My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 622 Raid on Tianxiong Pass

Wang Ping rested in Jian Ge for a day and distributed all the wealth and cloth stored in Jian Ge.

This was not Wang Ping's unauthorized decision, but rather Liu Feng's prior permission.

The Ba people were known for their lax military discipline and plundering nature. Although they were brave, warlike, and fearless, they were also greedy and profit-driven.

The Ba people have only recently joined the Left Curtain Army system, and their long-standing temperament cannot be changed immediately.

Therefore, while Liu Feng was trying to win over the Zong people and strengthen military discipline, he was also being lenient with them, temporarily extending the old laws in certain matters. One such matter was the reward system.

Apart from Du Yue's troops who were fighting alongside the main army, Liu Feng granted Wang Ping the temporary authority to withdraw the spoils.

Wang Ping opened the Jian Ge treasury and seized all the goods and cloth, distributing them to his Ba soldiers. This undoubtedly boosted the morale of the Ba people greatly, even reducing their fatigue considerably.

Although the money, goods, and cloth were distributed, Wang Ping resolutely forbade the Ba soldiers from carrying them.

Next, we have to trek sixty miles of mountain road and then directly engage in the battle to raid Tianxiong Pass. How can we possibly conserve our energy for these valuables and fabrics?

Fortunately, the Ba people had been trained and disciplined by the Left Army over the past few months, and the goods had been distributed but were temporarily stored in Jiange. The Ba soldiers accepted this decision.

This was thanks to the discipline and training over the past few months. If it were any other time, the goods that had been distributed would have to be returned, even if only temporarily stored. This would have certainly caused great resentment among the Zong soldiers, and even Du Yue's orders would have been useless.

Besides boosting the morale and restoring the strength of the Ba soldiers, this day brought an unexpected surprise. A messenger from Li Dian's office stumbled upon a Ba soldier ambush and was captured alive. Moreover, there were two groups of messengers; even the envoy sent to Tianxiong Pass to warn them was apprehended along with them.

After capturing the messenger and intercepting the letter, Wang Ping felt a little scared. If Cao Ding had really sent troops to help, the two armies would have met halfway, and the plan to raid Tianxiong Pass would have been completely ruined.

If Li Dian had sent the messenger a day earlier, they might not have been able to intercept the enemy. It can only be said that the Left Guard Army was blessed by Heaven.

Wang Ping spread the good news, and the soldiers, who were already superstitious, were even more excited after hearing about it. They all believed it was divine protection and that victory was assured.

After settling everything, Wang Ping left He Lan as the commander-in-chief, leading more than 300 soldiers and wounded and sick soldiers to guard Jianmen Pass.

The main reason for leaving only this small force was that Jianmen Pass was far too easy to defend and difficult to attack from the south. If a large-scale invasion by Cao Cao's army were to occur, even leaving all three thousand men behind would be useless. Leaving these five hundred men to guard the pass was less about protecting the retreat route and more about providing early warning.

Moreover, Wang Ping's primary mission is not to capture Jianmen Pass, but to launch a surprise attack on Tianxiong Pass. Jianmen Pass is merely a necessary stop on the way; if he can take Tianxiong Pass, it doesn't matter if he loses Jianmen Pass.

According to intelligence from the Left Guard Army, there are more than 4,000 garrison troops in Tianxiong Pass, of which more than 3,000 are Cao Ding's troops, and another 1,000 are Hanzhong instructors serving as auxiliary troops.

Tianxiong Pass was strategically located and a vital supply route for the allied forces, so its loss was not an option. This is why Cao Ang deployed a large force there and entrusted his trusted confidant Cao Ding with its defense. Moreover, Tianxiong Pass was built halfway up Niutou Mountain and was quite small, generally only able to accommodate two or three thousand men. Four thousand men was already rather crowded, and it was not advisable to station more troops there.

The next morning, Wang Ping led his 2,500 troops across Jianmen Pass and proceeded along the Golden Ox Road on Niutou Mountain.

For an ordinary army, a 60-mile mountain road would undoubtedly take two days to traverse.

But for the Ba soldiers who were used to traveling along mountain roads, they could arrive in a day.

However, Wang Ping did not drive the Zong soldiers in such a way. Instead, he slowed down the pace and traveled forty-five li on the first day, setting up camp to rest more than ten li away from Tianxiong Pass.

On the third day, the soldiers were allowed to sleep in late until 9:00 AM, when they got up to cook lunch and then took a midday rest.

It wasn't until the hour of Wei (1-3 PM) that the army packed up their camp and set off again.

At the start of the journey, the first hundred or so soldiers were all carefully selected warriors of the Ba people, and they all changed into uniforms of the Hanzhong Army captured from Jianmen Pass. He Kui personally led them towards Tianxiong Pass.

