It was indeed Chang Yu who was here. The army was slow to break out of camp, so he took the lead. The injured scouts he met just now learned that the Dongchang Third Battalion was going to Guichi to encircle and suppress the bandit army, so he went straight here. It happened that the Third Battalion had just finished its work.
"This Guichi City is too small." Li Muxian and others sighed before reaching the city: "It's just a stone city..."
Chang Yu laughed: "This Guichi City was originally called Shitou City. It was Shitou County in the Han Dynasty and the earliest government of Chizhou Prefecture was here. It was not until the Song Dynasty that it moved south. It can be said that there was Guichi County first and then Chizhou City. That's too much...but this Guichi County is indeed very small, even though it is the capital county of Chizhou."
Chang Yu looked at Stone City, which was less than two miles in front of him, and felt that it was indeed small and pitiful. In fact, even Guichi District, which was classified as Chizhou City in later generations, was still very small with a very small population, let alone at this time.
"It was really a waste for Bai Wang to burn this place down. With Pingtian Lake as its back, this city can be used as an outpost to contain our troops," Li Muchian said, stroking his beard.
Chang Yu looked around: "It makes some sense, but it's more like tasteless and of little use."
Li Muxian disagreed: "Although this city is small, it can garrison at least two thousand troops. If we attack from the west, it can be surrounded from behind. If the governor sends troops in advance to encircle it, it will contain the two thousand troops. Why does the governor say it has little effect?"
Chang Yu smiled: "What you said makes sense, but you have overlooked one thing. How can Bai Wang still have so many troops stationed here with two thousand troops at this time?"
Li Muxian was startled, smiled bitterly and shook his head: "That's sloppy!"
According to Wang Ti, Bai Wang had nearly 20,000 soldiers when he left De'an. At first, he did not have too many soldiers to carry cannon fodder. After defeating Anqing, he had nearly 10,000 soldiers. He had nearly 10,000 people on hand. Later, he went north to attack Nanjing. He just started to coerce cannon fodder, and later when he surrendered, he only had more than 6,000 real rebel troops left in his hands, and those cannon fodder were all dismissed by Chang Yu.
As for Bai Wang's nearly 10,000 thieves, three to five thousand were left behind to guard Anqing. He himself only had 5,000 elite troops plus the cannon fodder he had packed with him. More than 10,000 of them were lost in a battle with Chang Yu the day before yesterday. The remaining elite troops were the real ones. The maximum number of rebels is no more than three thousand, and the rest are half-dead rebels.
Cannon fodder is good when used to fill holes, but its combat power is not worth mentioning. Unless there are too many people, it can only be effective by relying on human sea tactics. Therefore, at this time, Bai Wang only has three elite soldiers on hand. He must use about a thousand of them on the edge, and it is impossible to divide the troops to garrison Guichi County. However, if the cannon fodder is sent, it will not have any effect and may be instigated by the officers and soldiers to rebel. Instead of doing this, why waste food to make wedding dresses for others? Guichi County was burned down, and the strong walls and wild hair were not left to the officers and soldiers.
As they spoke, the group entered Guichi County, where they saw the devastated walls. Nine out of ten houses in the city had been burned to the ground. Dead bodies could be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys, mostly old, weak, women and children.
"The thieves are so heartless and hateful!" Everyone scolded them, and Chang Yu sneered: "This is their true face! Bai Wang is already jumping over the wall in a hurry."
Chang Yu walked through the streets and alleys of the city. What he saw was shocking, and the anger in his heart became more and more intense. Instead of yelling and cursing, Kuang Ren and other personal guards did not dare to be careless. Although the city had been cleaned up by the Dongchang Third Battalion, there was something secretly slipping through the net. Which nook and corner does the fish hide in to shoot cold arrows?
Fortunately, this situation did not happen. Then Chang Yu went up to the city head and circled the city, then stopped on the south city to look into the distance. There was a small hill not far from the south of Guichi City. After the hill, there was an endless and vast lake. By the lake There are mountains, lakes, and islands. The mountains and rivers make Chang Yu’s head grow bigger.
"Lord, look!" Li Muxian pointed to the lake: "Those boats should all be pirate sailors. They are here to keep an eye on us." Chang Yu raised his telescope and looked around, and saw five boats a hundred meters away from the shore. Six fishing boats were cruising in the water. On the shore were dozens of mounted warriors from the East Factory Guards, firing their bows rapidly. The boats rowed towards the lake...
