. After Jiang Shuai was seriously injured in exploring the city, he was older and joined the army for the longest time, so he temporarily led military affairs and presided over the siege." Zhang Jinyan said.

"After Zhang Ba was in charge of military affairs, he ordered the abandonment of Fancheng and moved to Dengcheng and attack Gucheng County. It was said that it was because of the heavy rainstorm and the autumn flood in the past few days, and he was worried that the enemy would intercept the water and flood the city. However, in private, some people reported that it was because Zhang Ba heard that the Mongols wanted to retake Fancheng and had mobilized the artillery army to board the ship. He was very scared and worried about taking the charge of retreating without fighting, so he came up with such an idea to abandon the city."

"It's really ridiculous, extremely ridiculous!" Zhao Bing said angrily after hearing this.

"Your Majesty, don't be angry, maybe it's just a rumor. However, after the enemy entered the city, they did set up several 'Xiangyang cannons', and some enemy soldiers ridiculed our army for being timid and abandoned the city and fled before the cannon was launched." Zhang Jin was a little panicked when he saw the emperor angry, but he still told the truth.

Regarding the "Xiangyang Cannon", that is, Huihui Cannon, Zhao Bing not only heard of the famous name for a long time in his previous life, but also in this life. Not only did he see the description of it from the collected notes, but he also heard people tell the legend of this giant cannon. In short, the most common one is two words - terrible.

In fact, the first battle of Xiangyang artillery was in Fancheng. In the first month of the tenth year of Zhiyuan, Huihui artillery attacked Fancheng with Huihui artillery and won in one fell swoop. Then the Yuan army moved the artillery to Xiangyang and placed giant artillery in the southeast corner of the city. "The sound of the plane shook the heaven and the earth, and the attacks were all destroyed, and it entered the ground seven feet." As a result, it shot into the Xiangyang Qiao Tower with one shot. "The sound was like thunder, which shook the city." Lu Wenhuan knew that he was defeated, so he accepted the city and surrendered to the Yuan army.

The battle of Xiangfan, which had been stalemate for five years, was declared to be over with the roar of Hui Hui artillery, and Hui Hui artillery became famous in this battle. Then, the Yuan army used this powerful Hui Hui artillery to continuously expand its results. In the 11th year of Zhiyuan, the Yuan army crossed the river, and the Song soldiers spread on the south bank of the Yangtze River to fight. Yisimayin's son Bubo, the Hui Hui artillery, was shot vertically on the north bank, and all the Song boats sank. In the 13th year of Zhiyuan, the Yuan army first defeated Tanzhou with artillery and then defeated Jingjiang, and expanded the results to Hunan and Guangxi.
Chapter completed!