For thousands of years, all ambush battles at home and abroad have been like this.
Especially in ancient times, armies in most cases could only fight against the wind. The more soldiers and horses there were, the more likely it was that accidents would cause chaos, and they would eventually die at the hands of their own people (horses), sometimes far away.
Far more than being killed by the enemy.
On the other hand, those terrains that are conducive to ambush, such as the "Six Hazardous Places" mentioned in Sun Tzu's Art of War, can actually be seen by ordinary people even if they are not familiar with military tactics.
Regardless of Juejian (deep and steep valley), Tianjing (similar to a basin), Tianlao (surrounded by high mountains), Tiansheng (low-lying terrain), Tianluo (deep grass and dense forests), Tianxi (two mountains facing each other, narrow channel)...
.
What these terrains have in common is clear at a glance.
It is easy to get in and out, and the terrain is either narrow, low-lying, or the road is muddy, with water flowing through it, which is not conducive to passage, escape, or even the adjustment of formations in emergencies.
So why ambushes always work? The key is not where the terrain is, let alone how dangerous the terrain is, but the people's hearts.
As long as the ambusher can make the enemy believe that he will not ambush here, then the ambush battle will always continue to be staged and continue to be successful.
And this time, the commander-in-chief Jiang Kuan also made such a mistake.
At the moment before entering the valley, his experience and instincts from the battlefield were clearly reminding him that this was a dangerous place. However, because of Liu Beifang's judgment on Wang Zheng's troops, there was no need to hold on to him because of Liu Beifang's judgment.
It was a fluke that the men and horses set up an ambush here. He didn't wake up until the moment before the ambush was launched, but it was too late.
Because at this time, the Hongyi knife had ruthlessly wiped this person's neck.
On the other side, the original shortcut has turned into a desperate situation, which has caused many Xiapi troops to fall into chaos. Especially when they set off from Tancheng this time, Liu Bei's army also had many recruits who were not well trained, and even poor soldiers who were drafted with the army.
Husband, their behavior in the face of this situation is even more unbearable.
Along with the killing cry, not only bows and arrows fell, but also falling rocks, and countless fire starters were thrown down.
Bundle and pile up dead branches and leaves in advance,
The remaining branches from felled logs,
Oil or oil "collected" from nearby villages in the lower photo...
They fell overwhelmingly into the valley, letting the flames roll in with a pungent and familiar smell.
Fire attack is as timeless a strategy as ambush!
Regardless of whether it is in any book on the art of war, it is the most basic strategy that will definitely be mentioned. The so-called water and fire are ruthless. Compared with water attacks, fire attacks are often very difficult to implement, but the effects are often amazing. With specific tactics
Due to the favorable geographical conditions, it is impossible to completely wipe out the opponent's army.
And here and now, the weather, time and place are extremely favorable for a fire attack.
The exits on both sides are sealed, and the valley is dense with vegetation. It is also a hot summer day with a severe drought, so it is very easy for wildfires to occur. After countless dead branches and leaves and kerosene are spilled, it only takes a spark to ignite the mountain fire.
A raging fire broke out in the valley.
"shoot!"
With a loud shout above the valley, the archers in Yuan's army used torches to ignite the collodion tied to the arrows, and shot them down at will, without even having to deliberately aim at the target.
boom!
The rockets scattered on the ground ignited the fire almost instantly, spreading crazily in all directions.
Subsequently, the most elite cavalry in this chapter was the first to collapse in a horrific scene like a prairie fire.
Although the cavalry could still maintain their sanity, the horses began to neigh one by one. The beasts that had just been calmed down became frightened again, knocking many riders off their horses, and some even broke free from the reins and threw their hooves into the crowd.
Running wildly caused more serious chaos and casualties.
But when a horseman from the Tianjun side held up Jiang Chuan's head and shouted, "Your generals are dead, and those who surrender will not be killed," the Xiapi Army collapsed completely.
With the help of Heavenly Fire, after half a day of fierce fighting, Liu Bei's army was at a loss as to whether it was advancing or retreating. In addition, after the general Jiang Dan was directly killed by Wu Sheng, the morale of the army was even more shattered.
