My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 461 I have made up my mind!

In the end, Liu Rong decided to take the three old guys to another place to chat.

——The side hall behind Xuanshi Hall is the Martial Arts Hall.

The reason for changing the location is that nearly 60% of the area of ​​this square martial arts hall is occupied by a sand table.

Of course, there is still a certain gap compared with the military sand table of later generations.

But compared to the previous maps that could only be viewed on a flat surface, the three-dimensional terrain effect provided by this sand table is much more intuitive.

"The three generals, please watch."

After entering the martial arts hall, Liu Gong quickly walked to the upper left corner of the sand table and headed towards a location where a black triangular flag was erected.

Then he squatted down and pointed at that position with his hand.

It is Gaoque.

Then Li Ji, Luan Bu and Han Tuidang also walked forward and squatted down like Liu Rong.

Looking at the place at the pass, with a big river as a moat and walls on both sides - especially the pass connected to Zhao Great Wall on one side, the three of them fell silent.

- Exactly.

Gaoque is the western terminus of the Zhao Great Wall.

"Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of the Xiongnu" records: From Dai and the foot of Yinshan Mountain to Gaoque, it was a barrier.

According to most historical records, during the reigns of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han, the Qin and Han armies marched northward across the border and galloped across the grasslands, often using Gaoque as their starting point.

The reason is self-evident: once you leave Gaoque, you will have set foot in the territory of Munan.

Previously, when looking at the map in the front hall of Xuanshi Palace, Li Ji, Luan Bu and Han Tuidang could only imagine the terrain of Gaoque area in their minds based on the information on the map.

Especially Li Ji and Luan Bu - they had never seen Gaoque and could only imagine it.

Even Han Tuidang had only seen it from afar once by chance more than thirty or forty years ago - and it was the view of the south side of Gaoque seen from the north side, not from the Hetao perspective, which is the north side of Gaoque from the Han family's perspective today.

At this moment, looking at the extremely detailed and lifelike terrain sand table on the ground, the three of them were speechless for a moment.

The three-dimensional impact brought by vision is always more direct and stronger than the impact of the "brain-filled picture" brought by a flat map.

When they looked at the map before, the three of them took it for granted that Gaoque was very important. It was a fortress connecting Munan and Hetao, and it was also a military strategic focus radiating to the Hexi region.

But at this moment, the three of them saw directly from the sand table in front of them why Gaoque had such an important strategic position and importance.

so similar!
Gaoque is so much like Hangu Pass.

They are all built on the mountains and by the water, with the natural dangers of the mountains and streams as their foundation, and their moats are all large rivers!

The only difference is that Hangu Pass faces west and east, defending against the outside world.
Gaoque faces north and south, defending against the Hetao River.

What’s even more terrible is that the large river basin outside Hangu Pass is the downstream area, where the water flow is relatively slow.

Although the waves can also be described as rough, there are many feasible ways to cross the river.

For example, officials or dignitaries could take an official ship: a tower ship, which could cross the river without any bumps;
For example, ordinary people and farmers could also find woodcutters with sheepskin rafts outside Hangu Pass. For only thirty coins, they could have a thrilling experience of crossing the river.

If it weren't unnecessary - if the significance of Hangu Pass's existence was not to increase the difficulty and time of reaching Hangu Pass from outside the pass, the Han family could even build a floating bridge across the river outside Hangu Pass!

For the current Han Dynasty and the current Han Shaofu, this is by no means a major project that deserves caution.

But outside Gaoque, the river basin that separates Munan and Hetao is located in the upper reaches of the river.

Although the existence of Hetao forced the river to change its course to the north and flow around Hetao in a "convex" shape, its river flow rate and flow rate are much higher than those in the downstream basin outside Hangu Pass.

It is no exaggeration to say that if you want to cross the river from the northern part of Hetao in the shortest straight-line distance and reach Gaoque, the only reasonable way is to do it in winter.

——And it had to be the cold winter of December, when the water flow in the river dropped significantly and the remaining part was frozen, before the Han army could cross the river on the solid ice as if walking on flat ground.

As for other assemblies, whether using "navy"-level tower ships, low-end civilian sheepskin rafts, or Suiying's specialty: rushing to build a pontoon bridge, they were all somewhat impractical.

Needless to say, the sheepskin raft could not withstand the rough waves in the upper reaches.

The same principle applies to building a floating bridge. If the water flow rate and flow rate do not allow it, even if the floating bridge can be built in the end, the time required will definitely not be short.

As for the building ship, regardless of whether it can work, its ability to transport hundreds of people per trip is enough to make this proposal be rejected outright.

