Lou Fu Pass was the last of the three lines of defense of the Northern Sui army, and once the Turkic army broke through this line of defense, the Turkic iron cavalry would enter the hinterland of Bingzhou, bringing disaster to the people of Bingzhou. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After the Northern Sui army occupied Loufu Pass, they immediately began to rebuild the Guancheng, mainly the city wall of the northern Guancheng needed to be rebuilt, from one zhang high to three zhang high, and replaced it with a huge bluestone strip, the city wall was widened and repaired high, so that the soldiers involved in defending the city increased from 3,000 to 5,000.

In the afternoon of this day, a cavalry team of 3,000 people went north from Lou Fan County and arrived at Lou Fan Pass, which was guarded by Fan Wenchao, the general of Huyalang, who belonged to the third guard of the Northern Sui Army, that is, Pei Xingyan's general, and led an army of 5,000 to guard Lou Fan Pass.

Fan Wenchao heard that Wang Qi appeared in the army, and hurriedly greeted him five miles away, this army was Zhang Xuan who came from Jingcheng to inspect the combat preparations of the three northern counties.

"Humble duty to see the handsome!" Fan Wenchao urged him to step forward and salute Zhang Xuan with his fists.

Fan Wenchao is the son of Fan Zigai, the former secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, wanted for participating in Yang Xuan's rebellion, his father also severed the father-son relationship with him, Fan Wenchao was desperate, had to surrender to the Wagang Army, has been depressed, Zhai Rang surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, Fan Wenchao was ordered to deal with the aftermath and took the opportunity to surrender Zhang Xuan, was appointed as the general of Huyalang.

Fan Wenchao's martial arts are mediocre, so that a sixty-pound broadsword, is not good at long-distance running, nor good at charging into battle, Pei Xingyan let him be responsible for training the third guard recruits, but his superiority soon showed, he trained the army is very good at defending the city, Pei Xingyan found Fan Wenchao's specialty, that is, good at defense, this time the main general of Lou Annoying Pass was selected, Pei Xingyan strongly recommended Fan Wenchao.

Zhang Xuan smiled slightly and asked, "How did General Fan know that I was coming, is it because of Wang Qi?" ”

"Returning to the marshal, the scouts sent by the humble position have been determined to be the arrival of the Sui army, and the Sui army will not be good at beating the king's banner, so the humble function is determined to be the arrival of the marshal."

Zhang Xuan actually wanted to ask him, if Tang Jun was pretending to be himself, wouldn't Fan Wenchao be in the city to meet him, but Fan Wenchao's answer was simple but had no loopholes.

Zhang Xuan nodded and smiled: "Is the supply of Guancheng sufficient?" ”

"Back to the marshal, the sled team from Yanmen County has sent supplies."

Jang Hyun nodded happily, and the sledding team arrived.

Zhang Xuan immediately followed Fan Wenchao into the city, after a short rest, Zhang Xuan went to the city to inspect the combat readiness, although Pei Xingyan strongly recommended Fan Wenchao to guard Lou Fu Pass, and praised his ability to defend the city better than others, but Zhang Xuan had never seen it, today he was a little curious, and wanted to see if Pei Xingyan's recommendation was worthy of the name.

Zhang Xuan first went to the warehouse, the warehouse is still in the northwest corner, but it is already a few independent stone houses, the top of the warehouse is slightly higher than the city wall, a large square hole is opened in the wall, and the city head is connected as a whole, and dozens of manpower wheelbarrows are neatly placed next to it, that is, deer carts.

Zhang Xuan wondered why he wanted to open a big hole, could it be that he was sending supplies out of this big hole directly? But the hole was at least three feet above the ground, which puzzled him.

Fan Wenchao said with a smile: "Your Highness will know when you enter the warehouse." ”

Zhang Xuan immediately walked down the corridor and entered the warehouse gate, the size of the warehouse could not be seen from the outside, but when he entered the warehouse, he found that the space in the warehouse was huge, and all the materials were placed against the wall in different categories, and the yards were neatly placed, and they were extremely clean and tidy, which was the cleanest one Zhang Xuan had seen in the warehouse, which could be said to be pleasing to the eye.

Fan Wenchao hurriedly explained: "The humble position found that the neat and orderly warehouse is very effective in improving the army's support capacity, for example, the soldiers at the head of the city are in urgent need of arrows, but the warehouse is in chaos, here and there, the arrows may be pressed under the spear, so it takes too much time, so the humble position thinks that the neat and orderly warehouse is the first important." ”

Zhang Xuan nodded secretly, from this small detail, it can be seen that Fan Wenchao is indeed unique in defending the city.

But Zhang Xuan did not praise, he came directly to a wooden pendant, there are three pendants, just opposite the wall hole above, you can directly hang the war materials from the warehouse with ropes and nets on the city wall, it turns out that this is the reason for the opening of the wall hole, this is the first time Zhang Xuan has seen it, he is quite interested, standing in the crane tower and looking carefully.

