A huge dark cloud came from afar and covered the sun.
It seems like it's going to rain in Zhuozhou.
Looking south from the tallest tower in the city, you can see the Tang Army's camp in the distance.
Namuhan and Brother Yixiang were observing the formation.
"The Tang army is increasing its troops every day, and Li Xia has arrived at the Jumahe camp. The strange thing is that the siege has not started in the past few days."
"Of course Li Xia is not in a hurry. After getting Taiyuan's grain reserves, the further he goes, the more beneficial it will be for him."
"Not necessarily? Don't forget that there is Song State in the south, and Tubo soldiers and horses are attacking it."
Brother Yixiang shook his head and said: "I'm not sure what the situation is in the south, but if I were Li Xia, I would definitely surround Yanjing and clean up Shandong at the same time, cutting off the connection between us and Boyan. At this time, Yanjing
Only when his troops and horses are exhausted will he make the final attack."
Na Muhan thought to himself that what these sect kings said made sense, but they always lost in battles.
"Father Khan has sent people to take over Shandong and ordered Boyan to destroy Li Xia's rear as soon as possible..."
However, the soldiers responsible for the observation ran down from the mountain and reported something even more troublesome.
"Yes, the rebels guarding Kuizhou look hungry. Zhang Qiyan should surrender within these few days."
"Quick, get on the boat!"
Now it seems that since Lu Wende is dead and Xia Gui has ruled alone for a long time, how can he allow others to divide his military power?
Of course, the Song Dynasty had always used literature to suppress military force. With Jia Sidao suppressing him, Xia Gui had nothing to do, but he would still show some dissatisfaction - "I came all the way to fight the rebellion with you, but you reused Su Liuyi
,How many of my sons will you not promote?"
"If you say it's just out of curiosity, I don't think it's true, right? After months of siege, Kuizhou City will run out of food and grass. This is a fact. According to what the prisoners said a few days ago, one day's food was eaten in two days at the end of the month.
"
Zhang Qiyan was worried about the situation in Wanzhou, and after pondering for a while, he made a decision.
Occasionally, small groups of Song troops would land downstream and try to sneak attack the city, but Tang troops were already prepared.
"With this big city, our army has a foothold in Sichuan and Sichuan, and it will be convenient to transport troops and food."
He felt that he was under greater pressure than Zhang Qiyan.
Although this section of the river is not as dangerous as the Three Gorges, the terrain on both sides is not open. The only open area is Kuizhou City, which has a city wall and various defensive equipment such as artillery placed on the city head.
However, Zhang Qiyan was looking down the city from the battlement with a lookout tube, and saw that the Song envoy coming this time was Yao Min.
Looking from the top of the city to the Yangtze River in the south, one can see the navy with dense banners of the Song army.
"What happened again?"
After all, the Song army had surrounded Kuizhou for so long, so it was normal for the Tang army to have reinforcements.
The two sides have formed a certain tacit understanding. As long as Zhang Qiyan does not kill the envoy, the Song army will not attack by force on that day. Therefore, the envoy can safely arrive at Kuizhou City by boat every time and talk to Zhang Qiyan.
From Su Liuyi's point of view, all he had to do was wait for Xia Gui to support the plan.
"It's not easy. Zhang Qiyan finally relaxed and is willing to talk to our people face to face."
At this time, Su Liuyi's first thought was that his plan to sneak upstream would fail.
Su Liuyi looked up and saw soldiers waving flags on a high mountain not far to the north.
"..."
"Put down the basket! Bring them up!"
Jia Sidao rarely felt impatient when he heard this.
He was not worried that the Tang navy would be able to defeat the Song army, but he was worried that if it were allowed to join Kuizhou to aid, all Ping Zhanggong's previous hard work would be in vain.
He planned to lead 2,000 men, carrying only ten days of dry food, and travel overland from here over the mountains to attack Yun'an County upstream.
