In AD 225, the fifth year of Emperor Zhangwu of the Han Dynasty, and the end of the sixth year of the Sixth Year of Wei and Huangchu, the Southern and Northern Dynasties began a large-scale conflict.
Under the slogan of imitating Guangwu and reviving the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei launched a three-pronged northern expedition, sending troops from Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Yizhou, Liangzhou and other places to launch a fierce attack on Cao Wei's Guanzhong, Henan, and Huainan lands.
Xiahou Mao, Cao Zhen, Zhong Yao, Xu Huang, Zhu Ling and others defended Shen Chen on the western front in Guanzhong. Cao Xiu, Zhang Liao, Zang Ba, Lu Qian and others defended Guan Yu on the eastern front in Huainan.
As for the middle line in Henan, the front line was led by the new hussar general Xia Houyuan, and the southern general Xia Houshang was the deputy general. Cao Pi personally went to the rear of Chendu to supervise the battle.
Liu Bei adopted a steady and steady strategy, slowly attacking Henan, and then occupied large areas of territory such as Yingchuan and Runan County. He began a protracted confrontation with the main force of Cao's army in Yanling, Changshe and other places.
The trenches on both sides have been dug for dozens of miles, and the camps are so continuous that they can't be seen. There are hundreds of large and small camps, and you can know the scale of both sides.
From the time he dispatched troops at the end of 225 AD, to the end of February 226 AD, Liu Bei's main force had covered half of Yingchuan County and faced off against Cao's army.
Although the main force did not start a full-scale war, contests behind enemy lines were frequent. For example, Liu Bei called on the people in Yingchuan, Henan and other places to revive the Han Dynasty and resist Cao Wei, which caused Cao Pi's rear to rebel and Cao's army was devastated.
And Cao Jun also used the mobility of a large number of cavalry to constantly harass the Han army's food routes. In the most exaggerated case, they even blocked the passage to the Nanyang Basin. A large number of cavalry roamed nearby to attack the rear. If Ma Chao had not personally escorted the food and grass, the front line would have been in danger of running out of food. .
Fortunately, although Cao Pi's group of counselors was cunning, Liu Bei's group of counselors was even better. The two sides were constantly clashing with each other, and the balance of power was still maintained. Even though Liu Bei's army had 10,000 fewer troops than Cao's army, they were still moving forward step by step. , don’t fall behind.
This situation lasted until April of the sixth year of Zhang Wu. The first place to change was the Huainan battlefield. Because Zhang Liao and Guan Yu communicated many times, Cao Xiu was worried. After that, Guan Yu besieged Hefei several times and almost broke into the city.
The small city of Hefei is easier to defend. However, Guan Yu's number of soldiers and horses was several times that of Zhang Liao's, so there were always some flaws. Guan Yu found the flaw and almost attacked the city, leaving the city of Hefei in a state of turmoil.
Feeling oppressed, Cao Xiu decided to give up holding on to Runan, and instead personally led tens of thousands of troops, plus the troops of Zang Ba, Lu Qian and others, and rushed towards Hefei for reinforcements.
By the beginning of May, Cao Xiu led the army to Chengde after Shouchun. They arrived behind Hefei, less than 100 kilometers away from the city of Hefei.
There are two reasons for his coming. One is to help Zhang Liao and relieve the pressure on Hefei.
Two.
He was also afraid that Zhang Liao might fail, so he asked Xue Ti to keep an eye on the situation on Zhang Liao's side to avoid anything bad happening.
Now that he has arrived in Hefei, even if something goes wrong, he can make up for it as soon as possible.
So he went against the previous arrangements and arrived in Huainan in person.
Guan Yu then asked Wei Yan to continue to besiege Hefei City, and he led an army of 50,000 to begin building fortresses north of Hefei in preparation for facing the enemy.
The two sides continue to be locked in a confrontation.
At this time, on the battlefield in Guanzhong, it was the fourth day of May, the midsummer season. At the end of the month, the sun was hanging high in the sky, bringing scorching warmth to the earth.
