Before, Li Yanqing assigned a question to his officers, asking everyone to think about where they would retreat if the Liangshan army gave up Shen County, and afterwards, Li Yanqing successively got the answers of the generals, and more than eighty percent of the generals believed that the Liangshan army would retreat to Bozhou, after all, Bozhou was the base camp of the main force of the Liangshan army when it attacked Hebei.

In fact, Li Yanqing also thought that the Liangshan army would retreat to Bozhou, but he had a clearer understanding than his subordinates, in fact, the only choice for the Liangshan army was to go east to Bozhou, attack the Daimyo's mansion to the north or go west to Xiangzhou.

With the morale and strength of the current Liangshan army, it is no longer possible to capture the Daimyo's Mansion, and the capitals of several other counties in the Daimyo's Mansion are dilapidated and cannot be defended at all, and they are farther away from the Yellow River.

Going to Xiangzhou is out of the Liangshan army's sphere of influence, unless they want to go to Taihang Mountain to occupy the mountain as the king, if there is really no way out, it is not impossible to go to Taihang Mountain to be the king, but at least they still have a way to live in Bozhou.

Liaocheng County and Gaotang County in Bozhou are both tall and strong cities, especially Gaotang County, which is the nest of the Liangshan Army in Hebei, the foundation of public opinion is good, and the grain and grass in the city are sufficient.

It's a pity that Song Jiang made an extremely wrong strategic decision, abandoning Gaotang County and letting the army of Gaotang County go south to the Daimyofu and join the Daimyo's army, but was completely annihilated by Li Yanqing and his army halfway.

However, now the Liangshan Army of Hebei still has a chance, Gaotang County only has 500 township soldiers stationed, and it is impossible to stop the army from attacking the city, if Song Jiang crosses the Yellow River from Gaotang County, it is completely possible to reoccupy Gaotang County, but unfortunately Song Jiang has made a wrong step and a wrong step, and it is impossible for him to occupy Gaotang County now, and the Shen County defenders of the Daimyo Mansion are far away.

The opportunity was left to the Liangshan army in Shen County, depending on whether they were determined to give up Shen County and go north and recapture Liaocheng or Gaotang County?

This decision made Zhang Cen, the chief general of Shen County, think about it for seven days, since the reinforcements were frustrated across the river, Zhang Cen was thinking about whether to give up Shen County to go north, he did have a lot of concerns, on the one hand, Shen County itself has a tall and strong city wall, easy to defend the south attack, and there is enough food in the city, so it is a pity to give up, and he does not know the situation in Gaotang County, there was enough grain and grass in Gaotang County before, but now, is it still the same as before?

What made Zhang Cen feel even more embarrassed was the attitude of his eldest brother Song Jiang, whether Song Jiang still wanted to support him, if he still had to send reinforcements over, he couldn't leave Shen County, but Song Jiang did have a vague attitude, just let him stick to Hebei and wait for rescue, so should he stick to the Daimyo's Mansion or stick to Bozhou? Song Jiang never gave a clear answer, which really made Zhang Cen undecided.

At night, Zhang Cen stood on the city wall with his hands in his hands, looking at the fields outside the city that were illuminated by the moonlight exceptionally clearly, and he turned around and asked, "Do they still appear?" ”

Two days ago, the defenders found that there were enemy soldiers in the distance 100 paces away, Zhang Cen sent several spies to check, but there was no return, Zhang Cen wanted to send troops out, but did not dare to act rashly, lest he be annihilated by the opponent's cavalry in one fell swoop, he had to be depressed, observing the movement of the enemy army at the head of the city.

The leader stepped forward and said, "General Qiyu, I didn't notice their movement today, it seems to have stopped." ”

Zhang Cen shook his head, "If they didn't achieve their goal, how could they stop?" ”

"What the hell are these bastards doing?" One of the generals couldn't help but curse.

"General, are they digging holes in the ground to attack the city?" The Commander said cautiously.

Zhang Cen turned around and gave him a slap and scolded: "I see your brain is!" We have a moat three feet deep under the city, do they dig holes in the ground to find death? ”

The commander was so beaten that he didn't dare to say anything, Zhang Cen watched for a while, and his heart became impatient, so he said to him: "You continue to observe, if there is any abnormal enemy situation, you must notify me immediately!" ”

After speaking, Zhang Cen turned around and went down to the city, and the commander kicked a few soldiers next to him fiercely, "You continue to observe Lao Tzu, and notify me immediately if there is any abnormal enemy situation!" ”

He yawned and went down to town to find a place to drink.

In fact, there was no movement outside, the soldiers of the Liangshan Army had been fighting with the officers and soldiers for almost a month, and the officers and soldiers had never shown signs of attacking the city, not even the siege ladder had appeared, and the soldiers defending the city had long been slack.

When the generals went down to the city at night to drink or fool around with women, the soldiers also went to find their own places to sleep, and only a few soldiers were left in the city to patrol back and forth and keep vigil.

