In the battle of attacking the camp of the Western Chu army, in the case of only dispatching 80,000 troops, the main force of the Han army won more with less, broke the 120,000 Western Chu army left by Xiang Yu to guard Puyang, captured more than 30,000 enemy heads, and captured nearly 16,000 prisoners, beheaded the general of the Western Chu army, Gong Ao and Zhonggong, captured the general of the Western Chu army, Xiang Han, and forced the acting commander of the Western Chu army, Cao Hao, to apologize for his crimes, and also captured a large amount of grain, grass and military supplies hoarded in the camp by the Western Chu army, and won a great victory.

Of course, after all, it is not a tough battle with an advantageous advantage, coupled with the stubborn resistance of the Western Chu army, the Han army also paid a considerable price for this, after a big battle, there are still more than 7,000 loyal and brave soldiers of the Han army who have closed their eyes forever on the battlefield, and the seriously injured and incurable or disabled are close to 2,000, and there are countless minor injuries, and even the Han army's ace heavy armor soldiers in infantry warfare have also been killed and seriously injured more than 140 people because of the continuous heavy and hard fighting, and the losses are also very small.

In addition, there is also a situation that is also very unfavorable to the Han army, that is, because Cao Zhi adopted the correct advice put forward by the famous strategist Kuaiche at the last moment, let Xiao Gongjiao, the general of the Western Chu Army, lead the defenders of the rear camp to withdraw to Puyang City in advance, and afterwards the defeat of the Western Chu Army has been timed, and another Western Chu Army general Huan Chu decisively led his headquarters to withdraw to the city, plus there are many defeated soldiers of the Western Chu Army who also fled into the city in chaos, so there are nearly 50,000 soldiers of the Western Chu Army who have withdrawn into Puyang City. For the notoriously strong and difficult town of Puyang, there were absolutely enough defenders, although there was no strength to compete with the Han army in the field, but it was absolutely more than enough to defend the city.

This is not counting, because the Western Chu army had previously hoarded a large amount of military grain and grass in Puyang City, and the Western Chu army that had returned to the city did not have to worry about logistics at all, and the food was enough to hold out until Xiang Yu led the elite main force of the Western Chu Army back to Puyang. In addition, after Cao Zhi and Gongao were both killed, no one among the generals of the Western Chu army could catch up with the Western Chu army Huan Chu, who followed Xiang Liang's uncle and nephew when he started from Wu County, so the battle was basically over in the early morning, but at noon, the generals of the defeated and fled back to the west of the city unanimously recommended Huan Chu as the acting commander, and continued the remnants of the Western Chu army to stick to Puyang and wait for Xiang Yu to come back.

After a few words of resignation and officially sat in the position of the temporary commander of the Western Chu Army, Huan Chu's first order was to reorganize the army in the city, and reorganize the defeated troops of the Western Chu Army into an army as quickly as possible, so as to command the rest of the Western Chu Army to guard the city of Puyang. The second order was to send a messenger to Pengcheng at full speed to ask Xiang Yu for help, report the current situation in Puyang to Xiang Yu, and ask Xiang Yu to lead the army back to rescue as soon as possible.

The third order, of course, was to prepare all the materials and equipment for defending the city, but what made Huan Chu quietly relieved was that Cao Ji still left him a very rich legacy, and the necessary feather arrows, fire oil, sacks, sheep's head stones and ash bottles necessary for the defense of the city were all in sufficient quantities, and there were also a large number of siege equipment such as crashing wood, yakshas, strip stones, and Saimen knife carts, if Huan Chu was willing, the Western Chu army could even quickly create new siege weapons such as fire curtains and trebuchets, which were enough to meet the siege Han army.

