At the top of Fancheng, there was a special offensive and defensive battle that should not happen in this era.
If the catapults on both sides were replaced by artillery, this would be simply a city attack and defense battle during World War II.
At the beginning of the war, both sides conducted a burst of artillery fire in an attempt to destroy the enemy's artillery positions.
In the end, it was Zhang Xi's counterweight catapult that suppressed Cao Ren's Thunderbolt Chariot with its range and precision stability, and won the final victory.
Zhang Xi paid for the destruction of three heavy catapults in exchange for the victory of annihilating Cao Ren's twenty thunderbolt chariots.
Cao Ren's face looked quite ugly now.
The Thunderbolt Chariot was a siege weapon that Cao Ren regarded as his trump card, but it was destroyed on the first day of the war.
This is outrageous. Is Liu Beijun's catapult made of gold? Is there such a big difference in power? !
It's not impossible to rebuild it, but the problem is that if you don't solve the opponent's catapult, there is no point in continuing to build it.
Fancheng was not completely under siege, and it was not difficult for the city's defenders to go out and cut down trees to make catapults. Even if they continued to build thunderbolts, wouldn't they still be the ones who would suffer in the end?
Forget it, never mind, let's attack the city in the usual way.
Cao Ren had no choice. Instead of playing fancy tricks with Zhang Xi, he just relied on my large number of people to launch his infantry forward and attack using conventional means such as ladders, hook ladders, and chariots.
At the same time, on the offensive flank, Cao Ren also arranged cavalry teams. Once the Fancheng defenders left the city to fight in the field, they would use the mobility and impact of the cavalry to kill a large number of Fancheng defenders' effective forces.
Cao Ren made various preparations to attack the city, and then ordered the attack.
However, from the top of Fancheng City, a batch of small stones were suddenly projected, hitting the attacking troops head-on and face-first.
Cao Ren was dumbfounded. Could the catapult still be used like this? !
I always thought that catapults can be used to destroy city walls or city walls when attacking a city, but I didn’t expect that they can also be used to defend the city? !
And this pebble. Indeed, compared to arrows, pebbles may be slightly less intuitively lethal, but the problem is that pebbles hit at this height and speed will kill someone if they really hit the head.
Moreover, even if the stones did not hit the head, if these stones hit the arms or thighs, they would often easily cause minor injuries, causing the soldiers to move inconveniently, thereby affecting the soldiers' combat effectiveness.
Cao Ren could even imagine that once the truce returned to the camp, these lightly injured people would inevitably complain about their injuries, which would affect the morale of other soldiers in the camp.
After all, military doctors in the army will not care for minor injuries like this, which are not particularly serious. They can't even take care of wounds from swords, guns and arrows.
The more Cao Ren thought about it, the more he felt that Zhang Xi was difficult to deal with. He just pushed the catapult against the city wall and played so many tricks.
But in fact, Zhang Xi really didn't think so much, or in other words, Cao Ren's thoughts and Zhang Xi's thoughts actually have different emphases.
Zhang Xi just stood on the defensive side, thinking about making Cao Ren's siege as difficult as possible.
After much deliberation, Zhang Xi came up with the idea of using a catapult to expand his defensive range.
In previous sieges, the siege team would raise their shields when they entered the city wall about a hundred steps away, and pay attention to the arrows fired by the defenders on the city wall. Beyond a hundred steps, they would be out of range of the bows at the top of the city. .
Now Zhang Xi uses the long range of the catapult to fully double the range of this defense. Starting from two hundred steps, the soldiers must hold up their shields and guard against falling stones while advancing.
From a distance of one hundred to two hundred steps, use catapults to attack the enemy, while at the same time breaking up the enemy's offensive organization and delaying the rhythm of the attack.
Within a hundred steps, you can use the traditional way of defending the city. If you are farther away, you can use arrows to suppress it. When you are close to the city wall, you can choose rolling stones and wood to block the siege.
This was Zhang Xi's defensive plan for his city defense. He didn't think of any other purpose, such as affecting the enemy's morale. It was Cao Ren's own imagination.
But Cao Ren really had no good way to deal with such a defensive system.
Although on the surface, Zhang Xi just used the catapult to extend the defensive range, there seems to be nothing remarkable.
But after the actual attack, Cao Ren realized that this trick was quite disgusting.
The defensive range of two hundred steps means that if Cao Jun wants to organize an offensive formation, he must be two hundred steps away. This is too far away from the city wall.
Moreover, starting from two hundred steps, the soldiers must advance with shields, which greatly increases the consumption of physical strength. It is also necessary to increase the configuration of shield soldiers among the siege troops. This greatly weakens the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, and at the same time, it also reduces the number of shield soldiers. The logistical pressure is not small either.
The most important thing is that Cao Renjun was unable to send out archers to shoot at the arrows of the defenders at the top of the city. He could not even rely on the large number of people to use arrows to suppress the arrow rain from the defenders of Fancheng.
The shooting range of bows and arrows is only more than a hundred steps. This distance is completely within the attack range of the rain of stones thrown by the opponent's catapult. For reasons such as the convenience of firing bows, archers are basically soldiers without heavy armor and little protection and attack with stones. If you go for archery, you are making yourself uncomfortable.
