How to break through the Liangshanbo cottage has been a problem that has troubled Sun Tu in the past few months. At least so far, he has not come up with a proper method. Just because the terrain of Liangshanbo is so good, even if it was trained by him. The elite Qingzhou Army was not very sure that they could really pose a threat to them.
Whether it was the description in the book Water Margin about the Song court's repeated attacks, or the fact that Gao Xiang and others forcibly attacked the mountain, Sun Tu was somewhat disapproving of their final failure at first, thinking it was due to the incompetence of these generals. This led to successive failures.
But two months ago, after he disguised himself and went to the vicinity of Liangshanbo for closer observation, he realized that he had underestimated how easy it was to defend and difficult to attack Liangshanbo. The village, which is located in Liangshan and surrounded by water on three sides, with only one road leading directly to the village gate, was indeed not an easy place to attack. Soldiers and horses can attack it.
Liangshan is surrounded by lakes on the east, west, north and west sides. This means that if the army wants to go up the mountain, they can only choose to attack from the south. The terrain there is extremely narrow and steep, which is not conducive to the spread of the army at all. However, once the number of troops attacking the mountain is reduced, or the team is lengthened to attack, it will not pose much threat to the outer perimeter of the mountain stronghold that has been tightly defended.
Sun Tu only took a few glances from a distance, and he could clearly see the many checkpoints standing on the outside of the village, as well as the various weapons flashing with cold light on the walls of the village. He could clearly predict that if the army really attacked head-on without hesitation, there would be only one outcome. They would have suffered heavy casualties when they reached the enemy's wall. Just shooting with bows and arrows would be enough to harvest a large number of officials. The soldier's life was at stake.
And this is only the outermost defense line of Liangshanbo. Going further up, there are many passes like copper and iron walls waiting for the officers and soldiers. Unless the imperial court can send a hundred thousand troops at all costs and then fill a passage with human lives, it will not be able to kill the main village of Liangshan at all.
Of course, after confirming this, some people also proposed the idea of launching an attack on Liangshan from the waterway. In response to this, Sun Tu quickly gave an even more despairing answer, but it still couldn't happen.
Because the hundreds of miles of water around Liangshanbo has actually been under the control of the opponent, and the waterways in the lake are complex and changeable, covered with reeds, not to mention that there are not many Qingzhou troops who can really fight with water, even if they can really train an elite water force. When the army comes, it is also dangerous to send them in. You must know that the strongest force in Liangshan Lake is the sailors. They can attack the officers and soldiers entering the lake from both water and underwater lines. Under such an environment, the situation of the officers and soldiers will only become more dangerous on land. They will not even be able to retreat, and the casualties will only be greater.
Moreover, even if the army can successfully reach the other three sides of Liangshan through waterways, it will be difficult to deploy troops and horses due to geographical constraints there. At that time, as long as the enemy attacks with arrows and stones from above, the soldiers below will have to be passive. If you are beaten, the casualties cannot be smaller than in a frontal attack.
With such unique geographical conditions, coupled with Liangshanbo's own fighting strength, it is no wonder that the imperial court sent troops to attack many times and ended in failure. It was only then that Sun Tu realized what a huge problem he faced. This was one of the key reasons why he was willing to resist the pressure of the court and refused to use troops against Liang Shanbo.
But the problem lies here
It was necessary to find a way to solve it, so in the following days, in addition to continuous training, Sun Tu also discussed the strategy of attacking the mountain with many soldiers. Unfortunately, after many days, he never came up with a proper idea. .
In fact, there are still some ideas. For example, someone suggested a night attack and kill the Liangshan bandits up the mountain before they noticed. However, it was soon pointed out that this statement was very problematic, because the army could not carry out surprise attacks at all. The people in Liangshanbo were far smarter than everyone thought. After getting off the hotel, not to mention thousands of soldiers and horses approaching, even dozens of people appeared in that area, and the news spread to the mountain earlier, allowing them to make relevant defense preparations.
In addition, some people started with its geographical environment and proposed a more whimsical idea - to dig out the dam of the lake where Liangshanbo is located and divert the water in the lake to other places, thereby turning the natural chasm into a smooth road, so that the army can pass from other sides. Launching an offensive is much easier than storming the well-defended south.
To be honest, Sun Tu was really moved when this proposal was made. Although this method is time-consuming and labor-intensive, once successful, the benefits are huge, and this is the method with the least casualties. It only requires laborers to dig up the lake embankments and divert the water elsewhere.
But soon, he discovered that this was just a "clever plan" on paper, because the Liangshan Lake occupies a large area. Although it is not as vast as the rumored 800-mile water park, it is still a hundred miles in radius, which is comparable to It will be a large and medium-sized reservoir in later generations. And once the water in the lake is released elsewhere, the harm caused will be too great, and the entire Jeju Prefecture may have to be involved.
