Chapter 2834: Bai Qi’s early layout, high-pressure water tanker breaks through Puyang
From Cao Cao's point of view, Puyang City not only has a sufficient number of defenders, but Le Yi and Lan Yu are also good at defense. They are also assisted by many fierce generals such as Niu Mo Wang, Jiang Wenhuan, Er Lai, and there are also rebels in Dongjun. It’s true that he won’t be able to hold on for even ten days.
But since the spies have reported this, it cannot be false. Puyang City has really been breached.
But how did Bai Qi manage to conquer Puyang in only ten days?
In fact, it seemed that Bai Qi took ten days, but as early as when Jia Fu attacked Puyang, Bai Qi was already preparing to conquer Puyang.
Puyang is the seat of Dongjun and the last line of defense guarding the northern part of Cao Wei. Such an important city must be easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Of course, it was impossible for Bai Qi not to know this, but he still sent Jia Fu to lead an army of 35,000 to attack Puyang before Baima City was captured.
At that time, many Wei generals, including Le Yi, felt that Bai Qi wanted to quickly occupy Dongjun after breaking through the Yellow River defense line, and did so out of eagerness for quick success.
As a military advisor, Xun You didn't think so, but he couldn't think of any other reasons, so he could only secretly be vigilant in his heart.
But neither Le Yi nor Xun You obviously thought that Bai Qi was preparing to conquer Puyang in the future.
Bai Qi had known for a long time that Jia Fu could not attack Puyang, so before setting off, he deliberately used the provocation method to provoke Jia Fu, asking Jia Fu to go all out and execute according to his arrangements.
Jia Fu still trusted Bai Qi very much. Even Bai Qi said that Puyang City was difficult to capture. How could he dare not follow what Bai Qi said?
In the end, although Jia Fu failed to capture Puyang City, he paved the way for Bai Qi to attack the city again.
When Jia Fu attacked Puyang City, the number of Puyang defenders was small and it was difficult to take into account the defense of the entire city. Although he failed to successfully break the city, he also destroyed most of Puyang's defense facilities.
Later, although Le Yi took advantage of the gap between Bai Qi's attack on Baima to rebuild the defense of Puyang City, and strengthened the city defense after retreating into Puyang City, he did not solve the problem left by Jia Fu's attack on the city. Fatal question.
In accordance with Bai Qi's instructions, Jia Fu launched a strong attack on the north and west gates of Puyang at the same time. The north gate was mainly attacked, while the west gate was mainly used for containment, and a large number of kerosene bombs were used.
Naturally, Jia Fu didn't understand Bai Qi's intention of asking him to do this. After all, the Qin army's resources were limited and it was impossible to supply unlimited amounts of kerosene bombs.
Therefore, in Jia Fu's opinion, instead of using kerosene bombs at the west gate, which is mainly for containment, it is better to focus on the north gate. This way, the success rate of breaking through the north gate will be higher.
In the end, although Jia Fu failed to break Puyang, he did not blame Bai Qi for this, because he knew that even if he used all the kerosene bombs at the north gate, it would still be difficult to break Puyang City.
But what Jia Fu didn't know was that it was his many days of fire attacks that gave Bai Qi an opportunity.
Since Jia Fu attacked the north gate, he also focused the Wei army's attention on the north gate, often ignoring the west gate, which was mainly used to contain the west gate. When it was Bai Qi's turn to attack Puyang, he also used the same strategy of attacking the north gate to contain the west gate. , so the siege battles in the first nine days were mainly concentrated at the north gate.
The 80,000 Qin army stormed Puyang City, dispatching 800 catapults and nearly 10,000 various crossbows. Although such long-range output capabilities put great pressure on the Wei and Ming coalition forces, they were not able to forcibly break the Puyang City defenses. the point.
Under the tight defense of Le Yi and Lan Yu, although the Qin army attacked the north gate many times, they failed to break the city, even if Li Cunxiao climbed up the tower.
After all, under the concentrated fire tactics of the Wei and Ming coalition forces, even Li Cunxiao had to temporarily avoid the edge, not to mention that Niu Mowang was still there with the coalition forces.
During the nine-day attack, the Qin army suffered nearly 8,000 casualties, of which more than 4,000 were killed directly in battle, but it also caused nearly 10,000 casualties to the Wei and Ming coalition forces.
There are two common senses in war: defense is always easier than offense, and attack will definitely cause more casualties than defense.
However, as the Qin army on the offensive side, its losses were smaller than those of the Wei and Ming coalition forces on the defensive side. This obviously broke common sense on the battlefield.
