By the evening of the second day, more than a dozen earthen hills were piled up more than 150 feet away from Cao's army. They were about ten feet high and less than 30 meters high, but they could effectively increase the range of the catapult.
Cao Cao watched from the mountain in the camp, anxious.
Zhuge Liang was right. His catapults were not as technologically advanced as the imperial catapults, and their range was much shorter, so they could not attack the imperial hills at all.
The court's catapults had a range that was twenty or thirty feet farther than theirs. With the mountain of earth, they could cause a huge blow to the camp.
Seeing Cao Cao's anxious face, Cao Hong said from the side: "Brother, the court's catapults do have a farther range than ours, but that is also the ultimate range. Their mountains are lower than ours, so they do not pose a threat to us."
Cao Cao shook his head: "It's hard to say. After Liu Bei occupied Qingzhou, he established Taishan Academy. I have been there. The Physics Academy took advantage of the losers of the Mo family during the Spring and Autumn Period. They were good at making sharp weapons. Their crossbows were also very powerful. If
If you shoot our camp with a bed crossbow, I'm afraid there will be a lot of casualties."
Cao Hong thought for a while and said: "If our catapult uses small stones, it should barely be able to cover their mountains of earth. Why not use a catapult to clear all their mountains of earth before they use any tools?
They won't be able to attack."
Cao Cao smiled: "It's not that simple, look over there."
As he spoke, he pointed to the west of Tushan.
Cao Hong looked over and saw a large number of planks being transported up the mountain. It was obvious that the imperial army was making baffles to deal with Cao's catapults.
The shooting range of a catapult has a limit, but just like guns, some guns have a so-called effective range of four hundred meters, but in fact, after one shot is fired, it can hit a distance of one kilometer.
It's just that the effective distance refers to the lethality. Beyond this distance, the lethality is much smaller.
The so-called maximum range of the catapult is the same. The difference is that the range of the catapult is closely related to the weight of the projectile. For example, if a 30-kg stone is used and a 60-kg stone is used, the range is completely different.
In fact, Cao's army can now hit the imperial army's earthen hills, just by using the lightest stones. Projecting them will be equally lethal under the influence of gravity acceleration and gravity.
But this kind of lethality is much smaller. If you throw a 60 kilogram stone, the lethality will be enough to break someone's house.
If a 10kg stone is thrown, a thick wooden board can block it without causing much impact.
Therefore, with the imperial army's careful consideration, Cao Jun was really helpless.
Cao Hong frowned and said, "Then what should we do?"
Cao Cao thought for a moment and said: "Give me the order to move the outer camps back. If the enemy uses catapults, our people will hide under the wall and use the crenels to observe."
This is to give up a certain amount of space. In ancient times, the city wall was divided into an inner city and an outer city. Cao Cao moved the outer camps inward to give a certain safe distance. In this way, even if the catapult hits, it will only hit the open space outside the camps.
It won't cause many casualties.
Cao Hong took action immediately after receiving the order, while Cao Cao stood on the mountain and looked eastward with deep eyes, thinking in his heart that during the day they had detected that the imperial cavalry was heading south, and it was very likely that they would take a detour and go straight to Junyi.
.
Chen Gong can't let him down.
Just when Cao Cao was preparing to prepare for the catapult, the imperial troops over there were also working intensively according to the plan.
During the day, Xu Chu led 5,000 cavalrymen heading south toward Kaifeng, intending to bypass Guandu and go straight to Junyi County.
At the same time, there were another 3,000 men and horses following them to form an ambush.
As for the position, the earthen hill was almost built. A large number of wooden boards began to be placed, and high oars were built to house the bed crossbow. The bed crossbow was large and used a winch, so it needed to be fixed.
The mountains are filled with soil that is not easy to fix, so after building the high oar, the bed crossbow can be placed above the high oar to shoot towards Cao Ying from a high position.
There are also a lot of supplies being transported here, including a lot of rosin.
Turpentine has now become a standing strategic material, gradually replacing fish paste and grease, and is used in the military to make torches.
After the Song Dynasty, rosin rockets became the norm, and their range was much farther than ordinary grease rockets.
There are also special arrows that are not easy to blow out even in windy weather, so they can be used to light fires.
More than a dozen hills are filled with busy soldiers. From yesterday until now, catapults have begun to be reassembled on top of the hills.
When it was getting close to dark, night had fallen, and the stars were dotted. They were more than 150 feet away, that is, more than 400 meters away, and they could no longer be seen clearly. They could only vaguely see the mountains of torches in the distance, like the twinkling yellow dragons.
"Your Majesty, everything is done."
Zhuge Liang, who was in charge of supervising the frontline work, returned and reported to Liu Bei, who had already set up a palace camp on a hillside behind.
