Ji Han Liu Zhang

Chapter 218 Attack and Defense at Yangping Pass

"Woo, woo, woo..."

At the foot of Zouma Ridge, two groups of soldiers blew huge horns, making a deafening sound that resounded throughout the mountains of Zouma Ridge. The birds on the mountain were so startled that they soared into the sky, flapped their wings in the air, and did not dare to fall down for a long time. . Unsurprisingly, the Hanzhong defenders on the mountain looked at this scene from top to bottom.

Li Xiu was sitting on the ridge, half-squinting his eyes as he looked down the ridge of Zouma. He glanced around and quickly saw clearly the arrangement of Liu Zhang's army.

This is the advantage of living on high ground. Li Xiu sighed secretly. He lived on Zouma Ridge and was on high ground. He didn't need to bother building any watchtowers. He could clearly see Liu Zhang's army's offensive arrangements just by standing on the mountain. Chu.

But seeing people hunting with flags and well-organized troops under Zouma Ridge, Li Xiu, who is well versed in military affairs, has some skills in ordering troops. He knows that there are about 10,000 Shu soldiers under Zouma Ridge. Although the number of Shu soldiers exceeds 10,000, they are scattered and scattered. The front, middle and rear troops were strictly organized, and more than ten thousand soldiers were divided into square formations of different sizes. There were no gaps in the formation.

Li Xiu pointed at the Shu soldiers under the city and motioned to Meng Da beside him: "Mr. Meng, in the past people often said that the Shu soldiers lived in Shu, and they were rich and comfortable and not very useful. But when I saw them today, it was completely different. Just the thousands of people in front of me. As far as the soldiers of Yu Shu are concerned, they are all in formation and there is no confusion or disturbance. They can be said to be a middle-class soldier."

Meng Da questioned: "I heard that Liu Yan, the former Yizhou herdsman, recruited refugees from Guanzhong and Nanyang, and called them Dongzhou soldiers. Their soldiers were very capable. These people must be Dongzhou soldiers, not necessarily Shu soldiers."

"Eh." Li Xiu waved his hand and rejected Meng Da's inference: "Meng Jun, look at the banners of the two vanguards on the left and right. One has the word 'Shen' and the other has the word 'Lou'. There is a school captain under Liu Jiyu's account. Shen Mi and Lou Fa were both from Ba County, so the troops they commanded were naturally Shu soldiers... Unexpectedly, in addition to Dongzhou soldiers, Liu Jiyu also had such sharp Shu soldiers. It seemed like there was going to be a tough battle today. Gonna fight."

Li Xiu sighed. He originally thought he only had to deal with the brave Dongzhou soldiers, but he didn't expect that the Shu soldiers under Liu Zhang's tent were also well-trained and looked elite. This made him feel that he was guarding Xinyang Ping Pass. It was a bit stressful, but Li Xiu wasn't too worried. After all, he was very proud of the New Yangping Pass he had built himself. He believed that as long as it was defended properly, there would be no internal troubles. Even if it was attacked by ten times the enemy, he would not take it seriously.

"Oh." Meng Da's eyes flickered. In this way, Liu Zhang's side may have a great chance of winning. The choice he made should be the right one. However, Meng Da still has not made up his mind. Who knows whether the Shu soldiers at the foot of the mountain are It looked like a good product, but it would be ridiculous if he didn't see any use for it. He decided to wait and see the quality of the Shu soldiers.

While Li Xiu and Meng Da were talking, the Shu soldiers at the foot of the mountain began to climb the mountain in an orderly manner. The team was compact and walked toward Guancheng in an orderly manner.

Li Xiu and Meng Da fell silent and stopped talking. Li Xiu waved his hand and issued an order, asking the soldiers to go to the first guarded fence according to the plan. The archers were in front and the spearmen were waiting behind. Shu soldiers are approaching.

Shen Mi was wearing heavy armor and was among a group of soldiers who were also wearing heavy armor. He held an ax in his right hand, which he used to chop down the fence of Xinyang Pingguan in front of him. But before that, He had to destroy the antlers in front of the fence and fill in the trench before he could reach the fence.

But the Hanzhong soldiers stationed in front of the fence naturally would not wait quietly for Shen Mi and his party to fill in the ditch, destroy the antlers, and rush in front of them before reacting.

I saw the Hanzhong archers in the first row behind the fence picking up the bows and arrows in their hands. After setting up the bows, they stretched the bow string like a full moon. When Shen Mi and his party reached within a hundred steps, a shower of arrows flew out. .

This group of Hanzhong archers did not lift the head of the arrow slightly upward as they did on a plain battlefield, so that the arrow would hit the Shu soldiers in a parabola. Instead, they shot straight out. After all, they now live on the mountains. , it is archery from a high position, there is no need to shoot the arrow from the same level as the ground.

Facing the dense rain of arrows that were as dense as locusts flying in a plague, Shen Mi raised the shield he held in his left hand and raised the shield slightly to receive the generous gift from the Hanzhong archers, and the sound of arrow feathers soon became rapid. rang in Shen Mi's ears, followed closely by the sound of a bow hitting a hardwood shield.

