The three armies marched south separately. In less than a month, they had fought successively, attacked and captured more than ten cities, large and small. Relevant good news was also delivered to Huzhou one after another, which dazzled Sun Tu and his generals, and many people became anxious.
Until today, another good news came. The soldiers who reported the news shouted loudly as soon as they entered the city gate: "Great victory ahead. Our Huaibei soldiers will break through Lin'an County in one day and will launch an attack on Hangzhou, the main city of the rebels." "The peace of Jiangnan is just around the corner..." Running and shouting all the way, he soon attracted the attention of the entire city's soldiers and civilians. When he delivered the good news to Sun Tu, many generals hurried over, their expressions more urgent than their steps.
Sun Tu, however, still looked calm. After quickly scanning the military report in his hand, he nodded slightly: "General Zhang has indeed lived up to the great trust of the imperial court. He has defeated several cities in a short period of time, and is about to attack the walls of Hangzhou." , It is indeed worth celebrating for his hard work. However, I still want to advise him not to be too eager to win. The more critical the moment, the more calm he should be. It is better to postpone the march to Hangzhou." This is what he said to the messenger in front of him. Yes, he also said it to the generals in front of him. After he finished speaking, he took a pen and paper, wrote a military order, used his seal and handed it over: "Send it back to the front as soon as possible, so General Zhang Gun must be careful."
It wasn't until the man carefully took it and agreed to withdraw with some hesitation that the other generals stepped forward and said uneasily: "General, what should we do? I didn't expect the rebels to be so vulnerable. In the past few days, With great success every day, all the cities north of Hangzhou have been captured by the three armies. Soon they will be able to encircle Hangzhou. Once they really take advantage of the situation to break through Hangzhou City, this achievement will be... "
"General, we can't wait any longer. We must get there before the city of Hangzhou is defeated and attack the city together, so that we can share some of the credit!"
"Yes, General, we can't delay it any longer. After this period of rest, the soldiers have all recovered, and it's time to make contributions again!"
These generals were all talking loudly, obviously they were all anxious, and they didn't even care about the distinction between superiority and inferiority. They just wanted Sun Tu to send troops as soon as possible. Although they were also lieutenant generals of the Shandong Army, they were not Sun Tu's confidants after all. They were mostly generals from other states, so they were unaware of his previous speculations and rhetoric. Once we now know that the siege of the city and territory ahead is overwhelming, we will naturally become impatient.
Sun Tu just listened to their shouting quietly, but his eyes slowly turned cold. After a while, everyone realized what was going on, and some of them stopped talking, but their eyes were still full of longing when they looked at him.
"Have you finished talking? Looking at your potential, it's ridiculous to rush you into this with your meager achievements!" Sun Tu scolded with a straight face: "Didn't you hear me telling them not to rush to Hangzhou? Do you want to use troops? If Hangzhou City cannot escape, it will always be captured by our Shandong soldiers!"
"But... their morale is high now, how can they stop moving forward? Although they all sent troops under the orders of the general before, they are not subordinate to our Shandong Army after all... "
"Yes, even big cities like Xiuzhou and important cities like Lin'an have been captured by them one after another. Hangzhou may not really be able to stop them."
Several subordinates plucked up the courage to explain in a low voice. To be honest, if the situation had not been urgent, they would not have dared to ask Sun Tu for a fight so boldly.
Sun Tu looked at these people with some annoyance and amusement, shook his head and said: "It seems that you are really shocked by the continuous good news in recent days, and you have even lost the judgment you should have. Let me ask you, why Fang La It’s been so long since we raised our troops and proclaimed ourselves emperor, but we still haven’t been able to wipe them out? In fact, it wasn’t until our Shandong Army marched all the way south that we finally recaptured the cities?”
"This... is naturally because the rebels are strong and their troops are strong."
"That's it. Let me ask you again, until today, how many rebels have we wiped out in total? How many people do they still have?"
Everyone looked at each other in confusion for a while, but could not come up with an accurate figure. They could only vaguely say: "The number of enemies to be destroyed should be between 40,000 and 50,000. As for how many people the rebels still have, they previously claimed to have hundreds of thousands, so why should they?" There are probably more than ten or two hundred thousand..."
"Yes, since the rebels have sufficient troops and a city to defend, how can the three-pronged army and horse attack directly to the gate of Hangzhou without any hindrance? Where have the hundreds of thousands of people gone? Is it really possible that the army was defeated like a mountain? Unfortunately, it’s completely gone, but you don’t even have the courage to make a last-ditch effort?” Sun Tu guided everyone to bring this issue that should have been clear to their eyes, which immediately made everyone look deep in thought.
