May.
General Who Conquered the South Song Gongbao led his troops to the outskirts of Lishui County.
On the official road, camps stretched one after another—eighteen linked encampments had been erected, faintly forming a horned formation with the county seat.
Song Gongbao and Wu Xing returned from their mounted reconnaissance, looking somewhat worried. "Those Great Liang bandits are preparing to dig in and defend to the death. What an anomaly! By all reason, they only just fought a great battle—shouldn't the soldiers be exhausted? Shouldn't there be grievances in the army?"
Wu Xing replied, "According to the intelligence gathered by the spies... the other side is the false Liang chancellor, with five thousand troops... They won't be easy to fight."
In a siege, it was common enough for several thousand men to hold out for months or even years against an army of tens of thousands.
"The map!"
Song Gongbao spread out the map and studied it closely, his brow knitting as well. "Lishui County occupies strategically treacherous terrain, with the defenses of mountains and rivers and the advantage of a great river... Easy to defend, hard to attack. They've also built strongholds all across the mountains, supporting one another. Unless we uproot them one by one, we cannot attack the city with peace of mind. Can we go around?"
"There are no other official roads nearby. If we pass through the forests and cross the mountains, only small units can make it through, and we would have to abandon our provisions and baggage train. That would be walking into death."
Wu Xing said cautiously, "High Privy Councillor Gao does intend to send two detached forces around to attack Jiangzhou Prefecture City... But the prefectural city has high walls and deep moats, with seven thousand Liang troops and twenty thousand