The defenders on the city tower poured boiling oil, sulfur and other objects down, and threw down the fire straws, and most of the carriages were burned.
The soldiers hiding below ran out screaming and were either burned by fire or shot by random arrows from the city. The scene was extremely tragic.
Xu Huang once again sent out three ramming vehicles and rammed them against the nearby wall, trying to tear down the entire iron gate.
More than a dozen ramming vehicles were all destroyed and turned into charcoal under the city. The iron gate was hit with several dents.
Cao's army was still advancing one after another, and corpses piled up like mountains at the foot of the city wall, all bloody and bloody, but no one could climb the tall Wuguan city wall.
Torches thrown down from the city ignited the corpses, forming a wall of fire, and the burning smell was nauseating.
Xu Huang held the big ax and his face was as dark as water. He had already expected that Wuguan was dangerous. It was still at the north gate. If he attacked the east gate, he had no chance of winning.
Although the roads in the pass are slightly flat and wide, they are also built against the mountains and the location is limited. They can only attack from the main gate, and the advantage of troops cannot be used at all.
The scene was extremely tragic, but Xu Huang could only grit his teeth and supervise the battle. The importance of Wuguan was self-evident. If Liu Qi took the opportunity to invade again, it would cause unrest in Guanzhong.
There is no retreat in this battle, even if it means defeating Wuguan, the Jingzhou army cannot occupy Wuguan at any cost.
Cao's army attacked Wuguan day and night for three consecutive days. The defenders at the pass also suffered losses, but compared to the losses outside the city, they were negligible.
Wei Yan and Fu Wei took turns guarding the city, and occasionally Pang Tong came to supervise the battle. Looking at the menacing Cao army, he looked calm and stood in the tower with his hands behind his back, as if he was admiring the scenery of the cliff.
After several days of hard fighting, the city walls had turned into a quagmire of flesh and blood. Under the cover of catapults and wells, Cao Jun finally set up a ladder and climbed up the city wall like ants.
Rolling stones and oak trees that had been prepared fell one after another, hitting the enemies who climbed the city. Boiling water and boiling oil were also poured down. The screams echoed in the mountain streams, which were terrifying to hear, especially at night.
Although they suffered heavy casualties, Cao's army began to ascend the city, and some even climbed to the top of the city. Although they were killed by Wei Yan, the morale of the entire army was greatly boosted, and they launched another fierce attack.
"Grandma, you're a bear!" Wei Yan retreated covered in blood and cursed, "Can Xu Huang be sealed? Cao Jun's life is worse than that of an ant."
Pang Tong smiled and said: "If a general is choked by someone, he will still fight with all his strength."
Wei Yan wiped his face and sighed: "I'm not afraid of fighting, but if we keep defending like this, when will it end? It's really not pleasant enough."
Pang Tong said: "The general is so exhausted from defending the city. It is conceivable that if Cao's army is attacked head-on when his morale is at its peak, he will surely collapse and the morale of the army will be shattered. This will be the time for the general to counterattack."
Wei Yan's eyes lit up and he said hurriedly: "It turns out that the military advisor has a clever plan."
Pang Tong smiled and said: "When I came to Wuguan, Xiangyang was already rushing to make a sharp weapon. There must be a large number of them at this time, and reinforcements will arrive soon."
"I hope they can come earlier!" Wei Yan ate two large bowls of rice, three chicken drumsticks, and a bowl of haggis soup, and fell asleep.
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and the city was filled with gunpowder smoke, covered with corpses, and purple-black blood stains soaked the ground. A waterfall formed on the cliff, and the remains of corpses hung on rocks and trees, attracting crows and eagles to circle around.
A reinforcement force of 3,000 people from Nanyang finally arrived at Wuguan. Wei Yan was supervising the battle and sent people to bring them into the city and urged them to transport new weapons quickly.
After waiting for half an hour, there was still no movement, so he was furious: "Who leads the troops and dares to delay the military plane? Doesn't he know that our military skills are great?"
