Dian Wei found that the resistance in the city was getting weaker and weaker, and the density of arrows had become sporadic. Then he laughed and said: "General Xiahou, you said how powerful Yuan Xi's army is. It's a tough battle. It seems too hard." I'm so proud of him. I think this guy is just as useless as his brothers. Look, our people have already climbed up the tower. It's been less than an hour, right?"
Xia Houyuan felt something strange and suddenly shouted: "No, Yuan Xijun is going to run away."
As soon as he finished speaking, a general in white robes suddenly appeared on the city tower and shouted loudly: "Xiahou, a common man who has defeated his generals, dares to come and die. My general will not accompany you anymore."
Xia Houyuan shouted: "Go there, the soldiers will follow me into the city." Seeing that the arrows on the tower were not dense, Xia Houyuan bravely called on the cavalry behind him to follow him and charge towards the city wall.
The cavalry rushed to the city and slashed at the city wall and city gate with their weapons. In a blink of an eye, they cut a five or six foot long hole in the four-foot-thick wooden city gate, and a long gap appeared on the city wall. Transparent mouth.
Zhang He nodded to Guo Huai behind him and said, "Let go, smash all the fire bricks and wooden blunderbuss you brought. It's best to smash the damn Xia Houyuan to death as well. Before leaving, do some harm to him, quick." "
Xia Houyuan and Zhang He were close friends in history, but they became enemies in this era. Suddenly, rocks were flying under the city, fireworks were continuing, and booming explosions were heard one after another. A large number of soldiers attacking the city fell down amidst the noise. The people in the city turned their backs on their horses and became a mess.
The chaos outside the city lasted for about three or five sticks of incense. Xia Houyuan's legs, arms and even back were stabbed by iron water chestnuts that were flying and covering the sky and the earth.
However, the vital part was not injured. He relied on his quick sword skills and his courage to escape death. The first echelon of several thousand soldiers brought out by Xia Houyuan was in dire straits.
Under Cangting City, corpses of horses and men had piled up a hill, and at least three thousand Cao Jun had their eyes closed forever. The muscles on Xia Houyuan's face twitched violently a few times, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Zhang He, I don't need your head to pay tribute to my brothers, they are not raised by humans."
All this happened so fast that the brave and murderous Dian Wei didn't even have time to react. He heard a roar and explosion, and then Xia Houyuan's troops were surrounded by a burst of white smoke. There were screams and muffled sounds. There was a roar of humming. He didn't even know how to rescue.
After the fog cleared, while Dian Wei saw the tragic scene, he also noticed something that could drive him crazy, that is, the tower was empty. "Damn it, Yuan Xijun really ran away. Brothers, hurry into the city and chase him."
The rest of the infantry picked up the city walls on the ground and banged them wildly. The city gate, which had been chopped to pieces and riddled with holes, was crumbling. With only two or three blows, one of the two city gates was destroyed. With a deafening roar, he fell to the ground.
Xia Houyuan, who was guarding the city, opened his blood-red eyes, roared, and rushed in first: "Kill." Who to kill? It was an empty city with not a single soldier. Although Xia Houyuan was furious, he had not lost his mind. If it were Dong Zhuo's men, Li Jue, Guo Si and others, they might have sent their troops to massacre the city.
North of Cangting, where Zhang He ordered a fire, Xiahou Yuan and Dian Wei's cavalry had already emerged. Zhang He sneered and said, "Light the fire and mount the horse, prepare to shoot him once."
A hundred or dozens of fire breakers were thrown into the tung oil, and a fire suddenly burst into the sky. When I first got up, I could still see Xia Houyuan and Dian Wei running at the front through the light of the fire. When they got closer, they were completely invisible.
Guo Huai sat on the horse and said, "Mom, I can't burn you to death, you are a bunch of bastards. Let me give you something powerful."
