Chapter 79: The Sui and Tang War (Nine)

The arrow was as fast as lightning. The two sentries on the sentry tower were not prepared at all. They all screamed softly and collapsed softly, and handled neatly. Xiao Yannian looked at another crossbowman and made an excited gesture at the same time. Xiao Yannian turned around and waved his hand. The twenty Sui soldiers hiding in the ravines jumped up and ran towards the camp on the top of the mountain with heavy turbulent oil bags on their backs.

Black tincture oil was sprayed on the outer fence of the enemy camp and sprayed into the camp through the gaps in the fence. Twenty Sui soldiers were busy. At this moment, several Tang army sentries were alarmed and rushed over to check. They saw black shadows outside the camp at a glance.

"There is an enemy!"

The Tang army sentry immediately shouted, "There is an enemy situation!" A sentry ran wildly and shouted, the shouting was particularly harsh in the night sky.

Seeing that there were still more than forty bags of turmeric oil, Xiao Yannian shouted: "Open the plug and throw it in!"

The soldiers pulled out the plugs and threw the turbulent oil into the military camp. At this time, hundreds of Tang soldiers in the camp rushed out of the tent and rushed towards the camp gate to the west. Arrows were fired at once. Two Sui scouts could not dodge and were shot by arrows. They screamed and rolled down the hillside.

Seeing that the situation was critical, Xiao Yannian shouted, "Get out quickly!"

The remaining Sui soldiers stumbled down the mountain, but Xiao Yannian took two steps at a time, jumped into the gully and took out several turbulent oil bats from his carry-on skin. In fact, they were wrapped around a thin wooden stick and wrapped it into a ball with a turbulent cloth. After ignition, they were thrown out to cause fire. At a short distance, it was more practical than a rocket.

When a Sui soldier saw him jumping, he immediately lit a fire. Xiao Yannian lit the turbulent oil bat and threw it towards the camp gate. He threw five or six in a row. Then the two of them rolled down the mountain with their heads in their arms.

The tinder was quickly ignited, the red flames were boiling, and the smoke was rolling. The camp bars and dozens of tents on the top of the mountain were ignited. The fire was rapid and it engulfed the entire camp in a moment. Five hundred Tang soldiers were burned to scream. Many people rushed out of the camp and fled in scattered. Many people were panicked and rolled down the cliffs to the east. Dozens of people ran down from the west hillside, killed or captured by the Sui army scouts waiting here.

At this time, Cheng Yaojin appeared as the credit was about to be settled. He brought three thousand Sui soldiers to come, ignored Xiao Yannian, and shouted loudly: "Roar up the mountain and occupy the mountain!"

Three thousand Sui soldiers rushed to the top of the mountain without any interruption, and successfully occupied the top of the mountain. At this time, dozens of large tents had been burned to ashes, leaving only the camp bars burning, but the fire was significantly weakened.

Except for more than a hundred people on the top of the mountain, all the others escaped. Some fell down the cliff in the east, and some went down the mountain from the west and were captured by the Sui army. Most of the Tang soldiers fled south along the Centipede Ridge. The Centipede Ridge was about twenty miles long and would never come back again after running.

Cheng Yaojin stood on the top of the mountain and looked at the Jinsuo Pass at the foot of the mountain. He couldn't help laughing. Not to mention that thousands of arrows on the top of the mountain were fired at once, even if one person urinated, he could even urinate over the Jinsuo Pass.

Yin Kaishan, the chief general of Jinsuo Pass, was woken up by his personal soldiers at night. An accident occurred on Centipede Ridge. He ran to the top of the city and looked up at the raging fire on the top of the mountain. However, his heart gradually became cold. Yin Kaishan knew very well what the loss of Centipede Ridge meant.

Yin Kaishan was in a very complicated mood at this time. He knew that Jinsuo Pass would definitely not be able to defend it. So what should he do? Will Li Yuan spare him by giving up Jinsuo Pass and retreating to Guanzhong in the south? But what if he surrendered to the Sui Dynasty, what should he do if his wife and daughter in Chang'an?

"General, what should I do?" Several generals surrounded him and asked nervously.

Yin Kaishan pondered for a moment, sighed, and asked everyone, "Do you want to withdraw or surrender?"

Several generals looked at each other and an elderly man said, "Actually, we are willing to surrender, but our family is in Chang'an, and we are afraid that surrender will harm our family. It's better to wait and say it."

Yin Kaishan understood what everyone meant, and surrendering first would inevitably be punished by the court. He nodded, "Okay! Tell your brothers to evacuate Jinsuo Pass overnight."

.............

That night, Yin Kaishan led more than 2,500 Tang troops to evacuate Jinsuo Pass overnight and retreated to Guanzhong. The next morning, when Cheng Yaojin was about to order up the mountain to shoot arrows, he received the news that Jinsuo Pass was already an empty city.

"These bastards are running away quickly!"

Cheng Yaojin urged his horse to enter the city. Looking at the empty Jinsuo Pass, he couldn't help laughing. He felt much more happy and immediately ordered someone to report to Yang Yuanqing. Cheng Yaojin attacked Centipede Ridge at night and stalked to get Jinsuo Pass. Without hurting a soldier and a soldier, he took down Jinsuo Pass.

Cheng Yaojin now knows Yang Yuanqing very well. Not hurting a soldier and a soldier is Yang Yuanqing's favorite thing to hear. It is more effective than him taking the Golden Lock Pass. In fact, the Sui army still has two injured scouts, so he can only hide it. Now, as long as he can get promoted, he doesn't want to be honest.

Cheng Yaojin immediately ordered, "Raste this pass to the ground and push down all the city walls and gates!"

"General, there is no need for this!" someone next to him persuaded.

