On the 22nd of the twelfth lunar month, Sun Tu led the elite Qingzhou army to capture the city of Changshu.
At noon on the 23rd, the main force of the subsequent Shandong Army finally arrived. Behind them, the panting Huainan Army was obviously a little distracted when they saw the Song Dynasty flag flying in the wind at the top of the city. After a while, they There were bursts of cheers.
To be honest, after experiencing the battle on Sanyuan Ridge and being ambushed by the Wu army and suffering heavy casualties, all the officers and soldiers of the Huainan Army starting from Peng Yongzhen had pessimistic thoughts about the attack on Changshu. We may not be able to conquer this county with our own strength. And once time goes on, when the Wu army arrives in cities such as Suzhou or even Hangzhou, their situation will become more and more dangerous.
But in the end, the Shandong Army only sent a few thousand men and easily captured Changshu City overnight! Even though they had witnessed the powerful combat power of the Shandong Army several times, witnessing such a great victory again still made the generals of the Huainan Army feel a little unreal, and also made their awe of Sun Tu and the Shandong Army even stronger.
After entering the city, Peng Yongzhen did not dare to regard himself as a general who could be equal to Sun Tu. After meeting him, he even clasped his fists and saluted: "General Sun is really brave, and I really admire him." Ah. Now that Changshu has been captured, we can give an explanation to Jinling and the imperial court. I wonder what General Sun’s plans are next?”
Judging from his excited look, he obviously thought that the Shandong Army could continue their efforts and take advantage of the victory to send troops to take down some cities around Changshu. It would be best to take down Suzhou in one go. In this way, his Huainan Army only needs to share some of the credit from others, and it will be able to reap many benefits based on merit.
But to his surprise, Sun Tu had no trace of pride on his face after meeting them. Instead, he looked extremely serious and dignified. He just said: "I have already thought about the follow-up matters. You came at the right time." . Dong Ping, you lead 5,000 men to guard the west city, Song Jiang, you lead 5,000 men to guard the east, Lin Chong, Yang Zhi, you guard the south, and the Huainan Army, you guard the north of the city. No matter what happens next, our focus Just guard the city of Changshu and make no mistake!"
Although all the generals of the Shandong Army did not understand Sun Tu's arrangement, they still folded their hands and responded to the order. Only Peng Yongzhen looked surprised and confused: "General Sun, why are you... We are facing a formidable enemy like this? Haven't we just won two great victories? We even captured the city of Changshu. We only need to wait until follow-up reinforcements arrive before we can launch a counterattack against Suzhou."
"Because if my guess is correct, we will soon be besieged by a large number of enemies." Sun Tu simply stated his guess last night. Immediately, the excitement on the faces of everyone present was wiped away, and they did not dare to delay any more. They quickly went down to gather the troops and set up defenses in various parts of the city.
Only Peng Yongzhen was still full of doubts at this time: "General Sun, are you overestimating Fang La's rebel army? How could they come up with such a clever plan and even use a city as bait to set a trap?"
"We will know soon whether it is or not. The most important thing now is to prepare for defense, otherwise it will be too late when the enemy attacks in large numbers." Sun Tu insisted on his opinion, and at the same time his expression became serious. Said: "Peng Qian's jurisdiction is related to the life and death of your army and ours. I hope you can fully cooperate. The area outside Beicheng is the most narrow and steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack. You must lead your army to defend it for me!"
Being stared at by Sun Tu, Peng Yongzhen felt a sudden pressure in his heart. He did not dare to say anything more, and immediately clasped his fists solemnly: "Since you have decided so, General Sun, I will do my best to cooperate. If there is an enemy coming, Attack, 20,000 people from our Huainan Army will defend the north gate to the death!"
Only then did Sun Tu nod with satisfaction, and clasped his fist at him: "Then please!"
When the military orders were passed on, the Shandong Army naturally did not dare to slack off. After all, over the years, their own commanders had almost never made mistakes, and the soldiers only had to obey the orders. On the other hand, the Huainan Army, after learning that they had worked so hard to come to Changshu, not only could they not rest and relax, but they had to quickly devote themselves to all kinds of hard city defense work. Naturally, they had a lot of dissatisfaction and complaints, and they were far less dedicated than the soldiers in other cities. .
Changshu, as a small town in the south of the Yangtze River, naturally cannot have extremely strong and powerful defenses like those big cities or the military towns standing at the border. Even the walls on the four sides are not only low, only three or four feet high, but also because of the many years of There are many damaged places due to neglect of construction and the war a few months ago.
So when Sun Tu passed the order, the soldiers mostly did boring physical work such as repairing and raising the city wall. This was not too difficult for the Shandong Army, which was already well-trained and had built cities near Qingzhou in the past, but it was a big problem for the Huainan Army.
