Zhang Wei originally thought that with the strong city, the 5,000 garrison at Jiayuguan would be enough to last for ten days. Unexpectedly, the news that Jiang Shan's army was defeated and returned to Luoyang had already spread throughout the western border. The 5,000 garrison, whose morale was in turmoil, was not even able to hold on for half a day.
The coalition forces that unexpectedly attacked the city broke through. Unfortunately, Zhang Wei, who was halfway through the city, failed to escape in the Gobi desert and was beheaded by Han Chong. Next, Suzhou City, which was sparsely populated and vast, collapsed on its own.
In the next two days, the army of 10,000 people suddenly expanded to 20,000 people, and they quickly captured the almost undefended Ganzhou. Ganzhou City finally welcomed its real master Zhang Zhiren. Emperor Jiang Lang also transferred his palace to
The Kunlun Mountains, which covered the sky and the earth, were moved to the Zhenguogong Mansion.
The 20,000-strong army that surged forward finally stopped at the foot of Yongzhou City, because 60,000 of the 180,000 infantry troops in the middle arrived at Yongzhou City.
Seeing that the city was difficult to break, Xu Muxue immediately proposed to lead thousands of Taotie cavalry to harass the 100,000 cavalry heading towards Chang'an and the infantry retreating to Shaanxi and Shanxi. No matter what, they must make the other side feel uncomfortable!
It was precisely because of the appearance of Taotie and Li Hao's pursuit that the remaining 120,000 infantry troops retreating from Gannan remained stagnant in several cities on Gannan Road, daring not to move for even a moment.
On the way from Lanzhou to Chang'an, Jiang Shan noticed that Taotie had been following him. Knowing that the storm was severe, Jiang Shan did not even dare to separate his troops to drive away Taotie. Only a hundred thousand troops gathered in one place could he defeat the opponent.
Qian Qi’s certainty! So Jiang Shan, who was in a hurry to rush back, could only endure the cunning Taotie’s cold arrows during the day and attacks on the camp at night!
…
Bai Yong's pursuit from the south road went smoothly at first. The local people hated the government troops and all helped Bai Yong's coalition forces. After winning several battles in a row, large-scale desertions began to occur among the Shu army.
Yong chased him to the Yalong River in one breath.
But later, the Shu army began to cut off the iron ropes crossing the river at every point, which made Bai Yong's pursuit extremely slow. Re-erecting the iron ropes could not be completed overnight.
Although the pursuers were far away, the retreating Shu army still continued to have dissatisfied soldiers fleeing. Those with larger numbers became kings, while those with smaller numbers fell into disgrace and became bandits. Only two of them actually returned to Jincheng.
Thousands of people.
Because those rebels and grass bandits wanted to defend their territory, they would become a force to block the Tuyuhun coalition forces. The governor of Sichuan, who was no longer able to control the situation, did not want to invest his troops in suppressing the bandits. The entire western Shu was suddenly in chaos, and the people
No more peaceful days, just as the old saying goes: before the world is in chaos, Shu will be in chaos first
…
In the yamen of the Military and Horse Department, He Qizhou and Yu Wen Lingyun had a rare quarrel. The quarrel even alerted the guards outside the yamen. After hearing the news, many officers came to break up the fight. Seeing this, He Qizhou stopped arguing with Yu Wen Lingyun and simply summoned the generals of each battalion.
Have a meeting and plan your attack.
But as soon as He Qizhou finished explaining his plan, almost everyone sided with Yuwen Lingyun, just because this plan was too risky. It was not the whole army taking risks, but one person who would take the huge risk. This was something Baifeng couldn't bear and was unwilling to do.
The risk you took. Because the person who took the risk was He Qizhou!
He Qizhou's strategy was actually very simple. He was sixty feet away from the wall, broke the ice and entered the water from a place where the enemy could not see the city, dived to the bottom of the city wall, bent the iron fence, and then dived to the Jiuzhou Lake in the city, and then
He quietly broke out of the ice, then attacked the defenders from behind, and tried to open a city gate. Finally, the iron cavalry entered the city, and the inner city was breached! Everyone saw that He Qizhou's words were easy, but the risks involved were astonishingly high, not to mention entering the Jiuzhou Pond.
Whether you can find a place to float without being discovered, just diving in the chaotic and dark river water under the ice is a very scary thing. Moreover, the journey of more than 100 feet will take a breath at least. If there is an iron in the river,
The fence is so thick that whether you can sneak over the city wall is a question. To float under the city wall is tantamount to suicide!
Even if he goes in, if he is discovered in the city and faced with the siege of thousands of people, even Jin Guangjing will not be able to survive. Besides, Jiang Di still has many masters. If he knows that He Qizhou has sneaked in, all of them will Everyone will come to destroy this enemy general!
Another problem is that no one knows what kind of defense is behind the city gate. If a large number of soldiers are really deployed, or a heavy object blocks the city gate, He Qizhou may not be able to open the city gate alone. At that time, he can only attack on the wall, which is also dangerous. Extreme situation.
But in the end, everyone's opinions were no match for He Qizhou alone, because he was the commander-in-chief, and because He Qizhou felt that this could minimize the casualties of the soldiers!
It was everyone's common wish to reduce the casualties of soldiers. After the debate stopped, the attack plan was quickly finalized, and the time was set at Yin o'clock in the morning. The defenders were most in trouble after a night.