"If something goes wrong, it will be a monster. If you really think that Hangzhou is an isolated city and no longer has the power to fight back, I'm afraid it is not far from defeat." Sun Tu said with a solemn expression: "That's why I have been standing still in Huzhou. In addition to letting the soldiers rest and recuperate, it is also to let more people see the enemy's true face clearly, and it is also to test the bottom line of the rebels. Now it seems that Hangzhou should be their last bottom line. Once they advance easily, the consequences will be inevitable It's extremely serious. What will happen when hundreds of thousands of troops gather there and suddenly attack without any preparation?"
Sun Tu's question finally made everyone change their expressions: "If this is true, I'm afraid it will be a disastrous defeat. Even with the strength of our Shandong Army, we may not be able to escape unscathed, let alone the other three." The army is on the way."
"General, we can no longer allow Huai Jing Ji and Jing Nan troops to continue attacking Hangzhou City, otherwise the consequences will be too serious..."
In an instant, everyone's thoughts had changed 180 degrees. They were so worried that they wished they could appear next to the three armies right now and issue a warning to them.
"Before they set off, I warned them several times, and now I'm writing to warn them again. I just hope that Zhang Gun, Xu Shen and the others can wake up in time and rein in the situation. The city of Hangzhou must be a dragon's pool and a tiger's den. It's easy to get in, but hard to get out." Sun Tu sighed softly, but in fact he was not very sure that the three armies would really obey his wishes.
Just from the way this army keeps delivering good news, we can know how radical they are and how much they want to prove to Sun Tu or the court that their strength is not inferior to the Shandong Army, and that they can also put down the rebellion! Otherwise, no matter how smooth the march is, they will not be able to advance hundreds of miles and capture more than ten cities in just over half a month. They should at least let the soldiers slow down.
After all, this is actually Sun Tu’s real and unnamed reason.
The commander-in-chief of the three armies was actually not convinced by the consequences brought about by the commander-in-chief of the three armies. Especially after discovering that the rebel army was nothing more than this, they wanted to compete with the Shandong Army for military glory. In this regard, Sun Tu didn't have a good countermeasure. He couldn't really hold down the 100,000 troops and prevent them from going south. That would only intensify the conflict and give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it.
Therefore, if you want to establish your absolute prestige and status, you have to let them hit a wall and get a bloody blow, and then lead the Shandong Army to solve everything. Although it is very helpless and the price is very high, there is no better choice besides this.
After scanning the generals again, Sun Tucai said seriously: "So we must be prepared with both hands. If they are willing to listen to the advice and stop their advance, then our army can also prepare to go south and cooperate with them to win the city of Hangzhou in a steady and steady attack. If not, we will have to send troops to meet them."
After he arranged the relevant military affairs and all the generals withdrew, Sun Tu's face still didn't look relaxed. This made Song Jiang, who stayed at the end, feel a little concerned: "General, do you still have concerns?"
"Yeah, if it's just like what I said, the situation won't be out of control, but what if..." He paused and asked, "Has Li Kui's injury been healed?"
During the battle in Huzhou that day, Pang Wanchun shot an arrow at Song Jiang because of Li Kui's shield, so Song Jiang was not injured. However, he himself was seriously injured and has been bedridden since entering Huzhou. Seeing him asking, Song Jiang hurriedly replied: "Fortunately, Tieniu is strong enough. He finally recovered in the past two days. Now he is waiting outside. Does the general want to see him?"
"No need..." Sun Tu waved his hand. He had no good impressions of this heartless and murderous guy who was only loyal to Song Jiang: "If this is the case, I'm afraid Pang Wanchun's injuries will be almost healed. This person is a rebel. The first person among them, if he takes action, the situation will only become more serious!"
￥￥￥￥￥
In Hangzhou city. Everything here is far less tense than imagined. Even though news of the city's fall kept coming back from the front, these senior officials of Wu State remained calm as usual, as if the enemy army was still far away from them.
At this time, in a huge hall, Pang Wanchun, whose face was still a little pale but whose movements had returned to normal, was standing in front of a detailed map with a heavy gaze: "Did they even capture Lin'an? These Song troops His movements were so fast that we were unable to respond in time."
After a pause, he smiled contemptuously: "But this is better. The closer we are to Hangzhou, the more beneficial it is to us. At the same time, their logistical problems will be more serious." After saying this, he looked at the people beside him. Fang Fei and Jiang Shihu: "Prime Minister Fang, Military Advisor Jiang, I think it's time to counterattack. Just choose here, here, and here to lay an ambush, and then mobilize all the soldiers and horses in the city to attack proactively. This time We must defeat the Song army and avenge our previous humiliation!"
Following his finger pointing, three dangerous locations outside Hangzhou were selected, making the other two nod their heads. After a long while, Jiang Shihu sighed unwillingly: "It's a pity that the Shandong Army did not come south this time. Otherwise, just one battle could completely turn the tide of the war!"
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