In April of the 14th year of Jian'an, teams of more than 30,000 people set off from Guangxin City one after another, aiming directly at Yulin County.
Veteran general Huang Zhong and Jingnan general Xing Daorong served as the vanguard, each leading 3,000 infantry. The troops were divided into two groups and first went to capture the counties on the edge of Yulin County.
However, when the two generals went out, they did not go directly to the west of Hunan towards Yulin, but to the east first and walked for an hour before changing directions.
The Chinese army of Cao Wu and others was also integrated and assembled two hours after the two generals set off for the expedition, and set off in a mighty manner.
Like Huang Zhong and the other two, they also went to the east first and then to the west.
During the whole process, it seemed that all the generals had forgotten that Guangxin City and the native counties of Cangwu still needed to be guarded. Except for Yu Jin who stayed in the northern counties to protect the grain roads, and Le Jin who led 3,000 people to garrison Guangxin, almost everyone else was there. move.
Heading east was to confuse the enemy. Guangxin City was so big that it was inevitable that there would be spies from the scholar family, but those spies could not understand the real purpose of Cao Jun and could only judge by what they saw with their eyes. They left the city and headed east, taking advantage of this to confuse enemy spies.
Of course, this matter won't be confusing for long, but the information is very important, and it is always beneficial to be able to deceive him for a while.
In Cao Wu's carriage, Lu Xun and Zhang Liao sat opposite Cao Wu. Among everyone, they were the only ones who knew Cao Wu's plan.
Thirty thousand people attacked the four counties of Shixie. In the absence of Jiangdong's army, using some strategies, it was entirely possible to accomplish it. However, with Jiangdong's intervention, these manpower was obviously not enough.
After reporting the news to the north, the first batch of 30,000 Jingzhou soldiers are gathering, and they only need to capture Yulin to have the second fulcrum of Jiaozhou. After the reinforcements from the north arrive, they will simultaneously attack from Cangwu and Yulin. Lin attacked Jiaozhi from two directions.
The soldiers are very fast, and what they are fighting now is the time difference between Shi Xie's three younger brothers who failed to firmly control all the power of the four counties, and they took this opportunity to regain Yu Lin.
But there is a premise for all this, that is, Guangxin cannot make any mistakes.
In the bumpy carriage, Diao Chan skillfully poured three cups of tea and handed them to the three of them.
Zhang Liao still seemed worried and asked: "Guangxin only has three thousand people. Is that enough? What if Jiangdong Army also wants to attack Guangxin?"
Cao Wu took a sip of tea and said: "That's enough. Mr. Jiang sent back new news that Jiangdong Army has made some changes. As expected, they should be targeting Guangxin. So now is the time to seize the opportunity. Let's take down Yu first. Lin, they should take Guangxin first. But after all, Jiangdong only has 10,000 elite main force, and the rest are servants of the Shi family. We will inevitably control the dynamics of a large-scale march, and we cannot capture Guangxin with a small-scale march."
Lu Xun hesitated for a while, and finally said: "Does the Lord believe in Miss Ah Si so much?"
Diao Chan smiled and said: "Speaking of which, Jiangdong's defeat at Red Cliff was actually due to Xiao Si's big ship?"
As soon as these words came out, both Zhang Liao and Lu Xun fell silent.
Zhang Liao was a general and Lu Xun was an adviser. In their eyes, the war was not without intrigues, but they could not imagine that certain tools would have too much effect on the course of the war.
In Lu Xun's view, compared to the Jiangdong Army, their biggest advantage was intelligence. Jiangdong people never dreamed that the unknown Jiang Wan could penetrate into the most important places and obtain a lot of information in a few days.
Even Lu Xun himself didn't know how Jiang Wan knew so much when he came in as a cook, but he firmly believed in Cao Wu's vision, and the people Cao Wu arranged would definitely be good.
They know Jiangdong's movements, but it is difficult for Jiangdong to know their movements, and they may even be deceived by them. This is enough.
…
In Guangxin, Mi Zhen's courtyard in Cangwu Prefecture welcomed a special guest.
These days, Mi Zhen agreed to Cao Wu's conditions, and her life became better. She was arranged by maids and servants when she came in and out, and she became the best-paid person in the prefect's house.
When Chen arrived, Chen Shuzhi was injured, but in good spirits. The maid led him into the courtyard.
Mi Zhen looked up and saw that although Chen Dao was injured, he was not restrained in any way, and couldn't help but sigh.
In Liu Bei's camp, although Chen Dao was not one of the top generals, he was still a backbone. He was usually favored by Liu Bei, but during the battle of burning Wuxi Man, he was treated as an outcast.
Pang Tong was too petty. He just failed to carry out the task of migrating the infected people. He was abandoned on the day of the fire.
Later, Cao Wu tried to persuade him, but of course he refused to compromise like this, but when he was escorted into Guangxin City and heard about Zhao Yun's experience, he was filled with regret.
No one in Cangwu thought about their old relationship. Only Mi Fang saw through people's hearts and saw in advance that Wu Ju might betray him. Unfortunately, Zhao Yun didn't believe it and was poisoned.
During this process, Chen Dao already knew that Mi Fang had fallen in love with Cao Wu. His lord and wife had already given up. What else could he not give up?
He went to see Zhao Yun first. Zhao Yun was still not awake, so he went to see Zhao Yun again.
"Mrs. Mi..."
When Chen Dao spoke, he didn't know what to say, so he finally sighed.
