gnovel Chapter 122 Five Dragon Bridge Attacks Taiyuan City
Chapter 122 Five Dragon Bridge Attacks Taiyuan City
The 30th day of the 7th month of the 3rd year of the Qingtai era, Bingchen day.
Li Congke issued an edict to execute five hundred cavalrymen under Zhang Wandi and their families in Huaizhou, resulting in the deaths of over a thousand innocent souls.
"Shi Jingtang has a really deep-rooted influence in the Zhangsheng Army. These people don't even care about their wives, children, or elderly parents."
The problems that Gao Xingzhou had previously worried about were now being presented to the bigwigs of the Secretariat and the Privy Council through bloody facts.
The imperial court's assessment of the situation remained generally optimistic: Shi Jingtang's loyal followers outside the capital were being eliminated one by one, and with no further interference from the punitive expeditionary force, they could focus all their efforts on the task at hand. As a result, Taiyuan was isolated and without support, and its fall was only a matter of time.
In particular, the idea that the Khitan sent envoys to the court to express their intention to establish friendly relations between the two countries gained increasing traction.
Although Di Hu's words could not be entirely trusted, the court officials believed that the Khitans were merely taking advantage of the situation to plunder and try to gain some benefits, at most extorting gold and silk under the pretext of helping Shi Jingtang.
No one believed that Shulü Ping and Yelü Deguang would risk the entire nation's resources in a desperate gamble against the Central Plains.
How much benefit could Shi Jingtang offer? Even shrewd and calculating men like Feng Dao could not have imagined that he would cede the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun.
The seventh day of the eighth lunar month, Guihai day.
Yingzhou reported that 3,000 Khitan cavalry were besieging the city.
The ministers exchanged smiles, just as they had expected; it was nothing more than a minor skirmish.
In the great nation of China, the prime minister must consider national affairs such as political and military strategies, personnel appointments, and promotions, demotions, rewards, and punishments. The Northern Barbarians are only this incompetent; let them cause trouble as they please.
On that day, an imperial edict ordered Lu Qi, a scholar of the Duanming Hall, to go to the garrison posts in Xin and Dai in Hedong to reward the troops. Several incidents of troops deserting occurred, and the morale of the army urgently needed to be appeased.
Appointing An Shuqian, the military governor of Zhenwu Army, as the deputy commander of the northern army was also part of a strategy to strengthen control over the armies north of Yanmen.
The appointment of Fan Yanguang, the military governor of Bianzhou, as the military governor of Tianxiong Army, Grand Tutor, and concurrently Chancellor, and Li Jingzhou, the garrison commander of Xijing, as the military governor of Bianzhou, Grand Commandant, and concurrently Chancellor, was not only to reward the merits of suppressing the rebellion.
Once the relocation and adjustment of towns in Henan and Hebei are completed, troops can be diverted to deal with Hedong.
August 13th, Ji Si day.
When Lü Qi arrived at the Taiyuan army, he issued an imperial edict to comfort them and urged them to advance. He then asked what to do if the Khitan sent troops to their aid.
Deputy Commander-in-Chief Yang Guangyuan, in place of Commander-in-Chief Zhang Jingda, reported the military strategy to the imperial envoy: "I wish to submit this to Your Majesty, hoping you will be able to ease your burden of attending to state affairs day and night. If the enemy has no reinforcements, we should be able to quell them within a day or two; if we invite the Khitan, we should let them in, and we can defeat them in one battle." (Note 1)
On that day, Zhang Jingda informed Lü Qi that the army's craftsmen had presented the blueprints for the Five Dragon Bridge, which had been completed and could be used to attack the city. He requested that the imperial envoy observe the battle.
……
Li Bai once wrote: "Of the three capitals of the Heavenly King, the Northern Capital is the most prominent; among the powerful and important towns, only the virtuous can reside there. The Fen River opens like a mirror, reflecting the aura of the capital; the Jin Mountains stand like screens, stretching across the northern border plains."
During the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhao Jianzi listened to the advice of his strategist Zhang Mengtan and built Jinyang City as the foundation of his family's estate. The virtuous minister Dong Anyu was in charge of supervising the construction.
Dong An employed the rammed earth construction method, filling the walls with materials such as reeds and arrowheads, and reinforcing them with bronze pillars, resulting in high and thick walls. Later, Zhao Jianzi fortified the city and held out against the siege of the Zhi, Han, and Wei families for three long years, finally reaching a turning point.
