Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 180: Planning Taiyuan (Part )
On October 2, after nearly half a month of repairing their equipment, the Du Liao army, led by Generals Xu Chu and Meng Ning, launched a fierce attack on Yangyi.

Ladders were built near the city walls, soldiers climbed up the ladders, arrows shot through the air, and the sound of killing shook the sky.

"what!"

The soldiers of the Du Liao army climbed up bravely, but as the boiling gold juice poured down from the city, they screamed, covered their faces, fell down in the air, and fell heavily to the ground, not knowing whether they were dead or alive.

"Smash!"

Wen Shao walked on the tower with a sword in hand, his face grim, and ordered his soldiers to throw stones and rolling logs down to the city. The soldiers of Du Liao who climbed up the city were either hit by the stones and rolling logs, or hit by the dense arrows in the air, and could not launch an attack at all.

On the hillside, Zhang Yu and other generals were watching the situation of the siege.

Seeing that his own soldiers were suffering more casualties, Zhang Liao frowned and said, "Sir, Yangyi is heavily guarded. I'm afraid that the ladders are not enough to break through the city. We need to repair the siege rams. The siege rams can block the arrows, pounding stones, and rolling logs to protect the soldiers from climbing up to break through the city."

“It takes too long to make the ram!”

Gao Shun said worriedly: "According to the method of siege, it will take at least two or three months to repair the siege equipment. By then, Dong Zhuo may have taken action. He may send an envoy to order you to stop fighting or order Niu Fu to send troops to deter you. By then, all our efforts will be wasted!"

"Junhou?"

Zhang Liao looked at Zhang Yu, seeming to want to say something but stopping himself.

Zhang Yu ignored Zhang Liao, squinted his eyes for a while, and said, "Stop attacking the city. After all the troops are settled, go to the big tent to discuss matters."

"promise!"

After saying this, Zhang Yu put on his armor and drew his sword, and left, leaving behind Zhang Liao, Gao Shun and other generals to lead the army back to the camp.

Inside the big tent, Zhang Yu stared at the topographic map of Taiyuan County under the light of an oil lamp.

"The enemy has a large number of troops stationed in the city, so it is difficult for our army to break through it suddenly. If we want to break through Yangyi now, we must mobilize the enemy's troops." Xu Shu pointed to Yangyi on the map and said, "Then we will line up and fight, and defeat their troops severely, so that we can quickly take Taiyuan."

Man Chong's face was very calm, and he said: "It's easy to discuss the strategy here, but how to adjust it is the key issue."

Xu Shu said, "The only way to force the enemy to fight is to attack the place they have no choice but to save, or to force them to fight. Now that the situation has come to this, if we want to defeat Li Jun, we can't just let the soldiers attack the city. We need to find another strategy."

After a long period of studying military tactics, Xu Shu is now able to participate in military planning. However, due to lack of practice, he is now more of a paper talker, providing Zhang Yu with a different dimension of thinking.

Man Chong looked at Zhang Yu who was thinking silently and asked, "Sir, Yangyi is a strategically located mountain valley. We cannot capture Yangyi suddenly. Can we find a small road to enter Taiyuan County and force Li Jun to lead his troops to fight?"

Zhang Yu nodded slightly and said, "What Bo Ning said is exactly what I want. Qipan Mountain is not Taihang Mountain. It is a dangerous place that can stop ten thousand soldiers. Now Yangyi cannot be attacked. If we can find another way and lead the troops into the county, then Yangyi can't stop us!"

While they were talking, Hao Zhao and Xu Huang were the first to enter the tent.

Seeing Hao and Xu, Zhang Yu beckoned them to come forward and asked, "Li Jun has a large army stationed in Yangyi. If we want to defeat his army, we must take a small road. Bodao has been ordered to explore the small road for a long time. I wonder if he has found anything?"

Besieging Yangyi was only one of the means. In order to prevent failure to capture the city, Zhang Yu ordered Hao Zhao, who used to travel around selling horses, to explore the surrounding paths to see if he could find another way to reach Yangyi City.

Hao Zhao walked to the map and pointed, saying, "Go west from Yangyi for more than 20 miles, there is a small road from Shangdang to Taiyuan. There is a city on the road called Jicheng. According to Zhao's orders, there are only a few hundred old and weak people."

Hao Zhao understood Zhang Yu's intention and said, "Your Excellency has led your troops to Yangyi. The enemy has stationed a large number of troops in Yangyi to resist you, so there must be few soldiers in Jicheng. Now I will give Zhao's elite troops to raid Jicheng and serve as the vanguard of your troops. We will clear other roads and lead the army into the country, so Taiyuan can be taken!"