By dusk, there were no survivors and half of them had surrendered. As for those who refused to surrender, Wu Sheng was naturally happy to see them, and with a smile and a wave of his hand, he killed them all on the spot.
After that, the troops were ordered up. The total casualties of the troops who set up the ambush this time were less than 500. If you look at the ratio, the Tianzhu camp, which was at the forefront of the battle, had more casualties. Nearly 40% of the more than 100 people were injured!
However, no matter what, to be able to almost completely wipe out this 3,000-strong Xiapi reinforcements is already a glorious victory.
It was not until the end of the war that Yuan Jun began to actively put out the mountain fire. By this time, it had been burning for almost half a day!
When it is at its boiling, the fire and black smoke flying in the sky can be seen ten miles away. If a god is in the clouds and looks down through the smoke, he can see the charred ground covered with ashes of burned vegetation and the corpses of soldiers.
This desolate valley seems to have become a hell on earth.
Even if Li Ren and other generals were accustomed to seeing killings, even if the victim was Liu Beijun, whom they hated so much, they could not help but feel sad.
"I heard Master Yan say before that there is a saying in the ancient military book: Fire attack will harm the heaven and earth, and the user will lose his life." Looking at the purgatory scene in front of him, most of Li Ren's joy after the victory suddenly disappeared, and he
He said with emotion: "At that time, I thought this was a fallacy. But now that I saw it with my own eyes, I was shocked to realize that this statement may be true."
"Bullshit!" Wu Sheng didn't take it seriously when he heard this, and snorted heavily: "How can there be such a truth? It's okay to kill with a sword, but to hurt Tianhe with fire? Also lose your life span?"
He seemed to be the only one in the audience who was not affected by the tragic situation. Not only was he feeling proud, Wu Sheng couldn't help but mutter in his heart, this fire attack is a good method, I will use it more if I have the opportunity in the future!
However, there was no time to think too much at this time. Eliminating the reinforcements in Xiapi was only the first step of the plan. The purpose of encircling the reinforcements was to prevent Xiapi from sending reinforcements in the short term, and at the same time use a victory to boost the sluggish morale of Yuan's army.
From beginning to end, Wu Sheng never forgot the true purpose of his trip!
Still conquering the lower phase!
He ordered everyone to write down their merits and allocate some troops to deal with the prisoners. Wu Sheng had no intention of celebrating and simply ordered his troops to leave the mountain and rush towards Xiapi.
.....
Go down to the foot of the city.
In the past few days, although the Yuan army's attack on the city was not violent, it never stopped.
The remaining elites of this defeated Yuan army had long been lost to Sizhenshan, and the rest were just cannon fodder. Moreover, neither the general Yuan Yin nor these ordinary soldiers had much fighting spirit. The so-called siege basically
It did not put any pressure on the defenders of Xiaxiang City, let alone casualties.
If you want to talk about the effect, at best it can only consume some of the defenders' physical strength.
Yuan Yin, who was in charge of the command, was not in a hurry about this. He continued to attack step by step every day, and then looked at the west uneasily in a daze when nothing happened.
He knew that his purpose of attacking the city here was to draw reinforcements from Xiapi.
So how many troops have been dispatched to Xiapi now?
What is Si Zhenshan’s current situation?
Is there a fight?
Can the winner be determined?
These doubts are filling Yuan Yin's mind, but they have never been answered. However, no matter what, Yuan Yin also knows that whether Xiang Xiang can capture it is not up to him from the beginning, and whether the soldiers and horses currently under the city can
decided.
The guard of Xiaxiang City is actually the same at this moment.
Being able to be entrusted with important tasks by Liu Bei at a critical moment and sent here, he had personally defeated Yuan Yin before and captured the prime minister. The guard general is also a well-versed soldier. If it is possible that the siege was not discovered at the beginning, then these days
After coming down and observing carefully, the guard had already seen that the bandits under the city were not only small in number, but also very weak in combat effectiveness!
But the only thing that frightened him was that someone among his subordinates recognized him. In fact, this was not the Yellow Turban bandit, but Yuan Shu's former defeated pawn!
So where did the Yellow Turban bandits go?
An inexplicable panic arose in General Zherang's heart, but even though he knew that his opponent had become a weaker one and was still the defeated general before, he still followed Liu Bei's instructions and patiently defended the city, resolutely not leaving the city to fight in the field.
