Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 960 0955 [Breaking Through the Helan Mountain Gap ]

In the eyes of the Xixia people, the Khitan, Uighur and Tubo were all barbarians.

The name "Keyimen" was originally for Keqitan, and later became Kemeng. As the Mongols came many times, Xixia even built the Great Wall in the Keyimen area.

In the early and middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the more remote areas of Western Xia were very unfamiliar.

Fan Zhongyan even believed that the Helan Mountains ran east-west, and this view became a consensus in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Everyone then imagined a picture in their minds: the Helan Mountains lay across the north of the Xixia capital, with a passage in the mountains for troops to march through, and a fortress built at the entrance of the passage was the Keyi Gate.

For hundreds of years thereafter, even until the 20s, historians believed that Keyimen was the pass through the Helan Mountains.

With the progress of archaeological work and field investigations by scholars in the northwest, it was gradually believed that Keyimen was located in Subaiyingou, Wuhai City.

The Subaiyin Valley is about 20 miles long, with high mountains and steep cliffs on both sides. The valley is winding and the terrain is dangerous. On the two mountains, soldiers can be hidden, and the bottom of the valley in the middle is in full view. If the enemy dares to come in, they will never get out.

A small number of light cavalry can bypass it, but a large force has no chance of doing so.

Beyond the mountains on the east side is the desert.

Beyond the mountains on the west is the Yellow River, and beyond the Yellow River is still desert.

This is the remnant of the Helan Mountains. If we connect the many mountains near Keyimen, then the Helan Mountains really run east-west, and Keyimen is stuck between the remnants of the Helan Mountains.

It is estimated that the envoys sent by the Northern Song Dynasty made the corresponding wrong judgment after investigating here, and everyone, including Fan Zhongyan, believed it.

If Yue Fei could capture this place, it could barely be considered as "breaking through the Helan Mountain Gap."

Genghis Khan once fought here during his third expedition against Xia.

At that time, the Western Xia garrison had a total of 120,000 troops. Genghis Khan was unable to defeat them and had to change the fierce attack into a siege.

The two sides confronted each other for more than two months.

As the Xixia court kept urging them to retreat, Xixia's food and grass gradually became insufficient, so Weiming Linggong had to risk a night attack, but he was captured by the Mongolian army. The Xixia soldiers were in chaos, and Genghis Khan took the opportunity to capture Keyi Gate.

The Mongols took advantage of the situation and moved south, besieged the capital of Western Xia, and dug the Yellow River to flood the city.

The flood lasted for more than a month, but the capital of Western Xia did not collapse. Instead, the temporary dam built by the Mongolian army collapsed, and the water of the Yellow River flooded back into the Mongolian army...

Is this a slap in the face?

The two countries ceased fighting and agreed to become brother countries. Genghis Khan also married the daughter of the ruler of Western Xia.

At this moment, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong looked at the ravine and felt extremely overwhelmed. They had no idea how to start.

Cao Yu, the Xixia military supervisor who surrendered, introduced: "This valley is about 20 miles long and winding. There are many forts on the mountains on both sides, and there is a strong city behind the valley. Even if the general has 300,000 troops, it will be difficult to conquer it."

Han Shizhong asked: "Since it is only 20 miles long, can't we go around it from the desert on the east side?"

Cao Yu explained:
"The narrowest valley is 20 miles, but there are still valleys after Keyi Gate, but they are not as narrow. The locals call the valley north of Keyi Gate the Front Valley and the valley south of it the Back Valley."

"If we want to take a detour, our army should retreat several dozen miles, then go east through the desert for several dozen miles, and then cross the mountain pass after crossing the desert. Then we can go south in the desert. I don't know how far it is, because no one dares to go that way. It is estimated that we will have to walk another 100 or 200 miles of desert."

After listening to this, Han Shizhong remained silent.

Yue Fei said: "We can only attack by force."

