Li Dian, who lost his field of vision, seemed to feel that he was locked in a small dark room full of dangers. In this room, where you can't see your fingers, the smell of wild beasts wafts everywhere, as if a wild beast is about to pounce on him and take his life.

Li Dian had never encountered such a battle in his past military career. After losing his calculations for a while, he had to be conservative and seek stability, entrenched in Changyi, and did not move.

However, his immobility did not mean that the enemy did not move, and in the evening of the same day, in the southeast and northeast directions, the distant sky lit up with orange fire. And this is precisely the direction in which Jinxiang, Fang and the second county are located.

He knew that the two county towns were in danger, but he didn't dare to save them because of the enemy's darkness, and watched the war burn more and more, and finally extinguished it in the early morning of the next day.

If the fire in the city had been extinguished by his own family, there would have been good news, and it was obvious that the city had been lost. In this way, he was inexplicably snatched from the palm of his hand, and what was even more terrifying was that he still did not know how many enemy troops were there and where they came from; who is the manager; Where are they stationed?

Nothing.

In general, the brave are not afraid of powerful enemies, but they are afraid of unknown fierce appearances. Li Dian was like this, and the fog was woven in front of him, blocking him in a dead end. He lost the initiative in the whole war, and before he could engage his troops, he had already lost the upper hand.

He was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. But what's the use of being in a hurry? You can only resign yourself to fate and adapt to the situation.

As the saying goes: what should come will always come. Three days later, just three days before Cao Cao attacked Licheng County, the fog of the war in Shanyang County was torn open by the rising sun. Dense forests of blood-red cross flags floated from afar, in clusters in the southeast and in the northeast, with clusters of human figures, all the way to the far end of the horizon.

The silver glittering phalanx moved in unison, the pace was neat, and the earth stomped like a war horse galloping on the field, the earth trembled, and the Cao soldiers in Changyi County were shocked.

The 15,000 church army on two roads, singing loudly, came from far and near, stopped abruptly a mile away from Changyi, and camped on the spot. A team of soldiers went in and out of the camp to carry logs; A trumpet with a strong Kanto accent came and went; Tents were erected; One by one, the scouts galloped on their horses, holding a cylindrical object from afar to look at the situation in the city; Wisps of cooking smoke rose from the smoke, mixed with the strong smell of barbecue...... Everything is so well organized.

"They have meat to eat!" Cao Bing, who was guarding the city, licked his chapped lips, both greedy and greedy.

"I haven't seen Meat Star for more than a year."

"yes, yes!" A Cao soldier whispered, "Have you heard of it?" The soldiers of the Church of Our Lady often had access to meat, and if they were wounded in battle, they could eat meat every day. Life is comfortable. ”

"Really?"

"It's still fake!"

"No wonder the soldiers of the Church of Our Lady are so strong! Can you not be strong if you have meat to eat? "No!"

……

Unlike ordinary soldiers, Li Dian, who is the chief general of the First Army, has no time to worry about eating and drinking. He remembered rumors that the Church army would give the soldiers a special meal of meat the day before the battle, so that if they roasted meat today, it would mean that they would attack the city tomorrow.

Thinking of this, Li Dian felt that time was running out, and hurriedly arranged for the defenders to collect a large number of rolling wood and stones, and even demolished many houses in order to ensure the quantity. At the same time, boiling oil is also prepared, ready for a brutal battle.

However, when everything was ready, the next day from morning to night, the church soldiers and horses outside the city did not have the slightest intention of assembling and besieging the city. As usual, they were busy, and a group of soldiers went back and forth between the camp and the woods, singing rough songs, and pulling cartloads of timber back into the village...... After working tirelessly for most of the day, he went back to the camp to rest.

At night, a bonfire was lit in the church village, and the soldiers gathered in the empty field in the village. Seeing this scene, Li Dian also said that the siege was finally about to start, but after careful observation, he found that the soldiers and horses of the church did not mean to go out of the village at all, but squatted in front of the bonfire and held an assembly.

A priest-like figure dressed in linen robes stood at the front of the campfire, babbling as if preaching, and occasionally leading the soldiers in prayer. At the end of the sermon, he led the soldiers to sing hymns.

Li Dian's lieutenant general, Li Mu, took advantage of the faint light of the fire in the camp and saw that the defense in the village was empty, so he suggested to Li Dian, "General, why don't you take this opportunity to attack the camp?" ”

Li Dian stared at the big banner of Guo Zi set up outside the church camp outside the city, and shook his head again and again, "No, Guo Fengxiao is extremely cunning. This behavior is very likely to lure me into being deceived, so don't act rashly. It's better to stick to the city. ”

Now, Li Dian can't wait to fight a hearty battle to defend the city as soon as possible.

But Guo Jia didn't follow his wishes, and stayed outside the city for three days, surrounding but not fighting.