The weather was a little cold at the end of last year, but the soldiers were able to fight off the cold with a burst of blood and bravely attack the city of Chang'an.
But with the arrival of summer, the weather became hotter and hotter, and the morale of both the Han and Wei armies dropped a lot. The sound of cicadas could be heard in the forest outside the city, and mosquitoes gathered in piles, which was unbearable.
Sweltering heat and fatigue have become common feelings for all soldiers. Even if Shen Chen has to attack Chang'an at least six times a month in the past six months, it is difficult to mobilize everyone's emotions. Many times when the soldiers attack, they become A routine matter.
In the early morning of Doomsday, with the sound of ping-ping war drums and horns, the Han army camp a few miles south of Chang'an City suddenly woke up from the deathly silence. The gate of the camp slowly opened, and groups of soldiers began to emerge from the camp. Queue.
The soldiers of the Han army unsheathed their bows and swords, and there was everywhere the sound of clattering armored leaves, anxious and angry urging, uniform shouts, short and urgent orders and sharp police whistles.
In this chaos, no one paid attention to the small river flowing around the camp on the west side, and no one could have imagined that there was now a long team divided into three rows, crouching quietly by the river. on the gentle slope, and then headed west of Chang'an City.
This is Jiang Wei's first time to participate in a surprise attack. The Han army has not launched a surprise attack during a frontal attack for more than four months. Although Cao's army on the top of the city is still patrolling, their vigilance is obviously not as good as before, and their guard has been relaxed a lot. .
As his senior, Wu Tao warned Jiang Wei: "Master said that today is the day to be a thief for a thousand days. The Wei army has been on guard for too long. This all-out raid must be carried out into the city. You will follow me then, Qian." Don’t fall behind. Once you reach the top of the city, rush to the city gate as soon as possible and open the city gate.”
"yes."
Jiang Wei wrote it down carefully.
Wu Tao is the captain of this stormtrooper team, and behind him are Huo Yang, Wu Dang and other seniors.
They were the first batch of disciples of Shen Chen. They entered the army earlier than Deng Ai, so their positions in the army have basically reached the level of generals, partial generals and even Shan Yi, who are now generals due to their meritorious service in the battle.
It's just that Shan Yi has a relatively simple and reckless personality. Like Zhang Fei, he is only suitable to be a fierce general who charges into battle and is not suitable to be a general who takes command on the spot, so this time he was commanded by Wu Tao.
The number of people he led was not large, less than 3,000, divided into three echelons. Jiang Wei and the others were now in the first echelon, lurking outside Zhangcheng Gate.
Ma Dai had made a surprise attack from this direction before, but failed.
Shen Chen played a psychology game with the enemy. The enemy thought that they had failed to attack from this direction once and would probably not try again. However, he just scored twice and continued to attack from Zhangcheng Gate.
This is the same as the psychology of crossing Chishui four times.
At this moment, Wu Tao was telling Jiang Wei about the subsequent raid, while standing by the river and looking towards Nancheng, paying close attention to the actions there.
Shen Chen of Nancheng personally led the army and had already left camp to attack in the direction of Pingcheng Gate, also known as Xi'an Gate.
As usual, countless wooden curtains moved forward first, and then came the cloud towers and catapults. This time there were not hundreds, but close to two thousand catapults, although they were not as good as the five Jin troops surrounding Bianliang. Thousands of cars, but it is also spectacular.
There are now about a thousand vehicles piled up at Pingcheng Gate. Xuanping Gate in the northeast is the main direction of attack by Pang De and Zhao Yun. There are also eight or nine hundred vehicles there, and the stones in a radius of dozens of miles are almost exhausted by them.
Now the morale of the Wei army is even lower than that of the Han army. With bombardments like this every day, the top of the city is almost filled with stones. No one can live in this kind of fear for long.
If Zhong Yao hadn't continued to boost morale, and Xu Huang and Zhu Ling had made several sneak attacks to help, the city might have been unable to hold on long ago.
