Chapter 705: Sneak Attack on Liyang
Chapter 705: Sneak Attack on Liyang (Part )
After entering December, heavy snow fell and the rivers in the north froze, especially the Yellow River, which was completely frozen. With still a month before the New Year, merchants began to seize the last business opportunities of the year, and caravans often appeared on the ice of the Yellow River.
That morning, a caravan consisting of hundreds of mules crossed the Yellow River and marched towards Liyang County. The leading merchant was Zhang Jue, who was about fifty years old, very burly and had dark skin.
It was the second year of Renshou when Zhang Jue taught Xiao Xia martial arts. Fifteen years have passed in a flash. Zhang Jue's temples are now gray and his face is covered with the vicissitudes of time.
No one in the Wagang Army knew Zhang Jue's background. This was also a characteristic of the Wagang Army. Everyone had a story, but they would not ask about each other's secrets. Everyone kept their own secrets.
This is also an important reason why Zhang Jue is willing to stay in the Wagang Army. He wants to completely break away from the past, and the Wagang Army makes him feel at ease.
The team has entered Ji County, and not far ahead is Liyang County. This is currently Dou Jiande's territory. In order to protect Liyang Warehouse, Dou Jiande stationed 30,000 troops here.
Although the third in command, Xu Shiji, strongly demanded the establishment of a regime centered on Guancheng County, Li Mi was not enthusiastic. Li Mi saw clearly that after the King of Jin had taken over the four counties of Nanyang, he had formed an encirclement of the Central Plains. The next northern expedition would inevitably capture all of the Central Plains except Luoyang, and the Wagang Army would have no place to stand.
Li Mi decided to go north, and taking over Liyang Warehouse was the top priority. All the food in Liyang Warehouse had been transferred to Luokou Warehouse, Xingluo Warehouse and Hanjia City. Only a large amount of supplies were left in Liyang Warehouse, including copper, iron, cloth, wood, medicinal materials and armor, especially armor. There were still 300,000 sets of armor of the Northern Qi army in Liyang Warehouse. After Dou Jiande defeated Yang Yichen and Tu Wanxu in Weijun, he obtained a large number of new armor and weapons of the Sui army. He no longer cared about the armor in Liyang Warehouse and had left it in Liyang Warehouse, but the Wagang Army urgently needed it, otherwise their 200,000 new recruits would not even have weapons.
The timing chosen by Li Mi was quite clever. On the one hand, the weather was freezing cold and the river was frozen, so the supplies in Liyang warehouse could not be transported away. Secondly, as the New Year was approaching, the army was generally relaxed, which was very suitable for a surprise attack.
According to Li Mi's deployment, the first thing to do was to capture Liyang County. Although the 30,000 troops were not stationed in Liyang County, but next to Liyang Warehouse, as the New Year was approaching, many generals were greedy for comfort and lived in the county. Once the county was captured, these generals would not be able to return to the barracks, and it would be much easier to attack the 30,000 garrison troops.
Zhang Jue led the caravan to Liyang County. There were more than 20 soldiers standing at the city gate, led by a captain. When he saw the caravan coming, he smiled and shouted, "Stop!"
Zhang Jue hurried forward and bowed, saying, "General, I am a small businessman, I hope you will let me go!"
"You are a small businessman with so many mules? What kind of goods are they carrying?"
Zhang Jue quickly said, "They are all incense, candles, paper money and the like."
The lieutenant reached out to touch it, but when he heard that it was something used by the dead, he said "Pah!" and quickly retracted his hand, ordering: "Open them all, I want to check!"
Zhang Jue quickly stuffed a silver ingot into the captain's hand and pleaded, "Sacrificial supplies cannot see the sun. I beg you to be merciful, sir."
The incense, candles and paper money used for sacrifices are Yin objects and cannot be exposed to the sun. They can only be taken out at night. This is the custom in the north.
The captain weighed the silver and found it was twenty taels. He was satisfied and said, "I understand your difficulties, but rules are rules. How about this! Open the two boxes and let me take a look. If they are true, I won't embarrass you."
Zhang Jue quickly asked his men to open the two boxes. The captain took a look and saw bundles of incense and candles, and paper money underneath. He nodded and said, "It's all right!"
At this time, a soldier whispered: "Captain, they all have knives!"
The captain then noticed that every soldier was carrying a knife. He frowned and asked, "Why are they all carrying knives?"
Zhang Jue smiled bitterly and said, "The road is not safe, there is nothing we can do!"
"According to regulations, knives cannot be brought into the city."
Zhang Jue said quickly, "Sir, it's actually a blunt knife, used to scare people." He and his men pulled out half of their knives. The lieutenant and the soldiers checked them and found that they were all blunt knives. The lieutenant laughed and waved his hand, "Go into the city!"
The caravan entered the city in a mighty manner. Why did they have to wear blunt knives? This was to distract the attention of the soldiers defending the city and divert their attention away from the goods.
Zhang Jue entered the city. He did not look for an inn, but came to a mansion not far from the south gate. Someone went up and knocked on the door. Soon the door opened and the caravan went straight into the mansion.
This was a large house that Fang Yanzhao had rented in advance. Everyone entered the house and unloaded large boxes from the mules' backs. When they opened the boxes, they saw incense, candles, and paper money on the surface, but underneath were hundreds of spear heads.
The men brought in bundles of white wax poles. White wax poles were not banned. Every household had the custom of erecting poles during the New Year to show that their lives were getting better and better. Many grocery stores sold bamboo poles, and white wax poles could also be bought. However, this batch of white wax poles were military supplies. They were made of hard jujube wood, and were repeatedly soaked in oil and dried in the sun, making them extremely tough.
They were mixed with a batch of civilian white wax rods, and it would be difficult to find any abnormality in them without strict inspection.
The men quickly attached the spear heads to wax poles, instantly turning them into hundreds of spears, and hid them under the floor.
"Mr. Fang, do you think we can buy a sword?" Zhang Jue asked.
Fang Xuanzao nodded and smiled, "Long weapons are not available in the city, but short weapons are easy to buy. There are more than a dozen martial arts halls in Liyang County. Short weapons are not banned at all and can be easily bought on the black market."
"What about the armor and the crossbow?"
Zhang Jue asked: "Can I buy it on the black market?"
Fang Xuanzao looked troubled. "Iron armor is definitely not an option, but leather armor might be a possibility. Bows and arrows are not a big problem, but crossbows might be more difficult."
"If all else fails, bows and arrows will do. We're fighting at short range anyway."
Zhang Jue's men entered the city in batches using various methods. Zhang Jue was the last batch. Li Mi had already set out with the army and would attack Liyang City in three days.
General Zhang Jue coordinated internal and external efforts to welcome the troops into the city.
Three hundred men entered the mansion after dark. At this time, Fang Yanzhao also bought swords, bows and arrows, and leather armor from the black market. Spears were unavailable, so he asked Zhang Jue to bring the spear into the city.
On the agreed evening, Fang Yanzhao brought Zhang Jue to the backyard, which was right next to the east city wall. They were going to use a ladder to climb up the city from the backyard.
"The enemy has heavy troops defending the north and south gates, but they don't care much about the city walls. There is only one team of patrol soldiers. If we kill this team of patrol soldiers, we can cover the soldiers coming up from the east city and then seize the south gate."
Zhang Jue nodded and asked, "How many soldiers are there in the city tonight?"
"About five thousand people!"
"So many?"
Fang Xuanzao smiled and said, "Their commander, Lord Meng Hai, is spending the New Year in the city, so of course they have to strengthen the county's defenses!"
(End of this chapter)