Wang Ziwu seemed to grasp a life-saving straw, and hurriedly smiled: "It's up to Zhou Prison to be detained!" But then he said worriedly: "Prison Zhou, you 800 people are hanging alone outside the city, and there are many food thieves, but I am afraid that the crowd will be outnumbered, why don't you enter the city——"

"Commanding the Army!" Zhou Ping interrupted Wang Ziwu's words, and said in a deep voice: "It is precisely because of the small number of soldiers that we must set up a village outside the city, there is a canal outside the west gate of Xiuzhou City, and the place is narrow and cannot be opened, and there is a big pond outside the east gate, which is not conducive to the attack of thieves." If I am not mistaken, the thieves must have come from the south gate, and we will wait for the village to be set up outside the city, as long as the village cannot be built, the thieves will not be able to go straight to the city gate. The city is big and the village is small, even if there are millions of thieves, there are only more than a thousand people who can force me in front of the village, the thieves have no armor, as long as I shoot with a strong bow and a crossbow, what are I afraid of? ”

"That's good, that's good!" After listening to Zhou Ping's analysis, the gloom on Wang Ziwu's face finally disappeared a little, and he sighed: "You have also seen that a certain family was originally a scribe and didn't know how to fight, but he didn't want to cultivate in his previous life, but he actually met a demon king like Fang La in this land south of the Yangtze River, and was entrusted with the position of commander of the army by the official family, it is true, it is true-" Speaking of this, Wang Ziwu's eyes were already moist, and two lines of old tears flowed out.

Looking at Shangguan's appearance, Zhou Ping couldn't help but be dumbfounded, Fang La hadn't come over yet, and this commander was like this in the fortified city. Then when Fang La fights over, what should the soldiers who are fighting to the death feel when they are facing their white blades? Zhou Ping had to whisper and comfort: "Please rest assured that as long as there is a general, there will be Xiuzhou!" ”

As soon as Zhou Ping's words fell, he heard a rush of footsteps outside, and turned around to see that it was Xue Liangyu, who was in charge of the cavalry, and saw the nervousness on his face, and saluted Wang Ziwu and himself, and said loudly, "The thief has arrived, and its forward is less than ten miles away from the south gate." ”

"Ten miles? How many are there, and who is their leader? Zhou Ping hurriedly asked.

Xue Liangyu's face showed a rare look of nervousness, and he replied in a low voice: "The thieves are all over the mountains, and they all wrap their heads in cloth, like moths, and there are countless of them!" Speaking of this, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said: "I'm afraid that there are no less than 10,000 people, because of its large number of troops, the scouts dare not get too close, and I don't know who the leader of the thieves is." ”

As soon as Xue Liangyu's words fell, Zhou Ping heard a gurgling sound behind him, and when he looked back, he couldn't help but be shocked, it turned out that Wang Ziwu had fallen to the ground.

"Come on, come on! The master of the army has fainted! Zhou Ping hurriedly helped Wang Ziwu up, only to see that his eyes had rolled and he was unconscious, so he hurriedly stretched out his hand and pinched a few times in the other party, and after half a ring, Wang Ziwu woke up leisurely, and smiled bitterly at Zhou Ping: "Hey, Juncheng, the old man is not done, you take the letter away, and the matter of defending the city depends on you!" ”

Zhou Ping looked at Wang Ziwu, who was surrounded by Mrs. Wang and several concubines who were crying from the outside, his eyes were slightly closed, and he said with a wry smile: "Xiaguan must do his best!" ”

When Zhou Ping returned to the main hall of the Yamen, all the officers in the city had already arrived. In order to ensure the morale of the army, Zhou Ping did not say the ugly state of Fang Cai Wang Ziwu, but directly took out the talisman letter from his arms and showed it to the generals, and then said in a deep voice: "The unified army is slightly ill, entrust the letter to me, command the whole city of military horses, the army of thieves is coming, the rank must follow the order of a certain family, strive to kill the thief, if there is a cowering." Speaking of this, Zhou Ping pulled out his waist knife and slashed it, and said: "Zhou knows you, but he doesn't know this knife!" ”

