The Shu army fought and retreated, and after withdrawing a few miles, it relied on the terrain and chariots to form a formation, and firmly blocked the pursuit of the Wei army.

Cao Zhen went out of the city, and saw that the enemy still had follow-up reinforcements, and they were already in full array, and his own sergeant was blocked in pursuit, and the breath in his stomach was almost consumed, so he ordered to collect the army and return to the city first.

Wang Ping counted his own horses, fortunately, there was no chaos when retreating, and the casualties were not many, and said to Chen Yin and Hou Xuan: "Okay, two generals, the catapult has been given to them, and they have won the battle, so we should go back." ”

When Cao Zhen returned to the city, the four catapults had been dragged to the city, and he looked left and right, and sighed.

Really, why didn't Emperor Taizu Wu fully play such a good thing?

Of the four catapults, two of the heavy baskets were chopped and two were broken, and almost every firing rod was covered with knife marks.

He immediately cried out in distress: "Who? Who is it? Who told you to chop this thing down? ”

No one answered, but someone quietly wanted to step back.

"Forget it, I'm not trying to hold you accountable, I'm just trying to tell you, how can you take your anger out on this thing? I should vent it on my enemies! It's the enemy, not the catapult. This thing is dead, in the hands of the enemy, causing us damage, but in our hands, it can also be used to fight the enemy. Cao Zhen hurriedly explained that he didn't want to break the sharp spirit of the soldiers and make them afraid in the future.

Several of the sergeants who were watching laughed sheepishly.

Cao Zhen called over a few soldiers who had joined the army and a few sergeants who had escaped from Jicheng by luck, and asked them to take a good look at them, study them carefully, and repair these trebuchets as soon as possible, so that they could be used to attack the city when recovering Longyou in the future.

And Fei Yao and several generals were all boiling at this time, and shouted: "General, today the enemy was beaten by us and lost his armor, and even such an important siege equipment as a catapult was robbed by us. Now that the morale of our army is high, is it time to take advantage of the victory? ”

Cao Zhen was not so optimistic, he couldn't forget Cao Xiu's words so quickly, and asked Fei Yao rhetorically: "Have you counted the number of battle losses on both sides?" ”

Fei Yao and the generals looked at each other, shook their heads, and hurriedly said, "We're going to take a quick inventory." ”

Cao Zhen nodded: "Okay, the inventory is finished, hurry up and tell me." His attention was still on the catapult for the time being.

He asked, "Is there anything else that can be used now?" ”

Several of the soldiers looked at each other, and it was difficult to answer, they hadn't used it before.

Cao Zhen hurriedly asked the few people who fled back from Jicheng: "Haven't you seen the enemy use this kind of thing?" Can you show us a little bit right away? ”

Several sergeants also looked at each other, and finally the two people who had really seen the city came out and pointed a few words.

According to the sergeant's prompts and their own analysis of the structure of the catapult, several soldiers finally swapped the damaged parts of several carts and reassembled them into a good catapult.

"Come on, come on, let's work together to push this car out of the city, let's try to throw a few shots." Cao Zhen was very excited, and personally put his hand on the catapult, beckoning everyone to come up and help.

Everyone rejoiced, pushing, pulling, pushing the cumbersome trebuchet back into the open outside the city gates.

Then everyone scattered and went around looking for stones.

Fortunately, the enemy was ready to attack the city, and now, those things are still in their place.

Everyone hurriedly fixed the projection rod first, then filled the heavy basket, and then filled the projection basket with stones.

Several soldiers personally stood in front of the transmitter and raised their sledgehammers.

"Come on, come on, I'll come!" Cao Zhen rushed forward to personally pick up the first hammer.

Several soldiers hurriedly persuaded: "General, let's come." We're not familiar with this stuff yet, and if something goes wrong, something happens, and you get hurt, it's not good. ”

Cao Zhen didn't care: "It's okay, because the generals don't want to feel their own martial arrogance in person, how can they lead the troops?" ”

As Cao Zhen's sledgehammer smashed down, the machine bracket opened, the launch rod was untied, and immediately under the action of the heavy basket, it tilted upward, and used the leverage to throw the stones in the throwing basket.

There was a chaotic sound of "puff ......", and the rocks shot forward, but they did not throw far, from a dozen steps in front of the catapult to more than forty paces away, scattered into a straight line, and fell to the ground.

"This, isn't it?" Cao Zhen was deeply skeptical of such an effect, which was not thrown far at all. Still want to hit the city?

Several soldiers and sergeants looked carefully, tilted their heads and thought for a while, and suddenly made a big mistake: "Alas, general, we are too anxious, and we have filled the throwing basket with stones, it is too heavy!" ”

"Yes, yes, the enemy still uses this thing to throw crackling wood, it seems that this throwing basket is so big, it still can't be all loaded with stones, if it is full, it will be overweight."

"Yes, yes, you see, this throwing basket seems to be loose, it must be too heavy."

Cao Zhen patted his forehead embarrassedly, pointed at the soldiers and said, "Look at you, you are so impatient, you almost broke this trebuchet again." ”

Everyone hurriedly reloaded, this time, only half a basket was loaded, and as Cao Zhen struck the hammer again, the stone flew far away, more than a hundred paces away.

"Success, success!" The crowd jumped for joy.

Now, they can really use the enemy's weapons to attack the enemy's city defenses.

Then, the crowd tried to reduce the weight of the throwing basket again, increase the weight of the heavy object in the basket, and fire again.

This time, I went further!

Cao Zhen had a good time, and ordered everyone to find some crackling wood, or find some jars and jars, and everything that the enemy had launched should be used and tried several times.

The only regret is that the enemy used the extra strong wine to ignite the fire, and I don't know where to find it.

At this time, Fei Yao and the others ran over and told Cao Zhen that in this battle, the casualties on both sides were roughly equal, but the enemy had been driven away by us, and it was definitely our big victory.

"Yes, it's definitely our big win!" Cao Zhen also immediately came to a conclusion, and ordered the army to immediately notify the rear army to advance, and the army was about to start moving forward, and it was time to take the initiative to attack the enemy.

At the same time, it was announced that today's great victory, after arranging a guard in the evening, the whole army would make good food and drinks, and the whole army would celebrate.

He wanted to tell the more than 10,000 Chinese troops who had retreated from Qishan overnight that the enemy was definitely not invincible.

However, in his heart, he remembered Cao Xiu's words again, the enemy is absolutely not to be underestimated, just with such a good opportunity as today, he suddenly attacked, except for a few trebuchets and some of the enemy's baggage, in addition to harvesting a few trebuchets and some of the enemy's baggage, in terms of beheading, he did not take advantage of the prisoners, I really have to admire.

When the rear army arrived, Cao Zhen estimated Sima Yi's itinerary and ordered the whole army to start advancing, maintaining a formation throughout the whole process, walking slowly, and strictly guarding against the enemy's sneak attack. (To be continued.) )