Yuan Xi had nothing to do against the arrows on the mountain, but if Ma Chao were to attack the city, it would still be difficult to climb the city, especially under the city wall, where the boiling oil and falling rocks would be thrown down as if they were free of charge.
Time passed quietly as Ma Chao kept trying to attack the city. The fifteenth day agreed with Chen Gong was almost here. Ma Chao still failed to break the city. The 3,000 soldiers he brought were losing dozens every day. Although not
A lot, but after counting over the past few days, more than 500 people have been lost!
Ma Chao was a bit overwhelmed by this battle loss.
"Young General, we can't attack anymore!" Dong Chao found Ma Chao, looked at Ma Chao and said with a bitter smile: "If we continue to attack, we will all be killed."
The loss of these people is actually not important. We can still afford the loss of 500 people.
It is said that if the battle losses exceed 10%, morale will collapse. That is in a battle, and their losses are accumulated. Although it affects morale, it will not collapse.
Moreover, the most important reason for the low morale is that no one can see hope. After several days, Ma Chao tried his best and failed to break through the Juyong Pass. He was just short of giving wings to the soldiers, but even so, they could not conquer it. Originally, the soldiers were unable to defeat the Juyong Pass because of Ma Chao.
The morale accumulated from defeating two cities has long been exhausted.
As long as there is some progress in Fanma's super power, his morale will not be so low.
Ma Chao looked at the soldiers in the barracks. It was obvious that their energy was not as good as when they came.
"How many days has it been?" Ma Chao fiddled with the fire in front of him and felt a little pain in his head. He felt that he had used his brain more these days than in the previous half of his life. Although he didn't feel physically tired now, he felt mentally tired.
It does feel a bit fatal.
"Today is the thirteenth day!" Dong Chao knew what Ma Chao was asking. The date agreed between him and Chen Gong was almost here, but Juyong Pass was still as stable as Mount Tai, like an insurmountable natural chasm.
From this point of view, it is not necessarily wrong for the opponent to hold on and not come out. Whenever the opponent takes the opportunity to come out these days, Ma Chao may cause heavy losses to the opponent. However, it has not happened once. The flaws of Ma Chao's selling are like ogling a blind man.
, has no effect.
Saying that the other side is incompetent? But in fact, it is they who are demoralized now, not the other side. Although the arrow formation on the mountain has an impact, after getting used to it, the enemy's morale has not dropped anymore. The other side even built a corridor on the city.
Specifically designed to allow soldiers to avoid arrows.
No matter how talented Ma Chao is, facing the turtle-shell-like level of Juyong Pass, he can only look angry.
Ma Chao remained silent. The date he agreed with Chen Gong was coming soon. When he went to ask for advice in person, he was made a bet by Chen Gong. This made Ma Chao very unhappy at the time. He had an unruly temperament and could not stand such soft nails. Since Chen Gong
If Gong didn't help, he wanted to break the Juyong Pass and show it to Chen Gong. Chen Gong could break it without him.
But seeing the time approaching, Juyongguan remained motionless, and Ma Chao couldn't help feeling a little frustrated.
"General, drink some broth. Juyong City sent some cows. They were just killed today. I added refined salt to the general." Dong Chao handed Ma Chao a bowl of beef soup with pieces of beef floating in it.
Just smelling it makes your mouth water.
Refined salt is actually not a rarity in the Central Plains. Under the rule of Chu Nan, coarse salt has been almost eliminated, even in neighboring Jizhou, Qingzhou, Jingzhou and other places, because Chu Nan encourages this kind of cross-border salt.
Due to cross-border trade, refined salt has gradually become less scarce, but for Guanzhong, after years of fighting, even if the army can have enough food, it is good. Even for warlord leaders like Ma Chao, refined salt is not
It's more luxurious, let alone ordinary soldiers.
Ma Chao took the bowl and ate the beef with great gulps. Although he was a little frustrated, it was two different things from eating, and he couldn't think of anything when he was hungry.
"I eat meat every day, and I feel uncomfortable if I eat too much." Ma Chao felt that he should not eat minced meat, but his eyes were looking at the decomposed cow skeleton in the distance, where the kitchen workers were cleaning up the cowhide.
"This cowhide is good for making armor." Dong Chao took a look and said, "These cowhide should be able to make ten pieces of leather armor."
However, Ma Chao stood up, brought the broth to the cow skeleton, looked down at the cowhide that had been preliminarily processed, and asked the cook: "How many cowhide are there in the army?"
"Return to the general, there are about eight of them in the army." The cook didn't know why and answered truthfully.
"Bring them all," Ma Chao said to the cook.
"Here!"
"Major General, what's the use of cowhide?" Dong Chao looked at Ma Chao doubtfully.
"I want to try again tonight!" Ma Chao looked at Niu Pi and said.
"Is it related to this cowhide?" Dong Chao looked at the cowhide on the ground.
"Yeah." Ma Chao took a sip of the broth and nodded: "I want to make a shell out of solid wood, wrap it in cowhide, and then rush to the city and dig through the city wall!"
The cowhide is fireproof, and the solid wood shell plus the wrapping of the battle formation should be able to withstand the impact of falling rocks.
