On top of the stronghold wall, Guan Yu saw the enemy charging so recklessly, and directly gave the order to release arrows.
At the command, a rain of arrows covered half of the sky.
Immediately afterwards, there was a continuous "whoosh" sound, and it fell downwards and fell into the crowd of charging Jingzhou soldiers.
Suddenly, the Jingzhou soldiers outside the camp screamed repeatedly.
"Ahhhhh!"
"I was hit by an arrow."
"Help!"
"It hurts me too!"
People in the crowd continued to be hit by arrows and fell to the ground. There seemed to be gaps in the originally black torrent. In many places, people were knocked over on their backs. One person fell down and a group of people were overturned.
The soldiers in the front row collapsed immediately, dropped their weapons and equipment and fled.
The first wave of tentative attacks took the first step, but they hurriedly fled back, leaving hundreds of corpses behind due to the rain of arrows.
Throughout history, there are only a handful of armies that can withstand the rain of arrows without changing their expressions. This kind of army that immediately runs away as soon as it is shot by arrows is the norm in the era of cold weapons.
Cai Hao was not angry. After resting for about half an hour, he changed his mind and issued the order to attack again.
This time, the soldiers in the front row no longer held up shields, but held up large wooden boards.
Below the wooden formation, there were soldiers carrying large amounts of soil on shoulder poles and bamboo baskets, or struggling to move forward with sacks on their backs.
This is a method of siege. It's called building an earthen fortress. You use wooden planks to cover the soldiers to the bottom of the city, and then use bamboo baskets to carry soil and pile it up under the city. When the soil under the city is as high as the city wall, forming a slope, you can rush directly to the city.
Go up to the tower.
According to the records of "Historical Records", when Xiang Yu attacked Qi, he personally carried the plank on his back, took the lead, protected the soldiers and filled up the soil under the city, and finally conquered the city and eliminated Tian Rong's self-reliant Qi State.
It's just that building earthen fortresses is time-consuming and labor-intensive. After the invention of cloud ladders in the Han Dynasty, few people used this method anymore.
However, it is still very useful for attacking camps that are not as high as city walls.
"set fire!"
When Guan Yu saw this scene, he smiled coldly, showing no fear at all.
Soon a large number of wooden phalanxes gathered outside the camp.
They gathered densely below the camp.
When the soldiers in the camp saw them coming, they immediately poured fish paste outside, threw out firewood, and finally threw down hundreds of torches.
Suddenly those wooden boards burst into flames.
When the Jingzhou soldiers saw the planks on fire, they threw down the planks and ran away, and many of them were shot dead.
In the end, Cai Mao and Qian Donkey were out of ideas, so they chose to use wooden planks to cover the soldiers before they reached the camp, and then used wooden ladders to forcefully attack the camp.
Although fire attacks can break wooden boards, the range of fire attacks is very short. As long as you use wooden boards to protect the soldiers outside the camp, and then hold up your shield and carry the wooden ladder to kill them, you can get close to the wall of the camp.
Although there is still a shooting range of more than 20 meters for bows and arrows, it is much safer compared to the previous death zone of hundreds of meters.
As expected, this trick worked.
It's just that Cai Mao underestimated the power of the camp's defensive troops. On the wooden fence of the camp that was a hundred feet long, Guan Yu's army stepped on the cloud platform behind and fought with them to the death, and finally repelled the waves of attacks.
The fighting lasted from three o'clock in the day until dark in the evening. There were corpses of Jingzhou soldiers scattered everywhere outside the camp, more than a thousand of them. It can be said that Cai Mao suffered heavy losses.
After several waves of attacks were repelled, Cai Hao realized that the defender in this camp was a ruthless character and should not be underestimated.
He immediately said to the guards on his left and right: "Who is stationed in this camp?"
"I didn't raise the flag, so I don't know."
"Ming Jin retreated his troops and sent someone to ask, when did Jingzhou produce such a powerful guard."
"only!"
Soon Cai Mao's personal soldiers struck the golden bell.
Thousands of former soldiers who were attacking the camp breathed a sigh of relief and retreated like a tide.
A horseman poured out from the crowd and came to the outside of the camp and shouted: "The Taiwei would like to ask who the guard in this camp is!"
