The defense of the Sui army on the Bingzhou front line has been strengthened. Two days ago, after the Sui army scout captured five prisoners of war in Qifubo, every soldier of the Sui army knew that the war was coming, and the Turkic Khan personally led hundreds of thousands of troops on the way south.

The first to be hit is the Zihe Great Wall, also known as Zihe Pass, which is the first line of defense of the Sui army. The city wall is three meters high and about three miles long, and is guarded by 5,000 soldiers.

The Great Wall has always been an effective fortification for the Central Plains dynasty to defend against the northern nomadic cavalry. On the long border line, the towering Great Wall became an insurmountable obstacle for Turkic cavalry, but the premise is that there must be defenders on the Great Wall, otherwise the nomadic cavalry can completely destroy the Great Wall and then drive in.

Therefore, the defenders on the Great Wall are the real defenders, and the Great Wall just gives the defenders a defensive advantage.

However, the Great Wall that is thousands of miles long cannot be covered with defensive soldiers. Only the fortress passes that cavalry can pass through are the key points of defense.

In addition to Yanmen Pass in the east, Zihekou is the most convenient passage for the Turkic army to move south. Zihe, which is about tens of feet wide, is 90 degrees in front of Chengguan. It runs through the Great Wall from south to north and then flows westward. Compared with Yanmen Pass, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, Zihekou is an alluvial plain of river channels. It has no steep terrain and is easier to attack, so Zihekou inevitably ushers in the first battle.

The garrison at Zihekou was named Zhang Zhenqiu. He was the younger brother of Zhang Zhenzhou, the former Sui Dynasty general. He was affiliated with Pei Xingyan's third guard and was appointed as the General Hu Ben Lang.

Zhang Zhenqiu's role as the governor of Zihe Pass was Pei Xingyan's recommendation. Pei Xingyan's evaluation of him was cautious, steady, and could stand on his own.

Zhang Zhenqiu was about thirty years old, and he and his brother Zhang Zhenzhou were twenty years apart. Although they were half-brothers, because his father died early, Zhang Zhenqiu was raised by his elder brother and served his brother as his father. He learned a good martial arts from his elder brother and used a big knife weighing 70 pounds.

Zhang Zhenqiu was originally Chen Ling's general, and he surrendered to the Northern Sui Dynasty with Chen Ling. After Chen Ling's army was disbanded, he was assigned to the third guard and became Pei Xingyan's general. His steady, humble and low-key were highly praised by Pei Xingyan, and he was recommended by Pei Xingyan as a general of Zihe Pass.

That morning, Zhang Zhenqiu was watching the grassland in the distance on the city wall. Although he could not see the situation in the distance clearly, he felt that there had been some unexplainable changes in the distance. The world seemed to have turned black. Two thousand soldiers raised crossbow arrows, each of them looked serious. After the Sui army scouts wiped out the Turkic patrol the day before yesterday, Zihe Pass entered a state of war. Five thousand troops were divided into three squads, waiting for battle at the top of the city day and night.

At this moment, two Sui cavalry rushed from a distance and rushed to the city for a moment and shouted: "The Turkic army is coming!"

As soon as they finished speaking, a low horn sound suddenly came from the distance. The horn sounds were heard one after another, resounding through the grassland. At this time, a long black line appeared in the distance, dozens of miles long. The Sui soldiers on the city wall changed their faces. Everyone could see that this was at least a scale of hundreds of thousands.

Zhang Zhenqiu looked extremely serious and shouted: "Roar the alarm bell and raise the beacon!"

‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ The alarm bell sounded loudly on the top of the city. The three thousand soldiers resting under the city stood up one after another, picked up bows and arrows and weapons and ran towards the top of the city. The beacon towers on the city wall lit the beacon fire, and three rays of wolf smoke rushed straight into the sky, sending the news of the arrival of the Turkic army to the south.

This is the last alarm after the enemy arrived, but if it is lit again after the beacon is extinguished, it will tell the south that Zihe Pass has been lost.

Although it was much closer to the south from the Turkic King's Court to Mayi County than to Hugu Pass, the Turkic army set off three days later. In addition, the speed of marching on the road was not fast, so they led millions of cattle and sheep to the south, four days later than the Turkic army on the Eastern Front to reach the Sui territory, and another two days later than the Turkic army on the east side.

Under a golden wolf-headed banner that was three feet tall, Turkic Chuluo Khan looked coldly at the Zihe Great Wall more than ten miles away. He pointed with a horse whip and turned around and asked dissatisfiedly: "Has that city wall always been there?"

Zhu Guokang Sauli, next to him, hurried forward and said, "Report to Khan, this should be the newly built city wall of the Sui army. The original city wall has been demolished by Liu Wuzhou.

Chuluo Khan snorted, "The mantis arm also wants to block the car, let our iron hooves step on them into powder!"

Kang Shuoli stepped forward and said, "I am willing to be the vanguard and conquer the Zihe Great Wall!"

Chuluo Khan nodded, "I will give you 30,000 troops and take down Guancheng before dark!"

"Abide by the order!"

