The next day, Liu Xiu led the Han army, poured out of the nest, and went straight to Changxi.

Dong Xian did not dare to send troops to meet the battle, and ordered his subordinates to strictly defend the city.

Xinyang and Changxi were close at hand, only more than ten miles apart, and after the Han army arrived in Changxi, Liu Xiu immediately gave the order to attack.

The Han army led by Wu Han mainly attacked the southern city of Changxi, the Han army led by Gai Yan mainly attacked the western city of Changxi, the Han army led by Wang Liang mainly attacked the eastern city of Changxi, the Han army led by Wang Chang mainly attacked the northern city of Changxi, and Ma Wu and Wang Ba led the cavalry to attack around the city, or wait for an opportunity to move, or assist in the siege.

As soon as the order was given, the Han army immediately dispersed and launched an all-out onslaught on Chang Xi.

Liu Xiu was on the side of the southern city, the Han army led by Wu Han, the offensive was also the most ferocious, one after another stone throwing machines were transported to the front of the city, lined up in two large rows, and smashed the stones one by one to the head of Changxi City, and the rumbling sound was loud and loud, one after another, endlessly.

The defenders at the head of the city did not dare to show their heads at all, and either hid under the battlements of arrows or under the city walls.

Dong Xian personally climbed the city gate tower and raised his eyes to look out of the city.

The strength of the Han army outside the city is not so much that it is dizzying, but the momentum of the Han army is very high, the sound of drums is like bursting beans, the banner is like a forest, and the embroidered ribbon is like a sea.

The battle phalanx was advancing in an orderly manner.

Dong Xian, who was in the city gate tower, was stretching his neck to look at it, when suddenly there was a boom, and a stone smashed on the wall of the city gate tower, and a loud noise broke out, and even the ground trembled.

Dong Xian's body shook, and he involuntarily took two steps back.

The generals under his command hurriedly stepped forward and supported Dong Xian, and the people persuaded: "King, it's too dangerous here, the king should go back to the city!" ”

Dong Xian pushed everyone away, waved his hand, and said, "In this battle, Liu Xiu is going to fight me to the death!" ”

When the Han army advanced to less than fifty paces from the city wall, the Han army's stone throwers stopped attacking.

Dong Xian took a deep breath and shouted loudly: "The whole army welcomes the enemy!" ”

The soldiers of Dong Xianjun, who were originally hiding under the city wall, climbed the city wall one after another, and the archers twisted their bows and arrows one by one, and launched a volley at the Han army array advancing outside the city.

Airplanes! A black cloud rose from the top of the city, drew an arc in the air, and roared into the Han camp.

Doo, doo, do! The shield array formed by the Han army's array, on its shield surface, a layer of black grass quickly grew at a speed visible to the naked eye, and from time to time there were also Han soldiers who fell to the ground with arrows.

Dong Xianjun's arrow array could not stop the advance of the Han army, and soon, the phalanx walking in the front had come to the front of the city wall, and the archers in the phalanx released arrows from the city to the city, and the ordinary soldiers set up ladders and climbed to the top of the city.

For the offensive launched by the Han army, Dong Xianjun's side also responded calmly, rolling wood, stones, fire oil, arrows, but all the weapons that could be used to defend the city were used.

Just when the two sides were engaged in a full-scale fierce battle, a cavalry suddenly ran behind the Han army besieging the city.

The cavalry charged to the front of the city wall, and suddenly made a sharp turn, galloping horizontally in front of the city wall, and at the same time, the cavalry took their crossbow machines, aimed at the head of the city, and fired crossbow arrows in unison.

Smack, smack, smack! The sound of the ballista ricocheting echoed in unison, and a long crossbow bolt flew out of the cavalry ranks and swept towards the city.

Many of Dong Xianjun's soldiers, who were holding high rolling logs, stones, and fire oil, could not dodge, and were nailed to their chests, necks, and faces by the crossbow arrows that came up, and for a while, screams rang out.

Some of the soldiers who were hit by the arrows failed to throw the rolling logs, stones, and oil, but smashed them all on themselves.