The division of Jin into three states led to the rise of seven powerful kingdoms. After being expanded by Liu Kun of the Western Jin Dynasty, Taiyuan was designated as a secondary capital by the Gao family of the Northern Qi Dynasty. Taiyuan became the birthplace of two pairs of fathers and sons, Li Yuan, Li Shimin, and Li Keyong and Li Cunxu.
The four-zhang-high city wall has repeatedly kept powerful enemies out, but today it is about to face a severe test.
Five large carts, each surrounded by a square formation, gradually brought thousands of soldiers closer to the city wall.
The defenders realized something was wrong. Since it was close to the city wall, it wasn't a ranged weapon like a catapult; and since it wasn't facing the city gate, it wasn't a battering ram either.
The conclusion is obvious: it must be a weapon used to attack the city walls.
Such things as siege ladders and arrow towers were used by the government troops more than once, and the defending soldiers were already used to them. But this kind of cart was something they had never seen before. It was shaped like a heavy, upright door panel and required hundreds of people to push it to move it slowly.
The defenders tentatively fired rockets and threw stones.
A hit is just a hit.
A boulder the size of a human head, if it were to hit a soldier, would surely result in broken bones and torn tendons. However, the massive cart acted like a giant shield, easily deflecting the attack without even trembling.
The rocket was like a toothpick stuck in the body of a giant beast; it burned for a while and then went out.
"Continue the attack, and quickly report to General Liu."
In fact, there was no need to inform him. Liu Zhiyuan, who was on the city wall, saw everything clearly and knew that something was wrong.
"Send orders to double, no, triple, the number of troops stationed at those locations. Also, bring up the reserves."
Once he had completed the deployment and reinforced the defenses of that city wall, the five carts had already come to a steady stop by the moat.
After more than two months of attack and defense filling, the moat has narrowed considerably in width compared to its initial state, but it still serves to protect the city and prevent the attacking side from gathering its forces.
However, today, it has lost its original function.
The front wheel of the cart got stuck on the edge of the moat. Two soldiers turned the wheel, and with a creaking sound, the door panel slowly fell and tilted. It turned out that it was equipped with wheels and several winches.
Its length of ten zhang is more than enough to cross the moat.
The defenders gripped their weapons, holding their breath in preparation for the impending battle, when suddenly, a change occurred.
The front end of the door panel had flipped over again, and it was originally several feet away from the city wall, but now...
Several soldiers on the city wall used one end of their spears to brace against the ground and the other end to try and stop the falling force.
However, the spear shaft, made of fine mulberry wood, was like a tree trunk compared to a slender branch compared to the two-zhang-wide bridge; their thickness was incomparable. In an instant, it could not withstand the weight of the bridge and the force of its descent, bending into an arc shape and snapping in two.
Clang!
The defenders instinctively moved aside, and the bridge planks collided with the city wall, kicking up clouds of dust.
The front of the door panel was secured with several sharp iron hooks, firmly gripping the city wall. A soldier who couldn't escape in time was slashed by the hooks, a bloody gash as thin as paper tearing open his abdomen from the top of his head to his waist, splitting him in two!
Five long bridges rose from the ground, paving the way to the top of Taiyuan city!
"Go!"
The government troops surrounding the cart had been waiting for this moment, and they immediately swarmed onto the city wall!
The tactic of using flying bridges to attack cities existed as early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.
The Six Secret Teachings states: When crossing a ditch, a single flying bridge should be built, 15 feet wide and over 20 feet long, equipped with eight rotating mechanisms and connected by a looping rope.
However, bridges longer than ten zhang are extremely rare, and Zhang Jingda spent a lot of resources, time, and craftsmanship to create this siege weapon.
When Gao Wei of the Northern Qi Dynasty attacked Pingyang, he built the Yuanqiao Bridge. However, the emperor did not use the timber to build the bridge for the purpose of attacking the city. Instead, he was worried about crossbow bolts and frightening his beloved concubine. Therefore, he built the bridge so that he and Feng Xiaolian could stand in a safe place and admire the relics of the sage located in the enemy city.
The bridge structure of Wulong Bridge is connected by iron locks and supported by round wooden pillars to maintain its stability and sturdiness. (Note 2)
The thick wooden bridge trembled incessantly as hundreds of military boots rose and fell, pounding heavily on the bridge planks.
For the first time since the start of the war, the punitive expeditionary force has stormed the walls of Taiyuan!
