Lai Ji said solemnly, "Within Shazhou City, there are 200 thousand Tang troops. With the strength of our mortars and the city walls, they are not especially strong and tall. There are even many places that are filled with holes. If we continue to bombard them, we can collapse the city walls. When the Tang soldiers charge out, I think that we will let the elephant soldiers attack first. After the elephant soldiers crush them, the Tang army formation will be messed up and we will just need to kill them. "
"No, no!"
Shangguan Yi shook his head, "I think that the Tang army will not make the same mistake. Before this, the Tang army did not know that we had mortars, so they defended the city. Now that Zhangsun Wuji and Wei Zheng know about it, the rest of the people know too. They know that they cannot defend, but they still want to defend. That is really stupid. "
"Be it Zhangsun Wuji or Wei Zheng, they will not make such an arrangement."
"Hence, this plan is not suitable."
Shangguan Yi directly objected.
Du Qi said, "Shangguan Yi's analysis makes sense. The Tang army are not fools. They will not make the same mistake twice in the same place. Next, by using the mortars to bombard the city, maybe we can break Shazhou City. However, to obtain victory like last time, it will be really difficult. "
Shangguan Yi said once more, "The geography of Shazhou is more complicated than Shazhou. There are numerous sandy lands. Similarly, there are lakes, swamps, and rivers. Within Shazhou City, there is also a Ganquan River that passes through the city. Such geography is actually more complicated and harder to fight. I think that the Tang army will retreat after being bombarded by us. They will make plans after leaving the city. This is the general direction that I have deduced. "
After Lai Ji pondered for a moment, he nodded and said, "I also agree."
"Report!"
Just at this moment, another soldier came to the entrance of the tent and reported, "Your majesty, there is a message from a bad person in Shazhou City."
Du Qi said, "Send it in!"
The soldier went to send the order. Not long later, a bad person entered and reported, "Ye Cha greets your majesty."
Ye Cha was the person in charge of the bad people in Shazhou City.
Du Qi nodded, "You came from Shazhou, what do you have to report?"
Ye Cha said, "Your majesty, I have been keeping an eye on the Tang army in Shazhou City. The Tang army has hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the city. However, the Tang army has not taken any action. There is only one thing that your humble servant finds suspicious, so I immediately came to report it to Your Majesty and ask for Your Majesty's decision. "
Du Qi said, "What is it?"
Ye Cha reported, "The spies we have planted in Shazhou City have sent out news that in the barracks of Shazhou City, countless amounts of sand are piled up every day. Right now, it has already piled up into a mountain. In the day, we are unable to find out where they dug it from. At night, there would be many carriages transporting bags of soil to the camp. Because our power is limited, we can't find out where the soil came from. We only know that there is a lot of them.
After a pause, Ye Cha continued, "I discovered this situation and felt that this news was very important, so I immediately came to report it. Your majesty, please investigate."
Du Qi nodded and praised, "Your news is very valuable. Continue to find out."
"Yes!"
Ye Cha replied and turned to leave.
His current mission was very simple. It was to report the news. To those in charge of intelligence, this was an extremely important part. It was to test their sensitivity to intelligence.
After Ye Cha left, Du Qi looked at Shangguan Yi and Lai Ji and asked, "What do you think Li Ji is doing in Shazhou City? There is a lot of dirt in the camp every day."
Shangguan Yi and Lai Ji thought quickly.
For a moment, the two of them could not think of a reason.
They did not understand.
Du Qi immediately arranged for people to call Li Jing, Guan Zhilan, and Ma Zhou. He told them the news that Ye Cha had just reported. Then, Du Qi said, "We have to be careful when it comes to attacking Shazhou. I believe in the sensitivity of a bad person. Furthermore, there is indeed a problem with sending soil to the military camp alone. "
Ma Zhou and Guan Zhilan were also considering.
Li Jing said, "Your Majesty, I might know what Li Ji wants to do."
Du Qi said, "What does he want to do?"
Shangguan Yi, Guan Zhilan, and the others looked at Li Jing and waited for him to speak.
Li Jing said unhurriedly, "Your Majesty, there are two possibilities for so much soil to appear out of thin air in the city. The first possibility is that the soil was dug from outside the city. What is he trying to do by digging the soil from the outside? Strengthen the city walls or build fortifications. However, if you think about it carefully, it's actually useless. "
"Therefore, the probability of the first possibility appearing is not high. Therefore, there is only one other possibility. The soil and sand were dug out from the city. "
"There are people digging everywhere in the city, but the bad people did not find out anything. This means that such digging is not done openly, but secretly."
