In Wuchang City, the Chen army that regained the city again is repairing the city defenses, in order to prevent the Zhou army from attacking again, so they have been 'patching' since the day they entered Wuchang, and the important land that has been lost twice can not be lost again.

After the first loss of Wuchang, the northern city wall was completely destroyed by the Zhou army, and after the second loss of Wuchang, most of the east and north city walls were also destroyed.

After the Chen army 'recovered' Wuchang again, according to the description of the defeated soldiers, it was found that the foundation of the wall had been hollowed out under the collapsed city wall, which was the first time that the Zhou army captured Wuchang, and then made this section of the city wall to dig out the wall foundation, and then erected it with wooden stakes and bamboo, and then covered the tunnel exit with soil, which could not be seen from the outside at all.

As a result, on the day of the siege, the Zhou army rushed to the city wall with a pointed wooden donkey, lifted the tunnel entrance baffle, and then pulled the mechanism, the city wall suddenly collapsed, not only the Chen soldiers on it were finished, but also the soldiers waiting for the exit of the defense tunnel behind the wall were also crushed to death.

People were shocked into a cold sweat of the 'treacherous plan', the Zhou army was the first time to capture Wuchang after the deployment of the back hand, the result was more than a month later, it was easy to go down to Wuchang again, and now facing the third attack of the Zhou army, so Chen Jun is worried about whether the other party still has a backhand.

The inside and outside of the city were checked, and it was impossible to have similar organs, so the army was stationed in the city with confidence, after all, with the city wall as protection, it was much more reliable than a temporary wooden fence, and with the city, but did not dare to enter and station, it would dampen morale.

The security was heavy for most of the month, everything was normal, and the abnormal thing was that Wuchang became a lonely city, and most of the outpost forts along the way were destroyed under the attack of the Zhou army in Jiangbei. Whether it is to the east to the downstream Xisai or the west to the upstream Xiakou, the news is not well-informed.

The most troublesome thing is the problem of transporting grain. After the small-scale grain transport team was intercepted continuously, the Wuchang defenders began to worry, but fortunately, the grain transport team escorted by a large number of troops from Xiakou was relieved. The Zhou army relied on the advantage of controlling the Yangtze River to attack and harass everywhere, giving the defenders of Wuchang a headache but helpless.

It takes time for his own naval army to recover its strength, and the Chen army can only grit its teeth and defend Wuchang City before that, or look forward to the Zhou army to attack the city, and now that Wuchang has more than 30,000 troops, it is not something that can be captured casually.

Then their wish came true, and the Zhou army really came to the city.

The Zhou army landed on the Yanji River under the control of the east of Wuchang, and then advanced westward to reach the city of Wuchang.

General Chen Jun looked at the large array of Zhou troops assembled outside the city, his face was solemn, since the official army regained Wuchang again, he thought about it for a long time and night, and they finally looked forward to the Zhou army attacking the city: long pain is better than short pain, more than 30,000 officers and soldiers are guarding Wuchang and waiting for you to die!

"Them. The number of people is about the same as our army, and they want to attack the city," a general muttered to himself, and his later words were not spoken, but everyone knew that it should be given, "It's stupid." ”

Of course, the Zhou army is not stupid, the last time Wuchang was lost and attacked the Zhou army, its strength is said to be less than three percent of the defenders, but the other party really took it, and this time the other party wants to attack the city, no one dares to take it lightly.

Outside the east of the city, these Zhou troops are only a part, and there are also Zhou troops eyeing the official road at the southern foot of Fanshan Mountain in the west of the city, because the Fankou camp has been razed to the ground, and the Chen army will shrink its forces back to the city in order to prevent the division of troops, so let the Zhou army calmly land in Fankou and 'outflank' Wuchang from the west, but even so, the total strength of the Zhou army is only half a catty and eight taels with the Wuchang defenders.

