In the next three days, the Northern Army's attack on the stronghold became increasingly fierce.
On the first day, Zhao Rui led a suicide squad to charge east of Qishan. The shield soldiers and crossbowmen pressed forward with all their strength. Lu Jun dropped the prepared rolling stones and wood one after another, and continued to kill the Northern Army. In the first battle, the Northern Army lost more than 800 people, more than on any previous day.
The next day, Zhao Rui led his men to attack the east hill again early in the morning. Compared with the first day, the offensive on the second day was not weakened, but most of the rolling stones and trees had been used. In addition to desperately using arrows, The rain poured down, and the soldiers had to fight hand-to-hand. Even Gao Shun participated. In the end, the battle ended with the death of more than 600 Yuan troops.
It wasn't until the third day that the Northern Army's edge finally showed signs of decline. The shield soldiers did not dare to rush forward rashly, and the advance was very slow. Most of the time, it was just to gain a shot for their own crossbowmen. distance, forming a situation of cross-shooting.
But in the end, it was a vertical shot versus a downward shot, and it was the Northern Army that suffered the loss.
Seeing the Northern Army retreating, the officers and soldiers of the Lu Army were relieved. Many people chose to lie down on the spot and gasp for air, as if the sky had fallen down and used them as quilts.
Gao Shun, who always paid attention to military appearance, just walked past them and helped the injured sergeant to the village to be bandaged, without saying a word the whole time.
He knew that three consecutive days of fighting, high-intensity defense and high mental tension would be a severe test for any team. It would not be easy to persevere, so he could not ask for too much.
Even if you are an elite team trapped in a camp, you will still be unable to follow up under this level of intensity, let alone an ordinary sequence.
"If we attack at this level a few more times, I'm afraid Qishan will fall." Looking at the battalion full of wounded soldiers, Zhao Yun's attitude was naturally not optimistic.
From the attempted attack in the first few days to the life-threatening charge in these three days, the Qishan military camp suffered losses of more than 200 people and injured more than 400 soldiers.
Comparing the number of casualties with Yuan's army, this ratio is of course extremely high. The problem is that there are only 5,000 troops in Qishan's military stronghold, and there is no way to rotate them. Over time, the military strength will be critical.
After all, the opponent has sent out more than a dozen groups of people to attack, but you only have this group of people to defend from beginning to end, and you will definitely be tired in terms of endurance.
"Do it all at once, second time tired, third time exhausted."
Gao Shun, whose face was paralyzed, took a deep breath and said slowly: "The attacks in the past few days are obviously a death squad formed, but even Yuan Jun cannot maintain such an attack continuously."
Zhao Yun nodded and agreed: "Now, they are taking a short rest. I think they will start the second round of death squad attacks in a few days. As long as they survive this second round, Yuan Jun's military morale will be frustrated, and he will have to wait and sigh. "
On this point, the two of them agree. In other words, the next second round of attack is the biggest challenge. After passing it, Qishan Dazhai will be as stable as Mount Tai.
But this was the most difficult part, because without rolling stones and wood, it was too difficult to repel the desperadoes carrying shields with arrows alone, so much so that Gao Shun had to personally participate in the battle on the second day of the death-defying charge.
In order to unite the morale of the army, Gao Shun and Zhao Yun could only patrol the military camp over and over again. This was to tell the soldiers that the general was with you.
It's effective, but not huge.
"Report, there's something going on!"
Chen Zhao from the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry ran over, "The brothers patrolling the hills in the north discovered the grain transport team. We can go around the mountains in front and go more than ten miles to reach Yuan Jun's stronghold!"
"Let's go and take a look!"
Gao Shun took the lead, while Zhao Yun looked at Chen Zhao, "Go and invite Mr. Jia!"
"Here!"
The two quickly ran to the hill to the north. The mountain is not low. From this position, you can overlook the entire battlefield. In addition, under the bright moonlight on a full moon night, the visibility is extremely high, although it is not as clear as during the day. You can determine the number of people on the other side, but you can also make a rough judgment based on the basic situation.
The grain transport team in the distance could visually detect no more than a hundred grain trucks. There were cavalry in the grain protection team, but the number of them could not be determined.
"With the continuous strong attack, Yuan's army must have consumed a lot of food and grass. This is the support that has just been shipped from the rear food camp." Gao Shun looked down the mountain and murmured analysis.
"If I lead people to burn this food and grass, as long as this batch of food and grass is destroyed, the brothers can rest while they wait for the second batch of food and grass, and the momentum of the Northern Army will also be stalled."
At the end, Zhao Yun added: "These days, the Northern Army attacks from the east hill. I will come down from the west soon, so there should be no ambush.
It was a bit far, but with the speed of the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry, they would definitely be able to reach them before they returned to camp! "
Gao Shun did not express his position immediately, but his heart was shaken. There were at least tens of thousands of stones at the foot of the mountain. Although destroying these grains and grass would not be a fatal blow to the wealthy Northern Army, it would definitely slow down their advance as Zhao Yun said, and it would also The brothers in the military camp gained time to rest and recuperate.
