When the king of Hanzhong went north to Dongyongzhou, and fought with the defenders of Dongyongzhou in the hinterland of Henan Province, it was difficult to advance an inch, and when there was a stalemate, Zhao Xun had already joined Yang Wangqing after breaking Jingyang City and east of Chang'an.

"Where is Situ Liang arriving at this moment?" After the round, Zhao Xun's first question was Situ Liang's department, which broke through Hangu Pass and advanced westward.

Yang Wangqing went south before Zhao Jun, and he also had an understanding of the surrounding situation, and when he saw Zhao Xun asking, he said urgently: "Back to the king, Situ Dudu and General Zhao have taken Tongguan, and they are now in the east of Weinan. ”

Hearing this, Zhao Xun frowned slightly and said, "Eastern Weinan? In this way, the Weinan garrison intercepted the eastern army? "Weinan is behind Tongguan, but the terrain is not as dangerous as Tongguan, it stands to reason that Situ Liang should go straight to Chang'an through Weinan, but now he is not.

Yang Wangqing nodded and said: "That's true, after the loss of Hangu Pass, the Han army Chang'an stayed behind, and Lin Shucheng, who controlled the affairs of Eastern Yongzhou, began to focus on Weinan to deploy defenses, which is also the reason why our army besieged the northern cities and Chang'an did not send reinforcements. Among them, of course, there are reasons why there are heavy troops in the north, but in addition, it is also related to Lin Shucheng's desire to block the eastern army and Weinan. ”

Zhao Xun said slowly: "Lin Shucheng...... This is one of the three ministers under Situ Lei's command in the past. His idea was right, but unfortunately, the city in the north of Chang'an was not as powerful as he thought. ”

"King, is it now to go west to Chang'an or east to attack Weinan and join Situ Liang?" Yang Wangqing asked in a deep voice.

Listening to Yang Wangqing say this, Zhao Xun naturally knew that there were other changes, otherwise, there was no need to ask, and the target could be Chang'an directly. After all, even if the land of Weinan was in the hands of the Han army, the army here had already severed their ties with Chang'an.

Of course, Zhao Xun's department was also in the middle of the front and rear attacks, but with Situ Liang's attack in the east, the Han army in Weinan would definitely not bring too much trouble to himself. Therefore, when Yang Wangqing said this, it means that there must be something else in the land of Chang'an.

"Tell me about the situation!" Zhao Xun frowned slightly.

"Since our army occupied Dongyongzhou, it has become much more difficult for us to scout spies on the boundary of Chang'an, which is the territory of Xiyongzhou, and Lin Shucheng is more difficult to deal with than others, which also makes it much more difficult for us to detect enemy intelligence on the boundary of Xiyongzhou. Especially after Lord Situ and the others attacked Hangu Pass, the investigation of our Zhao Army's scouts in the land of Xiyongzhou was much greater. Therefore, our information on Xiyong Prefecture is not detailed enough. ”

"According to the latest information, the Han reinforcements in Hanzhong are moving much faster than we expected, and now, the Hanzhong reinforcements have left Luogu and Xiegu Pass. Come to think of it, now it's either the land of Fufeng or Xianyang. If we go straight to Chang'an now, if we can't fight down, then we will be in the middle of a tripartite attack by Chang'an, Hanzhong reinforcements and Weinan. ”

Zhao Xun pondered for a moment and said, "In this way, you take 20,000 people to approach Chang'an, first put pressure on Chang'an, so that they don't dare to act rashly, and at the same time pay attention to the situation in Chang'an's three auxiliary places." This king took the rest of the soldiers and went east to Weinan to solve the Weinan problem first. This time we went south to Dongyongzhou, our troops were already a little stretched, and now that the reinforcements from Hanzhong have arrived, without Situ Liang's 20,000 soldiers, it will not be easy for us to take Chang'an. ”

Originally, Zhao Xun had an army of 70,000 when he went south, but after occupying the northern cities of Chang'an, in order to stabilize these places and ensure the smooth passage of grain and grass materials to the south, Liu Wenqi took 20,000 soldiers to stay in Gaoling City and other northern places. Now the strength of Zhao Jun and Yang Wangqing after the convergence is only about 50,000, which is enough to deal with the Han army in the original land of Chang'an, but it will not be easy to add reinforcements from the Han army in the land of Hanzhong.

