The Song Dynasty has been deliberate for 16 years, only to know that it is the Water Margin

Chapter 259
There is no moon in the new day, and the night sky is so dark.

Above the Xiping Gate in Luzhou, Zhao Tun and Liyanazha stood side by side, looking down at the city.

At dusk, those cavalry who were outside finally returned, and the next battle in Luzhou City was easy to kill.

Even if Wang Qing ordered arrows to be released from the top of the city to cover it, and the gates below the city were opened to respond, in the end there were still countless casualties, [-] riders when they left, and only [-] when they returned to the city.

Although the Song army won, they also suffered a lot of losses. In front of the east and west gates, in the moat, there were countless corpses, and the water in the moat was soaked into scarlet.

The war horses that lost their masters ran wild, broken weapons were everywhere, and feathered arrows were thrown everywhere as if they were worthless.

The Song Army's camp was set up in the north of Luzhou City, and the scouts were always wandering around Luzhou City, not knowing what they were looking for.

Lianazha suddenly said: "Song Jun's move to divert the tiger away from the mountain is too ingenious."

Zhao Tong said: "Where is the ingenuity?"

Lianazha said: "The Song army did not go to the Beicheng camp to harass, but went to the east and west cities, giving people the illusion that the purpose was not in the Beicheng camp at all, making people feel that they did not have a real plan, but only thought that they wanted to do something in the east and west. The two cities used tricks, so Marshal Duan inadvertently fell into the tricks of the Song army."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Tun shook his head and laughed dryly.

Liana Zha said: "Could it be that General Li disagrees with me?"

Zhao Tun took a look at her, not too clear in the dark, and reached out to hold Lianaza's slender hand.

Liana shuddered and said, "Let's go to the tower to talk."

The two entered the city tower, and there were oil lamps on the table inside the tower, the lights were like beans, and the shadows were faint.

Liana Zha said: "I just said that the Song army used it well to divert the tiger away from the mountain. Why did General Li laugh?"

Zhao Tong said: "Send troops to harass the east and west cities of Luzhou, attract the attention of the North City camp, and lure the North City camp to send troops to chase after them. Is this what you mean?"

Lianaza said: "Isn't it?"

Zhao Tong touched his chin and said, "Why do I feel like leading a snake out of its hole?"

Lianazha was puzzled and said, "What lures the snake out of the hole?"

Zhao Tong said: "Ambush in advance, then go to harass repeatedly, annoy the people in the North City camp and send troops to chase, and then lead them to the ambush place, to catch them by surprise."

Lianazha was stunned when she heard the words: "I'm afraid it won't be so simple... The Song army has used so many ambushes before Shouzhou City, and they still use ambushes in Luzhou. How could someone fall into the trap?"

Zhao Tong shook his head and said, "It's just that there is no suitable place to ambush around Luzhou City. As for the later Tiaohulishan, it was probably a new plan. There is no place to ambush, and then I thought of Tiaohulishan."

Lianazha looked at Zhao Tun and said, "I don't believe it..."

Zhao Tong said with a smile: "If you don't believe it, you don't believe it. I'm just guessing randomly, but the King Qi of the Song Dynasty is really admirable in his military skills."

Li Yanaza's bright eyes flickered, and she looked at him with a half-smile. Zhao Tun saw her delicate and charming under the lamp, she couldn't help but stretched out her arms into her arms, and said in a low voice: "The king of Qi, Zhao Tun, has a clever plan. Could it be that General Shangguan fell in love with her?"

Liannazha looked up at him, smiled again, and said nothing, Zhao Tong asked strangely, "Which one do you always laugh at?"

Liannazha said in a low voice: "What General Li said is true. This general has fallen in love with King Naqi. How do you treat him?"

Zhao Tun was startled when he heard the words, and said with a smile, "When did it happen? I don't know."

Liannazha said: "This can't be said, General Li don't want to ask."

Zhao Tong thought about it: "I just remembered something, what happened to the king's seal of Fang Jingjue Kingdom in Longyou Stone Forest at that time?"

Liana Zha said: "General Li still remembers this?"

Zhao Tong said with a smile: "Of course I remember, I've always been curious about the purpose of that seal. I thought it contained some ancient country's secrets, but after thinking about it, it's unlikely, but the thing itself can sell for some silver taels."

Lianazha whispered: "It has nothing to do with any secrets. It is a tradition of my Uyghur royal family. I can't explain it for a while. I will tell you carefully when I have time."

Zhao Tong nodded, he really didn't know about Uighurs, even in later generations, there were very few records about Uighurs, most of them were just superficial things.

At this time, Zhao Tun's official position was restored to the Luzhou defense envoy, but because the Song army was approaching the city, he no longer set up a distinction between left and right envoys, but directly appointed five Luzhou defense envoys. Qiu Xiang will be in charge of inspecting Luzhou's defense together.

Zhao Tuo has not contacted outside the city yet. After all, the Song army needs to be rehabilitated after repeated battles, especially for lazy soldiers like the Gyeonggi Imperial Army. It is a miracle that they can win the battle, so even if they are in contact now, I am afraid that they will not be able to act according to the secret letter immediately.

