It is no wonder that Liu Qi neglected this key issue, even real professionals have a pitiful understanding of the war of this era.

Although compared with the 21st century, the ancient military technology looks backward, but backwardness does not mean simple, the arms in the army are strictly distinguished, just like the artillery of later generations, archers are technical arms, but not have the strength to be competent, and the production and maintenance of bows and arrows are extremely complex and time-consuming, so the number of archers is not too much.

Now that the main force of the official army is fighting outside, it is naturally impossible for the archers who are an important combat force to stay in the city and waste, plus the archers and guards in Yan Yan's private army make the bow and arrow at best three hundred people, and then divided into four city walls, which is equivalent to each archer to defend a range of thirty or forty meters.

And the thief army can concentrate on attacking a little, the defenders with serious lack of firepower can't stop the thieves from landing the city at all, and the defenders in other directions can't be reinforced in time in a short time, once a certain point is broken through by the enemy, the entire defense line will be disrupted, and there will be more and more breakthroughs, so Zhao Zhen believes that Jiangzhou can't hold it at all in the current form.

"Well, where can I find enough oil in a hurry?"

Oil in the Han Dynasty is not more than Liu Qi lived in the era of every family, just find a grain and oil shop can buy a car back, the cooking form of this era is mainly steaming and boiling, even if the oil is mainly animal fat, the output itself is very small, Yongning has been too peaceful, officials at all levels inevitably despise the reserves of military supplies, some time ago when they went to the south to conquer the Yellow Turban Army, most of the materials have been withdrawn, who would have thought that Jiangzhou, which is in the rear, will be in danger?

The hope that had just been ignited in Zhao Zhen's heart was quickly extinguished, and it turned out that this person was a layman at all!

I have already considered all aspects of defending the city in detail, and if there is a way, I don't need to do this risky trick, but Liu Qi's words also reminded Zhao Zhen that this thief army is notoriously cunning and cunning, from Yinping to Jiangyang for so many years, and has fought for most of Yizhou around Shu County, and it is not an idle person to survive tenaciously under the siege and interception, even if it can be dragged for a while, his purpose is too obvious, and it is difficult to ensure that the thief army will not scatter into the mountains and forests, in that case, it will indeed be infinitely harmful. The people of the city were saved, but what about the people outside the city?

Zhao Zhen's heart was even heavier, and he stomped his feet anxiously: "What is the plan of the virtuous brother, please tell me bluntly, the situation is urgent!" ”

"I want to bring the thieves into the city!"

At this moment, Liu Qi had no confidence in his heart, but the initiative in the hands of his opponent made him feel even more bottomless, and he still felt that his idea was safer and more reliable than Zhao Zhen's plan.

"Huh? Ziyuan, why do you say this!? Zhao Zhen knew that there was still something to follow, but he was still startled when he heard this.

"Senior brother, although our army is not well prepared, why is it not a thief army? According to the confession of the thieves who surrendered, the thief army has been sneaking lightly for at least six days, and the thief army does not dare to walk on the official road during the day, relying on manpower to carry rations with them to trek through mountains and rivers. I think that even if the thief army wants to attack the city, it will never attack, in recent days, Jiangzhou is only allowed to enter and not leave, the inside should be captured, and the thief army has not yet known about the dead soldiers, and it will definitely contact the inside and try to break the city by chance! ”

Liu Qi folded a thin branch, scratched on the stone block circled in the water and said: "Jiangzhou east, south and north are all Yushui (now Jialing River) and the Yangtze River as a barrier, the outside of the city is low and open, it is not conducive to the thief army to hide and approach, it should live in the northwest of the city, I think the thief army will definitely attack from the west gate, now Yan Yan's house is still vacant, if there is hay and fire in it, ambush the soldiers around, to introduce the thief army to light the fire, and then destroy the drawbridge to cut off its retreat, ambush soldiers in all directions, The thief army was caught off guard and must have thought that our army had already prepared, and if the sneak attack failed, it would be encircled, and it would be difficult for the thief army to resist, so why not be able to annihilate all of them? ”

Zhao Zhen sometimes stared at Liu Qi, sometimes closed his eyes and pondered, and after Liu Qi finished speaking, he didn't care that his feet were soaked, walked into the pool and circled around the stone circle, muttering to himself, after a while, he looked up to the sky and laughed a few times, applauded continuously, and stepped out of the pool in a few steps and grabbed Liu Qi's hands: "Okay!" Good! The virtuous brother is really full of wisdom, admire for the brother, admire! ”

"Uh, senior brother has praised it, there are still many flaws in this plan that still need to be carefully planned, without further ado, you and I will go out of the city to investigate." Liu Qi felt a chill in his heart, and pulled out his white and tender little hand, thinking weakly: Senior brother shouldn't have seen his hand grabbing Zhao Ci just now, right?

Zhao Zhen, who was extremely excited, immediately summoned his staff and the generals of the guards, and said that everyone gasped as soon as Liu Qi's plan was said, this idea was too bold, but the generals of the guards all agreed, as long as they could prevent Zhao Zhen from risking his life, they would support it, not to mention that this plan sounded really feasible, he could concentrate himself and divide the enemy, turning the passive into the active, and the people who knew a little about the art of war said in favor of it after a little pondering, and the sporadic opposition was quickly drowned out.

