Because Cao Ren divided his troops into Zhang Liao and allowed Zhang Liao to contain Guan Yu, communication between Guan Yu's camp and Zhang Xi's Fancheng was now somewhat obstructed.
Although the connection will not be cut off, the mutual transmission of information will be affected to some extent.
But with such important information, Guan Yu believed that Ma Liang, the man in charge of Xiangyang, couldn't get it wrong, right? !
Since Ma Liang could send him Wang Ji's military report, it shouldn't be difficult to send a copy to Fancheng. Why did that kid actually persuade him to return for reinforcements after learning that Jiangling was fine? !
Guan Yu didn't quite understand, but Guan Yu trusted Zhang Xi's judgment.
Although Guan Yu is aloof and arrogant, Guan Yu's aloofness is just because he is unhappy with those who have no real ability and are just sitting there. Guan Yu still respects and trusts those who are truly capable.
Zhang Xi is a kid. Although Guan Yu did not like some of his ways at first, after getting along with him for these years, Guan Yu still recognized Zhang Xi's abilities.
Although this kid is a little timid, his judgment is rarely wrong.
Since he felt that Jiangling was still in danger, Guan Yu couldn't just leave it alone.
After thinking for a while, Guan Yu decided to ask Ma Liang to mobilize another 10,000 defenders from Xiangyang. Regardless of whether the reorganization was over, let Liao Hua lead them to rescue Jiangling.
As for the front line, it cannot be withdrawn.
Although Zhang Xi said that relying on Fancheng's troops, he was sure to stop Cao Ren's attack of 60,000 men for two months, Guan Yu did not dare to let Zhang Xi take the risk.
Since ancient times, defending a city has required cooperation from both inside and outside. If a general defends a city stubbornly, no matter how good a general is, he will lose it at some point.
Guan Yu could not let Zhang Xi take this risk alone.
Another one. Guan Yu is old.
Really, although Guan Yu doesn't want to admit it, he is already over fifty this year and will soon be sixty.
In this era, people of Guan Yu's age are already considered to be old.
But in the current world, there is still no sign of peace, and the overall situation is still that Cao Cao is powerful, and the Sun and Liu families are weak.
The eldest brother's ideal of helping the Han Dynasty seems to be impossible to achieve quickly in a short time.
Therefore, Guan Yu could not let Zhang Xi take risks. After all, the Mesozoic generals represented by Zhang Xi were the hope of the future.
Therefore, not only could Guan Yu not let Zhang Xi defend Fancheng alone, he also decided to launch a surprise attack on the camp where his old friend Zhang Liao was located.
The purpose is to attract as many Cao troops to his side as possible and help relieve the pressure on Zhang Xi in Fancheng.
The next day, Guan Yu personally led an army and launched an attack on Zhang Liao's camp.
But Zhang Liao. After all, Zhang Liao is the famous general who defeated eight hundred thousand and one hundred thousand in Xiaoyaojin in the White Wolf Mountain Formation. Even without the buff blessing of Sun Shiwan, his combat command ability will not be weakened in any way.
Guan Yu attacked, and Zhang Liao defended. The fight between the two sides was back and forth, and for a while Guan Yu couldn't take advantage.
The command capabilities of the two sides are almost the same. Although Guan Yu has a slight advantage in terms of soldier strength due to the sharpness of his ordnance, Guan Yu is all infantry, while Zhang Liao has 5,000 cavalry.
At the critical moment, Zhang Liao would launch a cavalry raid. The little advantage Guan Yu had finally accumulated would be instantly regained by Zhang Liao.
Guan Yu had tried his best, but in his army, because he had to cooperate with the navy in early battles, there were many crossbowmen and too few soldiers with long weapons. There were only those 5,000 Yuanyang soldiers, and not all the Yuanyang soldiers. All pawns have long spears, and the proportion of long spears is only two-fifths.
In other words, even if Guan Yu unified all these spearmen and used them, he would only have two thousand spearmen.
