Daguguan, located sixty miles southeast of Luoyang City, used to belong to Yanshi County. It is located at the junction of Songshan Mountain and Wan'an Mountain. There are sharp peaks, deep ravines, and a deep valley that is more than thirty miles long.
Zigzagging among the mountains, it is the only place to pass from the southeast of Luoyang to Dengfeng and other places in the upper reaches of Yingshui River Valley.
Dagu Pass is located at the south pass of this deep valley. It is the first gateway to the southeast of Heluo and one of the three major gates for the Heluo Soldiers and Horses General Administration to resist the northward advance of southern troops.
After the fall of Xuchang and other places, soldiers and horses from the two major camps in Heluo and Jingxi of the Southern Dynasty entered the upper reaches of Yingshui River Valley at the same time and established military camps outside Dagu Pass.
This makes the defense of Dagu Pass the top priority of the Heluo Military and Horse Capital General Administration.
It had just entered October, and tens of thousands of soldiers from the Southern Dynasties were like black torrents, rushing toward the open valley in front of Guancheng. Their roars and shouts filled the mountains and fields.
The oxen and horses pulled heavy war equipment, rolling over the soft slopes and creating deep ruts.
More than a thousand forward cavalry rushed to the front of Guancheng immediately. At this time, the defenders still had a small number of reconnaissance cavalry left in the valley outside Guancheng.
The number of garrison cavalry remaining in front of Guancheng was too small. After a while of firing, they could no longer withstand the attack and retreated under the city wall.
The forward cavalry who reached Guancheng not only quickly controlled the slopes outside Guancheng as the commanding heights, but also divided several small groups of soldiers and horses to explore and advance into the deep and narrow valleys on both sides to ensure that the defenders did not ambush in these valleys.
the depths of.
As more and more siege troops entered the open valley on the south side of Guancheng to form formations, the defenders finally did not dare to leave Guancheng to fight in formation. After taking back the hundreds of scout cavalry outside Guancheng, they quickly used
The winch pulled up the drawbridge gate that was lying horizontally on the trench.
Hundreds of fine iron shield vehicles entered the open valley in front of Guancheng one after another, and were connected into fully enclosed or semi-enclosed vehicle camps; thousands of armored soldiers entered the dozens of vehicle camps distributed in a wild goose formation.
Ground to rest.
The cavalrymen carrying orders carried brightly colored flags on their backs and galloped between carriages and camps to deliver various military orders.
The sound of rallying horns and the sound of attacking war drums echoed in the car and camp.
The first to set off from the preparatory position were a dozen huge cave cars.
This kind of cave house cart is more than ten feet high, more than six feet long, and more than two feet wide. The front, rear, left, right, and ceiling are covered with thick wood. It has no bottom. It is like a huge wooden box upside down on four huge wrought iron wheels.
Dozens of generals were hiding in it, pushing forward slowly.
The trebuchets deployed by the defenders on the inside of the city wall also began to activate.
One after another, the stone bullets drew an arc in mid-air, passed high over the towering city wall, and hurled towards the open valley in front of Guancheng.
Although the trebuchet has no accuracy, it can throw more than ten stone projectiles at a time, each weighing seventy, eighty or even hundreds of kilograms. The sudden impact caused the earth to tremble slightly, and it continued to roll forward for a certain distance after landing.
It just stopped, and it was really frightening.
Even though the cave house car uses I-shaped wrought iron as the frame, the roof is not only laid with three or four-inch thick pallets, but also reinforced with horizontal irons, which can be said to be extremely strong.
However, during the journey, a cave car was unfortunately hit directly by a stone bullet weighing over a hundred kilograms. The pallet cracked and a large piece of the left front corner was deflated.
Fortunately, the cave car did not fall apart and the wrought iron wheel hub was not seriously deformed. When the soldier recovered, he pushed the cave car with extra force and continued to move forward.
In the end, except for one cave house car that was unfortunately hit on the side by a stone bullet, causing the four wheel hubs on one side to deform to varying degrees, and dozens of generals had to abandon the car and retreat, all the other cave house cars successfully advanced.
In front of the long trench in front of Guancheng.
