Wen Ping arched his hand and said: "Lord Qi, there happens to be an offensive and defensive drill in the city today, and the last general is brave, so please watch this drill." ”

Liu Xin nodded and said, "Don't tell them I'm coming, let them practice as they should, I want to see the real situation." ”

In front of it is a simulated city made of bricks and stones, with high walls and deep pools, moats, city gates, city towers, deer barricades outside the city, and even an attached urn city, which looks extremely strong. Looking at the entire Han Dynasty, there will definitely not be more than 20 cities comparable to this simulated city, including metropolises such as Xiangyang, Chang'an, and Luoyang.

Liu Xin took Qiao Xuan to climb a small hill near the simulated city, there is a high lookout platform on the hillside, from which you can look down on the entire city, and this is also the command center for Wenpin to dispatch city defense drills and evaluate the effect of drills.

Wen Ping took out two clairvoyant mirrors and handed them to Liu Xin and Qiao Xuan, pointed in the direction of the city, and said: "Lord Qiqi, today the defender of the city is a local coalition army from some counties and counties in Yangzhou and Jiaozhou, a total of 10,000 people. In charge of the siege was the Third Army Corps, with a total of 20,000 men. These local troops have been training at the base for more than three months, and today is the time to test the results of their training. ”

Lujiang also had local armies, and these local armies wore the same armor as Liu Xin's regular legions, the only difference was that the flags they used and the logos on their chests were different. In Qiao Xuan's eyes, the so-called local army is actually a miscellaneous army, and its combat effectiveness is naturally not much better. Now, with 20,000 well-trained regular troops attacking 10,000 miscellaneous troops, and these 10,000 miscellaneous troops are from different places, such a drill is not fair at all, presumably Liu Xin deliberately showed him the combat power of the regular army, so he arranged it like this.

However, when Qiao Xuan picked up the clairvoyant mirror, he was surprised. Through the clairvoyant mirror, the city in the distance seemed to be pulled in front of him at once. Qiao Xuan held the clairvoyant mirror and looked at it carefully, and couldn't help asking, "General Wen, what kind of treasure is this?" ”

Wen Ping arched his hand and said, "Mr. Qiao, this is the invention of my father-in-law." If you look that way, the weather is fine today, and you can see the smiles on the faces of the soldiers in the city. It's just that this clairvoyant mirror costs a lot of money. ”

Qiao Xuan picked up the clairvoyant mirror again and took a closer look, and sure enough, he could clearly see that on the head of the simulated city, young faces were nervously and resolutely watching the movements under the city. As the clairvoyant mirror in his hand moved slowly, he could see that in the wilderness outside the city, groups of soldiers carrying long ladders and under the cover of huge shields were slowly approaching the moat. Unexpectedly, a small clairvoyant mirror could see objects so far away, and Qiao Xuan's admiration for Liu Xin deepened.

At this time, Wen Ping took out a firework canister, and with a "bang", a red fire exploded in the sky, startling Qiao Xuan, who was unprepared.

Liu Xin explained: "Outside of Qiao, this is a signal flare. The red color indicates that the drill can officially begin. Later, a green flare will be used to announce the end of the drill. If you look that way, it's about to besiege the city. ”

This is a drill close to actual combat, of course, all the arrows have been removed from the arrow clusters, the knives and guns are also relatively blunt wooden knives and wooden guns, and the tips of the arrows and knives and guns are plastered with lime in advance to evaluate the results of the exercise.

As the red flares rose into the sky, the soldiers of the Third Legion shouted and rushed towards the simulated city from four directions. They obviously don't know how many times they had done this kind of drill, and they rushed to the moat almost with their eyes closed. The defenders at the head of the city seemed to be a little flustered, and they drew their bows and shot arrows early, and the feathered arrows that removed the arrow clusters rained down on the side of the moat, hitting the shield and "snapping", but the "casualties" caused to the besieging side were extremely limited. Although it was only a drill, the soldiers who were shot by the feathered arrows would consciously withdraw from the battlefield.

The morale of the besieging side was not affected in any way, and under the cover of the shield, the hook scratchers threw the noose and hook, and quickly cleared the deer outside the city.

To Qiao Xuan's astonishment, the besieging soldiers actually set up the long ladder directly on the wide moat, and then rushed over the long ladder. The long ladder swayed, and soldiers kept falling into the moat.

Liu Xin explained: "These soldiers did not fall into it unsteadily, but were shot by bows and arrows on the head of the city. Although the bow and arrow with the cluster of arrows removed are not very lethal, being shot by the bow and arrow indicates that he has been killed. In order not to affect the attack of the follow-up troops, these soldiers jumped off the moat on their own initiative. ”

Qiao Xuan didn't expect these soldiers to be so desperate in training, if it was a real battlefield, it would be a group of fierce tigers.

