"Thus, whenever north and south have stood against each other since antiquity, they have inevitably fought over several key strongholds between the Yangtze and the Huai.
"Eastern Wu repeatedly sent armies against Hefei because it connected the Yangtze River and the Huai River and was a strategic crossroads between them.
"Yet throughout its existence, Eastern Wu never secured the Huai River, and so was ultimately swallowed by Jin.
"Fu Jian's vast army could have dammed a river with its discarded whips; it bore down like Mount Tai crushing its foes. Yet in the end, he could not water his horses in the Yangtze River, because Jin held the Huai River.
"If we cannot even hold the Huai now, how can we speak of destroying the enemy?"
At this point, Wang Yang noticed something strange in the gazes of the others seated there. They were all looking at him with exceedingly peculiar expressions.
Xie Xinghan said hesitantly, "Young Master Wang... um... we haven't lost the Huai River..."
Wang Yang: ???
Southern Qi could still hold the Huai River?!
Then things weren't so bad!
The great strategic divide in China had run east-west before the Eastern Han, and north-south afterward.
Since the Three Kingdoms, a pattern of confrontation between north and south had repeatedly emerged. Works summarizing the principles of offense and defense between them were no rarity in history, either. What Wang Yang had just discussed synthesized the historical experience of those confrontations with the insights of several great military geographers, such as Li Tao and Gu Zuyu. These were principles that held true through the ages. Even during the Huaihai Campaign, the Nationalist army had concentrated large forces in Xubeng on the strategic principle that "to defend the Jiang, one must defend the Huai."
The problem, however, was that of