In the east of Jinshui, Cao Zhen reined in his horse and looked at Tongguan City in the distance. He clenched his hands into fists and put them in front of his mouth. He coughed softly and looked anxious. General Xia Houba and military advisor Du Xi were behind him, with expressions on their faces.
His expression was also not very relaxed. Only the rear general Cao Hong looked at Yaoshan on the south side indifferently, with a dazed look on his face. He wondered if he was thinking of the former golden horse.
As the only surviving clan veteran from Cao Cao's era, he has been living in Luoyang for several years. If it weren't for the Wu-Shu coalition troops that came this time, and Cao Xiu was defeated in the southeast and suffered heavy losses, Cao Rui could only send the 20,000 imperial troops left behind in Luoyang.
Rushing to rescue Guanzhong, he didn't know whether he, the rear general, would have to wait for death at home.
He was very emotional, lamenting the emperor's favor and the impermanence of wealth, but he didn't care much about the upcoming war.
Cao Zhen and others were not so detached. They were shocked by the scene in front of them.
Tongguan is located at the west end of Hangu, and Hanguguan (Xinguan) guards the east and west ends of the five-mile Hangu. It is the intersection of the three counties of Hedong, Fengyi and Hongnong. The Yellow River comes from the north and turns here.
East. Tongguan is built on a highland called Tongyuan between the Yellow River and Yao Mountain. To the south is the wall-mounted Yao Mountain, and to the north is the Yellow River rolling eastward for a few miles. There is Tongshui to the west of Tongguan, and Tongshui to the east.
Water is forbidden. Tongguan is located between two rivers, surrounded by mountains and rivers. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and it is not under Hangu.
These natural geographical advantages are enough to make Tongguan a natural danger, but the Tongguan in front of us is more than that.
Tongguan is still Tongguan, but it is not the Tongguan he is familiar with. The original dilapidated city wall has now been repaired and is ten feet higher than the original Guancheng. Behind the city, a higher Guancheng can be vaguely seen, as if
It is newly built and forms a sun shape with the original Guancheng. On the city wall, you can see the crossbow pavilion for guarding the city's crossbows and the tall wooden tops of the thunder chariot. On both sides of the Guancheng, there are also erected against the mountains.
There are more than a dozen nest cars. From the shadowy figures and the little lights reflected by the sun, it can be seen that these nest cars have soldier handles. If his estimate is good, they should be archers with relatively good archery skills.
It is not surprising that there are snipers in the army. Cao Zhen, who has fought for many years, is very familiar with this. However, he saw something strange from the position of those nest vehicles. The position of these nest vehicles was too far, and the range of ordinary crossbows was basically impossible.
It cannot function, and the nest cart is not large enough to display a large crossbow, so what are these nest carts used for? Is it just a lookout?
"Zhong Quan, what do you think about those chariots?" Cao Zhen waved back and called the general Xiahou Ba to come forward.
Xiahou Ba looked at the nest carts hanging like a honeycomb in the distance, and frowned: "It's really weird. These nest carts are placed too far away and cannot be shot by ordinary bows and crossbows. Could this be a new weapon against Shu?"
Cao Zhen nodded secretly, he also had this worry. After Wei Ba surrendered, information about him was sent to Luoyang. He was named Fengyi Zhonglang General because he was useful, such as being good at machinery and guarding Tongguan.
It was Wei Ba's father Wei Yan, and it was expected that Wei Ba had an improved crossbow.
Perhaps, the rapid restoration of Tongguan City was also due to Wei Ba's work.
In this way, Tongguan, which is not easy to attack in the first place, becomes even more difficult to conquer. If Tongguan cannot be successfully conquered, how can we enter Guanzhong? Forced crossing of Pubanjin? Cao Zhen has not thought about this, but since the opponent is Wei Yan, the general who has guarded Hanzhong for many years
, Cao Zhen believed that forcibly crossing Pubanjin would not be much easier than forcibly attacking Tongguan. Now is the time when the Yellow River is turbulent. It is not easy for him to cross the river by himself, let alone the enemy blocking him on the opposite side.
If he had enough troops, he could use the power of Mount Tai to advance together, leaving Wei Yan with help from the left and right. Or he could leave 20,000 people to confront Wei Yan, and the others could quickly break into Guanzhong and rush to help Chang'an. But now he only has 20,000 troops, so what can he do?
Short of this, even if he is willing to risk the food route being cut off and go deep alone, just 20,000 people may not be able to break through Wei Yan's defense line.
