So Zheng Yu put aside his airs, invited the veteran to sit down and drink with him, and humbly discussed the next strategy.
But after discussing for a long time, the two of them didn't have any better ideas. They just felt that Shanyin County was so stubborn that there must be a large number of garrisons stationed there, with a total number of more than 20,000. And this tiny city in front of them could not support such a large-scale army for a long time. As long as the siege continued for a long time, there would be a day when they would run out of ammunition and food.
However, if another siege camp was built under Shanyin County, there would be two cities in Jiangnan that needed to be besieged, requiring more than 100,000 troops. Since the destruction of Mingzhou Harbor, the military supply of the Lingnan Army was also very tight, and perhaps not much easier than the defenders in the city. But retreating back like this would not only damage morale, but also make it more likely that the defenders in the city would break through and bite back, which would be more of a loss than gain.
Fortunately, except for a few cities such as Jinling City and Shanyin County, which were still in the hands of the court, the rest of the Jiangnan Road was under the control of the Lingnan Army. Moreover, Qiu Yizhi, the only troublemaker, had actually been blocked in Shanyin County by himself. Although it was somewhat undignified that several of his big pieces, "chariots, horses, and cannons", were restrained by a small "pawn" of the opponent, it was still a situation of neither winning nor losing, which was quite acceptable.
Just when Zheng Yu and Sun Hao were struggling and thought they had succeeded, their opponent Qiu Yizi was actually not trapped in the city.
It wasn't that Qiu Yizi had used some clever strategy of stealing the world or escaping from his shell, but that he had not been in charge of the defense of the city from the beginning.
Not only him, but also Zhao Chengxiao, Yuchi Jiming, Wu Changxi, Lin Shuhan and others were not in the city. Not only these leading generals, but also their 18 personal guards, 200 militiamen and 500 elite soldiers under Wu Changxi were stationed in the mountains outside the city. As for their families, they were arranged to stay temporarily in the "Liaochen Palace" in the north of the city.
In other words, what Zheng Yu and Sun Hao had worked so hard to encircle was nothing more than the Jiangnan Circuit Army led by General Zhang Qi.
Only the Jiangnan Circuit Army, whose combat effectiveness was relatively weak, was left behind. Qiu Yizi made a great determination, fearing that these armies would collapse if they could not hold on, and he would lose Shanyin County, his place of livelihood.
Therefore, although Qiu Yizhi escaped from the city, he did not dare to abandon it. Every day, he led the whole army to observe the battle situation on the mountain outside the city. Especially a few days ago, when the Lingnan Army was attacking urgently and Shanyin County was about to fall, Qiu Yizhi was even more anxious and almost led the army to rush behind the enemy to break the siege.
However, Zhang Qi finally did not disappoint Qiu Yizi. He withstood more than ten heavy attacks from the Lingnan Army in a row, and launched countless feint attacks. In the end, the Lingnan Army was helpless and could only surround the city first.
This set of strategies and tactics was the result of discussions between Qiu Yizi and several advisers and generals around him. He wanted to use himself as bait to lure Zheng Yu to the city of Shanyin County, and then use the terrain here to defend first and then attack, using a pincer attack from both inside and outside to capture him alive or at least annihilate his main force, thus completely resolving the crisis in Jiangnan.
At the beginning, Qiu Yizi planned to personally lure the enemy into the city and command the defense, while the reinforcements outside the city would be led by Zhao Chengxiao, Lin Shuhan and others.
However, Lin Shuhan felt that this was too risky, and he persuaded Qiu Yizhi with just one sentence: "When two armies are fighting, the commander can only show his true strength if he sits behind the battle formation; if he goes to the dangerous place in person, wouldn't this plan of luring the enemy be too obviously clumsy?"
Qiu Yizhi and his men had originally planned to lead all their elite troops to attack the enemy from behind while their attention was completely drawn to Shanyin County. However, they did not expect that the walls of Shanyin County were narrow and the Lingnan Army was too numerous and powerful. Even if the entire army was dispatched, it would not be possible to devote all its forces to the siege at once.
Although this was good for defending the city, it was not good for attracting the entire enemy army, which caused a lot of changes to Qiu Yi's initial plan. Fortunately, Zhang Qi was able to defend the city effectively and did not allow the enemy to attack the city. The current stalemate was not necessarily an unacceptable result for him.
So Qiu Yizhi and Lin Shuhan discussed again. They felt that there were about 40,000 soldiers and civilians in Shanyin County, and the food stored in advance and the pigs and sheep raised were enough for 40,000 people to eat and drink for a whole year. There were also deep wells in the city. Not to mention the hardship of supporting for a year or two, it was more than enough to celebrate the New Year in a few days. On the contrary, it would be more difficult for them to eat and drink outside the city. Therefore, it would be better to take advantage of the situation and let the Lingnan Army foolishly defend the city, and then use the advantage of their light troops to move quickly and conveniently outside the city to cut off the supply line of the Lingnan Army, forcing the Lingnan Army to withdraw.
The plan was decided, and Qiu Yizi dispatched his soldiers in groups of two to various outposts that day. As soon as they spotted a team from the Lingnan Army coming to deliver supplies, they would immediately send a secret signal to inform Qiu Yizi of the team's number, size, route, and transported supplies.
These outposts were built by Qiu Yizi himself when he had just taken office as the magistrate of Shanyin County. Originally they were just for emergency use, but today they are finally put to good use.
Sure enough, just one day after the sentry was sent out, a message came through a secret code; the code indicated that a team of two hundred people, escorting hundreds of large carts - it was not known whether they were transporting food or weapons - were moving towards Shanyin County from the eastern path.
