cite Han

Chapter 495 Iron Building
It took the Jingzhou army a total of eleven days to completely fill up the moats on the east and south sides of Chaisang, and these two directions will also be the key attack directions of the Jingzhou army.

As for the west and north sides of Chaisang, because of the waterfront, it is inconvenient to deploy on a large scale. They can only play the role of containment and auxiliary attack. It is enough to build a few corridors and bridges.

The siege equipment, including eight Linchong (siege towers), was ready, and now everything was ready. Considering that Sun Quan's reinforcements were rushing towards Chaisang, it should not be delayed for a long time, so Liu Jing immediately issued an order to attack Chaisang. instruction.

Gan Ning was appointed by Liu Jing as the siege supervisor, fully responsible for the siege affairs, and personally supervised the soldiers, launching the attack from the east, while Wen Pin, Feng Xi, and Gao Xiang were in charge of other directions, tens of thousands of water steps in Jingzhou. The army surrounded Chaisang tightly.

During these eleven days, the Jingzhou army not only filled up the moats on the east and south sides of Chaisang, but also erected an earth mountain each, the height of which was even higher than the line of Chaisang's city wall.

The first step of the Jingzhou army's attack on the city was to send a large number of crossbowmen to climb up the earth hill and shoot at the head of Chaisang city to suppress the defenders on the city and cover the follow-up troops to follow up.

Xu Sheng is well-known in Jiangdong for his courage. He is not the kind of person who can stay in the rear and command calmly. Especially now that he is trapped in an isolated city, he must come to the front line in person to share weal and woe with the defenders and inspire everyone.

Wearing armor and holding a spear, Xu Sheng led dozens of cronies, running back and forth between the east and south city walls, organizing bows and crossbows to suppress the Jingzhou army on the earth hill outside the city.

The two sides came and went, confronted each other repeatedly, and stalemate until the Jingzhou Army's east and south formations simultaneously marched hundreds of flying stone carts.

The height of these flying stone carts is between one and three feet. Because the structure is quite similar to the ladder carts, people who have never seen it before are easily confused when they see them from a distance. Xu Sheng mistook them for the ladder carts at first, and he was surprised Liu Jing's handwriting.It should be known that the aerial ladder truck is not a simple aerial ladder. Hundreds of them are invested at a time, let alone seen, never heard of.

However, when hundreds of ladder carts were parked tens of hundreds of steps away from the city wall, Xu Sheng finally realized that these war tools were not ladder carts at all, but flying stone carts, the rumored siege weapon of the Jingzhou Army.

Liu Jing made his own trebuchet, which was only used in the defense of Ling County and in a few places such as Wuling and Jiangling.

Except for General Liu Jingjun, few people have seen the real trebuchet, and most people echo what they said, and it is even more distorted when it is spread to Jiangdong. It can fly hundreds of steps, and the sound shakes the world. It's just how to exaggerate.

Xu Sheng always only listened to it as a joke, but Liu Jingsu was famous for his ingenuity. The racket he developed was learned by Huang Zu and used to deal with Jiangdong Army, which caused heavy losses to Jiangdong Army.

Xu Sheng believed that even if the flying stone cart was not as exaggerated as the rumors, it must be a siege weapon. City facilities caused damage, so a large amount of wood and stone were collected in advance.

But as hundreds of flying stone carts began to roar, and each stone bomb fell on the top of the city with a roar like a thunderbolt, Xu Sheng's eyelids couldn't stop beating, feeling both grateful and helpless.

Fortunately, the wood and stone were prepared in advance, so that the city defense facilities would not be completely destroyed by the opponent's flying stone cart, and they could always be repaired afterwards.

Helplessly, the wood and stones in reserve are only enough to repair once or twice. If the opponent's flying stone carts attack day and night, when the wood and stones are exhausted, one's own side can only resist with flesh and blood.

A personal guard grabbed Xu Sheng's sleeve and persuaded him: "Lieutenant, this stone chariot is as powerful as the sky, irresistible, it's too dangerous to stay in the city, it's better to go to the city to take shelter first."

Hearing this, Xu Sheng raised his eyebrows, threw away his personal guards, pointed his spear at his face, and said sharply: "Before the battle, I swore with the officials that I will live and die with the soldiers, and live with the city." .' Now, when I see danger, I break my oath and abandon the people, leave the city, and enjoy the peace alone. How can you let me face the soldiers standing on the city in the future?"

As soon as the words fell, a stone the size of a human head roared and hit the fence wall not far from Xu Sheng, and then passed through the fence and went straight to the ground. Scattered shots flew in all directions, and the surrounding defenders suffered disaster immediately, and a large area was swept down.

There were even a few stones flying towards Xu Sheng, but fortunately his cronies reacted in time and formed a wall in advance to block the broken stones.

