In Zhang Xi's uneasy mood, Wei Yan organized his three thousand elite troops and set out early in the morning. He planned to avoid the surveillance of Wudu states and counties from the west bank of the West Han River, detour into Qishan Road, and sneak attack Qishan Fort.
Zhang Xi, on the other hand, temporarily slowed down his march, wrote his plan in a letter, and sent it to the Chinese army camp in the rear for Liu Bei to read.
Then, Zhang Xi continued to march slowly in the direction of Wudu County, while Wei Yan traveled through the starry night to Qishan Road.
In fact, it was impossible to travel under the stars and at night. He just tried his best to make use of the sky and set up camp when he could no longer see the road clearly. He set off at dawn and traveled more than fifty miles in one day. It took Wei Yan two days to complete the journey. Entering Qishan Road, we arrived at a place less than twenty miles away from Qishan Fort.
Next, Wei Yan arranged for the soldiers to rest and sleep during the day.
According to the information provided by Zhang Xi, Qishan Fort was built on the mountain. From a high position, it could peek at the movement of Qishan Road. The farthest viewing distance could reach about twenty miles.
Therefore, when Wei Yan arrived twenty miles away from Qishan Fort, he did not dare to advance easily.
Coupled with two consecutive days of high-intensity traveling, the soldiers were also exhausted. If they launch a surprise attack now, their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced.
Wei Yan is a famous general. He knows very well what the purpose of his campaign is, and he also knows what to do at this time. He will not do the kind of thing like "march for a hundred miles and the general will be absent".
Furthermore, since Wei Yan dared to shout in front of Zhang Xi that he would be beheaded if he could not take Qishan Fort, he also had his own ideas and confidence.
Two days were spent marching, and the last day was spent resting. At night, it was the time for Wei Yan to officially launch a surprise attack.
No matter what time of day the army is, its defenses are most relaxed at night. People can't stay awake at night.
Furthermore, not everyone in this era can see at night, and such elite soldiers cannot be used to guard a military fortress in the mountains.
Therefore, at night, when the Qishan Fort defenders' vision is most restricted, Wei Yan can rely on the cover of night to quickly approach Qishan Fort and launch a surprise attack.
But there is also a problem here - very few of the Qishan Fort defenders can see at night, so do Wei Yan's soldiers have this ability? !
Not really.
Wei Yan tried it. Among his 3,000-man army, no more than 200 people could really see clearly at night, and only less than 500 people could barely see the road under their feet at night.
If Wei Yan wanted to launch a surprise attack at night, he could only rely on these five hundred people.
But Wei Yan felt enough was enough.
During the day, Wei Yan personally led his soldiers and farmers who cut firewood in the city to go deep into the vicinity of Qishan Fort to survey the terrain, confirm the road up the mountain from Qishan Fort, and the garrison situation that could be observed visually on the mountain.
Qishan Fort was built on a mountain, and the mountain was not high, only about twenty feet.
There is only one mountain road, and it is quite winding. Apart from this mountain road, it is surrounded by cliffs. If you fall, you will almost certainly die.
In this kind of terrain, as long as you control a few points, you can defend the entire mountain road.
In fact, the defenders of Qishan Fort did the same.
The Qishanbao defenders not only set up five outposts around the foot of the mountain to expand their control area, but also set up a relatively large outpost at the entrance to the mountain, which could accommodate nearly fifty people according to visual inspection.
As for the mountain roads, Wei Yan's vision was limited and he couldn't see too many sentry posts, but according to Wei Yan's experience, there would definitely be sentry posts on some narrow mountain roads.
If Wei Yan wants to attack, he must take advantage of the darkness to pull out the outposts at the bottom of the mountain and control the mountain road one by one, so that he can go up the mountain road and attack the real Qishan Fort camp.
It's difficult, but it's not impossible. The mountain is not high. Although the mountain road is winding, the distance is not long. As long as you are careful, you should be able to climb up the mountain.
If it were twenty feet taller, Wei Yan would have no choice but to retreat.
After clearly observing the enemy's battle situation, Wei Yan returned to his camp and quietly waited for dark.
Winter was approaching, and it was getting dark earlier and earlier. When night fell and the sight was somewhat obstructed, Wei Yan set off with about five hundred soldiers who could barely see at night.
As for the remaining 2,500 people, Wei Yan had no intention of letting them stay where they were.
Even if Wei Yan did successfully reach the vicinity of the mountain camp, it would be impossible to capture Qishan Fort with only 500 men.
Therefore, Wei Yan's 500 men were just the vanguard, while the remaining 2,500 men were the real main force.
But the remaining 2,500 people couldn't see at all at night, and everything in front of them was pitch black. How should they march and attack? !
The method Wei Yan came up with was to divide the 2,500 people into ten teams. Each team was led by two people who could see the road clearly at night. Then everyone had a rope wrapped around their waist and a piece of gold in their mouth. They were led by ropes towards Qishan Fort.
Once a large number of torches are seen in the direction of Qishan Fort, it means that Wei Yan's 500-man raiding party has begun to attack Qishan Fort. At this time, the remaining 2,500 people light torches and use them to illuminate the road. , quickly support in the direction of Qishan Fort.
