Li Yun looked at it for a moment and remembered the unfinished conversation with his brother just now.
He asked tentatively: "Commander Jie, I think the number of Khitans is around 20,000. Our army has come from afar and has a limited force. We fought a battle the night before, and people were lost. The cost of arrows and weapons was not small." . We will defend the city for a while, and I’m afraid there will be a fierce battle. Should we also mobilize the soldiers and horses from Fuzhou to the city? In addition, the civil servants in the city must also be mobilized."
When Guo Ning came from Fuzhou, he brought 2,500 troops with him. There were 2,000 people from Heshi Liehuanduan's old army in the city. Together with the surrendered troops and prisoners gathered today, there are now a total of 6,000 people. If we urgently mobilize the city's civil servants, there will be no problem in gathering tens of thousands of people.
Of course, the surrendered troops that have not been reorganized are definitely unreliable, and the civilians have no combat effectiveness at all and can only be used as cannon fodder to defend the city. But in matters like war, especially the offense and defense of a city, you can only occasionally use tricks, but don't most of them rely on human lives?
Following Guo Ning to the north this time, Li Ting's headquarters accounted for 1,500 people, all of whom were elites who could fight hard. Li Ting was reluctant to sacrifice his men's lives to help He Shi Liehuan. Therefore, the implicit meaning of Li Yun's words was to encourage He Shi Liehuanduan to play a role.
"Those things are already being done." Guo Ning said: "He Shilie's troops and various departments of our army are already being expanded, and the materials collected in the armory in the city are also being distributed. Those belonging to Li Erlang That part will be sent to the city soon. Ayun, you and your men can also pick up some soldiers and armor to take with you. But..."
"But what?"
Guo Ning looked around at the soldiers at the top of the city, and saw that the soldiers on both sides were neatly arranged, holding spears and guns in hand. Everyone was high-spirited and heavily guarded. He smiled and nodded to the soldiers, turned around and said, "But don't worry, the Khitans will not attack the city. They want to eat meat, but they will not chew hard bones."
Li Yun was a little suspicious: "Jie Shuai means that the Khitans will ignore Xianping Mansion? Then what are they here for?"
"Of course they eat meat!" Li Ting put his elbows on the battlement and said easily: "They just passed by Xianping Mansion. Over in Hanzhou, Pu Xianwannu's troops and horses are what the Khitans want to eat. meat."
"This..." Li Yun was a little confused: "I don't understand. Xianping Mansion has just changed hands at this time, and the people in the city are floating. Isn't this a good opportunity to take advantage of the situation and seize the city? Isn't that what we do?"
"The reason why we were able to gain the city was because Pu Xianwannu's generals did not fight back. The enemies on both sides were unknown, and the soldiers and civilians in the city did not know the reason, so they rarely fought to the death. It seemed that we were taking risks, but in fact we were attacking Pu Xianwannu. Weaknesses outside of the plan deserve to win. But now you see, the city's defenders are sufficient and heavily guarded. If you were Brother Yeluliu, how would you estimate the size of the city's defenders? Would he be willing to storm a fortified city?"
"But this is Xianping Mansion after all?"
"Just as you, Ayun, have calculated before, Brother Yeluliu will also calculate. He also has to think clearly about how much power it will consume to directly attack the city; compared with defeating Pu Xianwannu's troops in the field, which one Easier."
When Guo Ning said this, all the generals laughed. In the past few years, Pu Xianwannu has established a foothold in the Northeast by means of winning over the hearts of the tribesmen, which is not a forceful style.
"The situation here in Liaodong is very different from that in the Central Plains and Hebei. For example, the military commanders like Heshi Liedutong or Wendihan Prefecture are already in the minority who sign military conscription according to the imperial court's rules. The remaining forces rely on almost no military force. They all come from their own tribes. For example, the core force of Pu Xianwannu is the many tribes along Pu Yanshui on Haolan Road; while Brother Yeluliu relies only on the descendants of the Khitan people who were moved to the interior by the imperial court. If one of the tribe's soldiers is killed, we can't waste it on attacking the city."
Speaking of this, Guo Ning smiled and said: "Li Erlang's arrangement at the top of the city is very good. With this majestic momentum, Brother Yeluliu will not dare to act rashly... He will choose a more advantageous path. "
Li Yun nodded slowly and said: "No, no, if the Khitans go to Hanzhou and defeat Pu Xianwannu's headquarters, won't they become more powerful? Commander Jie, didn't you say that outsiders should be stopped? Will the food be served to the diners rashly? If they are full, we will also be in trouble."
After all, Li Yun had not been involved in military affairs for a while, and now he was obviously confused.
Guo Ning patted Li Yun on the shoulder: "Ayun, please relax, the Khitans must be like this, and we should also be like this."
Having said this, he turned to the outside of the city and continued to look out, praising: "The Khitan army is quite impressive!"
Everyone will continue to watch.
Sure enough, as Guo Ning said, the Khitan army meandered along the road west of the city. Except for a few cavalrymen who set up a vigilant posture two or three miles outside the city, the large army did not stop at all, rolling like thick clouds, heading north. went.
Brother Yelvliu himself was among those cavalry.
Wherever the army passed, scouts and cavalry were running around, and some people had already caught their tongues and asked questions. Several people outside the city said that there was great chaos in Xianping Mansion and there were blazing fires. It seemed that there was internal strife among the defenders. Brother Yeluliu was a little happy when he heard the news at first, and thought that maybe he could try to capture Xianping first.
However, after he personally visited it, he felt that there was no trouble in this big city.
He looked at the city for a long time and asked the people around him: "Is there any special clue on the city?"
The left and right said: "We have gone around the city and seen that there are sufficient troops everywhere and the security is extremely tight. And... King Liao, look, the flags are raised high on top of the city, and there is no panic or wavering. It is obvious that the people stationed on the city are... They are well-trained soldiers, not civilians, and the morale of the soldiers is also very stable."
Brother Yeluliu nodded: "I heard that the person who was ordered to stay in Xianping Mansion was Pu Xianwannu's adopted son Pu Xian. It seems that this person is a good leader of troops."
There was a man with sharp eyes who was paying attention to the tallest tower in the south of the city. He saw many generals gathered on the tower, as if they were looking towards themselves.
He quickly said: "King Liao, the city guard is also watching us! Do you want to send a group of soldiers to show off your power and scare them?"
"No need... let's march quickly. The whole army must move quickly! We can finally catch the old fox Pu Xianwannu. All we have to do is chop off his head and the entire Xianping Prefecture will naturally take over!" Brother Yeluliu ordered in a deep voice. .
At this moment, the front man's horse was galloping back, and the knight on the horse shouted: "King of Liao! King of Liao! Pu Xianwannu's troops are rushing back to Xianping Mansion... They are almost to Huanglonggang in the north!" "
Brother Yeluliu was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but look up to the sky and laugh: "Okay! Great! Doesn't this save trouble?"