Upon hearing the news, Qiu Yizhi immediately led the entire army and crossed the mountains instead of taking the official roads. As expected, he saw a small team of more than 200 people driving countless vehicles and horses, traveling through the mountain trails. Although these people were transporting a lot of supplies, their speed was not slow. It was estimated that they would get out of the mountains in two or three hours and join Zheng Yu's army.
Seeing that the opportunity was not to be missed, Qiu Yizi had a brief discussion with Lin Shuhan, Zhao Chengxiao, Wu Changxi and others, and then ordered Zhao Chengxiao and Wu Changxi to lead 200 men each, and go down the mountain in two groups to plunder.
The Lingnan Army transport team thought that Shanyin County had been surrounded by Zheng Yu and there was no possibility of enemy attack, so they were not prepared at all. Therefore, when they saw two groups of people rushing down the mountain, they just thought they were bandits robbing along the way and underestimated the enemy.
It was not until they saw the obvious government army uniforms on the soldiers coming down the mountain that they realized they were trapped in the valley on both sides, unable to advance or retreat; their forces were extremely scattered, and they could not organize an effective defense, so they had to lay down their weapons and surrender on the spot.
Qiu Yizi was standing on the mountain. When he saw Zhao Chengxiao and Wu Changxi capture the transport team without bloodshed, he was extremely happy and immediately led his personal guards down the mountain to meet up with the large group of people.
By the time Qiu Yizi arrived at the foot of the mountain, Zhao Chengxiao and others had almost finished counting the supplies - this inconspicuous team transported a total of 30,000 kilograms of grain, 3,000 taels of silver, 20 carts of military equipment, and countless other bedding, clothing and tents - and Qiu Yizi really caught a big, fat fish.
Qiu Yizhi became more excited when he saw the battle report, so he ordered all the prisoners to be escorted up and asked, "Which one of you is the escorting officer?"
After he asked twice, someone finally stepped forward and said, "I am Jin Kang, an inspector of the Lingnan Palace, responsible for escorting these supplies to the Second Prince's tent. Today, my baggage was robbed and I have no face to survive in this world. Please kill me with a knife, so that I can die quickly!"
Qiu Yizhi has always liked this kind of straightforward tough guy. When she heard him speak straightforwardly and toughly, she didn't want to harm him, but she didn't answer him according to his words. She asked back: "Do you know who I am?"
The inspector saluted and said, "I am not very knowledgeable and don't know your name. Please tell me your name, so that I can understand it after I die."
"Humph!" Qiu Yizi sneered, "I am Qiu Yizi, the magistrate of Shanyin County. Do you recognize me?"
The inspector was horrified when he heard this. He looked the man in front of him up and down with his eyes wide open. Then he said, "Isn't Master Qiu trapped by the second prince in Shanyin County? Why did he jump out of the city again?"
Qiu Yizhi replied with some pride: "A good commander of the army can move beyond the nine heavens, how can others know about it?"
The inspector nodded sincerely and asked, "We have fallen into your hands. You can kill us as you please. But I was not well prepared and lost this battle. Please just punish me and don't make things difficult for my brothers."
Qiu Yizhi was filled with emotion after hearing this and said, "I have captured quite a few generals in the Lingnan Army. I always heard them say that they would punish me and let their soldiers go. I think this must be the result of the training of the King of Lingnan. I am not a bloodthirsty person. You and I serve different masters and there is no deep hatred between us." He let out a long sigh and said, "Well! Put down your weapons and go to Zheng Yu's camp to report."
The inspector was stunned, stared at Qiu Yizi with a puzzled look, and asked, "Is this true?"
Qiu Yizi nodded with a smile and said, "Of course it's true. When you go back, tell the second prince that I, Qiu Yizi, accepted the grain and money you escorted, but there was nothing good in it. Ask him to bring more in for me to choose from in the future. Do you understand?"
This was an obvious mockery and sarcasm. The inspector heard it and dared neither agree nor disagree. He could only nod and agree.
"Okay, you can take your men back, and you can report my whereabouts to your second prince." After saying that, Qiu Yizi waved his hand and turned to check the seized supplies.
But Zhao Chengxiao hurriedly took two steps forward and asked, "Sir, would it be inappropriate to let these people go?"
Qiu Yizi turned her head to look at Zhao Chengxiao, suddenly smiled, and asked, "Brother Zhao, what do you think is wrong?"
Zhao Chengxiao scratched his head and said, "I can't say. Even if we let them go, Zheng Yu will definitely know that we are blocking his supply outside, and he will definitely send a large army to encircle and suppress us. Even if we can deal with Zheng Yu's encirclement and suppression, I'm afraid we won't have the energy to attack their transport team again..."
Before Qiu Yizi could answer, Lin Shuhan's voice came to his ears: "What? General Zhao has no confidence? Could it be that just because Zheng Yu came to encircle and suppress us, your Lord Qiu has no power to fight back at all?"
Qiu Yizi agreed with what Lin Shuhan said.
He grew up in the Youyan Palace, and all he saw were good generals and ministers such as Zheng Rong, Zhongli Kuang, Cui Nan, Wei Hu, and Zhang Long. Even Liu Qing, who was a bit mediocre, was able to hold on to Jinling for nearly a year under the pressure of a large army. Therefore, Qiu Yizhi originally thought that leading an army in battle should be like this - as long as the army is dispatched, first establish an invincible position, and then take advantage of the situation and implement one or two clever strategies to win.