The threat of the opposite stone thrower was solved, and the strong crossbowmen on the opposing watchtower were fully suppressed, and the attack on the ground really began.

Sun Ce originally had 2,000 crossbowmen, plus a total of more than 5,000 people brought by King Chen, and he sent 3,000 people to stand up by the river, with a small formation of every 300 people, to suppress and shoot at the opponent under the cover of the big shield.

The arrows of the two sides galloped, the sound of breaking the wind was loud, and the long arrows flew over the chasm, staggered in the air, and fell into the opponent's formation with a sharp roar.

Cao Ang's department has more than 5,000 people, and according to the usual configuration ratio, there are about 1,500 crossbowmen. The level of these people was not as good as Sun Ce's subordinates, not to mention the strong crossbowmen trained by King Chen, and their equipment was also much inferior. Although the difference in strength between the two sides is not as great as the gap between the catapult and the strong crossbowman, there is no advantage at all, but there is no doubt that they will lose the upper hand as soon as they fight, and the two rounds of arrows will be suppressed before they are finished.

Cao Ren was anxious when he saw this. According to this trend, I am afraid that it will collapse before Yuan Tan's reinforcements arrive. He snatched a large shield, raised it with one hand, and shouted loudly in front of the battle in front of the rain of arrows to encourage morale. The strong crossbowman who shot the tower immediately noticed him, and the arrows came one after another, and in the blink of an eye, two arrows pierced the shield, one of which hit Cao Ren's arm, which was blocked by the armor, but it also shocked Cao Ren's arm numb. Cao Ren's personal guards rushed forward and covered Cao Ren with their shields, Cao Ren cursed, swung his sword to cut off the feathered arrows on the shield, and ordered the crossbowmen to maintain their formation and continue to shoot.

The crossbowmen were so excited by Cao Ren's courage that they gritted their teeth and continued to shoot.

Sun Ce saw Cao Ren on the command platform and secretly sighed. Cao Ren is in the underworld in the end, and he is very tough. In Cao Wei's clan, Cao Ren is not ranked high, but he has always been Cao Cao's indispensable right-hand man and has made great contributions to the Cao family. Although he failed to fight for Jiangling with Zhou Yu, he also consumed Zhou Yu to death, and Zhou Yu's untimely death had a great deal to do with him.

Seeing him running back and forth in front of the battle in the rain of arrows, boosting morale, Sun Ce was unmoved. Courage can only work for a short time and cannot fully compensate for the gap in strength. Under such a dense rain of arrows, he couldn't hold on for long. He had personal guards to protect him, and he had fine armor to protect himself, but the ordinary crossbowmen did not, and the longer the time dragged on, the greater their casualties.

Sun Ce was as steady as Mount Tai, chatting with King Chen while observing the situation on the battlefield.

The heralds ran back and forth, delivering the latest news to Guo Jia in a steady stream.

Fifty ships and a thousand foot soldiers were ready for a surprise attack. These 1,000 people are all the elite of the pro-guard battalion, if it weren't for the rush to cross, this 1,000 people would be enough to overturn Cao Ang's 5,000 people, now, Sun Ce only expects them to tear through Cao Ren's defense line, gain a firm foothold on the other side, establish a position, and receive more people to cross the chasm.

Sun Ce regretted that the ship was too small, with a carrying capacity of only three or four hundred stones, and could not carry more than thirty people, ten people supported the boat, and the maximum number of soldiers was twenty. If a bigger ship could transport more fighters over, it would break through Cao Ren's position in one go. Now, the casualties will definitely be larger than expected, perhaps as much as 30%.

While Sun Ce was distressed about possible casualties, Cao Ren felt a strong pressure. Although the fifty ships had not yet left the shore and the assault had not yet begun, he was aware that the real test was about to come. Sun Ce's subordinates have always been known for their strict training and well-equipped, and their combat effectiveness far exceeds that of ordinary soldiers, but these people behind him have just been recruited, and if the losses are too great, Cao Ang will not have the financial resources to recruit more personnel in a short period of time.

If Yuan Tan refuses to reinforce him, shouldn't he retreat to avoid too many casualties?

