At this time, the sky was already turning gray, and it was about to light up.
Dong Ping and others who stayed behind in the camp already knew about the danger that had just occurred in Juancheng.
After everyone learned that more than 20 people had been killed, they were all excited. Everyone drew their swords and asked for orders to attack Juancheng to avenge their dead brothers.
At this time, Li Feng, the general, rushed in from outside and said to Liu Yu.
"General, the whole army is ready for the meal. We can break camp and march in half an hour!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of bugles and whistles as the Qingzhou Army set up camp rang outside.
"Come into Juancheng and avenge the dead brothers!"
"Surge into Juancheng and behead old thief Yuan Fu!"
"Let the people of Juancheng pay with their blood!"
"Slaughter Juancheng, avenge blood!"
Suddenly, the Qingzhou military generals in the tent started shouting. These people were basically from the Donglai rebels, and they had a very deep friendship with each other from the same hometown.
However, in the face of these angry generals, one person suddenly spoke out against it.
"General, don't be reckless in this matter. Our army only has less than five days of food reserves. If the attack on Juancheng fails, we will only waste food and soldiers. I'm afraid that we will be in embarrassment if we have to withdraw."
"Moreover, Xuzhou Governor Pei Dun's tens of thousands of troops are stationed in Gaoping, which is only three days away from Juancheng. If we fail to attack the city and are in danger of being attacked from both sides, we may not be able to evacuate even if we want to."
Liu Yu took a look and saw that the speaker was Gao Zhan, a scholar from Linzi, Qingzhou. He was currently serving as a battalion soldier. In fact, he was more responsible for logistics supplies.
As soon as Gao Zhan finished speaking, the Qingzhou generals present were extremely dissatisfied. Among them, Li Feng even drew a knife in his hand and pointed at Gao Zhan.
"You fart, our soldiers are strong and our swords are sharp. Even thousands of Yanzhou troops can't hold down dozens of us. It will take at most three days to capture Juancheng. If you dare to deceive the sergeant again, I will chop you off first." people!"
Other Qingzhou generals also echoed and reprimanded Gao Zhan.
Gao Zhan's face immediately turned red and a lot of cold sweat broke out, but he still gritted his teeth and continued to speak to Liu Yu.
"General, military rations are the morale of the army. Five days of food is just enough to return to Qingzhou. If we cannot break through the city and obtain supplies within five days, we will not only be attacked from both sides, but also run out of food."
Juancheng is the seat of Yanzhou, and the city is strong. A simple long ladder ant fence will definitely not work.
A normal enemy siege would take at least five or six days just to build the siege equipment. For example, Wang Mishile and others who besieged Juancheng before did not break the city for nearly a month.
Of course Liu Yu knew how serious the consequences of tens of thousands of people going without food would be. If he only had 20,000 Qingzhou troops under his command, they could barely plunder food everywhere. But now that he has gathered tens of thousands of refugees and prisoners, if these people If there is a shortage of food, they will all be gone in less than two days, and the young people Liu Yu has worked so hard to recruit will be in vain.
"General, how about we send someone first to question Yuan Fu and ask him to find out the truth and hand over the culprit."
Gao Zhan continued. After he said this, he immediately received the support of his subordinates and supervisors who were Qingzhou scholars.
However, these words were immediately opposed by the Qingzhou general.
"It's ridiculous to question him. I clearly heard that the thieves are all Yanzhou generals and are Yuan Fu's masterminds. It's ridiculous to question him!"
"That's right, I think maybe some of you are secretly colluding with Thief Yuan!"
In an instant, the generals of the Qingzhou Army and the Qingzhou scholars started arguing.
Liu Yu shouted to stop both parties and said with determination.
"Gao Shuyuan's words are prudent and prudent. If it were ordinary, what he said would be reasonable, but this matter is an extraordinary matter."
He paused, looked around at everyone and continued.
"Yuan Fu, the governor of Yanzhou, not only ignored the hard work of our Qingzhou soldiers who traveled thousands of miles to sweep away the barbarians, but he betrayed his gratitude and made a sneak attack under the guise of a banquet, killing more than 20 of our army's brothers. Fortunately, God has eyes and let the old thief The treacherous plot failed and we escaped."
"There is a blood feud in the past and destiny in the future. There is nothing to talk about with such an unkind and evil villain like Yuan Fu. We can only take his life!"
After listening to Liu Yu's words, Gao Zhan and other Qingzhou scholars were silent, while Li Feng and other Qingzhou generals all applauded.
Liu Yu glanced at Gao Zhan and others, and couldn't help but feel very disappointed. Gao Zhan and the Qingzhou scholars were just worried about their own safety. After all, most of these powerful Qingzhou scholars were not of the same mind as Liu Yu at all. If Liu Yu really If they lost their lives in Juancheng, these people could still be their masters when they returned to Qingzhou.
After the whole army had finished their meal and had organized their armor and troops, Liu Yu immediately ordered Dong Ping, Li Feng, Zhao Kun, Wu Xin and others to lead the army respectively and go to control the roads out of Juancheng. Liu Yu personally took charge of the army. , urging the soldiers to make siege equipment.
Although it rained heavily last night, the dry land quickly absorbed the rainwater. Liu expected that if he still had enough black fire yao in his hand, he could use holes to attack the city wall or blow up the city. Gate, in that case, it would take up to three days to break through the solid wall of Juancheng.