The Song army has been surrounding Kuizhou City for three months, but there are really not many methods available in this terrain.
Just hearing this, Jia Sidao probably guessed what was going on.
First of all, the Song army's troops were difficult to deploy. Most of them could only shoot arrows at the city from the warships, but they did not dare to get close to avoid being sunk by artillery.
Therefore, the Song Army's strategy for dealing with Kuizhou was mainly to besiege the city until the city's supplies were exhausted and recruit the defender Zhang Qiyan to surrender.
Liao Yingzhong said: "First, more than ten small boats heading to Wanzhou have not returned, and second, some broken wood drifted down..."
This time it was Hu Yinglei who used his status to obstruct Su Liuyi's military affairs. Jia Sidao raised his head and glanced into the distance. Seeing that the war was not urgent today, he said: "Let Xia Gui come to see me."
"Students don't know this either."
"There are not many ships. There are about two hundred large and small ships."
"Don't worry, just wait."
Jia Sidao glanced at the distance impatiently.
Soon there was a small boat to carry Xia Gui over.
After thinking about this, Jia Sidao couldn't help but curse in his heart.
"yes."
Yao Fan shouted: "General, if you don't believe me, why don't you ask Hu Huaixiao to come to the city and tell you?"
~~
Kuizhou.
Yao Pian shouted again: "General Zhang, Hu Huaixiao, the deputy envoy of Wanzhou Transport, has killed the guard Sun Gui and returned to the Song Dynasty!"
"I heard that Kuizhou City is about to surrender. Maybe at this time, they don't want to cause trouble..."
But Xia Gui didn't seem to support his plan very much, thinking that his plan was too risky. It was time to persuade Kuizhou City to surrender and the army had a foothold before heading upstream to Xutu.
"Concern leads to chaos. He cares about Wanzhou, so of course he will make this decision."
"Su Liuyi sent someone to report to Ping Zhanggong that something was wrong with the waterway upstream."
Even now, it is actually much later than Su Liuyi expected. As late as some time ago, they had already concluded that the Tang army did not have enough troops in the upper reaches and their defenses were somewhat lax...
Wanzhou is located upstream of Kuizhou. If Wanzhou has been lost, it can be said that Kuizhou cannot be defended.
The shout reached the top of the city, but there was no response.
"No, Tang Jun is here, and they found us."
"Tang Jun's ship! It's coming down from the upper reaches, and it's very fast!"
~~
On a warship in the middle of the river, Jia Sidao and a group of officials were watching from a distance as the gondola was lowered from the top of the city and carried people to the city.
Su Liuyi had been away from the army for several days, and he was not clear about the current state of the Song Navy near Kuizhou.
"What's wrong?"
"Where is Xia Gui?" Jia Sidao asked again, "What did Xia Gui say?"
Zhang Qiyan shouted: "Will I believe you?!"
On the third day of May, Jia Sidao sent someone to persuade him again.
"Even if he doesn't have the heart to surrender yet, if he takes a step back today and another step tomorrow, sooner or later he will surrender."
I saw another person in the boat standing up and waving to the top of the city.
"Here."
"Damn, in recent years, local warriors have become more and more domineering."
Yao Min said again: "General, please let us climb the city. It doesn't matter whether we surrender or not. It's for the sake of the people in the city. Allow us to tell you the details!"
"General! Look!"
Xia Gui is seventy-one years old. Perhaps he was a little unaccustomed to the climate after entering Sichuan, so he walked a little shaky.
However, with a free and easy smile on his face, he greeted Xia Gui and started chatting about the weather, testing each other tacitly...
Su Liuyi gave instructions one after another, and then shouted: "The rest of you get on the boat! Follow me to intercept the Tang army!"
For example, Lin'an issued several edicts asking whether it was possible to collect grain locally in Sichuan and Sichuan. The court could give banknotes and buy it, because it was really unable to continuously transport grain into Shu.
