Early the next morning, outside Chang'an City.
As soon as the morning light shone on the earth, the thundering sound of war drums rang out from Cao Jun's camp.
Duan Xuan led his 5,000 elite soldiers, pushing several catapults and rams, and opened up their posture under Chang'an City. They slowly pushed forward and made an siege posture.
The Xiliang Army soldier in charge of the lookout hurriedly went to Li Jue's residence to report: "General, it's bad, Duan Xuan is leading his troops to prepare to attack the city!"
Li Jue and others had already heard the sound of war drums outside the city gate. When they heard the soldiers' report, they immediately stared: "This Duan Xuan really doesn't know how to live or die. How dare he attack the city with only five thousand soldiers?!"
Li Jue still had full confidence in the defense strength of Chang'an City, so he decided to fight in person and teach Duan Xuan a lesson.
"Two worthy brothers, follow me. We must let him know how powerful we are!" Li Jue greeted Li Ying and Li Huan and prepared to fight.
Li Jue took Li Huan, Li Ying, and Li Shi, who was still injured, to the tower at the east gate of Chang'an, preparing to command defensive operations.
In the open space under Chang'an City, Duan Yan personally directed the troops to slowly advance forward, and the attack was about to begin.
Li Jue looked at the soldiers and various equipment on the city who had prepared for defense, and felt more at ease. He drew his sword from his waist and shouted loudly: "Defend the city with all your strength, and we must repel the enemy's attack." !”
When the soldiers of the Xiliang Army heard Li Jue's order, they raised their arms and shouted: "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Duan Yan, who was commanding the advance from the city, heard the shouts of the Xiliang army on the top of the city and showed a sneer of disdain. Then he raised his arms and said: "My general order, whoever climbs the city first to break the city will be rewarded with hundreds of acres of fertile land and a thousand gold coins!"
Hearing that Duan Xuan had offered such a generous reward, the soldiers under his command began to shine with their eyes gleaming, waving their weapons together, and shouting loudly: "Break! Break! Break!"
The war is about to begin, and the momentum of both sides has reached its peak.
A high platform was erected in Cao Jun's camp. Cao Zhang led his generals and accompanied Zhong Yao to climb up to watch the battle, waiting for Duan Xuan to lead the army to attack the city!
Duan Yan saw that the time was right, waved the command flag in his hand, pointed in the direction of Chang'an City, and shouted: "Kill!"
Following Duan Xuan's instructions, the siege began!
A thousand soldiers pushed catapults and rams respectively towards Chang'an City. The catapults were prepared to launch long-range attacks after approaching the shooting range, while the rams were used to directly attack the gates and city walls.
In front of them were a thousand soldiers holding giant shields. They were responsible for guarding and protecting these soldiers pushing long-range weapons, and preventing the Xiliang army from attacking with long-range weapons.
Followed by a thousand archers holding hard bows, their role is to hide behind the shield soldiers and launch long-range attacks against the Xiliang army defending the city.
There are another thousand soldiers carrying long tree trunks and thick door panels at the end of this team. Their role is to immediately pave the way with tree trunks and door panels when encountering trenches, so that siege equipment can continue to move forward.
Finally, there were a thousand soldiers carrying long ladders and holding spears and sharp blades. They were the main force that attacked the city first.
Duan Xuan's 5,000 soldiers have all undergone rigorous training. The distribution of arms is extremely reasonable and the cooperation is very tacit. They quickly rushed to a position where long-range weapons can launch attacks.
Duan Xuan personally led the troops to the front of the formation. He waved his flag and ordered: "Load your ammunition and prepare to attack!"
The soldiers pushing the catapult immediately stopped advancing, quickly adjusted the angle of the catapult, and began to load stone bombs in preparation for launching an attack.
Li Jue and others saw this scene from a distance, and they did not dare to neglect at all, and immediately gave the order loudly: "Prepare the ballistae!"
Several crossbow carts were already lined up at the top of the city. After receiving Li Jue's instructions, the Xiliang Army soldiers quickly loaded the crossbow carts with strong crossbow arrows about two feet long and as thick as an arm, and aimed the arrow tips at the city. Duan Xuan's troops prepare to launch an attack.
Cao Zhang and the three brothers Xu Shu, Zhong Yao and Xia Hou watched from a distance, and they all realized that the war was about to break out.
Duan Yan pointed at the Chang'an Tower in front of him and roared: "Kill!"
Dozens of catapults launched an attack, and the huge stone bullets were bounced off the machine tools and roared towards the top of Chang'an City.
Li Jue also gave the order almost at the same time: "Fire the arrow!"
Rows of powerful crossbow arrows at the top of Chang'an City also roared and shot towards Duan Ruo's troops below the city.
Duan Xuan had long seen the powerful crossbow arrows radiating cold light from the top of the city, and immediately shouted: "Stand up the shield!"