"What a natural barrier." Chang Yu couldn't help shaking his head and smiling bitterly as he looked at the large lake in front of him. He vaguely remembered that Pingtian Lake covers an area of nearly 500,000 square kilometers. Chizhou City is completely blocked by lakes, mountains and rivers. Either you can fly or you can't fly. You have to know how to swim to get there.
After lingering for a while at the top of the city, everyone got off the city. Chang Yu Zongma Lake was overgrown with weeds and deep and leafy. The third battalion and the guards did not dare to spread out and looked around. As expected, they found a thief hiding among them. The military detectives began to hunt and kill him.
Walking a few miles eastward along the lakeside, the mountains become increasingly difficult to navigate, but one after another we discovered that many bandits were patrolling the area. Perhaps this was a hidden stronghold for them, or they might have been forced to flee here by officers and soldiers. There was another fight for a while.
Lao Jiu rode his horse from the front and reported back: There was no way to go for another hundred meters. If he wanted to continue, he could only abandon his horse and walk. Chang Yu ordered to turn back, left the lakeside to find a flat place, and galloped westward, encountering many villages on the way. There were so many people, and the crops in the favorable location were luxuriant but no one was taking care of them. This made Chang Yu secretly decide to make a quick decision and let the people return to their homes and farm as early as possible. The longer the delay, the more likely the crops would be lost.
It was almost noon and the sun was shining brightly. Chang Yu and his entourage passed through Guichi County and then rode along the forest along the lakeside. As expected, they saw more than ten boats in the lake following closely in the water, obviously watching them.
Chang Yu ignored this and continued heading west. Half an hour later, he arrived at the riverside and circled around to get a clear understanding of the surrounding geography.
In fact, the west side of Pingtian Lake is very narrow, like a long bottleneck extending to the river. Originally, it was still several miles away from the Yangtze River. However, the Yangtze River branched into two tributaries here, forming two river center islands in the middle of the river. , the tributary bends towards Tianping Lake, leaving only a hundred meters between the two waters. However, at this time, it has been cut into a river by Bai Wang, and thousands of people on the other side are still digging and mounding earth and busy building Build fortifications.
The lake water surged into the river, and the water flow was as fast as the reservoir opening the gate to release water. Not to mention no boats, even if there were boats, they would rush into the Yangtze River in a blink of an eye, which made everyone frown.
"The water in this lake has just been breached and the water flow is turbulent. If you wait three to five days, it may become a thin stream. Then it will not be too late to attack again." Tu Yuan thought thoughtfully. Chang Yu shook his head: "The large lake in the east has enough water, so it is just a small opening. It has been like this for months, not to mention that there are several large rivers connected to the upper reaches of the lake, and the water flow will not become smaller if the water flow continues."
After hearing this, everyone's expressions became more solemn, and they wanted to get closer to observe. The bandits on the high platform on the other side began to fire arrows to push them back. Kuang Ren wanted to fight back, but Chang Yu stopped him. He raised his telescope and looked at it for a while, then turned to Li Muchian. : "Have you noticed, Taoist leader, that the narrow section is only a few dozen meters long, and the terrain on both sides of the break is very wide, which can accommodate thousands of troops?"
Li Muxian nodded: "Although we can attack with thousands of soldiers here, the opponent can also send thousands of pairs of soldiers on the other side." He said with a smile: "Just to fight for this bottleneck of tens of meters, I don't know how many people will die." here".
"Hey, Taoist Priest, why are you starting to be so pitiful? The day before yesterday, you said that there would be no undead people in the war. He also said that the governor's heart has softened." Chang Yu smiled, and Li Muchian smiled bitterly and shook his head: "I thought I would be numb after seeing so many dead people. , but over time, my psychology... felt unspeakably uncomfortable and very depressing."
Chang Yu then remembered what he said to Su Jing in the early morning. Perhaps Su Jing's sudden departure was not because she was in a hurry to complete the task, but because she was unbearable after seeing so many dead people. She didn't have the profound knowledge of Li Muxian, so she had to leave quickly with an excuse.
This kind of psychological pressure is similar to post-war traumatic stress syndrome in later generations, except that although people in this era are conscious, they don’t know where it comes from and how to treat it. They can only rely on hope and religion.
"People will definitely die in a war, and many people will still die in this one, but as long as we succeed in that move, this battle will be over once and for all, and Baiwang's troops in Chizhou will disappear, leaving us free to go to the mountains again. Linzi." Chang Yu sneered at the corner of his mouth, Li Muchian stroked his beard and nodded, but Tu Yuan and others couldn't understand what they were saying. After all, this was the most confidential matter, and only a few people knew about it.
