After a pause, Wang Lie continued: "In the city wall, a portion of hard soil will be laid every seven feet. This will not only ensure that when the city wall collapses, the soldiers can quickly use the hard soil as the foundation to quickly repair the city wall, but also
It can improve the strength of the city wall."
After hearing this, Wang Can probably understood what it meant. The city wall of Tianshui City is equivalent to a modern reinforced concrete structure, built with two materials of different qualities. However, Wang Can does not know how strong the south city wall can be.
, we can only use war to test it first. After all, we don’t know the specific degree of solidity without going through actual combat.
Soon, with loud noises, rocks weighing about ten to twenty kilograms were thrown towards the south wall of Tianshui City.
People standing on the city wall can feel obvious shaking, but it is generally within the acceptable range.
The city gate received the most care from the boulders.
Not long after, a big hole was made in the city gate.
Wang Can looked at the situation at the city gate and said, "Open the city gate and block it when others attack the city."
Wang Lie said worriedly: "What if we can't block it?"
Wang Can said: "Don't worry, there are ways to block it. Just open the city gate now."
After speaking, Wang Can continued to watch the heavy armored chariots in the distance continue to throw
Throwing boulders.
In the Han army camp.
"Report to the general, the Shu army suddenly opened the south gate." The messenger knelt in front of Yingbu and said.
Yingbu lowered his head and thought for a moment and said: "They opened the city gate rashly. Is it to show their weakness to the enemy?"
Peng Yue said: "General, since they suddenly opened the city gate, why not let me lead people to attack the city gate. I will lead the army. No matter what tricks they play, I can handle it."
At this time, a person next to Peng Yue came out and said: "Why bother Sir Pioneer with such a trivial matter? The young general is willing to go to Tianshui City to test the other party's true condition."
Yingbu thought for a while and said: "That's okay, Ren Ao, you take your troops to attack the city, and I will ask Peng Yue to lead the cavalry with bows and arrows to cover you, Xia Houying."
"The end is here!"
Standing next to Yingbu, a burly general wearing a pot helmet came out.
Yingbu said: "You go and lead the army now. When the slings stop, you will lead the army to kill them."
Xia Houying retreated after receiving the order.
After everyone else left, Peng Yue said dissatisfiedly: "Why are you entrusting the task of attacking the city to Ren Ao? Am I not as good as a jailer who takes care of prisoners?"
When Ren Ao was young, he worked as a jailer, and later made great achievements in fighting with Liu Bang in his expeditions to the north and south.
Yingbu said: "After all, there is a king of Shu in the city, and there must be no shortage of elite guards around him. I sent Ren Ao up mainly to test the capabilities of Tianshui City. After all, we still have at least three days to attack the city. Three days
After that, the support from Wuwei and Chencang will probably arrive. If we can capture Tianshui before then, it would be best to capture Wang Can alive, so we should not rush forward. Today we will mainly focus on testing."
After a pause, Yingbu looked at Peng Yue and said: "And Peng Yue, the cavalry Gaozu gave me is only 800, you have to use it carefully."
The Han army's already sparse cavalry was defeated by Peng Yue last night, and more than a hundred people were killed. Yingbu was also very angry.
Seeing that Yingbu was talking about this matter, Peng Yue didn't know what to say. He shouted to leave and retreated outside the tent.
A quarter of an hour later, the attack direction of the Han army's slings began to shift from the city gate to the city walls on both sides. Wang Can saw a group of people, escorted by cavalry, rushing towards the south gate.
Wang Can turned back to Wang Lie and said: "They have begun to send people to attack the city. Let the spear team gather near the city gate."
Wang Lie received the order and began to dispatch the soldiers in the city.
At this time, most of the soldiers stationed on the city wall were the two thousand troops Wang Can transferred from Chencang. Basically, each of them held a pair of powerful crossbows.
After Wang Can returned to Shu, although the territory of Shu had shrunk a lot, its heritage was still there, especially in terms of armaments. The current total number of troops in Shu was about 100,000, but the armament reached 400,000.
The scale and huge armaments allow Wang Can's soldiers to freely convert into professions such as crossbowmen, spearmen, sword and shield soldiers, etc., greatly enhancing their adaptability on the battlefield.
Wang Can raised his hand and signaled the soldiers not to fire crossbows, but to attack with ordinary bows and arrows.
Soon Ren Ao's army rushed into the city gate with almost no resistance. When they rushed into the city gate, Ren Ao found many corpses. Ren Ao thought to himself, it seems that this should be a catapult to open the city gate.
It was smashed open, but Shu was afraid of the power of the sling and did not dare to step forward.
So Ren Ao turned around and said: "Brothers, our opportunity has come to make great achievements. If we capture Wang Can alive, Emperor Gaozu will definitely reward us heavily!"
After saying that, Ren Ao led all five hundred people into Tianshui City.
Peng Yue also saw this situation and signaled the cavalry to move forward to support Ren Ao.
When almost all of Ren Ao's five hundred people entered the city gate, Wang Can nodded and said, "Do it!"
