Outside Shangdang County, King Zuo Xian knelt on one knee in front of Touman. All the tribal leaders looked at King Zuo Xian who looked sad and Touman who looked calm.
"Hahahaha, Arut, you led an army of 50,000 people here. It is inevitable that you were wasted on the road. This is to express your loyalty to this Chanyu. How can I blame you?" Shanyu helped the great Chanyu kneel down on one knee. King Zuo Xian was on the ground, and he patted King Zuo Xian's cloak, which was covered in dust from the journey.
"Thank you for your understanding, Dashan Yu. I, King Zuo Xian, am willing to serve Dashan Yu to the death." King Zuo Xian lowered his head and said.
The other tribal leaders were relieved when they saw this scene of brothers and sisters. King Zuo Xian came two days later than expected, which also delayed their attack for two days. This kind of delay in military aircraft They originally thought that Touman would blame King Zuo Xian, but the reason why King Zuo Xian came late was also impeccable. Just when they thought the situation would be deadlocked, Touman unexpectedly gave in and did not punish King Zuo Xian. .
"But you will be spared the death penalty for delaying the fighter plane, but you will not be able to escape the punishment of life. How about your King Zuoxian's troops take the lead in attacking the city in tomorrow's battle?" Touman said, looking at King Zuoxian. His eyes were full of coldness.
The other tribal leaders looked at King Zuo Xian. Faced with the looks of everyone, King Zuo Xian, although he was very reluctant, still gritted his teeth and said.
"This is what I should do! Although our Zuo Xian army is a little tired after traveling for a long time, we are still willing to conquer the city first for Dadanyu. However, this time I lead mostly cavalry and few infantry. Dadanyu Can you allocate some infantry for my use?"
Attacking a city has a very high mortality rate, especially when King Zuo Xian has traveled such a long distance, and a night's rest will not allow him to recover. Moreover, most of the people he brought this time were cavalry, and there were very few infantry. Most of the Huns' soldiers were cavalry, with very few infantry. Most of the Xiongnu's infantry were slaves. These slaves included people from their own tribes, people from conquered tribes, and people they captured from the Yuezhi Kingdom and the Central Plains. .
"Of course. In addition to you, the ones who did not arrive at Shangdang County in time this time are King Youxian and several tribal leaders. It is enough for the infantry of your tribes to gather together. I will also let the Royal Court Guards How about mobilizing a group of infantry to support you?"
After Touman finished speaking, he looked at the silent King Youxian and several tribal leaders who had not delivered on time and said, King Youxian is Touman's uncle. He is now in his 40s, with a little gray in his hair. Seeing Touman looking at him, King Youxian did not refuse and said
"The King Youxian has no objections. It's just a small city. There are less than five thousand soldiers guarding the city. It can be broken down easily."
"We are willing to capture the border town for the Great Chanyu!" said other tribal leaders.
Touman looked at King Zuo Xian again.
"King You Xian is like this. I have nothing to say. Tomorrow is the day when the Great Chanyu will take over the city in front of us and open the door for us to go south." King Zuo Xian saw that Tou Man had already finished his words, so he could only respond with one hand. He put it on his chest and said.
"Okay, King Zuo Xian will lead his men to rest. I am waiting for the performance of King Zuo Xian's troops tomorrow," Touman said.
"yes."
Touman then named a few belated tribal leaders and asked them to lead their soldiers to cooperate with King Zuo Xian and King You Xian in attacking the city tomorrow. Then all the tribal leaders in the Huns' tent returned to their tribal stations to prepare for the siege tomorrow.
At this time, in the border city, the guard of the border city looked at the continuous camps below, his face was pale, and his forehead was covered with cold sweat.
"Where have General Wang Ben's reinforcements arrived?" the guard asked, looking at his deputy general.
"The spies are here to report that there is still a distance of forty miles," the deputy general replied.
"Have all the people evacuated?" the guard asked.
"After receiving the order from General Wang Ben, we have sent people to evacuate the people. Most of them have gone south to Gaonu and other places. Some people who have not had time to evacuate have blocked all the roads in the village, relying on the village to form a soil Fort," the lieutenant said.
Shangdang also experienced the threat of the Huns. At that time, Shangdang was still the state of Zhao, so most of these villages and towns had the habit of closing roads and building earth forts. Unexpectedly, they have used it again now.
"These Huns have been besieged below for two days. Today there are 50,000 more people coming. I don't know how many more people there will be tomorrow. Let the soldiers be prepared to deal with the Huns attacking the city." The guard said.
"promise!"
The guard general looked at the Hun army below with worries on his face, and could only pray for reinforcements to arrive soon.