Even though their number was several times that of the other three walls, the progress of the city's construction in three days was far behind that of the east, west, and south walls. But even so, the soldiers who were forced to go to the city by the officers and generals every day still complained a lot. Many people only responded to the situation when they arrived at the city. There were many chatting and complaining, but very few actually did anything.
At noon on the 25th, hundreds of people took their turn to carry heavy stones to the city. Many people complained secretly and secretly greeted all eight generations of their ancestors under Peng Qian's jurisdiction. After finally moving several huge stones into the city, some people took the opportunity to be lazy and rest.
At this time, several soldiers gathered together and complained in a low voice: "Our general is the same. He actually believed what the Shandong Army said and treated us as coolies to build the city. What do you mean? , it is better to capture all the strong men in the city and let them help build the city."
"Your method is good, but it is impractical. I have heard that most of the people left in Changshu City are old, weak, women and children. The young and strong men either ran away or became rebels early in the morning. …”
"Hey, no matter what, we shouldn't do this job. And in my opinion, after being defeated by us one after another, the rebels will not be able to take the initiative to send troops again in a short period of time. Otherwise, what else will they have to defend? Suzhou and..." As he spoke, this man looked back, his expression suddenly changed, his mouth opened wide, but he couldn't utter a word, he just pointed his finger to the south in shock.
Others originally wanted to agree with his statement, but they were startled when they saw his sudden behavior. They quickly turned back to the south, and then all of them also showed expressions of disbelief. After the muscles on his face trembled for a while, I don't know who was the first to shout: "The enemy is coming, the enemy is coming in force!"
Suddenly, there was chaos all over the north gate. There were roars and shouts accompanied by the sound of gongs. Some people were going up to the city and some were going down. Anyway, the Huainan Army stationed here was completely in chaos for a while.
In comparison, the other three garrison rules
He seemed extremely calm. Although these soldiers also gasped as they looked at the large groups of enemy troops emerging from the end of the horizon, they still methodically began to make the final deployment before the war - wood, stone and other melee weapons, Long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows... so weapons that can be used in city defense are constantly being sent to the city.
Fortunately, the soldiers on the three city walls have been working hard to build the city walls in the past few days, so at this time, the east, west, and south sides have shown completely different defensive postures. Everyone also believes that such city defense can block several attacks. times the enemy's fierce attack.
The news quickly spread down below, and Sun Tu and other major generals also rushed over after hearing the news, climbed to the city and looked towards the south. Several people also had telescopes in their hands, allowing them to see the enemy forces ahead more clearly.
Even generals such as Lin Chong, who were as calm as Lin Chong, looked heavy at this time, and there was uneasiness in their tone: "Did they actually use so many troops this time? Roughly speaking, there were actually seventy, eighty, or even one hundred thousand people. A huge crowd! They actually invested a hundred thousand troops to deal with us!"
Even Sun Tu seemed quite nervous and murmured: "They really think highly of us. But even so, it is extremely difficult to mobilize a hundred thousand people at once. Without a month or two of preparation, it would be impossible to do anything." No soldiers. It seems that they have been planning this battle for a long time."
Except for a few trusted generals, others did not understand the profound meaning of Sun Tu's words. They just asked with some fear: "General, can we hold on?"
Even if they are as confident as the Shandong Army, they have never fought an enemy army of this size on the battlefield before, and now that they are trapped in such a small county town, they will inevitably feel a little timid.
"Now that the enemy has arrived, we have no choice but to defend Changshu! Relying on the city defense can give us a chance of victory with an outnumbered enemy. If we abandon the city and flee at this time, I am afraid that most of our troops will be killed here!" Sun Tu! But he focused his gaze and quickly expressed his judgment.
After a pause, he continued: "And in terms of military strength, the imperial court will only have more troops in Jiangnan than they do, so as long as we defend for a period of time, reinforcements will definitely arrive. What we have to do now is to defeat them first. The enemy is fierce, who of you dares to go out of the city to fight?"
When faced with the attack of nearly 100,000 enemy troops, Sun Tu actually did not intend to defend blindly, but made the decision to take the initiative. This made the generals stunned and refreshed. Many people had already The timidity in his heart was put aside, and then several people came forward at the same time: "I will go there eventually!"
Sun Tu glanced at everyone, it was Lin Chong, Wu Song, Lu Da, and Yue Fei!
A smile of approval appeared on his face: "Lin Chong Yue Fei, you two lead a cavalry assault and give the enemy a disarming attack first. Remember, don't be too greedy for success. After defeating the enemy's spirit, you can return to the city!"
"Here!" Lin and Yue responded in a low voice, and then hurried down to the city to prepare. As for Wu and Song, who had not been approved to fight, they could only sigh and accepted the arrangement. They also knew that cavalry was more suitable for today's assault battle than infantry combat experts like themselves.
Fortunately, they also know that there are still many opportunities for them to make meritorious deeds in the future.
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Battle of Changshu officially breaks out!
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Public sacrifice today.
May the deceased rest in peace and the heroes be immortal!