For the exhausted Han soldiers, marching day and night was a more difficult test. It is foreseeable that before the army reaches its destination, many good soldiers will fall in the ice and snow, never to return.
To their hometowns. For the sake of the country and the nation, sometimes sacrifice is inevitable.
That night, the soldiers did not rest for a long time. At the fourth watch, the rallying horn sounded in the wilderness. There was no temptation of money and beautiful women, no impassioned words as encouragement, and not even a simple sentence of mobilization.
Along the way, no one spoke. Everyone just walked forward, forward, and forward along the frozen river.
Four days of non-stop marching made everyone's spirits almost collapse, but the vast majority of people still persisted. When they saw the slightly hazy walls of Huaiyuan City in the morning light, many people couldn't hold back and felt deep in their throats.
There was a low roar. They originally wanted to cheer, but they were afraid of revealing their whereabouts, so they suppressed their joy, resulting in that weird sound.
Yan Li raised his riding whip and pointed forward: "General Wen, give the order to attack the city!"
Wen Hao handed over the telescope in his hand and said in a deep voice: "Come and take a look. I didn't expect that the Korean people's defenses were so tight. It may not be easy to attack them by force."
The telescope is naturally Liu Ziqiu's "invention", but the lenses used are all made of ground crystal, which is very expensive and the accuracy is difficult to control. The distance that can be observed by each telescope is also very different. But no matter what
It is said that having a telescope makes it much more convenient for both marching and fighting.
Through the telescope, Jiao Liyan clearly saw hundreds of guards standing on the wall of Huaiyuan East Gate. These guards did not stand there all the time, but walked back and forth on the wall, looking outside the city from time to time. Weather
It was extremely cold, and the territory outside the east gate was connected to the Goryeo territory. So many guards were deployed. You can really imagine how tightly guarded the entire Huaiyuan City was.
Jiao Liyan moved the telescope slightly downward, and the scene of the south gate of Huaiyuan City appeared in the lens. It was already past the time to open the city gate, and the south gate was still closed, the suspension bridge was hung high, and there was silence outside the city.
Quietly. Of course, this is also a normal situation. After all, there are no ordinary residents in the city, only the Korean army occupying the city. It doesn't matter whether the city gate can be opened or not.
Putting down the telescope, Jiao Liyan thought for a moment and whispered: "General Wen, the moat has been frozen. It doesn't matter even if they pull up the suspension bridge. Why don't we send our troops to kill them! As long as they break open the city gate, they will be the turtles in the urn!"
Wen Hao waved his hand and said: "Your Majesty has already told us that the Korean people are very cunning and must not be taken lightly. Order the soldiers to rest where they are and observe for a while before talking."
At this time, there was a sudden commotion from the direction of Huaiyuan City. The defenders on the city head looked towards the city gate, and the suspension bridge on the city head was slowly lowered. Wen Hao quickly grabbed the telescope, but did not see it.
There was something unusual happening outside the city gate. Just when Wen Hao was surprised, he saw that the south gate of Huaiyuan had been pushed to both sides, and a group of cavalry rode out and ran towards the wilderness.
Kakurenobu was also surprised: "Did they discover us? These people are too courageous. Only two or three thousand people dare to come and fight us?"
While Wen Hao was closely watching the movement of the Goryeo cavalry rushing out of the city, he shook his head: "Impossible! They don't have the telescope given by His Majesty. It is impossible to detect us from such a long distance. They are leaving the city now.
They must have other purposes. However, judging from their direction, they are coming towards us. Quick, let the brothers hide!"
The Goryeo cavalry came very quickly, and even without a telescope, they could already be seen clearly. The horse hooves rolled up snowflakes, and the Goryeo cavalry let out strange screams and waved their bows. The target was Wen Hao and the others who were hiding.
A small forest near the place. At first, Wen Hao also wanted to infiltrate the army into the forest. Later, considering that it was not easy for the cavalry to maneuver in the woods, he changed his mind. However, he never expected that Goryeo would
The cavalry actually headed towards the woods. Before that, Wen Hao had sent troops to search the trees, but found nothing special except some birds and beasts.
"No!" Jiao Liyan suddenly became alert, "The brothers went in just now, and there must have been horse hoof prints in the forest!"
This is an inaccessible wilderness. The sudden appearance of a large number of horse hoof prints will definitely attract the attention of the Goryeo cavalry. Once the whereabouts are revealed, the only way to deal with Huaiyuan City is to attack by force. Wen Hao also made a prompt decision, gritted his teeth and said: "Tell the brothers
, quietly surround the woods. As long as they enter, no one is allowed to escape!"
This place is still some distance away from Huaiyuan City. Without the help of a telescope, the situation here should not be visible from the top of the city, so Wen Hao decided to take a risk.
