novelAbuy Chapter 88 The Collapse of People's Hearts Like a Piece of Teeth
Chapter 88 The Collapse of People's Hearts Like a Piece of Teeth
"Those who betray their master and steal should not have a fixed date."
If it were Gao Huaide, he would certainly know that Kan Ze's line in the play about the Battle of Red Cliffs, when he presented the book, also revealed the difficulty of coordinating from within and without.
With communication cut off between the city and the outside world, the ability to effectively transmit intelligence and seize the right moment for action was crucial to the success or failure of the operation.
This crossbow bolt tied with white silk signifies that Li Yimin has control of at least one of the horse-faced demons, and he is ready.
The allied forces employed conventional tactics, encircling three sides while leaving one open, thus creating a route to the northern desert and launching an offensive from the east, west, and south.
Li Yiyin, the acting commander of Dingnan Army, is currently facing the problem of a shortage of soldiers and generals.
After the great defeat at Sanchuankou, the remaining soldiers numbered less than 5,000. They conscripted 4,000 able-bodied men from the city, with almost every household contributing one able-bodied man, and barely managed to bring the total to nearly 10,000.
He even wanted to annex the hundreds of men under Li Yimin's command. However, given the current situation, he was afraid of provoking internal strife and dared not act rashly. The two half-brothers maintained a superficial relationship.
Of the 5,000 well-trained veterans, Li Yiyin personally commanded 1,000 men, including the remaining 100 Iron Falcons, as a reserve force for critical moments.
Tuoba Chongbin, a trusted and experienced general of his father Li Renfu and the commander of the yamen, also led a thousand men to guard the yacheng.
The remaining three thousand men were barely enough to defend the outer city, so they had to add more able-bodied men, managing to gather two thousand men in each direction. Naturally, Li Yimin's soldiers were also sent up.
Everyone thought Li Yimin would come up with a bunch of excuses to avoid the issue, but to their surprise, he volunteered to defend the south of the city, confronted Gao Xingzhou directly, and delivered a speech.
"There's a Han Chinese saying: 'Brothers may quarrel within the walls, but they unite against external threats.' Gao Xingzhou seized my Suizhou, murdered my elder brother Yi Chao, and now he intends to destroy the foundation laid by our ancestors. This is intolerable!"
He grasped Li Yiyin's hand and said passionately, "Brother Yin, it is true that we have a history of grudges, but now is the time to put aside our past grievances and unite against our common enemy!"
Li Yiyin reached out and shook hands with him: "If we can preserve Xia Prefecture, I am willing to share the power of the Dingnan Army with you from now on."
The two brothers looked into each other's eyes, their eyes seemingly glistening with tears.
"When two people are of one mind, their strength can break metal; what is Gao Xingzhou worth mentioning!"
After seeing Li Yimin off, Li Yiyin's expression immediately changed to a gloomy one: "It's best if you know what's good for you, so you don't force me to take action. I'll deal with you after we've repelled the invading enemy."
Gao Xingzhou's strange probing behavior made him sense a danger. It wasn't until his subordinates reported that the allied forces had launched a fierce offensive that he suddenly realized: Gao Xingzhou was deliberately being mysterious to draw our army's attention to the south of the city, so that he could take the opportunity to attack from other directions.
Li Yiyin thought he had seen through the enemy's intentions, and then mocked Gao Xingzhou for wasting his time.
Unfortunately, this little trick was completely useless.
The city walls of Xiazhou were ten ren high, even exceeding the forty-eight-zhang walls of the capital Luoyang. This height alone significantly increased the difficulty of the siege. The "tiger falling from the horse's face" (a metaphor for a difficult siege) severely limited the tactics of scaling and swarming. Furthermore, the city walls were impregnable, making breaching and tunneling tactics impossible.
On the attackers' side's advantage, the dried-up riverbed, now a desert, left Tongwan City, built on a plateau between the Sheyan and Nalin Rivers, without the protection of its moats. The allied forces, saving themselves the trouble of filling the moats, attacked by pushing, pulling, and dragging various siege weapons.
Since there were no ladders to reach the top of the city walls, the generals unanimously built siege towers as their main siege weapon.
