When the enemy came to garrison again, Du You'an, as the garrison leader, did not stay in the garrison, but was still in Fancheng.
Du You'an led his troops to seize the opportunity to attack the camp at night and successfully defeated the enemy's front division. However, Fancheng, which was close at hand, not only did not send troops to assist during the night attack, but when Du You'an led his troops to pursue and kill the enemy and returned,
However, they saw that the Fancheng defenders had actually entered the enemy camp and collected the weapons and staff left by the enemy.
Seeing these people openly robbing him of the results of the battle, Du Youan was furious. When he ordered those Fancheng garrison soldiers who had not yet evacuated to be detained, he went into the city in person to question the garrison general Liu Fanggui.
Although Liu Fanggui is higher than Du You'an in terms of position, Du You'an already has many brothers, each of whom holds a prominent position. The entire Jingzhao Du family has deep roots in Xiangyang, so naturally they don't take Liu Fanggui seriously, not to mention that he still occupies a prominent position.
reason.
So after the meeting, Du You'an questioned Liu Fanggui unscrupulously, but Liu Fanggui could only smile and apologize, saying that it was all his subordinates' own decision, and he would give him a satisfactory answer after finding out who was responsible.
Du Youan had lived in Xiangyang since he was a child and knew the official customs and folk customs here. Of course, he would not be easily fooled by Liu Fanggui. He still forced Liu Fanggui to give a conclusive answer. How could the personnel be slowed down?
Liu Fanggui must replenish the money consumed during the battle as soon as possible.
When it came to this question, Liu Fanggui no longer nodded and bowed as before. He looked around, but refused to give Du Youan an accurate answer.
While the two were still entangled here, enemy news came again, and the enemy army had already launched an offensive against Xia Zhe garrison.
Du Youan's expression changed after hearing this. He first glared at the extremely slippery Liu Fanggui, then stood up and left angrily, saying harshly: "When I come back, this will not be the case!"
Liu Fanggui watched Du Youan leave, then put away the smile on his face, put on his armor and climbed to the top of the city to watch the enemy.
Although the open space outside the city garrison to the north of the Han River has been controlled by the Western Wei cavalry, there is still a boat connection on the Shuimen River between Fancheng and Xiazhe garrison, so Du Youan was able to return to the garrison by boat, and the enemy did not attack.
The garrison launched an attack.
This made him secretly relieved. Although the speed of the enemy's re-arrival was beyond his imagination, last night's attack on the camp was not completely ineffective. Not to mention the actual damage caused, it also obviously made the enemies in the rear more difficult.
Be cautious and no longer pounce directly on the smaller forts as soon as they appear like yesterday.
But soon Du Youan discovered that the enemy's behavior was a bit strange. It seemed that it was not that he had returned to the fort before the enemy attacked, but that the enemy was not prepared to attack the fort at all.
The enemy did not form an offensive posture, but wandered around the outside of the city looking for them. With what seemed to be measurements and observations, they selected a few locations and began to build equipment with thick and long wood.
"Are the thieves building a stone cannon?"
The reason why he is not sure is because this distance is a bit farther than the usual stone cannons. However, apart from this possibility, Du Youan can't think of anything else. No matter whether the enemy is going to use stone cannons to attack the city, it is always right to make some arrangements in advance.
.
So under Du Youan's order, the garrison soldiers began to hang thick linen felt, fishing nets and other objects from the top of the city, and then wet them with river water. With these heavy things covering the outside of the city wall, it was equivalent to imposing pressure on the city wall. It has a protective cover that can offset the impact of the cannon stone to a great extent.
When the defense arrangements in the fort were increased, one of the enemy's siege stone cannons outside had also been set up, while the other one was slower and the cannon tip had not yet been installed.
Since a thick curtain was pulled up around the base of the stone cannon, the defenders could not see whether the stone cannon was operated by manpower or animal power, so they could not estimate its power. However, they saw the enemy soldiers coming from the river embankment. The stones they picked were quite large, which made them feel uneasy.
Bang!
There was a sound outside the city, which was the sound of a stone cannon being launched. The soldiers who defended the city crouched down to find a nearby bunker. At the same time, they couldn't help but look up to see where the cannon stone would land.
A loud thumping sound was heard, and the defenders' hearts trembled immediately after hearing the sound, but they soon discovered that the stone cannon did not hit the fort wall, but fell directly into the river behind the fort.
After the false alarm, the defenders laughed out loud at the huge error of the enemy's stone artillery. Some even shouted tauntingly to the outside of the city: "The thieves don't know how to operate siege artillery. It’s really ridiculous to show off your skills here!”
But Du Youan looked back at the spot where the cannon stone landed on the river and the ripples of waves on the river that had not subsided, and frowned. The range of this stone cannon was a bit too great.
At this distance, their fortress could only withstand bombardment, but it was difficult to make any form of counterattack. Even the communication water channel between Fancheng was covered by this stone cannon!
After realizing this, Du Youan immediately regretted that he should not have been so bad to Fancheng guard Liu Fanggui before.