By chance, a strange scene occurred in the lower photo.
The siege of a city has always been the most brutal. Regardless of the attacker or the defender, the change of the master of a city requires a very heavy price. But in the early stage of the siege, there were no big battles but small battles, and the atmosphere was extremely depressing and desperate.
Now, the attackers are carelessly attacking, and the defenders are lazily defending, as if they are engaging in an offensive and defensive drill, more like a drill than a war.
In troubled times, days like this are actually pretty good.
But whether it was Yuan Yin who knew Wu Sheng's plan, or whether he discovered that the attackers were Yuan Jun's defenders, they all knew that this seemingly harmonious stalemate would not last forever!
What happens next depends on another battlefield.
Yuan Yin knew where the battlefield was, and the guard had roughly guessed it. He even tried to secretly send out sentries at night to alert the reinforcements. However, Yuan Yin could not relax, but there was really nothing wrong with this matter.
Never given any chance.
Day after day passed.
The next day was the fourth day of siege.
Just when Yuan Yin was commanding his soldiers to attack again as usual, a group of galloping cavalry suddenly appeared in the distance and quickly swarmed towards the military camp.
It's the messenger!
Yuan Yin's heart immediately rose to his throat.
He dislikes Wu Sheng, and Wu Sheng also dislikes him. However, the current situation is stronger than others, and both sides have a common enemy. On the surface, the two of them are maintaining a cooperative relationship, but since they came to the next phase, they have communicated with each other.
There was no news, so Yuan Yin didn't know how far it had progressed.
Will it be good news?
At this time, Yuan Yin no longer had any thoughts about siege. He stood up suddenly and stared at the messenger cavalry who broke into the camp. He watched helplessly as several riders entered the camp and turned over.
, dismounted, and immediately rushed in with great strides. The first thing he said was: "Captain, good news!"
"Our army has a great victory in Si Zhenshan!"
"Xiapi reinforcements were almost completely wiped out!"
Won!
Yuan Yin felt a buzzing in his ears and his heart was beating loudly. Several other generals around him couldn't help but stood up at the same time, talking and making a lot of noise.
After a while, Yuan Yin, who had regained his composure, first shouted to stop everyone, then sat back down in command and asked himself the whole story of the battle.
"...General Liu Jun seemed to be on guard and ordered a group of troops to pass through the valley first. Upon seeing this, Major Wu ordered everyone to hold still for the time being. Seeing that there was indeed no ambush in the valley, the remaining infantry and the five hundred cavalry entered the valley...
Major Wu then issued an order, laying down huge rocks and logs on both sides to block the way out, setting fire to the mountain, and personally led the Yellow Turbans... The elite of the Heavenly Army blocked the entrance, and even killed the enemy generals..."
"In this battle, more than a thousand people were burned and killed, nearly a thousand beheaded, and more than 800 people were captured..."
The rider who reported the news was quite eloquent, and in his excitement he described the situation at that time in an orderly manner, making everyone in the tent look happy.
"What a great Wu Sheng!" someone couldn't help but blurt out praise.
"Only more than 300 of our brothers died? More than 2,000 of Liu Bei's army were wiped out? This is..." Some people were happy but couldn't believe it.
"Hey, we finally regained a victory!" This is the complaint of the former loser who was not angry: "It proves that the previous defeat was due to me, Jiang Dong's son, but it was Qiao Rui's incompetence!"
"The troops sent by Xiapi are gone, so we won't be able to rescue the Prime Minister for a while, right?"
Yuan Yin also has a lot on his mind. This battle is also a joy for him. The only flaw is...
He curled his lips secretly.
Now, the Wu thief was very tight-lipped about commanding the army and horses.
There was nothing that could be done about it. Yuan Yin sighed secretly and immediately ordered his guards: "Spread the news of the great victory immediately. Everyone in the army must know it!"
Under the current circumstances, nothing can restore the morale and morale of one's own army more than a victory, or even a great victory.
When the news quickly spread within Yuan Jun, thousands of people cheered together.
