After Zhang Liao attacked Yuan Jun's vanguard, winter rain began to fall near Yi County.
The sudden heavy snow disrupted the deployment of the Qingzhou Army, but this sudden winter rain also disrupted the deployment of the Yuan Army.
Winter is actually not a good season for sending troops. Although Cao Cao has launched many wars in winter in history, he always had to do so. Moreover, due to bad weather, Guo Jia died of illness during the winter expedition against Wuhuan.
The Little Ice Age caused today's weather in the north to be very abnormal. The reason why Yuan Shao decided to send troops in winter was that firstly, he had enough winter clothes to prepare for fighting in winter. Secondly, the Jiuhe River was frozen, and there were loopholes in Liu Bei's defense area. Thirdly, the incendiary bombs were used in winter.
The effect is very small, far less lethal than when used in summer and autumn.
Taking everything into consideration, Yuan Shao believed that it would be more advantageous to send troops in winter.
However, the climate was fair. The severe cold caused huge holes in Liu Bei's Jiuhe defense zone. However, during the march, a sudden winter rain fell. Yuan Jun's soldiers were caught off guard and their cotton-padded clothes were soaked by the rain, which suddenly caused the spread of infectious diseases in the army.
For this reason, Yuan Shao quickly postponed his advance and immediately built a camp near Yi County. A large amount of medicinal materials were transported from the rear to suppress the spread of the disease.
The only good news is that since there has not yet been a large-scale war and there has not been a large number of deaths, this infectious disease is not a plague, but an ordinary typhoid fever. As long as you have a decent physical constitution and are supplemented by medicinal materials, you can recover quickly without suffering from serious illness.
For example, during the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao's army was plagued by plague and had to withdraw its troops.
But even so, Yuan Shao could only give up his plan to cross the river immediately. Now the Qingzhou defense line only has Dahegudu and the Yellow River that are not frozen. This is good news for Yuan Jun. But if it continues to be delayed and the weather gets warmer, other
The rivers are also starting to melt, and things will get worse.
Therefore, Yuan Shao was also in a hurry, but he had no choice but to continue to wait patiently.
Another half month passed, almost by mid-November, the epidemic in Yuan Shao's army was almost under control. A large number of camps were densely packed around the original Yi County. About four or five miles east of here is Hao County.
The mighty river is full of water.
On the other side of the river, Zhang Liao's more than 10,000 victorious troops built a camp to confront it. Further south, there were soldiers and horses led by Tai Shici. On the other side of the river, both sides were beginning intensive preparations.
On this day, the weather finally cleared up slightly, and the east wind blew the withered grass on the river bank. Since winter is the dry season, although the river was not frozen, the water level was actually very low. The shallowest water level was only one foot and a half deep.
People with good health can even swim directly across the river.
Moreover, the width of the river is very narrow. Because the two river beaches were originally roads of the Yellow River, the widest part is more than 500 feet, and the narrowest part is almost 1400 to 500 feet.
But after the water level dropped, a large area of the river was exposed. The real river was only more than 100 feet wide at its widest point, and only more than 70 feet at its narrowest point, which was less than 200 meters away. It was basically the width of a medium-sized river.
You must know that the current Dahegudu is fed by three rivers, and it is still the original path of the Yellow River. Logically speaking, the water flow should not be so small.
But there is no way. The upper reaches of the Yellow River are now in a severe cold period, and the snow water melts very slowly, resulting in little water flow in the middle and lower reaches. The Majia River and Xiaoshui River cannot provide so much water source.
This is because the winter rain that fell some time ago slightly raised the water level, otherwise the water level would have been lower.
The flow of the river was extremely slow. The Wan Shengjun scouts who had been watching the situation on the other side of the river discovered that Yuan Jun had begun to move from a distance. Countless Yuan Jun soldiers appeared on the slope on the other side of the river. They were so densely packed that they occupied the entire steep slope on the other side.
Full.
At first glance, it was all a compact wall of people, with flags covering the sky and sun, and armors connected together. It was hard to count how many people there were.
