My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 591 The Battle of Jiameng
"It seems they intend to take advantage of the situation and break through the pass in one fell swoop."

Zhou Tai pointed to the battering rams and ladders slowly advancing below the city. The siege towers, which were two and a half zhang high, reflected the metallic luster in the sunlight. They were lined with cowhide for fire protection, and at the base, thirty or forty strong men were shouting slogans as they pushed the wheels.

Huo Du squinted, the scar on his forehead looking particularly menacing in the sunlight: "Two battering rams, six ladder trucks, and those well curbs, catapults... tsk tsk, if they were all destroyed here, Zhang Wei would probably be so heartbroken that he wouldn't be able to sleep for half a year."

Zhou Tai laughed, but slowly shook his head: "In order for him to get a good night's sleep, we really can't let him suffer too much damage today."

Huo Du nodded, somewhat unwillingly, and said, "These battering rams and siege ladders pose too great a threat to the city walls and cannot be kept. However, we can let go of the well curbs, catapults, and the like."

Suddenly, a loud creaking sound came from below the city, and the catapults of the Hanzhong army began another round of volleys.

More than twenty stones, each the size of a millstone, pierced the sky. Most of them either flew over the city wall and crashed into the fortress, or were too short to hit the front of the city wall. Two of them even hit the Hanzhong army's own soldiers' lines.

However, several bullets still flew over the parapet, smashing several soldiers who were unable to dodge in time, leaving them mangled and bloodied. Two died on the spot, and three others were seriously injured.

"Raise your shield!"

Zhou Tai roared, but remained motionless. A flying piece of stone whistled past his helmet, leaving a deep dent in the wooden pillar of the city wall.

He licked his dry lips and turned to the messenger, saying, "Have the catapults retaliate, focusing on the battering rams and ladder trucks. Ignore the catapults and siege towers."

Zhou Tai and Huo Du had anticipated this; the catapult looked terrifying, but its accuracy was actually incredibly low, and it could be predicted and dodged.

However, the battering rams and ladder trucks could directly threaten the city gates, towers, and parapets, so they couldn't be ignored. Moreover, the Hanzhong army was currently riding high on morale; even if Zhou Tai and Huo Du had other plans, they had to break the enemy's momentum first. Otherwise, it wouldn't be considered letting the enemy win, but rather treason.

Ten improved catapults, hidden within the walls of Jiameng Pass, were simultaneously unleashed. These machines, improved by skilled craftsmen assembled by Liu Feng according to his own blueprints and techniques, incorporated pulleys and counterweights.

Although still not as exaggerated as a counterweight catapult, the improved range was nearly half again as far as the catapults of the Hanzhong army. The boulders, ground into regular shapes, whistled over the city wall and accurately struck the middle of a siege ladder cart that was less than twenty paces from the pass.

Even with multiple layers of reinforced wooden planks, the wooden vehicle was still smashed to pieces by the boulder. Five or six archers on top of the ladder truck, along with a dozen or so armored soldiers hiding inside, screamed as they fell from a height of one or two zhang (approximately 3.3 meters). Sharp wooden planks pierced their bodies, leaving gaping holes that oozed blood.

"it is good!"

Huo Du excitedly pounded on the city wall: "Well done!"

However, the offensive of the Hanzhong army did not stop there.

Under Yan Pu's command, the remaining five ladder trucks, under the cover of the catapults, had advanced to the moat. Each ladder truck was followed by dozens of strong men, some carrying planks and others carrying sand, and they began filling the moat.

"Fire arrows!"

At Zhou Tai's command, the archers who had been hiding behind the parapet suddenly stood up and fired a volley at the city below.

In an instant, arrows rained down from below the city gate.

Although the shields in front of the ladder trucks could effectively block arrows, these able-bodied men had to leave the protection of the shields and rush forward to fill the trenches.

This volley of arrows caused screams of agony below the city walls. At least twenty or thirty able-bodied men were hit, half of whom lost the ability to move. Only a few managed to hide behind the defensive shields and escape.

However, for the defending troops, the situation did not improve; in fact, it became even more critical.

Two battering rams of the Hanzhong army had approached the city gate, and the archers on the rams were desperately pouring arrows down on the city wall in an attempt to protect their siege equipment.

One of the stray arrows was blocked in time by Zhou Tai's personal guard, but the guard himself was hit in the arm by another arrow.

Zhou Tai didn't even glance at his personal guards, focusing only on the situation at the city gate.

When they saw that the enemy's battering rams were approaching the city gate, they suddenly shouted, "Apply fire oil!"

At Zhou Tai's command, four or five burly men rushed out of the city gate, their bodies clad in iron armor and porcelain bottles wrapped around their waists.

These bottles were as big as melons and filled with kerosene.

