The Jagged Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 293 Chapter 292
Following Zang Ba's order, on the city wall of Licheng, archers set up their arrows one after another, drew their bowstrings, and looked up to the sky to shoot.

Outside the city, Yuan Jun rushed over like ants, carrying ladders, pushing all kinds of siege equipment such as well fences, rush carts, giant ballistas, and catapults, all swarming to the city.

Zang Ba frowned. For ten days in a row, Yuan Tan did everything he could to launch two or three strong attacks every day. Licheng had become an isolated city, swaying in front of Yuan Jun's storm.

However, the soldiers in the city were united and resisted to the death. They had stood firm for ten days. Facing Yuan Tanxin's onslaught, the soldiers all realized that this was another fierce battle.

No one ran away, no one was afraid of a strong enemy, and no one thought about surrendering.

Under Yuan Tan's soldiers, more than [-] soldiers in Li City were completely twisted into a single rope, and they all defended against the outside world without retreating.

The fierce battle started again. Zang Ba and others continued to fight under Yuan Jun's powerful attack, repelling waves of enemies who came to attack. His voice was hoarse, he raised the weapon in his hand, and kept slashing at the enemy's head.

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

"Whoosh whoosh..."

Yuan Jun's well rails, giant crossbow carts, and trebuchets had all entered range, and they kept firing arrows, giant crossbow arrows, and huge stones on the tower, attacking the defenders like a storm.

The defenders on the city wall were killed one after another. As soon as one fell down here, the vacancy was filled immediately behind, and no one took half a step back.

The city tower was already riddled with holes, but at this time it suffered from such an onslaught, and finally it was overwhelmed. It collapsed with a loud bang, and the military flag fluttering in the wind on the city tower was also broken by a huge boulder. The dust was so thick that it was impossible to open your eyes.

The screams kept ringing out. At this moment, the two sides entered into a state of fierce fighting. For this piece of the city, you fought for it, and no one wanted to give it up.

The arrows were like a dense rainstorm, one cluster after another shot at the tower. There were many arrows in the defenders, but they were not slightly injured, and they continued to fight with injuries until the end of their lives.

Outside the city, Yuan Tan was riding on a horse, looking extremely anxious. For ten days, he launched more than a hundred strong attacks, but he didn't capture a piece of the city, and lost more than 2 troops.

Not only that, the morale of the army has also been affected. Now the morale is low, and the soldiers are exhausted physically and mentally. If he can't capture the city today, he really can't explain to the whole army.

Xu You, Guo Tu, and Pang Ji were all around Yuan Tan. These three counselors were in the same mood as Yuan Tan. In the past ten days, they had tried everything they could, including scheming, digging tunnels, disturbing the morale of the army, etc. It can be said that he is omnipotent, but every time he uses a strategy, Zang Ba sees through it, and in desperation, he has no choice but to launch a strong attack.However, they couldn't attack more than a hundred times by force, and they couldn't even take down a piece of the city.

Looking at the dilapidated city wall of Licheng, everyone was frowning. They attacked day and night for ten days in a row. Their troops took turns to fight, and they couldn't hold on anymore. The defenders were like men of iron. Fight them tirelessly to the end.

On the top of the city, waves of soldiers who attacked were repelled. The distance from the moat to the city was already covered with mountains of corpses and blood. On the side, assist the soldiers to attack the city and suppress the defensive force on the tower.

However, to everyone's surprise, even under such a fierce blow, the defenders still did not retreat in the slightest. Instead, they fought more and more courageously. All of them turned red-eyed and continued to kill Yuan Jun's soldiers who climbed up the city wall.

In addition, what troubled Yuan Tan and others even more was that the arrows shot by the archers on Jinglan could easily injure their own side by mistake. Although the huge crossbow arrows fired by the giant ballista had a long range, they were extremely complicated to launch and required more than ten hours to launch. Individual operations also required physical strength. With the exhaustion of physical strength, the number of arrows fired by the giant ballista became less and less, and a group of people was exhausted.

The trebuchet was the most troublesome thing for Yuan Tan, because the boulders launched were not accurate, so they often accidentally injured their own soldiers rushing down the city. In the end, they had to stop the launch of the trebuchet, and simply relied on the archers on the well. , to shoot accurately at the defenders on the city wall.

However, using a bow to shoot arrows still requires physical strength. At first, soldiers shot with high speed, strength, and accuracy. However, with the exhaustion of physical strength, the strength on their arms became less and less. The average soldier shot four or five arrows in a row. It is already considered good.Non-stop shooting, but also accurate shooting, which requires archers with superb archery skills to complete.

Among Yuan Jun's many archers, there are very few archers who have the technique of piercing Yang with one hundred steps. Basically, there may not be one among a hundred.Therefore, the threat of arrows is getting smaller and smaller for the defenders, and the arrows they shoot are getting less and less powerful.

After about a stick of incense, the enthusiasm of Yuan Jun's soldiers was hit, and their morale gradually dropped, without the bravery they had when they charged.

Yuan Tan knew that this charge would end in failure again.

