Through the latest intelligence, Su Yonglin learned that Wanyan Liang was marching to Shenzhou and attacking Jing'an City, and Wanyan Liang already knew that Su Yonglin and the main field force of the Liberation Army were in Jinan.
He will inevitably move towards Jinan and stop trying to attack in other directions.
So Su Yonglin investigated and convened a staff meeting to discuss the latest trends and tactics of the Jin Army and predict the Jin Army's next move.
What is clear now is that the Jin Army already knows that Su Yonglin himself is in Jinan Prefecture, which is the location of the headquarters of the Liberation Army.
What is known so far is that the Jin Army no longer forcibly attacks a city. Instead, once it realizes that a city cannot be easily captured, it will send troops to besiege the city, and then the main force of the army continues to move south without being entangled in a city.
The Jin army passed through Boye City, went south to Shenzhou, attacked Jing'an City in Shenzhou, and sent troops south to explore the road. The vanguard has arrived in the Hengshui area.
After careful reasoning, the staff led by Xin Qiji came to a clear conclusion - the Jin Army may have decided not to use siege tactics, but decided to find another way to exchange for a longer march distance at a smaller cost.
They are ready to go directly to Jinan Mansion and no longer divide their forces to attack other places.
They have only one goal - Jinan Prefecture.
The aura of cities such as Hejian City, Zhending City, and Boye City that they would rather break the jade than destroy the tiles may cause the Jin army to be very seriously injured. Therefore, Wanyan Liang did not dare to continue fighting like this even if he had hundreds of thousands of elites. , otherwise it is very likely that all the troops will be wiped out.
And now that the location of Su Yonglin's headquarters has been found, all he needs to do is march quickly towards the location of the headquarters.
They tried every means to reach Jinan, fought to the death with Su Yonglin's main force, won the victory, and then Hebei was defeated without any attack.
After Xin Qiji and others put forward this view, Su Yonglin also expressed support.
Since Wan Yanliang knew that he was in Jinan, the Jin Army's next move must be to shrink its troops, make fists, and attack rapidly in one direction.
The people in the Staff Department were worried about this, believing that if the Jin Army tried their best to attack in one direction, their impact would be very powerful, and the Liberation Army's strong walls and clear fields in Hebei might not be able to hinder much.
Some staff suggested that the Jin army might use the tactic of long-distance raids to attack Jinan at an extremely fast speed and catch Su Yonglin off guard. This would best meet their needs.
Therefore, several staff officers suggested that Su Yonglin continue to move the location of the headquarters southward to avoid the front of the Jin army and give full play to the advantage of strategic depth.
Su Yonglin didn't think so.
"It is very meaningful to have a strong wall and clear the fields. Because of the strong walls and clear fields, the golden thieves cannot obtain supplies through fighting. Moreover, it is winter now, and the plants are withered and yellow. The golden thieves' advantage lies in the war horses, and the food required by the war horses is much higher than Infantry.
The cavalry company requires five times the food of the infantry. If the cavalry is dispatched with 50,000 soldiers, it will need the food of 250,000 infantry troops to maintain the battle. If it is dispatched with 80,000 infantry troops, it will need the food of 400,000 infantry troops to maintain the battle.
The Golden Thief Cavalry usually consists of one person and two horses. If they want to fight for a long distance, one person and two horses are inevitable. The food required is doubled. Fifty thousand cavalry requires at least 500,000 infantry to provide food support. This is a terrifying number.
War horses are expensive, and ordinary food is not enough. In order to maintain impact and maintain body fat, war horses also need to eat eggs, beans, etc. They eat better than people. We have strong walls and clear fields. Where do they get food? Countryside fortress? "
Xin Qiji listened to Su Yonglin's conclusion, thought for a while, and agreed with it.
"The Golden Thief Cavalry is indeed large in number and can move very fast. If they head towards Jinan in one go, they may be able to reach Jinan in seven days at the fastest rate. However, if they rush like this, they will be exhausted by the time they arrive.
With no food provided by surrounding areas and numerous crises, it is impossible for the Golden Thief Cavalry to leave the army and attack Jinan alone. They must move forward slowly with the main force of the army. Otherwise, once the food is exhausted, humans can still endure it, but how can the horses endure it? ? "
Xin Qiji's opinions are in line with Su Yonglin's and are very convincing.
The various forced march records of the Jin Army decades ago were all based on the premise that there were no strong walls and clear fields, and officials from various places provided help. But now neither of these two conditions are met. How could the Jin Army complete this task?
Although the cavalry is fast and has strong impact, it can catch the opponent off guard, but once the food cannot keep up and the horses do not have enough food to eat, the cavalry itself will become a weaker unit than the infantry.
If the horse cannot run, it will be a huge burden. The remaining Jin Army cavalry will be turned into infantry and will most likely be surrounded by the Liberation Army and annihilated.
Therefore, the Chief of Staff agreed and believed that it was impossible for the Jin Army to directly attack Jinan using long-distance sneak attack tactics, and that a step-by-step, steady attack was the most likely tactic.
Despite this, the more than 500 miles from Shenzhou to Jinan was also the last buffer between the Liberation Army and the Jin Army.
How to make better use of these more than 500 miles to exhaust the Jin Army's strength is also a question worth thinking about.
Su Yonglin stared at the map for a while and suddenly asked a question.
"You said that if the Jin army did not attack the city along the way south, they would have to divide their forces to surround the city to protect the food route. But will such tactics really make their food route safer?"
The staff officers all looked at Su Yonglin.
Su Yonglin pointed to the current marching route of the Jin army and said: "If they continue to go south, the most likely route is through Jizhou, Enzhou, Dezhou, and then enter Jinan. In these three states, there are Hengshui, Xindu, Liting, The four cities in the plain serve as obstacles.
In addition to the fact that Jing'an, Zhending and Hejian have not fallen, the cities along the Jin Thief's march route are not dead cities. There are also elite soldiers and horses in the city. If the Golden Thief does not have sufficient troops to surround these cities, they can really guarantee that Are the soldiers and horses in the city not going out to destroy their food routes? "
The staff looked at the map. You looked at me, I looked at you. After whispering for a while, they felt that what Su Yonglin said made sense.
Xin Qiji added: "Also, they said there were hundreds of thousands of troops, but in fact there were only 160,000 to 70,000 soldiers. The real elite might only be over 100,000 people. There were so many cities along the way, large and small, in total. Tens of thousands of people were needed to surround them, and people had to be sent to protect the food routes.
In this way, how many people do they have available for the final battle? If they need enough troops to launch a decisive battle, those who stay behind are definitely not elites. They are most likely to be mainly signed troops. Does the signed army have combat effectiveness?
Then again, I don't think normal people would do such a dangerous and dangerous thing, not conquering the cities along the way, but surrounding them with troops, and then heading south. I'm afraid the financial owner is a little abnormal. "
The staff couldn't help it and laughed together.
Su Yonglin smiled slightly and pointed at the location of Shenzhou on the map, with an excited look on his face.
"The elite army is limited, and it is impossible for Wan Yanliang to fight me without an elite army, so I think Wan Yanliang is betting that before his rear completely collapses, he can reach Jinan, fight me to the death, and win.
As long as the battle can be won, all problems will be solved. As long as I die and the Liberation Army is defeated, he has won the bet and all problems can be solved.
But what would he do if his rear collapsed faster than he imagined, making it impossible for him to win the battle? He put all his elite troops in Jinan, and then the entire Jin army in Hebei was defeated by me. What should he do? "
