Liu Bei, Yuan Shao and others watched helplessly as the defensive camps and fortifications outside Dingtao City were completely demolished by the army.
All the defense facilities on the walls of Dingtao City were reduced to powder under the roar of artillery. The soldiers of Dingtao City faced such a terrifying bombardment. Everyone was in great fear and pain. Now even Xu You has no confidence that he can defend Dingtao City. Well, the bombardment in the past month has completely destroyed his self-confidence.
Now the soldiers in Dingtao City are hiding in the corners of the streets, looking at the dense and thundering artillery in the sky, their expressions are dull, like walking zombies, and the mood of defeat has enveloped the entire city!
Yuan Shao looked at the ruins of Dingtao City everywhere and burst into tears. Years of hard work were all destroyed in one fell swoop.
Even such a strong city cannot withstand the attack of Thunder God. Faced with the roar of artillery, what army and city in the world can resist the attack of Thunder God!
Yuan Shao thought of the declining city of Chang'an and the downtrodden city of Luoyang. These two cities may not be as strong as Dingtao. Such a strong Dingtao city is still garrisoned by hundreds of thousands of troops, but it is still as white as a gun in the face of Lei Gong's artillery. It's like paper, it will break when you poke it.
In other words, Chang'an City and Luoyang City will be destroyed by Lei Gong's artillery just like today's Dingtao City!
Yuan Shao felt extremely painful when he thought of this. He could see that his entire territory in the Central Plains was quickly swallowed up by Lei Gong's whales. Chang'an City and Luoyang City were completely destroyed by Lei Gong's artillery. The powerful nobles in the Central Plains fled to the south crying and wailing.
The Yuan family was uprooted by Thunder God and exiled to the desert desert to live as slaves! The foundations of the Four Generations and Three Dukes were destroyed in his hands.
All of this was unbearable for Yuan Shao, and suddenly his vision went dark, and he fell to the ground vomiting blood.
Tian Feng, who was beside Yuan Shao, hugged him and said, "My lord, my lord, what's wrong with you!"
Yuan Shao's other counselors were also at a loss when they saw this scene.
Liu Bei was surprised and said: "Brother Benchu!"
But at this time Zhang Fei pulled Liu Bei and said: "Brother, you can't hesitate any longer. Before Thunder Lord has surrounded the city, flee from the south gate to Jingzhou. If you stay in Dingtao now, you will only die!"
Liu Bei worriedly said: "How can my brother leave Yuan Shao in such a state now?"
Jian Yong said: "It is because of the current situation that we have to leave. If there was a chance of winning, we would not advise Xuande to leave. But now we have no chance of winning. If you choose Xuande to stay in Dingtao City, Lei Gong took advantage of the situation to attack Yuzhou and Jiangnan. The court has neither soldiers nor good generals. What do you want the court to do? Who else in the world can stop him? Do you want to see Lei Gong conquer the whole world in one battle like this?"
Zhang Fei said: "Now that Yuan Shao has fallen, the morale of the soldiers is low. Big brother thinks that the wall we are leaning on can withstand Thunder Lord's attack! It is impossible. The fall of Dingtao is only a matter of time."
"It's enough to have my younger brother here now. After my brother returns to Jingzhou, he must immediately reorganize his army to prevent Lei Gong from taking advantage of the situation to seize the entire Central Plains. Now the court cannot do without his eldest brother!"
Liu Bei is also a veteran who has experienced hundreds of battles. Naturally, he knows that the current problem in Dingtao City is not a lack of troops, but an inability to withstand Lei Gong's artillery.
Liu Bei has made up his mind that when he returns to Jingzhou this time, he will go all out to make artillery, and make as many artillery pieces as he can, otherwise the city of Xiangyang on the edge of the Yangtze River will be in danger.
Liu Bei was a little tearful. He originally moved the capital to Xiangyang because of its easy-to-defend but difficult-to-attack terrain. Who knew that the emergence of artillery would completely change everything. The city of Xiangyang on the riverside was easily besieged by Lei Gong's naval guns. The Yangtze River is not Surabaya, and it can accommodate any warship.
Although the Jingzhou navy is large and has rich combat experience, in the face of new artillery warfare, most of the warships built by Liu Bei at great cost have been scrapped. Warships that cannot be equipped with artillery cannot be the warships of the Great Qian army. opponent.
But Liu Bei asked: "Third brother, what should you do?"
Zhang Fei smiled confidently and said: "Brother, you are still worried about my ability to escape from Dingtao City. I will try my best to kill and kill the army to delay time, so that I can give you time to integrate the army!"
Liu Bei thought about Zhang Fei's ability to defeat thousands of people. Without him here to hinder him, retreating among thousands of troops would be easy.
After Liu Bei figured it out, he went to Yuan Shao's adviser Tian Feng and others and said: "The war situation is now dangerous. If Bei wants to return to Jingzhou to establish a second line of defense, the defense of Dingtao City will be handed over to my third brother. Xian wants to leave You can also come with me, so that Xiansi can unite the forces in Yuzhou and establish a second line of defense to prevent Lei Gong from expanding his victory!"
Obviously Liu Bei had admitted the failure of the Battle of the Central Plains, and now they were about to cut their losses. After Liu Bei saw Yuan Tan, he suddenly thought that he could let Yuan Tan go to Yuzhou, integrate the forces of Yuzhou, and help him buy a few more years to build Jiangnan.
From this battle in the Central Plains, Liu Bei finally figured out that the flat Central Plains was not suitable for competing with Lei Gong, and would only waste his elite soldiers. The only thing that could really weaken Lei Gong's power was Jiangnan, which was densely covered with water networks.
Although Lei Gong made artillery, which gave Da Qian's army an advantage in the navy, the naval advantage of Da Qian's army was based on artillery, but he could also make artillery. Liu Bei was confident that he could build artillery within two or three years. The number of artillery pieces caught up with the Daqian army.
But he knew that in terms of the number of cavalry, the coalition forces would never be able to catch up with Da Gan, so Liu Bei knew that no matter how hard they tried in the Central Plains, they would still be annexed by Lei Gong bit by bit, so it was better to open a battlefield in the south of the Yangtze River and consume Lei Gong's strength. .
Yuan Tan was a little moved. Now everyone could see that Dingtao City could no longer be defended. Staying here would lead to death. Of course he wanted to run away, but his father Yuan Shao was seriously ill and lay in Dingtao City. He As a son of a man, I am embarrassed to propose running away at this time. But it is much better now that Liu Bei has proposed it. He escaped from Dingtao City in the name of establishing a second line of defense. No one will say that he is greedy for life and afraid of death, regardless of the love between father and son. Yuan Shao was thrown into Dingtao City.
But at this time Xu You said angrily: "You want to leave Benchu behind and escape with your lives, why don't you take Benchu with you!"
Everyone else looked ashamed, after all, leaving Dingtao City at this time was a bit like deserting.
However, Zhang Fei did not tolerate him and said: "If you want to escape, you can also escape with Yuan Shao. Let's see if Yuan Shao dies in your hands first or in the hands of Da Ganjun!"
Yuan Ji, who had rarely spoken, angrily said: "You think we, hundreds of thousands of people, crowded here can find a chance to turn defeat into victory! We are escaping now to preserve our strength, so that Lei Gong will not attack Yuzhou, Xuzhou and even Sili in one go. He will die soon." It's easy, but if we all die here, what will happen to the Han Dynasty! Are we going to give it to Thunder Lord like this! Xiansi is still so young, you want to see him buried with Dingtao City!"