Only a loud noise was heard, and a sandbag weighing nearly 2,000 kilograms was thrown from the city tower and hit in front of the city gate. Thick hemp ropes and pulleys were connected between the sandbags at the city gate, under the influence of the gravity of the sandbags.
The city gate closed with a bang, and several Han soldiers standing in the middle of the city gate were blown away by the city gate. They didn't know whether they were alive or dead.
Ren Ao, who was in the city, saw that the city gate was actually closed, so he raised his sword and shouted: "Soldiers, follow me to the tower!"
The soldiers near the city wall quickly rushed toward the tower, but more than ten spears protruded from the stairs, stabbing down all the Han soldiers who were halfway through.
At this time, military formations consisting of large shields and spears appeared from various streets in Tianshui City, slowly walking towards Ren Ao and others.
Ren Ao's soldiers were all sword and shield soldiers equipped with heavy armor. Once they came into contact, they were at a disadvantage. Some of them managed to rely on the protection of heavy armor to rush to the big shield, but were killed by crossbows fired at close range.
.
Not only that, on the city wall, Guo Jia also commanded these two teams, and sixty crossbowmen kept firing arrows at Ren Ao's soldiers.
For a time, the casualties of the Han army continued to increase.
The moment Yingbu saw the city gate closed, he ordered Xia Houying to command the soldiers to attack the city wall. The six thousand Han soldiers at the front began to take action, and Peng Yue also commanded the cavalry to fire arrows continuously to suppress the soldiers on the wall.
Shu army, but the Shu army's crossbows were more powerful than those of the Han army, and their range was nearly a hundred steps longer.
Wang Can shouted: "Fire the crossbow!"
With an order, more than a thousand powerful crossbows flew towards Peng Yue's cavalry with strong wind. In an instant, the cavalry was attacked completely differently from before, and the casualties increased instantly.
Peng Yue quickly retreated with his cavalry, otherwise more than half of his cavalry would be killed or injured in a short time.
Soon the soldiers loaded the second wave of crossbows, but the Han army was still not within the range of their archers.
Wang Can immediately ordered the soldiers to fire arrows freely.
More than a thousand powerful crossbow bolts flew out and landed on the heads of the charging Han troops.
For a time, many soldiers who had no time to dodge were hit by arrows and fell to the ground.
It was only then that the Han army began to fire arrows back.
Yingbu looked at the battle ahead from a distance and said to Cao Shen: "Now the crossbows of the Shu army have a range of nearly a hundred steps longer than our army. This distance is enough for their skilled crossbowmen to fire two waves of crossbows.
I didn’t expect that after more than two hundred years, their armaments would have developed so much.”
Cao Shen said: "The Qin army's powerful crossbows are the best among the seven countries, and they also use strong crossbows as support. After the founding of the Han Dynasty, our Han army mostly dealt with the Xiongnu, and used bows and arrows more than crossbows. In this regard, it is inferior to them."
It’s extenuating circumstances, General, why don’t we send out the nest car to attack.”
Yingbu nodded. At this time, the soldiers in front of the city wall began to prepare to set up ladders. The battlefield would enter a stalemate stage. The dispatch of a nest car that was higher than the opponent's city wall and equipped with a catapult was enough to change the shape of the battlefield.
Moreover, Ren Ao's five hundred men are still in Tianshui City, and the situation is urgent.
Seven nest carts nearly three feet high, pulled by hundreds of bulls, began to move slowly towards the city wall of Tianshui City.
At this time, on the city wall, Wang Can was dragging Fang Tian's painted halberd with his backhand towards a gap.
Wang Can was caught off guard by the opponent's sudden full-scale attack. At this time, he sent Wang Lie and two thousand people to surround Ren Ao's elite soldiers under the city. There were three thousand people on the city wall, but for a mile long
There are still a few people coming to the city wall.
After all, the Han army actually set up thirty pairs of ladders in one breath, and on average, a group of people climbed the city wall at a distance of less than twenty meters.
Wang Can also continued to kill the Han troops that were coming up.
On the city wall, a section of the city wall about ten feet away had been occupied by the Han army. Xia Houying stood on the city wall and saw him slashing off a soldier and sending him to the west. Then he shouted loudly:
"Hold it to me and rush towards the city gate tower! Support General Ren."
"You think beautifully!"
With an angry shout, Wang Can walked out of the beacon smoke, and then he held a halberd in both hands and made a horizontal slash.
The sword and shield soldiers at the front were chopped off by Wang Can.
Wang Can looked at Xia Houying, who was wearing armor different from ordinary soldiers, and Xia Houying, holding a long sword in his hand, looked at Wang Can.
"I'll take your life!" After Wang Can finished speaking, he swung his halberd.
And Xia Houying also slashed out with one sword.
Upon contact, Xia Houying was knocked back more than ten meters and fell on several soldiers.
Xia Houying's martial arts skills were ordinary, and he was able to hold important positions in the army because he was close to Liu Bang and saved the prince many times.
Now when he fights against Wang Can, his martial arts foundation is naturally not enough.
Wang Can didn't have time to give Xia Houying any nonsense, so he raised his hand again and stabbed out with his halberd.
Xia Houying suddenly felt an overwhelming feeling surge into his chest. (To be continued)