"good!"

Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Bo Dao and Gong Ming will lead a thousand infantry and cavalry to sneak through the mountain road tonight and capture Jicheng as soon as possible to open up the main road in and out of Taiyuan for the army."

"promise!"

Although mountains and water are both dangerous obstacles, the defense system constructed by mountains is actually easier to break through than water.

Why is it easier to break through than water?

The reason is not difficult to understand. The mountains are long and undulating, and the erosion of rivers will form natural channels. Even if the water cannot erode the channel, cutting down trees will forcibly chop out a small path to the back of the pass.

For example, when Wei conquered Shu, Jiang Wei heavily guarded Jiange. The Wei army that broke through the outer mountain defense line was not only the Wei army led by Deng Ai that sneaked across Yinping, but also the troops of Tian Zhang that were sent by Zhong Hui to bypass Jiange. Deng Ai and Tian Zhang joined forces in Jiangyou, and the two of them marched straight into Shu.

Zhang Yu was not a man who could only fight stupid battles, so he naturally knew how to overcome obstacles. Previously, Zhang Yu sent troops to attack Yangyi, which was purely a tentative attack to find out Li Jun's military deployment and the combat effectiveness of his troops.

Now that he had a clue, Zhang Yu decisively changed his strategy. He sent his brave generals to sneak through a small path to open up the road in and out of Taiyuan, forcing Li Jun to abandon Yangyi and fight him.

That night, Xu Huang and Hao Zhao led a thousand infantry and cavalry and marched all night, arriving at Jicheng on the morning of October 3. In order to prevent Jicheng from noticing their movements and summoning troops to reinforce the city, the two selected elite troops and attacked Jicheng in the afternoon.

Although Li Jun had 500 soldiers stationed in Jicheng, he was unable to hold out against the sudden attack by Xu and Hao and could not hold out for less than half an hour before the small Jicheng was breached by the two.

After taking Jicheng, the two ordered their scouts to inform Zhang Yu that they had captured Jicheng. Afterwards, Hao Zhao stayed behind to guard Jicheng, while Xu Huang led his troops forward and occupied the strategic points of the trail to prevent Li Jun from sending troops to seize the city.

On the fourth day, Zhang Yu led his army to march, and on the fifth day he reached Jicheng and joined forces with Hao Zhao. Leaving Hao Zhao to guard the city, Zhang Yu led the army to march hurriedly, fearing that Xu Huang, with his few soldiers and horses, would not be able to stop Li Jun's counterattack.

However, the situation was beyond Zhang Yu's expectation. Li Jun did not intend to send troops to counterattack and seize the strategic location. Instead, when he learned that Zhang Yu had conquered Jicheng and was going to take a small road to Taiyuan, he panicked at first, then quickly evacuated Yangyi and summoned troops from various camps to march south to block Zhang Yu from entering the country.

On the sixth day, Zhang Yu led more than 4,000 troops and marched out of the small valley of Qipan Mountain and arrived at Maling Town. When they were about to go deep into the heart of Taiyuan, they encountered the troops led by Li Jun.

Since the two armies met in Maling, Zhang Yu decisively ordered Zhang Liao and Ke Bi to lead 300 cavalrymen to harass the Taiyuan troops, and ordered the infantry to quickly form a battle line and prepare for an encounter with Li Jun.

Li Jun had no intention of engaging in a skirmish, but seeing that Zhang Liao and Kirby were constantly harassing his troops, he knew it would be difficult to escape unscathed, so he ordered his troops to form a battle array.

More than a thousand cavalrymen were scattered from both sides of the army, intending to rush forward to harass the Du Liao army that was lined up with infantry. However, although Kebi had a small number of soldiers and horses, he was particularly good at riding and shooting. When more than a thousand cavalrymen were lined up, Kebi led dozens of skilled archers to run and shoot, and he shot more than ten cavalrymen in the head.

"Where's the bow and arrow? Could it be that women have played too much and can't draw the bow?"

Upon seeing this, the Taiyuan cavalry commander was so angry that he started cursing and urged his cavalrymen to drive away the Du Liao cavalry.

Zhang Liao suddenly appeared from nowhere, and took advantage of the poor command of the Taiyuan cavalry, and led dozens of armored cavalry to charge and kill, leaving dozens of Taiyuan cavalry corpses behind. Upon hearing the news, the Taiyuan cavalry pursued them, but were shot dead by the cavalry archers led by Kirby, so they dared not pursue the Du Liao cavalry anymore.

