Zhang Shicheng returned to the handsome tent and after cleaning it, he seemed restless and walked around the tent.
Suddenly, the curtain was opened, and he quickly looked up.
"How is the situation outside? Xinghua was...ah, Shide, it's you..."
Zhang Shide silently walked into the tent and said, "Brother, are you waiting for news from the scouts?"
Zhang Shicheng nodded.
Zhang Shide didn't say anything more, and sat down with Zhang Zhuzi, waiting silently with Zhang Shicheng.
Not long after, the curtain was opened again, and this time it was the scout who came in. Zhang Shicheng asked questions again and again.
"What's the situation outside? Has Xinghua been breached? Is there any movement from Jiangdu's army?"
The scout knelt down on one knee and said: "Your Majesty, Xinghua is still in the hands of our army, and the Jiangdu army has not moved yet. However, Zhao Jun of Haozhou, known as King Yongyi to the outside world, has led his troops to capture Sizhou!"
Zhang Shicheng clapped his hands and rejoiced: "Okay! Sizhou is not far from Gaoyou, Shide, we can ask him for help!"
Zhang Shide, however, was not optimistic. He hesitated and said, "Brother, when you come from Sizhou, you have to bypass Gaoyou Lake, and Zhao Junyong has no friendship with us, so I'm afraid he won't help!"
Zhang Shicheng was silent for a while and said: "At this point, we can only give it a try!"
Just as Zhang Shide was about to speak, the scout suddenly said: "Your Majesty, there is another piece of bad news!"
Zhang Shicheng's heart sank and he said: "Say it!"
The scout said: "General Li's troops harassing the enemy's logistics were too aggressive and were besieged by the Tatar Left Prime Minister Tai Buhua. I'm afraid the disaster will be worse..."
Zhang Shicheng's face turned pale and he sighed: "He is always cautious in using troops. There is no way he will be surrounded by the enemy. He must be taking risks to reduce the pressure on us!"
Zhang Shide took a deep breath and said: "Brother, I will personally leave the city tonight to find Zhao Junyong for help. I will do everything possible to get Zhao Junyong to send troops!"
Just as Zhang Shicheng was about to speak, a loud voice sounded outside the door.
"Your Majesty, I also ask for help from the Jiangdu Army!" As the voice sounded, a big man entered the camp with a cane.
Zhang Shicheng was surprised and said: "Brother Lu, your injury is not healed yet, how can you move around at will?"
Lu Zhen said loudly: "Among us, except for Bian Yuanheng, I am the only one who has met Zhang Yangquan. This request for help is related to the survival of our army, so this injury is nothing!"
Zhang Shicheng took a deep breath, put his arms around Zhang Shicheng and Lu Zhen's shoulders, and said: "Zhang has a good brother like you, so he has no regrets in this life! You go, I will wait for your good news!"
That night, Lu Zhen and Zhang Shide left from the west gate together.
One crosses Gaoyou Lake and heads towards Sizhou, the other passes through Gaoyou Lake and enters Shaobo Lake, then turns into Hangou, goes south along the Hangou Canal, and goes straight to Jiangdu.
After entering the city, Lu Zhen was introduced to the north gate tower and met with Zhang Yangquan and the generals.
He threw away his crutch, knelt down on the ground, and hissed: "Gaoyou City is about to be attacked by Yuan thieves. Please ask General Manager Zhang to send troops to rescue!"
Zhang Yangquan stepped forward and helped him up.
"General Lu, don't worry, tell me about the current situation in the city!"
Lu Zhen choked up and said: "The Yuan thieves attacked from the north and south, and our army suffered heavy casualties. Less than half of the soldiers guarding the city were left. If the people hadn't guarded the city with us, Gaoyou would have been lost long ago!"
Li Erdao: "It's not that we don't want to help, it's actually Chahan Timur who sent people to guard Cheluo Town, making it difficult for us to come to our aid!"
Lu Zhen said hurriedly: "No, Chahan Timur started to attack the city ten days ago. It is expected that there are not many garrison troops in Cheluo, so your army can take the opportunity to annihilate it!"
Qin Lingsi snorted and said: "Chahan Timur has 80,000 troops, of which 40,000 are attacking the city and the other 40,000 are guarding Cheluo Town. Isn't this a lot?"
Lu Zhen almost begged: "Didn't you defeat Jialu's 40,000-yuan army last time? I believe your army can definitely defeat the Cheluo garrison. Our army really can't hold on much longer!"
Zhang Yangquan was silent for a while and said: "General Lu, go and take a rest first. I will give you an answer after discussing it with the generals."
Lu Zhen took a deep breath, suppressed her anxiety, resigned and left.
Zhang Yangquan is actually in a difficult situation right now. Logically speaking, Zhang Shicheng should be able to withstand three months, but looking at the current situation, it seems that he can't withstand even one month, and I don't know what went wrong.
If Gaoyou falls, in the blink of an eye, Jiangdu, like Gaoyou, will face the same predicament of enemy siege. Naturally, this situation must be avoided at all costs.
"Everyone, please tell me whether we should send troops to rescue Gaoyou Army!"
The monkey said: "Whether we want to save Gaoyou or not can be put aside for now. I think we can attack Cheluo Town and eat up the 40,000 yuan army in one bite!"
Li Er objected: "This is too risky. The Yuan army is eager for us to go out and fight with them in the field. Their cavalry is strong, but our army still has the upper hand!"
Wang DaDao: "I don't think Yuan Bing is anything special. Are we being too cowardly?"
Qin Lingsi glared at him and said: "Jiangdu Army only has this little wealth, and it will be gone after the battle! Li Er is right, the field cavalry is the most important. We only have 10,000 cavalry, so the chance of winning is not high!"
