The Qingzhou soldiers marched dozens of steps, and a military horn came, and the generals of Cao Ying turned their heads to look at Yu Ban, who smiled helplessly. Qingzhou Bing's military horn is extremely complicated, how can he distinguish them one by one.

The generals were puzzled, suddenly heard a thunderous shout: "Hey", turned to look outside the city, only to see that the shield soldiers had stood on their heels and were standing in place.

A few moments later, a sparse group followed, standing behind the shieldmen. Immediately, another military horn sounded, and the unhurried drums in the Qingzhou soldier camp struck everyone's hearts one after another.

The shield soldier shouted, the shield wall scattered, every three days, the tight shield wall dispersed into three rows of queues, the shield soldier stood the shield side in his left hand, held a short spear in his right hand, and the tip of the spear stretched straight to the sky. With the sound of a drum, only the neat footsteps of the shield soldiers marched and the rattling of the armor leaves remained between heaven and earth.

The drum beat again, and the shield soldier stood on his heels, and a row of crossbow arrows flew out from behind the shield soldier, and in the blink of an eye, pierced into the ground not far away. At the head of the crossbowmen's line, ten tall soldiers led the way with the military flag, and five fighting soldiers (sword and axe men holding the garden shield) surrounded the military flag, making a posture to protect the military flag.

The drums changed again, and the shield soldiers stepped forward again, no. After a while, the shield men stopped again, and a row of crossbow arrows flew out and landed in the dirt far from the city walls.

"Twenty paces, this is the archers measuring. Shooting distance, measured every 20 steps. Yu Ban explained softly.

"I want you to say it", Xiahoudun rebuked angrily.

The atmosphere on the city walls was extremely oppressive, and at this moment, everyone. didn't care about the small sections, and stared intently at the approaching Qingzhou soldiers.

"How is that possible?" Cao Cao was indignant and asked unwillingly: "These people are original. They are all farmers, merchants, and strangers with all kinds of industries, and it only took Qingzhou more than ten days to integrate them, how could they get out of such a neat formation? There are hundreds of thousands of these people, how can Qingzhou command such a huge team in a unified manner? Ten military flags, Qingzhou actually wants to put ten legions in front of me at a time, how is it possible? How did he deploy his army? ”

In Cao Cao's distraught shouts, the shield soldiers approached the city. With a "sigh", two or three feathered arrows swept up the city.

"Wan Sheng!" , the Qingzhou soldiers under the city let out wave after wave of shouts.

"Wen Ze (Yu Ban), send our archers, we also use Qingzhou bows, they can shoot up to the city, our army is condescending, and these people will definitely not return." Cao Cao roared.

Yu Ban shook his head: "Lord, these Qingzhou soldiers. A crossbow was used. Qingzhou has never sold us crossbows, but what we didn't expect was that the range of these crossbows was actually farther than that of bows. ”

The shape of the crossbow is smaller than the bow, and it is easy to carry is its characteristic, and under the same material, the short crossbow arm determines that the range of the crossbow is far less than that of the bow. General Cao Yingzhu treated Liu Bei's move of not selling crossbows to them with common sense in the past, and laughed at Liu Bei in his heart while purchasing strong bows on a large scale, but he didn't expect that Qingzhou's crossbows subverted their common sense.

The Chinese crossbow appeared earlier than the West, and some Chinese scholars believe that the Western crossbow technology was transmitted from China. However, as soon as the crossbow technology of the West appeared, it took a very different technical path from China. At that time, Western bows used wooden bow arms, and as soon as Western crossbows appeared, they were made of metal. The metal crossbow arm ensures that although the crossbow is short, it has more powerful tension and explosive power than a wooden bow, and will not fall behind in the confrontation with the bow. With the development of technology, the metal crossbow completely buried the use of the strongest bow in the West, the Apache (English longbow).

Qingzhou's crossbows are also made of metal, and because the crossbow arm is made of metal, it is extremely difficult for the crossbow to stretch the string. For this purpose, the twister was invented immediately afterwards to wind the crossbow bow. Subsequent practice found that the instantaneous explosive power of a short crossbow arm is still inferior to that of a bow. For this, the technology of the crossbow was further developed, and the eccentric wheel technology appeared.

The so-called eccentric wheel technology, that is, the movable pulley block technology (junior high school physics knowledge). Through a set of two pulleys, the crossbow string is wound around the crossbow arm. The two pulleys ensure that the tension used to open the crossbow arm is only one-eighth of the original, and at the same time, the instantaneous explosive force of the crossbow string is also amplified by eight times, up to 6000 Newtons. In this way, the tension of the crossbow string can be maximized, and with the twister, the crossbow can be easily hung on the string.

The advent of eccentric wheel technology also proves a simple truth: the power of machinery is always better than manpower. Qingzhou's technological invention and technological innovation are more prosperous.

However, the research of crossbow technology to the extreme has also brought two fatal problems: the crossbow parts are complicated and expensive, and the length and weight of the crossbow arrows are extremely high in accuracy. Plus, with a crossbow, a humble farmer can kill a trained, heavily armed professional knight. Therefore, the West began to control the use of crossbows by the Church.