"It's useless to say more. We are all prisoners. Beifu Cao doesn't have the means to reach heaven, and I can't judge whether what I did is right or wrong. Since you have chosen him, I have no position to blame you."
Mi Zhen's eyes turned red.
Chen Dao, who was not good at speaking at all, nodded, bowed his hands and bowed to the ground: "It was the incompetence of the generals and us who failed to protect my lady!"
"Do not blame you!"
Mi Zhen waved her hand. Adou happened to be crying in the room, so she hurriedly went in to comfort the child.
She was not Adou's biological mother and had no milk. She fed her child with rice porridge all the way south. Although the child was almost two years old, he was much thinner than ordinary children.
When they arrived in Guangxin City, Cao Wucai asked a woman who was good at taking care of children to help take care of them, and Adou felt better.
From this, slowly, Mi Zhen was somewhat grateful to Cao Wu. At least here, she no longer had to wander.
Chen Dao bowed his head to the ground, and when he didn't hear a reply, he sighed and walked out of the courtyard.
There was a girl waiting for him outside, it was Cao Asi from Beifu.
She and Ah Shi arrived at Cangwu at the same time. Others didn't know what she was doing, but Cao Wu had already made arrangements.
She has been here for more than ten days. Ah Shi has not been idle, and neither has she.
As the person in Beifu who is best at making so-called strange and obscene things, on the first day she arrived, Cao Wu asked her to restore the most useful things in Beifu's technology to defend the city.
The first thing to do is of course Beifu's special crossbow.
This kind of crossbow arrows were installed on the three five-toothed ships in the Battle of Chibi. They had been used by the Jiangdong Army several times to retreat. On the day when Chen Qun came to propose marriage, he specifically warned Chen Qun, hitting the side of Chen Qun's face with an arrow and telling him to leave.
This kind of crossbow is far more powerful than existing crossbows, with greater range and power. After being mounted on wheels, it can be pushed on city walls, making it very suitable for defense.
Because of its high accuracy, when mounted on the city wall, it has a better view and can also be used to kill commanders in front of the battle.
It's just that transportation of this kind of thing is very inconvenient after all. If it is transported here from Beifu, it will probably take two to three months, and it will also consume a lot of manpower and material resources.
But Ah Si had a way. She recruited craftsmen in the city and slowly explained to them what she wanted to make.
Each craftsman is only responsible for the parts in his hands, working day and night.
At first, the accessories they made were not good enough, but by the seventh day, they were usable.
On the tenth day, the first crossbow was ready, and the wheels were also made to turn it into a crossbow cart.
The city guard general Le Jin was busy with official duties, and the city guard deputy general Yang Ling came from Jingnan. He had never fought in a war, but he was very dissatisfied with being just a deputy general.
So Chen Dao, who was hit by Mi Fang and Zhao Yun's incident when he arrived in Guangxin and had to surrender, became the best witness to the test firing of crossbow arrows.
Although Chen Dao has not fought in large-scale battles, he has followed Liu Bei on many occasions to fight more with less. He has experienced dozens of battles, large and small, and has rich combat experience.
He followed Ah Si to the city wall and saw three crossbow carts already arranged in a row. From the outside, these ballistae seemed a bit crude, but if he looked carefully, he saw that the arrows and materials used in the crossbow carts were better than those of Chen Dao. Live better.
Ah Si said: "Due to time constraints, the appearance cannot be seen, but the effect should not be bad. Please give the general a test shot to see if it can prevent Jiangdong's army."
Chen Dao nodded. He came to the crossbow with a serious expression, placed the arrows himself, stepped on the pedal and pulled the bowstring.
He originally thought that such a thick bowstring would be difficult to pull, but he didn't expect that it would be extremely easy to pull it.
Ah Si added: "General, look at the protrusion on the crossbow. That place is called the front sight. You can shoot wherever you aim with the front sight. The accuracy can be adjusted slowly."
Chen Dao nodded. He was very concerned about the design of this so-called crosshair. He knew that if this thing worked, the accuracy of the crossbow would be far superior to other shooting tools.
He aimed outside the city, chose a very far hillside, and released his hand on the bow.
There was only a "bang" sound, and the crossbow arrow shot straight up the hillside and into the soil, its tail feathers still trembling.
"So strong..."
Chen Dao broke out in a cold sweat.
Originally, he was a little hesitant when a Beifu maid asked him to do something. After all, he was a general who had been on the battlefield. How could he be bossed around by the maid? But he also knew that he relied on Cao Wu now and could not easily offend Cao Wu, so he came reluctantly. .
Unexpectedly, these ballistas completely exceeded his imagination. After just one test firing, the crossbow arrows showed a power beyond the times.
A battle-hardened general like him certainly knew what extraordinary effects it would have if such ballistas were deployed on a large scale in the city defense.
He suppressed his excitement and asked, "How many of these ballistas can be made before Jiangdong's army arrives?"
Ah Si thought for a while and realized that the skills of those stupid craftsmen in the city were now higher, so he replied: "Five crafts a day is more than enough, but there are not enough materials. Maybe if we can't make a hundred crafts, we won't have enough good wood."
"Hundreds of frames..."
Although Chen Dao had experienced many battles, he was also frightened.
If there are hundreds of these crossbows mounted on the city and ready to support everywhere, Jiangdong's army may not be able to attack the city and will be frightened back.
He could already hear his heart beating wildly, and finally asked excitedly: "Miss Ah Si, if the Jiangdong Army comes, can these ballistae be put under unified command?"
