Outside Youzhou City.

"Move quickly, ten days, I only give you ten days, let me set up the general's stronghold."

Luo Youdu inspected the four gates and was somewhat dissatisfied with the progress of the project. He loudly urged the soldiers to speed up the process and not lose the face of our own infrastructure madman.

As a Chinese son...

wrong!

As an ancestor, we must set a perfect example for future generations.

Come to the north of the city.

Luo Youdu was most satisfied with the progress in the north of the city. The speed of starting the village was actually three points faster than that of the southern camp where he was currently, and the quality did not drop at all.

As expected, he was specifically responsible for building fortifications, and his level was different from those of them who had become monks halfway.

"Recruit the envoy!"

When he learned that Luo Youdu was coming to inspect, Han Tong, who was responsible for the defense of Beiying, quickly came up to greet him.

The future horse infantry commander of the Guards and Military Division, whom Guo Rong had appointed, was a burly fat man. He had a beard on his face and looked very majestic.

It is said that he was also a warrior who charged into battle in his early years, but later he took on the task of building defense lines. He worked for five years, and he neglected his martial arts training and began to gain weight.

Luo Youdu also came up to him and said, "The rigorous construction of Bu Shuai's fortress is astonishing."

Han Tong had many in-depth conversations with Guo Rong, and he also guessed a thing or two about the future plans of the Emperor of Zhou Dynasty. Although he had never had any contact with Luo Youdu before, he also showed a sense of intimacy and friendliness.

"Compared with the strategizing and decisive victory of the envoy, these are just trivial skills."

The two complimented each other.

Han Tong led Luo Youdu to inspect one of the military strongholds and said, "I would like to ask, is it not just for the purpose of encircling the area and calling for reinforcements?"

Luo Youdu smiled and said: "If I say pure defense, Bu Shuai can be trusted?"

This Youzhou city has insufficient troops, and in the eyes of the generals of the Great Zhou Dynasty, it can be defeated in an instant.

But Luo Youdu was not in a hurry to make siege equipment, but instead spent a lot of time building military forts and building fortifications.

So many people felt that Luo Youdu was repeating his old tricks here and planned to deal with the Khitan reinforcements by encircling the points and calling for reinforcements.

Regarding this rumor, Luo Youdu did not explain it, but just let it take its course.

Han Tong nodded firmly and said: "I believe that I have been studying how to defend against the Khitan invasion for these years, and I have some experience in defense. If you are just encircling a point for reinforcements, you shouldn't build a military stronghold like this."

Luo Youdu praised: "The one who knows me is Han Bushuai!"

When planning the battle of Youzhou, Luo Youdu not only carefully studied the reasons why Guo Rong defeated three passes and captured four states without bloodshed during the Northern Expedition, but also carefully studied the reasons why Zhao Kuangyi was defeated in Youzhou and staged the donkey cart drifting.

Based on the experience Fu Yanqing left for him, Luo Youdu found that the best way to fight the Khitan at this stage was to defend, not to attack.

This is not a question of whether you can win or not, but a question of the opponent simply not being able to fight you.

Historically, before the Khitan signed the Tanyuan Alliance with the Song Dynasty, they were incompatible enemies with the Central Plains. Whether it was the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms or the Song Dynasty, they were constantly at war with each other.

There is an extremely common phenomenon. Except for a few special circumstances, most of the defeats of the Khitan army were small defeats, with few injuries. The victories that could be won were usually great victories, and the Central Plains were routed thousands of miles away.

There were many battles in which the Central Plains won first and then lost.

This was the case in the Battle of Gaoliang River. Although Zhao Kuangyi acted against the will of heaven, he first did not keep his words and refused to pay the reward for capturing Jinyang, which caused the army to lose morale. He also thought of a surprise attack and traveled a long distance to attack Youzhou.

Under various unfavorable circumstances, the Song Army still ushered in Tianhu's start.

The soldiers of the Song Army relied on their strong fighting power to defeat the Khitans.

Various generals and governors in Youzhou who had their hearts set on the Central Plains surrendered one after another.

But at a huge disadvantage, the Khitan only used one surprise attack to reverse the situation and turn the tide.

Zhao Kuangyi must bear the main responsibility.

His biggest problem is that he fights too hastily and wants to prove himself too much. He wants to establish an unparalleled martial artist and imitate Guo Rong's Gaoping Battle to intimidate the military officials and prove that he is more powerful than his brother Zhao Kuangyin.

It's just that he doesn't have that strength and only focuses on offense and not defense.

Brother Yelvxiu made a night attack and directly reached Zhao Kuangyi's headquarters, shooting Zhao Kuangyi in the butt with an arrow.

What does it mean?

It's definitely not how powerful the Khitan people were. They penetrated the Song army's camp and reached the Song army's emperor's imperial tent.

