Chapter 423 Horse Racing on the City Wall, Seeing Through the Strategies
Chapter 423 City Wall Horse Racing, Discovering the Plot
Author: Playing with Basilisk
Soon, the next day.
Shen Chen has been in Chang'an City for more than ten days, and the fortress has basically been completed.
All the large equipment and tools were ready, and the forts that stretched for more than ten miles were all opened at the end of lunch time, and the generals of each battalion slowly left the camp with their own men and horses.
The soldiers had breakfast at the first quarter of the meal hour, then rested for a while, and began to line up in the camp at the third quarter of the meal hour.
When the melodious trumpet sounded, the generals and battalion generals who received the order led the soldiers out of the camp.
In this Northern Expedition to Guanzhong, Shen Chen did not have an advantage in terms of military strength. However, he managed the army with Yan Jin, and with the help of Yu Jin, he trained an elite group of soldiers who had fought in hundreds of battles. The morale of the soldiers was very high, and their fighting spirit was also very strong. .
Chang'an's side was obviously playing the avoidance of war card and decided to stay in the city and not come out. Shen Chen planned to launch a strong attack just after sending out troops and when morale was high.
He asked Huang Zhong to attack Lantian County with more than 10,000 troops. It seemed that the number of troops and horses was small, far from Cao Zhen's, but Shen Chen still had tens of thousands of cavalry.
Once Cao Zhen felt that Huang Zhong had few people to bully and dared to send his main force out of Lantian Valley to attack Huang Zhong's more than 10,000 people, then Shen Chen would let Cao Zhen experience the horror of thousands of horses galloping and iron cavalry crushing them.
By the end of the meal, the army had already been assembled. About 30,000 men and horses were arranged in several square formations. There were also a large number of civilian auxiliary troops in the rear, pushing countless catapults, ladders, cloud towers, rams, and wooden carts. The mantle, nest car, anvil car, crash car, Linchong and other equipment are heading north all the way.
The sound of tinkling drums echoed throughout the south gate wall of Chang'an City. A large number of Cao's troops stood on the wall and looked to the south.
I saw only a densely packed Han army coming slowly. There were 30,000 troops plus more than 10,000 civilian auxiliary troops, about 50,000 horses. On the vast plain, there seemed to be a black tide surging forward, like a stormy wave crashing on the shore. He slammed into the huge Chang'an city.
The length of the South City Wall of Han Chang'an is about 6.25 kilometers, and it is almost endless. However, the Han troops outside the city also formed a long formation, which was also endless. The sea of people was surging, as if it wanted to cover all sides of the South City Wall. .
At this moment, on the Chang'an city wall, with the sound of ping ping war drums and horns, groups of soldiers emerged from behind the female wall, stringing their bows and unsheathing their swords, and everywhere there was the sound of the clanking of armored leaves and anxious and angry urgings. The uniform shouts, as well as short and urgent orders and sharp police whistles, all made the wall a mess.
Xiahou Mao, Zhong Yao and others hurried to the city wall to wait and see. They saw that the Han army in the distance was not in a hurry to attack, but temporarily stopped about four or five miles outside the city. Suddenly, a knight galloped from the enemy's formation. He came out and ran quickly towards the South City Gate.
Since there was only one cavalryman, Xiahou Mao did not order any arrows to be fired. The city did have plenty of supplies, but it was not worth it to shoot thousands of arrows just for one person. Xiahou Mao was not stupid enough to be so wealthy.
The knight quickly approached the moat without any hindrance from the crossbow. Then he flicked his tail beautifully and leaped high with his horse hooves. The soldier sat on horseback and stood up. Then he quickly bent his bow and nocked an arrow, aiming at a distance of less than eighty meters from him. The bow string was suddenly loosened above Bu's city wall.
Almost as soon as the arrow flew towards the city wall, the horse's hooves had already fallen, and then the knight turned his horse's head and stepped back dozens of steps, out of the range of the crossbow, waiting for a reply.
The arrow drew a beautiful arc in the air and hit the pillar of the tower.
After a while, the soldiers brought it back, and there was a letter hanging on the arrow. After Xiahou Mao read it, he frowned and said, "This is Shen Chen's letter of challenge. He asked me to wait outside the city for a decisive battle."
