Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 209 Entering Wuguan
Wuguan, the throat of Qin and Chu, and the key of Guanzhong, together with Hangu Pass, Xiaoguan, and Dashan Pass, are called the Four Fortresses of Qin Dynasty. It was called Shaoxi Pass in ancient times, and was renamed Wuguan during the Warring States Period.

The Guancheng of Wuguan was built on a relatively flat highland among the canyons. It is close to the steep Shaoxi Mountain in the north, and dangerous in the south. The terrain in the west of the Guanxi is relatively flat. , Narrow and difficult to walk, has always been a battleground for ancient military strategists, and it is the easiest to defend but difficult to attack.

That's not to mention, Wuguan has another foreign country that is equally difficult to attack, and that is the Suspension Bridge Ridge five miles east of Wuguan. The boundary wall is made of flakes of stone. It is not only the border line of Qin and Chu during the Warring States Period, but also an ideal fortification. The boundary wall opens and closes the gate. The army only needs to pull up the suspension bridge, and it is difficult to touch and close the door once the attack is convenient.

It’s not bad for the young generals who are going to march into Wuguan. Thanks to the blessing of Qin Shihuang, countless manpower and material resources were used after the unification of the six countries to build a road that can go from Wancheng to Xianyang. Now if you want to march Suspension Bridge Ridge is much easier than before. If it were changed to the era when there were no trails, the Suspension Bridge Ridge, which is said to be a mountain road that cannot be ridden together, would be enough to make people daunting and dare not have unreasonable thoughts.

However, even so, after reaching Suspension Bridge Ridge, the tens of meters wide road was forced to be narrowed to only three feet wide, and it had to zigzag upwards. The military condescendingly dealt a heavy blow.

If you insist on saying that Wuguan has any weaknesses, there are two small flaws. One is that the city of Wuguan is too small, with a circumference of only three miles, and there are still some people living in the city. The second is that the mountain of Suoqiao Ridge is too high, the water source is scarce, and it is very difficult to get water. It is difficult to station too many troops. At the same time, the boundary wall on Suoqiao Ridge is only less than two feet, far less than the ordinary city wall. How much can let the offensive side see a little hope of a successful attack.

Regarding the situation of these Wuguans, Xiang Kang already had a very detailed understanding of these Wuguans before he set off from Wancheng to the west, and he also knew very well that wanting to forcefully break through Wuguans is definitely not something that can be said and done. The way, if you can’t break Wuguan, you can’t enter Guanzhong, so Xiang Kang has no choice but to go west in Wancheng on the 25th day of the first lunar month in the third year of Qin II, with a young marshal with a force of about [-] The main force of the army wants to go to Wuguan.

The army marched along Chidao very quickly. Even with two months' worth of food and grass and a large amount of military supplies, the main force of the Young Marshal's army arrived in Xixian County in just over six days. Uncle Zhou and Li Shang's troops of the Young Marshal's Army had already captured Xixian County, and they also incorporated about [-] people from another anti-Qin Yishi Wang Ling's Department in Nanyang, joining forces with the main force of the Young Marshal's Army. After the execution, the total strength of the Young Marshal Army was expanded to more than [-] people.

After meeting with Uncle Zhou, Li Shang and others, Xiang Kang first highly praised Wang Ling, a fellow villager of Liu Laosan who took the initiative to accept his own army, named him a miscellaneous general, rewarded him with some money, and promised him that in the future After giving him the title of Marquis, and after thanking Wang Ling repeatedly, Xiang Kang turned to Uncle Zhou and asked, "How is it? Have you checked out the enemy's situation at Wuguan?"

"The investigation is almost done." Uncle Zhou replied: "There were about [-] defenders before Wuguan, and the defender was called Wang Bang. Later, the Baoqin court sent another [-] reinforcements to Wuguan. Li Cai, the second son of the famous general Li Xin, but the city of Wuguan is too small, and there is no suitable place for troops to set up a camp in the east, so the reinforcements from the Qin Dynasty were stationed seven or eight miles west of Wuguan. The Tyrant Qin army acted as backup."

"Then what is the deployment of the Tyrant Qin army in Wuguan?" Xiang Kang asked again.

"There are [-] Qin troops on Suoqiao Ridge, and the guard is Wang Bang's deputy Ning Zhi. Wang Bang himself led [-] troops to station in Wuguan City." Uncle Zhou replied truthfully, and said: "Also, Song Yang, Wei Cheng of Nanyang Commandery of Baoqin who escaped from Wancheng before, has been confirmed to have fled to Wuguan and returned to the army of Baoqin. "

Xiang Kang nodded, he was too lazy to care about Song Yang who left a letter and scolded him, but asked Uncle Zhou again: "What do you think, General Zhou, about our attack on Wuguan?"

