Some people are really born to spoil people's interest. Everyone in the Ancestral Temple was following Li Tuo's description of how the Yongding River defense line would look like.
Those who don’t understand are getting familiar with it quickly, and those who are familiar with it are checking for omissions and preparing to come up with their own supplementary plans, but at this moment the old man interrupts everyone’s thoughts.
But after all, this old man was the emperor's master and an important official of the imperial court, so people had to give him face, especially a small person like Li Tuo who did not dare to show any disrespect to Weng Tonghe, so he could only explain with a smile.
"My lord, what you are asking is that the subordinates also have such concerns, but after repeated deductions, I feel that the rebels cannot come forward so quickly..."
"Of course the vanguard will definitely come, but it's impossible for an army of hundreds of thousands of people to attack in a short time!"
"Haha...you can't do it if you say you can't? Where do you get the confidence..." the old man asked.
"Master Weng, that's it. Why did the rebellious Yixin allow the Chinese Ba Dao team to collect the corpses for seven days? Is it really out of charity? No, he is actually buying time for his own army to renovate..."
"On the one hand, he wants to gain a reputation as a benevolent king. Not allowing the corpses to be collected will have a negative impact on him. On the other hand, he also needs to prepare for war!"
"Our court is short of food, but the rebels have plenty of food? It's all food that was stolen. It's not sure whether they can get it today or tomorrow!"
"The more important point is that the rebels don't know how to deal with the new weapons displayed by the imperial army!"
"Airships and train guns are divine weapons. They do not pose much of a threat to the rebel officers. After all, they have heard of them before, and some have even seen them..."
"But the biggest problem with Guiziliu is that the soldiers are all disaster victims, a group of ignorant people. They have seen this kind of weapons. In the bloody battle in Zhuozhou, the minister has seen clearly that the victims are extremely hostile to these two weapons. Fear, almost running away!"
"Guiziliu must find a way to break this fear. If he can't find it, he can only hide from our trump card. It will definitely not be easy to fight like this!"
"Of course it takes time to go back and forth, so the time to build the Yongding River defense line will not be too urgent..."
"In addition, I would like to ask your Majesty to approve something..." Li Tuo turned his attention from the old man to Emperor Tongzhi. "Your Majesty, please appoint Xin Jian, a Chinese engineer, as the commander-in-chief of the Yongding River defense line construction! Now we can only We rely on the engineering power of the Chinese. As long as they get started, I promise to build five stone bridges and four shoals in ten days..."
"As long as these weak points are well protected, it will be extremely difficult for the enemy to break through the Yongding River!"
Everyone nodded after hearing this, and the old man looked a little ugly. "You have been talking for a long time and still haven't solved the detour problem. What should the enemy do if they detour? How to defend the east and west?"
Li Tuo felt so disgusted, thinking that this is imminent, why should I talk to a layman like you? Are you worried or not?
"Sir, it's not easy for this army to take a detour. There are mountains to the west that are not suitable for large armies to move. If the enemy forcibly bypasses the Yongding River and bypasses the defense line in the mountains, wouldn't they be looking for death?"
“It’s unrealistic to have too many people, and it’s not enough to use if there are too few people…no more, no less, it just becomes our dumpling filling!”
"We have a garrison at Yongding River. We have a garrison in Xishan to the north and the capital city wall to the east. How can we attack the enemy if we surround them on three sides?"
"As for going east, there is the Grand Canal to the east! Have you forgotten that there is a gunboat on the Grand Canal that Xiao Letian presented to His Majesty? The cannons on it are not vegetarian..."
"That is a pure steel warship. Although it is small, it is not something that ordinary guns, bows and arrows can withstand. What are we afraid of?"
"Besides, we can negotiate with the Chinese! Since King Luo Huo can send special forces and train guns to support us, it means that General Luo Huo still prefers the court!"
"Immediately send someone to communicate with General Luo Huo. As long as the train artillery can provide support, it will be impossible for the enemy to bypass the battlefield from the east!"
"There are steel gunboats on the Grand Canal, and the Beijing-Tianjin Railway is also to the west, with train artillery support on it... Are the rebels of Guiziliu Six fools who insist on coming east?"
Not only did these words leave the old man speechless, even the Queen Mothers of the two palaces present heard that there was a way out, and all the women understood the secret of this battle!
The darkness and pessimism in Li Tuo's heart before made this analysis actually reveal a ray of sunshine!
Ci'an asked tightly, "Listening to what you said, the Ai family seems to think that we can win? It's not like we lost miserably, right?"
"That's right! Queen Mother Shengming, we didn't lose so miserably in the first place!" Li Tuo kowtowed to the Queen Mother and said with confidence, "How can it be so miserable? Even if 10,000 people died in battle and 10,000 surrendered, it would only be a loss of 20,000 yuan..."
"Twenty thousand! Is our Qing Dynasty short of 20,000? Of course, these 20,000 are carefully selected and trained by the imperial court. It's a pity and it's sad..."
"But it's definitely not to the point of subjugating the country! It's not to the point of going to Shangmeishan in the first place. Why do your Majesty, the Queen Mother, and all the ministers do it the same as before Chongzhen committed suicide?"
"I dare you to say one more thing, my dear minister! This... these are the two marshals, as you can imagine, but the prince and the rich marshal were unconscious due to the battle, which resulted in the villain saying a few more words..."
"Actually, I don't need to say this. As long as I send you the information about the commander's coma, the two commanders and the military masters will understand it after taking a look at it and thinking about it for a while!"
Li Tuo originally wanted to be humble, but he was afraid that all the limelight would go to him and make people jealous. This old man was already looking for trouble. How could Zhang Jing, a clever military officer, not understand this?
But this person's luck has come up, and there is really no way to stop it. Zai Chun even met his eyes: "Well... I naturally know what you said, but you said it more straightforwardly, and I really like to listen to your chatter." Just say a few words, it’s up to you to say it!”
Good guy, this sentence completely upset the old man's jealousy. It made Fu Qing and the others look at his face secretly, and the whole Ancestral Temple was filled with sourness.
Li Tuo winced and thought to himself, is this Long Live Master really going to put me on the fire to roast me? But no matter what, if Long live the Lord wants to challenge you, you can't refuse!
Li Tuo had no choice but to continue, "Your Majesty, we have another advantage, which is this airship... Now Guiziliu has no means to deal with our airship..."
"We can raid into the depths of the enemy's troops, attack their grain, grass, ammunition... and even throw bombs directly on the head of the Japanese army!"