This is mainly due to the fact that Dagu Pass chose the narrowest point at the south entrance of the Changxia Gorge to build the city. Even including the long walls connecting the cliffs on both sides, Dagu Pass is less than a thousand steps wide. The actual city is even narrower, with only
It is two hundred paces deep.
To the north of Guancheng, the terrain is narrower and steeper, with cliffs on both sides or deep gorges and deep and winding gorges.
The location of Dagu Pass is indeed a place where one man is responsible for the pass and no one can open it, but it also restricts the defenders from deploying large-scale defense equipment.
On the one hand, the defenders had to build double-layered log-roofed battle sheds in such a narrow Guancheng to withstand the heavy trebuchet attack by the siege forces. On the other hand, they had to accommodate a sufficient number of garrison troops. Naturally, there was not much room in the Guancheng.
The space deploys the trebuchet.
Not to mention the heavy trebuchet.
Otherwise, hundreds of heavy trebuchets would be deployed in echelons within Guancheng, and their lethality cannot be underestimated.
The dozens of medium-sized Western Region stone cannons deployed in Guancheng, in addition to slow firing and unsatisfactory accuracy, also have a more fatal flaw, that is, in addition to the maximum throw distance, they also have the shortest throw distance.
Within a hundred steps of the city wall, even the Western Region stone cannons deployed in Guancheng cannot attack.
The siege troops pushed the cave-chariots one by one to the river moat. In addition to resisting the arrows and stones that were directly attacked from the city head, they used crossbows to shoot at the city head defenders through the shooting holes.
To prevent the defenders from lowering the drawbridge again and charging out of the city.
At this time, two more bulky and huge trench-building bridge vehicles came out from the preparation position, and pushed into the four to five feet wide defensive trench on the outside of Dagonguan City with the roaring stone bullets.
Create a passage directly to the base of the city wall.
Dozens of generals held heavy shields in their hands and used rolling stones and logs smashed down from the city head. They used trench bridge trucks to get close to the city wall and blocked the suspension bridge from the outside, completely blocking the defenders' passage out of the city to counterattack.
For the defenders who dare not leave Guancheng to fight, the Tianxiong, Jingsheng, Xiaosheng, and Xuanwu armies have formed a set of standard operations. The most critical point is to block the possibility of the defenders counterattack first, so that their own side can move more
Many heavy weapons were dragged onto the battlefield.
When was the Sikong Mansion ever afraid of simply competing for the consumption of war weapons?
No matter the level of sturdiness, attack power or accuracy, the war equipment created by the Ordnance Supervisor has long been beyond the reach of the Heluohan Army.
However, Dagu Pass is indeed dangerous and strong. As long as the will of the defenders is not broken, it will not be easy to storm it at once.
What's more, Dagu Pass is not just a pass at the south entrance of Changxia.
In addition to the south entrance of the long valley, this thirty-mile long valley, which is located at the junction of Songshan Mountain and Wan'an Mountain, has a total of seven military villages and gates, which control the more dangerous seven dangerous pass valleys at the south side of the valley.
If the soldiers and horses of the Heluo Camp, which forms a strict gateway defense system in the southeast of Luoyang City, can remove these eight fortresses one by one, the terrain will suddenly open up and enter the Luodong Plain formed by the intersection of the Yishui River and the Luoshui River.
However, is this easy?
The same scene also happened outside Yique City, only forty miles south of Luoyang City.
Yique, also known as Longmen, is the natural gateway to the south of Luoyang City.
There, Xiangshan Mountain and Longmen Mountain face each other, and the Yishui River flows through it. From a distance, it looks like a natural gate, hence the name Yique.
Luoyang, the capital of the Sui Dynasty, built an imperial city facing Yique, so it was also called Longmen.
Between the two mountains, in addition to the water surface of the Yihe River, which is more than a hundred feet wide, the river valley near the bank is extremely narrow and the cliffs are like blades. After Cao Shixiong seized Heluo, he deliberately built Qifeng Ridge in the south of Longmen, close to the Yishui River.
A new city was built on the east bank as the new seat of Yique County. Together with several forts and fortresses built along the river in the Yique River Valley, they together formed the defense of Yique Pass, which stretches for more than ten miles along both sides of the Yishui River in the south of Luoyang City.
system.
