Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 477 Yuwen Tai's Light Cavalry
"These bricks build the city really fast."

Yuwen Tai looked at the Shanhaiguan rising from the ground. Even though he watched the city being built bit by bit, he still felt deeply moved and was deeply shocked.

When designing Shanhaiguan, Cao from the Ministry of Works came up with three plans.

The first is the normal rammed earth plan, the second is to build the city with stones, and the last plan is to build the city with the latest bricks.

However, Su Tong (the city builder of Tongwan City) was still building the city in Yubi at this time, and the person in charge of building the city in Shanhaiguan was his disciple Su Dazao (the city builder of Dajian).

After the field investigation, Su Dazao even proposed a huge city that far exceeded Yuwen Tai's plan. Su Dazao was even more ambitious and proposed to build a Great Wall from the mountains near Shanhaiguan to the seashore to completely block this gap.

Yuwen Tai was frightened by this plan. He rejected Su Dazao's construction plan, but agreed to his plan to build a city in Shanhaiguan, upgrading the original small and medium-sized fortresses into large brick fortresses.

Thanks to Su Ze's early preparation, he had built a brickyard in Youzhou in advance and accumulated a group of skilled brick-making craftsmen. After suppressing the rebellion of Liu Lingzhu, Murong Shaozong simply exiled all the guilty wealthy families in Youzhou to the vicinity of Shanhaiguan to participate in the corvée labor of building the city.

Even Yuwen Tai was somewhat grateful to Liu Lingzhu. If it weren't for his reckless rebellion that dragged most of the Youzhou nobles into the water, how could Duke Su Jun have eliminated the hidden dangers in the rear so quickly and created so many labor forces at once.

Starting from February, the speed of building the city of Shanhaiguan increased significantly, and it changed every day.

In the end, this large brick fortress was completed faster than the Yubi City which was started earlier.

Yuwen Tai was also surprised at the speed, and he thought of another question.

With the development of city-building technology, warfare seems to have undergone new changes.

The advantages of defending a city are expanded, and as the cost of building a city is reduced, the defender will have a greater advantage than the attacker.

In this case, the way of future wars will also change.

Yuwen Tai soon verified his idea.

After Shanhaiguan was built, a small Jurchen tribe moved south, preparing to plunder Youzhou as per custom.

The Khitans soon hit a wall. Shanhaiguan became an iron wall that they could not get around no matter what. After leaving behind dozens of corpses, the tribe had no choice but to leave unwillingly.

But Yuwen Tai also encountered some troubles. When he came out of Shanhaiguan with the heavy cavalry, the enemy had disappeared without a trace.

Yuwen Tai was a little confused.

The heavy cavalry that once created miracles on the battlefield came to nothing several times. These iron lumps were useless when defending the city and were too clumsy when fighting outside the city. They were like a strongman with great strength but too low agility to hit the enemy at all.

On the contrary, those lightly-armored cavalry responsible for reconnaissance were the ones who achieved some success in these battles outside the city.

Yuwen Tai also quickly made some adjustments. He selected a group of soldiers who were good at riding and shooting from the original heavy armored cavalry, asked them to take off their heavy armor and put on leather armor instead, and then let them go out of the city to pursue the Khitans.

Sure enough, after changing his tactics, Yuwen Tai's military results gradually became more fruitful.

This light cavalry combat method is not uncommon. The Northern Wei Dynasty often used such tactics when it was founded.

As the Six Garrisons were a relatively backward region, Yuwen Tai had never seen many armored cavalry when he was a child. At that time, his father and brothers actually led lightly armored or even unarmored light cavalry to fight.

Yuwen Tai quickly began to reorganize his cavalry. Except for retaining the most elite group of heavily armored cavalry, he had the rest of them remove their heavy armor and fight with light armor instead.

Yuwen Tai's reforms also caused some troubles. Some of the heavy armored cavalry were veterans. The cavalry who could use heavy armor in the army were naturally the elite among the elite. Making these elites wear leather armor like those Khitan tribal cavalry was simply an insult to them.

Some of the cavalrymen who were honored officials jointly wrote a letter to Murong Shaozong, denouncing Yuwen Tai's reckless reforms.

No one knew how Su Ze got to know about this. Su Ze first wrote a letter to denounce those soldiers who did not obey the commander's orders, and then ordered the most troublesome ones to be recalled. He also brought a letter to Yuwen Tai, telling him to feel free to carry out reforms.

Yuwen Tai was greatly excited. Yes, if he could find the problem, how could the great general Su Jungong not find it?
However, the inertia of armored cavalry as the final force on the battlefield still exists, and several amazing achievements of Su Ze and Erzhu Rong were achieved through armored cavalry. If it were not for the fact that Yuwen Tai was only making trouble in Shanhaiguan, if he did the same in Guanzhong, it would probably cause a big commotion.

After getting Su Ze's support, Yuwen Tai took drastic measures and carried out unified reforms of the cavalry.

After several battles, Yuwen Tai developed a set of specialized equipment.

Each of his light cavalrymen was equipped with two bows and crossbows and two quivers filled with arrows.

The two crossbows were spare in case one of them was damaged. Using crossbows for medium and long range harassment and long-range shooting was the standard for cavalry, and Yuwen Tai just institutionalized it. In addition, each light cavalry was equipped with a saber, which was a special equipment made in Youzhou according to the drawings drawn by Su Jungong himself.

