novelAbuy Chapter 86 Even the Strongest Arrow Could Not Shake Tongwan City
Chapter 86 Even the Strongest Arrow Could Not Shake Tongwan City
"How did you acquire this item?"
Zhang Xichong and Fu Yanqing were puzzled as to why an old monk would possess the city defense blueprints of the Hu Xia capital from five hundred years ago.
"The former Defense Commissioner of Datong Army in Yunzhou and Governor of Yinshan Prefecture, now the Golden Knife Zen Master, whose surname is Helian and given name is Duo, is a descendant of Helian Bobo!"
Helian Duo was a regional warlord at the end of the Tang Dynasty and the chieftain of the Tuyuhun tribe. He once joined forces with the military governors of Lulong and Zhaoyi to attack the Shatuo, defeating Li Guochang and Li Keyong and their sons, who fled to the Tatars in a sorry state.
Afterwards, Li Keyong launched a renewed attack, swiftly assaulting Yunzhou. Helian Duo, having exhausted his resources, fled to the Tuyuhun tribe, eventually returning to Youzhou. There, he took the then seven-year-old Gao Xingzhou as his apprentice, teaching him skills for three years. (Note 1)
Afterwards, Gao Siji died under Wang Yanzhang's iron spear, and Helian Duo was also defeated by the Jin army again. People thought he had been killed by Li Keyong, but he disappeared without a trace and became a monk.
In his later years, he lived in seclusion in Linzhou, passing on his Golden Saber technique to Yang Hongxin, and later accompanied Yang Chonggui to the Gao family. The two children, lacking experience, failed to recognize that the dying old servant was actually a formidable figure.
Tongwan City was built by Helian Duo's ancestors. With this map in hand, the distribution of defensive facilities in various places is crystal clear.
The city wall is 2,400 paces in circumference, with 36 tiger-shaped ramparts and 40 horse-faced ramparts.
Tiger-shaped barriers, made of bamboo strips connected together, were usually placed at strategic locations along roads connecting rivers. Unexpectedly, Helian Bobo ingeniously used them for city defense.
From where everyone was standing, one could vaguely see rows of neatly arranged black dots along the middle of the city wall.
Without this diagram, one would only discover upon reaching the city walls that numerous pits had been dug and filled with wooden stakes and bamboo spears, resembling a fence, to prevent the attacking side from climbing over ladders.
To dismantle Hulu, one must withstand the continuous attacks of the city's defenders, and it is unknown how many casualties will result.
Those square platforms, which are distributed in a staggered manner and protrude from the outer edge of the city wall, are called "Horse Face" because their vertical shape resembles a horse's head.
A single horse-faced platform could accommodate dozens of defenders. Standing on it, they could shoot arrows, pour oil, and throw rolling logs and stones, supporting the defenders on the city wall and forming a cross-attack to strike the attacking troops from the side, causing heavy casualties.
After hearing the brief explanation, everyone felt their scalp tingling. Even with the diagram in hand, they still didn't know where to start.
Yang Hongxin and Zhe Congyuan were often stationed on the border and lacked experience in attacking cities; Gao Xingzhou, Fu Yanqing, and Zhang Xichong had also never attacked such fortified cities.
The city of Xiazhou in the eyes of the people had changed its image, resembling a ferocious beast baring its fangs, ravenously thirsting for blood and sustenance. The insurmountable dead land beneath the city was the feast bowl piled high with human lives.
One must press on with one's might, then weaken with each subsequent attack, and exhaust oneself with each subsequent assault. If several rounds of fierce attacks fail to capture the city, and the army suffers heavy losses, morale will plummet, making it difficult to breach the city any further.
Is a siege a viable option?
Even knowing that their own conditions were not sustainable, Zhe Congyuan inquired about other tactics when faced with a formidable enemy fortress.
"Li Yiyin harvested the semi-ripe autumn grain ahead of schedule, which should be enough to sustain them for several months. We don't have that much time to wear down his military supplies."
