amaotonovel Chapter 785 Widespread Psychological Offensive
Chapter 785 Widespread Psychological Offensive
On the edge of Tongbai Mountain, at Shen Yi's army camp.
The third day of the twelfth lunar month was the time for the operation. Although Shen Yi was worried about the situation at the front, he knew that he had done what he could and that the subsequent developments were beyond his control. So after dark, he returned to his tent and forced himself to sleep.
As the head coach, he needs to seize the time to rest and maintain his physical strength, so that he can be in peak condition when he receives news or encounters unexpected events.
Shen Yi slept until dawn, but still received no news after waiting all morning. He forced himself to take a nap, and finally received news around 5 PM that Zhang Bao had successfully captured Huanyuan Pass.
Huanyuan Pass is not important; Dagu Pass is. Therefore, Shen Yi was still uneasy and rushed to the camp to wait anxiously.
At the end of the day, Shen Yi's messenger finally arrived. Shen Yi recognized the messenger and took the initiative to ask him questions. The messenger handed over the letter and excitedly said, "Reporting to the general, General Jiang Wei has successfully captured Dagu Pass and seized 80,000 shi of grain and a number of bows and arrows inside the pass. Even if the general does not bring anything, he does not need to worry about food supplies when entering Dagu Pass."
"Great!" Shen Yi excitedly slapped his thigh and said, "It's time for us to take action. Sha Moke, immediately lead the cavalry into Fangcheng Xiadao to harass them. Li Kuan, lead your troops to cooperate. Hao Yu, quickly muster your troops and follow me to attack Guangcheng Pass."
Now that the three passes have been captured, Cao Pi's path back to the capital has been blocked, and it's time to expand the gains.
Therefore, Shen Yi decided to send Sha Moke into Fangcheng Xiadao to harass the Wei army, delaying their return and buying time for Shen Yi to attack Guangcheng Pass. Shen Yi would then use this time to quickly seize Guangcheng Pass.
Taking Guangcheng Pass would be equivalent to setting up two lines of defense on Cao Pi's way back to the capital. With the main force of the Han army led by Liu Bei in pursuit, Cao Pi would certainly not dare to attack the two passes and waste time. At that time, even if Cao Pi was unwilling, he would have no choice but to temporarily abandon Luoyang and retreat to Xuchang along the Fangcheng Xia Road.
If, after capturing Guangcheng Pass, they can also successfully seize the ancient Zeng Pass built by the Chu Kingdom, Cao Pi's main force of 400,000 to 500,000 Wei troops will be completely trapped in the Nanyang Basin.
The idea is good, but you have to take things one step at a time. You have to take Guangcheng Pass first before you can even think about Guzeng Pass.
Shen Yi dared not delay, and ordered Sha Moke and Li Kuan to delay the Wei army's rescue while leading 10,000 main force troops with siege equipment to rush to Guangcheng Pass.
This force of 10,000 was an elite force that had fought alongside him for many years and had experience in long-distance raids to intercept the Wu army. They rushed along the route planned by Shen Yi in advance and arrived at Guangcheng Pass at 4:45 AM that night.
However, a day and a night had passed since Jiang Wei captured Dagu Pass. The garrison at Guangcheng Pass had already received the news and was under martial law. When Shen Yi arrived, the city was brightly lit, and the Wei army was on high alert, with guards every three steps and sentries every five steps.
Shen Yi had anticipated this situation, so he did not panic but instead ordered his army to form ranks and prepare for attack.
The army had been on a long march for several hours and was already exhausted. Theoretically, they shouldn't be in such a hurry, but Shen Yi dared not rest. He was afraid that if he rested, the soldiers would lose their fighting spirit, and he was even more afraid that if Shamoke failed to stop the Wei reinforcements, the Wei army would attack from behind before he could break through Guangcheng Pass. Therefore, he had to attack immediately, as speed was of the essence in war.
Under Shen Yi's command, the army moved quickly and methodically, and soon assembled three catapults, three triple-bow crossbows, and three teleportation tunnels using the spare parts they had brought.
Shen Yi then ordered an attack, and the catapults fired first, launching three wine jars the size of buckets at the city wall.
The Wei general guarding Guangcheng Pass was Cheng Wu, the eldest son of Cheng Yu, the Marquis of Anxiang of Cao Wei.
Seeing the Han army's wine jar flying towards him, Cheng Wu smiled coldly and waited patiently. Just as the wine jar was about to hit the ground, he swung his long sword and slashed at it.
