Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 152 All Help

After the high platform on the west side of Gushou Pass was captured, the army temporarily stopped attacking the city and rested for one night.

The next day, Wu Hengyu and Wu Fei climbed the wooden platform that had been built and looked out over the situation inside Gushou Pass.

Wu Fei pointed out that several terracotta figures were hidden in the shadows behind several tall buildings on the east side of Gushou Pass. After the sunlight shone on them, their shadows, holding large swords, emerged from behind the buildings, revealing them to be terracotta warriors.

Wu Hengyu pointed out that there was a sloping road on the west side of Gushou Pass, which cavalry could use to launch a surprise attack.

If our forces enter from the south main gate and spread out slightly, an enemy cavalry unit will charge down the western slope, trampling the troops entering the city.

After the accompanying sergeants wrote down all the key points discussed by Wu Fei and Wu Hengyu before the battle, the entire sergeant group held a meeting at noon to address each point one by one.

Previous experience in attacking the plateau is useless because the walls of Gu Shou Pass are twenty zhang high. It is impossible to climb with a grappling hook, and there are large siege crossbows on the walls, giving them a superior range advantage.

Wu Fei's solution was to build a high platform 300 paces outside the city, on which ballistae could be mounted to engage in firefights with the enemy. This would also provide cover for counterweight catapults, which were installed within 300 paces.

If Zhao Cheng were inside the pass, Wu Fei wouldn't dare to act so recklessly.

Loading and unloading heavy catapults takes a full half day. If, after deployment, an unexpected attack occurs, these siege weapons cannot be withdrawn and will be completely destroyed. But now that Wu Hengyu is here, anyone who dares to leave the pass will be launching a counter-offensive.

On the sand table, Wu Fei, representing the red team, was carefully directing his men to set up the cannons, while jokingly saying, "Oh dear, General Zhao, why are you leaving so early?"

…After a day of deployment adjustments…

Standing atop the city wall, Huang Tao watched the twenty Yuntai tanks slowly approaching, and saw his own men being tossed about by the curved-trajectory projectiles on the city walls. He cursed, "Why, why at this time?"

As a general trusted by King Hao, he had been receiving information from within the Hao Kingdom for the past six months that Zhao Cheng, holding a large army at Gushou Pass, was unwilling to attack, thus using this as a pretext to coerce the court. Meanwhile, in the south, the young Wu Fei, after capturing Bo County, had become complacent and self-sufficient, and with the internal situation in Da Yao changing, Wu Fei was holding onto his power.

He was furious. Why had Wu Fei become so "ambitious" as soon as he arrived? He was now starting to doubt the absurd rumor that there was a deal between Wu Fei and Zhao Cheng.

Huang Tao became increasingly irritable, leaving the other guards inside the checkpoint helpless.

What exactly is the relationship between Zhao Cheng and Wu Fei? The garrison troops inside the pass have been able to see it clearly over the past year.

When Zhao Cheng was around, Wu Fei's "weakness" was too obvious. He would ask about her every three days and send her fruits and vegetables once a month, making her seem like a simp chasing after a goddess.

All the soldiers at Gu Shou Pass saw that when Wu Fei was harassed by Zhao Cheng, he was passively taking hits and cautiously building up the defenses of three forts. But when Huang Tao arrived, he was immediately beaten down, and within two days, the outer strongholds were taken away. Now he's trapped at home and being beaten even more.

Note: In fact, Zhao Cheng also needed to demonstrate his initiative within the pass to maintain the morale of the soldiers guarding the pass. His sending cavalry to plunder that small amount of grain was ultimately insignificant. In reality, Zhao Cheng was quite aware of Wu Fei's strategy of "feigning weakness to exploit strength."

What left Gu Shouguan's subordinates speechless was that he stubbornly rejected all the suggestions they had received.

Actually, on the 25th, Nanmen Jiang suggested that when Wu Fei was preparing to attack, a surprise force should be sent to deliver northern specialties from the gift list Zhao Cheng had prepared for Wu Fei last year to Wu Xiaoque. This would frighten Wu Fei into halting the siege equipment and transporting supplies to the front lines, thus alleviating the siege's threat.

On the 28th, just as Wu Fei was attacking the high platform, the commander on duty on the city wall suggested deploying Zhao Cheng's dummy on the city wall and sending troops out of the city to create a show of force. At that time, Wu Xiaoque might urgently come to the front line to assess the enemy situation. Meanwhile, the ballistae lying in ambush on the city wall would overload their strings to snipe across their range.