When they arrived outside Tianxiong Pass, it was already 5:15 PM, and the sky had darkened, with only a faint glimmer of light remaining.

He Kui led his troops toward Tianxiong Pass, shouting as they ran, creating a chaotic scene.

At this time, the garrison commander of the southern city of Tianxiong Pass was a captain under Cao Ding, also a member of the Cao family, whose given name was Xian. He led a band of five hundred soldiers and five hundred Hanzhong instructors, stationed at the southern city of Tianxiong Pass.

Although it's called the South City, it's actually quite rudimentary, consisting of just a three-meter-high stockade wall, far inferior to the North City.

This was not because the people of Sichuan were unwilling to spend money and grain, but rather due to the circumstances.

Just like when facing north from Jianmen Pass, the terrain was extremely treacherous. If the attacking side wanted to reach the city wall, they would first have to climb hundreds of steps with a slope of nearly forty degrees, and then launch a feint attack on the pass at a near right angle. Moreover, the terrain in front of the pass was dangerous. To the right of the pass was the swiftly flowing Xixi River, and to the east were cliffs, leaving no room for you to deploy siege equipment.

Forget about battering rams and siege ladders; even a simple ladder wouldn't be easy to lift up. As for catapults, forget about them altogether; even counterweight catapults couldn't reach that distance. Ballistae might have enough range, but they could only fire horizontally, not in projectiles.

Therefore, Jianmen Pass can be said to be the most dangerous pass in the world. Before the emergence of the Red Army in modern times, no army could conquer it from the front.

But why say positive?

Because its north side is a wide open plain with no natural defenses, and it is also easily accessible from all directions, allowing the enemy to come from anywhere they want.

Is it because the people of Sichuan are unwilling to repair the South Pass?
This is something that simply cannot be fixed.

The same applies to Tianxiong Pass.

Tianxiong Pass was built halfway up Jinniu Mountain, but this is the only place on the entire Jinniu Mountain with a relatively large plain.

In other words, only one fortified pass could be built.

For Sichuan, would you rather build this fortified pass to defend the north or the south?
Therefore, without a doubt, the people of Shu naturally built this fortress facing north, while on the south side, they found a small passage and hastily erected this stone wall. It wasn't that they didn't want to build it higher or larger, but the geographical environment simply didn't allow it.

Fortunately, Tianxiong Pass is right behind Jianmen Pass, which is a top-tier defensive pass to the north. Therefore, in most cases, Tianxiong Pass doesn't need to worry about enemies coming from the south.

But today Cao Xian encountered this situation. He saw a group of disheveled, defeated soldiers, their armor and weapons in disarray, rushing towards the wall of Jianmen Pass, shouting that Jianmen Pass had fallen.

Cao Xian was greatly shocked and hurriedly summoned Lu Kun, the military commander of the five hundred soldiers. He ordered the archers to prepare and at the same time reprimanded the enemy not to approach.

After Lu Kun arrived, he listened carefully for a while and replied, "Reporting to the general, these may be the Ba soldiers under General Zhang's command." Zhang Lu and Liu Zhang had completely different governing philosophies. Liu Zhang was actually a Han chauvinist who was quite ruthless towards ethnic minorities, implementing various strict controls, exploitation, and suppression.

Therefore, the fact that almost all the Ba people in Ba Commandery supported Zhao Wei's uprising, and that rebellions were frequent in various parts of southern China, is the best evidence of this.

In stark contrast to Liu Zhang, Zhang Lu was extremely tolerant of ethnic minorities. He not only provided them with land and sent people to guide them in farming, but also lent them rations, seeds, farm tools, and oxen. He even recruited Ba people as soldiers.

Although the Zong soldiers had poor discipline, their fighting strength was second to none under Zhang Lu's command.

However, the number of Cong people in Hanzhong was much smaller than that in Ba Commandery. Therefore, the number of Cong soldiers under Zhang Lu's command was never large, ranging from several hundred to a thousand. It was not until after Zhao Wei's defeat that the Cong people fled to Hanzhong in large numbers, and only then did Zhang Lu begin to train Cong soldiers on a large scale.

Later, during the Battle of Yangping Pass against Cao Cao, many of the Zong soldiers participated in the battle and performed quite well.

After the war, Cao Cao also incorporated this Ba army into his forces, relocated several thousand Ba households to the Central Plains, and bestowed the title of Marquis upon Ba King Du Yue, Pu Hu, and others.

Although Cao Cao admired the Zong soldiers, many of his generals harbored resentment. Wang Ping, in particular, was ostracized by Xu Huang at that time and eventually fled south to join Liu Bei.

Cao Xian frowned and asked Lu Kun to confirm the identities of He Kui and the others.

Ke Lukun was merely a military instructor, whose rank was lower than that of the Zong soldiers, so he couldn't possibly recognize them. Meanwhile, the Zong soldiers outside the wall were stirring up trouble even more, as if they were about to start a fight at the slightest provocation.

