Limited by the cost and source of raw materials, only a small part of the incendiary bombs fired by the Han army's trebuchets were actually filled with tung oil and sulfur to support combustion, and most of them were ordinary incendiary bombs filled with red charcoal, and the arson effect was far less than that of incendiary bombs made of oil, let alone the legendary Greek fire.

But it's barely enough, a large urn full of burnt red charcoal fell from the sky, the pottery urn crushed the charcoal in all directions, it can still quickly ignite the surrounding combustibles, as long as it is not in a hurry to extinguish it slightly, it can also cause a sky-high fire, plus the Western Chu army has never encountered such a weapon before, and was caught off guard by the original incendiary bombs of the Han army, Puyang City soon caught fire everywhere, and the large and small fires that suddenly rose can be seen everywhere, and gradually connected with the help of the night wind, burning a sky-high fire.

"It's on fire! Come on! Run! ”

"Hurry up and put out the fire! Fire! ”

Puyang City was also soon a big chaos, everywhere you can see the soldiers in disheveled clothes rushing out of the houses and courtyards that suddenly caught fire, and you can see the soldiers of the Western Chu running with buckets to extinguish the fire, but the incendiary bombs of the Han army are still constantly falling into the sky, igniting the houses and buildings in the city with mostly wooden structures in this era, and the occasional refueling incendiary bombs that fall are even more smashed is a fire all over the ground, and the water is difficult to extinguish, which expands the fire in the city even more, the streets and alleys are full of smoke, and the flames are soaring to the sky. The chaos was as if the Han soldiers had gone straight into the city.

In order to extinguish the fire in the city as soon as possible, Huan Chu had to order all the soldiers of the Western Chu army who had rested to get up and extinguish the fire, but how could the power of the fire be easily resisted by manpower? Only more than half an hour after the Han army switched to throwing incendiary bombs, several streets in Puyang City were already surrounded by flames, and at the same time, the fire points were still increasing and expanding, burning and wounding many Western Chu soldiers who could not escape.

This is not counting, seeing that there was already a great chaos in the city, the Han army general Ding Ji also took the opportunity to send troops to attack, and used the siege ladder that he hastily made during the day to attack the city wall of Puyang West Gate, and the defenders of the city were forced to fight, Huan Chu and others also had to quickly dispatch troops to reinforce the West Gate battlefield to prevent the Han army from really taking advantage of the chaos to take the West Gate position and open the way to enter Puyang City.

At this time, the Han army used trebuchets to smash out the gap in the city wall of Puyang West Gate during the day, which also played a huge role, and the Han soldiers did not need to spend too much effort, they could rely on the flying ladder to rush up to the gap, and then threaten the defenders who broke the top of the city wall.

Ding Ji also knew how to change, seeing that the torches at the top of the city wall were dense, and many Western Chu soldiers had already landed in the city to defend it, Ding Ji in addition to immediately withdrawing the siege army, he also ordered the Han army trebuchet to use stone bullets again, and bombarded the head of Puyang West Gate with all his might, and smashed the Western Chu soldiers who fought in the city to the point of crying wolves and blood splashing. When the soldiers of the Western Chu army were forced to withdraw a large number of the city to avoid bombs, the Han army's trebuchets immediately switched to incendiary bombs, bombarded the city of Puyang again, and set fire to the streets of Puyang City again, so that the Western Chu army pressed the gourd to float the scoop, and could not rest at ease.

Fortunately for the Western Chu army, the pottery urn brought by the Han army with the army was limited after all, and it was just in the second half of the night, the original incendiary bombs of the Han army ran out of ammunition, and they had to all change back to stone bombs, and bombarded the head of the West Gate City, but even so, the fire in Puyang City was not completely extinguished until nearly five watches, and no less than 1,000 houses were burned, and many streets were turned into ruins, which made the Western Chu army, which was already short of houses, even more lack of housing accommodation and rest, and at the same time, the whole army of the Western Chu army was also tossed so that it almost didn't sleep all night, Not to mention that the morale of the army was greatly affected, and a considerable number of soldiers were burned to death and burned by the fire in the city, and a considerable amount of military baggage was lost.

