Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

The group came to a stop a hundred feet away from the city wall, looking at the majestic Chongshan Pass, Yang Zhengshan was thoughtful.

"Still don't know how many crossbows are on the city wall?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

Niu Zhuang shook his head, "I haven't found out. I asked a lot of people, but they don't know how many crossbows are on the city wall!"

Crossbows are the most powerful weapons for city defense, and Chongshan Pass is the most important pass in Chongshan Town, and there are quite a few crossbows on its city wall.

If it was Chongshan Pass five years ago, whether it was Yang Zhengshan, Niu Zhuang or Tang Feihu, they all knew how many crossbows were on the city wall.

But they don't know much about Chongshan Pass now.

Ji Feiyu has always acted in secret, and he has been deliberately concealing it. Over the years, Niu Zhuang and Tang Feihu know very little about the military deployment in Chongshan Pass.

"Chongshan Pass has two walls. Although the walls are the same height, there are still differences between the two walls."

"The wall on the south side of the pass was built later and is only ten feet wide, but the wall of the inner city was built first and is eighteen feet wide!"

Tang Feihu said.

The layout of Chongshan Pass is almost like a "sun" character.

Chongshan Pass was originally just a pass, but later, as more and more merchants migrated, the court built a new city behind the pass.

The east and west sides of Chongshan Pass are connected to mountains and forests, which are not suitable for sieges. Only the north and south sides can carry out large-scale sieges.

The north side was originally built to resist the Hu people. The wall there is not only thicker, but also has many mechanisms, the most crossbows, and even catapults, arrow holes, etc.

The wall on the south side is relatively simple, but if you attack the city from the south, after breaking through the south wall, you have to capture the middle wall.

The defense of the middle wall is definitely not as good as the northern wall, but it is probably not as difficult to capture the two walls as it is to capture the northern wall.

"In the art of war, attacking the heart is the best, attacking the city is the worst."

Yang Zhengshan stroked his beard and said softly.

A strong attack is the worst strategy. Although they have been preparing for the siege for the past 20 days, Yang Zhengshan still wants to attack the heart.

"But we can't contact anyone in the city now!" Niu Zhuang said.

There are many psychological strategies in the Thirty-Six Strategies, such as the Beauty Stratagem, the Counter-espionage Stratagem, the Empty City Stratagem, etc., which are all psychological games.

Niu Zhuang and Tang Feihu have thought of many strategies, but none of them have come up with a good way.

Yang Zhengshan shook his head and said, "No, we can contact people in the city, or we can send a message to people in the city!"

"How to send a message?" Niu Zhuang and Tang Feihu looked at him puzzledly.

Yang Zhengshan did not reply. He looked at Chongshan Pass, then looked at the clear sky, and said something inexplicable.

"There will be southeast wind in two days, and it will be quite strong!"

"What does the general mean?" Niu Zhuang was even more confused.

Yang Zhengshan smiled and said, "Let's go, I already have some ideas!"

Attacking the enemy's heart does not necessarily have to target the enemy's main generals, it can also target the enemy's ordinary soldiers.

Hitting the enemy's morale is also considered attacking the heart.

As for how to operate, there are still many methods.

Yang Zhengshan has already made plans in his mind.

...

July 3rd.

The weather is cloudy and turns to overcast, and the southeast wind is howling in July.

The wind rises and the clouds fly, the war drums beat and the horses neigh!

The war drums beat, and the horns whistle.

Tens of thousands of troops left the camp and lined up under the city.

The wind and clouds surged, the military might was fluttering, the terrifying might and murderous aura were everywhere, and they were swept to Chongshan Pass by the strong wind and pressed over Chongshan Pass.

In the center of the army, a flag with the word "Yang" embroidered on it stood up, followed by a royal flag.

Yang Zhengshan rode his horse under the flag, looking solemnly at the direction of Chongshan Pass.

Things are different now. He is now the general of Chongshan Town. He not only has the royal flag of the court, but also his own flag.

Under the strong wind, the flags fluttered, interweaving with the rapid sound of war drums and dull horns, like a heroic and powerful music.

On the opposite wall, King Qing, Ji Feiyu and Hou Yao stood in front of the city gate tower, looking at the army formation that seemed to have the momentum to swallow mountains and rivers.

"Yang Zhengshan finally couldn't help it!" Ji Feiyu's eyes flashed with brilliance.

He was not afraid of Yang Zhengshan's attack on the city. Instead, he was anxious about Yang Zhengshan's inaction.

He was confident that he could stop the attack of the army outside the city, but he was afraid that there would be other changes if he dragged it on.

Now that Yang Zhengshan finally launched the attack, he was relieved.

Hou Yao was in his forties. He was not tall, half a head shorter than Ji Feiyu, but he was very strong.

"Brother, should we find an opportunity to go out of the city and fight?" Hou Yao was more impulsive, not as calm as Ji Feiyu.

Before Ji Feiyu could speak, King Qing said, "No, once we go out of the city, we will be exposed, which may become an opportunity for Yang Zhengshan to break the city."

Compared with when he was in Qinghua Mansion, King Qing was much more calm at this time.

Or he had his own understanding of the war.

In fact, King Qing was a very smart person, otherwise he would not have been able to hide such a big chess game from the Secret Weapons Division.

However, his shortcomings were also obvious. He had lived in Qinghua Mansion for more than 30 years, and he had never left Qinghua Mansion during these 30 years. He was well-educated and read thousands of books, but he had not experienced the world.

For war, his understanding was limited to the art of war.

He was very clear about his shortcomings, so he gave Xu Maocai and Duan Heng the greatest trust.