Soon, the team of cavalry appeared outside the woods. They did not rush into the woods, but formed a fan shape outside the woods, making loud noises and startling a large group of birds and beasts in the woods. Wen Hao and Jiao Liyan
Looking at each other, they finally understood that it turned out that these guys had come out of the city to hunt and gave them a false alarm. Even so, Wen Hao was not going to let them go. Annihilating these two or three thousand people would not only weaken the guards in the city
With their strength, they might even be able to pry out some of the city's secrets from their mouths.
This group of Korean cavalrymen had been restless outside the woods for a long time. Finally, they shouted and rushed in. Arrows were flying for a while.
At this moment, the nomadic cavalry of the Han army ambushing outside the woods also moved. It was also a mounted shooting, and the skills of the nomadic cavalry of the Han army were much higher than those of the Goryeo cavalry. Again, they were prepared but unprepared. A round of chaos
After the arrows passed, most of the Goryeo cavalry who rushed into the woods were dead or wounded, and the remaining hundreds of Goryeo cavalry fled in panic towards Huaiyuan City. However, how could the Han cavalry, who had been prepared, allow them to escape? In the blink of an eye, another shot was fired.
More than 200 people were killed, and the remaining 200 people who survived were also surrounded, with no possibility of escape.
The surrounded Goryeo cavalry shouted desperately, trying to attract the attention of the defenders of Huaiyuan City. However, the distance was too far, and the northwest wind was blowing outside, and the woods were downwind of Huaiyuan City. No matter how loud they shouted, the sound was transmitted back to Huaiyuan.
The city would be as small as a mosquito, unable to attract the attention of the defenders at all.
Wen Hao spurred his horse forward and said in a deep voice: "Put down your weapons and wait for a way to survive!"
A large number of Goryeo maidservants are sold to the Central Plains every year, so the Central Plains people can speak Goryeo dialect a lot. Wen Hao naturally has a special interpreter around him. Someone has already translated these words. The group of Goryeo cavalry suddenly looked excited.
They got up and shouted, obviously very resistant to Wen Hao's order for them to surrender. Without saying anything, Wen Hao raised his bow and shot an arrow, hitting the forehead of the officer-looking guy who jumped the most fiercely.
The wolf-fang arrow shot from the forehead and penetrated the back of the head. The arrow was so powerful that it pinned the officer to the ground. The other Korean soldiers were frightened and fell into silence.
Wen Hao shouted again: "Those who surrender will not be killed!"
This time, several Goryeo soldiers could not bear the pressure and threw down their weapons and knelt down in the snow. Surrender was also contagious, and more and more soldiers abandoned their weapons and dismounted, but a few were still stubborn and wanted to
If you have to make a last ditch effort, you will naturally end up being shot into a hedgehog without exception.
After a little interrogation, the prisoners were all killed. What surprised Wen Hao was that there were actually 50,000 Korean troops stationed in a small Huaiyuan City. If they, nomadic cavalry who are not good at attacking, wanted to attack by force, they would have 50,000 troops.
Even if the city guarded by the army can be captured, the casualties will be more than half. According to the information obtained before the Spring Festival, there should be only 10,000 Korean troops in Huaiyuan City, so Liu Ziqiu made such a deployment. Knowing this situation, he
Even Jiao Liyan, who had been eager to try and advocated a forceful attack, hesitated: "General Wen, do you want to fight?"
With the equipment and troops they currently have, it is impossible to conquer a city guarded by 50,000 people. Wen Hao frowned and gritted his teeth and said: "If you continue to interrogate me, I want to know why the Koreans suddenly
Add so many defenders!"
The guys who surrendered were all weaklings, and they told everything when questioned. It turned out that the Koreans had other plans. They had indeed sent many spies to the Han Dynasty, and they also heard the news that the Han Dynasty would use troops against Korea after the beginning of spring.
With the strength of the Han Dynasty, it was naturally not something that Goryeo could compete with. However, the ambitious Goryeo people wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to fish in troubled waters. They knew the Han people's habit of leaving food and fodder first before the troops and horses were moved. At this time, the Han army was attacked by surprise.
The baggage troops may have a good harvest. They are not very interested in food. What they want most is some sophisticated equipment of the Han army. In order to deal with the Han army's baggage troops, the King of Goryeo specially sent a large number of additional troops from the rear.
However, 50,000 people gathered in Huaiyuan City where there were no ordinary residents. They ate some rough food every day, and their lives were very uncomfortable. It was precisely because of this that these people were sent out to hunt, just to improve things.
It was just food, but I didn't expect to run into an ambush of the Han army.
Although more than 2,000 Goryeo cavalry were eliminated, they were nothing compared to the 50,000 troops in the city. How to capture Huaiyuan City in the remaining day was almost impossible for Wen Hao to accomplish.
A difficult problem. Wen Hao couldn't help but walk up and down in front of the woods with his hands behind his back, still unable to make up his mind to attack.
Jiao Liyan also looked in the direction of Huaiyuan City and sighed, saying bitterly: "If these guys weren't huddled in the city, I could crush them to death with one finger!"
This sentence suddenly reminded Wen Hao, and he waved his hand suddenly: "Then bring them out and fight!"