The turmoil within the southern state of Wu soon spread north to the city of Suzhou and came to Sun Tu.

It just so happened that at this time, after many days of deliberation, the Great Song Dynasty court finally made a decision, and the Privy Council had ordered Jiangnan to let the military horses here go south as soon as possible to quell the thieves, and there should be no delay.

Although the wording of this military order is very strict, and there is no mention of pardoning Sun Tu for committing the crime of killing important ministers without permission, but this ambiguous attitude is enough to make people completely calm down. Because not mentioning it is the best expression, it proves that the imperial court no longer intends to pursue this matter, at least until the south is pacified, the killing of Zhu Mian will not be mentioned again, and Sun Tu can also lead an army of 100,000 to quell the Fang La thief rebellion without a name.

Of course, the problem still exists, if Sun Tu fails to quell the chaos this time, then what awaits him must be to settle accounts after the autumn, and it will be light to offset his life at that time. And once the rebellion in the south is really pacified, maybe there will be another trick of rabbits and dead dogs cooking birds and hiding all the bows, which requires him to plan early. But in any case, this decision of the imperial court still boosted the morale of the officials and soldiers in Suzhou, and the previous worries and concerns quickly dissipated.

That's not all, as time went by, two batches of grain purchased by Su Mao and other merchants to the north were finally delivered one after another, which completely solved the worries of the army - but when they inspected these grains and grass later, everyone was surprised to find that a large part of these two batches of grain was actually the military food that had been hoarded in Danyang! But it was Zhu Mian who asked people to sell it to the north, and then after some time, the merchants there raised the price by fifty percent and sold it back to the Song army, which is really ironic. Of course, this also made the soldiers hate Zhu Mian more and more, if he was still alive at this time, I am afraid that he would be beaten to death by the angry soldiers again!

The military rations are in place, the military heart is available, and the army has not been idle in Suzhou for more than a month, they have all been forced to practice hard by Sun Tu. Although the 100,000 troops here do not dare to be reborn, their combat power is indeed much higher than before, and many soldiers are gearing up to fight against the thieves, so that they can be rewarded for their meritorious service.

So, when there were successive changes in the south, Sun Tu felt that the time was ripe. At that moment, he quickly ordered to send several men and horses from north to south to attack many county capitals and prefectures that were still under the control of the Wu army. This time, he did not choose an important city to use troops, but directly cast a big net, taking advantage of the fact that the Wu army was still busy fighting fires everywhere and could not spare much troops to defend the front, and wantonly sent troops to attack those small cities that were not so important.

Although Sun Tu did not use the most elite Shandong army this time, and only sent military horses such as Huainan, Huaibei, Gyeonggi, and Jingnan to train in battle, the effect was not bad. The Wu army has only been created for two years, and its combat effectiveness is not as good as that of the Great Song Dynasty official army, coupled with the instability of the rear, and the slaughter of the city, it is even more panicked, even if there is a city to defend, it is still unable to defend it.

Under the continuous attack of nearly two months, the cities under the rule of the Wu army were lost one after another. Some of these cities were forcibly captured by the Song army, while others surrendered quickly after the soldiers arrived at the city, and the Song army simply took the city without blood. The reason for this is that the influence of Sun Tu's text is too great, and the local gentry have long been separated from Wu State, and as soon as the news of Zhu Mian's death spread, they didn't even have the last scruples, and as soon as the official army arrived, they surrendered immediately.

When it entered the July season, the Song army had taken all the cities north of Huzhou, and it can be said that even half of the territory of Fang La's old nest in Zhejiang had fallen into the hands of the Song army. That's not all, as the war progressed, the Song army also sent a group of men and horses to the west to kill, and recaptured Shezhou, which had been taken by the rebels.

As a result, the official army has continued to advance, and the territory of the anti-thieves has been continuously compressed to the south, and the last few people and horses have gathered to join the division, and Chen soldiers are under the city of Huzhou.

It was also at this time that the internal affairs of Wu were finally completely pacified, and those rebel armies who had rebelled before were either completely suppressed or reorganized into the army after repentance. However, the Wu army was also weakened, and the loss of large swaths of the northern territory had put the newly established regime in a precarious situation.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the big city of Huzhou is still in their hands. And this is thanks to the timely dispatch of the Ten Buddhas of Fang Shi, who had just broken into a catastrophe before.

Although Qian Maocai has a good reputation, and the defenders of Huzhou City are loyal enough, when it comes to the way of using soldiers, they are far inferior to Fang Shifo, the Wu army killing god, after all. When the Song army began to attack many cities in the north, he also led his army to storm Huzhou, and within ten days he led his army to the city, killing the defenders with fear.

Subsequently, Fang Shifo once again spread the rumor that he would slaughter the entire city after the city was broken. This frightened the people in the city and the others, and they already had the experience of Chongde, who would dare to despise this god-killing statement.

