Great Han Empire

Chapter 945 Troubled Times Heroic Chapter Wins Central Plains
In the fifth year of Jianxing in the Han Dynasty (201 AD), October.

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In early October, the Northern Xinjiang Army launched a full-scale attack on Luoyang City.

On the battlefield in Xicheng, the Northern Army deployed [-] heavy, medium, and light stone cannons, [-] catapults, crossbows, and catapults, and [-] strong bows.

Amidst the deafening sound of war drums and the shouts of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, dense arrows and stones rushed into the sky, and the battlefield was like a tsunami, earth-shattering and magnificent.

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The northern border army continued to bombard, and the arrows and stones were like a storm, extremely violent.

The war drums were beating wildly, and the deep and violent drums resounded through the ten-mile battlefield, shaking the boundless sky.

The battle flags danced wildly, and the colorful flags set off layers of turbulent waves, which were magnificent.

The little emperor was stunned. The spectacular and bloody battlefield made his blood boil. Like an angry little tiger, he rushed to the edge of the platform, waved his fists, and roared hoarsely, as if he was crazy.

The civil and military officials cheered, 10,000+ soldiers roared, and hundreds of thousands of civilians roared. The huge shouts merged into billowing waves, and bursts of explosions exploded between the sky and the earth, causing landslides and landslides.

Everyone deeply felt the invincible power of the big man at this moment.

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The rebels in the city were silent and silent.

Li Hong frowned.

The expressions of Qu Yi, Zhang Yan, Yu Shi and others were also very dignified.

The general and the generals of northern Xinjiang had already predicted that Luoyang would be difficult to fight two years ago, so they made careful preparations for two years, but it seems that the situation is not optimistic now, and the defense of Luoyang City is far stronger than they imagined .

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The range of long-range weapons in Luoyang City is the edge of the city defense. There are stone cannons in the city. This edge area is at least between two hundred and three hundred paces, but the rebels in the city are very confident. Only then did the excavation of the moat begin.The range of [-] paces is the range where stone cannons and ballistas in the city can effectively fire.

The moat is about 12 feet wide (about [-] meters today) and [-] feet deep (about [-] meters today). Bamboo thorns and wooden thorns of different lengths are laid in the moat.There are five such moats, and the Northern Xinjiang Army needs to pay a high price if they want to successfully attack the moat under the fierce shooting of the rebels.

After the five moats, there is the moat.The moat is about fifteen feet wide (about 35 meters today), which is an insurmountable obstacle for the northern army.

The moat is still 450 feet (about [-] meters today) from the root of the wall.After the moat, there is a wider moat.There is a turn-off bridge on this moat.This kind of bridge has only one beam, the two ends of the beam protrude, and it is erected on the crossbar along the edge of the trench. When the enemy walks on the bridge, pull the mechanism to retract the crossbar, and the bridge deck will turn over, causing the enemy to fall into the trench. .

This moat is followed by Wengcheng and Fengyuan (yuan).Wengcheng is half a small city outside the main city gate, with a wall seventy feet high (about 16 meters today).The gate of the Wengcheng is set aside. When the gate is attacked by the enemy, the defenders on the tower can also shoot and kill the enemy soldiers who attacked the city.Once the enemy breaks through the Wengcheng, they will also fall into the condescending attack of the defenders on all sides.Feng Yuan is a low wall rammed with earth, about [-] feet high (about three meters today). The defenders lie behind the low wall and shoot and kill the enemy soldiers who crossed the moat.

After Feng Yuan, he refused to take the lead.The width of this refusal horse is ten to twenty feet, and it is mainly used to prevent the enemy from setting up ladders.Where the guards entered and exited, Juma and Luzhai were buried relatively shallow to facilitate the movement of the defenders, and prominent signs were placed so that the defenders on the city wall should focus on precautions.

After rejecting the horse belt is the root of the city wall.Although the high and steep city wall is not conducive to the enemy's climbing, it is also a blind spot for the defenders on the city to shoot. However, the rebels used more than a year of preparation time to build a large number of "horse faces" and towers on the city wall. make up for this defect.