Everyone started to argue with each other.
Zhang Yangquan glanced across the crowd and suddenly saw Yu Tonghai behind Fang Yuan, who was hesitant to speak.
"Brother Hou, what do you have to say?"
Hou Tonghai hurriedly said: "I think the long range of our artillery is the largest weapon. When paired with warships, the Yuan army will never be an opponent!"
Zhang Yangquan's heart moved and he said: "You mean to send the navy to fight the Yuan army?"
Hou Tonghai nodded and said: "The Yuan army did not dispatch warships in this battle, and the artillery was not as far as ours. The navy was their weakness!"
Geng Sandao: "Yes, we can let the navy go through the canal and attack the Yuan army in Cheluo Town!"
Hou Tonghai said hurriedly: "You can't fight them in the canal. If the Yuan army uses artillery or artillery to attack the shore, it will be easy to sink the warships. Bows and arrows can also hit the warships on the canal!"
Geng San was stunned: "Then what do you mean?"
Hou Tonghai said: "We can turn from the canal to Shaobo Lake, and then enter Gaoyou Lake from Shaobo Lake!"
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After hearing this, everyone came to the sand table.
Zhang Yangquan stared at the sand table for a while and found that it was indeed possible to enter Gaoyou Lake from the canal. He pondered: "So let the navy directly enter Gaoyou Lake and attack the Yuan army near Gaoyou City?"
Hou Tonghai nodded repeatedly.
"Yes, we can park the warships on the shore of the lake and use the advantage of the artillery range to attack them from a long distance. However, their artillery can't hit us enough!"
Qin Lingjun pointed at the top of Gaoyou Lake.
"You see, Gaoyou Lake is directly connected to Baoying City. Since our naval forces can enter Gaoyou Lake, instead of attacking the Yuan army on the shore, it is better to destroy the rear grain roads!"
Fang Yuan clapped his hands and praised: "Come on! The Yuan army is fighting with an army of 400,000. What they fear most is logistics problems. It is better to harass their logistics and food teams than to attack them directly!"
Zhang Yangquan pondered for a while and asked everyone: "What do you think?"
Li Erdao: "The Tongzhou navy only has less than 20,000 soldiers. If we transfer them all, the Changshu navy may raid Tongzhou!"
Zhang Yangquan thought for a while and said: "Then we will transfer 10,000 first. Changshu is not a worry. I am more worried about Fang Guozhen."
Qin Lingjun said: "Fang Guozhen is attacking Chuzhou. With his character, he will never turn around and attack us at this time!"
Zhang Yangquan nodded, and seeing that no one had any objections, he immediately sent an order to Tongzhou and asked Shanzhu to mobilize 10,000 naval troops.
Lu Zhen was overjoyed when she received a definite reply from Zhang Yangquan that he was about to mobilize water troops for help. Without stopping for a moment, she took a boat back to Gaoyou City.
At this time, Gaoyou City was under fierce attack for several days, especially the attacks from the south became more and more fierce. Gaoyou's military and civilian casualties exceeded 40,000. The soldiers were exhausted and it became increasingly difficult to defend the city!
When Zhang Shicheng was defending the city, his foot was chopped off by the Yuan army, but he still ordered people to carry him to the city wall on a stretcher.
At this critical moment, Lu Zhen brought back the news that Jiangdu had promised reinforcements.
Later, Zhang Shide also came back and said that although Zhao Junyong was unwilling to rescue Gaoyou, he agreed to lead his troops northward, which was good news for Gaoyou.
Zhang Shicheng was so excited that he immediately ordered that all the men over the age of twelve in the city be sent into the army. These men knew that they would be massacred after the city was broken, so they did not resist.
As a result, Gaoyou had nearly 20,000 more soldiers. Zhang Shicheng ordered all the royal family members and maids to go to the city wall to help carry the rolling logs and stones, and released all the prisoners in the prison.
Everyone is united and defends the city together!
Early the next morning, when the Yuan army attacked the city again, they found that the number of Gaoyou defenders had increased and their resistance had become more tenacious.
When Tuotuo saw it, he showed a smile.
Yesu asked in confusion: "Prime Minister, the enemy troops seem to be getting more energetic the more they defend, why are you laughing?"
Tuotuo said lightly: "This is just a return to the past. Zhang Shicheng has used his last bit of strength. As long as he insists on attacking the city, they will defeat themselves without attacking!"
Yesu asked: "Are we going to use ladders to attack the city?"
Tuotuo hesitated for a moment and asked: "What are the casualties of our army now?"
Yesu said: "We have been attacking the city for several days, with more than 10,000 casualties, and only about 40,000 Chinese troops are left."
Tuotuo asked again: "How are the casualties of the right route army?"
"It's also more than 10,000."
Tuotuo was silent for a while and said: "Give me the order to withdraw the cannons and artillery, let the soldiers rest for a while, and attack tonight!"
Yesu was surprised and said: "Do you want to attack day and night? Attacking at night will cause more casualties!"
Tuotuo said: "No, let's attack at night and let the right army attack during the day. We will attack with all our strength this time and make the enemy exhausted. After the last bit of their strength is consumed, Gaoyou City will be ours!"
Yesu praised: "My subordinates, go and deliver the order right now!"
After several days and nights of attacks, the Gaoyou garrison was mobilized and ran back and forth.
In fact, if two gates are attacked at the same time, and there are defenders on both gates, when the situation is critical, you can only grit your teeth and defend, but it may not be impossible to defend.
However, when the enemy only attacked one gate and encountered a critical situation, Zhang Shicheng could not help but send soldiers from another gate to support him.
After going back and forth like this, the soldiers became more tired, and the day when the city was broken seemed to be getting closer!