When Lu Xiangsheng heard the scout's report, he couldn't help but sneer, these thieves are really naïve, knowing that there are two or three hundred thousand horses waiting for him in Yicheng, will he still be stupid and rush into it? Pingyang Mansion is not the top of Huashan, there is only one road to enter, there are many ways to enter Pingyang Mansion, from Yangcheng over the reckless mountains to enter the boundary of Yicheng is the most difficult road, why should he give up the difficulty?

It takes at least five or six days to reach Yicheng from Yangcheng to the west, and it only takes five or six days to rush to Fenzhou from Yangcheng to the north of Yanguan Road, and the south of Fenzhou is Lingshi City, which is the last stronghold of the imperial court in Pingyang Mansion. Lu Xiangsheng originally planned to enter Pingyang Mansion from Fenzhou, first go to Lingshi City to rest and then go to suppress thieves, at that time, there are still 10,000 or 20,000 thieves in Huozhou south of Lingshi City, and now the main force is running to Yicheng, it would be good to leave a few thousand people to guard, when will you not take it at this time?

Lu Xiangsheng came up with an idea after studying the map for a while, and he ordered his deputy general Zhang Hongye to lead the 10,000 soldiers who were injured in the attack camp to stay in Wang Jiayin's camp to bluff, while he took the main force of 90,000 to make a detour to Lu'an Mansion to Fenzhou.

Along the way, day and night, the army arrived in Fenzhou five days later, Lu Xiangsheng did not immediately enter the territory of Pingyang Mansion, but first sent people to Lingshi City to understand the situation.

The thief really thought that he would directly attack Yicheng in the southwest, and the main force all ran over there, leaving only two or three thousand men and horses in Huozhou and Fenxi near Lingshi City.

Such a good opportunity naturally cannot be missed, Lu Xiangsheng immediately led the army to secretly move to a valley more than ten miles north of Lingshi City to hide, and then secretly ordered the prefect of Pingyang to ...... so.

The next day, there was a strange scene in Lingshi City, the prefect of Pingyang didn't know what was crazy in his brain, and he actually sent the only 5,000 defenders out of 4,000, 2,000 to Fenxi City at the southwest gate, and 2,000 to Huozhou City in the south, and set up camp less than 200 steps below the city to build siege equipment!

Sending 2,000 men to attack a city guarded by more than 2,000 people is a psychotic offense, right? You think the more than 2,000 thieves in the city are papier-mâché!

"Sun Tzu's Art of War" has a cloud: the method of using soldiers, ten is to encircle it, five is to attack it, and if it is doubled, it will be divided, and the enemy will be able to fight, if it is less, it can be escaped, and if it is not, it can be avoided. If you want to attack the city, not to mention ten times the number of troops, at least five times the number of troops, which is less than the enemy's strength, and you still run to attack the city, that is looking for death, I am afraid that all the people will die before they have attacked the city wall!

The defenders of Pingyang City seemed to have taken the wrong medicine, completely ignoring the art of war, and they were working hard to build siege equipment, and the siege equipment they built was still very monotonous, that is, the ladder and the well. The ladder is just a matter of two pillars, anyway, there are only two pillars and some horizontal burdens, and no one can make a mistake; The well is a bit strange, the city wall is obviously only two people high, but they built three people high, and they don't have wheels, they built row after row there, I don't know if they really can't build it, or they miscalculated the height of the city wall.

The thieves on the city wall were laughing like crazy, and from time to time there were thieves jumping on the arrow stacks, standing on them and mocking vigorously, and for a while the foul language was endless, what:

"Hey, on the other side, are you sick in the brain, do you know that the well is going to bring wheels?"

"Oh, I'm so scared, you didn't want to laugh us to death by making so many wells without wheels, did you?"

"You are bluffing, don't you want to lure us out of the city to beat you, are we as stupid as you?"

"Hey, it's time to eat, your mother told you to go back to eat, hahahaha."

......

The defenders of Pingyang seem to be enchanted, no matter how the thieves on the city wall mock, they are covered with their heads, the ladder is enough for tens of thousands of people, they still keep building, the well is almost as wide as the city wall, they still keep building, keep building.

