My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 485 A Song of Ice and Fire

During most of the time and most of the dynasties in ancient China, personal military achievements in the cold weapon era were nothing more than being the first to break into the enemy line, beheading the generals and capturing the flags.

Apart from these four items, there was only the ordinary beheading.

These four major personal contributions on the battlefield correspond to four achievements achieved under four different situations.

For example, the word "break into the enemy's formation" means that when both sides are ready for a head-on confrontation, we should break into the enemy's formation and cause damage - destroy the enemy's formation, undermine the enemy's morale, and thus create a rare battlefield advantage for our army.

For example, beheading the general and capturing the flag - the former is to kill the enemy's main general alone, making the enemy army leaderless and falling into chaos, while the latter is to seize the army flag, making the enemy's morale loose and the army morale in chaos...
It is not difficult to find that of the four major meritorious performances, namely, being the first to reach the enemy's formation, beheading the generals and seizing the flags, the other three, except for being the first to reach the enemy's formation, basically require causing a blow to the enemy's military morale, that is, causing mental damage and magical damage to the enemy.

——To break through the enemy's formation means to go deep into the enemy's position!

——To behead a general is to carry out a beheading operation in broad daylight!

——To capture the flag is to shit on top of the enemy’s flag guard camp!

The main point is that it is extremely insulting and harmful.

But compared with these three, being the first to reach the target can actually create advantages for the side, or even victory, and it is not a "glorious" option at all.

As the name suggests, the first to climb the city wall during a siege.

But it is different from the "literal meaning" understood by later generations: in addition to requiring the soldiers to climb the city wall first, they must also stand on the wall and not be pushed off the wall by the enemy defenders on the wall. At the same time, they must buy enough time for their comrades who are constantly climbing up the wall behind them.

To put it more bluntly, you have to climb to the top of the wall, braving the arrows, stones and logs flying down from the city wall!

Then, kill the one or two enemy soldiers guarding the parapet - or at least repel them.

Then they jumped in from the parapet and took up the defensive position in front of it, preventing the enemy guards from continuing to hold their defensive positions in front of it. They threw stones, rolled logs, scattered gold soup, and shot arrows at their comrades who were climbing up the city.

When the defensive position is occupied by you and there are loopholes and gaps in the defense line, the enemy defenders will inevitably launch a siege on you.

At this time, you need to cover your comrades one by one as they climb to the top of the wall under the enemy's siege, and then create favorable conditions for more comrades to climb to the top of the wall.

This is the first climb.

The person who climbs the city wall first and then covers the soldiers who climb the city wall one by one, thus forming a stronghold on the city wall and leading the siege to victory, is credited with the merit of being the first to climb the wall.

Among the four major personal meritorious services, namely, being the first to enter the enemy's formation, beheading the general and seizing the flag, being the first to enter the enemy's formation ranks third, before entering the enemy's formation, after beheading the general and seizing the flag.

Understanding the significance of being the first to reach the wall, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion: in a siege, it is extremely important to be able to establish a stronghold on the wall where the enemy is stationed.

This is because if one person climbs up the wall first, it means a stronghold has been formed, and then this stronghold will be continuously expanded, and more and more of our soldiers will climb up the wall.

The form of battle will also change from the previous city attack and defense battles to hand-to-hand combat on the walls and battles for positions.

As we all know, in a city attack and defense battle, the casualties of the attacking side are usually at least three times that of the defending side, and the attacker needs at least three to five times the number of troops to be considered evenly matched and able to fight back and forth.

The battle for positions is a fight of flesh and blood. Only when the forces of both sides are equal can they be evenly matched. The advantage in force can be directly transformed into an advantage on the battlefield.

Therefore, in a battle to attack or defend a city, the one who reaches the city first will be considered the most meritorious and will receive the most generous reward.

But today, the Battle of Gaoque broke out, but it was different from the common city attack and defense battle.

——The vanguard army led by Zhidu first marched out from the west of Bowang City!

Given that Bowang was located in the south and Gaoque was located in the north, and that there was a large river between the two, the vanguard army made a big "C" shape and sneaked all the way to Gaoque.

When the troops arrived at Gaoque City, they did not launch a frontal attack openly. Instead, they took advantage of the Huns' lax guard and weak defense on the wall and sent elite scouts to climb up the wall with ropes to clear out the few remaining Huns defenders on the wall - or Huns sentries - one by one.

Afterwards, thousands more people climbed onto the top of the wall, and before the battle really began, they were the first to achieve the battlefield goal of "climbing up first and forming a stronghold."