Just think about it and you will know: the Han wanted to cross the river and attack Gaoque from the northern part of Hetao, on the premise that they could see Gaoque on the other side of the river with the naked eye. Naturally, it was not for the purpose of building relationships with the Huns.

——But for the sake of fighting!

Since it is a war, especially crossing a river and attacking a fortress, the word "speed" must be guaranteed.

It would be best if the Han army could arrive at Gaoque or even climb onto the top of the wall before the Huns could react or even discover that the Han army had crossed the river!

Based on this, a bold and crazy plan began to emerge in Liu Rong's mind.

"If the war starts in winter~"

"Generals, do you think this is possible?"

With just this one sentence, Li Ji, Luan Bu and Han Tuidang fell into a longer period of contemplation.

But before, they were lost in thought, or thinking about how to persuade Liu Rong to think twice, Quan Liu Rong not to dream in the daytime, trying to get Gaoque easily;
But now, they are really considering the feasibility of this plan.

At least half of the reason why Gaoque was difficult to attack was due to the big river on the south side of Gaoque.

As military generals, especially the top generals of the Han Dynasty, the three of them naturally understood Liu Rong's meaning instantly.

——If the war is started in winter, the river outside Gaoque will freeze over.

The Han army no longer had to worry about how to cross the river, how to land on the beach, how to stabilize its position on the opposite bank, and how to launch an attack on Gaoque.

As long as the ice is thick enough, the moat is equivalent to non-existence!
Not only could the Han army soldiers walk across on their own, they could even find a way to send siege equipment to the other side.

The most important thing is: crossing the river cannot be done "secretly".

No matter whether it was the multi-story ship that cut through the thorns or the soldiers in Suiying who tried their best to build a pontoon bridge, it was impossible to do it without Gaoque's knowledge and discovery.

Since the enemy is bound to discover it, it is equivalent to crossing the river openly, and it is inevitable that we will be attacked by the enemy halfway across the river.

However, in winter, there is no such problem when crossing the river after it is completely frozen.

Of course you can just walk over there openly.

But the Han family can't be that stupid.

The Han army could easily sneak up to Gaoque late at night or on a foggy day when the visibility range and visibility were low.

After reaching Gaoque without anyone noticing, there are many ways of attack that can be chosen.

Can attack in the middle of the night;

Can decapitation action;

You can also find ways to incite rebellion and coerce the Hun guards inside the pass.

You can even send people to sneak into the pass and lead the army directly into the pass!
More choices mean easier battles and lower difficulty. Liu Rong could think of this, and the Huns could obviously think of it too.

——Your own city, don’t you know that your moat will freeze in the winter and become completely useless?

Of course not.

Knowing that the moat will freeze in winter, you will definitely take great precautions in winter and even be on high alert at all times.

What about Gao Que?

Did the Xiongnu defenders in Gaoque know that the river would freeze in winter - at least its flow rate and volume would be greatly reduced?
of course I know.

So, will they focus on preparations and strengthen their defenses in winter?
will not.

It’s not because they’re stupid;
But they knew: even if the river was frozen, winter was definitely not a good time to launch an offensive or even to continue the war.

Think about when the wars between the Han and the Huns took place over the years.

Either the beginning of spring or after autumn.

The war in the early spring was because the Huns were frozen and starved during the past winter, so they had no choice but to go south to plunder;

The war after autumn was because the Han Dynasty had harvested in autumn and their granaries were full, which the Huns robbed.

There is no exception to both - the Huns were either badly hurt by the previous winter, or they were trying to better prepare for the coming winter so as not to be frozen or starved.

It is not difficult to see from this that for the nomadic peoples of the grassland, the real enemy is neither the Donghu and Yuezhi of the past, nor the evil neighbor Han today.

But it’s winter.

And all the bad weather, natural disasters and man-made disasters, including the cold winter - but mainly the cold winter.

Because in winter, cattle and sheep will lose the nutritious grass and water, and can only make do with the hay stored earlier by the herders, or even carry it directly on their shoulders, suffering from hunger and cold until the beginning of spring.

Herders will also suffer from a shortage of physical goods due to a decrease in livestock milk production, or even livestock freezing to death or starving to death.

It can be said that every winter is a disaster for the nomadic people on the grassland.

If you fail to survive the tribulation, you will die!
Even if one successfully overcomes the tribulation, he will not be able to ascend to heaven, but will simply continue to live.

The already harsh living environment on the grassland, coupled with the cold wind of winter, makes the nomadic people even more tragic.

