In the area around the ruins of Old White City, there was nothing to admire. There were no gentle bridges, flowing water, or tall and majestic buildings. On the contrary, there were only dilapidated walls and dilapidated buildings, as well as the frequent activities of horse thieves in the vicinity.
However, what Ang Lee wanted to see was not the scenery, but the rich historical and cultural atmosphere of the ruins of Old White City. He wanted to see the dilapidated walls here and speculate how prosperous and prosperous this place was when the city was first built.
Two or three hundred years was enough to change everything, especially the walls and houses built by humans. They were already very dilapidated. These were all made of loess, so the quality was naturally not good. This place could not be compared with Tong Wan City. After all, when Tong Wan City was built, they specified inhumane rules. Either the people in charge of building the city died, or the people in charge of the inspection died. This was the only way to build a strong enough city. Old White City was not a capital city, so the construction was naturally not so strict. If all the cities were built according to the standards of a capital city, it was estimated that the Huxia Empire would have long been empty, and all the craftsmen would have been killed.
The city walls were relatively thick, so they could last for a period of time. The houses built by the common people were also made of loess, so the quality of these houses was even worse. It was already a miracle that they could last for twenty or thirty years. It was difficult for people to live in a loess house that was more than fifty years old. If there was no one to maintain it, after a hundred years, only the foundation would be left. But after two or three hundred years, it was conceivable what would be left.
Ang Lee walked to the location of Old White City's city wall and gently touched it with his hand. Suddenly, his hand was covered in mud. After being exposed to the sun, rain, and wind, the surface of the loess had become very loose. As long as he gently twisted it with his hand, his hand would be covered in loess.
The city gate was generally made of heavy wood, but at this time, the wooden gate of Old White City had completely disappeared, leaving only an empty gate. The gate tower above had long been gone, but the foundation below the gate tower, which was the top of the wooden gate, still existed.
Taking a closer look, it turned out that there were many thick tree trunks in this area. Furthermore, they were tree trunks that had not been processed in any way. Even the bark of the tree could be seen clearly. These huge tree trunks were very good at supporting the gate tower and the foundation of the city, thus preventing the foundation above from collapsing.
In addition, because the foundation above was well covered, the tree trunks below were neither exposed to the sun nor the rain, so naturally, it was not easy to decay. As for the wooden gate tower at the top, it gradually decayed under the sun and rain. Now, there was no trace of it at all.
The city wall had been dilapidated, but the undeniable fact that it was still the best-preserved building in the ruins. It was also the tallest building in the entire ruins.
After entering the city through the city gate, they saw a dilapidated ladder. These were the ladders that led to the top of the city wall from the city gate. It was convenient for the soldiers to go up and down the city wall quickly.
At this moment, these ladders were seriously dilapidated. In many places, there were no traces of ladders, but they still maintained a suitable angle of inclination, so that Ang Lee could climb up the city wall more easily.
The city wall was also dilapidated. The ground was uneven. More than half of the parapet wall used to defend against the enemy had disappeared. Only a small part of the parapet wall still existed, but only half of its height was left. Therefore, walking on the city wall was somewhat unsafe. It was like walking on a bridge without guardrails. Naturally, it was somewhat dangerous.
Because the ground at the top of the city wall was uneven, one had to be very careful when walking on the city wall. If one was not careful, it could lead to a sprained ankle.
"Let's see if this parapet wall is strong."
Ang Lee stretched out his leg and kicked the parapet wall outside. However, the parapet wall was not kicked down. Instead, it raised a cloud of dust, indicating that the quality was good. Even if it was dilapidated, it still had a certain degree of strength.
Looking back at the city, all he could see were broken walls and ruins. Other than some houses made of stone that still had some remnants, the houses made of loess were only a short pile of soil. The streets could still be distinguished. Those hard strips of soil were obviously the streets of the past. Because a large number of people had stepped on them, the soil had become extremely hard. It was difficult for plants to survive on it. Therefore, as long as he looked at the vegetation, he could tell that those were the streets of the past.