Cao Ren hesitated. They didn't plan to fight hard with Sun Ce, they had a plan to avoid his edge, but they couldn't do it too explicitly, at least they had to hold on for half a day, and it would be better if they could hold on for a day. Now that the actual war has started for less than an hour, the withdrawal is too early to cause enough trouble to Sun Ce, and Yuan Tan will suspect that they will be passive and lose trust in Cao Ang.

However, if we continue to persevere, the casualties will exceed expectations and will eventually be unbearable.

The rain of arrows intensified, and the guards fell one by one. These are the rangers who followed him across Huaisi back then, after several battles in Bianshui and Nanyang, most of them were lost, and less than 200 people remained, and any one of them died in battle was a major loss. Hearing the muffled snort when they were hit by the arrow, Cao Ren's heart ached, and the order to retreat came to his lips several times, and he swallowed it back raw.

Across the wide chasm, thousands of people who don't know each other are taking each other's lives, and they don't even have a chance to see each other's faces.

——

As soon as the car stopped, Chen Gong got out of the car. The carriage drove so fast that both of his legs were numb, and as soon as his feet touched the ground, his calves tingled violently. Chen Gong gritted his teeth, limped into the camp gate, and walked quickly towards the big tent of the Chinese army.

There were three hundred steps from the camp gate to the big tent of the Chinese army, Chen Gong felt that these three hundred steps were longer than all the roads he had walked in his life, and when he stopped in front of the big tent, his feet didn't hurt anymore, but his face was already pale and sweaty. Bian Rang was walking out of it and was taken aback when he saw Chen Gong's appearance.

"Gongtai, what's wrong, is you sick?"

Chen Gong didn't have time to make a noise. "Are you busy?"

Bian Rang reacted and hurriedly let Chen Gong inside. "It's nothing, I'm waiting for news from you. Sun Ce attacked? ”

"It's offensive, it's fierce." Chen Gong walked into the big tent. For ventilation, the corners of the tents were lifted, but they were still sweltering. Yuan Tan was shaking a pu fan in one hand and holding a cold mung bean soup on the other, and when he saw Chen Gong coming in, he hurriedly asked someone to bring Chen Gong a bowl. He immediately noticed that Chen Gong's face was not good, and asked with concern: "Gongtai, ...... are you?"

"Envoy, Sun Ce's offensive is very fierce, especially the strong crossbowmen brought by King Chen are extremely lethal, and we have suffered heavy casualties, please envoy Jun reinforcements as soon as possible."

Chen Gong said as he placed two bloody crossbow arrows in front of Yuan Tan. Yuan Tan picked it up and saw that the blood feather on the arrow had almost reached the arrow feather, and he was also surprised. Across a chasm, it can penetrate deep into the human body, and the strength of this crossbow is very strong.

"How many catapults?"

"Estimated six stones."

Yuan Tan groaned: "This King Chen is worthy of his name, but we underestimate him." ”

Bian Rang was a little unimpressed, picked up the arrow and took a look. "Two hundred steps away, even if the strength is enough, it is difficult for the human eye to identify the target, and the hit rate is one or two percent. No matter how good Chen Wang is at shooting, how many such marksmen can he have? ”

"Fifty shooting towers, each shooting tower has three crossbowmen, with a hundred arrows as a round, two groups of rotations, a total of three hundred people." Chen Gong quickly explained the situation before the battle, and asked Yuan Tan again to send reinforcements, even if it was to send some crossbowmen. Cao Ang was severely short of crossbowmen and might not be able to effectively stop Sun Ce's foot men from crossing the water.

Yuan Tan thought about it and readily agreed. He not only ordered the transfer of 3,000 crossbowmen to reinforce Cao Ang, but also asked Chen Gong to tell Cao Ang that he must support him for a while, Liu Bei was on his way, and he could arrive in an hour at most.

Chen Gong was grateful, thanked Yuan Tan on behalf of Cao Ang, and hurried back to the position.

After sending Chen Gong away, the more Yuan Tan thought about it, the more uneasy he became. The war had just begun, and it was only local contact, and things exceeded expectations, which is not a good sign. He stepped out of the tent and looked up at the cloudless sky.

"Wenli, do you think there will be rain in the next two days?"

Bian Jean shook his head. "August day, child's face, no one can say."

Yuan Tan sighed.