Chapter 176: The Crusade (8)

The Liangzhou coalition army spread along the Weishui, Qingshui and other rivers, and the company camped for more than 30 miles. The troops on the front line, the troops stationed in the western part of Fufu County, and the people who were transferred later, the total number exceeded 100,000. With such a huge military situation, not to mention the small number of troops in Chencang City, even if Huangfu Song is there in person, he is probably not willing to fight hard.

Although most of the Xiliang cavalry were loosely disciplined, their impact in the field was amazing. The Han army, which was mainly infantry, would be easily crushed if it did not have good terrain and if it did not form a battle formation. Moreover, the mobility of the infantry is far inferior to that of the cavalry, even if the Han army defeats the Xiliang army, it can only be defeated if it is long, and it is difficult to annihilate it.

When Chen Cheng commanded the Liangzhou coalition army to cut down trees and make catapults, Huangfu Song, who was far away in Chang'an, asked Ding Yuan to immediately send troops to rescue Chen Cang, and he said to Ding Yuan: "If there is no army to help outside, there is no city to defend inside." Although Chen Cang is strong, if there are no reinforcements, it will eventually fall. If Chen Cang is lost, the gate will be shaken! Please send troops to the rescue immediately! ”

Huangfu Song's military record, fame, and even official position are above Ding Yuan, but now Ding Yuan is the general of Zhengxi, but he has suppressed Huang Fu Song's left general. Even so, Huangfu Song did not have any dissatisfaction, but was very respectful to Ding Yuan. He has been cautious all his life, and has always adhered to the way of being an official and a general, and has never been arrogant and domineering.

Ding Yuan pondered for a moment and said to Huangfu Song; "But the general ordered me to wait for Feng Yi to leave Tunzuo and wait for the opportunity to capture Hedong. If the army is brought back to the west, I am afraid that the general will blame. ”

Huangfu Song said: "The general wants us to send troops to Hedong in order to defeat Dong Zhuo, who has divided the territory and annexed the state. But Dong Zhuojiu is in Xiliang, and there are many old troops, once the Xiliang army enters Guanzhong, it will definitely collude with it, and at that time, we will be caught in the middle of a two-sided attack. Rather than this, it is better to return to the army first to defeat the Xiliang army, and then turn around and attack Dong Zhuo. ”

Ding Yuan is also a soldier and knows the severity of the matter. Although he longed to destroy Dong Zhuo tomorrow, he also knew that Dong Zhongying could not be eliminated overnight. Therefore, after listening to Huangfu Song's advice, he immediately clapped his head and said: "Then as General Zuo said, I will lead the army eastward to reject Dong Zhuo." General Zuo waved his army to the west, first defeated the thieves in Liangzhou, and then joined forces with me to defeat Dong Zhuo together! ”

Huangfu Song shook his head and said, "If you divide your strength, you will be weak, and if you combine your strength, you will be strong." Instead of dividing the troops, why not go all out to the west? ”

Ding Yuanxin said: I only said that Huang Fu was really cautious in using troops, but I didn't know that he also had times when he was in danger.

"If you go all out to the west, Dong Zhuo takes the opportunity to attack Feng Yi, what should you do?"

Huangfu Song said calmly: "If Dong Zhuo dares to lead his troops to cross the Yellow River, the general can send troops from Luoyang to seize Hedong. ”

Ding Yuan shook his head and said: "When the Xiliang people broke the blood flow on the head of Chen Cang, I am afraid that Dong Zhuo has already captured Feng Yi and is approaching Chang'an City." In my opinion, it is better to divide the troops. ”

Huangfu Song showed a resolute look on his face, "So this time, we won't wait for the Xiliang people to retreat." ”

Ding Yuan's heart shook and asked, "What does General Zuo mean?" ”

Huangfu Song said in a deep voice: "Our army will first gather in martial arts, and then immediately march westward to fight a decisive battle with the Xiliang army, and at the same time send strange soldiers to cut off the enemy's rear road and capture them all!" ”

Ding Yuan looked at Huangfu Song's firm eyes, thought for a while, and then laughed out loud, he bowed to Huangfu Song, and said: "Since General Zuo has such courage, I will go to the general with the general!" ”

Under the city of Chencang, the camp of the Xiliang Army has been established. In other words, only a few elites have the move to set up camps, and the rest still find a random place to live with abundant water and grass, no different from when they were grazing. Those Qiang cavalry, like horses, cattle and sheep, were all over the mountains and fields, everywhere.

Only Chen Cheng's department had a deep ditch and a high base, and established a complete defense system. The iron ore in Helan Mountain turned into molten iron, and in the blacksmith shops near Yinchuan, shovels, chainsaws, and other tools, which greatly increased the speed at which the army could set up camps. It took only three days for a sturdy camp to appear on the edge of Weishui, and this camp is still being strengthened.

Han Sui and the others were shocked when they saw Chen Chengjun build the camp so quickly, but many people laughed loudly.

"What's the use of a camp built so strong? Could it be that the people in the city still dare to come out to fight in the field? ”

"That's it, it is said that Chen Envoy Jun is brave and brave, and he looks like a good man, why is he so daring?"

"Haha, maybe they are afraid of the night attack of the officers and soldiers?"

"Hey, hey, hey!"

"Hahaha!"

Like the Xiongnu and Wuhuan people, many of them have the habit of raising dogs. At night, they slept in tents with their dogs. It is not easy to launch a night attack on them. Duan Xuan was born in Guzang City, Wuwei County, and knew a lot about the Qiang people, knowing the Qiang people's custom of raising dogs, and he didn't have many troops in his hands.

