Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Soon, the next day.

Shen Chen has been in Chang'an City for more than ten days, and the camp has basically been completed.

The large-scale equipment and tools were all ready, and the camps that stretched for more than ten miles were all opened at the end of the morning meal, and the generals of each battalion led their troops out of the camp slowly.

The soldiers ate breakfast at the first quarter of the meal, then rested for a while, and began to line up in the camp at the third quarter of the meal.

After the melodious horn sounded for a long time, the battalion generals who received the order led the soldiers out of the camp.

During the Northern Expedition to Guanzhong, Shen Chen's troops were not dominant.However, he managed the army Yan Jin, and with the help of Yu Jin, he trained a team of elite soldiers with high morale and strong fighting spirit.

Chang'an is obviously playing the card of avoiding the battle, which is the decision to stay in the city and not come out.Shen Chen planned to launch a strong attack when the morale was high just after dispatching troops.

He asked Huang Zhong to attack Lantian County with more than 1 horsemen. It seemed that there were not many soldiers and horses, which were far from Cao Zhenzhen, but Shen Chen still had tens of thousands of cavalry.

Once Cao Zhen felt that Huang Zhong had few people to be bullied, and dared to take the main force out of Lantian Valley to try to attack Huang Zhong's 1 people, then Shen Chen would let Cao Zhen feel the horror of galloping horses and being crushed by iron cavalry.

By the time of the end of the food period, the army had already assembled. About 3 horses and horses were arranged in several square formations, and there were a large number of civilian auxiliary soldiers behind them, pushing countless catapults, ladders, cloud towers, rushing carts, wooden Mantle, nest car, 轒辒 car, crash car, Linchong and other equipment all the way to the north.

The sound of clanging drums resounded through the entire wall of the south gate of Chang'an City, and a large number of Cao troops stood on the wall, overlooking the south.

I saw the densely packed Han army coming slowly, with 1 troops plus more than 5 civilian auxiliary soldiers, about [-] horses. It seemed that there was a black tide surging forward on the vast plain. He slammed into the huge city of Chang'an fiercely.

The length of the south city wall of Han Chang'an is about 6.25 kilometers, and it can hardly be seen at a glance.But the Han army outside the city also formed a long formation, also endless, and the sea of ​​people was turbulent, as if to cover all sides of the entire southern city wall.

At this moment, on the walls of Chang'an City, with the sound of ping-pong war drums and horns, groups of soldiers emerged from behind the female wall, their bows and knives were drawn out of their sheaths. The neat shouts, short and hasty orders and sharp police whistles all made a mess on the wall.

Xia Houmao, Zhong Yao and others hurried to the city wall to watch. They saw that the Han army in the distance was not in a hurry to attack, but temporarily stopped about four or five miles outside the city, and suddenly a knight galloped from the enemy's formation. He went out and ran towards the direction of the South City Gate.

Because there was only one cavalryman, Xia Houmao did not order to shoot arrows.The supplies in the city were indeed plentiful, but it was not worthwhile for one person to shoot tens of thousands of arrows. Xia Houmao was not so stupid as to be so rich.

The knight quickly approached the moat without the hindrance of a bow and crossbow, then flicked his tail beautifully, his horseshoes jumped high, the soldier sat on the horseback and stood up, and then quickly bent his bow and set his arrows, facing him at a distance of less than eighty meters. The bowstring was loosened abruptly above the stepping city wall.

Almost when the arrow flew towards the city wall, the horse's hooves had already fallen, and then the knight turned his horse's head and stepped back dozens of steps, out of the range of the bow and crossbow, waiting for a reply.

The arrow drew a beautiful arc in the air and hit the pillar of the tower.

After a while, the soldiers brought it back, and there was a letter hanging on the arrow. After Xia Houmao read it, he frowned and said, "This is Shen Chen's letter of war, and I'm invited to go out of the city for a decisive battle."

Zhong Yao said with a smile: "Don't worry about it, the general. The south has fewer soldiers than the north. We still occupy the high and thick Chang'an City. It is only natural that he wants to invite us out of the city to decide the outcome. Now that we have decided to focus on defense Lord, why bother with it?"

"Well, it's natural."

Xia Houmao nodded and said, "Reply to that man!"