The strange thing is that they only occupied the high slope on the other side, but did not slide down the slope. Moreover, they all lined up neatly and had no intention of crossing the river. It was puzzling.
But no matter what, the scout immediately went back to report the situation to Zhang Liao.
Zhang Liao prepared a large number of defenses along the river, such as towers, catapults, docks, etc., and also dug a deep trench on the river bank. When he heard that the enemy was invading, he immediately led his troops out of camp and arrived at the river.
Watch and wait.
Taishi Ci's military camp was about two miles away from him. In the south, he also discovered the situation and led his troops out. The Qingzhou Army also formed a human wall and occupied the east bank of the river.
The two looked at it for a long time, not knowing why, so they came over to meet.
They were standing on a watchtower on a hill. The terrain on both sides of the bank was high in the west and low in the east. They were in the east, so even on the watchtower, they were only a few meters higher than Yuan Jun on the other side. Since Yuan Jun covered the sky
They couldn't see what was going on behind the Japanese military flag, so they were very confused as to what Yuan Jun meant by blowing air-conditioning in the wind and not attacking.
"Ziyi, is there something wrong with Yuan Jun's brain? He's just sitting there in this winter without attacking. What's going on?"
Zhang Liao was confused and handed the telescope to Taishi Ci.
Taishi Ci also glanced around for a while, shook his head and said: "I don't know, but I don't believe they would stand so stupidly. There must be a conspiracy."
"Wait a minute, look over there."
Zhang Liao suddenly pointed in a direction. Taishi Ci looked over and saw a gap suddenly opened in the human wall over there. When he looked carefully, he didn't know when a passage had been dug out behind him!
It turned out that the river embankment was too high, so Yuan Jun simply dug directly from the bank and turned the three to four feet high bank into a slope, which made it easier for soldiers to get down to the river beach.
Taishi Ci also vaguely noticed that there seemed to be a large number of chariots and horses behind Yuan Jun, so he said: "Yuan Jun must be preparing to build a pontoon bridge."
"Well, that's what I thought too."
Zhang Liao turned his head and said to the messenger: "Go, push out the catapult, don't expose it yet, lie in ambush on the shore, and when Yuan Jun is ready to build the pontoon bridge, use the catapult to hit me!"
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The messenger took the order and left.
In the distance, Yuan Jun was still digging the river embankment, but because the two sides were too far away, there was a distance of nearly one kilometer from one river bank to the other. Not to mention the catapult, even the crossbow could not shoot through, so they
I can only watch helplessly.
From morning to dusk, excavation work is still in progress. In the non-industrial era without excavators, the progress will not be too fast, and it may even take a long time.
But Yuan Jun couldn't handle the large number of people, and tens of thousands of people had a clear division of labor and started digging frantically.
In just one day, they dug a steep slope five hundred feet long and fifteen feet wide on the edge of the river embankment. The river beach was very large and full of pebbles. Yuan Jun pushed the carriage into the slope from below.
They occupied the west river beach and started working on the river beach again.
The Qingzhou Army still had no way to defeat Yuan's Army, because the catapult's firing range was only more than a hundred meters, and the distance from the bank to the middle of the river alone reached seventy or eighty meters. Although it had the advantage of being at a commanding height, the range would be greatly increased.
Increase, but at most they hit the middle of the river, and could not threaten Yuan Jun who was more than 200 meters away from them on the other side of the river.
The sky gradually darkened, and the entire river beach on the other side of the river seemed to have turned into a construction site. A large number of fires and iron frames were illuminated, turning the place into daylight. Using Yuan Jun's own lighting, Zhang Liao and Taishi Ci could clearly see,
Yuan Jun was assembling some large siege equipment on the river beach.
At the same time, they were constantly pulling small boats to the shore, and the earthwork work on the hillside in the distance continued. Yuan Jun had a large number of people and implemented two shifts. Tens of thousands of people were digging and assembling work 24 hours a day, allowing them to
The progress is extremely rapid.
Two days later, Yuan Jun doubled the steep slope and dug out a two-kilometer-long slope road. The pontoon bridge on the river was also progressing very quickly. They used small boats as supports to tie up the boats.
