On the 22nd day of the 12th lunar month, Sun Tu led the elite Qingzhou army to capture Changshu City.

At noon at 23, the main force of the subsequent Shandong Army finally arrived. The Huainan Army, who followed behind them, seemed out of breath, was obviously a little lost when they saw the Song Dynasty flag flying in the wind at the top of the city. They cheered after a while.

To be honest, after experiencing the battle on Sanyuanling and being killed by the Wu army, the soldiers of the Huainan army, from Peng Yongzhen, all the soldiers of the Huainan army had pessimistic thoughts about the attack on Changshu, and felt that the power of the two armies might not necessarily lead to the capture of this county. Once the time has been delayed, when the Wu army in Suzhou and even Hangzhou arrived, their situation became more and more dangerous.

But as a result, the Shandong Army sent only thousands of people to capture Changshu City overnight! Even though they had witnessed the powerful combat power of the Shandong Army several times and witnessed such a great victory again, the generals of the Huainan Army felt a little unreal, and they also made their awe for Sun Tu and the Shandong Army a little more.

After entering the city, Peng Yong really didn't dare to treat himself as a general who could be on par with Sun Tu. After meeting him, he even held his fists and saluted: "General Sun is indeed very brave, and he really admires the generals and others. Now that he has taken Changshu, we can have an explanation to Jinling and the court. I wonder what General Sun's plans are next?"

Judging from his excited appearance, he obviously thought that the Shandong Army could continue to work hard and take advantage of the victory to defeat some cities around Changshu, and it would be better to take down Suzhou in one go. In this way, his Huainan Army could only benefit from some contributions from the side.

But to his surprise, Sun Tu had no smug look on his face after seeing them, but instead seemed particularly serious and solemn. He just said, "I have already thought about the follow-up matters. You are here at the right time. Dong Ping, you lead 5,000 people to guard the west city, Song Jiang, you lead 5,000 people to guard the east, Lin Chong and Yang Zhi, you guard the south, and Huainan army, you guard the north of the city. No matter what happens next, our focus is on guarding this Changshu City, and we must not lose it!"

Although the Shandong generals did not understand Sun Tu's arrangement, they still responded with their hands together. Only Peng Yongzhen looked surprised and inexplicably: "General Sun, why do you... do you act like a big enemy? Didn't we just win two big victories? Even Changshu City was taken down by us. We just had to wait until the subsequent reinforcements arrived and we could launch a counterattack against Suzhou."

"Because if what I guessed correctly, we will soon face a large number of enemies." Sun Tu simply told his guess last night. Suddenly, the excitement on everyone present was wiped out, and he did not dare to delay any more. He quickly went down to gather his troops and went to various parts of the city to set up defenses.

Only Peng Yongzhen was still full of doubts at this time: "General Sun, are you a little overestimating Fang La's anti-army? How could they come up with such a clever plan to set up a trap with a city as bait?"

"Whether it will be clear soon. The most important thing now is to prepare for defense, otherwise it will be too late to wait for the enemy to attack in large numbers." Sun Tu insisted on his own opinion, and at the same time he said with a solemn expression: "Master Peng, it is related to the life and death of both our army, and I hope you can cooperate with all your strength. The places outside the northern city are the most narrow and steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, you must lead the army to defend it for me!" After Sun Tu took a look, Peng Yongzhen felt pressure suddenly and dared not say anything more. He immediately clasped his fists: "Since General Sun, you have made such a decision, I should cooperate with you. If there is really an enemy attack, 20,000 people from my Huainan army will defend the North Gate to the death!"

Only then did Sun Tu nod his head with satisfaction and clasped his fists: "Then please!"

When the military order was conveyed, the Shandong Army naturally did not dare to slack off. After all, over the years, the commander of the army had almost never made any mistakes, and those who served in the army could just obey the order. However, the Huainan Army, after learning that it was hard to come to Changshu, not only could not rest and relax, but also had to quickly devote themselves to all kinds of hard city defense work. Naturally, there were many dissatisfactions and complaints, and their work was far less dedicated than other soldiers in various cities.

As a small town in Jiangnan, Changshu naturally cannot have extremely strong and powerful fortifications like those big cities or military cities standing on the border. Even the four-sided city walls are not only low, only three or four feet high, but also have many damaged areas due to years of neglecting construction and the battle several months ago.

So when Sun Tu sent the order, the soldiers did more to repair and increase the city walls and other boring work. This was not too difficult for the Shandong Army, which was well-trained and had many cities built around Qingzhou in the past, but it was a big problem for the Huainan Army.