These strong men, relying on their iron armor and shields, withstood the concentrated fire of the enemy's crossbows and threw bottles at the battering rams. Immediately afterward, the archers and crossbowmen on the city wall fired rockets at the oil grenades.

Even though these cowhides had been processed and dried many times and could withstand fire attacks, they could not withstand the burning of oil.

Immediately afterward, four more armored, burly men rushed out of the city gate, two in a row, carrying two large cauldrons. They poured the oil inside down a specially designed channel. The golden liquid splashed onto the leather cover of the siege ram, where it was immediately ignited by rockets.

In an instant, a battering ram and a siege hammer transformed into giant torches, with soldiers inside screaming as they charged out of the inferno, splashing water in the moat like human torches.

Meanwhile, another siege ladder truck near the city wall was destroyed by concentrated fire from catapults.

Just as one crisis subsided, another arose, and the crisis was far from over.

The remaining four ladder trucks had been erected on the city wall, their iron grappling hooks deeply embedded in the crenellations. On the westernmost ladder truck, thirty Hanzhong warriors had already leaped onto the city wall and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the defenders.

"General, I'll be gone in a moment."

Huo Du drew his sword and strode into the battle, followed closely by more than ten Huo clan soldiers.

Before long, Huo Du charged into the battlefield like a tiger among sheep, cleaving the shield of the first enemy soldier in two with a single stroke and severing the neck of the second. Hot blood splattered on his dark blue mask, adding to his ferocious appearance.

"Left Curtain Army, form ranks!"

At Huo Du's roar, twenty heavily armored guards immediately formed a wedge formation, disrupting the enemy troops' formation that had climbed onto the city wall.

Seeing their side falling into a disadvantageous position, a captain leading two or three valiant men charged forward. Taking advantage of Huo Du's attack, the captain thrust his spear. Huo Du dodged the spear with a sidestep, grabbed the shaft with his left hand and pulled hard, while his right hand flashed with a blade. The captain's head flew off the city wall, and blood splattered everywhere.

The three Hanzhong warriors behind him were also swarmed by Huo Du's personal guards and chopped into mincemeat.

The battle raging outside the city was equally intense at this time.

The soldiers of the Hanzhong army risked using fire to pull the burning battering ram out of the gate, replaced it with a brand new battering ram, and began to ram the city gate.

The dull "thump-thump" sound pounded on the hearts of the defenders like a death knell.

This time, the Hanzhong army learned their lesson and brought in large pieces of cowhide, which they propped up with bamboo poles to block the siege engines. In this way, even if oil was poured from the city walls, it would only fall on the cowhide. Even if it caught fire, there would be time to replace the cowhide and throw the burning cowhide into the moat outside.

Zhou Xiong, a close general under Zhou Tai, led a squad of archers to a hidden bunker above the city gate, where they rained arrows down through the firing ports. However, the siege rams were covered with wet cowhide, rendering ordinary arrows ineffective and unable to tear the hide.

"Change to armor-piercing arrows!"

Zhou Xiong gritted his teeth and gave the order. These specially made arrowheads were expensive and were usually not used. They would only be used when facing the same armored soldiers.

Now, with the cowhide as cover, the siege hammers have begun to pound on the city gate. Although the city gate can withstand it for now, in the long run, even the strongest city gate will collapse and shatter.

After Zhou Xiong gave the order, seven or eight armor-piercing arrows whistled through the cowhide, tearing it apart, and screams of agony echoed from beneath. But new soldiers quickly followed, and the battering rams struck even more rapidly.

"Pour in the kerosene!"

Zhou Xiong was overjoyed at the sight. Under his command, the Hanzhong army did not have time to support the new cowhide before the oil was poured onto the battering ram. The next moment, torches were thrown down, and the gate became a hell. Burning figures screamed and rushed out of the gate, and wherever they crashed, a sea of ​​fire appeared.

**
At this point, Huo Du had regained control of the city walls.

Although the Hanzhong army could still scale the city walls using siege ladders, the area around the siege ladders had been taken over by the Left Army, and the archers on top of the siege ladders had been completely wiped out.

In this situation, continuing to scale the city walls would be tantamount to suicide. Even the fierce and fearless soldiers of Hanzhong hesitated in the face of this predicament.

The next moment, under Huo Du's command, the crossbows on the horse-drawn carriages on both sides of the ladder cart turned around and fired grappling hooks at the ladder cart, and then the defenders began to pull it with winches.

Without the cover of long-range firepower, the ladder truck had no way to resist such tactics and was pulled to the ground.

Fortunately, most of the soldiers inside survived. After regaining consciousness, they all ran out of the ladder trucks and fled to the rear.