The horse's face protrudes from the outside of the city wall and is integrated with the city wall. The defenders can shoot down from the heights and destroy the enemy in the dead corner below the city.There is a battle shed for soldiers to rest on the horse's surface, and the battle shed is surrounded by wooden piles.This kind of defense facility used to be only available in frontier fortresses and big cities in border counties, but Yuan Shao actually applied it to the protection of Luoyang City, which surprised the generals in northern Xinjiang.

The project of building the horse face was obviously a little bit bigger, and the rebels built a large number of temporary buildings on the extension wall according to the normal defense method.

Towers serve many purposes.Although the top of the city wall of Luoyang City is very wide, usually [-] to [-] feet, it is enough for the defenders to maneuver and fight flexibly, and the parapets on both sides of the extension wall are tall and thick, especially the outer parapets. There are dense shooting holes wide on the outside and narrow on the inside, and strong turrets are built at the corners of the city, but these defensive facilities are not enough in wartime, and temporary towers must be added.

On the extended wall, the rebels built an observation tower protruding five feet (about one meter today) from the outer city wall every 250 feet (about 60 meters today).Every 200 feet (about 360 meters today), a wooden building protruding [-] feet from the outer city wall was built to eliminate dead corners below the city and pinch the enemy troops below the city.At the same time, a horizontal wall made of high pointed wooden piles was erected every [-] feet. The height of the wooden piles was about [-] feet. Small gates were usually opened for passing through. Once the enemy troops climbed the wall, they would be closed. The horizontal wall continued to stop the enemy as a roadblock.In addition, every [-] feet (about [-] meters today), the rebels also built a wooden building protruding [-] feet (about [-] meters today) from the "inner female wall" to attack the enemy troops who broke into the city.

These are the protective facilities that the Northern Xinjiang Army can see at present. In the city, the rebels may have built more blocking facilities.The difficulty of attacking Luoyang City made the northern army feel powerless and frustrated.

The emperor's personal expedition inspired the morale of the northern army, but when the soldiers calmed down from their excitement and faced the tall and strong city wall ahead, the blood and death on the battlefield brutally beat them back to reality.

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The northern border army continued to bombard for an hour, and countless stones and arrows poured down on the city wall.

The buildings on the top of the city wall suffered a lot from the raging stones and arrows, and several small wooden buildings were directly knocked down by the stones.Wengcheng was also severely damaged, and the thin female wall on the front was destroyed by stones.The enemy army ambushing behind Feng Yuan was the focus of the Beijiang army's attack. They were almost submerged by large and small stones and arrows.

Luoyang City is too high, and there are gatehouses, horse faces, wooden buildings and other buildings on the city walls. The commanding heights of the rebels are daunting.If the commanding heights are controlled by the rebels, the Northern Army's strong attack will be suppressed, and the casualties must be astonishing. Therefore, the Northern Army used this month to build a large number of earthen platforms with wood and mud on the edge of the city defense, and then built on the earthen platforms. A solid wooden shed for ballista and archers.

In the middle of the crossbow platform and the arrow platform is the stone cannon position.

The stone cannons and catapults transported by the Northern Xinjiang Army to the city this time were of various types and in huge quantities. Among them, the continuous catapults and heavy stone cannons were put into the siege battle for the first time.

The continuous ballista is also called bed crossbow. It is used with two to six powerful crossbows connected together. There are fixed ones and vehicle-mounted ones. Ten people are required to operate them. There are two sets of winches for winding and one for pulling along the rope. The huge arrow shot back.This repeater can fire ten-foot-long arrows, or it can be loaded with sixty ordinary arrows at a time.At the Yanmen Pass of Juzhu Fortress, there is also a giant ballista connected by eight powerful crossbows.There is also a crossbow gun, which is used by fixing two strong crossbows on a wooden frame. It can shoot in any direction. It is weaker than ordinary ballista, but it is more convenient to use.