As the saying goes, "one blow, then decline, three and exhaustion". In the face of the church soldiers and horses outside the city who were ready to attack the city at any time, the Cao soldiers in Changyi City always tightened the string in their hearts. After three days and nights of high concentration, extreme nervousness, and stiff muscles, they were exhausted and couldn't stand it anymore, and had to relax their tense spirits.

At this moment, the rumbling drums on the plain outside the city fluttered in the wind, and the two church guards shouted loud slogans and used the camp to form a military formation outside the camp.

Li Dian looked around at the listless, frightened rabbit-like soldiers, and shouted: "Cheer me up!" ”

"It's all spirited." The deputy general Li Mu ran back and forth and wore Li Dian's words.

Sergeant Cao straightened his chest at this time.

"Crossbowmen, take the arrows!"

"You guys, bring the wood over here. Hurry up, talk about you! And you, the oil pot is a little more vigorous. ”

……

At the head of the city, generals and colonels at all levels commanded their subordinates to be busy.

In a few moments, the preparations at the head of the city were ready, and the military formations outside the city were already neatly arranged. The sound of thumping the skin was louder than the other.

Cao's army was waiting for the top and bottom, the crossbowmen bent their bows and drew them into a full circle, and the arrows were clustered in the string, waiting for the enemy to launch a charge, and the main general would give an order to fire ten thousand arrows.

However, after waiting for a long time, the Church army only formed a formation and thundered drums from the farthest range, but it did not attack.

Cao Jun's crossbowmen had no choice but to hold on to the bowstring and not let go.

That's a three-stone bow! It takes at least more than 20 catties of strength to pull the strings into a full moon, and more than 20 catties doesn't sound like much, but if you keep it tight, who will be affected by the average person?

Only half an hour later, the crossbowman's arms were numb and trembling.

At the same time, the two ecclesiastical formations outside the south gate and the north gate changed, and in the middle of the neat array, the guards gave up more than twenty aisles. More than twenty strange-looking carts were dragged out from the rear of the army by sixteen war horses.

Li Dian fixed his eyes and saw that before, there were more than 20 large cars, each of which was supported by six solid wood wheels the size of a grinding disc. The wheels are a complex log structure, and a log in the center of the car stands out, and the log is enough for two people to hug it, lying upside down and sticking out of the car circumference. The end of the log was a net made of multiple layers of thickened linen. There is a metal slope above the net bag, which I don't know what it does. The lower end of the slope goes straight to the net pocket. Inside the net bag is now a boulder, which looks like it weighs thousands of pounds.

Li Dian immediately saw that the function of this car was actually a siege device used to throw stones. He secretly mocked, "I thought that the cult rebellion had a plan to wait so long, but I didn't expect it to be waiting for this thing!" Guo Jia is nothing more than that. ”

In his mind, catapults were powerful, but their flaws were just as obvious. Its range is simply too short, less than 70 paces, which is completely within the range of a bow and arrow. In addition, every time a catapult drops a stone projectile, it takes a long time to replace the boulder before it can be fired again.

During this time, enough skilled crossbowmen were able to shoot many arrows. So, rockets are the biggest nemesis of catapults on the battlefield. As long as a dense network of rockets is formed, catapults are like chicken ribs.

However, what shocked Li Dian next was that the more than 20 catapults stopped more than 150 paces from the city wall under the heavy arch of the church's soldiers and horses, far beyond the range of bows and arrows.

Then, the flag was waved, and the church guards in front of the catapult picked up their broadswords and cut the rope that held the throwing post fast, the rope was broken, and the spring built into the car released all the elastic force that had been suppressed for a long time. The boulders in the net were thrown out by inertia, and more than 20 huge momentums rose into the air like meteors, and fell from the sky like meteors. This batch of catapults is Liu Ye's latest thunderbolt car.

However, due to the fact that it was used for the first time in actual combat, the bombardiers were not very proficient in the performance of the vehicle, and the first shot effect was not ideal.

On both sides of the city wall, a total of more than 50 boulders were either thrown too close to hit the city wall, or they were thrown too far, flying directly into the city and knocking down a piece of dwelling. It failed to inflict any substantial casualties on the Cao army defending the city.

Thankfully, the reload time of the new Thunderbolt was much smaller than Li Dian expected.

I saw that at the same time as the first batch of stone bullets were thrown, the elastic force also touched the card slot on the metal slope above the slope, and several boulders lined up on the ramp were unobstructed and rolled down, and the front one just landed in the net, and it was automatically reloaded.

As soon as the net sank, the card slot immediately closed, blocking the other stones behind it. The stones fell into their pockets, and more than a dozen guards guarding the catapult struggled to pull the reins around the throwing rod. The tilted throwing rod was pulled down, and the reins were fastened again.

The rangefinders began to recalculate the distance to the target and the angle of fire, and at the same time, more than a dozen loaders added a boulder to the metal slot of the catapult to replenish the consumption.

After some adjustments, the rangefinder shouted, "Report, car number one is ready." ”

"Report, car number two is ready!"

……

[This book was first published from 17k, see the genuine content for the first time!] ]