That night, the Marshal of Yulin City was also arguing about Li Yue's army.

Commander Li Geng sat on the main seat, and there were a number of generals and soldiers under him.

One person said: "Li Yue's 10,000 vanguard troops have arrived in Ningming, and Ningming will be completely occupied, and the follow-up army will come within two days, fortunately, the 10,000 vanguard troops are stationed in Ningming, and they did not rush to Yulin first, we still have time to evacuate and leave the land of right and wrong, otherwise when the hundreds of thousands of troops arrive, our guerrilla army will die without a place to be buried." General, let's get out of the way. ”

Li Geng ignored it.

Another person said: "What to withdraw, the enemy didn't see it, and you saw the enemy when you came to Yulin?" Now we want to run away before the enemy comes, are we here to fight, or are we here to play hide and seek? ”

When the man heard this, he was anxious, and immediately fought back: "They are more than 100,000 people, and the strength is more than ten times that of us, how can they fight?" Once they are surrounded in Yulin, the fight will be annihilated, and if you don't leave now, when will you wait! ”

As soon as these words came out, some people echoed: "Yes, the enemy's vanguard occupies Ningming, instead of rushing down to Liangshan, the intention is obvious, that is, to capture Yulin, as their forward fortress to enter Yongzhou again in the future, Yulin City is bound to win, our strength is very different, we can't compete with them at all, temporary retreat is the best policy." ”

Another humanitarian: "How can the enemy army be so terrible as you say, they have more than 100,000 people, but they are really worthy of a battle, it will definitely not exceed 50,000 people, and the rest are auxiliary troops, temporarily pulled to make up the number, our Youyi army is the elite of the palace front division, well-equipped, well-trained, all of them are veterans, rich in combat experience, and they occupy Yulin City, and they can completely fight with 50,000 enemy troops who lack food and grass." In addition, we walked thousands of miles, came from the north, did not even see a small soldier of the enemy, retreated without fighting, I was ashamed to say it, I thought that the Guyi army should hold on to Yulin City, in less than three days, they would have to retreat to the south of Da Nan Pass. ”

"You said it simply, even if they only have 50,000 people to fight, can a small city like Yulin stop 50,000 people? If you have time, you go out to see what the city defense of Yulin City looks like, not to mention the perennial disrepair, before Li Yue people attacked the city and destroyed several places, now the city defense is full of loopholes, how to defend? Not to mention 50,000 people, even if 30,000 people come to attack, we can't prevent it, staying here is to die in vain, if you don't leave early, when they come, you won't be able to leave. General, you'd better hurry up and get an idea. The general who proposed to withdraw reminded Li Geng again.

Li Geng didn't say anything for a long time, whether to defend or retreat, and he couldn't choose.

There are more than 10,000 people in the Youyi army, and it is not easy to come to the border of Guangnan, if they retreat here, they will not be able to get any meritorious achievements, first, it is difficult to explain to their brothers, second, they will become the laughing stock of others, and third, the reputation of the Youyi army will be greatly damaged. What's worse is that he had already sent someone to send the news of the recapture of Yulin and Da Nanguan by the You Yi army to Yongzhou urgently, if they gave up at this moment and returned to Yongzhou in a gloomy manner, they really had no face to face those colleagues.

If you stick to Yulin and do not retreat, the grain and grass in the city can support a month, but the city defense is indeed as the general said, perennial disrepair, many damage, many weak points, the defense is very difficult, once it can not be held, even if it is surrounded by 100,000 enemy troops, it is not difficult for the Guyi army to break through, but it is inevitable to lose thousands of troops, all of them are brothers who have followed for many years, and anyone who falls will feel distressed.

But he couldn't accept this trip empty-handed, even if he made a mistake and lost his troops, he had to fight again.

After glancing at the generals and joining the army, Li Geng said in a loud voice: "Do you remember who we are?" We are the Imperial Palace's Si You Yijun, a forbidden army, and no matter where we represent, we represent the face of the emperor and the court. Yulin is an important border town of the Great Song Dynasty, and the Great South Pass is an important pass for Li Yue to the Great Song Dynasty, none of which can be lost, since the Youyi army is here, we must stick to the end, move swords and guns with the enemy, and let the 50,000 Guangnan troops who retreat to Yongzhou see, our Youyi army, the forbidden army dares to fight, even if it is defeated, we dare to fight! ”

After a pause, he said: "From today onwards, I don't want to hear any more retreats, and anyone who dares to retreat will be punished as deserters!" ”

The generals who suggested retreating and the soldiers looked at each other, their faces were ugly, and they did not dare to refute.

And the people who insisted on sticking to Yulin and fighting the enemy couldn't hide the smug look on their faces.

Li Geng continued: "The city defense of Yulin has stepped up the repair, recruited all the people in the city, and strengthened all the weak points within two days. In addition, all the troops were transferred back to Yulin, and the city of Yulin was closed, and the city was held against the enemy. ”

"General, is the Great South Pass not guarded?" Aribu General couldn't help but ask.