By the time the Huns reacted, the wall had basically been controlled by the vanguard army, and the nature of the battle was no longer a battle to attack and defend cities and passes, but a battle for positions.

Moreover, when the battle broke out, the position was in the hands of Zhidu's vanguard, and the Gaoque Xiongnu defenders, who were attacked in the middle of the night, became the active attacking party.

"impossible!"

"Absolutely impossible!"

"How could these Han people appear quietly in Gaoque in such weather?"

"——How could these Han people successfully reach Gaoque in this harsh winter!!!"

"impossible!!!"

Three hundred steps inside Gaoque, looking into the distance at the Gaoque city wall that had been occupied by the Han army, as well as the increasing number of Han soldiers on the wall, Huyan Dangtu's eyes were bloodshot and he was even more frightened and at a loss.

How can it be!

How could the Han people really dare to attack Gaoque!
Especially in such weather, how could the Han people really send their army to Gaoque smoothly? !
The battle broke out suddenly. As the main general, Huyan Dangtu's most important thing to do was to stabilize the army's morale and boost its spirits as quickly as possible, so as to recapture the Gaoque Wall and drive the Han people off the city wall.

In the battles of attacking and defending cities, most of the defending generals did the same thing.

——The enemy climbs up the wall first and forms a stronghold, and the city attack and defense battle turns into a battle for positions. In this case, concentrate your forces to first destroy the enemy's stronghold formed on the wall, push the enemy back outside the city wall, and change the nature of the battle back to a city attack and defense battle.

It’s a pity that Huyan Dangtu was a Xiongnu general.

Even though he had been ordered to garrison Gaoque for many years, Huyan Dangtu had never imagined that one day a battle of attack and defense would actually break out in Gaoque.

Especially before last year, Hetao was still under the control of nomadic people on the grassland and belonged to the Xiongnu territory in an absolute sense. Gaoque was merely an internal pass that separated Munan from Hetao and guarded against the unfavorable effects of the Hetao region on Munan's Youxianwang tribe and the Shanyu Ting headquarters.

It was only a little over a year before Gaoque truly became the frontier between the Han and Xiongnu and a border pass for the Xiongnu.

The most important thing is: in the cognition of Xiongnu nobles and nomadic generals like Huyan Dangtu, city attack and defense battles are really beyond the scope.

——On the grassland, has there ever been a fight between two tribes that turned into a battle for the attack and defense of a city?
Where did the city come from on the grassland?
When a fight breaks out between two tribes, apart from one-sided tribal camps being attacked, there are almost only two possible situations in the head-on confrontation on the battlefield.

Or, when two tribes meet, one of them feels that it is no match for the other, so it starts to move around on the battlefield, or even simply runs away.

The other party decides whether to pursue based on the needs.

If before the battle, the intention was to compete for superiority, to teach the other party a lesson, or if there was a dispute over the ownership of a piece of pasture or water source, then most likely they would not chase.

After all, the winner has been decided.

The only situation where one side escapes and the other side pursues will occur is when there is an irreconcilable hatred between the two sides, or when there are resources that the two sides are competing for and the final ownership must be determined by the elimination of one of the sides, or when the advantageous side wants to annex the other side, then one side will flee and the other side will pursue.

This is a situation where one party flees and the other party chases or does not chase.

Another situation is that both sides do not flee and are both blood-thirsty.

In this situation, whether it is a head-on charge or a roundabout fight, it will be extremely brutal.

Xiongnu nobles and senior officers like Huyan Dangtu were good at these two types of warfare, namely, cavalry against cavalry in a "mobile large group and deep" war. It was easy to use cavalry infantry, especially Han infantry, in open areas - just do it like chasing prey.

Track, stalk, harass, and devour.

Anyway, it's easy and carefree.

But when the Han infantry retreated back into the city, the Xiongnu nobles were actually a little confused.

——No matter how powerful the cavalry is, they can’t charge over a wall that’s several feet high!

The enemy infantry has the city walls as cover, and their bows and arrows have a longer range than ours. How should we fight them?
Therefore, in the past, almost every time there was a sudden large-scale invasion of the Huns to the south, the border wall cities were always able to survive with a high probability.

Because the Huns really had no good way to deal with the city, and they had no ability to fight a good siege.

You know he doesn't have that ability, right?

If you let the Huns chase the isolated and helpless group of heavy infantry in the open plains, that would be a piece of cake.

In open areas, the Huns were not afraid to fight the enemy cavalry head-on, in roundabout ways, or even in hand-to-hand combat after dismounting.

