Chapter 624: Fierce Battle at Wuguan
Chapter 624: Fierce Battle at Wuguan (Part )
In the central army tent, Qu Tutong pointed to Wuguan Pass on the sand table and said, "The emperor gave me an order saying that Wuguan Pass should be captured by the Sui army in the south of the Yangtze River. Does General Luo know about this?"
Luo Shixin nodded and smiled, "Prince Jin told me, I wonder when the siege will be arranged?"
Qu Tutong was overjoyed and said, "The emperor has already set out from Luoyang. He asked our southern army to rush into Guanzhong first and open up the Tongguan Road. If possible, we will send troops in the next two days!"
Qu Tutong had long heard that the Sui army in the south of the Yangtze River had secret techniques for attacking cities, and he had been looking forward to this for a long time.
Two days later, Luo Shixin led 30,000 cavalrymen to set off first, while Qu Tutong led 50,000 troops and a large amount of food and supplies to follow behind.
The commander of Wuguan was Li Boyan, who was originally the military commander of Gyeongju and an experienced veteran. In October last year, he was transferred to Wuguan by the Minister of War Yang Qing to garrison and command an army of 10,000.
Li Boyan stood on the city wall with a serious look. He had received news that the emperor of Eastern Sui had sent out an army of 300,000 to attack Guanzhong, among which Qu Tutong led an army of 50,000 to attack Wuguan.
Qu Tutong was a famous general of the Sui Dynasty. He was brave and good at fighting, and his army was five times larger than his own. If it was a head-on confrontation, he would undoubtedly be defeated. Fortunately, he could rely on Wuguan.
Wuguan was raised and reinforced only last year. The city wall is three feet and three meters high, made entirely of large bluestone and ten feet thick. It guards a valley about a hundred feet wide. There are cliffs to the north and deep ravines to the south. There is only one winding road heading east.
More importantly, Wuguan is located at a high point, with a long slope of 30 degrees in front of it. Rolling logs and rocks are enough to smash the attacking enemy troops into pieces.
There is also a defensive pass at the foot of the hillside. The two passes form a defense system that can make Wuguan absolutely safe.
Li Boyan was very satisfied with the renovated Wuguan Pass. He was very confident that he would make the Eastern Sui army suffer a bitter defeat at the pass.
As the sky gradually brightened, Luo Shixin's 30,000 troops finally reached Luoping Town, 20 miles away from Wuguan, and set up a temporary camp in the town.
Inside the big tent, Luo Shixin and the Xue brothers were also studying the attack plan for Wuguan.
The walls of Wuguan City were renovated. The walls are three feet and three feet high. There is a mountain stream several dozen feet deep on one side of the city. The city gate is also covered with iron sheets. Small iron fire mines cannot be used to blow it open, so large iron fire mines must be used.
It is not easy to attack this city wall. There is a defensive checkpoint ahead. You must force your way through the first checkpoint before using the iron fire bomb to blow up the main checkpoint.
"Just use iron fire bombs to blow them up!" Xue Wanche said.
Xue Wanjun shook his head. "You rely too much on Iron Fire Thunder. Can't you capture Wuguan without Iron Fire Thunder?"
"Don't I want to reduce the number of casualties among the soldiers?"
Xue Wanjun sighed and said, "Don't be afraid of death when you are on the battlefield. What King Jin said last time is that you should be afraid of getting used to crawling and then not being able to walk on your feet in the future."
Luo Shixin stared at the city gate in silence. He half agreed with Xue Wanjun's words that iron fire bombs should not be used when attacking the secondary city, but would be used when attacking the main city.
Luo Shixin said slowly: "On the one hand, we cannot expose the iron fire mine too early. If the enemy is prepared, it may lead to the failure of the attack on Wuguan.
On the other hand, the King of Jin also asked us not to rely on iron fire thunder as much as possible. I also fully support the King of Jin's opinion. Don't use iron fire thunder unless it is absolutely necessary. Try to train the army's actual combat capabilities. Don't let the Jiangnan Sui army become an army that can't fight or attack cities. "
Xue Wanche sighed and said, "Okay! I agree not to use iron fire mines when attacking the first secondary city."
The three men reached a consensus and decided to attack the first secondary city without using iron fire mines in order to tactically deceive the enemy's main general.
Since they were cavalry, they did not carry siege weapons. Qu Tutong only gave them fifty siege ladders. These siege ladders were a little bit difficult to deal with the first two-meter-high gate, but if combined with a heavy battering ram, the powerful impact force could easily break through the city gate.
However, Luo Shixin still used a local method to solve the problem of heavy siege rams. Before entering the town, they cut down a century-old camphor tree in front of the town. Each tree required two people to hug it. It was about ten feet long. He sharpened one end and made it into a huge siege ram. After a night's rest, the army marched towards Wuguan at dawn the next day.
Luo Shixin was riding on his horse and gazing at the Wuguan auxiliary city a mile away. He could see countless soldiers standing on the city wall, holding bows, crossbows and spears, one next to the other, as many as two thousand people.
This was the real siege battle he had longed for. Luo Shixin gritted his teeth, brandished his sword and shouted, "Prepare to attack the city!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The earth-shaking sound of the attack drums sounded. Xue Wanche led 5,000 troops as the first round of attack and rushed towards the first city gate like a tide.