Reinforcement uses nails and ropes to connect a ship together, and then lays planks on the ship to build a bridge.
The most terrifying thing is that they did not just lay one pontoon bridge, but more than ten at the same time. At the same time, they assembled many high oars on the river bank. The so-called high oars, also known as high oars, are a kind of high tower without a roof.
During the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao used a large number of high oars to shoot arrows at Cao Cao's camp, but Cao Cao destroyed them with catapults.
Yuan Jun built an earth mountain with the excavated soil beside the river beach, built a high oar on the earth mountain, and then installed a crossbow on the high oar. Apparently, he planned to carry out long-range suppression on the other side of the river when crossing the river.
Not to be outdone, Zhang Liao also moved out all the crossbows originally used to defend the camp and placed them on the watchtower on the bank of the river. According to the "Book of the Later Han·Chen Qiu Zhuan": "Strings of big wood are used as bows.
, the feather spear is used as an arrow, and the trigger is used to fire it, and it can shoot more than a thousand steps from a distance, killing many people." It can be seen that the range of the bed crossbow in the Han Dynasty, at its furthest, could reach a distance of more than a thousand meters.
However, that was during the high-throwing situation. Yuan Jun built an earthen hill below the river beach and made high oars to increase the height. On Zhang Liao's side, he placed crossbows in a watchtower on the opposite bank slope, so the actual heights of the two sides were almost the same.
, no one is condescending. In a horizontal shot, because the distance between the two sides is about more than 300 meters, the limit distance is almost enough to threaten the opponent.
It's just that although both sides have reached the killing range of the bed crossbow, they did not take action. Because there are a large number of wooden curtains on both sides, even if they take action, the damage they can cause is extremely limited. Anyway, Yuan Jun has to cross the river and wait until they get closer.
Fighting can better ensure the hit rate, and at the same time deter the enemy's soldiers who set up pontoon bridges.
On the fourth day, Yuan Jun officially began to expand the pontoon. One ship after another, the ships were towed to the shore and sent into the water. Then Yuan Jun soldiers stepped on the pontoon, dragged the ships to the front, continued to tie them up and fixed them, and then laid the planks.
Work, step by step, to get closer to the middle of the river.
Taishi Ci and Zhang Liao saw this scene, and when the enemy got closer and closer, they immediately ordered the crossbows to open fire.
Following the order, the huge bed crossbow made a loud bang, and iron-tipped crossbow arrows as thick and long as tree trunks, with a howling sound like ghosts and wolves, were shot towards Yuan Jun on the river.
Dong Dong Dong Dong!
The arrows were nailed to the planks of the pontoon or fell into the water, making a plop-plop sound.
Since there were not many Yuan Jun soldiers setting up the pontoon bridge, it was extremely difficult to hit accurately. Most of the crossbow arrows either hit the pontoon bridge or fell into the river. Only a few of them hit Yuan Jun. The huge force penetrated their bodies and knocked them out.
They shot into the river.
Under the threat of crossbows, these soldiers turned around and tried to run away, and some even jumped into the freezing cold river to seek safety. However, the supervising team on the river beach in the rear ruthlessly pulled out their swords and killed these deserters one by one.
The remaining soldiers were forced to continue their work. At the same time, every time a soldier died, a new soldier was added. Under the rain of arrows from the Qingzhou Army, they continued to lay the pontoon bridge with difficulty.
"Where's the catapult? Push the catapult up!"
Finding that the enemy was so tenacious, Zhang Liao immediately issued new orders.
Hundreds of catapults that had been prepared long ago were rolling on their wheels and pushed to the river bank by the soldiers.
As mentioned before, the catapults of the Han Dynasty had a very short range. If a 100 kilogram stone was used, the range would be only 40 meters. If it were replaced with a 30 kilogram stone, the range would be less than 70 meters.
Chen Mu gave full play to the imagination of the students at Taishan Academy, and worked with Ma Jun and others to use winches, counterweights, pulleys and other devices to enhance the power of the catapult, thus increasing the range to more than 100 meters.
