Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 265 Soldiers Arriving at the City of Guizhou
On May 22, Ye Chen led a large army to the city of Guizhou.

Compared with Shaozhou, the area of ​​Guizhou City is four or five times larger.According to information obtained by the Intelligence Department, the circumference of Guizhou City is 320 miles and 20 [-] steps. The city wall is [-] feet [-] feet high, [-] foot [-] feet deep, and [-] feet [-] feet wide.Judging from the city wall alone, it is only a little smaller than Jinyang City, the big northern city.Like Shaozhou and Yongzhou, it is also an old city with no traces of renovation in recent years.

After the army camped five miles east of the city, Ye Chen asked Wang Chao to bring the prefects and guards who surrendered in Shaozhou and Yongzhou to the city wall of Guizhou, and asked them to come forward one by one to persuade them to surrender. Loudly told the civilization and invincibility of the army led by Ye Chen to the Guizhou defenders and the people.

With Wu Yanrou present, the expected persuasion failed, and was shot back by flying arrows.

Twenty thousand Han troops had gathered in Guizhou City, among which five thousand were elite soldiers who had fought with Wu Yanrou in South Vietnam and Dali in the past few years. The most important thing was Wu Yanrou himself.

Ye Chen was not in a hurry to attack the city, but began to make various preparations.

While telling the generals about the information collected by the intelligence department, he discussed the battle plan with Luo Yaoshun, Cao Wei, Yang Yanping, Wang Chao, and Zhan Xiongwu.While building some siege equipment, he waited for news from Hu Sanguang.

After capturing Shaozhou ten days ago, Ye Chen sent Hu Sanguang to sneak into Guizhou City. Before that, Ye Chen and Hu Sanguang discussed and reasoned in detail about some matters, and made a detailed plan. Hu Sanguang personally The purpose of sneaking into Guizhou City is to carry out this plan with Xu Fangyi who has been in Guizhou for more than 20 days.

The reason for doing these things was that Ye Chen knew that his troops were limited, and he didn't want to suffer too many casualties when he attacked Guizhou City.To put it bluntly, it is necessary to make sufficient preparations in advance and try every means to minimize the loss during the siege.

In the south of Guizhou City, dust is flying within several miles.This is when the Song army set up camp and began to build siege equipment.

"Hey...hey...hey..." More than 2000 young and strong people of the Southern Han Dynasty in the camp of the Song Army wore bunts with local characteristics of the Southern Han Dynasty to help the Song Army set up camp, ramming the earth and digging trenches rhythmically with shouts.From the faces of these Southern Han people, it can be seen that they are willing.

Just kidding, they are the poor people of the Southern Han Dynasty. The court of the Southern Han Dynasty has been extremely corrupt these years. It is like a gift to them.How can they be unhappy, as for patriotism, fuck the hell, this country is starving them to death, and they are often bullied by the government and landlords and food gentry, who wants to go to those things.

Of course, this was specially arranged by Ye Chen. Anyway, after conquering Shaozhou and Yongzhou cities, more than 20 taels of silver were confiscated from the treasuries of the two states, and Ye Chen forced the rich and powerful families in the two cities to take out a lot of food And military expenses, there is no shortage of money in a short period of time.No, before coming to Guizhou, he made the decision to reward each soldier with five taels of silver, and the generals also received more rewards according to their ranks.

Just under the eyes of Guizhou City, let these Southern Han people work for the Song Army with high spirits, let them have enough food, and pay their wages.Invisibly, it weakens the will of the people in Guizhou to defend the city.

Ye Chen has never been afraid of the Southern Han army. What he fears most is that the people of the Southern Han Dynasty are all soldiers. If the people in Guizhou City and the defenders swear to defend the city, Ye Chen doesn't think he can capture Guizhou, even with the ambush before. The trump card opened the city gate from the inside and captured Guizhou, but in the subsequent street fighting, the Song army would also suffer heavy casualties, which was definitely not allowed by Ye Chen.

However, fortunately, under the control of Tianyi in the Southern Han Dynasty these years, the life of the people is not very good. If it is not for the barrenness of Jingnan area, which is different from most places in the north, it is really a land of high-quality fish and rice. Food is produced in the north, and dried fruits, wild vegetables, fruits, game, etc. are abundant in the mountains, far exceeding those in the north. The "fine tradition" of the Han people is that as long as they can't starve to death, they never become rioters.

Therefore, it was possible to allow the somewhat deformed country of the Southern Han Dynasty to continue to exist.Just imagine, if a country like the Southern Han Dynasty was placed north of the Yellow River, countless people would have starved to death, revolted, the country was destroyed, the dynasty changed, or it was annexed by other countries.

However, not being a rioter is only the bottom line of the people of the Southern Han Dynasty. If you want them to fight the Song Dynasty for this country, it will be difficult, unless it is true that the Song army will massacre the city and the people will be slaves for generations, as rumored in various places these days.

With the tent open, the Guizhou city tower looms a few miles away from the yellow dust.Ye Chen was standing in front of a wooden frame, drawing with a brush, very neat and smooth.While asking the intelligence officers of the Huaxia Weifu Intelligence Department in detail, he added lines on the paper.He is drawing a schematic diagram of the north gate of Guizhou City.

This intelligence agent was the last intelligence agent to come out before the gate of Guizhou City was closed. He brought the last piece of information about Guizhou City, as well as the detailed plan made by Xu Fangyi and Hu Sanguang. Infer the success rate of this plan.