Guan Yu stood on the wall of the stronghold, looked down, stood sternly, and then said coldly: "People below the stronghold, listen, tell Cai Mao that this person is Guan Yu from the east of the river, and so is Guan Yunchang!"
Guan. Guan Yunchang?
Cai Mao's personal guards at the base of the village were shocked, not because they were afraid of Guan Yu's name, but because they were shocked by why Guan Yu was here.
But at this time, he had no time to think too much and quickly turned the horse's head back to report.
"What?"
Soon Cai Mao learned the news and was equally shocked. His eyes widened: "Guan Yu is actually here?"
"Could it be that Liu Bei used a trick and deliberately deceived us into going to Xichuan?"
Hu Zheng was shocked on the side.
Cai Du hurriedly said: "This is impossible. The scouts saw them leaving with their own eyes. Besides, isn't Zigui already occupied by us?"
"Then how could Guan Yu appear here?"
Hu Zheng was shocked.
Cai Du thought deeply: "There are only 10,000 troops here. Could it be that before Liu Bei entered Xichuan, he was worried that his uncle would immediately attack Jingnan as soon as he left? Liu Bei was on good terms with Liu Qi, so he was worried about this, so he sent Guan Yu to lead the army.
Ten thousand people stayed."
"It's possible."
Cai Mao nodded repeatedly and said: "No wonder so many people suddenly came out of Jingnan. It is indeed difficult. But as long as it is not Liu Bei's army, it will be fine. He does not have a fleet. It will take at least more than a month to return to Jingzhou by land. I am afraid that within this month
We cannot pacify Jingnan."
Hu Zheng rolled his eyes and said: "Lieutenant, it is said that Guan Yu has always been arrogant and often despises the world's heroes. He calls everyone he meets a rat and looks at everyone as if they are betraying him. Such a fanatic will definitely be beaten by the general."
"you mean?"
"You can send someone to the front of the battle line to arrange a fight. If he comes out to challenge, we will ambush the archers and shoot him!"
"this"
Cai Mao hesitated and said: "This method is sinister. If it is spread, people in the world will laugh at you."
Hu Zhengquan said: ""Han Feizi" once said: "A gentleman who is courteous is not tired of loyalty; in battle, he is not tired of deceit." When the two armies are fighting, if they only care about their reputation, how can they not hear about Song Xianggong? How much more successful?
If the king defeats the enemy, people will only laugh at those who lose, but who will laugh at those who win?"
"Um."
Cai Mao nodded in agreement: "Yu Heng's words are very reasonable, so we will handle it accordingly."
"only."
Hu Zheng then went to convey the order.
Cai Du moved his lips, but in the end he said nothing.
His job is not to cause internal sabotage.
What's more, Guan Yu's reputation is well known.
If such a simple provoking method is successful, then it is just a false name, so what is the use of helping him?
Soon after, a horseman came out from the crowd. The man was wearing black armor, tall and muscular, with broad shoulders and a round waist. He was holding a big axe.
Cai Mao looked at it and laughed: "Isn't this my warrior Xing Daorong?"
"Yes, Lieutenant."
Hu Zheng had already returned and said quickly: "I just sent an order to the generals to ask who dares to fight. Xing Daorong is leading the way. This man is good at using a pear-shaped mountain axe. He has the courage of thousands of men. Even if he cannot defeat Guan Yu, he will definitely be able to lure him."
Ambush."
"good!"
Cai Hao smiled slightly, stroked his beard and nodded.
This Xing Daorong was a powerful general under Liu Du, the prefect of Lingling. Previously, Liu Pan used Zhuge Liang's plan to conquer Changsha County, but other counties wanted to attack by force, so Liu Du fought with Liu Pan's army.
However, Liu Du was defeated and Lingling was breached, so he had no choice but to take his men and flee into Wuling County and along the Yuanshui River back to Nan County. Cai Mao also lost hundreds of remaining troops.
This Xing Daorong was quite brave and was deeply loved by Cai Mao. Unfortunately, because he had not made any achievements, he was just a Sima in the army for the time being.