Zhong Yao smiled and said: "General, there is no need to pay attention. The south has fewer troops than the north. We still occupy Chang'an City, which has high walls and thick walls. It is natural that he wants to invite us out of the city for a decisive battle to determine the outcome in one fell swoop. Since we have decided to focus on defense Lord, why bother getting rid of this entanglement?"
"Well, that's natural."
Xia Houmao nodded, and then said: "Reply to that person!"
There was an archer immediately next to him, aiming in the direction of the knight, and shot an arrow suddenly.
The arrow also drew an arc in the air, but because the knight was already very far back, beyond the range of the crossbow arrows, it did not threaten him, and finally landed five or six steps in front of the knight.
The knight lowered his head and glanced. There was no reply on the arrow. This could only mean one thing - the enemy did not respond to the decision to leave the city for a decisive battle, and obviously planned to continue to shrink the city.
"Woooooooooo!~~~~~"
After the knight came back and reported the news to Shen Chen, Shen Chen did not have any surprises. He waved his hand and prepared to attack the city.
Then the central infantry corps moved to the left and right wings, revealing a passage.
The siege equipment at the rear was slowly pushed to the front. The wooden curtain was at the front, and the four-wheeled vehicle was underneath. A huge wooden board was hung on the top and was pushed to the front of the formation.
Immediately afterwards, various siege equipment began to move forward, and catapults, cloud towers, and moat bridges approached the city gate under the cover of wooden curtains.
There is a moat in Chang'an City, and its source is not the Weishui River, but the Weishui River, a tributary of the Weishui River.
Jiushui is not a large river, so the moat in Chang'an is far less exaggerated than that in Xiangyang, which is tens of meters wide. Therefore, the siege equipment does not need to be close to the moat at all and can be activated from a hundred steps away.
Mu Huan was at the front of the team, slowly approaching Chang'an City within the arrow range, but the city was extremely quiet, and nothing happened.
After a while, at a distance of nearly eighty steps, an iron-tipped crossbow arrow as thick and long as a tree trunk suddenly shot down from the top of the city with a whistling sound like a ghost crying and a wolf howling, and the arrow pierced the wooden curtain on a wooden door. board.
This arrow is like a signal.
All the vehicles stopped, and the wooden curtains were lined up to cover the catapults and the people behind them. The cloud tower could not cover them because it was too high.
"Hurry up."
The crossbowmen below the Cloud Tower climbed up the ladder one after another.
The winchman of the catapult pulls the winch. Some people carry out counterweights, some place stones, and others help pull the load-bearing rod. More than ten people operate the catapult together.
After the arrows of the first bed crossbow in Chang'an City were shot down, the second, third, and fourth thousands of bed crossbows were launched one after another, aiming at the wooden curtains, catapults, and cloud tower firepower below. Fully open.
"boom!"
A crossbow arrow pierced the void and hit a cloud tower. A huge banging sound was heard, and sawdust flew everywhere. Huo Yang, who was climbing the cloud tower, was hit by the ejected sawdust and almost fell from the sky. Fell down from the wooden building.
"General."
The guards nearby rushed to help him.
Huo Yang's face was scratched and blood was flowing down. He pushed his guards away and shouted: "Don't worry about me, go up and set up the crossbow."
"yes."
The guards immediately went up the ladder.
People cannot stand on the cloud tower while it is moving. Firstly, the standing position is unstable, and secondly, there are too many people on top, which will increase the burden on the people below pushing the cloud tower.
So I usually arrive at the place, fix the position, and then climb up to find the shooting position.
Now the enemy strikes first and keeps firing crossbows. Thousands of crossbows on a battlefield with a span of seven or eight miles like this can do little damage.
But the commander on the city wall was very smart. He did not aim at the Han soldiers, but specifically aimed at the baffles, trebuchets and wooden curtains on the cloud tower, hoping to cause damage to the Han army's equipment.
The wooden curtain can defend against arrows. The bed crossbow is particularly powerful. The huge impact may break the wooden curtain. Once the wooden curtain and the baffle on the cloud building are missing, normal crossbows can be used. power.
However, the Wei army on the city wall probably would not have thought that over the years, Liu Bei's group has attached great importance to craftsmen and inventions. Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang have often studied it and improved equipment including hand crossbows, bed crossbows, catapults, infantry bows and other equipment.
The weapons and equipment of the Han army are already superior to those of the Cao army in terms of power, range and use methods. Especially things like catapults.
According to historical records, if a catapult before the Song Dynasty threw a 100 kilogram stone, its range was usually between 40-70 meters. If a 30 kilogram stone was thrown, its range was only a little over 100 meters, so it could not be thrown too far.