Fan Wenchao explained on the side: "I believe that a very important part of defending the city is that the materials for defending the city must be in place as quickly as possible, for example, the arrows of the defenders at the head of the city have been shot, but the arrows from the warehouse have not yet been delivered, and it is likely that it will be a big mistake."

And to ensure that the key to the timely arrival of the materials to defend the city is to transport conveniently, the soldiers run the road from the city, not to mention the slow, the biggest problem is that the deer cart is difficult to push on the road, manpower can be carried to the city, but the number of handling is not much, some large items are still more difficult, so the crane tower is directly hoisted on the city, and even directly placed on the deer cart, the soldiers push the cart to run at the head of the city, and a large number of materials can be sent to the soldiers defending the city in time. ”

"Have you ever experimented?"

"Of course, it did, and the time was reduced by 50% compared to transporting it from below, and the number of transporters was also reduced by half."

Zhang Xuan praised from the bottom of his heart: "This is a good method, and it is worth vigorously promoting." ”

At this time, Zhang Xuan was completely relieved, he had experienced a hundred battles, and knew that the defense of the city was largely a logistical support, if the logistics support was effective, then this siege would have a basis for victory, no wonder Pei Xingyan strongly recommended this person, and it was indeed a winner.

Then there is the battle command, which is also extremely important, and it is the key to whether or not you can hold the city, I don't know if Fan Wenchao is good at this?

At this time, Zhang Xuan suddenly thought of another person, Wang Xuanjing, the general under Wei Chigong, this person is also known for defending the city, and this person is especially good at commanding in battle, in Huguan with hundreds of people to defend the attack of tens of thousands of Tang troops, that battle he was exceptionally promoted to Yingyang Lang general, Wang Xuanjing's command of the battle plus Fan Wenchao's logistics support, isn't this a pair of seamless combination?

Thinking of this, Zhang Xuan immediately decided to ask Wei Chigong for someone, and asked the two of them to run in as soon as possible and reach a tacit understanding, so Lou Fuguan would be like an iron wall........

Coming out of the warehouse, Zhang Xuan immediately went to the city again, and he found a difference, the city head was not a trebuchet, but full of big yellow crossbows, big yellow crossbows are also called heavy crossbows, single soldiers can not operate, at least two people need to be wound, and it is quite heavy, inconvenient to carry, so it is not used much in the field,

Zhang Xuan frowned and asked, "Is General Fan going to replace the trebuchet with a big yellow crossbow?" ”

Fan Wenchao hurriedly said: "Your Highness Qiqi, I have carefully considered it, and using a big yellow crossbow is more lethal than a trebuchet. ”

"Why? Tell me about it! ”

"A large trebuchet has a range of three hundred steps, and the lethal range of a large yellow crossbow is also three hundred steps, and it takes twenty-five people to operate a trebuchet, and it only takes two people to operate a large yellow crossbow, which means that a trebuchet can be exchanged for twelve large yellow crossbows, and a well-trained soldier can shoot three arrows in a single throw time of the trebuchet, so that is the contrast between a large stone and thirty-six large yellow crossbows, against a dense cavalry, a large stone can hurt about ten people, and thirty-six large yellow crossbows can kill at least thirty people......”

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Xuan coldly interrupted him, "Replace the trebuchet with a rhubarb crossbow, does General Pei know?" ”

Fan Wenchao broke out in a cold sweat on his head, the use of trebuchets was a strict order issued by the commander, and he changed the order without the consent of the commander, which violated the military law of the Sui army.

He said in a low voice: "The humble post was about to report to General Pei, but His Highness arrived first. ”

Zhang Xuan's face is a little ugly, military law is like a mountain, although Fan Wenchao gives him a good impression, but if he is not investigated, there must be sufficient excuses.

"In addition to the fact that the rhubarb crossbow is more lethal than the trebuchet, this is just your opinion, we are in Liaodong, a big stone rolled out and killed more than 30 people, definitely more than 10 people, even if the cavalry hid quickly, only 10 people were killed and wounded, so is there any other reason?"

Fan Wencheng wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said in a low voice: "Your Highness, Lou Fuguan can only accommodate five thousand soldiers, and the trebuchet occupies too many soldiers and occupies too much space, which affects the balance of defense forces and material transportation, and I think this is the real reason for replacing the trebuchet with a big yellow crossbow." ”

Zhang Xuan's face softened slightly, he was still barely able to accept this reason, so he said lightly: "Today is not the deadline for the completion of the final combat preparations, you have to report this matter to General Pei in time and explain the situation to him clearly, if General Pei still disagrees, then you have to change it back, understand?" ”

"Ignorance, understood!"

"In addition, I will transfer another great general who is good at commanding in battle to be your lieutenant, I hope that you will each give full play to your advantages and cooperate tacitly, so that the Turks will not want to break through the Lou Fu Pass."

"The humble duty must remember the teachings of His Highness!"

At this time, a soldier shouted in the distance: "It's snowing again!" ”

Zhang Xuan looked up, only to see goose feathers and heavy snow floating in the dark sky, he walked to the city wall with his hands in his hands, looking at the gray north, I wonder if the Turks are also actively preparing for war? (To be continued.) )