The catapults, like the catapults, existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In the late period of this dynasty, due to the abandonment of military equipment, only large fortresses such as Juzhu, Feihu, and Lulong were equipped with some. Later, they were scrapped due to disrepair and used as firewood. Burned.Fortunately, the catapult was built for Yin Si again, and the catapult was found in the corner of the arsenal in the Flying Fox Fortress.
In recent years, the infantry units of the Northern Xinjiang Army have been equipped with ballistas and catapults, but they are not very powerful.In order to attack Luoyang City this time, the general ordered the manufacture of a large number of catapults and heavy stone cannons.Due to the complexity of manufacturing, the number of continuous ballistas is small, only more than 20 units, while the heavy stone cannons have been improved due to the suggestion of the attendant Liu Ye, and the number has reached more than 300 units.

Stone cannons are generally classified according to the number of levers, and several strokes are called "shoots".The heavy stone cannons with five to seven tips require more than 200 people to pull the rope and throw stone bombs weighing fifty to sixty catties or even more than one hundred catties. This thing is too big and can only be used for city defense.Medium-sized stone cannons generally have two to four ends. When moving, they are equipped with four wheels, and livestock can run away after pulling them on.As for the light stone cannon, there is only one tip, which can be pulled by two or three soldiers, and the stone bullet only weighs one or two catties. If there is no stone bullet, it can be replaced by other things.Although this kind of light stone cannon is simple and simple, it is still effective if it hits the enemy, either maiming or killing it.

Liu Ye's improvement on the heavy stone cannon is mainly that it does not need to be pulled and released by people.According to his design, a huge stone was hung on the rear end of the lever. Before the bomb was fired, let it hang high in the air, and hook the lever with an iron hook to fix it.When the bullet is released, the iron hook is released, and the boulder at the rear end of the lever will fall rapidly, while the stone bullet at the front end of the lever will fly high.In this way, the manpower requirement is reduced, the range of stone bullets is longer, and their power is greater. The use of heavy stone cannons in field battles and sieges has become a reality.

The equipment of continuous ballistas and heavy stone cannons has greatly enhanced the attack power of the northern army, but strong attack power does not mean that they can control the commanding heights.The indiscriminate bombing by the Northern Xinjiang Army originally wanted to induce the rebels to fight back, so as to destroy the enemy's commanding heights as much as possible before the first storm, but the rebels seemed to have seen through the purpose of the Northern Xinjiang Army and did not shoot a single arrow. The Xinjiang army is in vain.

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The general gave the order to attack.

Qu Yi immediately ordered all the heavy stone cannons, catapults, crossbow cannons, catapults, and some medium-sized stone cannons to adjust their attack angles. After the storm began, all the stone bullets and arrows were shot at the main city wall and the urn city to suppress the enemy. counterattack.The rest of the medium-sized stone cannons, light stone cannons, and crossbows were all aimed at Wengcheng and Feng Yuan, and used powerful attacks to cover the advance of the assault trilogy. (The foot-stretched crossbow is stretched by the foot, and has a longer range, and is mostly used for siege. The arm-stretched crossbow is stretched by the arm, and has a shorter range, and is mostly used in field battles.)
Gao Lan ordered his assault troops to take the trench bridge and line up in front.

The trench bridge was made of thick wood, about seventy feet long, with wheels at both ends.There are baffles on both sides of the bridge deck, covered with a thick layer of mud to prevent enemy rocket attacks.Assault soldiers use this kind of equipment to climb over the moat, which can greatly save the attack time and speed up the attack speed.

The follow-up parts are arrayed later.The soldiers carried wooden boards one by one, and prepared to spread the wooden boards horizontally on the trench bridge after the assault trilogy conquered the moat, so that the follow-up troops could continue to advance.

The cars were all retreated to the front, and the strong archer followed closely behind.

