Wang Deng snorted angrily, and then understood his intention to cover his body: "You are going to go out tonight to attack the enemy at night?" ”

Yang Luo tightly fastened the belt on his coat, and said in a slightly mocking tone: "Night is a good time to fight, and I can't do anything in the Tulong Army when I go out of the city to fight the powerful Hu Cavalry during the day. He nodded at Zheng Yunming.

Zheng Yunming once again showed his trademark ambiguous smile: "Resist their strengths with regular soldiers and attack their weaknesses with surprise soldiers, this is the reason why I, Zheng Yunming, use soldiers." ”

He said to Wang Deng: "You select two hundred people from the Zhenwu army that did not go out today, and go out of the city with Chunfu, the defeat during the day is a morale blow to the Zhenwu army, let them see that we also have a way to defeat the Mongols." ”

Wang Deng asked, "When will the pure father act?" ”

"Three watches." Yang Yu said: "At this time, most of the Mongolian soldiers and generals were already asleep, and the sentries guarding were also tired. ”

He was about to say something when he suddenly saw a sergeant and a man waiting under the light outside the main hall door.

Zheng Yunming's eyesight is good, and at a glance, he can recognize that it is Pei Gen, a firearms craftsman who has been arranged as a key protection. During the intermittent Yang Yang pretended to make a mysterious gesture, walked out of the door, talked with Pei Gen for a while, and then took a thing in Pei Gen's hand and carried it in his arms, and returned mysteriously.

Zheng Yunming said with a smile: "This black light in the middle of the night is like a fine joint, what kind of good thing should be hidden so tightly?" ”

Yang Luo took out the thing and put it in the palm of his hand, it was a small box made of brass, Yang Luo gently opened the box, and inside was a vine of a plant that had dried.

Wang Deng asked, "Is it Tinder?" ”

Yang Luo nodded: "It's not good for us to visit others in the middle of the night with lights, if we want to set off firearms, we have to rely on this kind of dark fire." He carefully carried the fire back into his arms, and said to Zheng Yunming: "When the sound of fighting in the north and east sounds, Dutong can order people to set off the copper general at the four gates to disturb the enemy, so that the enemy army can't figure out our way, so that I can take advantage of the chaos to rob." ”

Zheng Yunming said: "That's natural, when the time comes, the four gates will shout and fire cannons, in response to your night attack, and you will go from the east gate and the north gate?" ”

"How can you open the city gates, there must be Mongol spies watching outside." Yang Luo said: "Let's go by water." ”

There is a section of more than 20 zhang of city wall in the northwest corner of the city, which is the mother of the Eastern Jin Dynasty general Zhu Xu led the house slaves and maids to build it personally, with the help of this city wall, the Eastern Jin Dynasty repelled the many attacks of the Qin King Fu Jian, and the city of Xiangyang is called this section of the city wall as the lady wall. After Zheng Yunming took over Xiangyang, he mobilized thousands of manpower to build a corner city in the northwest corner on the basis of the lady wall, and there was a water gate in an inconspicuous place under the corner city, which could lead directly to the moat.

"The moat of Xiangyang was widened by me." Yang Yu said: "I'm afraid that even the deputy commander may not know all about what joints are inside, tonight I only took 2,000 people out of the second watch, took a flat-bottomed trench patrol boat out of the river, and went ashore at the east gate and the north gate together to raid the enemy. ”

"At that time, no matter what happens outside the city, you don't care, just hold on." Yang Luo said: "The enemy is strong, and there are many cavalry, even if the night attack is successful, they will not give in easily, I will go, I can only give Qu out some eye medicine, and when the great work is done, with three partridge calls as the signal, open the water gate, and take us back the same way." ”

He bowed to Zheng Yunming, and then bowed to Wang Deng. Hurry away.

"This is exactly Yang Chun's father's tactics." Zheng Yunming smiled at Wang Deng and said, "Do you think the pure father won or lost this trip? ”

Wang Deng said without hesitation: "It is common sense in the art of war that the enemy can rob the camp after a small victory, and if I am it, even if the enemy is prepared tonight, I have to go out and rob it." It's not that the famous generals in the Central Plains can't guard against the night attack at this time, and now the banners of the east gate and the north gate are all the generals of the Fan generals, and the pure father is taking this time at the right time. ”

Zheng Yunming picked up a lamp on the table and said with a smile: "Tonight, you and I will sit together in the North Gate Tower, and watch how Yang Luo breaks the enemy." ”

What Wang Deng didn't expect was that there were not only Zheng Yunming and Lu Xunzhi on the city tower, but also Zhao Kui and Wu Qian, as well as Bai Yijie, Ma Guangzu and everyone from the Jing'e Vice-Capital Shogunate. Pine oil torches were lit at the head of the city, and the city was illuminated. This is the rule set by Zhao Kui, in order to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the defenders' paralysis and carelessness to enter the city under the city wall. There were many examples of such surprise attacks on both sides in the Mongol war, and when it came time to engage the Southern Dynasties, both sides should be more careful about such surprise attacks.

