On the twenty-second day of the lunar month, Sun Tu led the elite of the Qingzhou army to capture Changshu City.

At noon on the 23rd, the main force of the follow-up Shandong Army finally arrived, and the Huainan Army, which was behind them and looked out of breath, was obviously a little distracted when they saw the Great Song banner planted in the city and fluttering in the wind, and only after a long time did they let out bursts of cheers.

To be honest, after experiencing the last battle of Sanyuanling and being ambushed by the Wu army and suffering heavy casualties, the officers and men of the Huainan Army from Peng Yongzhen to the next cadre all had pessimistic thoughts about this attack on Changshu, and felt that the combined strength of the two armies might not be able to take down this county. And once the time drags on, as soon as the Wu army in Suzhou and even Hangzhou and other cities arrives, their situation will become more and more dangerous.

But as a result, the Shandong army only sent a few thousand people to easily capture Changshu City overnight! Even after seeing the strong combat power of the Shandong Army several times, witnessing such a great victory again still made the generals of the Huainan Army feel a little unreal, and also made their awe of Sun Tu and the Shandong Army a little heavier.

After entering the city, Peng Yongzhen didn't dare to regard himself as a general who could sit on an equal footing with Sun Tu, and after meeting, he clasped his fists and saluted again and again: "General Sun is really brave, and he really admires the last generals." Now that we have captured Changshu, we can already give an explanation to Jinling and the imperial court, I wonder what General Sun's plans will be next? ”

Looking at his excited look, he obviously thought that the Shandong army could make persistent efforts and take advantage of the victory to take advantage of the victory to defeat some cities around Changshu, and it was best to take Suzhou in one go. In this way, his Huainan army only needs to share some credit from the side, and he will be able to get many benefits in terms of merit and reward.

But to his surprise, Sun Tu didn't have the slightest smug look on his face after seeing them, but looked extremely serious and dignified, and just said: "I have already thought about the follow-up, and you came at the right time." Dong Ping, you lead 5,000 people to garrison Xicheng, Song Jiang, you lead 5,000 men to guard the east, Lin Chong Yang Zhi, you guard the south, and the Huainan army, you guard the north of the city. No matter what happens next, our focus is on defending this Changshu City, and there is no room for error! ”

Although the generals of the Shandong Army did not understand Sun Tu's arrangement, they still responded with their hands crossed, but Peng Yongzhen put on a surprised and inexplicable look: "General Sun, what are you ...... Why do you put on such a posture as if you were facing a great enemy? Didn't we just win two big victories, and even Changshu City was taken by us, so we only had to wait for the follow-up reinforcements to arrive, and then we could launch a counterattack against Suzhou. ”

"Because if my guess is correct, we will soon be besieged by a large force of the enemy." Sun Tu simply told his conjecture last night. Suddenly, the excitement on the faces of everyone present was swept away, and they didn't dare to delay any longer, so they quickly went down to gather people and horses, and went to all parts of the city to set up defenses.

Only Peng Yongzhen was still full of doubts at this time: "General Sun, are you overestimating Fang La's rebellion?" How could they come up with such a clever plan to set a trap with a city as bait? ”

"Yes and no will soon be clear. Now the most important thing is to prepare for defense, otherwise it will be too late for the enemy to attack in a big way. Sun Tu insisted on his opinion, and at the same time said with a solemn face: "Peng Chuzhi, it is a matter of life and death for you and my army, and I hope you can fully cooperate." The place outside the northern city is the most narrow and steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, you must lead the army to defend it for me! Being stared at by Sun Tu like this, Peng Yongzhen suddenly felt pressure, and didn't dare to say anything more, so he immediately clenched his fists solemnly: "Since General Sun, you have decided so, this official should do his best to cooperate." If there is really an enemy attack, 20,000 people of our Huainan army will defend the north gate! ”

Sun Tu nodded with satisfaction, and also hugged his fist: "Then please!" ”

When the military order was transmitted, the Shandong army naturally did not dare to slack off, after all, after many years, the government of its own government has hardly made mistakes, and those who serve as soldiers only need to obey the dispatch. However, the Huainan Army, after learning that it had come to Changshu after hard work, not only could not rest and relax, but also quickly devoted itself to all kinds of hard city defense work, naturally there were many dissatisfaction and complaints, and the work was far less dedicated.

As a small city in the south of the Yangtze River, Changshu naturally cannot have extremely strong and powerful fortifications like those big cities or military towns standing at the border, and even the four-sided city walls are not only low, only three or four zhang high, but also have many damaged places because of years of neglect of construction and the war a few months ago.

Therefore, when Sun Tu gave the order, the soldiers did more boring work such as repairing and increasing the city wall. This was not too difficult for the Shandong army, which was already well-trained and had built cities near Qingzhou in the past, but it was a big problem for the Huainan army.