Although he had offended someone, after realizing that the situation was dangerous, Du Youan still ordered his soldiers to raise a signal for help in the direction of Fancheng, hoping that Fancheng could send infantry and cavalry troops to attack the enemy and destroy these two super-range and powerful aircraft. Powerful siege artillery.
At this time, the guards in the fort were not aware of the real danger, and they laughed freely at the thieves with poor technical skills. With a roar, the enemy's second stone cannon was already installed and activated. , the second cannonball drew a parabola in mid-air, and crashed directly into the garrison with a loud rumbling sound.
This cannon directly shocked the defenders in the fort to the point where they could no longer speak. The cannon stone directly hit and smashed through a building. It was also buried in the ground for several minutes after landing. It was as fast as a thunderbolt and equally powerful!
While the defenders in the fort were still in shock, Li Tai ordered a cavalry unit that had been waiting for a long time to attack the fort, walked around the fort, drew their bows and fired. Although the damage caused was limited, but It also adds a wave of pressure on the enemy to be subjected to multiple attacks.
As the stone cannons continued to adjust their angles, various parts of the fort were bombarded by stone bullets, and many buildings were destroyed. The soldiers and civilians in the fort were like ants on a hot pot, constantly fleeing throughout the fort. They wandered around, neither daring to stay in the building nor standing directly in the open air. Some of them were so frightened and timid that they just held their heads and started crying.
The top of the garrison was also not stable. Du Youan was still shouting at the top of his lungs to organize the soldiers to fight back. However, the sergeants on the top of the city were already in chaos, except for some of his close friends, Qu Jia soldiers, who were still following his orders. Use bows and crossbows to counterattack the enemy's rangers, and the remaining people have no intention of fighting.
As for the direction of Fancheng, there was no movement at all, and there was no intention of coming for reinforcements. Liu Fanggui seemed not to have seen the signal for help issued by Du Youan's people. Not only was there no sign of fighting out of the city, there was even no sign of mobilization at the dock outside the water gate. , just like sitting on the sidelines.
"Dog thief, dog thief!"
Du Youan roared angrily in the direction of Fancheng. If he hadn't been unable to control himself, he would have rushed into Fancheng at this moment and hacked Liu Fanggui to death, a fool who didn't understand the meaning of death.
However, being full of anger was not conducive to improving the current situation. As the enemy's stone cannons continued to adjust their angles, the impact point of the cannon stones also continued to move towards the city wall.
When the next shot came, Du Youan felt his feet shake. Immediately, he saw earth and rocks flying on the top of the wall. A section of the female wall was hit by the shot and flew away.
This shot also became a blow that completely shattered the fighting spirit of the defenders in the fort. The panicked soldiers even jumped directly from the top of the city. When Du Youan's soldiers saw that the city wall began to be directly attacked, they immediately became helpless. If he dared to stay any longer, he surrounded Du Youan and escorted him into the castle, and headed towards the water gate near the river inside the castle.
"No, don't go to Shuimen, you can't escape! Once the cannon hits the water, you will die without a burial place. Get out of the fort, surrender, surrender to the prisoners, surrender to the Wei army!"
When Du Youan talked about this, his mouth was full of bitterness. It should be noted that just this morning he was a victor who defeated the bandit camp and a hero who had done a good job in defense. However, he did not want to leave the city to surrender in the blink of an eye and beg the enemy general for mercy.
The gate of the fort opened, and several soldiers from the garrison took off their armor and walked out. Shortly after walking out of the gate, they knelt on the ground and begged loudly for mercy.
Li Tai raised his hand to signal a pause in the offensive, and then sent an order to all the defenders in the city to march out and line up in front of the fort gate.
Seeing that the number of soldiers who had surrendered reached 1,000, and the guard general was already marching out surrounded by his subordinates, Li Taicai walked forward with bare feet, and Li Taicai waved his hand to signal a group of troops to enter the city to clear out and receive them, while he stayed in the formation, waiting for the surrender of the general. Being escorted into the front.
"The criminal Du You'an pays homage to the general. The former openly rejected the army and insulted the military power. Because he was favored by Daliang, he could not bear to abandon his country and join him. But now he has been abandoned by his superior general. Although the criminal hates himself, he cannot bear it. All the people in the city are like Jiang ghosts, I beg the general to take him in with mercy..."
Du Youan walked forward, not daring to raise his head to look directly at Li Tai. He knelt on the ground with a plop and said in a sad voice. His tone could be described as sincere and sad. The huge gap in fortune naturally filled him with a sense of humiliation, and this sense of humiliation soon disappeared. All the hatred was focused on Liu Fanggui who turned a blind eye to his plea for help.
Li Tai did not immediately pay attention to Du You'an, but turned to look at Du Zhaohui and Chen Yuchen in the army behind him, and said with a smile: "You two return quickly to attract the rear troops, tell what you saw and inform the people in the rear. If you dare to wander around again, you will be punished by military law!"
"The last general takes command!"
After hearing the words, the two people quickly bowed and responded, looking at Li Tai with more respect than before. After Chen Yuchen accepted the order, he couldn't help but said: "I will use your troops like a god, and break the strong like a plow." , It’s really admirable! I will be honored to serve under the envoy in the end, and I am willing to be a pioneer and a follower!"