Sun Chengyou said that he was about to salute, but Li Yuan quickly waved his hand to stop him. He was too lazy to talk to this guy and walked to the battlement after a few perfunctory words. He asked, "What's the enemy's movement?"
"Captain Li, there is not much movement. It seems that they have been abandoning the boat and landing since morning. I wonder what they are going to do?" Tao Shizhong reported first.
Li Yuan groaned and squinted his eyes towards the river below the city, and saw that the enemy ship array in the distance seemed to be approaching the west bank. There are teams of soldiers and horses on ships of various sizes heading to the shore, and all kinds of materials are also being transported to the shore.
"Master Li, do you know what they are doing? Are they not planning to attack the city and prepare to evacuate?" Gu Mingli asked in a deep voice.
Li Yuan frowned before he spoke, but Sun Chengyou smiled and said, "They must be escaping. They can't escape through the river against the wind and current, they can only evacuate by land. In my opinion, there is a high probability that they are going to escape. Yesterday, in one day, they As a result, more than fifty warships were lost and 20,000 soldiers and horses were killed, which frightened everyone."
Li Yuan shouted in a deep voice: "Shijie Sun, don't talk nonsense."
Sun Chengyou was stunned and said awkwardly: "What's going on? Did I make a wrong judgment?"
Li Yuan frowned and said: "How could they escape? Where could they escape to? The Jin army abandoned Jinling and went straight to Suzhou in a desperate attempt to open up a new situation in the land of Wu and Yue. Now that they want to escape, wouldn't all their previous efforts be wasted?
They failed to move south, and the Tang Kingdom's old territory in the north was lost, and there was no way to retreat. The only thing that can reverse the situation is to capture Suzhou City. How could they retreat so easily? Don't talk nonsense, lest you disturb the minds of the soldiers and civilians. "
"Exactly, Ambassador Sun, please stop talking nonsense. By the way, have the brothers who were killed and injured last night been placed? Can the corpses of the enemy soldiers recovered from the river be buried? This is what you should do, so don't mix it up here. It's about defending the city." Gu Mingli also frowned.
The dignified envoy Wu Jiedu actually looked ashamed after being reprimanded on the spot. He, Sun Chengyou, didn't know what to do, but he always felt more at ease when he was with Gu Mingli and Li Xiaowei. It's not Sun Chengyou's style to focus on doing things seriously. Then Sun Chengyou stepped aside silently, not daring to speak anymore. He had already arranged for others to do those things, and he was not willing to leave just like that.
"Master Li, in your opinion, what is the Jin army's plan?" Gu Mingli asked.
Li Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Gu Weng, why haven't your thousands of reinforcements arrived yet? Didn't you say they should have arrived last night?"
Gu Mingli said: "We must arrive before noon. Because the ship was requisitioned earlier, they arrived half a day late. I have already sent someone to urge them. The leader is a member of my Gu family, so there will be no mistakes."
Li Yuan nodded and said: "That's good, we must do it as soon as possible. It seemed like a big victory yesterday, but our losses were also very serious, with more than 4,000 casualties. There were only more than 10,000 troops in total, and we lost four in this battle. Yes, it's hard to say that last night's battle was a victory. The Jin army still has 40,000 to 50,000 men, and 6,000 men are defending 50,000 men. It still won't succeed. Your thousands of soldiers and horses must arrive today, otherwise they will not be able to survive tonight. .”
Gu Mingli nodded and said, "Young Master Li is absolutely right. We will arrive before noon."
Li Yuandao: "After those soldiers and horses arrived, they went directly to guard the west city."
Gu Mingli said in shock: "You mean, the Jin army is going to attack Ximen?"
Li Yuandao: "The Jin army suffered heavy losses yesterday and dozens of ships were damaged. It would be stupid for them to attack from the water again. That's why their troops abandoned their ships and came ashore in large numbers. Naturally, they had to attack by land. . They came ashore from the west bank of the canal, naturally they wanted to attack the west city gate.
The terrain outside the West City Gate is flat and is indeed a good place to attack. In fact, what I am most worried about is that they attack from the land, because that can take advantage of their superior strength. If they attack from the water, they actually limit their offensive capabilities. Every more man in a land attack means more pressure on us. With tens of thousands of soldiers and horses attacking in one fell swoop, our disadvantage of having few troops and few bows and arrows is fully exposed. "
Gu Mingli frowned and said, "Master Li, does he have any good ideas?"
Li Yuan shook his head and said: "I don't have a good idea, I can only defend one way. If they attack from the west city, the materials and defense of the city will be strengthened immediately. Gu Weng, we need to start preparations immediately, otherwise we may risk Be caught off guard."
Gu Mingli smacked his lips and said, "It seems that Mr. Li is very worried, but is it still too late?"
Li Yuandao: "Every point of reinforcement is worth a point, and the Jin army will not attack immediately. They come from the waterway and have no siege equipment. They will have to spend at least half a day building some things like ladders and chariots before they can We still have a little time to prepare before we start to attack the city. Without further ado, we’d better not take any chances and immediately mobilize our manpower to start preparations.”
Gu Mingli nodded repeatedly and immediately waved to Sun Chengyou. Sun Chengyou came over happily, thinking something good was going to happen. After listening to Gu Mingli repeat what Li Yuan just said, Sun Chengyou's face turned pale.
"That's not true. How could they attack Ximen if they are doing well?"
Gu Mingli frowned and scolded: "Envoy Sun, this is not a discussion with you. This is asking you to recruit civilians to do it immediately. I am not asking you to listen to your opinion. Go quickly."
Sun Chengyou had no choice but to accept the order and leave.
In the afternoon, the Jin army, which was under close surveillance, proved with actions that Li Yuan's judgment was not unfounded. After a large number of Jin army soldiers and horses disembarked from the boats, they began to organize their troops and march to the outside of the west city of Suzhou.
At the end of the day, about ten thousand Jin troops set up camp beside a hill called Gongde Mountain outside the West City. Then tens of thousands of soldiers began to cut down trees everywhere like locusts and build ladders and other siege equipment.
Although there are not many suitable trees in the Jianghuai area, they are all locust trees and other unsuitable trees, but there is one thing that gives the Jin army too much convenience, and that is the moso bamboo that is everywhere in the mountains and forests. Although bamboo cannot be used as a raw material for large siege equipment, it is perfect as a material for building siege ladders, and it does not take much effort to harvest bamboo.
Those tall and straight moso bamboos were dragged down the mountain in bundles. The Jin soldiers did not need to have any good construction skills. It was too simple and convenient to use moso bamboo to make ladders. With more people and greater strength, the Jin army easily made five or six hundred ladders before dark, as well as bamboo rafts used to build pontoons for the siege.
Faced with the Jin army's active preparations to attack the city, Suzhou's soldiers and civilians were certainly not idle. Beginning in the afternoon, the reinforcement of the city wall also began on the west wall of Suzhou. At first, only some civilians and soldiers participated, but soon, the news that the Jin army would attack the west city spread throughout the city, and then tens of thousands of people voluntarily invested. During the work of strengthening the city wall.
After yesterday's great victory, Suzhou's soldiers and civilians were highly motivated and motivated. They believed that this time the Jin army's land attack would also be defeated. They believed that under the leadership of Li Yuan, Suzhou City would be as stable as Mount Tai.
Therefore, they not only invested a lot of enthusiasm and labor, but also removed their own door and bed boards as plywood to reinforce the city wall, and donated their own bows and arrows used for fishing and hunting to the Suzhou defenders as weapons to defend the city. Not only that, thousands of strong men spontaneously asked to join the army and participate in defending the city.
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