Two days ago, after the Sui army scouts captured five prisoners of war in Qifubo, every soldier of the Sui army knew that war was coming, and the Turkic Khan himself led hundreds of thousands of troops on the way south. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The first is the Purple River Great Wall, also known as the Purple River Pass, which is the first line of defense of the Sui army, the city wall is three zhang high, about three miles long, and is guarded by 5,000 soldiers.

The Great Wall has always been an effective fortification for the Central Plains Dynasty to defend against the northern nomadic cavalry, and on the long border, the towering Great Wall has become an insurmountable obstacle for the Turkic cavalry, but the premise is that there must be a defender on the Great Wall, otherwise the nomadic cavalry can completely destroy the Great Wall and drive straight in.

So the defenders on the Great Wall are the real defenders, and the Great Wall only gives the defenders a defensive advantage.

However, the thousand-mile-long Great Wall could not be filled with defensive soldiers, and only the fortress passes through which the cavalry could pass were the focus of the defenders' defense.

In addition to the Yanmen Pass in the east, the Purple River Estuary is the most convenient passage for the Turkic army to go south, the Purple River with a width of about dozens of zhang is in front of the Chengguan and turns 90 degrees, runs through the Great Wall from south to north and then flows to the west, compared to the Yanmen Pass that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Purple River Estuary is the alluvial plain of the river, there is no steep terrain, and it is easier to attack, so the Purple River Estuary will inevitably usher in the first big war.

The guard general of Zihekou is called Zhang Zhenqiu, the younger brother of Zhang Zhenzhou, the former general of the Sui Dynasty, and is subordinate to Pei Xingyan's third guard, and the official is the general of Hu Benlang.

Zhang Zhenqiu's appointment as the guard of Zihe will be Pei Xingyan's recommendation, and Pei Xingyan's evaluation of him is cautious, steady, and can be independent.

Zhang Zhenqiu is about 30 years old, he and his brother Zhang Zhenzhou are 20 years apart, although they are half-brothers, but because his father died early, Zhang Zhenqiu has been raised by his eldest brother, his brother is like a father, he learned a good martial arts from his brother, and made a seventy-pound knife.

Zhang Zhenqiuyuan was Chen Ling's general, and surrendered to the Northern Sui Dynasty with Chen Ling, and after Chen Ling's army was dispersed, he was assigned to the third guard and became Pei Xingyan's general, his steadiness and modesty were deeply appreciated by Pei Xingyan, and he was recommended by Pei Xingyan as the general of Ziheguan.

This morning, Zhang Zhenqiu was looking at the grassland in the distance on the city wall, although he couldn't see the situation in the distance, but he felt that there had been some kind of indescribable change in the distance, the heaven and the earth seemed to have become dark, two thousand soldiers raised crossbow arrows, all with serious expressions, since the day before yesterday, after the Sui army scouts wiped out the Turkic patrol team, Zihe Pass entered a state of imminent battle, and the five thousand troops were divided into three squads, and they were constantly waiting at the head of the city day and night.

At this moment, two Sui cavalry galloped from a distance, and in a moment rushed to the city and shouted: "The Turkic army is coming!" ”

As soon as they finished speaking, a low horn sound suddenly came from the distance, 'woo-' The horn sound came one after another, resounding through the grassland, at this time, a long black line appeared in the distance, dozens of miles long, the Sui soldiers on the city wall changed their faces, and everyone could see that this was at least the scale of hundreds of thousands of people.

Zhang Zhenqiu's expression was extremely serious, and he shouted: "Ring the alarm bell and raise the beacon fire!" ”

'When! While! While! The alarm bell sounded at the head of the city, and the three thousand soldiers who were resting under the city got up one after another, took up their bows and arrows and rushed towards the head of the city, and the beacons on the city walls lit the beacon fire, and three wolf smoke soared into the sky, sending the news of the arrival of the Turkic army to the south.

This was the last alarm after the arrival of the enemy army, but if it was lit again after the beacon was extinguished, it would be a signal to the south that Zihe Pass had been lost.

Although it was much closer to Mayi County from the Turkic court to the south than to Hugu Pass, the Turkic army set off three days late, and the speed of the march on the road was not fast, so they took millions of cattle and sheep south, four days later than the Turkic army on the eastern front to reach the Sui border, and marched for two days to reach Zihe.

Under the banner of a three-zhang tall golden wolf's head, Luo Khan of the Turkic Department looked coldly at the Great Wall of Zihe more than ten miles away, he pointed with a horsewhip, turned around and asked dissatisfiedly: "Has that city wall always been there?" ”

Zhu Guokang Yanli next to him hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Qiyu Khan, this should be the newly built city wall of the Sui army, the original city wall has been demolished by Liu Wuzhou.

Chu Luo Khan snorted, "The mantis arm also wants to block the car, let our iron hooves trample them into powder!" ”

Kang Shealy stepped forward and said: "I am willing to be the vanguard and capture the Great Wall of Zihe!" ”

Chu Luo Khan nodded, "I'll give you 30,000 troops, take Guancheng before dark!" ”

"Obey!"

