Chapter 152: All Lend Aid
After the high platform on the western side of Gu Shou Pass was captured, the main army temporarily halted the siege and rested for the night.
The next day, Wu Hengyu and Wu Fei climbed onto the erected wooden high platform to survey the situation inside Gu Shou Pass.
Wu Fei pointed out that several pottery figurines were hidden in the shadows behind several tall buildings on the eastern side of Gu Shou Pass. After sunlight shone on them, the shadows of them holding large knives emerged from behind the houses, already exposed.
Wu Hengyu pointed out that there was a sloped road on the western side inside Gu Shou Pass, which cavalry could use to charge downhill.
If their own side killed their way in from the southern main gate and slightly deployed, enemy cavalry charging down from the western slope road would trample the troops entering the city.
The accompanying non-commissioned officers recorded all the key points from Wu Fei and Wu Hengyu’s pre-battle discussion, then at noon, the entire group of non-commissioned officers held a meeting to address each point one by one.
The experience from the previous attack on the platform could not be used, because Gu Shou Pass’s city wall was twenty zhang high. Grappling hooks could not be used to climb, and moreover, there were large siege ballistas on the city wall, holding an advantage in range from above.
For this, Wu Fei’s solution was to erect a high platform three hundred paces outside the city, on which bed ballistas could be mounted to exchange fire with the enemy. At the same time, it would cover the installation of counterweight catapults within three hundred paces.
If Zhao Cheng were inside the pass, Wu Fei would not dare to be so reckless.
Loading and unloading heavy catapults alone would take a full half day. If after deployment they suffered an unexpected surprise attack, their own siege weapons could not be withdrawn and would be completely burned. But now with Wu Hengyu here, if he dared to exit the pass, it would be a counter-charge.
On the sand table, Wu Fei, representing the red side, was carefully directing the people below to set up the cannons, while jesting, “Oh dear, Great General Zhao, why did you leave so early?”
…One day of deployment adjustments later…
Huang Tao stood at a high point on the city wall, watching the twenty cloud platforms slowly approaching, and the sight of his own city wall’s defenders being thrown into chaos by curved trajectory projectiles, cursing, “Why, why now?”
As a general trusted by King Hao, half a year ago, the information he had always received from inside Hao State was that Zhao Cheng, holding a large army at Gu Shou Pass, was unwilling to attack, fattening the enemy to blackmail the Imperial Court. After Wu Fei, that child from the south, took Bo Prefecture, he became complacent and self-sealing, and moreover, with changes in the internal situation in Da Yao, Wu Fei was holding his troops for personal power.
Now he was very annoyed; why had he become so “aggressive” the moment he arrived? He now had to suspect that absurd rumor: there was a deal between “Wu Fei and Zhao Cheng.”
Huang Tao grew increasingly irritable, leaving the other defending generals inside the pass helpless.
What exactly was the relationship between Zhao Cheng and Wu Fei? The garrison inside the pass had all seen it clearly over the past year.
When Zhao Cheng was there, Wu Fei’s “weak appearance” was all too obvious—asking every three days, sending fruits and vegetables once a month, acting like a lapdog chasing a goddess.
All the lowly soldiers in Gu Shou Pass had seen that when facing Zhao Cheng’s harassment, Wu Fei was passively taking hits, timidly piling up defenses of three fortresses. Yet the moment you, Huang Tao, arrived, he was pinned and hammered; within two days, the outer key points were pulled, and now he was being beaten at home.
Note: In fact, Zhao Cheng inside the pass also had to show his own initiative to maintain the confidence of the garrison soldiers. His cavalry raids for that bit of grain were irrelevant to the big picture. In reality, Zhao Cheng was quite clear about Wu Fei’s tactic of “showing weakness to then strike with strength.”
What left the subordinate generals under Gu Shou Pass even more speechless was that he had stubbornly rejected their repeated suggestions earlier.
Actually, on the 25th, the southern gate general suggested: When Wu Fei was preparing to attack, send out a surprise troop to deliver northern local specialties from last year’s gift list that Zhao Cheng had prepared for Wu Fei to Wu Xiao Que. Yes, that way, Wu Fei would be scared into halting the transport of siege equipment to the frontline, to relieve the siege.
On the 28th, right when Wu Fei was attacking the high platform, the on-duty general on the city battlement suggested deploying Zhao Cheng’s decoy on the city battlement, while sending troops out of the city to make a show of force. At that time, Wu Xiao Que might urgently come to the frontline to confirm the enemy situation. Then the bed ballistas on the city battlement, with overloaded bowstrings, would snipe beyond range.