Linche is like a simple tube building, more than 50 feet high (about 12 meters today), with an arrow house hanging from the top, so that archers can shoot down at the enemy from a high position.Generally, the effective range of the strong bow is from 150 steps to [-] steps. After the assault soldiers conquer the first and second moats, the front chariot and strong archers can play their roles to cover the assault step and continue to advance.

In a short period of time, the banners of each ministry's readiness were raised one after another.

"Beating the drum..." Gao Lan shouted wildly, "Attack, start attacking..."

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"Dong dong dong..." The war drums sounded, the flags flew, and the assault part began to attack.

"Kill..." Teams of fierce soldiers held up their shields, pushed the trench bridge, and ran with all their might, roaring straight into the sky.

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"Dong Dong..." Suddenly, drums sounded everywhere in Luoyang City, and arrows poured down like rain.

"Boom...boom..." Pieces of burning stones soared into the sky, screaming all the way, and ruthlessly rushed towards the northern border battle formation.

The rebels fought back.

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The rebels on the city wall were condescending and shooting hard. The roar of the ballista resounded through the sky, and the sharp arrows and burning stone bombs covered the sky.

At the same time, the enemy troops hiding behind Wengcheng and Feng Yuan also fired.

The assault part of the Northern Xinjiang Army is the main target of the enemy.The running soldiers fell one after another in the rain of arrows.Stone bullets smashed into the crowd one after another, stumps and broken arms shot up in all directions, and several stone bullets hit the trench bridge directly, breaking the thick trench bridge in half.

The crossbow stand, arrow stand and stone cannon position of the Northern Xinjiang Army were also the enemy's attack targets.Because the commanding heights were controlled by the enemy and the arrow array was dense, the earth platform was hit hard.All the archers on the arrow rest were forced to retreat into the wooden shed.Although the ballista on the crossbow are still bombarding continuously, the interval time is obviously longer.Because the stone cannon position was covered by a giant wooden shield, the initial situation was not too bad, but when a stone bullet from the rebels smashed the wooden shield and destroyed a medium-sized stone cannon, the problem became serious.

The captain of the Chariot Battalion asked General Qu Yi of the Left Guard whether to move the stone artillery position back.

Qu Yi cursed angrily, "What are you afraid of? He can hit you, but you can't hit him? Give me a blast..."

"My lord, the stone cannons of the rebels are in the city, and we cannot accurately judge the location."

"If you can't help it, find a way for me." Qu Yi whipped his whip to the ground, "First aim at the city wall and bomb it, and smash all the crossbows of the rebels. Hurry up..."

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"Boom..." The long trench bridge, like a roaring dragon, soared into the sky, drew a beautiful arc in the air, and fell heavily on the edge of the trench.

"Go up, go up..." Huang Tong lay on the ground, holding the shield tightly in one hand, and hammering the ground with the other, screaming loudly, "Cross the bridge, cross the bridge..."

Xiao Hei jumped up, his thin body was like a cunning rabbit, and rushed up the trench bridge in two or three steps.Several soldiers followed closely behind, running wildly.

"Xuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu'Xiao Hei didn't even think about it, he fell headlong into the mud, and before he fell to the ground, he didn't forget to yell, "Lie down, hurry up..."

The soldiers in the rear couldn't dodge in time, and two people fell down immediately. One of them fell into the ditch and was pierced by several bamboo thorns, screaming extremely shrill.

Xiao Hei cursed loudly at the top of his voice, using both hands and feet, he rushed to the opposite bank.

"Come over quickly..." Huang Tong kicked the stick, "Take your people, hurry up..."

"Brothers, let's go, let's go..." Stick turned around and yelled, and he rushed out like an arrow.

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At noon, the Northern Xinjiang Army successfully captured the first moat and erected a shield formation on the opposite bank.

The follow-up part then advanced, laying crossbars, covering the bridge deck with soil, and quickly prepared to attack the second moat.

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The little emperor curled up on the edge of the earthen platform, looking at the boiling battlefield ahead without blinking, the expression on his face kept changing, and his eyes were full of fear.