If we say that in the previous expedition to Xuzhou, most of the soldiers were just for military pay and military exploits, but they were not necessarily willing to die. However, after the defeat at Xiapi, hatred and shame made these Jiangdong men sincerely willing to fight to the death in exchange for the enemy.
Defeated.
But the premise is that victory can be guaranteed.
Wu Sheng's battle made many people begin to believe this, and the flame of revenge really ignited.
Thousands of people cheered in unison, and there was naturally a lot of movement. Liu Jun at the top of Xiaxiang City was frightened.
At first, they mistakenly thought that Yuan Jun could no longer hold back and launched a general attack, and they were very nervous for a while. The defender rushed over immediately, but saw that there was no special movement below the city. On the contrary, even the people who were attacking the city were
They were all called back...
The guard then realized something was wrong.
This must be a good news!
Seeing the cheers from the city, he felt deeply uneasy in his heart.
The thieves were bluffing from the beginning. The real number of people under the city was never more than a thousand, let alone an elite main force...
But my family sent a messenger to ask for help on the first day of the siege. Calculating the time, I am afraid they are already on the way...
Now, the thieves are all rejoicing and shouting and cheering, shouldn't they...
He had already vaguely sensed that the enemy might be the defender who was encircling the point for reinforcements. At this moment, a possibility came to his mind, and his face instantly turned pale.
No!
impossible!
The next moment, the guard suppressed this terrible thought, but soon, someone heard the noise of the rebels below the city and passed the news back to him.
The Yuan army sent by Xiapi encountered an enemy ambush at Sizhenshan and was almost wiped out!
This bad news spread around the city like a hurricane, and instantly hit the bottom of the morale of the officers and soldiers guarding the city. Although the guard general received the report after a cup of tea, he immediately ordered the officers to investigate and did not allow this.
Similar news spread, but it was too late.
"This must be a rumor spread by thieves. Seeing that they have been unable to capture the city, they are using it to undermine the morale of our army!"
The guard general refused to admit the news, and swore that the thieves did not have such capabilities and troops, and reinforcements would arrive in two or three days at most!
While appeasing the troops, they usually immediately sent out their confidants to convey the news back to Xiapi.
His idea is very simple. If the news is false, the bandits will definitely take the opportunity to step up their attack on the city, and this rhetoric can help stabilize the morale of the army. If the news is not forged, and the Xiapi Army is really defeated, then in two or three days at most, the bandits will
The elites will return with a large number of prisoners and seizures. By then, even if they want to, they will not be able to hide it.
All I want now is to delay it for as many days as possible.
On the one hand, he went to Xiapi again to ask for help, and on the other hand, he quickly prepared for a tough battle.
Perhaps out of complacency, Yuan Yin did not stop all the messengers sent by the Prime Minister this time. That night, when he saw a figure riding west, the guard's heart finally dropped in mid-air.
But at noon the next day, it was hung up again.
Wu Sheng's army advanced rapidly, and at night the next day, they actually arrived outside Xiaxiang City.
Because he had traveled for more than a day and his troops were exhausted, Wu Sheng did not even alert Yuan Yin's camp not far away. He just found a hidden place in the distance. After resting for three hours, he suddenly launched an offensive in the early morning.
.
Before attacking, Wu Sheng did one thing first.
He hung the heads of Jiang Dan and countless Liu Beijun high in front of the battle array!
These heads...
There were both those who died in the valley and those who were captured. In Wu Sheng's view, the troops were limited at this time and it was impossible to dedicate people to guard the prisoners, and such hidden dangers should not be left behind!
Then there is only one best way to deal with it...
kill!
Kill them all!
So when the sun came up again, what the photographer saw was a scene in the Senluo Hell.
In front of the army and horse formation below the city, all you can see are tall poles.
There are human heads hanging on each pole, with expressions of pain, horror, or fear. The same places on every face are a mess of flesh and blood!
They circled the city densely, and the strong smell of blood made the midsummer morning suddenly feel cold!
The wind was strong and howling.
In the silence, all the soldiers guarding me looked miserable and their morale was greatly depressed. Some even trembled and even collapsed from fear.
While laughing wildly, Wu Sheng took the lead in charging, followed closely by the Tianzhu Battalion. In such a tough battle, the strongest must be the first to get there!
It took only half a day for the city to fall first!