Jia Xu, who hurried over, took a look, twirling his beard and thinking silently.
The Northern Army is famous for its wealth. It has only been a few days since the war began, and even if tens of thousands of people eat three meals a day, they still cannot eat up all the food and grass that comes with them. They are obviously trying to make us leave the camp and go down the mountain.
Surround and attack those who lure us with food and supplies, and then ambush them?
This is possible, but such a big movement cannot be just to earn one or two thousand people. The ultimate goal should be to conquer the mountain. So as soon as the people in the military camp go out, they should soon attack the mountain?
However, they definitely need some kind of signal to communicate with each other in order to determine whether the army has left the stronghold.
How exactly did you contact me?
Moreover, there should be another layer. After attacking the mountain, they may want to attract Wen Hou's troops to rescue, and Yuan Jun will ambush again.
In this way, there are three strategies involved here. Therefore, the strong attacks of the death squads in the past few days are all for this moment. It is not a small feat.
Jia Xu panicked after briefly sorting it out. There must be a general attack tonight. Not only did he have to retreat from the enemy, but he also had to find a way to inform Marquis Wen. It would be hard to explain if he failed to do either of the two things, but he still wanted to think about it first. How to retreat from the enemy? Your life is at stake.
"How about Mr. Jia, do you want Zilong to burn this batch of grain and grass?" Gao Shun couldn't help but remind him as he saw the grain truck moving slowly. It was delayed for a long time and it would be too late to take action again.
Jia Xu's body trembled, and he suddenly figured out some clues that he had not been able to completely figure out, Huo Shao.
Suddenly a flash of light flashed in his eyes, he was so hot, he killed three birds with one stone.
He was able to survive, fight off the enemy, and inform Marquis Wen. Marquis Wen might not know, but who Yunwen was, he would definitely understand the meaning when he saw the fire.
"Okay, okay, that's it." Jia Xu nodded frequently.
"Then I'll give Zilong a hard trip."
As soon as Gao Shung finished speaking, but Zhao Yun had not yet taken action, Jia Xu said: "There is no need to let Zilong go for such a trivial matter. Just let a village leader take thirty people down the mountain."
"Thirty or thirty people?" Zhao Yun suspected that he heard wrongly. He scratched his head and looked at Jia Xu blankly. Did you see clearly? The food protection team would not be less than two thousand people. Thirty people came to give people Do you want to give me some military honors?
"Thirty people are enough, any more will be useless."
Jia Xu made an invitation gesture and motioned the two of them to go back, "Time is running out. As I expected, the Northern Army should be attacking the stronghold soon. We need to prepare quickly."
The two looked confused, what? Aren't we discussing going down the mountain to burn food and relieve the pressure on the village? You came over and took a look and said that the Northern Army was going to attack the mountain. Is it true?
In doubt, the two hurriedly followed him to find out.
At the foot of the mountain, Yuan Jun dispatched a large number of elites tonight. Twenty thousand people gathered at the foot of the mountain, ready to attack, waiting for the signal to take action.
Wen Chou led the Xiandenying camp and the Euphorbia soldiers to ambush Lu Bu on the way to rescue him. As long as the other side dared to come, even though there were only a thousand people, there was no doubt that he would deal with thousands of them.
Even Han Ju led a battalion to ambush on the other side of Qishan. They only waited for the surprise attack troops on the mountain to come out to attack and burn the grain trucks before they rushed out and killed the group of people.
Han Ju was not worried that the other party would burn those grain carts. There was no grain on them anyway, it was just bait given by Xin Ping. If necessary, they would even set fire to the grain carts themselves after annihilating this army, because Zhao The 20,000 troops led by Rui are still waiting for this signal action.
Yuan Tan was full of confidence in this arrangement. In Xinpi's plan, after three consecutive days of attacking the stronghold, Lu Jun on the Qishan Mountain was exhausted to the extreme. At this time, grain trucks appeared. In order to relieve the pressure on the stronghold, they would definitely How could those cavalrymen who ventured down the mountain and boasted of coming and going like the wind be afraid of the Northern Army?
However, in order to maintain the flexibility of the cavalry, they certainly did not dare to steal food and grass, but chose to set fire. This fire was exactly the signal for Zhao Rui to attack the mountain.
As soon as the fire started, Han Ju would rush out with 5,000 men. The ones he brought this time were all powerful horses from the Northern Army. Coupled with the ambush at the mountain pass, Zhao Yun would definitely not be able to escape.
At the same time, Zhao Rui launched a strong attack mode. The mountain stronghold that had run out of wood and rolling stones could hardly hold on until dawn. However, in order to prevent Lu Bu from suddenly sending reinforcements while the army was attacking the mountain, Wen Chou led the most elite First Deng camp and The Euphorbia held the pass.
Even Tian Feng didn't have any big flaws in this plan. He just uneasily advised several times that using troops like this was too risky, but Yuan Tan didn't agree. It was perfect.
The final result of this wave of operations is to capture Qishan, and the best result is to capture Qishan while severely injuring Lu Bu. The army can immediately suppress the situation and defeat the Chinese army in one go.