"I'm afraid it's hard to be opportunistic." Uncle Zhou replied very directly, saying: "The Tyrant Qin army has too great a geographical advantage, and it will definitely not easily take risks to fight. It is almost impossible for us to design and lure the enemy to fight. Forced attack by force. Fortunately, the Tyrant Qin army in Wuguan and their reinforcements have no decent actual combat experience, and their combat effectiveness is not very strong."

Xiang Kang didn't dare to be as optimistic as Uncle Zhou, because Xiang Kang knew the situation of the Young Marshal very well, and knew that the soldiers of the Young Marshal were indeed experienced in many battles and had rich combat experience, but because Xiang Kang was too opportunistic before, The soldiers of the Young Commander Army have never fought a particularly difficult battle, especially a long and protracted battle. The geographical advantages of the Wuguan Qin Army are too great. No one can guarantee whether the soldiers of the Young Commander Army can adapt to such an absolute headwind battle. , so Xiang Kang never dared to underestimate the enemy, but said: "The specifics of how to fight, let's talk about it when we get to Wuguan."

Uncle Zhou nodded in agreement, and then the Young Marshal just paused to rest outside Xixian County, and quickly completed the reorganization of the main force and partial divisions, leaving [-] absolutely reliable troops to guard Xixian County to protect the retreat, and continued westward in the early morning of the next day After more than two days, he crossed the border of Nanyang County and formally set foot in the territory of the internal history of the Qin Dynasty.

The farther the main force of the Young Marshal went west, the narrower the road became. When Xiang Kang was able to see the towering suspension bridge ridge with the naked eye, the road that could reach a width of nearly 70 meters on the plain was narrowed to only more than ten meters. The main force of the Young Marshal Army was also forced to form a long snake formation while marching. The distance between the front team and the rear team reached several miles. Fortunately, it was early spring, and the vegetation on both sides of the road was not lush, so it was difficult to hide Ambush, the Young Marshal didn't have to worry too much about being cut in two by the Qin army suddenly.

After finally arriving at the foot of Suoqiaoling Mountain, Xiang Kang couldn't help but swear when he looked at the climbing road, "Who the hell said that the road to Shu is difficult and difficult to climb to the blue sky? In my opinion, the road to Qin is definitely more difficult than the road to Shu." Walk!"

I really can’t blame Xiang Kang for yelling at him. After reaching the bottom of Suoqiaoling Mountain, Qin Shihuang had to turn nine bends to reach the top of the mountain. There is absolutely no problem at the foot of the mountain. Xiang Kang didn't even dare to think about how much the young generals and soldiers would have to pay if they wanted to rush from the bottom to the top of the mountain.

Fortunately, the morale of the young generals is not bad. Although they all saw the harsh terrain and dangerous routes, the young generals such as Long Qi, Zhong Limei, Ding Ji and Li Shang still volunteered and volunteered. Lead the army to attack Suspension Bridge Ridge and seize control of the hilltop plateau.However, Xiang Kang refused to risk the lives of his soldiers, so he decisively ordered the army to camp at the foot of the mountain. At the same time, he sent Shusun Tong to bring gold and jade up the mountain to persuade Qin general Ning Zhi, who led the army to guard Suoqiao Ridge, to surrender. The scouts dressed up as Shusun Tong's entourage, took the opportunity to investigate the current situation on Suspension Bridge Ridge.

When it was getting dark, Uncle Suntong returned to Xiang Kang in dejection and pleaded guilty, saying that although he had tried hard to persuade Ning Zhi for a long time, Ning Zhi was stubborn, not only refused to surrender, but also took the opportunity to swallow up Shusun Tongna Gold and jade articles to buy.Fortunately, Shusun Tong did not gain anything this time. The scouts of the young commander who pretended to be his entourage up the mountain took advantage of the lack of experience of the Qin army on the mountain, not only figured out the basic deployment of the Qin army, secretly drew the terrain on the mountain, but also discovered A very important situation - that is, the Qin army on the mountain installed some wheels on the cliff south of Suspension Bridge Ridge because of the long road to fetch water from the mountain. use.