At this time, the large forces of the Qin State were rushing day and night. Ziyou was sitting on the chariot, looking at the information provided by Luo Wang along the way. These were all the information obtained by Luo Net in the Xiongnu in recent years. Mo Ya was holding the carriage.
Soon a cavalryman delivered a package on horseback.
"Master Supervisor, this is the information sent, please take a look." The cavalryman handed the package to the guard on the chariot.
"Thank you for your hard work," Ziyou said.
The cavalry handed over their hands and left. Ziyou opened the intelligence that had just been sent to him. The reason why Ziyou looked through the past intelligence was to find the person behind Touman's advice. Knowing oneself and one's enemy would lead to victory in every battle. After looking through the intelligence about the Xiongnu over the years, Ziyou The more you read, the more frightened you became. Now the Xiongnu royal court is developing into a small country.
In the past, the Xiongnu was an alliance country, not even a country, but now the core of the Xiongnu and the royal court of the Xiongnu have been completely integrated. Touman even imitated the system of the Central Plains, divided his troops, and abolished tribal leaders. form, but individual warriors.
Ziyou was a little surprised after seeing the Central Plains costumes and pleasures that were popular among some nobles within the Xiongnu. Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Ziyou opened the newly sent information. In this information, Ziyou found the answer he wanted. The leader behind all this-Gongyang Ling.
"People from the Gongyang family!?" Ziyou looked at the information with a complicated expression. If Ziyou wanted to believe that the Gongyang family surrendered to the Huns and were willing to be traitors, it would be better to make him believe that there is an elixir of life in the world.
"What's wrong with the Gongyang family? Sir." Mo Ya turned to look at Ziyou.
"Nothing, just some new situations." Ziyou shook his head and said. Then he took out a pen and paper from his arms, quickly wrote down a line of words, handed it to the guard on the side and said
"Give this letter to the person who just sent the information, and ask them to hand it over to the person who sent the information."
"Yes, Lord Supervisor."
Mo Crow slowed down the speed of the chariot. The guard jumped off the chariot and mounted a horse to deliver the message. After the guard came back, Mo Crow increased the speed of the chariot again.
"Master Supervisor, the commander-in-chief invites you!" A knight came to the chariot and said.
"Okay, I'll go there later." Ziyou nodded and said.
Ziyou jumped off the chariot and came to the chariot of Wei Liao and Wang Jian. The two held Fushi's map in their hands and were studying how to defeat the Xiongnu and even counterattack.
"Commander, why did you call me here?" Ziyou asked.
"The supervisors were called here to discuss the affairs of the Xiongnu. What is the internal situation of the Xiongnu?" Wei Liao asked. They continued to receive intelligence from Fushi. The camps of the Xiongnu army were continuous, and there were now more than 200,000 soldiers. .
This was less than ten years after the Battle of Yanmen Pass. In less than ten years, the Huns were able to gather more than 200,000 troops again. This was impossible in any Central Plains country, but it was very difficult for the Huns. Simple things, all the Huns are soldiers. After the Huns are born, they learn to ride horses and archery from an early age. They grow up on horses. When they grow up, they become excellent cavalry. This is the unique advantage of the Huns. They can only envious.
"The internal situation of the Xiongnu is very complicated now. The current certain and useful information is that King Zuo Xian and Tou Man are not getting along. After the Battle of Yanmen Pass, King Zuo Xian began to constantly challenge Tou Man's majesty. It seems that he wants to ascend.
According to the information from Fushi, the Xiongnu army had gathered three days ago, but King Zuo Xian's troops had not arrived yet, thus delaying Touman from attacking the border town rashly. Considering the time for transmitting the information, Zuo Xian was now The wise king should have arrived at the Xiongnu camp, and the siege may be in the near future. " Ziyou said.
When they heard that King Zuo Xian and Tou Man were at odds, they even delayed the attack of the Xiongnu army. This made Wang Jian and Wei Liao think twice. The disagreement within the army was a fatal threat to the entire war.
"Our main enemy is Touman. We can let King Zuo Xian go for the time being, and keeping King Zuo Xian will be more useful," Wei Liao said.
Wang Jian and Ziyou immediately understood what Wei Liao was thinking. Wei Liao wanted to put his main target on Tou Man. Taking advantage of the conflict between Tou Man and King Zuo Xian, he would give priority to killing those who threatened them the most, and keep Zuo Man. Wise kings can also disrupt the Xiongnu internally.
"The Royal Guards of Touman's headquarters are the elite of the entire Xiongnu, and Touman now controls the entire Xiongnu Royal Court, allowing his loyal generals to control all the armies. The coordination capabilities of these armies are stronger than before. If If you target them without absolute crushing, it will be difficult to eliminate them," Ziyou said.