At this time, Luo Yaoshun, Cao Wei, Yang Yanping, Wang Chao, and Zhan Xiongwu walked in. Ye Chen finally threw the brush into the inkstone, turned around and said, "The city of Guizhou is not easy to destroy. We are not in a hurry to attack the city. We will repair it." The camps, ditches, and sentry towers should be more solid, and each should be double-layered for defense, and secret sentries should be placed within ten miles around and sent out to prevent Wu Yanrou from mobilizing other states and cities to besiege us."

The five people clasped their fists in salute, and then said yes.

Ye Chen said again: "We just arrived in Guizhou, with only [-] troops, and the city of Guizhou is too big to besiege the city. So, don't disperse the troops, and station them all in the east and north of the city. We won't attack the city for the time being, but occupy it first." In other places, prepare for the siege, the more fully the better, and beware of enemy sneak attacks. Well...I told you a few days ago that internal response is arranged in the city, but you must be prepared for the failure of the internal response operation."

The five looked solemn, and said yes one by one. As the army went all the way south, especially after breaking through the two cities, the five felt more and more that Ye Chen was proficient in siege and war, and their consideration became more and more comprehensive and prudent.Previously, some of Ye Chen's ideas could be improved by the five people, or even not considered enough, and they were directly refuted and changed by the five people.Now that Ye Chen made some decisions, the five of them couldn't think of any problems for a while, and it was difficult to even improve them further.

After thinking for a while, Yang Yanping said: "General, the last general thinks that there is no need to rush to attack the city, but we can push the trenches and rammed earth walls to the moat of Guizhou, and fill the moat first with earth and rocks. At that time, our army will attack the city in a big way. When the city was built, the trouble of the moat was also removed."

Ye Chen smiled slightly, and said: "General Yang has considered everything well, so let's do it this way, and you will be responsible for the overall dispatch of this matter. The five of you will take turns to take action."

Yang Yanping was delighted in his heart, and respectfully said yes.The other four people felt that they came to discuss the matter and did not come up with any useful suggestions. They were upset and frowned, thinking hard. Ye Chen saw it in his eyes and was happy to see the results.

This kind of atmosphere is what he is happy to see, and it is also intentionally promoted.The staff system in professional armies of later generations is the result of thousands of years of battlefield practice, and its rationality is much better than that of the generals who often make decisions alone in battle in this era.The so-called picking up leftovers and filling in vacancies is exactly the case with the staff system.However, the staff system tends to reduce the prestige of the commander-in-chief and divide the power of the commander-in-chief. It is estimated that few commander-in-chiefs are willing to implement this system in this era, and Ye Chen can't completely promote the staff system in the army. A decision is more comprehensive, prudent and reasonable.

"General, when our army is preparing to attack the city these few days, the last general suggested to call the Guizhou defenders. The last general will lead a small number of soldiers to fight against the general of the Han army, and take the opportunity to kill the general of the Han army. The morale of the Han army is weak." Zhan Xiongwu said.

Ye Chen said without hesitation: "Okay! General Huizhan will bring his subordinates to scold the battle immediately. The other armies should not make any movement, so that the Guizhou defenders have the courage to send people out of the city. To show the general's force, as long as Guizhou If the defenders dare to send people out of the city, they can easily kill the enemy general and weaken the morale of the enemy army."

Zhan Xiongwu's suggestion was adopted, and he had great confidence in his own martial arts. He was overjoyed for a while, eager to try, wishing he could go out and lead people to scold him now.

Cao Wei hesitated for a moment and said, "General, the last general suggests that we drive out the Han people we hired to fill the moat of Guizhou. This will reduce the loss of our army. At the same time, if the Guizhou defenders shoot with bows and arrows, they will also be able to save the lives of our troops." There is a psychological burden in their hearts."

Ye Chen sighed in his heart, wondering if this Cao Wei had fought too many battles with Cao Bin in the past few years, he was used to the cause of life and death, and he was extremely indifferent to human life, as he did when he attacked Shaozhou City a few days ago.But at this time, he couldn't deny Cao Wei's proposal with the excuse that he couldn't bear to hurt the innocent.

Ye Chen thought for a while and said: "This is impossible. General Cao still remembers the rumors that my Huaxia Wei Mansion intelligence agent sent me a few days ago about the Han army spreading rumors that our Song army massacred the city and enslaved the Han people. If we drive them away Filling the moat, isn’t this rumor confirmed? Therefore, it’s not that Ben will be merciless, but that these Han people deliberately made it for the people in Guizhou City to see, not only to make them full, but also not to bully them, Guizhou People in the state will see it, and they will weaken their hearts to defend the city, and those rumors will be self-defeating."

What Ye Chen said was reasonable, so Cao Wei didn't say any more.

Next, Luo Yaoshun, Wang Chao, Cao Wei, etc. all put forward some suggestions and discussed them. Among them, there were many things that Ye Chen hadn't thought about before, which played a certain role in filling in the gaps.

Some crop fields outside the city of Guizhou were trampled into solid land, and some houses were demolished to make countless siege machines.Ye Chen led five people and a group of personal guards to inspect around the city wall on horseback as usual.

After Zhan Xiongwu brought people forward to scold for two days, especially Wu Yanrou's eight generations of ancestors, Wu Yanrou finally couldn't help sending 1000 people out of the city to fight against the 1000 people led by Zhan Xiongwu.

Ye Chen recalled the scenes of single-handed generals in some books such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties". Curious in his heart, he led someone to stand on the newly built watchtower, watching with interest.

(End of this chapter)