Ouyang Shuo understood that if they did not make any change, water, grain, the city wall, and troops, any one of these four could cause them to collapse to an irrecoverable level.
"We need to take the initiative to strike."
Guo Ziyi decisively stood out, "Half of the player forces are cavalry, so to use them to defend is already wasting their talents and is not a smart decision."
Lianpo was a general who preferred to defend. When he heard Guo Ziyi's words, he frowned, "The enemy troops are many times ours. If we attack, what use will it be? We will only quicken our deaths. Why not just defend?"
"If we strike out aimlessly, obviously it would be useless. But what if we aim for their leader?"
"Aim for their leader?" Lianpo nearly replied in a sarcastic tone.
Killing intent appeared in Guo Ziyi's eyes, looking really sharp, "With the city situation, we have no way out and will only be locked in by the enemy. When the city is broken into, we will be under their mercy. On the contrary, if we use our elite forces to kill their generals like Bayan, it could make their troops unsettled and allow us to win the battle."
"More easily said than done."
Lianpo obviously did not agree, "The enemy troops heavily defend their main general. Not to mention killing their head, but even getting close is difficult. Not only might we not achieve that, but if the enemy uses the chance to get into the city, it would be catastrophic. Defending is the smarter choice."
As for how to defend, Lianpo had some thoughts. During the Battle of Changping, against the Qin country soldiers, Lianpo managing to defend for so long had become the glory of his life.
This also showed that he was really skilled at defending. With the Battle of Lin'an as an example, the west gate he was defending was the most solid apart from the north city wall.
In his eyes, they were losing to the north city gates due to the difference in soldier strength and not his skill compared to Guo Ziyi.
The two generals continued to debate. They both had their own theories.
When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he suddenly looked at Zhang Shijie, "If I remember correctly, General Zhang has a relationship with Zhang Hongfan's father, Zhang Rou?"
When Zhang Shijie heard these words, he thought that Ouyang Shuo was suspecting that he was colluding with the enemy, and his face sank, "What is the Xia King getting at? I did work under Zhang Rou when I was young but that was really long ago."
Ouyang Shuo smiled, "General has misunderstood me. I did not doubt you. I only have something to ask."
In the Battle of Yashan in history, Zhang Hongfan tried to use Wen Tianxiang to persuade Zhang Shijie to surrender but failed. Hence, why would Ouyang Shuo suspect Zhang Shijie's loyalty to South Song?
Zhang Shijie's expression loosened. He noticed that he had overreacted, so he said, "Whatever instructions you have, just say it. If I can do it, I will!"
Ever since he was given the title of Xia King, Ouyang Shuo had a lot of power in the Grand Council.
Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, "Although General Guo's operation is difficult, it's our only way. What we need to do is to make the impossible possible."
The other people nodded and agreed with this analysis.
"Just as General Lianpo has said, the enemy main general, be it Bayan or Zhang Hongfan, are all within the military formation and are hard to get closed to. If we have a way to draw them out, we would make it two times more effective."
Using the chance, Ouyang Shuo calmed down the atmosphere between Lianpo and Guo Ziyi. He did not want the two of them to become enemies before the battle even began.
For this matter, Ouyang Shuo handled it really well.
When Lianpo heard that, his expression relaxed. Although he was a general under Di Chen, after fighting against Great Xia for so long and not winning even once made him terrified of the Xia King.
Maybe in his heart, he felt respect toward Ouyang Shuo.
Zhang Shijie was also astonished. He roughly had his thoughts, but he was still uncertain, "What the Xia King means is?"
Ouyang Shuo smiled, "It is simple, please write a letter to Zhang Hongfan to say that you are willing to bring the Song Army to surrender and ask them to come over to discuss."
Ouyang Shuo was actually planning to make a false surrender.
"Will they believe us?" Zhang Shijie asked.
"That would depend on what the general writes in the letter."
Different methods would naturally give rise to different effects. Hence, writing a letter that Zhang Hongfan would believe in would definitely be hard for Zhang Shijie.
Luckily, at this moment, Lu Xiufu took the initiative to speak to Zhang Shijie, "If Shijie does not mind, after the letter is finished, I can help add in some stuff."
Obviously, Lu Xiufu agreed with the plan.
"That's great!" Zhang Shijie nodded and agreed. Naturally, he would be happy if this plan succeeded.
Falsely surrendering to Zhang Hongfan was only the first part of the plan. To make the entire plan flawless, one needed deep considerations and careful planning.
Details would decide success or failure.
Once the direction was set, it would be easy to handle the details. With all of them discussing and Jia Xu supplying ideas, they finally set up a specific plan.
"Now it's time to see how Zhang Hongfan reacts."
Ouyang Shuo looked out at the barracks. His eyes squinted as he smiled, showing off some coldness.
That night, Zhang Hongfan received the surrender letter from Zhang Shijie.
