Chapter 217: First Attack on a Dangerous Pass
Chapter 217: First Attack on a Dangerous Pass (Part )
Ten days later, Xiao Xia led an army of 6,000 to the Dadouba Valley. At this time, the Dadouba Valley had been occupied by the Sui army and Tuyuhun respectively. The Sui army occupied the largest Hexi City, which was originally built by the Sui army. The other military city was slightly smaller and located near the southern valley entrance. It was still occupied by the Tuyuhun army.
There are currently one thousand Sui soldiers in Hexi City, including three hundred in the city and another seven hundred stationed outside the city. The main Sui general guarding Hexi City is a lieutenant general named Yuchi Jinyang. He invited Xiao Xia into the city, and the rest of the army rested outside the military city.
Xiao Xia stood on the top of the city wall and looked into the distance. He could vaguely see a figure flashing several miles away.
"Is the Tuyuhun army still attacking now?"
"Yes! They have never stopped. Hundreds of people came to attack yesterday afternoon, but they were all small-scale attacks. There has been no large-scale attack."
"Do you know how many troops the other side has?"
Yuchi Jinyang hesitated for a moment and said, "I captured two scouts a few days ago. According to their account, their army has about 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers. I don't dare to believe it."
Xiao Xia turned around and asked Yin Shishi, "How many troops do you think they have, General Yin?"
Yin Shishi pondered for a moment and said, "Two thousand people in the valley is about right, but I think there are troops stationed outside the valley, and the total number should be about the same as ours. Tuyuhun is used to doing things with a 30% to 70% ratio. If they follow this habit, 20,000 people will come to attack us, so there must be 6,000 people left as a backup."
Yuchi Jinyang added: "General Manager Xue also thought so. He said at the beginning that the Tuyuhun garrison had at least 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers. We couldn't take Hexi City by force, so we had to use a surprise attack. That's why we succeeded in the surprise attack."
Xiao Xia nodded, "No matter how many people there are, a tough battle is inevitable!"
In the room, Xiao Xia and everyone were studying the military city of Tuyuhun. Yuchi Jinyang drew a sketch. The opponent's defense point consisted of a military city and a city wall, cutting off the Dadouba Valley.
Yuchi Jinyang introduced: "The enemy's military city is smaller than our Hexi City and can only accommodate about 150 people, but it is also built on a high place.
The reason why there are only two military cities in Dadouba Valley is that two conditions must be met at the same time. One is that the terrain is dangerous, and the other is that there must be a water source. There are more than a dozen dangerous places, but only two of these ten dangerous places have water sources. "
Xiao Xia nodded, and pointed to the city wall on the sketch and said, "If we capture the city wall, will the enemy's military city still be able to stop our army from advancing southward?"
Yuchi Jinyang smiled bitterly and said, "The enemy has piled up a lot of boulders in the military city. Once the military city is lost and our army passes through, they will drop a lot of boulders. On the one hand, it will cause great damage to the Sui army, and on the other hand, it will cut off the passage. More importantly, if the enemy has a military city, our logistics team will not be able to get through, so the military city must be conquered!"
Xiao Xia pointed at the city wall and asked, "How high and wide is the wall?"
"It's about two feet high and about eight feet to ten feet wide. Four people can walk side by side."
"Does the city wall lead directly to the military city?" Xiao Xia asked again.
Yuchi Jinyang nodded, "The only gate of the military city is on the city wall. You have to walk along the city wall to enter and exit. There is a corridor inside the city wall, so you can go up and down the city!"
Xiao Xia pondered for a moment, took a piece of paper, drew a few large defensive shields with special structures, handed them to Master Yin Shi, and said, "Immediately ask the craftsmen to make these large devices. It doesn't matter if they are a little rough, as long as they are strong!"
Yin Shishi understood immediately, and said happily: "I'll arrange it right away!"
The next night, Xiao Xia led three hundred elite soldiers on foot along the canyon southward. The three hundred men were divided into two groups, with one hundred in the front and two hundred following a mile behind. Yin Shishi led three thousand men following several miles away.
