Chapter 214: Battle of wits
Zhe Donggen is the second head of Ninggu Village.
The title of Second Village Leader sounds like a big deal, but it actually means nothing in the She'an Alliance Army. Ninggu Village, which is very close to Anshun Prefecture, is a small tribe of the Yi ethnic group. There are only a thousand people in the village, all with the same surname. The village is not big, so the oil and water are limited. The big leader, Mani, is also very good at doing things. He will send some bamboo shoots today and some pheasants tomorrow, so the relationship with several Han officials in Anshun Prefecture has been maintained quite well. An Bangyan's revolt was a dilemma faced by Zhe Mani: If he didn't join in the rebellion, An Bangyan would definitely be the first to kill him as a warning to others. What if he followed and rebelled? Let alone whether it can succeed in the end, as long as the two sides see each other a few times and the government and army counterattack, the small Ninggu Village will be burned to the ground by them immediately. The wily Zhe Manni watched the bonfire and pondered for half a night, then called his youngest son Zhe Mengtang over and gave some instructions, and Zhe Mengtang went to Anshun Prefecture that night. Early the next morning, someone saw that several Han officials from the prefecture hurried to Guiyang, and Zhe Mengtang never came back.
After learning that his youngest son had been "tied" by Han officials "for no reason", Zhe Manni "fell ill". Before he fell ill, he called his eldest son Zhe Donggen and murmured for a long time. Then Zhe Donggen led a dozen men to join An Bangyan's team. Zhe Mani's illness is very strange: you say it's not serious, but you haven't seen him come down once even after staying in the bamboo house all day long; you say it's really serious, and everyone in the village still goes to his house to judge him on everything big or small. Nothing was delayed.
Obviously, Zhe Mani is an old fox: Zhe Mengtang, who has the gift of informing and saving lives, follows the Han officials. If the boss is captured by the army one day, he will most likely be able to save his life. He will be ill. , the eldest son voted for Elder An. Although he did not bring many people with him, his attitude was definitely correct. Elder An would not insist on having trouble with Ninggu Village, which did not have many people.
My father had repeatedly warned me, and Zhe Donggen knew it well, so the dozen or so people in Ninggu Village had been working hard in the She'an Alliance Army. But let alone An Bangyan, even the other village leaders didn't take it seriously - with such a few people, what can you expect them to do?
So everyone was wrong.
These dozen or so little-known people did something big, a big thing - they caused more casualties to the officers and soldiers than a large battle, and even partially changed a little bit of history.
An Bangyan always had a trickster mentality, hoping to capture Guiyang without any bloodshed, so he never launched an aggressive attack like She Chongming's attack on Chengdu. In addition to the initial attack on the north gate that was repelled by the Zhenjun soldiers, as early as late May during the 100-day siege of the city, he also launched another exploratory attack, with the focus of the attack on the west gate of Guiyang.
An Bangyan wanted to take advantage, but the leaders of each village were reluctant to ask their own people to attack and die, so this siege war showed a scene that was unique in that era: there were no ants climbing the walls, no cars crashing into the towers, and no hand-to-hand combat. , both sides were shooting at each other from a distance - from a modern perspective, it looked a bit like two children working hard and conscientiously in an Ultraman battle.
There is a huge stone outside the west gate. It is usually covered by vegetation, but it is so huge that it is almost flush with the west wall. The Guiyang defenders had just cleared away the covering vegetation and before they had time to destroy it, the Shuixi Army came over. The citizens dispersed and fled into the city. Overjoyed, thousands of Shuixi soldiers rushed to the stone, picked up their hunting bows, and shot arrows at the top of the city. Regardless of whether they are Miao, Yi or Tujia, almost everyone is a hunter. In terms of accuracy and psychological quality, they are miles ahead of those guard troops who have been in peace for a long time. However, the Shuixi Army only had some advantage in terms of momentum and did not gain much real advantage - because although the defenders on the wall were poor, they had equipment advantages. Most of the Shuixi army used bamboo bows, and their lethality at a distance of twenty or thirty feet was extremely limited. And most of the Guiyang defenders had armor!
Of course, the arrows shot from the bamboo bows cannot break armor, but every time these guardsmen are hit, even though there is no real damage, they will yell and scream, and the fear is contagious. I was so scared that I didn't even dare to express my anger. That's them. If any of Sun Jie's battalions encountered an opponent like this, the battalion officer wouldn't even bother to give the order to raise the shield. He would lead his brothers to crush him with a single draw of his sword. After receiving the report, Shi Yong'an hurried over to the west wall. Seeing that the defenders were being pressed down and being shot with arrows, Shi Yong'an was furious. He mobilized more than a dozen gunmen to beat them randomly. Not many of the thieves fell, and the momentum was finally restored. After a while, under the cover of the white smoke fired by the fire cannons, the defenders' archers gained the courage to come out one after another to shoot at Shuixi Army.
So the two sides had a lively fight, and it was evenly matched - at the same distance, shooting with a regular bow without armor would of course be an overwhelming advantage, but the accuracy of these guys was extremely different. Although it cannot be said that pointing to the east and hitting the west is the same as pointing to the north. , but it’s normal to miss the one you aim at; there are still many people in the Shuixi Allied Forces who are brave and accurate, but the power of the bows and arrows in their hands is too weak, and the arrows fall with a "pop" every time they hit, and they can only The unfortunate guy was so frightened that he jumped three feet high...
Spending it like this is not an option. Shi Yong'an also asked civil servants to erect planks on the wall and place bricks under the feet. After working for a long time, the defenders finally had the commanding power. The bamboo bow was not powerful enough, and it had to be shot upwards, so it gradually fell into disadvantage. However, Shi Yongan's actions reminded them, so the smart leader started to yell, and the soldiers all retreated with a roar.
