Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 960 0955 [Breaking through the gap in Helan Mountain·1]

In the eyes of the Xixia people, the Khitans, Uighurs, and Tubo were all barbarians.

The name "Keyimen" was originally meant to conquer Khitan, but later it became the name to conquer Mongolia. Due to the repeated attacks by the Mongols, Xixia even built the Great Wall in the Keyimen area.

In the middle and early stages of the Northern Song Dynasty, the far-flung areas of Xixia were very unfamiliar.

Fan Zhongyan even believed that Helan Mountain ran east-west, and this view became a consensus in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Everyone then made up a picture in their minds. Helan Mountain lay across the north of the Xixia capital. There was a passage in the mountain where troops could march. The Keyi Gate was built as a gate at the entrance of the passage.

For hundreds of years, and even into the 1990s, historians believed that Keyi Gate was the gateway to Helan Mountain.

With the progress of archaeological work and field investigations by northwest scholars, it is gradually believed that Keyi Gate is located in Subaiyingou in Wuhai City.

Subaiyin Valley is about 20 miles long, with high mountains and cliffs on both sides. The valley is winding and the terrain is dangerous. On the two mountains, one hundred thousand troops can be hidden, and the bottom of the ditch in the middle can be seen at a glance. As long as the enemy dares to enter, they will not be able to get out.

A small number of light cavalry can circumvent it, but a large force cannot even think of circumventing it.

Beyond the mountains on the east side is the desert.

Beyond the mountains on the west side is the Yellow River, and beyond it is still desert.

This is the remaining vein of Helan Mountain. If it connects many mountains near Keyimen, then Helan Mountain really runs east-west, and Keyimen is stuck between the remaining veins of Helan Mountain.

It is estimated that the envoys sent by the Northern Song Dynasty made corresponding wrong judgments after inspecting here, and everyone including Fan Zhongyan believed it.

If Yue Fei were to conquer this place, it would be considered as "breaking through the Helan Mountain gap".

Genghis Khan reached here during his third expedition to Xia.

At that time, the Xixia garrison totaled 120,000, and Genghis Khan was unable to attack them, so he had to change the attack into a siege.

The two sides faced off for more than two months.

Due to the constant urging of the Xixia court, Xixia's food and grass gradually ran out. Weiming Linggong could only risk a night attack, but he was caught by the Mongolian army. The Xixia army was in chaos, and Genghis Khan took the opportunity to capture Keyi Gate.

Mongolia took advantage of the trend and went south, besieged the capital of Xixia, and dug the Yellow River to flood the city.

After being soaked in water for more than a month, the capital of Xixia did not collapse. The temporary dam built by the Mongolian army collapsed, and the water of the Yellow River poured back into the Mongolian army...

Is this a slap in the face?

The two countries established a truce and became brothers. Genghis Khan also married the daughter of the Xixia leader.

At this moment, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong looked at the ravine, feeling overwhelmed and not knowing how to start.

The surrendered Xixia Supervisor Cao Yu introduced: "This valley is about twenty miles long, and the valley is winding. There are many forts on the mountains on both sides, and there is a strong city behind the valley. Even if the general has an army of 300,000, it will be difficult for him to do so." capture."

Han Shizhong asked: "Since it is only twenty miles long, can't it be bypassed through the desert on the east side?"

Cao Yu explained:

"The narrowest valley is twenty miles away, but there is still a valley after Keyi Gate, but it is not that narrow. The locals call the valley north of Keyi Gate Qiangou, and the valley to the south called Hougou."

"If we want to make a detour, our army should retreat for tens of miles, then go east through dozens of miles of desert, cross the desert and then pass through the mountain passes. Then it will go south in the desert. I don't know how far exactly. Because no one dares to go that way, we will probably have to walk another one or two hundred miles of desert.”

After hearing this, Han Shizhong remained silent.

Yue Fei said: "We can only attack by force."

Han Shizhong said: "We must first capture the mountains on both sides."

Cao Yu listened to the conversation between the two and felt that they had gone crazy.

The mountains on the west side are lower, and the vertical height of the main peak is several hundred meters.

The main peak of the east ridge has a vertical height of more than one thousand meters.

There are big mountains and small mountains, high ridges and low ridges. The mountain range stretches for more than 150 miles. Even if it only reaches Keyimen City, it is still more than 20 miles away in a straight line.

Moreover, the mountain is rocky, not to mention trees, and there are not many grass growing there. It is extremely steep due to weathering and erosion.

Artillery is useless here!

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong had more than 10,000 Ming cavalry and more than 5,000 Ming infantry under their command.

The rest were all Khitan, Dangxiang, Tanggu, Tubo, and Uyghur soldiers. Some were brought by the two of them from the grassland, and some were recruited outside Taowai.

Even the people who transport food come from Tawai Grassland.

Shanxi civilians only transported grain and grass to Dongsheng Prefecture. Many grassland tribes under Han Shizhong's jurisdiction were transferred to Tiande Military City by boats and livestock. The grassland folk near Tiande Army City then transferred the grain and grass to Wu Lahai City. The grassland folkmen of Wu Lahai City then transported grain and grass here to attack Keyi Gate.

There was no fear of surrendering tribes burning their food and grass, because the tribal chiefs and nobles were all taken with them by Han Shizhong and Yue Fei. Their wives, children, and children have also been sent to Shanxi as hostages.

Yue Fei called Han Shizhong alone to discuss: "You and 3,000 brave cavalry and 300 heavy cavalry stay at the foot of the mountain to hold down the battle. I will personally lead the troops to attack the eastern mountains, and thousands of infantry will attack the western mountains. The cavalry of each tribe will be separated. Some followed us up the mountain. After occupying a dangerous position, we left the cavalry behind and the Ming elite continued to attack."