Even though they were several times the number of people as many as the other three walls, the progress of the construction of the city in three days was far behind that of the east and west sides. But even so, the soldiers who were forced to go up the city by officers and generals every day still complained, and many people were in vain when they arrived at the city. There were many people chatting and complaining, but very few people actually did things.

At noon on that day, hundreds of people were on their turn to carry heavy stones to the city, which made many people complain secretly and secretly greeted all the eight generations of ancestors under Peng Qian. When they finally moved several huge stones to the city, someone took the opportunity to rest.

Several soldiers gathered together and whispered to their own experiences: "We generals are the same. They actually believed what the Shandong Army said and really treated us as coolies to build the city. If I asked me, it would be better to take all the strong men in the city and let them help build the city."

"Your method is good, but it's unrealistic. I've heard that most of the people left in Changshu City are old, weak, women and children. Young and strong men either run away or become thieves 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 anti-army will not be able to take the initiative to send troops in a short period of time, otherwise they will have to guard Suzhou and..." The man said, looking back, his eyes suddenly changed, his mouth widened, but he couldn't say a word, but he just pointed his hand at the south side in horror.

The others wanted to agree with his words, but when they saw him suddenly acting like this, they quickly turned around and opened their eyes to the south, and then they all showed an incredible look. After the muscles on their face trembled, some of them shouted first: "The enemy is here, the enemy is coming!"

Suddenly, the north gate was in chaos, and the roars were accompanied by the sound of gongs. Some people went up to the city and some went down to the city. Anyway, the Huainan army stationed here for a while was completely in chaos.

In comparison, the other three defenders seemed particularly calm. Although these soldiers were gasping for air conditioning and watching the large number of enemy troops emerging from the end of the horizon, they still began to make the final deployment before the war in an orderly manner - melee weapons such as wood and stone, long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows... So the weapons that can be used for city defense were continuously sent to the top of the city.

Fortunately, the soldiers on the three city walls were all working hard to build the city walls a few days ago, so at this time, the east and south sides had completely different postures of defending. Everyone also believed that this city defense could block the fierce attack of several times the enemy.

The news soon reached the bottom. Sun Tu and other major generals also arrived quickly after hearing the news and climbed the city to look south. Several people had more telescopes in their hands, thus bringing the situation of the enemy troops ahead to more clearly.

Even as calm as Lin Chong and other generals, their faces were heavy at this time, and their tone was filled with anxiety: "Did they use so many people this time? It seems that there are 70,000 to 80,000, or even 100,000! They actually invested a hundred thousand troops to deal with us!"

Even Sun Tu seemed quite nervous and murmured: "They really look down on us. But even so, it is extremely difficult to mobilize 100,000 people at once. Without one or two months of preparation, they can't send troops. It seems that they have been planning for this battle for a long time."

Except for a few trusted generals, the others did not appreciate the profound meaning of Sun Tu's words. They just asked in a little panic: "General, can we defend it?"

Even though they are as confident as the Shandong Army, they have never fought against such an enemy on the battlefield before, and now they are trapped in such a small county town, and they are inevitably afraid of it.

"Now that the enemy has arrived, we have no choice but to defend Changshu! Relying on the city defense, we can also gain a chance to win with only a few enemies. If we abandon the city and flee at this time, most of the people will be ruined here!" Sun Tu narrowed his eyes and quickly expressed his judgment.

After pausing, he said again: "And in terms of military strength, the imperial court will only have more troops in Jiangnan than them, so as long as we guard for a while, reinforcements will arrive. What we need to do now is to slap the enemy's spirit first. Who dares to go out of the city to fight?"

When facing nearly 100,000 enemy troops attacked, Sun Tu did not intend to defend himself, but made the decision to take the initiative. This made the generals stunned and cheered up again. Many people had thrown away the timidity in their hearts, and then several people stepped forward at the same time: "I wish to go!"

Sun Tu's eyes swept across everyone, it was Lin Chong, Wu Song, Lu Da, and Yue Fei!

He showed a smile of praise on his face: "Lin Chong and Yue Fei, you two lead the cavalry to attack and give the enemy a warning first. Remember, don't be too greedy for merit. After sacrificing the enemy's aura, you can return to the city!"

"Here!" Lin Yue and the others responded in a low voice, then quickly walked down the city and prepared to go. As for Wu Song, who had not been approved to fight, they could only sigh and accept this arrangement. They also knew that the cavalry was more suitable for today's assault battle than their own infantry warriors.

Fortunately, they also know that there are still opportunities for their contributions to the next level.

On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, the battle in Changshu officially broke out!

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Today's public memorial.

May the deceased rest in peace and the heroes be immortal!
Chapter completed!