Chapter 207 Perseverance Han Meng's martial arts were extremely outstanding. Among Yuan Shao's subordinates, he was second only to Yan Liang and Wen Chou, and was on par with Gao Lan, who was praised as "a famous general in the world." He brandished a broadsword and rushed to the front under the protection of dozens of personal guards, killing several enemy soldiers in succession. Seeing their commander so brave, Yuan's army also charged forward. However, the terrain here is too steep. Attacking from top to bottom is fine, but attacking from bottom to top, you might fall off the cliff if you are not careful, and you will also be facing the targeting of countless archers. The soldiers of Tianze Army were not intimidated by Han Meng's momentum at all. They quickly surrounded him. Han Meng couldn't rush forward at all, and the soldiers behind him fell down one after another. "withdraw!" After fighting for a while, Han Meng had several wounds on his body, but he did not advance a few steps, and more than a hundred soldiers behind him had been killed. Seeing that things were hopeless, Han Meng could only shout angrily. How could the Qian Zhao army, which was in a dominant position, miss such an opportunity to strike hard at the enemy? They chased them all the way and killed more than a hundred people one after another. Han Meng, covered in dust, returned to the battle formation and looked towards Tumen Pass with gritted teeth: "Qian Zhao, you little thief, I swear to kill you!"
After being ambushed twice in a row, Han Meng realized that he had run into a tough opponent. The commander guarding Tumen Pass is not as simple as he appears to be and is extremely difficult to deal with. The battle at the pass was also extremely brutal. Han Meng's army continuously attacked Tumen Pass, but Qian Zhao's soldiers resisted tenaciously and always held the pass. The corpses of Han Meng's army piled up like a mountain, their blood dyed the ground red, and there were nearly a hundred siege weapons damaged. Even so, Han Meng had no intention of withdrawing his troops. Having been ambushed twice before, he had seen through it. There was no other way to attack the Tumen Pass in front of him except to storm. The trick was too delicate and would not reveal any flaws to him. If he could not take Tumen Pass, how could he face Yuan Shao again? Even if the 50,000 troops were wiped out, he had to take this pass. Qian Zhao stood on the city wall in armor, pushing his talent to the limit while constantly motivating his soldiers to check and fill in the loopholes in the city defense. Although Han Meng's army launched attacks on the city wall like wolves and tigers, they could not even reach half the height. The battle lasted for a whole day until the sun set, when Han Meng finally called off the battle. Qian Zhao then breathed a sigh of relief and ordered the reserve troops to quickly go forward to treat the wounded, take over the city defense, and arrange for the soldiers who had been tired all day to rest as soon as possible. Because today is the first battle, for the sake of safety, Qian Zhao deployed almost all his troops to ensure that there will be no mistakes and to discourage the enemy's fighting spirit. It is impossible to fight so desperately from now on. The soldiers must be divided into groups and take turns to garrison, otherwise the soldiers’ physical strength will not be able to bear it. Han Meng could attack the city without caring about the losses because he had more people under his command, more than ten times as many as him, and it was extremely easy for them to rotate. But it was different for him. Qian Zhao also stayed awake all night, carefully guarding against Han Meng's night attack. After the battle, Han Meng counted the casualties and found that more than a thousand soldiers were killed or wounded. Although he didn't know the outcome of the battle, Han Meng estimated that the enemy's losses were probably only a few dozen, or at most nearly a hundred. Such an exaggerated casualty ratio was within Han Meng's expectations. It is not so easy to capture such a dangerous pass, otherwise they would not have abandoned Huguan. This was just the beginning. Later on, as long as he maintained sufficient offensive intensity, the casualty ratio between the two sides would inevitably continue to narrow. The nearly 50,000 troops under General Han were directly divided into five 10,000-man square teams. In addition to the 10,000-man square team he led, which was responsible for guarding and supervising the battle, the other square teams took turns attacking every day.
The fierce offensive continued for a full half month. Although there were still few results, Han Meng could clearly feel that Qian Zhao's army's defense of the city was getting weaker and weaker, and there were even several situations where his soldiers almost climbed onto the city wall. But at the same time, Han Meng also encountered an embarrassing situation. He did not have many siege equipment with him. In a strategic location like Tumen Pass, the surrounding trees had already been cut down, and his siege equipment were all originally made. It has been used sparingly over the past half month, but now it is still mostly damaged and is no longer sufficient to support the siege. Moreover, after half a month of fierce attacks, the morale of the army has been somewhat low. If they don't rest, the morale of the army may be shaken. After all, unlike the generous treatment of Tian Ze's army, the soldiers under his command went to war just to have a full meal. The reason why they were able to sustain the fierce attack for half a month was entirely because they had a large number of troops and they could see the hope of victory. However, after half a month of continuous fierce attacks, nearly 10,000 soldiers were killed or wounded, and they couldn't even climb the city wall. This shows that this pass is impossible to capture in a short time. In this situation, who is willing to die? If there were no supervision team, I am afraid many people would not be willing to attack. Although Han Meng has a straight-forward character, he is the commander of an army, so he certainly cannot be a stupid man. He knows that he must rest now. Qian Zhao also breathed a sigh of relief when he learned that Han Meng had temporarily stopped attacking. This kind of offensive and defensive battle is a test of the endurance of both sides. Han Meng's army is exhausted, and so is he? With a small number of troops, his soldiers are even more exhausted than Han Meng's army. In half a month, the defenders of Tumen Pass suffered hundreds of casualties and serious injuries, and nearly a thousand minor injuries. The defense of the city also changed from two shifts at the beginning to three shifts later. If it weren't for the high and narrow walls of Tumen Pass, I'm afraid Han Meng's army would have attacked. If Han Meng could hold out for a few more days, he would have to consider making adjustments again and sending some of the siege soldiers up, because the soldiers' physical strength was already running out. But fortunately, there was still plenty of supplies in the city, so there was no need to worry about logistical problems, and the morale of the soldiers was always high. This was not only due to his talent, but also the passive talents of Cheng Yu and others and the perfect training methods they had developed. Qian Zhao even felt that even without his talent, these soldiers could do this. He had never seen such a tenacious army. Even the many powerful armies described by his teacher Huangfu Song were probably far inferior to this. He didn't need to intervene too much. The two thousand new recruits and nearly a thousand Danyang surrendered soldiers had been completely assimilated by the original defenders during this period. After daily battle review and ideological education, these soldiers have become completely loyal. Apart from their combat qualities, it is impossible to tell which are the new recruits and which are the surrendered soldiers. They all have close relationships with each other and cooperate well with each other. This gave Qian Zhao even greater confidence. The cultural environment formed by each soldier will eventually affect each soldier. Combined with their own talents, Qian Zhao may even be able to hold on to the end. Not to mention fighting to the last soldier, at least until there are a thousand people, this pass will not be lost. (End of this chapter)