Li Jing said, "I'm sure that this digging is done underground and not on the ground."
After Du Qi heard that, a thought flashed through his mind. The originally unfathomable thoughts were immediately understood.
The others were the same.
Li Jing stroked his beard and continued, "I'm bold to guess that Li Ji's idea is very simple. He wants to invite you into a trap. He knows that we have mortars. Our weapons are strong enough. It's easy to bomb the city gates. "
"It's definitely impossible for Li Ji to defend the city."
"Then, Li Ji will guard Shazhou City first. When we attack, we will break through the city and Li Ji will retreat with his men. When our army enters Shazhou City, he can take this opportunity to deal with us. "
"And their method of dealing with us is very simple. The Great Tang has gunpowder, and as long as there's enough gunpowder underground, they'll be able to retreat. Once we enter the city, we'll detonate the gunpowder and cause a large-scale explosion.
"Even if our forces are strong, the explosion of countless gunpowder will cause the entire city to be like an earthquake, causing countless people to be injured or even killed. At that time, Li Ji only needs to come back and he can sweep all the way and crush us. "
Li Jing said, "This is Li Ji's plan."
Du Qi's eyes lit up. He said, "Wonderful, wonderful. It's really exquisite. Master Apothecary's analysis makes things clear. "
Li Jing said, "Your Majesty, you flatter me."
Du Qi looked around and said, "What do you think of Master Apothecary's analysis?"
Shangguan Yi said, "Your Majesty, I agree."
Ma Zhou, Lai Ji, and the others also echoed. They all agreed.
Du Qi said, "Since we are sure of Li Jing's plan, we will draw up a big plan according to this direction. Suppose Li Ji really digs tunnels in the city and even hollows out the gunpowder buried under the city. How should we deal with it? "
Li Jing did not say anything else and seemed to be deep in thought.
Shangguan Yi said, "Your Majesty, I think that if Li Ji sets up a strategy to lure the enemy into the city, we can arrange for people to search for the gunpowder in the city. Before Li Ji ignites all the gunpowder, we can detonate all the gunpowder first."
"That's not right!"
Du Qi shook his head directly.
Shangguan Yi asked, "Why?"
Du Qi said, "The reason is actually very simple. Li Ji dug an empty space, but he didn't really dig a tunnel that extended in all directions. Perhaps there is a hole here, and there is another hole. There are densely packed holes under Shazhou City. On this basis, we might be able to discover a portion of the underground holes. It is definitely impossible to collect all of them. "
Du Qi said, "Therefore, we have to detonate it first. Only a portion of the gunpowder will be detonated. There is still a lot of gunpowder buried underground. That is also a hidden danger."
Shangguan Yi said, "Your Majesty is right."
Du Qi said, "The strategy of detonating it first will definitely not work. Instead, it will alert the enemy. Do the rest of you have any other strategies? "
Ma Zhou said, "Your Majesty, I have a plan."
Du Qi said, "What's the arrangement?"
Ma Zhou said, "Your Majesty, according to Li Ji's plan, we will first attack Shazhou City, and Li Ji's troops in Shazhou City will definitely withdraw. Once our army is stationed in the city, we will be schemed against. But we will not give them this chance. We only need the army to be stationed outside the city. In this way, even if Li Ji has a plan, it will not be a problem. "
Ma Zhou's face was full of expectation when he proposed the strategy.
It should be known that Ma Zhou's plan was extremely feasible. Because the army was stationed outside the city, even if there were countless gunpowder hidden underground in the city, even if Li Ji had a plot, he could not do anything to Du Qi.
According to Ma Zhou's deduction, Li Ji was bound to lose.
Du Qi and the others discussed the next course of action, and then let them rest again.
Everyone left. The main generals received Du Qi's order and went to do their own things. After all the things were dealt with, everyone went to rest.
The next day, early in the morning.
Early in the morning, Du Qi led the army and set off.
They went to Shazhou City.
Because at the moment, they had to reach Shazhou first and then consider other arrangements. Du Qi's army galloped all the way. At noon the next day, the army led by Du Qi had already reached the city gate.
The black mass of the army was in formation outside the city.
It was full of the aura of tigers and wolves.
It gave people a fierce feeling.
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