Chapter 402 Weaknesses

Chapter 402 Weaknesses

Chapter 402 Weaknesses
The next morning, the 30,000-strong army set out again. This time, Wang Long also led 5,000 soldiers on horseback to follow the army south. Xiao Xia's attitude was very clear: either you lead your army to follow me south, or you stay and leave the army. Wang Long had no choice but to lead his army to follow the army.

To the north of Heyuan County is the Chiling Mountains, which stretches for thousands of miles and runs from east to west. To the east of Heyuan County is the Lianyun Mountains, which stretches for hundreds of miles and runs from north to south. The Yellow River passes across the confluence of the Lianyun Mountains and Chiling Mountains, forming a channel along the river.

These are also the two passages between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Hehuang area, one is the Chiling Pass and the other is the Yellow River passage. During the Tang Dynasty, the Tubo army invaded Longyou along these two passages.

After walking more than a hundred miles, they saw Shudun City in front of them. There were originally five hundred Tuyuhun soldiers stationed here. Xiao Xia led fifty soldiers to bypass the military city.

Later, when King Yang Guang of Jin took command and launched the first battle against Tuyuhun, Shudun City and Mantou City, which was dozens of miles away, were occupied by the Sui army. This time, Changsun Sheng was ambushed by Wang Long, lost Shudun City, and was occupied by five hundred Dangxiang troops.

Xiao Xia was stationed twenty miles away, and he sent someone to find Wang Long.

"General Wang, there are currently three missions, which are to capture Tree Stump City, Red Water City, and Stonewall City. You can choose one mission."

Wang Long was stunned. These three cities were difficult to attack. How could they take them down?
"Your Highness, are there any other tasks?"

Xiao Xia smiled and said, "There is another mission. The army will march directly south to attack the Dangxiang's lair. Are you willing to accept this mission?"

Wang Long secretly regretted it. If he had known earlier, he would not have followed Xiao Xia south. He could see that Xiao Xia had murderous intentions in his heart. If he proposed to return to Jiaohe County at this time, Xiao Xia would not agree. Moreover, even if he agreed on the surface, Xiao Xia would definitely send troops to kill him secretly.

How can you let go of a rabbit that has been trapped?
After a while, Wang Long had no choice but to bite the bullet and said, "I am willing to lead the army to attack Chishui City!"

Among the three cities, only Chishui City was built by the water and was easier to attack, so Wang Long would of course pick the weak one.

Xiao Xia nodded, "Okay! I'll give you five days. If you can take down Chishui City, I'll give you a promotion. If you can't take it down, don't blame me for being ruthless in military law!"

In the northern part of Heyuan County, there are only two military cities, Shudun City and Mantou City. This is because they have special geographical advantages. They are both built on high places and have water sources. Many high places are flat and suitable for building cities. However, they all have a fatal flaw, that is, there is no water source.

This is why there are only two military cities in the northern part of Heyuan County. The terrain must be high and there must be water sources, which is too difficult.

Wang Long led 5,000 men south, while Xiao Xia led a large army to Shudun City.

As the name suggests, the Stump City is located on a high ground that looks like a tree stump, surrounded by cliffs more than ten feet high. The city is built on the stump high ground. The city wall is not high, only about fifteen feet, or one and a half stories high, but its foundation is very high, with only a narrow path going up and down, making it extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The military city has a circumference of four miles and can accommodate 500 people. When Xiao Xia saw this military city, he wanted to kill Wang Long. If he hadn't cut off the supply of the Sui army, causing the Sui army in the city to run out of food, how could the Sui army abandon the city.

So Xiao Xia asked Wang Long to attack Chishui City. If he couldn't take it, he would use him as the first mover.

Of course, before setting off, Xiao Xia had considered how to take over Shudun City. In fact, there were only two ways. The first was to use a pile of corpses, exchanging twenty soldiers for one enemy soldier. Geshu Han of the Tang Dynasty took over Shibao City using this method. More than ten thousand people died before they took over Shibao City, where there were only three hundred Tibetan soldiers.

The second method is surprise attack. A surprise attack means not taking the normal route, such as biological warfare, learning from the Mongolian army's attack on the city of Jafa on the Crimean Peninsula, throwing infected corpses into the city, which eventually led to the Black Death pandemic in Europe.

But this method is slow to take effect, and it will take several months to show results. Moreover, if you are not careful, you will be attacked by the epidemic. Xiao Xia will not adopt this method.