Zhao Kui asked, "When will Father Yang Chun do it?" ”

"It's going to be after the third watch," Zheng Yunming said, "You might as well talk and wait for it." Otherwise, this night's mobile phone will make people anxious to wait. ”

At this time, the pro-soldiers of the government office had already put down their seats, and everyone sat down according to their rank. Zhao Kui started talking first as usual, he lowered his head and thought about it, and said to Zheng Yunming: "Do the officials know the origin of Xiangyang City?" ”

Zheng Yunming replied: "I am young and knowledgeable, and it is only after I arrived in Xiangyang City that I read some local chronicles in my spare time. This place was returned to the Chu State in the Spring and Autumn Period, Xiangyang County was set up in this place in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, and the two Han Dynasty were all Nanjun County Governors here, and Liu Biao was the pastor of Jingzhou in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and the governance office was set up in Xiangyang. Later, this place belonged to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao established Xiangyang County here. ”

"The Three Kingdoms are established, the first lord sent the general Guan Yu to the Northern Expedition, and Xu Huang, Pang De and other battles in Xiangyang, after the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the strategic position of this place to the Southern Dynasties is extraordinary, all dynasties have been stationed here with heavy generals, and countless offensive and defensive battles have occurred around this city. But in general, this place has been firmly grasped in the hands of the Southern Dynasty, because this place is the key of the Southern Dynasty, once occupied by the Northern Army, it is inevitable that the army will go straight down the Han River to Jiangling, Wuchang and other places, and use the Han River for supply, which is very convenient, and then build a high house, you can sweep the south of the Yangtze River. ”

Zhao Kui nodded approvingly: "It's exactly what I said, since the Sui Kaihuang period, the Xiangyang Mansion was changed to Xiangzhou, after the Jingkang Change, the pseudo-Qi occupied this place, Yue Wumu from the northern expedition of Ezhou, recovered Xiangyang Mansion, Dengzhou, Tangzhou three cities, since then, Xiangyang has become the Jinghu ambassador stationed in the festival, the army advanced and retreated, against the Jin State, all set off from here, so whether it is to defend the hinterland of Jinghu or to enter the Central Plains, this place is a choice of fate for the country. ”

He pointed his finger forward and said, "What's more, for those who use soldiers, this Xiangyang City is indeed a natural treasure land that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. If you look at it, the Han River flows from the east, north, and west. On the south side of the land is the steep Da Hyeon mountain range, where a large army must be deployed to attack the city and face the attack of the castle on the mountain mountain. The north of the city overlooks the Han River, and if the enemy uses this place as the main direction of attack, it is tantamount to lining up with his back to the water, and he will risk being driven into the river. The space for the formation in the east of the city is also very limited, and seven miles west of the city is Tanxi, although the place is slightly wider, but if you only attack from this place, it is tantamount to easy for the defender to defend. Therefore, in ancient times, it was a place that was easy to defend and difficult to attack. ”

Bai Yijie sat behind Zheng Yunming and shook his feather fan and said, "Forgive me for asking boldly, if the envoy leads a large army to attack this city, how should he set up the formation?" ”

Zhao Kui was stunned, this matter had actually been calculated countless times in his heart, if he wanted to defend the city, he first had to repeatedly imagine in his mind how he should attack the city, only in this way could he realize the weaknesses and loopholes in the defense of the city wall. Therefore, he had already led the Mongol army to capture Xiangyang countless times in his heart, and he muttered: "If it is the same as Yue Wumu back then, the enemy's strength in defending the city is not more than 10,000 or thousands, I should deploy the whole army in the south of the Han River, and place the main force in the west and south of the city, and then concentrate all the cannons to bombard the southwest corner, take this place as the key attack target, first capture a corner, and then take advantage of the situation to seize the south gate, and then expand the results towards the center of the city." Or flank from both sides of the west gate and the south gate at the same time to put enough pressure on the defenders. ”

"If the enemy army has tens of thousands, then a sufficient number of troops simply cannot be deployed in such a narrow area, I think we should concentrate our forces to storm Fancheng, first break the defenders of Fancheng, and then set up a pontoon bridge on the Han River to communicate the north and south banks, and then the army will take turns to attack Xiangyang from three sides, and then supplemented by the method of siege."

"Fortunately, this time the Tartars still don't understand how to erect a pontoon bridge." Bai Yijie said with a smile: "I expect that the life and death of Xiangyang now will be decided on the periphery, not on the battle under the city wall. From the west to the south, our army built a number of castles in turn, which were built in turn by the Great Zhao envoy (Zhao Fan) in previous years. Since Xiao Zhao took office, he urged the generals to renovate it. Now although the Mongols are coming, our army can still firmly hold the Wanshan Fortress on the west of Wanshan, the Camel Ridge Fortress, the Nanshan Yiziguan Fortress, the Da Xian Mountain Fortress and the Niujiao Fort, as well as the ancient castle in the north of Fancheng and other fortresses, each castle has hundreds of soldiers guarded, these fortresses and the defenders in the city echo each other, forming a horn trend, the Mongols are new, these fortresses have no time to take care of it for a while, but its cavalry has been blockading the various fortresses, obviously, before the enemy wants to attack Xiangyang, These obstructive fortresses must be taken one by one. Our army, on the other hand, must send troops to the aid of these fortresses outside the city, and let them delay the Mongol siege as much as possible, so that when we are really facing each other under the walls, the situation will become more and more favorable to us. ”