Hutou City was a nail that Beimang's army had to pull out when they went south.
Hutou City was huge and lofty. It was known as "No other place in the border, no other place in the northwest." It was four and a half li long from east to west and five li from north to south. Beiliang's road took six years to build. It was said that half of the dynasty's northwest was used up. Its south gate was called Dingding Gate, which was criticized by the civil officials of Liyang. Just on the north side of the Tiger Head City, there were twelve winches and twelve crossbows, with seven crossbows. The arrows were as big as the rafters of a house, with iron leaves as the feather. The arrows were as fast as thunder, and could reach as far as seven hundred paces away! At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, when Gu Jiantang attacked the old Southern Tang, he used these crossbows to shoot through the Southern Tang navy's large turreted ships to show the military power of Liyang. If it wasn't for these giant ballistae intimidating and restraining them, if Northern Mang's infantry were allowed to wantonly push forward the siege weapons, Tiger Head City's defenses definitely wouldn't have had enough strength to spare. Using more than a thousand Stone Catapult Carts of various sizes to attack a single city, this was something only a madman would do. In history, this had only happened once during the middle stages of Great Feng Dynasty's decline. The city that suffered disaster at that time was precisely Great Feng Country's capital whose scale wasn't inferior to Great Peace City. Of course, although Beimang's central line had the same number of catapults, the only difference was that the weight of the catapults was 20 to 30 jin more. Therefore, overall, the power of the catapults was far less than that of the attack in the middle of Da Feng Dynasty.
Hutou City was easy to defend and hard to attack. It also had Liuya and Fuling to help restrain Beimang, so that Hutou City wouldn't follow in the footsteps of Xiang Fan's "Ten Years Lonely City". In addition, there were six thousand cavalry in Hutou City that could take the initiative to attack at any time. They could also coordinate with the elite cavalry of Liuya and Fuling. The defense line of Huaiyang Pass was also less than a hundred li away from the front line of the four towns. All of them were elites of the Beiliang Frontier Army who dismounted to defend the city. If it wasn't for the fact that Northern Mang's central line of defense had sufficient military strength and possessed an absolute advantage in numbers, Northern Liang would have launched a large-scale cavalry battle at any moment. Therefore, in the spring of the second year of Xiangfu, Hutou City became the only main character, attracting most of the attention from both sides of Liang Mang.
After the Beiliang Protectorate, or perhaps one should say Hsu Fengnian, personally decided to defend Hutou City to the death for a year, under the leadership of Deputy Administrator Song Dongming and Liangzhou Provincial Governor Tian Peifang, more than ten thousand infantrymen were sent to Liuya and Fuling, two towns within Liangzhou. Of these, four thousand were youths from Liuzhou, carrying a large amount of equipment and supplies. They traveled north, and under the strict escort of the White Feather Guards personally led by Qi Dangguo, they entered the two towns. For this reason, Beimang symbolically sent out twenty thousand cavalrymen to bypass Hutou City and try to intercept them. However, in the end, they didn't fight to the death with the White Feather Guards, and only two small-scale battles broke out. After this, Beimang should have guessed Beiliang's strategic intentions, and increased the intensity of the attack on Hutou City. Their siege techniques were mainly derived from the Gourd Mouth of Youzhou. However, compared to the simple and crude attack on Hutou City, Beimang attacked Hutou City with a lot of new ideas. In addition to the catapults, the craftsmen of the Southern Dynasties also created a large number of toad carts for Beimang to fill up the trenches, and flying towers for archers to shoot from high altitudes and destroy the battlements on the city walls. They also tried to build a mountain near the city, and even sent cave masters to explore the terrain, digging tunnels day and night to collapse the city walls or to enter the city. For this reason, Hutou City made all kinds of responses. Beimang's infantrymen were unafraid of death. They rushed forward, wrapped the soil with straw and branches, and threw it into the trenches. Hutou City shot the red-hot iron balls into the trenches and into the crevices of the straw. In the end, the ashes and soil only increased by a few inches, which was far from Beimang's expectations. Hutou City dug trenches inside the city walls and used fire to attack the trenches. Nearly a thousand Beimang soldiers suffocated in the trenches and died miserably. Tiger Head City had long been prepared for the continuous assault of Northern Mang's thousand catapult carts. Liu Jinu's plan was meticulous and meticulous. He had long ordered people to prepare more than four hundred thousand earthen blanks, using them to reinforce the city walls before the battle. Even though they were not as sturdy as the original city walls made of rammed earth, they made the catapult carts that Northern Mang had originally used to obtain victory merely look like decorations. When Beimang used the stupidest method to turn the soil into a mountain outside Hutou City, Liu Jinu used his own method to counter Beimang. He dug a tunnel to hollow out the foundation and sank thousands of Beimang's enemy soldiers. When the mountain collapsed and the earth cracked, dust flew everywhere. Even the Huaiyang Pass' Governor-General House could see it.
Even Chu Lushan, who rarely praised others, could not help but exclaim, "Liu Jinu is good at both offense and defense!"
As for the Northern Mang high ranking officers who had suffered enough, towards this Northern Liang famous general whose reputation had long spread far and wide, everyone wanted to eat his flesh even more.