Even though they were several times larger in number than the other three walls, the progress of repairs in the three days was far behind that of the east, west, and south. But even so, the soldiers who were forced to go to the city by the officers and generals every day still complained, and many of them responded to the city in vain, chatting and complaining, but there were very few who really did things.

At noon on the twenty-fifth day, hundreds of people were asked to carry the heavy stones to the city, and many people secretly complained to themselves, and secretly greeted the eight generations of ancestors under their own Peng Xuan's jurisdiction, and when finally a few huge stones were moved to the city, some people took the opportunity to rest lazily.

Several soldiers gathered together at this time, and whispered about what happened to them: "Our general is too, he actually listened to the words of the Shandong army, and really treated us as coolies to repair the city." If you want me to say, it's better to take all the strong men in the city and let them help repair the city. ”

"It's a good idea, but it's not realistic. I've heard that most of the people left in Changshu are old and weak, women and children, and the young and strong men either ran away or became thieves early in the morning......"

"Well, we shouldn't be doing this anyway. And in my opinion, it is impossible for the rebel army to take the initiative to send troops in a short period of time after being defeated by us one after another, otherwise what will they do to guard Suzhou and ......" This one said as he looked behind him, and suddenly his expression changed, his mouth opened wide, but he couldn't say a word, he just pointed to the south in shock.

The others wanted to echo his statement, but they were also stunned when they saw him suddenly behaving like this, and quickly turned back to the south, and then showed a look of disbelief one by one. After the muscles on his face trembled, I don't know who was the first to roar: "The enemy is coming, the enemy is coming!" ”

Suddenly, the north gate was in chaos, the roar and shouts were accompanied by the sound of dangdang's gongs, some people went to the city, some people went down to the city, anyway, for a time the Huainan army stationed here was completely chaotic.

In contrast, the other three defenders were extraordinarily calm, and although these soldiers were all gasping and watching the large number of enemy troops that kept emerging from the end of the horizon, they still began to make the final deployment before the battle—melee weapons such as wood and stone, long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows...... Therefore, weapons that can be used in the defense of the city are constantly sent to the city.

Fortunately, in the past few days, the soldiers on the three city walls have been working hard to build the city walls, so at this time, the east, west and south sides have shown a completely different posture of stubbornness, and everyone also believes that this city defense can block the fierce attack of several times the enemy.

The news also quickly spread to the bottom, and Sun Tu and other major generals also quickly arrived after hearing the news, and climbed the city to look south. A few of them even had extra binoculars in their hands, so that they could see the enemy forces in front of them more clearly.

Even if they were as calm as Lin Chong and other generals, their faces were heavy at this time, and their tones were also uneasy: "Did they use so many horses this time?" Roughly speaking, there are 70,000, 80,000, or even 100,000 people! They actually threw 100,000 troops into us at once! ”

Even Sun Tu seemed quite nervous, and muttered, "They really look up to us." But even so, it was extremely difficult to mobilize 100,000 people at once, and without a month or two of preparation, it was impossible to send troops at all. In this way, it seems that they have been planning this battle for a long time. ”

Except for a few close generals, the others did not taste the deep meaning of Sun Tu's words, they just asked with some trepidation: "General, can we hold it?" ”

Even if they are as confident as the Shandong army, they have never fought against an enemy army of this scale on the battlefield before, and now they are trapped in such a small county town, and they will inevitably feel a little afraid in their hearts.

"Now that the enemy has arrived, we have no choice but to hold on to Changshu! Relying on the city defense, you can also be outnumbered and get a chance to win, if you abandon the city and flee at this time, I am afraid that most of the people will be buried here! Sun Tu stared at him and quickly said his judgment.

After a pause, he added: "And in terms of troops, the imperial court will only have more soldiers and horses in Jiangnan than them, so as long as we hold for a while, reinforcements will definitely arrive." What we have to do now is to frustrate the enemy's spirit first, which of you dares to go out of the city to fight? ”

In the face of nearly 100,000 enemy troops, Sun Tu did not intend to blindly defend, but made the decision to take the initiative to attack, which made the generals stunned and refreshed, many people have put aside the cowardice in their hearts, and then several people stepped forward at the same time: "The last general is willing to go!" ”

Sun Tu's gaze swept over everyone, it was Lin Chong, Wu Song, Luda, and Yue Fei!

An approving smile appeared on his face: "Lin Chong Yue Fei, the two of you lead the cavalry to assault, and give the enemy a dismount first." Remember, don't be too greedy, and after you have frustrated the enemy's spirit, you can go back to the city! ”

"Whoa!" Lin Yue and the others responded in a low voice, and then quickly went down to the city to prepare to go, as for Wu Song and the others, who were not approved to fight, they could only sigh and accept this arrangement. They also knew that cavalry was better suited to today's assault than their own foot combat.

Fortunately, they also know that there is still a chance for their own meritorious service in the future.

On the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month, the battle of Changshu officially broke out!

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Today's public sacrifice.

May the departed rest in peace and the heroes immortal!