On the fifth day of October, Cao's army finally began a frontal attack on Liu Cong and Jingzhou.

Zhang Liao was responsible for leading his troops to launch a tentative attack on Fancheng.

Although he had received a lot of information about Fancheng and Liu Cong before, he was still a little surprised when he led the front men to the north gate of Fancheng, looking at the enemy soldiers standing by the wide moat, looking at the arrow tower standing in the distance and the enemy soldiers standing straight on the city wall, Zhang Liao, who had experienced a hundred battles, also gasped.

It is clear that the information obtained before is not accurate, at least the information about Liu Cong is wrong. As a general, you can know the strength of the opposing generals at a glance at the enemy army. It is said that Cao's army of more than 100,000 soldiers came to the city and had an absolute advantage, but when Zhang Liao led his army to Fancheng, he found that the enemy army on the city wall was much more morale than these soldiers led by him.

Such a state of response made Zhang Liao also feel a trace of pressure. If there are no famous generals in the city, it is absolutely impossible. And the previous information was: Liu Cong was as elegant as Liu Biao, but he was not enough in martial arts, and even many people thought that Liu Cong's victory was accidental after the defeat of Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun.

Now looking at the moat, looking at the arrow tower outside the city wall and the soldiers stationed on the arrow tower, Zhang Liao understands that this is no accident.

However, since Zhang Liao led the front army, he was responsible for testing the strength of the enemy army.

After a little observation, Zhang Liao ordered to prepare for the first wave of attacks!

The reason why Zhang Liao stopped by the moat before was that he found that Fancheng's defense was too good.

A bridge less than two zhang wide over the moat can accommodate up to ten people at a time. When you reach the other end of the bridge through the moat, you're within range of the nearby arrow tower!

And the open space between the moat and the gates was almost covered by arrow towers and crossbowmen on the ramparts.

However, Zhang Liao did not give up, and drove team after team of Cao soldiers to the north gate of Fancheng.

Since it was the first day that Cao's army attacked the city, Liu Cong also came to the city wall in person, standing above the city gate, watching the teams of Cao army struggling to squeeze across the bridge on the moat and running to the city gate, Liu Cong still felt a trace of shock.

Knowing that there was no return, these Cao Jun did not hesitate at all, is this the real war in the era of cold weapons?

Ten, twenty, thirty, more and more Cao troops poured across the moat, and after they crossed the river, their goals were also very clear, and they rushed to the nearest arrow tower one by one!

The defensive battle of Fancheng, which was mainly commanded by Wen Ping, began as soon as the first Cao army crossed the moat from the bridge.

Cao Jun wanted to destroy the arrow tower, but the soldiers on the arrow tower naturally couldn't let them succeed, and fired a salvo of bows and crossbows!

Soon Cao Jun paid nearly a song of soldiers, but only a few of them attacked under the arrow tower, and were shot over before they could quickly slash the second sword.

The first and second groups, until the third group was repelled by the Jingzhou soldiers, Cao Jun finally managed to get an arrow tower near the left of the moat bridge. In order to deal with this arrow tower, Cao Jun paid the price of more than 1,000 deaths and 4500 wounds.

In the second batch of temptations, Zhang Liao chose archers, starting from the moat, all 500 archers were full of bows. Once in range, focus on the tower.

Such a temptation was obviously more obvious than the effect of the first round, and the five hundred archers marched forward in a neat pace, and the two sides fired at each other, and the numerical disadvantage on the Jingzhou Arrow Tower was revealed.

Fortunately, the distance between the two towers was not too large when the turrets were built, and there were wooden ladders connected in advance, and soon the archers stationed on the top four or five turrets either fell from the arrows or retreated to the turrets behind.

Half an hour later, nearly 2,000 Cao troops attacked under the arrow tower, and the top few arrow towers were soon cut down by Cao Jun!

However, compared with the casualties on both sides, it was Cao's army that was much more serious. The Jingzhou soldiers lost about fifty archers, and nearly a hundred or so were torn off the arrow tower after being shot, and these people were immediately sent to the medical center in the city.

On the other hand, Cao's two rounds of tentative attacks cost nearly 2,000 casualties. The role of defensive turrets can be seen.

Even so, Zhang Liao did not stop attacking, and throughout the morning, wave after wave of soldiers rushed to the arrow tower by the moat. It seems that their purpose is very clear, that is, to clear these arrow towers for the main force behind!