Yang Wangqing frowned and said: "King, after dividing the troops, although we have both sides, but it also makes our forces too scattered, is it not to concentrate on Weinan first and then join forces to move west?" ”

Zhao Xun shook his head and said: "What you said is indeed steady, but Situ Fei, the king of Hanzhong, has already waved his army north, although we are not worried that Dongyongzhou will be conquered by Situ Fei's coalition forces immediately, but the longer it passes, the more unfavorable it will be to Dongyongzhou." After all, Dongyongzhou really doesn't have many troops now. ”

"In addition, even if Lin Shucheng has a lot of men and horses in the land of Weinan, he will be defeated by us in the face of being cut off from the back road, losing contact with Chang'an, and being surrounded by our army. The only thing you need to pay attention to is your team, so you don't need to be impatient when you lead the army west, you just need to put pressure on Chang'an steadily. ”

After dividing the troops with Yang Wangqing, Zhao Xun led the army to the east, and at the same time, Zhao Xun also watched the battle before and after Situ Liang and Zhao Xiong broke the letter Guguan from the east. At the same time, he also asked the envoy sent from Zhao Xiong's command about the course of the war in the east.

Zhao Xiong's breaking of Hangu Pass and Tongguan was relatively smooth. Although it took a long time in Hangu Pass, it was possible to take Hangu Pass, a dangerous pass that blocked the Zhao army's westward advance, and the others could be ignored. Among them, Zhao Xun also saw the impact of Zhao Jun's sharp armor and equipment on the war. Hangu Pass was broken, and the land of Tongguan was also taken by Zhao Xiong quickly, which was also because the Tongguan guards had just arrived and were not prepared.

However, after Situ Liang and Zhao Xiong took Tongguan and marched west to Weinan after a simple repair, they suffered a defeat in this area that they thought would be easy to take.

Because of the successive conquest of Hangu Pass and Tongguan, especially after seeing that the land of Tongguan was conquered so easily, and after learning the news that the original garrison here was empty, Zhao Xiong and Situ Liang did not care too much about the Weinan Han army. After all, in contrast, Hangu Pass and Tong Pass were the Han army's defense line against the Zhao army's westward advance.

Therefore, Situ Liang and Zhao Xiong didn't care too much, and after letting Lianke pass two passes in Tongguan, they galloped for a day and fought hard for two days before riding westward. However, they were ambushed by the Han army on their way west. Although the losses were not big because of the fighting of the Zhao army, it was definitely a great blow to Situ Liang and Zhao Xiong. This was simply a slap in the face, so the Zhao army did not stop because of the attack, but the army went straight to the city of Weinan.

Weinan County was originally not a big city, nor was it a dangerous pass, but it was a necessary place to go west to Chang'an. Especially under the death order of Qiao Xuan, the defender of Weinan, the city was strengthened earlier, which also made it difficult to attack here.

Of course, this did not make Situ Liang and Zhao Xiong stop attacking. Therefore, after the arrival of the logistics baggage team, Zhao Jun set up a catapult and began to attack Weinan County, preparing to use catapults to suppress the fighting spirit of the defenders.

Zhao Jun's catapult dispatch is naturally not trivial, although these cities have been transformed by Qiao Xuan, it is difficult to resist the continuous attack of the catapult.

After just half a day's effort, Qiao Xuan used thousands of people to work hard for more than ten days to make Zhao Jun's catapult smash to pieces. After basically destroying the defensive buildings on the wall of the north gate of the east gate of Weinan County, he could not withstand the generals' request for siege, and at the same time, in order to test the defensive strength of Weinan County, Zhao Xiong and Situ Liang, who originally planned to delay and launch the siege again, finally changed their minds and sent the infantry of Liangdu to attack the city.

Of course, the vanguard is of course the Han army in the land of Hangu Pass and Tongguan, in addition, in addition to the Zhao army's soldiers pressing the formation, it is also rare to dispatch the Zhao army's catapults and bed crossbows to provide cover.

Because the earth-shaking thunder was to be used to attack Chang'an City, the number was not large, and because Hangu Pass used a lot of sky-shaking thunder, it was not used here. Therefore, this is also the first orthodox siege hard battle launched after the Zhao army marched westward. Because it was found that there seemed to be a lot of bed crossbows and some catapults at the side end of the city wall of Weinan County, in order not to cause a decline in morale, Situ Liang adopted a more stable way of attacking the city.