But there is also a troublesome problem, although Puyang, the county of Dongjun, is a big city, but after nearly 50,000 Western Chu troops suddenly withdrew into the city to garrison, the space in the city immediately became obviously insufficient, and the streets and alleys were crowded with untidy Western Chu army defeated soldiers, which had no way to rest well, and seriously affected the traffic order in the city, which was very unfavorable to the mobilization of troops, and the orderly battle in the city would definitely affect the transportation of materials to defend the city during the fierce battle.

Fortunately, such a problem must be very tricky for the Han army, but for the Western Chu army brought out by Xiang Yu, it is not trivial at all, Huan Chu just gave an order, and the wolf-like Western Chu soldiers immediately rushed into the people's houses, forcing the people in the city to gather in the designated area in the northwest corner of the city to live, and they didn't bother to pay attention to whether that narrow area could accommodate so many Puyang people, how to solve the next food and clothing problems of the Puyang people, in short, all the good houses and good houses were temporarily owned by the warriors of the Western Chu army, Those who dared to resist were all killed, and during this period, there were constantly cases of soldiers taking the opportunity to loot people's property and insult women, and there was no one who was accustomed to this for a long time, and there was not a single general of the Western Chu army such as Huan Chu who did not pretend not to see or hear.

Don't say that the author is slandering or exaggerating, the brutality of the Western Chu army led by Xiang Yu is well-known in history, robbing money, food, women, burying prisoners of war alive and killing innocents indiscriminately, so in history, the people of Qi will rebel against Western Chu several times, and the old Qin people in Guanzhong are also desperate to help Liu Laosan and Xiang Yu desperately.

When all this was basically coming to an end, the time was already the evening after the defeat of the Western Chu army outside the city, in order to boost the morale of the army, Huan Chu in addition to ordering to take out good food and good food to feast on the soldiers, and in the command of the Western Chu army, Dongjun County Guard, set up a banquet, and convened the Western Chu army to discuss the strategy.

The situation has been initially stabilized, even if last night just suffered a big defeat, the atmosphere of the banquet is still good, under the leadership of Huan Chu, the Western Chu army first set up a wine to commemorate the Cao Zhi and Gongao and others who had been killed, and swore to the sky together, vowing to stick to the city of Puyang, and work together never to make any compromises to the hateful and hateful Han thieves, Huan Chu, who is quite familiar with Xiang Kang's temperament, also ordered in public, requiring all units of the Western Chu army to kill the Han army envoys who tried to contact the army at the first time, did not give the shameless Xiang Kang any opportunity to plot against the Western Chu army, and all the generals of the Western Chu army sang their promises in unison, and they all thought that it should be so.

Seeing that the army's heart was still stable and unified, Huan Chu's heart was even more determined, and he was busy cheering up the civil and military forces of the Western Chu army: "Don't worry, although Xiang Kang's traitor is treacherous and cunning, but he is also afraid of a tough siege battle, and the fortification of Puyang's city is not under our Pengcheng, the capital of Western Chu, as long as we work together and defend the city with all our strength by virtue of our geographical advantages, we will definitely be able to repel all the attacks of the Han thief army and hold on until our king leads the army back to help!" ”

"And." Huan Chu hurriedly added: "Our king once said that he can quell our rear rebellion in a month at most, and come back with the main elite to reinforce Puyang, today is the sixteenth day after our king left, we only need to hold on for less than half a month, and when our king returns to save Puyang, we can not only get through the current critical situation, but also be able to turn defeat into victory, and avenge our great Sima and the communist general!" ”

The Western Chu army roared loudly, all of them were full of confidence in holding Puyang Jiancheng, Xiao Gongjiao couldn't wait to say: "The current situation, we are already difficult to defeat the main force of the Han thieves in the front, but the city defense battle is different, as long as the Han thieves dare to send troops to attack the city, we will definitely be able to rely on the location of the city wall to kill the Han thieves to heavy casualties, so that the Han thieves are full of teeth, and they don't think that a soldier can enter the city!" ”