When the sky was light, the general of the Han army, Long He, not only brought 30,000 troops to rotate the Han army outside the city, but also brought six newly built counterweight trebuchets and more newly built siege weapons, and then used huge stone projectiles to bombard the head of the Puyang West Gate that was already full of holes, while continuing to pick up soil and stones, and filling in a section of the Puyang West Gate moat that had been filled yesterday.

At this point, the Western Chu army also understood the Han army's siege plan, and knew that the Han army planned to use trebuchets to blast out the gap in the Puyang city wall as much as possible, and at the same time completely fill the moat outside the city, completely open the way to directly enter the city of Puyang, and then really attack the city. But even if they knew what the Han army was going to do, there was no way, and the current Western Chu army had no way to crack the counterweight trebuchet of the Han army, nor did it dare to send troops outside the city to fight the Han army, so they could only grit their teeth and go all out to hold on, trying in vain to rely on the smaller and smaller limited land to survive until Xiang Yu led the main elite back to the division to rescue.

After bombarding the west gate of Puyang for two days and two nights in a row, Xiang Kang finally personally led the main force of the Han army to launch a comprehensive attack on the west gate of Puyang on the morning of the third day, when the moat outside the west gate of Puyang had been completely filled. Huan Chu also hurriedly organized the rest of the Western Chu army to climb the city wall of Puyang's West Gate, which had been smashed by trebuchets with multiple gaps, and greeted the Han army's siege with red eyes.

This siege battle, the main force of the Han army is also very rare did not use any opportunistic means, chose to use the most orthodox tactics to launch the siege, first with a long shield outside the city of Puyang to establish temporary fortifications, covering the archers to release arrows to suppress the defenders on the city, and then while directly hitting the Puyang city gate with a ramming car, while impacting the head of Puyang city with a flying ladder, supplemented by two newly made ladder vehicles, methodically attacking Puyang City.

If it is replaced in peacetime, with this kind of decent siege tactics to attack Puyang Jiancheng, of course, the Han army will be difficult to succeed, but now the situation is completely different, the moat has been completely filled, the Han army can directly rush to Puyang City without using a trench bridge car, the speed of investment is greatly accelerated, and there are many gaps on the Puyang city wall that are smashed out of the boulders. The ant attached battle is better than normal to fight more than one or two points.

Of course, the Western Chu army also has stubborn resistance, under the command of Huan Chu, the arrows thrown by the soldiers of the Western Chu army are as dense as flying locusts, constantly rising from behind the broken city wall, covering the heads of the Han soldiers in the charge along the parabola, and at the same time there are stone ash bottles raining hail from the city like a hail, desperately blocking the Han soldiers and soldiers from attacking the city, and the city gate that needs to be protected is even more densely populated, and the heavy stones are smashed down one after another, frantically smashing the Han army crashing car that is trying to get close to the city gate.

That's not all, in order to defend the city, the Western Chu army also used expensive rockets from the beginning, and attacked the ladder car of the Han army, which was the biggest threat to the city wall, and successively put down the more expensive fire curtain, and burned the ants attached to the Han army with a huge curtain that had been drenched with fire oil and ignited, and stopped the Han army from attacking the city at any cost.

It's a pity that the resistance of the Western Chu army is destined to be just a dying struggle, because there are too many gaps in the city wall smashed out by the Han army's boulders, and the Han army's ant attachment to attack the city is too easy, and the fierce battle has only passed for half an hour, and hundreds of Han warriors have successfully rushed to the city wall and captured a large area of the city's head position, so that more Han soldiers can quickly rush to the city wall to help the battle, and the Western Chu army was forced to have no choice but to continue to send additional troops to the city, and carry the Han army to attack with flesh and blood.

