In Zhang Xi's anxious mood, Wei Yan sorted out his 3,000 elites and set off early in the morning, planning to avoid the surveillance of the prefectures and counties of Wudu from the west bank of the Western Han River, make a detour into Qishan Road, and sneak attack Qishan Fort.

And Zhang Xi, temporarily slowed down the march, wrote his plan into a letter, sent it to the rear Chinese army camp, and handed it over to Liu Bei for inspection.

Then, Zhang Xi continued to march slowly in the direction of Wudu County, while Wei Yan rushed to Qishan Road in the starry night.

In fact, it was impossible to make a complete starry night journey, just try to make use of the sky, and then set up camp when the road was really not clear, and set off at dawn, and traveled more than 50 miles in a day, Wei Yan spent two days entering the Qishan Road and rushed to a place less than 20 miles away from Qishan Fort.

Next, Wei Yan arranged for the soldiers to rest and sleep during the day.

According to the information provided by Zhang Xi, Qishan Fort was built on a mountain, and the farthest viewing distance could reach about 20 miles.

Therefore, Wei Yan arrived at a place twenty miles away from Qishan Fort and did not dare to advance easily.

Coupled with the high-intensity rush for two consecutive days, the soldiers are also exhausted, and now they launch a surprise attack, and their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

Wei Yan is a famous general, he knows very well what the purpose of his campaign is, and he knows what to do at this time, and he will not do the kind of thing of "marching for a hundred miles and becoming a general".

Again, since Wei Yan dared to shout in front of Zhang Xi that he would cut off his head if he couldn't take Qishan Fort, he also had his own ideas and grasps.

Two days were spent on the march, the last day was spent resting during the day, and at night, it was the time for Wei Yan to officially launch the raid.

No matter what time the army is, the night is the time when the defense is the most lax. You can't go without sleep at night.

Again, not everyone in this era can see at night, and this kind of elite soldier cannot be used to guard a military fortress in the mountains.

Therefore, at night, it is the time when the vision of the defenders of Qishan Fort is most restricted, and Wei Yan can rely on the cover of night to quickly approach Qishan Fort and launch a surprise attack.

But there is also a problem here - there are very few people in the defenders of Qishan Fort who can see at night, so do Wei Yan's soldiers have this ability?!

Actually, no.

Wei Yan tried, and in his army of 3,000 people, there were no more than 200 people who could really see clearly at night, and less than 500 people who could barely see the road under their feet at night.

If Wei Yan wanted to launch a surprise attack at night, then he could only rely on these five hundred people.

But Wei Yan felt that it was enough.

During the day, Wei Yan personally led his own soldiers and the farmers who were chopping wood in the city to go deep into the vicinity of Qishan Fort to reconnoiter the terrain and confirm the road up the mountain from Qishan Fort and the garrison that could be observed visually on the mountain.

Qishan Fort was built on a mountain, and this mountain is not high, but about 20 zhang.

It's just that there is only one mountain road, and it is quite winding, except for this mountain road, there are cliffs all around. If you fall, you will basically die.

With such a terrain, it is really possible to hold the entire mountain road as long as you control a few points.

In fact, the defenders of Qishan Fort did the same.

The defenders of Qishan Fort not only set up five outposts around the bottom of the mountain to expand the scope of control, but also set up a fairly large outpost at the intersection of the road up the mountain, which could arrange nearly 50 people by sight.

As for the mountain road, Wei Yan's eyesight has a limit, and he can't see too many outposts, but according to Wei Yan's experience, there will definitely be outposts on some narrow mountain roads.

And if Wei Yan wants to attack, he must take advantage of the night to pull out these outposts under the mountains and control the mountain roads one by one, so that he can pass through the mountain road and attack the real camp of Qishan Fort.

It's difficult, but it's not without a chance to benefit from the fact that the mountain is not high, although the mountain road is crooked, but the distance is not long, as long as you are careful, there should be the possibility of touching the mountain.

If this was twenty feet taller, Wei Yan would have no choice but to retreat.

After observing the enemy's battle situation clearly, Wei Yan went back to his camp and waited quietly for dark.

It was approaching winter, and the time of darkness was getting earlier and earlier, and when night fell and his vision was somewhat obstructed, Wei Yan set off with about five hundred soldiers who could barely see at night.

And the remaining 2,500 people, Wei Yan had no intention of letting them stay where they were.

Even if Wei Yan really successfully touched the vicinity of the camp on the mountain, it would be impossible to take Qishan Fort with five hundred people.

Therefore, Wei Yan's 500 people were only the vanguard troops, and the remaining 2,500 people were the real main force to attack the fortifications.

But the remaining 2,500 people can't see at all at night, and it's pitch black in front of them, so how can they march and attack?!

The method that Wei Yan came up with was to divide the 2,500 people into ten squads, and each team arranged for two people who could see the road clearly at night to lead, and then each person had a rope wrapped around their waists, a title in their mouths, and was dragged by the rope in the direction of Qishan Fort.

Once a large number of torches appeared in the direction of Qishan Fort, it meant that Wei Yan's 500-man raid team began to attack Qishan Fort, and at this time, the remaining 2,500 people lit torches, used torches to illuminate the road, and quickly supported in the direction of Qishan Fort.