He waved his hand, and the five hundred naked soldiers behind him immediately shot the arrows full of bowstrings into the fire. They didn't aim, couldn't see at all, and just shot randomly. The result of shooting the arrows caused screams, and also caused the opponent's bows and arrows to fire back. Several of the soldiers immediately fell to the ground after being hit by arrows.
White smoke spread everywhere, Guo Huai wiped his sweat and gasped: "General, let's withdraw." Zhang He waved his hand; "Five hundred soldiers, follow and run towards Liyang Ferry."
South Bank of the Yellow River, Cao Cao’s camp
Cao Cao was silent for a long time after listening to Xia Houyuan's report. Later, he only said: "Miaocai has worked hard, go down and rest."
Xia Houyuan refused to leave, so he said, "Mengde, I have one more thing to report."
Cao Cao loved Xia Houyuan deeply and said with a smile: "Tell me."
Xia Houyuan said, "I would like to ask for orders to attack Liyang and capture Yuan Xi alive."
Cao Cao understood what he was thinking and said with a wry smile, "Yes, but we have to wait for the army to rest for two days. By the way, you have to recuperate, Miaocai."
Liyang City.
Zhang He, Zhang Xiu, Jia Xu, Guo Huai, Wen Chou, Gao Lan, Tian Yu, these old members of Yuan Xi reunited.
In the past few days, Jia Xu also suggested that Zhang He order people to dig a horse pit outside the city, and then dig two layers of trenches to form an insurmountable barrier outside the moat. Zhang He accepted them one by one. This was one of the major general's masterminds.
Twenty thousand people, five thousand for each door, truly a carefully selected elite. The old, weak and remnant soldiers who were selected returned to Jizhou. Sun Tzu's Art of War says: Soldiers are more valuable than their many. Liyang is located in a strategic location, and military strategists must fight for key points, so the city is strong. After the Yuan family occupied this place, due to its importance, it has been repaired over the years.
There are not many residents here, so Jushou once advocated changing the original eight gates to the current four gates of east, west, south and north. Fortunately, the proposal was approved. We will soon see how far-sighted and strategic Jushou is.
The city also stocks food that Wen Chou and Jia Xu transported back twice after traveling long distances. Enough for 20,000 defenders for half a year.
Zhang He and Jia Xu carefully selected the generals who would defend the city. Among the four gates, the south gate should be the main one, and Guo Huai is the other one. For the other three gates, Wen Chou guards the west gate, Zhang Xiu guards the east gate, and Gao Lan guards the north gate.
Zhang He himself took Tian Yu and two thousand troops to support him, and went wherever needed. Guan Hai commanded four thousand soldiers to patrol the city gate and guard the catapults and crossbows set up at the city gate. All the remaining soldiers were used as fortification soldiers. In fact, in order to truly defend the city, the role of fortification soldiers cannot be ignored.
before the war.
Before the battle, commanders from both sides made speeches.
Zhang He stood at the top of the city, facing the soldiers and thousands of troops in the city, and said loudly: "There is no need to be afraid of Cao Jun's superior strength. When Cao Jun crosses the river, the supply of food and grass will be insufficient, and Xuchang will be empty behind it. Take charge. Liu Biao, the Zhennan general of Jingxiang, will not give up this God-given opportunity. There are also our Qingzhou soldiers who are constantly attacking in the direction of Xuzhou day and night. I believe that it will take less than half a month to open up the path to raid Xuchang. Soldiers, as long as we bite the bullet and hold Cao's army outside the city for a month, Cao's army will be defeated."
Wen Chou drew out his sword and said sternly: "When the city is alive, people will be there, but when the city is dead, people will be dead."
The generals responded loudly, "When the city is alive, people will be there; when the city is gone, people will be dead."
Cao Cao's camp.
Cao Cao faced the generals. He picked up the wine bowl and said the last words to everyone: "In this expedition, our army attacked the country empty-handed, with the intention of leaving no retreat and destroying the cauldron. Generals Bao Xin and Xi Zhong remained unyielding and sacrificed their lives for the country. This general will definitely take his blood revenge. In this battle, there will be no advance, no retreat, no life or death!! We can only defeat the rebels in this battle. God bless our emperor, and the world will belong to the great Han!"