Trust people when you employ them, and don't employ people when you don't trust them.

Unfortunately, Xu Maocai and Duan Heng failed his trust.

After the failure of Qinghua Mansion, King Qing became more cautious and calm.

However, this caution towards Yang Zhengshan was mixed with a bit of fear.

Yes, it was the fear of Yang Zhengshan.

"Your Highness is right. We should not move now. What we need to do now is to use static to control dynamic and wait for Yang Zhengshan to show his flaws!" Ji Feiyu agreed.

Hou Yao was a little anxious, "But we have been passively defending like this. What if the court mobilizes a large army to support us?"

His worries were not unreasonable.

Compared with the entire Darong, the troops under their command were not enough.

Not to mention the entire Darong, even if the court mobilized part of the army from the northwest, they would find it difficult to deal with it.

The most powerful of the Darong border towns is Beiyuan Town, but the most elite is Suzhou Town in the northwest.

The size of Suzhou Town is similar to that of Chongshan Town, but the cavalry of Suzhou Town is the best in the whole of Darong.

Liang Chu's Yunlong Guard is actually a part of Suzhou Town. When Liang Chu trained Yunlong Guard in the northwest, he relied on the power of Suzhou Town.

The Wuliang Hu tribe can contain Beiyuan Town, but cannot contain Suzhou Town. If the court transfers troops from Suzhou, they will be in big trouble.

"No, even if the court transfers troops from Suzhou, it will be used to resist the Wuliang army in Liaoxi first!" King Qing said.

"Is that so?" Hou Yao looked at Ji Feiyu.

He and Ji Feiyu have different thoughts. Ji Feiyu is loyal to King Qing, but he is loyal to Ji Feiyu.

The reason is very simple. Although his three brothers were taken care of and trained by King Qing, in Hou Yao's heart, Ji Feiyu is his eldest brother. It was Ji Feiyu who pulled him up since he was a child.

Ji Feiyu frowned slightly and said, "That's right, for the court, the Wuliang Hu tribe is the foreign enemy! And the Wuliang Hu tribe poses a greater threat, so the court will prioritize solving the threat of the Wuliang Hu tribe!"

Hou Yao nodded and said no more.

He just felt that it was a bit aggrieved to be beaten passively, which was far less enjoyable than going out to fight, but since Ji Feiyu said so, he would be patient and wait for Ji Feiyu's arrangement.

The Tenglong Guard army outside the city quickly formed a battle array.

Yang Zhengshan looked at the magnificent army with a faint smile on his face.

Thinking that he had a hard time forming a team of 100 people in Yangjia Village, he now has tens of thousands of troops under his command. Thinking of this, he was quite proud.

"Let's get started!"

He turned his head and said to Yang Minghao beside him.

Yang Minghao immediately understood, took out a flag and waved it a few times, and then a dull horn sounded behind him.

The whistling horn sounded particularly desolate under the howling wind.

As the horn sounded, a series of crossbows were pushed out in the front formation, and there was a small team of soldiers next to each crossbow, either protecting or pushing it.

A moment later, more than 300 crossbows were placed 130 feet away from the city wall.

The reason why it was 130 feet away was because the maximum range of the crossbows in Chongshan Pass was 130 feet.

The range of the crossbows made by Tenglongwei was 160 feet!

This does not mean that the crossbows made by Tenglongwei are better than the crossbows in Chongshan Pass, but because the crossbows made by Tenglongwei are crossbows on warships.

The crossbows on the navy warships require long range, great power, and high accuracy.

The crossbows on the city walls require fast firing speed, and the power does not need to be too great, as long as they can penetrate the armor, and the accuracy does not need to be very high, as long as they can shoot quickly.

Because the crossbows on the warships target the warships, and the crossbows on the city walls target the enemies, there is a difference between the two crossbows.

Tenglong Guards didn't have crossbows for city defense, so they could only imitate the crossbows on warships.

Looking at the row of crossbows, Ji Feiyu narrowed his eyes, "What do they mean? Do they want to attack the city with crossbows?"

The role of crossbows in siege warfare is far less than that of catapults.

Because the city wall can block crossbow arrows, which greatly reduces the power of crossbows.

Of course, this does not mean that crossbows are useless, but that crossbows can only be used as auxiliary weapons, not as the main attack weapon.

"Your Highness, let's go down and avoid the sharp edge for a while!" Ji Feiyu was worried about the safety of King Qing.

"Okay!" King Qing knew the truth that a gentleman should not stand under a dangerous wall.

Just as they walked down the city wall, Tenglong Guards' crossbows were also ready.

However, the crossbow arrows used by the crossbows this time were different from ordinary crossbow arrows. Each crossbow arrow seemed to be wrapped with a lot of paper.

"General, the crossbows are ready and can be fired at any time!"

Xie Yuan, who was in the front, rode to report.

"Then let's shoot!" Yang Zhengshan's mouth curled up slightly, "Attack the heart first, attack the city first, I don't know if this psychological attack will work?"

"Yes!"

Xie Yuan responded and rode back to the front.

"Shoot!"

With his order, the bowstrings of more than 300 crossbows trembled, making a buzzing sound.

Then there was a whistling sound of breaking through the air, and one crossbow arrow after another was shot towards Chongshan Pass under the wind.

It was as if countless birds were flapping their wings.

Wings?

Crossbows naturally have no wings!

But the crossbows were wrapped with layers of paper.

The papers crackled in the wind, and as the crossbow arrows flew farther and farther, the papers fell one after another.

Suddenly, countless papers were flying in the sky above Chongshan Pass, like heavy snow.