"In other words, before we arrived, Shucheng had already been closed down for five days?"
"Yes, it seems a little premature."
Thirty miles north of Shucheng, a large village was located, and all of Lin Mo's 38,000 troops were stationed here.
At this time, Lin Mo, Chen Gong and Liu Ye were walking in the village. The conversation between Chen Gong and Liu Ye did not arouse much interest in Lin Mo. He just walked forward expressionlessly.
The two glanced at him, exchanged glances, and continued: "Sealing the city will be a huge test for the morale of the military and the people. There is no need for Sun Ce to seal the city so early. Could something have happened?"
Liu Ye moistened his throat and asked tentatively: "Could it be that Duke Qiao was discovered by them?"
But such a conversation still didn't make Lin Mo stop, and he seemed to be indifferent to it.
"It's not like that, even if they are discovered, there is no need to seal the city. To seal the city, something big has obviously happened."
Chen Gong's response made Liu Ye shake his head in denial, "If we find out and don't want Duke Qiao to notice, we can only seal the city. Only in this way can we legitimately cut off Duke Qiao's contact with us."
"But the best way is not to take advantage of the situation?" Chen Gong asked back.
"I don't know about this." Liu Ye shrugged helplessly.
In fact, the conversation between the two was based on various conjectures, and more importantly, they wanted Lin Mo to participate.
But they found that it didn't seem to be of any use, and the other party didn't want to discuss this topic at all.
It's like, all of this is natural.
Soon, the three of them came to a large open space on the left side of the camp, where a variety of behemoths were piled up, including finished products, semi-finished products, and craftsmen who were in the process of building them.
These are all equipment used in siege.
Nowadays, the powerful Lulin Group no longer only manufactures Thunderbolt cars, crashes doors with ramming cars, and uses ladders to enter the gates as it did in the past.
In addition to these, there are also fenwen cars, nest cars and floor cars.
The chariot is shaped like a house with four wheels at the bottom. This type of instrument is not complicated, but the wood used is strong enough to withstand the impact of rolling stones and wood. Its function is to safely deliver soldiers to the city gate to participate in the attack.
As the name suggests, the building cart looks like a building. It usually has three or four floors. Each floor is equipped with guardrails. There is only one hole left for the crossbowman to shoot arrows. When it is pushed to the city gate, it can exchange fire with the enemy troops on the horse path of the city gate. There are bunkers available.
The Nest Chariot does not have the attributes of siege. It is just for climbing high to look out and observe the enemy's situation. Therefore, the Nest Chariot is generally the highest, making it easier to see farther places. You don't need too many. Three of them are enough. Placed on the front, left, or right, and paired with a telescope, it can be regarded as a blind spot for surveillance, making it easy to command in battle.
Now that there are people with money and materials, it is natural to increase investment in these aspects. The more such equipment is built, the greater the pressure on the defenders during the siege.
Of course, the biggest killer weapon is the Thunderbolt Car, because the siege distance of this thing is far enough, and all jars of kerosene and rocks must be thrown up by it.
For this battle, Lin Mo prepared a variety of ordnance, including 200,000 arrows and 3,000 kerosene jars, but they emptied the entire Xuzhou.
"Do you estimate when Cao Cao will arrive in the Central Plains and where he will target it." Lin Mo looked at the siege equipment in front of him and asked with his back to the two of them.
After the two looked at each other, Liu Ye said first: "We will reach the Central Plains within two months. The goal is of course to attack Xuzhou to break the three-sided attack of the Central Plains."
Chen Gong also echoed: "I also agree. Xuzhou is the foundation of Marquis Wen. The top spot in the Central Plains is more important than any other place. With it, Cao Cao has the capital to counter the Northern Kingdom's southward march."
Lin Mo crossed his arms, raised his head and twisted his neck, looking a little lazy, "Logically speaking, Xuzhou is the best to take action, especially when our troops are scattered now, but he has eaten a lot in Xiaoguan." If the enemy is defeated, according to Cao Cao's usual strategy of using troops unexpectedly, it is still possible to use surprise."
Unexpected?
The two looked at each other, where? Northland?
The troops crossed the river on white horses and went down to Liyang to approach Yecheng, the capital of Jizhou. If they succeeded, all the four states in the northern country would be shaken.
But this level of difficulty cannot be compared to conquering Xiao Pass.