After planning all this, Wei Yan led five hundred people, wearing armors painted black in advance, holding Miao knives, holding them in their mouths, and setting off with their feet wrapped in cloth.
The march went smoothly. Wei Yan followed the path he had memorized during the day and marched in the dark. In the middle of the night, he finally reached the foot of the mountain road of Qishan Fort and faced the first outpost of the Qishan Fort garrison, which was also set up at the foot of the mountain. That medium-sized outpost.
At this time, the Qishan Fort defenders really had no defense.
Guard Gao Gang had already gone to bed. Except for the soldiers who were keeping watch at various posts and on the top of the mountain, all the other soldiers had also gone to bed.
There is a saying that there is nothing wrong with the defensive measures taken by the defender Gao Gang. At least in this era, it is considered to be on guard.
Although he heard that the Shu army from the Hanzhong direction was making a big move, and was warned by Guo Huai, the governor of Liangzhou, to strengthen surveillance of the Wudu area, Gao Gang really didn't think that the Shu army from the Hanzhong direction would come towards the Qishan Road. .
The road from Hanzhong out of the Qinling Mountains is the Qishan Road, which is the farthest. It is basically a detour to bypass the Qinling Mountains. The Shu army left the closer Baoxie Road and Chencang Road instead of taking it, so why did they go to the Qishan Road so far away? !
Another one, there was no movement in the direction of Wudu.
Even if Wudu cannot resist the attack and cannot withstand the Shu army's attack, at least it can serve as a warning.
There is no warning in the direction of Wudu County, which at least means that Wudu is not in danger. Even if the Shu army really takes the Qishan Road, when they arrive at Wudu, they will not have time to make defensive preparations.
It cannot be said that Gao Gang's idea is wrong. After all, this is the common idea of people guarding the fortress in this era.
If the defenders of Qishan Fort were to prepare for war just because there was a big move by the Shu army in Hanzhong, the soldiers would not be able to bear it.
At this time, Qishan Fort had not experienced any attack by the Shu army. Guo Huai from Liangzhou did not think that the location of Qishan Fort was very important. It was just a military stronghold for warning, so he was sent to Qishan Fort to guard it. The soldiers are indeed not elites, just ordinary garrison soldiers.
Some of these people are here for military service, and some are recruited with money. It is simply unrealistic for you to expect them to remain highly vigilant like elites.
Gao Gang could think of setting up defenses at the foot of Qishan Fort Mountain, and at the same time insisted on sending people to guard and observe at night. For the sake of Guo Huai's warning, Gao Gang was very serious and responsible.
But this defensive mentality was advantageous to Wei Yan.
The first post at the foot of the mountain was the first difficulty. Taking advantage of the darkness, the defenders could not see clearly the surrounding situation. In the middle of the night, the defenders' energy dropped and they could not concentrate. Wei Yan and his men quietly approached the post. nearby.
This post is a medium-sized one. There are at least fifty people in the post, so it is indeed difficult to solve it quietly.
Wei Yan selected nearly a hundred people with the best night vision from among the soldiers he brought, and first used crossbows to kill the soldiers on duty at the post. In order to ensure the hit rate, Wei Yan, a sentry guard, also specifically asked five crossbowmen to gather together. Fire must require one hit to kill.
After killing the sentry guards, Wei Yan led the 100 people to browse the fence of the sentry post, reached inside the sentry post, and immediately killed all the sleeping sentry guards, leaving no one behind.
There was no way, this was a sneak attack, Wei Yan couldn't keep any prisoners, otherwise once these prisoners made a noise, the guards on the mountain would notice.
It's not that there was no commotion. After all, there were a lot of people in this outpost. It would be very difficult to kill all the fifty soldiers in their sleep. Someone would always be awakened.
But on the one hand, Wei Yan brought elites with higher combat quality. On the other hand, the mountain forest at night is not a completely silent place. There will occasionally be roaring beasts in the mountains. In addition, the wind in the mountains provides cover, as long as there is no large-scale attack. Making noise would hardly attract the attention of the mountaintop guards.
Therefore, although there was some commotion, it did not seem to be noticed by the defenders on the mountain because it passed so quickly.
Wei Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and with the cold sweat on his back, he continued to kill the remaining sentry posts in the dark. There were still many guards on the mountain road.
In this way, Wei Yan quietly eliminated the troops at the two outposts at the foot of the mountain. After opening an attack channel for his follow-up troops, looking at the sky, Wei Yan gritted his teeth and decided not to care about the remaining two outposts at the foot of the mountain. Outpost, smear up the mountain.
There are still many sentry posts on the mountain road. If we continue to waste time like this, it will be daybreak.
At this time, the defenders on the mountain still seemed unaware of anything.
Wei Yan secretly rejoiced and continued to smear up the mountain, killing two more outposts on the mountain road, and finally climbed halfway up the mountain.
Although he didn't know how many outposts were left, even Wei Yan was very satisfied that he could climb to this position without being discovered.
Continuing to slander and climb up the mountain, Wei Yan even hoped that he might be able to solve all the outposts and appeared unexpectedly at the gate of the camp on the top of the mountain. But at this time, the whereabouts of Wei Yan and others were still discovered.
(End of chapter)