After White City was abandoned, the people had already left. After hundreds of years, all kinds of buildings and houses were abandoned, leaving only a little trace. However, the trees left in the courtyards of these buildings were not wasted. On the contrary, they became thicker and thicker. Some of the trees in the abandoned courtyards had grown to incredible heights. After all, they had been there for hundreds of years. For some trees, hundreds of years could grow very big.
So many trees had almost covered most of the city. However, most of these trees were deciduous trees. There were very few evergreen trees. At this time, it was the season between winter and spring. Most of the trees were bare. Therefore, Ang Lee could see the appearance of the entire city clearly. If it was summer, he would probably see leaves and vegetation all over his eyes. He would not be able to see the general appearance of the city at all.
"Darling, this abandoned city is too big. We have too few people. It's not enough to only defend the city wall. Moreover, the city gate is gone and the city wall is uneven. If the Horse Gang launched a surprise attack, how could we defend it?"
Li Hanlu had led soldiers before. Looking at the structure of the ruined city wall, she felt that it was too little to have more than a hundred people to defend it. It was impossible to form a complete defense system. It could be said that there were loopholes everywhere. If these loopholes were not blocked well, once the Horse Gang launched a surprise attack, it was very likely that they would not be able to defend it.
"Don't worry, Madam. As long as we pretend to camp, the Horse Gang won't act rashly. They will definitely take advantage of our sleep at night and launch a sudden attack. Only in this way can they achieve the greatest result with the least loss. Midnight is the best time to attack, so we still have a lot of time to prepare. At midnight, Lao Guo's reinforcements won't be far away, so we won't be in danger. Don't worry."
Don't worry, "Ang Lee said confidently.
Although this was also a risk, Li An was confident that he could protect himself. The defense of the abandoned city wall was indeed not very good, but as long as he was well prepared, it would not be a problem to hold on for a few hours. It could even trap the Horse Gang who attacked Gu Bai City. The specifics would depend on Li An's deployment.
"It's just your guess. If the Horse Gang launched an attack in advance, what should we do?"
Li Hanlu asked.
Ang Lee thought for a while and answered, "It's not very likely. Moreover, even if the Horse Gang launched an attack in advance, we don't have to be afraid. Well, let's start the deployment now!"
After saying that, he waved his hand and asked his guards to hurry up and wait for orders.
"The Horse Gang has known that we are in Gu Bai City. Therefore, they are very likely to launch a surprise attack at night. For this reason, let all the soldiers be prepared. No one is allowed to sleep tonight."
Ang Lee said.
"The Horse Gang is going to launch a surprise attack."
The guards were all startled and looked very frightened.
"You don't have to worry. As long as you do as I say, you don't have to be afraid of the Horse Gang's surprise attack. You can even catch all the Horse Gang in one fell swoop."
Ang Lee said confidently.
In fact, Ang Lee's deployment was very simple. Firstly, Gu Bai City only had three city gates. Although the city walls were dilapidated, they could still block the passage of horses. Therefore, if the Horse Gang launched a surprise attack, they had to break in through the three city gates. There was no other way.
For this reason, Ang Lee pretended to deploy a small number of guards at the three city gates. In addition, he put up a tent outside the city gates for the soldiers to stay in.
There were six guards at each of the three city gates. There were only eighteen guards in total. It was a small number, but it was enough to stop the Horse Gang's spies from sneaking in.
Among the six guards, two of them stood outside the city gate to guard it. Another two stood above the city gate, which was where the city gate tower used to be. In this way, they could observe the situation from a high vantage point and cooperate with the two guards below to better guard the city gate. The last two guards patrolled back and forth on the city wall, one on the left and one on the right. This way, the Horse Gang's spies would not dare to get close to the city wall, let alone climb over the city wall to enter Gu Bai City.