The flying tower cart, also known as the flying tower cart, was a platform several meters high that carried archers. It was protected by wooden curtains on top and had wheels underneath. It was pushed to the city wall and used arrows to kill the defending soldiers. It is said that during the An Lushan Rebellion, Shi Siming used this cart to attack Li Guangbi, who was defending Taiyuan. (Note 1)
From three directions, hundreds of flying towers approached the city wall, and arrows flew towards the city wall like locusts!
Even atop the flying tower, one still has to look up at the city walls of Xia Prefecture. Especially the four corner towers, each topped with a wooden corner tower, reaching an astonishing height of over twenty zhang!
The defenders, positioned on higher ground, had a significant advantage in the exchange of fire, often resulting in the allied forces losing three or four archers in exchange for wounding just one defender.
Apart from the siege towers used for containment, the main attack was concentrated at the city gates, with the main weapon being the pointed wooden donkey.
This type of chariot, with a wooden spine, was ten feet long and seven feet high, and could accommodate six people. It was named for its triangular, pointed top. If rolling logs or stones did not hit the center, they would lose their force and roll away, and arrows could not penetrate them.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, General Hou Jing used this weapon to attack the Jiankang Imperial Palace, but it was destroyed by the pheasant-tail torches. Now, covering it with a layer of wet cowhide and coating it with mud further enhances its fire-resistant properties.
The pointed log was reinforced with metal hoops, and the chain was pulled straight back. The soldiers shouted a command and propelled the log forward at breakneck speed.
Boom!
The city gate was struck hard, producing a muffled thud. The thick iron gate swayed slightly, and the bolts and pins creaked and twisted under the immense force.
After only a few impacts, a cloth curtain was lowered, obscuring the area in front of the city gate. The impact of the battering ram against the cloth curtain was cushioned and its force greatly reduced; this was the very tactic used by the famous Western Wei general Wei Xiaokuan against Emperor Shenwu Gao Huan.
Not only that, a bucket of thick black water was poured down from the city wall, drenching the wooden donkey right in the face, and several rockets were fired, instantly igniting a raging fire.
Even though the cowhide was wet and covered with mud, it dried and became brittle after being roasted for a long time. The pointed wooden donkey quickly turned into a fireball, and the soldiers fled one after another.
Li Yiyin was not incompetent; he was adept at using various city defense methods. Moreover, he learned from his mistakes and used the same kind of fire oil that Gao Xingzhou had used in the Battle of Sanchuankou, which was also produced in Xiazhou, and thus became a powerful weapon for defending the city.
With the city well-prepared, the attacking side gradually lost ground, and the allied forces suffered nearly a thousand casualties. Under normal circumstances, they should have sounded the retreat at this point.
"The art of war is to feign weakness and feign strength. Li Yiyin believed that my strange actions were intended to attract the attention of the defending troops and make them neglect defenses in other directions. Our offensive has confirmed this."
Inside the command tent, Gao Xingzhou explained to someone, "Actually, this round of attack is just a diversionary tactic; the real attack is still directed here."
"It's time for your father to step in."
Destroyed weapons and dead and wounded soldiers were scattered everywhere; flames, blood, stones, and arrows littered the battlefield, making it appear chaotic and disorderly. However, in Gao Xingzhou's eyes, the winding red line was even clearer.
"Advance!"
Two cavalrymen led the way, followed closely by five infantrymen with shields. Gao Xingzhou rode a white horse and carried a silver spear, with a large banner fluttering in the wind behind him.
Gao Huaide was ordered to stay where he was, and apart from himself, no one thought that the ten-year-old young master should go to the front lines to fight.
Before leaving, Gao Xingzhou casually instructed, "If anything unexpected happens, I have already told your cousin to follow his arrangements."
His soldiers surrounded Gao Huaide, preventing him from going with them even if he wanted to.
It turned out that my father had assigned this squad of guards to watch over me.
Gao Huaide finally understood. He could only grit his teeth and stare wide-eyed as Gao Xingzhou stepped into the carnage below the city.
The defenders quickly discovered that the enemy general had personally come to the front lines. Such an opportunity to achieve a great victory was rare, so they rushed to shoot arrows, even resorting to heavy crossbows.
The heavy crossbow bolts fired, but missed. Again and again, still to no avail; the dense rain of arrows all missed their mark.
Even if the aim is terrible, it shouldn't be that it didn't even touch the target, right? Could it be that the enemy commander is really protected by a god?
The defending soldiers couldn't help but waver.