After all, it had been ambushed by the Han army in this Weinan county town before, and if it didn't succeed in taking advantage this time, it would be a big blow to morale. Especially now in the ranks of the Zhao army, there are still many cannon fodder teams like Han soldiers.

Therefore, the Zhao army first concentrated on the catapults and bed crossbows of the defenders on the city, and then covered them with sword and shield soldiers, and these Han soldiers stepped forward with sandbags and carts, built temporary fortifications on the side of the moat, and filled in the passages, and suppressed them with arrows from crossbowmen, so that the siege soldiers could come forward to attack the county seat of Weinan.

It was also during this siege that Zhao Xiong and Situ Liang saw the strength of this Lin Shucheng's apprentice Qiao Xuan's defense, and Situ Liang felt a trace of admiration for Lin Shucheng, an important minister of the Han army. After all, the apprentice is powerful, so how can the master be worse?

Because the catapults of the Zhao army were far more numerous than the defenders, the catapults, bed crossbows and even the Tibetan army towers in Weinan County were destroyed one by one under the attack of the Zhao army's catapults. Rao is in this situation, Qiao Xuan still took advantage of the condescending geographical advantage to give the Zhao army's siege army a head-on attack.

From the beginning of the battle, the bows and arrows, crossbow arrows, sheep's head stones, ash bottles and wood on the wall of Weinan County never stopped falling. As soon as the siege ladders and ramming vehicles of the Zhao army approached the city wall, countless fire oil, rocket torches, and giant rolling logs tied to the head of the city were also dropped on the city wall, burning and smashing many of the siege weapons of the Zhao army.

And once the ladder of the Zhao army leaned against the city wall, there were countless long poles to hold up the ladder of the Zhao army, and then flew out. In addition, the giant rolling logs tied to iron chains were lowered by the guards and crushed directly on the ladder, crushing the soldiers on the ladder.

Even if there are Zhao soldiers mixed in these soldiers and cannon fodder to climb the city wall, to meet these soldiers and soldiers, there are countless spears and arrows, as well as three knives, two guns and five people in a group of defenders, as a result, although the first wave of the Zhao army invested 3,000 troops, but not many soldiers were able to attack the city wall, let alone successfully occupy a city wall position, opening the way for the follow-up army, only lasted for an hour or so because the siege ladder was destroyed and forced to pay gold, the first wave of siege army also paid more than 500 casualties.

The attack was ineffective, and the mentality of the generals of the Zhao army, who had gradually become arrogant because of the successive victories, finally regained some balance, and even the coach Zhao Xiong put away his contempt and began to understand that it was not an accidental accident to be ambushed by the Han army before. In addition to his own carelessness, this is not without Qiao Xuan's calculations. Perhaps, the loss of Tongguan has long been in Qiao Xuan's prediction.

"So how can you fail again? Could it be that you Situ Liang and Zhao Xiong forcibly attacked the city again? Listening to what the little colonel sent by Zhao Xiong said, Zhao Xun was also a little puzzled. It stands to reason that Situ Liang and Zhao Xiong have already felt that this Qiao Xuan is powerful, and they should not fail again.

Xiao Colonel smiled bitterly: "Lord Situ and Li Shuai did not continue to attack the city, but prepared to continue to use catapults to break down the fighting spirit and morale of the defenders, so that they could not last long, and let the city guards of Weinan County collapse themselves." ”

Zhao Xun was stunned and said, "It's so good, what?" ”

"Back to the king, things were originally expected by Lord Situ and General Li, but it is precisely because of this that we were defeated again."

It turned out that after the failure of the siege, Situ Liang convened the final generals to discuss the siege of the city, thinking that the county seat of Weinan was not difficult to break, but this Qiao Xuan was too conservative and steady, and if he wanted to break through, he needed to pay a lot of price. Now that they have the advantage of the equipment, and the army on the northern front is also moving south, there is no point in fighting with the defenders at all.

Therefore, Situ Liang believes that it is completely possible to use the earth-shattering thunder to smash Weinan County, smash all their fighting spirit, and make them dare not fight against their own side.

Next, the general Zhao Jun soon discovered this situation, after the defender's catapult and bed crossbow were abolished by their own side, their own catapult could wreak havoc on the county town of Weinan at the distance where the defenders were helpless, and smashed the stone bullets on the city wall endlessly, and the Han army on the city wall screamed and avoided from time to time, and the stone bullets landed in a piece of chaos, although the commander's order flag kept waving, but nothing could be stopped, and the hysterical roaring and scolding of the officer and colonel could be vaguely heard.

