Seeing Guan Hai's Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army gnashing their teeth in hatred for Zang Ba, Xu Wei did not talk about recruiting and surrendering Zang Ba, but said: "As long as we can hold the Eastern Front, our main operational goal now is still to set The main force of the Han army in Taochangyi!"
Then Xu Wei looked at Huang Long and asked: "How is the power of the coalition of princes in Dingtaochangyi? Please introduce it to everyone!"
Huang Long stood up, walked to the sand table, pointed at Ding Tao's model and said: "In the past month or so, in the face of the fierce attack of our Daqian army, Liu Bei, Yuan Shao, and Cao Cao quickly joined forces to resist with Yanzhou's 100,000 troops. Give them time to mobilize their coalition forces. During this period of more than a month, the three major princes of the Han Dynasty continued to mobilize troops, money and food from various states and counties to the Central Plains. Now there are 120,000 princes' coalition forces in Dingtao, including 50,000 Yuan Shao's subordinates. , Liu Bei's men numbered 70,000, and Cao Cao mobilized 20,000 Xuzhou troops to support him in Changyi. Liu Bei's men numbered 80,000. Now there are 220,000 troops in the entire Dingtao-Changyi frontline, and our army plus the reinforcements brought by the government have 260,000. , barely gaining an advantage in terms of military strength!”
But the solid defense of Dingtao Changyi is in front of us. In the past half month since I took office, I have brought the army to continuously clear out the fortifications and camps outside Dingtao, but I have lost thousands of soldiers and cannot even get close to Dingtao City. So, it can be said that the two cities of Taochangyi are the pinnacle of Yuan Shao's concentration on the defense technology of our army and the Han Dynasty. If our army did not have artillery, I am afraid that even 10 times the strength of the army would not be able to defeat it. The only thing my subordinates can think of is that they can conquer it. The method for this city is to besiege it for a long time and cut off the food and grass for the defenders in the city!"
After hearing this, Duan Peng said: "The Han army has been catching up with us very quickly in recent years. Although it is still unable to build a fully armored army, it can arm 300,000 armored troops. These armored troops have brought us huge trouble. I The fighting ratio between the Han army and the elites of the Han army has reached one to one, and the bows, crossbows and equipment are also catching up, and even our big men can make artillery, but the Han army does not make as many as we do!"
"At this point in the battle, our only advantage is that we have more grain and grass than the Han army, and we have more artillery than the Han army. So if we want to defeat the Han army now, we must first rely on the advantage of grain and grass to besiege the Han army on the front line of Dingtao Changyi for a long time, etc. After exhausting the Han army's food and fodder, we will win without a fight. The second is to rely on the powerful attack power of artillery to crack open the turtle shells of Dingtao and Changyi little by little."
Wan Lang laughed and said: "What else is there to think about? Of course, it is to use artillery to crack open the tortoise shells of Dingtao and Changyi little by little. Is it that the government brought thousands of artillery and millions of kilograms of gunpowder just to defeat the enemy?" This place cannot be used as a display! We must maximize the advantages of our artillery and smash the cities of Dingtao and Changyi to let the allied forces of the princes know that no matter how strong the fortress is in front of our army, we must smash the cities of Dingtao and Changyi and cause heavy damage. The main force of the alliance of the princes will weaken Liu Bei, Yuan Shao, and Cao Cao, the three strongest princes of the Han Dynasty, at once, and prepare for the peace of the world."
Wan Lang's words made everyone's blood boil. As long as the main force of the Han Alliance Army was eliminated, the ideal that they had been striving for for more than ten years finally saw the dawn of realization!
So everyone excitedly said: "In power, we will use artillery to completely defeat the Han coalition forces!"
Xu Wei looked at the excited crowd and said firmly: "Okay, we have artillery to completely defeat the Han coalition forces!"
Xu Wei remembered that his mentor said that artillery completely destroyed the castles and institutions of the feudal knights. Now Xu Wei also hopes that the artillery in his hands can also completely destroy the fortresses and institutions of the Han clan.
Then Xu Wei pointed to the connection between Dingtao and Changyi and said: "The first step in this battle is to build a fort in Surabaya between Dingtao and Changyi, and use artillery to completely dig out the connection between Dingtao and Changyi and completely separate them. Come!"
The waterway between Dingtao and Changyi is only a few hundred paces wide. This width is difficult to accommodate the huge ships and cannons of the Daqian Army. Therefore, even though Fan Xian's weapons and equipment are at an advantage, it is difficult to defeat the Jingzhou Navy's charge. , walk by boat. Even if the line between Dingtao and Changyi is blocked by the cavalry of the Daqian Army, the waterway is still open and can even ensure the transportation of grain, grass and soldiers between the two places!
