Fenghou

Chapter 770 Huo Yi
An unprecedented shame and humiliation broke out in Han Chang's chest. He was tricked by the Song army and lost [-] troops for nothing. The key is that he was not deceived by Chen Qing, but by Niu Gao, Chen Qing's subordinate. Deceit is even more embarrassing and indignant.

He drew out his sword, cut the table in half with one slash, gritted his teeth and said, "If I don't kill this thief, I will not be a human being!"

All the generals silently looked at the furious Han Chang, worrying about his gaffe. Before, Han Chang shouted to use [-] troops to fight the Song army, but now instead of getting the [-] troops, he only had [-] troops left.

But what Han Chang didn't expect was that there was a reason why Yang Zaixing's army didn't go north for a long time. He was creating an opportunity for Liu Cui's other army.

Not long after Liu Cui's army came out of Gushe Mountain, he ordered his deputy general Hu Yantong to lead an army of [-] to go north along Gushe Mountain. , Seizing Huoyi County is tantamount to cutting off the northward retreat of tens of thousands of Linfen troops.

Before the official siege of Linfen County, all peripheral affairs must be handled properly, especially in Huoyi County, and the Congregation Army cannot be given the opportunity to withdraw northward to reinforce Taiyuan Prefecture.

Huoyi County is just a middle county with a population of more than [-] people, and the city walls are not tall. It is a very ordinary county town and has nothing to do with strategic locations.

In fact, the strategic importance of Queshu Valley was only reflected when the Sui and Tang Dynasties intersected. Li Yuan raised troops from Taiyuan and went south to Pujin Pass, but was blocked by Song Laosheng in the Sui Dynasty. , Li Yuan's army would not be able to cross the Queshu Valley, and eventually the Tang Dynasty would not be able to be established.

However, from the founding of the Tang Dynasty to the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, for nearly four hundred years, Queshu Valley basically did not play any military role. It has always been used as a commercial road, and Huoyi County has no military use, of course not. Count on its tall and strong walls, which are easy to defend but difficult to attack.

The actual situation is that Huoyi County is neither easy to defend nor difficult to attack, otherwise Han Chang would not defend Linfen County, but directly defend it.

The main general in charge of attacking Huoyi County this time is Hu Yantong, the deputy commander. Since Hu Yantong defected to Chen Qing a few years ago, he has been stationed everywhere and rarely participated in the battle. Bright lieutenant.

He got the chance to fight for the first time, and Liu Cui entrusted him with the task of attacking Huoyi County.

Liu Cui was also worried that Huyantong had no siege experience, so he sent another commander, Zhao Hou, to assist Huyantong. Zhao Hou had rich experience, especially participated in dozens of siege and defense battles. With the help of his experience, Huoyi was captured. The county is not a big problem.

Hu Yantong was very excited, and took advantage of the rest time of the march to invite Zhao Hou to discuss the strategy of the battle.

Zhao Hou is not yet thirty years old. He is a native of Chencang County in Guanzhong. He has a steady, mature personality and considerate issues.

Zhao Hou smiled slightly and said: "Actually, most of the cities we seized were considered sneak attacks or outsmarts. There are not many cities that really spend money to attack. This city in Huoyi County is only two feet high, so I know that Jinbing is not very strong. Value this county."

"Why?" Hu Yantong asked puzzled.

"General Huyan may not know that we have been calling for an attack on Hedong for a long time, at least half a year! If we really paid attention to it, we should have increased the height and thickness in this half a year, but it is only two feet high. If we remove the battlements, it will be too long." One foot and eight feet, a few soldiers can climb up by building a ladder."

Hu Yantong pondered for a while and said: "Is it because there are dangerous passes in Queshu Valley, so they don't pay much attention to Huoyi County?"

"That's right, there is a Yangliang South Gate in Queshu Valley, about [-] miles north of Huoyi County. In fact, it is the entrance to Queshu Valley. It is very dangerous. I also think that it is because of this reason that the Kingdom of Jin doesn't pay attention to it. Huoyi County, but they forgot one thing, Huoyi County also guards the official road to Queshu Valley, if Huoyi County is occupied by us in advance, then the Jin soldiers in the south of the East Road will not be able to withdraw."