Gao Xingzhou dismissed the feasibility of a siege, and Zhe Congyuan asked again, "Did Helian Duo mention any weaknesses of this city?"
Yang Hongxin, who usually had a loud voice, lowered his voice unusually: "We'll talk about it in detail when we get back to the tent."
"Wait a minute."
Zhang Xichong stroked his magnificent beard: "The military strategy for quelling the Dingnan Army was actually based on a blueprint from hundreds of years ago. I find it hard to accept."
"This time I was going to bring several winch crossbows to test whether the legendary Tongwan City is truly indestructible."
He issued a military order, and soon twenty soldiers pushed a four-wheeled cart over.
A door panel the size of a bed is placed diagonally on the trolley, with a large bow, about 12 feet long, fixed horizontally at the front end. The bow has a back diameter of seven inches, and an average person cannot even grasp half of it with their open hand.
A huge arrow, three feet five inches long and five inches in diameter, with iron fletching, was mounted on the bow. The arrowhead was as thick as a spearhead.
A winch is installed at the rear of the trolley, which hooks a bowstring that is about two fingers thick and made of multiple strands of ox tendon and hemp.
Two soldiers cranked the winch, and with a creaking sound, the bowstring was gradually drawn into a full circle and hooked onto the hook.
"Ordinary crossbow bolts weigh four stones and can shoot two hundred paces. Winch crossbows weigh twelve stones and can shoot seven hundred paces. Let's see if they can even break the walls of Xia Prefecture."
He gave another order: the soldiers pushed the trolley forward, approaching the city wall by 500 paces, and aimed at the opposite city wall from the lookout point, ready to fire.
Zhang Xichong raised his arm and then quickly swung it down.
A sergeant used his waist and spine to swing a wooden mallet and smash it down on the mechanism!
The bowstring snapped back at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, emitting a sharp, piercing screech, propelling the giant arrow through the air like a divine intervention, a flash of lightning, slashing towards Xiazhou City!
In the blink of an eye, the giant arrow traversed a distance of more than a mile and struck the rock-solid city wall!
Despite the distance, everyone seemed to feel the shock of the intense collision.
The brief confrontation between the two sides quickly came to an end. The giant arrows, used for attacking cities and fortresses, were so powerful that they destroyed everything they hit, causing towers and turrets to fall to the ground. However, their momentum eventually gave out, and they failed to penetrate the city walls, falling limply to the ground.
Tongwan City truly lives up to its reputation as one of the most fortified cities in the world!
……
Having failed with his first arrow, Zhang Xichong remained calm and composed, praising, "Indeed, his reputation is well-deserved; history has not lied to me."
The generals returned to their command tent, dismissed their officers and guards, and each took their place at a table. The scroll of the Tongwan City Defense Map was unfurled, revealing a detailed and miniature version of a formidable city before them.
Helian Bobo was ambitious and unified the four city gates of Wancheng: Pingshuo in the north, Chaosong in the south, Zhaowei in the east, and Fuliang in the west.
At that time, all the countries were his subjects, but even the weakest of them, Northern Liang, enjoyed a much longer reign than his Great Xia.
All eyes were focused on the picture.
In the southwest corner is a rectangular platform, which is the Yong'an Platform where Helian ascended the throne. The eastern part of the platform is only a dozen feet away from the palace city, and is connected by a corridor, which is called the design of "high platform and secret room, corridor connecting rooms", which is right next to the Chaosong Gate to the south.
There are ten horse-faced towers on the east, west, and north sides, and eight on the south side, which are both long and wide. As can be seen from the map, two of the horse-faced towers on the south side are hollow, and the insides are warehouses for storing grain and weapons.
The city walls, corner towers, and ramparts radiated outwards in a series of intricate, dark arcs, marking the area covered by the firing range and forming fan-shaped patterns. The overlapping of these fan-shaped patterns meant that entering the area would result in a pincer attack from the city walls and the ramparts on the left and right.
