Yuan Liu's army attacked for two hours, and once fought until the sky was dark, and Liu Bei reluctantly chose Mingjin to withdraw his troops.

Watching the fierce Liu Bei's army slowly retreat from the city wall, Cao Xiu's heart was still shocked, he experienced a lot of battles with Cao Cao, including the battle of Xuzhou, but he had never seen such a brave way of fighting, Liu Bei's siege was completely regardless of losses.

After commanding the soldiers to clean up the corpses on the city wall, Cao Xiu did not relax, but continued to strengthen the arrangement and patrol of the garrison on the city wall to prevent the other party from attacking at night.

After arranging everything, Cao Xiu hurriedly found the captain who was counting the battle damage, and said urgently: "How is it, how many casualties are there in our army?" ”

The lieutenant stood in front of Cao Xiu, clenched his fists and said the battle damage that had just been counted: "General Hui, the casualties have been counted, and our army has suffered a total of more than 1,700 casualties this time, including nearly 1,000 killed in battle, more than 300 seriously wounded, and more than 400 lightly wounded. ”

"Nearly two thousand casualties!" Cao Xiu said with a very ugly face. Tongguan has a total of 30,000 defenders, and at this rate, I am afraid that it will not be able to hold it for half a month.

Seeing this, the captain said comfortingly: "General, although our army has suffered a lot of casualties, the enemy's damage is definitely far above our army, at least 3,000 people, and it is unbearable to attack the other side like this." ”

To be honest, with such a large gap in troops, it is already very good that the defenders of the city can achieve a battle loss of close to 1 to 2. It must be known that most of the nearly 2,000 casualties were suppressed and killed by the opponent's bow and arrow, and there were not many who were actually killed by the opponent's attack on the city wall. Liu Beijun's fearless charge was actually to exchange life for life, and the opponent's 30,000 siege soldiers alone could not attack this narrow and towering Tongguan city wall.

Cao Xiu was very worried in his heart, the defenders of Tongguan were only 30,000, the main reinforcements of Cao's army were far away in Yanzhou, and the combined garrisons of Bishui Pass and Luoyang were only more than 10,000, which was a drop in the bucket. And it will take at least half a month to send troops from Yanzhou to Tongguan, and it will probably take a month for him to ask for help at this time to wait for reinforcements from Yanzhou. And even if it can wait, it is still unknown how many reinforcements Yanzhou can send.

Taking a deep breath and telling himself that he must be calm, Cao Xiu said with a face as usual: "The other party is attacking so desperately, and they can't afford to damage them." Let the wounded soldiers go down to rest, and the soldiers defending the city must not relax their vigilance at night, beware of enemy night attacks. ”

"No!" The lieutenant said in a low voice.

After the lieutenant left, Cao Xiu's expression became gloomy again. The adjutant general came to his side and whispered: "General, you can't fight like this!" ”

"I don't know!" Cao Xiu said hatefully: "If you continue to fight at this speed, I am afraid that it will be lost in less than ten days, but do you have any good way?" ”

The adjutant general hesitated for a moment and said, "General, why don't we withdraw." The opponent is strong, and with such a small number of troops, Tongguan can't hold it at all. ”

"Where to retreat?" Cao Xiu glared at him: "Once Tongguan is lost, the entire Guanzhong will be difficult to protect, can you bear this responsibility?" ”

"But if you continue to fight like this, you obviously can't hold it!"

"If you can't keep it, you have to keep it!" Cao Xiu gritted his teeth and said: "The lord is attacking Qingzhou, even if we are wiped out, we must delay enough time for the lord, and we must not let Yuan Shu and Liu Bei enter the customs." ”

"The rain of arrows on the other side is too dense, how big do you send a team to be in some wooden shields and planks, etc., it doesn't require much fineness, just be thick enough to block the arrows." Most of Cao Jun's injuries this time were caused by the opponent's arrow rain, Cao Xiu wanted to solve this problem, but the archers under his command were indeed too few to suppress, so he could only make more giant shields.

"In addition, prepare more fire oil, rolling wood, etc., today's Yuan army has not participated in the siege battle, and tomorrow's battle will be even more tragic." Fortunately, it was Tongguan that was garrisoned, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the pass was narrow, Liu Beijun only had so many soldiers, and it was enough to place six or seven thousand soldiers on the city wall, so Cao Xiu did not force more troops.

"No." The adjutant said solemnly.

......

In Liu Bei's army, Zhang Fei threw his helmet on the ground with hatred, and said angrily: "Aggrieved, this battle is too aggrieved." Big brother, our soldiers have lost more than 3,600 people, and the 30,000 troops besieging the city have lost 10% in this afternoon. As for Yuan Highway, he released the cold arrow, and he didn't even lose a single hair. ”

Liu Bei sighed lightly, walked over and picked up the helmet, put it in Zhang Fei's hand, and persuaded: "Yide, don't be annoyed, Yuan Shujun didn't prepare ordnance this time, so you can't let them climb the city wall empty-handed." This time, they also sent 50,000 troops with bows and arrows to suppress, and the number of enemies killed and wounded was no less than ours, so what do you have to be angry about. ”

Guan Yu couldn't look at it when he heard this, and said in a low voice: "Big brother, if it goes on like this, before Tongguan is captured, our soldiers will have to be defeated." The losses of such a strong attack are too great. ”

"What if you don't fight like this? It's not that you haven't seen the danger of Tongguan, if it weren't for the fact that the strength of our two alliances was several times that of the other party this time, there would be no possibility of even taking it. Now that Cao Cao has been sending troops for more than ten days, it will be too late for us to capture Tongguan as soon as possible. Liu Bei said in a deep voice.

Zhang Fei turned to look at Liu Ye with an unwilling face: "Military advisor, do you have any good plans to take Tongguan?" We can't just pile up the lives of our soldiers! ”

Liu Ye smiled bitterly at Zhang Fei: "General Zhang, Tongguan was originally obtained by Cao Cao, and he must be extremely cautious in this regard, Cao Xiu, who is defending the city, is also a son of Cao Cao's family, and he really can't think of a way in a short time." ”

Liu Bei glared at Zhang Fei and reprimanded angrily: "Yide, Hugh is talking nonsense, quickly apologize to the military advisor." ”

Liu Ye waved his hand: "No need for the lord, General Zhang is also unintentional in a hurry." I didn't expect this situation to happen, but now there is really nothing I can do, I can only look at Yuan Shu. ”

"Yuan Highway, that soft egg, I'm afraid he is still calculating how to consume our troops, what can he think of to pay attention?" Zhang Fei said disdainfully.

Liu Ye shook his head and said, "General Zhang, Yuan Shu won't be like this. At this time, he has the same interests as ours, and he still needs us to attack Cao Mengde and stir up the situation in the Central Plains. ”

Liu Bei smiled bitterly and nodded: "I didn't expect that not long ago, I was your mortal enemy, but now I have become an ally who relies on each other and trusts." ”

"There are no so-called allies, but they have the same interests. Didn't the lord and Cao Mengde hug together just because they were guarding against Yuan Shu? Now that Cao Mengde has begun to exert his strength, we are on the same position as Yuan Highway again. Liu Ye hit the nail on the head.

"Then will our army continue to fight like this tomorrow?" Liu Bei asked.

Liu Ye nodded: "The most important thing now is to rush back to Yuzhou as soon as possible, don't worry about sacrificing a few more soldiers, as long as there are enough troops to escort the lord back to Yuzhou." Tomorrow, General Zhang and General Guan will lead the army to kill together, do not spare your troops, and you must take Tongguan in the shortest possible time. ”