Unfortunately, now Liu Yu can only attack the city by building siege equipment.
However, for a strong city wall like Juancheng, just building an ordinary long ladder is simply not enough. Various rackets of wood from the defenders are enough to break such a thin long ladder.
The most effective siege equipment is heavy equipment such as nest carts and ladders. However, these equipment not only require experienced carpenters to make, but also require a lot of time to make. Moreover, the siege effect of these equipment also requires a large amount of concentrated use, otherwise If you attack a city with a few instruments, even if you scale the city wall, the attacker will face a large number of defenders and will often end up facing death.
Therefore, the siege tool Liu Yu planned to make this time was a trebuchet.
However, unlike the human-powered trebuchets and torque trebuchets used in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, he planned to only make counterweight trebuchets.
The human-powered trebuchets in the Wei and Jin Dynasties were pulled by many soldiers and then ejected projectiles. When Cao Cao fought Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu, he used this type of trebuchet, but this type of trebuchet was limited. Due to the application of force, the real throwing distance and the weight of the thrown projectiles are very limited.
The torque trebuchet made of sinew requires a large amount of animal sinew, and its real power is also very limited.
As for the counterweighted trebuchet that Liu Yu plans to make, he only needs to add or remove counterweight boxes to control the projection distance, and it only requires strong wood to make. It is simple to make and powerful, but it can be said to be a real cold weapon for siege. Sharp weapon.
The name of this kind of counterweight trebuchet in later generations was "Hui Hui Cannon". The solid city wall of Xiangyang in the Southern Song Dynasty could not withstand it, and Liu Yu believed that this Juancheng in the Western Jin Dynasty could not withstand it.
The only problem now is that we need to hurry up. Otherwise, when Gaoping's Xuzhou Army arrives for reinforcements, Liu Yu may really need to withdraw his troops.
Just when Liu Yu was looking for craftsmen from the refugees to help speed up the construction, soldiers from the Qingzhou Army came to report that someone had been sent from Juancheng.
When Liu Yu and his sergeants saw the visitor outside the camp gate, they found that the visitor was a dignified middle-aged man, but he was not wearing official uniform and did not look like an official from Yanzhou.
When the man saw Liu Yu, he hurriedly gave him a big gift.
"Lu Lan, Juancheng, pays homage to the general."
Liu Yu said coldly: "Who are you and why are you here!"
"I am a scholar from Juancheng. Governor Yuan heard this morning that the general was attacked by gangsters last night. He was extremely horrified and immediately found out the truth. It turned out that there were thieves in the Yanzhou army who secretly communicated with Wang Mihu and wanted to murder the general. , lest the general misunderstand, Governor Yuan has already beheaded the thief, and ordered me to give it to the general, I hope the general will not misunderstand."
Lu Lan waved his hand, and a follower behind him immediately opened a wooden box and raised his hands high. On it was a white head.
"Moreover, Mr. Yuan Fu also ordered me to return the body of the sergeant and bring a hundred pieces of silk to comfort the general's soldiers who lost their lives at the hands of thieves."
After saying this, the dozens of carts behind Lu Lan were also uncovered, and they were all made of exquisite silk and satin.
Along with them, there were more than twenty corpses, all of which were Qingzhou Army guards who were killed in Juancheng last night.
Seeing these comrades who had turned into corpses, all the generals and guards around Liu Yu gritted their teeth.
These dead guards were all soldiers who had followed Liu Yu for the longest time. Many of their close friends and relatives also served as generals in the Qingzhou Army. When they saw the bodies of these people, many people cried and sobbed. If it weren't for the military camp If they were not allowed to wail and cry bitterly, these people would have burst into tears long ago.
Liu Yu couldn't help but laugh angrily at Yuan Fu, the governor of Yanzhou, who treated himself like a fool.
"Old thief Yuan Fu, do you think I'm a three-year-old?"
"Don't talk about a hundred pieces of silk, even ten thousand pieces or one million pieces are not worth the lives of men like me."
Liu Yu stared at him and continued.
"I know that you are actually lobbying me on behalf of the powerful families in the city, but this war is not initiated by me. If you want me to stop the army and retreat, then first send Yuan Fu's head, and then I will Ask your subordinates if they agree!"
"General, think twice. Mr. Yuan Fu has no reason to do harm. This must be a treacherous plot by the thieves." Lu Lan quickly defended.
"Hmph, who else can mobilize the thousands of state soldiers in Juancheng except Yuan Fu? If Yuan Fu really has a clear conscience, then let him come in person and confront me face to face!"
Faced with Liu Yu's harsh words, Lu Lan was speechless.
"Forget it. Go back and tell Yuan Fu to wash his neck. I will chop off his head myself."
Immediately, Liu Yu ordered Lu Lan and others to be driven back.
After the bodies of the Qingzhou Army guards were placed, someone came to ask what to do with the hundred pieces of silk sent by Lu Lan.
One hundred bolts of silk were quite a lot of wealth. If they were exchanged for copper coins, they could be exchanged for only one hundred thousand coins.
However, Liu Yu looked at these silks as an eyesore.
"Burn them all for me!"
Liu Yu walked towards the camp without looking back, but heard someone making a pityful smacking of the tongue.
"When Juan City is destroyed, not to mention a hundred pieces of silk, all the money, silk, and women in the city will be yours!"
As soon as these words came out, the surrounding Qingzhou soldiers all cheered excitedly.