Li Gengdao: "Liangshan City has been surrounded by enemy troops, after taking Liangshan, they will soon go north to Da Nan Pass, if they follow the retreating enemy army to attack Da Nan Pass in the north and south, it will be captured in an instant, and it is okay not to defend it." Concentrating the forces on Yulin is just right to deal with the enemy, and the certainty of holding Yulin is greater. ”

"The general is wise!" All the generals and the army members praised in unison.

Li Geng's face remained unchanged, and he said in a loud voice: "That's it for today, go back to consolidate the city defense, and prepare well." ”

"Yes." Everyone responded in unison.

"In addition, if anyone comes to Liangshan in the past two days, close the city gate and ignore it." Li Geng added.

Someone was puzzled and asked: "General, why is this, although those people are not good at fighting, they can be flexible with their hands and feet, and it is okay to help defend the city." ”

Without waiting for Li Geng to answer, someone rushed to say: "There is so much food in the city, they are here, what are we going to eat?" Do you want to take your rations out to them? ”

Li Geng said: "The lack of food is only one aspect, the key is that their military discipline is loose and difficult to discipline, and the possibility of entering the city to cause chaos is far higher than providing help to the Youyi army, so let them fend for themselves." ”

Everyone knew in their hearts, a small Huiyi escort team, by chance, won a few games, they wanted to fly to the sky, compete with the You Yi army, and dare to refuse the You Yi army's kind invitation to defend Yulin, it is simply not the height of the sky, they deserve to be surrounded by Li Yue's enemy army, if they have the ability to break through to Yulin City, it is really a good show.

At the end of the discussion, everyone dispersed, and only Li Geng sat alone in the hall.

How to defend Yulin City, how to break through if he can't hold it, and where to break through, he has to think clearly.

Sticking to Yulin is a dangerous move, if you don't want to retreat, resulting in heavy losses to the Youyi army, and lose the battle, he will definitely bear this responsibility, it is best to win, even if he can't win, the loss of troops can not be too great, but in the face of hundreds of thousands of enemy troops, it is really a headache.

On this night, Li Geng was destined to be unable to sleep.

After two defeats, the enemy forces outside Liangshan City did not attack again the next day.

The Xuanwei army took advantage of this gap to organize manpower to dig soil and mud in the city, and gradually painted the wooden planks covered on the battlements of the city head wall one by one with thick mud.

A day later, the enemy troops outside the city organized another attack, and under the suppression of the arrow array, they rushed to the moat with wooden planks and shields, but when crossing the river, they were short of tools, and their hands were in a hurry, and their defenses were somewhat lax, and they were blocked by the dense rain of arrows fired by the Xuanwei army and the young men in the city, leaving thousands of people behind, and had no choice but to retreat.

After the end, the city shouted as usual, giving the enemy half an hour to treat the wounded, as long as they did not carry weapons, and did not attack them during the rescue period.

Since the enemy army had already saved people under the noses of the defenders of the city the day before yesterday, after this shout, they did not hesitate much, and quickly sent people to bring back hundreds of wounded soldiers one by one, and then retreated, still stationed a mile away, surrounding Liangshan City.

After Liangshan City experienced this attack, Yang Congyi quickly gathered everyone to discuss the enemy's strategy, the enemy army has attacked the moat, next time they improve the attack formation and methods, it is likely to rush to the city, once they reach the city, into the bow and arrow shooting dead end, the city defense will be in danger.

Previously, they overestimated the power of the bow and arrow, thinking that they could stop the enemy army before reaching the moat with a dense rain of arrows, and did not want the enemy to find so many plank shields to greatly reduce the lethality of the bow and arrow.

Everyone discussed, couldn't think of a good way to crack the shield, decided to try it with fire, it is winter, there are a lot of weeds outside the city, the shield can not be burned, but it can burn the weeds on the ground, the wildfire ignites the enemy's clothes together, their charge will inevitably be affected, the formation is chaotic, the crossing of the river is blocked, the river can not be crossed, the siege battle will naturally fail.

Fifteen or six thousand enemy troops outside the city have organized three attacks, leaving three or four thousand corpses, and the troops are losing nearly one-third.

The Liangshan government issued an announcement that lamp oil is a military shortage of materials, after dark, no people are allowed to light lamps at home, from now on lamp oil can be exchanged for food, three days later found that there is still a private collection of lamp oil, will be confiscated free of charge.

The grain was moved to the gate of the government office, and the young and strong people, under the leadership of the Xuanwei army, spread the grain all over the city to exchange the lamp oil, and all the goods that were not exchanged within three days were confiscated.

Ordinary people don't have much lamp oil, and they don't have that spare money, they go to bed as soon as it gets dark, and the oil lamps used at home are not too bad.

In one day, Xuanwei collected dozens of barrels of lamp oil, moved it back to the government office, and began to make rockets.

Cotton strips dipped in oil, drained and tied to the shaft of the arrow, after ignition, can burn for a long time, accumulate into a lot, tens of thousands of rockets, enough to spread a sea of fire, although not to burn the enemy, to disrupt their formation, to block their attack, but it is completely sufficient.

Bundles of rockets were carried up to the city, and the Xuanwei army stationed at the head of the city and the Liangshan Qingzhuang people had two hands, and when to use rockets, they had their own orders.

The enemy troops outside the city were in a commotion again, and watching these rockets arrive, the confidence of the four gate guards increased slightly.