amaotonovel Chapter 783 Teleportation Cave
Chapter 783 Teleportation Cave
Knowing yourself and knowing your enemy can help you win a hundred battles.
Zhang Yi launched another surprise attack, so naturally he needed to find out the details of Yique Pass. However, the time for the attack was too tight, and even traveling was difficult, so how could Zhang Yi find out about the enemy's situation?
Therefore, Shen Yi assigned him two spies who were lurking near Yique Pass and knew the situation inside the pass.
The two men quickly bowed and said, "Li Yuanwei greets General Zhang. We are here to await General Zhang on the orders of General Shen Yi."
Zhang Yi grabbed their hands and said, "Come with me."
After leading the two back to the camp, Zhang Yi spread out a map and went straight to the point: "Brothers, what's the current situation inside Yique Pass?"
Li Yuan replied, "Although Yique Pass is one of the eight passes of Luoyang, it is located at the confluence of the Luo River and the Yi River. It is surrounded by mountains and few people travel this way. Therefore, there are only two thousand guards inside the pass, commanded by a captain named Zhou Yong. Moreover, Yique Pass has been in disrepair for many years and its defenses are not very good. A surprise attack would definitely succeed."
Yique Pass is located on the edge of a remote mountain, making it the least valued of the eight passes in Luoyang.
Cao Cao was an offensive player, and he was constantly fighting and short of money. He didn't even bother to repair important passes like Hulao Pass, let alone the neglected Yique Pass.
Yique Pass has neither experienced war nor undergone repairs in recent years, so how good can its defenses be?
Li Yuan said, "But this is wartime after all, and the curfew at Yique Pass is still in effect every night."
"Then there is this captain named Zhou Yong. He is a distant cousin of Chen Qun, the head of the Chen family in Yingchuan. That's how he got the idle job of guarding Yique Pass. He is greedy and lustful. Even after arriving at Yique Pass, he doesn't stay still. He goes out of the city all day to harm innocent women. Sometimes he doesn't even come back at night."
The position of garrison commander of Yique Pass was indeed a sinecure, because neither the Wei army leaving Luoyang nor the Han army attacking Luoyang would pass through here. In addition, due to the obstruction of mountains and rivers, caravans would not pass through here. Over time, Yique Pass was naturally forgotten.
Even if Zhou Yong were a responsible person, he would become complacent after not experiencing any battles for several months, or even seeing any Han scouts. Besides, Zhou Yong was a scoundrel.
Zhang Yi pondered, "It seems there's not much difficulty. Let's eat first, and then you can take me to see the area around Yique Pass."
After saying this, he ordered someone to bring a grain bag, opened the bag, took out the fried noodles inside, soaked them in water, and quickly ate lunch.
Fried noodles are simply cooked flour, specially prepared by Guan Xing for soldiers responsible for infiltration and special missions. In addition to flour, they also contain salt, sugar, and meat powder, making them easy to carry and filling.
Normally they would use a smokeless stove to boil water for soaking, but now that they were too close to Yique Pass and about to take action, Zhang Yi didn't want to cause any trouble, so he told everyone to make do with cold water.
After the meal, Zhang Yi changed into civilian clothes and followed Li Yuan and Wei Xuan to Yique Pass to survey the terrain. After gaining a clear understanding of the situation, he returned to the camp and waited patiently.
Soon it was time for the operation on the night of the third day of the twelfth lunar month. Zhang Yi led his army to sneak up to the outside of Yique Pass. Under the cover of darkness, he took a few glances and pulled Liu Laosan aside, saying, "Lao Liu, Li Yuan said that Zhou Yong did not return to the pass tonight. This is a good opportunity for us. I will lead the men to climb up later, and you will provide support from behind."
The action plan had already been finalized, so Liu Laosan didn't say much and just nodded in agreement.
Zhang Yi waited anxiously until the fourth quarter of the Yin hour, which is four o'clock in the morning, and immediately led two hundred elite soldiers dressed in night clothes to sneak forward.
Yique Pass is located at the confluence of the Luo River and the Yi River, so naturally it had a moat. However, it is now the twelfth lunar month, and the moat has long been frozen, rendering it useless.
Hundreds of Wudang Flying Army soldiers stood by the moat, raised their crossbows, and shot ropes with iron hooks at the city walls. After testing them a few times to make sure they were secure, they quietly stepped across the ice to the foot of the city and then quickly climbed up the ropes.
The whole process did not disturb the sleeping garrison on the city wall. The garrison captain had gone out to enjoy himself. How could you expect the common soldiers to be conscientious?
