Soon after leaving Yuecheng, the cavalry of the vassal states went out of the city one after another, because the Qianyue Mountain is vast and long-stretched, after the war, the royal guests were also equipped with 100,000 simple cavalry, which were used for the mobile transfer of infantry and professional cavalry, but of course it was impossible to raise them with their own money, half of them were borrowed from Xu State and Weiguo, and they would be repaid after the war subsided.

This is also why the distribution of spoils of war was monopolized by the four kingdoms of Yu, Song, Xu, and Wei, and the reason is that the royal guests borrowed money first and repaid the debts later. As for how much you can pay back in the end, that's another matter.

There are as many as 40,000 royal cavalry accompanying Tiannan Pass, and more than 50,000 cavalry accompanying other princes and famous generals, which seems to be a lot, but compared to the Jin Xuedi cavalry with 300,000 or 400,000 moves, the cavalry of the coalition army in the south is very pitiful.

In fact, the miscellaneous light cavalry and miscellaneous cavalry of the princely states of the Central Plains have a total of no less than four or five hundred thousand, and in the previous battles in the south, the coalition forces were able to piece together 300,000 cavalry.

In addition, the Song, Xu, Wei, Zhi, and Jin kingdoms raised a large number of horses of no less than 150,000 of various grades, but most of them were used for continuous logistics and transportation, and there were no less than 780,000 horses that died of exhaustion and illness during wartime, and the losses were extremely great. Coupled with the domestic use of horses and transportation, horses are still quite tight.

When the army arrived at Tiannanguan, it was already unitary time, the sun in September had crossed the equator, hovering in the northern hemisphere, the grassland of Youshi was already pitch black, but it still could not stop the majestic city of Tiannanguan, standing arrogantly in the vast night.

Tiannan Pass is a city pass that lies between the half-moon-shaped mountains on both sides of Tiannan Mountain, the circumference is nearly 40 miles, the city wall is as high as five zhang, nearly 15 meters, the bottom of the city wall is nearly nine zhang wide, the top is five and a half zhang wide, and the thickness of the bottom of the south city wall is even more up to 11 zhang, in order to defend against the destruction of the giant trebuchet of Jin Xuedi.

Even if this kind of city is placed on the earth, it is the first city in the world, and it is unique. It's hard to imagine how this city has been built so majesticly over the centuries.

The guard of Tiannan Pass will be the general of the imperial guest, Sang Shi, a forty-three-year-old man with a black and sturdy face, a slightly short beard, with bulging muscles in his arms and extremely powerful, and a shiny fine scale armor that is quite majestic.

"Sang Shi see the marshal!"

"General Sang, excuse me."

"Xie Yushuai."

Sang Shili is also quite murderous, feeling that he is not a human, but a fierce beast.

The generals followed Sang Shi on the road to the south gate, and as he walked, Cao Chi was asking:

"Can Nanban come to challenge today?"

"Back to the marshal, Nanban has issued a war letter, asking our army to fight outside the pass tomorrow, I don't know what the marshal has planned"

"Is it possible to prepare sufficient military equipment?"

"It's all in order, but the heavy snow is coming soon, which is extremely unfavorable to our army, and the last general suggested that we should take advantage of the heavy snow to fight a battle with the Jin Xuedi army to consume its strength, so as not to close the road after the winter, and our army will fall into passivity."

"What General Sang said is the purpose of this marshal's visit, let's go, go to the city first to see the situation of the Nanban camp."

"No!"

At the end of September and the beginning of October, the temperature dropped rapidly after the first snowfall on the grassland, and the heavy snow of one or two meters thick covered the grassland for thousands of miles, and it was extremely difficult for the Central Plains Coalition Army to transport soldiers.

At the beginning of March of the following year, the ice and snow began to melt, and the Central Plains coalition army was attacked by the defense, and during this period, Jin Xuedi's high-headed horses, unicorn horses, war fangs, flying eagle beasts and other animal resources greatly facilitated Jin Xuedi's military operations.