The siege tactics had been practiced many times beforehand. Five men marched side by side in a row. The lead soldier was clad in heavy armor, did not hold any weapons in his hands, but tightly gripped a large shield. He simply stepped forward and charged into the enemy formation, forcefully breaking through a gap.
The soldiers in the rear row set up their guns and advanced in layers, intending to occupy a section of the city wall, establish a firm foothold, and provide support for friendly forces to scale the wall.
The defending troops quickly recovered, blocked the bridgehead, set up their own gun emplacements, and began fighting.
The armored soldiers tried to force their way through the dense thicket of gunfire, but most of them were stabbed in the body by the defenders through the gaps in their shields, lost their footing, and fell to the ground from several feet high.
Their companions quickly filled in behind them, stubbornly maintaining wave after wave of attacks.
Unlike the previous one-sided killing of the punitive expeditionary force, the defending troops also suffered heavy casualties in this battle, with soldiers frequently being stabbed by spears and falling to the ground.
Arrows and stones flew down from below the city walls, complementing the offensive launched by friendly forces on the bridge.
The city walls responded with rolling logs and stones.
This was the most intense siege battle since Taiyuan was besieged. Upon receiving the urgent report, Shi Jingtang rushed to the city walls and personally supervised the battle, braving arrows and stones to boost morale.
"My lord need not worry. With knowledge far away, the enemy is powerless."
Liu Zhiyuan's words were not entirely exaggerated. Zhang Jingda's attack on the city using the Five Dragon Bridge was a preemptive strike, but unfortunately, it failed to secure a decisive victory. The defending troops promptly reinforced their defenses, and the two sides entered into a protracted stalemate.
The imperial army, with its superior numbers, attacked a smaller force. However, in these five local battlefields, the opposite was true. Due to the terrain, the government troops were surrounded on three sides, and their ability to deploy troops was far slower than that of the defending forces.
Zhang Jingda concentrated several thousand elite troops and meticulously crafted siege weapons. Initially, he did indeed cause the defending army considerable trouble. However, Liu Zhiyuan decisively committed all reserve forces and relied on attrition to accumulate lives, managing to withstand the most intense first wave of attacks.
The first wave of the punitive expedition suffered heavy casualties, and subsequent attacks were much less powerful. It became increasingly difficult to break through the defenses, and the foothold shrank continuously, with the gaps gradually being filled.
The defending troops stabilized their lines, freeing up their resources to deal with the Five Dragon Bridge in various ways: they set up heavy crossbows to bombard the bridge's pillars, poured oil cans to set the bridge planks ablaze, and blocked the reinforcements of the punitive expeditionary force.
Guo Wei was also selected as a siege warrior. He wielded his thick-backed cleaver, slashing left and right, with blood and flesh flying all around him. Not far ahead, he saw a purple-faced, white-eyed general surrounded by a crowd, coldly staring at him.
Guo Wei hesitated for a moment. The merit of beheading the general was tempting, but charging forward to face a large number of armored soldiers was a matter of life and death.
He glanced behind him again, and a chill ran down his spine.
A wall of fire rose up on the bridge, blocking passage and preventing reinforcements from getting through.
Continuing to fight alone would only lead to certain death. Seeing his comrades fall one after another, Guo Wei gritted his teeth and leaped from the four-zhang-high city wall!
From dawn to noon, more than half of the Five Dragon Bridge was destroyed, and there was no hope of breaching the city. Zhang Jingda ordered the retreat.
In this battle, the government troops suffered more than 2,000 casualties, but managed to reduce the number of the defending troops by half.
But this is by no means a simple defeat.
If it weren't for the time-consuming construction of the Five Dragon Bridge, the defending army would be no match for them in a contest of attrition. They could simply repeat the same pattern a few more times and the fall of the city would be imminent.
Having witnessed a major battle and listened to Zhang Jingda's explanation of the situation, Lü Qi was extremely satisfied and readily agreed to report everyone's achievements to His Majesty.
He was not knowledgeable in military affairs, so he asked a question: "I observe that the encirclement on all four sides is not yet complete. Could it be that, as military strategy dictates, one should surround three sides, leave one corner open, and show an escape route to prevent a decisive battle?"
The generals stared at the handsome and distinguished scholar, momentarily speechless, unsure how to answer this layman's question. (Note 3)
Yang Guangyuan was the first to react, and replied with a forced smile, "Scholar Lü is indeed erudite. As you clearly see, that is exactly the intention."