By the afternoon of the fifth day, they had finally stopped, and by this time the wells had been lined up as wide as the city wall opposite, and the ladders had been placed on the ground, which was probably enough for twenty or thirty thousand people. And so they threw the wells and ladders which they had made there, but the men went back to the camp to rest.

The thieves in the city are not stupid, with the advantage of the city wall, their more than 2,000 people can completely crush the officers and troops on the opposite side, but if they rush down and fight them on the flat ground, I am afraid that even twice the number of people will not be able to defeat them. These thieves are not as battle-hardened as Wang Jiayin's subordinates, they are just farmers who have just put down their hoes, brute force is so strong, still a rolling stone or something may be stronger than the official army, and even pull the bow and shoot arrows, anyway, they are defending the city, just pull the bow and shoot down, a rain of arrows can always shoot dozens or hundreds of people. But if it is a real fight, it is estimated that two or three of them will not be able to defeat a single officer or soldier.

The thieves on the city wall did not come down, and the officers and soldiers under the city wall did not attack, and the night passed in peace.

Early in the morning of the sixth day, when the thieves on the city wall looked down again, they were so frightened that they almost fell off the city wall.

Under the city wall, I don't know when countless officers and soldiers came, and the dense number was not countable, and those with muskets on their backs were trying to climb up the well, and those sword and shield soldiers, spearmen, and halberd soldiers were carrying the ladder and standing in a row after row, this posture, I am afraid that I want to spread the ladder all over the city wall.

Naturally, it was the army under Lu Xiangsheng, he left 10,000 transport soldiers to guard the camp, and the remaining 80,000 horses, he personally led 40,000 to attack Huozhou City, and Cao Wenzhao took another 40,000 to attack Fenxi City.

At this time, under the city of Huozhou, 40,000 troops gathered, and Lu Xiangsheng stood in front of the cloud ladder in the middle and waited quietly.

In fact, it does not take 40,000 horses to attack a small city guarded by only two or three thousand people, the reason why Lu Xiangsheng arranged it this way, first of all, this time he used a new tactic, that is, to use flintlock pistols to suppress firepower, no one has done this, and the specific effect is unknown, so it is natural to prepare more men and horses.

Then, time waits for no one, he must fight quickly, take Huozhou and Fenxi in one fell swoop, don't look at the southwest corner of Pingyang, in fact, it is more than two hundred miles away from Huozhou, and it will be there in one day, and the reason why he asked the prefect of Pingyang to build siege equipment first is this reason.

If he had led a large army to come at the beginning, then the matter might not have been so simple, the thieves in Huozhou and Fenxi City would definitely quickly inform the thirty-sixth battalion of Yicheng, and if the other side reacted immediately, there were cavalry to come to help, and it would only take two days to go.

Even if his 90,000 troops come over, he must build siege equipment, people can't climb the city wall out of thin air, and no matter how many people there are, it will take a day or two to build siege equipment, and at that time, the cavalry of the thieves who have not yet begun to siege the city will arrive, and the 36 battalions of cavalry can add up to 50,000 or 60,000, and 90,000 people will attack the city guarded by 50,000 people, and it will not be able to go down without ten days and half a month, and the infantry of the thieves will have already arrived after ten days, and by then, let alone the siege of the city, whether his 90,000 army can retreat is a question.

So he asked the prefect of Pingyang to send 2,000 men and horses to build siege equipment first, so that the thieves in the city would only think that the prefect of Pingyang was crazy, even if they sent someone to notify the thieves in Yicheng, the Yicheng side would not care much. And once the siege equipment is built, as long as there are enough people, it will only take a matter of one or two hours to break the city, and then the thieves will not be able to return to the sky.

Finally, there is a very important reason, that is, he doesn't want to cause too many casualties, after all, he has a total of 90,000 people, but there are more than 200,000 thieves, if the casualties in the siege battle are too large, he will be overstretched when facing the main force of the thieves. For mobile phone users, please browse and read,