Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 836 Please enter the urn

Yuan Tan saw that most of Yuan Xi's army had entered the city, but left most of the cavalry outside. He understood that the other party was unwilling and wanted to wait for an opportunity to find a weakness in his own.

When he saw this, he was not in a hurry to withdraw his troops. Instead, he asked his soldiers to line up and defend his side airtight. At the same time, he began to ask his soldiers to search the newly captured auxiliary city again.

The reason for this is that Yuan Tan was extremely careful in his work, and the opponent easily gave up the sub-city. Although it seemed that he was unable to fight, he didn't know if it was a trick. If he set a trap in the city, he might be trapped. A somersault.

After this search, several rather dangerous places were found. These places were filled with firewood and tung oil was sprinkled in them. They were obviously preparing to light a fire, but I don't know if they didn't have time or were waiting to let Yuan Tan Jun entered the city before launching his attack.

However, since it was discovered, this strategy was useless. Yuan Tan asked the soldiers to disperse and transport the firewood outside the city, and searched again and again to ensure that there was no problem in the sub-city, and then he felt free to let the soldiers enter the garrison.

The reason for this is that he urgently needs such a sub-city as a stronghold to resist the harassment and sneak attacks by Yuan Xijun in the past few days.

If there is still a night attack like the previous few days, the soldiers can easily blow up the camp in the camp. Although Yuan Tan has a countermeasure, he still has to work hard and carefully to survive the past few days before he can safely reach the foot of Tobu City. , if something goes wrong, the result may be completely different.

Although this sub-city only occupies a few miles in area, for the current Yuan Tan army, it is no different from a solid fortress. The soldiers are stationed in it and will not panic even if they are attacked by the enemy. Therefore, after laying down this Yuan Tan was so happy after arriving in the vice city.

He led troops into the city, and while he sent soldiers to garrison, he also sent people to turn the entire city upside down. Only after all possible hidden dangers were eliminated, he felt relieved.

Now more than 10,000 people have poured into the city, all of them are the elite of Yuan Tan's army, while the remaining 30,000 people have camped on the walls of the sub-city and built a defensive formation.

In this way, Yuan Tan thought to himself that even if Yuan Xijun launched a massive attack, he would not be able to do anything to him!

It was getting dark, and Yuan Xi's army saw that they could not find any opportunities, so the cavalry dispersed. Zhang Liao and Xu Huang asked the soldiers to camp between Dongwu and another sub-city, and the two of them entered the city alone to meet Yuan Xi.

In Yuan Xi's official residence, Zhang Xunchangxi and others had arrived early. They looked ashamed and apologized to Yuan Xi. After all, they could say that they had not made any achievements under Yuan Xi's hands, and now they were defeated again. They couldn't hold their heads up for a while.

Yuan Xizheng was speaking to comfort him when he saw Zhang Liao Xu Huang coming in. He asked everyone to sit down and said, "Everyone came just in time. I was just about to say something."

"Today's confrontation is not over yet."

Everyone, who was already a little depressed, suddenly felt refreshed.

Zhuge Liang spoke up and said: "As of now, I won't hide it from you all. The strategy we made at the beginning was to attack with fire."

"Of course, this plan may not be successful. After all, Yuan Tan is very cautious and will search confidently after entering the sub-city. The spy reported that he has sent all the fire starters he received outside the city."

"In this case, we don't know how much can be burned left in the city, and the effect may be greatly reduced."

"But the original intention of this plan was not to burn many people to death, but to cause chaos in the city. The goal has been achieved."

"As you have seen today, Yuan Tanjun is very difficult to deal with. If we don't use caution, this battle is likely to be protracted."

"So whether it succeeds or fails, it all depends on tonight. Everyone returns to their positions and listens to the orders. If there is a fire in the opponent's city, all soldiers will be dispatched for a decisive battle!"

After hearing this, all the generals understood and all took the order.

Yuan Xi is not worried about leaking this kind of fire attack information. Even if it is leaked, Yuan Tan can't deal with it now. Can he abandon the city because of a piece of information that is difficult to distinguish between true and false?

If that were the case, abandoning the city at night would only mess up morale, but Yuan Xi could still take advantage of the opportunity to attack!

As night fell, Yuan Tan couldn't sleep. He led people to patrol the city and saw soldiers busy building wooden buildings overnight.

Because the city wall of the sub-city is too short to observe the enemy's situation, and this kind of wooden building is several feet higher than the city wall, it is very useful for observation and warning. Yuan Tan climbed to the top of a built wooden building and took out his telescope. Looking in the direction of Dongwu City.

Under the moonlight, Yuan Tan noticed that the soldiers at the top of Dongwu City were patrolling back and forth, but the number of them seemed a bit too much?

Yuan Tan thought deeply. He vaguely felt that something was wrong, but he just couldn't explain it. Is Yuan Xi really someone who gives up so easily?

Yuan Xi's actions in Yecheng impressed Yuan Tan deeply. The meeting with Yuan Tan in Beixin City, and then the battle of Qingzhou and Xuzhou made Yuan Tan realize step by step that Yuan Xi's threat was far greater than Yuan Shang's, and Yuan Tan It was Xi who entered Yecheng first, which allowed Yuan Tan to truly understand Yuan Xi's ambition and forbearance.

Would such a person give up a sub-city to himself in vain and do nothing?

Yuan Tan thought for a while, and then asked the bodyguard beside him: "How is the search in the city?"