At this moment, Xing Daorong rode out boldly. Naturally, he wanted to make a great contribution and be valued by Cai Mao and become the general of Jingzhou.
However, the current confrontation between the two sides is not close to each other, because the camp has high oars, and the shooting range is far away from the high tower, so Cai Hao's troops are arrayed at 200 steps, which is almost 280 meters.
appearance.
Xing Daorong rode alone and ran to the middle of the two armies, almost a hundred paces away. The archers on the oars high up in Guan Yu's camp were able to shoot him into a hedgehog.
However, when Guan Yu saw him fighting alone, he did not order him to be shot.
After all, at that time, although long-distance shooting with bows and arrows could reach as far as 200 meters, it was often easy to miss the target, so even for well-trained archers, the effective range was generally within a hundred steps.
There are many people who can shoot an arrow a hundred steps away, but there are only a handful of people who can shoot an arrow a hundred steps away without missing a target.
Xing Daorong is a hundred steps away, and there is no Huang Zhong in the camp. If you want to kill an archery master like Taishi Ci, you have to cover a large area, and he may even escape. Hundreds or thousands of arrows are wasted for one person.
, it’s really not worth it.
Moreover, Guan Yu also wanted to see what the man wanted to do when he ran to the front of the two armies alone.
Then I saw Xing Daorong coming to the front of the formation, holding a big ax in one hand, showing off his power outside the camp, and shouting to the camp: "Guan Yu, a common man, do you dare to come out and fight me?"
"Oh? Someone actually wants to fight with me in front of the formation? It's really rare. Zhou Cang, get my sword."
When Guan Yu saw this situation, he suddenly felt strange.
Ever since he killed Yan Liang in the army, almost no one in the world dared to challenge him in front of the battle. I didn't expect that someone would die today. I couldn't help but feel itchy and wanted to go out and kill this person.
"Father."
Guan Ping on the side said quickly: "This madman is just a kid. If my father fights him in person, won't he lose his reputation? My son is willing to go."
"hehe."
Guan Yu stroked his beard and smiled and said: "After I killed Yuan Shao's general Yan Liang, how can anyone in the world be so bold and reckless? I guess this is just a cunning plot by the enemy to lure me out and set up an ambush to kill me."
Guan Ping was puzzled: "Then why did my father go out to fight with them?"
Guan Yu explained: "Now I don't know where your uncle is now. We are in Yiyang to hold off Cai Hao and let your uncle harass the rear. If we can only defend, Cai Hao will not be able to attack for a long time. If he retreats,
Or it would be bad if we went to other places. If we pretend to fall into the trap and delay the time, we can also allow Uncle You to successfully attack Jiangling and other places."
"Can"
Guan Ping was still worried.
Guan Yu said: "It doesn't matter, I know it well."
After saying that, he asked someone to take his Green Dragon Sword and fetch the Red Rabbit Horse. He quickly opened the east gate of the camp and galloped out alone.
When he arrived outside the village, he looked at Xing Daorong ten feet away from him.
When Xing Daorong saw Guan Yu really come out, he couldn't help but swallow his saliva when he saw his huge body of more than two meters tall and the red rabbit horse that was two circles larger than his own war horse.
I had heard before that Guan Yu was so brave that there were countless dissenters in the world, but after meeting the real person, I realized that Guan Yu seemed to be so powerful.
After all, Guan Yu is 2.07 meters tall, weighs more than 200 kilograms, has big arms and a round waist, and is a fierce general who can be defeated by thousands of people.
Just looking at his appearance and aura is enough to overwhelm many people.
According to later archaeological knowledge, the average height of men in the Han Dynasty was generally around 1.68 meters.
Xing Daorong was only over 1.8 meters tall. Although he was quite majestic, he was a head and a half shorter than Guan Yu. Facing a giant over two meters tall, he naturally felt a lot of pressure.
Fortunately, before leaving, Hu Zheng also ordered him to use verbal insults and taunt Guan Yu to make Guan Yu furious and fight him. As long as he could take two or three moves from Guan Yu, then pretend to be defeated and retreat immediately, causing Guan Yu to fight.
Guan Yu can reach the range of archers.
So Xing Daorong does not need to actually fight Guan Yu.
