If the Liao army were to divide into eight branches, it would inevitably lack sufficient manpower to defend each one, resulting in some omissions.

However, this question itself lacks a prerequisite.

The Song army had no ships!

The construction of ships needed to be guided in the presence of officials from the Ministry of Works.

Clearly, the Battle of Chu River cannot be rushed.

The three officials from the Ministry of Works who accompanied the delegation have each been assigned one.

All three armies are now working intensively to build ships.

The crux of the problem is no longer about sending several armies to cross the river.

The question is not when, but when, they can cross the river quickly and effectively.

What constitutes an effective river crossing?

This means that once the army lands, it immediately possesses formidable combat power and lethality.

As Wang Gui said, the dispersed river crossing strategy is only suitable for fighting weaker forces like those in Jiaozhi.

This approach won't work against the Liao army.

"I think there's no need to argue about this anymore. We should continue to repair the ship and build the bridge, and do both at the same time!"

Yang Zaixing spoke: "Haven't we already sent out ten teams to secretly build bridges? As long as five of them are passable, this matter will be settled!"

This is top secret.

The purpose of building boats to cross the river was twofold: firstly, it was indeed possible to cross the river, and secondly, it was to attract the attention of the Liao army.

In reality, it was a feint, a covert maneuver.

But now everyone is also calculating how likely it is that the Liao army's patrols will discover the bridge.

Across the Chu River, Liao scouts patrolled various areas daily.

This involves issues of information asymmetry and execution pace.

If the Liao army's scouts are reliable and their actions are swift, they can densely garrison all the Song army's bridge-building points. Even if the Song army has a large number of men, they will eventually become exhausted.

However, if the Song army were fast enough, they could have taken action before the Liao army discovered all the bridges.

At this point, it comes down to the organizational and operational capabilities of both sides.

Ironically, this was Yue Fei's greatest strength.