Cheng Wu received news of the fall of Dagu Pass as early as noon.
This news shocked Cheng Wu so much that he lost his composure on the spot. After his loss of composure, Cheng Wu keenly anticipated that Guangcheng Pass might also be attacked, so he summoned his generals to begin making preparations and sent someone to Wancheng to ask Cao Pi for help.
In Cheng Wu's view, since he was prepared, the Han army would not be able to take his Guangcheng Pass in a short time. He believed that as long as he held out for two or three days at most, Cao Pi's reinforcements would arrive, and then it would be the Han army that would die.
So when he saw the wine jar flying towards him, Cheng Wu instinctively swung his sword to slash it down, hoping to demonstrate his martial prowess and intimidate the enemy while boosting the morale of his own army.
The idea was good, but the result...
Cheng Wu precisely struck the wine jar, splitting it in two. However, what flowed out was not the wine or flammable oil he had expected, but rather pieces of paper.
As the wine jar shattered, dozens of pieces of paper scattered like petals, leaving Cheng Wu completely bewildered.
Cheng Wu was stunned for a moment before reaching out and grabbing a piece of paper that flew in front of him. He took it close and looked at it by the light of the fire, and his defenses immediately crumbled.
The paper was covered with tiny writing, the gist of which was that Dagu Pass behind you has been annexed by the Han, and the Han army inside the pass is about to march on Luoyang to recapture the capital. It is hoped that all Wei soldiers will see the situation clearly and surrender as soon as possible. The Han army will treat prisoners of war well.
They're trying to persuade us to surrender before the fighting even starts?
Cheng Wu cursed angrily, then turned his head and saw many people instinctively catching the slips of paper, just like him. Startled, he quickly withdrew his composure and shouted, "Don't look! Pass on my order: all slips of paper must be handed over. Anyone who dares to secretly look at or keep them will be executed!"
This thing may seem powerless, but it's a huge blow to morale.
The key issue is that ordinary soldiers lack the ability to think independently, analyze the battle situation, and stick to their own opinions, making them easily swayed by others.
In Cheng Wu's view, the so-called recapture of Luoyang was utter nonsense. If your Han army really had the ability to recapture Luoyang, why would you waste your breath talking to me?
But ordinary soldiers don't think so; they'll believe the contents of the slip of paper.
Cheng Wu didn't have time to think much and focused on collecting the scraps of paper, but he couldn't keep up because there were too many.
After the first wave of Han soldiers smashed the wine jars against the city wall, the second wave came and crashed into the wall, quickly breaking them into eight pieces and sending the pieces of paper inside flying everywhere.
Not only that, Han archers also rushed forward, and countless arrows rained down on the city walls, with a piece of paper tied to the arrowhead of each arrow.
With the advent of movable type printing, the Han army could produce as many of these paper strips as they wanted.
Moreover, Shen Yi not only knew how to shoot paper strips, but also used the paper strips as cover to order the army to carry ladders and charge quickly, while pushing the teleportation tunnel to the city walls to prepare to climb the city.
It was December, and Guangcheng Pass was located in the Central Plains. The moat in front of the pass had long been frozen. Under the cover of shield soldiers, the Han army quickly pushed the teleportation array to the riverbank and across the ice to make it close to the city wall. Then, the selected daredevils, in pairs, rushed into the teleportation hole at top speed, removed the bolts, opened the wooden door, jumped onto the city wall, and charged towards the Wei army without regard for their own safety.
In a siege, such a teleportation tunnel, as impenetrable as a tortoise shell, was simply outrageous. Cheng Wuren was stunned when he first saw it.
It is worth mentioning that last night, Jiang Wei attacked Dagu Pass from the south. The fleeing Wei soldiers and the surrendered Wei soldiers who were released by Jiang Wei all set off from the north gate, heading towards Luoyang.
Cheng Wu learned of the fall of Guangcheng Pass from scouts patrolling outside the pass, not from the Wei army that had escaped from Dagu Pass. Therefore, although Cheng Wu knew that Dagu Pass had fallen, he did not know exactly how it had fallen, and naturally he did not know about the existence of the teleportation cave. It was not until the Han army rushed out of the teleportation cave that he finally understood why Dagu Pass had fallen so quickly.
Watching the Han army continuously pouring into the city through the teleportation tunnel, Cheng Wu nearly broke down and roared, "Damn Han army, you are shameless!"