Before Li Chongjin left Shouzhou, it didn't take long for a general to come to the front of the battle to find Guo Shao and say: "Huainan has deployed General Li to invite General Guo to meet with the right camp of the Hujie Army. ”

The surrounding generals all looked sideways when they heard this, and they were all silent, everyone knew that Shangfeng was bent on attacking the city, and Guo Shao's sudden stop attacking the city would cause dissatisfaction from the above. Guo Shao looked back left and right, and Li Chuyun and other generals just bowed their heads and said nothing, and no one had anything to do.

Guo Shao said: "Order all the troops to rest for a while, and I will go to see General Li and come back." ”

Li Chuyun said: "I will go with my lord. ”

A group of several people let the military general lead the way and rode to the camp of the Chinese army in the right wing of the Hujie army. On the side of Huaishui, a large area of military camp tents, at least for several miles, are all the stations of the right wing of the Hujie Army, and the people over there have never come down to Shouzhou City. They are all members of the Hujie Army, and Guo Shao doesn't think there is any danger in this trip...... Mainly didn't know Li Chongjin before, and there were no grievances to speak of.

When I went to the Chinese army, I entered the big tent with a wide flag, and saw two rows of generals standing inside. Lee Chongjin was sitting above, and the first person sitting on the left was Lee Jixun. The person Guo Shao had met was a man in his forties.

Sure enough, Li Chongjin didn't have a good face, and asked coldly: "General Guo, why did you stop attacking the city?" ”

Guo Shao replied: "I just took over the siege of the city and the soldiers and horses, and I am not familiar with the terrain, army, and strategy, so I want to rest for a few days and discuss countermeasures with the generals first." ”

This kind of justification was thought of by Guo Shaolu on the road, Li Chongjin really couldn't refute it, but he was very unhappy, and said in public: "Ci is not in charge of the army, I think you are soft-hearted and have the kindness of a woman!" The official family actually asked you to attack a fortified city like Shouzhou, and I will definitely play it truthfully! ”

Guo Shao was scolded by the head, as if he was useless, and he was also angry in his heart, and said in his heart: Do you think Lao Tzu wants to attack Shouzhou? You do it, do you think Lao Tzu is rare this hard bone?

But Li Chongjin was the commander of Ma Budu, and everyone in the pro-army guard division was not as big as him; Moreover, he was "deployed in Huainan", the emperor went to Chuzhou, and he had the right to control the soldiers and horses in the entire Huaishui Basin. It would obviously be extremely unwise for Guo Shao to quarrel with him, so Guo Shao put up with it.

Some of them are really unbearable. Guo Shao had no choice but to say: "The last general has more than enough heart but not enough strength. ”

At this time, Li Jixun said calmly with a calm look of standing and talking without backache: "The guard of Shouzhou City is Liu Renzhan, and it is rumored that this person can do great things, and he is deeply valued by the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty; Shouzhou, an important place that guards Huaishui, is a place that must be saved by the Southern Tang Dynasty. As long as pressure is applied, reinforcements can be lured; Although there were casualties in the siege, we were able to double the reinforcements. ”

Guo Shaoxin said: You can do it! Tell Lao Tzu to rush to the front and take human lives to fill it, and you guys will pick up soft and pinch it in the back, right?

Li Chongjin thought so deeply and urged: "It is best to defeat Shouzhou, and it can really tear the mouth of Huainan; If you can't beat it, you have to put pressure on it! If Shouzhou is not even in danger at all, what will Nan** do to save it? General Guo, how much time do you need to discuss countermeasures? Is there any great strategy to stop the siege and delay time? ”

After a few questions, Guo Shao couldn't answer one, so he had to say: "The army wants to rest for three days, please ask General Li for permission." ”

"Three days, just three days!" Li Chongjin said.

…… Guo Shao returned to the city, ordered a truce among the departments, and summoned the generals to the camp to discuss. Everyone talked about it, but there was no good countermeasure, Guo Shao sat on the top and didn't say a word, allowing dozens of people to argue and discuss below.

What can be done?

Guo Shao was depressed and lost at first, remembering the queen's encouragement to him in a secret letter, asking him to have a satisfactory performance in Huainan...... But in this situation, there is no chance to perform. How to gnaw on high walls and thick soil? However, Zhao Kuangyin's gang fought very happily in front, and even his brother Li Jixun was in Shouzhou, and his errand was better.

Later, he wondered, what would happen if he slacked off? In Guo Shao's heart, the emperor should have been very dissatisfied with himself; Now the emperor himself is on the list, and if he does not behave well under his nose, he is judged to be worthless...... How will a person who holds the power of life and death treat a person who is not pleasing to the eye and has little value?

Guo Shao only felt that his palms were sweaty. Feelings at this moment: there is a delicious carrot in front of you that you can see but not eat; There was also a sword hanging over his head.

"I promised Huainan to deploy General Li, and I only rested for three days." Guo Shao spoke. Seeing that he had been silent for a long time, and suddenly wanted to speak, everyone closed their mouths one after another and turned their heads to look at Guo Shao.

Being watched by many eyes again, Guo Shao frowned and said: "Continue to attack the city in three days, wait a minute, you all report your respective numbers and responsible siege areas, and send them to General Li Chuyun." The amount of ordnance and materials was also reported to Mr. Zuo. Guo Shao pointed to the two people beside him.