The civil and military forces of the Western Chu army echoed one after another, and the original Puyang garrison Cheng Qi also said wildly, hoping that the Han army would immediately send troops to attack the city, and give the Han army a little color in the defense of the city, so that the Han army did not dare to peep at Puyang with the right eyes. Huan Chu waved his hand and said: "It will definitely not be so fast, the Han thief's loss last night was not small, the army is very tired, and it is definitely too late to prepare siege weapons that can threaten the defense of Puyang City, if I am not bad, it will be three days at the earliest, and the Han thief army will be able to attack Puyang City at the earliest." ”

"That's a good thing." Kui Che took over the conversation and said: "The later the Han thieves launch an attack on the city, the more sure we will hold out until the king leads the army back to Puyang, so we don't want to be greedy, it is best to hope that the Han thieves will send troops to attack the city as late as possible." ”

Everyone nodded yes, and even Li Zuoche, who made Han Xin afraid of three points, turned to Sima Wei and said: "Don't worry, the king, the morale and fighting spirit of our Western Chu friendly army is still there, and the Puyang city is so strong and difficult to attack, if we insist until the king of Western Chu leads the army back to help, we are at least ninety percent sure!" ”

With a generally very optimistic mood, the rest of the Western Chu army rested in Puyang City for a night, but the next day the sky was just dawn, and when Huan Chu and Kui Che and others were still having breakfast in the county guard's mansion, Puyang suddenly was a gong alarm, and the chopsticks in Huan Chu's hand fell directly to the ground, and blurted out: "The Han thieves sent troops to attack the city?" How can it be? They only took our camp early yesterday morning, and they didn't have time to prepare siege weapons, how could they send troops to attack Puyang City so quickly? ”

The cruel facts soon proved that Huan Chu was completely wishful thinking, and it didn't take long for the soldiers outside the door to report to the court, saying that the Han army had dispatched no less than 30,000 troops and was killing Puyang City. Huan Chu was even more shocked when he heard the news, and hurriedly led Kui Che and others to the city to check the situation, and Sima Wei and Li Zuoche, who heard the alarm, also followed by themselves, and went up to the Puyang city wall with Huan Chu to watch the movements of the Han army.

At this time, the front army of the Han army has arrived near the west gate of Puyang, and immediately began to fill the trench dug by the Western Chu army before, because the distance is too far, the bow and crossbow of the Western Chu army can not threaten the Han soldiers who are filling in the trench, and they dare not directly send troops to stop it, so they can only ignore it, and the patience is just to observe the situation of the Han army, and it is quickly confirmed that it is Zheng Bu, a famous general in the Han army, who went out to fight this time, and also saw from a distance that the Han army brought a full twenty huge trebuchets that smashed the door of the Western Chu military camp the day before yesterday.

"The thief wants to use that weird trebuchet to directly smash open the city gate of Puyang?"

Huan Chu and Kui Che and the others were suspicious together, but they quickly dispelled their suspicions - the city gate is not as good as the camp gate, and there are rammed earth walls and city towers above it, unless the city gate is directly hit from the front, otherwise even if the boulder thrown by the Han army trebuchet hits the top of the Puyang city gate, it is absolutely impossible to threaten the safety of the Puyang city gate. However, even so, for the sake of prudence, Huan Chu still adopted Kui Che's suggestion and asked the soldiers of the Western Chu army to prepare enough sandbags early in order to block the city gate at any time, lest the Han army's trebuchet be lucky and really smashed open the west gate of Puyang from the front.

The Han army soldiers only took more than half an hour to quickly fill in a large section of the camp trench that the soldiers of the Western Chu army had worked hard to dig, and surrounded twenty counterweight trebuchets approached under the west gate of Puyang, lined up outside the range of the defenders' bows and crossbows, and then set up temporary fortifications to prevent the Western Chu army from suddenly attacking, while quickly lining up the twenty trebuchets in a row, and adjusting the angle of shooting device The heavy objects were very busy. During this period, Huan Chu and the others of course also tried to open their eyes to look at the situation of the Han army's trebuchet, wanting to understand why the Han army's new trebuchet could throw heavy stones and hit so far, but unfortunately the distance was too far and they couldn't see it very clearly.