At this time, Xing Daorong saw that Guan Yu had really left the village gate. He gritted his teeth and shouted according to the original plan: "Guan Yu is a common man. There is no hero at that time, so Zhuzi became famous. You are just a jujube seller from Hedong. How dare you come to Jingzhou to show off your evil?"
"
"You, a nobody, are really arrogant. How dare you challenge me?"
Guan Yu shouted coldly: "Where is the rat? Tell me your name!"
"Say my name and I'll scare you!"
Xing Daorong held a big ax and said loudly: "I am Lingling General Xing Daorong!"
"oh?"
Guan Yu laughed and said: "I heard that Liu Pan sent people to attack Lingling, and the Lingling prefect Liu Du and his general Xing Daorong fled in panic. Could it be you?"
Xing Daorong argued: "There is someone inside the city who broke down the city gate. Otherwise, if Liu Pan, Huang Zhong and others come, I will kill them all."
At that time, Liu Pan sent people to attack Lingling County. Because there were aristocratic families in Lingling County, just like Liu Bi and Kou Feng, they defected to Liu Bei.
So when Liu Du was guarding the city, he let the wealthy families in the city open the city gate at night, and Liu Du fled in embarrassment.
At this moment, Guan Yu told the glorious history of Xing Daorong's defeat, and he naturally wanted to put gold on his face.
"It's a joke. You were killed and ran away, but you dare to run in front of my battle and talk nonsense. You are really arrogant! It's a pity that my green dragon sword wants to chop off the head of an unknown rat like you!"
Guan Yu narrowed his eyes. He knew that Cai Mao might be planning to kill him, but he was out of the range of the bow and arrow, so he used his plan to delay the attack, lest Cai Mao could not attack for a long time and retreated from the ambush circle.
Xing Daorong shouted: "Don't be nagging, don't think that just because you are famous, you are really powerful. If you meet me, Xing Daorong, today, will you die?"
"Ha ha ha ha."
Guan Yu seemed to be amused and said, "Just you?"
"good."
Xing Daorong said loudly: "Who from Lingling doesn't know that I, Xing Daorong, am extremely brave?"
"oh?"
Guan Yu said cheerfully: "How brave are you?"
"You'll find out later."
Xing Daorong shouted loudly: "But I heard that you are nearly fifty years old, so I won't bully you. I'll just let you make the first move."
He made up his mind that once Guan Yu urged his horse to come, he would immediately rein in his horse and run away.
Anyway, as long as Guan Yu is lured over, the mission is completed.
Unexpectedly, Guan Yu was deliberately stalling for time, narrowing his eyes and chatting with him: "A rat like you is worthy of letting me strike first?"
"What a joke, if I knocked you off your horse with an axe, wouldn't the world say that I bullied you into being old and weak?"
"Although I am nearly fifty years old, killing you is like picking something out of a bag."
"Bragging! Come on if you have the ability!"
Xing Daorong was riding on horseback and talking quickly, but he hesitated to take action.
Behind him, Cai Mao saw the two chattering incessantly. He raised his head and looked at the sky, frowned and said, "Why is this Xing Daorong still entangled with Guan Yu?"
Hu Zheng and the others were far away and did not know the conversation between the two, so he said: "Maybe he is provoking Guan Yu with words, just wait."
"If we wait any longer, it will get dark."
Cai Mao said dissatisfied.
They attacked the camp in the afternoon and attacked several times in succession. They have been fighting for two hours. It is now the end of the afternoon feeding time and the beginning of the day, which is around four o'clock in the afternoon and close to five o'clock.
If they linger any longer, it will get dark and they will have to withdraw their troops and return to camp.
But over there, Xing Daorong was still wagging his lips and flirting with Guan Yu for seven or eight minutes, but there was no fight between the two, which made Cai Mao behind him very dissatisfied.
"Urge Xing Daorong!"
Seeing this, Hu Zheng issued an order to have people beat drums to encourage them.
Soon the drums were beating loudly.
Xing Daorong heard the urging from behind and had no choice but to bite the bullet and said: "In that case, look at the axe."
After saying that, he urged the horse to come, raised the big ax in his hand high, and used the power of the horse to strike down with the axe.