Huang Tao didn't have any sense of inferiority. He thought: he was already defending this strategic pass, why would he need this? If he were truly capable, it wouldn't matter. But now, he was completely overwhelmed. He was helpless against the bombardment from the city walls and the approaching cloud platform.

A head coach can reject a subordinate's proposal, but must resolve the problem properly himself.

As a result, his previous "rejection of suggestions" has become the basis for people's current doubts about his abilities.

As a result, the city's garrison commanders believed that if Huang Tao actively adopted the advice, Wu Fei might not necessarily be doomed, but he would most likely fall victim to the trap.

As we all know, even a brilliant strategist like Zhuge Liang failed in his Northern Expeditions, facing the predicament of "being unable to achieve strategic victory," which led later generations to wonder if the "Ziwu Valley strategy" was feasible, resulting in a series of nitpickers falling into the trap of the Ziwu Valley.

Huang Tao is far inferior to Zhuge Liang. He can't solve the problem now, and he makes everyone under his command feel like Wei Yan.

However, in reality, without Zhao Cheng, all the petty tricks these officers used in the siege were nothing but "showing off their skills in front of Lu Ban" when they were in front of Wu Fei.

The Dongshi army launched several feint attacks, causing the defenders on the Gushouguan city wall to move around like startled birds, all of which were spotted by the kite flyers high in the sky.

Wu Fei: You can't fake the quality of food. Even if Zhao Cheng were to fake it, he wouldn't let anyone trample on the city wall stairs when he was mobilizing troops.

Wu Fei greatly admired the self-mobilization of Hao Jun's subordinate generals, who were "lowly in rank but dared to worry about the country." He then used a kite to transmit the coordinates and began to replace Zhao Cheng in instructing them on their studies.

This time, the catapults were changed from solid projectiles to incendiary projectiles.

The incendiary bomb had a 70-kilogram rock warhead with four small holes drilled in it and filled with four kilograms of sulfurous kerosene.

These warheads crashed directly into the wooden fortress on the city wall, and the four kilograms of flammable material quickly released a large amount of flames and poison gas in the confined space.

As the shells hit the city wall, the Hao soldiers inside the city surged out like rats. But as they pushed and shoved, those at the back couldn't get through and fainted, blocking the entrance and suffocating everyone inside.

On the city wall, the Hao soldiers watched as catapults launched their projectiles into the distance. The projectiles had just left their trails, leaving only afterimages. They would then slow down at their highest point, appearing as tumbling black dots. Under the sunlight, the projectiles seemed to hover, but soon they accelerated as they fell closer and closer, emitting a sharp whistling sound.

The Hao soldiers, who were hit by the cannon fire, stood on the city wall with their mouths agape. As flames shot out, many of them fell to the ground below the wall.

…an hour later…

As the defenders at Gushou Pass grew increasingly exhausted, their faces a mixture of soot and sweat, and having been tricked into a one-sided attack, they slumped listlessly in the craters of the city wall. At that moment, Yuntai was slowly approaching. They raised their heads, their voices hoarse from days of shouting, but they still gripped their sword hilts tightly.

However, as soon as the drums began to beat, all the soldiers inside the pass noticed that the cloud platform was accelerating and closing in.

The soil in front of Gushou Pass is very hard, making it unsuitable for tunnel excavation. However, it is suitable for supporting a gimbal.

If the soil is soft, the gimbal rollers will sink into the ground and cannot move forward.

During the first round of fire suppression, Wu Hengyu had already sent personnel to scout the terrain at Gushou Pass.

Where Yuntai walked, there were occasional potholes in the ground, which were filled in by the sandbags (woven straw bags filled with pebbles) carried by the accompanying farmers.

Regarding the defense of Gushou Pass, Zhao Cheng did not want to build a diamond-shaped fortress like Wu Fei's around Gushou Pass, but—the Haotian Dragon Clan was, after all, an outsider and could not gather the resources.

The cost of Haotian collecting labor was much higher than the cost of Wufei writing IOUs to various major clans.

Under Wu Fei's arrangement and command, the laborers in Bo County, led by the head of a large township, supported the front lines. As long as the porridge stalls along the way provided food, the laborers would not desert. If food was cut off, Wu Fei would investigate the responsibility to see if the money was not paid in full or if the local maintenance committee had taken the money but did not work! Wu Fei had receipts for every step of the military procurement, and each receipt was made in triplicate, held by the "seller," the "buyer," and the "dispute party."

The enemy forces are now launching a counterattack on Gushou Pass, bringing them a true feast.

Back on the battlefield, as the laborers pushed the massive wooden crossbar, the solid wood wheels of the platform creaked and groaned as they rolled over.