Hearing this, Xiang Kang was of course overjoyed, and said: "The Tyrant Qin army on the Suspension Bridge Ridge is so lazy. For the sake of convenience, they don't send people down the mountain to fetch water, but use ropes to fetch water directly from the mountain? They are not afraid of us doing it at the bottom of the mountain." Hands and feet, suddenly cut off their water source?"

"Bao Qin's army should be so lazy because of lack of experience." Uncle Zhou analyzed, and said: "But if they suffer a loss once, they will definitely correct it immediately and send people to go down the mountain from the west to directly fetch water."

"With such a good opportunity, how can we make them mend behind the scenes?" Xiang Kang sneered, and immediately asked Uncle Zhou: "General Uncle Zhou, hurry up and study it, and see how we can forcefully attack the mountain while cutting off the water, and don't give it to the tyrant Qin." The army had the opportunity to correct its mistakes, and took advantage of the temporary water shortage on Suspension Bridge Ridge to take Suspension Bridge Ridge at the lowest cost."

"I'm afraid this is difficult?" Uncle Zhou frowned and said, "No matter how lazy and inexperienced the Tyrant Qin army is, they must have a certain amount of drinking water in the camp. Even if we temporarily cut off their water source from the bottom of the mountain, they only need a little If we persist for a while, we can send people to fetch water directly up the mountain from the bottom of the mountain. Even if we win this opportunity, the time will definitely be very short, and I am afraid it will be difficult for the soldiers of the Tyrant Qin to run out of water."

"Do you still remember when we ambush Yang Xiong in Ji County?" Xiang Kang smiled and said, "What I regret most at that time was that there was too little kerosene in the army, and there were no such things as saltpeter and sulfur to ignite the fire. Burn Yang Xiong's army to death in that forest. This time I learned my lesson and brought all the kerosene and saltpeter and sulfur that Wancheng could get."

Uncle Zhou applauded and laughed, and said: "There is enough fire oil and fire starter, and we know the layout of the camp of the Tyrant Qin army, so there is no problem!"

…………

It's time to take a look at the situation of the Qin army on the Suspension Bridge Ridge. Like Uncle Zhou's analysis, the Qin Army team on the Suspension Bridge Ridge is indeed inexperienced, so they are lazy and choose to use ropes and wooden barrels to fetch water directly from the top of the mountain.However, the terrain of Suoqiao Ridge is too favorable for the Qin army, so the morale of the Qin army is still quite high. Not only did they not panic when they saw the main force of the young commander's army coming, but they also hoped that the young commander's army would launch an attack as soon as possible so that they could The army can flex its muscles and take advantage of the terrain to attack the young commander's army head-on, and win the opportunity for himself to be rewarded for his meritorious service.

But it is a pity that after arriving at the foot of Suoqiaoling Mountain, the young generals did not move for the whole day the next day, which disappointed many high-spirited soldiers of the Qin army. The strict arrangement of the army frightened the young commander, so he dared not do it for a long time.Fortunately, Ning Zhi was still calm, and he didn't take it lightly because of the incomplete fear of the young commander. When it was completely dark, Ning Zhi still made careful arrangements for the night, and then went back to his room to sleep in peace.

Facts have proved that Ning Zhi's cautious arrangement was very correct. When the second watch was approaching that night, the secret whistle of the Qin army lurking on the mountainside monitoring the road suddenly sounded a gong to call the police. The army rushed to the edge of the flat ground on the mountain, smashed the well-prepared rolling stones and trees down the mountain, successfully repelled the shameless sneak attack of the young commander's army, and won the first victory in the defense of Suspension Bridge Ridge.

But the matter was not over yet. At the middle of the night, there was a gong alarm sound from the foot of the mountain, as well as the sound of many war drums and horns. Leading the generals of the Qin army to continue to drop rocks and roll trees down the mountain, it took a lot of effort to repel the second attack of the young commander.

At four o'clock, when the Young Marshal's army launched a sneak attack on Suoqiaoling for the third time overnight, Ning Zhi finally realized that something was wrong—the originally sufficient amount of rolling stones and fallen trees had been consumed in large quantities unconsciously, and Ning Zhi also Faintly regaining consciousness, he ordered: "Stop descending the rocks! The bandits seem to be deliberately feigning an attack, tricking us into using up the rolling rocks and falling wood, so that they can go up the mountain without worry!"

After finally stopping the generals of the Qin army from falling into the rocks and trees, and trying their best to look down for a long time, something happened that stunned Ning Zhi. A group of black shadows had already touched the top of the mountain, and there were only two roads left from the top of Suoqiaoling Turning around, Ning Zhi was shocked, and hurriedly ordered the soldiers of the Qin army to continue to drop rocks and trees to prevent the young commander from rushing to the top of the mountain.