"What method did this Wei Ba use to make Tongguan City so strong within a month?" Cao Zhen said angrily.
Du Xi looked at Guancheng in the distance and was silent for a moment: "General, I think this should be a frame made of wood. Otherwise, even if he has extraordinary abilities, he would not be able to build it so fast."
Cao Zhen nodded, he thought so too. Before that, Wei Ba once suggested to Xiahou Mao to use six words: "Build walls high and store grain widely." I originally thought this was a good plan, but now I see it is simply insidious.
It has been proved that all the grain was accumulated for the Shu army. As for the high wall building, it can now be proved that the most important one is probably the wall of Tongguan City.
In other words, Xiahou Mao adopted Wei Ba's advice, established fields and built cities. As a result, everything now became the spoils of the Shu army and became a powerful pass in front of him.
One general is incompetent and the whole army is exhausted, and he is talking about people like Xiahou Mao. Now Cao Zhen was gnashing his teeth with hatred, wishing he could drag Xiahou Mao over and give him three hundred lashes.
"Zhong Quan, lead your team to try to attack." Cao Zhen pointed his riding whip at Tongguan City opposite, "Try to test the quality of Wei Yan and his son."
"Here." Xiahou Ba responded without saying a word, and pulled out more than 2,000 of his men. He first arranged for the civilian servants who accompanied the army to transport food to build a temporary wooden bridge over the forbidden water, and then led his men across the forbidden water.
Water, formed a formation two hundred steps in front of Tongguan, covering the civilians who transported various siege weapons across the Forbidden Water. Behind him, Cao Zhen also led an army of 10,000 across the Forbidden Water, ready to support at any time.
After busy for a long time, Cao Zhen, who had boarded the command vehicle, gave an order and the war drums sounded. Xiahou Ba put on his helmet and stood in front of the formation. He watched the archers advance cautiously under the cover of their shields.
There was silence in the city, so quiet that it made people wonder. Xiahou Ba used his eyesight enough and could only see Wei Yan's flag on the main city tower flickering, and the figure of a general appeared surrounded by several personal guards.
At the top of the city. Other than that, there wasn't much reaction on the city.
"The Thunderbolt Car comes forward!" Xiahou Ba raised his hand and waved vigorously.
"Ho-hey! Ho-hey!" The civil servants shouted in neat chants and pushed the thunder cart towards Tongguan City. The thunder cart was two to three feet high and extremely heavy. It was originally a weapon used to defend the city.
Thinking that Tongguan City was strong and would be at a disadvantage without such a sharp weapon, Cao Zhen ordered the transport camp to build a dozen of them. The construction was completed, but it was not easy to move these thunderbolt chariots in front of the formation. Civil servants
It took all his strength to move the Thunderbolt Car.
"Ho-hey! Ho-hey!" The sound of trumpets and the sound of war drums heightened the tense atmosphere of the battle.
However, the people on the city did not take any corresponding action. There was only the unhurried sound of war drums. Compared with the fierce fighting spirit of the Wei army, the people on the city seemed a little careless.
The civilians were struggling to push the Thunderbolt Chariot while nervously paying attention to the city. The firing range of the Thunderbolt Chariot was about a hundred steps. If you want to attack the city wall, you must push it within 80 steps. Only then can the stone bullets hit the city wall.
.And within eighty steps, they are already within the range of strong bows. In other words, they may be shot by the Shu Han army's crossbows at any time.
However, what made them feel lucky was that until they pushed the Thunderbolt Cart eighty steps, no arrows were shot from the city. It seemed that the people on the city didn't see them at all. The civil servants kept shouting.
Fortunately, he quickly began to adjust the cable, loaded the stone bullets, and prepared to start the attack.
Xiahou Ba couldn't help but become a little nervous when he looked at the strange formation. There must be a monster if something goes wrong. Xiahou Ba would not believe that Wei Yan would surrender without a fight. There was only one reason why they did not start to block the attack at the first time.
They take these attacks lightly.
This worried him more than a quick and fierce counterattack.
"Prepare to launch!" Captain Qiangnu in front of the formation roared loudly and gave the order to prepare for the attack. Just as he raised the triangular flag in his hand, the war drums at the top of the city suddenly exploded. Amidst the sound of the war drums, Xiahou Ba saw
Countless black dots flew out from the three city walls. These black dots drew a beautiful lone line in the air, then quickly grew in size, and with a loud roar that broke through the air, they smashed into the dozens of Thunderbolts that had just been placed in front of the formation.
car.
