Chapter 493: Embarrassing Retreat. Complimentary Han is Available
The next morning, Cao Zhen got up with his personal attendants.
The first thing Cao Zhen asked after getting up was: "Did the bandits leave the city last night?"
Facing Cao Zhen's inquiry, his attendant immediately bowed and replied: "Never."
After hearing the answer from his personal attendant, Cao Zhen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Although he was quite satisfied with yesterday's victory, he also knew that Mi Yang was not a person who would sit still and wait for death.
As for saving others by himself, Cao Zhen expected that if Mi Yang didn't want to sit back and wait for death, he would most likely focus on destroying the mountains outside the city.
This is the best solution Cao Zhen could come up with.
Once the earth mountain is destroyed, the Wei army's archers' commanding advantage will be lost, which will give the Han army on the wall an opportunity to counterattack.
In order to prevent this, Cao Zhen secretly ordered a group of elite soldiers to hide in the camp last night. If the Han army wanted to use the same trick of night attack, then this would play into Cao Zhen's plan.
Now after learning that Cao Zhen's Han army had not made any movement all night, Cao Zhen breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, he was inevitably disappointed.
After feeling relaxed and disappointed, Cao Zhen couldn't help but feel suspicious in his heart.
Based on his understanding of Mi Yang, the Han army last night shouldn't have made any unusual moves.
Facing such a difficult opponent like Mi Yang, Cao Zhen's mood seemed very complicated.
Due to the suspicion in his heart, Cao Zhen couldn't help but ask again: "There was really no movement inside and outside Nanzheng last night?"
In order to verify the suspicion in his heart, Cao Zhen expanded the scope of the doubts in his heart.
After Cao Zhen asked again, he thought about it carefully and seemed to remember something that Wang Shuang had just come to report.
"General, according to what General Wang said, there were frequent construction sounds on the Nanzheng City Wall last night."
As soon as he heard this, Cao Zhen put down the meal in his hand and let out a loud sigh.
After hearing these words, the experienced Cao Zhen immediately guessed what the Han army was probably doing last night - repairing the city wall.
But after guessing this, Cao Zhen became even more suspicious.
Repairing the city wall is a self-protection measure that the city defenders often do at night. However, the city wall in Nanzheng is not damaged. How can the Han army repair it?
Unless the Han army is not repairing the city wall, but heightening it.
But when this idea emerged in his mind, Cao Zhen felt even more ridiculous.
Is it possible to raise the city wall overnight?
Mi Yangjian will not do such useless work.
Many speculations emerged in Cao Zhen's mind. Out of his regard for Mi Yang and his rich experience, all speculations were secretly rejected by Cao Zhen.
This made Cao Zhen feel as if there were ants crawling in his heart.
Cao Zhen, who had something on his mind, could no longer eat the breakfast in front of him. He stood up directly and asked his personal followers to wait on him to pierce the armor. Instead of making many guesses, it would be better to go to the top of the city and take a look.
About half an hour later, Cao Zhen, who was on the oar, slowly appeared outside Nanzheng City under the guidance of his soldiers.
Before Cao Zhen appeared outside Nanzheng City, the mountains were already filled with archers from the Wei army.
All the Wei generals knew that Cao Zhen was eager to win, and the archers of the Wei army had already been lined up on several mountains. They were a gift to Cao Zhen this morning.
Sure enough, before Cao Zhen saw him arriving, the archers on Tushan had all formed their formations, and he couldn't help but nodded in the watchtower.
General Cao Wei appears with his own pomp.
After a burst of war drums, Cao Zhen's building, under the gaze of tens of thousands of Wei troops, stopped not far from the Nanzheng city wall.
After the oars stopped, Cao Zhen carefully observed whether there was anything different on the Nanzheng city wall.
After careful observation, Cao Zhen found that the Nanzheng city wall had not been heightened, and there was nothing unusual about it. It seemed to be no different from yesterday.
If we really want to talk about the difference, it seems that the two towers on the Nanzheng city wall were made taller by the Han army's tied timber.
And when he looked more carefully, Cao Zhen discovered that there were still some charred marks on the wood used to heighten the tower.
It seems that most of these wood were taken from the houses that were burned down by his rocket yesterday.
What's the use of just raising the tower?
Cao Zhen will know the answer soon.
Mi Yang, who was hiding in the city tower, saw the Wei army's tower reappearing, and he knew that Cao Zhen was coming.
Seeing this, Mi Yang did not hesitate and had someone blow the horn.
At the call of the trumpet, groups of archers wearing iron armor and iron masks began to appear on the city wall.