Coincidentally, another flying stone struck and landed on the other side of Xu Sheng. This time, the flying stone hit the defenders of the city, and they fell to the ground after smashing several times. The soldiers hit by the flying stone were not Tragic death, that is, serious injury, wailing and moaning one after another, everyone who saw it changed face.

With Xu Sheng's courage and bravery, he couldn't help but feel chilled seeing such a tragic situation.

"Captain, this place is dangerous..." The guard wanted to persuade Xu Sheng to go down to the city to take refuge temporarily.

Xu Sheng didn't change his face and said: "Why are you panicking? It's just a few stones."

Seeing the sympathy of the surrounding soldiers, Xu Sheng said again: "The stone chariot seems to be powerful, but it is inaccurate. Even if I stand here motionless, it may not be able to hit me."

Hearing the words, the surrounding soldiers calmed down a little, but their hearts were still terrified. The stone carts were indeed inaccurate, but they couldn't hold back the large number of them. The stones were like hail and rain. They might fall on their heads in the next moment. The power of it is simply a life-threatening talisman, how can everyone not be afraid.

After several rounds of smashing, the defenders did not dare to stand up easily, and curled up under the battlements and fences. The guards stationed in the towers and gatehouses were also killed one after another because of the violent attack by flying stone carts. Withdraw and hide.

After several rounds of stone rain were poured on the head of Chaisang City, the largest flying stone carts began to launch earthen pots filled with charcoal ointment one after another.

In just a few moments, raging fires ignited at Chaisangdong and Nanchengtou, and clouds of black smoke shot straight into the sky, and even Taishici's camp, which was tens of miles away, could be seen clearly.

Standing on the watchtower, Tai Shici looked at the thick black smoke in the north, his brows were deeply furrowed.

While attacking Chaisang, the Jingzhou Army also stepped up their efforts to block him. Tai Shici now has limited knowledge of Chaisang's situation, so he doesn't know what is going on with Chaisang. The flames are everywhere, how can Chaisang keep guard if this continues?
Tai Shi was in a hurry, Xu Sheng would only be more anxious than him, and organized people to put out the fire in a hurry.

In this day and age, it is normal for the defending side to use fire to attack and burn siege equipment, but it is rare for the attacking side to use fire to attack.

Not to mention that the Jingzhou army used the flying stone cart, a siege vehicle that was ahead of its time, to launch a fire attack. It's no wonder Xu Sheng was not in a hurry.

Lushan Mountain to the south of Chaisang not only has a lot of wood, but also has a lot of stone materials. After more than ten days, the Jingzhou army collected thousands of baskets of large and small stones. Therefore, the Jingzhou army completely let go, and the flying stone cart roared from sunrise to midday The fire continued to burn until noon.

Liu Jing was at the rear of the army formation, sitting in a military chariot with a canopy. When he received a report from the front that the stone bombs had been consumed by more than half, he ordered the flying stone chariot to stop attacking, and then handed over the flag symbolizing command power to the army. Gan Ning.

Gan Ning solemnly took over the flag, and then bid farewell to Liu Jing, rode to the front of the formation on horseback, raised the flag high, and while patrolling the formations, he said in a loud voice: "The general appointed me, Gan Ning, as the siege governor, and awarded him the command of the army." Banner, I will take charge of the siege affairs. You all know that I am Gan Ning, and I am definitely not a person who is greedy for life and death. I will go hand in hand with you, do my best to die, and pull out the strong city together!"

"Long live... Long live...!" Tens of thousands of soldiers responded loudly.

Gan Ning's rough face couldn't hide the flying color, and pointed in front of the banner: "Attack!"

In an instant, Linchong (siege tower), ladders, well rails, crash vehicles...all kinds of siege equipment were dispatched together, and under the guard of a large number of soldiers, they drove towards the city of Chaisang.

There are eight Linchong (siege towers), four in the east and four in the south. It seems that Linchong (siege towers) are huge and abrupt among all the siege equipment. It caught the attention of Chaisang defenders.

If Jiang Dongfang could still hear rumors about flying stone carts, he didn't know anything about Linchong (siege tower).

Linchong (siege tower) was completely beyond imagination for the people of the Han Dynasty, and few people could keep calm when facing it for the first time.

Xu Sheng looked at Linchong (Siege Tower) who was gradually approaching and felt full of oppression, and suppressed the anxiety in his heart, and shouted to the left and right: "Quickly get the Shuchu ointment, quick, quick...!"

The previous Jingzhou army's flying stone chariot fire attack not only burned down a large number of buildings, sculls and fences, but also burned the flammable materials such as cedar ointment piled up on the top of the city. These things were originally used to deal with siege equipment. , but in the end fueled the fire and burned it to his own head, eventually causing the top of the city to be almost burned to nothingness.