Qingzhou has a steam stamping machine, which solves the previous problem - crossbow parts and crossbow arrows can be stamped and formed by a die, which meets the requirements of its processing accuracy. In addition, by controlling the trade of crossbows, all those who use crossbows are required to engrave their names on the arrows when purchasing crossbows, which can be regarded as a reluctance to solve the latter problem.

The large-scale use of crossbows has greatly improved Qingzhou's long-range strike capabilities - without much training, the shooting accuracy of a crossbowman will also exceed that of a long-trained archer. Therefore, as soon as Yu Ban's explanation came out, the Cao generals in the city all understood this truth, and their faces were as colored as earth.

Guo Jia's face changed, and he immediately reminded: "Lord, there is not enough shield in the city, please immediately order the soldiers to dismantle the door panels of the people and make shields for defense." ”

Cao Cao's face was gloomy and he replied, "It's too late." ”

Outside the city, with the sound of drums and orders, three rows of shield soldiers gradually stepped forward to form a team, a horn, the shield soldiers turned their wrists and erected shields, and the silver shining iron shield suddenly reflected the strong sunlight on the city wall, making people unable to open their eyes.

Cao Cao took a step back, avoiding the light, and Guo Jia suggested again: "My lord, the matter is man-made, please give an order immediately and let the soldiers in the city replenish their shields." ”

Cao Cao didn't speak, Yu Ban stepped forward and gave an order on Cao Cao's behalf: "Order: transfer two, no, three legions immediately go down to the city, dismantle the door panels of the houses, and hand the door panels to the city immediately." ”

The sound of the drums changed again, and two columns of spearmen slowly stepped forward, and then, a large group of crossbowmen wearing various colors of armor, lined up in a not very neat line, and walked behind the spearmen with solemn expressions.

Cao Cao sighed and said, "I said, how can the Qingzhou soldiers be organized in a few days?" It turned out that the soldiers with strict training were a minority after all, and Qingzhou put them in the first few rows. When it first came out, it scared me. Feng Xiao, you see, the discipline of the soldiers behind this is obviously insufficient. ”

Guo Jia hurriedly stepped forward, leaned over to look at the soldiers under the city, and after a brief observation, he immediately suggested with a panicked face: "Lord, please go down to the city to hide." ”

Cao Cao suddenly gasped: "Covering shooting, you mean, Qingzhou plans to use these queues to launch covering shooting on the city?" ”

Guo Jia couldn't explain, so he picked up Cao Cao and ran.

As it is, it is not enough for the untidy and poorly trained people to charge. However, for suppressive firing and covering firing, only a simple military horn is needed to coordinate the command. Although there are many soldiers in Qingzhou, they are not chaotic at all, and the reason is this.

Since the Qingzhou soldiers are not chaotic, the hope of going out of the city to counterattack is also dashed.

Cao Cao threw Guo Jia away with all his might, and replied lightly: "The big war is coming, how can I avoid it?" Someone came, Mr. Guo was a literati, and everyone took him down and came back after the war. ”

Guo Jia got rid of the soldiers who were supporting him, rushed to Cao Cao's side, pointed to the tower on the city wall with trembling fingers, and was anxiously speechless.

Cao Cao turned his head to look at the tower and replied, "It's okay, let's go there and command the battle." ”

Outside the city, it took a long time for the poorly trained people to line up in formation, and when the Cao army, who demolished the houses in the lower city, brought the first batch of door panels, the Qingzhou soldiers under the city let out a shout - "Wan Sheng!" ”

The shouts came and went, and the Qingzhou soldiers who had completed the queue announced the completion of the attack with this shout. The trumpet sounded violently, this was prepared, and the sound of crossbow machines hanging strings came from the city, and this sound converged, and the huge sound of the snap made everyone's nerves tense.

"The 601 Corps is ready" and "The 602 Corps is ready" ......, a report sounded one after another.

The Qingzhou reserve is numbered with the prefix 6, 601 and 602 are legions composed of Guangrao meritorious people, honored people, and civilians, and it seems that the Qingzhou soldiers plan to hit them with heavy hammers at the beginning.

"Ready-" The lieutenants at all levels dragged a long tail note and gave the order: "Advance step by step, shoot in ten sections, release!" ”

"Whoosh" a crossbow bolt out of the string, the city, overwhelming arrows poured over, making a rain hitting the banana sound, the front of the ten legions of about 70,000 people except for a small number of front-row charging warriors, the rest are all crossbowmen, the first round of shooting is enough 6,000 arrows to fall on the city wall, without waiting for the Cao army to breathe, the second row of crossbowmen under the city crossed the first row, took a step forward, with the order, the second round of crossbow arrows out of the string.

This is a gradual progression, each row of crossbowmen shoots only one step ahead, and when they finish shooting, they immediately crouch down on the spot and begin to wind the crossbow, and the next row of soldiers shoots one step forward again, and so on. The 60,000 crossbowmen each released 24 rounds of arrows, and the entire battle line advanced 240 steps, at this time, the Qingzhou crossbowmen in the front row were less than 100 meters away from the city wall.

