Amidst the thunderous sound of drums and trumpets and shouts of death, the fighting in the city of Changshu, which had stopped fighting for several days, resumed. Moreover, this time the Wu army launched an offensive more fierce than any previous one. Pang Wanchun mobilized a hundred thousand troops to attack the small city. The four gates of the county town seem to want to take it down in one go.
This time Pang Wanchun was really angry, because it was only then that he realized that he had been severely tricked. Not only was he wasting several days in vain, giving the Song army in the city a chance to breathe, but also causing his rear to The entire city of Suzhou was in chaos. This was a major failure that he had never experienced since his military career, and it was also something that he could hardly accept.
Just two days ago, as time continued to drag on, but the defenders of Changshu did not open the city and surrender as promised, Pang Wanchun had already vaguely sensed something was wrong, thinking that this was a delaying tactic used by Sun Tu. So they made an ultimatum, and even sent their troops forward again, proposing to only give the defenders one last day to think about it, and would launch a full-scale attack if the city was not opened.
Before the defenders could respond, that night, several subordinate soldiers with blood on their bodies and embarrassed expressions ran to the army in panic and delivered a piece of bad news: "Shuai Pang, the Song army encountered an enemy in Suzhou City." We can't resist the sneak attack, and the city has fallen into the enemy's hands!"
Pang Wanchun couldn't believe his ears. He just stared at the subordinate soldiers in front of him. After a while, he realized: "What did you say? How could Suzhou be lost? Where did the Song Army and the Shandong Army in the south come from? They are all trapped in Changshu City by me, unable to move..."
"The banner they are flying is the Shandong Army..." A subordinate explained in a low voice, which made everyone in the tent look more and more unbelievable. This is really crazy. Could it be that the Shandong Army could still separate themselves, or could they fly to the sky and escape from the earth, flying from their own encirclement to Suzhou in one fell swoop
"What on earth is going on? Please tell me in detail. Don't miss anything!" Pang Wanchun asked for details after he had calmed down for a moment.
In fact, most of those who escaped from Suzhou to report the news didn't quite understand what happened that night. They could only tell what they knew in one word or another. Including the powerful and terrifying combat power of the Song Army, as well as their sneaking into Suzhou, launching raids at night, burning granaries and many other things, everyone was extremely nervous when they heard it. Even Pang Wanchun subconsciously took a breath.
According to this statement, based on Pang Wanchun's understanding of the Shandong Army, the Battle of Suzhou was really their work. But he really couldn't figure out how the other party could hide it from his eyes and ears and suddenly appear behind him.
At this time, one of his subordinates finally suddenly shouted: "We have fallen into a trap, Pang Shuai. Now it seems that they have never been sincere about surrendering. The conditions they proposed are just to paralyze us and take advantage of my unprepared retreat. Sneak a small group of troops to the south..."
Pang Wanchun, who was awakened by the words, turned blue and red, and was extremely embarrassed: "Sun Tu, you are so despicable! I still regard you as a rare opponent, but I didn't expect you to use such dirty methods. Come and deceive me! Well, since you are so unruly, don’t blame me for not leaving any room!"
In anger, Pang Wanchun no longer had any worries or reservations.
Immediately ordered the mobilization of all troops and horses under his command, and immediately launched an attack on the four gates of Changshu. This time, he no longer cared about casualties, nor did he plan to surrender any Shandong elites. He only wanted to annihilate this hateful Song army, and then use the victory to fight back to Suzhou and regain control of this important town in the south of the Yangtze River. right.
As soon as this order came out, even at night, Wu Jun did not delay at all. A massive siege ensued, with waves of troops attacking the four cities of Changshu like waves, engaging in a life-and-death struggle with the defenders.
However, the strength of the Shandong Army once again exceeded Pang Wanchun's expectations. Even though they had tried their best, and even though Sun Tu was not in the city now, relying on the correct command of the many generals he left behind, and the heroic performance of the soldiers after recuperating in the past few days, they were able to block it. The enemy attacked fiercely day and night.
However, the losses suffered by the defenders were not small. Needless to say, the casualties of ordinary soldiers. After a day and night of hard fighting, the casualties had reached thousands. Even the middle and low-level officers were greatly damaged, especially those with martial arts skills. The high-powered former Liangshan leaders suffered a sharp increase in casualties because they always had to defend the city in bloody battles after the enemy boarded the city.
Bao Xu, Fan Rui, Li Gun, Ma Lin, Song Wan, Li Li... In just one day and one night, no less than a dozen brothers died or were disabled. The casualties of the military attachés from various cities in Shandong who had previously surrendered to Sun Tu were not lower than theirs. After all, except for some generals who need to take charge of the overall situation, these officers all need to lead the troops on the front line, and the battle for the city wall has almost no tricks at all. It is a life-for-life, blood-for-blood battle. , the casualties of the soldiers were naturally rolling upwards.