Of course, despite the difficulties, Cao's army was not unable to attack under the city wall, but the speed and difficulty of this attack were indeed increasing exponentially.
As for storming the city wall, it is even more difficult.
After a day of strong attack, Cao Ren found that it was difficult for his soldiers to launch an effective attack on the city wall. Even the defenders of Fancheng suffered almost no casualties. They just spent some effort to shoot arrows on the city wall, or throw rolling stones or wood.
But his own soldiers suffered heavy casualties.
Of course, there were not many people who were actually killed or seriously injured, no more than 200 people in total, but there were a lot of minor injuries, most of which were arrow wounds.
Without their own arrows to suppress them, the soldiers were attacking completely against the rain of arrows from the Fancheng defenders. It was normal to have many arrow injuries.
These lightly injured soldiers, together with those who were injured by stones and were not even slightly injured, stayed together in the camp. Cao Ren felt that his morale was constantly decreasing when he heard the whining and complaining voices. Not to mention soldiers living in a tent.
This can't go on like this. Cao Ren felt that if he had to fight with him under Fan City, he would have fallen into Zhang Xi's trap.
This Zhang Xi is really good at defense. He just creatively put the catapult into the defensive sequence, which immediately doubled the difficulty of siege. It is really difficult to deal with.
Carrying it on forcefully is not an option. Although Cao Ren has brought many soldiers, they cannot withstand such a consumption, not to mention the change in morale in the army. If morale weakens and the foreigners are wasted in fighting, they will never be able to defeat Fancheng in this life.
In the final analysis, you still have to find a way to attract the defenders in Fancheng to leave the city to fight in the field, so as to reduce your own losses.
At this moment, Cao Ren regained his composure and his mind returned to his original state.
First, he summoned Zang Ba and Zhang Liao and conveyed the news to them about the difficulty of attacking Fancheng. At the same time, he shared with them his idea of luring the enemy troops out of the city to fight in the field. Then, he sought their advice.
Zhang Liao and Zang Ba had no objection to Cao Ren's decision. After all, it was unfavorable to attack the city. Seeking to lure the enemy into a field battle was a routine change. It was not very novel, and it was not a stupid choice under the current circumstances.
But the question is, how to lure Zhang Xi to leave the fortified city and go out to fight in the field? The method is actually very simple, and the three of them have thought of it.
Therefore, the next day, Cao Ren left Zang Ba with 10,000 troops and continued to confront Zhang Xi in the north of Fancheng. He led the remaining men and all the cavalry to move camp to Zhang Liao's army, with an advantage of 50,000. troops, began to launch a fierce attack on Guan Yu's camp.
As long as Guan Yu is beaten hard and the losses are great, there is no need to worry about Zhang Xi still hiding in Fancheng.
Once Zhang Xi comes out of the city to rescue Guan Yu, Cao Ren will ask his cavalry to teach Zhang Xi how to behave.
Cao Ren didn't believe it, and Zhang Xi could helplessly watch Guan Yu being surrounded without saving him.
Indeed, Cao Ren's move was quite destructive. Even if Zhang Xi was trusted by Liu Bei, he would not be able to ignore Guan Yu.
After all, the second master's status is special. He is not only Liu Bei's second brother, but also the commander-in-chief of the governor-general's affairs in Jingzhou. There must be no mistake.
But the problem is, Guan Yu really doesn't need Zhang Xi to save him.
The purpose of Guan Yu's initiative to attack Zhang Liao was to attract more Cao troops to his side. Now that his purpose was achieved, would Guan Yu be so stupid and continue to attack? !
Another one. This Cao Ren is short-sighted, right? Has he forgotten why he didn’t have 10,000 cavalry? !
As soon as Guan Yu saw Cao Ren taking the initiative to move the camp, he immediately responded. He abandoned the existing camp, retreated twenty miles, and re-entered the camp along the Han River. At the same time, he ordered Guan Ping to lead the navy to cruise along the river to respond back and forth.
Cao Ren has a headache.
Guan Yu, Guan Yunchang. Is this still the same Guan Yunchang who has his nostrils turned upward and whom no one can look down upon? !
Two days ago, you took the initiative to launch an attack and fought to the death with your old friend. Now when facing the enemy, you actually don't want to defeat the enemy head-on. Instead, you retreated twenty miles and adopted a defensive posture? !
Is this response surely something that the aloof Guan Yunchang can do? !
Originally, Cao Ren thought that with Guan Yu's character, as long as he was engaged in a landing battle, there would be no reason to retreat, and he would definitely choose to confront people like himself. When Guan Yu was in Cao Ying, his character and temper were like this, and no one looked down on him, but He is indeed capable and does not bother to play any tricks.
But now he actually took the initiative to retreat? !
Cao Ren wanted to take the initiative to pursue and attack, but when he saw that the camp was distributed in a semicircle, Cao Ren's PTSD immediately stung. He always felt that countless arrows from bows and crossbows would fly out from the camp and from the warships on the river at any time.
Okay, an iron turtle and a big hedgehog, how can we fight? !
(End of chapter)