And just when Cao Zhen was surprised by this scene, something unexpected happened to Cao Zhen.
When the Wei army was unprepared, many fire arrows suddenly shot out from the heightened tower.
Since the city tower was raised by the Han army, the city tower is taller than the towers and oars of the Wei army.
Being condescending, the power of the fire arrows was invisibly strengthened, and the accuracy of the Han army's fire arrows was even greatly enhanced.
Almost a moment later, multiple fire arrows shot onto the oars.
When the fire arrow is nailed to the oar, the grease covering the fire arrow gradually flows along the arrow and onto the wood that fixes the oar.
One fire arrow may not cause any damage to the tall Lou Lu, but when many fire arrows cover the lower body of Lou Lu, it doesn't take long for Lou Lu's lower body to begin to burn quickly.
The hot weather accelerated the burning process.
When a tower was completely ignited by the Han army's fire arrows, the Han troops in the tower shifted their targets to other towers.
Just like the countless houses in Nanzheng City that were burned down by the fire arrows of the Wei army yesterday, the oars of the Wei army are now facing the fate of being covered and devoured by fire.
Since the Han army was well prepared and waited until the oars appeared before releasing the fire arrows, thousands of Wei archers on the nearby mountains were shocked by what they saw.
It's not that there were no Wei archers who wanted to organize a counterattack, but today the situation between the two armies was completely different, and the Han army regained the advantage of being at a commanding height.
The most important thing is that there is a coordination between Loulu and Tushan. To put it bluntly, the Wei army in Loulu is the eyes of the Wei army archers on Tushan, and it is their command system.
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Yesterday, it was precisely because of the tacit cooperation between the Wei army in the building and the Wei army on the mountain that they could adopt the continuous arrow rain offensive to knock out the Han soldiers on the city wall.
The army was too forced to fight back.
But now it seems that our own command system is unable to protect itself. How can we command the Wei archers on the mountain to launch a counterattack?
In this case, even if some Wei troops spontaneously shot arrows at the Nanzheng city wall, since the Han troops on the wall were armed to the teeth, this part of the attack, which was more like a harassment, would not have much effect at all.
Let’s not mention the reaction of the Wei army’s archers on Tushan for the moment. Cao Zhen, who was inside the oars, saw the oars beside him burst into flames one after another. In order to escape for their lives, the Wei troops on the oars jumped from the watchtower that was several feet high.
At that moment, a biting chill instantly penetrated his whole body.
In order to save his own life, Cao Zhen now had no time to think about strategies to deal with the enemy. A stern order was instantly issued from his mouth:
"Go quickly, go quickly!"
After receiving Cao Zhen's order, he immediately passed the order to the bottom of the oar.
After receiving this order, the Wei army below hurriedly pushed the oars where Cao Zhen was to retreat back.
Not only Cao Zhen's tower was retreating rapidly, but the Wei generals in several towers around him saw that Cao Zhen was beginning to retreat. They also hurriedly ordered the Wei troops under the tower to push them back to the main camp.
For a time, the few surviving oars, like defeated dogs, retreated towards their own camp in a panic.
It can be said that Cao Zhen was so calm and majestic when he arrived just now, but now he is running in such a mess in order to escape for his life.
This scene happened to be completely caught in the gaze of tens of thousands of Wei soldiers, and a look of confusion and shame appeared in the eyes of tens of thousands of Wei soldiers.
The situation yesterday did not develop like this!
Why didn't the general persist for a day, and why did he run away again?
Mi Yang saw that several towers and oars were retreating towards the rear, so he ordered the Han troops in the tower to shoot arrows at the Wei troops on the mountain.
After the Wei army on Tushan saw that all their generals had fled, their military morale was in chaos.
At this moment, there were thousands of arrows shooting at them from the city tower and the city wall, which directly caused them to drop their weapons and run towards the bottom of the mountain like a defeated army.
In the panic of the retreat, no one knows how many Wei troops died under the trampling of their comrades, and no one knew how many Wei troops died under the arrow attacks of the Han troops.
When the scene of the Wei army's retreat fell into the eyes of Mi Yang and the Han army on the city wall, it caused them to burst into hearty laughter.
It can be said that their counterattack today made them all release the bad energy in their hearts that they had suppressed from yesterday to today.
I also recovered a small amount of debt from the Wei army for the people who lost their lives innocently yesterday.
The cheerful laughter of thousands of Han troops on the city wall floated along the wind and reached Cao Zhen's ears before he could escape, almost making him vomit blood in anger.
And when these bursts of hearty laughter fell into the ears of tens of thousands of Wei troops, it even hit the morale of tens of thousands of Wei troops.