The fierce battle was therefore more brutal and bloody, the officers and men of the two armies fought for the position space on the city inch by inch, and every step forward had to pay the price of blood and life, and as long as there was a slight softness, they would immediately be recaptured by the enemy's counterattack, and at the same time pay the price of being injured and even killed.

A ladder car of the Han army has not been able to reach the city wall, it was burned into a fire by the dense rockets of the soldiers of the Western Chu army and a large number of swallowtail torches, and the other ladder car was very lucky, relying on the cover of the Han soldiers who climbed the city, and was not attacked by the enemy's swallowtail torch, even with hundreds of rockets, it still successfully leaned on the city wall, and the soldiers of the Han army under the city cheered and stepped up the ladder, which increased the speed of throwing troops into the city, Xiang Kang did not hesitate, and immediately put three thousand troops and two ladder cars in front of him, Strike while the iron is hot to speed up the capture of the position at the end of the wall.

Yang Ji, a veteran of the young marshal army who followed Xiang Kang from the time of the lower prime minister, died at the top of the city wall, suffering more than 20 wounds, but the soldiers under his command did not retreat timidly, on the contrary, they also shouted the slogan of revenge for him, and further strengthened the offensive under the leadership of his deputy, and became the first Han army to rush to the upper position of the city gate. Gongwei, the general of the Western Chu Army, who was ordered to guard the west gate of Puyang, led the army to fight to the death, but still failed to stop the offensive of the Han army, and the red-eyed Han soldiers who were killed were forcibly expelled from the upper end of the city gate.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Han army's ramming car, which had been taken care of by the Western Chu Army, finally rushed to the door, picked up the front end of the striking wood with sharp iron horns and struggled to hit the city gate. At the same time, Huan Chu saw that the situation was not good, and immediately put more reserves into the city head position, in a vain attempt to recapture the most important position at the upper end of the city gate to protect the city gate.

There is no city tower can garrison troops, the counterattack power of the Western Chu army is also greatly limited, under the stubborn resistance of the Han army soldiers, the Western Chu army has launched a number of counterattacks, but failed to regain the upper position of the city gate, on the contrary, more Han soldiers rely on the help of the flying ladder, more rushed to the city wall to reinforce their companions, and the Han army under the city also hit the city gate in many cracks, and there is a possibility of being directly knocked open at any time.

"Boom!"

Finally, with a loud bang, the West Gate of Puyang was finally knocked open by the Han army's crash truck, and the Han soldiers rushed into the city gate with cheers, desperately slashing and killing the soldiers of the Western Chu Army who were still hurriedly carrying sandbags, and seizing the main force of the Han army. At the same time, another Han army ladder car also successfully approached the city wall, and more Han soldiers went to the city one after another, successfully seizing nearly half of the Puyang West Gate city wall position.

Seeing that the defeat had been decided, the soldiers of the Western Chu Army, who had been resisting stubbornly, gradually began to panic, and under the frustration of the army, they were killed by the Han army and retreated again and again, and no matter how the supervising team forced and killed, they were unable to launch any powerful counterattack again, and the positions in various places were lost one after another, and most of the positions in the city were occupied by the Han army.

There was no time to inquire about the layout of the Western Chu army in the city, Long Ji's general Lu Yi took the lead and directly led the army into the city from the city gate that was knocked open, although it was immediately blocked by the reserves of the Western Chu army, and Lu Yi himself was wounded by a crossbow arrow, but the Han army did not take half a step back, gritted his teeth and continued to advance, and started hand-to-hand combat with the Western Chu army near the city gate, and the fight was extremely tragic.

All kinds of bad news have also been constantly reported to the face of Huan Chu, the temporary chief general of the Western Chu Army, the position on the city is basically lost, the city gate and the road have been difficult to block, thousands of generals and above generals have been killed one after another, and the reserves sent many times have also been killed and retreated by the Han army, Huan Chu is so anxious that he is sweating profusely, but he has no choice but to think about whether it is street fighting to resist to the end? Or take advantage of the opportunity to abandon the city and break through the siege as soon as possible, and try to preserve the army?