Huang Tao had no self-awareness of being “inferior in skill.” He thought: Defending this greatest pass under heaven, did he still need to use that? If he had the ability, fine, but now, he was dazed. Facing the bombardment on the city wall and the approaching cloud platforms, he was helpless.
For a commander, one can reject subordinates’ plans, but must solve the problem properly oneself.
As a result, his earlier displays of “rejecting suggestions” became the current arguments for everyone doubting his ability.
To the point that the defending generals in the city thought that if Huang Tao had actively adopted the suggestions, Wu Fei might not have been 100% defeated, but would likely have fallen for it.
Did they not see that even someone as strong as Zhuge Liang, after failing the Northern Expeditions and falling into the dilemma of “unable to achieve strategic victory,” still left later generations sighing that the “Ziwu Valley stratagem” might have worked, leading to a series of contrarians stepping into the Ziwu Valley pit.
Huang Tao was far inferior to Zhuge Liang; now unable to solve the problem, it made all under his command feel like they were Wei Yan.
However, in reality, without Zhao Cheng, all these little maneuvers by the non-commissioned officers in the siege battle were just “showing off in front of an expert” to Wu Fei.
With a few feint attacks by the Eastern Market Army, the garrison on Gu Shou Pass’s city wall moved about like startled birds, all seen by the kite persons in the sky.
Wu Fei: Incompetence can’t be disguised; even if Zhao City were disguising it, he wouldn’t let people trample on the city wall stairs during troop mobilization.
Facing this “lowly yet daring to worry for the country” self-mobilization by the Hao Army brigadier generals, Wu Fei was very admiring, then used kite persons to pass signal coordinates, starting to guide their tasks in place of Zhao Cheng.
This time, the catapults switched from solid projectiles to incendiary bombs.
The incendiary bombs were seventy-kilogram rock projectiles, drilled with four small holes stuffed with four kilograms of sulfur fire oil.
These projectiles smashed directly into the wooden fortresses on the city battlement, and the four kilograms of combustibles rapidly released large amounts of flame and toxic gas in the enclosed space.
With this round of cannonballs hitting the city tower, suddenly the Hao Army inside the city surged out like rats, but as they crowded, the people behind couldn’t move, fainting and blocking the doorway, causing everyone to suffocate inside.
The Hao Army on the city wall watched the distant catapults firing; the catapult projectiles just flew out with trailing afterimages. Then they slowed at the peak, visible as tumbling black dots; under sunlight, the cannonballs seemed to hover, but soon accelerated downward, getting closer and emitting a shrill whistle.
The Hao Army hit by the bombardment on the city wall had their mouths agape; with flames bursting, many fell down below the city wall.
…One shichen later…
As the garrison on Gu Shou Pass gradually tired, their faces a mix of black ash and sweat, unilaterally tricked into fighting while squatting exhausted in the city wall pits. At this time, the cloud platforms were slowly approaching. They raised their heads; their voices hoarse from days of shouting, but still gripped their knife hilts tightly.
However, the drumming began, and all Hao Army inside the pass discovered the cloud platforms accelerating toward them.
The soil in front of Gu Shou Pass was very hard, unsuitable for digging tunnels, but it could support the cloud platforms.
If the soil were loose, the cloud platform rollers would sink into the ground and be unable to advance.
During the first round of fire suppression, Wu Hengyu had already sent personnel to scout the terrain around Gu Shou Pass.
In the path of the cloud platforms, occasional ground depressions were filled by sandbags (woven grass bags filled with pebbles) carried by the accompanying laborers.
Regarding Gu Shou Pass’s defenses, Zhao Cheng was not unwilling to build Wu Fei-style diamond fortresses outside Gu Shou Pass, but—Haotian Dragon Clan were outsiders after all, and couldn’t gather the resources.
The cost of Haotian levying labor was much higher than Wu Fei’s cost of issuing white notes among the great clans.
And in Bo Prefecture, under Wu Fei’s arrangements and mobilization, the laborers, led by great clan village heads, supported the frontline; as long as the porridge stations along the way provided continuous meals, the laborers wouldn’t run.
If meals were cut off, Wu Fei would investigate responsibility to see if the money wasn’t delivered or if the local maintenance committee took the money and did nothing! Wu Fei had bills for every link in military procurement, in triplicate, held by “seller, buyer, and neutral party.”