That is to say, in this Puyang offensive and defensive battle, the main force of the defenders was the Ming army. The Ming army was superior to the Wei army in terms of morale and combat power. It had no fear of the Qin army. If the Wei army had been defeated repeatedly, the casualties would probably still be high. will be further increased.
Do it all at once, second time tired, third time exhausted.
The Qin army's strong attack on Puyang was also the fiercest on the first day. After that, it was difficult to break the city for a long time, and morale naturally declined.
Le Yi naturally felt the decline in the morale of the Qin army and the weakening of the Qin army's offensive against Puyang City, so he naturally became more confident and felt that he could defend Puyang City. Little did he know that when he was focused on the north gate, The foundation of Puyang Ximen was almost hollowed out by Bai Qi.
After more than half a month of burning by Jia Fu and Bai Qi, cracks have appeared in parts of the west gate city wall.
Naturally, the Wei and Ming coalition forces in the city knew about this and repaired the city wall as soon as possible. However, the cracks on the surface were easy to repair, but the inside could not be repaired at all.
On the tenth day when Bai Qi attacked Puyang, both Le Yi and Lan Yu thought that the Qin army would attack the north gate, but they did not expect that Bai Qi would attack the west gate this time.
This is exactly what Le Yi and Lan Yu meant. After all, after nine consecutive days of fierce attacks, the north gate was scarred and devastated, while the damage to the west gate was not great, and its defense was obviously higher than the north gate.
However, in order to prevent Bai Qi from making a false shot, Le Yi did not relax his defense on the north gate. While he personally guarded the west gate, he also asked Lan Yu to guard the north gate.
Seeing that the number of Qin troops gathered outside the west gate was increasing, and the siege equipment had been transferred, Le Yi knew that Bai Qi was not trying to feint a shot, but was really going to attack the west gate, so he couldn't help but said to himself:
"Then come on, Bai Qi. As long as I, Le Yi, are still here, you can't capture Puyang City. You can't capture the north gate, and you can't capture the west gate either."
Puyang City, outside the west gate.
Bai Qi looked at Le Yi on the tower, with a sneer on his lips, and then asked to his left and right, "Have all the catapults been brought here?"
Upon hearing this, Tian Feng immediately replied: "General, all eight hundred catapults have arrived at the west gate and have been lined up outside the city."
"Um."
Bai Dian nodded, and then asked: "How many fire oil cans are left in our army?"
"There were too many fire oil cans used before. Now there are only 5,000 cans left in the military camp, which is only enough for our army to attack the city in two days. However, another 30,000 cans have been shipped from the rear. They have now arrived in Baima. If you want It will take some time to get to the front lines.”
"Five thousand cans? That's enough."
A flash of light flashed in Bai Qi's eyes, and he said in a deep voice: "This general orders us to aim at the Puyang city wall and launch all five thousand cans of fire oil."
"promise."
The ordering soldiers took the order and left, but all the generals present were dumbfounded. Only a few people, such as Li Cunxiao and Hao Zhao, looked thoughtful.
"General, if you want to launch, you should launch it on the city tower. Why launch it on the city wall? It can't burn the defenders in the city, how can it heat them to death?" Qin Niu asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"Yes, our army's kerosene is not enough to begin with. If we waste it like this, there will be no kerosene for the siege in the next few days."
As soon as Yu Yuan's words came out, some generals immediately agreed. Apparently they all felt that this battle still had to be fought and that the task of breaking the city in ten days was impossible to complete.
"How many days? The enemy army does not have a few days left. Our army will definitely attack Puyang today."
As soon as Bai Qi finished speaking, the Qin army's catapult array had begun to project one after another.
Eight hundred catapults, firing 5,000 cans of kerosene bombs, only require five rounds, but Bai Qi's target is the city wall, so he only needs to use the catapults in the last row.
Long before the Qin Army's catapult array was launched, Le Yi had already ordered the fire-fighting troops to prepare sand and soil and be ready to put out the fire at any time.
Therefore, when he saw the Qin Army's catapult array starting to project, Le Yi immediately dispatched fire-fighting troops to prepare to put out the fire, but an unexpected scene happened next.
It was seen that the Qin army's kerosene bombs did not hit the tower, but hit Puyang City.
Boom, boom, boom...
The kerosene tank shattered instantly after hitting the city wall, and more than 20 kilograms of kerosene instantly caused a fire, but it only burned the city wall and did not pose a threat to the defenders on the tower.
Boom, boom, boom...
The fire oil cans bombarded the city wall one after another, but the defenders on the city tower became more and more confused.