This shameless man brought out the Han Emperor again at this time. And also spreading rumors and sensationalizing?
He drank it all in one gulp and threw the bowl on the ground.
"Go to war."
The clouds in the sky are getting thicker and thicker, blocking the sky and the sun, like thick snow-capped mountains and dense tree trunks. By afternoon, the entire Liyang was like a stuffy jar with no wind at all. Fully enter the silence before the storm.
Cao Cao's army came out in full force and formed a formation in Heyuan outside the city. Divided into three armies, the front rows are archers holding long shields, and the back are spearmen and cavalry.
They came to the city with great military appearance and high morale. The breeze rises and the flags fly. A formation of fifty thousand soldiers surged over like a wave. The city of Liyang was completely surrounded.
The faces of all the generals of Yuan Xi's army changed, and they looked at Cao's army outside the city with fear, who had taken the lead and had high morale. At the top of Liyang City, every soldier who defended the city from top to bottom had their ambition taken away and was lost in fear and despair.
Cao Cao smiled, raised his riding whip, pointed at Zhang He and said: "General Junyi! The Yuan family is gone. If you don't present the city, kneel down and beg for mercy. I will let you wait for a while. You can't live but die."
Zhang He took a deep breath, calmed down, and said with a normal expression: "It's useless to talk more. If Cao A has the ability, just come and attack the city."
"Bold!" Cao Cao's generals yelled, thinking that you can also call Sikong by his nickname.
Dian Wei, the guard beside Cao Cao, shouted loudly: "Zhang He, you are on the verge of death and are at the end of your rope. If you still don't surrender, when I attack the city, I will cut you into pieces."
Xia Houyuan shouted: "Stop talking nonsense, Zhang He, will you surrender or not?"
Zhang He looked up to the sky and laughed, shouting behind him, "Everyone, tell us whether we should surrender."
Unexpectedly, Zhang Xiu was the first to jump out and led the generals in shouting: "I will not surrender until I die, I will not surrender until I die." The generals made a loud explosion, which shook the city wall.
Zhang He nodded, with a tremor in his heart, turned around, pointed at Cao Cao and shouted, "Listen, thief Cao, as long as I, Zhang He, can breathe, you can't even enter Liyang City. It's useless to talk. Come up."
Guo Huai roared beside Zhang He; "The general will win, and the Hebei army will win."
Immediately, Sergeant Yuan and his soldiers shouted together, "We must win."
The two armies returned to the formation and began to deploy. Cao Cao made the deployment and mobilized all his famous generals: Li Dianhe attacked the west gate, Xiahou Yuan attacked the east gate, and Han Hao attacked the north gate. He and Dian Wei attacked the south gate of the main entrance.
He also thought that these people were not enough, so he arranged for Lu Qian to attack the northeast corner of the city. Cao Zhen attacked the southwest of the city, Cao Xiu attacked the northwest, and Yu Jin attacked the southeast of the city. The other generals joined him in attacking the south gate. Each team has 7,000 people and must trample Liyang City into powder.
The soldiers in the city were transporting heavy city defense tools such as stone mills, rolling logs, and stones to the top of the city. They found that the things in their hands suddenly became lighter and their movements became much faster.
Unfortunately, the soldiers of Cao's army found that their steps forward were very difficult, which seemed to be a bit difficult. Tian Yu suddenly shouted: "General, the wind is favorable to us." The dark clouds lowered the city wall.
God really helped Yuan Jun. "Boom!" A loud thunder erupted above the sky. Wen Chou said in surprise: "My mother, it's raining at this time, and it's still a heavy rain!"
This scene is similar to when Zhuge Liang burned Sima Yi in the valley above. In the end, God did not bless Cao.
Zhang He made a decisive decision and said, "Go and send orders to the four gates. Divide the soldiers guarding the city into two squads. Some of them will go into the archery tower to take shelter from the rain. However, the order cannot be disordered. After a period of time, they must come out to fight. Hurry." The generals took the order and left.