Cao Shili died long ago at the hands of Xu Huai, and his son Cao Cheng, as the only remaining second-generation descendant of the Cao family, is now the leading general in Heluo.
Cao Cheng stood on the southern city of Yique, staring with a stern expression at the camps that had been set up along the southern slope of Qifengling in the Southern Dynasties, like ugly moss clinging to the ground.
After the passage out of Yique City to counterattack was blocked by the Southern Dynasty's forward soldiers and horses, the main force of the Southern Dynasty's infantry and cavalry came in unscrupulously like a flood, including heavy catapults one after another, as well as heavy-duty chariots such as nest chariots, floor chariots, and cave chariots.
The war weapon wriggled forward slowly like a snail.
Not only Cao Shixiong, Cao Cheng, Meng Ping, Meng Jian and other Heluo generals, but also other people in Zhennan Zong's palace also wanted to move millions of military households and villages in Heluo to the north of the Yellow River as much as possible.
However, they were afraid of organizing a northward retreat in advance, which would not only cause those who wanted to stand up to resist, but also the morale of the army would be unsettled, causing large-scale fleeing of the Han troops, making it even more difficult to resist the Southern troops who would take advantage of the situation to kill.
The Zhennan Zong Palace and the Heluo Military and Horse Capital General Administration Department delayed until the end of September, until the 40,000 cavalry reinforcements from the Jingpan Zong Palace entered Zhengzhou through Hangu Pass and Hulao Pass before internally announcing the details of the northward retreat.
plan.
The 40,000 cavalrymen reinforced by Prince Jingpanzong passed directly through Hulao Pass and entered Zhengzhou and other places. On the one hand, the area near Luoyang was narrow and steep, and there was a lack of space for the cavalry to conduct large-scale roundabout operations. In Luoyang and Southern Dynasty Sikong
In a large-scale battle involving the government's armored infantry corps, the cavalry will never get any advantage.
On the other hand, the General Administration of the Heluo Military and Horse Capital also relied on the extremely dangerous terrain of Yique Pass, Dagu Pass, and Shenyuan Pass on the outskirts of Luoyang and directly bordering the Beijing and Xiang soldiers and horses. They were easy to defend but difficult to attack. A garrison of thirty to forty thousand elites would be enough.
.
More importantly, Wu Lulie, Cao Shixiong, Zhong Changqing and others were more worried that once they officially launched the northward withdrawal plan, Xu Huai might organize hundreds of thousands of elite infantry and cavalry at any time and send troops directly from Xuzhou to the north to take the lead.
Zhengzhou, then go west via Zhengzhou to defeat Hulao Pass, and then march west to Luoyang.
However, their troops stationed in Zhengzhou, Bianliang, and further north in Huaizhou, Weizhou and other places were killed tragically in the Battle of Yingzhou.
Although in the past three or four months, the Zhennan Zong Palace has urgently recruited tens of thousands of soldiers and horses from military households, the new army has neither soldiers nor mature and experienced military officials. The old soldiers fill the backbone of the grassroots, and its combat effectiveness is extremely high.
"Touching".
Now, in addition to the direct reinforcements of the 40,000 Hexi cavalry, Cao Shixiong also sent General Meng Ping to lead 30,000 elite troops to station in Zhengzhou.
Without such an arrangement, it is difficult for them to imagine whether they would be able to withstand the Sikong Mansion of the Southern Dynasty once again organizing 200,000 horsemen to ride north through Xuzhou this winter.
Although there are currently only 40,000 elite soldiers and horses left in Heluo, Cao Shixiong, Cao Cheng and others think it is enough.
Over the years, Cao Shixiong has managed the three passes of Yique, Dagu and Shenyuan. Even if they are not solid, they cannot be conquered by the Southern Army in three or two months. In front of the dangerous terrain, no matter how large the scale of the troops is,
There is no room for improvement.
If the Zhennan Zong Palace had not suffered such a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Yingzhou, making Zheng, Bian, Chen and Song other places hopeless to defend, which would have exposed the flanks of Heluo, how could Cao Shixiong be willing to withdraw from Heluo?
At this time, looking at the southern soldiers coming like a flood, Cao Cheng's heart was as cold as ice. He secretly thought that if these southern soldiers could be beaten to death in front of Yique City, and their heads were bruised and bloody, maybe they would not need to leave the river.