There are 60,000 troops stationed in Liyang City, Zhang Liao is accustomed to fighting vicious battles, and there is Jia Wenhe at his side. It would be unwise to target Ye City.
Speaking of shortcomings, of course there are some, that is, there are not many useful lieutenants, and all the people who are slightly capable of fighting have been sent out. Zhang Liao is still accompanied by a few of Yuan Shao's subordinates, such as Jiao Chu , Zhang Nan, Jiang Yiqu and those few.
But that was an army of 60,000. Zhang Liao had trained it for several years and had a lot of money for him to squander. God knows what kind of equipment he had equipped this group of people.
Not long ago, I heard that he spent 80,000 gold to build elite armor, weapons and purchase excellent Wuhuan war horses for the 800 people he guarded.
It was just Zhang Wenyuan. If it were someone else, Lin Mo wouldn't have withdrawn him.
"Just talking casually, Xuzhou is still the most likely."
Seeing that the two of them were really deep in thought, Lin Mo turned to look at the two of them and laughed, "However, what Zi Yang said makes sense in terms of time. I also feel that Cao Jun will definitely take action within two months, so , we must capture Shucheng within two months, otherwise it will be too late to return reinforcements."
Two months.
The expressions of the two were a little solemn.
It sounds quite long, but now everyone knows that Jiangdong in Shucheng is in a state of stud, with more than 20,000 people holding a defensive attitude inside, with ample food and grass, and sufficient ordnance. If it is really a forceful attack, that is Fill it with human life.
To put it bluntly, even if Jiangdong is not good at land warfare, the disparity in military strength does not reach a crushing level. The most likely result is that the siege team will die, but everyone can still defend it.
Hao Zhaowuqian first defended Jiangdong and then retreated from Guan Yu. Of course, it was very powerful, but this also reflected that it was really difficult to attack the city.
Since ancient times, attacking the city is the bottom priority and attacking the heart is the top priority.
Facing the city in this situation, if they cannot be lured out, the only chance of victory is to trap the opponent to death.
However, at present, it seems that they are also waiting for Cao Cao to take action to resolve the crisis in Lujiang River.
Based on this situation, they were not optimistic about Lin Mo's plan to capture Shucheng in two months.
Moreover, now that Mr. Qiao cannot be contacted, there is no chance of collapse from within.
Faced with the silence between the two of them, Lin Mo didn't say a word, just showed a meaningful smile and left.
"What do you think?"
"I don't know, I feel anxious."
"But Yunwen looks pretty confident."
"We should still count on Mr. Qiao. I think he didn't seem to care about Mr. Qiao just now. He may have other plans."
"Let's see."
The two of them couldn't figure out anything, but they felt curious and quite expectant.
The army rested for two days, and the siege equipment was almost ready. In the early morning of the third day, 20,000 people were sent to advance under the city gate.
As for the siege equipment, the speed will be slower, but it doesn't matter, it is not enough to attack the city as soon as it comes up. The routine must be used.
At the gate of the city, two large banners of "Lü" and "Lin" floated in front of the Chinese army, and the flags of "Zhao" and "Wen" were also hunting.
Yan Liang, Wen Chou, Xu Sheng, Yu Jin and Zhao Yun guarded Lin Mo in the middle, looking at the city gate. The lineup was quite luxurious.
This area had been inspected two days ago, and there were no major problems with the city defenses on all sides. We could only choose the most convenient north gate to attack.
On top of the city gate, Sun Ce was also standing beside Taishi Ci, Dong Xi, Lu Meng, Ling Tong, Han Dang, Cheng Pu and Ding Feng. Not to mention all the generals who could be used in Jiangdong, there were more than half.
They stared down with expressionless faces, already able to calmly wait for this offensive and defensive battle that had been prepared for a month.
"Sun Ce, aren't you known as the Little Overlord of Jiangdong? Come on, come down to the city and fight me, Yan Liang, for a hundred rounds."
The fighting generals are relatively superficial and basic. Yan Liang was the first to approach the city gate with a golden back knife and shouted arrogantly, "If you don't succeed, then don't call me Little Overlord. Change your name to Turtle King. I like it." Shrinking, haha.”
After Yan Liang finished shouting, a burst of joking laughter came from the army behind him.
Sun Ce stared at the grinning Yan Liang, his jaw bones protruding and his fists clenching.