Without any tentative attack, the Sui army in the south of the Yangtze River directly engaged in a siege. The Western Sui army was completely different from Xiao Yan's army. The Western Sui army was a powerful force. They were well-equipped, and each soldier was equipped with a bow and crossbow and a shield and helmet for defending the city, making them more suitable for defending the city.
The morale of the Sui army in the south of the Yangtze River was high and their attack was very methodical. The three thousand soldiers in the front raised their crossbows and shot at the top of the city wall, suppressing the enemy's bows and arrows. Behind them were two thousand soldiers of the Sui army in the south of the Yangtze River carrying siege ladders to attack. Each soldier wore a shield and helmet, held a spear, and was well-equipped.
Behind them were three hundred men's battering rams, covered by dense shields, like a giant leather-armored worm.
As soon as the attacking soldiers rushed within 150 steps, arrows were fired from the top of the city wall. The overwhelming arrows shot at the Jin Wang army soldiers who were rushing towards them like raindrops. Soldiers were constantly hit by the arrows and fell down, but it did not stop the soldiers from running.
With the rumbling sound of war drums, the first wave of one thousand soldiers rushed to the foot of the city. Twenty siege ladders were erected one after another. The large iron hooks at the front were placed on the city wall. The soldiers swarmed up. On the top of the city, General Luo Yonghui led two thousand Western Sui soldiers to throw countless rolling logs and stones down like hail. The soldiers attacking the city were constantly knocked off the ladders and fell off the city wall screaming.
Dozens of soldiers on the top of the city wall used axes to cut off the iron hook connection at the top of the siege ladder, and then used long iron forks to flip the ladder over. More than a dozen Jin Wang army soldiers on the ladder screamed and fell down with the ladder.
Gradually, both sides became blood-thirsty, and Li Boyan sent a thousand crossbowmen from Guanzhong to shoot arrows at the enemy soldiers on the ladders on both sides of the city wall. They had all undergone several years of intensive training, and were fast at loading crossbows and accurate at archery. Soldiers on the siege ladders were constantly shot by arrows and rolled down screaming.
They posed a great threat to the soldiers of the King of Jin's army on the siege ladders from the side. Many soldiers had to take out their shields and hold them in their hands to defend against the powerful crossbow arrows shot from both sides. As all twenty siege ladders were overturned, the first round of attack failed.
Seeing the sharp arrows on the top of the city wall, Luo Shixin immediately ordered: "The archers suppress the enemy troops on the top of the city wall, the second round of siege ladders will be connected, and the battering rams are ready to attack!"
Xue Wanche made a quick deployment. Three thousand crossbowmen formed a powerful crossbow formation two hundred steps away. The overwhelming crossbow arrows were fired at the top of the city. The crossbowmen on the top of the city began to suffer heavy casualties. Hundreds of soldiers were hit by the crossbow arrows and fell on the top of the city, their backs forced to move. The crossbowmen on the top of the city had no choice but to squat down to avoid the arrows.
The powerful crossbow arrows quickly suppressed the counterattack of the defenders on the city wall. The soldiers below the city began the second round of siege ladders to climb the city wall. Thirty siege ladders were hung on the city wall, and the soldiers rushed up.
Just as they were about to reach the top of the city wall, the arrow array below the city wall lost its meaning, and the number of arrows shot up quickly decreased, giving the defending soldiers a chance to counterattack. At this time, the soldiers on the siege ladders and the soldiers defending the city started a bloody battle for the top of the city wall.
At this time, three hundred soldiers were running towards the city wall with a huge siege hammer, and on both sides there were hundreds of soldiers holding shields to protect them. Luo Yonghui, who was standing on the top of the city wall, saw this team that looked like a centipede with a hundred feet. He immediately shouted, "Don't let the siege hammer get close to the city gate. Shoot them with crossbows and smash them with stones!"
Five hundred defending crossbowmen raised their crossbows and shot at the soldiers who were running towards them. The dense stream of arrows instantly shot the dozen or so people in front of them like hedgehogs. As the soldiers in front fell one after another, a long section of the hammer head was exposed.
But the battering ram did not stop running. They kept adding manpower to fill the gaps in the soldiers who were shot down. Gradually, they withstood the arrows and rushed to the bottom of the city wall. Rocks fell from the top of the city wall, and the soldiers under the city were hit with bloody heads. They screamed and cried wildly, but no one turned around and ran away.
In the chaos, the battering ram hit the city gate heavily, "Bang——"
The city gate shook violently, and bricks and stones on the top of the city wall fell down. "Come again!" the leading captain roared, and the battering ram retreated dozens of steps, hitting the boulders and logs on the top of the city wall. Regardless of casualties, they roared in unison and rushed towards the city gate again.
"Boom-"
The city gate could no longer hold its ground and was suddenly slammed open by a force weighing thousands of pounds.
The front pass of Wuguan was lost. Hundreds of Western Sui soldiers fought desperately to resist the attack of the Jin army and covered the other two thousand soldiers defending the city to retreat quickly.
(End of this chapter)