Walking down-to-earth on this long-abandoned path, Zhou Zhixue felt that although this road was difficult to walk, as long as there were no obstacles, a small group of elite troops could still pass through it in batches.
Of course, since it is difficult to find supplies, if you want to take this route, not only the route is a problem, but the supplies are also a problem.
If we really want to launch an attack along this route, we will probably only have one chance to send an elite force to carry dry food ourselves, and use the fastest speed to go back to the rear of Tongguan to launch the attack.
To launch an attack on Tongguan before the food and water are exhausted, we must win. We only have one chance and cannot fail. Once we fail, everything will be over.
Zhou Zhixue secretly came to a conclusion.
After a lot of effort, a group of people climbed to the top of Nanyuan.
The top is unexpectedly flat, but the old Tongguan site was also completely destroyed, and almost nothing useful can be seen. Only an outline can be seen, and it can be imagined that the old Tongguan stood upright more than 300 years ago. This majestic appearance.
But this is not their destination. They still need to continue westward to find the Forbidden Valley and the Twelve Connected Cities.
Along the way, they stopped and walked cautiously, exploring and reconnaissance from all sides to ensure that there were no Jin troops or even human settlements on the road ahead.
In fact, this is also true. There is not only no army on the top of the entire southern plateau, but also no human habitation.
It just looked desolate and dilapidated.
Zhou Zhixue continued to lead people to the west. When they advanced to a certain location, they discovered the ruins of an old city that had been abandoned for a long time. After exploring, they found that there were no traces of human activity inside, at least not recently.
After arriving here, Zhou Zhixue and others also discovered a north-south river ditch. After thinking about it, he did not continue to the west, but turned north and ordered the reconnaissance troops to move north to search for the enemy.
Not long after, news came from the reconnaissance team that they discovered the ruins of old defense facilities, but no traces of human defense or habitation were found.
Zhou Zhixue was overjoyed and ordered the reconnaissance troops to continue heading north, whereupon they discovered the ruins of several defense facilities one after another, all of which had been abandoned for a long time and had no human traces.
Not only are there no traces of humans, but there are also many wild animals in and out, not to mention some small animals. There are many snakes that are really scary. They crawl around, and I don’t know whether they are poisonous or not.
Fortunately, they didn't run into any beasts like giant insects, otherwise they might have to lose a few people here to end this exploration.
When they arrived at the ninth ruins, Zhou Zhixue ordered the scout troops to continue moving forward, and the guards he led not to move forward.
The further we go, the more dangerous it becomes, so a small number of professional scouts move forward, waiting for news at the back.
"If my prediction is correct, this place is probably the so-called Forbidden Valley and the Twelve Linked City. It does look like there is no human habitation. It is overgrown with weeds, rocks blocking the road, and there are many wild animals, which is enough to prove that this place has been abandoned. long time."
Chen Liao was stunned for a moment, and then his expression became a little excited.
"Secretary, if you put it this way, then there won't be..."
"Well, if there are no mistakes, after passing the twelve connected cities, Guanzhong should be in front of us. From here, we can directly insert into the back of Tongguan and wipe out all the Tongguan gold thieves in one fell swoop!"
Zhou Zhixue breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that this hiking trip was very fruitful and that the road they spent three days exploring was not in vain.
They didn't dare to light fire along the way. They ate only dried meat and big pancakes, drank the water they brought with them, and sat on the ground when they rested. At night, they had to cut down trees and build fences for protection. A group of people slept together, taking turns. He kept vigil all night, keeping a knife and a gun close to his body, for fear that some ferocious beast would come over and bite him.
If you give it a bite from a ferocious beast, it will be scrapped for the rest of your life, and no one will care about it.
But fortunately, perhaps because they were numerous and carried weapons, no ferocious beasts dared to touch them. However, they did find a few snakes touching their fence at some point. They were quite close, which was enough for some soldiers who were afraid of snakes. Very frightened.
Zhou Zhixue and the guards waited for a while. In the evening, the scouts came back and reported that they had indeed found human settlements after crossing several old defense sites in front and walking out of the canyon road, but they did not dare to approach them and only took a look from a distance. .
Good guy, it’s true!
Zhou Zhixue clenched his fists and ordered the scouts to complete the reconnaissance of this route and then return with the team.
On the way back, they didn't have to stop and be careful. They hurried on with all their strength and quickly rushed back to the Liberation Army camp to tell Zhou Zhi the news.
Zhou Zhi was overjoyed. He never expected that Zhou Zhixue would actually find a route that could bypass Tongguan.
But he was still a little worried.
"Then again, even though that road is deserted, isn't there anyone on the Golden Thief side who knows about it? If it's an ordinary small road, the garrison would probably have inquired about it and been platooned. They wouldn't have set up an ambush, right?"
"It's really hard to say. Passing on this road was prohibited in the Tang Dynasty. It would have been more convenient for residents and business travelers to go directly to Xintongguan Road. No one would choose the old Tongguan Road instead of being close, right? Gradually, this road became deserted. , and it’s not widely known. The reason why we know it is really a bit of a stroke of luck.”
Zhou Zhixue said this, and Zhou Zhi felt that this was indeed the case.
So he nodded and began to discuss the raid plan with Zhou Zhixue.
Send the most capable generals, lead the most capable troops, carry food and water themselves, use the fastest speed to detour behind Tongguan, launch a surprise attack, and attack front and back with the main force fighting head-on, striving to capture Tongguan in one go!
When the Liberation Army was preparing to carry out this breakthrough mission, the Jin Army seemed to be rock solid.