Immediately there was an archer next to him, aiming in the direction of the knight, he shot an arrow.

The arrow also drew an arc in the air, but because the knight was already very far behind, beyond the arrows of the bow and crossbow, it did not threaten him, and finally landed five or six steps ahead of the knight.

The knight glanced down, but there was no reply on the arrow, which could only explain one thing - the enemy did not respond to the decisive battle out of the city, and apparently planned to continue to retreat into the city.

"Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh

After the knight came back and reported the news to Shen Chen, Shen Chen didn't have any surprises, and waved his hand, ready to attack the city.

Then the central infantry corps moved to the left and right wings, revealing a passage.

The siege equipment at the rear was slowly pushed to the front, the wooden curtain was at the front, the four-wheeled vehicle was at the bottom, and a huge wooden plank was hung on it, which was pushed to the front of the formation.

Immediately afterwards, all kinds of siege equipment began to move forward, and catapults, cloud towers, and trench bridges approached the city gate under the cover of wooden curtains.

There is a moat in Chang'an City, and the source is not the Weishui River, but the Fushui River, a tributary of the Weishui River.

Xishui is not a large river, so Chang'an's moat is far less exaggerated than Xiangyang's, which is tens of meters wide, so the siege equipment does not need to be close to the moat at all, and can be activated a hundred steps away.

The wooden mantle was at the front of the team, and slowly approached within the arrow range of Chang'an City, but the city was extremely quiet, and nothing happened.

After a while, at a distance of nearly eighty steps, a long and thin iron-headed crossbow arrow as thick as a tree trunk suddenly shot down from the top of the city with a whistling sound like howling ghosts and wolves, and pierced a wooden mantle. board.

This arrow is like a signal.

All the vehicles stopped, and the wooden curtains were lined up to cover the catapults and the people behind them, but the Yunlou couldn't cover them, it was too high.

"Hurry up."

The crossbowmen below the Yunlou climbed up the ladder one after another.

The winch hand of the catapult is pulling the winch, some people are counterweighting, some are putting stones, and some are helping to pull the load-bearing pole. More than a dozen people are manipulating the catapult together.

And after the arrows of the first bed crossbow in Chang'an City were shot down, the second, third, and fourth thousands of bed crossbows were launched one after another, aiming at the wooden mantle, catapult and Yunlou firepower below. fully open.

"boom!"

A crossbow arrow pierced through the void and shot directly at a cloud tower, and there was a huge bang bang sound, and sawdust flew across the sky. Huo Yang, who was climbing the cloud tower, was hit by the ejected wood chips and almost fell from Fall down the wooden building.

"General."

The guard next to him rushed to help.

Huo Yang's face was scratched, blood was streaming down, he pushed the guard away, and shouted: "Don't worry about me, go up and set up the bed crossbow."

"Yes."

The guard immediately went up the ladder.

The Yunlou cannot go up and stand on people while it is moving. First, it is not stable, and second, there are too many people on the top, which will increase the burden on the people pushing the Yunlou below.

So it is often after arriving at the place, fix the position, and then climb up to find the shooting position.

Now the enemy is the first to act first, and the crossbows are constantly shooting. The damage that a thousand bed crossbows can cause on a battlefield that is seven or eight miles across like this is not great.

But the commander on the city wall was very smart. He didn't aim at the Han army's men, but aimed at the baffles, trebuchets and wooden curtains on the Yunlou, hoping to cause damage to the Han army's equipment.

The wooden mantle can defend against arrows, and the bed crossbow is very powerful. The huge impact force may break the wooden mantle. Once the wooden mantle and the baffle on the cloud tower are missing, the normal crossbow can play power.

It’s just that Wei Jun on the city wall probably wouldn’t have thought that the Liu Bei Group valued craftsmen and inventions over the years. Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang also studied them from time to time, improving equipment including hand crossbows, bed crossbows, catapults, and infantry bows.

The weapons and equipment of the Han army are superior to those of the Cao army in terms of power, range and use.Especially something like a catapult.

According to historical records, if the catapults before the Song Dynasty dropped 100 kilograms of stones, the range was often between 40 and 70 meters.If you throw a 30-kilogram stone, the range is only more than 100 meters, and you can't throw it too far.