Liu Bei was writing orders in the tent at this time. Of course, an army of tens of thousands could not be commanded by one person, so it was divided into several sections, and their respective generals set up camps in place. The tents stretched for miles, and everything needed to be arranged every day.
For example, in order to prevent Cao's army from robbing the camp in the middle of the night, he had to arrange for guards to ambush at any time, as well as lookouts, scouts, and sentries scattered everywhere. He was required to observe the situation of Cao's army's camp every day.
Knowing that the construction of the mountain ahead had been completed, Liu Bei handed over the order to a soldier from the Military Intelligence Department who was responsible for delivering the message, and said to Zhuge Liang: "Can it be started tonight?"
Zhuge Liang replied: "It can be started. We have tried it. The wind is not strong tonight, and only a few of the rosin rockets were blown out by the wind."
In the summer evening, there is a gentle breeze. In the absence of strong wind, it is difficult to extinguish the flame of the rosin arrow.
Liu Bei said happily: "Okay, let's start the attack now."
Zhuge Liang shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, Cao's camp has not rested yet. If they light a fire now, they will react quickly and draw water from the river to extinguish the fire immediately. I suggest that at midnight, wait until Cao's army falls asleep before lighting the fire again."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "That's it..."
Liu Bei stroked his goatee under his chin and thought in his mind.
This idea is quite bad.
I heard that there is a beast named Bai Zhi in Yizhou, which likes to eat bamboo shoots. Zhuge Liang almost took away all the bamboo shoots of Bai Zhi.
In the middle of the night, when I was half asleep, hundreds of crossbow arrows were fired into Cao's camp with blazing flames. Those who were unlucky were directly burned to death and shot to death. Those who were lucky enough to survive had to get up to scoop water.
After putting out the fire all night, I'm probably exhausted.
"Kong Ming."
"I'm here."
"Your behavior reminds me of another person's behavior."
"I am stupid and don't know who your Majesty is talking about."
"Your master, my fourth brother."
"Thank you for your compliment, Your Majesty."
"..."
The sky is getting darker and darker, and the moon is high in the sky.
The summer wind blows in the Guandu River, the water sparkles in the moonlight, and there are frogs and cicadas chirping on both sides.
At this moment, in the direction of Junyi County, Xu Chu led the cavalry in a mighty manner, kicking up dust all the way.
"Hurry up!"
The horse's hooves whipped up the wind and thunder, and the waves surged like mountains and seas in the wilderness and plains.
Historically, Cao Cao led five thousand elite cavalry to a surprise attack on Wuchao, burning Yuan Shao's grain and grass, and ultimately won the Battle of Guandu.
At this time, the imperial army was also re-enacting this history, but instead of burning Wuchao, they burned Junyi.
Junyi County is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains. The surrounding land is flat and there are many fertile fields. Later it was located northwest of Kaifeng City. It has been a prosperous place since ancient times.
It is a pity that due to constant wars in recent years, Henan has become very desolate and dilapidated. Junyi is close to Sili and is located in Henan. It was affected by the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Dong Zhuo's Rebellion and several invasions by the Montenegrin Army, and it has long been in dilapidated condition.
The population loss was serious. Even those who survived the several shocks either migrated away or hid in the deep mountains and old forests. Therefore, along the way, you can see countless abandoned villages and countryside.
Xu Chu looked around and saw the hill outside the south city of Junyi County from a distance. The mountain was not high, only less than forty or fifty feet, but the forest was dense and covered several square kilometers. It was a must-have firewood around the city.
The place of origin is also the main location where an ambush may occur.
"General, that's where Cao's army may be ambushed."
A lieutenant general said: "His Majesty ordered Shangshu Ling to plan this attack. Before departure, Shangshu Ling said that when we retreat, we should try to go to the west. This will reduce our losses. There is also a forest to the west, which is suitable for us.
The army set up an ambush."
Their position was in the southwest of Junyi County, and they were attacking diagonally toward Junyi County in the northeast. They could see both the west and the south. But because of the darkness, Xu Chu couldn't actually see clearly what was going on in the west of the city.
However, the scouts had already conducted reconnaissance during the day, so Xu Chu immediately said: "I will lead the army over first to attract the enemy's attention. You can take the opportunity to lead the army to the west."
"only!"
The deputy general reined in his horse and returned.
Xu Chu looked towards the city in the distance, waved his hand and said: "Charge!"
"rush!"
The soldiers were divided into queues, with two people in a team holding torches and facing each other, and the other three holding weapons.
After giving the order, five thousand horses galloped at the same time, heading towards the city in a mighty manner.
In fact, their actions had long been detected by Cao Jun's sentry scouts along the route.
In the Battle of Guandu in history, didn't Yuan Shao set up a large number of sentries?