To maintain stability, the entire platform was designed to be heavy at the bottom and light at the top. This meant that the upper structural materials were very thin, making it difficult to defend against small-caliber cannonballs and crossbow bolts even with baffles.

Furthermore, these top-level panels could be pierced by arrows. Even more dangerously, if the platform were doused with oil, it would be extremely easy to burn.

In siege battles throughout history, many cloud platforms were destroyed by fire attacks by the defenders before they could reach the city walls.

There was no shortage of oil-based weapons at Gu Shou Pass. Therefore, Wu Fei consistently used counterweight catapults to suppress the archers on the city walls.

Occasionally, sulfur rockets hit the gimbal at Gushou Pass, causing flames to rise. There is also a dedicated fire truck directly behind the gimbal.

This fire truck is a wooden ox-shaped vehicle carrying a large water tank, and by pedaling, it sprays high-pressure water jets onto the tank.

Of course, during the exercise, considering the possibility that the gimbal might be hit by an oil-fueled rocket and water would be insufficient to extinguish the fire, several bags of ash were also prepared. This ash, when thrown on the surface, would not reignite. Furthermore, after being soaked in water and dried by fire, it would form a heat-insulating layer.

As the cloud platform gradually approached and pressed forward, the garrison at Gushou Pass unleashed their trump card: three sets of Yanlin rocket launchers were pushed out from the high platform to begin covering the cloud platform.

The Flamefire rocket launchers hidden by Haojun within the city opened fire. Firework rockets exploded near the platform; aside from some upper-level panels being blown off, the platform's base, propelled by four large wooden wheels, remained unmoved. The soldiers on the platform took cover in the safe zone behind the platform's support pillars. A few soldiers lost their footing and fell due to the shockwaves from the rocket bombardment, but were prevented from falling directly by the ropes attached to their waists by metal buckles.

The response from Yao Jun to these fiery rockets came from a crossbow on a wooden platform outside the city. In front of this crossbow, invented by Wu Fei, was a steel ball the size of a glass bead. After the steel ball was heated to a red-hot state, it was put into an electromagnetic heater invented by Gongshu Wang and rolled for a while until it turned incandescent.

The launchers removed the steel balls and placed them into the ceramic notch at the front of the crossbow bolt, just like inserting a ballpoint pen. Of course, not just one, but a series of them. Finally, a layer of damp mud was applied to the tip of the spear-like bolt to seal it. The mud dried and cracked instantly, blocking the movement of the steel balls.

The arrow, slightly tilted upwards, was quickly hoisted onto the ballista platform using ropes. This process had to be swift, as the arrow was terrifyingly hot even with asbestos netting underneath. It was then placed on the ballista frame. The gunner, who had already adjusted the firing angle, struck the trigger with a hammer, and the arrow flew out.

As the blazing crossbow struck the blazing rocket launcher, the ceramic shattered, and the scorching steel balls bounced up, landing in inconspicuous places. It was like a bean falling to the ground, requiring a long search to find.

The Haojun commander of the Yanlin rocket launcher did not notice anything and continued to operate it. However, after a dozen seconds, he smelled a strong burning odor and knew it was over. A strong flame suddenly appeared. He tried to cover it with sand to extinguish it, but found that he could not put it out.

Although the sand covers the intense heat source, it does not eliminate the heat; the wood and other combustibles will release a large amount of flammable gas.

The areas hit by the Flaming Sun Ballista were engulfed in flames a minute later. The Flaming Sun Rocket Launcher was unable to evacuate in time and was sent flying into the sky with a bang.

The talismans pasted on the arrows of the Flaming Sun Crossbow are Yellow Millet Drunken Talismans, which is why they are so accurate.

…The smoke of battle began to fill the entire Gushou Pass…

Just as the two armies were exchanging cannon fire, eighteen slingshot platforms were steadily placed near the city wall, lowering the cable-stayed bridge.

Before reaching the wall, the soldiers on the platform would begin to climb. The first to reach the platform would not be the first to ascend the city wall, but would continue climbing to the top, pick up an iron pipe sprayer, and spray the city wall with it. Then the others would climb the platform's planks, like "boarders at sea," onto the city wall.

The vanguard of Yuntai and the Hao army fought fiercely on the city walls. Wounded men continued to fall from the twenty-zhang-high walls. The Yao army began to switch sides, with the ratio of attackers to defenders at one to one and a half.

At this stage, only a limited number of people were able to climb the wall. The reason was that although the platform looked huge, it was wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, so what ultimately rested against the wall was just a single plank, like a narrow bridge. Soldiers could only cross one at a time.

