Shangzhen, Zichuan, and Zhaili Town were occupied, and the Red Turban Army had two roads, Peng Yibin one road, and a total of three armies were only twenty miles apart, and they forced into Zizhou from the south.

The three towns of Mengshui, Shuangyang, and Luocun were occupied again, and the three-way army was only more than 30 miles away from Zizhou.

The Flower Hat Army gave up strong resistance and only used a small number of cavalry to monitor and harass, and the brigade seemed to retreat to Zizhou, where it was ready to fight the enemy.

After a short rest, he ordered the three roads to build fortifications in Mengshui, Shuangyang, and Luocun. Meng Jiucheng ordered again

The three-way people continued to advance steadily and steadily towards Zizhou.

Wang Min and Yan Tong of the West Road attacked the southern suburbs, northern suburbs, and Zhoucun to cut off the road to the west of Zizhou; Peng Yibin's men and horses on the east road attacked the two towns of Fengshui and Hutian; He led the middle road to advance towards Fujia Town.

If we add Li Quan's troops dispatched from Qingzhou, judging from the entire attack situation, the Red Turban Army and the Red Jacket Army have gradually completed the encirclement of Zizhou in the west, south, and east, and victory is not far away.

But the closer he got to victory, the more cautious Meng Jiucheng became. He roughly guessed the intentions of the Flower Hat Army, and knew that he couldn't relax in the future arrangement, so he had to be careful.

In ancient times, siege warfare was quite difficult and time-consuming. Because of this, there is a word that the soldiers are strong and the division veterans are tired.

Guo Zhongyuan was unable to stop the steady advance of the Red Turban Army with the cooperation of chariots and artillery when the troops were insufficient and the terrain was unfavorable. I really want to use the city of Zizhou to find an opportunity to attack inside and outside when the Red Turban Army is besieging the city on all sides.

This kind of tactic is actually not uncommon, not to mention, the first Youzhou War in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao army used tactics to break the Song army of hundreds of thousands, so that the Northern Song Dynasty never dared to enter Youzhou.

Moreover, according to the common sense of military strategy and strategy, if you want to win the battle to defend the city, you also need two conditions: first, the troops in the city defend tenaciously, buy time, and exhaust the enemy army attacking the city; Second, there must be foreign aid.

At the same time, the siege force spread out on all sides is not much equal to the division of troops, and it is bound to be weak. In this way, there will be a fighter that should cooperate with the inside and outside, attack inside and outside, turn the tables in passivity, and even turn defeat into a big victory.

Is it insidious? Is it smart? In fact, this is just Guo Zhongyuan's helpless choice, if he can defeat the enemy in the field, how can he let the enemy go to the city and then look for fighters?

Moreover, it is also unknown whether they can find fighters and turn defeat into victory. This is also a gamble for Guo Zhongyuan.

For Meng Jiucheng, the siege was very sure, and the enemies in the city were not to worry. On the contrary, the Flower Hat Army outside the city is the great enemy, and he always focuses on the Flower Hat Army.

Building a fortress and building a camp and steadily advancing it may be called a "fortress tactic" in later generations.

Its main purpose was to enable its troops to be protected by the nearby camps, and to force the Jin army to carry out offensive operations; At the same time, it was also an effective way to limit the mobility of cavalry.

In fact, there is another point that Meng Jiucheng did not say clearly, but the generals knew it. That's attrition, exchanging people for people.

This purpose was already very evident in the last thirty miles of the advance to Zizhou.

A small camp was set up every three miles, and the defenders were 1,500 men, equipped with tiger squat cannons, flying thunder cannons, and other infantry. And Meng Jiucheng's order to the defenders was to fight to the death and not retreat, and he would be punished as deserters when he left the camp.

That's right, even if the Flower Hat Army attacks the camp with all its might, and there are more troops than you, you are not allowed to abandon the camp or retreat. It is to fight the enemy to the end, even if it is the total annihilation.

Infantry against cavalry, without a tenacious will to fight, without a fighting spirit that is not afraid of sacrifice, weapons and equipment to a higher level, there is not much hope for victory.

And relying on the village to defend, there are trenches, chariots, horses, and walls as cover, and there are artillery, crossbow arrows to kill. Even if you are all killed, as long as you do not fall or retreat, the casualty ratio will not be too disparity.

Meng Jiucheng's idea is so cruel, as long as the Flower Hat Army dares to attack, he will exchange his life with you.

As long as the casualty ratio reaches three to one, four to one, or even five to one, how long will the Flower Hat Army of less than 3,000 people consume?

Ci is not in charge of the army, Meng Jiucheng is ruthless this time, testing and tempering the tenacious will and spirit of sacrifice of the Red Turban Army.

If you say defeat like other rebels, you have no fighting spirit, and if you say you will retreat, you will run away, how can you defeat the Jin army? If you can't even defeat the Jin army, how will you face the Mongolian army's iron cavalry in the future?

Meng Jiucheng felt that he was a little cruel, but the war in reality was even more cruel. If we cannot train a strong army that will not retreat and will survive and die with the position, and we will not be able to thoroughly guard against the maneuvering and copying of cavalry, no matter how large the base area is, sooner or later it will be beaten to a thousand holes.

Not only to the Red Turban Army, Meng Jiucheng also sent a messenger to inform Peng Yibin of the arrangements and tactics for the final advance to Zizhou.

Originally, Meng Jiucheng put Peng Yibin's troops on the east road, which meant to take care of them. On the other hand, he is also a little underestimated, and he believes more in the combat power of the Red Turban Army.

In this regard, Peng Yibin was grateful on the one hand, but held his breath on the other. However, the weaponry and equipment are inferior to those of the Red Turban Army, and the training and establishment of the troops are not as good as those of the Red Turban Army. Even if he has some dissatisfaction with being despised, he can only admit it.

After receiving Meng Jiucheng's letter, Peng Yibin also had a competitive mind, gathered the generals, and issued an order with great vigour: build a camp and build a village, one battalion in three miles, with 2,000 defenders in each battalion, and advance to Zizhou; If attacked by the enemy, the defenders of the camp must fight to the death and not retreat, and those who retreat without permission will be killed!

Peng Yibin doesn't know what humanity is, Meng Jiucheng knows, but now is not the time to talk about this.

Extreme obedience and strict discipline ensure that this is the condition that a strong army must have, without which it is impossible to win the war.

And the timing was quite right to give such a draconian order at this time. The Jin army is obviously in a disadvantageous situation, will anyone choose to surrender?

So, surrendering may have been able to live longer, but the end result is not rosy.

Especially the Red Turban Army, how well it performs is directly linked to the family.

Once he is convicted of desertion, his head cannot be saved, and his family will also be implicated. Not only were all preferential policies cancelled, but they were also subject to confiscation of houses and land, relocation from their hometowns, and even fines of hard labor.

This is another inhumane measure taken by Meng Jiucheng, but since its implementation, the effect has been quite good.

That's right, this is a typical strain policy. It is similar to the military discipline of the Mongolian army: if one person escapes, all his comrades will be executed. If you want to run away, no one else will agree.

It is precisely because of such strict military discipline that the Mongolian army has become an army that will never retreat on the battlefield, which makes the enemy feel fearful.