Within a radius of 150 paces from the city center, there are virtually no blind spots.
Strangely, there is a blank space in the fan shape where the parts do not connect. A winding red line passes through this space, pointing to the two hollow horse-faced statues, and marks a red cross.
"What does 'between May Fourth and June, life and death hung in the balance' mean?"
The crowd quickly guessed the meaning: "Does it mean that the fifth and fourth horse-faced structures at the South Gate are slightly further apart than the others, and there is a narrow passage that an arrow cannot reach?"
"Has Helian Bobo gone mad? Why would he leave such a flaw?"
"He did this in case a rebellion broke out in the city while he was away on tour. In that case, he could use the emperor's authority to reach the city walls, and with the miracle of being immune to a thousand arrows, he could enter the armory and granary through a secret door, return to the imperial city, and hopefully turn the tide and reverse the situation."
"What a madman."
"That's who he always was."
After venting about the madness of Emperor Helian Bobo of the Hu Xia dynasty, Fu Yanqing brought up a practical issue.
"Even if this route exists, how do you plan to utilize it?"
According to the dimensions shown on the map, this blank passage is about two zhang wide, just wide enough for two horses to ride abreast or five people to walk side by side.
Regardless of whether it's true or not, a slight deviation from the route, or even a wrong step, could cost you your life.
"Don't worry, I have a plan."
"Even if we manage to reach the city walls unscathed, how will we open the secret door? The defenders won't allow us to search slowly."
Gao Xingzhou then revealed another trump card: "After Li Yichao's death, his younger brother Li Yimin suffered much oppression from Li Yiyin and is willing to become an inside agent for our army."
"Is this guy trustworthy?"
Yang Hongxin questioned, "What if he betrays us, blocks the secret entrance, or even lures our army into an ambush..."
"He and Li Yijun have secretly sent 270 members of their family out of the city, and they are currently visiting Yanzhou City." (Note 2)
Upon hearing this, everyone's spirits lifted. With blueprints and an inside man, their chances of winning had greatly increased.
Fu Yanqing asked thoughtfully, "What does Li Yimin want?"
"He has big ambitions; besides wanting to return to Suizhou, he also wants Yinzhou."
Since Suiyuan and Yinzhou are already under the jurisdiction of Zhangwu Army, Li Yimin's asking price is indeed high.
"It seems he understands the precarious future of the Li family of Xia Prefecture and wants to abandon them. Brother Shangzhi, have you agreed to his request?"
"I said yes."
Gao Xingzhou smiled calmly: "Compared to the goal of pacifying the Dingnan Army, what are the two prefectures? We can just leave them with him."
If the Li family of Xia Prefecture, who have held power for generations, were eliminated, the two prefectures of Ru and Yin would become rootless, and the two titles of governor would indeed be of little use.
"What about Gao Junli and Liu Jingyan, whom you recommended before?"
"Compensation will be provided. The overall situation is the priority, and I believe they will understand."
Since Gao Xingzhou had made the decision, no one objected.
The next points of the military discussion included who would be responsible for the feint attack and who would provide support. Most importantly, it discussed who would verify the authenticity of this perilous path.
"Since Mr. Gao invited you all here, I naturally feel obligated to accept."
As soon as he said it, all the generals objected.
"Let me, Yang, take on the task of being the first to breach the city walls."
"Gao Shuai is the commander-in-chief and should not be moved lightly. How about I, Zhe Jiajun, take on this responsibility?"
"Brother Shangzhi, you have your own generals and officers under your command, why must you personally go into danger?"
After much debate, Gao Xingzhou finally convinced everyone.
"Only one condition: you must hand over the captured Tangut prisoners and death row inmates to me."
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Place Name Comparison
Tongwan City: present-day Baichengze Village, Jingbian County, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province