That night, the mountains outside the city were dotted with flames and bustling with people, and no one knew what the Shuixi Army was up to.
Early the next morning, Shi Yong'an, who had been guarding the Western Wall all night, found that the thieves were back again. Every two or three people carried a wooden cage. At a rough look, there were probably thousands of them. I dared to love these guys all night long. Many of these things were made!
On the side of the city wall, there was a row of soldiers holding big wooden boards to defend against arrows. The rest of the people were busy rolling out the wooden cages and filling them with earth and rocks. After one layer was filled, they laid another layer. After watching for a while, they stood guard. Someone in the army finally realized that the thieves were also building a high platform to seize the commanding heights!
The bricks and stones on the west wall have been put up to support the feet. If the Shuixi Army is condescending, the little confidence that the defenders finally regained will be shaken again. There was a flag official Li Liangcai who came to Shi Yongan in a hurry and asked, "Please demolish the bell tower of Yongxiang Temple in the city" and compete with the thieves to see who can build the tower higher!
Now it's fun. In this war in the era of cold weapons, the two armies are facing each other. The battle is no longer about whose sword is stronger and whose soldiers are more ruthless, but who is better at building illegal buildings without permission!
The wooden cage platform has been built to a height of ten feet. The Shuixi Allied Forces were busy working in full swing, but they were surprised to find that high-rise buildings had begun to be built on the opposite wall! There were many carpenters and masons in the city, and raw materials such as beams and columns were readily available. At noon, the pheasant tower on the wall was already significantly higher than the wooden cage platform. Li Liangcai was so praised by Shi Yongan that he couldn't control his enthusiasm. He led his men to climb to the middle of the pheasant tower under construction, set up a firecracker and fired in this direction.
It seems that the platform is unstoppable. Several village owners of the Water-West Alliance discussed it, don't just us idiots doing a lot of work, there are 70,000 to 80,000 people, why should we only be asked to attack the Western Wall while the others are just sitting in the east and south watching the fun? You have to talk to Elder An and fight together! So with an order, the troops retreated in chaos.
The "powerful enemy" retreated, and the defenders of the Western Wall burst into earth-shattering cheers. It was a fierce "bloody battle". This was the first time in their lives that these guardsmen faced the enemy, and it was also their first "big victory". Although this "fierce battle" lasted less than three days, only two thieves were killed or injured. The number of people did not prevent everyone from excitedly bragging about their bravery.
After learning that the bandits in the west had retreated, and that Zhang Fang and Huang Yunqing had just entered the city, Li Jingwu wanted to take the opportunity to attack the Weiqing Guards (now Qingzhen, Guizhou). It would be best if they could be defeated, and they could echo Guiyang. It didn't matter if they couldn't be defeated. , just to boost morale, so I went to find the second general. Zhang Fang occupied a large house and was shouting for people to expand it ("Build Ya Mansion and look forward to it"), when Li Jingwu barged in and asked him to send troops. Marshal Zhang prevaricated and said that he would go out with Deputy General Huang (the order to launch Deputy General Xiesheng was issued in early May). Unexpectedly, Governor Li agreed and dragged him away and went to find Huang Yunqing. Huang Yunqing, who had recently taken several concubines ("the emperor will support all the concubines"), was blocked in the bedroom by Li Jingwu in broad daylight, and was coaxed and frightened. Especially when he heard the cheers from the west of the city, Er Er, who had just entered the city, was still a little afraid of the civil servants. I was also a bit embarrassed, so I ordered my troops and horses to leave the city.
It was almost dusk when the second general set out, and it got dark not long after walking. Fortunately, in order to frighten the Guiyang defenders, An Bangyan asked the soldiers to light two torches each and walk up and down the mountain every night to create a strong impression. The second general simply ordered them to hold fire at night.
Unlike other provinces, Guizhou has too many ethnic minority tribes. On the other hand, the imperial court also intends to divide and rule, so the "guards" here are not as big as those in other provinces. There are many so-called "guards" placed in the interior. It's not even as large as a state. Weiqingwei is even smaller, just a town. There is no wall outside, it is just a dirt fence, and it has long been dilapidated. According to Zhang Fang and Huang Yunqing's thinking, they arrived at dawn. How many thieves could be stationed in a town? Four to five hundred is enough! More than 8,000 people cheered and rushed over. After grabbing enough things, they set fire to it and ran back to Guiyang. Wouldn't it be another great victory?
The mountain road was narrow, and we had to walk at night, and the two armies were only temporarily joining forces and had no control over each other, so naturally they were divided into two groups. The two generals both had the idea of rushing into Weiqing first to grab the enemy, and a small dispute broke out between them over who would go in front. In the end, they made a vow together that no matter which one came first, they would wait for the other to come over and fight together, and then roll the dice to determine the order.
Zhang Fang was lucky, so she walked in front. But compared to the soft temptation of gold and silver in the dream, who is the poisonous oath? What's more, the clever Zhang Dashuai took advantage of the darkness and added the word "weird" at the end of the sentence "the sky struck five thunders" in a voice so quiet that he couldn't hear it. Of course gods have great powers... Of course they all heard it, right?
So just after turning a mountain bay, Zhang Fang accelerated his marching speed. In order to take the lead, Marshal Zhang fully demonstrated his talent in troop formation: he ordered his three combat battalions to take the lead, the strongest among the auxiliary soldiers to serve as the middle army, and those with the weakest physical strength to stay in the rear group - go slowly , suppressing Huang Yuanqing's team and holding them back.
There is a saying that people's calculations are not as good as God's calculations, so Zhe Donggen appeared on the stage at this time.