"Whoa!" Everyone responded in unison, Zhou Ping nodded, and then loudly assigned the generals, he has been in Xiuzhou for almost ten days, and he is from the background of studying architecture, so he has already drawn a concise diagram. Whenever he called out a person's name, he would specify in detail on the map the defense area that the other party was responsible for, who would defend the city, and who would patrol it, and there would be a division of labor. As the saying goes, "will be the guts of the army", although everyone heard that Wang Ziwu was sick, but when they saw Zhou Ping so calm and clearly assigned, they calmed down.

Seeing that all the generals were going to guard, Zhou Ping sighed and said to Chang Zongtian on the side: "Chang Yuhou, go to the south gate and see what these Manichae thieves are really capable of!" ”

When Zhou Ping and Chang Zongtian ascended to the tower of the South Gate, the forward of Fang Lajun's army had already entered the line of sight of the two of them. According to the rules of Fang La, the peasant army used cloth to wrap their heads, which were divided into six grades, which were distinguished by color. Since the peasant army had obtained a large amount of booty during the capture of Hangzhou and other prefectures, many people simply used the captured silk as the material for their headscarves, and the bright colors reflected the originally gloomy sky. The people standing on the tower of the city couldn't help but be dumbfounded for a while.

"I don't want thieves to be so powerful!" After a while, I don't know if it was the one who whispered, Zhou Ping looked back and saw that everyone's dark faces were a little pale, and they were obviously a little frightened. It's no wonder that even Zhou Ping himself is a little weak-hearted, after all, he has commanded a large-scale battle of hundreds of people at most in the past, but there are more than 10,000 people on the opposite side, and they can drown themselves if they spit on them.

"It's okay, thieves don't know the art of war, it's not difficult to defeat!" Chang Zongtian said with a smile.

"How so? Chang Yu waits for a plan to break the enemy? Zhou Ping hurriedly asked.

"Hmm!" Chang Zongtian said: "Looking at the appearance of the thief, he should have come all the way, he never rested and ate all the way, and the teams were too close, leaving not enough gaps, and the banner was too chaotic, as long as the initial battle was unfavorable, it was easy to trample on each other." ”

"Sure enough!" Zhou Ping looked at the situation of the peasant army, and sure enough, as Chang Zongtian said, the shape of the various armies was a little chaotic, and the banners were also very chaotic. It turns out that in ancient times, there were no advanced communication tools, and once the two armies clashed and the dogs and teeth were staggered, it would certainly not be enough to use the communication officer alone, and the method used was nothing more than a banner and a drum. Generally speaking, the army of a small unit has a flag, and the soldiers of this unit look at this flag, and the soldiers who are in front of the flag are forward, and the soldiers who are backward in the flag are back. If this flag is finished, although the soldiers are still there, they can only fight on their own, and they cannot form a joint force, and tactically speaking, this unit will cease to exist. There should be a certain gap between the armies of different units, so that the generals can command the armies of these units to complete tactical actions such as forwarding, retreating, and detouring. And the size of this gap is learning, too big is easy to be wedged by the enemy army, and too small once the enemy forces squeeze back, different units huddled together, will lose the original order, then the general will not only be unable to command these units, and even there will be a tragic situation of cannibalism and trampling. The peasant army lacked experienced junior officers, and the soldiers were not well trained, so the distance between the teams was obviously too close, and in the event of a surprise attack, it was easy to fall into a situation of trampling on each other.

"Then beat the drum and march immediately, and be caught off guard!" Xue Liangyu, who was surnamed anxious on the side, said hurriedly.

"There are too many thieves, there are few of us, and it will be troublesome to be surrounded!" Chang Zongtian looked at the peasant army that kept popping up from the distant horizon, and said in a low voice: "If only I could come up with a way to drag on for half an hour, so that those puppies are hungry and thirsty!" ”

"Half an hour?" Zhou Ping rolled his eyes when he heard this, and turned around and said, "Coach Yang!" ”

"The last general!" Yang Wuda replied loudly.