After planning all this, Wei Yan led five hundred people, wearing armor blackened in advance, holding a Miao knife, holding a piece in his mouth, and wrapping his feet in cloth.

The march went smoothly, Wei Yan followed the road noted during the day, and advanced all the way in the dark, and in the second half of the night, he finally touched the mountain road of Qishan Fort, facing the first outpost of the defenders of Qishan Fort, and the medium-sized outpost set up at the foot of the mountain.

And at this time, the defenders of Qishan Fort really had no defense.

The guard Gao Gang had already slept, except for the soldiers who were keeping vigil at various outposts and on the top of the mountain, and the other soldiers had also slept.

There is nothing wrong with guarding the defensive measures of the general Gao Gang, at least in this era, it can be regarded as a guard.

Although I heard that Hanzhong had made a big move towards the Shu army, I also received a warning from Guo Huai, the assassin of Liangzhou, that it was necessary to strengthen the surveillance of the Wudu area. But Gao Gang really didn't think that the Shu army in the direction of Hanzhong would come towards Qishan Road.

The road out of Qinling in Hanzhong is the farthest Qishan Road, which is basically a detour to bypass Qinling, and the Shu army does not take the closer Baochuan Road and Chencang Road, what are you doing on Qishan Road so far? !

Again, there was no movement in the direction of Wudu.

Even if the direction of Wudu can't help fighting, it can't withstand the attack of the Shu army, at least the role of warning is still there.

Now there is no warning in the direction of Wudu County, at least it means that Wu has not encountered any danger, even if the Shu army really takes the Qishan Road, when they are in Wudu, it will be too late for them to make defensive preparations.

It cannot be said that Gao Gang's idea is wrong, after all, this is the common idea of those who garrison fortresses in this era.

If it was just because the Shu army in Hanzhong had a big move, and the defenders of Qishan Fort were preparing to defend in a big way, then the soldiers would not be able to stand it.

At this time, Qishan Fort had not experienced any attack by the Shu army, and Guo Huai on the Liangzhou side did not feel that the location of this Qishan Fort was very important, and it was just a military village for warning, so the soldiers who were sent to guard Qishan Fort were indeed not elites, but ordinary soldiers.

Some of these people are here for military service, some are recruited for money, and it is simply not realistic to expect them to be on high alert all the time, as if they were the elite.

Gao Gang could think of fortifying under Qishan Fort Mountain, and at the same time insisted on sending people to guard and observe at night, which was already for Guo Huai's sake, and he was very serious and responsible.

But this kind of defensive mentality is cheaper than Wei Yan.

The first outpost at the foot of the mountain is the first difficulty. Taking advantage of the darkness of the sky, the defenders could not see the surrounding situation clearly, and in the second half of the night, the defenders' energy decreased and their spirits were not concentrated, Wei Yan led people to quietly approach the vicinity of the outpost.

This outpost is a medium-sized outpost, and there are at least 50 people in the outpost, so it is indeed difficult to solve it quietly.

Wei Yan picked out nearly 100 people with the best night vision ability from the soldiers he brought, and first used crossbow arrows to shoot the soldiers on night duty at the outpost.

After killing the sentry guards, Wei Yan took the hundred people to climb through the fence of the outpost, touched the inside of the outpost, and killed the sleeping guard of the outpost as soon as possible, leaving no one behind.

No way, this is a sneak attack, Wei Yan can't keep any prisoners, otherwise once these captives make a noise, the guards on the mountain will be aware of it.

It wasn't that there was no commotion, after all, there were a lot of people at this outpost, and it was very difficult to kill all the fifty soldiers in their sleep, and someone would always be awakened.

But one is that Wei Yan brings the elite and has a higher combat quality, and the other is that the mountains and forests at night are not a place where everything is silent, and there are occasional fierce beasts roaring in the mountains, plus the wind in the mountains covers as long as there is no large-scale noise, it is difficult to attract the attention of the mountain top guards.

Therefore, although there was some commotion, it did not seem to be noticed by the defenders on the mountain because it passed too quickly.

Wei Yan breathed a sigh of relief, withstood the cold sweat on his back, and continued to kill the rest of the outposts under the mountain in the dark, and I don't know how many guards there are on the mountain road.

In this way, Wei Yan quietly solved the strength of the two outposts at the foot of the mountain, and opened an offensive channel for his follow-up troops, looking at the sky, Wei Yan gritted his teeth and decided not to care about the remaining two outposts at the foot of the mountain, and smeared the mountain.

There are still quite a few outposts on the mountain road, and if you continue to waste time like this, it will be dawn.

And by this time, the defenders on the hill still didn't seem to be aware of it.

Wei Yan secretly rejoiced, continued to smear and go up the mountain, killed two more outposts on the mountain road, and finally climbed halfway up the mountain.

Although I don't know how many outposts are left, I haven't been found to be able to climb to this position, even Wei Yandu is already very satisfied.

Continuing to smear and climb up the mountain, Wei Yan was even expecting that he might be able to solve all the outposts, and he appeared directly at the gate of the camp at the top of the mountain by surprise. But at this time, the whereabouts of Wei Yan and the others were still discovered.

(End of chapter)