Even the soldiers under Chen Cheng's command did not understand very well. Thinking that you have an absolute advantage, why waste time and energy on building camps? However, Chen Cheng has a very high prestige in the army, and even if the soldiers below don't understand, they have to implement it first.

On the fourth day, the craftsmen in the camp began to make catapults from pre-prepared iron parts. What Chen Cheng was going to build was a counterweight catapult, the kind of "return cannon" used by the Mongols in Xiangyang. This catapult can launch 150 pounds of stone 300 meters away. Before artillery technology was lit up, the "return cannon" was a great weapon for siege.

The catapults being built now may be a little worse than those used by the Mongols, but not much worse.

In addition to the catapults, Chen Cheng also ordered people to make many shield carts, which were used to cover the soldiers and fill the trenches. A huge siege tower was also erected, ready to wait for the trench to be filled in, and then leaning against the city wall to fight. Although Chencang City is not large, it can also be attacked from several directions, so it is necessary to prepare more siege equipment.

Because of the insufficient number of craftsmen in the army, many people with rough writing and numbers were drawn from the tooth soldiers to join the team of making siege equipment. Before, Chen Cheng had always regarded the Xiongnu Xianbei in the north as an imaginary enemy, and he didn't think about attacking the city, so his preparation was still a little insufficient.

After making siege equipment for three days, Chen Cheng temporarily decided to set up an "engineer battalion" and promoted some of the tooth soldiers who were literate and hyphenated and had a rough understanding of mathematics to technical officers and transferred them to the engineer battalion.

For many reasons, the Xiliang army has always only preferred field warfare, and its ability to attack and defend cities is very poor. They never imagined that they would be able to create such a big thing as a "siege tower" so quickly. Looking at the "siege tower" that was already two or three zhang high, many Qiang people were shocked and inexplicable, thinking that this was the result of the sorcerer's spell.

Even Han Sui Chengyi and others were shocked. In the face of a huge creation, it is easy to feel small. There were more and more siege equipment outside the city, and when the "siege tower" that was taller than the city wall was erected, the Xiliang army was certainly shocked, and the defenders at the head of the city were even more shocked.

Duan Xuan will go to the city every day to observe the enemy's situation, the Xiliang army has not attacked the city in the past few days, he is still thinking about whether the enemy is preparing to "encircle the point to send reinforcements", and wonders whether to write another letter to Huangfu Song, so that they should not rush to send troops, so as not to fall into the ambush of the Xiliang people.

But when the "siege tower" outside the city became taller and taller, and even began to exceed the height of the city wall, Duan Xuan immediately changed his mind. Where is this to "encircle the point and send reinforcements"? This is clearly preparing for a strong attack! Although the ten catapults on the side of the "siege tower" are also very large, in terms of visual impact, the behemoth at the front is more frightening.

He didn't know what the many strange things created by the Xiliang people outside the city had any effect, but the "siege tower" was so tall that it had exceeded the height of the city wall, and he knew that the situation was not good. Taking advantage of the night, Duan Xuan sent messengers to the rear again, and at the same time, he also sent elite troops, carrying oil canisters and flames, ready to burn the huge monsters outside the city.

No matter what the tall monsters do, they are still made of wood. If you make wood, you can burn it, this is a very simple logic. At night, the defenders climbed down the wall with ropes, crossed the trenches, and killed the place where the siege equipment was kept.

Even though he knew that the night attack might cause heavy losses, Duan Xuan couldn't care too much.

Before the officers and soldiers who left the city touched the edge of the "siege tower", the sound of a dog barking sounded in the dark night. Someone shouted: "Enemy attack! ”

Bonfires and torches are lit to illuminate a radius of hundreds of meters. The officers and soldiers who attacked had long been prepared to be discovered, and they did not panic when they saw this, and under the leadership of the general, they went straight to the place where the siege equipment was stored. In the firelight, a person who looked like a general said loudly: "I will wait for the court to eat and kill the enemy together!" ”

He took the lead in the charge, and the morale of the soldiers behind him was greatly boosted. These people are not only to serve the imperial court, but also to defend their hometown. Everyone knew what would happen if the Xiliang people broke through Chen Cang, so even if they were discovered, they were not afraid, and they shouted in unison: "I am willing to die with the general!" ”

Although the number of this Han army was small, it had a strong fighting spirit, strong armor and soldiers, and acted very decisively, breaking through the defense line of the two Qiang people one after another, and directly killing the target. The iron-clad general shouted loudly while struggling forward, and under the sword in his hand, the Qiang people retreated one after another. The soldiers behind him fought as they set the tents on fire along the way.

Chen Cheng stood at the top of the siege tower, looked at the enemy army rushing wildly, heard the other party's shout, and couldn't help but feel a little excited. At his feet, dozens of tooth soldiers remained motionless with torches in hand, seemingly indifferent to the fierce battle not far away. In the darkness, more soldiers waited silently.

Seeing that the enemy was getting closer and closer, Wei Ran on the side couldn't help but say, "Lord? If you don't attack again, I'm afraid it's really going to burn here. ”

Chen Cheng glanced at Wei Ran, and the firelight danced in the latter's eyes, as if it was the enthusiasm of the battle. He put away a little compassion and said in a deep voice: "Attack! ”

Wei Ran was overjoyed and shouted below: "The lord has an order, trap the camp and attack!" ”

The sound of the horn sounded in the darkness, and the long-awaited trapped camp rushed forward according to the long-trained formation, and the armor leaves on their bodies rattled.