It was just over halfway through the time, and the Han army had already made pre-war arrangements, and then Zheng Bu just gave an order, and the twenty Han army trebuchets that had already loaded the shells cut the ropes together, and smashed twenty huge stone bullets weighing more than 15 catties to the west gate of Puyang.

Bang!

The dull impact sounded, so that the West Chu army was stunned up and down the thing happened, the first piece of the stone bullet thrown by the Han army fell, it happened to hit the city tower of the west gate of Puyang, the heavy boulder that fell from the sky broke through the top and pierced the tile, unstoppable directly smashed into the inside of the city tower, and from the top to the bottom, directly smashed through the three floors of the city tower, the dust and smoke were filled, the rubble flew sideways, and the crossbowmen of the Western Chu army hiding in the city tower suddenly cried wolf, and rushed to escape from the city tower from the position.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The matter is not over, when more dull crashing sounds came one after another, something happened that made the Western Chu army even more distracted, if the huge stone bullet smashed into the Puyang city wall, it would immediately leave a huge pit several feet deep on the Puyang city wall built of rammed earth, and the stone bullet was even more powerful, in addition to smashing the arrow buttress directly into thin air, it also left a deep pit on the city wall under the arrow buttress, and a deep scratch.

The stone bullet that flew directly into Puyang City also made the scalp of the Western Chu army numb, and the hair stood on end, hitting the roof of the house, breaking the tile and breaking the beam, and a stone bullet could directly knock down a private house, and smashed into the crowd of soldiers of the Western Chu Army who were preparing for battle, and the blood could fly up several feet high, even if the soldiers of the Western Chu Army were only slightly brought by the stone bullets, they would immediately end up with broken tendons and fractures, which frightened the soldiers of the Western Chu Army to scream constantly, and even rolled and crawled to the shooting dead corner under the city wall to dodge.

Regardless of the obstruction of his own soldiers, he insisted on rushing to a place where he had just been hit by the Han army's stone bullet head-on on the city wall to check the situation, and saw that the Han army's stone bullet had left a large pit of no less than five feet on the rammed earth city wall, and at the same time, there were several small cracks in the city wall, and Huan Chu's face immediately became whiter than paper. ”

Li Zuoche in the back was also pale, and Sima Wei next to him also quietly dragged him, and asked in a low voice: "Guangwujun, do you still dare to say that you are more than ninety percent sure now?" ”

Li Zuoche didn't answer, and after a little calculation, he said to Huan Chu: "Don't worry, general, although the trebuchets of the Han thieves are powerful and can directly damage our city wall, the number of their trebuchets is not very large, and it is impossible to really smash our city wall directly." And even if it is smashed, it is impossible for our city wall to really collapse, at most it can only form a slope, and we are still sure to hold Puyang City! ”

Huan Chu nodded hurriedly, wishing that this was the case, but at this moment, the pro-soldier next to him suddenly shouted, "General, be careful!" The big rock of the thief army is here again! ”

Life is at stake, whether it is Huan Chu, who has just become the temporary commander of the Western Chu Army, or Kuaiche and Li Zuoche, who are usually polite and polite, they don't care about any image at this moment, they all rush to the back of the arrow stacks to dodge, and as a result, the stone bullets of the Han army fell again one after another, in addition to hitting the Puyang West Gate City Tower that had been smashed out of a big hole again, and left several big holes on the Puyang city wall.