Han Shizhong said: "We must first take the mountains on both sides."

Listening to their conversation, Cao Yu felt that they had gone crazy.

The mountains on the west side are lower, and the main peak has a vertical height of several hundred meters.

The main peak of the mountain on the east side has a vertical height of over one thousand meters.

The mountains are stacked on top of each other, and the high mountains are connected to the low mountains. The mountain range stretches for more than 150 miles. Even if we only attack Keyimen City, it is still more than 20 miles away in a straight line.

Moreover, there are many rocks on the mountain. There is hardly any grass, let alone trees. It is extremely steep due to weathering and erosion.

Artillery is useless here!

Under the command of Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, there were over 10,000 Ming cavalry and over 5,000 Ming infantry.

The rest were all soldiers from the Khitan, Dangxiang, Tangut, Tubo, and Uighur ethnic groups. Some were brought by the two of them from the grasslands, while others were recruited by the two of them outside the Tao.

Even the laborers who transported grain came from the grasslands outside Taowai.

Shanxi civilians only transported food and grass to Dongsheng Prefecture. Many grassland tribes under Han Shizhong's jurisdiction used boats and livestock to transport food and grass to Tiande Military City. The grassland civilians near Tiande Military City then transported food and grass to Wulahai City. The grassland civilians in Wulahai City then transported food and grass here to attack Keyimen.

There was no need to worry about the surrendered tribes burning their food supplies, because the tribal chiefs and nobles were all with Han Shizhong and Yue Fei, and their wives, children and elders had been sent to Shanxi as hostages.

Yue Fei called Han Shizhong to discuss the matter alone: ​​"You and the three thousand elite cavalry and three hundred heavy cavalry will stay at the foot of the mountain to hold the fort. I will lead the troops to attack the eastern ridge, and several thousand infantry will attack the western ridge. Send some cavalry from each tribe to follow us up the mountain. After occupying a strategic point, let the cavalry of each tribe stay behind, and the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty will continue to attack."

"Should your brave cavalry and other cavalry units dismount and attack the mountain?" Han Shizhong asked.

Yue Fei smiled and said, "We can't go up there on horseback."

"Tens of thousands of people are going to attack the mountain. This place is twenty miles away from Keyi Gate. How are the soldiers on the mountain going to get water? These mountains are bare and I'm afraid there won't be any water source." Han Shizhong asked.

Yue Fei said: "The enemy has a camp on the mountain. How do they get water? We will find a way when the time comes." Han Shizhong called Cao Yu over and asked: "How many camps are there on the mountain? Which mountain is it on?"

Cao Yu shook his head: "I don't know."

Han Shizhong asked again: "What do they eat? What do they drink?"

Cao Yu shook his head: "I don't know."

Han Shizhong asked again: "How many people are there in each camp?"

Cao Yu shook his head: "I don't know."

Han Shizhong was furious: "How come you, a Xixia military supervisor, don't know anything?"

Cao Yu explained in panic: "I am the military supervisor of the Wei Fu Army, not the military supervisor of the Keyi Gate."

Han Shizhong was so angry that he wanted to kill him with a knife, but he suppressed his anger and said to Yue Fei: "You and I will each take 30 people and climb up first to observe the situation."

Famous generals throughout the dynasties would personally scout the battlefield when they arrived in an unfamiliar area.

What is drawn on the map or what others say is never as intuitive as what you see with your own eyes.

The extremely cautious general would even speed up his march with his personal soldiers and personally select the camping site two hours in advance.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong borrowed light armor from the grassland cavalry and each led thirty people to climb the mountains on both sides. Each of them also carried dry food and several water bags.

The army at the foot of the mountain was temporarily handed over to Li Shifu for command.

After several days of climbing in the mountains and being sore all over, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong finally figured out the location of the nearest enemy camp.

The living conditions in the mountains are too harsh. Unless a decisive battle is taking place in the valley, the enemy will not deploy too many people on the mountain - eating and drinking water are a big problem.