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If it is a particularly light stone, for example, weighing more than 20 kilograms, it can even reach a distance of more than 300 meters.
The catapult prepared by Zhang Liao basically uses about 50 kilograms of stones, and it is located above the river bank from a commanding height, so it is more than enough to throw it 200 meters.
Catapults were delivered to the shore, which was hundreds of meters away from the river beach, and more than three hundred meters away from the other side of the river. But it happened to be within a range of two hundred meters from the center of the river where pontoon bridges were being laid.
within.
The catapults are fixed with stones stuck on the wheels, and there are a large number of wooden curtains on the outside. Each catapult is operated by five people. One driver is responsible for calibrating the position, one is responsible for releasing the counterweight rope, and another person is responsible for pushing the winch together.
Pull the counterweight, and the other two people are responsible for carrying the stones.
A steady stream of stones was being transported to the catapult, and all the riders began to adjust the position of the catapult to correct the aim. After it was almost done, someone waved a big flag above the watchtower on Zhang Liao's side, which was the signal for the order to be issued.
The first thing that sounded was the sound of the cowhide band loosening in the winch, and then there was a crunching sound. As the counterweight fell rapidly, under the action of force, the end spoon at the back instantly ejected, driving the stones in the spoon to squeak to the ground.
It flew out with a sound.
I saw hundreds of missiles appearing spectacularly in the sky. These missiles collided with each other before they even landed. Because they were too focused on targeting those pontoon bridges, almost every pontoon bridge had several catapults aiming at them and firing at the same time.
Sometimes, it may cause the stones to collide in the air and directly fall apart.
The soldiers on both sides of the strait raised their heads and watched the missiles falling rapidly. The sound of banging and banging kept coming. Several stones collided in the air. There was a loud bang, and large pieces of gravel and powder were thrown out, which made them even more powerful.
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Then some big rocks fell into the water with a bang, or hit the pontoon. When the pontoon was broken, the ships below were also smashed into pieces.
However this is only the beginning.
The catapults were on full fire, and large rocks weighing tens of kilograms were dropped like raindrops. Even if they fell into the river, the water splash would be more than one meter high. If they hit the pontoon bridge, they would directly penetrate the pontoon bridge.
If it falls on a person, it will be even more terrifying. The person and torso will be completely crushed, and not even a complete body will be left.
If hundreds of bed crossbows only posed a theoretical threat to the thousands of Yuan Army soldiers who came to build the pontoon bridge due to problems with their hit rate and firing speed, then the emergence of catapults gave them physical and psychological strength.
It caused unimaginable fear.
Because the catapult does not have a hit rate, the crossbow's crossbow arrows have limited damage to the pontoon bridge. Even if the catapult cannot hit anyone, as long as it hits the pontoon bridge, all the previous efforts will be in vain, and the pontoon bridge will have to be laid forward again.
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What's more, in addition to the catapults, the bed crossbows are also continuing to shoot. As a result, trying to complete the laying of the pontoon bridge under the dual pressure of the bed crossbows and catapults is as difficult as climbing to the sky, which is daunting.
This time, not to mention the supervising team, even the supervising team themselves began to retreat.
Occasionally colliding stones collide in the air with huge force, splashing out a large amount of fine stone rain. When these fine stone rain hits a person's helmet, it is like a heavy blow, which can make people faint instantly. Moreover, it can also cause people to faint.
There are some sharp parts that shoot at the unprotected necks, limbs and other places of the soldiers with terrifying force, which can range from being disabled to being killed in severe cases.
Under the huge pressure, Yuan Jun fled in panic. The soldiers on the opposite river beach also retreated a lot. Only Yuan Jun's bed crossbow on the high mountain oar continued to fire and kept suppressing the catapults on the distant shore. Unfortunately, Yuan Jun's bed
There were not many crossbows, and neither side caused much damage to the snipers in the middle.
But the bed crossbow is not good, and the catapult is too good. After continuous projection, more than twenty half-paved pontoons were smashed to pieces. Bodies, pieces of wood, and small stone fragments floated in the river, stained red with blood.
On the river surface, washed by the turbid water, everything was submerged into the waves.