The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 779 Feng Yi is in dire need of help

The Sui army had been planning the bombing of Wuguan Pass for six months. Duan Mingde, an intelligence agent from Nanyang County, was one of them. Under the guise of selling wine, he frequently traveled between Nanyang and Shangluo County, gradually winning the trust of the soldiers guarding the pass with small favors.
This tactic is called "splitting one crucial lie into a hundred truths," and no one can guard against it.

A giant iron fire bomb weighing 300 jin was placed inside a large urn on the second oxcart. The surrounding jars were filled with kerosene. The jars were smashed to ignite the kerosene, and the fuse was lit at the same time.

As the smoke cleared, a large portion of Wuguan Pass collapsed, and nearly three hundred soldiers were killed. At this moment, Sun Lei appeared with 30,000 troops, and they stormed straight into Wuguan Pass.

When Emperor Li Yuan of Tang had an army of 300,000, he deployed 30,000 heavy troops at Wuguan Pass. Now, Li Yuan only has 100,000 men left, and his garrison at Wuguan Pass has been reduced to 10,000.

Li Shimo, the commander of Wuguan, was the son of General Li Jing. His camp was only two miles away from Wuguan. The huge explosion shook the camp, and the soldiers were terrified. They ran out of their tents, only to watch helplessly as the magnificent Wuguan collapsed.

The military camp erupted into chaos, with soldiers shouting, "Wuguan has collapsed! Wuguan has collapsed!"

Li Shimo was greatly alarmed and immediately shouted, "All troops assemble! The Sui army is coming!"

"Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!"

As the assembly bell rang, the soldiers rushed out of the tent to assemble. Just as they finished assembling, 30,000 Sui soldiers charged in, with 3,000 cavalrymen bearing the brunt of the attack.

The Tang army hastily engaged in battle, but the disparity in troop strength was too great. In addition, the Wu Pass caused the morale of the Tang army to waver. In less than half an hour of fierce fighting, Li Shimo's army could not hold on. The three thousand troops on the left wing collapsed first, triggering the collapse of the entire army. The Tang army suffered a great defeat. The Sui cavalry pursued ahead and blocked the route of the defeated soldiers. More than eight thousand defeated soldiers had nowhere to escape and had no choice but to kneel down and surrender.

Li Shimo was captured by the Sui army and became a prisoner of war.

General Sun Lei ordered 3,000 men to guard the prisoners of war, while he continued to lead his army northward at breakneck speed. Officials in various counties along the way surrendered one after another, and two days later, the Sui army occupied the entire Shangluo Prefecture.

Sun Lei led an army of 20,000 to Lantian Pass, where the garrison commander Yu Xiaoyan surrendered the pass.

But for Chang'an, the loss of Shangluo County was no longer important; they were facing a much more worrying situation.

Under the cover of night, a cavalry force of ten thousand men, led by General Yuchi Gong, was rapidly marching south. There were two routes from Guannei Road south into Guanzhong: the western route, also known as the Jingshui Road, and the eastern route, also known as the Luoshui Road.

Fifty thousand Sui troops, led by Marshal Pei Xingyan, stormed into Guanzhong via the Luoshui River. Deng Jie, the garrison commander of Jinshuo Pass, surrendered the pass. He had no choice but to surrender. Jinshuo Pass had only three thousand garrison soldiers, while the enemy had fifty thousand troops and devastating weapons.

But that's not the real reason for surrendering. The real reason is that any three-year-old knows that the Tang emperor is like an egg under a hammer; his existence depends on the mood of the hammer wielder.

Deng Jie had no intention of being buried with the Tang emperor.

The objective of this campaign was to capture Fengyi County, and the most crucial element of Fengyi County was to seize Guangtong Granary. Once Guangtong Granary was captured, it would be difficult to feed Li Yuan's 100,000-strong army.

A granary is not something that can be called a granary simply by enclosing a piece of land and building a few sheds. The most crucial aspect of a granary is preserving quality, so its construction is extremely rigorous. All the bricks and soil must be specially treated, and humidity and temperature must be strictly controlled in order to preserve grain for a long time. Grain stored in ordinary houses will spoil in just a few months.

This is also why there is only one Guangtong Granary in Guanzhong; building a granary is much more difficult than building a palace.

Guangtongcang was only garrisoned by two thousand troops. The reason why there were so few troops was because the purpose of the garrison was different. The troops stationed at Tongguan and Wuguan were enemy troops, so of course they had to be heavily guarded. But who were the targets of Guangtongcang? Petty thieves, refugees, or nearby farmers. Two thousand troops were enough.

