Soldiers come to the world

The Jiangdong Army has already withdrawn to Caohekou. The sneak attack in the middle of the night and the fierce battle in the early morning have caused heavy losses to the Jiangdong Army, with nearly a thousand casualties. Six uncles and two village chiefs were killed in battle. Even the leader Xu Sheng was injured by an arrow. , morale suffered a severe setback.

Inside a large boat, Xu Sheng was bare upper body, with his left arm pierced through the wooden ring, and he was biting the leather. A military doctor beside him was carefully pulling out the arrow on his left arm.

A burst of severe pain came, and Xu Sheng sweated profusely from the pain, and closed his eyes, "Dang bang! 'With a sound, the arrow fell into the copper plate.

"It's done!" The military doctor also heaved a long sigh of relief, "Fortunately, the arrowhead is not poisonous, and it didn't hurt any bones. The general will recover after a month or two of rest."

Xu Sheng took the handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat on his forehead, and he also let out a sigh of relief. At this moment, a soldier beside him said: "General, I have already found out who shot this arrow?"

"Who is it?" Xu Sheng asked with a frown.

Generally speaking, it is extremely normal to be hit by a cold arrow on the battlefield, and it is not important to ask who shot the arrow.

But Xu Sheng had a deep impression on that young general, and he couldn't forget it. Who is he?

"A brother who participated in the war said that the enemy army called that young general Mr. Jing, and it is very likely that this person is Liu Biao's nephew Liu Jing."

'It turned out to be him! '

Xu Sheng remembered the confession of the prisoners of war again, Zhou Ling was killed for collaborating with the enemy, a bitter smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, leading the army to attack Chaisang, wouldn't it be that this Liu Jing was taken advantage of in vain.

At this time, Pan Zhang walked into the room quickly. Although Xu Sheng failed to attack the city, he also failed to attack the water gate, which made him frustrated and unable to put on a posture in front of Xu Sheng.

"Is Wen Xiang's injury serious?" Pan Zhang asked with concern.

Xu Sheng shook his head, "It didn't hurt any bones, so it's not a big problem."

"Then what should we do next?"

Xu Sheng pondered for a while and said, "Now we only have two thousand troops left. It is obviously unrealistic to take the city. We have to wait for the governor to send reinforcements."

Pan Zhang didn't speak for a while, and finally sighed, "We shouldn't have only led an army of [-], we made a mistake."

"The [-] troops were just for a sneak attack. There was no mistake in itself. My mistake was in the way I captured Chaisang."

Speaking of this, Xu Sheng also showed regret on his face. If he had known that the guard last night was so greedy for money and bribes, they should have bribed him before. With the support of the guard, it would be easy for them to capture Chaisang.

Now it is a wrong step, wrong step, changing to Liu Jing guarding Chaisang, I am afraid they will have to pay a heavy price.

. . . . . . . . .

In Chaisang City, it was a different scene. Almost all the adult trees in the city were cut down, and the logs were dragged to the largest school ground in Chaisang City, which was the school ground where Liu Jing practiced martial arts and buried Huang Yong. Wood and iron were piled up like mountains.

Hundreds of tents have been set up in the school grounds, and more than [-] craftsmen from Chaisang City, including carpenters, blacksmiths, leathersmiths, and stonemasons, have gathered to build stone cannons and trebuchets according to the drawings.

Not only artisans, but almost the entire Chaisang City were mobilized, and every household donated their private collection of weapons, armor, leather, and even smooth polished stone materials for the house.

The big households in Chaisang, including the Tao family and the Zhu family, were even more active in donating money and materials. The Tao family alone contributed [-] million yuan and [-] shi to store food, which was all the money and food stored in the Tao family's house.

On the other side of the school grounds, Wang Tai led more than a hundred Tao family soldiers to train three thousand civilians, teaching them the basic skills of weapons.

The [-] young and strong civilians have been equipped with weapons and armor, and they are no longer ordinary civilians. Apart from weak combat skills and clumsy use of weapons, there is no difference between them and regular soldiers from the outside.

Xu Shu was temporarily appointed as the head of the Bing Cao, in charge of military affairs in Chaisang. Since Liu Jing himself had no position in Chaisang, Xu Shu's head of the Bing Cao was also a vacant position, just Liu Jing's staff.

Even so, this is Xu Shu's first position in Jingzhou after all, and he has great power and responsibility. All the money, food, materials and craftsmen are in his charge. He is also conscientious and does not dare to slack off.

Knowing that he couldn't do it alone, Liu Jing borrowed five smart and capable stewards from the Tao Mansion to assist him, and allocated him a hundred soldiers.

Xu Shu received Liu Jing's carte blanche, and quickly displayed his outstanding talent. In less than half a day, he organized everything in order, and the trebuchet began to run smoothly.

In fact, whether it is Xu Shu or Zhuge Liang, their real talent is not in military strategy, but in handling government affairs, just like the talent of a general lies in commanding the army, not fighting on the battlefield.

From recruiting craftsmen, felling trees, managing supplies, to drawing blueprints, arranging wages, board and lodging, organizing craftsmen to work together, etc., there are so many things, the affairs are very complicated, and almost everything is not easy to do well.

But it only took Xu Shu half a day to handle everything in an orderly manner, which made everyone amazed that this scholar had such outstanding talent.