The content of the secret letter that Huang Gu brought was actually very simple. It was to wait for an opportunity, make an appointment, and then secretly open the Xiping Gate to break Luzhou together.

It's easy to say that waiting for an opportunity is mainly because the Song Army has to be prepared. The daily situation in Luzhou City is similar, so there is no need to wait for any special opportunity.

As for the agreed time, it was naturally the time when the Xiping Gate was opened in a sneak attack. As long as Zhao Tang and the other party could get in touch, the time could be determined through the semaphore.

The two then chatted for a while, and Zhao Yu went downstairs to leave. Now the five defense envoys in Luzhou City don't need to patrol day and night like before, they all come in rotation, and they can be repaired after a fixed time.

On the second day of court, Wang Qing roared again in the hall, but the officials couldn't think of any second strategy to retreat from the enemy, so they had to disperse hastily in the end.

In the evening, Zhao Tama went to the neighboring house to give Liannaza 36 strategies. Liyanaza was extremely talented in military affairs, learned very quickly, and could almost draw inferences about other cases from one instance.

After a few days like this, the Song army outside the city neither attacked the city nor scolded, and just confronted each other like this.

However, the Song army's scout horses were still running around the city. Once a city gate opened and wanted to chase and kill them, they turned their horses and ran away.

At noon that day, Zhao Tun inspected the northern city. The general in the northern city was still Lu Cheng, but there were two additional generals and three deputy generals. Three generals and five deputy generals stood guard every day and night.

Zhao Tong stood at the top of the city and looked into the distance, and he could see the Song army camp in the distance.

Song Jun did not lie dormant in the camp, but a few sentries were wandering outside, and one of them seemed to be heading to Luzhou City.

Lu Cheng said with a troubled face: "These Song soldiers will come here every day to provoke them, but they can't shoot, and they can't catch up. It's abominable."

Zhao Tong sighed: "Nowadays, the government can't come up with a charter, and it's not a solution to keep it all the time, but to fight it out."

Lu Chengdao: "Who says it's not? Keep guard like this... General Li, look at this Song army is here to provoke again!"

Zhao Tong looked around, and saw a sentry Song army of about seven or eight hundred, approaching Luzhou City at a leisurely pace.

It can be vaguely seen that there are two generals in front of these cavalry, both wearing the armor of the army commander, one seems to be holding a gun in his hand, and the other hangs a weapon beside the horse.

The cavalry stopped within a stone's throw of Luzhou City. It was a little closer, and they could vaguely see the outline of the face on the opposite side. Zhao Tang took a few glances and raised his eyebrows. One of the two generals It's Huang Gu.

If you are not too familiar, you may not be able to recognize each other just by looking at the outline of the face at such a distance, but the two have known each other since childhood, and you can recognize it just by looking at the back. Zhao Tun naturally recognized Huang Gu at a glance .

He leaned forward slightly at the top of the wall, and said, "General Lu, does the Song army send these soldiers here every day?"

Lu Cheng nodded and looked down the city with a look of resentment: "These Song soldiers are different from those who harassed the East and West cities before. They neither shoot arrows nor curse. They just stand there chatting loudly and laugh wildly from time to time. He just treats me like nothing."

"So that's how it is..." Zhao Tun continued to look down the city, only to see those Song soldiers looking up, and after he was sure that Huang Gu could see his home, he couldn't help but smiled: "General Lu, in fact, they have nothing to do with Luzhou. , otherwise the city would have been sieged long ago, so why bother to use these tricks that can’t be put on the table.”

Lu Chengdao: "The city of Luzhou is tall and strong, and there is enough food and grass at the moment. Although we suffered a few defeats and suffered losses, the number of soldiers and horses is not much less than that of the Song army, so it will not be easy to attack."

Zhao Tong nodded and said: "If the city is united, with Luzhou's grain and troops, the Song army will have to attack with [-]% more troops to make it possible!"

Lu Cheng shook his head and said, "General Li overestimated these Song troops. Although Lu is not very good at military affairs, he also knows that it is difficult to attack a city. With a high-rise city like Luzhou, even if you give the Song army twice as many troops, I'm afraid It’s not going to work, unless some tricks are used, it is possible to break Luzhou.”

Zhao Tun laughed dryly when he heard this, and said, "General Lu is right."

He knew that Lu Cheng was right. According to "Historical Records", "Zuo Zhuan" and other books, if an army wants to forcibly attack a city, it needs at least five times the enemy's strength. The required troops are more than ten times that, and it is still difficult to say whether they can break through.

However, there are not many who really put out several times the army and attacked the city with a strict eye. Most of them were scared to abandon the city after the soldiers approached the city, or directly surrendered the city, or were trapped for a period of time, running out of food and grass. In the end, he had no choice but to surrender.

Faced with several times or even ten times the strength of the army, they still can't hold out. Some people insist on fighting to the end, but very few.

There is actually a question here, that is, why do you have to attack the city when fighting.