Cheng Yaojin glared at the eyes, "Why is there no need? What if I retreated from Guanzhong and was cut off from the back? All of them were pushed down!"

Thousands of soldiers fought together, and soon they demolished the city wall of Jinsuoguan and pushed down. At this time, another general advised Cheng Yaojin, "General Cheng, why not kill directly to Guanzhong now to shake the morale of the Tang army, and we will also take the lead."

The general's suggestion said that Cheng Yaojin had gone up to his heart. He was exactly this plan. It seemed that some bird man once said that those who advanced to Guanzhong were kings, and Cheng Yaojin didn't want any kings. As long as he was granted the title of Duke, he would be satisfied.

"Everyone brings dry food and follow me to Guanzhong."

.........

The main logistics business of the Sui army was still south of Luojiao County, Shangjun. A large amount of grain and material were stored here. The continuous supply of grain and grass was transported to the main Sui army of Qianshuiyuan every day. The Sui army mobilized a total of 30,000 grain and cattle carts, and nearly 50,000 civilians traveled on the hundreds of miles of logistics support line.

Jia Runfu was the chief logistics general of the Sui army. He led 10,000 troops to protect the safety of logistics transportation. Of course, relying solely on 10,000 troops could not ensure the safety of the camp and transportation routes. Especially in the final decisive battle such as the Sui and Tang War, the importance of logistics support is self-evident. Once food and grass are lost, it may lead to the defeat of the entire army.

There are many such battles in history, and Yang Yuanqing also deeply understood that when the Turkic army was launched in Yanmen Pass, it was because the logistics of the Sui army was attacked by the Sui army and the entire army was defeated. Yang Yuanqing had already experienced many battles and would never give the Tang army an opportunity to take advantage of such a key issue.

On the second day after Yang Yuanqing led 80,000 troops south to Qianshuiyuan, the General of the Left Wu Guard came to Hu'er and led 30,000 Hebei Sui Army to the Sui Army camp in Shangjun.

In this way, the army protecting the logistics has reached 40,000. Lai Hu'er and Jia Runfu each performed their own responsibilities. Lai Hu'er distributed 10,000 troops to Jia Runfu. Jia Runfu led 20,000 troops to guard the logistics camp, while Hu'er was still strong and led 20,000 troops to be responsible for transportation safety along the way.

It takes about 300 miles from the Sui Army camp in Luojiao County to the Sui Army camp in Qianshuiyuan, which spans Shangjun and Beidi County. The journey is not smooth and open, but hills and ravines. It takes three days to transport grain and cattle carts to reach the destination.

Due to the long journey and the undulating mountains, the grain trucks were easily attacked by the Tang army. Jia Runfu divided the 20,000 troops into ten teams, two thousand people in one team, and followed the grain trucks west along the way.

At noon that day, a grain transport team composed of three thousand grain trucks arrived at the junction of Beidi County and Shangjun. This area is called Ziwu Mountain, which is under the jurisdiction of Xiangle County, Beidi County. Like other areas along the way, there are deep loess, heavy mountains, and huge gullies that are like torn apart the ground.

In a huge gully about twenty miles long, three thousand ox carts were crowded together, thousands of civilians hid in a shaded forest to rest and eat dry food, and more than a thousand Sui army guards were also resting on the other side of the gully.

At this moment, a patrolman ran to the distance and shouted from afar: "Escape quickly, the Tang cavalry are coming!"

The chief general who guarded the Sui army was a Lang general named Lou Chong. He heard the shouts and stood up and shouted: "Everything is on the horse!"

More than a thousand Sui cavalrymen were on their horses one after another. At this time, dust was flying at the entrance of the ravines in the distance, and the sound of horse hooves was as fierce as thunder. Lang General Lou Chong's face turned pale. Judging from this momentum, the size of the Tang cavalry was at least five or six thousand, while they were only one,200.

Lou Chong immediately made a decision and turned around and shouted, "So tell the migrants to go up the mountain to escape quickly and don't worry about the ox cart!"

In fact, before he could order, thousands of civilians in the woods ran out of the woods like bombing a nest, and were in great horror. Some people went to drive ox carts, but most of them didn't care about ox carts and ran towards the future.

More than a dozen Sui army cavalry rushed over and shouted to the civilian who was still driving the ox cart: "Don't worry, go up the mountain and run for life!"

They caught up with the villagers and shouted, "Run up the mountain!"

Thousands of civil servants rushed to the mountain as if they were dreaming. At this time, five thousand Tang army's black armored light cavalry had arrived. The chief general Liu Hongji saw that there were only more than one thousand Sui army and shouted, "Kill!"

The two cavalry collided with each other and fought fiercely in the valley. The Tang cavalry rushed to the ground one by one. Lou Chong led more than a thousand Sui cavalry to fight to the death, creating time for the civilians to escape.

"General Lou!"

A captain shouted, "Brothers can't stand it."

Seeing that the left wing was about to be broken through by the Tang army, Lou Chong saw that the Tang army was about to break through, once the Tang cavalry broke through, their retreat would be cut off, and they faced a siege and attack from the front and back, and eventually the entire army was wiped out. Lou Chong no longer cared about the civilians and shouted loudly: "Retreat!"

More than a thousand Sui cavalrymen pulled their horses eastward and rushed to the other side of the valley. Thousands of Tang troops behind chased after him, and shot arrows from time to time. Sui soldiers kept screaming and falling off the horse. However, three thousand ox carts saved the lives of the Sui cavalry. The Sui cavalry rushed by at lightning, and the arrows behind shot at the ox cart. The ox pulling the cart immediately became chaotic, running left and right, filling the road, blocking the Tang army's pursuit.
Chapter completed!