"Fan Li's Art of War" records that when a catapult throws twelve catties in the Spring and Autumn Period, it can fly two hundred steps, almost 300 meters, but its power is much smaller.

Therefore, the catapults before the Tang and Song Dynasties lacked a lot in terms of range and power.

But today's catapults have been improved by Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang, with additional functions such as winches and counterweights, which have a longer range and greater power than the original direct human-powered catapults.

At this moment, the front wooden curtain is about 140 steps, [-] meters away from the city, while the back catapult is about [-] steps, [-] meters away.At this distance, archers standing on the city wall can completely kill them, but due to the wooden mantle defense, it is difficult to shoot the catapult driver.

"Fire arrows!"

Huo Yang has already climbed to the cloud tower. The cloud tower is like a large tower, and dozens of archers can stand on it. Now besides the archers, there is also a bed crossbow.

At this time, three people manipulated the bed crossbow, using gears and winches to step on and pull the string.

Following Huo Yang's order, the crossbowman who stepped on the winch hub immediately let go, and a "buzz" was heard, and the crossbow arrow was ejected at an extremely fast speed, so fast that even afterimages appeared, in the blink of an eye It disappeared into the sky.

The front and rear of the Han army's battle formation are arranged in the order of wooden mantle, catapult, and cloud tower, and the position of the cloud tower is slightly behind, so that the bows and arrows of both the enemy and the enemy cannot shoot.

But I saw the crossbow pierced the sky with a "swish", and then shot at the female wall, the brick wall, earth and rocks collapsed, and metal sparks splashed, scaring the two Wei Jun who were watching outside the crenel of the female wall.

"Shot crooked!"

Seeing this scene, Huo Yang immediately shouted: "Adjust the angle, hurry up!"

Soon new crossbow bolts were installed.

Cao Wei's bed crossbow is technically inferior to the Han army's bed crossbow, and its accuracy is not enough.

The bed crossbows of the Han army are even equipped with machine sights. The improved crossbow platform is fixed on the Yunlou, and the speed of placing crossbow arrows is much faster than that of Cao Jun's bed crossbows.

So even though there are more bed crossbows in Chang'an City, the Han army is not to be outdone, relying on strong firing speed and accuracy to adjust the gap in number and fight back powerfully.

The bed crossbows of the two sides kept shooting back and forth in mid-air, but in a war of this scale, it was obviously impossible to cause huge damage with this bed crossbow.

The two sides fired at each other for a long time, and the casualties caused by the full fight did not exceed [-]. Among them, injuries were the main ones, and most of them were splashed by wood chips and clods.

But then came the heavyweights that tipped the balance.

The catapult fired.

The first thing projected was a [-]-kilogram boulder, which drew a gorgeous arc in the sky, crossed the moat, and flew towards the top of the city.

It's a pity that the aim was a little off, and it hit the female wall, smashing a big hole in the crenel.

Chang'an City and Luoyang City are the few cities with brick walls and rammed earth structures in the Han Dynasty.

But the city wall is just a big hole, and the defense line is as stable as Mount Tai.

However, the second and third pieces followed, hundreds of stone bullets hit the city wall like a meteorite.

I heard the sound of "bang bang bang" incessantly. Although the momentum is definitely not as exaggerated as the five thousand forts of the Jin army almost filling up the Bianliang, it also gave the Wei army a great impact.

Many Wei soldiers had hardly fought against the catapult. Seeing the terrifying boulder falling from the sky, even if they knew that the probability of hitting themselves was extremely small, they were instinctively frightened and their legs became weak. Some people even ran away, trying to escape from the city wall. .

"Don't go back!"

At this moment on the city wall, Zhong Yao looked down from a distance.

The first round of the catapult attack shocked the Wei army so much that the bed crossbow's offensive was stagnated.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, many soldiers of the Han army ran out of the formation, carrying the moat bridge and Sa Yazi, under the cover of catapults and bed crossbows, and ran towards the bottom of the city wall.

Once the bridge is built, the next step is for the Han army to fight against the ladder and start storming the city, so Zhong Yao ordered the soldiers to stick to it.