"But they can send troops from the north to attack Huoyi County south and open this passage. Anyway, the wall of Huoyi County is not high, and they can easily take it back."

Zhao Hou laughed and said: "General Huyan's conjecture is close to the truth. They may also be worried that once Huoyi County is built too tall and strong, if it is captured by us, it will be difficult for them to take it back. But the problem is that things are unpredictable. If Did we also capture Jiexiu County in the north?"

Hu Yantong nodded, "The county king personally sent troops to Fenzhou, Jiexiu County is in danger."

After a pause, Hu Yantong waved his hands and said with a smile: "Let's get away from the topic, let's talk about Huoyi County! How to capture it?"

Zhao Hou smiled slightly, "It's still the old way, first the easy ones and then the hard ones. If the sneak attack doesn't work, just break open the city gate."

At two o'clock in the night, [-] troops arrived in Huoyi County. Huoyi County is already located in a mountainous area, surrounded by vast mountains. The terrain of Huoyi County is not dangerous, but further north, Fenshui is between the mountains. Passing through the gorge and flowing into the depths of many mountains, only a mountain road halfway up the mountain can pass.

Zhao Hou was a little stunned, Queshu Valley is simply the second Luoshui Road!The biggest difference is the different landforms. The Luoshui Channel is all loess ravines, while the Luoshui Channel is a hard rock canyon.

But what confuses them the most is Huoyi County itself. Although Huoyi County does not guard the dangerous point, it guards the only official road to the dangerous point. It is completely a strategic city, which just blocks the passage to the north. It is impossible to walk through the city, you must pass through the city through Huoyi County, shouldn't such a city be built into a dangerous city?
However, this county city is dilapidated and small. It doesn't even have a moat, only a trench has been dug.

"I see!"

Zhao Hou pointed to a river in the distance and said with a smile: "That's the Shushui! They originally wanted to connect the trench to the Shushui, but they didn't dig it halfway."

"It should be that they didn't even have time to clear the walls, which shows that they dug trenches in a hurry."

Although it was midnight, there were many guards on the top of the city, thousands of them. They said that they had discovered the Song army brigade, and it was basically impossible to sneak attack at night, so they could only use battering rams.

Although Hu Yantong was attacking the city for the first time, he arranged it decently. He sent a commander to lead more than a thousand soldiers to look for thick and big trees nearby. There were big mountains around, and there were many towering trees on the mountains.

But there is a suspension bridge in front of the city gate, protecting the city gate, Hu Yantong doesn't know what to do?

Wang Hou has rich experience. He said with a slight smile: "The best way to deal with the suspension bridge is to use fire to burn the front end into carbon, and the iron chain pile heads will not be able to support the heavy suspension bridge."

Hu Yantong nodded, and with an order, five thousand crossbowmen rushed forward holding their big shields, using the big shields as a cover, and fired arrows from the top of the city. The arrows like a storm suppressed the soldiers on the top of the city.

Immediately afterwards, hundreds of soldiers rushed forward carrying the quilts soaked in kerosene, and threw dozens of quilts onto the suspension bridge, and more than a dozen quilts were even hung on iron chains.

When the torch was thrown up, dozens of beddings were immediately ignited, thick smoke billowed, and the flames burned the iron chains. After half an hour, two iron chains were burned one after another, and the suspension bridge fell down with a loud crash.

At this time, the soldiers also cut down hundreds of big trees not far away, one of which was five feet long and three feet in diameter, which could easily be made into a huge battering ram.

At this time, Wang Hou proposed a new siege plan, burning the south wall and attacking the north gate with a battering ram.

Wang Hou explained: "The south gate must be blocked by boulders, but the north gate will definitely not be blocked. They have to leave a way out for themselves."

Hu Yantong pondered for a moment, but shook his head and said: "I am simpler than you think. There is no need to attack the city, burn the south wall, and then set up a net outside the north gate, and they will throw themselves into the net."

Hu Yantong's idea is very simple, since the other party doesn't value Huoyi County, they won't stick to it, and if the situation is not good, they will give up immediately, so they simply lay a net on the official road in the north.

Of course, the terrain of Huoyi County is not as dangerous as the Nanguan in the north. It just guards the official road, and there are rugged slopes on both sides. You can go around to the north of the county from the slopes on both sides.

(End of this chapter)