The impact of catapults on the morale of the soldiers, General Zhao Jun was naturally extremely clear, and they all approved of this plan. After all, Situ Liang's original task was to join Zhao Xun's northern army and outside Chang'an City, but now, they are at the forefront, and time is not tight. In addition, their forces are not very sufficient, and they cannot have excessive attrition. At the same time, Situ Liang and Zhao Xiong also began to rectify those subordinates, let them see how powerful Zhao Jun was, and let them use them for their own use.

As the Zhao army's catapults continued to rage, the Han army defending the city became more and more messy. Seeing this scene, the generals of the Zhao army also believed that if this went on for a long time, the morale of the defenders of Weinan County would inevitably continue to decline, and the morale of the army would collapse completely sooner or later, and it would not be very difficult to break the city. Even if you need to storm it at that time, you won't lose much. If you continue to fight like this, it will be a matter of time before the county seat of Weinan is destroyed, but it will take some time. And this time is naturally based on the time when the northern army of Zhao Xun's department goes south.

As a result, Zhao Xiong and other generals mainly used catapults and persuasion to surrender letters, and even sent soldiers to attack the city in turn for training, so that they could begin to get used to the combat style and rhythm of the Zhao army. In addition, the soldiers and soldiers were also allowed to take turns to go into battle to exercise siege tactics in actual combat.

As Situ Liang said, after the various defensive buildings on the city wall were destroyed by the Zhao army in turn, and even repairs could not match the speed of destruction, the defenders also gave up strengthening and repairing the city defenses. This is because various buildings such as castle towers on the city walls are places where the soldiers defending the castle can rest with peace of mind, and they are also the most important strongholds for archery shooting. Without these buildings, the defenders were pressed and beaten by the Zhao army, and they would be attacked by the Zhao army's catapults and bed crossbows at any time, so that the defenders, who originally occupied a favorable position, lost the advantage of being condescending.

In this way, in a few days, the county seat of Weinan was greatly damaged. After all, the catapult threw hundreds of catties, two or three hundred catties of boulders. Being smashed by a stone bullet is basically a big crater, that is, a relatively primitive city crash truck, which can also smash a few bricks with a collision, and then destroy the bricks with a few hits. Therefore, after a few days, the wall of the east gate of the main battlefield was smashed with thousands of holes, and the damage was quite serious.

It is also because of this that the soldiers of the Zhao army all think that the county seat of Weinan has been broken and it is not far away. And the performance of the defenders in the past few days also made them think that the morale of the Han army was completely lost at the moment.

On the fifth day, the Zhao army continued to act as always, and from day to night, the city walls of the eastern city broke even more. What made the officers and men of Zhao even happier was the powerlessness of seeing the defenders fight back while they were training. Many generals and schools believe that they are no longer willing to go until the day the city is broken.

When it was dark, Zhao Jun also retreated back to the camp as usual and rested normally. However, the defenders of Weinan County suddenly attacked at night at this moment. More importantly, the soldiers of the Han army defending the city not only had high morale, but also had nearly 10,000 troops, not more than 5,000 people who learned from the mouths of the captives. In other words, it was originally 10,000 people, but under the blow of Zhao Jun's catapult in the past few days, it has only lost some of it.

10,000 Han troops attacked the camp at night, but the soldiers of the Zhao army were completely unprepared. Although Zhao Junjun has strict discipline, the sentry guards have never been missing. But, after all, the whole army did not watch out. The result was naturally a big defeat and loss, and the entire battalion was slaughtered by the Han army.

According to post-war statistics, the casualties of the soldiers were more than 5,000, but fortunately, most of them were wounded, and most of them were soldiers of the Han army. In addition, there are more than 3,000 soldiers who are missing, and I don't know whether they have surrendered the defenders of Weinan County or scattered and fled. However, the Zhao army's grain and grass suffered heavy losses, especially the catapults, which were basically destroyed under the deliberate actions of the Han army officers and soldiers. After all, this catapult posed the greatest threat to the county seat of Weinan, and the Han soldiers also had a deep grudge against it. Therefore, these forty or fifty catapults were poisoned and all destroyed.