"That's right." Yue Fei answered calmly. "We can't win a field battle with our strength. A reckless fight will only ruin the overall situation... But how to defend? Where to defend? This is exactly why I called Tian Dutong here today."

Tian Shizhong was relieved at this, but then he seemed a little hesitant: "Marshal, forgive me for being blunt, if we want to maintain the situation at the moment, we have to occupy the city, and if we want to do something after the winter, we have to occupy the river..."

"good."

"Here in Hebei, the Yellow River is divided into two branches and five forks. Counting from south to north, Daming Prefecture is located right between the third and fourth branches... We are equivalent to taking the two branches of the east road, which is located between the second and third branches..."

"Why are you guys talking nonsense?" Zhang Rong couldn't stand it any longer. "Just tell us how to defend after the ice forms."

"General Zhang, what I mean is that we are now in the middle of the Yellow River's east and north roads. The fork is only about ten miles wide around Daming City, but the further we go, the wider the gap becomes, especially after passing Xiajin, where it suddenly widens. When we reach the seashore, it is the entire Cangzhou, a gap of nearly three hundred miles from north to south... These days, the two of you have been advancing at the fork in the river, while my Imperial Camp Right Army is responsible for finishing off the downstream. Our troops are spread across several states and are really weak... This time, the defeat of Sun Sheng is a clear proof... The area between the second and third forks is really too vast. Without reinforcements, I'm afraid we can't even defend Xiajin."

"You mean, we have to retreat?" Zhang Rong couldn't help but frown. "Where to retreat?"

Tian Shizhong held the long rope beside the basket and went to look at Yue Fei, but Yue Fei just let go of his hands and stood with his arms folded, as if thinking about something, and did not say a word.

Helplessly, Tian Shizhong was too lazy to make these empty moves and spoke directly from the heart: "Where to retreat is up to the two governors, but the troops of the right army of the imperial camp are too spread out. After the winter ice, there is no river to hinder us. Not to mention continuing to advance, we can't even maintain the current posture... Otherwise, we may be divided and swept by the Jin army! According to your humble opinion, if we withdraw to the front line ten days ago and rely on the defense along the second fork road, we can at least explain it to the court... We should just give up the half of Daming Prefecture we just got!"

Zhang Rong shook his head repeatedly: "We must not abandon Daming Prefecture!"

Tian Shizhong was extremely speechless. What happened was that the other party's official position was much higher than his, and it was normal for a navy general to not understand things on land. However, he was too lazy to argue with the other party and just stared at Yue Fei.

Yue Fei leaned against the chest-high basket, hugged his arms and remained silent for a moment, and finally spoke calmly, but he first said to Zhang Rong: "Let me say a few things... First of all, the Right Army of the Imperial Camp has few soldiers. Now it is guarding Binzhou, Dizhou, Dezhou, Bozhou, plus the newly acquired half of Daming Prefecture, more than ten cities. It is really a disadvantage that the troops are dispersed. Once the ice freezes and the river loses its obstruction, the Jin army will gather in large numbers. First, it will be impossible to defend it. Second, even if the Jin army ignores it, the Right Army can only shrink in the city and can't play any delaying or blocking role... It is indeed necessary to abandon some places, and abandon them early, so that we can free up our hands to exert our strength in the key places. This difficulty of the Right Army of the Imperial Camp is well known to me, and I agree with it."

"That's exactly what I meant." Tian Shizhong looked at him earnestly, but only Wang Gui in the big basket smiled at him.

Zhang Rong just kept shaking his head.

"Secondly." Yue Fei turned his head and pointed at Tian Shizhong again. "I also know what General Zhang means. He is not trying to make things difficult for your right army. What he wants is to find some cities with water ports to protect the fleet during the freezing of the river... Right now, the best places are actually the nearby Gucheng Town, Hanzhang Town upstream, and Shanghusha... To protect these places, it doesn't matter whether there is a famous city or not."

"It's not just our fleet." Zhang Rong also interrupted and explained seriously. "The key is that the Jin army would be cautious with the fleet, and would not dare to cross the river in large numbers, so that our navy would block their retreat... So, roughly speaking, from Shaoxing (Baima) to Puzhou, and then to the fork in Daming City under our feet, we must seize as much as possible before the ice freezes."

Tian Shizhong also sighed.

In fact, he came to his senses when he was halfway through listening to Yue Fei's words... He just blamed Zhang Rong, a rough man, for ignoring the difficulties of the Right Army of the Imperial Camp, but he forgot that the Imperial Camp Navy also had its own difficulties.

If the Jin army took advantage of the frost and burned or destroyed the ships, not to mention how the Song army would find a way to advance to Daming Prefecture in the spring, even Tokyo would be in real danger.

You must know that the Jin army not only blocked the river channel on the east side of Damingfu, but also the west river channel, which was dozens of miles behind Xiaowusha that day. There has always been a fleet there that dared not show its head after being defeated by Zhang Rong.

Without ships, no matter how capable the navy is, wouldn't it have to switch between offense and defense? By then, not to mention the danger to Tokyo, I'm afraid that my people will also be cut off from logistics and locked in Hebei as an isolated army... No matter how we fight, we will collapse.

From this perspective, the Imperial Camp Right Army can be sacrificed and lost, but the Navy cannot be lost... Thinking of this, Tian Shizhong's face turned ugly again. Because if he were in Yue Fei's position, or the positions of the several ministers in Tokyo behind him, he would definitely agree with Zhang Rong's opinion first.

However, he still tried to find a reason: "If we are talking about defending Dongjing...what if the Jin army takes advantage of the frost and bypasses this side, directly from the empty east, through Jinan, to attack Dongjing? It can be seen that the lower reaches must also be defended."

He himself was embarrassed to say this... How many days can the freezing period last? As long as the navy is preserved, will the Jin army withdraw or not?

"That's right." Unexpectedly, Yue Fei did not pursue the reluctance in this statement, but nodded in response. "That's something to consider as well."

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