Zhang Liao continued to drive the soldiers forward one after another, and the number of generals watching the battle on both sides gradually increased.

Almost all the generals stationed in Fancheng went up to the city wall, and most of them followed Liu Cong above the city gate. Judging from their expressions, the battle on the first day was relatively easy, after all, the moat cut off the direct contact between the two sides.

If Cao's army wanted to attack the Jingzhou soldiers, they had to pass through the only bridge over the moat, so that even if a hundred or two hundred people came at once, they could not threaten the tower.

However, Liu Cong was not easy, according to this speed, the arrow tower he arranged by the moat would be completely destroyed in a few days. And Cao Cao is not stupid, after Zhang Liao's temptation today, he will definitely change his strategy later.

"Wen Chang, you immediately go and gather the craftsmen in the city, start to make the arrow tower, and recover quickly after the enemy army retreats!"

"Yes!"

Today's contact battle made Liu Cong see the power of the arrow tower, and Zhang Liao's destruction of the arrow tower at such a cost must also be afraid of the power of the arrow tower. Nowadays, there is a large amount of wood hoarded in Fancheng, and it is not difficult to build an arrow tower.

"Yuqi, go and invite General Wen over."

Liu Yin led the order to walk towards Wen Ping, who was directing the defense.

After a while, Wen Ping came to Liu Cong: "Lord, what do you order?" ”

"The arrow tower is damaged too quickly, we must find a way!"

"Please make it clear!" Wen Ping naturally knows the advantages of the arrow tower, but such a damage ratio is indeed inevitable. Especially when the Cao army advanced with a mixture of archers and infantry, it was impossible to completely prevent the Cao army from approaching the arrow tower, which was almost an entire structure, and once it was close, it could destroy an arrow tower with a few swords.

"I have ordered Wen Chang to gather craftsmen to build a new arrow tower as soon as possible, and from tomorrow onwards, all the generals below me will supervise the battle on the front line, and each of them will be responsible for several arrow towers!"

"This ......" Wen Ping looked at Liu Cong and then looked at the generals around Liu Cong, there were few generals in Jingzhou, and if the generals were damaged in order to protect the arrow towers on the periphery, Wen Ping felt that it was not cost-effective.

"We are far from Cao's army, so every inch of land outside the city walls cannot be given up lightly. Of course, the generals must also learn to protect themselves, and I don't want unnecessary casualties! It's up to you to arrange it. No matter how many Cao troops attack the city tomorrow, I need at least one team of Cao soldiers to accompany each arrow tower to bury! ”

"Yes!"

Liu Cong's goal really frightened the generals, an arrow tower to bury fifty Cao soldiers, then the more than 100 arrow towers outside the city wall can bury more than 10,000 Cao troops.

However, Liu Cong didn't think so, an attack like today's, Zhang Liao would carry out another day or two at most, and then Cao Cao would definitely organize people to fill the moat and build siege equipment, and then the power of the arrow tower would be greatly reduced. Therefore, it is necessary to kill and injure Cao Jun as much as possible before Cao Jun has no siege equipment.

Now the generals stationed in Fancheng include Wen Ping, Wei Yan, Liu Pan, Huang Zhong, Jiang Wan, Zhang Yun and the Huang brothers.

Soon it was dark, and neither side tried to attack again. After Zhang Liao gathered the soldiers, he reported to Cao Cao as soon as possible.

"Prime Minister, the arrow towers by the enemy's moat are built very densely and reasonably, our army has suffered great casualties, the moat is wide and deep, and the only bridge can only pass ten people at a time. Your Majesty must have sent someone to fill in the moat, at least to fill in the width of fifty people charging at the same time! ”

"Well, I know about this, tomorrow I will try again, strive to attack the city wall, Liu Cong Xiao'er will cut down the nearby trees, you wait a few days, I have already sent people to the nearby mountains and forests to cut down trees, Liu Ye was also ordered to gather craftsmen to prepare to build the thunderbolt and the well!"

Originally, these siege equipment, including the rushing car, were necessary tools for siege, but the equipment moved too slowly, and Cao Cao set off from Xuchang to Xiangyang for thousands of miles, so he could only go to the front line to do it.

Who knew that Liu Cong was not stupid, except for setting aside some wooden stakes to stop Cao Cao's march, almost all the trees that could be used within ten miles north of Fancheng City were cut down, and even the stones could not be found, so Cao Cao had no choice but to send people to the mountains and forests in the distance to ask for wood.