Its lighter and warmer fur is more suitable for fighting in winter, on the other hand, the coalition forces are all large cotton jackets and sheepskin jackets and leather pants, and it is extremely inconvenient to mobile combat, so they can only hold on to the city and wait until the spring and summer counterattack.

Since the second half of last year, Cao Chi has been retreating step by step to accumulate strength, and what he is waiting for is to continue to fuel the arrogance of the Southern Barbarians, so that he can misjudge the strategy of the coalition forces before the winter, so as to give him a head-on attack.

A group of people and others came to the south gate on foot, at first arrived at the city wall Baili Yan was quite uncomfortable, than the city wall of the Central Plains two zhang, three zhang high, five or six zhang high, nine zhang thick, the whole city is covered with bricks of the giant city wall to bring the visual shock and impact, is completely two feelings, and even gives people a crumbling feeling.

There are many weapons at the head of the city, and the bed crossbows are lined up in countless numbers, almost three or five steps are set up on the south city wall, which is ten miles long, and there are hundreds of bed crossbows with a range of two or three hundred steps, and there is a small semi-stationary trebuchet, the range must be more than two hundred steps, using an artificial winch to force up, firing scattered bullets, fireball bullets, or large stone pellets.

The generals were in groups of three or five looking for their own battle positions, overlooking the camp of Jin Xuedi in the south, while Bailiyan took Jiang Jie to a female wall, took out the binoculars and looked south.

Jin Xuedi's camp is six miles away from the south gate, and the naked eye can only see a rough outline, but with the help of a telescope, it can be seen more clearly.

In the dimness, I could faintly see that several long poles erected high in the Nanban camp were about 30 meters high, and although it was difficult to distinguish and estimate their diameter, they could not exceed 1.5 meters.

"Oh my God......"

Bai Liyan was amazed, and a terrifying chill was rushing straight from the soles of his feet at this moment, and it was almost certain that it was some kind of lever projectile rod used to project huge stones, and it was only a partial size that was seen, if you count its base and body, it would be at least thirty-three meters away.

According to this calculation, this kind of trebuchet can shoot six or seven hundred catties of boulders at the target at least three miles away, and if it is one mile closer, it is not a problem to launch a huge stone block of more than one and a half tons.

The projectile rod of the trebuchet is usually made of a complete log as a throwing rod to prevent it from breaking during the launch, and if necessary, two large timbers can also be used, which are spliced with mortise and tenon joints, and then reinforced with iron hoop riveting measures to create a larger throwing rod.

However, it is impossible to develop a giant projectile rod with a lever length of 30 meters, unless it can be made from the trunk of a towering tree with a diameter of more than 3 meters and a height of 40 meters.

In view of the current differences in ecological environment and plant species, this possibility undoubtedly exists, at least in the subtropical region of Xianguo, where large trees in primeval forests are commonplace, and it is not excluded that other exotic tree species grow in the native area of the Jinxuedi people.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Jie said:

"My lord, can we win this battle?"

Bai Liyan shook his head:

"It doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you survive this winter. If Jin Xuedi's strength cannot be consumed at the end of October, after winter, Jin Xuedi will inevitably take advantage of the difficulty of our army in transporting troops and go in a roundabout way to attack the two cities of Xutu and Yesui, which will be extremely unfavorable to our army at that time. ”

Xu Tu, Tiannan Pass, and Yesui sat on the head, body, and tail of the Tiannan Mountain Range, and Yuecheng coordinated in the center, which was extremely beneficial to the coalition forces on the defensive. However, after the winter, the coalition army now has more infantry troops, and the disadvantages of insufficient cavalry are undoubtedly exposed.

Heavy snow closed the road, the only type of troops that can quickly gallop to help is cavalry, and it can't be at full speed, Jin Xuedi's cavalry are all high-headed horses, and the best mixed-breed horse breed in the Central Plains is only less than one meter seven of the back height, and the speed of stepping on the snow is not as good as that of high-headed horses, so it is undoubtedly extremely beneficial to Jin Xuedi.