Just when Yuan Tan was about to open his mouth to order the troops to withdraw, a scout suddenly came to Yuan Tan's side, escaped a secret report from his arms, and said loudly, "My lord, the lord's order!"

Yuan Tan watched the secret report and did not move. Since he led the army into Qingzhou, apart from reporting to Yuan Shao about the smooth battle situation at the beginning, he has blocked the news that he has been attacking Licheng for ten days. No escalation was made.

This secret report came suddenly, Yuan Tan's heart skipped a beat, wondering if Yuan Shao already knew about the battle here and wrote a warrant to blame him?
"Eldest son, the lord's warrant!" Guo Tu whispered in Yuan Tan's ear. He is Yuan Tan's confidant, and he can basically know what Yuan Tan is thinking, and he is the one who did not report the battle situation. idea.

After such a reminder from Guo Tu, Yuan Tan immediately took over the warrant, opened it, looked at it immediately, and frowned into a Sichuan character.

Seeing this, Xu You, Guo Tu, and Pang Ji first looked at each other in blank dismay, and thought to themselves, "Could it be that my lord has already heard the news?"

Xu You, Guo Tu, and Pang Ji were the three counselors appointed by Yuan Shao, and they were asked to assist Yuan Tan. The East Route Army's battle situation was not good, and they had no face, and they were likely to be punished.

Yuan Tan immediately handed the warrant to Guo Tu beside him, and said, "Zhao Yun led an army to secretly break into Jizhou. Yuan Shang, who stayed in Yecheng, was unable to resist. Even though Zhao Yun went deep alone, he was able to sweep the counties of Jizhou. Now stationed in Ganling City, my father asked me to dispatch a troop to destroy Zhao Yun. But our army’s attack here is blocked, if we withdraw here, it will give Zang Ba a chance to breathe... Gentlemen, do you have a chance? suggestion?"

Guo Tu, Xu You, and Pang Ji gathered together to watch Yuan Shao's warrant, and seeing that what was written on it was basically the same as what Yuan Tan said, it could be seen that Yuan Shao didn't know the battle situation of the Eastern Route Army at all, which made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

Hearing Yuan Tan's question, Guo Tu first said: "Zhao Yun's solitary army went deep, but let's ignore it for the time being. The top priority is to eliminate Zang Ba as soon as possible. As long as Zang Ba is eliminated and Licheng is captured, our army can gallop in Qingzhou, and even Break into the territory of Xuzhou and approach Pengcheng."

"Then ignore Zhao Yun?" Yuan Tan asked.

Guo Tudao: "Let Zhao Yun be rampant in Jizhou for a while, not to mention that the third son is in charge of Jizhou instead of the lord. The more Zhao Yun destroys Jizhou, the more incompetent the third son will be?"

Yuan Tan nodded and didn't speak any more. He hated this third younger brother very much in his heart, because there were rumors that Yuan Shao loved Yuan Shang and even planned to make Yuan Shang his heir.Of course, these are internal news, and it is extremely difficult for outsiders to know, and Yuan Tan has never mentioned it to anyone.The only one who knew about this was Guo Tu.

"My lord, I thought that Zhao Yun would not stay in Ji Prefecture if he went deep alone. It is better to send an army to Gaotang immediately to prevent Zhao Yun from leading his army southward and attacking our army." Xu You said.

"Even if Zhao Yun travels south, it is impossible for him to come to Gaotang. From my guess, Zhao Yun is likely to go to Puyang and attack the lord's army. Now our army should attack the city with all its strength, and don't worry about other things." Guo Tudao.

Pang Ji hurriedly said: "My lord's warrant, you can't disobey it. Our army has many generals. Even if we want to attack Licheng, we don't need that many people. If the eldest son doesn't do anything, if the lord finds out, he will definitely blame him. Eldest son, why don't you send out an army to enter Jizhou, at least you can confuse the lord and let the lord know that the eldest son has indeed sent an army into Jizhou to conquer Zhao Yun."

Yuan Tan turned his head and glanced at Guo Tu, Guo Tu immediately said: "Pang Canjun's words are very reasonable, but here is a critical moment, and we can't recruit good soldiers and strong generals, why not have Pang Canjun lead an army and go to Jizhou? "

Pang Ji was not a fool, so he could naturally see what Guo Tu meant, and he didn't like Yuan Tan in the first place, so it might be a good thing to be able to leave at this time.He immediately clasped his fists and said: "At an extraordinary time, I can only do this extraordinary thing. I am willing to lead an army into Jizhou."

Therefore, Yuan Tan immediately ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops and temporarily withdraw the siege troops. That night, he dispatched [-] troops and asked Guo Tu to hand them over to Pang Ji, who then took them to Jizhou to attack Zhao Yun.

Pang Ji didn't have any objections, but when he saw the [-] troops he brought, he felt a little fooled. The troops were all old, weak, sick and disabled, tall and short, fat and thin. How could such an army Can it resist Zhao Yun's army?
In desperation, Pang Ji had no choice but to bite the bullet and headed for Jizhou with an army of [-] wounded soldiers.

(End of this chapter)