In the East Palace, Jiang Di is in charge of the imperial city. The 80,000 defenders are divided into three parts: 20,000 in the imperial city, 30,000 in the inner city, and 30,000 in the upper city. Among them, there are 10,000 in the west and north cities, and 10,000 in the east and west cities. Five thousand each. From the You hour after nightfall to the Yin hour of the next day, the messengers who came to report the military situation almost crossed the threshold of the Privy Council.
"Your Highness, the enemy has begun beating drums to attack again in the west of the city. The number of enemy cavalry running around the city has increased to 1,500."
"Have the five hundred cavalry hidden in the houses in Dongcheng moved?" Jiang Di asked. Since he still had many informants in the outer city, Jiang Di knew the distribution of Blizzard's troops very well.
"Not moving." the ordering soldier replied.
"Okay, let's go." Jiang Di dismissed the messengers and turned to Mo Dezheng, who had been up all night: "Master Mo, I estimate that He Qizhou will launch a strong attack soon. You can send another five thousand people to Dongcheng."
"Your Highness, their main force is still in the west of the city, and most of the feint attacks throughout the night were concentrated there. Why not transfer them to the west city?"
"Humph, He Qizhou used the trick of attacking Mucheng in the Northern Zhou Dynasty to attack the west. He also used the same trick to defeat Qingcheng. Think about it, in Qingcheng, 5,000 people also attacked the south gate, but the real breakthrough was at the north gate. Successful If it happens too many times, I will continue to use this strategy, but I want to see how He Qizhou can score if there is no coordination between inside and outside this time."
"Okay, I will order the deployment of troops now!" Mod, who had defeated Yunmeng Mountain, had no confidence in the Privy Council at this time, and the defense of the city was almost entirely arranged by Jiang Di alone.
…
Winter is approaching, and the cold is no longer pressing, but three feet of ice does not freeze in a day. Throughout the winter, the river ice is still at its thickest, almost five to six inches thick, enough to walk a horse-drawn cart. But you want to Breaking the river ice silently has become a difficult task.
He Qizhou tried many times and finally chose a file. The sound of breaking the ice from above is not loud. If he files the ice from below, it should be lighter.
Snorkeling in the turbid Yellow River water under the ice at night, it was almost impossible to see things even an inch away. Fortunately, the river channel was dug manually and was almost straight. He Qizhou swam to the shallows twice with his eyes closed and adjusted his direction twice. It took a long time After a cup of tea, I finally touched the iron grating under the ice.
The iron grating on the ice was a little rusty, but there was no rust at all under the water. The iron bars as thick as forearms were only five inches apart, and rungs were welded every two feet. He Qizhou had expected this. Grasp the iron bar with both hands underwater, use enough strength to push up the bottom rung with both feet.
The firmness of the crosspiece welding slightly exceeded He Qizhou's expectations, but it still couldn't withstand He Qizhou's amazing internal force. "Porphyry, porphyry, porphyry" three muffled sounds were heard under the water, and three solder joints fell off. Next
Things became a lot easier. He Qizhou just used a little force to pull the two iron bars out of position, which was enough to create a gap through which he could squeeze through.
In fact, the sound made under the water was still very loud, especially when He Qizhou pulled the iron fence hard, which squeezed the ice on the river to crack. However, the defenders on the wall could only hear the enemy's war drums and shouts, and their eyes were all far away.
Arrows were fired from the houses, so no one noticed what happened to the river at the foot of the wall.
After passing the fence, He Qizhou swam forward again in the darkness. Unexpectedly, he only swam three or four feet before he ran into the second fence. It turned out that there were actually two iron fences under the city!
He Qizhou cursed a series of words in his belly, but his hands and feet repeated the movements he had made the first time. Due to the heavy consumption before, breaking the barrier this time almost drained all of He Qizhou's energy at once!
But he couldn't break through the ice and surface now. He Qizhou could only keep swimming forward with his eyes closed. He didn't know how far he would swim or where he would go. Anyway, when he almost couldn't hold his breath, he stopped and used a file to drive quickly under the ice.
Hole.
The ice cave was only halfway open, and He Qizhou, who couldn't hold back his anger, could only hold up an ice cap the size of a millstone. The ice cap cracked and made a crisp "snap" sound, but He Qizhou couldn't care less.
He stuck his head out and breathed desperately. At this moment, the conversation between two people suddenly came to his ears:
"what sound?"
"Stop making noise and go to sleep!"
"I must have heard a noise, right outside our tent!"
"Then go out and see for yourself."
"I can not……"
"What's the fuss about? Spring is about to begin, and it's normal for the ice to crack. I stood on the wall for most of the night, and just as I was about to fall asleep, I was woken up by you two idiots."
"I'm sorry, brother. I want to sleep too, but the barbarians outside the city are making a lot of noise. If they are attacked, I don't dare to sleep."
"Then you go and stand on the city for two more hours! Damn it, if anyone makes any more noise, I won't be polite!"
"Yes Yes Yes."
…
The conversation finally subsided, and no one came out of the tent to find out. He Qizhou climbed out of the ice cave very carefully. Less than two feet to the west of the ice cave was the tent where the conversation had just occurred. It was the kind of tent that could accommodate three people.
A marching tent for four people to rest.
He Qizhou stood up straight carefully. There was a large area of such tents in front of him, as many as four to five hundred. His position was exactly at the eastern edge of the camp, and six to seventy feet away to the west was the sound of killing.
The west city wall.
Perhaps it was expected that He Qizhou had already sneaked in. The feint attack outside the city seemed to have stopped, and the noise at the top of the city gradually subsided. The blizzard that had been raging all night seemed to be just to prevent the defenders from sleeping peacefully.