After entering August, the Song army, which had won many big victories in a row, finally paused the pace of going south to rebel and stationed in Huzhou on the spot. After all, after continuous and high-intensity battles, even the elite of the Shandong army needs to spend time recuperating, and the situation of other soldiers and horses is even more difficult.

In this battle outside Suzhou, they did break the Wu army, and the victory was hearty enough, but in fact, their own casualties were not small, if only the proportion of casualties between the two armies and not counting the prisoners, it was actually quite quite, if they did not occupy the absolute advantage in strength, it was really hard to say what the result of this battle was.

As a result, the Jiangnan territory, which had been fighting fiercely for several months, finally got a short period of peace. However, that is only compared to the situation on the surface of the previous months, in fact, under the seemingly calm water, the undercurrent is more than several times more turbulent than before, and many local gentry, landlords, businessmen and other prominent figures in the south of the Yangtze River have begun to seek a way back for their own safety, and even many people have begun to send people to Huzhou to ask for Sun Tu, intending to surrender to the imperial court.

This is also a matter of course, Sun Tu spent his time before to let people spread the rebellion to various places in order to obtain the change of course of these local forces, and abandon the darkness and turn to the light. With the successive victories of the official army, the influence of the text has expanded several times, and even people who were not too concerned about it in the past began to make a big fuss about the fact that Fang La and his gang believed in Manichaeism rather than Confucianism, and persuaded the forces of various prefectures and counties to betray the so-called Wu State.

And with the passage of time, half a month later, there were really no less than ten relevant forces in the prefecture and county towns secretly contacted Sun Tu, expressing their willingness to surrender at that time, and even among these people, there were gentry from some cities south of Hangzhou who expressed this attitude. Obviously, the foundation of Fang La's rule over the land south of the Yangtze River had been completely shaken with this defeat, and only by waiting for the Song army to take advantage of the situation to move south, it would be able to easily capture several cities without bloodshed, so that it could attack Hangzhou, the capital of Wu, on all sides, and make it completely desperate.

In a blink of an eye, the Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, and in late August, the climate in the south of the Yangtze River has become a little cooler. But at this time, the atmosphere in Huzhou City was even more enthusiastic than before, because the people and horses from all walks of life who had stayed in the rear finally arrived one after another, which made the number of soldiers and horses in the city rise rapidly, and also made the soldiers begin to move, thinking that it was time to go further and kill to the south.

In the afternoon of this day, the commanders of the three armies of the Jingnan Road, Gyeonggi Road, and Huaibei Road came to see Sun Tu again, and brought up the old matter again, hoping that he would use troops against the south again as soon as possible. Of course, their attitude in front of Sun Tu is still very humble, although in fact, the four of them have the same official position, but now in Jiangnan, they have a clear status, Sun Tu is the commander of the whole army, they are just obeying the generals who are dispatched.

Huaibei Road Governor Zhang Gon is an impatient, and his speech is the most upright, so he will naturally open it: "General Sun, now that the situation is very good, and the morale of the soldiers below is also high, it's time to go further, kill Hangzhou, and destroy this group of thieves!" ”

Sun Tu glanced at him with a smile, and then asked the other two, "This is also the purpose of your coming to see me today?" ”

Ren Shifan of Jingnan and Xu Shen of Gyeonggi Road were much more stable, even if Sun Tu asked so, the two only said vaguely: "The time is indeed ripe, if it drags on for a while, it is not a good thing to let the thief relieve himself after all." Of course, General Sun, you must have your own views when you use your troops well, and we dare not make any claims. ”

Although they said that, the true intentions of the two were already quite obvious, and they also hoped to expand the results of the battle as soon as possible, and it was best to level Fang La's gang in one fell swoop.

It is also ridiculous to say that when they were in Jinling, these Song troops were all afraid of the Wu army like snakes and scorpions, and they all dragged or passed the buck to each other, and none of them dared to take the initiative. But now it's good, but they are all competing for the lead, and they only regard the Wu army as a local chicken and a dog, as if as long as they send troops, they can completely wipe it out.

Of course, Sun Tu was still happy to see such a change in mood, because only a confident and victorious army could achieve victory in the end. However, in order to prevent them from carelessly underestimating the enemy, Sun Tu still reminded him intentionally: "Although our army has won great victories one after another, it has not hurt its vitality after all, and it is reported that although Pang Wanchun and Fang Shifo were seriously injured, they were not fatal, and the injuries should also improve at this time. ”

"What General Sun said is, but you don't have to be too ambitious, in our opinion, the anti-thieves are at the end of the road, as long as our army goes south, we will be able to sweep everything and reach Hangzhou! And as long as it comes to this point, even if there are really a few thieves who dare to resist, they are just clowns who jump off the beam, and they can't make any waves. Zhang Gon said with a smile.

Although the other two did not open their mouths, looking at their expressions, it was obviously similar to this person's thoughts. Sun Tu could see that they were really anxious to send troops, but they didn't make any claims because of their own face.