The soldiers carrying the giant shield had already been guarding the front of the team. After hearing Duan Yan's order, they quickly inserted the spikes under the giant shield into the ground, then held the shield with both hands and protected the shield. The top of his head blocked the other soldiers around him.
These giant shield soldiers were carefully selected and their bodies were extremely tall and strong enough to withstand the huge impact of powerful crossbow arrows.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The powerful crossbow arrows fell like raindrops on the protective formation formed by the giant shield, making a series of loud noises.
Most of the crossbow arrows were blocked by the giant shield, but some of them either directly penetrated the giant shield or passed through the gaps, causing a certain amount of damage to Duan Su's soldiers!
Almost at the same time, the stone bullets fired by Duan Yanjun's catapult also flew to the top of Chang'an and fell down.
After the huge stone projectile flew into the air, its own weight plus the inertia of its fall produced a very strong impact.
Several soldiers of the Xiliang Army who were on top of the city had no time to dodge and were directly hit by stone bullets, leaving their flesh and blood torn to pieces.
The stone bullets hitting the floor at the top of the city caused a strong shock, causing the defenders at the top of the city to briefly panic!
Duan Yan saw the giant shield soldiers resisting the first round of powerful crossbow arrows fired at the top of the city, and quickly ordered: "Archers, fire arrows! Siege troops, charge!"
Following Duan Xuan's instructions, the archers hiding behind the giant shield soldiers stood up quickly, raised the strong bows with arrows already in their hands, pointed the arrow tips towards the head of Chang'an City, and fired quickly.
The other troops also took advantage of this time, like wild horses running wild, to rush towards Chang'an City crazily, hoping to take advantage of the opponent's short defensive gap to rush to the city and launch a strong attack.
Cao Zhang saw Duan Xuan's troops fighting together from a distance, and he praised him repeatedly in his heart. He was worthy of being the younger brother of the famous late Han Dynasty general Duan Jiong. His command and coordination, the quality of his soldiers, and the degree of cooperation were all excellent. No wonder he was so confident and insisted on Attack Chang'an!
However, Li Jue was also a famous general of his generation, and the Xiliang Army under his command was also an elite force that dominated the late Han Dynasty.
Although the first round of stone bombs and subsequent arrows fired by Duan Yan's troops caused a brief panic to the Xiliang army at the top of the city, they quickly regained their composure and devoted themselves to defense.
The archers of the Xiliang Army quickly stepped forward, raised their bows and fired arrows at the soldiers of Duan Yan's army below the city.
Duan Yanjun's soldiers, who lost the protection of their giant shields, also suffered a certain price of casualties under this round of arrow rain.
However, Duan Yan had no intention of retreating at all, and still shouted to command the troops to charge. Braving the rain of arrows, the troops rushed under the city wall of Chang'an with difficulty, set up ladders and began to try to climb the city wall.
Li Jue, who was on top of the city, commanded his soldiers to hit Lu Bu's army below with rolling logs, and poured hot oil on the ladders.
Under the city wall, a large number of corpses of Lu Bu's soldiers were soon piled up.
Duan Xuan commanded the soldiers to raise their bows and arrows and fight back desperately against the city wall. From time to time, some of the Xiliang army under Li Jue were hit by arrows and fell from the city wall.
Soldiers from both sides engaged in brutal shooting on and off the city. Rivers of blood flowed and corpses were scattered everywhere.
This battle was far more brutal than any previous battle.
Xu Shu watched from a distance and couldn't help but step forward to remind Cao Zhang: "Sir, the defense of Chang'an City is strong. A forced attack will indeed cause heavy losses!"
Cao Zhang looked at the battlefield in the distance and frowned slightly. The brutality of this battle far exceeded his imagination.
This fierce battle lasted from early morning to sunset.
The troops led by Duan Xuan went through several rounds of strong attacks. Although they also caused huge losses to the Xiliang defenders at the top of Chang'an City, they were still unable to break through the final line of defense and ascend to the top of the city.
"Young master, we can't fight anymore, withdraw your troops!" Xu Shu suggested to Cao Zhang.
Cao Zhang also knew that fighting at night would be more detrimental to his side, so he immediately nodded: "Ming Jin, withdraw your troops!"
With the sound of the gong that represented the withdrawal of troops, Duan Yan heard the order to withdraw his troops. Although he was very reluctant, he also understood that Cao Zhang was doing it for his own good. There was no point in continuing to attack and it would only increase the damage.
After all, he is the younger brother of a famous general, and his ability to assess the situation is still very strong. He is not blindly impulsive and immediately orders: "Withdraw!"
The attacking troops immediately began an orderly retreat and returned to Cao Zhang's camp.
This siege battle under Chang'an City ended with both sides losing casualties to each other, with each side paying the lives of thousands of soldiers.