"You should go down to the city and go out of the camp immediately, challenge the thief army, and try to spend as much time as possible, you know?"

"The last general understands!" Yang Wu immediately understood what Zhou Ping meant, his face turned red, and he replied loudly.

"It's good to understand, but you also have to be careful with your own safety!" Zhou Ping smiled: "Remember, try to delay time, as long as you can defeat the thief army, you will be the first credit!" ”

"Whoa!" Yang Wu answered, turned around and left, Xue Liangyu on the side was anxious, rushed forward and said: "Prisoner, why don't you let me go, I'm no worse than him in terms of archery and horse kung fu!" ”

"Panic what!" Zhou Ping snorted coldly: "You go down and loosen all the horses, feed them with good food, and everyone has a full meal, rest and stand by!" ”

"Whoa!" Xue Liangyu replied and retreated.

"Li Dutou, Kong Dutou!" Zhou Ping shouted.

"The last general!"

"The two of you led the two crossbowmen, went out from the east gate, and swung along the reeds by the lake to the side of the thieves, and when they saw fireworks burning on the tower of the south gate, they shouted loudly and fired crossbows at the thieves! Do you understand? ”

"Whoa!"

Seeing that all his subordinates were busy carrying out the order, Zhou Ping turned around and smiled at Chang Zongtian: "Chang Yuhou, do you think my dispatch is okay?" ”

"Good!" Chang Zongtian raised his thumb and praised: "If I hadn't heard that you didn't have a slight northwest accent, I would have thought that you were a general of our Western Army!" It seems that this time I am always with the right person, and I have to move around a few rounds. ”

Chen Antian sat on a corpse, standing out among the peasant army on foot in the brigade. The reason is very simple, after he was appointed as a pioneer by Fang Qifo, he rode a war horse that he had just gotten and hurried, and the result was that the inner side of the two ** was worn out by the saddle, and it hurt to touch it, so he could only sit on the seat and command the battle.

"Both! In front of it is Xiuzhou City! A general with a green cloth on his head pointed to the city wall in the distance and said loudly.

"Hmm!" Chen Antian looked at the city wall in the distance, as a general commanding a huge army of more than 10,000 people, he was far from qualified, but as a middle-level Manichaean cadre, he still had considerable experience in commanding group fights in the countryside. Moreover, he himself has a maternal uncle who is a native of Xiuzhou, and he has been here several times, so he is very clear about the terrain of Xiuzhou City, which is also an important reason why Fang Qifei chose him instead of others to serve as the vanguard of the 60,000-strong army.

"The east gate and the west gate are too narrow outside, and the north gate has to bypass the entire Xiuzhou City." Chen Antian said to himself: "I didn't expect the officers and soldiers to build a camp outside the south gate, but they are not small!" Speaking of this, Chen Antian sneered, he was not too worried about whether he could capture Xiuzhou City, and the smooth ride since the incident gave him considerable confidence. More importantly, he was well aware of the resentment of the entire southeastern region against the Northern Song Dynasty for more than a hundred years. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the strategy of first south and then north was adopted, in order to take the southeast land first, and raise the world's elite soldiers to the north with its rich wealth. However, for the people of the southeast and Shu at that time, the Song army at that time was actually a group of invaders from the north, and the Song army at that time inherited the shortcomings of the five generations of rebellious armies. Everywhere he went, he often slaughtered and plundered, and in Shu provoked the famous Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun uprisings. After this, although the Northern Song Dynasty was not able to restore Yanyun, whether it was the annual tribute paid to the Liao State or the long war between the northwest and the Western Xia. All greatly increased the burden of the people in the southeast at that time, to the Daojun Emperor came to power after the "Huashi Gang" was the last straw that broke the camel's back, Chen Antian believed that as long as he began to attack the city, Xiuzhou City will be like other southeast counties, the citizens of the city will also cooperate with the outside to break the city. (To be continued.) )