After being silent for a moment, he asked again: "Have the three of you thought carefully about the matter of grain and grass logistics?" As far as I know, our grain route is now extremely long, and if we go further south to Hangzhou, the consumption will only be greater. To this day, the rewards and money and grain promised by the imperial court have not yet arrived, and we will not be able to sustain it for long only by relying on our previous accumulation and the grain we bought from all over the north. ”

"General Sun is a little worried, we have calculated, if the grain and grass are used urgently, it will still be enough for a month or two. Moreover, the imperial court had already allowed us to obtain grain on the spot, and then we could replenish it by attacking a city, so why worry about running out of food? Ren Shifan had already thought about this, and immediately replied.

But his words caused Sun Tu to frown: "General Ren, I remember very clearly, as early as half a month ago, when I received this military order from the imperial court, I had a strict order so that the army should not disturb the people, do you want to disobey?" At the end of the day, his eyes narrowed, and his tone was already a little unkind.

Ren Shifan was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly explained: "This official naturally knows that General Sun has always loved the people like a son, and the soldiers under his command have not committed any crimes against the people. But that's just for the people of the Great Song Dynasty, but the next thing I face is the people under the rule of the anti-thief, so why ......"

"General Ren—" Sun Tu immediately interrupted his words, and his gaze fell like a knife, "Which of the people in Jiangnan is not my Great Song people?" They are just involuntarily coerced by others to become the people under Fang La's rule, do you say this to force another turmoil-turmoil? ”

These words immediately made Ren Shifan a little unsure of what to say, and Xu Shen on the side hurriedly came forward to reconcile: "General Sun is angry, and Lao Ren is just a quick talker, so he said such a thing." In fact, we also know that the people in the south are innocent, so how can we think of harming them? ”

"Yes, General Sun, in fact, in my opinion, although it is only a month's worth of grain, it is enough for us to fight in Hangzhou. Moreover, in the meantime, we can also get replenishment from the coffers of the cities along the way, and the imperial court will soon transport money and grain to the south, so naturally all problems can be easily solved at that time. Zhang Gon also followed: "Moreover, if it drags on like this, we certainly have no worries, but the thieves will also take advantage of this to recover their vitality, and then it will be difficult for them to work together to conquer Hangzhou." ”

"General Sun, even if we stay in Huzhou and don't continue to go south, this grain and grass will still have to be consumed, why not continue to go south while the army's heart is available now and the grain and grass are sufficient?"

The three generals kept persuading each other, obviously determined to let Sun Tu nod and send troops. Seeing this, Sun Tu sighed again in his heart, these three people had actually reached a consensus a long time ago, even if they really disagreed, if they could stop them today, it would still be a problem in two days.

In the final analysis, although he Sun Tu has some prestige, after all, he does not have the name of a coach. If the name is not right, it is not good, and after all, it is impossible to really make these generals all obey their own will. At the beginning, because he could lead everyone to make meritorious contributions and be rewarded, several people could obey their orders, but now, in their eyes, he has blocked everyone's path to meritorious service, and they have to have other ideas.

After slowly exhaling a breath of turbidity, Sun Tu finally made a concession: "Since the three of them all have thieves, I can't always stop you." Then each of you will send your troops south. ”

These words made the three of them stunned for a while, what does this mean? He's not going to play with himself anymore?

Sun Tu then added: "But what I mean is that your troops and horses will sweep the many prefectures and counties north of Hangzhou, and slowly advance the army line to Hangzhou, but you must not fight a decisive battle with the main force of the opposing army, as long as you force them into Hangzhou and make it a lonely city, it will be a great achievement." ”

"What about General Sun and the Shandong Army under your command?" The three of them asked curiously.

"After all, Huzhou is an important place in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is also related to the rear grain route, so I still lead the army to guard here for the time being, and when I really want to use troops against Hangzhou, it is not too late to set off." Sun Tu revealed his true purpose, but the three of them were stunned again.

Zhang Gon wanted to say something more, but was stopped by Xu Shen with a look. The latter then smiled and said, "Since General Sun has considered the overall situation, we should obey the dispatch." In the past two days, our three troops and horses have divided into three routes to sweep the city ahead as soon as possible, paving the way for General Sun's next big victory. ”

After Sun Tu nodded in approval, the three of them got up and said goodbye with satisfaction. It wasn't until after going out that Zhang Gon asked Xu Shen: "Brother Xu, why didn't you let me convince Sun Tu in the end?" ”

"Brother Zhang, haven't you seen it yet? That Sun Tu is planning to preserve his strength, even if there is such a great merit at his fingertips, he will retreat. What does this mean? It shows that he knows very well in his heart that he has offended too many high-ranking officials in the DPRK and China before, and he has to rely on the tens of thousands of people under his command to save his life.

"And this, it's cheaper for our brothers. This time, we will not only sweep away those small cities, but also Hangzhou, and take them together! Xu Shen smiled, looking like he had already seen through everything.