Although Qian Weizhi was the nominal commander of Wu Yue's army, Qian Weizhi also knew that he couldn't even control the arrogant generals of the left, right and upright, not to mention that there was a Song army supervisor here. So he entrusted all matters to Ding Deyu. Ding Deyu became the de facto commander of the 50,000 Wu cross-country army.

Under the supervision of Ding Deyu, Wu Yue's army marched north along the canal and gathered in Suzhou. Before the main force was assembled, Ding Deyu led more than 10,000 forwards out of Suzhou, and the soldiers pointed directly at Wuxi. Since the end of November, scouts and small units of the two armies have been fighting repeatedly along the canal and the Qinbo Canal.

At the beginning of December, when the main forces of Wu Yue's army had arrived one after another, Ding Deyu took the 20,000 troops of the Shangzhi army as the vanguard and attacked along the canal, intending to attack Wuxi County first. Unexpectedly, the Changzhou army was also single, knowing that Wuxi could not be defended, so they quietly withdrew Wuxi when the two armies were spying on each other on the border line. Looking at the empty county town of Wuxi, even the city gate was dismantled and cleaned, and Ding Deyu only sneered. Although Changzhou is rich, the place is not big, and going to Wuxi County is equivalent to losing one-third of a state.

At that moment, he ordered the direct army to continue to advance, and at the same time ordered the left direct army to follow as soon as possible, and divided 10,000 troops from the right direct army, together with the Suzhou naval division, to feint to attack Jiangyin. Of course, if the Jiangyin defenders are not strong in defending the city, a feint attack can also turn into a strong attack. Then 5,000 people left in Wuxi on the right, thinking that the army was behind. With Ding Deyu as the supervising army, Wu Yuejun did not engage in the routine of falsely reporting soldiers, and the main force of 50,000 was actually 50,000, so there were 35,000 soldiers and horses under the city of Changzhou.

Ding Deyu wanted to bring the Suzhou defenders with him, even if he brought 10,000 people, but Zhongwu Jiedu made Qian Hongyi not get Qian Yu's order, so he naturally resolutely disagreed. Ding Deyu was inconvenient to persecute too much, so he could only stop.

Changzhou City is also one of the largest cities in the world, and the length of the city wall is even longer than that of Jinling, the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and second only to Hangzhou, Kaifeng and Suzhou. Of course, such a long city wall is also formed by successive dynasties, on the basis of predecessors, and constantly expanding outward. According to the mountain-shaped water potential, a diamond-shaped urban pattern has been formed by this time, which is long from east to west and narrow from north to south.

Needless to say, the west gate is also inconvenient to unfold, and the south gate and the sub-south gate (southeast gate) still need to cross the canal and attack again, which is also extremely inconvenient, and the main attack direction can only be selected in the east gate and the sub-east gate and the sub-north gate in the northeast direction. Although Ding Deyu had 35,000 men and horses, he also felt that he was short of manpower, so he transferred 5,000 people from Wuxi to participate in the siege, and at the same time asked Qian Hongyi, the envoy of Zhongwu Jiedu, to send one or two thousand people to help occupy Wuxi. On the question of whether to transfer back the more than 10,000 men and horses who feinted to attack Jiangyin, Ding Deyu decided not to change the original plan and only attack the city with 40,000 men at hand. The ratio of two to one is indeed a bit insufficient, but the people who die left and right are either Wu Yue people or Tang people, so they just fight.

Ding Deyu rushed to build a camp outside the city, dug trenches, and hurried to make all kinds of siege equipment, and went to the countryside to collect civilians as soldiers. For a few days, the Changzhou soldiers only watched from inside the city, and had no intention of attacking.

Ding Deyu encouraged everyone: "The Changzhou army has no will to fight, and our army will definitely be able to go down with one drum." Tomorrow's siege of the city, three city gates, the upper straight, the left straight, the right straight each responsible for one, regardless of the main attack feint, whoever attacks the city first, who is the first to win! ”

No matter how Ding Deyu agitated, the Shangzhi Army commanded Du Pu, the Left Direct Army commanded Xiong Yuanjia, and the Right Direct Army commanded Lu Zhiyong (the Right Direct Army commanded the leading army to attack Jiangyin) and only fought at their own pace. Ding Deyu wanted Wu Yue's army to join the city and try the fighting spirit of the Changzhou army, but the three main generals all objected, saying that they could not despise the Changzhou army. Under Qian Weizhi's turnaround, Ding Deyu had no choice but to give in.

Wu Yue and Tang have also fought several major wars over the past few decades, and although the two sides do not need to mobilize to fight, they also do not have much bitter hatred at any cost. The combat strength of the Changzhou army and the Wu Yue army are also between them, and there is no need to try tricks, so the Wu Yue army just follows the steps, first filling the moat, and then piling up the siege road.