Before the two armies even engaged in battle, the Taiyuan troops had suffered a great deal of losses at the hands of their cavalry, and their morale was greatly affected.

Zhang Liao, who was well versed in military affairs, felt the lack of order in the Taiyuan army immediately after attacking the Taiyuan army!
After all, 300 cavalrymen were not many, and when they were attacked by cavalrymen, Li Jun did not need to summon all the cavalrymen to attack because of poor command. But perhaps out of panic or other reasons, thousands of cavalrymen from Taiyuan rushed forward, and were attacked by the Du Liao army in the chaos, resulting in some casualties.

It’s noon.

The soldiers of the Du Liao army were the first to form a square formation, and had already sat on the ground to eat a meal and rest for a while, while the Taiyuan soldiers led by Li Jun had just hurriedly formed a square formation.

There was no high point nearby, so Zhang Yu could not stop and look. He could only rely on cavalry to investigate and learn about the movements of Li Jun's troops.

"Sir, Li Jun has deployed a goose-shaped formation, with his main unit placed at the back and the left and right units in the front." Kirby rode back and reported to Zhang Yu.

Hearing this, Zhang Yu looked at the clerks on his left and right and said with a smile: "You are afraid before the battle. Li Jun will definitely be defeated!"

The Goose Formation is one of the ten formations written by Sun Wu. The formation is like a goose, with the left and right wings in front and the center in the back. Its purpose is to prevent the left and right wings from being outflanked and to protect the center. The overlapping of square formations is conducive to the use of bows and arrows, and is more conducive to the use of cavalry, and can play a classic tactic of outflanking.

Now, the reason why Zhang Yu judged that Li Jun was afraid before the battle was purely because he saw that the reason why Li Jun used the goose formation was probably because he hoped that his two wings would not be broken through by the cavalry on the two wings led by Zhang Yu, and used archers to attack the Liao army.

Soon, based on the summary of previous intelligence, Zhang Yu ordered the Du Liao army to form a hook-shaped formation so that the formation could be changed at any time.

Gao Shun led the Xianzhen Camp in the front and formed a square formation with the right camp led by Xu Chu, with Xu Huang and Meng Ning's two camps on the left and right. The cavalry was still the wings, led by Ke Bi and Zhang Feng. The armored cavalry led by Zhang Liao lay in wait behind the cavalry, ready to break through the enemy formation at any time.

At three quarters past noon, drums began to beat loudly.

The soldiers led by Gao Shun walked slowly, trying to conserve their strength. The thousand men led by Xu Chu followed closely behind, and the cavalry on both sides led their horses and walked slowly, slightly behind the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp.

As they got closer, accompanied by the sound of drums, the archers stepped forward and fired a volley of shots. Then they abandoned their bows and crossbows, drew out their ring-handled swords, followed by their comrades holding spears, and quickly rushed towards the enemy formation.

"shoot!"

The neat formation of the Xianzhen Camp gave the Taiyuan Army's infantry a great deterrent. Seeing the Xianzhen Camp charging, the Taiyuan Army soldiers hurriedly drew their bows and arrows, and kept shooting arrows desperately, trying to use bows and arrows to drive back the Xianzhen Camp.

However, the Taiyuan army obviously underestimated the Xianzhen Camp. The soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp were wearing heavy armor, and even if they fell down after being shot by arrows, there were still people who rushed forward one after another, holding spears and charging forward without any fear.

After three arrows were fired, the archers in the front row of the Taiyuan Army panicked when they saw that the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp were not shot back and were still approaching them. They quickly retreated along the gaps in the army formation.

"kill!"

Without waiting for all the archers to evacuate, the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp, like beasts descending from the mountain, rushed forward bravely and killed directly into the Taiyuan army formation, instantly knocking down several archers who had no time to retreat.

Then, Liu Yi, who was selected to join the Xianzhen Camp, wielded his spear and stabbed several people, showing extraordinary bravery. As the shieldman beside him was stabbed to death, Liu Yi immediately abandoned his spear, took over the shieldman's large shield, drew out his ring-handled sword, and led his troops forward bravely, killing the Taiyuan Army infantrymen to the point of screaming and howling.

The next moment, as the right camp led by Xu Chu charged into the Taiyuan army, the enemy soldiers saw how brave the soldiers of the second camp were, and they suddenly started to make a commotion. Their formation seemed to be shaken, and the cavalry was about to be attacked!
(End of this chapter)