So in the next few days, the defenders and the people of the city secretly fled out of the city one after another. And this time, the Ten Buddhas of Fang were actually much more shrewd, and they did not besiege the city on all sides as they had fought Chongde before, but they came to encircle three and lack one, so that the defenders felt that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, and fled more than thirty percent in a short period of time.

Under such circumstances, Huzhou is completely unable to hold on. In a panic, Qian Maocai finally led his troops to break through the siege on the night of May 20, abandoned the city and fled. As a result, the Wu army finally regained control of Huzhou without paying too much cost.

It wasn't until the army entered Huzhou and erected the banner that Qian Mao, who was still fleeing, knew that the main general who attacked Huzhou this time had actually changed, and it was replaced by Pang Wanchun!

It turned out that when they learned about Chongde, the court of Wu was also in an uproar, and Fang Fei and other ministers could not accept Fang Shifo's extermination of humanity, and tried their best to ask him to be blamed, so that the people were angry. Fang La also knew that Fang Shifo had indeed gone too far this time, so he was also good, and when he learned that Fang Shifo had used troops against Huzhou again, he hurriedly sent a more stable Pang Wanchun to replace him.

After all, Fang Shi Buddha was loyal to Fang La, even if he was very dissatisfied with such an arrangement, he could only accept it, and then returned to Hangzhou with his own binding. And after Pang Wanchun took over Fang Shifo, he also understood that he was in a difficult situation now and must take Huzhou as soon as possible, so he came up with such a strategy to scare out the rebels. Fang Shifo's murderous reputation was really useful, and it only took three days to force the enemy out of the city, and then easily capture Huzhou.

After leaving Huzhou, Qian Maocai became a tree without roots, even if there were thousands of people around him, but in the territory of Wu State, it was difficult to move an inch. After a few days, he lost his troops and almost was forced into a desperate situation. In desperation, he had no choice but to go north, and finally surrendered to the Song army.

For such a rebel army of Wu State, Sun Tu naturally had an approving attitude, not only immediately allowed them to surrender, but also personally led people to meet Qian Maocai, and pardoned all his sins on behalf of the imperial court, and then incorporated his subordinates into one of the official armies, and then turned back to Huzhou.

Relying on the continuous incorporation of Wu soldiers and horses, the strength of the official army of the Great Song Dynasty not only did not decrease, but tended to increase in this series of battles. By the time the army converged on the city of Huzhou, the strength of the Song army had reached 130,000, and it could even encircle this important fortified city of Wu on all sides.

Rao is Pang Wanchun is calm and good at fighting, but now there are only 50,000 or 60,000 troops in the city, and he doesn't have much confidence in this battle. However, Huzhou will be desperate to defend it, because he knows very well that this is the last fortified city in the north of Hangzhou, once this place is lost, and then let the Song army use this as a stronghold to go south, Hangzhou City will inevitably face great pressure, and even be broken by the Song army in a short time.

But looking at the endless stream of Song troops coming from the south, his eyes were still full of worry: how to defend the city?

The same problem also plagued the monarchs and ministers of Wu further south, and they also knew what Huzhou meant to the entire war situation, and they must send troops to rescue them as soon as possible.

Although the chaos in Wu has now subsided, and people from all walks of life can be used, how to use troops in the north is still a big problem.

Fang Shifo's position did not move after receiving the guilt, so he naturally wanted to make meritorious service to the guilt, so he asked for battle in front of Fang La several times, hoping that he would lead the army directly to Huzhou to fight the enemy head-on.

In this regard, Fang Fei and other civil officials did not agree. The Song army has become a general trend, and now it is even more imposing, even if the Wu army can gather 200,000 troops to go to Huzhou, it may not dare to say that it will win.

In fact, this is still saving face for their own family, and some officials who know the situation of their own army know a little better, really sending 200,000 people, not to mention whether the logistics supply can keep up, just a head-to-head confrontation, it is not the opponent of the Song army. The Wu army has developed too fast in the past two years, and it looks like the strength is indeed abundant, but in terms of combat effectiveness, except for a few tens of thousands of horses, it is more just a rabble. This is also one of the important reasons why the Shandong army was able to hold the small county town of Changshu with inferior forces, and the gap between the soldiers of the two sides was too big.

Sun Tu and the Shandong army had already been famous, and no matter how confident these officials were, they did not think that sending 200,000 rabbles would defeat the elite of the Song army in a head-to-head confrontation in the field.

In the face of the different opinions of these two parties, even Fang La was a little unsure of what choice to make, and in the end, he could only look at Jiang Shihu, who had been silent: "Strategist, what do you think?" ”

Jiang Shihu pondered for a while before he spoke: "This matter has already been considered by the minister. Huzhou must be saved, but it is a bit inappropriate to send troops directly to rescue, so why don't we learn from Sun Tu's previous practice, avoid the real and attack the weak, and attack its weaknesses? ”

After all, Fang Shifo was also a rare general, and he immediately grasped the other party's intention: "You mean to capture Suzhou?" ”

Jiang Shihu smiled incomprehensibly: "Not only that, but we can also ......" He had a bolder idea!