Therefore, Zhang Yi led his men to quickly climb up the city wall. Seeing that the defenders were all huddled together against the battlements, sleeping soundly and keeping warm, he immediately waved to the soldiers below who had not yet climbed the wall. The soldiers quickly returned to their positions to inform Liu Laosan.
Liu Laosan then sent a team of men to carry a makeshift ladder to the city walls and quietly climb up under the cover of night.
They numbered six thousand, and if they all rushed out at once, it would cause too much of a commotion, so they had to advance in batches.
Five hundred men were quickly sent up in batches. Now there was no need to hold back. Zhang Yi divided the five hundred men into several teams. One team stayed to guard the ladders, while the rest rushed to the sleeping guards, raised their swords as if to kill them, and then lit torches to make a sound, notifying the Wei army that they had arrived.
Upon hearing the noise and opening his eyes, the Wei soldier was stunned to find a knife to his neck.
What's the point of fighting under these circumstances? Do you expect the second-line troops to fight as hard as the elite troops on the front lines?
Therefore, the Wei army quickly surrendered, the gates were opened smoothly, and the Han army easily entered the pass.
Yique Pass was a small pass, with fewer than 10,000 soldiers and residents combined. Zhang Yi's 6,000 troops could easily control such a small city, and they had completely taken control of the situation before dawn.
As dawn broke, Zhou Yong, who had spent the night enjoying himself outside the pass, returned. He was stunned when he saw the Han army's battle flag on the city wall. After a long pause, he pointed at the Han flag and cursed, "Damn Han army! You ignored Guangcheng Pass and Dagu Pass, two essential passes, and came to attack my Yique Pass. Are you all crazy?"
He was met with a hail of arrows, which terrified Zhou Yong so much that he fled immediately and returned to Luoyang to report.
At the same time that Zhang Yi launched a surprise attack on Yique Pass last night at the fourth quarter of the Yin hour, Zhang Bao also led two thousand troops into Songshan and launched a surprise attack on Huanyuan Pass.
The situation at Huanyuan Pass was similar to that at Yique Pass. Both were inland areas and remote regions rarely visited by people, so the defenses were also lax, and Zhang Bao easily captured them.
Compared to Yique Pass and Huanyuan Pass, Dagu Pass, which Jiang Wei was in charge of, was much more difficult to manage.
It should be noted that Dagu Pass was the only way for Cao Pi to enter and leave Luoyang. It was much more heavily guarded than the other two passes, with a garrison of 5,000 men. Jiang Wei's Han army was discovered almost as soon as they approached, forcing Jiang Wei to launch a direct attack.
Fortunately, Guan Xing had anticipated this situation and prepared a secret weapon for Jiang Wei: a new type of siege weapon that the Wei army had never seen before.
Guan Xing named this siege weapon the Teleportation Cave. It was similar in appearance to the wooden cave Shen Yi used when attacking Zhu County. It was completely enclosed from all sides and could block attacks from all directions.
Guan Xing added a triangular base to the ten-meter-long cave dwelling, so that the entrance to the cave dwelling was blocked on the ground, while the exit was built on top of the city wall. The Han army did not need to climb ladders; they could run directly to the city wall along the wooden floor of the cave dwelling.
What's even more ingenious is that the cave dwellings built on the city wall had a door at their exit, which could only be opened from the inside and not from the outside. The Han soldiers could rush up the slope to the door, push open the wooden door, and stand directly on the city wall.
Jiang Wei led his troops through a hail of arrows from the Wei army, painstakingly setting up a tripod. Then, using the rollers at the bottom of the cave dwelling, he pushed the cave onto the tripod. After confirming that the cave's exit was against the city wall, he removed the ground rollers and completely secured the wooden cave to the tripod, preparing for action.
The Wei army was completely baffled. Seeing that the cave entrance was blocked by wooden planks, they thought it was some kind of battering ram. They tried to chop and pull at it a few times, but after realizing they couldn't get rid of it, they gave up...
I gave up...
Jiang Wei was naturally pleased with this and ordered E Huan to act swiftly.
E Huan donned heavy armor and led his equally heavily armored suicide squad into the cave. They ran quickly up the slope to the door, removed the bolt, and pushed it aside, shoving the bewildered Wei soldiers standing at the door. He jumped out of the cave, brandishing his long sword, and slashed at the nearest Wei soldier.
It was only then that the Wei army tragically discovered that this behemoth was actually passable.
Those damned Han soldiers are really playing games!