Taishi Ci on the side couldn't bear it, and stepped forward and shouted: "Man, are you worthy of fighting with my lord? In the battle outside Huo County City, the wound on your hand healed so quickly? How can you give back to the general of the 700,000-strong army of the Northern Kingdom? It’s just my defeated general!”
Ah, Yan Liang's eyes darkened, and he looked at Taishi Ci quietly, feeling that his arm still hurt a little, "You guys still have the nerve to say, you can't defeat me even if you are outnumbered. If you were to fight alone, my golden-backed sword would have cut you down long ago." I'll take your head off!"
"How dare you speak so arrogantly, let's see if I don't take your head!"
As he spoke, Taishi Ci drew out his halberds and was about to go down to fight, but was blocked by Cheng Pu, "Ziyi, don't forget, we want to defend the city, not go to war, so we don't want to fall into the trap."
Taishi Ci looked at Sun Ce and saw that the latter didn't show any expression. He could only turn his head in displeasure and start scolding Yan Liang again.
He looked down on Yan Liang, and he felt that even if Dong Xi was not around at the time, he would still be trying to manipulate him. He was just a general of the Northern Kingdom's 700,000-strong army.
In fact, many people don't believe that Lu Bu is the best in the world because of this. Only real fighting can prove that some titles are not just trumped up.
Unfortunately, many of the people I met died.
When Yan Liang scolded him, Xu Sheng couldn't help but help him. When he saw Xu Sheng, Ling Tong was furious. He was the one who chopped down his father during the battle of Guangling, so of course he jumped out and scolded him. .
Therefore, Wen Chou and Yu Jin also joined in, Lu Meng and Dong Xi also cursed, and in the end even Sun Ce couldn't help but curse.
Lin Mo held his head with a black line on his forehead, "What are you doing? Let you fight the generals, not for scolding, or else just let a group of soldiers pass."
In fact, it is understandable that Yan Liang and the others scolded because they wanted to provoke the other party to fight, while Tai Shici and the others scolded because they wanted to prove to their own people, and we will not coward them.
This is not a problem. Lin Mo shook his head and winked at Zhao Yun, who nodded in understanding.
The jade lion slowly emerged from the crowd. Under the sun, the tip of the bright silver spear held horizontally reflected the cold light.
As soon as he came, Yan Liangwen, Chou, and the others became silent, and the Jiangdong generals at the gate of the city also stopped silently.
Zhao Yun came to a stone's throw in front of the pass and raised his hands towards the city pass, "Zhao Yun has seen Wu Hou."
"Are you Changshan Zhao Zilong?" Sun Ce took a step forward and looked at the handsome man in a cloak hunting alone under the city gate, feeling quite a bit in his heart.
Zhao Yun's name is now known all over the world, but this is the first time for Sun Ce to see this man.
The most powerful general under Lu Bu's command, the legendary figure who is most likely to take over from Lu Bu as the most powerful man in the future.
In fact, not only Sun Ce, but other generals in Jiangdong, and even the city defenders couldn't help but poke their necks to look at this legendary warrior.
Until now, I have only heard of his name but never seen his person. Today I finally saw him alive.
It's really heroic and fascinating.
"Yun Su heard that Marquis Wu had mastered the Overlord Spear. He had never met an opponent on the ground in Jiangdong. Yun Bucai wanted to ask for advice with the silver spear in his hand."
Zhao Yun didn't shout at the top of his lungs like Yan Liang, but his understated voice resonated in the ears of everyone in Chengguan like morning bells and evening drums.
The soldiers couldn't help but look at Sun Ce, wanting to see what his plan was.
"Do you want to fight me?" Sun Ce asked knowingly.
"By the way, if the Marquis of Wu can defeat me with a spear in my hand, our three armies will immediately set out and we will never set foot on the Lujiang River in our lifetime!"
Wow~
As soon as these words came out, all the defenders at the city gate were in an uproar. If someone else said this, it would give people a feeling of arrogance and arrogance.
But for some reason, no one doubted Zhao Yun's confidence in saying this even though it was the first time they met.
This is probably the aura coming from a peerless warrior.
This time, he was acting like a general. Sun Ce promised Zhou Yu that he would not leave the city no matter how provocative the other party was. After all, the lessons learned at Guangling City were vividly remembered.
But he didn't think he would be defeated by Zhao Yun. Lu Bu was a monster and a different kind. He really thought that the world was full of Lu Bu.
Moreover, if he didn't dare to leave the city for this reason, wouldn't he be living up to his reputation as a little bully?