"Fan Li's Art of War" records that when a catapult in the Spring and Autumn Period throws twelve kilograms, it can fly two hundred steps, almost three hundred meters, but its power is much smaller.
Therefore, the catapults before the Tang and Song Dynasties had many shortcomings in terms of range and power.
But today's trebuchets have been improved by Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang, and have added functions with winches and counterweights. They have a longer range and greater power than the original direct human-powered catapults.
At this moment, the wooden curtain at the front is about eighty paces, a hundred meters away from the city, and the catapult at the back is about a hundred paces, a hundred and forty meters away. At this distance, an archer standing on the city wall can kill it, but because of the With wooden curtains for defense, it is difficult to shoot the catapult driver.
"Fire the arrow!"
Huo Yang has already climbed up to the Yun Tower. The Yun Tower is like a large tower with dozens of archers standing on it. In addition to the archers, there is also a bed crossbow.
At this time, three people controlled the crossbow, using gears and winches to step on and pull the string.
Following Huo Yang's order, the crossbowman who was stepping on the winch hub immediately released his grip, and a "buzz" sound was heard. The crossbow arrows were ejected at an extremely fast speed, so fast that afterimages even appeared. In the blink of an eye, It disappeared into the sky.
The Han army's battle formations were arranged in order of wooden curtains, catapults and cloud towers. The cloud tower was located slightly further back, so that neither the enemy nor our bows could shoot.
But then he saw the crossbow arrow pierce the sky with a "swish" and then hit the parapet. The brick wall and earth and rocks fell apart, and metal sparks flew out, frightening the two Wei Jun who were leaning against the crevices of the parapet and looking outside.
"Cum shot wrong!"
When Huo Yang saw this scene, he immediately shouted: "Adjust the angle, quickly!"
Soon new crossbow arrows were loaded.
Cao Wei's bed crossbow was technically inferior to the Han army's bed crossbow, and its accuracy was also insufficient.
The Han army's bed crossbow was even equipped with a machine sight. The improved crossbow platform was fixed on the cloud tower, and the speed of placing crossbow arrows was much faster than that of Cao Jun's bed crossbow.
Therefore, even though there were more bed crossbows in Chang'an City, the Han army was not to be outdone, relying on its powerful launch speed and accuracy to adjust the numerical gap and launch a powerful counterattack.
The bed crossbow arrows from both sides continued to shoot back and forth in mid-air, but in a war of this scale, it was obviously impossible for the bed crossbows to cause huge damage.
The two sides exchanged fire for a long time, and the casualties caused by the full attack were no more than 500. Most of them were injured, and most of them were injured by splatters of sawdust and clods of earth.
But then the heavyweights appeared and tipped the balance.
The catapult came into force.
The first thing projected was a 100-kilogram boulder, which drew a gorgeous arc in the sky, crossed the moat, and flew towards the city head.
Unfortunately, the accuracy was a little off, and it hit the parapet, making a big hole in the crenel.
Chang'an City and Luoyang City were one of the few cities with brick walls and rammed earth structures in the Han Dynasty. Their defensive capabilities were extremely exaggerated. The inertial force of the boulders weighed more than one ton.
But the city wall is just a big hole, and the defense line is as stable as a mountain.
However, the second and third pieces followed and hundreds of stone bullets hit the city wall head-on like meteorites.
The sound of "bang bang bang" was heard continuously. Although the momentum was certainly far less exaggerated than the Jin army's 5,000 forts that almost leveled Bianliang, it still gave the Wei army a great impact.
Many Wei soldiers had hardly fought against catapults. When they saw the terrifying boulders falling from the sky, even if they knew that the probability of hitting them was extremely small, they were instinctively frightened and their legs became weak. Some even simply ran away, trying to escape from the city wall.
.
"No retreat!"
At this moment, on top of the city wall, Zhong Yao looked down from a distance.
The first round of the catapult attack shocked the Wei army so much that the crossbow attack stalled.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, many soldiers suddenly ran out of the Han army's formation, carrying the trench bridge and running towards the bottom of the city wall under the cover of catapults and crossbows.
Once the trench bridge is set up, the next step is for the Han army to resist the ladder and start to attack the city, so Zhong Yao ordered the soldiers to hold on.