Huang Zhong in the south also captured Lantian County. Although Cao Zhen personally led his troops and wanted to take it back, the Liangzhou cavalry rushed to help at any time. He failed several times and returned home, so he could only continue to garrison in Lantian Valley.
Time passed quickly, and when it came to the end of the day, the war in the distance had become intense, and the Wei army's attention was also drawn there.
There was silence in the grass. Jiang Wei was now half squatting and half kneeling in the grass. One hand was holding the blade of the straight knife hidden in the grass, and the other hand was resting on the knee of his right leg. His eyes were drooped.
With a calm expression, he quietly and patiently waited for the order to move forward.
The weeds were only knee-high, so he had to hunched over his tall body to barely hide himself. Maintaining this awkward posture made him feel uncomfortable. As time went by, his neck became sore and stiff. He didn't dare to move his body.
He could rotate his neck bones slightly. He immediately heard a subtle clicking sound when the joints rubbed.
Shan Yi on his left poked his waist with his hand. When Jiang Wei turned his head slightly to look, Shan Yi pointed into the grass.
Jiang Wei glanced at the direction Shan Yi pointed at, grinned, and smiled silently. Unexpectedly, his senior brother Deng Ai, who was usually taciturn and always serious about work, actually had such a side - he dug out an earthworm from the mud.
, now it has attracted a large group of ants to carry "food".
But his attention was immediately attracted by a scream.
A crossbow arrow unexpectedly left the battlefield "without authorization" and flew inexplicably towards the place where the Han army was ambushing by the river.
The originally neat team immediately became commotion. Some people were stunned and at a loss, some people moved their positions in fear, and some people swallowed hard and almost buried their heads in the ground.
Just as the officers at all levels gave orders to "don't move", "be quiet" and "maintain formation", the seven-foot-long crossbow arrow almost passed over the soldiers' heads and stuck in the river.
On the slope on the opposite bank, a big tree was shot down.
Most of the soldiers turned their heads and stared at the leaning "wooden stakes" on the other side, sucking cold air from their mouths. After a while, someone muttered "Fuck you", and then there was a low gasping and cursing sound in the team.
Wu Tao and Deng Ai didn't even turn around to look at the crossbow. They were veterans now, not to mention the commanders of the team. Compared with the half-length "wooden stake" stuck in the ground, they were more concerned about whether their team had been damaged by this sudden attack.
The crossbow arrows appeared and were exposed.
They poked their heads concealedly through the dense woods and grass on the left bank of the Jianshui River, and looked towards the head of Chang'an City about a mile away. They could see heads occasionally popping up from the top of the city in the distance, but they did not look towards them.
On their side, they were just up and down, as if they were riding on horseback, and then they went off into the distance.
This is the cavalry that Zhong Yao placed on the city wall to patrol. The east and west walls of Chang'an City are six kilometers long. This means that even if all 50,000 people are placed on the city wall, based on the width of 1.2 meters per person, it will only be just right.
Just cover the entire city.
Now most of the Wei army is fighting the main force of the Han army in the south city and the north city. The distance between the east and west city walls is so long that it may take tens to hundreds of meters to have a sentry tower, so it is difficult to detect clearly.
From the moment the crossbow arrow passed by, Deng Ai half straightened up and began to carefully observe the city head in the distance and the situation in the south city where the fighting was fierce.
At this moment, a loud horn sound and a sharp bone whistle suddenly came from the city in the distance.
What can be seen at the same time is the cavalry raising a black flag on top of the city.
The sound on the battlefield is very loud now.
Various horns, drums, and whistles filled the entire venue, as well as the sound of a large number of "bang bang bang" boulders hitting the city walls, all of which interfered with the progress of the enemy's and our military orders.
Therefore, in order to improve this situation, Zhong Yao adopted the method of adding sounds and semaphores.