Kang Sheli took the order and went to lead the army, and at this moment, the earth-shaking drums of the Turkic army sounded, and the whole earth seemed to tremble.

This time the Turkic army marched south with a large amount of baggage, including several hundred siege ladders, which was a war preparation for the Turkic plan to attack the Northern Sui last autumn, and now it finally came in handy.

Armed with 30,000 troops from the Turkic and Tiele tribes, Kang quickly formed a siege vanguard, and under the encouragement of the sound of war drums, the 30,000 troops carried 100 siege ladders to the Great Wall and the city like a tidal wave.

The Turkic army is very particular about the momentum, they don't care too much about life and death, dying on the battlefield is a kind of luck for the soldiers, which is also directly related to the short life span of the Turks, most of the ordinary Turks do not live to be forty years old, so to die on the battlefield is also one of their best destinations, which can bring great honor to their children and grandchildren.

But the Turks, like other nomads, are easily motivated, but they are also easy to fade, and once the morale fades, the sense of honor that regards death as if it were home is gone, and the soldiers begin to fear death, and begin to fear that their wives and children will become someone else's property, so they do not want to fight to the death, and once this fear is formed, the army will be defeated.

This is a very ambivalent psychology, and the pride of death and the fear of death without fighting are often between the thought of morale change, so the Turkic commanders will do everything possible to boost morale, including using the sound of magnificent trumpets and drums to motivate, and when attacking, each soldier must drink a bag of mare's milk wine, so that the strength of the wine can be transformed into the morale of the attack.

Although the morale of the Turkic army is high, they regard death as home, but they are not without a little offensive strategy, they also have an offensive strategy, the front is five thousand shield cavalry, they want to rush to the city, first use bows and arrows to suppress the Sui army's powerful arrow array, five thousand cavalry overwhelmingly rushed to the Great Wall of Zihe from more than ten miles away, the momentum is magnificent, the huge sound of horses' hooves shook the earth and trembled.

At this time, the five thousand Sui soldiers at the head of the city also took their places, holding their breath, waiting for the order to launch, because there were not many defenders, all the Great Walls of the Purple River were not installed trebuchets, but used two long-range weapons, the big yellow crossbow and the military crossbow.

The big yellow crossbow is a ten-stone heavy crossbow, only one person can not pull the bowstring, two people must cooperate, two people pedal the crossbow together to pull the string to pull the heavy crossbow, the crossbow arrow is about three feet long, generally made of relatively heavy beech wood, the arrow is an armor-piercing arrow, thin and long, streamlined, the range can reach 500 steps, the killing range is 350 steps, 350 steps away can shoot through the double leather armor of the Turkic soldiers, the lethality is amazing.

The Sui army deployed 1,000 large yellow crossbows at the head of the city, which were used by 2,000 soldiers, and the remaining 3,000 people used military crossbows, with a killing range of 150 paces.

Zhang Zhenqiu coldly looked at the Turkic cavalry getting closer and closer, when there were still two miles away from Guancheng, the Turkic cavalry suddenly changed, only to see the war horses neighing and falling, overturning the cavalry to the ground, many people fell to the bones and tendons, and the injuries were serious.

Tribulus terrestris is a longan-sized iron pill with four thin needles about two inches long on it, no matter how you throw it, there will always be a thin needle upward, and the war horse will bring severe pain after stepping on it, so that the war horse loses the power to run.

But thistle terrestris is not enough to kill, so most of the time, the defending soldiers will quench poison on thistle, and after the war horse is poisoned, it will lose its combat effectiveness at least and die at worst.

However, compared to the trap pit, the thistle terrestris is much gentler, the trap is about a foot deep, the hole is about the thickness of the bowl mouth, and it is covered with hay, and it is more vicious that there is a quenched bamboo stick inserted in the trap pit, whether it is the horse's hooves or the soles of the people, it will inevitably be pierced by the bamboo stick after stepping on it, and the war horse will step on the horse pit, and the leg will be broken and broken, and the broken leg means death for the war horse.

The Sui army sprinkled tens of thousands of thistles on the two-mile-wide grassland, dug tens of thousands of horse traps, and of course, left a path in the middle and made a mark, the Sui army scouts could run back carefully, but in the galloping of ten thousand horses, no one would notice the little special mark under their feet.

In just an instant, more than 700 war horses fell, the soldiers rolled to the ground, and once the cavalry formation of 5,000 people was launched, it was difficult to stop, and the war horses behind rushed over from the fallen war horses and cavalry, and many cavalrymen who were originally just injured were trampled to death by the war horses behind.

At this time, more and more war horses were hit, and half of the five thousand cavalry fell, and the cavalry behind finally stopped, and they retreated in horror, only to see the mourning of the war horses and the wailing of the Turkic cavalry all over the ground.

Chu Luo Khan's face was pale, but he had to face the reality, he didn't know how many thistles the Sui army had deployed, how many traps had been dug in the horse pits, so he had to grit his teeth and order: "Pass my order, the army will be stationed on the spot!" (To be continued.) )