Cao Jun marched forward at an orderly pace regardless of rain or shine. In the rolling wheels, Li Dian, Xia Houyuan, Cao Zhen and others have led their troops towards their main attack position. Cao Cao and Dian Wei also began to advance.
Cao Cao directed his army to let Dian Wei pass the order, and divided it into three groups, filling the trenches in three ways and advancing forward. There are twenty-five thousand people in each group.
The fortification soldiers passed over Cao Cao and the bow and shield soldiers in front, and pushed forward the thousands of toad vehicles, arrow blocking vehicles, and city charge vehicles that filled the trenches. One foot, two feet, three feet, four feet
The cloud-piercing crossbowmen and the flying stone crossbowmen on the tower are ready. Everyone stared at the city with their eyes turned red.
Cao Jun's soldiers walking in front suddenly screamed and fell to the ground. All the siege vehicles walking in front stopped and screamed one after another, drowning out the sound of the pouring rain.
Cao Cao's face changed slightly, but he still hadn't realized what was going on. Over there, Guo Huai sneered and raised his dripping right hand high above his head. The eyes of all the soldiers guarding the city were focused on his fingertips. "Let go!" Guo Huai quickly put down his hand.
The shooting range was a thousand steps away, and the big flying stone and the cloud-piercing crossbow were launched with the efforts of Jiabao and two hundred soldiers.
Bang bang bang bang, after a series of noises. The shields of dozens of shield soldiers were penetrated, and powerful arrows passed through different parts of their bodies and were nailed into the ground, leaving only half of the arrow body exposed.
Any body that was hit by more than two arrows was sent a foot away from behind by a powerful explosive force. Some bodies were dismantled into pieces by three or two arrows. Cao Cao and Dian Wei beside him changed color at the same time. Cao Cao hurriedly asked Dian Wei to pass the order, and the archers fired back.
Although Cao Cao was shocked by the power of these two heavy weapons, this loss was still nothing to him. The moat is already two hundred steps away, but is the distance of these two hundred steps really risk-free? Cao's soldiers, who were frightened twice, became cautious and did not dare to march forward.
At this time, bloody battles from the four corners of the city gate and the other three gates were also going on at the same time. Gao Lan and others had been sent out to defend. Fortunately, Jia Xu had already predicted that Cao Cao would attack the corner of the city before the battle started, and had arranged flying stone chariots and 'cloud-piercing crossbows' in advance, so that Yuan Jun would not be caught off guard.
Cao's troops coming from all directions almost all suffered the same blow. They were suppressed by the flying rocks and the cloud-piercing crossbows and could not take a step beyond the thunder pool. Among them, Xia Houyuan suffered the most heavy losses. The east gate where Xia Houyuan mainly attacked was guarded by the old partners Jia Xu and Zhang Xiu.
Xia Houyuan suffered heavy losses, not because Jia Xu set him up, nor because Zhang Xiu's soldiers had accurate arrow skills, but because he himself was too crazy.
As soon as this guy came up, he showed an indomitable attitude. He encouraged the soldiers to charge. He didn't even use city assault vehicles and arrow-blocking vehicles. He only had people pushing trench-filling vehicles and ladders, and he charged wildly. He pulled out his saber in his hand. He kept shouting: "Kill, kill into the city."
While his soldiers were restrained by iron caltrops, they were bombarded by Jia Xu's crossbows and flying rocks. Without the cover of arrow-blocking vehicles and city-attack vehicles, they suffered numerous casualties. Instead of ordering a retreat, Xia Houyuan personally dismounted his horse and killed the wounded retreating soldiers, ordering them to continue moving forward.
Under the threat that they would be killed if they retreated, the soldiers rushed forward one after another towards death. As a result, many people died, but it was difficult to make progress. In essence, Xia Houyuan and Zhang Fei are the same kind of people. No wonder Xia Houyuan became Zhang Fei's father-in-law in the end.