There are other tactics for surprise attacks, such as cutting off the water source. After finding the water source, the water can be diverted away and the water supply in the city will be cut off. But there is another problem here. When the Sui army was operating the Tree Stump City, they built several large pools inside to store water, for fear that the enemy would cut off the water supply, so cutting off the water source was useless.

Another example is using fire attack, which is also one of the surprise attack strategies. If there is a wooden house inside, fire attack can be used, but there are only stone houses inside, and the enemy is hiding in the stone houses, so fire is useless, not to mention that there is a water tank, and water can be used to put out the fire at any time.

But many things are predestined by fate. Just when Xiao Xia was racking his brains to think about how to take over Shudun City, at night, Changsun Sheng sent a team of soldiers.

"Are you the defenders of Mantou City?" Xiao Xia asked in surprise. The leading captain bowed and said, "Your Highness, we were originally the defenders of Shudun City, but we were forced to retreat to Mantou City after we ran out of food."

"Is there any good way to take over Stump City?"

The captain nodded and said, "We are here for this very reason. We have defended Stump City before and we know there is a loophole in the city."

This was what Xiao Xia liked to hear the most. He raised his eyebrows and asked, "What loophole?"

"Your Highness, Tree Stump City was built by Tuyuhun more than ten years ago using huge stones. The previous one collapsed, so it is usually rebuilt every ten years. The reason is that they are not like us Han people who use lime and rice paste to bond the huge stones together, which makes them very strong. They directly pile up stones of different sizes. It looks strong, but it is not. As long as you find the weak point and use the catapult to throw stones to hit it, the stone city will collapse. If the impact continues, the city wall will collapse completely and all the soldiers in the city will be crushed to death."

Xiao Xia's eyes lit up. Starting from the structure and destroying the city wall structure is also a kind of surprise attack. He had never thought of it!
He asked hurriedly: "Where is the weak point of Stump City?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, in the southeast corner, we felt that the city wall was not strong, so we wanted to reinforce it. After careful inspection, we found that the southeast corner had the most serious problem, but we withdrew before we had time to reinforce it."

Xiao Xia nodded, "So you know the southeast corner is the weak spot?"

"Exactly!"

Xiao Xia brought ten large catapults, the same ten catapults he had used to attack Tuyuhun. They had not been effective in the attack on Fuxi City, but they could be effective now.

Xiao Xia immediately ordered: "Pass on my order, assemble five large catapults overnight!"

It took another day to assemble ten trebuchets, but five could be assembled overnight.

Three hundred Sui army craftsmen worked overnight, and at dawn, five catapults were assembled and lined up in a row in the wilderness three hundred steps away from the city wall.

At this time, the quarrying army also returned, with hundreds of camels bringing back more than a thousand huge stones, each weighing about 100 kilograms.

Xiao Xia gave an order, "Catapults attack!"

Five catapults were pushed slowly forward by hundreds of soldiers. At this time, the top of the city was full of Dangxiang soldiers. They all stood on ladders, looking at the Sui army's catapults below with nervous expressions.

At the command of the captain, hundreds of Dangxiang soldiers drew their bows and shot arrows at the catapults. Unfortunately, their bows and arrows were the same as those of the Tuyuhun, which were single-bowed and had a range of only seventy or eighty steps, and could not reach the Sui soldiers who were one hundred and fifty steps away.

Five catapults were arranged one hundred and fifty steps away. This was the simplest and most widely used type of catapult. There was a large box in the front filled with hundreds of pounds of boulders. The heavy objects were thrown out using the downward force of the box and it was controlled by thirty soldiers.

Five 100-jin boulders were put into the throwing bag, and Xue Wanche gave the order, "Fire!"

Thirty soldiers loosened the ropes at the same time, and huge rocks weighing hundreds of pounds were thrown out. Five huge rocks drew arcs and hit the city wall in the southeast corner heavily.

"Bang! Bang!" The huge rocks hit the city walls on both sides of the southeast corner hard. Huge cracks suddenly appeared on the city walls, and they began to crumble.

As the second round of stone throwing began, the stonework of the city wall could no longer withstand such a strong impact. The southeast corner of the city wall collapsed, and more than 20 Dangxiang soldiers fell together with screams, and were crushed to death on the spot by hundreds of huge stones.

(End of this chapter)