Several officers and soldiers of the Western Chu Army, including a five-hundred-lord were particularly unlucky, the arrow stacks they were hiding in happened to be hit by a boulder, and no less than five soldiers of the Western Chu Army didn't even have time to scream, they were directly smashed into meat sauce, and the splashed blood sprayed all over the bodies of the surrounding companions, and also frightened the surrounding soldiers of the Western Chu Army to exclaim, "It's amazing!" ”

Call! Call! Call! Call! The sound of the boulder breaking through the air kept coming, like an iron fist of a giant, smashed into the city of Puyang West Gate one after another, and also continued to leave a huge pit on the wall of the Puyang West Gate city wall, after being hit by several stone bullets one after another, the overwhelmed Puyang West Gate City Tower also collapsed with a bang, turned into a piece of rubble, and completely lost the defensive role of covering the archers to release arrows.

The boulders thrown by the Han army are still flying continuously, like thunderstorms and thunderbolts, smashing the original solid and towering Puyang city wall to a thousand holes, deep pits everywhere, and flying into the city from time to time, or smashing the soldiers of the Western Chu army who can't avoid it to the flesh and blood, screaming and shaking the sky, or smashing the houses near the city wall, and even directly smashing the beams, and the roof fell to the ground, and the soldiers of the Western Chu army no longer dared to enter the house, only dared to tremble in the open space, ready to escape and dodge at any time.

For their own safety, after entrusting the important task of protecting the west gate of Puyang to Gongao's son Gongwei, Huan Chu and the others withdrew to the depths of the city early, discussing countermeasures with pale faces. It's a pity that discussions come and go, even with the help of Li Zuoche and Kuaiche, one of the few two major military divisions in this era, Huan Chu and others only discussed three ways that are not a way, one is to send troops to raid and destroy the damned trebuchet of the Han army; the second is to quickly imitate similar trebuchets and return the trebuchets of the Han army to bombard; The third is to just stick to it, gritting his teeth and working hard until Xiang Yu led the army back to help.

Huan Chu really wanted to use the second method to immediately create a trebuchet like the Han army to launch a counterattack, and immediately asked Li Zuoche, whose ancestors were famous generals in the world: "Guangwujun, your Li family has been a famous general of the Zhao State for generations, is there a way to build a trebuchet like the Han thief?" ”

"It would be nice if there were." Li Zuoche had a rare expression of sadness, and replied: "If the ancestors of the foreign ministers can also build such trebuchets, then the Battle of Changping should have been lost by the Tyrannical Qin army, as long as our Zhao army casually takes out dozens of such trebuchets, we can immediately smash the camp of the Tyrannical Qin army, and directly kill Bai Qisheng and capture Bai Qisheng alive, where will he be given the opportunity to kill our 400,000 Zhao pawns later?" ”

Huan Chu was helpless, so he could only turn his gaze to Kui Che, who replied more directly, and immediately shook his head and replied: "General Huan, there is no way to do it." If Xia Guan had a way to build such a trebuchet, when he was in Xingyang before, he would have built it a long time ago for our king to capture the camp of the Han thieves. ”

Huan Chu stomped his feet in disappointment and scolded: "Xiang Kang, a traitor, how come there are so many capable people and wise men under his command who help the abuse, and they can actually build such a terrible trebuchet. ”

"General, it's not a way to go on like this, if it doesn't work, send someone out of the city to assault." Xiao Gongjiao suggested: "Select a group of dead soldiers, bring more arson, and suddenly go out of the city to attack the position of the Han thieves, and strive to burn all the trebuchets of the Han thieves." ”

"It's useless." Kuaicher shook his head bitterly and said: "The 30,000 troops sent by the Han thieves are clearly to prevent us from going out of the city to raid, and it is impossible for our soldiers to be sent to play a role, and sending more will only give the Han thieves a chance to eat us one by one." And none of us dares to guarantee that the thieves will be able to build more of these trebuchets to attack our city, so even if they burn the trebuchets of the thieves at any cost, I'm afraid it won't have much effect. ”

Huan Chu nodded weakly, and only after a while did he say weakly: "Endure hardship, hold on at all costs until our king leads the army back to help." ”

On that day, the counterweight trebuchet of the Han army from morning to night, has been throwing stones at the city wall of the west gate of Puyang, smashing a number of easy to climb gaps in the rammed earth city wall of Puyang, and also destroying most of the houses near the west gate of Puyang, causing considerable casualties to the defenders in the city and the enemy on the city wall without casualties. During this period, the Han army also divided its manpower to carry soil and stones to continuously fill the moat of the west gate of Puyang, opening up the way for the next real siege.