If Wu Yue's army wanted to fill the moat and build up the siege road, he needed to fight against the bow and crossbow of the Changzhou army. On the one hand, Wu Yuejun built more nest cars, shot at the Changzhou army on the city wall, and then bombarded the Changzhou army city wall with trebuchets, and on the other hand, he continued to catch people from the countryside to do this thing of filling in the river and piling up soil. Wu Yuejun naturally didn't care, and sprinkled arrows on the city wall, and the people were even more killed and wounded.

In this way, more than 1,000 people were killed and wounded on both sides, and Wu Yuejun also suffered more than 2,000 casualties, but Wu Yuejun certainly didn't care about the life or death of these captured people.

Seeing that more than a dozen siege roads were piled up on the city wall, the Changzhou army was also ruthless, and several times counterattacked downward from the pier with ironclad sharp soldiers, causing a lot of casualties to the Wu Yue army. However, Wu Yue's army was on both sides of the road, shooting with crossbowmen, and then counterattacking with heavy armor foot soldiers, and the Changzhou army could only retreat to the city wall.

After a day of fighting, Ding Deyu thought that the Changzhou army was at the end of its strength. "At the beginning of the counterattack, the Changzhou army was able to capture the road and destroy our nest car and crossbow car, but later it could only attack half of the road, so that our army could not gain a foothold on the road. From this, it can be seen that the Changzhou army can no longer continue, and tomorrow all armies must concentrate on the elite and attack the city wall in one go! ”

Qian Weizhi also felt so, so he rarely retorted during the military discussion, "Tomorrow's three, the first to climb the city wall will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver!" ”

There were 1,000 taels of silver to be gained, and Wu Yuejun dispatched the elite, and early in the morning of the same day, they attacked in three ways and launched at the same time along the siege road. Wu Yuejun's armor was in front with a large shield, and spearmen were in the rear, slowly rushing in; Numerous nest carts followed, and a large group of crossbowmen gathered on both sides of the road, ready to cover the walls and shoot at any time. But there was no movement on the walls. Seeing that Wu Yue's army was already approaching the city wall, even Ding Deyu, who was on the high platform five hundred steps away, was also wondering, could it be that the Changzhou army would give up the first city wall?

Then they heard the shouts of Wu Yuejun's warriors who landed in the city, and rushed to the city wall one after another. Qian Weizhi, who was standing next to Ding Deyu, regretted throwing away a thousand taels of silver in vain. Ding Deyu was a little worried: "There is something wrong with the performance of the Changzhou army." "The Changzhou army retreated into the inner city wall to defend it, which was something that everyone could expect, but Ding Deyu estimated that the Changzhou army was now only losing more than 2,000 people, even if there was no will to fight, it was a little too early to retreat.

"I think there is General Ding here, and this Changzhou army is already a fart." Qian Weizhi slapped Ding Deyu's sycophant.

Although Ding Deyu was worried, he was reluctant to tell Qian Weizhi to listen. Now we have to go to the city to see the situation.

The Changzhou army retreated into the second city wall, and the defensive pressure was sharply reduced. There are three city walls in Changzhou, and the inner sub-city was built in the Western Jin Dynasty, and has been repaired and abandoned several times since then, and it is currently intermittently unusable. There is also a foreign city, which was built by the history of Changzhou during the period of King Yang Pu of Wu during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and there are only four gates. The outermost layer is Luocheng, which is based on the outer sub-city, expanding to the east, and by the way, slightly expanding to the north and south. The length of Luocheng is longer than that of Jinling, but Jinling can be defended for a year because there are 150,000 people in total, including the Divine Guard, the City Guard, and other guards. The Changzhou army now has only 20,000 people, and it is certainly impossible to defend such a long city wall. In history, more than 10,000 people in Changzhou were able to survive for so long, and they also relied on hiding in Waizi City early, rather than stumbling on Luocheng.

After the Changzhou army retreated into the Waizi City, the length of the required defensive city wall was sharply reduced, and the north gate where the Waizi City was located was called the North Pole Gate, and then the west city wall protruded a little to the north, forming a two-sided attack at the North Pole Gate. The south wall of Waizi City and the south wall of Luocheng are very close to each other, and the Changzhou army has hastily built a new city wall in the southwest corner of Waizi City these days, and has left a hole for sending troops, which is connected with the south wall of Luocheng. In this way, only the east gate and the east wall of the outer city were left as attack areas.

Ding Deyu came to the east gate of Luocheng, the east gate was built with an urn city, and there was a royal enemy pavilion built on the city tower, but the imperial enemy pavilion was bombarded by Wu Yuejun's trebuchet, and it had become a dangerous building at this time, how dare you climb it again. Only from the castle tower, this view is average, and you can't see the situation inside the walls of the outer city.