When the people are displaced, the impact will only be worse than that caused by the Liangshan bandits. Even if he could really destroy the Liangshan bandits with this, I'm afraid it would be too much more than the result, and it wouldn't be worth the risk!
When he couldn't come up with a proper solution after much deliberation, Sun Tu even planned to use the method in the book to directly recruit Song Jiang and others in the name of the imperial court. However, this idea was quickly dismissed by him. The hatred between his family and the people in Liangshanbo had already been deep enough. Zhujiazhuang, Dongping Mansion, Qingzhou City... After these fierce battles, the Liangshanbo people he killed were The leaders and minions have been countless for a long time, and they must hate themselves to the core. How can they be willing to surrender
Even if Song Jiang actually has the intention to return to the imperial court from the bottom of his heart, the current Liangshanbo is also very different from the one in the Water Margin story, because Chao Gai is still alive in Liangshanbo now, and he is much tougher in dealing with court issues. .
In addition, because Song Jiang suffered a lot in the previous battles, his status in the village was not as popular as in the Water Margin. In addition, many leaders who had a close friendship with him died, which made it difficult for Song Jiang to appear in public again. Raise recruitment matters.
It can be said that it was precisely because of Sun Tu's appearance that the Liangshanbo incident could not end peacefully. At least it was impossible for these people to accept the option of surrender until they felt certain defeat and life-threatening.
Therefore, after these days of discussion, the final conclusion returned to the original point - neither the use of troops nor recruitment of troops could solve the problem of Liangshanbo. The matter continued to be delayed until Zeng Kaiqian arrived with the imperial decree, and Sun Tu had no choice but to No
Shifted the focus to the interior of Qingzhou.
While suppressing Zeng Kaiqian, Sun Tu did not completely give up his strategy against Liang Shanbo. But during this period, he was inspired and thought of what might be the wisest choice at the moment -
Zeng Kaiqian actually tried to evade Sun Tu by wooing his generals. This was of course not feasible, but Sun Tu thought here that he could also take advantage of the complex relationships among the leaders in Liangshan Bo. It has the effect of dividing them from within!
Unlike the situation in Qingzhou City where Sun Tu was the leader and all the generals were convinced, the relationship among the people in Liangshanbo was much more complicated. There are more or less, overt or covert, conflicts and disagreements between leaders with different identities and origins. In addition, the two leaders Song Jiang and Chao Gai actually had hidden problems, so the internal conflicts in Liang Shanbo, which seemed to be brothers, had long been reborn, but they had not erupted for the time being.
What Sun Tu wants to do is to completely arouse the conflicting relationships among certain people, and then wait for them to cause chaos within the village! There is a good saying that a strong fortress is often easier to break from the inside, and the Liangshan Po in front of him was like this for Sun Tu. Since it seems unlikely to attack from the outside, it is better to start from the inside, divide and instigate it to cause civil strife, and then cooperate with the army to suppress the situation. Maybe the Liangshan bandits can be put down at a very small cost. It’s over.
This is indeed the most reasonable and correct decision at the moment, but it takes a lot of thinking about where to start. In fact, Sun Tu had made corresponding arrangements a few months ago. It was only because there was no news from the man after he left that he was unable to find out the specific situation in Liangshan Village.
But this time, he must find someone who is easier to use and who is also inside Liangshan to complete his crucial first step.
In fact, he did have such a candidate around him. After all, Sun Tu had accepted many surrendered generals from Liangshan before. After some consideration, he finally called a guy who had not been reused in front of him: "I have a general. An important thing is entrusted to you to do. As long as it is completed, you will be the first to do it."
The person on the opposite side was a little scared at first, but when he heard this, he immediately became energetic: "Please give me the governor's orders!"
"You should also know that I have been ordered by the imperial court to attack Liangshanbo, but if we attack by force, we really don't have much confidence, so I plan to start from inside." In the eyes of the other party with some doubts, Sun Tu finally revealed the key Location: "What I want is for you to go back secretly to see your brother, so that he can secretly have more contact with some frustrated leaders in the village and stir up conflicts within the village, and then cooperate with us to cooperate internally and externally!"
"This... my brother has always kept a low profile in the village, and he has been in the mountains for many years. How can he do this?"
"You just go to see him, and you will find out when the time comes. He seems to be a Liangshan veteran, but in fact he is in a very bad situation. No one has selfish motives, as long as you tell him what I taught you, I believe him Will make the wisest choice." Sun Tu looked at the other party with a confident expression on his face.
Since Superintendent Sun said so, this man naturally did not dare to disobey and immediately complied. Soon afterwards, he set off for Liangshan.