Luo withdrew.
"Ship! There is a warship coming down over there!"
The guards beside Cao Cheng shouted.
The Yihe River exits the northern slope of Funiu Mountain from Song County and goes north in an almost straight line into Yique County. However, there are still rolling hills along the coast, making the river twists and turns and looming.
Cao Chengxun looked over and immediately felt a chill running down his spine.
In the distance, dozens of black spots are moving down the Yi River from the cover of a hill. What are they if they aren't warships sailing along?
Behind the key point, there was a steady stream of warships that looked like black dots, sailing downstream from the river bend behind the slope. It was impossible to guess how many warships were going down the river.
However, how could there be warships in the upper reaches of the Yi River?
Where do these fly from?
For a long time, Song County and Yique, located in the upper reaches of the Yishui River, have been under the control of the Heluo Military and Horse Command. It was not until five days ago that the soldiers and horses stationed in Ruzhou of the Southern Dynasties brazenly left Guangcheng Pass and fought to the Yihe River.
and cut off their communication with Song County.
In order to ensure that the soldiers and horses of Ruzhou in the Southern Dynasties could not confiscate a boat from the Yi River, the Heluo Military and Horse General Office confiscated all the boats in Song County and Yique and dragged them to Luoyang or Yanshi downstream.
On the one hand, people in the two counties are strictly prohibited from building private fishing boats to enter Yishui for fishing.
At least five days ago, Cao Chengneng confirmed that Yishui is located in Song County, and there is not a single boat in the main branch river in the southern part of Yique County.
Although the Yishui River leaves Song County and has a river channel of more than 200 miles to the south, most of which is indeed under the control of the soldiers and horses of the Ruzhou camp in the Southern Dynasty, the upper reaches of the Yishui River are deep in the Funiu Mountains.
Not to mention the twists and turns, there are also rocks and dangerous shoals everywhere.
During the flood season, when the water level of the Yishui River rises sharply, rafts can still be placed in the mountains and the rafts can be discharged. But now that it has entered October, there are two or three dangerous shoals above the water in the southern part of Song County alone.
Even if Ruzhou secretly built ships deep in the Funiu Mountains, how could these warships pass through these dangerous shoals and enter the Yishui River north of Song County?
Besides, in recent years, they have sent scouts to the depths of Funiu Mountain to conduct spying, but they have not noticed anything unusual!
Where did these warships come from?
…………
…………
Thirty miles south of Yique City, on the bank of the Yi River, Wang Xian, the commander of the Heluo camp, Jiang Ang, Fu Liang and others reined in their horses and stopped on a hillock.
On the south side of Pogang, an artificial trestle dock on the east bank of Yishui River was built in just three or four days. In addition to the three thousand generals who had already boarded the ship, a new batch of three thousand troops had also arrived.
They gathered on the river beach and waited to board the ship.
Yes, heading south from Song County, the Yishui River is dangerous, narrow, and winding. There are several dangerous shoals in Song County alone, which will emerge from the water after autumn, blocking shipping.
At this time, even rafts and rafts could not be put down smoothly.
However, there are no absolutes in everything.
In the past six months, Wang Xian was in Ruzhou on the one hand actively preparing more siege weapons, and on the other hand he secretly transferred thousands of boatmen from Jingzhou and Xinyang.
, thousands of troops, cut wood in the upper reaches of the Yishui River and built hundreds of flat-bottomed warships.
After sending troops to surround Songxian County and cut off the communication between Songxian and Yique, Wang Xian ordered the flat-bottomed warships upstream to go north, and also mobilized thousands of extra troops to walk along the coast. When they encountered dangerous shoals and reefs, they would
These warships were forcibly dragged over and directly entered the river downstream of Song County.
In the past, the iron armor of warships built in shipyards in Jingzhou, Xincai, Xinyang and other places only covered the sides, decks and other parts above the waterline, and the bottom of the ship was still made of wooden hulls.
This is not to save iron materials, but because there is currently no ability to solve the corrosion problem of hot-rolled iron plates.
If the hot-rolled iron plate is immersed in water for a long time, it may rust and wear out in a year and a half.