But you want these nomadic people who grew up riding on horseback to attack a city with high walls, thick fortifications and strong defenses?

I’m sorry, I haven’t learned it and I don’t know how to do it.

But right now, Huyan Dangtu is facing an even worse situation - the Xiongnu army, which can't even attack a city, is now defending the city!
It would be fine if they were just defending the city. Even if they had never eaten pork, they had always seen pigs run. The experience accumulated from attacking Han cities could always help the Xiongnu army learn some lessons, and even if they just imitated, they could hold up the situation.

But the current situation is: the battle of Gaoque changed the war situation at the same time as the war officially began.

At least at this moment, the attack and defense of Gaoque has turned into a battle for the wall.

The Han army, which was originally the vanguard of the attacking party, became the defenders on the wall, while the Xiongnu defenders, which were originally the defenders of the city, became the initiators of the attack.

It was already difficult enough to ask the Huns, who had no idea how to attack a city, to guard a pass.

What's more, it is an alternative offensive and defensive battle that starts with a disadvantage and with the prerequisite that "the wall has been taken away"?
It is no wonder that at this moment, Huyan Dangtu had no time to rebuild the morale of the army, integrate the troops, and deal with the current battle situation.

——Huyan Dangtu couldn’t believe that he was not dreaming at this moment.

And it’s a nightmare!
"Shoot the arrow, shoot the arrow!"

"Draw the bow!"

"It doesn't matter if you can't hit the Han people, just shoot all the arrows outside the wall!"

"There are still Han people climbing the wall, shoot them!"

Compared to Huyan Dangtu who was standing there in a daze, Tuge, who had experience in diplomatic missions to the Han Dynasty, reacted more quickly.

With a backbone, and especially with clear combat orders, the Hun defenders, who had been rushing around like headless flies, were finally able to organize a decent offensive.

But the situation on the battlefield is still not optimistic.

it's too cold.

The weather is really too cold.

Even if both sides intended to take good care of the bow, the bowstring could no longer be pulled in this cold winter when the breath turned into ice.

Whether it was the Han army vanguard led by Zhidu on the top of the city wall, facing Gaoque with their backs to the outside of the city, or the Xiongnu defenders inside Gaoque launching a counterattack towards the city wall, they could only decide the direction of the war through the most primitive close combat, that is, close hand-to-hand combat.

Then, Huyan Dangtu and Tu Ge were both stunned.

——When nomadic peoples fight in close combat, there is no such thing as "forming a battle array".

But the Han army did.

To be precise, in the era of cold weapons, almost all formations that could improve the combat effectiveness of infantry clusters originated from Chinese civilization.

At this moment, people were jumping around on the top of Gaoque Wall, and one Han army vanguard after another was climbing up the wall using ropes from outside the city wall.

Outside the wall, there were even vanguard soldiers who had begun to use local materials, such as ropes and sword handles, to make rope ladders!

On the inner side of the wall, thousands of Han soldiers were on full alert, standing still like a mountain.

Whenever a Hun warrior rushed forward with a roar, he would run into the Han army's vanguard formation and be quickly submerged in the swords and sabers of the Han army soldiers.

And as time went on, the Han army's array became visibly thicker and denser.

There were even piles of bonfires lit on the wall behind the Han army to provide some warmth, which was better than nothing but also precious, for the vanguard soldiers who were ravaged by the cold winter.

——Outside the wall, there was heavy snow and wind.

On the wall, flames were everywhere.

Ice and fire flickered against each other, as if the Huns' last elegy was being sung on top of this high wall.

"The whole army obeys the order!"

"The central army of Marquis Bowang has arrived outside the wall!"

"Do your best, at all costs, to hold on until the last hour!"

"The formation moves from the back to the front, and the central army led by Marquis Bowang takes over the defense in turn!!!"

On the wall, Zhidu hid in the center of the formation. His loud roar like thunder spread to every corner of the Gaoque Pass wall through word of mouth among the soldiers.

Outside the wall, the main force of Cheng Buzhi's central army, after arriving at the north bank of the river after a quick march, immediately headed towards the Gaoque wall.

"Hurry up, hurry up!"

"The camp quickly builds a ladder to climb the wall! Hurry!!!"

Cheng Buzhi shouted loudly, but his eyes were fixed on the gate hung by ropes in the center of the Gaoque Pass wall.

"As long as the door is opened, Gaoque can be taken down..."

Thinking of this, Cheng Buzhi immediately waved his hand and called his scout Sima.

"Your troops will go up the city wall first, don't worry about the others!"

"Do whatever it takes to get the door closed!"

(End of this chapter)