Li Hong went to him and sat down, and handed him half a piece of beef jerky, "Is it fun to fight?"

The emperor looked down at the black piece of beef jerky, but didn't pick it up or speak.

"On the battlefield, this is the best delicacy." Li Hong stuffed the jerky into his hand and said softly, "Those soldiers fighting in the front can only eat some black cakes to satisfy their hunger. Sometimes they are very hungry. I have nothing to eat, so I have to drink some blood. It doesn’t matter if it’s the enemy’s blood or your own blood, as long as it can satisfy your hunger. At this time, life is worthless, and living is just a luxury.”

The little emperor seemed to understand, he silently took the jerky, stuffed it into his mouth and chewed slowly.

"Afraid?"

The little emperor nodded and said in a low voice, "I want to go home."

Li Hong sighed.He felt that he was too cruel.A five-year-old child should act like a baby in the arms of his mother, and should play in a sunny field, instead of accepting this kind of death and pain on the battlefield.I seem to be doing something wrong.Li Hong stretched out his hand to hold the little emperor into his arms, and kissed his cold forehead. He wanted to say that I will take you home tomorrow, but he held back when he got to the point of speaking. He couldn't give up halfway, especially now at this time.This five-year-old child is not an ordinary child. He shoulders the heavy responsibility of rejuvenating the community. His fate has been doomed since the day he was born, and no one can change it.

"If Your Majesty is afraid, I will send someone to send you back to the camp."

The little emperor snuggled into the general's arms and hesitated for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "When will we win?"

"Three months, or five months, or..." Li Hong smiled wryly, "or one year."

The little emperor stared at Li Hong in a daze, and with a twist of his mouth, tears immediately flowed down, "I want to go home."

"What about the battle? No more?" Li Hong pointed to the hillside where the corpses were piled up in the distance, and said in a painful voice, "So many soldiers have died in battle, who will avenge them? Your Majesty is the emperor of the great man, the emperor of these soldiers." , Your Majesty should avenge them, if your Majesty escapes and abandons them, will they still honor you as the Son of Heaven?"

The little emperor could understand what he said, no matter whether he won or lost the battle, he could not abandon his brothers or his subordinates.When I played a war game with a group of friends, the one I hated the most was the escapers.

The little emperor lowered his head and sobbed softly.He really missed his aunt and wanted to go back to his warm home.

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The attack in the afternoon became more violent, and both sides seemed to want to unleash all the hatred they had accumulated for a long time, and more soldiers fell on the battlefield.

The second moat was successfully conquered.

Three hundred vehicles were pushed to the front, and six thousand strong archers boarded the arrow house and shot violently up and down the city. The road moat failed.

At dusk, Li Hong ordered the attack to stop.

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At the military meeting in the evening, the generals of various ministries reported the situation of the battle.

Zhao Yun and Yu Du's attack in Dongcheng was also unsuccessful.Wen Chou and Wu Xiong's attack in Nancheng was severely blocked.Sima Yi and Wei Yan spent a whole day fighting outside Beicheng. Although they lost the least amount of battle, they didn't win any battles, so their busy work was wasted.

Luoyang City is too high and too big, the number of defenders in the city is very large, and the commanding heights cannot be controlled, which is the main reason why the army's attack is blocked.

"Judging from the consumption of various battlefields today, the number of stone cannons in the city will be seriously insufficient in more than ten days." Fu Gan said a series of figures, and then continued, "According to the estimation of the Chariot Battalion, the number of stone cannons in the city is about Around 2000 units, no more than [-] units at most, and we have more than [-] units, and the stone bullets shot in the city cannot make up for our losses.”

"Before Yuan Shao burned down the houses outside Luoyang City, he forced the people to demolish a large number of houses and obtained an astonishing amount of supplies. On the contrary, we lost these supplements." Wang Ling continued, "General, we'd better think about it as soon as possible." There is a way to collect stone bullets, otherwise, after half a month, the attack will have to stop temporarily."

