The north wind is getting tighter, the trees are falling, and in a blink of an eye, October is coming to an end, and it has entered the early winter season.

Although it is not as heavy as the snow in the north, the weather is cold, but the chill in the Jiangnan area is also a little grandiose. But even in such a gradually cold weather, the offensive and defensive battles around Hangzhou City are still in full swing, which dispelled the local chill.

Sun Tu was a little miscalculated or overly optimistic after all, the ease of defending and attacking Hangzhou City was far beyond his expectations, and Pang Wanchun's performance as the commander of the Wu army was far beyond his imagination, even if he had quickly led his troops to kill Hangzhou City after that battle, the other party had already prepared, and actually defended the city as solid as a golden stone, and did not let the Song army take advantage of it.

And he obviously learned the lesson of the previous repeated defeats of the Wu army at the hands of the Song army, and did not go out of the city to fight because of the previous big victories and the strength of the Song army, but held the city tightly, relying on the high walls and deep pools of Hangzhou City and the Song army to fight a protracted war of attrition.

In this way, it really allowed the Wu army to avoid shortcomings and promote their strengths, they were already inferior to the well-trained Song Dynasty officers and soldiers in terms of combat strength, and they had just experienced the major blow of the main general's death, so it was inevitable that they would be timid in their hearts. The advantage of reliable landing, coupled with the large number of people, can actually make a draw with the Shandong army, which is good at fighting.

Moreover, with the continuous repulsion of the Song army by virtue of the confrontations, the morale of the Wu army has also been re-cohesive and improved. Many of the soldiers became more and more courageous, and even had a further understanding of the way of attack and defense, which really brought considerable trouble to the Shandong army.

At the beginning, Sun Tu was able to rely on the bravery of his soldiers to reach the top of the city several times, but as the Wu army became more and more mature, such an advantage gradually disappeared. That's all, what makes people feel even more troublesome is that after the morale of the Wu army grew, Pang Wanchun no longer blindly defended, but sent a small group of troops to attack the Song army's camp in the early morning or at night, which made the soldiers suffer a lot.

If the other party really attacked with an army, it would be fine, and with the combat power and discipline of the Song army, it would be able to deal with it in time without falling behind, but these Wu troops who went out of the city were just to disturb the Song army's dreams, thinking that it was a strategy to fatigue the enemy, which was quite annoying. Once the Song army opened the camp and slaughtered, these small groups would withdraw and flee in time; If the Song army did not react to this, they would carry out all kinds of harassment tactics around the camp, and once at night, they even fired dozens of rockets into the camp, almost causing a catastrophe.

In the face of such a trick designed for disgusting people, Sun Tu and the others also felt a big headache, and after suffering several losses, they could only temporarily retreat the camp a few miles back. Then, when the Wu army repeated its old tricks and attacked the military camp at night again, it was attacked by ambushes arranged outside the camp early in the morning, and almost all the troops were annihilated.

It wasn't until he learned the relevant news that Pang Wanchun understood that the Song army moved the camp back not only to avoid the attack, but also to hide people's eyes, because of the distance, the defenders in the city did not know that they had made corresponding arrangements. After suffering this loss, the Wu army finally stopped and did not continue to send people to attack the Song camp at night.

Of course, these can only be regarded as small means for this Hangzhou offensive and defensive battle, and the key to the real decision of this victory or defeat is the offensive and defensive strategy of each machine during the day.

After experiencing the initial strong attack that was difficult to achieve, but instead lost his troops, Sun Tu quickly adjusted his tactics and used a lot of unconventional means to attack Hangzhou City.

For example, at the beginning, he ordered people to erect a high platform and arranged hundreds of crossbowmen on it, intending to suppress the defenders of the city with the bow and crossbow arrow array that the Song army was proud of, and then take the opportunity to lead the army to cover the city. But as a result, this trick was quickly broken by the Wu army, who not only suddenly sent elite troops to the front of the platform, but also placed several bed crossbows in front of this city wall, directly destroying the entire high platform.

Subsequently, Sun Tu thought of another method, but he saw the shallow water of the moat in the north of Hangzhou and wanted to dig a tunnel from the ground to sneak into the city. But this strategy was quickly seen through by the defenders, Pang Wanchun actually prepared early in the morning, set up large vats buried deep in the ground at key points in the city, and sent special people to wait and listen. When the sound of the Song army digging the tunnel, they directly poured the water source in the city, but the Song army suffered another loss.

After the accumulation of small victories and the continuous improvement of the morale of the Wu army, Pang Wanchun was dissatisfied with the dry defense of Hangzhou, and actually took the initiative to lead a large army to attack the Great Song military camp on October 12. But this time he was a little reckless, after the first battle, the Wu army was not the elite opponent of the Shandong army at all, and it was difficult to take advantage of the loss of many men and horses, but fortunately, he withdrew to the city in time, otherwise the loss would be greater.