But the narrow river channel has also become a fatal flaw of the Jingzhou Navy. It is difficult for crossbow arrows to hit the Jingzhou Navy, but it is easy for Xu Wei's artillery. Not to mention the Jingzhou Navy in the Surabaya River, as long as the angle With good adjustment, even the most powerful 10-pound cannon can hit from the north bank to the south bank!
The words were divided into two parts. Xu Wei's army of 100,000 came to Dingtao in a mighty manner. The last stone of the Han princes' coalition forces was settled. They knew that the final decisive battle of the Central Plains War was coming. Now they were all observing the battle on the tower. Trends in the Ganjun camp!
Cao Cao even hit the bricks on the wall of Dingtao City with his own sword and said anxiously: "Is this city of Dingtao built strong or not? Our lives and wealth depend on this city!"
Yuan Shao looked at Cao Cao fiercely, but did not answer Cao Cao's question! In his opinion, Cao Cao's current behavior was simply disturbing the morale of the army!
But Xu You next to Yuan Shao said: "Of course it is strong. The base of the city is made of solid rocks. Each rock weighs more than a thousand kilograms. This ensures that the crowbar of the Daqian Army cannot pry open the underlying rocks. Then The entire upper layer is made of blue bricks and cement, which ensures that artillery cannot blast it! Each of these cities costs 300 million yuan to build. There are only four such cities in Yanzhou. I was worried about Yanzhou when it was originally built. If we can’t protect it, we want to use Yuzhou’s barrier between these two cities!”
But Liu Bei was worried and said: "Although the city is strong and the artillery of the Daqian Army is difficult to destroy, we still have to be careful of the flying thunder cannon of the Daqian Army. Although it has a short range, it is 10 times more terrifying than the artillery. If it is Dingtao The city wall is being approached by thunder cannons, I'm afraid no matter how many troops we have, we won't be able to bomb them with thunder cannons!"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! At this time, Liu Bei can be said to be Yuan Shao's biggest financial backer. Sensing that Liu Bei's confidence was insufficient, he naturally had to strengthen Liu Bei's confidence!
"The defense of Dingtao City is much stronger than the previous cities of the Han Dynasty. Not to mention the rock base, it is built entirely of blue bricks and cement. There is no need to worry about artillery attacks. Even if the Daqian army has flying thunder cannons, we can still resist it. Xuande, the artillery you transported has been placed in the city, and 50 artillery pieces have been placed in the inner city wall.
If the Daqian army really dares to use thunder cannons to attack the city wall, we can use artillery to destroy the thunder cannons of the Daqian army. Moreover, there are thousands of three-bow crossbows placed in each direction of the city, with a range of more than 300 If Lei Gong dares to place the flying thunder cannon within 200 steps, we will use three-bow crossbow range explosives to bombard Lei Gong's flying thunder cannon army!
Although the number of artillery pieces of our army is not as good as that of Daqian Army, Yuanhao thought of a way to build a special track for transporting artillery on the city wall. This way, our artillery can be quickly transferred after firing, making it difficult for Daqian Army to destroy our artillery. At the same time, we can also concentrate the power of artillery, allowing our army’s 50 artillery pieces to exert the power of 100 or even 200 artillery pieces!”
Everyone heard that there were so many long-range weapons on the city wall, and even Yuan Shao tried to solve the problem of insufficient artillery. Everyone nodded with satisfaction!
In order to strengthen the confidence of the army, Tian Feng also said: "We have reached the limit of city defense. Not only did we turn the entire Dingtao into a star-shaped dock, but in order to expand the defense range, we dug a city defense two hundred steps away from the city wall. The trench. The two hundred-step range is to guard against the thunder cannons of the Daqian Army. This trench is about 10 feet wide and two feet deep. We also use the Surabaya River to connect it. It can be said that this is a complete diversion of the Surabaya River. A large number of camps were built outside the trench to guard Dingtao City. Under such a solid defense system, the Daqian Army would have to pay a high price even if they wanted to get close to Dingtao City."
Then Tian Feng pointed to the various defense facilities in Dingtao City and said: "We have been looking at these defenses in the city for more than a month. Can you find any shortcomings?"
Liu Bei and others all shook their heads.
Dingtao City was built by Yuan Shao for three years. When the Qian army attacked Yanzhou, Yuan Shao went to great lengths to strengthen the city defenses! The entire Dingtao City was covered with Wengcheng and Feng Yuan. Wengcheng was half a small city outside the main city gate. When the city gate was breached by the enemy, the defenders on the tower of Wengcheng could shoot the attacking enemy soldiers from all directions. It can be said that the soldiers who were shot did not even have a place to hide.
People who have watched the Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series may have the impression that after the enemy rushed into the first city wall, they were immediately ambushed from all sides. Zhou Yu was shot and wounded by Cao Ren in Wengcheng!