"Chisel... chisel through the city wall!?" Dong Chao looked at Ma Chao dumbfounded: "Major General, this city wall is more than ten feet thick, how can it be chiseled through?"
And how long will it take to dig through the city wall that is more than ten feet long?
"This is the only one I can think of right now." Ma Chao drank up the broth in one gulp and looked at Dong Chao and said, "There are still two days left. I will go and dig through the city wall myself. It's hard for me to admit defeat like this!"
"
"The general will understand!" Looking at Ma Chao's expression, Dong Chao suddenly felt like an old father seeing his son grow up. In the past, Ma Chao's eyes were mostly unruly. When he encountered setbacks, he usually avoided them. Apart from practicing martial arts,
It's rare to see Ma Chao complete one thing completely, and this time, in Ma Chao's expression, Dong Chao felt a rare perseverance that he had never seen before. In order to defeat Chen Gong and conquer this Juyong Pass, Ma Chao
These days, I almost dream about how to break the city.
No matter whether it can be done or not, since his young general wants to do it and is so determined, there is no reason why Dong Chaozhou can stop him.
Immediately, he ordered someone to bring a ram truck and modify it.
Rushing a car is not as simple as four wheels and a log. A regular car rush will hit a log and is hung to facilitate the exertion of force. Secondly, there is a baffle on the top to protect the siege soldiers from harm. It is also very large and can usually be used.
It can accommodate twenty or thirty people.
Dong Chao had the bumpers removed, then wrapped the roof with cowhide, and had the sides covered with it. Because it was a modification, by midnight, a rush car without the bumpers was ready.
"Young General, how about we give it a try tomorrow?" Dong Chao looked at Ma Chao and said with a smile.
"I'll go tonight!" Ma Chao shook his head, looked in the direction of Juyongguan and said, "I'll take the people there myself and let them prepare the tools!"
Dong Chao nodded. It would be difficult for an ordinary soldier to injure Ma Chao with a volley of thousands of arrows. He immediately ordered his men to prepare stone cutting tools and follow Ma Chao to push the chariot towards the Juyongguan city wall under the cover of night.
It was impossible to hide the sound of the rushing car from the other side. Soon there was a reaction on the top of the city. Arrows fell like raindrops, but they were not accurate. The defenders only shot in the general direction based on the sound. In addition, the rushing car
After renovation, it became stronger and went all the way to the city gate. This was the result of discussions between Ma Chao and Dong Chao. Even if the city gate was sealed, it would definitely be looser than other places.
Ma Chao used all his strength and began to wildly bombard the city gate. The thick city gate was shattered piece by piece under Ma Chao's bombardment.
The defenders at the top of the city were confused when they heard the movement below the city.
In the past, such an arrow formation could scare off the opponent during night attacks, but why is it still there today?
"Over here!" A soldier above the city gate could clearly hear the sound below and quickly called the vigil general.
"No, they are breaking down the city gate, kerosene!" The general listened for a moment and finally knew what the other party was going to do. He immediately ordered someone to bring kerosene and smash it down!
"Boom~"
The kerosene tank hit the ram car, and the torch that was dropped later ignited it. However, facing the ram car wrapped in cowhide, it did not cause actual damage. After the kerosene burned, the ram car only became hot.
The soldiers who looked over to check the situation could clearly hear the clanging sounds coming from the city.
The city gate had been blasted to pieces by Ma Chao, and now the accompanying soldiers were chipping away at the rubble in the gate hole and moving it out.
"General, the bandits are clearing the city gate!" the soldier looked back and looked at the general who was defending the city.
"Fire oil, falling rocks, don't stop here!" The general sneered. The city gate hole was more than ten feet long. It took a long time to seal it with various huge rocks. With dozens of people trying to dig it,
It's not easy to talk about it. If the kerosene falls down like this, even if the opponent has any defense methods, the high temperature caused by the burning kerosene can suffocate the opponent to death!
After receiving the order, the soldiers immediately threw cans of fire oil downwards, which illuminated the area near the city gate for a while.
The fact was just as the general thought. Although the cowhide-wrapped ram was not burned, the high temperature generated by the burning kerosene was unbearable.
As for the stones in the city gate, only one layer has been dug out so far. If this continues, it will not be possible to dig through at all.
"Get out of the way!" Ma Chao shouted, took the sledgehammer handed by his subordinates, and gave the rivets that had just been driven into the stone a vicious blow.
"Boom~"
Under the huge blow, the rivet sank directly into the inside of the boulder, and then the stone suddenly cracked, and everyone hurriedly cleared the stone away.
"I'll hit you, tell me where to hit!" Ma Chao wanted to hit it himself, but he hit it several times. Although there were a lot of gravel, it didn't have the effect of the previous hit. However, there was a soldier in the army who used to be
Those who help people dig mountains know where the force will cause the greatest damage to the rocks.
Under his guidance, Ma Chao dug out a foot in just two hours. Now they can hide in the city gate hole. Although the temperature is still high, it is at least much better than rushing underneath the car.
Everyone had a clear division of labor. Ma Chao and a few strong men were responsible for breaking stones. The excavator showed everyone how to dig, and the others were responsible for throwing the created gravel outside. In the middle of the night, they dug out two stones in the city gate cave.
Ma Chao estimated that if this continued, he would still be able to break through the city in two days, so he worked even harder now...