"Could it be that Zhou Jun has set up some mechanism in the city again, thinking about reversing like last time?" Some generals speculated that the last time Wuchang City was breached in half a day with more than 20,000 defenders, it was because the northern section of the east city wall suddenly collapsed and the Zhou army rushed in.

"It can't be. Haven't you checked it all, and the foundation of the city wall is fine. They can't do it again. ”

"Then why do they think they can capture Wuchang, our army has more than 30,000 people!!"

"Who knows, maybe there are surprise soldiers"

Speaking of the back, everyone doesn't want to guess, anyway, the official army has already thought about all the possibilities, and they can't think of a reason why Zhou Jun can win, so they don't want to be mediocre and disturb themselves, anyway, the answer will come out after the battle starts.

Today, the Zhou army is coming, and the Chen army is also ready to gather troops in the city, their strength is similar to the Zhou army, so even if there is any accident on the city wall, the other party will not be able to rush in, if it is just a simple attack, then after a stalemate, the city will send a fresh force to break the enemy.

Just when the generals of the Chen army were guessing, several curtains were suddenly erected in the large array of the Zhou army outside the east of the city, and there were a total of eight curtains with big characters written on them, and many soldiers of the Chen army did not recognize the words, so they had to look at each other, but when the literate generals saw it clearly, they scolded loudly.

"Surrender without killing, dedication to the city is really a wild talk!!"

A commotion spread, and the soldiers of the Chen army were shocked by the arrogant attitude of the Zhou army, because they felt that the commander on the opposite side was crazy, and the art of war was cloudy, and now everyone was equal in strength, and it would take many crazy people to think that they could win.

It's not that the cavalry is rushing day and night to hit people and catch them off guard, nor is it a water battle, and the boat is set on fire to burn Chibi, this is the siege of the city, and the result is that you don't have much troops, and you still think that everyone is killing gods, and you can defeat one enemy with ten enemies.

"A few days ago, a large amount of grain and grass was transported, enough for my more than 30,000 officers and troops to last for several months, do they think they can stop the reinforcements?"

"The number of people in hand-to-hand combat is not afraid of them!" ……

In the formation of the Zhou army in the east of the city, Yuwen Wen looked at the head of Wuchang City with a clairvoyant mirror, and after a while, he put down the clairvoyant mirror and looked back behind him and ordered to get ready, he was not here to attack Wuchang this time, so the preparations that should have been made have been made.

His own troops surrounded Wuchang under the city, although the troops were not much more than the defenders, but he was very confident in taking Wuchang City, and the trebuchets were being assembled and ready to attack.

These catapults are the result of optimization according to the modular design idea, easy to disassemble and assemble, can be transported in sections (loading and transporting), the weight of a single component can also be carried by several soldiers, and the assembly time is not long, so although the power and range cannot be compared with the catapult made on site, it is also a must-have weapon for home travel.

The Zhou army relied on this powerful but easily transportable 'portable' gravity catapult to attack Chen's outpost, which consisted mainly of wooden fences, and according to typical tactics, it was to besiege Chen's outpost with forty portable catapults. It took less than half an hour to assemble them all, and the stones were everywhere, and they were ready for battle in no time.

The garrison of Chen's sentry fort is less than two or three hundred, more than a thousand, and ordinary small groups of men and horses cannot be quickly overcome, if there is no powerful siege equipment, they can only rely on human lives to push. Nowadays, Yuwen Wen relies on the convenience of boats and ships, and most of the Chen army sentry forts are set up along the river, so he can concentrate his troops and rely on portable catapults to 'bully the weak' and frequently succeed.

In all fairness. If it is a rammed earth and brick fortress, it may not be able to solve it quickly, after all, no matter how sharp the catapult is, it can't compare to the artillery, but the sentry fort of the Chen army has been swept by the Zhou army before, so the quality of the rebuilt is so-so, and it is very easy to attack with the catapult.

Soon after, the catapults were assembled, and scented cloth bags were placed next to them, and the shells used by the catapults to attack Wuchang were not conventional stones but sesame oil bags.