In this regard, the two armies of Song and Wu, the offensive and defensive sides, reached a kind of delicate balance in this Hangzhou city, and no one could help anyone, so they could only confront each other all the time, constantly dragging the war back.

In fact, this is also the ancient attack and defense of the city should have been like, for the besieging side, if it does not occupy an overwhelming advantage, to capture a certain city is indeed an extremely labor-intensive patience, protracted project, history around a strong city of attack and defense war experience of a year or two abounds, and even in order to break through a key city, it took more than ten years, or even decades.

In comparison, Sun Tu attacked the city like a devastating state before, and it was an abnormal performance to hit the city of Hangzhou in one go, which was also related to his frequent dangerous tricks. However, when he does face a strong and cautious opponent, these methods are completely useless. Hangzhou has become an insurmountable moat in front of him.

Sun Tu was obviously dissatisfied with such a situation, so he would gather his subordinate generals every day to discuss the method of breaking the city. In addition to this, he will also lock himself in a tent and think hard about the strategy of attacking the city. At this time, in the big tent that had already lit a brazier to keep out the cold, he sat upright again with the drawings of the city of Hangzhou and the surrounding terrain, thinking about what means to attack the city next.

But how could there be any clever plan for a while, as long as it was the means he had thought of, he had already used it, so he had to go to the warehouse to find it again, see if he could find a cannon, and directly bomb the city wall of Hangzhou. Of course, this was an unrealistic idea, and at least so far, there was no more powerful firearm in the warehouse system he had opened than the cannon that had provided him with the debrilaging shells. Sometimes he even began to regret that he used diesel fuel in the attack on Hutou Village, if he could leave some of it, and now smash it on the head of Hangzhou, it will definitely have a decisive effect.

Just when he was pondering and couldn't figure out the essentials, Tang Feng's voice suddenly came from outside the tent: "General, Song Jiang asks to see you." ”

"Let him in." Sun Tu continued to stare at the topographic map that was already familiar to his chest, and said casually without raising his head.

The curtain was lifted, and Song Jiang entered the tent with a chill: "General." ”

"Is there anything wrong with you?" Sun Tu glanced at him and asked.

"The scouts sent to the south have already brought back the news that they have rebelled against many local gentry, and they will soon make a move in various cities, and it will not be long before they can take back many cities outside Hangzhou." Song Jiang said with some joy.

The fact that the army was blocked in front of Hangzhou City did not mean that Sun Tuzhen no longer had other ideas. Just over half a month ago, he had successively sent the shrewd and capable soldiers of the scout camp to the southern prefectures and counties to contact the gentry and scholars there and help them rebel against the rule of Wu.

As early as when those texts were secretly sent by Sun Tu to spread them, he had already thought of a step-by-step plan for the future, and with the power of these people who believed in Confucianism, it was enough to subvert those cities where the rule of the Wu army was not stable. After all, these cities were still the land of the Great Song Dynasty two years ago, and many people were forced by the situation to surrender to the Wu army.

Moreover, because the Wu army transferred a large number of elites back to defend Hangzhou, and there were still elite soldiers guarding the nest like Wuzhou, the cities elsewhere had long been in vain, so it naturally gave Sun Tu the opportunity to take advantage of the situation, as long as he said that the local tyrants and landlords there could recapture this series of cities.

Judging from what Song Jiang said at this time, this strategy was undoubtedly quite successful, and in just half a month, more than a dozen cities were about to defect. And as long as this trend continues, soon, Hangzhou will be completely reduced to an isolated city. At that time, even if Sun Tu did not force the attack, it would not be far from falling.

Of course, the premise of all this is that the main force led by Sun Tu can contain the Wu army in the city here, otherwise once they realize that the situation is not good, and then send troops to rescue, those wall grasses are afraid that they will take refuge in the past.

Sun Tu was quite satisfied with such a result, and finally showed a smile on his face: "It's the best, Brother Gongming, you have made a lot of meritorious contributions this time." "In fact, Song Jiang arranged the rebellion in various places this time.

Song Jiang smiled lightly and didn't say anything, just sighed: "It's a pity that something happened to the inner Ying that we planted in Hangzhou City, otherwise maybe we could really break the city with their hands." Speaking of this, he glanced at Sun Tu again, and said with some hesitation: "In addition, after discussing with a few brothers, he also came up with a way, maybe he can try to attack the city." ”

After hearing this, Sun Tu, who didn't care too much about other things, suddenly lifted his spirits, his eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked, "Oh? But what is the method, hurry up and listen to it! ”

"Since it's hard to get up from the ground, why don't we think of a way to get it out of the waterway?" Song Jiang said his countermeasures.