The generals commanded. Guo Shao said again: "Nan** uses a lot of oil...... Fierce fire oil, it is easy to burn the ladder, and the method of ant attachment is even more difficult to make in Shouzhou. While we are attacking the city, let's try other methods and dig tunnels. ”

A general said: "General, the general of Shouzhou is Liu Renzhan, this person is a veteran general in the battle array, he has seen everything, and he found that we must be prepared to dig the soil, and it is difficult to make it effective." ”

Guo Shao thought for a while and said: "Now build some mound guard towers on the edge of the city, and then build some houses to cover them; Then dig pits and trenches. During the day, they dig tunnels in the houses, put the soil in the pits, and then quietly carry the soil away at night, and quietly walk out of the trenches. ”

……

Three days later, the siege continued. Li Chongjin sent someone to inquire about Guo Shao's "clever plan" to dig tunnels, and immediately sent someone to Chuzhou to report to the emperor.

At this time, Zhao Kuangyin made new contributions.

Originally, Chai Rong wanted to send Han Lingkun to attack Yangzhou, but Han Lingkun's army was small and delayed on the road; Zhao Kuangyin took the initiative to ask for battle, Chai Rong agreed, and ordered Zhao Kuangyin to lead the iron cavalry to quickly attack from Chuzhou. Although Yangzhou was a very important center of the Southern Tang Kingdom, he did not expect that the Zhou army could reach the rear of Huainan so quickly, and he was unprepared and had no soldiers. Zhao Kuangyin is not the eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty.

Zhao Kuangyin got a very beautiful woman, Yang. He heard that Chai Rong had arrived in Chuzhou, and he was unmoved by the courtesy of the Yang family, and then sent someone to send the Yang family to the emperor.

The emperor praised Zhao Kuangyin for his loyalty, and sent Yang back to reward Zhao Kuangyin. Zhao Kuangyin said that such a beautiful woman, he didn't dare to stay, and it was inconvenient to take in the woman with troops outside, so he must be dedicated to the emperor...... Yang was sent back and forth, and after walking the road between Chuzhou and Yangzhou three times, he was finally reluctantly accepted by the Great Zhou Emperor.

At this moment, Li Chongjin's people arrived in Chuzhou and told Guo Shao about the situation of the slack.

Li Chongjin's subordinates opened up in front of the emperor and said, "Guo Zhao is soft-hearted, rewarding and punishing has no basis, and there is no good strategy." Not only did they not punish the deserters, but they also gave rewards, so that the soldiers were at a loss, not knowing whether to flee or rush forward; When he took office, the weather was sunny and conducive to combat, but he had to take a truce for three days to deploy a clever strategy, and the clever strategy turned out to be digging tunnels! ”

Unexpectedly, Chai Rong was not angry, but looked back with a smile on his face and said: "A few months ago, Wang Pu said that Guo Shao was like a god and was good at observing fighters; In the blink of an eye, he became a person who rewarded and punished excessively in Li Chong's mouth. Who's right? ”

When Wang Pu heard his name, he hurriedly bent down and lowered his head.

Chai Rong turned his head to look at him and said, "Prime Minister Wang, you go to Shouzhou, and come back to report to me when you see it." ”

Wang Pu hurriedly said: "The minister's decree will definitely be played truthfully." ”

Wang Pu rushed to Shouzhou, neither went to the front line, but met Li Gu first. Li Gu had been a prime minister before, and had a good relationship with Wang Pu, and after listening to the situation in front of the emperor, he said: "Li Chongjin is not wrong in saying a word, Guo Duzhi is indeed a little soft-hearted, he ordered to stop the siege of the city before, and said in public: 'The battle is like this, and he will not be able to see the villagers when he goes back, for fear that the families of the soldiers will ask him for a husband and son. To fight a war is to die, and to say that is really bad for morale. ”

Li Gu thought for a while and said, "As for saying that he has no way to reward and punish, it is biased. The pardon of deserters is to let the deserters rush forward and die in battle; But those deserters were very desperate, and a few of them climbed the city wall at the cost of their lives, and nearly half of them were killed and wounded. Only then did Guo Du make sure that they could make up for their mistakes and forgive the sin of escaping. It is said that rewards and punishments are excessive, but it is a bit of a reversal of black and white. ”

Wang Pu breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, and said: "The mouth grows on people, and the words are really unbelievable!" I think of those ordinary people, and after the words were passed on a few times, they completely turned bad and became a rumor. ”

Li Gu bowed and said: "Wang Cheng knows a little when he sees it. ”

The two talked a little, and Wang Pu asked Li Gu to accompany him to the front line to see the situation with his own eyes. The siege continued, and some houses and fortifications were built in the southern part of the city wall, and everything looked normal, not much different from the previous siege, and he saw no signs of slacking off at first glance.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, I suddenly saw the soldiers of the Southern Tang Kingdom on the city tower laughing and mocking. Wang Pu looked around, and heard a noise on the other side of the fortification, and he hurriedly rode over to see what was going on.

It turned out that a large amount of water poured out of the house, flooding the trenches, and the people in the water shouted: "There are still people in it!" There's someone in there...... What to do? ”

Wang Pu shouted: "What's wrong? ”

A general said with a sad face: "We dug a tunnel, and accidentally dug into the underground water, and the groundwater suddenly overflowed, and many people drowned in the soil!" ”

Wang Pu's face darkened when he heard this, and when he saw that Nan ** on the city wall was actually defending the city, he still had the heart to look at the ditch full of water in the Zhou army's trench and laugh, Wang Pu's heart became more and more unhappy.

……

……

PS: There was a slight modification in the previous chapter: Guo Shao was only appointed as the Shouzhou Recruitment Envoy, and he was still appointed as the left wing of the Hujie Army.