He just didn't pay attention to defense, and he found flaws for famous generals like Brother Yeluxiu, giving him a wave of experience.

With this lesson learned, Luo Youdu's idea is very simple.

As it says in the Art of War, first establish yourself in an invincible position, and then look for ways to defeat the enemy.

The biggest weakness of the Khitan cavalry is that they cannot attack fortresses.

The cavalry could not climb the city wall, nor could it break the camp.

Youzhou City is the meat on the knife board, it's already at your mouth, don't be in a hurry to eat it.

Let’s set up the camp first. If we want to rescue Youzhou, we have to dismount and attack the army camp.

At the same time, if the generals of the Great Zhou Dynasty want to go out, they can go out. Even if they lose the battle, they can just run to the camp and minimize the losses.

The only weakness of this style of play is the logistics.

After all, the territory of Hebei is vast, and if the Khitan cavalry is more arrogant, they can even run directly to the north bank of the Yellow River.

The Khitan has no shortage of war horses, with one man and three horses, taking turns.

With their mobility and flexibility, ordinary armies really can't catch them.

But now their grain route has been changed to the sea route, and grain is transported directly from Dengzhou Port to Jingu.

In Jingu, they also built a military stronghold connected by water and land to store grain.

It’s only over two hundred miles from Jingu to Youzhou.

It is much easier to guard the grain road of more than two hundred miles than to guard the entire grain road in Hebei.

Therefore, building military strongholds, encircling points and recruiting reinforcements are secondary.

The main purpose is one, to remain strategically invincible.

You Khitan are not willing to fight to the death and want to win by sneak attack.

Then I'll put a turtle shell on the army and see how you make a sneak attack.

Anyway, I'm not the one who's anxious, I just want to eat Youzhou.

With the Khitan's siege skills, it would not be easy to get it back.

As he spoke, Han Tong took out a piece of sheepskin from his arms and said: "I have some thoughts on the defense of this stronghold, and I would like to ask the envoy for advice."

As he spoke, he spread out the sheepskin in his hand.

Luo Youdu looked at it carefully. On the sheepskin, the method of setting up a stronghold was hastily drawn on it. The Dazhai remained unchanged, but Han Tong also built some small villages around the Dazhai that echoed each other and linked up with each other to protect the Dazhai.

Luo Youdu glanced at Han Tong in surprise and said: "Wonderful! In this way, the large and small camps are all active. They can respond to each other from a distance and can be attacked or defended. Bu Shuai is really awesome, why didn't he take it out earlier. Fortunately, it was in time now, and there was no

Bad thing. Bu Shuai, you draw three more drawings, and all four gates will build the camp according to this method, and keep it so that the sleeping emperor will not cry."

Han Tong was extremely happy to see Luo Youdu's reaction.

He had wanted to present this drawing for a long time, but he was just worried about unknown troubles.

Luo Youdu also guessed Han Tong's thoughts and didn't take it seriously.

It is true that there are many people who are unwilling to listen to opposing words. Luo Youdu is on the contrary. He knows that when manpower will eventually be exhausted, listening to more different opinions will only have advantages and no disadvantages.

This Han Tong is indeed a character.

Luo Youdu had always thought that the comfort on the Hebei border in the Great Zhou Dynasty was due to the intimidation of his father-in-law Fu Yanqing, and because Xiao Siwen stayed behind and disliked military affairs.

Now it seems that the line of defense deployed by Han Tong must also have a crucial key.

No wonder Guo Rong valued him so highly and asked him to take charge of the Imperial Guards Division, intending to use him to replace Li Chongjin and form a new Third Division Imperial Army with himself and Zhao Kuangyin.

Historically, Han Tong was the only senior Zhou general who died in the Chenqiao Mutiny, and he died at the hands of Wang Yansheng.

His ending should be different now.

It would be a pity if something unexpected happened to such a talent.

Luo Youdu knows that offense is important, but defense is even more important.

Otherwise, Qin Shihuang would not have spent a lot of national resources building the Great Wall, and successive dynasties would not have continuously strengthened and repaired the Great Wall.

There is no doubt that an excellent border defense line is important to a country.

"In terms of defense, I am not as good as you. Commander Bu, the Khitan emperor is sleeping, and he will arrive at the border of Youzhou in about ten days. Defense matters will affect the victory or defeat of our army, so don't be polite."

Han Tongtong: "I'm acting like a villain, that's what I'm going to do."

According to the military stronghold plan designed by Han Tong, in less than ten days, four military strongholds stretching for several miles had been erected in strategic locations outside Youzhou City.

Fortunately, Youzhou is close to the Yanshan Mountains, so there is no shortage of wood.

Otherwise, there may not be enough wood for them.
To be continued...