The two of them went down the mountain nearby and returned to the valley to exchange information.

Han Shizhong said: "I found a fortress, which is not a fort at all. There are at most two or three hundred people inside. With this kind of terrain and this size, there are usually only five or six people stationed there."

"It's similar on my side. We can take it quickly with a small number of elite soldiers." Yue Fei said.

They were lucky because the Western Xia did not have time to build the Great Wall.

Historically, Xixia was badly beaten by the Mongols, and after the Mongols retreated, they built long sections of the Great Wall on the mountains on both sides, which could not only quickly transport troops and food to the mountains, but also garrison the Great Wall to prevent the Mongols from attacking the mountains.

If there was a Great Wall on the mountain at that time, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong would not be able to attack at all, and could only station troops and confront the enemy like Genghis Khan did.

After the discussion, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong stayed behind to rest, and asked their generals to each lead 800 elite soldiers to attack the mountain.

There was no need to climb from the beginning. Instead, at the marked location in the valley, good climbers were sent to climb up without armor. Then wooden stakes were smashed down, ropes were tied and thrown down, and elite soldiers in armor followed, pulling the ropes and finally tying wooden ladders to drag them up.

The wooden ladder was brought from Wulahai City and is an ordinary wooden ladder used by the people.

As a guide, Cao Yu said that it was difficult to find trees here.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong were right in their guess. The two towers they discovered would normally only be garrisoned by six people, and in wartime the force would be increased depending on the situation.

Since Keyi Gate was located in the rear, there had been no war for nearly a hundred years, and usually there was not even a single soldier stationed in the tower. After all, even if there were only six soldiers stationed there, it would be very troublesome to transport food to them, so gradually everyone was too lazy to send soldiers for the sake of convenience.

At this moment, there are 200 soldiers guarding it.

When the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty attacked, the tower immediately lit a wolf smoke signal, and then wolf smoke signals also rose further south.

The Ming army lookouts in charge of observation had already climbed to a higher mountain and determined the locations of other forts or watchtowers through the smoke signals.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong also sent a large number of light cavalry to go deeper into the valley to investigate the situation.

The grassland cavalry went for a while, but soon fled back in a panic.

"Generals, seven or eight miles ahead, there is a winding valley with enemies ambushing at the bend. As soon as we ran over, we were blasted with bullets, and more enemy cavalry rushed over..."

The tribal noble who was in charge of finding out the situation came back with a very aggrieved look on his face, reporting that dozens of his cavalry had just been killed or wounded.

Han Shizhong nodded and said, "I'll give you credit for this."

The elite troops responsible for attacking the mountain continued to cross mountains and ridges after the signal smoke was raised at the Xixia tower.

They descended from one mountain, then climbed another, and when they were close to their target they looked for a suitable position to attack.

It's extremely difficult!

The mountain is mostly made of gneiss, limestone and shale. Years of weathering and erosion have resulted in some mountain walls being 90 degrees. Even the gentlest slope is over 45 degrees. However, there are also some protruding rock bodies that can be stepped on where the rocks are layered.

Wang Gui looked up at the pier in front of him. The mountain in front was several feet high, and the rammed earth wall of the pier was more than ten feet high.

The makeshift stairs they brought were of no use in attacking the pier.

It would take a lot of effort to climb up normally, and it would be impossible to attack with the enemy defending, unless the Ming army could grow wings and fly up.

Wang Gui went around to the back of the tower to check, and immediately he started cursing, "Damn it, this side is also very steep. The enemy soldiers on top had to climb up by themselves, and their food and drink were also hung up with ropes! It's impossible to attack it. Li Zhen, take a few people back to report that I'm guarding here first, and let the governor send some grassland soldiers. There's no need to attack, just surround the enemy and kill them up there. Starve them to death! Let them die of thirst!"

(End of this chapter)