Chapter Thirty-One: The Twelve Linked Cities Must Not Be Abandoned

  "Hmm, what Commander Yang said is quite reasonable, I agree with him too! Let's go with Commander Yang and inspect the city walls together. If Commander Yang has any suggestions, please speak up, I will follow his arrangements!"

  Geshuhan's response made Yang Hui feel at ease again. This old general is really quite cooperative with himself!

  Although he didn't know the specific reason why Geshuhan made such a change in just half a day, Yang Hui believed that putting the overall situation first was definitely an important reason. He expressed a kind of openness and honesty when he arrived, and proved it with actual actions. If Geshuhan, a defeated general, still held onto his personal grievances at this time and disregarded the overall situation, it would be unacceptable.

  In a very short time, all the generals who received the order gathered in front of Geshu Han's command tent.

  Sometimes, a group of people will set off together in one direction instead of gathering at the city gate, just to create momentum and an intimidating atmosphere.

  Seeing all the generals had arrived, Yang Guozhong made a courtesy to Geshu Han and said: "General Geshu, in order to boost the morale of the soldiers, I will accompany you on an inspection tour of the city walls and comfort the troops."

  Geshu Han returned a courtesy and then gave an order to his generals: "All the generals have received their orders, follow me and Yang Jinwu to inspect the city!"

  He said, taking the lead and walking towards his war horse with inconvenient feet. Several bodyguards rushed forward to support Geshuhan on horseback. Yang Gui also hurried up, and the generals followed silently behind according to their positions.

  The city wall starts from the East Gate and extends in a sequence of southeast, west and north.

  All soldiers who received the order gathered at the city gate and waited for orders, ready to accept the inspection of the generals.

  The day was very hot, and in order to avoid unnecessary loss of morale among the troops, all the soldiers were lined up at a location near the city gate tower where the sun shone.

  It was already past noon, the sun was leaning westward, and large shadows appeared in front of the city gate tower, which also brought some convenience to the defending soldiers. When there was no situation, even the soldiers guarding the city head could hide under the shade of the city gate tower.

  A group of generals rode tall horses, patrolling the city gates in neat formation and shouting to the soldiers leading the troops that our army would surely hold Tongguan and defeat the rebels. This show-like behavior indeed boosted morale.

  A general with a majestic and powerful presence, like a mighty bear, can inspire his soldiers' morale to a certain extent.

  Yang Jie also took the opportunity to familiarize himself with the terrain of each city gate, especially the situation in the south gate direction where the fire had not yet been extinguished and the Tianxia Gorge was re-emerging.

  Jingou is actually a mountain valley-like terrain, with Yang Hui estimating its depth to be around 5-30 meters and width around 10-50 meters. It stretches horizontally in the southeast direction of Tongguan City, not far from the south gate, with a total length of several tens of kilometers, closest point being right next to the south gate.

  If there were no suspension bridges and roads along the outer edge of the gorge, even monkeys would find it difficult to cross.

  To the west of Jigou there were twelve connected cities, which are also twenty small beacon towers, guarding Jigou. Jigou and the twelve connected cities jointly defended Tongguan City. Unfortunately, too many Tang army officers and soldiers fled back and filled up a section of Jigou, making it a thoroughfare.

  The defending soldiers on the twelve connected cities along the Tonggu Channel also either escaped or were withdrawn by Geshu Han.

  The twelve connected cities were just twelve small beacon towers, each city could only accommodate about a hundred soldiers. If the terrain was treacherous and steep, a hundred or so soldiers defending along the terrain would have strong blocking power against enemy attacks. However, if the terrain was filled with corpses, the role of the hundred or so soldiers on the beacon tower would be greatly reduced. Therefore, after Geshu Han escaped back to the city, gathered the defeated soldiers and withdrew most of the soldiers from the twelve connected cities.

  The moat inside originally had many shrubs, and the sections of the road that were not completely blocked by corpses or had no corpses piled up could still be seen in their original form. However, this section of the moat below the south gate was completely filled with corpses. Early in the morning, Geshu Han ordered the oil to be poured and burned, but it was impossible to burn all the corpses that were piled up. The big fire burned for half a day, but only about half of the corpses were burned away. Those at the bottom could no longer be burned unless someone entered the moat, removed the ashes and charcoal on top, and then continued to burn with oil and dry grass.

  But now it's impossible to send soldiers down to clean up, the temperature is too high, people will be scalded to death.

  However, after being burned, the Forbidden Moat has initially recovered its nature as a natural barrier and has gained some defensive capabilities. At least the rebels will not be able to trample on the corpses in the Forbidden Moat to attack Tongguan City.

  "General Geshu, I think that the Twelve-Section Castle should not be abandoned. We should redeploy troops to defend it. With the Twelve-Section Castle guarding the strategic pass of Jingou, the rebels will have to pay ten times the casualties to reach Tongguan City!" After carefully observing the terrain in the direction of the south gate, Yang Hui said solemnly to Geshu Han: "The natural barrier of Jingou has been cleared to a sufficient depth and has a certain degree of defense capability. If we abandon the Twelve-Section Castle like this, it's equivalent to giving up half of Tongguan City's strategic advantage!"

  Yang Jie couldn't quite understand why Geshu Han had abandoned the crucial defensive facility of the Twelve Forts, and also abandoned Hantongguan City which was connected to the Twelve Forts. What on earth was Geshu Han thinking? In order to defend Tongguan City, these places must be defended!

  Tongguan's natural danger is not just referring to the height and grandeur of the city, easy to defend and hard to attack, but rather it refers to the combination of the city and its surrounding terrain forming an extremely solid defensive fortress. The rebel army coming from the east of Tongguan, in order to break through Tongguan City, must overcome the disadvantage brought by the rugged terrain, capture the outer defensive positions around Tongguan, and then take Tongguan City.

  If troops are deployed in Hantangguan City and the Twelve Linked Cities, the rebel army must first capture Hantangguan City and then take the Twelve Linked Cities, cross the Forbidden Gorge's natural danger, before they can reach the outside of Tongguan City, and only then will they have the opportunity to launch an attack on each gate of Tongguan. The number of troops that can be deployed in Hantangguan City is not large, and the same goes for the Twelve Linked Cities, but the rebel army must pay a great deal of effort and cost to capture these key strongholds.

  Yang Kai arrived at Tongguan and initially deployed troops, only listening to others describe the terrain and key areas of Tongguan City, without actually observing these places. It can be said that he did not have a very specific concept. After assigning tasks, he only observed the situation in the east gate direction, and did not carefully examine other directions, which was his mistake, mainly because he feared the rebels would attack the city immediately. This time, when patrolling the city, he carefully looked at it and clearly understood the terrain of each direction, and also had some deeper ideas about the initial military deployment, that is, the 12th battalion must be dispatched to guard again.

  If 2,000 troops are deployed in Hantangguan City, the rebel army will need to use at least ten times as many troops to attack the city. If they want to capture Hantangguan City and annihilate all the defending troops, they will have to pay a price of several times more troops.

  Each of the twelve connected cities can only garrison a hundred or so soldiers, but to occupy each city would require paying a price ten times higher.

  These places sent troops to garrison, not only can be used as a prominent defensive unit of Tongguan City, but also can effectively block the rebel army, delay the rebel army's attack time on Tongguan City, and can also effectively kill the rebel army.

  At the cost of sacrificing over a hundred men, they annihilated hundreds or even thousands of rebels. How could this not be considered a bargain?