In the letter, Zhang Shijie said this, "Since the player army has entered the city, they have taken over and bullied the young and helpless king, making their own decisions in the city. If this goes on, the country would not be our country. Your troops are attacking and would break through. In the recent days, we are helplessly determined to go all out."
"If you promise to leave the royal family bloodline and ensure that all the people leave, we will be willing to come out of the city to surrender. As for the specifics, general, please come to the front of the formation to discuss in detail."
When Zhang Hongfan saw that, he was both astonished and delighted.
He did not dare to make the decision on his own, so he took the letter to find Bayan.
Within the middle troops tent.
When Bayan looked at the letter, his expression did not change as he raised his head and looked at Zhang Hongfan, "What are your thoughts? Is there a plot?" Bayan did not trust the Chinese.
In the eyes of the Chinese, the Mongols were barbaric and rough, but in their eyes, the Chinese were cunning. The two sides had their cultural differences.
Zhang Hongfan was not a three-year-old kid, so he obviously would not fall for it. As a result, he carefully said, "The letter is actually suspicious. We need to investigate the details before we can come to a conclusion."
"That's right." Bayan had such a thought too.
"Then what about the siege tomorrow?" Zhang Hongfan asked carefully.
"Let it continue as usual."
Bayan had no intentions of showing mercy, "Since they want to surrender, we have to give them a heavy beating and let them realize that surrendering is their only way out."
"Understood!"
Zhang Hongfan nodded. Since it was late in the night, he immediately left.
Bayan did not immediately go to sleep.
Thinking about it, Bayan recorded in detail the matter of today. Along with the letter, he sent someone to send it back for the emperor to read. He would wait for instructions.
Even if South Song really wanted to surrender, their massacre of the city was not up to Bayan.
The next day, the defending troops did not get a reply from Zhang Hongfan. However, the Mongol attacks were even more intense, and they even sent out infantry for the first time.
The war became more and more intense with numerous casualties.
After a day, the Lin'an side had 20 thousand more people who died. If this carried on, their morale would probably break apart before they ran out of grain.
On the contrary, the Mongols did not send out most of their main force. They mostly used the surrendered troops.
The so-called million men army referred to the main Mongol force and did not include their surrendered troops and support troops. If not, Bayan would not have so much confidence.
At 7 PM, the Grand Council held a meeting.
Zhang Shijie was lacking in confidence, "Did the Mongols see through our tricks?"
"The Mongol army performed as expected. There's no way they would believe it right away."
To make the surrender more believable, Ouyang Shuo had made other arrangements.
First, Ouyang Shuo had the Divine Martial Guards take over as the palace guards.
Ouyang Shuo brought the Personal Guards and even boldly stormed into the palace.
Secondly, Wen Tianxiang would be removed from his position and appointed as the assistant minister of the military, which was like a useless appointment. Wen Tianxiang was famous for being a stubborn nut. Taking him down was the same as surrendering to the Mongols.
Thirdly, reducing the retaliation of the south city gate.
Zhang Shijie mentioned in the letter that they could not control the players, which was why they could only confirm that they would open the south city gate to allow the Mongols to enter.
After removing Wen Tianxiang from his position as south gate deputy general, Zhang Shijie used the 100 thousand troops to have a 'cleansing' internally. Numerous generals close to Wen Tianxiang were investigated.
All of these things were done openly so that the Mongols could see it.
Ouyang Shuo said confidently, "Things will change for the better at the day after tomorrow at the latest."
Lin'an was not weak. As such, even if the Mongol army wanted to forcefully take down Lin'an, the price they would pay would not be something they could handle.
If there was a shortcut, Bayan might take it.
"Just hold on for two more days." Lu Xiufu reached this conclusion. As this was a scheduled meeting, after the meeting, everyone went their own ways.
Barracks, middle troop tent.
As night fell, the entire barracks was pitch black. Only scattered torches provided a little bit of light. The few stars in the sky also provided illumination as they blinked in the sky.
As the night breeze blew across, the flames flickered like they might be extinguished at any moment. It was like the endless darkness would soon swallow them.
The Mongol army was really disciplined, and into the night, the entire barracks was totally silent.
The middle tent was brightly lit, and Mongol soldiers fully equipped guarded outside. These Personal Guards of Bayan were all elites and were all really skilled.
The Mongols did not have skill in metallurgy, and their armor were mainly leather. Only the general would wear iron armor. These Personal Guards could use iron armor because Bayan had an exceptional position and the amount of riches they got when the Mongol army went down south.
In the center of the tent was a plate of burning coal. Sparks were splattering all over. Bayan was dressed in casual clothing, sitting behind the table and looking at intel from the spies.
Anything that happened in Lin'an would not be able to avoid Bayan's eyes.
"Should we believe them or not?"
Bayan was facing some problems for the first time.