Especially the soldiers who were doused with fire oil rolled on the ground in pain, and in the blink of an eye, their bodies were burned out of shape.

This cavalry is the siege rangers led by Ma Wu and Wang Ba.

Don't think that cavalry will lose its usefulness in siege warfare, the high-speed movement of cavalry, combined with crossbow machines, can cause great damage and threat to the soldiers defending the city.

As soon as the rangers walked by, they shot down a row of Dong Xianjun soldiers on the city wall.

Even Dong Xian, who was standing in the city gate tower, was affected, and a crossbow arrow shot in from the window of the city gate tower, almost grazing Dong Xian's cheek and flying over, if it deviated a little more, this crossbow arrow would have to be nailed to his eyebrows.

"Be careful—" A general hurriedly stepped forward and pulled Dong Xian back again and again, away from the window of the city gate tower.

Dong Xian exhaled in shock, raised his hand, and touched his cheek, which was hot and painful.

The siege of the Han army was too fierce, and the concept of siege was very advanced, not simply using infantry to storm the city, but with cavalry.

Most of the cavalry under Liu Xiu's command were Youzhou Raiders, and the long-term enemy of Youzhou Raiders was the Xiongnu.

The Huns attacked the city and adopted the tactics of combining foot and cavalry, and Youzhou Tucai also learned this tactic from the Huns.

It's just that the Xiongnu had low productivity, lacked iron weapons, lacked large-scale siege weapons, and even if they adopted the tactical concept of combining infantry and cavalry, the actual threat to the Han cities was not very large.

Unlike the Han army, iron weapons have long been widely used in the Han army, and all kinds of large-scale siege weapons are readily available, and then cooperate with the upstream cavalry to assist in the battle, causing great lethality to the enemy.

The rangers galloped by, the soldiers of Dong Xianjun at the head of the city fell, the defenders were in chaos, and the Han army took this opportunity to push the siege carts to the city gate.

The siege engine was hung with a thick log, the front of the log was a metal head, and the soldiers pulled the log and hit the city gate with the metal head, which would cause great damage to the city gate.

Boom, boom, boom - the Han soldiers took control of the siege engines and began to ram the gates of Changxi.

Even Dong Xian, who was in the city gate tower, could feel the tremors under his feet one after another.

Every time the siege vehicle log hit the city gate, it was like a hammer smashing into his heart.

Dong Xian swallowed his saliva and said urgently: "Use fire oil!" With rolling logs and stones, destroy the enemy's siege vehicles! ”

Under the command of Dong Xian, Dong Xian's soldiers poured fire oil on the city, or threw rolling wood and stones.

The siege vehicle is not defenseless, and there are small sheds on the top of the siege engine, although it is only made of leather, but it can also resist the smashing of rolling logs and stones of ordinary size.

The siege vehicles of the Han army continued to hit the city gate with rolling logs and stones, and the vicinity of the siege vehicles was full of archers, giving the greatest damage to the enemy troops who threw the rolling logs and stones at the siege vehicles, and also protecting their own siege vehicles to the greatest extent.

Inside the city gate, in order to reduce the impact of the siege vehicle, countless soldiers gathered in the city gate hole, with a wooden stake to hold the city gate, and many soldiers with their shoulders against the city gate, every time the siege vehicle hit the city gate, the city gate shook, and the people in the city gate hole also followed.

Seeing that the rolling wood and stones could not destroy the siege vehicles of the Han army, two soldiers of Dong Xianjun jointly carried a large pot of hot fire oil, came to the arrow stack, and were about to pour the fire oil down, when suddenly, several arrows flew up from the city, hitting the arm and chest of one of the soldiers.

The soldier screamed and fell to the ground, and instead of pouring out the pot, the pot of oil was sprinkled on him.

The soldier let out a heart-rending scream, and in an instant, the smell of burnt meat filled the city.

If it didn't work once, he came the second time, and the third time, under Dong Xianjun's many attempts, he finally poured out a large pot of fire oil.

The fire oil was poured on the shed of the siege car, which would not cause damage to the siege car, but the torches that fell next made the siege car turn into a train in an instant, and more than a dozen Han troops who controlled the siege car were affected.