There was a huge uproar and cheers in the direction of the West Gate, when Huan Chu hurriedly looked at it, he saw that the self-army team on the West Gate was in chaos, many soldiers fled to the city, and there was also a Han army banner whose size was second only to Xiang Kang's banner into the city, it was obvious that there was an absolutely sufficient Han army general who personally led the army into Puyang City, Huan Chu was even more panicked, and hurriedly asked Kui Che next to him: "Doctor Kuai, in your opinion, do we still have the need to fight?" ”

Kui Che's expression was obviously hesitant, and he hesitated for a while before he said: "General Huan, with all due respect, there are too many recruits in our army, and if we continue to fight, even if we can still bring some casualties to the Han thieves, it is absolutely impossible to continue to hold Puyang City, after the army has suffered too many casualties in the street battle, we will not even have a chance to retreat and break through." ”

"It's fine." Kui Che added another sentence and said: "It is Da Sima who is ordered to guard Puyang, even if he is killed now and can't defend Puyang, he should still be the main responsibility, and the king will not blame you too much." ”

After all, people have selfish psychology, even when Xiang Yu was embattled, he also did the thing of throwing down the infantry and fleeing with the cavalry, not to mention Huan Chu, whose force and courage were far inferior to Xiang Yu? So after hesitating for a moment, Huan Chu still gritted his teeth and said: "Order all the armies, take the fire in the county guard mansion as a signal, open the remaining three gates of Puyang, go out of the city together, and let Xiao Gongjiao lead the army to the palace!" ”

Not to mention, even if the army was extremely panicked, Huan Chu's order was resolutely implemented by the generals of the Western Chu army, or after the main force of the remaining Western Chu army was ready to retreat, Huan Chu's personal soldiers set fire to the county guard, and the various units of the Western Chu army opened the three gates of Puyang, south, south and east respectively, which were not attacked, and fled out of the city and fled east. By the way, in order to facilitate the escape, Huan Chu also changed into the clothes of an ordinary soldier early, so as not to become a key target of the Han army.

Xiang Kang was very generous to only attack one battlefield at the west gate of Puyang, and had not stationed troops in the other three gates of Puyang in advance to prevent the Western Chu army from fleeing from the city, in addition to wanting to break the fighting spirit of the defenders, there was a more important reason, of course, because the number of cavalry of the Han army was large, which had reached more than 14,000, and all of them could fight on horseback, and their mobility was far stronger than that of the infantry of the Western Chu army. Therefore, seeing that the Western Chu army suddenly opened the door and went east, Xiang Kang was not in a hurry, but just ordered Ding Ji and Zhong Liwu to immediately lead the army to launch a pursuit, and at the same time let Guan Ying lead the Han cavalry to attack, and use the advantage of mobility to seize the front to intercept the defeated troops of the Western Chu army. The Han army Long He, who had led the army into the city before, did not participate in the pursuit, but only searched and killed the remnants of the enemy in the city, and soon took the geographically important Puyang Jiancheng for Xiang Kang for the second time.

The Han cavalry led by Guan Ying completed the task assigned to them very well, brandishing a saber, and forcibly carved a bloody road in the crowd of defeated troops of the Western Chu army. Huan Chu urged the army to fight to the death, in a vain attempt to break through the interception position of the Han cavalry, maintain the formation to break through and flee for life, but was attacked by the Han cavalry who dismounted and fought on foot, and the fierce battle for a long time failed to kill the Han cavalry who were hastily arrayed.

After a while, seeing that there was still no way to kill and disperse the Han cavalry, on the contrary, Xiao Gongjiao at the back of the palace could not withstand the pursuit of the Han army, and had fled east to his neighborhood, Huan Chu had no choice but to give up his illusion with a long sigh, and ordered his own soldiers to put down the banner, and gave up the leadership and command of the defeated troops of the Western Chu army, and led his own soldiers to bypass the interception position of the Han cavalry and fled to the east.

