It was already dark outside, but the tent was lit with more than ten torches and candles, which were still bright as daytime.

Sun Tu and his main generals were surrounding a slightly simple map of the Jiangnan area, discussing the next military use. After he explained Zhu Jie's order, he landed his finger on Danyang and said with a serious expression: "I always feel a little strange about this matter. With sufficient troops, the thieves let Jinling go and were afraid that there would be more than 100,000 official troops here, but what about Danyang? There were only tens of thousands of troops there. They even dared to attack Wuxi, Changzhou, so why did they let this place go alone?"

"Maybe the terrain of the city is critical, easy to defend but difficult to attack?" Song Jiang frowned and said. As a northerner, he was still quite unfamiliar with the terrain of the city here in Jiangnan.

Sun Tu glanced at Shi Qian beside him: "Can the scout camp find out the geographical situation around these cities?"

Shi Qian hurriedly replied: "Although there are some hills near Danyang, there are plains inside and outside the city, and there is no danger to defend. In addition, according to the investigation, the city's garrison forces were no more than 10,000, as the commander said. However, their defense was quite strict, and our scouts went to investigate and almost took them down as a detailed move."

"Oh? This is interesting. The scouts we sent to Changzhou and Wuxi have not encountered such a situation. Why are Danyang, which is closer to Jinling, so nervous?" No one can answer Sun Tu's question for the time being, so he can only return to the topic just now: "So, this makes Danyang look a little weirder."

"The commander means that Danyang is also the target of the thief, but have we not received the relevant information yet?" Dong Ping asked with a serious expression.

"That's right, but what I'm more worried about is not just that, but they have spent so much effort to send several troops to attack each city. Their real intention is to take down Danyang while I'm not prepared!" Sun Tu clenched his fist and hammered the Danyang place on the map: "If this is the case, we will be passive."

"Showing it if you can, and showing it if you can, and showing it if you don't attack, this is a strategy to attack the east and the west!" Zhu Wu nodded in agreement: "It's true that you can't help but be careful. After all, Danyang is only two or three days away from Jinling. Once it is lost here, Jinling will be in danger and there will be risks at all times, and the people's and the morale of the army will be affected."

"With that being said, will the rebels really cost such a big price for this reason? If there is a mistake, not only will Danyang not be able to win, but it may also lose its troops and generals, and the sharpness of the previous victory." Qi Desheng also frowned slightly and expressed his own opinion.

Song Jiang followed and said, "The Qi commander said it is reasonable. Although what the commander said is somewhat contradictory to the military strategy, this is just a speculation that those thieves may not think so much. It is just because Danyang is too close to Jinling that they dare not send troops to attack. If they really struggle with this, it will only disturb our thoughts."

Song Jiang's words make some sense. At least before finding out that Danyang has other more important values ​​and functions, many people cannot believe Sun Tu's judgment. This made Sun Tu's brows deeper. Their concerns are indeed reasonable, and he can't come up with more clues for the time being.

After all, leading troops to fight is not a joke. You must judge the situation and choose the most correct way to use troops. Otherwise, if you make a mistake, it will not be as simple as one or two people. Even though Sun Tu, as the chief general of the three armies, has a strong premonition at this time, he still cannot act arbitrarily and force the soldiers to go to Danyang.

At this time, Zhu Wu spoke again: "Minister, I think we can ask someone else to see if there are other more important traits in Danyang."

"Hmm? Who are you talking about?"

In the puzzled eyes of everyone, Zhu Wu smiled and said, "Isn't Xie Mo there in our camp? He is a Jiangnan expert. I believe that as long as it is Jiangnan's affairs, nothing can be hidden from him, and Danyang is no exception."

"Yes, invite Xie Mo quickly." Sun Tu was excited when he heard this and quickly ordered. He really forgot this person. As long as Xie Mo could give some conclusive explanations, there would be a conclusion on this matter. If Danyang is really nothing special, it would not be too big even if the anti-military army really took it down with tricks.

After a while, Xie Mo was invited into the tent by his personal soldiers. After listening to Sun Tu's explanation, he quickly began to think. After a while, he said slowly: "If I remember well, just one or two months ago, Suzhou fell, and when Zhu Jie led his army to retreat north, he had settled in Danyang, and therefore left his elite troops there. Also, it is said that he was secretly transporting the grain and supplies from Jinling and the surrounding official warehouses to Danyang for storage, trying to build there into a logistics granary!"

"Be serious?" As soon as he said this, everyone changed their color. If it was true, the status of Danyang City would be very different immediately. If there was any mistake, it would be a big blow to the official army.