"Your knights and all the cavalrymen have dismounted to attack the mountain?" Han Shizhong asked.

Yue Fei smiled and said, "You can't ride up there on horseback."

"Ten thousand people went to attack the mountain. This place is twenty miles away from Keyi Gate. How can the soldiers on the mountain drink water? These mountains are bare and there may be no water source." Han Shizhong asked.

Yue Fei said: "The enemy has camps on the mountain. How do they get water? There will always be a way when the time comes."

Han Shizhong called Cao Yu over: "How many camps are there on the mountain? Which hilltop is it on?"

Cao Yu shook his head: "I don't know."

Han Shizhong asked again: "What do they eat? What do they drink?"

Cao Yu shook his head: "I don't know."

Han Shizhong asked again: "How many people are there in each camp?"

Cao Yu shook his head: "I don't know."

Han Shizhong was furious: "You are a Xixia military supervisor, how can you not know anything?"

Cao Yu explained in panic: "I am the military supervisor of the Wei Fu Army, not the military supervisor of the Keyi Gate."

Han Shizhong was so angry that he wanted to chop him with a knife. He suppressed his anger and said to Yue Fei: "You and I will each take 30 people and climb up to observe the situation first."

Famous generals in all dynasties would personally scout the battlefield when they arrived in an unfamiliar area.

What is drawn on the map and what others say is not as intuitive as what you see with your own eyes.

The extremely cautious generals would even speed up with their personal soldiers during the march and personally select the camping site two hours in advance.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong borrowed light armor from the grassland cavalry and led 30 people each to climb the mountains on both sides. Each of them also carried dry food and several water bags.

The army at the foot of the mountain was temporarily handed over to Li Shifu for command.

After several days of tossing and turning, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong finally figured out the location of the nearest enemy camp.

The living conditions on the mountain were too bad. Unless a decisive battle was being fought in the valley, the enemy would not deploy too many people on the mountain - eating and drinking water were a big problem.

The two of them went down the mountain nearby and returned to the valley to communicate with each other.

Han Shizhong said: "I found a tower, which is not a fortress at all. There are at most two or three hundred people in it. This kind of terrain and that size, usually there are only five or six people stationed."

"It's almost the same on my side. A small number of elite soldiers can quickly take it down." Yue Fei said.

They were lucky, and Xixia didn't have time to build the Great Wall.

Historically, Xixia was hurt by the Mongols. After the Mongols retreated, they built a large section of the Great Wall on the mountains on both sides. It can not only quickly transport soldiers and food to the mountains, but also garrison the Great Wall to prevent the Mongols from attacking the mountains.

If there was a Great Wall on the mountain at this time, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong would not be able to attack at all, and could only station troops to confront like Genghis Khan.

After the discussion, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong stayed to rest and asked their generals to lead 800 elite soldiers to attack the mountain.

There is no need to climb from the beginning. At the marked location in the valley, first send those who are good at climbing without armor to climb up. Then smash the wooden stakes, tie the ropes and throw them down. The follow-up elite soldiers in armor climbed up with the ropes, and finally tied a wooden ladder to drag them up.

The wooden ladder was brought from Wulahai City, which is an ordinary wooden ladder used by the people.

As a guide, Cao Yu said that it is difficult to find trees here.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong were right. The two towers they found would only be garrisoned by six people at ordinary times, and the troops would be increased according to the situation during wartime.

Since Keyimen was in the rear, there had been no war for nearly a hundred years, and there was not even a single soldier stationed in the tower. After all, even if there were only six soldiers stationed there, it would be troublesome to transport food to them, and gradually everyone was too lazy to send soldiers for the sake of convenience.

At this moment, there were 200 soldiers guarding it.

When the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty attacked, the tower immediately lit up the wolf smoke, and then the wolf smoke rose further south.

The Ming army lookouts in charge of observation had already climbed to a higher peak at this moment, and judged the location of other forts or towers through the wolf smoke.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong also sent a large number of light cavalry to go deeper into the valley to inquire about the situation.

The grassland light cavalry went for a while, and soon fled back in embarrassment.

"Two generals, seven or eight miles ahead, the valley is winding and the enemy is ambushed at the bend. As soon as we ran over, we were shot at, and the enemy cavalry rushed over..."

The tribal nobles in charge of inquiring about the situation came back to report very aggrievedly that his cavalry had just suffered dozens of casualties.

Han Shizhong nodded and said, "I'll give you a credit."

The elite troops responsible for attacking the mountain continued to climb over mountains and ridges after the smoke rose from the Xixia Tower.

They came down from one mountain ridge, then climbed another, and found a suitable position to attack after approaching the target.

It was extremely difficult!

The mountain is mostly composed of gneiss, limestone and shale. Years of weathering and erosion have caused some mountain walls to be 90 degrees. Even the gentlest slope is more than 45 degrees. However, there are some protruding rock bodies for stepping on where the rocks are layered.

Wang Gui looked up at the tower in front of him. The front mountain was several feet high, and the rammed earth wall of the tower was more than ten feet high.

The simple stairs they brought were useless for attacking the tower.

It would take a lot of effort to climb up normally, and it would be impossible to attack if there were enemy defenses, unless the Ming army could grow wings and fly up.

Wang Gui went around to the back of the tower to check, and immediately he started cursing, "Damn it, this side is also very steep. The enemy soldiers on top had to climb up by themselves, and their food and drink were also hung up with ropes! It's impossible to attack it. Li Zhen, take a few people back to report that I'm guarding here first, and let the governor send some grassland soldiers. There's no need to attack, just surround the enemy and kill them up there. Starve them to death! Let them die of thirst!"