The current Yao Army counterattacking Gu Shou Pass was truly with food baskets and wine jars.
Back to the current battlefield, as the laborers pushed with huge wooden crossbars, the solid wood rollers of the cloud platforms creaked forward.
The entire cloud platform was designed heavy at the bottom and light at the top for stability. The upper structure used very weak materials; even with baffles, it was hard to defend against small-caliber cannonballs and ballista arrows.
Moreover, these top baffles could be pierced by bow and arrow. Of course, more fatally, if the cloud platform was doused with fire oil, it would easily burn.
In historical siege battles, large numbers of cloud platforms were destroyed by the defenders’ fire attacks before reaching the city wall.
Gu Shou Pass here was not short of fire oil weapons either. So Wu Fei kept using counterweight catapults to suppress the bow and crossbowmen on the city battlement.
Occasionally on Gu Shou Pass, sulfur rockets hit the cloud platforms, causing flames to rise, and there were dedicated fire trucks right behind the cloud platforms.
This fire truck was a wooden ox and flowing horse carrying a large water tank, with high-pressure water guns sprayed up via foot pedals.
Of course, in drills, considering the case where cloud platforms were hit by oil rockets and water couldn’t extinguish them, they also prepared multiple bags of ash and soil; smashing this ash and soil on would prevent re-ignition. And when wet and then dried by fire, it formed an insulating shell.
The cloud platforms gradually closed in, so Gu Shou Pass’s garrison brought out their trump card: three groups of Yanlin Rocket Launchers were pushed out from the high platforms to cover the cloud platforms.
The Hao Army’s hidden Yanlin Rocket Launchers inside the city fired. Firework rockets exploded near the cloud platforms; except for some upper baffles being blasted off, the cloud platform chassis pushed by four large wooden wheels remained steady. The soldiers on the cloud platforms hid in the safe zone behind the support pillars. A few soldiers, unsteady from the rocket blast shockwaves, fell but were connected by metal hooks and ropes at their waists, not falling directly.
The Yao Army’s response to these Yanlin rockets was ballistas on the wooden platforms outside the city. In front of this ballista invented by Wu Fei was placed a steel ball the size of a glass bead, heated red-hot and then rolled in Gongshu Wang’s electromagnetic heater until white-hot.
The loaders clamped out these steel balls and placed them in the ceramic recess at the front of the ballista arrow, just like installing a steel ball in a ballpoint pen. Of course, not one but a series. Finally, the spear-like arrow tip was sealed with a layer of wet mud, which cracked and dried instantly, blocking the steel balls’ movement.
The arrow was slightly tilted upward overall, quickly hoisted onto the cloud platform via rope—this process had to be fast, because even padded with asbestos netting, the arrow was terrifyingly hot—then placed on the ballista frame. The gunner, with the firing angle preset, struck the trigger with a hammer, and the arrow flew out.
As the Yanlin ballista hit the Yanlin Rocket Launcher, the ceramic shattered, and the red-hot steel balls bounced up, flying to inconspicuous spots. Just like a bean dropped on the ground, taking half a day to find.
The Hao Army commander of the Yanlin Rocket Launcher didn’t notice anything and continued operating, but a dozen seconds later smelled a strong burning odor—it was over; intense open flames suddenly erupted, and when trying to smother with sand and soil, they found it couldn’t be extinguished.
Sand and soil might cover the hot source but wouldn’t make the heat disappear; combustible wood would release large amounts of flammable gas.
The area hit by the Yanlin ballista was engulfed in flames a minute later; the Yanlin Rocket Launcher couldn’t withdraw in time and with a boom flew into the sky.
And the talisman paper stuck on this Yanlin ballista arrow was Huang Liang drunken talisman paper, so it hit very accurately.
…Gunpowder smoke began to envelop the entire Gu Shou Pass…
While the two armies were exchanging cannon fire, the eighteen cloud platforms steadily reached near the city wall and lowered suspension bridge cables.
Before the cloud platforms reached the wall, the soldiers on them would climb toward the high platforms. But the first to climb onto the high platform would not lead the assault onto the wall, but continue climbing to the top, using iron tube sprayers to spray a round at the city wall. Then the other vanguard troops followed the cloud platform boards onto the city wall like “boarding pirates at sea.”
The cloud platform vanguard troops and Hao Army engaged in fierce melee on the city wall; on the twenty-zhang-high city wall, injured people constantly fell. The Yao Army entered the stage of one-to-one-point-five exchange between attackers and defenders.