Use two thousand pikemen to fight against five thousand cavalry. You will definitely not be able to defeat them.
Not to mention defeat, if you want to stop the assault of five thousand cavalry, you really can't even think about it if you don't have ten thousand spearmen.
Now Guan Yu really doesn't have so many spearmen.
As for Pu Dao soldiers, it’s not that Guan Yu didn’t think of it. In fact, the three thousand Pu Dao soldiers were not enough in number. Secondly, Pu Dao and the long pole were only two meters long. They couldn’t cooperate with the spearmen who were more than four meters tall. Even if they are barely mixed together, they can't stop the cavalry. It's better to leave them aside for now and then release them to kill the enemy at the critical moment.
Therefore, Guan Yu could still only use ordinary methods to attack Zhang Liao's military formation.
But Zhang Xi, who was on the tower in Fancheng, found all of this rather confusing.
It’s not Erye. Did you make something wrong? !
We should be the defensive side, right? !
According to common sense, shouldn't the Second Master use mandarin duck soldiers and chariot formations to form a defensive formation to lure Cao's men to attack? Why did the Second Master attack himself? !
Did the second master make something wrong? !
The person who should really be worried now shouldn't be us, it should be Cao Ren.
Why hasn't Cao Ren on my side started attacking the city yet, but Er Ye's side has started to take the initiative? !
Zhang Xi didn't understand, but Zhang Xi was so fast that he had no time to watch the second master attack Zhang Liao. Cao Ren finally made the siege equipment and began to attack.
Cao Ren took almost a month to prepare for this siege.
After all, Cao Ren is also a famous general of his generation, and he has the qualities that a famous general should have.
Although he had been irrational after being ridiculed by Zhang Xi before, after calming down, Cao Ren still used the utmost calmness and patience to formulate a strategy for this siege, and even spent an extra time on it. Prepare.
Therefore, when Cao Ren proudly pushed his trump card to the foot of Fan City, Zhang Xi on Fan City looked a little dumbfounded.
"This is a catapult?!" Zhang Xi looked solemnly, looking at the more than twenty catapults arrayed in front of Cao's army, and muttered to himself.
Zhang Ni, who was standing next to Zhang Xi, also had a bad look on his face. He quickly asked Zhang Xi for help and said, "Guardian, please allow me to lead three thousand troops out of the city and burn these catapults."
Zhang Yi had never seen the power of Cao Jun's catapult, but he knew the power of his own catapult very well.
If we use the power of our own catapults as an analogy, no matter how strong the Fancheng wall is, it will not be able to withstand the continuous bombardment of the catapults. Sooner or later the wall will be blown down.
Therefore, it is inevitable to go out of the city and burn the catapults.
But Zhang Xi waved his hand, thought for a while, and then said, "Let's take a look first and then talk."
Zhang Xi did know that Cao Jun had used a catapult, the kind of thunderbolt chariot built under Liu Ye's supervision. But Zhang Xi didn't know the power of that thunderbolt chariot. If he left the city rashly, he might fall into Cao Ren's plan.
As for Cao Ren, there is a saying that Cao Ren certainly wants to tear Zhang Xi into pieces.
The taunt from the top of Fancheng Wall has given Cao Ren the title of "Liu Bian Taishou". If Cao Ren cannot defeat Zhang Xi in Fancheng and avenge his shame, then this title of "Liu Bian Taishou" will accompany him for the rest of his life.
People these days are shameless. With such a name, Cao Ren must have hated Zhang Xi to death.
But, Cao Ren also knew that Zhang Xi was difficult to deal with.
Although they have never had the opportunity to fight directly with Zhang Xi, it is not the first time for the two of them to fight indirectly.
Whether it was Cao Ren leading his troops to sneak attack on Xinye or the fight at Nanjun City, Cao Ren still knew a little bit about Zhang Xi's combat style.
It is basically impossible for you to expect this person to go out of the city to fight in the wild.
