"Why are you so far away? Are you afraid that I will eat you? Well, this matter is not your business after all, and you are exempted from joining the army. Go away!"

Unexpectedly, the Fourth Prince Jin Wushu, who was cheated of a lot of gold and silver for no reason, did not get angry and kill people, or at least he did not vent his anger on poor Shi Wenbin who joined the army. This made the latter so grateful that he left in a hurry.

However, after Shi Wenbin left, Zhang Taiwei played a trick on the fourth prince like borrowing arrows from a straw boat, and then rewarded the whole city. It became an established fact that he was determined to defend Xiacai to the death. At this time, Jin Wushu, whose strategy of persuading surrender had failed, had to continue to make strategic decisions. Therefore, that night, Jin Wushu quickly closed the military tent with the two captains who came after hearing the news, and discussed military strategies again.

"Fourth Prince, at this point, should we continue to prepare for the construction of a floating bridge to cross the Huai River, or should we make up our minds to attack the city instead?"

Of the two captains, Erlubu was a rougher man. He didn't care much about money. Moreover, with the debt contract promised by Jin Wushu, he was even less interested in this matter. So, seeing that Jin Wushu had been silent for a long time, he simply asked directly. "Let the Fourth Prince know that our military force is limited after all. The Song people have taken away many civilians from Shouzhou and Huaibei. If we want to attack the city, we can't be indecisive!"

Jin Wushu, who had been frowning all the time, just forced a smile at this moment, but then looked at Ali: "What do you think, General Ali?"

"I haven't changed since the beginning!" Perhaps because of the debt risk, Ali, who was usually a little narrow-minded, couldn't help but stare at the fourth prince when he spoke. "We Jurchens have rules for fighting... When encountering a situation like this, we should prepare to attack the city from the beginning. It's not a big deal if we fail to persuade them to surrender and get deceived. Next, we should prepare to climb the city! If climbing the city doesn't work, we can prepare to fire artillery to smash the city, break the city wall, fill the ditch, and send elite troops to fight in! Take this big city right in front of you, and then think about crossing the river!"

Jin Wushu shook his head repeatedly: "That was in the past. This time we are alone and only coming for Emperor Zhao Song. There is no need to waste military strength on a city like this..."

"But this city is so important that we can't just ignore it, so I thought of taking advantage of the situation and ended up falling into someone else's trap." Ali said coldly. "When we were outside a few days ago, the Fourth Prince kept complaining that I was too long-winded, but today the three of us are having a serious military discussion in the general's tent. According to the rules of our Jurchens, we can say anything and forget about the dispute in the tent when we go out to apply dust. How could I have said something?"

Jin Wushu let out a long sigh, but could only nod with difficulty.

By the way, there is a reason for the rules that Alibaba follows.

According to the tradition of the Jurchens, when discussing military strategies before a battle, as long as one can enter the commander's tent to participate in such core military discussions, everyone can sit together and speak freely, regardless of their status, and point fingers at the sand table in front of them. Even the humblest person can argue with the commander in person; of course, the commander still has the final say...

These are nothing, and the essence of this rule is actually at the end - according to the rules, after the final strategy is decided, everyone must work together to smooth out the dust in front of them that they used to point fingers at others, meaning that all disputes in the account are written off, and then everyone will go all out to implement the military plan according to the final decision!

In the future, no matter what the outcome of the war is, no one is allowed to hold anyone accountable based on anything that happened or said in the military tent!

This is of course also a simple style left over from the Jurchen tribal alliance period.

Back to the present, Ali, who has been given the right to speak, is unscrupulous:

"Fourth Prince, I am not here to mock you, nor do I want to force you to attack the city. You are the commander-in-chief, and you have the final say. Today I will only share two military strategies and one piece of advice for you!"

"Tell me about it!"

"The first thing about military strategy is what I just said, why not fight this battle in a safe and steady manner? Attack the city first, and then talk about Huainan. Don't rush for quick success just because that official is sitting on a mountain in Henan!"

"Aren't there two in the military strategy?" Jin Wushu became increasingly annoyed. "What about the other one?"

"Another thing is the same as what I said to General Erlubu. Please don't be distracted, Fourth Prince!" Ali continued to point fingers at him. "We came out with more than 20,000 people this time. After the three Meng'an scouts are sent out, it will basically be 20,000 people. Now a Wanhu has 10,000 people, but it is still the same as before. There are only five or six or seven Mouke (centurion) in a Meng'an (a thousand-man team, a thousand-man captain). The rest of the vacancies are mostly made up by newly surrendered Han people. And even the real Mouke are not as good as before. All the Xi people and Khitan people have joined in, so the manpower and combat power are actually insufficient... So in my opinion, since the city is still separated from Henan, don't think about crossing the river when attacking the city! Don't think about crossing the river when attacking the city! This is just like hunting in Liaodong in the past. You only have a bow in your hand, but there are both elk and fox in front of you. You want to take down both at the same time, but most of the time you won't get either one!"

This made a lot of sense, and even E'lubu nodded repeatedly.

Jin Wushu frowned slightly and could only nod reluctantly: "What about General Ali's advice?"

"I'm afraid that the Fourth Prince is young and will lose his composure if he fails again and again!" The short Ali continued to speak recklessly. "I know that the Fourth Prince is of noble status. Although it is a military meeting, you are actually the only one who makes the decision. I also know that the Fourth Prince wants to take the Zhao Song Emperor in Henan this time, and he doesn't care about anything else... But even if the Fourth Prince wants to take Henan, there is one thing that he must be careful about. It's okay for you to decide to take the Zhao Song Emperor in Henan today, but the Huai River is so wide and the enemy is so well-prepared. If we rush to cross the river without attacking the city, what should we do if we are blocked from crossing the river in the future?"

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