Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Before Li Chongjin left Shouzhou, a general came to the front of the battle to find Guo Shao not long after, and said: "Huainan has deployed General Li to invite General Guo to meet at the camp on the right side of the Hujie Army."

The generals around all looked sideways after hearing this, and they all remained silent. Everyone knew that Shangfeng wanted to attack the city with all his heart, and Guo Shao's sudden stop of attacking the city would cause dissatisfaction from the higher-ups. Guo Shao looked around, Li Chuyun and other generals just bowed their heads and said nothing, no one could do anything.

Guo Shao said: "I ordered all the ministries to rest for a while, and I will go to see General Li and come back again."

Li Chuyun said: "I will go with the lord."

A group of several people let the general who sent the order lead the way, and rode to the right wing of the Hujie Army's camp. On the side near the Huai River, there is a large area of ​​military camp tents, at least for several miles, all of which are the right wing of the Hu Jie army. The people there have never been to Shouzhou City. They were all members of the Hu Jie army, Guo Shao didn't think there was any danger in this trip... The main reason was that he didn't know Li Chongjin well before, and he didn't have any grievances to speak of.

Walking to the camp of the Chinese army, I entered the big tent with a wide banner, and saw two rows of generals standing inside. Li Chongjin was sitting on top, and the first person on the left was Li Jixun. The person Guo Shao met was a man in his forties.

Sure enough, Li Chongjin didn't look good, and asked coldly, "General Guo, why did you stop attacking the city?"

Guo Shao replied: "I have just taken over the siege army and horses. I am not familiar with the terrain, the army, and the strategy. I want to rest for a whole day and discuss the countermeasures with the generals first."

This kind of defense was planned by Guo Shaolu. Li Chongjin really couldn't refute it, but he was very upset. He said in public: "Merciful is not in charge of soldiers. I think you have a soft heart and a woman's kindness! The officials actually asked you to attack such a fortified city as Shouzhou. I will definitely report it truthfully!"

Guo Shao was scolded straight at the head, as if he was worthless, and he was also angry, thinking: Do you think I want to attack Shouzhou? You do what you want, do you think I care about this hard bone?

But Li Chongjin was the commander of the Ma Budu, and everyone in the Guards Department of the Pro-Army was not as big as him; besides, he was "the deployment of the Huainan City", and when the emperor went to Chuzhou, he had the right to control the soldiers and horses in the entire Huai River Basin. It would be extremely unwise for Guo Shao to quarrel with him, so Guo Shao put up with it.

Some people really can't bear to be angry. Guo Shao had no choice but to say: "The last general has more heart than strength."

At this time, Li Jixun stood and spoke calmly and said: "The defender of Shouzhou City is Liu Renzhan. It is rumored that he can do great things, and he is highly valued by the Lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Shouzhou, an important place guarding the Huai River, is a place that the Southern Tang Kingdom must save. As long as we apply pressure, we can lure reinforcements. Although there are casualties in the siege, we can double the recovery from the reinforcements."

Guo Shaoxin said: You can do it! Tell Lao Tzu to go forward and take human lives to fill, but you are too soft to pick up in the back, right?

Li Zhongjin thought so, and urged: "It's best to take Shouzhou down, and it can really tear Huainan open; if you can't take it down, you have to put pressure on it! If Shouzhou is not even in danger, why would the Southern Tang army save it? General Guo, how much time do you need to discuss countermeasures? Is there any important strategy to stop the siege and delay the time?"

After several questions, Guo Shao couldn't answer a single one, so he had to say: "The army will rest for three days, please allow General Li."

"Three days, just three days!" Li Chongjin said.

...Guo Shao returned to the city, ordered a truce, and called all the generals to the camp to discuss. There was a lot of discussion among the people, but there was no good countermeasure. Guo Shao sat in the top position without saying a word, while dozens of people were arguing and discussing below.

Can there be any good way?

Guo Shao was depressed and disappointed at first, remembering the Queen's encouragement to him in the secret letter, asking him to perform satisfactorily in Huainan... But in the current situation, he has no chance to perform. How to eat high walls and thick soil? On the contrary, Zhao Kuangyin's group had a good fight in the front, and even his brother Li Jixun was in Shouzhou, and his errands were relatively good.

Later, he wondered what would happen if he slackened the fight? In Guo Shao's mind, the emperor should have been very dissatisfied with himself; now that the emperor is in charge, if he does not perform well under his nose and is judged to be worthless... How will a person who holds the power of life and death treat a person who is not pleasing to the eye and has no value?

Guo Shao only felt that his palms were sweating. The feeling at this moment: there is a piece of delicious carrot in front of me, but I can’t see it; there is a sword hanging on my head.

"I promised to deploy General Li in Huainan, and only rest for three days." Guo Shao said. Seeing that he had been silent for a long time, and suddenly wanted to speak, everyone shut their mouths and turned to look at Guo Shao.

Being watched by many eyes again, Guo Shao frowned and said: "Continue to attack the city in three days. After a while, you all report your respective designations and the areas in charge of the siege, and send them to General Li Chuyun. Also report the number of ordnance and supplies to Mr. Zuo." Guo Shao pointed to the two people beside him.

The generals took the lead. Guo Shao said again: "The Southern Tang Army used a lot of oil... fierce fire oil, it is easy to burn the ladder, and the method of ant attachment is even more difficult in Shouzhou. While we are attacking the city, we should try other methods, such as digging tunnels."

