When Yang Zhi came to Sun Tu to report various situations in Changshu City, it was already the fourth watch. But Sun Tu, who was injured and his face was still a little pale, did not find a place to rest. Instead, he was looking at the crossbows on the southern city wall and the jars of kerosene placed beside them in a daze.
"Qian Ju, all the rebels who dared to resist in the city have been eliminated, and the surrenderers have also been temporarily detained. Even if there are some fish that slipped through the net, they will not be able to cause any trouble. Also, our officers and soldiers did not disturb the people in the city. , the general has also sent people around to publicize the regulations to calm the people, and the people are relatively safe." Yang Zhi carefully explained the situation in the city one by one, appearing to be in an orderly manner.
When Dong Ping, Song Jiang and others were injured or unavailable, Yang Zhi took on the important responsibility of coordinating all matters, large and small. Judging from his performance at this time, he did a good job.
Sun Tu also showed a look of approval on his face: "Yes, thank you and your brothers for your hard work. This time we can take Changshu so easily. Everyone has merit, and I will reward you when the time comes."
Yang Zhi smiled and then said with concern: "Qian Ju, you are still injured and have been traveling hard for days. Why don't you find a place to rest and recuperate. General Yu Mo will be guarding the top of the city here. Even if the rebels come to kill us, we can still handle them."
"Haha, I'm not worried because I'm worried that the rebels will come to seize the city after they react. I'm just curious about the weird arrangement of the city defense equipment here. I always feel that there is some way here." Sun Tu smiled and said His eyes fell on the huge bed crossbow in front of him again.
This crossbow is an extremely powerful weapon for defending the city of the Song Army. Not only is it huge in size, it takes up a square foot or two when unfolded, but the bow string is also extremely thick and tight. To fully draw a bowstring that is as thick as three fingers requires thousands of kilograms of strength, which is beyond human ability, hence the title of the Eight Oxen Crossbow.
Of course, it is impossible to use cattle, horses and other livestock to pull this city defense weapon apart. This will require the use of some of the hooks and hooks. As long as someone keeps rotating and guarding the rear, it can slowly be opened through mechanical power. Twist the bow string back until finally, you can put the buckle of the bow string on the rear machine bracket, and then use the mallet to fire, you can shoot three special arrows as thick and long as spears out of the city. The range is only one or two miles.
It can be said that this crossbow was the sharpest enemy-killing weapon in the Song Dynasty when firearms were still in their infancy, and it was no less effective than the artillery of later generations. Speaking of the battle of Chanzhou between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom at the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty was able to negotiate with the Liao people under extremely unfavorable circumstances because it relied on this crossbow to kill the general of the Liao Kingdom and regain a victory.
Yang Zhi, who has been in the army for many years, naturally knows a lot about the bed crossbow. Seeing Sun Tu paying attention, he frowned slightly: "It is indeed a bit strange to say that the bed crossbow is a bit weird here, because I have always been in the army of the Song Dynasty. Such a heavy weapon is only placed in important state capitals. Even our Qingzhou City is not equipped with it. How come the small Changshu has it? This should not be made by the rebels themselves. They can't make it either."
"This is not a problem. I have already seen it. There is a logo engraved on the back of this bed crossbow. It belongs to Suzhou City. It was just transported here by them." Sun Tu said, holding a torch and placing it on the bed crossbow.
Looking at the rear, Yang Zhi could easily see the words Suzhou Xiangjun engraved on it.
But then, Yang Zhi felt even more strange: "If that's the case, what is Qian Ji worried about?"
"Why do you think they took the trouble to transport this bed of crossbows to Changshu? This city is not like Danyang. It is an important place for the rebels. Since there are already nearly 10,000 defenders, why bother with such troubles? "After the other party also showed doubts, Sun Tu pointed to the dozen cans of kerosene beside the crossbow on the bed: "And this, don't you think it's a little weird to have these kerosenes here?"
"Well... isn't it a common tactic to set fire oil on top of the city to defeat the enemy?"
"If you go by what you said, this amount of kerosene is too small. It is only enough to throw down for half a round. How much damage can it cause to the siege army?"
This question really stopped Yang Zhi. Seeing him stunned, Sun Tu pointed to the bed crossbows again: "But if you use them to burn these bed crossbows, it is enough. It shouldn't take more than a meal to burn all these bed crossbows, leaving no trace. .”
"But why are they making such preparations?" Yang Zhi was completely confused this time, and asked with doubts on his face.