At this stage, the number who had climbed the wall was still very limited. The reason was that although the cloud platforms looked massive, they were large at the bottom and small at the top; ultimately leaning against the city wall was just a log-bridge-like wooden plank. Soldiers could only cross one by one.
However, at this moment, Wu Hengyu and a group of troops charged over; to everyone’s stunned gazes, Wu Hengyu targeted a sparsely defended section of the Hao Army city wall for the assault—after all, at this time the city garrison was dealing with the cloud platforms.
Wu Hengyu, with steel-soled shoes on his feet, directly stepped on the city wall bricks and tiles, whooshing up in five breaths to reach the city wall.
In that section of city wall, a few Hao Army soldiers hurriedly tried to block but were swept off the city battlement by his Star River Spear; then he reached out an arm to pull up someone clinging to the battlements, and that person then reached down.
A chain of mutually hooked human arms, from the city wall to below; Wu Hengyu yanked hard, shattering the city bricks under his feet, but this chain of over a dozen people was effortlessly pulled up. The entire human chain, like a caterpillar, stepped upward leg by leg in unison; under Wu Hengyu’s divine strength, this line of people directly scaled the wall.
Wu Hengyu went to the other side and reached out to another climbing human chain. Seeing this, the soldiers in the chain gripped arms tightly for easier pulling from above.
In the third round, he switched hands and continued pulling, bringing up another twenty people (firefighters pull three people).
Everyone around was dumbfounded; the Eastern Market Army soldiers who originally disdained Wu Fei’s big brother shouted, “The general is truly a divine man.”
The soldiers climbing via cloud platforms had only chest armor, while those Wu Hengyu pulled up each time were fully armored infantry. Local superiority formed immediately on the city wall, not to mention Wu Hengyu this fierce general rampaging on it.
And Wu Fei stared intently at the city wall, heart in his throat! Fearing that when Wu Hengyu exerted force, some blind person might stab him or something. But nothing happened.
Just like that, the grand cloud platform assault turned into a feint attack; Wu Hengyu’s presence allowed over a hundred people to scale the city wall unhindered.
By the time the Hao Army soldiers gathered in front of the cloud platforms felt over a hundred people slashing with knives, the Hao Army formation on the city battlement had already collapsed; troops continued streaming up from the cloud platforms, and below, baskets of firearms were transported up, equipping the nearby Yao Army light-armored infantry with weapons. After the time of one incense stick, Da Yao’s firearm soldiers on the city battlement aimed downward and fired.
Wu Hengyu led people to clear the entire city battlement.
Seeing their own flags fully planted across the city wall, Wu Fei felt a huge weight lift from his heart.
…Gu Shou Pass fell too quickly, such that the defending general wanted to make a last stand…
On Huang Tao’s side, he had no choice but to bring out the ten-zhang-tall ceramic mecha like the figurine guards.
As this massive ceramic mecha stepped out from the streets with rumbling paces, Huang Tao also gathered with a batch of Jade Brave halberdiers and Jade Brave knife-and-axe soldiers in the city alleys for a final desperate fight.
But Huang Tao had forgotten the scene from when Zhao Cheng used “Baxia” heavy cannons to siege in Sha Prefecture that year.
As a Dragon Descendant, he disdained learning Zhao Cheng’s battle tactics. And in Zhao Cheng’s siege tactics, he would predict crowd density points during the defending troops’ movements. Then deliver precise cannon strikes. This was extremely similar to Wu Fei’s current process.
On the Yao Army side, ballista cannon arrows launched from the wooden platforms one by one; bow arms of composite ox horn, silk, and jujube wood rebounded, shaking the entire wooden platform thrice; after the ballista arrows reached the peak, paper wings unfolded one by one, then glided down.
Huang Tao, seeing these incoming cannon arrows, immediately had soldiers defend and put the giant soldier figurines at the very front.
The giant soldier figurine’s three-zhang big knife rotated, fierce and impressive in motion. However, the cannon arrows easily pierced the big knife and exploded.
The huge kinetic energy shattered the arrowhead steel balls, and the ejected iron pellet fragments made soldiers scream. In the chaos, Huang Tao suddenly heard a strange sound. He looked up to see the ballista arrow embedded in the giant soldier figurine’s chest; the figurine humanely looked down in disbelief. As red-hot smoke billowed from the cracks, the massive figurine crashed down, signaling the complete collapse of morale among the Hao Army in the city.
Three incense sticks later, Wu Hengyu arrived and captured Huang Tao alive.