After a brief panic at the beginning of the battle, the soldiers of the local army defending the city quickly stabilized their positions, and the shooting of bows and arrows was not as blind as at the beginning, the hit rate was greatly improved, and the besieging soldiers "fell" one by one. The whole drill was not one-sided as Qiao Xuan imagined, but was extremely hard.

By this time, many long ladders had been erected on the walls, and a large number of attacking archers had come to the city and fired at the soldiers at the city. The defenders of the city still have the upper hand. Time passed, and soldiers began to climb the city, and in the blink of an eye, they were counterattacked by the reserve forces organized by the defenders.

The offensive and defensive drills lasted for an hour and a half, and more and more soldiers on both the offensive and defensive sides withdrew from the drills, and many soldiers were injured in the drills. The soldiers on both sides who retreated from the battlefield gathered to talk and laugh, and to comment on the gains and losses in the battle.

Qiao Xuan, who was standing on the lookout, was extremely nervous, as if what he saw was not a drill, but a real war. Qiao Xuan is also a person who has led soldiers, and he knows very well that such a fierce offensive, if his former soldiers come to defend the city, I am afraid it will not last for half an hour. For just now while he was observing through the clairvoyant, while silently counting in his mind, an attacking soldier began to go up the city from a long ladder, and by the time he counted to six, the soldier had already rushed to the head of the city, a speed at which even the best archers could only shoot an arrow.

Seeing this drill, which was incomparably close to the actual battle, Qiao Xuan's palms were full of sweat, and he couldn't help asking, "Lord Liu, when will this be fought?" ”

Liu Xin put down the clairvoyant mirror and said, "Under normal circumstances, you must distinguish the winner from the loser. Of course, today's situation is special, and Liu still wants you to see a few pieces of equipment used in siege and defense of the city, so let them end it early. ”

Wen Ping received the order and took out another firework canister, and the sky exploded again, this time a green flare. Soon, a gong sounded on the side of the simulated city, and the movements of the attacking and defending sides stopped instantly, assembled as quickly as possible, and withdrew from the "battlefield" in an orderly manner. Their mission has ended, and the rest of the cleanup work is naturally completed by the professional team of the base.

It didn't take much effort, a lieutenant ran over, and submitted the battle report that had been counted, and the casualty ratio of the attacking and defending sides reached two to one, and it seemed that Wen Ping arranged 20,000 people to attack the city and 10,000 people to defend the city, which had already expected this result.

Qiao Xuan wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said with palpitations: "Lord Liu, this drill is so realistic, it's like playing with your life." ”

Liu Xin said with a smile: "This kind of drill is held almost every day regardless of wind or rain, but the scale is different. The more sweat on the training ground, the less blood can be shed on the battlefield. In addition to Qiao, in terms of attacking and defending the city, there are a few heavy equipment, let Zhongye demonstrate it for you now. ”

Wen Ping nodded, took out another firework canister, and released a yellow flare. A large number of figures suddenly appeared on the head of the originally empty simulated city, and this was another army. After the soldiers were busy, ten huge crossbows appeared on the city.

Liu Xin picked up the clairvoyant mirror and observed, pointed with his hand, and said: "Outside Qiao, come and see, it is a ballista, the arrow is one foot and five feet long, and the range far exceeds that of the bow and arrow, which can directly smash the Chinese army on the besieging side." ”

As he spoke, the ballista had already started. Ten ballistas shot at the same time, and ten huge iron arrows flew out of the city for nearly a thousand steps, and slammed into the mud, Qiao Xuan even felt a slight shock under his feet, and couldn't help but change his face.

Liu Xin explained: "The power of the ballista is huge, so it was not used in the siege drill just now to avoid unnecessary casualties. Nowadays, this kind of crossbow has been deployed at important checkpoints such as Tiger Prison Pass, Wuguan Pass, and Yumen Pass. Look again. ”

Following the direction of Liu Xin's finger, ten newly improved catapults were slowly pushed out, and the ballista carts on the city had been withdrawn.

Wen Ping hesitated for a moment, then arched his hand and said, "Lord, do you really want to demonstrate the stone-throwing attack?" ”

Liu Xin waved his hand undoubtedly and said, "Liu invited Qiao Yuan to come out today, so naturally he wanted to let him see some genuine things." Cast it! ”

Wen Ping didn't dare to persuade again, so he let people wave the big flag on the lookout. There was a loud "boom" sound in the distance, and a huge stone projectile whistled and flew towards the castle tower of the simulated city. It has been improved so that each trebuchet can throw ten stone projectiles at the same time, and ten trebuchets are a full hundred stone projectiles. These 100 stone bullets are still running towards one target at the same time, which is to simulate the gate tower of the city.

There was another loud "boom", and the city gate tower withstood such a huge impact and collapsed on the spot.

Qiao Xuan's mouth was wide open, so shocked that he couldn't say a word. He had never even heard of such a powerful weapon, and if it was put into actual combat, no city would be able to stop the advance of the Han army.