Forced by the sharp steel knives in the hands of the war supervisors, the soldiers had no choice but to return to their posts. Then Zhong Yao ordered to fire arrows. The Han army outside the city did not expect that they could organize a counterattack so quickly. Arrows rained down for a while.
As noted, the soldiers scurried away with their heads in their hands.
However, Cao Jun also paid a heavy price.
In order to defend against a large-scale attack by the Han army, the more than ten miles long city wall was filled with Wei soldiers. Although the number of Han army's catapults was not large, it was not easy to hit people, but there were always some unlucky ones who had bad luck.
The bumpy city wall was littered with stones and splashing stones, and dust was everywhere. Some were hit by the front and turned into a ball of sauce, some were injured by the splashing stones, and their blood flowed continuously, and some were simply injured.
Even if you are stunned, the huge boulder will make a huge concussive sound when it falls.
The city wall was full of wailing and lying down Wei soldiers, but Zhong Yao didn't care much anymore. He kept watching from a high oar at the back, and suddenly he frowned and said, "That's not right."
General Fei Yao next to him asked: "Lieutenant, what's wrong?"
"Although the enemy's offensive is fierce, it can't even cross the moat. What exactly does Shen Chen want to do? If he wants to attack on a large scale, he will definitely wait patiently for several more months and build more siege equipment. How can he rush so quickly? What about the attack?”
Zhong Yao was very puzzled.
When Lu Zhi put down the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he besieged Zhang Jiao in Guangzong County.
There are many Yellow Turban troops in Guangzong City, and the city is also very large.
In order to defeat Zhang Jiao, Lu Zhi decided to stay where he was, build siege equipment, and then launch a fierce attack on Guangzong.
The result was that during the encirclement and confrontation stage, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty became impatient before the equipment was ready, so he replaced Lu Zhi with Dong Zhuo and asked Dong Zhuo to attack.
Dong Zhuo bravely attacked the city, but was beaten to a bloody head, which shows the difficulty of siege.
The walls of Chang'an City were much thicker than those of Guangzong City. Shen Chen was also a long-standing veteran and famous throughout the world. How could he make such a stupid mistake and attack Chang'an without being fully prepared?
There are only a few hundred catapults, so why not build a thousand more and attack them by force?
So Zhong Yao felt something was wrong.
After a moment, his face suddenly became solemn, and he said to Fei Yao: "Quick, city wall horse racing, immediately order all scouts to run along the city wall and patrol."
"yes."
Although Fei Yao was puzzled, seeing Zhong Yao's firm attitude, he immediately went to do it.
Yang Ke, the cavalry general on the other side, asked in confusion: "Lieutenant, why do you let the scouts run along the city wall to patrol?"
"Chang'an is difficult to defend because it is so big. There are 50,000 people in our city, all standing on one side of the city wall, which is not enough to fit in, let alone the four walls."
Zhong Yao said with a serious face: "Now Shen Chen is attacking in the south, and Zhao Yun and Pang De are in the north. Our soldiers are all defending on the north and south sides. The east and west walls, let alone defense, are seriously insufficient for reconnaissance. If Shen Chen goes north and south Pretend to attack, but actually send small groups of troops to attack from the east and west. I am afraid that several gates on the east and west walls are in danger of being captured."
"I see."
Yang Ke nodded as if he understood.
About two-quarters of an hour later, Fei Yao hurried back. Before he climbed onto the high oar, he shouted to Zhong Yao from below: "Captain, it's not good, the enemy is attacking from the west city."
"really."
Zhong Yao shouted: "Quick, let the reserve team at the rear rush to support Xicheng."
"only."
Fei Yao quickly went to make arrangements.
At this time, Yang Ke was extremely impressed. He gave a thumbs up and said: "The Taiwei has a wonderful calculation and really guessed what the enemy wanted to do."
But Zhong Yao was not happy. He looked at the Han army in the south with a deep look and said softly: "Shen Xiaoqing has many tricks. Even if he is discovered, the weakness of our city is that we hope that he has no other plans." .”
The second wave of Xiaoyang is coming. Several friends around me are suffering from Yang. Please be careful. I have not been feeling very well in the past few days. I wanted to go to the hospital to have my stomach checked before, but I registered for a gastroscopy. No anesthesia was used to do a gastroscopy. If you can’t stop, fight it. It’s harmful to your body, so I hesitated and didn’t do it. But the symptoms are basically chronic gastritis, so you still have to pay attention to your health.