"Duo, Duo, Duo..."

More and more, the sound of scattered and noisy hardwood shields catching arrows resounded all around. After this burst of arrows, although the soldiers led by Shen Mi relied on their shields and wore heavy armor, most of them were safe and sound. But on the battlefield, swords have no eyes, and there will always be a few unlucky guys who are hit by arrows without any bias and fall to the ground wailing.

However, Shen Mi had no intention of rescuing these unlucky soldiers. Under his orders, his group of heavily armored vanguard soldiers still advanced towards the fence in front of them in an orderly manner, without any hindrance in their actions. The blow brought by the wave of arrow rain from the Hanzhong archers did not have much effect.

"Shoot, keep shooting." The commanders and corps commanders who commanded the Hanzhong archers in the first row of the fence naturally noticed that Shen Mi and his party were still advancing, and their first round of arrow rain did not produce good results. , so they all urged the archers to prepare for the second round of arrow strikes.

Behind the heavy armored infantry formation where Shen Mi was, there was a group of archers led by Colonel Lou Fa. However, they did not send out a rain of arrows to respond to the archers attacking Hanzhong. They just held a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. Waiting for their time to come.

In a bottom-up attack, the situation was very unfavorable for the attacker. The arrows fired by the archers led by Lou Fa needed to be thrown upward as much as possible, otherwise they would only hit the soles of the Hanzhong soldiers' feet. Moreover, they did not have as good a field of vision as the soldiers of the Han Dynasty. They could shoot from a height and see everything in front of their eyes, so Lou Fa planned to get closer so that their arrows could have maximum effect and help Shen Mi's advancement.

When the battle situation between the Han soldiers and the Shu soldiers on the Zouma Ridge was tense, at the foot of the Zouma Ridge in the old Yangping Pass, Zhang Wei stood at the top of the city without any surprise, looking towards the mountains, but the situation was far away. He could only see a line of ants walking from the foot of Zouma Ridge toward Guancheng on the mountain.

Zhang Wei knew that after the Shu soldiers beat drums and bugles in the morning, they had now launched an attack on Xinyangping Pass where Army Sima Li Xiu was stationed.

According to the fact that the old and new Yangping Pass are like horns, when the Shu soldiers attacked the new Yangping Pass, Zhang Wei stationed at the old Yangping Pass should have opened the city gate wide, sent troops to harass the Shu soldiers from the side, and tried to attack from the middle Cut off the Shu soldiers' formation, and then pick up the Shu soldiers with Li Xiu.

But Zhang Wei did not use the power of the horn. His eyes glanced at the cavalry on the side of the Shu soldiers. There was a familiar figure there, a white horse with a silver helmet, and Zhang Ren, who could ride a thousand horses. Zhang Wei, who had suffered a loss at the hands of Zhang Ren, naturally gave up the idea of ​​leaving the city.

"Grand Jijiu, do you want to go out of the city to fight, harass the Shu soldiers on the flanks, and reduce the pressure on Li Sima?" Jijiu Yang Ren asked Zhang Wei for orders. In his opinion, the Shu soldiers were attacking the army Sima Li Xiu, so they naturally It is to play the role of friendly forces.

Zhang Wei, who had made up his mind, shook his head and rejected Yang Ren's request. He said thoughtfully: "This is only the first day, so don't worry. Let's see how the Shu soldiers are. If the situation on Li Sima's side is not good, It's good or it's critical. It won't be too late for us to send troops again." Zhang Wei here decided not to move, but the generals standing beside Liu Zhang were asking for orders one after another, especially Gan Ning, who was abandoned by Liu Zhang as the first After the echelon of generals went out to fight, he had to accompany Liu Zhang. Now that Gan Ning saw the offensive and defensive situation on Zouma Ridge, he felt itchy all over and needed a hearty fight to stop it.

Gan Ning took a step forward, raised his hands to Liu Zhang and asked for orders again: "Ming Gong, I would rather lead the soldiers to capture Zaomaling and Xinyang Ping Pass for Ming Gong."

But Liu Zhang didn't let Gan Ning get what he wanted. He just smiled and shook his head: "There's no rush. Just sit down and sit down. You will be of great use when you are ready."

Gan Ning looked helpless, but Liu Zhang had made up his mind, and seeing Liu Zhang's expression, he could not be shaken, so he had no choice but to take a step back and sit down, focusing his attention on the offense and defense on Zouma Ridge.

Although Liu Zhang, who was sitting at the head of the group, was also watching the situation on Zouma Ridge, from time to time, he would look thoughtfully towards the northeast once or twice.
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Among the mountains, Fa Zheng, who was walking forward, was wondering if he was taking too many risks, just like putting all his money on the line when playing Liubo. And unlike ordinary bets, he was putting all his wealth and life on it.