One of the generals said: "General, the general guarding Shouzhou is Liu Renzhan. He is a veteran in the battle. He has seen everything. He found that we must be prepared for digging, and it is difficult to achieve results."

Guo Shao thought for a while and said: "Now build some mounds of mounds on the edge of the city, and then build some houses to cover them; then dig pits and trenches. During the day, we dig tunnels in the houses, put the soil in the pits first, and then quietly transport the soil away at night, and walk quietly through the trenches."

...

Three days later, the siege continued. Li Chongjin sent someone to find out that Guo Shao's "trick" was to dig a tunnel, so he immediately sent someone to Chuzhou to report to the emperor.

At this time, Zhao Kuangyin made new achievements.

Originally Chai Rong wanted to send Han Lingkun to attack Yangzhou, but Han Lingkun's army was short and was delayed on the road; Zhao Kuangyin took the initiative to ask for a battle, Chai Rong agreed, and ordered Zhao Kuangyin to lead the iron cavalry to attack from Chuzhou quickly. Although Yangzhou was a very important center of the Southern Tang Kingdom, it was unexpected that Zhou's army could reach the rear of Huainan so quickly, with little defense and few soldiers. Zhao Kuangyin soon conquered Yangzhou, the eastern capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Zhao Kuangyin got a very beautiful woman, Yang Shi. He heard that when Chai Rong arrived in Chuzhou, he treated Yang's family with courtesy and did not move, and then sent someone to send Yang's family to the emperor.

The emperor praised Zhao Kuangyin for his loyalty, and sent the Yang family back to reward Zhao Kuangyin. Zhao Kuangyin said that he dared not keep such a beautiful woman, and that it was inconvenient to take in her with his troops, so he must dedicate it to the emperor... Yang was sent back and forth, and after walking the road between Chuzhou and Yangzhou three times, he was finally accepted by the emperor of Zhou Dynasty.

At this moment, Li Chongjin's men arrived in Chuzhou and explained the situation of Guo Shao's slack battle.

Li Chongjin's generals opened up in front of the emperor and said, "Guo Zhaozhuo is merciful, has no basis for rewards and punishments, and has no good strategy. He not only does not punish deserters, but also rewards them, which makes the soldiers at a loss. They don't know whether to flee or to go forward with all their strength. When he took office, the weather was fine and good for fighting.

Unexpectedly, Chai Rong was not angry. Instead, he looked around with a smile on his face and said: "A few months ago, Wang Pu said that Guo Shao was like a god in predicting the enemy, and he was good at spotting war opportunities. In the blink of an eye, he became a person full of rewards and punishments in Li Zhong's entrance. Who is right?"

When Wang Pu heard his name being called, he quickly bent down and lowered his head.

Chai Rong turned to look at him, and said, "Prime Minister Wang, go to Shouzhou and report back when you understand."

Wang Pu hurriedly said: "The minister received the decree and will definitely report it truthfully."

Wang Pu rushed to Shouzhou, instead of going to the front line, he met Li Gu first. Li Gu used to be a chancellor and had a good relationship with Wang Pu. Hearing the situation before the emperor, he said: "Li Chongjin is right in saying something. Guo Dushi is indeed a little soft-hearted. He ordered the siege to be stopped before and said in public: 'This is how you fight the battle. When you go back, you will be ashamed to see your folks. I'm afraid that the family members of the soldiers will ask him for a husband and son.' You will die in a war. Saying such words is really bad for morale."

Li Gu thought for a while and said: "As for saying that he has no rewards and punishments, it is biased. The matter of pardoning the deserters is to let the deserters rush forward and die in the battle; but those deserters worked so hard that a few of them climbed the city wall without hesitation, and nearly half of the casualties were not afraid of death. That's why Guo Dushi thought that they could make up for their mistakes and pardoned the crime of fleeing. It is a bit confusing to say that rewards and punishments are excessive."

Wang Pu heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this, and said: "Mouths grow on people, so you can't believe what you say! I think of those ordinary people in the market. After a few times, the words will change completely and become rumors."

Li Gu said: "Prime Minister Wang knows a little about the work."

After the two had a conversation, Wang Pu asked Li Gu to accompany him to the front line to see the situation with his own eyes. The siege was still going on, and some houses and fortifications had been built in the south of the city wall. Everything looked normal, and it was not too different from the previous siege. At first glance, he didn't see any signs of slack.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, the officers and soldiers of the Southern Tang Kingdom on the tower suddenly burst out laughing and mocking. Wang Pu looked around and heard a commotion over the fortification, so he hurriedly rode over to see what happened.

It turned out that a lot of water gushed out of the house and flooded the trench. The people in the water shouted: "There are still people inside! There are still people inside... What should I do?"

Wang Pu shouted: "What happened?"

A general mourned and said: "We were digging a tunnel, and we accidentally dug underground water, and the underground water suddenly flooded up, and many people who dug the soil drowned!"

Wang Pu's face darkened when he heard this, and he saw that the Southern Tang army on the city wall was defending the city, and still wanted to laugh at the Zhou army's ditch filled with water, Wang Pu felt more and more unhappy.

...

...

ps: There is a slight modification in the previous chapter: Guo Shao was only appointed as the envoy of Shouzhou, and he was still appointed as the capital of the left wing of the Hujie Army.