The east and west directions of the city are most vulnerable to sneak attacks, so we use two colors of military flags instead. The city walls are so wide and once they are attacked outside, it is difficult for infantry alone to quickly reach the battlefield several kilometers away. Therefore, thousands of cavalry at the top of the city are needed.
Help at any time.
Raising the black flag now means one thing - the east side of the city has been attacked.
"look."
Deng Ai straightened up and said to Wu Tao, Shan Yi and Jiang Wei on his left and right: "The walls of Cao Wei are all filled with their cavalry, and they are galloping towards the south."
"It was General Ma who launched a surprise attack, and people were attracted by them."
Wu Tao analyzed: "They seem to launch the raid earlier than originally planned. Is it a temporary change?"
"Maybe they were discovered, maybe they seized the opportunity."
Deng Ai emerged from the grass, twisted his neck that was sore from crouching for a long time, tightened the steel knife in his hand, and said coldly: "But no matter what, now is our chance to capture Zhangcheng Gate.
Then we can capture Chang'an City."
"Okay, let's go!"
Wu Tao waved back, and officers at all levels immediately signaled to each team to prepare for action.
Wu Tao and others at the front slowly emerged from the woods on the left bank, and slowly climbed down to the Jianshui River beach through the dense grass. They also brought ladders with them, and they could use the ladders to get down.
Midsummer is actually the flood season for Guanzhong rivers. Because the water sources of large Guanzhong rivers such as the Yellow River and Weishui River often come from the melting of snow mountains, the water flow in spring and summer is relatively high, making it more difficult to survive than the dry season in winter.
river.
But they had already had a way to deal with it. In addition to ladders, each team also brought rafts made of wood. Using the current and paddles, they successfully rowed to the opposite bank, and then began to climb the opposite bank.
After they climbed from the river bed to the shore, they would face the second problem - this was a plain area about a mile away, with almost no shelter along the way.
"rush!"
Wu Tao raised the knife in his hand and pointed forward.
This section of the road is a grassland. Zhong Yao once sent people to clean it up. The growth of weeds cannot cover up the human body. Therefore, the distance of this mile cannot be covered by any skills, but only by luck and speed.
The soldiers carried the trench bridge and ladders and ran with their heads down. They tried not to make any noise to avoid being noticed by the cavalry on the city wall.
Fortunately, most of the patrolling cavalry are now attracted to Ma Dai and the others in Dongcheng. This place happens to be in the Tucheng District, and the vision on the left and right will be somewhat limited. The people above did not notice it at the first time.
When the sound of gongs, drums and horns suddenly came from the top of the city, Wu Tao and the others had already approached the moat, built a moat bridge, and began to cross the river to the bottom of the city.
"Hurry up!"
Dozens of trench bridges were successfully built, and then a ladder with barbs on it was hung at the top of the city.
Wu Tao and Shan Yi took the lead and started climbing with steel knives in their mouths.
Their crawling speed was very fast, like eight-legged spiders climbing rapidly up to a height of seven or eight meters, and they reached the top of the city in a few seconds.
At this time, there were only a few enemies here, because most of the cavalry had rushed to reinforce Dongcheng, and there was only a group of reconnaissance cavalry dozens or hundreds of meters away, resulting in a huge loophole in the defense.
This is also the disadvantage of guarding against thieves for a long time. No matter what, even if you still patrol every day, it is inevitable that the enemy will not attack for a long time and the vigilance will decrease.
In addition, the patrol area is too long and far away, making it almost impossible to cover everything.
When Wu Tao and Shan Yi rushed to the top of the city, the soldiers behind them climbed up continuously. There was only a group of Cao soldiers around. When they saw the enemy on the city wall, they didn't even have the courage to come up and fight. They shouted and ran away.
Seeing this scene, Wu Tao was overjoyed and said: "Master's method is successful. Hurry, seize Zhang City Gate first, report to Master, and ask Master to send people over immediately!"
At that moment, three thousand soldiers quickly occupied the city head and began to seize the city gate from the stairs of Zhangcheng Gate, preparing to open the city!