The Hanzhong army's long-accumulated and massive offensive finally showed signs of fatigue. Yan Pu, who was on a high platform at the rear, saw this clearly and hurriedly said to Zhang Wei, "General, the enemy's resistance is fierce. It would be better to retreat temporarily and regroup."

"Why retreat?"

Zhang Wei shoved Yan Pu aside, his face contorted with rage, and roared, "Our army is in trouble, but is the Left Army not in trouble too? I think they are also at their last gasp! Order the second wave to advance and continue the fierce attack; we will surely break through the city!"

"General!"

Yan Pu also got angry and turned around to block Zhang Wei: "Now the battering rams are all destroyed, and although there are still three ladder carts left, they are like candles in the wind. If we don't take advantage of the fact that we can still retreat now, dragging it out will only increase the gains of the Left Army!"

Yan Pu's words were reasonable and well-founded, and Zhang Wei had always respected Yan Pu. After calming down, he realized that he had acted impulsively.

Looking out at the large banners bearing the characters "Zhou" and "Huo" fluttering above Jiameng Pass, Zhang Wei finally gritted his teeth and said unwillingly, "Sound the retreat!"

As the retreating gong sounded, the Hanzhong army withdrew like a tide, leaving behind only thousands of corpses and seven or eight siege weapons that were either burning or disintegrating beneath the city walls.

On the city wall, Zhou Tai watched the retreating enemy army, but showed no joy whatsoever.

"Send the order to Tianxiong Pass."

He turned to his personal guards and whispered, "Have them, according to the plan, secretly send another five hundred men into Jiameng at night."

The guard responded and turned to go down to relay the order, just as he bumped into Huo Du, who was returning.

As Huo Du walked in, he overheard Zhou Tai's order and immediately laughed: "General, this plan will surely succeed!"

Zhou Tai immediately burst into laughter, stroking his chin, a sly glint in his eyes, and said, "I've often heard my lord say that when you're putting on an act, you should go all the way. Today is a good opportunity to test my skills, and I hope that Zhang Wei and Yan Pu can fall into my trap."

Subsequently, the gates of Jiameng Pass were opened, and Zhou Xiong led hundreds of soldiers out of the city to clear the battlefield and collect various military supplies.

Although the Hanzhong army suffered a minor defeat today, they did not lose control of the battlefield. During the retreat, they not only rescued most of the intact siege equipment and the wounded, but also took away the armor from many of the fallen soldiers.

Even so, the Left Guard Army that left the city managed to clear out a considerable amount of supplies. After all, the Hanzhong Army dared not come over to collect weapons and armor that were too close to the city walls.

As dusk fell, the Hanzhong army withdrew completely, and the Zuo Mu army also packed up and sent the supplies back to the city. Even the bodies of the Hanzhong army outside the city were burned and buried in pits.

The area inside and outside Jiameng Pass gradually quieted down.

That night, the gate of Tianxiong Pass was quietly opened, and a group of several hundred people walked out and hurriedly descended Niutou Mountain, sneaking into the city from the south of Jiameng Pass.

This scene naturally did not escape the notice of the Hanzhong army scouts.

The next morning, Zhang Wei had just gotten up when he heard a servant report that Yan Pu was requesting an audience. Zhang Wei dared not delay and immediately got up and personally went out of his tent to welcome the man in.

Upon meeting him, Zhang Wei felt a slight stirring in his heart; he actually saw joy on Yan Pu's face.

Could it be some good news?

Sure enough, Yan Pu then told Zhang Wei some news he had just learned: the garrison commander of Jiameng Pass was drawing troops from Tianxiong Pass.

Zhang Wei was a seasoned military strategist. Although his talent and abilities were only average, he surely understood what this meant.

"Could it be that the Chief Clerk's intention is... to seize Tianxiong Pass!?"

Zhang Wei couldn't help but voice his suspicions.

Yan Pu smiled and nodded: "That's right. Tianxiong Pass is not as precipitous as Jiameng Pass, and its defenses are weak. If we can take advantage of the situation to launch a surprise attack, we can definitely reverse the current situation."

Although Tianxiong Pass is not as precipitous as Jiameng Pass, there is one thing that Jiameng Pass cannot match.

That is the advantage of being on a high vantage point.

Tianxiong Pass is built halfway up Niutou Mountain, with a height difference of several hundred meters from Jiameng Pass. Looking down at Jiameng Pass from Tianxiong Pass, the situation on the north side of the pass is almost certainly within Tianxiong Pass, not to mention the south side.

Moreover, Zhang Wei and Yan Pu had no intention of continuing south at this time, so taking Tianxiong Pass would not put much pressure on their logistics and food supplies. They only needed to send one or two thousand soldiers to guard the pass, and they could still transport that amount of food.

(End of this chapter)