It would be fine if one or two rounds missed, but if dozens or hundreds of rounds hit the city wall, it could only mean that the Qin army did it intentionally.
"What is Bai Qi doing? Does he want to heat us to death? Haha."
Evil laughed wildly, and was immediately greeted by a burst of ridicule. Apparently, everyone felt dizzy.
Le Yi frowned tightly. Although there was a vague feeling in his heart, he still couldn't understand Bai Qi's intention. When he looked at Xun You, he found that his expression was the same as his own.
"Did Bai Qi want to burn the city wall with kerosene to break? But the Puyang city wall is made of large bluestones. Even if it breaks, it will only be partially broken and can be repaired quickly. There is no point in burning it."
Xun You had a puzzled look on his face, he really couldn't understand Bai Qi's intention, but he felt the same sense of crisis as Le Yi, because Bai Qi never did anything meaningless.
"Military advisor, what should we do now?" Le Yi asked.
"We still don't know Bai Qi's intention. We can only prepare sand and soil in advance and be ready to extinguish the fire at any time, so we can cope with any changes by staying the same." Xun You said helplessly.
"That's all it can do."
Boom, boom...
The Qin army's fire oil attack continued.
Every time a stick of incense is burned, when the fire begins to weaken, the next round is fired, and each round is about five hundred cans.
After five consecutive rounds of projection, the west gate of Puyang City turned into a sauna, becoming a hot mess in the literal sense, and many of the defenders on the city tower suffered from heat stroke.
Le Yi had no other choice but to change a group of soldiers to continue standing guard every half an hour.
"Grand Governor, this is not the way to go. Although the Qin army cannot hurt me, if all our soldiers suffer from heatstroke, it will greatly affect the defense."
"Indeed, we can't go on like this."
Le Yi nodded in agreement, and then ordered the soldiers to throw sand to put out the fire. However, the coalition soldiers could only endure the high temperature and kept throwing sand at the city wall.
But what Le Yi didn't expect was that the effect of using sand to extinguish the fire this time was not good. The sand did not stick to the city wall like kerosene, but fell directly into the Hucheng River.
Generally speaking, the fire extinguishing effect is there, but only a little, and it is far less effective than on flat ground.
Seeing the sand, the fire could not be ignited. Le Yi and Xun You had no choice but to let the Qin army continue to burn. Anyway, it was only a little hot and could not burn them. Besides, the Qin army could not keep burning like this. .
Soon, the Qin army's fire oil offensive had reached the ninth round.
Seeing that the situation was almost over, Bai Qi immediately ordered the soldiers to roll out nearly a hundred tanks.
These chariots are the secret weapons of the Qin army. They were jointly developed by the Mohists and Gongjia. They have never been used on the battlefield before, and Ying Hao named them: high-pressure water tanks.
Seeing the new equipment appearing in the Qin army's formation, both Le Yi and Xun You were shocked. Although they didn't know what the specific use was, their bad premonitions became stronger.
"The catapults attack immediately and these chariots must not be allowed to come near."
Le Yi gave the order decisively, and the defenders' catapult array also launched attacks at the first opportunity. However, due to being smoked by the fire for several hours, the old catapults were basically replaced and rested. The newcomers who came on the bench were in control. I am still very unskilled, so my reaction speed is naturally very slow.
Before the defenders' catapults had time to launch, the Qin army's catapults outside the city launched an attack first, but this time they were not targeting the city wall. In addition to the kerosene tanks, there were also stone bombs.
Five hundred cans of kerosene bombs and thousands of stone bullets were poured onto the tower at the same time, immediately causing great chaos to the defenders.
But under Le Yi's command, the defenders quickly recovered. They fought back when they should and put out fires. Everything was so orderly.
It wasn't until the high-pressure water truck sprayed out water that neither Le Yi nor Xun You could continue calmly. They finally realized Bai Qi's intentions, but it was obviously too late.
After more than ten days of slow simmering in small fires and the burning of the fire on the last day, the internal structure of Puyang West Gate has been extremely damaged.
Under extremely high temperatures, hundreds of water columns pour over the rock at the same time. When it suddenly comes into contact with water, its internal structure will be completely destroyed and it will burst.
The North Gate of Puyang lasted for nine days, but the West Gate of Puyang did not last even one day.
Under the fire and water offensive of the Qin army, a large area of the west gate wall collapsed, completely exposing the city to the Qin army.
At this time, in the eyes of Qin Jun, Puyang City was like a beautiful woman who could take off her clothes and be lucky at any time.