"How so?" Cao Cao in the city tower watched in amazement as the Qingzhou soldiers gradually advanced, and as they advanced, 1.44 million crossbow arrows densely covered the city wall in a moment.

The powerful crossbow shot arrows into the ground for three minutes, in such a short distance, it can shoot through three millimeters of steel plates, on the door panel raised by the soldiers on the city wall, a thick layer of crossbow arrows is covered, there is not a single gap between the crossbow arrows, the soldiers under the crossbow arrows, can not grasp the door panel tightly, a little careless, slightly tilt the door panel, let their body expose a trace of gaps, the exposed place is immediately covered with a layer of strict crossbow arrow "coat". The soldier who was shot to the ground lost the door panel and left the protection open. Immediately, a layer of arrows covered the sky, followed by only one or two faint moans.

The military horn sounded again, and an arrow box was loaded with 24 crossbow arrows, and the Qingzhou soldiers discarded the empty arrow box and replaced it with a new one.

Taking advantage of this gap, Cao Cao raised his eyes to look at the city, just in the blink of an eye, a grass field woven of crossbow arrows appeared on the city wall, the gap between the crossbow arrows was white minced meat and red blood, on this side of the city wall, 80,000 defenders were all killed at this moment, before death, the hoarse scream, the painful groan, the desperate scream, intertwined in the crackling sound of the crossbow arrows falling, followed by a huge blank, there was silence between heaven and earth, and even the drums in the Qingzhou army disappeared for a short time.

This silence seems to be the end of the world, and the depressed people are breathless. In the silence, Cao Cao's hands and feet were cold.

It's not sadness, it's not surprise, it's not annoyance, it's just a desire to cry without tears. Cao Cao's blood and brains seemed to be drained, his heart was blank, numb, and he completely lost the ability to think. There was only one sentence in my mind that kept repeating: "How is this possible?!" How is this possible?!! How is this possible?!!! ”

Guo Jia's tone was a mixture of regret and worry, and he could only try his best to persuade Cao Cao to face the reality: "Lord, you can't do anything. After the enemy formation, the tanker, the catapult, the ladder is moving forward, once the second round of crossbowmen shooting, under the blow of such arrows, the fall of this city is a matter of time or time, Juping City out of the south gate is Xuzhou Lu country, now, Juping is surrounded on three sides, only the south gate is invincible, please open the south gate to break through!"

At the same time, Liu Bei received the fourth urgent conscription order from the Qingzhou Senate, asking him to return to Qingzhou immediately and lead the army.

"Anyway, the war has continued until now, and there is no suspense in the battle of Xihe City, giving up resistance and trying to circle with us on the prairie. I came here, not to talk about benevolence and righteousness with the Huns, I came to exterminate the race, and the war is going on here, giving up resistance and showing deference will have no effect on me, it will only make the killing more complete.

On the prairie, with a telescope, I can observe the movement a hundred miles away, this is the cavalry's journey for a day, any intersperse, detours are ineffective for my Qingzhou soldiers, with 20,000 volunteers in the rear army, that is, 20,000 locusts, they will be on the prairie, snatch all the war horses! Kill all the men! Take all the cattle and sheep! As for the right side of the Huns, with Zhang He and Zhao Yun, what else do I have to worry about? ”

Thinking of this, Liu Bei stood up and asked Tian Chou and Xu Shu: "Zitai, Yuan Zhi, I need to leave one person, take a legion to be stationed here, command the rear army, and settle the newly moved meritorious people of various tribes, in addition, I also need to pick up Zhang He on the northern line at any time, which of you is willing to stay?" ”

Xu Shu hurriedly bowed his hand: "Zitai is meticulous, he is the best at such things, but I am willing to stay here and learn to deal with sundries, so that I can share the worries of Brother Zitai in the future." ”

As the term of office is approaching, the retirement of Frustrated Shou and Tian Feng is in front of him, Liu Bei favors Tian Chou As we all know, Xu Shu's performance at the moment is to show that he has the ability to assist Tian Chou.

Liu Bei nodded and said: "The West River is backed by Luliang Mountain, which is the fief of your four major military divisions in the future, and the Luliang area is rich in mineral resources and complete varieties, in addition to coal, there are hematite, magnetite, lead ore, dolomite, asbestos, graphite, marble, etc. I hope that you will be able to manage your fiefdom well, and in accordance with the principle of who occupies and owns, as long as you are willing to accept your rule and pay taxes to you in your respective jurisdictions, you are your people, and the tax burden is light, so that your children and grandchildren can enjoy this anointed land in peace. Yuan Zhi has bothered a lot. ”

Tian Chou raised his horsewhip, pointed out the map spread out on the table, and said in high spirits: "My lord, I suggest that Zhou Yu be sent as the lead immediately, go straight down the Fen River, and attack Tongguan, and our army will then move to outflank all the troops left by Cao Cao in Hongnong, cutting off his back road." ”