The saber is curved in shape and is designed to be very light, but it uses the same forging technology as the Mo Dao, which increases durability while ensuring its sharpness.

The sabers can be used for chopping or stabbing with the tip. After seeing this batch of actual sabers, Yuwen Tai almost doubted whether Duke Su had the ability to predict the future.
These sabers are simply the most suitable melee weapons for light cavalry!
These sabers can cut into the enemy's leather armor and even stab the enemy through the gaps in the iron armor.

The key is that it is because of Guanzhong’s superb smelting technology that such a sharp knife can be made so light and durable.

Of course, no matter how durable it is, it cannot fight against long weapons such as lances and halberds, so Yuwen Tai also stipulated that light cavalry must carry two halberds, one for spare.

The last one is the hammer with nails. This weapon was used when Su Ze defeated Du Luozhou. Erzhu Rong also used a similar weapon in the decisive battle with Ge Rong.

The mace is suitable for breaking armor and can also effectively kill enemies. Yuwen Tai even came up with an idea to tie an iron chain to the handle of the mace. Some soldiers can then swing the mace, and the impact force can even break the shield!

Soon after, Yuwen Tai's light cavalry quickly became famous in Shanhaiguan and became a nightmare for the nearby Khitan.

In particular, Yuwen Tai once attacked out of Shanhaiguan and even caught up with a small Khitan tribe, and captured the entire tribe and brought them back to build a city.

These achievements greatly shocked the surrounding Khitan tribes, frightening many of them to flee northward. The strategic buffer zone envisioned by Yuwen Tai was thus easily completed.

However, when attacking the Khitan tribe this time, Yuwen Tai thought about another problem.

logistics.

Light cavalry is too mobile and can run very far once they go out in pursuit. Moreover, they often change their destinations during the pursuit, which is a disaster for logistics.

In Yuwen Tai's view, the logistics officials under Su Ze were already gods.

They were even able to deliver supplies to the cavalry team that chased into the wilderness. Even Yuwen Tai found it unbelievable. Even he had to struggle to find the way home in the vast wilderness, so how did this logistics team catch up with him?

However, there is a ready-made answer to this question, and that is Huo Qubing, the famous champion marquis of the Han Dynasty.

Huo Qubing pursued the enemy to the north, plowing the fields and clearing the holes. He led highly mobile light cavalry. In addition to robbing the Huns, Huo Qubing had another trick, which was to let the army drive the livestock to follow him.

In fact, Yuwen Tai was very familiar with this method. His father and brother fought in the Six Garrisons, which were a combination of militias. Some tribes would bring their own livestock when going out to fight.

In addition, Su Ze also asked someone to bring a method of making cheese. The cheese made in this way can be stored better and can make people feel full for a long time after eating. However, this kind of cheese tastes too greasy and needs to be neutralized with tea.

Through this series of methods, Yuwen Tai established a light cavalry team of a thousand people. He personally led the troops out of Shanhaiguan and soon killed the surrounding Khitan tribes, causing them to cry out in grief.

It's so hopeless!
Unable to defeat the enemy and unable to escape, a large number of tribes had no choice but to migrate northward, which brought severe turmoil to Liaodong, which was already short of resources.

In desperation, the Khitan Khan Dahe Bhutan, who had just accepted the enthronement and had now changed his name to Yuan Bhutan, once again sent people to convey a message to Gao Huan, the governor of Liaodong, who was heading south, asking him to immediately lead his troops to attack Shanhaiguan and annihilate Yuwen Tai's light cavalry.

At this time, Gao Huan had already arrived in Houcheng (now Shenyang).

Sima Ziru looked at the wall of Houcheng and said:
"General, this city was the seat of the Liaodong Commandery during the Han Dynasty. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Gongsun Du ruled Liaodong and established Xuantu County here. This is the Xuantu County City."

Dou Tai had also read some books, and he asked:
"Wasn't Xuantu County established by Emperor Wu of Han? Isn't it in Korea?"

Sima Ziru also did some historical and geographical studies. He said:
"That was the First Xuantu, which was located in the territory of Wiman Joseon at that time. Later, Emperor Zhao of Han established the Second Xuantu, which is now in the territory of Goguryeo. Houcheng is already the Third Xuantu, but it just uses the county name from the time of Emperor Wu of Han."

Dou Tai nodded as if he understood. He had no knowledge of history and geography, but from a military point of view, Houcheng was indeed a good city. It was a pity that it was now mostly abandoned.

The Liaodong area experienced many wars from the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which were as fierce as those in the Central Plains. It was not until the Northern Wei Dynasty destroyed the Murong clan of the Former Yan that peace was achieved.

However, the Northern Wei Dynasty's center of gravity continued to move southward, and it even gave up the Six Garrisons where it started, let alone Liaodong.

Once a famous city during the Han Dynasty, there are not many Han people left today, only a few tribes grazing nearby.

Gao Huan ordered:
"The Liaodong Dao Daxingtai issued an order to summon craftsmen to work and rebuild the Houcheng."

Unfortunately, before Gao Huan could even get comfortable in his new position, he received an order from Yuan Bhutan.

(End of this chapter)