Zhao Zhen's subordinates looked at Liu Qi with a sense of admiration in their eyes, to say that the last time they designed to eliminate the mole and subdue Yan Yan, they also thought that Liu Qi knew the inside story in advance, and if there was a master behind him, this time his long-term vision and bold strategy really impressed everyone.

Soon the plan was professionally perfected by Zhao Zhen's staff, in order to prevent the thief army from discovering the abnormality, some of the old and weak were sent back to the fort garrisoned in the southwest of Jiangzhou City, once they found the enemy's traces, they would disguise themselves as panicked and flee and retreat to Jiangzhou, of course, some rusted weapons and "added" grain would still remain.

A large number of naval warships with few soldiers were arranged on the river in the eastern, southern, and northern directions of Jiangzhou City, and the bluff made the thief army afraid to attack the city from these three directions.

In the city, the whole city is under martial law, and the monitoring of the city gate is tightened, tracking all suspicious people entering the city, ensuring that the slightest information cannot leave the city gate, from the suspension bridge of the northwest two gates to the Yan family's house to arrange the mechanism and trap for ignition.

When Zhao Zhen's staff proposed to recruit civilians to help defend the city, they were fiercely opposed by Liu Qi and Zhao Rong, the head of the guards, Liu Qi knew very well how much negative impact that would be had on the situation in wartime, and in the vast majority of cases, civilians who had not received military training would help the enemy on the battlefield far more than their own.

Their only role is to strengthen the courage and deter the enemy as their real combat troops with seemingly increased numbers, but in fact, in many cases, they are not even able to do this, once engaged, the civilians who have not undergone systematic training do not have any combat effectiveness at all, not only can they not play the role of confrontation with the enemy, but they will break down because they have never experienced the cruelty of the battlefield, and the civilians will be the first to flee and lose their positions, which will cause a chain reaction, and finally lead to the rout of the whole army.

Zhao Rong, who was well versed in the art of war, and the generals of the personal guards resolutely opposed, but the staff were worried that the lack of troops was too obvious and the thieves saw through the reality.

It wasn't until the time of the plan that nothing was missed, and then everyone went to arrange it step by step, before it was gloomy, and now there was a hint of anticipation for the arrival of the thief army in their eyes.

After a whole night of arrangement, the good news soon came, the next day at noon, the guard in charge of tracking and monitoring the suspicious people caught two thieves in detail, the two are not hard bones, escorted to the torture room to see the bloody tragic scene, and then compared with the bright prospects promised by Taishou himself, immediately the bamboo tube poured beans like a happy competition to explain what should be confessed and what should not be confessed.

The thief army has quietly bypassed the fortress in the west direction of the city, and at this moment it should rest in a valley more than 100 miles away from the city, and send ten people in five teams to infiltrate the city to spy on the situation and contact Neiying.

It's coming so fast!

All the cultural relics present were shocked into a cold sweat, and the consequences of being one step later were really unimaginable!

Zhao Zhen immediately ordered his guards to go and arrest the other eight with a small work, and all the soldiers and requisitioned strong men were ready.

In less than an hour, three of the eight fine workers who had mixed into the city were caught, and the remaining five were corrected on the spot when they resisted, and after careful arrangements, Zhao Zhen gave another fine one an explanation and let him go back to report the news, of course, he was given a pill ******** before leaving.

This fine worker was originally a common man who was coerced by the Yellow Turban Army, and he had no loyalty to his leader at all, but now he has the opportunity to clear his name and live a stable life again, who is willing to lick the blood with the Yellow Turban knife in the name of a thief? So I'm not afraid that it won't cooperate.

Even if he is not afraid of the thief leader, because he was arrested without finding out what is going on in the city, the thief army knows that the official army has to be on guard and must find out the truth, the thief leader cannot run to the edge of Jiangzhou City with all the difficulty, and scatter in a hurry without firing an arrow, since he wants to re-investigate, then the previous arrangement is still effective, and if nothing else, the thief army will still attack from the west gate.

Now it's just a matter of waiting for the thieves to fall into the trap.

The next day, after a whole day of intense waiting, in the dead of night, the secret post outside the west gate finally issued a nightingale cry on behalf of the discovery of the enemy's traces, Zhao Rong, who was hidden on the city wall, immediately sent someone to report to Zhao Zhen, and the 5,000 officers and troops quietly assembled in the preset area to ambush.

The moonlight was not bright tonight, and after a while a large dark cloud covered the moonlight, and there was a faint sound of feet stepping on dead leaves and broken branches outside the city, and seeing the signal released from the city wall, everyone in the city knew that the decisive battle was coming soon, and the hand holding the sword and shield was sweating nervously.

Zhao Rong secretly looked over from the battlements of the city wall, the sound was quickly approaching, and then one by one black shadows quickly rushed from the woods to the residential area outside the city, among which the civilians had already been transferred to the city, and now there were only a few officers and soldiers hiding in it, they just screamed a few times when the thieves approached and hid in the hidden place prepared in advance, the thieves were bent on attacking the city and did not have the heart to break into the houses and loot, even if someone found out that something was wrong, but in the dark night and such a chaotic situation, they could not prevent others from continuing to rush forward.

Seeing the thief army approaching the moat, Zhao Rong nodded to the soldiers around him, and a panicked shout came from the city wall, and several fires soon ignited in the city.