Cao Chi is determined to fight a battle before the winter, that is, he wants to frustrate the spirit of the Nanban, consume the enemy's strength, and create conditions for holding on after the winter.

After observing for more than two quarters of an hour, Cao Chi was issuing three orders in a row, the first of which was to send an order to the coalition army, select the dead soldiers with superb martial arts tonight, and prepare to fight the generals in the next two days. No one is stupid, and the Lord will really fight.

The two armies fought, and the fights were basically between the dead soldiers with high martial arts and the middle and lower-level military attaches who wanted to risk promotion.

The main force of Baili Yan was still on the road, and he only brought more than 40 people with him, and there was no way to pick up the dead, unless he himself went into battle.

The second order is to give the wounded battalions and gang battalions, and the big war is imminent, and the whole army will be fed to help boost morale.

The third is to give the generals of the vassal states of the coalition army, unify the military orders, and all the soldiers and horses accompanying them are integrated into the coalition army to wait for battle, which is undoubtedly the most criticized by all countries.

Since they are coalition forces, they naturally want to preserve their strength, and it is inevitable that the two armies will pick fat and thin before the formation, and no one will think about gnawing bones in the first formation, and they don't know what kind of formation Cao Chi is preparing to put up, how to arrange the formation, and how to settle the differences between the vassal states.

That night, Bailiyan didn't sleep well all night, after the autumn Tiannan Mountain Pass perennial wind, after erecting the city wall, the wind hit the city wall head-on, poured into the female wall battlement to form a whistle, blowing whirring and screaming, making people extremely uncomfortable.

Early in the morning of the second day, the coalition forces opened, and the meat was fragrant and wanton, all of which were fresh beef and mutton slaughtered in the pot. Before the winter in the south, most of the cattle and sheep raised by livestock have to move to the grasslands at medium altitudes and grasslands north of the country to spend the winter, so as not to freeze the cattle and sheep to death in heavy snow.

After the winter, the slaughter of all the armies are pigs, cattle and sheep in captivity, the number is not small, but that can not withstand the eating and drinking of hundreds of thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people, eat more dried meat or salted meat dried in advance.

Due to the fact that the logistics of the vassal states could not be unified and there were great differences in food, some vassal states implemented the order to add meals to the letter, while some vassal states discounted the implementation, and some did not implement it at all. For example, there are only more than 40 people in Bailiyan's entourage, and the implementation standards are of course very different.

Around seven o'clock in the morning, a horn resounded through the sky was deafening, and the band of the horn was extremely long, not from the Central Plains horn, but from the camp of Jin Xuedi outside the south of the city. After a while, the drums and trumpets sounded in Tiannan Pass, and the curtain of warming up for the fighting generals began.

Jiang Jie rode straight to the south gate with Bailiyan, and rode directly to the city wall. Cao Chi was erecting the "Cao" character handsome flag at the head of the city, and tens of thousands of allied crossbowmen lined up at the head of the city, and there were even crossbowmen, climbing to the top of the nearby mountain along the cableway dug at both ends of the southern city wall, and throwing them from top to bottom. In addition, hundreds of Yuke wrestlers wore heavy armor and held a large bronze shield on the ground, surrounding the generals tightly to prevent unforeseen situations.

At this time, the huge city gate under the city tower opened a gap more than three people wide, and in the ground where the two city gates stayed, there were two bowls with thick mouths, inserted into the ground two feet underground, and exposed two feet of iron stakes on the ground. Use this iron stake to block the door in place to prevent Nanban Jin Xuedi from suddenly attacking the city and breaking through the city gate. In this way, the gates can only be closed outward, but cannot be fully opened inward.

As soon as the gates were opened, a thousand royal guests rode out, followed by the dead soldiers selected by the coalition forces last night. It's just that this time Cao Chi is quite scheming, all the dead soldiers are wearing the chain mail produced and exported by the Ligong faction, and they are wearing light leather armor, on the other hand, Jin Xuedi has not yet mastered this technology, so that today's fighting generals are not good, most of them are one-sided results.