Of course, the casualties of the attacking side will only be far higher than those of the defending side. After rounds of fierce attacks, nearly 10,000 Wu troops were killed and injured by all kinds of gold, juice, rocks and wood. As for those who were killed after entering the city Yes, it's more than three thousand.
Each time, they climbed onto the city under tremendous pressure, but every time they stepped on the blood and corpses of their comrades to the top of the city, they faced an even more ferocious counterattack. The Shandong Army completely demonstrated their extremely strong combat effectiveness and cohesion. Even if they were inferior in number to the enemy, they were able to drive the enemy off the city through crazy fighting time and time again.
The top of the city was already stained red with blood, and corpses were piled up. There were people behind them who used the corpses as weapons such as rocks and wood to smash at the enemy.
After facing such a powerful opponent, suffering repeated setbacks and suffering constant casualties, the Wu army finally couldn't stand it any longer. After a day and night of fierce attacks, they suspended their offensive. Afterwards, some people even begged Pang Wanchun, hoping that he would quickly withdraw his troops and return to rescue Suzhou, so as not to fight to the death with the Song army out of anger. In the final analysis, they have been frightened by the strong fighting spirit of the Shandong Army.
In fact, how could Pang Wanchun not see that Changshu was indeed difficult to get off? He also wanted to withdraw his troops and return to rescue Suzhou, but he knew that there were huge hidden dangers in doing so. Because once he retreats, the morale of the entire army will be severely reduced, and at the same time, he will not know what the situation is in the rear. If the Song army is strong enough and deliberately sets an ambush on the only road it must pass, then if you go back, you will be trapped in a trap, and the losses will only be greater.
And more importantly, he is absolutely right
Because he believed that once he withdrew his troops, the Song army in Changshu would definitely leave the city to pursue them. By then, they would be extremely passive.
"Pang Shuai, I think this is an opportunity. We might as well use retreat as advance, pretend to retreat to Suzhou, and first transfer the defenders out of Changshu City. In this way, we can get rid of our worries first, and then go back to deal with the Suzhou side. Song Army." A subordinate came up with an idea and came up with a quite reasonable strategy.
Pang Wanchun nodded immediately: "That's an idea, let's do it. But before that, we can continue to attack the city and consume more of their troops. This way, after luring them out of the city, it will be easier to kill them all!"
So the siege continued for the next two days, but the offensive was not as fierce as the previous two days. At the same time, the Wu army had also begun to make preparations for retreat - Pang Wanchun also had two preparations. If the Shandong army came out to pursue them, he would set up an ambush to catch them unprepared; if the enemy did not move, he would rush back to Suzhou as soon as possible.
But on the third day after he had finalized the entire plan, another soldier under his command brought him information that made him even more anxious. In the past few days, the Song army that occupied Suzhou had attacked frequently, killing people near Suzhou. Several small counties were also captured. What shocked him especially was that even Wu County, where he used to store grain, had fallen into the hands of the enemy...
"What do you do for food? I have left three thousand men and horses in Wu County. Can't you even defend a small city? You are just a bunch of trash!" Looking at Wu Guang, the general under his command who was supposed to be stationed in Wu County, who came to report the news , Pang Wanchun couldn't bear it anymore and started to curse.
Wu Guang felt guilty and uneasy for a while, and after a long while he vaguely told the whole story: "General... I fell into the trap of the Song army. They actually sent someone, led by General Xu, to transfer our Wu County garrison to the rescue. As a result, As soon as we left the city, we were ambushed by the Song army. When I led my army to break out of the siege and fled back to Wu County, I found that the place had been occupied by troops sent by the Song army... "
"How many troops does he have? How could he easily defeat thousands of your troops and split his army to capture Wu County?"
"There were only a few hundred people ambushing us, but they were extremely powerful. We couldn't resist them at all. As for those who captured the city, the general took a few glances from a distance, but found that there were actually Suzhou defenders among them..." Wu Guang answered cautiously. .
Just this sentence made Pang Wanchun's face change again, which was even more ugly than when he learned that Wu County and other cities were captured by the Song army. Because he knew very well that this meant that Suzhou had truly fallen into the hands of the Song Army, and the other party now had an army of thousands of people in their hands.
"How could this be? After I sent my troops into Suzhou that day, it took me more than half a month to control the situation. How could the Song army do this so easily?"
Faced with this question, no one present could give an answer, and everyone looked horrified. Now it seems that the situation is far worse and more dangerous than they judged. If they don't return to the army, Suzhou will be completely taken back by the Song army.
And this will also bring more serious consequences, that is, their group of people will soon become a lone army trapped in enemy territory, and the situation will only be more serious than that of the Shandong Army. Because they now have no food and grass inside and no city to rely on outside. Once the Song army from the north takes advantage of the situation and comes, there will really be only a dead end!