I am a commoner, but I will lead the empress to unify the world

Chapter 718 Sand Table Military Exercise

"Come just come, are you afraid?"

Yan Fuyao looked at Shen Changgong with disdain.

Shen Changgong nodded and said,

"Okay, now I am the garrison commander of Xiangyang, I have 20,000 local troops and over a hundred thousand civilians under my command.

My scouts told me that 100,000 Yan troops were heading towards me, led by the Emperor of Great Yan himself, so I immediately stepped up my defenses and prepared to resist the attack of the Yan army.

So, how do you attack?"

Yan Fuyao thought for a moment and said,

"I will divide the troops into four groups, attack from all four walls, blast open the city gates, and charge in simultaneously to prevent the enemy from breaking out and escaping. I will annihilate them completely."

Shen Changgong nodded and said,

"Okay, now you divide the 100,000-man army into four parts, each with 25,000 men.

And I know that the Yan army is very strong and I cannot defeat them, so I decided to give it a try. I will gather these 20,000 people, aim at the position where you, the Emperor of the Great Yan, are, and charge forward recklessly, forming a sharp arrow formation.

And your army is still attacking, and its defensive formation is unstable. Even if I try to intercept it quickly, I am not afraid of sacrifice. The line of defense you are using to block me is just one line, but as long as I pierce a point, I can kill through your army and reach you, the emperor.

As long as I kidnap you, I will win this battle.

If I ask you to withdraw your troops, you have to withdraw. I will send you to Jingzhou and Yingdu, and that will be a great achievement for me.

I don't care how many people die, because I'm going to lose anyway, so why not give it a try?

Shen Changgong's words left Yan Fuyao dumbfounded. After thinking for a moment, she said again,

"Then I will send 20,000 men to each city gate, leaving 40,000 here, and then we will attack together. I don't believe they can break through to me."

Shen Changgong also shook his head and smiled.

"If that's the case, I definitely won't be able to hold on. Since I can't hold on, you Yan army won't have an easy time either.

The entire city is stockpiled with a huge amount of reserve supplies and food for the Qian-Chu coalition forces. I would rather die than leave it to you. I will burn it all down and then have a bloody battle.

You captured Xiangyang, but the baggage and food supplies were gone. The Yan army, short of food supplies, was still unable to march.

What should you do? "

Yan Fuyao had become serious at this time and began to think of a solution seriously.

If it were any other woman, after being constantly contradicted and rebuked by Shen Changgong, she would have gotten angry and started to make trouble. But the empress was different. She was calm and smart. Even though she would occasionally get angry with Shen Changgong, she would never be confused about major issues.

She also realized the possibility of what Shen Changgong said, and felt that this was indeed a serious issue.

After thinking about it carefully, she said,

"I can first send someone to ask Gongyang Ge where Xiangyang's supplies are stored in the city, and then use a small force to attack Xiangyang as a feint. This number of people, 20,000 to 30,000, will be enough.

Then we deliberately confuse the enemy and give them the illusion that we are just here to destroy them, so that they won't fight to the death and burn their supplies.

Then send the main force to quietly detour to the direction where they store supplies, bring one or two artillery pieces, and then quickly fire, blast open the city gate, quickly rush in, and seize the supply area.

Those local troops can just run away. There's no point in keeping them. Supplies are more useful than them. Even if they find something wrong and can't defeat us, and set fire to it, with so many of us, we can put out the fire in time and minimize the losses."

Hearing this, Shen Changgong finally felt relieved and gave Yan Fuyao a thumbs up, saying,

"Not bad, not bad. Our little Yaoyao has become a qualified commander. He knows how to exploit the enemy's psychology to execute strategies."

"cut!"

Yan Fuyao rolled his eyes at him fiercely.

Shen Changgong asked Yu Ziling again,

"Zi Ling, if it were you, how would you fight?"

Yu Ziling looked at Yan Fuyao timidly, then shook her head.

Yan Fuyao was slightly puzzled and said,

"It's okay, just speak boldly, how can I blame you?"

Yu Ziling nodded and said,

"I think that conquering the enemy without fighting is the best of all strategies. I should simply have Your Majesty write a letter and tell the defending general that if he leads his troops to surrender, he will be made the lord of Xiangyang. Xiangyang, like Jingzhou, is a major water transport city with a lot of benefits. He will definitely agree.

You guys are here to fight and kill, not giving them a chance to surrender or be recruited. They will definitely fight to the death."

Yan Fuyao was so upset. She had fought so hard to get a chance to attack the city. Was she going to let the other side surrender just like that?

Finally, she sighed and said,

"Never mind. I'm worried about the lives of my soldiers. Wan'er, come write a letter and persuade the commander to surrender.

Don't say I didn't give him this opportunity.

Que Ling, go down as fast as you can and ask Gong Yang Ge where the supplies in Xiangyang are stored.

We're making preparations for both scenarios. If the guard refuses to surrender, we'll beat him up!"

"As ordered!"

Gongsun Wan'er immediately took out paper and pen to write a letter, while Tu Que Ling jumped off the carriage, rode Shen Changgong's horse, and galloped to find Gong Yang Ge.

The dragon chariot continued to move forward, crossed the floating bridge, and came to the other side, waiting for the army to come. At the same time, the scouts also released air, and a hot air balloon also rose slowly into the sky and flew towards Xiangyang.

The messenger rushed to Xiangyang with the letter written by Gongsun Wan'er, and handed the letter to the Chu army guarding the city, asking them to quickly give it to their commander, and he was waiting for a reply here.

The Chu army did not dare to delay and immediately called for their general.

The guard was a tough guy in his forties. He was talking to the city lord about military matters in the city lord's mansion. When he saw the soldiers coming in, he asked,

"What's the matter?"

"General Wei, this is a letter from the Emperor of Yan."

"Letter to me?"

General Wei took the letter, tore it open, and then read it.

After reading it, General Wei became furious and tore the letter to pieces.

The city lord was surprised.

"General Wei, what are you doing? What did the Emperor of Yan say to make you so angry?"

The general said angrily,

"The Empress persuaded me to surrender, saying that if I surrendered voluntarily, she would make me the Lord of Xiangyang."

"Ah? You're the city lord? What about me?"

The city lord was surprised.

General Wei spread out his hands.

"She didn't mention you. No, you confused me. The key point is her persuasion to surrender!

Bastard, do you really think that this general is the kind of shameless person who forgets his principles for the sake of profit?

Although I only have 20,000 soldiers under my command, I will fight the enemy to the death and will not retreat! "

The city lord sighed and said,

“Speaking of which, we shouldn’t have let those 8,000 Qian soldiers go back the other day. If we had kept them, they could have helped us and increased our combat power.

But now, we only have 20,000 people, and we can't defeat the million-strong Yan army at all."