Cao Xian had no choice but to inform Cao Ding while simultaneously calling out to the outside world, asking the Ba soldiers to elect a leader to come in and give a reply.

To Cao Xian's relief, the previously arrogant Ba soldiers were now quite compliant, and five or six of their leading officers came forward.

Cao Xian ordered the wooden gate to be opened and the men to enter. He then led Lu Kun down the wall and questioned him.

"General, Jianmen was attacked by the Han people. General Zhang was caught off guard and killed by the enemy. The city fell, and our allies were either killed or surrendered. We wanted to send a message to General Cao, so we fought our way out of the encirclement and crossed mountains overnight to arrive before the Han people."

Cao Xian looked at He Kui and thought that this strong Ba people in front of him were quite good at talking.

Upon hearing that Jianmen Pass had fallen, Cao Xian focused his attention on important matters and inquired carefully about what had happened.

This was no challenge for He Kui at all, since they were the ones who did it. He only needed to explain the details, and Cao Xian nodded repeatedly in agreement.

Cao Xian was extremely satisfied with He Kui's answer and gained a clear understanding of the fall of Jianmen Pass. However, he vaguely felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what the problem was.

At this moment, He Kui pleaded from the side, "General, the brothers are exhausted. We've been traveling along mountain roads for two days straight and haven't had a drop of water yet. We really can't hold on much longer."

Cao Xian thought for a moment. There were only a little over a hundred people outside, but there were a thousand people inside the city. What could possibly happen?

Cao Xian nodded in agreement, but he was still cautious and instructed the soldiers to hand over their weapons after entering the city, promising to provide them with lodging, water, and food.

He Kui readily agreed without hesitation.

Cao Xian was relieved and ordered the wooden gate to be opened, allowing the Zong soldiers to enter the city.

These soldiers had been making quite a ruckus earlier, but once they were allowed into the city, they became rather sluggish. Their ranks stretched out in long lines, and they all looked downcast, as if they had no strength left, taking one step at a time.

Cao Xian frowned and scolded, "Hurry up and enter the city. There will be food and water provided once you are inside."

Upon hearing Cao Xian's reprimand, the soldiers below obeyed obediently, but their actions remained unchanged.

Cao Xian was furious and cursed the Ba people for their ignorance and barbarity, but he could do nothing about it and could only endure it for the time being, and settle accounts with them later.

Just as Cao Xiansheng was feeling frustrated, the sound of a large group of people marching in the distance suddenly rang out. Judging from the sound alone, there were at least a thousand people.

Cao Xian was taken aback. He looked towards the city gate and found that the Ba people were in complete chaos there, blocking the gate completely.

Something is wrong!
Cao Xian immediately tensed up and shouted, "Close the city gates! Close the city gates immediately! Anyone who obstructs this will be executed without mercy!"

"Do it!"

Suddenly, He Kui roared and drew a concealed dagger, lunging at Cao Xian. The other soldiers, hearing He Kui's shout, also attacked at the same time.

The men around He Kui were all exceptionally brave and strong. In addition, they launched a sneak attack and quickly dealt with Cao Xian's personal guards and Lu Kun, while also seizing their weapons.

Although Cao Xian became suspicious, he was preoccupied with the city gate and neglected He Kui, who pounced on him and plunged a dagger into the gap between his helmet and armor, causing blood to gush out immediately.

Cao Xian grabbed He Kui's arm tightly, but the other man grinned and twisted his dagger. The pain made Cao Xian lose all his strength, and red blood foam came out of his mouth. He leaned against the wall and fell to the ground.

The next moment, He Kui drew the sword from Cao Xian's waist and slashed down hard, instantly killing Cao Xian.

Then, He Kui raised Cao Xian's head high and roared, "The traitorous general has been beheaded by me! The Left Army is entering the city. Those who do not submit will be punished like this traitor, and those who surrender will be spared!"

"Whoever surrenders will avoid death!"

The other soldiers of the Zong army had already begun their attack the moment He Kui roared for the first time, with their primary target being the Cao army soldiers at the city gate.

With a premeditated attack on an unsuspecting enemy, the Cong soldiers wiped out the twenty or thirty Cao soldiers at the city gate as soon as they launched their attack.

Immediately afterwards, a large group of men rushed in to support He Kui and the other warriors, while a small number of men remained at the wooden door, attempting to break it down with axes.

The garrison inside the pass was caught in a conflict, and officers such as Cao Xian and Lu Kun were killed on the spot. They were overwhelmed by the enemy soldiers and, although the garrison commanders organized resistance, the gate had already fallen. Even if they wanted to take it back, they were powerless to do so.

The two sides remained deadlocked for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea when the soldiers at the gate suddenly cheered.

(End of this chapter)