"Not good!" Xia Houmao had an ominous feeling when he saw the flight trajectories of those black dots. These black dots were shot from different positions, but their targets were quite concentrated, namely those thunderbolt cars in front of the formation, as if they were being drilled.
The same thing countless times, accurate, quick, and hit the target with one hit.
"Boom!" A stone bullet hit a Thunderbolt car facing the city gate and hit the thick triangular support. The support trembled violently, letting out a heart-stopping groan, and a thigh-thick piece of wood broke.
The tall and heavy wood tip creaked and leaned down.
"Boom!" There was another loud noise, and two stone bombs flew almost at the same time. One of them missed and hit a civilian next to him. The civilian didn't even scream, and he died unexpectedly. He
He was still standing there, eyes wide open, staring blankly at the still-swaying treetop, but his right shoulder and an entire arm were missing. Five feet behind him, a round stone bullet as big as a human head hit hard.
It hit the ground hard, creating a two-foot-deep hole and stirring up choking dust. The stone bounced and rolled forward a few steps before finally stopping.
"Boom, boom, boom!" The roar was endless, and most of it fell within a ten-foot radius centered on the Pili chariot. The Pili chariot was hit by three stone bullets one after another. Finally, it could not hold up and collapsed, while the civil servants next to it
They had been beaten to the point of howling like ghosts and wolves, and suffered heavy casualties.
The heavy stone bullets kicked up bursts of smoke and dust, shrouding more than a dozen Pili chariots. Xiahouba couldn't see the Pili chariots, nor could he see the civilians beside the Pili chariots, but he could hear the stone bullets piercing the air.
You can hear the loud noise when the thunderbolt car was hit, and you can hear the screams of the civilians.
His heart sank for a while. He knew that these thunderbolt chariots that Cao Zhen had spent a lot of effort to build were destroyed. There was no movement in the city before, but he just wanted to destroy these amazingly powerful thunderbolt chariots in one fell swoop. From this short time
Judging from the number of stone bombs thrown from the city, Tongguan City was equipped with at least fifty of these Thunderbolt Chariots, or even... a hundred.
When the smoke and dust cleared, Xiahouba saw a sight that made him heartbroken but not unexpected. The dozen or so Thunderbolts that the civilians had spent a lot of effort to push to the front of the formation were all destroyed and burning. Every Thunderbolt was burning.
Next to the wreckage of the car, several mutilated bodies were lying.
Calm returned to the top of the city. No more stone bullets flew out, but loud cheers rang out. In contrast, the Wei army's position was silent. Even Xiahou Ba himself was shocked by the Shu army's fierce counterattack.
.
More than a dozen Thunderbolt Chariots were destroyed by the Shu army before they could even fire a single stone bomb. Without any words, the strength gap between the two sides in terms of combat equipment was clearly displayed in front of everyone.
Xiahou Ba hesitated for a moment, then looked back at the Chinese army. He didn't even know what he wanted to see. Is it an order to stop the attack, or to continue the attack?
On top of the city, Wei Yan stood with his hands behind his hands, squinting his eyes, looking at the blazing Thunderbolt Chariot under the city, and nodded with satisfaction: "Xing Rui, this Thunderbolt Chariot is much easier to use after you modify it.
It makes people happy. You have done a great job in defending Tongguan this time."
Chen Xiang smiled humbly and said: "General, I was just following orders to do something specific. The transformation plan was all thought up by the Young Master, and any merit is the Young Master's credit."
Wei Yan looked up to the sky and laughed proudly: "Everyone has merit, everyone has merit. Your young master has merit. How can there be no benefits for those of you who follow him? Boy, follow him and work hard to give your father a good reputation."
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Well, Lao Zhuang admits that Tang Sanzang’s classmate is so powerful. A single chapter increased by 36 votes, leaving Lao Zhuang behind and unable to even eat ashes. Lao Zhuang can’t deal with him, but what should be updated should be updated, and what should be updated should be updated.
You have to ask for it, as Lao Zhuang said at the beginning, asking for a monthly ticket is an attitude. The results may be unsatisfactory, but the attitude must be the best.
In fact, Lao-Zhuang also knows that Lao-Zhuang is a niche book. It is not easy for people who read Lao-Zhuang's books to save a monthly pass. It is said that there are still people who only read Lao-Zhuang's books and can only save a monthly pass for Lao-Zhuang.
Today’s result is already very difficult. Thank you all, Lao Zhuang! Regardless of whether we can get 20 votes today, we will update it on time in two hours. (To be continued. Please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!