Fenghou

Chapter 810 Sneak Attack
The Hexi Corridor in January is still a world of ice and snow, the wind is howling, and there are few people. The whole world seems to be still.

That afternoon, countless small black dots appeared on the endless white snow. There were five or six thousand people, and they walked slowly towards the mountains in the south.

If you look closer, it turns out to be an army, riding on camels, wearing thick leather armor, wearing a round helmet, holding spears, short swords at the waist, and bows and arrows on the back, each of which is extremely long. Stocky, many with beards and flat, broad faces.

On their banner is a black wolf's head, and the color of the entire army is mainly black.

This army was the Xizhou Uyghur Army that had just annexed the Yellow-headed Uyghur Army. The two armies were originally a family, like brothers fighting for territory. It had no effect on ordinary people, and it was only the nobles who were unlucky.

But the Song Army and the Xizhou Uighurs are different. They are of different races. The Xizhou Army must drive the Song Army out of the Hexi Corridor.

Dadou Bagu is a strategic location in the Hexi Corridor. Of course, the Xizhou Army cannot tolerate it being controlled by the Song Army. It was only January, and the Xizhou Army took action.

Attacking in January, the Xizhou Army is of course preparing for a sneak attack. January is the time when the sky is freezing, and the Song Army will never expect that there will be a war. They will occupy a foothold first, and then continue to fight in March. Attack deep in the valley.

The Xizhou Army didn't know much about Chen Qing's army. Although Chen Qing led the army to destroy Xixia, in the eyes of the Xizhou Army, it was nothing special. They also knew that Xixia had internal strife and its strength was greatly weakened. It's just cheap.

But the Xizhou army knew the Song Dynasty army very well. It was a bloated and decaying empire, and the army was full of corruption. Even if it had a million troops, it would be vulnerable.

The Xizhou army looked down on the Song army from the bottom of their hearts, and it was easy for them to capture Liangzhou city without any effort. Naturally, they didn't care much about Chen Qing's army.

In fact, this is the underestimation of the enemy caused by the distance and lack of information. The Xizhou Army did not know the battle between Chen Qing and the Kingdom of Jin. Their latest news was the Jingkang Rebellion ten years ago.

This camel cavalry consisted of [-] men, and the leader was a captain named Tie Mo, who was about thirty years old, tall and burly, holding a single-handled iron hammer weighing fifty catties. A well-known fierce general who is good at sneak attacks, it was he who led the army to cut off Cao Changchun's logistics.

Although he looked down on the Song army from the bottom of his heart, Tie Mo was more cautious when actually fighting. Of course, he would not attack Dadou Bagu during the day, but a sneak attack at night.

Twenty miles away from Dadouba Valley, Tie Mo looked at the sky and saw that it was almost dusk. He ordered the army to stop moving forward and find a leeward place to stop and rest, and sent several spies to Dadouba Valley to investigate the situation .

In fact, the Xizhou Army also knew some things. For example, they learned from the Qiang people who transported salt that there were three passes in Dadouba Valley, one at the mountain pass, one at forty miles in the middle, and one at the exit of Hehuang. A pass, about [-] people.

If the pass at the entrance is resolved first, then the grassland and lake water behind the pass will also be controlled by the Xizhou army, and they will have a place to garrison. This is the wishful thinking of the Xizhou army.

Of course, they also brought dozens of siege ladders. Siege ladders are a must if they want to sneak attack the pass.

The night has come quietly, and several fires are lit on the pass city of Dadouba Valley. The soldiers of the Song Army on the top of the city gather around the fire. The Dadouba Valley at night is very cold and windy, and the defenders must warm themselves by the fire. .

This Guancheng is about two miles away from the entrance of Dadouba Valley, and behind it is an open pasture. The Song Army stationed two hundred large tents and more than two thousand defenders.

This is somewhat inconsistent with the information of the Xizhou Army. The reason is that when the Qiang salt transport team passed through the pass, the defeated army in Liangzhou had not yet come. The [-] Song troops who returned from Liangzhou were all placed in the first seat. On the pass.

The general of the pass is called Song Xinping, a commander, from Xinping County, Jingzhou, and the general of the Song army in the entire Dadouba Valley is Wang Lun, the commander. He is in the second pass, where there is an eagle tower, which can be compared with Lanzhou Contact Eagle Letter, and Lanzhou will transfer Eagle Letter to Jingzhao.