Judging from the wild laughter of the Han army, why does it seem that they are the side being besieged?
No matter what the tens of thousands of Wei troops thought, judging from the current situation, it is obvious that Cao Zhen's siege method that combined earth and mountains by imitating Yuan Shao's oars and earth has been cracked.
The Wei army camp is not far from Nanzheng City.
Cao Zhen's Lou Lu ran fast enough, and Wei troops kept coming out to meet Cao Zhen in the camp, so Cao Zhen's Lou Lu finally returned to the camp safely.
Fortunately, Cao Zhen was careful and did not hang his flag on the oar. Otherwise, if Mi Yang's bad behavior made him aware of where he was, the consequences would be disastrous.
Cao Zhen, who returned to the camp and walked downstairs to the oar, was thankful for this with lingering fear.
When Cao Zhen landed, the Wei generals who had been guarding him immediately surrounded him, wanting to see if Cao Zhen was injured.
Everyone's caring eyes fell on Cao Zhen's eyes, which made Cao Zhen feel even more depressed, and he felt vaguely ashamed.
Seeing that Cao Zhen's face was not very good, Wang Shuang, as Cao Zhen's confidant and favorite general, felt that it was time for him to comfort Cao Zhen with a word or two.
"General, there is no need to be discouraged. Today's bandit army has a small victory, but it is just relying on the advantage of surprise and condescension. As long as our army continues to increase the height of the mountain, we may not be unable to achieve more results."
After hearing Wang Shuang's words, Cao Zhen became even more angry.
His favorite general has extraordinary strength, but his brain is not very easy to use.
Even though the Wei army has a large number of people, how many mountains of earth have been piled up in so long?
Well, even if he does not hesitate to waste manpower and material resources to continue to build up the height of the earth mountain, compared with the huge manpower and material resources he will spend, Mi Yang's cost of raising the tower is extremely low.
If this continues for a long time, how long can the Wei army hold on?
Human and material resources cannot be used indefinitely.
However, no matter how much the Han army lacked military resources, there was always no shortage of wood in Nanzheng City.
Moreover, if Tushan wants to play its greatest role, it must cooperate with Loulu.
And Lou Lu...
Thinking of this, Cao Zhen became more and more angry. Feeling that he had nothing to do, he gave Wang Shuang a cold look.
But Cao Zhen, who was still angry, summoned his personal attendant and asked him to go to the city and shout:
"Even if you hold the tower to the sky, I will go through the city to get you!"
After saying these harsh words, Cao Zhen turned and walked towards his tent.
After hearing Cao Zhen's cruel words, the surrounding generals felt some strange emotions in their hearts.
After Cao Zhen, who was feeling depressed, returned to the outside of the tent, he unexpectedly found a person waiting for him outside the tent.
This person was none other than Liu Ye, whom he had scolded before.
Cao Zhen didn't want to talk to Liu Ye at this juncture.
But after Liu Ye noticed Cao Zhen's expression, he knew that he must have suffered another loss at the hands of Mi Yang today.
This was within Liu Ye's expectation.
Mi Yang became a famous general in the world with his public security battles to defend the city. He can be said to be one of the best generals in the world at defending the city.
Although Cao Zhen's previous siege methods were good, it was impossible for Mi Yang to be unable to deal with them.
But Liu Ye thought again, didn't it take Cao Zhen's frustration for him to come up with the strategy he just thought of?
Seeing that Cao Zhen was about to pass by him, Liu Ye successfully stopped Cao Zhen with one sentence.
"General, do you still remember the Battle of Yecheng?"
After hearing Liu Ye's words, Cao Zhen's eyes flashed with light.
As a key battle that laid the foundation of Cao Wei, how could he forget it.
And Liu Ye's sudden mention of this past incident to him at this juncture was definitely not without purpose.
After Cao Zhen stopped, Liu Ye bowed and said:
"Back then, Emperor Wu led a heavy army to besiege Yecheng, but Yecheng's general Shenpei relied on his talents to defend Yecheng for several months. The situation back then was very similar to today.
Although Hou Yecheng was successfully captured by Emperor Wu due to Shen Rong's surrender, this was only an effect, not a cause."
Liu Ye's words made Cao Zhen more and more curious. He waved the surrounding guards to retreat, and then asked Liu Ye:
"Then in your opinion, what is the cause?"
Under Cao Zhen's questioning, Liu Ye slowly spit out four words:
"Defeat Zhang Guancheng!"
These four words from Liu Ye made Cao Zhen seem to have grasped a key point.
"You mean?"
Seeing that Cao Zhen had understood something, Liu Ye smiled.