Xiangyang has been a military and economic important place in the past dynasties, located between the Qinling Mountains, Daba Mountain and Dabie Mountain, connecting Nanyang in the north and the Jianghan Plain in the south.

When Liu Bei Zhongyuan and Cao Cao were defeated and defected to Liu Biao, Xiangyang was also the seat of Jingzhou as the county governor of Nanjun at that time, how prosperous, but after a few years, now to Xiangyang, the city is still the same, but the four fields are withered, there is a lot less popularity, and there are abandoned fields and manors everywhere.

Guan Yu marched for six days, arrived in Xiangyang, saw such a scene, but also a lot of emotion, he ordered the chief book Liao Hua to lead 10,000 troops, to hold Xiangyang, so that the Xiangyang defenders did not dare to move, led 30,000 troops to cross the Han River, waved troops to Fancheng.

Although he had been prepared, when he saw Guan Yu personally leading a large army to attack Fancheng, Yu Ban's heart was still sinking, counting the naval army, Guan Yu's soldiers and horses were ten times as many as his own, and this time he came, obviously with the determination to capture Xiangfan.

If the troops were sufficient, Yu Ban would not have asked Guan Yu to cross the river so easily, but now that the troops are insufficient, he can only stick to the city, and watch Guan Yu cross the river from under his nose with such a big grin.

"Then Yu Ban didn't dare to stop it, it seems that there are not many soldiers and horses in the city." Guan Yu did not rush to attack the city, but first set up a camp, stood on the dougong and watched the movement of Fancheng, and smiled at Ma Liang: "You can transfer our army's siege equipment, and you don't need to transfer the well, you only need to mobilize twenty catapults, fifty ladders and rushing vehicles." ”

Guan Yu deliberately transferred troops across the river with such fanfare, in order to explore the reality of Fancheng and lead the troops to fight, to find out the reality of the other party, in fact, it is not necessarily necessary to see it with his own eyes, experienced generals only need to make some tentative moves, and they can roughly find out the bottom of the other party.

The city wall of Fancheng is not high, if the troops are sufficient, they will definitely not call Guan Yu to cross the river so easily, but the defenders of Fancheng chose to be indifferent and let Guan Yu cross the river.

Ma Liang smiled and nodded, Guan Yu was really good at leading the troops to fight, and looked at the city wall of Fancheng in the distance and said with a smile: "The well made by Brother Boyuan is too high, and it is indeed inappropriate to use it in Fancheng." ”

The siege equipment designed by Liu Yi is designed according to Xiangyang City, and the catapults, rushing cars, and ladders are fine, and they can be adjusted according to the height of the city wall, but there is no way to do it.

"Fancheng Town, why bother." Guan Yu nodded and said: "When the siege equipment is delivered, we can ask Wenpin to cruise the river and contain the troops in the city, and our army will storm the southern city, or we can fight down." ”

"That Yu Ban is also a famous general of the Cao Army, and the prince should not be underestimated." Ma Liang frowned when he heard this.

Even if there are few soldiers and horses, but this Xiangfan Second City, Cao Ren has been operating for several years, it was originally built to fight against Liu Bei, and he wants to fight down, Ma Liang feels that Guan Yu is too underestimated that Yu Ban.

Guan Yu said proudly: "Ji Chang will see how I break the enemy!" ”

Arrogance is one reason, the most important thing is that Guan Yu is quite confident in the siege equipment that Liu Yi helped him build this time, that power, he has personally seen it, even Xiangyang Jiancheng may not be able to defend for a long time, let alone Fancheng?

Ma Liang smiled bitterly when he heard this, and no longer persuaded him, he had worked with Guan Yu for several years, and knew that Guan Yu at this time could not be persuaded.

After Guan Yu set up camp, he did not immediately move troops, but began to build fortifications in an orderly manner, digging trenches, and at the same time a large number of siege equipment was transported into the military camp, and it was not until the fifth day after Guan Yu arrived in Fancheng that the siege began.

Twenty catapults, when they were one hundred and twenty paces away from the city wall, stopped advancing, just where Cao's crossbow arrows and artillery could not attack, and then the roof with the canopy and the strange style of the ladder began to slowly approach the city wall, and the soldiers and horses also began to slowly push towards the city wall with the advance of these siege equipment.

While cruising on the river to contain the forces of Cao's army, it was also to prevent the aid of Xiangyang City, and the thunderbolts on the city wall continued to roar, hitting the artillery into the flotilla in the river.

The siege ships on Liu Bei's side were all built by Liu Yi, although there were not many of them, but they were like a small fortress, with extremely strong attack power on the water.

The frontal siege troops have not yet begun to attack, but the water village has already handed over the fire, Wen Ping is proficient in water warfare, and has also studied a lot of tactics according to the siege ships over the years, twenty siege ships attack alternately, and the boats and ships are cruising around to attract the firepower of the city.

Although many ships were sunk, the twenty siege ships were not damaged at all.

Above the south gate, Yu Ban looked at the engineering equipment that was slowly advancing in surprise.