In the darkness, ten thousand cavalrymen charged in, as if muffled thunder rumbled in the sky. The earth trembled, and soldiers awoke with a start. Suddenly, someone shouted at the top of their lungs, "The Sui cavalry are coming! The Sui cavalry are coming!"

Then, as if the sky had fallen and the earth had split open, the palisade collapsed, and countless cavalrymen charged into the camp, just like a mountain collapsing. The soldiers who had just rushed out of the tent were terrified and turned to run away, but they had nowhere to escape. Sui cavalrymen were everywhere.

A deep voice shouted, "Kneel down if you don't want to die!" This command seemed to give all the soldiers a glimmer of hope for survival, and they all knelt down, covering their heads.
Two thousand men were surrounded. The defending general was in despair. Guangtong Granary was captured, and the Tang King's army was doomed.

The Sui army's main focus was Tongguan. Pei Xingyan personally led 40,000 troops to besiege Tongguan. The Tongguan garrison numbered 15,000, with 5,000 guarding Pujin Pass and 10,000 guarding Tongguan. Originally, the commander-in-chief was Li Xiaogong, but Li Xiaogong was transferred to Dasan Pass to replace the dismissed Li Shimin. Now, the commander-in-chief of Tongguan was Zhang Shilong.

Zhang Shilong was originally the deputy commander of Shuofang and Yang Gongren's deputy general. After the fall of Shuofang, he led 10,000 troops to garrison the southern part of Yanchuan County to defend against the Turks from entering Guannei Road from Yanchuan County.

Zhang Shilong was highly regarded by Li Yuan. He had also served as the Eastern Defense Commissioner of Chang'an. When Li Xiaogong was transferred to Fengxiang, Zhang Shilong took over the command of Tongguan and Pujinguan, just one month later.

In the middle of the night, Zhang Shilong was woken up by his personal guards. "General, wake up! Something terrible has happened!"

"Oh no! What terrible thing has happened?"

"Pujin Pass has fallen!"

Zhang Shilong sat up abruptly and asked urgently, "What happened? How could Pujin Pass have been breached!"

They built extremely sturdy fortifications along the Yellow River at Pujin Pass, constructing a two-zhang-high stone wall with large stones, so that even if the Sui army came by boat, they could not land.

The guard quickly replied, "We won't break through from the east bank of the river, but from the rear!"

"behind?"

Zhang Shilong was stunned for a long time before he suddenly realized that something terrible had happened. It must be that Jin Suo Guan had fallen and the Sui army had entered Guanzhong through the Guannei Road.

With the fall of Pujin Pass, the next stop is Tong Pass.

He urgently ordered, "Sound the alarm! Assemble the entire army!"

"Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!"

The alarm bells rang in the Tongguan military camp, and the 10,000-strong army quickly rose and began to assemble. These 10,000 troops were the elite of the Tang King's army, and they were deployed to the most crucial Tongguan Pass.

Inside Tongguan Pass was a rammed earth military camp, constructed from mud and wood. Many city walls were also made from mud and wood. The biggest difference between this rammed earth military camp and city walls was twofold: firstly, it was much thinner. City walls were generally two zhang thick, with sand, mud, and other filling materials in the middle, while the mud walls of the rammed earth military camp were only five chi thick, making it impossible for people to stand on them.

Secondly, the quality is relatively poor. It takes one to two years to build a city wall, while it only takes a few days to build a rammed earth military camp. The quality is naturally much worse. Therefore, a rammed earth military camp can only last for two or three months at most, while a city wall can last for twenty or thirty years. The difference in quality is huge, and the difficulty is completely different.

However, the plank-frame military camp could also be used for defense on the city wall, which involved building wooden frames inside and having everyone stand on the frames.

At this moment, the entire mile-long plank-shaped military camp was filled with soldiers, holding bows and arrows or crossbows, as 40,000 Sui soldiers attacked from the west.

At the same time, Zhang Xutuo also launched an offensive against Tongguan from the east. All nine passes were deserted, as all the soldiers had been transferred back to the pass. The massive Tongguan defense system was reduced to a simple pass, with only a few hundred people remaining on the pass.

Zhang Shilong could no longer afford to worry about Zhang Xutuo's army; the 40,000 troops inside the pass were their biggest and most direct threat at present.

(End of this chapter)