Xiao Xia certainly didn't expect to be able to launch a surprise attack on the enemy's city. At the moment, both sides were on edge, and they were already seeing enemies everywhere. It was almost a pipe dream to launch a surprise attack. However, there were also great advantages to launching a surprise attack at night. First, the Tuyuhun people generally had poor night vision. It's not that everyone had night blindness, but poor night vision was more common.
Secondly, the defenders cannot see the enemy’s situation clearly at night, so they are more likely to feel fear and collapse more easily than during the day. This is also a very important point.
The third is that the accuracy of archery and stone throwing at night is relatively low. In particular, the Tuyuhun soldiers are good at throwing stones with ropes, which is even better than bows and arrows and has a high accuracy, which makes the Sui army quite afraid.
A mile away from the enemy's city, a rapid alarm bell sounded from the city. "Dang! Ding! Ding!" The sound was so sharp that it pierced the silent night sky.
Xiao Xia led his men to speed up. His Hantian Spear was a heavy cavalry weapon. If the infantry was attacking the city, it would be inconvenient to use the long spear. His weapon tonight was a short-handled long sword that was as tall as a person and weighed about twenty pounds. In fact, it was a straight sword with a two-foot-long short handle. It could be used with one hand or two hands. In addition, he also carried a bow and arrow and a shield.
Before setting out, Xiao Xia had already thought about how to attack the city. The first step was to take down the city wall, and then attack the military city along the wall. This would be much easier than attacking the military city directly from the ground.
This is the case with both advantages and disadvantages. Although city walls help with defense, they also break the advantage of the military city being high above. As long as the city walls are occupied, there is hope of capturing the military city.
The city wall is two meters high, less than six meters, so three layers of human wall are almost enough. Therefore, he specially selected twenty extremely tall and strong soldiers, each of whom is more than 1.9 meters tall and weighs more than 200 kilograms. They are then dressed in heavy armor and used to build the bottom of the human wall. Slightly lighter soldiers will be selected for the second and third layers. As for the first batch of climbers, each of them must be as agile as a monkey.
At the first watch, Xiao Xia led a hundred men to the enemy's city wall, about one hundred and fifty steps away from the city.
He did not bring many people with him and did not attract much attention from the other side. This could be considered a strategic deception. If he had led 3,000 people to attack, the army deployed by the other side would definitely have been different.
A hundred people are at the harassment level. The other side will be vigilant but will not launch a large-scale defense. During this period, it has become normal for both sides to harass each other.
Once anything becomes the norm, it becomes a habit, and once it becomes a habit, mistakes will be made.
Two hundred Tuyuhun soldiers climbed onto the city wall, and the military city was also full of Tuyuhun soldiers, but there was no reaction from the military camp a mile away. To them, it was just harassment from the Sui army, and the defenders on the city were enough to deal with it, so there was no need for a large army to come out for the time being.
"Sir, please let me go first!" Cao Taiyue took the initiative to ask.
Xiao Xia's two main confidants, Xu Min and Cao Taiyue, were both appointed as Lang Jiang after coming to Zhangye. Xu Min was doing very well and had made many military achievements. As long as he could make one more medium-level military achievement, he would be promoted to Zhong Lang Jiang.
Cao Taiyue has not achieved any success yet, and he is getting a little anxious.
At this time, an excellent opportunity arises. The merit of being the first to capture the city is a great merit. If two great merits are accumulated, you can be promoted to the next level.
Xiao Xia nodded, "I will use arrows to cover you as you climb the city!"
"Follow me!" Cao Taiyue waved his hand and led sixty soldiers to rush forward.
Xiao Xia led forty archers to provide cover at the rear, and a hundred steps behind them were five hundred soldiers lying in ambush, led by Xue Wanjun. They were carrying two siege ladders and hiding in the dark, and were not discovered by the defenders on the city wall. Once Xiao Xia led a hundred men to attack the city wall, they would launch an attack.
At this time, the two hundred defenders on the city wall began to shoot arrows intensively at the approaching Sui army.
(End of this chapter)