Not to mention those young officers, almost all the close ministers around them were hesitant to speak. However, Wang Yan, who had the most awkward temper, first frowned, and then looked thoughtful.
"There are about 30,000 to 40,000 people in the camp now. Ma Jiedu should arrive tomorrow, but we don't know when Wu Dutong will arrive... We should rely on manpower... Let's fire the artillery first, starting from the south side of the city under our feet. This side will be left to you, Wang Qing, to handle!" Zhao Jiu ordered.
"Yes!" Wang Yan suddenly perked up.
"If the manpower exceeds 50,000, we will set up siege positions at the same time, burn the deer fort, fill the trenches, destroy the sheep and horse walls... start from the west, persuade people to surrender when necessary, and attack at night when necessary... Renqing, you will be responsible for this."
"Yes." Ren Baozhong was overjoyed.
"If the manpower exceeds 100,000, we will fire artillery from three sides at the same time... At that time, the north of the city will be given to Prince Yan'an, and the east of the city will be given to Li Jiedu."
"yes."
"If we have more manpower, we can dig a canal to the west of the city to prepare for the thawing of the river water and attack the city from the west." As he said this, Emperor Zhao looked at a strange candidate. "When the time comes, Yang Qing, you will be in charge of this matter."
Yang Yizhong was stunned for a moment, then he bowed and said, "I know."
Wang Yan and Ren Baozhong were also stunned for a moment, and then they each seemed to realize something, but just kept silent.
It was a strange meeting. From the result, there seemed to be no problem, as it was a saturation attack with manpower. However, since even several military governors and veteran generals did not participate and the organization of the siege was finalized, it seemed that Emperor Zhao was doing it too personally.
When the news spread that night, many veteran generals, including Wang De, had complaints and doubts.
There were even bolder Jinshi who followed the army and wrote memorials to advise Emperor Zhao not to follow the example of Emperor Taizong of this dynasty, but to trust generals more and use less close ministers... Of course, this was just a scrap of information.
In fact, there are more reliable rumors. One popular saying is that Emperor Zhao did not distrust the ministers, but he was waiting for Wu Jie, the commander-in-chief of the imperial camp. When faced with a big scene, the emperor essentially trusted Wu Jie more. Even Prince Han and Li Jiedu knew this very well, so they did not say anything... and before Wu Jiedu arrived, it didn't matter if these preparatory tasks were handed over to his close ministers.
But this kind of gossip is not worth mentioning, especially starting from the next day, when the imperial edict was issued and artillery fire was really started to besiege the city.
Moreover, as the number of troops increased, the siege actions became more and more intense, and everyone became busy.
Emperor Zhao arrived at the city on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, and that evening there were 40,000 people under the city.
On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, with the arrival of Ma Kuo and the arrival of more and more stragglers and civilians, the number of soldiers and civilians under the city reached 70,000. Therefore, almost at the same time, Wang Yan officially set up a workshop in the north of the city, marked out the artillery position, cut down trees on a large scale, and prepared to fire artillery. Under the command of Ren Baozhong, various troops also began to try to burn the deer fort and destroy the sheep and horse wall... But to be honest, the latter was not very effective, because the bows and crossbows on the city gate were too powerful. The only effect was on the west side of the city. But as everyone knows, if the Fen River is not cut off, the west side of the city will not have much significance without a layer of sheep and horse wall.
On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, the follow-up main force arrived one after another, and the number of combat soldiers and auxiliary troops under the city of Taiyuan definitely exceeded 100,000.
Emperor Zhao kept his word and started firing artillery from three sides, regardless of the fact that more than half of the civilians still had to focus on logistics transportation in the rear.
On the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, the two small camps of Xugou and Tuanbai were successfully breached, which led to more soldiers and civilians coming to the city in the following two days. The river channel was dug in the west of the city from that day. Under such circumstances, even though the Song army camp had a logistics base behind it in Yonglijian, it was still passively surrounded by the entire Taiyuan city because of the size of the camp.
This caused panic among the Jin army in the city. Some people advised Wanyan Zhehe that he should leave the city in time to attack the artillery positions, but Wanyan Zhehe sternly refused... The veteran general knew very well that, to put it bluntly, this was just the beginning.
In other words, Wu Jie had not arrived yet. If Wu Jie had led the rear army of the Zhao Song imperial camp and the Dangxiang and Khitan people to arrive together, he might have been able to learn from what was done in Daming Prefecture and build another city to surround Taiyuan.
Even at that time, they still had to conserve their strength and prepare to attack when the artillery vehicle was almost completed.
It was the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, only two days away from the Chinese New Year. What made the Song army under the city cheer and also made Wanyan Zhehe panic was that 20,000 troops under the flag of Wu suddenly came from the west... Wu Jinqing came too fast.
On the same afternoon, a moderate snowflake fell from the sky.
These two things caught Emperor Zhao, who had been "waiting for Wu Dutong", off guard.
PS: I have to go for a face-to-face meeting today... I have been so nervous since three days ago that I can't type... and Xiaoyu has been moaning for sex these days... I hope you can forgive me.
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