Finally persevered until the sun set, just when the soldiers of the Western Chu army thought that the Han army should withdraw and return to the camp to rest, something happened that made them cry without tears, under the leadership of another Han army general, Ding Ji, another 30,000 Han troops came out of the camp to rotate the Han army Zheng Bu's department, and also brought a lot of siege ladders that were obviously just made with the army, and put on a posture of being ready to launch a siege at any time and throwing stones overnight, forcing Huan Chu to quickly rotate the army, and continue to guard the West Gate against the boulders that the Han army kept throwing.

When the sky was slightly dark, the rotation of the Han army was completed, but the trebuchet of the Han army did not know for what reason, and temporarily stopped the stone throwing attack. But what no one expected was that after the sky was completely dark, the trebuchet of the Han army suddenly opened fire again and launched a stone-throwing attack again.

"Huh? How did you fly so far this time? ”

There are also many smart people among the officers and soldiers of the Western Chu Army, and the Han Army's trebuchet has just resumed the stone-throwing attack, and many shrewd soldiers of the Western Chu Army immediately found that the big stones thrown by the Han Army this time flew significantly farther than before, flying through the city wall of Puyang from the air, and flying directly into the depths of Puyang City.

Then, the situation that caught the soldiers of the Western Chu Army off guard again, after the stone projectiles thrown by the Han army flew into the city and landed, they did not make a dull loud sound of the boulder landing, but scattered when they landed, and countless bright sparks were emerged, and the streets of Puyang, where the houses were generally wooden structures in this era, soon burst into flames, and countless soldiers of the Western Chu Army began to shout in panic in the city, "It's on fire!" The fire is coming! It's on fire, and the thieves are fighting in the sky! ”

"Hahahaha! Well done, continue to throw incendiary bombs for Lao Tzu, and burn all Puyang for me for Lao Tzu! ”

The commander of the Han army, Ding Ji, laughed wildly and ordered, and the Han gunners were also smiling, and quickly put the urn filled with burning red charcoal instead of the stone bullet, put it on the scoop of the trebuchet, cut the rope and threw it, and because the incendiary bomb was much lighter than the boulder, the incendiary bomb thrown by the Han soldiers naturally flew farther and deeper, and the bomb throwing speed of the Han army was also greatly accelerated.

The large urn made of stoneware fell to the ground and shattered, affected by inertia, the red charcoal in the urn also splashed like an explosion, igniting all the objects that could be ignited around, and caught up with the strong wind at night, Puyang City was soon on fire everywhere, you could see the smoke of the fire everywhere, and the soldiers of Xichu who escaped from the room, Huan Chu and Kuaiche and others were so anxious that they roared and screamed, but they had no choice but to quickly order the soldiers to fight the fire with all their might, so as not to really ignite the whole city of Puyang with the original incendiary bombs of the Han army.

Standing in the courtyard and seeing such a scene, and hearing the screams of the soldiers of the Western Chu Army on the streets outside the courtyard, Sima Wei lost his soul and was depressed, and only after a while did he ask Li Zuoche, who had also lost his soul: "Guangwujun, how sure are we that we are holding Puyang?" ”

It was only when Sima Wei asked again that Li Zuoche slowly came back to his senses and replied with a bitter face: "In the past, it was more than ninety percent, but now, it may be less than one percent." Also, who dares to say that Xiang Kang is not good at attacking cities and fortifications in the future, and his subordinates will be the first to laugh at him for talking nonsense. ”