Cao Cao relied on the password provided by Xu You, the second and fifth son of Xu You, and thus the journey was smooth.
And what about Xu Chu?
Since he didn't have Cao Jun's command, he naturally had to fight his way through.
So all the sentries along the way were destroyed by him. After all, it was a plain area and there weren't many places to hide people. The cavalry spread out and all the scouts were dispersed.
Cao Jun's scouts in the front were dispersed, and the imperial soldiers and horses in the rear who were setting up an ambush would not be detected by Cao Jun.
This can also be regarded as Jia Xu’s design.
He also knew very well that no matter whether Cao's army set up an ambush or not, they could only rush through it. Even if Cao's army was prepared, it didn't matter. The troops and horses setting up an ambush in the rear were equivalent to an insurance.
After Xu Chu fought his way through, he saw that Junyi City had already been on guard. A large number of torches were lit in the city, and the shouts of killing were loud.
At this moment, in Junyi City, Chen Gong and Xiahou Dun were standing on the city wall watching the fire dragon in the distance.
Seeing Chen Gong's order for the soldiers to make noise, Xiahou Dun asked with some confusion: "Gongtai, I have something unclear."
"What's the matter?"
"Why did you let the soldiers beat gongs and drums? Didn't this disturb the enemy?"
"hehe."
Chen Gong laughed: "Yuan Rang, think about it, if you were to attack a city, and there were scouts outside the city to guard it, and you had been discovered in advance, and when you arrived, the city was very quiet, what would you do?
think?"
Xiahou Dun thought for a moment and said, "I may suspect that there is an ambush in the city."
"Exactly."
Chen Gong nodded and said: "The information that the enemy has learned now is that Junyi is our grain station. All the Ming Dynasty's forces are in Guandu, so the defenders here must be insufficient. However, they can't avoid the sentry posts along the way and come all the way. If
If there is no movement in the city, they may suspect that there is an ambush. But if we deliberately create momentum, they will think that we are bluffing."
"I see."
Xiahou Dun suddenly realized: "Isn't this called imaginary and real, real and imaginary?"
Chen Gong smiled and said: "Yes, there is another reason, that is, we have an ambush. If we did not have an ambush, I would not dare to do this. But with an ambush, as long as they suspect that we are bluffing and attack with all our strength, they will definitely
Falling into the trap.”
This strategy involves the knowledge of the psychology of the empty city strategy. The two opponents are not Xiahou Dun and Xu Chu, but Jia Xu and Chen Gong who are controlled by remote control. The two sides compete with each other based on the number of layers. Each one is a thousand-layer cake.
If you encounter a reckless man like Zhang Feidianwei, I don't care about your bluff and empty city strategy. I will fight you anyway, crush you with my strength, and defeat you ten times with one force.
But in the Battle of Guandu, although Liu Bei's strength crushed Cao Cao, his specific military strength was not overwhelming, just 40,000 versus 30,000.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Therefore, the forces drawn out by both sides were similar, Cao Jun in Junyi County was 8,000, and the imperial army was also 8,000.
So when we get to this critical point, we have to compete with the intelligence of both parties.
If Chen Gong ordered the soldiers to be quiet and let the city remain silent, people outside the city might fear an ambush and not dare to attack.
If you make a big show of it, people will think that there must be no ambush inside, and this is a bluff.
However, the enemies outside are on the second floor, but Chen Gong is on the fifth floor.
Pretending to be a bluff, in fact, an ambush has been set up for a long time. As long as the enemy attacks, they will definitely be defeated.
It's a pity that the only unexpected factor is that there is an internal conspiracy within Cao's army.
In this way, Jia Xu knew one more piece of information, that is, part of Cao's army had mobilized and disappeared without a trace. In this way, Chen Gong was at a disadvantage due to the information gap.
Therefore, in terms of back-end arrangements, it was not that Chen Gong's strategy was worse than Jia Xu's, but that Jia Xu knew more information than Chen Gong, that's all.
The sky is getting darker and darker, there are no dark clouds, and the large disk-shaped moon hangs high in the sky, casting countless silvery dots.
On the Guandu front line, with the arrival of midnight, countless crossbows began to be cocked and fired.
Cao Cao couldn't sleep in the middle of the night and still stood on the mountain to watch the enemy's situation.
However, the mountain in the distance was blocked by wooden planks, and only torches were lit at the back. The mountain was pitch black and nothing could be seen.
He stood on the earth mountain and looked around. At this moment, he suddenly saw countless fire lights on the earth army of the imperial army in the distance, like stars, densely packed and countless.
"what is that?"
As soon as this thought flashed through Cao Cao's mind, he heard countless "buzzing" sounds.
Then, the light grew bigger and bigger, lighting up half the sky!