At this time, Xu Shu was accompanying Liu Jing to inspect the manufacturing progress of the defensive weapons. As the supreme commander of Chaisang City, Liu Jing didn't need to do it himself, he had to focus on coordinating the defense.

Liu Jing also received the general support of Chaisang's army and civilians, on the one hand because he was Liu Biao's nephew and had a noble status.

On the other hand, it was the Tao family's full support for Liu Jing, which led to the recognition of Liu Jing from the Chaisang clan, while the other clan, the Zhou family, remained silent and did not object to Chaisang's support for Liu Jing.

With the rich and powerful families taking the lead, ordinary people naturally follow the lead, and enthusiastically support Liu Jing in fighting against the Jiangdong Army.

It is also for this reason that Chaisang City was able to mobilize the entire city, contribute money and efforts, and support Liu Jing's defense against Jiangdong.

Seeing that groups of craftsmen were busy and the materials were transported in an orderly manner, Liu Jing was also very surprised, so he asked Xu Shu with a smile, "It took only half a day for these craftsmen to get on the right track. How did Yuan Zhi do it?"

Xu Shu smiled slightly, "It's actually very simple. Every craftsman in the city has its own craftsmen. I just need to find these craftsmen, give them ten times the profit, stipulate when it will be completed, and promise to give you money for every stone cannon or trebuchet produced. How many rewards, then I don’t have to worry about everything, they will naturally step up to supervise the craftsmen.”

It was only then that Liu Jing suddenly realized that Xu Shu had hired a bunch of project managers. No wonder he was able to make such rapid progress. This was because he was well versed in management.

"Then when will the first one be the fastest?" Liu Jing asked curiously again.

Xu Shu smiled mysteriously, "My lord, please follow me."

Liu Jing walked into a big tent with him, and was stunned for a while. He saw a huge stone cannon placed in the big tent, and several craftsmen were busy checking it.

The stone cannon, also known as the Fashi Chariot, was used extensively by Cao Cao during the Battle of Guandu to attack Yuan Shao's army with great effect.

Its shape is actually an enlarged crossbow, which can shoot huge arrows and stones. The range is between fifty steps and one hundred steps, and it has a positive defensive effect on defending the city.

For example, rolling wood and rocks are a sharp weapon against the siege army, but generally speaking, people need to stand on the side of the city wall and throw stones down, so that they are extremely easy to be shot by the crossbow arrows of the siege army below.

However, with the stone cannon, it can be launched in the air, avoiding the casualties of the city defenders, and at the same time, it has a longer range and a larger killing range. It is also an effective defensive weapon against ships and various siege weapons.

Liu Jing stepped forward and gently stroked the first hair stone cart. It was made of newly felled trees, and even the bark was not peeled. It was a little rough, but it could be seen that the binding was very strong.

Xu Shu called an old craftsman in his sixties forward and introduced to Liu Jing: "This old craftsman is called Qin Wu. He used to make ordnance in Cao Jun's camp. The blueprints for the secondary stone cannon and the trebuchet were all drawn by him, and this stone cannon was also built by his apprentices."

The old craftsman knelt down and saluted, "Xiaomin pays homage to Mr. Jing!"

Liu Jing quickly helped the old craftsman up, "Old Qin, you don't need to be polite."

He glanced at the stone cannon and smiled again: "It's a great achievement to be able to build a stone cannon and a trebuchet, and I will definitely reward you heavily."

Qin Wu showed shame on his face, and he sighed: "Actually, this stone cannon can only be used for ten days at most, and it can only be used temporarily."

Liu Jing was stunned, "How do you say that?"

"Returning to my son, a qualified stone cannon is very particular about the wood. It is best to use strong jujube or oak wood, and it must be air-dried for more than three years. This stone cannon is camphor wood, which is fine, but it has not been air-dried. After more than ten days, it will be deformed and cracked, and it can no longer be used."

Liu Jing nodded, he could understand that the wood should be air-dried, but it needs to be air-dried for three years. Could it be that Cao Cao started preparations three years ago?

Qin Wu seemed to know what Liu Jing was thinking, and said with a wry smile: "In the northern region, dried wood abounds, and there are empty houses that no one lives in. If the houses are demolished, the beams are just that."

That's why Liu Jing finally understood, he smiled and said: "I may be able to get these beams in the future, but anyway, with these stone cannons and trebuchets, I can defend Chaisang, thank you very much .”

At this moment, there was a cheer from outside the tent, and a craftsman rushed in, excitedly saying, "Fifth Qin, the trebuchet is finished!"

Everyone walked out of the big tent quickly, and saw a trebuchet standing not far away, about two feet high, with a long throwing pole like a fishing rod thrown by a fisherman, and a group of craftsmen surrounded it and cheered happily.

Liu Jing's heart became hot, and he was about to step forward when a soldier ran over quickly and whispered something in Liu Jing's ear.

Liu Jing was overjoyed immediately, and ignored the catapult, said hello to Xu Shu, then got on his horse and headed towards Nancheng.

Chaisang has two city gates, the north and the south. Currently, the south city has been sealed off, and only the north city is allowed to enter and exit. Because of the war, people are no longer allowed to enter and exit the north city at will.

But at this time, a group of soldiers and horses appeared outside the Nancheng, about five to sixty people, with messy clothes and different weapons. The leader was a general holding a broadsword and riding on a horse.

This person is Liao Hua who came from Jingcheng Town.