Forced by the sharp steel knives in the hands of the war supervisors, the soldiers had no choice but to return to their posts, and then Zhong Yao ordered to release arrows. The Han army outside the city did not expect that they could organize a counterattack so quickly, and the arrows rained for a while. As noted, the soldiers ran away with their heads in their hands.

However, Cao Jun also paid a painful price.

In order to defend against the large-scale attack of the Han army, the walls of the more than ten miles long city wall are full of Wei army soldiers.Although the number of catapults in the Han army is small, it is not easy to hit people, but there are always some unlucky ones who are unlucky.

There were stones and splashed stones everywhere on the pitted city wall, dust was everywhere, some were hit by the front and turned into a ball of sauce, some were injured by the splashed stones, blood flowed continuously, and some simply died. Even after being stunned, the huge boulder will make a huge shocking sound when it falls.

There were mourning and lying Wei soldiers everywhere on the city wall, but Zhong Yao couldn't care less. He was watching from a tall oar at the back, and suddenly frowned and said, "That's not right."

General Fei Yao next to him asked, "Taiwei, what's wrong?"

"Although the enemy's offensive is ferocious, it can't even pass through the moat. What exactly does Shen Chen want to do? If he wants to attack on a large scale, he must wait patiently for several more months and build more siege equipment. How can he rush to the city so quickly?" What about attacking?"

Zhong Yao was very puzzled.

When Lu Zhi put down the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he besieged Zhang Jiao in Guangzong County.

There are many Yellow Turbans in Guangzong City, and the city is very tall.

In order to defeat Zhang Jiao, Lu Zhi decided to stay where he was, build siege equipment and launch a fierce attack on Guangzong.

The result was the stage of siege and confrontation. Before the equipment was ready, Emperor Ling of Han got impatient and replaced Lu Zhi with Dong Zhuo, and let Dong Zhuo attack.

Dong Zhuo bit the bullet and stormed the city, and was beaten badly, which shows the difficulty of attacking the city.

Chang'an City is much thicker than the high walls of Guangzong City back then. Shen Chen is also a seasoned veteran, famous all over the world. How could he make such a low-level mistake and storm Chang'an without being fully prepared?
There are only a few hundred catapults, at least build another thousand and then attack again.

So Zhong Yao felt something was wrong.

After a while, his face suddenly became serious, and he said to Fei Yao: "Quick, gallop on the city wall, immediately order all the scouts to run along the city wall and patrol."

"Yes."

Although Fei Yao didn't understand, seeing Zhong Yao's resolute attitude, he immediately went to follow suit.

On the other side, Xiaoqi General Yang Ke asked puzzledly: "Taiwei, why do you let the scouts run along the city wall?"

"Chang'an is difficult to defend because it is too big. There are 5 people in our city, all standing on one side of the city wall, which cannot be filled, let alone the four sides of the city wall."

Zhong Yao said with a serious face: "Now Shen Chen is attacking from the south, and Zhao Yun and Pound are on the north. Our soldiers are all defending on the north and south sides. Let alone the defense of the east and west walls, even the investigation forces are seriously insufficient. If Shen Chen goes north and south Feigning an attack, but actually sending a small group of troops to attack from the east and west, I am afraid that the gates on the east and west walls are in danger of being captured."

"I see."

Yang Ke nodded with a half understanding.

About two quarters of an hour later, Fei Yao came back in a hurry, and before he climbed up the high oar, he shouted to Zhong Yao from below: "Taiwei, it's not good, the enemy is attacking from the west city."

"really."

Zhong Yao shouted: "Hurry up, let the reserve team rush to the west city."

"only."

Fei Yao hurried to make arrangements.

At this time, Yang Ke was extremely impressed, and he gave a thumbs up and said: "The Taiwei has a clever plan, and he really guessed what the enemy wants to do."

But Zhong Yao was not happy. He looked at the Han army in the south with deep eyes, and said softly: "Shen Xiaoqing has many tricks. Even if he is found out, the weakness of our city is too big to hope that he has no other tricks."

The second wave of Xiaoyang is here, and a few friends around me are positive. Be careful, I haven’t been feeling very well in the past few days. I wanted to go to the hospital to see my stomach, but I have to register for a gastroscopy. Don't stop, let's fight, it will hurt the body, so I hesitated to do it, but the symptoms are basically chronic gastritis, you still have to pay attention to your body.