"Then why is the ladder unpushed!?" Several generals of the Cao army were ready to wait for the ladder to approach, and then ordered someone to shoot the soldier who pushed the ladder, but after looking for a long time, the ladder turned out to be moving by itself, although it moved slowly, but this kind of ladder that does not need manpower and animal power to push, they saw it for the first time, and they were shocked for a while.

"Kerose!" Yu Ban's face was heavy, although Guan Yu's army was not fast, but it gave him the feeling that it was like a mountain moving towards Fancheng, not only the appearance of the ladder was amazing, it was the rushing car, there was a roof, there were baffles on all sides, and the bows and arrows were shot on it, many of them were directly bounced away, even if they could be shot into it, they could not hurt their soldiers, this kind of thing could only be burned with fire.

"Boom~"

As soon as Yu Ban's voice fell, he heard a piercing roar from the opposite array, and huge stone bullets fell from the sky, constantly bombarding the city wall, smashing out potholes, and the entire city wall seemed to be shaking.

The range of the other party's catapult is so far!

Yu Ban looked at the other party's distance of about one hundred and twenty steps from the city wall, and his heart was a little cold, the range of his own thunderbolt was much farther than that of ordinary catapults, but even with the advantage of the city wall, he categorically couldn't throw the stone projectile so far.

"Thunderbolt, attack!" Gritting his teeth, Yu Ban knew that it was impossible to bombard, so he could only let the thunderbolt car be fired at the place where there were many people on the other side, and the stone bullets that broke through the air fell from the sky, and the casualties on Guan Yu's side began to intensify, and a large number of arrows continued to shoot down towards this side, some were blocked by shields, and many hit the Jingzhou army.

The archers in the back row also began to counterattack, but the range was also much farther, standing an arrow away, they could attack the defenders at the head of the city, Guan Yu after determining the range of the opponent, he sent four teams of archers of a thousand people to stand outside the range of the opponent and release arrows to the head of the city, and after a while, the archers at the head of the city could not raise their heads.

At the beginning of the war, the defenders were already at a disadvantage, and the three-zhang high city walls did not bring much advantage to the defenders.

Damn it!

Yu Ban was protected by two shield bearers, looking at the ladder that had been set up on the city wall, the whole person was a little bad, but fortunately, the opponent's shooter saw that the enemy had been met in front of him, and in order to avoid accidental injury, he gradually stopped firing arrows, so that the soldiers defending the city had a little respite.

Yu Ban hurriedly ordered people to fight back, rolling wood and stone oil and throwing it down without money, the tragic fight began at this moment, the war seemed to have entered a white-hot state in a very short period of time, on the burning ladder, there were still Jingzhou soldiers rushing up desperately, being assassinated by several Cao Jun with spears or going down, the car continued to hit the city gate, and the soldiers responsible for resisting the city gate continued to bear the suffocating blows again and again.

Fifty ladders, there is no one that has been ignited, a Jingzhou army in armor brutally fixed the attack of the Cao army, rushed up the city wall, and slashed at the Cao army who surrounded and suppressed, although it was quickly strangled, but it also continued to impact the defense line of the Cao army, tearing a gap in the city wall.

After killing the soldiers of Jingzhou, Cao Jun, who was red-eyed, rushed down the ladder directly, but as soon as he appeared, he was shot by the crossbowmen under the city.

Yu Ban carried the sword and walked around, constantly killing the Jingzhou army that rushed up, he fought for half his life, or the first time he was killed by the enemy army at the beginning of the battle to defend the city, and the Cao army in the city was originally ready to rotate at this moment was also recruited by Yu Ban on the city wall, Guan Yu's offensive was too fierce, like this, if you still retain your spare strength, I am afraid that you will not be able to hold it for a day.

At the same time, Yu ordered the forbidden people to carry all the fire oil in the treasury to the city wall, and burn those damn ladders first.

Guan Yu frowned slightly when he saw that the defenders kept using fire oil to burn the ladder, but there was no way, at this time, he couldn't remove the ladder, he could only break the city before the other party burned the ladder.

Not only the ladder, even the rushing car was not spared, the position of the city gate was thrown down dozens of pots of hot oil, and then a torch was thrown down, in an instant, the city gate area became a sea of fire, many Jingzhou soldiers screamed and rolled in the sea of fire, the unpleasant smell began to permeate the battlefield, the city gate could not approach for a while, Yu Ban took the guards to frantically kill the Jingzhou army that rushed to the city wall.

The war was fought from morning to evening, Guan Yu was a little unwilling to collect troops back to the camp, fifty ladders were burned, and the soldiers lost three thousand, this Fancheng, after all, failed to fight down, but Guan Yu could feel it, maybe with more force, this Fancheng can be breached, but there is no ladder, Guan Yu can only order someone to transfer another fifty ladders to cross the river, and at the same time order craftsmen to build more ladders overnight, Fancheng is so, Xiangyang, I'm afraid the remaining two hundred ladders are not enough.

Watching the Jingzhou army retreat like a tide, Yu Ban stood at the head of the city in a daze, for a long time, he collapsed and sat on the ground along the enemy building, the blood on the ground had dried up, and it was very uncomfortable to sit on, but he didn't want to move at the moment, just one day, the defenders lost more than half, and then ...... How do you keep it?