"You can handle this matter." Li Hong waved his hand and said, "Everyone go back to rest early, and continue to attack tomorrow."

"General, how is Your Majesty doing today? Is he overly frightened?" Yushi asked suddenly.

"It's okay." Li Hong comforted the generals with a smile, "Your Majesty is too young. You must be afraid at first, especially when you see blood and dead people. How can you not be afraid? But he is a boy after all. Boys are foolish and bold at this age. , After a long time, he will gradually get used to it. The adults should encourage him and let him persevere."

"The Luoyang battle is the first time for him, so why not the first time for us? It is also the first time for us to fight a battle of this scale, and we can only win but not lose, so please think about it, my lords. Find a way. Time is still long, we have to be patient."

The generals clung to their promises.

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In Luoyang City, Yuan Shao hosted a banquet to reward civil and military officials.

Today's battle has greatly enhanced the confidence of the soldiers to defend Luoyang.Luoyang is Luoyang, and the capital of the Han Dynasty is as solid as a rock and unbreakable.

After sending off the generals, Yuan Shao discussed offensive and defensive strategies with Yuan Wei, Feng Ji, Shen Pei and others in the study.

One thing they didn't expect was that Li Hong sent people to Jinyang to take the little emperor to the battlefield.Feng Ji smiled and said that this is enough to show that the soldiers in northern Xinjiang lack the confidence to attack the city.In the past, when they attacked the city and pulled out the stronghold, how could they have thought that Luoyang was such an unstoppable city?

"Brother Yuan Tu, Li Hong, Qu Yi, and Zhang Yan haven't seen any battles before?" Yuan Zhong shook his hand, "In my opinion, the morale of the Northern Xinjiang Army is very high, and the early attacks will be very fierce. We must persist until Only in winter can I take a little breather."

Yuan Shao was very excited. After drinking some wine, his complexion became even more rosy. He pointed to the judge and asked, "Zhengnan, what do you think? Can we hold on until the reinforcements come?"

"Judging from the current situation, as long as we can firmly control the commanding heights and firmly suppress the northern army's strong attack, they will not be able to climb the tower." end.

"What if the Northern Army controls the commanding heights?" Xin Ping immediately asked, "After the Northern Army ascended the tower, how do we fight back?"

"In the city, there are crossbow towers six hundred feet away from the city wall (about 140 meters today), and these crossbow towers form cross-fire with the gate towers, turrets, and various temporary towers on the city wall. Is there a place to stand?" Feng Ji waved his hand disdainfully, "With the city wall and the gate tower, our commanding height is at least 150 feet (about 36 meters deep), how can the Northern Xinjiang Army control it? Are they going to build a tower outside Luoyang City? tower?"

"Does Li Hong dare to do it? The stone cannons in the city exploded and turned into a pile of ruins." Wang Xiu smiled triumphantly, "It is absolutely no problem to defend Luoyang, but to win, defeat the northern army..." He The smile on his face gradually disappeared, "It depends on whether Liu Biao, Liu Bei and Cao Cao are willing to contribute?"

"We lost, are they still far away from death?" Yuan Shao said confidently, "Don't worry, there's no problem." Then he looked at the judge and asked, "Zhengnan, you designed the city defense by yourself. From today's Defensively, is there anything to improve?"

"There are too many stone cannons in the Northern Xinjiang Army." The judge said worriedly, "Although I expected it, I didn't expect that there would be so many stone cannons in Hebei, and there are heavy stone cannons that can fire stone bullets of [-] jin. "

"One hundred catties?" Yuan Shao was taken aback, "The stone that hit Yongmen Avenue weighed one hundred catties?"

The examiner nodded, "That stone bullet sank eight feet into the ground, it was terrible. In addition, there must be super-large ballistas on the ballista of the Northern Frontier Army. If it is a repeating ballista, its power is extraordinary."

"The Lianista has been lost for many years, how could the Northern Xinjiang Army have it?" Feng Ji asked in disbelief.