Sesame oil, also known as sesame oil, that is, sesame oil in later generations, in this era, the main use of sesame oil is to ignite fires, such as lamp oil or arson, and edible is secondary, Yu Wenwen today burned the bag soaked in sesame oil, in fact, it was used as an arson bomb.

The cloth bag is filled with a certain amount of soil, and a large number of flammable materials as a counterweight to ensure that the arson bomb can be smoothly thrown to the target by the catapult, that is, the war between countries with manpower catapults, artillery attacks, and often use flammable materials to make arson bombs, but the arson bombs prepared by Yuwenwen this time are extremely large.

After the catapult was ready, after the horn sounded in the middle of the Zhou army's formation, the three on the far left, the middle, and the far right began to test fire, and the cloth bags of similar weight were thrown out, two of which hit the city wall at the southern end of the east of Wuchang, and one of them crossed the city head and fell into the city.

Because of the light weight of arson bullets, their projectile distances are farther than those commonly used stone bullets. The operators of the catapults adjusted their counterweights according to the test shot, and then began to throw them.

One by one, the sesame oil cloth bag arson bombs flew to the head of Wuchang City like a meteor, the scene was spectacular, most of the arson bombs hit the wall at the south end of the city wall, making a 'poof' sound, because the cloth bags were filled with broken soil, they were not bounced off after hitting the city wall, but slipped down the corner of the wall and burned.

With the second and third rounds of artillery firing in turn, more and more arson bombs were thrown by the Zhou army into the corners of the city wall, and the piled up arson bombs ignited a fire and burned the south end of the east city wall of Wuchang into a heat wave.

The defenders of the city looked at this strange scene with some inexplicability: if you want to smash the city wall, you have to use stones, do you throw these arson objects here to burn down the city wall?

Regarding the attack and defense of the city, there are indeed cases of burning the city wall with fire, but that is also an extremely rare situation, and it is not only to set fire to the wall, but also to splash water, so that the city wall can suddenly collapse and collapse in the heat and cold, and now the soldiers of the Zhou army are close to the city wall under the cover of the shield cart, but they have not seen anyone carrying buckets or the like trying to splash water.

"Did they think that our army would cause the walls to crack in order to extinguish the fire? It's ridiculous! Some generals laughed and scolded, his words caused the people around him to laugh again and again, the city wall of Wuchang is rammed earth and bricks, and it is very strong where it can be burned by fire.

Outside the city, the horn sounded continuously. The defenders saw that the Zhou soldiers were approaching the moat bridge, apparently preparing to build on the newly dug three-tiered trench under the city and then attack the city. But I didn't see anyone pushing siege equipment such as ladders and pointed wooden donkeys, which made people feel confused no matter how they looked at it.

The catapult of the Zhou army that did not need to be pulled by people kept throwing arson bombs, the southern end of the eastern city wall of Wuchang was getting hotter and hotter, and even the soldiers standing at the head of the city were sweating like squatting by the fire, and the generals of the Chen army looked at the outside of the city, and then looked at the city head that was burned hot by the fire, and suddenly his face changed greatly:

"Oh no, there must be something strange about this wall!"

"What's the problem, it's just trying to burn down the city walls." Another general shouted, "It's useless to burn it for a day!" ”

"That's not right, in case of the city wall"

Before he finished speaking, he saw that the section of the city wall that had been roasted by arson bombs suddenly rose from the cracks in the wall not far from the ground, and before the defenders of the city could react, they only heard several loud noises sounding one after another, and then a huge force threw them into the air from the bottom up.

In mid-air, they saw their severed hands and feet, the severed limbs and severed arms of their comrades, the flickering ground below and the puffs of smoke, a choking smell of the city that had once stood in the southeast corner was now in ruins.

They fell to the ground hard, and before they lost consciousness, they heard a continuous sound of horns, and the Zhou army outside the city rushed to the gap under the mushroom-shaped black clouds in the southeast corner of Wuchang City. (To be continued.) )