If it is easy to bypass the city and directly attack the capital of the enemy country, if the capital can be destroyed, the country will naturally be in chaos, and the rest of the city is more likely to look forward to the wind, wouldn't it be a second?

The Battle of Baiju between Wu and Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period was like this.

Wei Yan's Ziwu Valley plot also thought so, but it didn't work out. Instead, Deng Ai's battle to destroy Shu did it.

Even the battle of Jingnan in later generations went deep into Yingtian Mansion and succeeded in one fell swoop.

But why this is rarely done is because many cities and passes are often built according to the terrain, in line with natural dangers. Even if there are roads outside the city to bypass, many of them are not official roads, which will only increase the risk of enemy attacks.

Since the city has not been captured, there are also great hidden dangers in terms of logistics and supplies of food and grass. Once caught in the siege of the enemy, it will be lost forever.

Therefore, most of the time it is necessary to attack the city. After capturing the city, it is very important to have a reliable rear for collecting supplies, transporting troops, and recuperating.

In addition, the battle of Baiju, the battle of Wei's destruction of Jihan, and Jing's difficulty in going deep into Yingtian Mansion are because not all cities are naturally dangerous and reliable, so it is actually possible to break into the enemy's rear.

But if you want to accomplish such a feat, it is difficult to do it with infantry alone. You need a strong cavalry team to have a chance to make a quick surprise attack.

However, the cost of forming a cavalry is very large, and commanding such a cavalry is even more difficult.

"Sun Tzu's Art of War" said: The first is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the army, and the next is to attack the city.

Forced sieges are often very costly, and other methods are generally chosen.

The most common thing is to besiege the city, you only need to surround the city, cut off the supplies of the defending side, consume the morale of the defending side, disintegrate the defender's will to defend the city, force the opponent to surrender, or use some tactics during this period, such as counter-intimacy Strategies and the like caused chaos in the city, and then plotted it in one fell swoop.

The military strength of the Song soldiers was about the same as that of the thieves in the city, and they couldn't encircle the city at all. Siege can only be regarded as the last resort, but the loss is really unbearable, so they still have to use strategy.

Zhao Tang was not surprised that Lu Cheng could see this, it was not too difficult to understand, he looked down the city at this moment, and saw that the Song army suddenly raised the flag and waved it twice against the wind.

Zhao Tun's pupils shrank suddenly, it was Huang Gu who recognized him and was semaphore.

Waving the flag twice against the wind, in the semaphore agreed upon by Zhao Tun and Huang Gu, it was to ask whether it was feasible to attack the city in two days.

Zhao Tang secretly thought that after two days it would not be the time for Liyanazha to guard the Xiping Gate, so he couldn't help but turn around on the top of the wall.

Turning around means no.

After a while, he turned around again, but Lu Cheng didn't pay attention to these movements, even if he did, he couldn't see anything.

At this time, the Song army under the city waved the flag three times in a row. This time, Zhao Tuo didn't move, but squinted.

Lu Cheng said from the side: "Look, General Li, now I don't shoot arrows anymore, I wave the flag every day to provoke, and it's time to shout after a while."

Zhao Tong smiled: "General Lu, I think the Song Army has nothing to do, so let's just treat him like a clown."

Lu Cheng nodded, looking helpless.

At this time, the Song Army bannermen under the city seemed to shake their hands, and the flag fell down suddenly, and it even hit the horse horizontally, and then was raised again by the bannermen.

Zhao Tun stood motionless at the top of the wall. The semaphore just now meant to attack at midnight.

Lu Cheng said with a smile at this time: "The Song army can't even hold the flag firmly, so it's really bad. The previous few battles were just luck. As for the siege, don't even think about it. I'm afraid that even if everyone is gone, they won't be able to climb the city wall. "

Zhao Tong said: "General Lu's words are justified."

Song Jun saw that Zhao Tun still did not move in the city, so he tilted the head of the flag to the west, and did not move for a long time.

This move means to attack from the west city, and the west city naturally refers to the Xiping gate. The secret letter that Zhao Tuo asked Huang Gu to bring mentioned that the Xiping gate can be opened.

Zhao Tang continued to move, and then saw that the flag soldier began to raise and lower the flag, and then all the Song soldiers began to shout loudly, which meant that it was settled like this.

Three days later, at midnight, Xipingmen entered the city with a sneak attack.

Zhao Tong stretched out his left hand at this moment, nodded at those Song soldiers outside the city, shook his head and said, "General Lu, these Song soldiers are really arrogant!"

Lu Chengdao: "I can't wait to go out to the city to fight, but the prime minister refuses."

Zhao Tong's gesture of stretching out his fingers also means that the matter is settled as it is, and there is no need to change it.

Seeing this, the Song army under the city turned their horses around and began to walk back.

Lu Chengdao: "These Song soldiers returned early today, and they have to dawdle a little bit more every day."

Zhao Tong laughed and said, "You can't earn anything cheap, you just know it's boring."

Lu Cheng said: "I'm afraid so."

After finishing speaking, Zhao Tama looked at it for a while, then turned around to say goodbye, and left the city.

(End of this chapter)