Chapter 337: Troops trapped in Hase
Chapter 337: Troops trapped in Hase
Hedong is today's Shanxi Province. Its territory is almost entirely covered with vast mountains, with many small basins cut out between the mountains, such as the Yuncheng Basin, Linfen Basin, Taiyuan Basin, Changzhi Basin, Jincheng Basin, Xinding Basin and Datong Basin, etc. Thousands of people in Hedong live and multiply in these basins.
This terrain of alternating basins and mountains directly affects the outcome of the war. Any general who does not understand or respect the terrain of Hedong will pay a heavy price.
Between the Linfen Basin and the Taiyuan Basin are the Taiyue Mountains and the Luliang Mountains. These two mountain ranges were originally connected, completely separating the Linfen Basin and the Taiyuan Basin.
However, the Fen River has carved out several channels among the mountains, creating a connection between the two basins. The waterway is the Fen River, and the land route is a valley that is hundreds of miles long.
This valley is called Queshu Valley. It starts from Jiexiu County in the north and ends at Huoyi County in the south. There is also a Lingshi County hidden in the valley.
That morning, an army of more than 100,000 passed Huoyi County and entered Queshu Valley. There were cliffs on both sides of the valley. The gray-yellow boulders were covered with vines. The ground was also covered with trees, vines and other plants, and various small animals lived there.
The soldiers marched quickly in the valley, and everyone was silent. The huge mountains on both sides brought great depression to everyone, including the commander Yang Jun. He had never heard of this canyon. When he entered the canyon, he thought it was only a dozen miles at most, but the longer it got, the more he started to feel uneasy. But it was unrealistic to turn back at this time. They had already walked more than thirty miles, and Yang Jun could only bite the bullet and continue to head north.
More than 100,000 troops have all entered Queshu Valley, but the logistics team has been slow to follow up. It was not until dusk when everyone stopped to rest that Yang Jun discovered that the logistics team had not caught up.
He quickly sent a team of cavalry to urge the logistics troops to catch up. At this time, Yang Jun had not yet realized that the crisis had arrived. He still thought that the logistics troops were moving too slowly.
Until night fell, there was still no news from the logistics army. Yang Jun finally felt that something was wrong. It was impossible that they had not caught up yet.
"General He Ruo, what's going on? Why hasn't the logistics team caught up?" Yang Jun questioned Deputy General He Ruodong in a stern voice.
He Ruodong was speechless. It was also at this time that he realized something was wrong. How should he answer this question?
Looking at Yang Jun's fierce eyes, He Ruodong had no choice but to comfort him: "Your Highness, don't worry. If something happens, we will definitely get the news, and there will definitely be soldiers coming to ask for help. They will not disappear out of thin air. I think they are just moving slowly, and they may still be 10 to 20 miles away. Your Highness, please be patient and wait!"
Another half an hour passed, and the cavalrymen who had been sent to gather information came back. They brought back a despairing piece of news: the logistics team had disappeared out of thin air. They walked back twenty miles but did not see any trace of the logistics team.
Yang Jun rushed to He Ruodong like a gust of wind and shouted, "How much food do we have left?"
"Your Highness, each soldier brought three days of dry food, which should be enough to sustain us throughout Queshu Valley. Moreover, Lingshi County is thirty miles ahead, and we can get supplies there."
Yang Jun's eyes were filled with anger. This was all He Ruodong's fault. He gritted his teeth and said, "Order the entire army to retreat to Lingshi County immediately!"
"Woo--" the departure horn sounded, and hundreds of thousands of troops packed up and continued to rush north.
But after walking about ten miles, they heard a commotion ahead. Ahead was the narrowest part of the entire Queshu Valley, only a few feet wide, but it was blocked by huge rocks. Before the soldiers could react, countless arrows shot from the other side of the rocks. The soldiers were caught off guard and were hit one after another. Screams were heard in the valley.