The advantages of doing this were that it could show the security was tight and make the Horse Gang believe that there was indeed a high-ranking official among the soldiers. In addition, preventing the Horse Gang's spies from entering Gu Bai City was to prevent them from seeing the traps that were being prepared inside. If the Horse Gang knew that there were traps inside, they would naturally not dare to enter and Ang Lee's plan would not be able to be carried out.
As for the traps inside Gu Bai City, they were mainly horse trippers and pits, which were specially used to deal with cavalry. The Horse Gang relied on horses the most, so they would definitely attack on horseback. In this way, the horse trippers and large pits would cause great damage to the Horse Gang who rashly broke in. They could even beat the Horse Gang until they were disoriented.
In order to attract the Horse Gang, the tent in the city was set up in the center. Many lanterns were hung around the tent, which could play a good role in guiding the way at night. It would allow the Horse Gang to easily find the target and launch a fatal surprise attack.
On the way to the tent, there were a lot of horse tripping ropes and pitfalls. The horse tripping ropes could trip a warhorse and even turn a good warhorse into a useless piece of trash. The pitfalls were even more powerful and could destroy both the rider and the horse.
Especially the large pits, which were not only deeper than the total height of the man and the horse, but also had a lot of sharpened wooden sticks at the bottom, which were very powerful. Once the man and the horse fell, they would be pierced into hedgehogs. There were not many chances of survival.
However, digging such a large pit required a lot of manpower. Li An only had a little more than a hundred men under his command. Therefore, within a few hours, they could not dig many large pits. At the same time, they could not dig too deep. As long as the pit was as deep as a horse, it would be enough. If a group of ten men were to dig at the same time, they should be able to make it in time. It was not difficult to prepare sharpened wooden sticks and it did not take much effort. It was even easier to prepare the tripping ropes. All they needed was a rope.
All these preparations were in full swing. The Horse Gang spies outside would never find out what was going on inside Old White Town.
When preparing a large number of horse-tripping ropes and traps, Li An felt that these were not enough to cause more harm to the Horse Gang. Therefore, he sent some people to collect dry twigs and hay and prepared to use fire to kill a large number of Horse Gang. Because the interior of the ruins of White Town had been uninhabited for a long time, weeds had long been overgrown. Now it was the dry season. Therefore, as long as fire was used, the original dry twigs and hay inside would also be burned. The fire would burn more and more fiercely and even the ruins of White Town would be burned down completely.
In the era of the Tang dynasty, Old White Town was no longer an important place. It was a very inconspicuous abandoned place. Even if Ang Lee razed it to the ground, no one would say anything. They would never accuse Ang Lee of wantonly destroying cultural relics. The broken walls here were not cultural relics.
Looking at a large group of guards who were actively preparing, Ang Lee sighed with emotion. In a few hours, this place would fall into a sea of fire. The remaining broken walls would be more dilapidated because of the fire. Moreover, there would be a large number of human and animal corpses here. All these were caused by Ang Lee. But in order to eliminate the Horse Gang, there was no other way.
Once the fire spread, the entire Old White Town would not be spared. Therefore, before the deployment, Ang Lee's first thing was to quietly hide the team's carriages, horses, and many important materials in a hidden place. They could not be left in the town to be burned.
Not long after arriving at Old White Town, Ang Lee had ordered to hide the important materials in a hidden place outside the town. It was a hidden place close to Old White Town but not easy to be discovered. As long as the Horse Gang spies did not go deep, they would not find it.
It took time to deploy the trap. Fortunately, Ang Lee was confident that the Horse Gang would not launch a surprise attack too early. The time of the surprise attack must be midnight. As long as everything was ready before midnight, it would be fine.
The Horse Gang spies arrived at Old White Town earlier than Ang Lee's team. After Ang Lee's team's carriages and materials were moved to a safe place, the Horse Gang spies began to arrive one after another. They all came on horseback, so they were relatively big targets. They thought that they would not be discovered as long as they were far away. However, Ang Lee's team was equipped with binoculars, so they could discover the Horse Gang spies from a long distance.
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