After Liuya and Fuling each obtained 5,000 infantry to help defend the city, the light cavalry of the two towns could completely let loose. At the same time, Hsu Fengnian personally ordered the Xianli Ranch's horse farms in Inner Liangzhou to change or replenish warhorses for Liuya and Fuling, who originally needed to take care of long-distance raids. Instead, they had to focus on explosive power. Hsu Fengnian and the Governor-General House set a rule for Liuya and Fuling. The next battle was to be separated by 200 miles. As long as they found the right opportunity, they did not need to report to the Governor-General House and could go out of the city to find Beimang cavalry to fight. The only requirement was that they could preserve their main force after the battle, regardless of the outcome. This was an unbelievable military order for the Beiliang Frontier Army. There was actually such a good thing as not being punished after losing a battle? Fu Ling and Liu Ya even went to Huaiyang Pass to inquire about this matter, fearing that there was a mistake in the transmission of the news. However, the answer they received was positive. Afterwards, when the two cavalry generals met for a discussion, they were somewhat sullen and resentful. They felt that the Prince and Protector General Chu were looking down on the battle prowess of their two garrisons. The four thousand Northern Mang cavalry were unable to fight to the death, fleeing towards the west. A cavalry officer called Qihulong Pass, the Town Commander of the Advice Army, Wei Liang, told him not to give chase. Wei Liang didn't listen to the advice, chasing after them for more than thirty li, setting up an ambush for the eight thousand Mang cavalry. At the final Qihulong Pass, at the most crucial moment, he led five hundred cavalry to break through the enemy formation, directly charging into the Northern Mang's main banner. Moreover, he vowed to bring up the rear, buying precious time for the Fuling Cavalry's main force to withdraw. Qihulong Pass' armor had more than six arrows embedded in it, the five hundred troops only having less than a single arrow left. In this battle, even though Northern Mang's losses were greater than Northern Liang's, the Fuling Cavalry at Liangzhou's second line of defense was almost completely wiped out. Even though there were still five thousand infantry defending the city, without the cavalry, one of the two wings of the defense line that were originally flying together would be broken. Because of this, Wei Liang went to Huaiyang Pass to offer a humble apology. However, Hsu Fengnian did not punish this Fu Ling general. He only promoted Qifulong Pass, who he had casually thrown into the Fu Ling military town as a junior Commandant, to the position of Inspector General above Commandant and below Commandant. He would lead the one thousand cavalry after the quota was filled and set up the Zhanyan Camp. He allowed this camp to increase the number of troops every time it achieved a merit. In the end, the maximum number of troops would be three thousand. This was another major event that attracted people's attention after the withdrawal of the Hulukou infantry army's Hupong Camp and the establishment of the Youzhou cavalry's No Retreat Camp. Qifulong Pass, a nobody from Beimang, began to amaze the Beiliang Frontier Army with a single brilliant feat.
Inside the Beiliang Protectorate, Chu Lushan was discussing with the generals whether or not they should transport troops to Hutou City. The two sides were arguing fiercely. The focus of the argument was whether or not the huge cost of opening up this road was meaningful. Now, everyone knew that Hutou City could accommodate another fifteen thousand people. The real problem was whether or not they could get in. Liu Ya and Fu Ling's cavalry could only temporarily prevent Beimang from launching a stable offensive in the south of Hutou City. This was a world of difference from the Beiliang Frontier Army boldly supporting Hutou City from the south gate. The insistent side believed that the cost of sending fifteen thousand people into Hutou City would be the loss of about ten thousand cavalry. The opposing side insisted that this loss was underestimating Beimang's combat strength and determination. This kind of desperate action was exactly what they wanted. Beimang was worried about not being able to open up the situation. This was the northern barbarians dozing off, and Beiliang was sending them a pillow. When the time came, not to mention losing ten thousand cavalry, even thirty thousand people would not be enough to fill up the big hole in the south of Hutou City. Then, someone suggested that Fu Ling and Liu Ya should attack at the same time. They should boldly push forward and harass Beimang's army stationed on the Longyan Plain. This would provide cover for the transportation of troops in the direction of Huaiyang Pass. But soon, someone objected. With the brains of Dong Zhuo and the others, this kind of seemingly well-intentioned but actually bad idea was no different from taking the initiative to greet the northern barbarians. They were afraid that they would not know that Beiliang had made a move.
Chu Lushan, whose ears were filled with noise, said calmly, "With the reinforcement of Liu Ya and Fu Ling, Beimang must have guessed that we want to use Hutou City as a support point. Otherwise, they would not have set a trap for Fu Ling's cavalry a few days ago. Therefore, Beimang is now guessing when we will support Hutou City, not if we will support Hutou City. There is no doubt about this. "
When Chu Lushan opened his mouth to speak, the whole place immediately fell silent. Every one of the unruly generals of the border army naturally pricked up their ears to listen attentively.
Chu Lushan continued in a neutral tone, "Then we will strive to find a time when they will not expect to do this. If there is no such opportunity, then we can only not do it. Everyone, Hutou City must be defended. But don't forget why we are defending Hutou City in the first place. We are defending Hutou City not for the sake of defending, but to protect our line of defense in Liangzhou as much as possible. As for the matter of exchanging troops, it is meaningless even if one of our border army's lives is exchanged for two Beimang barbarians. Of course, during this period, we can take the opportunity to lure a few Beimang cavalry away from the main army. We can even directly place 15,000 soldiers behind Huaiyang Pass and not move. However, we can mobilize all the troops on the front line of the grave and launch a large-scale battle that Beimang will never expect. After winning, we can retreat. "
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