The distance is too close, and falling rocks and trees at this time has little effect. Of course, many young commanders and soldiers were unlucky to be hit by trees and stones, and died on the way up the mountain without seeing the enemy's shadow, but more young commanders However, the soldiers still rushed to the top of the mountain tenaciously. Seeing that the situation was not good, Ning Zhi could only quickly lead the army back to the camp to guard the boundary wall.At the same time, seeing that the rocks and trees had stopped falling on the mountain, more soldiers of the Young Commander also seized the time to climb the mountain with torches to reinforce the battlefield on the top of the mountain.

At this time, because the army fought at night three times in a row, the water storage in the Qin army camp had been consumed unknowingly. What's worse, the inexperienced Ning Zhi not only failed to notice the danger, but ordered the Qin army soldiers Seize the time to make a fire and cook rice in order to meet the next attack by the young generals, which in turn caused the Qin army to consume a lot of water storage - to steam the barley rice that the Qin army soldiers like to eat, more than water is used Generally more.

The night in the early spring was still very long, and it was not until halfway through Friday, when it was just dawn, that Ning Zhi also took a team of soldiers to the tower of the boundary wall to look at the situation of the young commander outside the boundary wall, but Ning Zhi Zhi just saw that the officers and men of the Young Commander had already used their long shields to form many temporary fortifications near the boundary wall. Behind the Long Shield of the Young Commander's Army, countless fire points had risen, and they roared down as if they had eyes. In the camp of the Qin army behind the boundary wall, many tents of the Qin army were ignited immediately. In addition, some rockets shot directly at the tower of the boundary wall, nailed to the wooden tower and burned blazingly.

"It's strange, how can the bandit army know where our army tents are concentrated?"

When Ning Zhi was confused and hurriedly ordered the soldiers to put out the fire, the soldiers of the Qin Army in the camp were also scrambling to put out the rockets fired by the Young Marshal Army. At the same time, some soldiers of the Qin army also rushed to the cliff in the south, and lowered the wooden barrels with ropes to fetch water, but soon, these soldiers of the Qin army realized that something was wrong. He never looked back, disappeared without a trace, and there were obvious signs of being cut on the twisted rope...

At this time, with the passage of time, many soldiers of the Qin Army were thirsty and began to look around for water to drink. However, what surprised these soldiers of the Qin Army was that there was basically no drinking water in their camp. In addition, the soldiers of the Qin army who went to fetch water also returned empty-handed, saying that all the ropes for fetching water were cut at the foot of the mountain.And when these things were finally reported to Ning Zhi, Ning Zhi was dumbfounded at first, and then immediately yelled, "You son of a bitch scolded us for attacking the top of the mountain while cutting off our water source. It's shameless and shameless!"

The Qin army still had a chance to make up for it. In order to prevent the army from being chaotic due to lack of water, Ning Zhi immediately ordered two hundred soldiers to carry wooden barrels and vehicles down the mountain from the west, and go directly to the bank of Danshui to transport water up the mountain. When the Qin army's water fetching soldiers left the camp, the well-prepared young commanders had already launched a strong attack on the boundary wall.

The tactics used by the Young Marshal Army to attack the wall are very simple, that is, to build temporary bridges with the trench bridge vehicles brought along with the army, and use flying ladders to directly hit the boundary wall. The top of the boundary wall is much easier than rushing up the city wall. The young generals have accumulated a lot of experience in attacking fortifications before, so it was only the first time for the young generals to attack, and several warriors successfully rushed up the boundary wall.

Here we must also praise the fighting will of the Suoqiaoling Qin army. Although they lack experience, the young generals rushed to the top of the boundary wall when they attacked for the first time. Surrounding these warriors of the Young Marshals or directly forcing them down the boundary wall did not give the soldiers of the Young Marshals a chance to quickly occupy the position on the top of the wall.At the same time, I saw that after the battle broke out on Suoqiaoling, Wuguan City, five miles away, quickly sent a thousand reinforcements to reinforce the defenders of Suoqiaoling.

Because of this, Ning Zhi, who accidentally cut off the water source temporarily by the young commander, did not panic too much. While calmly directing the soldiers of the Qin army to resist tenaciously, Ning Zhi gritted his teeth and said in his heart: "Come on, let's see you guys." Do you have the ability to take Suspension Bridge Ridge!"

(End of this chapter)