Xie Mozheng focused on it: "My source of information has always been reliable, and it should be impossible to be wrong."

Sun Tu also frowned and thought: "Shi Qian mentioned that there was a strict garrison there. Maybe it was because there was a large number of military rations hidden in the city. But there was one thing I still couldn't figure out. Why did Zhu Jie do this? Wouldn't it be safer to put the food directly in Jinling?"

"Is it to make it easier to send troops to the front line when quelling the chaos?" Song Jiang explained casually, but Sun Tu shook his head and denied it: "If you really have this idea, you can store the food in Changzhou."

Wu Yong suddenly spoke: "Maybe he is guarding against various officials? The commander also mentioned before that he has always grasped all the food and grass for the military and horses, and he may be worried that someone will rob him, so he simply hid it in another city. As the saying goes, the cunning rabbit has three holes, is there any danger."

Sun Tu nodded slightly: "This makes some sense, but it's not enough."

At this time, Shi Qian spoke again: "Secretary, not long ago, our scout found that there were many carriages and horses heading towards the Yangtze River at night. I wonder what was loaded on it, and whether it was food?"

"It makes sense that they send the grain to Jinling or other cities, but what's the reason for sending it to the riverside..." Dong Pinggang shook his head and said that he was incomprehensible. Sun Tu had already slapped his hands with a flash of light in his eyes: "That's right. Why do you think Zhu Jie should hold all the grain of the army in his hands and not send it out?"

"To control these armies?"

"No, it's not enough to rely solely on food. If the food is really gone, these officials will not give him face. At that time, I'm afraid that Jinling will be in chaos in an instant."

"Could it be..." Zhu Wu thought of something in an instant and changed his color and said, "He used this grain to sell it in Jiangbei to make a profit?" Just this statement made everyone present change their color again, with disdain and even more angry.

Sun Tu's face also became gloomy: "If the news we collected is good, I'm afraid that's it. So he hoarded the food secret to Danyang. The three holes of the cunning rabbit were one side, and more importantly, to make a profit from it. This time, more than 100,000 troops came to Jiangnan, the court must have allocated a large amount of military rations, and he put his mind on the food. In order to cover up people's eyes, he hid the food in Danyang and sent his own team of trust to guard..."

"Zhu Xie deserves to die!"

"It's really worth killing!"

The soldiers were immediately angry and started to scold. This did touch the bottom line of the big guy. When the soldiers were born and died for the Song Dynasty, Zhu Xie, a sinner who caused the chaos in Jiangnan, not only did not want to redeem his merits, but he also became more and more serious in stealing military rations. He was really crazy.

Sun Tu sneered: "He thought he was smart and did hide it from all the military and horses, but he didn't expect that his actions were found by Fang La's anti-army fine work. That's why they set up this plan today, in order to take down Danyang and seize a large amount of food hoarded in the city. Once the military rations are all over the enemy, I'm afraid that more than 100,000 official troops will have no fighting spirit, and they can win without fighting and take over the entire Jiangnan territory!"

After listening to Sun Tu's final analysis, everyone's expressions became more and more serious. Only then did they realize that Danyang had become the key to the outcome of this battle, and they would no longer dare to be careless as before.

"Secretary, what should we do? Now Zhu Xie only asks us to save Changzhou. We can't disobey the battle, right?" Song Jiang still said uneasy: "If our judgment is wrong, the enemy really wants to take Changzhou, and we go to Danyang again, I'm afraid the consequences will be serious."

This is also the most difficult problem to solve at present. All of this is the inference of Sun Tu and the others, and no one can be 100% sure that the anti-army army is going to take Danyang. It can be said that from his own perspective, Sun Tu's guided troops to rescue Changzhou without regard for Danyang was the most correct choice, because in this way, he would definitely have no mistakes.

Xie Mo couldn't help but: "Sun Qian, please put the overall situation first and send troops to rescue Danyang! If Danyang is in trouble, Jiangnan will probably be completely lost, and more innocent people will suffer." As he said that, he bent down and bowed, just about to kneel down to Sun Tu.

As for the other generals, they didn't have much thoughts and just waited for Sun Tu to make the final decision. For a moment, everyone in the account focused their attention on Sun Tu, and the pressure was all over him.

Sun Tu's eyes swept quickly in Changzhou and Danyang on the map, and he was also weighing his own interests. Finally, after a while, he suddenly looked up: "Dong Ping, Song Jiang, Qi Desheng obeyed the order, you three led me to 17,000 Shandong troops and Huainan troops to rescue Changzhou--"

After saying that, he stood up: "And I led the elite Qingzhou army to split the troops to Danyang to prevent accidents!"
Chapter completed!