However, the flat-bottomed warships built this time on the upper reaches of the Yishui River were, to put it bluntly, disposable consumables.
The bottom of the ship is specially covered with a layer of iron armor in order to minimize the damage to the warships when they are forcibly dragged through dangerous shoals...
Under the cover of a hillock, what is it but a warship sailing along the Yi River?
Behind the key point, there was a steady stream of warships that looked like black dots, sailing downstream from the river bend behind the slope. It was impossible to guess how many warships were going down the river.
However, how could there be warships in the upper reaches of the Yi River?
Where do these fly from?
For a long time, Song County and Yique, located in the upper reaches of the Yishui River, have been under the control of the Heluo Military and Horse Command. It was not until five days ago that the soldiers and horses stationed in Ruzhou of the Southern Dynasties brazenly left Guangcheng Pass and fought to the Yihe River.
and cut off their communication with Song County.
In order to ensure that the soldiers and horses of Ruzhou in the Southern Dynasties could not confiscate a boat from the Yi River, the Heluo Military and Horse General Office confiscated all the boats in Song County and Yique and dragged them to Luoyang or Yanshi downstream.
On the one hand, people in the two counties are strictly prohibited from building private fishing boats to enter Yishui for fishing.
At least five days ago, Cao Chengneng confirmed that Yishui is located in Song County, and there is not a single boat in the main branch river in the southern part of Yique County.
Although the Yishui River leaves Song County and has a river channel of more than 200 miles to the south, most of which is indeed under the control of the soldiers and horses of the Ruzhou camp in the Southern Dynasty, the upper reaches of the Yishui River are deep in the Funiu Mountains.
Not to mention the twists and turns, there are also rocks and dangerous shoals everywhere.
During the flood season, when the water level of the Yishui River rises sharply, rafts can still be placed in the mountains and the rafts can be discharged. But now that it has entered October, there are two or three dangerous shoals above the water in the southern part of Song County alone.
Even if Ruzhou secretly built ships deep in the Funiu Mountains, how could these warships pass through these dangerous shoals and enter the Yishui River north of Song County?
Besides, in recent years, they have sent scouts to the depths of Funiu Mountain to conduct spying, but they have not noticed anything unusual!
Where did these warships come from?
…………
…………
Thirty miles south of Yique City, on the bank of the Yi River, Wang Xian, the commander of the Heluo camp, Jiang Ang, Fu Liang and others reined in their horses and stopped on a hillock.
On the south side of Pogang, an artificial trestle dock on the east bank of Yishui River was built in just three or four days. In addition to the three thousand generals who had already boarded the ship, a new batch of three thousand troops had also arrived.
They gathered on the river beach and waited to board the ship.
Yes, heading south from Song County, the Yishui River is dangerous, narrow, and winding. There are several dangerous shoals in Song County alone, which will emerge from the water after autumn, blocking shipping.
At this time, even rafts and rafts could not be put down smoothly.
However, there are no absolutes in everything.
In the past six months, Wang Xian was in Ruzhou on the one hand actively preparing more siege weapons, and on the other hand he secretly transferred thousands of boatmen from Jingzhou and Xinyang.
, thousands of troops, cut wood in the upper reaches of the Yishui River and built hundreds of flat-bottomed warships.
After sending troops to surround Songxian County and cut off the communication between Songxian and Yique, Wang Xian ordered the flat-bottomed warships upstream to go north, and also mobilized thousands of extra troops to walk along the coast. When they encountered dangerous shoals and reefs, they would
These warships were forcibly dragged over and directly entered the river downstream of Song County.
In the past, the iron armor of warships built in shipyards in Jingzhou, Xincai, Xinyang and other places only covered the sides, decks and other parts above the waterline, and the bottom of the ship was still made of wooden hulls.
This is not to save iron materials, but because there is currently no ability to solve the corrosion problem of hot-rolled iron plates.
If the hot-rolled iron plate is immersed in water for a long time, it may rust and wear out in a year and a half.
However, the flat-bottomed warships built this time on the upper reaches of the Yishui River were, to put it bluntly, disposable consumables.
The bottom of the ship is specially covered with a layer of iron armor in order to minimize the damage to the warships when they are forcibly dragged through dangerous shoals...