The pursuit of the Han army also became a hunting battle, the Han cavalry on the horse again charged in a cluster, saw the largest number of enemies there and rushed there to kill, and then the Han infantry slashed and killed the enemy in front, captured the soldiers of the Western Chu army who were left behind, and desperately expanded the results, the Western Chu army completely collapsed, and fled only to hate his father and mother for giving birth to two less legs, and countless people took the initiative to lay down their arms and surrender.

In the pursuit, the Han infantry led by Ding Ji and Zhong Liwu caught a big fish, in addition to capturing Gongao's son Gongwei, they also surrounded two middle-aged men who were dressed completely different from the Western Chu army, and when the Han soldiers ordered them to lay down their arms and surrender, a sturdy middle-aged man was forced to throw down his hand and raise his hand and said: "Don't kill me, I can make you rich and noble, I am Sima Wei, the king of Henan." ”

"What about this?" The Han soldiers who were defending them asked in surprise as they pointed to another middle-aged man.

"Li Zuoche." The middle-aged man dressed as a scribe replied helplessly.

After Sima Wei and Li Zuoche were escorted to Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang just asked Li Zuoche to loosen the tie, and couldn't wait to express his respect to Li Zuoche for a long time, Sima Wei refused to be convinced, and asked directly: "King Han, I am the king of Henan, why don't you untie me?" ”

"Untie you?" Xiang Kang laughed directly and said, "I've loosened your ties, how can the king explain to the father and elder Sangzi of the three counties of Juan County, Yangwu and Xingyang, who have surrendered to the king?" At the beginning, the king of Western Chu led the army to attack Xingyang, as the king of Henan, you refused to come forward to protect the people of Henan under your rule, on the contrary, you also helped the Western Chu thief army to poison Juan County, Yangwu and Xingyang, burning, killing and plundering, all evil, Xingyang was slaughtered, and most of the Li Shu of Juan County and Yangwu were killed, and they were still mad, filling our camp trenches with their corpses, and helping to abuse you to this point, if this king spares you, even God will not agree! ”

After speaking, Xiang Kang shouted: "Put Sima Wei into the prisoner car, escort him back to Xingyang, summon the father Li Shu of Xingyang, Yangwu and Juan County, and behead him in public!" ”

Sima Wei begged for mercy loudly, but unfortunately Xiang Kang was trying to buy the hearts of the people, and secondly, he didn't want to leave the princes and kings with a political foundation, so he was not moved at all, and waved his hand to let his own soldiers drag Sima Wei down. Li Zuoche, who received Xiang Kang's courtesy, was uneasy, and hurriedly took the initiative to plead guilty, admitting that he had given Xiang Yu a lot of bad ideas, and also helped Xiang Yu kill many Han army soldiers and soldiers, and took the initiative to ask for guilt.

"That's every man's master." Xiang Kang waved his hand generously and said: "At that time, Guangwujun was a guest of the King of Western Chu, and it was within his duty to give advice to him, how could this king hold you accountable for the reason that you once offered advice to the King of Western Chu?" Guangwujun, if you really don't want to go in your heart, then stay with this king to help, help this king sweep away the Western Chu thief army as soon as possible, and make meritorious atonements. ”

Seeing that Xiang Kang was so magnanimous and generous, and he directly opened his mouth to solicit him, Li Zuoche hurriedly thanked him and swore to be loyal to the Han army forever, when Xiang Kang was about to pick him up with his own hands, he never thought that Xu Ji suddenly came to the front with a military emergency report with chicken feathers, his expression was still quite nervous, Xiang Kang was shocked when he saw it, and hurriedly asked: "The military intelligence emergency report from there?" Is it from the Nanyang battlefield? ”

"Returning to the king, it's not an emergency report from Nanyang, it's General Zhou who just sent someone from the northern front, and I want to ask the king to send him reinforcements as soon as possible."

Xu Ji replied to Xiang Kang, and in surprise, Xiang Kang blurted out: "It's strange, Uncle Zhou actually had a day to ask for help from this king?" ”