On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 340 Change of mind

It can only be said that Cui Che's purpose in sending Mai Mengcai into the city was indeed impure.

Except for saying something in public to make the soldiers feel how much he loved his soldiers as his sons.

It was also to test Mai Mengcai and give him a chance to perform.

As for why it wasn't Cui Qiji, the reason is simple. Cui Che was also afraid that his son would be shot to death by an arrow.

The future son-in-law's horoscope has not yet been revealed. Even if he does marry his daughter, his importance cannot be compared with that of his biological son.

Of course, Cui Che's main purpose was to let Mai Mengcai take the opportunity to enter the city and gather some information.

And Mai Mengcai lived up to Cui Che's expectations. When Cui Che asked him questions in public, Mai Mengcai was well prepared and answered calmly:

"Reporting to the marshal, the person in charge in the city is Gao Yuan's younger brother, Gao Jianwu.

"When I claimed that I came to ask for the body, Gao Jianwu seemed quite disappointed. Perhaps he lacked confidence in defending the city and hoped that the two families could make peace.

"This man is very young. When I was talking to him, some generals interrupted him rudely without permission, but Gao Jianwu tolerated it and did not reprimand me. I guessed that Gao Jianwu's prestige was not enough to convince the soldiers guarding the city.

"Before the general left, he also took the opportunity to take a look. There were enough soldiers in the city, and a large amount of defensive materials were piled up. Arrows were piled up in bundles under the city.

"The general thinks that if we attack by force, it will be difficult to break the city in a short period of time."

After saying this, everyone present looked at Mai Mengcai with a bit of admiration in their eyes.

Not to mention Mai Tiezhang, with an old face and a smile like a rose flower.

Cui Che cherished his own life, and of course he was reluctant to let Cui Qiji take risks.

However, every time Mai Tiezhang charged into battle, he always moved forward without hesitation and regarded death as home. In his opinion, how could he accomplish anything without risking his life?

In the face of merit, even if he didn't care about his own life, how could he resent Cui Che for allowing Mai Mengcai to put himself in danger?

On the contrary, he was grateful that Cui Che could give Mai Mengcai such a chance to perform.

After all, in Mai Tiezhang's knowledge, Cui Che never did anything he was unsure of.

Cui Che was also very satisfied with Mai Mengcai's performance. In just a short period of time on the city wall, he was able to detect the identity of the enemy's general and at the same time detect possible discord between the enemy's generals.

As for the defensive strength in the city, we can actually test it by attacking for a few more days.

However, Mai Mengcai's intelligence also made Cui Che realize that it would be difficult to break the city if he just attacked by force.

No matter how attractive the wealth of Liaodong City is, the coalition soldiers are still made of flesh and blood. If they are unable to seize the city for a long time, the current high morale will inevitably decline.

After Cui Che praised Mai Mengcai, he asked the generals for advice:

"Now Eulji Munde is lurking outside, and Liaodong City is heavily guarded. As Meng Cai said, if we force the soldiers to attack by force, it may not be effective.

"I want to lure the enemy into a field battle. Whether it's the defenders inside the city or Eulji Mundeok's troops ambushing outside the city to support them, as long as they can come, most of the battle will be over. Do you have any strategies?"

Now the development of things has greatly diverged from Cui Che's previous plan. Eulji Mundeok led the cavalry outside to support, so Cui Che must leave enough defenders to guard the camp.

Moreover, the existence of Eulji Wende's army also threatened the channel for transporting livestock from Houcheng to the Sui army's camp, so cavalry must be assigned to protect it.

Now that the livestock have just given birth to spring lambs, they must have adequate nutritional supplements. The rich water and grass in the upper reaches of the Liao River is the reason why Cui Che uses Hucheng as his rear base.

Not only that, when Cui Che was attacking the city, he had to use his cavalry to suppress the formation, so he could not attack the city with all his strength.

However, Liaodong City had an army of 100,000 reinforcements and was well-defended. However, Cui Che tried to attack Liaodong City with Hu soldiers, and his plan to seize Liaodong City went bankrupt at the expense of Hu soldiers being severely damaged.

I have to admit that Eulji Munduk’s actions really made Cui Che feel uncomfortable.

When the generals heard Cui Che's question, they all fell into deep thought. This plan was quite difficult.

The only reason to blame is that Cui Che's past record was so dazzling that he was afraid of his opponents. According to Mai Mengcai, Gao Jianwu, who was in charge of the defense of Liaodong City, seemed to be quite fearful, and he would not be able to easily leave the city to fight in the field.

After much thought, I could only start with Eulji Munduk.

After all, Eulji Mundeok led his army out of the city in search of a fighting opportunity. Once the troops outside the city were defeated and there were no reinforcements from outside, the defenders inside the city would not be able to hold on for long if they faced the eastward way of survival.

Cui Qiji was the first to get up. He had seen Mai Mengcai making a show of himself, and Cui Qiji didn't want to lag behind.

He first analyzed why he couldn't start with the Liaodong defenders, and then he mentioned Eulji Mundeok and said:

"Earlier, when our army's foothold was not stable, Eulji Mundeok never showed up. This shows that this person has a stable character. If we want to induce him to fight in the field, we need to cast heavy bait."

As early as the Battle of Xiliao River, Cui Qiji advised Cui Che to fight steadily and maintain a stalemate with the enemy. Cui Che had already allowed him to speak freely at the military meeting.

Cui Che nodded when he heard this. The bait was not heavy and it would not lure Eulji Mundeok.

In the commander's tent, everyone was discussing how to catch Eulji Wende's bait.

In the eastern part of Liaodong City, among the mountains, a series of actions of Eulji Mundeok who was hiding here left his soldiers confused.

Previously, by some mistake, Choi Cheol's behavior of digging trenches outside the camp made Eulji Munduk mistakenly believe that his subordinates had leaked his plan. There was a traitor in the team, and his level was not low.

This also allowed Eulji Mundeok to plan to use this insider to set a trap for Choi Cheol.

Late at night, Eulji Wende convened everyone to discuss matters, saying it was a matter of discussion. However, at the meeting, he ignored everyone's objections, acted arbitrarily, and actually wanted to go north to attack Houcheng.

Goguryeo was fighting at home, so it could naturally gain the support of the local people. Relatively speaking, it was easier to find out information, such as knowing the rear base of the coalition forces while waiting in the city.

The cattle and sheep grazing around Houcheng are the key to the survival of the coalition forces. Eulji Mundeok knew this, and Cui Che was even more unlikely to be careless. He had already arranged heavy troops to guard Houcheng.

And this news is also known to everyone.

The cavalry officers took this as an excuse and advised Eulji Mundeok not to go to the city.

This is good now. With their threat, the Sui army did not dare to attack with all their strength and waited for the mission to play its role in the Sui Dynasty.

However, no one, including Eulji Mundeok, expected that the mission would still be detained in Yeongju.

Eulji Mundeok dismissed the generals' views and said:

"I heard that Fang Xuanling appointed by Cui Che is just a scholar and has never led an army in battle. This move means that Yuan Shao appointed Chunyu Qiong to guard Wuchao. I will definitely be able to break it."

Everyone tried hard to persuade him to no avail. Seeing that he was determined, they could only accept it.

(End of chapter)