However, at this moment, Wu Hengyu and a group of troops rushed over. To everyone's astonishment, Wu Hengyu attacked a section of the city wall where Haojun's defenses were weak, since the city's defenders were busy dealing with Yuntai.
Wearing steel-soled shoes, Wu Hengyu stepped directly onto the city wall bricks and tiles, and swiftly climbed up, reaching the top of the city wall in just five breaths.

At that section of the city wall, a few Hao soldiers hurriedly tried to stop him, but he swept them off the city wall with his Xinghan Spear. Then he reached out his arm and pulled up a person who was climbing on the battlement, and then the person reached out his arm down.

A chain made up of people's arms wrapped around each other was pulled from the city wall to the foot of the city. With a sudden burst of strength, Wu Hengyu shattered the city bricks beneath his feet, but the chain of more than a dozen people was easily pulled up. The entire chain was like a caterpillar, with each leg stepping up in an orderly fashion. Under the power of Wu Hengyu's divine strength, this row of people climbed directly onto the wall.

Wu Hengyu walked to the other side and reached out to another human chain climbing the wall. Upon seeing this, the soldiers in the human chain also tightened their grip on each other's arms, making it easier to receive a lift from above.

In the third round, he switched hands and continued pulling, and another twenty people were pulled up (firefighters pull people up in groups of three).

Everyone around was stunned. Dong Shijun, who had previously been dismissive of Wu Fei's elder brother, shouted, "General, you are truly a god!"

The soldiers who climbed the cloud platform only wore chest armor, while Wu Hengyu always pulled up fully armored infantry. This immediately gave Yao's army a significant advantage in the area of ​​the city wall, especially with the fierce general Wu Hengyu charging rampaging across it.

Wu Fei stared intently at the city wall, his heart pounding in his throat! He was terrified that someone might stab him when Wu Hengyu unleashed his power. But nothing happened.

Thus, the originally grand Yuntai Ascent of the City Wall turned into a feint attack, and Wu Hengyu's presence allowed hundreds of people to ascend the city wall without any hindrance.

By the time the Hao soldiers gathered in front of the Cloud Platform felt hundreds of men wielding swords and hacking wildly, the Hao army's formation on the city wall had already collapsed. Troops poured onto the Cloud Platform, and baskets of muskets were also brought up below to equip the Yao army's lightly armored infantry near the Cloud Platform with new weapons. A short while later, the musketeers of the Yao army on the city wall began firing down towards the area below.

Wu Hengyu led his men to clear the entire city wall.

Seeing that the city walls were completely covered with their own flags, Wu Fei felt a huge weight lifted from his heart.

…Gu Shou Pass was defeated so quickly that the defending general tried to put up a last-ditch resistance…

Huang Tao, on the other hand, had no choice but to bring out the ten-zhang-tall ceramic giants, the Terracotta Warriors and Imperial Guards.

As the giant ceramic Gundam strode out of the street with a thunderous gait, Huang Tao, along with a group of Jade Warriors with halberds and axemen, gathered in the city alleys for a final, desperate battle.

Huang Tao had simply forgotten the scene when Zhao Cheng used the "Baxia" heavy cannon to attack the city in Shazhou back then.

As a dragon descendant, he disdained learning Zhao Cheng's tactics. In Zhao Cheng's siege warfare, he would predict the densest points of movement of the defending troops and then launch precise artillery bombardments. This is remarkably similar to Wu Fei's current process.

On Yao Jun's side, crossbow bolts were fired from the wooden platform. The crossbow arms, made of a composite material of ox horn, silk, and jujube wood, shook the entire platform as they rebounded. After the bolts reached their highest point, paper wings unfolded and then slid down.

Upon seeing the incoming cannonballs, Huang Tao immediately ordered his soldiers to defend, placing the giant terracotta warriors at the forefront.

The terracotta warrior's massive sword spun with incredible speed and power, its movements incredibly graceful. However, cannonballs easily pierced through the sword, causing it to explode.

The immense kinetic energy shattered the steel ball embedded in the arrowhead, and the ejected iron fragments caused the soldiers to scream in agony. Amidst the chaos, Huang Tao suddenly heard a strange sound. He looked up and saw a crossbow bolt embedded in the chest of a giant terracotta warrior. The terracotta warrior looked down in a human-like manner, as if in disbelief. As scorching smoke billowed from the cracks, the giant terracotta warrior crashed to the ground, signifying the complete collapse of the morale of the Hao army in the city.

Three incense sticks later, Wu Hengyu arrived and captured Huang Tao alive.

(End of this chapter)