Song Jingping was on the top of the city. He was having dinner with a thousand soldiers. Their supplies were relatively sufficient. Dadou Bagu was originally controlled by the yellow-headed Uyghur army. After two thousand yellow-headed Uyghur troops rushed to rescue Zhangye, they were led by Wang Lun. The army seized this strategic location, and found that there was a large amount of grain, mutton and wine here, enough for thousands of their troops to hold on for half a year.

Soldiers of the Song Army were roasting mutton by the fire, and the soldiers were sipping sheep's milk wine and nibbling on freshly fried noodles.

"General Song, do you think the county king gave up the Hexi Corridor?" a commander asked worriedly.

Song Xinping said with a slight smile: "Of course the king will not give up. There are tens of thousands of Han people in Liangzhou, and it is related to the safety of Lingzhou Mansion. State."

A commander next to him took a sip of his wine and said in a muffled voice, "What are you talking about? Nearly a thousand people were killed in Liangzhou City, and the lieutenant general was also killed. How could the county king let it go?"

"Old Li is right, how can this bad breath come out? As long as we guard the Dadou Bagu and prevent the Xizhou army from harming Huangzhou, the county king will have no worries."

Just as he was talking, a soldier ran over and said nervously: "General Song, there are lights on Qitian Ridge!"

Song Xinping stood up abruptly, turned his head and looked to the south, and saw three torches raised on the sentry tower of the big tent in the distance.

Qitian Ridge is a high mountain at the entrance, and there is a very hidden sentry tower on it. If the enemy is found, the soldiers of the sentry tower will hold up a torch in a special place. This torch cannot be seen in the north of Dadouba Valley. It can't be seen, and it can't be seen on the pass either. Only the sentry tower at the garrison behind can see it. The sentry tower acts as a mirror, reflecting the alarm on the Jueling to the pass.

This is the cleverness of the defender. If you build a warning tower that you can see, but the other party cannot see it, the other party will naturally have no way of knowing that you have been discovered.

"General, it's impossible! It's January, and the snow is so thick that it's hard for horses to move. How could they come?"

Everyone thought it was impossible, but the alarm was three torches, and that was an army of more than a thousand people!

Song Xinping said coldly, "They chose this time to come here because you think it's impossible."

"General, heavy snow." Another general wanted to remind Song Xinping.

Song Xinping interrupted him with a wave of his hand, "It's as easy as riding a camel!"

Everyone was surprised, yes!They don't need to ride a horse, and they don't have to worry about the depth of the snow when riding a camel. They didn't expect it.

Everyone looked at Song Jingping together, what should we do?
Song Xinping participated in the defense of Jiandao Pass back then. He was just a small soldier back then. Eight years later, he has now been promoted to the commander of the upper army. If he wins this battle, he will be promoted to deputy commander. Xinping is of course also looking forward to this battle.

He pondered for a moment and said, "I'll do whatever I can, and catch them off guard!"

At the second watch, [-] troops had already entered the valley. Since the valley had to turn a corner to see the defensive pass a few hundred steps away, the Xizhou army did not have to worry about being discovered by the Song army at this time.

At this time, the soldiers of the Xizhou Army had already seen Guancheng, and there were only two bonfires on it.

"Are you sure there were six bonfires at the beginning?" Mrs. Tie Mo asked.

"I can assure you that there were indeed six bonfires when it was just dark."

It was so cold at night, it was necessary to warm up by a fire, and the number of defenders on the top of the city could be judged from the bonfire. According to the maximum number of people, a fire with fifty people roasted the sky.

Generally speaking, there are twenty people in a pile of fire, but it is impossible to have only forty people in the city, and it is impossible to have soldiers who do not warm up, so it is necessary to count more.

Tie Mo pondered for a long time, he felt that his calculation should be pretty good, a fire was roasted by fifty people, and there were originally three hundred people on the top of the city, but now it is reduced to one hundred, which is reasonable, and there will be no danger in the cold winter season. There don't have to be so many people on the ground, of course, this is also the reason why they attacked Guancheng at this time, by surprise.

He finally nodded, "Attack!"

(End of this chapter)