As for the Han army, their ability to resist the cold is not much better than that of the nomadic people - it may even be relatively worse.

no way;
They have survived on the grassland for so many years, so they have some magic resistance.

On the other hand, the Han army soldiers, even in places like Yan and Dai, which were known as "bitterly cold places", could not be said to have been accustomed to the cold.

At least compared to the grassland areas, the coldness in the northern borders of Yan and Dai is like playing house.

Especially on the grasslands, there must be many nomadic people who are willing to call the so-called "bitter cold" of Yan and Dai areas a warm place that makes people feel like spring breeze.

Therefore, even though they knew that in the severe winter, the rivers would freeze over and Gaoque would lose its river linking the city, greatly reducing its defense and the difficulty of attack, the Xiongnu defenders in Gaoque were not worried that the Han people would attack.

On the one hand, the inertia of thinking developed over decades made the Huns instinctively believe that the Han people would only defend themselves with the city walls when we attacked and would never take the initiative to attack.

Even with the lessons of the Hetao-Mayi Campaign, this inertia of thinking cannot be reversed so easily.

On the other hand, the Han people living in the relatively warmer "South" - to be more precise, south of the Great Wall - must be more afraid of cold than the Huns.

The Huns, who were not afraid of the cold, were so cold in winter that they huddled together in Gaoque for warmth and did not even dare to stick their heads out of the wall. How much more so were the Han people who were even more afraid of the cold?
Back then, during the Battle of Pingcheng between the Han and the Xiongnu, Emperor Taizu Gao was besieged on Mount Baideng.

In just seven days, thousands of elite Han troops under Emperor Taizu Gao were frozen to death or starved to death, and tens of thousands more were frostbitten and had their limbs amputated, so they were forced to retire from active service.

On the other hand, the number of casualties in combat was only a few hundred.

Thousands of casualties seemed no big deal to the hundreds of thousands of troops under the command of the founding monarch?
——You have to know that in that battle, Emperor Taizu Gao’s men were all the elite cavalry and charioteers from the southern and northern armies!
After that battle, more than half of the soldiers in the five Confederate armies were killed or wounded, and the seven Union armies almost lost their organization!

It took more than ten years for the Southern and Northern Imperial Guards to finally recover, but they also lost their most precious wealth: elite soldiers who had experienced hundreds of battles in the wars at the end of the Qin Dynasty.

These stereotypes and "past experiences" unconsciously influenced the Huns, making Gaoque in the dead of winter almost completely defenseless.

——Outside the wall, thousands of miles of ice;

Inside the wall, the guards locked their necks and huddled together in a sheltered place. If conditions allowed, they would gather around a campfire for warmth; if not, they would gather together for warmth.

In fact, what the Huns thought was indeed correct.

Han people are indeed more afraid of cold.

Under such harsh climatic conditions, the Han army soldiers could not even launch an attack - it was even difficult for them to live a normal life in the northern part of the Hetao area, or even in the so-called "warm area" of the grassland: Mu'nan.

It is a fact that the Han people are afraid of the cold. It is also an indisputable fact that in this era, no matter whether north or south of the Great Wall, it is impossible - or at least unwilling - to fight in winter.

It was precisely these objective facts that gave Liu Rong the opportunity to paralyze the Huns and seize Gaoque through abnormal and unconventional means.

"I think all the generals understand what I mean."

"——The matter of keeping warm will be handled by the Shaofu."

"And in this battle, soldiers are allowed to bring wine with them."

"Also, I happened to find a fragment of an ancient scroll, which contains many methods of keeping warm."

As he said this, Liu Rong subconsciously looked at the three people in front of him and carefully observed their expressions.

After making sure that they had wavered, he made the decision without further hesitation.

"I have decided: On the tenth day of the eleventh month of next winter, the battle of Gaoque will officially begin!"

"Han Tuidang, Marquis of Gonggao, will be the commander-in-chief, while Cheng Bushi, Marquis of Bowang, and Zhidu, the defender of Yanmen, will each serve as the vanguard."

"Moreover, in this battle, the two captains of the Huben and Yulin divisions that I have carefully trained for many years will each have one school participating in the battle!"

...

"This matter is a top secret of our Han family!"

"Until now, I am the only one who knows;"

"From now on, you will be the four of us, the king and his subjects."

"——I hope all the generals will help me with all their might!"

...

"In this battle, many good men may be buried under the high palace."

"But I still insist on doing so."

"Even if I am cursed by the world, I will still seek the welfare of the descendants of the Han family."

"Gaoque is the first blessing I want to seek for future generations..."

(End of this chapter)