The group of men passed unharmed through a path proven by hundreds of lives lost. At the end of the path, Zhang Yi's body lay silently. Gao Xingzhou glanced at his dead subordinates, then hesitated at the foot of the city wall, as if waiting for something.
He soon received the result he had been waiting for.
A sudden change occurred.
The crossbow on the right horse suddenly changed direction and shot an arrow at the adjacent horse!
The javelin-like arrow whistled through the air, hitting the crossbow precisely. Wooden blocks and metal parts flew everywhere, and the crossbow collapsed with a loud crash. Several soldiers nearby were either killed or wounded.
"Are you blind? Where are you aiming?"
The junior officer guarding the horse-faced gate cursed loudly, and a second arrow followed. It pierced through his chest, pinning him to death!
Just moments before, they were allies, but now they were drawing their swords against each other, shouting as they charged up the ramps to the city walls.
What happened just now was not an operational error, but a premeditated rebellion!
The hidden door beneath the city wall opened, and soldiers led Gao Xingzhou inside—they were all subordinates of Li Yimin.
The eastern city fell.
……
Upon receiving news of Li Yimin's betrayal and surrender of the city, Li Yiyin was furious, filled with regret and frustration.
However, he has not yet reached the point of despair.
Xiazhou City is divided into east and west sections. The eastern section is the outer perimeter where the common people live, while the western section is the palace of Helian Bobo. A high wall separates the two areas, so losing the eastern section is not actually fatal.
When the Tang Dynasty was founded, it quelled the rebellions of thirty-six kings and seventy-two waves of dust. At that time, the one who occupied Xia Prefecture was Liang Shidu, the King of Liang.
In the sixth year of the Wude era, the eastern city was captured, and Liang Shidu retreated to the western city, continuing his stubborn resistance. Li Shimin frequently sent light cavalry to trample their crops, capturing survivors, and using them as spies, treating those who surrendered well.
Despite being reduced to such dire straits, Liang Shidu persisted for a full five years until his defeat and death in the second year of the Zhenguan era, becoming the last rebel king to be wiped out.
Li Yiyin was confident that he was no worse than him, that holding on would not be a problem, and that a turning point would definitely come.
However, he was unaware that the Tang army had not breached the western city of Xia Prefecture, and Liang Shidu ultimately died at the hands of his younger cousin, Liang Luoren. (Note 2)
After the battle, Gao Xingzhou and his son reviewed the fall of the city: "Strong cities are often breached from within. Once the people's hearts turn against you, even the most perfect defenses are useless."
"Li Yiyin believed that Li Yimin's rebellious intentions had been revealed. Although he had lost Dongcheng, he had also eliminated a potential threat. However, the human heart is a mysterious thing, just like..."
Gao Xingzhou paused for a moment, unable to think of a suitable analogy: "It's like the dominoes you often play with. Once the first one is knocked down, the rest will fall down in a chain reaction." (Note 3)
"Li Yimin has surrendered; who will be the next to fall?"
Reality quickly provided the answer.
The soldiers of Dingnan Army on the west and south sides continued to fight. Gao Xingzhou's troops bypassed and ambushed them. With the news of Li Yimin surrendering the city, the morale of the defending army collapsed and they began to retreat to the west of the city.
They were turned away at the gate by Tuoba Chongbin, the commander of the guards of the western city.
Tuoba Chongbin's reasoning was very reasonable: the pursuers were right behind them. If they were allowed to enter the city, the enemy would follow them in. Who would be able to bear the responsibility?
Thus, most of the two thousand soldiers and three thousand able-bodied men caught between the high walls and the allied forces chose to surrender. A few Tangut warriors loyal to the brothers Li Yichao and Li Yiyin turned back to fight, but they disappeared into the crowd in an instant.
By this point, the Dingnan Army had lost more than half of its forces. However, Tuoba Chongbin and Li Yiyin still had more than two thousand men, who joined forces to defend the western city, and the allied forces could not do anything to them for the time being.
The battle began with probing at dawn and continued until dusk. Both sides had reached their mental and physical limits, and it was time for the attackers to withdraw and the defenders to reorganize their defenses.
Tuoba Chongbin seized this opportunity.
He opened the city gates, letting the allied forces in, and led his troops to attack the government office where Li Yiyin was located, brazenly rebelling!