Tongguan guard general Wu Yanpu Lihei was hosting a banquet for the main generals of his army to celebrate the victory of their first phase of defense.
Wu Yanpu Lihei believed that in the previous ten days of fighting, the Jin Army did not let the Liberation Army take a step beyond the thunder. This was a great victory. It proved that the Liberation Army was not strong enough. They still could not successfully break through Tongguan after making a comeback. They could only watch in despair. There is nothing that can be done about the fortified Guancheng.
Therefore, he wanted to take advantage of the time when the Liberation Army suspended their attacks to entertain the generals who stayed on the front line and give them a good meal.
"Of course, I won't drink any more. Being too greedy will ruin things. After we completely defeat the bandit army, we can drink to our heart's content. For now, we'll replace the wine with tea. Everyone, eat well! Drink well!"
Wuyan Pulihe shouted loudly.
"Here!"
All the generals accepted the order in unison, and then began to eat and drink.
Seeing the generals eating and drinking, Wu Yanpu Lihei nodded with satisfaction. After thinking about it, he felt worried again.
Before guarding Tongguan, Tudan Hexi made it clear to him that he would not have too many reinforcements for this battle. Although Tudan Hexi still had more than 20,000 troops, they could not all be devoted to Tongguan. There are still many places lacking troops.
The ungrateful evil dog of Xixia stationed tens of thousands of troops on the border to perform martial arts, watching with eager eyes. Regardless of whether they would actually send troops, the Jin army must use a certain amount of troops to defend them.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, the old rival Wu Lin was eyeing him. The Song army had already defended various dangerous places, and there was a possibility of heading north to Shaanxi again at any time, so it also had to use troops to defend.
This area accounts for half of the troops, and only the other half of the troops can be allocated to Tongguan and Daqingguan.
In this way, the strength of the regular army is drained, and the regular army cannot squeeze out any mobile force for use.
However, local forces still need to be maintained, and if something goes wrong, someone will be responsible for suppressing it, so Tu Dan Hexi ordered all the Jurchen men who had moved to the Guanzhong area to join the army.
In order to further enhance their strength, nearly 50,000 Han Chinese troops were recruited to maintain local security. When necessary, they could also be recruited to serve as cannon fodder and die. It was always useful.
But everyone knows that in the absence of an elite regular army, relying solely on Han Chinese to sign an army is tantamount to death. It is okay for the signed army to fight with the wind and grab money. If the signed army is expected to be loyal to the Jin Kingdom, then Purely dreaming.
The regular army is so short of troops. Once the troops in his hands are exhausted, Tongguan will be in real danger, and Guanzhong will be in real danger.
Unfortunately, before the Liberation Army launched its general offensive, the army in his hands was already out of strength.
In the past, the Liberation Army sent troops to harass the maintenance team he arranged in the Jindou Pass area many times. The two sides fought more than a dozen times, losing nearly a thousand troops, but they failed to successfully repair Jindou Pass. So this time, the Liberation Army sent troops again, Jin Douguan's front line failed to play a hysteresis role and soon collapsed.
The Liberation Army once again approached Tongguan City.
Wu Yanpu Lihei also had a very intuitive understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Liberation Army.
In particular, the firearms held by the Liberation Army were very terrifying. Not only did they sound like thunder, but they could also kill and injure many people after the explosion. If it weren't for their accuracy, he doubted that his defenders would have killed all these thunderbolts. Blast to death.
This won't work...
Wuyan Pulihei thought about it with worry, but he didn't even have the slightest idea to change the situation.
Holding on can delay time, but if he takes the initiative, he will die faster. His seniors Gao Xianzhi and Ge Shuhan have already proven this to him.
It can only be said that Tu Dan Hexi did not act like Tang Minghuang to support the enemy. He did not ask him to take the initiative to attack. On the contrary, he asked him to defend and refused to attack. If he attacked rashly, he would be punished.
He felt that Tu Dan Hexi's plan was to stay here and wait for the Liberation Army to run out of food before retreating, in order to survive.
However, the resources of the Liberation Army are everywhere, and the resources of the Jin Army are almost exhausted. If the fight continues like this, even if it is a matter of consumption, the Liberation Army will be able to fight better than the Jin Army.
Several cups of tea failed to extinguish the sadness in my heart, but instead made it grow.
The Liberation Army did not cease fighting for long, but just one day later, the Liberation Army resumed its offensive.
This attack was very ferocious.
The Liberation Army relied on huge wooden curtain carts to protect the soldiers, used rockets and thunderbolts to suppress the Jin army's attacks on the city, and had the soldiers follow the carts to fill the pits, which was very efficient.
Sometimes the Liberation Army would even go out at night to fill the traps, so within a few days, all the traps outside Guancheng were filled.
After filling the pits, the Liberation Army moved the huge Lin Chong chariots. Five Lin Chong chariots went hand in hand. The position of the crossbowman on the roof of the car was even higher than that of Guancheng, overlooking the defenders on the city wall.
These crossbowmen fired arrows at them from a high position, making them unable to raise their heads. At this time, more soldiers were hiding on the third and fourth floors under the Linchong chariot.
Once the golden soldiers on the city wall cannot use the push rod to limit the position of the Lin Chong chariot and let the Lin Chong chariot approach the city wall, the wooden ladder that comes with the car will be quickly untied and set up on the city wall, fully armed with swords. The shield bearers will quickly rush to the city wall and fight with the golden army at the top of the city regardless of life and death.
The battle was very tragic.