Therefore, in the end, Fancheng will inevitably end up in a brutal siege battle.
Since we are going to attack the city, we must be fully prepared and not launch an attack easily. Cao Ren has not attacked for a month, but is preparing various siege equipment, especially this thunder chariot.
Cao Ren had already learned from Man Chong that Zhang Xi had once attacked Fancheng with a catapult, and that Man Chong was defenseless, so Cao Ren decided to retaliate in the same way.
Catapults are not unique to Liu Beijun and his family. Do you want to know about the Thunderbolt Chariot that was so powerful in Hebei back then? !
In order to build these Pili Chariots, Cao Ren specially sent people to Xudu and invited the craftsmen who originally built the Pili Chariots. It took a full month to build this batch of twenty Pili Chariots.
Now, the offensive and defensive positions have changed, and it is his turn to attack Man Chong, who Zhang Xi can hit with a catapult and abandon the city. Can't he do the same? !
Cao Ren is very confident now.
Not long after, Cao Renjun's attack began.
Sure enough, the first one to show off his power was Pili Car.
After twenty Thunderbolt vehicles were loaded with stones, they began to pour stones towards the wall of Fancheng under the guidance of manpower.
Zhang Xi breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the Pili car show off its power.
Cao Jun's Thunderbolt Chariot was, after all, still a traditional catapult pulled by manpower.
Although it is unknown what structural principle Liu Ye adopted, which caused the Thunderbolt's range to reach a terrifying two hundred steps, but the power was still human power, so two problems could not be avoided - insufficient accuracy and unstable range.
Three of the first batch of stones thrown by Cao's army did hit the city wall, but the remaining stones were scattered within twenty to sixty steps in front of the city wall. This range and accuracy were really unreliable.
If you want to destroy the city wall with such a catapult, it really depends on your character and odds.
However, you can't just leave it alone. After all, there is always a chance, and it doesn't matter if it takes a long time to be smashed. You have to find a way to deal with these thunderbolt cars.
Judging from the conventional disposal method, to destroy the siege equipment, that is to send people out of the city to kill the scattered guards and burn the equipment.
However, Zhang Xi believed that a general of Cao Ren's level would not give him this opportunity easily.
Cao Ren will definitely send a large army to protect these thunder chariots, and may even find a way to surround the soldiers sent by Zhang Xi to fight in the city, killing and injuring them as much as possible and weakening Fancheng's defense force.
This is equivalent to going to a field battle with Cao Ren to decide the outcome.
Cao Ren definitely hoped that Zhang Xi would do this. After all, Cao Ren had many soldiers, and the difference in combat power between the two sides' soldiers was really not too big. If they were to fight in a field battle, Cao Ren would not want it.
But Zhang Xi definitely can't let Cao Ren get what he wants. Guan Junhou and Zhang Xi combined have less than 30,000 people, so it would be crazy to fight with you with 60,000 people.
Therefore, Zhang Xi put the option of leaving the city to burn down the Thunderbolt Car as a backup option, thinking about whether there was a better way.
There is indeed a way.
Cao Ren had a thunderbolt chariot, and Zhang Xi also had a heavy catapult.
Zhang Xi originally didn't want to use this method so early, but planned to use it at the critical moment to stop Cao Ren's siege.
But who knew that Cao Ren would use the Thunderbolt Chariot as soon as he came up? There was nothing he could do about it.
Zhang Xi gave the order and pushed his heavy-weight catapult onto the city wall.
But there is still a problem
The height of Fancheng's city wall is 8.15 meters. The distance between the Pili Chariot and the home city wall is about 120 meters, while the range of the home catapult on flat ground is only about 90 meters.
Question, if you move your own catapult to the city wall, can you destroy the enemy's thunderbolt vehicle? !
Zhang Xi feels like he can't solve this arithmetic problem, but it doesn't matter. We can use the exhaustive enumeration method and try one by one to find out.
(End of chapter)