On the city, Zhang Qiyan narrowed his eyes, showing some surprise.
"explain."
"Ping Zhanggong, Su Liuyi bypassed Marshal Xia and reported the matter directly to Ping Zhanggong. He also said..."
While chatting with the lieutenant, suddenly a soldier shouted.
"how many people?"
"You know? I'm so anxious that I can't wait to make the decision to withdraw the troops for Li Xia."
"Students also don't know that Hu Yinglei and Su Liuyi lied about their military exploits..."
However, Jia Sidao hadn't captured a single big city, so how could he get food on the spot?
Zhang Qiyan originally thought it was a boatman, so he turned his lookout tube and glanced at his face.
~~
"Why didn't Mr. Ping Zhang react? Are we going to invite more ships for reinforcements?"
"General, no, the Tang army is coming along, but we only have 2,000 people and warships who have just landed ashore..."
Su Liuyi was not panicked because he had already thought about this matter.
The wind helps the water, and the water borrows the power of the wind.
The reason why I say "seems" is because Hu Yinglei said so.
"Quick, take a boat and go downstream to report that Tang Army reinforcements are coming."
Seeing his behavior like this, Jia Sidao suddenly realized that he had been naive before, thinking that Su Liuyi was from the Lu family army, and sharing a little of Xia Gui's military power would not make this old guy mind.
At this time, Su Liuyi had a vague thought in his mind, whether it was because the Tang army knew the amount of grain stored in Kuizhou and deliberately came now.
…
Listening to this, Brother Shixiang pressed the telescope against his eyes, as if he was trying very hard to see clearly what was happening in the rear of the Tang Army. Why do some people always say that its rear is unstable, but Li Xia never does it?
Moved.
Namuhan, who was talking eloquently, was stunned for a moment and said: "It's a pity that you are not him."
Recently, he valued Su Liuyi very much, so he promoted Su Liuyi's official position. As a result, soldiers and horses from the Huaihe River came under his command, and Hu Yinglei was one of the generals.
"Ping Zhanggong."
"Stop talking nonsense and stop them!"
Hu Yinglei was Xia Gui's son-in-law. Perhaps for one reason or another, he didn't really listen to Su Liuyi's control anyway, so there was a disagreement between the two parties.
Although he and Hu Huaixiao had only met Liao Liao a few times, they had to admit in surprise that it was really him.
Speaking of this, Liao Yingzhong hesitated a little, thinking that it was military information after all, so she continued: "This is the news the day before yesterday. Because Hu Yinglei blocked Su Liuyi from meeting Marshal Xia, he had to report to Mr. Ping Zhang."
Jia Sidao raised his hand to stop, walked aside, and asked again: "What does this mean? What guess does he have?"
"Mom, I have to solve these troubles every day..."
"General Zhang, I haven't been here for a few days. I'm here today to tell you some big news."
They were completely blocked and surrounded, and all external communications were cut off. If they didn't surrender, could they still wait for reinforcements to break through the densely packed Song Dynasty navy to support them?
However, Zhang Qiyan stayed on guard for two months longer than expected, resulting in the current situation becoming somewhat ugly.
Coupled with the strong currents of the river, it was not easy to stabilize the ship and not retreat.
On the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, by a small bay called Badantuo, Su Liuyi was supervising ships to transport his soldiers to the shore.
"You also go and let our ships be fortified."
When the two black figures climbed up to the top of the city, the officials couldn't help stroking their hands, laughing, and started talking.
In his opinion, Zhang Qiyan should have surrendered long ago.
Soon, you can see with your eyes a warship approaching quickly on the river, very fast.
Su Liuyi was still boarding the ship. He looked around and was secretly surprised that the Tang army had such a skilled navy in maneuvering the ship.
You must know that such water conditions can easily capsize a boat.
He squinted and saw a general flag with the word "Zhang". It was not Zhang Hongdao, but he didn't know what kind of unknown person it was...