Zhao Xusheng frowned and said nothing.

Xie Qian asked, "What are you going to do? Should I keep Gaizhou and not attack?"

Zhou Xian waved his hand, "The attack is to attack, but I think it is more beneficial to our army for the time being. The current situation is that Gaizhou is closer to our army, and it is far away from Shangkexi's rear base Haizhou. In terms of the difficulties of transportation of baggage, it is much more difficult than us. If our army takes Gaizhou, Shangkexi's army outside can retreat to Yingkou and Haizhou at any time as long as its strength is not damaged. At that time, the difficult one will be our army."

Zhao Xusheng's eyes lit up, "Master General, do you want to eat Shang Kexi's main force?"

Zhou Xian shook his head and smiled, "Shang Kexi is so cautious now. How could it be so easy to eat him? What I want is to completely surround Gaizhou and attract Shang Kexi to help, and then we will bleed him little by little. As long as the troops in his hands are destroyed, it will be easy to recover Yingkou and Haizhou in the future."

Zhao Xusheng said with some concern: "Although Gaizhou City is only a five-mile city, there are still more than 20,000 troops in it so far, including 8,000 elite troops led by Shang Keai. Since Deputy General Li led his troops to Juehua Island, our army has only about 60,000 troops left. In addition to those who are left behind, there are only about 40,000 mobile troops left. To siege Gaizhou, we must cut off the contact between Shang Keai and the outside world, and we must also beware of them raiding outwards. This requires a lot of troops. How many troops can we have left to deal with Shang Kexi outside then!"

Zhou Xianxiao said, "It doesn't require too many troops, ten thousand is enough!"

Seeing Zhao Xusheng's face full of confusion, Zhou Xian explained: "You forgot that most cities in Gaizhou and Liaodong are different. They have moats. And it only has three city gates, south, east and west. The Guangen Gate on the south side is connected to the outside through a floating bridge, and Shunqing and Ninghai Gate are two dirt roads three meters wide. If we attack the city, this moat will be the biggest threat to our army. But if they want to go out, then this moat will be their biggest obstacle. As long as we dig those two dirt roads and destroy the suspension bridge, will the defenders of Gaizhou become turtles in the jar?"

Zhao Xusheng's grief was still unrest, "But the commander had thought that the reason we could go directly to the south wall was because this was closest to our army, and the gratifying army was stationed in the east. If our army wanted to cut off the dirt roads on both sides of the east and west, we had to fight with the army outside the city and face the attack of the defenders in the city."

Zhou Xian nodded slightly, "You are right. But the biggest threat to our army is the six thousand elite cavalry under Shang Kexi. As long as they can limit their movements and make them unable to perform, Gaizhou will be completely ready."

Zhao Xusheng and Xie Qian looked at each other, "General, how is this possible? Unless a large number of trains are built, connected to each other, built-in baggage, rear musketeers and snitches make the enemy cavalry dare not take action because they are worried about the loss. But it takes time to make these, and our army has not made any preparations in this regard before."

The construction of a large number of trains like Sun Chuanting was to limit the mobility of the enemy cavalry, which was a suggestion that Zhao Xusheng had long put forward. Zhou Xian also agreed at that time, but after building hundreds of them, he directly stopped them.

Zhao Xusheng was quite puzzled and expressed his own objections. However, Zhou Xian inexplicably insisted on this and did not even explain too much to him.

Now Zhao Xusheng has proposed this again, which is obviously dissatisfied with Zhou Xian’s actions at that time.

Zhou Xian smiled, "Making such a train requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and it pushes forward slowly. It can only defend itself but not attack, and its effect is not that great. It is not necessary to simply limit the movement power of the six thousand elite cavalry under Shang Kexi. This is not necessary. The south of the city has been completely occupied by our army. First, dig two 1 zhang wide and seven feet deep, which is enough to hide the body of the soldiers and trenches across the entire south of the city. Then turn a corner and dig northward in both left and right directions at the same time. After blocking the east and west gates, new trenches will be continuously added, with a few more, or even more than a dozen, so that the army in the south can reinforce both sides of the east and west at any time."

As he said that, Zhou Xian took a long knife from Sun Bao behind him and drew on the ground so that they could see clearly.

"This is equivalent to completely isolating the defenders in the city. Even if the moat is frozen in the future, it will not be easy for Shangkeai's troops to come out. The Shangkexi cavalry outside the city will find it difficult to play a role because of these trenches. If you want to open up the situation, you can only rely on his infantry to fight with our army in the area centered on these trenches. Are we still afraid of them who have the advantage?"

Xie Qian came back a little, "You used these trenches to make a cage, circled all the Tartars in Gaizhou City, and directly trapped them to death. But keeping them is always a threat. When do you plan to deal with them?"

Zhou Xian smiled faintly and said, "It's not urgent. Let's trap them for a few months first! In the small five-mile city, Shang Keai actually gathered more than 20,000 soldiers in the city. With too many people, his heart will naturally become uneven. Although he had robbed a lot of food and grass around him before, it was only enough for them to use for three or four months. Once surrounded, his heart would be panicked. You should know that most of the people inside were farmers who could only hoe and farm. They were not strong in combat and were not loyal to Shang Keai. If they were siege for a long time, they would inevitably collapse, and they would eventually directly affect the elite soldiers under Shang Keai. It is unknown if the soldiers took Gaizhou without blood."

Seeing Zhou Xian looking at him, Zhao Xusheng pondered for a moment, nodded deeply and said, "Although this move of the commander took a little longer, it could avoid a large number of casualties from our army, which is feasible. The subordinates suggested that some attacking strategies should be taken after the siege. For example, launching leaflets with feather arrows to weaken their resistance. Those who promise to surrender from the city can not only survive, but also pay silver to return home, and even distribute fields for them to farm. And so on."

Zhou Xian thought for a while and said, "This suggestion is good. Let's do it! Those who surrender from the city hope to return home will each give 200 civerage travel expenses. If you want to stay, you promise that after capturing Gaizhou, each person will be given ten acres of fertile land to cultivate, but it will be exempted from taxes. In addition, if you don't have rice alone, you have to have big sticks. The red cannons are transported directly to the south city through the trenches, and a round is set aside every day. You don't expect to kill many people, but you will also scare them to death. I want to use this to tell them that there is only a dead end to defend Gaizhou."

Zhao Xusheng nodded with a smile, "Gao Yi has a high mindset for a while and has always wanted to be the pioneer of siege. Now he is probably going to be disappointed."
Chapter completed!