Before the logistics army reached the canyon, it was intercepted by 20,000 troops led by Yuwen Shu's deputy general Heshan Gui. The soldiers did not resist. Huang Quan directly ordered the army to lay down their weapons and surrender. The Han army captured the logistics team of the Sui army without losing a single soldier.
This is the real reason why the logistics troops did not make any movement. There was no fighting at all, so where did the movement come from?
Yuwen Shu never intended to fight against the Sui army. He knew that his army was no match for the elite Sui army and had far fewer troops than the enemy. He wanted to use the terrain to trap the Sui army in Queshu Valley. Yuwen Shu took great pains to take advantage of the discord between the Sui army's generals and drove away the experienced Wei Xuan. He also bribed the greedy Huang Quan and finally lured the main force of the Sui army into Queshu Valley and trapped them in a valley about 60 miles long.
They blocked the Sui army from front and back at dangerous points, and forced them to surrender through hunger and fear.
The Mo Dao is useful for chopping wood. Xiao Xia was not in a hurry to recapture Luoyang. He was still devoting all his energy to military training in Xingyang County. The training mainly consisted of two parts: one was military formation training, and the other was physical training.
Military formations are the soul of infantry combat, and the Han people basically fought mainly with infantry. Without military formations, they would be a mess. Fear of death is human nature. If they see the soldiers in front being killed, the soldiers behind will most likely collapse and run away.
But once formed into a military formation, the army will have a soul, discipline and collective consciousness. If the front-row soldiers are killed, the back-row soldiers must take over and cannot escape even if they want to. This is the biggest advantage of the military formation, which greatly increases the death rate.
If there is no military formation, the army will collapse if 10% of the soldiers are killed. With a military formation, the army will collapse only if 30% or even 40% of the soldiers are killed. When two armies confront each other, it actually depends on who can hold out longer. The one that collapses first is the defeated side.
The second advantage of the military formation is that it can deal with cavalry, especially the Hu cavalry. From the Xiongnu to the Manchus of the Later Jin Dynasty, the Hu cavalry has not made any progress in the past two thousand years. They have only known three tricks: long-range horse archery, close combat with swords, and escape when things get bad.
Therefore, as long as they could withstand the arrows and attacks of the Hu cavalry, their close combat was no match for the Han people's spear formations, so they could only flee.
The solid armor can block the Hu people's cavalry and archery, and the powerful spear infantry formation can withstand the impact of the cavalry.
Military formations have embodied the collective consciousness of the Han army since ancient times. Even today, the military parade formations are actually military formations.
Therefore, Xiao Xia arranged concentrated training for the military formation in order to train the soldiers' military will and at the same time their collective consciousness.
As for personal martial arts, they actually have little effect in a short period of time. There is a saying since ancient times that "one month of stick practice, one year of sword practice, and a lifetime of gun practice". The simplest stick practice requires a month of practice before it will be effective.
Of course, Xiao Xia also had a quick method. He knew that the most popular secondary weapon in the Tang Dynasty army was the flail, a sturdy wooden stick with an iron chain at the front end and a wooden hammer at the other end.
The appearance is a bit like nunchaku, but the chain is longer than the nunchaku, and the other one is smaller, wrapped with iron, or directly replaced with iron.
This was originally a threshing tool, but if the wooden hammer was replaced with an iron hammer, it would become a very scary heavy blunt weapon with an attack range far exceeding the length of the stick.
Why do we need a flail? Because it is a farm tool. Almost every farmer uses it from childhood to old age. It can be said that everyone is a master at it. The flail is also easy to get. Every household in the rural area has a few.
Xiao Xia ordered local government offices to collect 100,000 flails in the three counties of Liangzhou, and asked craftsmen from all over the country to make simple military modifications. The flails were wrapped with cast iron and equipped with several thick and long nails. Once the enemy was hit, not only would their bones be broken, but several bloody holes would also be made, which was more effective than a knife.
That morning, You Junda, who was in charge of hunting down Gao Zhu, led his troops back and brought Xiao Xia good news and bad news.
(End of this chapter)