Feng Yuan is a low wall. It can be said that there are trenches and low walls within a radius of 5 miles of Dingtao City. These are to prevent Dagan's cavalry from attacking. It can be said that as long as Dagan's cavalry approaches Dingtao City, let alone running, even if Even walking slowly is very difficult.
These low walls can also become active defense fortifications. In front of the low walls, there are a large number of trenches, horses and other obstacles to block the enemy's attack. The soldiers guarding the city can hide behind the low walls and shoot the enemies with bows and arrows. The enemy cannot It is very difficult to break through these low walls at the expense of paying several times the price.
And even if the Daqian army breaks through the fortifications outside Dingtao, the shape of the Dingtao Star Castle alone will easily allow the Daqian army to be attacked from three sides, and the enemy will not even be able to find a blind spot to avoid the attack. Even Yuan Shao in order to strengthen the attack He also built a large number of temporary towers on the city wall. These towers were used as archery towers, and each tower could accommodate hundreds of archers! You can imagine that the soldiers under the city wall were surrounded by several arrows from three directions. Hundreds of archers gathered fire, how desperate they would be in the face of such a rain of arrows!
The people present were either famous generals or wise men. They had been in Dingtao City for more than a month, but they could not find any flaw in Dingtao City. Dingtao City was so difficult to attack and there were so many defense facilities that it was simply impossible. A comprehensive collection of ancient and modern defense facilities of the Han Dynasty. It can be said that all kinds of fortifications can be found here!
Even in Liu Bei's expectation, it is almost impossible to conquer such a strong city. This can be regarded as an unbreakable city!
If Lei Gong had not had external weapons such as artillery, Liu Bei and the others would not have been able to break the city even if all the Daqian army died in the battle. However, Lei Gong had artillery in his hands, and the number was extremely large. Yuan Shao built Puyang and Dong'a. The city defense was not much worse than that of Dingtao, but the tens of thousands of troops were defeated by Huang Long and Wang Yue respectively without even holding on for half a month.
People like Liu Bei don't know much about the habits and power of artillery, so they really can't guarantee whether Lei Gong can break this city!
Xu You smiled excitedly and said: "With the defense of Tao City, no matter how elite the army is, they will be beaten to death.
Guo Jia went and said: "Ding Taocheng can defend Daqianjun's ten-jin cannon, but are you sure about 20-jin, 30-jin, or even 50-jin cannons? Huang Zu, the commander of the Jingzhou Navy, said that Daqianjun has a The giant cannon, which is several times more powerful than the 10-pound cannon, can destroy the building and ship with just one shot."
Xu You said firmly: "As long as we have artillery, Dingtao City can be defended!"
But Guo Jia continued: "Even if you can defend Dingtao City, if we want to win, we must go out of the city and defeat the Daqian Army!"
"Defeat the Da Gan Army!" The smile on Xu You's face gradually disappeared. This is still impossible. The 100,000 cavalry around Lei Gong is a huge threat. They have no chance of winning in a field battle! They have to defeat the Da Gan Army in a field battle. With certainty, they will not frantically build Star Fort and Wubao in Yanzhou in the past three years.
Why is this person so annoying? Xu You secretly cursed.
Guo Jia didn't care about Xu You's face but continued: "We still have to be prepared for siege but not attack. If Lei Gong suffers too many casualties under Dingtao City, Lei Gong may stop attacking and completely surround Dingtao City. Our food and grass are only enough for three months. If we exceed this time, we will be destroyed! But Lei Gong is different. Not to mention that the Da Gan Army has more food and grass than us. The autumn harvest is coming soon. Lei Gong can harvest Yanzhou's food to supplement the food and grass. !”
But at this time Liu Bei said: "Thunder Lord will not do this. Our army can really fight against Thunder Lord with more food and grass!"
Guo Jia looked at Liu Bei in surprise. He couldn't believe that Liu Bei still had food and fodder for the army?
But Liu Bei said: "Yanzhou suffered from drought this year. Although there is no harvest, the grain production will be reduced. Although Lei Gong is not good at all, there is one thing we must admit. None of us can do disaster relief better than Lei Gong. There are nearly 2 million people in Yanzhou now." Disaster victims, these victims themselves don’t have enough to eat, how can they have food to support Lei Gong!”
"Now Lei Gong occupies almost all of Yanzhou, which means that these disaster victims also need Lei Gong to feed them. Therefore, now Lei Gong not only cannot get food from Yanzhou, but also has to find ways to transport grain and grass from Jizhou to relieve these victims. One disaster victim needs 20 shi of food. If they survive for one year, these two million victims will consume 40 million shi of food from Thunder God. No matter how much food and grass in Lei Gong's hands, a sudden increase of 40 million shi will cause big problems!"
Yuan Shao was overjoyed when he heard Liu Bei's words and said: "Xuande, you really understand the profound meaning of knowing yourself and the enemy in the art of war and you can fight a hundred battles without danger!"