Kang Shuoli took the order arrow and led the troops. At this time, the sound of drums that shook the earth in the Turkic army was ringing, and the whole earth seemed to tremble.

This time, the Turkic army carried a large amount of supplies, including hundreds of siege ladders. This was the war preparation made by the Turks planned to attack the Northern Sui Dynasty last fall, and now it finally came in handy.

Kang Shuoli drew 30,000 troops from the Turks and Tiel's troops and quickly formed a siege vanguard. Inspired by waves of war drums, the 30,000 troops carried a hundred siege ladders and rushed towards the Great Wall City Pass like a tide.

The Turkic army's attack was very important to momentum. They did not care much about life and death. Death in the battlefield was a blessing for the soldiers, which was directly related to the short lifespan of the Turks. Most ordinary Turkic people lived less than forty years old, so being able to die on the battlefield was also one of their best destinations, which could bring great honor to their descendants.

But like other nomadic peoples, the morale of the Turks is easily aroused, but it also fades. Once the morale fades, the sense of honor that is ready to die is gone. The soldiers begin to fear death and begin to worry that their wives and children will become other people's property, so they are unwilling to fight to the death again. Once this fear forms a consensus, the army will be defeated.

This is a very contradictory psychology. Taking death as pride and fear of death without fighting are often between the thought of morale change. Therefore, the Turkic generals will do everything possible to boost morale, including using the sound of grand horns and drums to inspire them. When attacking, each soldier must drink a bag of horse milk wine to turn the alcohol into the morale of the attack.

Although the Turkic army was very morale and was ready to die, they did not have any offensive strategy. They also had an offensive strategy. At the front were five thousand shield-holding cavalry. They wanted to rush to the city and first suppress the powerful arrow formation of the Sui army with bows and arrows. Five thousand cavalry rushed toward the Zihe Great Wall from more than ten miles away. The momentum was magnificent, and the sound of huge horse hooves shook the earth.

At this time, the five thousand Sui soldiers on the top of the city also took their place, held their breath, and waited for the order to launch. Since there were not many defenders, all the Zihe Great Wall did not install catapults, but used two long-range weapons, such as the Great Yellow Crossbow and the Military Crossbow.

The yellow crossbow is a ten-stone heavy crossbow. It is impossible to pull the bowstring by one person alone. Two people must cooperate. They can pull the string together to pull the heavy crossbow. The crossbow arrow is about three feet long and is generally made of heavier beech wood. The arrow is an armor-breaking arrow, which is thin and long, and is streamlined. The range can reach 500 steps, with a killing range of 350 steps, and can shoot through the double-layer leather armor of Turkic soldiers within 350 steps, with an astonishing lethality.

The Sui army deployed a thousand yellow crossbows on the top of the city, which were used by two thousand soldiers, and the remaining three thousand people used military crossbows, with a range of 150 steps, combining far and near to form a powerful defense line.

Zhang Zhenqiu looked coldly as the Turkic cavalry got closer and closer. When he was two miles away from Guancheng, the Turkic cavalry suddenly changed. The war horses neighed and fell down one after another, overturning the cavalry on the ground. Many people fell to their bones and tendons, and were seriously injured. This was the effect of the caltrops and horse pits scattered in the grass by the Sui army.

Tertrangos are a longan-sized pellet with four fine needles about two inches long on it. No matter how they are thrown, there will always be a fine needle upwards. After stepping on the war horse, it will cause severe pain, causing the war horse to lose its motivation to run.

But caltrops are not fatal enough, so most of the time, defensive soldiers will poison the caltrops. After being poisoned by war horses, they will lose their combat effectiveness at the least, and at worst.

However, compared to the trapped horse pit, the caltrops are much gentler. The trapped horse pit is about one foot deep, the entrance is about the thickness of the bowl, and it is covered with hay. What is even more vicious is that there is a poison-tempered bamboo stick inserted into the trapped horse pit. Whether it is the horse's hooves or the soles of a person's feet, they will inevitably be pierced by the bamboo stick after stepping on it. If the war horse step on the trapped horse pit, the legs will definitely be broken, and breaking the legs means death for the war horse.

The Sui army scattered tens of thousands of caltrops on the two-mile-wide grassland and dug tens of thousands of trapped horse pits. Of course, a small path was left in the middle and marked it. The Sui army scouts could run back carefully, but as the horses galloped, no one would notice the little special mark under their feet.

In just an instant, more than 700 war horses fell down and the soldiers rolled all over the ground. Once the five thousand cavalry formation was launched, it was difficult to stop. The war horses behind rushed over the fallen war horses and cavalry. Many cavalry who were originally injured were trampled to death by the war horses behind.

At this time, more and more war horses were hit, and five thousand cavalry fell halfway. The cavalry behind finally stopped and retreated in fear. The ground was filled with the neighing of war horses and the wailing of Turkic cavalry. The caltrops were harshly poisoned. Many soldiers fell on the caltrops, and the wounds quickly became black and swollen.

Chuluo Khan's face turned pale, but he had to face the reality. He didn't know how many caltrops the Sui army had deployed and how many traps they had dug, so he had to grit his teeth and ordered: "Tell me my order, and the army will camp on the spot!"
Chapter completed!