By that time, Lu Bu's army was already defeated, and it didn't matter whether he pursued him or not. He went straight around to Taishan County and pushed all the way. If Cao Cao's rear was in chaos, the battlefield on the western front would immediately fall apart.
If we let Yuan Shang take the throne as the heir apparent, would he dare to sit on it?
Rest, it’s beautiful.
Don't think about it, just thinking about it can make Yuan Tan laugh out loud.
Under the moonlight, thirty people, led by the commander of the village, descended the mountain from the west, riding fast horses and galloping all the way. When they arrived at the mountains where the grain truck passed just now, the soldiers immediately took action.
They quickly gathered the fallen leaves in the forest into piles, formed dozens of bonfires, and immediately lit them with flints.
Soon, dozens of burning bonfires illuminated half of the sky red in the middle of the night.
Han Ju was a little confused. What was going on? The grain truck had already passed the mountain pass. Why did it catch on fire now? "Quick, send someone over to see what's going on over there!"
"Here!"
When Han Ju looked confused, Zhao Rui didn't think so. He thought it was a signal, so he pulled out the sword from his waist, turned around and shouted at the Northern Army:
"Brothers, half of the Lu army on the mountain has been mobilized, and now there are only two thousand men left. Here is our chance to make a contribution! The young master has offered a reward to the first one to reach the mountain, a hundred gold coins, and the one who attacks the stronghold will be made a captain!"
Good guy, after the reward was announced, the soldiers raised their shields, crossbows and ring-headed knives one after another, and screamed to charge.
There were 20,000 people, and they couldn't even squeeze down one mountaintop. There were many rocks in the west and dangerous cliffs in the south. The 20,000 people attacked the mountain from the east and north according to the prior arrangement.
After Zhao Rui gave the order, he also took the lead on foot. A large group of people followed behind him and quietly climbed up.
When Yuan Jun could be seen, the distance between the two sides was only a stone's throw away.
On the top of the mountain, Gao Shun and Zhao Yun were frightened for a while. Oh my god, it's a good thing that Marquis Wen sent Jia Xu over, otherwise something big would happen tonight.
The fire at the bottom of the mountain had just started to burn, and they immediately attacked the mountain. And hearing this movement, they knew that they were bound to capture the mountain tonight.
Not long after, arrows rained down from the mountain one after another.
But Zhao Rui was extremely excited and laughed and said: "Brothers, there are not many enemy troops, charge forward and collect the reward!"
Zhao Rui is not a loser. On the contrary, he has fought some tough battles with Wen Chou. He can judge how many people are on the mountain from the density of arrow rain.
According to the previous round of arrow rain, it was said that twenty or thirty shield soldiers would fall down, but this time, only ten or eight fell down. The strength of the troops can be imagined.
In less than a moment, the defending sergeant standing on the hill didn't even have time to release the third round of arrows, and the shield soldiers of the Northern Army were already pressing forward.
This was after they were well prepared for defense. If they were caught by surprise, they would probably have already reached the top of the mountain.
"Throw tung oil!" Zhao Yun gave the order, and the tung oil jars that had been set up beside the soldiers were thrown down one by one.
The sound of broken clay tiles could be heard as hundreds of tung oil jars were dropped.
Immediately, in a dug ditch on the mountain, Zhao Yun threw the torch into the ditch. The flames spread rapidly in the ditch at a speed visible to the naked eye. The crossbowmen moved the arrows downwards, and the arrows tied with tinder began to burn.
Hundreds of rockets poured down, and after a short period of silence, there was a roar and fire dragons shot up from hundreds of places on the entire hill.
"Ah~ run! It's on fire, it's on fire, run!" Heart-rending shouts came one after another on the hill.
In autumn, vegetation is inherently flammable, and with the support of hundreds of tung oil jars, and the roaring evening wind, it is easy to imagine how quickly the fire will spread.
In just a moment, even Zhao Rui didn't have time to shout out the order to withdraw the troops. The entire Qishan Mountain had been burned into a big fire basin, driving away the darkness of the night and shining like daylight.
Mountain roads are no better than plains, where you can run around. There are only a few roads in total. People who instinctively want to escape quickly will inevitably get pushed and pushed, but instead cause congestion and stampedes.
Seeing the fire coming at them like wild beasts, the Northern Army was so anxious that they even chose to jump, perhaps to save their lives.
The screams and wails were intertwined with the popping sounds of oil exploding, making people's hair stand on end and their scalp numb.
Lu Jun on the top of the mountain was also forced back to the stronghold by the soaring heat wave. Fortunately, a fire barrier had been built here before, which blocked the distance of dozens of feet. The fire could not burn it.
But Yuan Jun at the foot of the mountain was not so lucky, especially Yuan Jun at the mountainside. It was visible to the naked eye that they were burned into burning men and screamed. The sound was like a scream from hell. Even Wen Chou, who had countless souls under his command, couldn't bear it. Can't stop crying.
Many people ran down the mountain with a tumbling posture. It would be good if they could save their lives. Who cares about their military appearance and appearance?
(End of chapter)