The three departments of Shangzhi, Zuozhi, and Right Straight successively opened the four city gates on the east side of Luocheng, and each department swarmed in. There is also a moat in Waizi City, but the river is slightly narrower and can be navigated by two trench cars. The first part of the Shangzhi army rushed to the moat and attacked tentatively, and the Changzhou army counterattacked fiercely and retreated.

Wu Yuejun still wanted to attack step by step, but Ding Deyu couldn't wait.

In November, Yin Chongyi, the envoy of Tang Runzhou Jiedu, asked the court to send another capable minister on the grounds that he did not know the soldiers, and the Zhenhai Jiedu made the death of the battle, the Tiande army moved to Lishui, and the Runzhou lacked generals. Li Yuyun. Ordered the guards to wait for Liu Cheng to lead 5,000 guards to aid Runzhou.

Although Liu Cheng is a military general, he is actually Li Yu's courtier, but he is deeply trusted by Li Yu. After Li Yu wanted to appoint Liu Cheng to stay for the Runzhou Festival, Chen Qiao felt that it was inappropriate, but Li Yu asked: "Why don't Chen Qing recommend another martial artist who is as trustworthy as I trust Liu Qing?" And Liu Cheng was asked if he was willing to go to Runzhou, Liu Cheng said on the spot that he was willing to die for Li Yu. Li Yu was happy in his heart, and he cut Chen Qiao with his eyes.

Li Congyi, the Duke of Jiangguo, can lead Ning Guojun to Runzhou, and Li Yu is estimated to agree. However, Li Congyi had already written a letter to Chen Qiao, saying that he had led Ning Guojun into Changzhou secretly, and asked Chen Qiao to turn around on his behalf. Li Congyi had already cut first and then played, and Chen Qiao could only pinch his nose and admit it. The Divine Guard Army guards Jinling, and naturally it can't be moved, so only the Tiande Army stationed in Lishui can move, but Duyu Hou Du Zhen is not qualified, not to mention that if the Tianzhen Army returns to Runzhou, it will have to let the Ning Guojun fill the void in Lishui. In that case, wouldn't it be a goof? At that time, Li Yu ignored it and strictly ordered the Ning Guojun to return to defense, not to mention that the battle of Changzhou would lose suspense, and it would also make Li Yu's brothers have a gap. Chen Qiao could only be silent.

Liu Cheng left Jinling and loaded his family belongings with more than ten heavy-duty carriages, and met Ma Yanxiang at the city gate, who insisted on searching, and the carriage was full of gold and silver treasures. Ma Yanxiang didn't allow Liu Cheng to go, and pulled him in front of Li Yu, Liu Cheng cried and said: "This is going to Runzhou, the minister plans to scatter all his family wealth and recruit strong men, so he will use this as a barrier for His Majesty Jingdong." Li Yu also burst into tears, so he gave Liu Cheng another hundred gold, and allowed Liu Cheng to go out of the city in a carriage.

Liu Cheng arrived in Runzhou, in addition to sighing every day, he did not do nothing, with 5,000 guards and pro-army, Runzhou, Danyang, Jintan two counties and three places gathered into 5,000 state soldiers, plus 4,500 people withdrawn from the heavy villages such as Weishanzhai, forming the backbone of the more elite of Wanwu, and then recruiting new soldiers, also gathered nearly 30,000 people to form the Runzhou army. This lineup is not good in the field, but it is okay to defend the city. As for the matter of dispersing the family wealth, Liu Cheng is reluctant to do it.

In late December, Yangzhou soldiers and horses deployed Ma Zhong to make the Yangzhou Navy raid the Taohuadu Water Village of the Navy in Tangrunzhou Town. The main force of the town navy has long been destroyed, and there are only some small boats or auxiliary ships in the water village, which naturally cannot be resisted; The soldiers on the shore were also unguarded, and were hit by the Yangzhou sailors. Immediately, the Taohuadu Wharf controlled by the water village fell into the hands of the Song army. With the support of a large wharf, a large number of Song infantry went ashore very quickly, and in three days, 30,000 people under Ma Zhong's department had gone ashore. Immediately, the Song army took Taohuadu Water Village as its camp, and the soldiers pointed directly at Runzhou.

Ma Zhong didn't want to report to Ding Deyu, in fact, the Yangzhou army was only 30,000 people, and the Runzhou garrison also had 30,000. Under this military comparison, it is enough to encircle Runzhou on three sides, and at this time, Ma Zhong can only attack the east gate of Runzhou and threaten the north gate of Runzhou, that's all. Only after Wu Yue's army conquered Changzhou and then came to Runzhou to rendezvous, could we have the certainty of the encirclement of Runzhou on all sides.