At this moment, a burst of laughter came from behind: "Hahaha, Wen Chang's temper is getting hotter and hotter, and he is even less patient than me."
Wei Yan turned to look and saw a tall man with a tall iron tower striding over the covered bridge. He had a dark face and a tiger's beard. He asked in shock: "How come General Zhang is leading the army?"
"I'm not leading the troops!" Zhang Fei pointed to the camp below, "General Liu is here in person and is assembling weapons."
"Eldest Young Master?" Wei Yan was startled, but instead of being happy, he was worried: "Are you afraid that I won't be able to defend Wuguan?"
"The general has other plans!" Zhang Fei smiled, looked around at the critical moment with his hands behind his back, and praised: "Wuguan is indeed worthy of its reputation. General Wei defended it well."
"Does this need to be said?" Wei Yan snorted dissatisfied.
Zhang Fei laughed and said: "If I had been guarding the pass, I would have killed the general and gone out to take Xu Huang's head. By now, he would have reached Chang'an."
"Tch!" Wei Yan curled his lips and said disdainfully: "Yide only drinks more than me. When it comes to charging into battle, Wei is no worse than you."
"What? Are you not convinced?" Zhang Fei glared: "How about we compete?"
Wei Yan grabbed the big knife and said: "You and I will fight our way out of the barrier now. The one who shudders first will win."
The two met enthusiastically for three minutes, and in the blink of an eye it was like a bullfight. Fu Wei was left guarding the gate, and angrily rushed down the tower to go to the military camp to order troops for battle.
When they arrived at the military camp, they saw countless vehicles placed around them, soldiers gathered around them, craftsmen were busy building wooden frames, and Pang Tongzheng was chatting with Liu Qi.
The two were very curious and forgot to order their troops. They pushed through the crowd and came closer. They saw a row of wooden frames the size of vehicles on the field, with crossbows mounted on them.
Wei Yan forgot about the courtesy and went straight forward and asked, "What is this?"
Liu Qi smiled and said: "Liannu!"
"Continuous crossbow?" Wei Yan frowned, and saw that on the crossbow cart, each arrow slot was as wide as a thumb, and there were brass grooves side by side, some three, some five.
Pang Tong said: "I have seen Qin crossbows in ancient books, and they are somewhat similar. When the Qin State swept across the Central Plains, they used crossbows first, but they were too bulky and inconvenient to load, so they were abandoned. Now Kong Ming and his wife are using crossbows. Take it out and there will be improvements.”
Liu Qi nodded and said, "Not bad."
On top of the city wall, Zhuge Liang was introducing crossbows and mechanical crossbows to several generals. These equipments are
Lu Xiang pointed at the mechanism crossbow and said: "This repeating crossbow and mechanism crossbow are modified on the basis of Qin's crossbow. One crossbow fires several times and has the power to break armor and arouse the enemy. Not only can it be used for siege, but it can also be used for defense with one against ten. weapon."
"So magical?" Wei Yan was surprised. He touched the mechanical crossbow with his hand and saw three finger-thick crossbow arrows inlaid in the arrow groove that was a palm deep. He sighed again: "It's a pity that the number is less. "
Liu Qi smiled and said: "Currently, the latest improved continuous crossbow in Xiangyang can already produce eight rounds per crossbow. In the future, it may be increased to ten rounds or even twenty rounds per crossbow."
"Hiss--" Everyone was shocked and even found it unbelievable. If this crossbow was made, wouldn't one person be worth ten archers? The power can be imagined.
"Technology is the first combat power!" Liu Qi said with enthusiasm: "When the continuous crossbow is fully developed, the role of crossbowmen will be no less than that of cavalry."
Pang Tong had a slightly complicated look in his eyes, and sighed: "I don't know how many strange and obscene skills this Kong Ming couple has hidden."
Liu Qi smiled and said: "I will present this great gift tomorrow and Xu Gongming will be the first to witness it. Consider him lucky."
Wei Yan murmured: "Is riding a horse lucky?"