At the time of the fourth watch, it is the time when the night is the deepest sleep, and it is also the time when the garrison of the city head is the weakest, only four teams of soldiers are left to patrol the city head, southeast and northwest, each of the four city heads has a team to patrol, the soldiers of the Xuanwu battalion have long discovered this characteristic, and they are acting at the time of the fourth watch.

Outside the north city, a slope about 100 steps away from the city wall, several soldiers slowly pushed away a large stone, revealing a dark hole, the commander of the city head actually guessed correctly, the army outside the city was indeed digging a hole, they spent ten days digging a 100-step tunnel, only two days ago they were inadvertently discovered by the soldiers at the head of the city, but the soldiers of the Xuanwu battalion coped properly, and killed every soldier who came out to check the situation, without exposing their attempts.

In the middle of spring, the weather in the north is relatively clear, it rarely rains, especially at night, the moonlight is bright, the silver moonlight shines on the field outside the city, the city head can see very clearly, the night is within a hundred steps outside the city, it is easy to be found by the city head.

Li Yanqing wanted to get close to the city wall at night, so he could only find another way, Zhang Cen was actually right, there was a moat outside, and it was impossible to enter the city by digging a hole, but the soldiers of the Xuanwu battalion did not dig a hole to enter the city, but to get as close to the moat as possible.

This is a detail discovered by Li Yanqing, after the fourth watch, the defenders at the head of the city changed to a patrol system, and the patrol soldiers did not walk close to the battlements, but about a foot away from the battlements, so that a state of darkness under the lights would be formed, and the defenders at the head of the city could not see the moat and the root of the city wall.

As long as they dig a tunnel to reach the moat, they can directly enter the area that the defenders can't see, which is called the details determine success or failure, as long as they dig deep into the details, there will often be unexpected gains.

At this time, Li Yanqing led hundreds of soldiers to appear in the woods dozens of steps away from the tunnel entrance, which is also where the Liangshan soldiers are inexperienced, they did not think of the Jianbi Qingye in advance, and cut down this forest, of course, before Li Yanqing led the Xuanwu Battalion to appear in the Daimyo's Mansion, the Liangshan Army has always occupied the offensive advantage, even if they have experience, they will not bother to do the thing of the Jianbi Qingye, even if it is found out now, but it is too late.

Li Yanqing waved his hand, and more than 20 soldiers rushed towards the tunnel entrance with five earth-shattering thunderbolts wrapped tightly in oilcloth, the tunnel entrance was a slope, and it was a hundred steps away, and the defenders at the head of the city could not see the situation here at night, and more than 20 soldiers drilled into the tunnel one after another.

In the woods, Li Yanqing watched the situation at the head of the city, he had deployed 14,000 township soldiers to Liaocheng County and Gaotang County in Bozhou the day before yesterday, under the command of Wang Gui and Niu Gao respectively, they were responsible for defending these two important cities, and the next step was to invite the Liangshan army out of Shen County.

Li Yanqing only had 2,000 troops, and it was not easy for him to completely defeat the Liangshan army in Hebei, Zhang Cen had obviously learned a lesson, and would never divide his troops again, and with 2,000 troops against the well-trained 5,500 troops, even if he had 1,000 cavalry in his hands, Li Yanqing was not sure.

Even if they played well and defeated the enemy army, it would inevitably be a disastrous victory, and they themselves would suffer heavy casualties, which was not the result that Li Yanqing wanted, so to defeat the Liangshan army must use extraordinary means.

At this time, more than two dozen soldiers had come out of the ground through an exit five feet away from the moat, which had been dug for the last time an hour earlier, and a dark hole appeared in the ground, which was covered by a large wooden plate, and three soldiers were the first to get out, and they took off their clothes and quietly slipped into the moat, and at the same time dragged the large wooden plate into the river.

The soldiers at the head of the city could not see the situation in the moat, several soldiers used a large wooden plate to send heavy earth-shaking thunders across the moat, twenty-five soldiers divided into five teams, and began to run close to the city wall, according to Li Yanqing's plan, each city wall should explode a sky-shaking thunder, and the last one was used to blow up the north city gate.

The soldiers carried iron hooks and crowbars, and after they had used the iron crowbars to loosen the bricks of the city wall, it was easy to hook out a whole brick with the iron hooks.

It only took a quarter of an hour, several soldiers dug a big hole in the city wall two feet square and three feet deep, which was filled with sand and mud, although the city wall of Shen County was very thick, even if five earth-shaking thunderbolts could not collapse the city wall, but the city wall would be seriously damaged, in the face of the broken city wall and the powerful earth-shaking thunder, Li Yanqing believed that his judgment would not be wrong, and the Liangshan army would inevitably choose to leave.

At this time, the five soldiers under the north city wall jumped into the water one after another, and Li Yanqing also saw a burning spark, and he hurriedly shouted to the soldiers around him: "Cover your ears and squat down!" ”

The soldiers covered their ears and squatted down, Li Yanqing also covered his ears tightly, only to hear an extremely dull explosion, this is the effect of covering his ears tightly, but for the unprepared soldiers of the Liangshan Army on the city wall, this is an explosion that shatters the sky and the earth, and their hearts are about to be shattered.