The rolling rice and stones that fell from the city knocked people to the ground one by one.

However, the defenders who threw the rolling wood stones were soon hit by the arrows that flew up from outside the city, and one by one they fell to the ground.

The siege war has become a war of attrition to see who has more willpower, who can afford to consume, and who has the stronger ability to resist attacks.

The siege of the Han army lasted from morning to late night.

However, under the desperate defense of Dong Xianjun, although the Han army caused great casualties to the defenders, it was never able to tear through the city defense of Changxi.

The next morning, the Han army launched a siege on all sides.

However, this time, the Han army's offensive was more ferocious, and all kinds of large-scale siege weapons were carried up, in addition to stone throwers, siege vehicles, arrow towers and rushing vehicles.

The arrow tower is the height of the city wall, the slender and tall building car, there is a platform at the top, the archer can stand on the platform, the flat shot of the arrow can kill and injure the defenders on the city wall, there are four wheels under the arrow tower, and it can be moved by manpower to push and pull.

Rushing carts are specially used to destroy weak walls and cause them to collapse, and they are also a more common siege weapon.

With the arrow tower and the rushing car into battle, the Han army caused greater damage to the defenders of Changxi, and after a fierce battle all day, both sides suffered heavy casualties, but the Han army still failed to tear apart the city defense of Changxi.

Although the Han army had used the most advanced siege weapons at that time when attacking Changxi, the number of defenders in Changshu was too large, with nearly 150,000 people, and Dong Xian was indeed not an ordinary person, and his command and troop mobilization were very efficient.

Liu Xiu's order to the generals of the Han army was to break the city in three days, and now after two days of fierce fighting, his own side has never been able to break through the defense of Changxi City, which makes the Han army angry.

By the third day, the Han army had no reservations, whether it was a large siege weapon or a small siege weapon, as long as it could be used, all of them were pulled into the battlefield, whether it was a combat soldier or a logistics soldier, as long as they could breathe and kill the enemy, they were all deployed to the battlefield.

On the third day of the battle, Gaiyan, who was commanding the battle in Xicheng, went into battle in person.

He rushed to the front first, commanded his soldiers, and slammed the city gate with all his strength with siege vehicles.

The rolling logs and stones that flew down from the city were like snowflakes, and even though the siege vehicles were protected by sheds, it took less than a moment for a siege vehicle to be smashed to pieces.

One car was destroyed, and Gaiyan immediately brought in a second car and continued to ram the city gates.

The second one was destroyed, and the third and fourth were brought in.

Up to now, the Han army has been attacking the city at any cost, and there is only one thought left in people's minds, which is to break through the city defense.

The defenders of Chang Xi smashed seven or eight siege vehicles of the Han army in a row, and saw that in front of the city gate, the broken siege vehicles that were dragged aside were scattered.

Seeing that another siege vehicle was smashed, Gaiyan gritted his teeth and yelled, "One more siege vehicle!" ”

A general came to Gaiyan's approach, gasped and said, "General, our army ...... Our army now has only three siege engines left! ”

Gai Yan's eyes flashed, and he said in a condensed voice: "Our army's siege vehicles are running out, so we will go to borrow them from Da Sima and General Wang!" ”

The generals below grinned secretly, at this time, the siege vehicles in the south and north cities are estimated to be running out, can they lend them to themselves?

He muttered in a low voice: "I'm afraid, I'm afraid that Da Sima and General Wang may not be willing to borrow ......" "Then go and rob it!" ”

Gai Yan pulled his collar and said word by word: "In today's battle, I must break through the gate of Xicheng!" ”

Another siege vehicle was pushed in front of the city gate, and the Han soldiers on both sides of the siege vehicle pulled the log with all their strength, and then pushed it forward with all their might, and the metal head of the log hit the city gate with a loud bang.

The Han army of the attacking side almost used up all the siege vehicles, and the defenders in the city were not easy, and the wooden stakes that held the city gate did not know how many were broken, and the wooden stakes were not enough, and now they all relied on manpower to top.