The guard replied: "I have searched back and forth several times, and except for a few places that are tightly blocked, nothing unusual has been found."

"There are ventilation exits in these places. We once suspected that there were people inside, but after searching, we found that they might just be cellar passages with no human traces inside." Yuan Tan pondered, unmanned cellar passages?

This faction has some fortifications or places where baggage is stored. When it comes to passage fortifications, the Jizhou soldiers should be the best at it. Yuan Xi's Qingzhou soldiers also learned to dig these things for what?

His body suddenly shook, authentic?

Is it possible to contact the outside of the city and let it send people to sneak into the city to attack?

He then shook his head. This idea was too outrageous. Even if he could dig out a passage for several miles, would the soldiers who crawled over still be able to fight?

But no matter what, Yuan Tan was always worried. He looked down from the wooden building and saw that the city was very quiet. There were soldiers cooking everywhere, and the smoke rose high into the clouds.

Yuan Tan suddenly broke into a cold sweat. It was already past dinner time, why were there still people competing for cooking?

He quickly called his guards and said, "Let the soldiers bring fire-extinguishing tools and rush to the location of the fire separately!"

However, when Yuan Tan got off the wooden building and led his troops to a suspicious location, the smoke on the road became bigger and bigger.

But the soldiers did not find a clear location, because the smoke did not have a fire point on the ground, but came from the ground!

Yuan Tanna didn't know yet that he had been set up by Yuan Xi, but it was impossible for him to abandon the city at this time. He immediately mobilized his soldiers to find the source of the fire as soon as possible.

Finally, the hard work paid off, and the soldiers found an earthen house with black smoke coming out. Thick smoke continued to seep out from behind a closed secret door.

When Yuan Tan saw it, he asked the soldiers to destroy the secret door. The soldiers used axes to chop at it, and finally broke the weak secret door into pieces.

However, the moment the door was broken, the flames behind the door shrank slightly, and then violently exploded in all directions!

The dozen or so soldiers at the front were caught off guard and were immediately engulfed in flames. Their whole bodies were on fire and they rolled on the ground screaming.

If Yuan Xi were present, he would know that behind these secret doors are the igniting objects that he had hidden, and they were ignited tightly with a mechanism, while ventilating holes were reserved to ensure the fire.

But after all, the air entering the vent was limited, so it was only smoldering and the fire did not increase.

But now that the secret door was broken, the fire starter that had been burning inside suddenly encountered a large amount of air, and the fire suddenly increased in intensity.

Moreover, the fire starter used by Yuan Xi was not ordinary firewood and thatch, but carefully selected materials used to burn beacon smoke in ancient times.

Wolf smoke was originally used as a warning, and the smoke required to be burned was strong and difficult to dissipate. Therefore, after the ancients experimented, they lit it with different materials during the day and night.

During the day, dry firewood is first ignited, and then semi-wet firewood is burned together. In this process, appropriate grease-based combustion-supporting products are added, and the smoke produced is mostly thick and straight black smoke.

At night, because the light is not as good as during the day, fireworks are lit, and animal dung is mixed with tamarisk, Haloxylon ammodendron trees, weeds and dry branches for burning.

What Yuan Xi used was an improved version at night, which added gunpowder, tung oil, rosin and other substances that were already easy to smoke. When mixed, the smoke was extremely strong.

And the flame is not easy to extinguish. Before the city was destroyed, Yuan Xi had people set up delayed ignition devices in various cellars. Usually a stick of incense pressed with gunpowder, the time was calculated and controlled by the length of the incense, and at the same time at night Ignition caused such a situation!

The soldiers present were choked by the thick smoke and coughed, and their sight was blocked. When Yuan Tan saw this, he covered his mouth and nose and ordered the soldiers to fetch water to put out the fire.

But it was difficult to find a fire in the thick smoke. The soldiers poured water into it with buckets, but not only did the smoke not go out, but the half-wet appearance made the smoke thicker.

When Yuan Tan saw it, he knew that the fire he set must be very deep, and he asked for something that was mixed with tung oil and was not easy to extinguish. He immediately shouted: "This won't work, quickly block all exit doors!"

His idea was correct, but in the dark night, he could not find all the exits that Yuan Xi had set up with all his heart. So the smoke became more and more intense, and finally covered the street, and merged with the smoke coming from other directions. Together.

Yuan Tan looked at the coughing soldiers and knew something was wrong. The other party might not expect to burn them to death, but the smoke was enough to kill people!

At this time, there was a bang, and there was an explosion somewhere, and the flames shot into the sky.

After a while, the spies came to report, and Yuan Tan's face became even more ugly after hearing this. What was exploded was a hole buried deep with thatch and firewood. It was covered with wooden boards, and then the soil layer of the house, so it was not discovered. Now the fire started and burned. After the wooden planks were penetrated, the soil above collapsed, and a fire broke out, igniting the house above.

Yuan Tan looked at the gradually burning city and couldn't help gritting his teeth. Yuan Xi had to figure out this strategy, which must have cost a lot of money, and it was well thought out to deceive him!

But the situation no longer allowed him to think too much, because the soldiers at the top of the city came to report that the defenders in Dongwu City had already been dispatched!

Moreover, Yuan Xi's cavalry also appeared, and their number was far more than during the day!

Yuan Tan felt a little panicked. Yuan Xi actually hid his strength during the day?

On Tobu's side, Zhuge Liang looked at the burning sub-city in the distance from the top of the city. He kept giving orders, and mobile catapults were pushed out of the city.

(End of this chapter)