"With the Battle of Yanmen Pass, I'm afraid Touman will no longer rush into terrain like mountains. Moreover, there are many plains and open areas near Fushi, and there are no places to set up ambushes. If we rely on the current golden fire cavalry and the army to fight in front and How do you feel about competing against them on the battlefield?" Wei Liao asked.
"The loss is too great. Although the Golden Fire Cavalry and other cavalry have been replaced by Ma Sanbao, which can narrow the riding skills gap between our cavalry and the Huns' cavalry, the Huns' archery skills are also outstanding. Now the Golden Fire Cavalry and the The Yulin Guards are equipped with repeated crossbows, and the combined number of cavalry in both armies is less than one-fifth of the Xiongnu. It would be too much of a sacrifice to send in infantry." Wang Jian shook his head and said.
"It's a pity that only the Yulin Guards have mastered the Mo Dao Formation, which evolved from the Iron Eagle Rui Warrior Formation. The Mo Dao Formation can restrain the cavalry, but the number of them is too small." Ziyou also shook his head and said, the Iron Eagle Rui Warriors have the ability to fight with infantry. Cavalry, but it is extremely difficult to train Iron Eagle warriors. It is impossible to dispatch all three thousand Iron Eagle warriors, so Ziyou built the Mo Dao formation of the later Tang Dynasty and equipped Yu Lin with the three thousand Mo Dao that he forged. guard.
"Currently we can only dig gullies, build camps and earth forts, and fight with the Huns in the field. The weather is getting colder and colder, and the Huns cannot bear it." Wei Liao said.
Wei Liao chose to wait and see what happens before taking the initiative. Ziyou and Wang Jian also thought this was the best way. If it were a normal Xiongnu bandit, they wouldn't have to worry so much, but this time it was an army of at least 200,000 Xiongnu. If they were not careful, the Xiongnu could seize the opportunity, resulting in a disadvantage.
They can only rely on the most conventional methods, building defensive facilities to continuously attract the Huns to attack, thereby consuming the opponent. They lack the ability to attack cities and strongholds, and lure them to attack these camps and forts, which can continuously consume the Huns' cavalry. This is the most common method used by the Qin army to face large-scale Xiongnu invaders. By relying on fortifications, all living beings are equal under the rain of arrows.
The next day, while the Qin army was still attacking, a large number of Xiongnu soldiers gathered under the border city just after dawn. These people were all infantry and carried some simple siege equipment on their shoulders. The Huns were not fools. They were not good at siege, so they asked their slave infantry to practice siege, and relied on craftsmen captured from the Yuezhi Kingdom, the Central Plains, etc. to build a lot of siege equipment.
On the wall of the border city, the garrison general led the garrison to stand ready. The strong bow in his hand was fully drawn, and the sharp arrows were aimed at the Huns army below who was preparing to attack the city.
King Zuo Xian stood on a wooden chariot platform, surrounded by cavalry. Looking at the army ready to attack the city, King Zuo Xian stood up and waved his scimitar.
"attack!!!"
The cavalry on the side passed the order to attack the city on horseback. The horn of attack resounded throughout the plain. As countless Huns infantry surged towards the border city like a tide, the sound of charge resounded throughout the sky.
The guard looked at the Huns' army coming below him, and silently calculated the range of the arrows in his mind. When the Huns were within the range of the bows and arrows, he decisively shouted
"Fire the arrow! Fire the arrow!!"
After the order was issued, a dense rain of arrows was fired at the Xiongnu army below. Facing the sky full of arrows, the Xiongnu army raised their shields and continued to charge forward. When the arrow rain fell, the Xiongnu army was instantly killed and wounded. .
After a wave of arrows was fired by the defenders at the top of the city, the soldiers immediately retreated, allowing the archers who had been waiting for a long time to fill in. They fired their bows and arrows again, and the soldiers who retreated immediately took up their bows and took turns.
"Let our cavalry support the attackers!" King Zuo Xian gave the order.
Another horn sounded, and the Huns cavalry armed with crossbows mobilized towards the city. After arriving at the designated position, these cavalry immediately opened their bows and shot arrows towards the city head. Some soldiers who could not avoid it were hit by arrows. But this did not stop the defenders. The injured soldiers were sent down the city and new soldiers took over.
Some of the defenders also aimed their bows and arrows at the Huns' cavalry, and countless arrows were fired on the battlefield. The defenders with the city head as a bunker suffered much fewer casualties than the Huns' army. The Huns' infantry attacking the city from the front continued to attack. Heavy losses were suffered under the hail of arrows.
Looking at the tragic battlefield ahead, King Youxian, who was sitting on the chariot platform with King Zuo Xian, immediately ordered the following soldiers to continue to attack the city.
(End of chapter)