But just a moment later, an indescribable smile appeared on Fazheng's face. Doing such a big thing naturally involves taking some risks, and he was willing to take this risk.

‘The county magistrate of Mian County. Fa Zheng couldn't help but smile when he thought about this position. Living under Zhang Lu's tent, serving a person like Zhang Lu, and only holding the position of county magistrate, Fa Zheng was extremely unwilling in his heart. Needless to say, Fa Zheng was unwilling to do so. After Liu Zhang attacked Hanzhong, Zhang Luming and secretly regarded them as a holiday for the scholars in Guanzhong and Liangzhou, leaving them idle at home and not worrying about them occupying county positions.

Fazheng sneered. Firstly, he could not be reused. Secondly, Zhang Lu could not trust them. So what was the use of staying in Hanzhong? So after he met a man who claimed to be a spy from Shu, he decided to follow him. He traveled to Shu and went to serve Liu Zhang.

After entrusting the members of the Fa family and the Meng family to Meng Da's nephew Deng Xian, Fa Zheng now avoided the main road and followed Jian Xi, who claimed to be Lou Qi, through the mountains and ridges and overcoming obstacles to attack the Shu army in front of Yangping Pass. Go to camp.

Lou Qi, who had a dark complexion and looked like an old farmer, was cutting thorns with his sword in front, opening a path. From time to time, he looked back at Fazheng, filled with doubts in his heart.

Lou Qi, who was sent by Huang Quan to go deep into Hanzhong, was to contact various wealthy families who wanted to join Liu Zhang, and the clans from Guanzhong and Liangzhou south to Hanzhong were the focus of Lou Qi's contact.

Lou Qi's trip went smoothly. Scholars in Guanzhong and Liangzhou generally disliked Zhang Lu, who believed in ghosts, and intended to join Liu Zhang. However, even if they served as officials under Zhang Lu, Guan Liang did not want to commit rebellion. The scholars did not tie up Jian Xi, whom Lou Qi had sent to contact and win over, and send it to the government, but pretended that there was no such thing.

Lou Qi probably guessed what this group of neutral Guanliang scholars were thinking. Nowadays, Shu has a large terrain and Hanzhong is in danger. Even if the Guanliang people have no intention of abandoning the dark side and surrendering to the bright side, for the sake of clan conspiracy, they are afraid of future attacks by Shu soldiers. After entering Hanzhong, I didn't dare to offend them, a group of elites from Shu.

But what makes Lou Qi strange is that although many Guanliang scholars are willing to take refuge, most of them are just making promises and have not yet taken actual actions. After all, the Shu soldiers are still outside Yangping Pass and have not really entered Hanzhong. Guanliangshi People are still suspicious.

But behind him, Fazheng, the grandson of Fazhen, the famous Guanzhong scholar 'Mr. , saying that he wanted to meet his immediate superior, Yizhou Mu Liu Zhang, and offer him a good strategy for conquering Hanzhong.

‘That’s weird, that’s weird. ’ Lou Qi shook his head.

At this time, Fazheng shouted from behind Lou Qi: "Mr. Lou, you need to rest for a while."

Lou Qi looked back with a simple smile, shook his head and said, "If Fajun is tired, we will rest for a while, eat something and drink some water, and then leave again."

Fazheng's eyes were soft, and he said: "I'm not tired, but Lou Jun is going through the thorns and thorns ahead, and I'm worried that Lou Jun won't be able to bear it."

Lou Qi couldn't help but feel a sense of warmth. He came from a poor family, huh? Perhaps his humble background is an exaggeration. Three generations back, he was a Guizhou leader, one of the lowest class. By his generation, he might still be a Guizhou leader. Fortunately, he had some military power. He used to follow the school captain Lou Fa to wander around in Bajun's arena, and he was considered to have escaped. The identity of the head of Guizhou, but there is nothing to say.

But since Liu Zhang became the shepherd of Yizhou, first his good friend Gan Ning, his commander-in-chief, Lou Fa, got lucky and became Liu Zhang's captain. Then his commander-in-chief Lou Fa also surrendered to Liu Zhang and became Liu Zhang. During the Battle of Nanzhong, Gao Yi, the prefect of Yizhou who was guarding Dianchi County and now the governor of Gaojiang, sent a letter to inform him of the news, and cooperated with Gao Yi to guard it. After conquering Dianchi County, he was able to take up the post of captain.

But even though he took up the post of captain, Lou Qi still felt that he was from a humble background and had a respectful attitude towards scholars and scholars. But now Fazheng, this 'Mr. It moved him a little.

Lou Qi said warmly: "Master, please rest assured. I am a rough man and am used to using force. Such small things are not too hard for me."

After declining Fazheng's kindness, Lou Qi pointed to the mountains in front and said, "You only need to climb over the mountains in front to reach Yangpingguan."

‘Liu Jiyu, what kind of person are you? ’ Fa Zheng looked along Lou Qi’s instructions, and at the same time he had a question in his heart, and at the same time he felt more or less uneasy.

(End of this chapter)