"Yeah, this is what makes me feel weird. Why did they make such preparations before the war broke out? Not only did they transport crossbows from Suzhou, they even destroyed them after the city fell. The preparations have been done." Sun Tu said, a strange light flashed in his eyes: "Perhaps the only explanation is that they expected Changshu to be taken away by me. But in this case, why bother? How about transporting these bed crossbows at the expense of weakening Suzhou's city defense?"
"Qian Zhi thinks there is some conspiracy in this?" Although Yang Zhi was still confused for a while, he had already caught up with Sun Tu's rhythm.
"I was thinking about the reason just now. If they do this, they must have their own purpose. The only explanation is that they brought the crossbows in order to cause maximum damage to our army. At the same time, they also wanted to We were not allowed to use this weapon after we captured Changshu, and we deployed this backhand early."
"But..." Yang Zhi became more and more confused, but before he could ask his doubts, Sun Tu waved his hand again to stop his question and said, "Do you still remember the battle at Sanyuanling yesterday? The question I asked after the end? Why would they set up an ambush on our only way without knowing it? They even did not hesitate to mobilize half of Changshu's troops for this purpose.
"Before, I thought it was the rebels' detailed operations that detected our movements and sent them back in time, which led to yesterday's ambush. But now that I think about it, things are not that simple. If this is the case, there should be only The defenders here in Changshu had time to react, and what we had to face was not tens of thousands of elite rebels. The only reasonable explanation is that they knew early on that we would attack Changshu, so they mobilized Suzhou early, and even Soldiers and horses from Hangzhou and other places came here, and after knowing the exact time when we passed through Sanyuanling, they set up an ambush there! But everything here in Changshu is just another trap for us, just bigger than the one in Sanyuanling. Ambush is just more clever and insidious."
Yang Zhi was dumbfounded by his inference.
After a while, he hesitated and said: "This... how is this possible? How could the rebels know our army's overall plan, and even know when we will pass by Sanyuanling?"
"Yes, this is the crux of the problem. There are two explanations. One is that their details are indeed very deep and their status is very high, so they can clearly understand such important military information and report it in time. But obviously, this is almost impossible. If such a person is really an important official in Jiangnan, who would surrender to the rebels regardless of their status? Another explanation is that the person who can control everything has conspired with the rebels long ago. , for example... Zhu Meng!"
After Sun Tu expressed his second guess, a sharp light flashed in his eyes, and Yang Zhi was also stunned for a moment before softly exhaling: "What Qian Ji means is... Zhu Meng has colluded with Fang La's rebels in order to deal with us. Together?" When he said this, he still couldn't accept this answer.
Although Zhu Meng was greedy and cruel, in Yang Zhi's opinion he was not a fool after all. How could he dare to do such a treasonous thing that would be irreversible once he was found out? Even if his own boss did have a lot of conflicts with him, he wouldn't let him do such reckless things.
After being silent for a long time due to shock, he added: "No, even if he really wanted to murder us because of Zhao Siliang's affairs, he would not have time to collude with them. What's more, he is my Song Dynasty in Jiangnan. Coach, how can those rebels easily believe his words?"
"Yes, there is indeed something strange here. Maybe he has colluded with the rebels early on?" Sun Tu said in a low voice his judgment: "But no matter whether my guess is true or not, there is one thing we must do early The plan is that there may be a big crisis coming next. It seems that they have already made up their mind to abandon the city of Changshu early on, and then they will use this city as bait to drag us to death here. If this That's true, I'm afraid we're running out of time."
After a pause, Sun Tu had a straight face and shouted loudly: "Come here!"
Several messengers immediately stepped forward, and Sun Tu's eyes swept across their faces: "You set off immediately and go north to send a message to Coach Lin and others, asking them to arrive in Changshu by noon tomorrow. If the Huainan Army has already If you are well rested, ask them to come as soon as possible. In addition, send two more people to Jinling to send the news that I have successfully captured Changshu, so that the officers and soldiers there can come and join as soon as possible to discuss the plan to further attack Suzhou. !”
A dozen or so messengers immediately answered the order with their hands crossed, and then hurried down the city and galloped out of the city on horseback.
After listening to Sun Tu's order, Yang Zhi was a little confused again: "Qian Ju, since you suspect that Zhu Meng may have colluded with the rebels, isn't it a bit redundant to send people to report the victory at this time? "
"No, this is a very necessary approach, because only in this way can I confirm whether there is any problem with Zhu Meng. I just hope that this is indeed my over-worry, and that my follow-up troops from the Song Dynasty can arrive as soon as possible." Sun Tu As he said that, he glanced at the sky above again.
Now, it is the darkest moment before dawn. Coupled with the bad weather and the lack of stars and moon, the entire sky seems even darker, without any light.