"Does what you say work?" As soon as Sun Ce said this, the blood of the defenders at the city gate boiled.
It seems that everyone has foreseen a duel between peerless warriors. Such an opportunity is not available to everyone. For a while, everyone shouted with excitement: "We must win! We must win!"
Han Dang and Cheng Puke panicked. They immediately walked up to Sun Ce and tried to persuade them, but Sun Ce stopped them. "If you can't defeat Lu Bu, how can you defeat him, Zhao Yun?"
Zhao Yun said nothing, and the three armies under the city were silent.
Kick, kick.
In the early wind, a sweaty horse came slowly. The man with sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, twenty-five or six, with a sword on his waist and a face as deep as water, naturally attracted everyone's attention.
When he reached Zhao Yun's side, he stopped abruptly.
"I, as the Marquis of Lanling, swear that if there is one person in Shu City who can defeat the spear in Zhao Zilong's hand, I, Lin Mo, will immediately lead the three armies back to Xuzhou and never set foot on the Lujiang River as long as I live. The sky is above and the three armies are by my side. If I violate this oath."
After saying that, he turned to look at Zhao Yun. The latter raised his right leg and an arrow flew away from the arrow pot under his saddle. He caught it casually and handed it to Lin Mo.
Lin Mo held the arrow with both hands, and when he exerted force, the arrow broke from the middle, sawdust flew up, and Lin Mo hissed, "It's like this arrow!"
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Lin Mo's words were like the sound of war drums. The three armies were deeply affected and shouted in unison.
After a while, Lin Mo raised his right hand, and the shouting behind him stopped. He turned his back to the three armies and shouted: "Stand back fifty steps!"
The 20,000-strong army began to move. Whether they were cavalry or infantry, they all turned and retreated in tacit agreement.
In this way, the army is further away from the city gate, and almost no one can set foot in this open space.
This is telling the people at the gate of the city, don't worry, you only care about the generals, no one will make a sneak attack.
Later, Lin Mo himself turned the horse's head and glanced at Zhao Yun. The two nodded in agreement and passed by the wrong horse.
"Prepare your horse." The atmosphere was heightened to this point. Sun Ce felt that if he didn't go down, he would really have no shame in calling him a little overlord.
"My lord, Zhao Zilong is a general, not a lord. Even if we want to fight, we should send the general, right?"
Taishi Ci stood in front of Sun Ce, glanced at Zhao Yun at the gate of the city, and chuckled: "Just now, Lin Moke said that as long as someone in Shucheng can defeat Zhao Yun, it doesn't have to be the Lord. Let’s go in the end.”
"What Ziyi said is right, my lord has a heavy responsibility, how can he go out lightly!" Cheng Pu also said following the trend.
"Lord, let Ziyi go. Even Yan Liang is no match for him, so what about Zhao Zilong?" Han Dang also said.
Dong Xi, Ling Tong and others beside them did not speak. In their opinion, the result would be the same no matter who went and they would definitely win.
As a military commander, everyone has the same pride. They are always willing to believe that the so-called brilliant achievements are just a means of bragging to boost one's self-esteem.
Yan Liang is also known as the general of the 700,000-strong Northern Army, so what?
Sun Ce turned to look at Zhao Yun, hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded slowly.
He knew Taishi Ci's martial arts skills best. On the Shenting Ridge, the two fought fiercely for a hundred rounds and they were evenly matched. There was not much difference between him and himself.
"Ziyi, Zhao Zilong has a reputation, you need to be careful."
"Don't worry, my lord, I will come as soon as I can!"
Taishi Ci took out the two halberds from his waist and carried them on his shoulders, consciously carrying the heavy burden of Jiangdong's great cause on his back.
Not to mention killing Zhao Yun, it is not difficult to defeat him.
When the time comes, let’s see if you practice this faith!
Thanks to the old thief Xiukuang, this book finally has its first leader. It has not been an easy journey.
Of course, I would also like to thank other supportive brothers.
Maybe my writing is not perfect enough, but I can honestly say that every plot is polished and polished. I hope you will not look at it too much from God's perspective, but really integrate into it and think about it.
In addition, if you have suggestions, you can mention them. Yes, I will listen to them. The first time I start is to scold those who are mentally retarded, hydrological, and unbalanced. That is really unnecessary. You are tired and I am tired.
It’s not easy for new authors, so please be kind and let them go.
(End of chapter)