"Since they can make stone cannons, of course they can also make catapults." The judge said, "These heavy ordnance were deployed in frontier fortresses back then. Maybe someone left a blueprint. In short, I suspect that they are catapults. The arrows are too dense, and it is impossible for ordinary ballistas to have that much power."

Yuan Shao was silent for a while, then said helplessly: "So, it is possible that the northern border army has climbed the tower? Then what countermeasures do you have?"

"Immediately build a die." The judge thought for a while and said, "The city wall is surrounded by a ring road, which is connected to all the avenues in the city. As long as the Northern Xinjiang army rushes in, the city will be lost, so we A low wall of rammed earth should be built behind this ring road, which is the battlement, to form a defensive pattern of the city within the city. Then a trench should be dug in front of the battlement, and firewood should be stuffed inside. Once the enemy enters the city, the firewood will be ignited Form a wall of fire. In this way, we can cooperate with the army on the wall of fire and the army on the city wall, attack from inside and outside, kill the enemy on the road around the city, and drive the enemy out of the city again."

"Okay, I will do as you say." Yuan Shao said decisively, "If there are not enough bricks and stones, the courtyard walls of the palace will be demolished."

Everyone was shocked, Yuan Wei immediately dissuaded him: "At the beginning, there were so many houses in the city, why did you tear down the walls of the palace?"

"Hmph... If Li Hong pushes me into a hurry, I'll set the palace on fire." Yuan Shao sneered, "I want to see, is he ruthless or I am ruthless?"

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The next day, the Northern Xinjiang Army spent a whole day on the Xicheng battlefield, captured the third moat, and approached the moat.

On the eighth day, the northern army captured the five moats on the Xicheng battlefield, but at this moment the northern army still could not find a way to seize the commanding heights. Effectively suppressing the enemy's shooting, the casualties of the Northern Xinjiang Assault Division increased, and a temporary truce had to be carried out.

On the tenth day of October, Jia Xu, the general of the guard army, rushed to the Xingyuan of the Son of Heaven.

The situation in western Xinjiang is still grim.Beginning in September, the Qiang people began to besiege Yicheng, but because the Qiang people lacked siege equipment and all the people in the western borders had evacuated, the Qiang people could not find their husbands, and the siege did not make any progress.Jia Xu reckoned that when the winter in western Xinjiang came, the Qiang people would definitely withdraw to Jincheng and Longxi for the winter.

Li Hong asked if he had received any news from Hexi.Jia Xu said no, and there has been no news from Hexi so far.If Kebixiong joined forces with Leizi, Budugeng, Huding, Qishen and others, they should now march towards Tianqiong Desert, otherwise it would be very difficult for them to cut off the Hexi Qiang people's retreat before winter came.

Li Hong was worried, and talked to Jia Xu about the attack on Luoyang.

"General, you should go to Guanzhong." Jia Xu sighed, "The people in Guanzhong are too miserable. Refugees in the western borders, the reconstruction of Chang'an City, the repair of Liyang Palace, the great battle in Luoyang, the great war in the western borders , The relocation of the imperial court and the various houses all need their food and their manpower, and the people in Guanzhong are no longer able to sustain it."

Li Hong already knew something about this matter in Xu Rong's letter, so he didn't say anything, waiting for Jia Xu's next words.

Jia Xu saw that Li Hong didn't respond, so he continued cautiously: "Under the current situation, the attack on Luoyang can be temporarily stopped, and the refugees in Guanzhong and Luoyang should be resettled first, so as not to have a winter. Compete to eat."

"So, you have a way to conquer Luoyang City?" Li Hong asked happily.

"I have a very stupid way, but it is definitely the most effective way." Jia Xu smiled, "General, if we concentrate [-] stone cannons on the battlefield in Xicheng, supplemented by [-] ballistas and [-] Zhang Qianggong, bombarding Luoyang's Yongmen day and night, how long can Luoyang City hold on?"

Li Hong was shocked.

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(End of this chapter)