What made Xu Sheng vomit blood even more was that the fire spread to the military camp below the city. Except for the cedar ointment and other things, at least [-]% of the military resources and food fodder were completely wiped out. The loss can be described as extremely heavy.

Xu Sheng had no choice but to use the reserves in the county temple. At this time, the combustible oil ointment and other inflammable materials could be sent to the city, and the ointment had to be soaked in the bushes and cloth to make torches and rockets. It was too late up.

"Boom...boom...boom..."

The Suspension Bridge of Linchong (Siege Tower) was put on the top of the city one after another. Xu Sheng led the defenders and soldiers to stand ready, but to their surprise, a group of ferocious beasts rushed out from the opposite side.

They wear full-covered hoods on their heads, and their faces are also covered by armor, only their eyes are exposed. The armor on their upper body extends to their arms, and the skirt on their lower body reaches to their calves. Upper city head.

The unknown is the scariest thing. Seeing the enemy covered in armor, you can't even see the opponent's face. It's like facing an iron beast. , immediately defeated.

The robe covering the whole body was made by Liu Jing as early as the Lingxian period. Unfortunately, due to the high cost, it is difficult to popularize the armor. Only Sima and above can get this armor.

With the unification of Jingzhou, Liu Jing gathered the manpower and material resources of the entire Jingzhou, and it took a year to build a thousand robes and armor, and selected a thousand elites from tens of thousands of troops to form the Iron Building Army.

As the name suggests, Liu Jing hopes that they will be indestructible and omnipotent like movable iron buildings. This is their first actual combat.

The effect is also surprisingly good. The soldiers of the Jiangdong Army are obviously not used to the opponents who are fully armored. They are panicked in their hearts, and they don't know where to attack with the weapons in their hands. In the process of hesitating, they are either killed or retreated. Deng easily occupied the top position in the city.

With the cover of the first climb of the iron building, the courage of the soldiers of Jingzhou under the city increased greatly, and they climbed up to the top of Chaisang City through the ladders. Soon, hundreds of soldiers gathered on the east and south walls. The army also launched a feint attack to contain Chaisang's defenders.

Not long after the war started, Chaisang was already in turmoil everywhere, forcing Xu Sheng to fight in person to boost the low morale.

Xu Sheng did not avoid Shishi, and his approach of taking the lead has indeed achieved very good results. Wherever he appears, he can always repel the enemy.

The problem is that he is only one person, but dangers emerge one after another, he loses the other while taking care of one. If the situation is allowed to develop, Chaisang will lose.

Sure enough, in the past two hours or so, Chaisang's defenders have shown signs of being exhausted, and the defense line may collapse at any time.

Xu Sheng's clothes were stained with blood, and he looked very embarrassed, but his aura did not weaken at all, but became more fierce and frightening.

Seeing the critical situation, Xu Sheng knew that he could no longer keep his hands, and urgently ordered the five hundred troops who stayed behind, that is, the reserve team, to go to the city to fight.

These [-] plays are different from the soldiers and horses that Sun Quan assigned to him later. They are all Xu Shengyuan's follower moves, composed of young and Xu refugees he recruited when he was in Wujun. They have been trained for many years and are very elite.

As long as there are these original parts, Xu Sheng will have the confidence to defend Chaisang. As a result, the Jingzhou army is far more brave and good at fighting than rumored. The final hole card.

Xu Sheng regards Wubaiyuan's trilogy as confidence, which is justified. As soon as he ascended the city, he stabilized the city's crumbling situation.

After a fierce battle, he not only repelled the Jingzhou army with the defenders, but also destroyed two Linchong (siege towers) by victory.

Of course, although the original part had achieved good results, he also suffered heavy casualties. More than a hundred people were killed in the battle alone, and dozens of people were seriously injured.

In other words, if the Jingzhou Army continues to maintain this intensity, they will die in just two or three days.

Thinking of this, most of Xu Sheng's joy at defeating the Jingzhou Army dissipated.

The Jingzhou army must not be allowed to attack Chaisang. For the current plan, the only way is to send someone to ask Tai Shici for help, let him take the initiative to invite the battle, and force the Jingzhou army to divide its troops and cannot attack the city with all its strength.

Xu Sheng was a man of high morale, and he couldn't hold on to asking Tai Shici for help after only defending the city for one day. What would Tai Shici and Sun Quan think of him?It was worse than killing him.But if you don't ask for help, it will be difficult for Chaisang to hold on. His death is not a pity, and if he ruins Sun Quan's plan, he will never be redeemed.

Thinking of this, Xu Sheng immediately gave up his face and sent people out of the city to ask Tai Shici for help after dark.

(End of this chapter)