Outside Hangu Pass, the order flag in the herald's hand waved again, and the mournful roar of the colonel next to the catapult array sounded again: "Release!" Put! Put ......"

Hundreds of baggage soldiers simultaneously pulled the cable in their hands, and the proximal end of the stone throwing truck fell fiercely. Suddenly, hundreds of gray-black barrel-shaped objects were thrown high, screaming with a terrible scream, tumbling and tumbling towards the majestic walls of Hangu Pass.

This time, the objects thrown by the catapult made the Han army in the pass feel strange, because their size was smaller than the previous boulders, and the effect was far inferior to the effect brought by the previous Zhao army's catapult.

"What is this? It seems to be made of iron sheets, could it be that Zhao Jun was already extravagant enough to wrap objects in iron sheets to make projectiles for catapults? Many dodging generals looked at the barrel-shaped object rolling not far away and said strangely.

"Even so, his power is too small, and he can't even smash the fist-sized fragment of the female wall. Zhao Jun wouldn't be so stupid and use iron sheets as a projectile for catapults? ”

A small school pulled the laughing barrel of a person next to him, looked at it, and said in surprise: "It's not much, why is there smoke on it?" Well...... And a weird smell? ”

"What smoke, what a strange smell, don't forget, this city wall is full of the smell of blood, and some spilled oil, smoke, strange smell or something, it's too normal. You, it's better to hide, lest you be hit by Zhao Jun's next boulder. The other colonel spat and said in a muffled voice.

"If Zhao Jun's catapult had been projecting this kind of thing, we wouldn't have been so miserable to be suppressed. Alas...... I don't know when the reinforcements will come, damn it, I can't hold it without this Hangu Pass. ”

"Boom ......"

As soon as the schoolmaster's voice fell, he felt that his eyes lit up, and the loud noise in his ears followed, and he didn't know anything.

That's right, what is being thrown by Zhao Jun now is nothing else, it is the earth-shaking thunder. Hundreds of earth-shattering thunderbolts that were thrown by Zhao's catapult on the head of the city and the city sounded almost at the same time, and above the city, bursts of explosions came to mind. The huge impact force directly formed blanks on the city's head, and wherever there was earth-shattering thunder, everything around it was overturned. The current Megatron Thunder is more powerful than the original Megatron Thunder, wrapped in iron sheet on the outside and improved gunpowder on the inside.

If the simple sky-shaking thunder is not as powerful, what is even more powerful is the iron beads ejected from the sky-shaking thunder, and after the huge energy of the flame detonates the thin iron sheet, dozens or hundreds of small beads in it are shot out, scattering and shooting towards the surrounding distance of twenty or thirty zhang.

Under the rapid shooting of this kind of iron beads, even the Han soldiers wore armor, and it was difficult to resist. Moreover, once it is injected into the human body, with the current conditions of the Han army, it cannot be treated at all.

After the explosion, it was like rain, except for the continuous spilling of all kinds of broken and fragmented things near the earth-shattering thunder, the rest of the soldiers hiding behind the female wall could not resist the iron beads coming from all sides.

At this moment, Zhang Ling, the main general who is located in the middle of the gatehouse and behind the Chinese army guard, is also buzzing in his ears at this moment, and his head is buzzing. However, at this moment, he was already shocked by the situation in front of him. Most of the soldiers on the city wall who were hiding behind the female wall and could have avoided the catapults of the Zhao army had fallen to the ground at this moment, and Yin Hong's blood was gurgling out from the bodies of these soldiers.

"Damn! Heaven-shattering thunder, this is Zhao Jun's sky-shattering thunder! After a while, Zhang Ling suddenly reacted. Because during the siege of the city in the past few days, the Zhao army had never used it, and it almost forgot this weapon of the Zhao army. But at this moment, he finally understood why the Northern Turks and the people of the Western Regions were extremely afraid of Zhao Jun's weapon.

A puff of black smoke shrouded the city, making Zhang Ling's heart cold. There are more than 4,000 soldiers on the city wall, and the rest are 3,000 young and strong people drawn from the pass and even Tongguan. At this moment, the intact ones are only afraid of less than half. This is because many soldiers survived by hiding from the catapults of the Zhao army outside the city, otherwise, I am afraid that the casualties will be greater.

It took a long time for the buzzing sound in Zhang Ling's ears to gradually subside, but he still felt the buzzing in his ears, which made him extremely uncomfortable. However, at this moment, he couldn't care about this, because he saw that the soldiers of Zhao outside the city were carrying the ladder straight to the wall.

"Come on, immediately let the soldiers who are resting in the pass go to the city to defend. Also, tell them to be careful of Zhao Jun's catapult. Zhang Ling roared violently. It took several shouts to make the herald who was still stunned next to him wake up and hurriedly go to give the order. However, he understood from the trembling figure of the herald that he was afraid that the remaining soldiers on the city wall had lost their fighting spirit and morale at this moment.

…………

After the king of Hanzhong arrived in Nanyang Mansion, the coalition forces in the north of Jingzhou immediately attacked and prepared to go north. However, the surprise attack of the Zhao army, located in Chunling Mansion, on the right side of Nanyang Mansion, began to break through between Nanyang Mansion and Xiangyang Mansion, which suddenly made the king of Hanzhong, who was preparing to go north, have to stop.

Chunling Mansion is a Jingbei Mansion under the jurisdiction of Jingzhou, but as early as the time when Tang Xian occupied Jingzhou in the past, half of this place was occupied by the Zhao army. The king of the Later Han Dynasty and the king of Luoyang attacked Jingzhou, causing the Tang army of Chunling Mansion to retreat, and finally surrendered to Zhao, making Chunling Mansion fall into the hands of the Zhao army.

On the right side of Chunling Mansion is Yuzhou, and in Yuzhou, these two towns are stationed. At this moment, the Zhao army of the entire Chunling Mansion moved, which threatened the flank of the coalition forces of Nanyang Mansion, and even that Nanyang Mansion would cut off contact with Jingzhou at any time, allowing the 50,000 coalition troops to go deep alone. Therefore, the king of Hanzhong, who had just prepared for an attack, had to stop the idea of going north and stick to the right flank first.

"Damn! Damn it! Murong Cheng, if your men and horses go north faster, why is this king like this? Seeing that he couldn't advance or retreat, Situ Fei, the king of Hanzhong, also had to complain angrily. Yuzhou is located in the north of Yangzhou, if the Qi army can contain the Zhao army in Yuzhou, how can the Zhao army of Chunling Mansion easily threaten their flank?

In fact, whether it was the king of Hanzhong or the other princes, they all looked too much at the internal situation of Zhao. Although many places in Zhao State have changed officials, even the center is the same. However, this did not affect the foundation of the Zhao state, or rather, did not affect Zhao Xun's rule over the region.

The dismissal, replacement, or even beheading of these officials did not cause chaos in the region. After all, for the people, the court did this for their good. The local government and county soldiers are another reason for maintaining local stability. Because the government soldiers and county soldiers are all military generals, according to Zhao Xun's regulations, they do not belong to the civilian system, nor do they belong to the war system. They are not allowed to interfere in local affairs, and they are not allowed to have any involvement with the town soldiers and other soldiers, and at the same time, they are also under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War and the Privy Council, and are assigned by the emperor.

In addition, the two states in the Western Regions, Dongyongzhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou and other newly incorporated state capitals into the system have not had major problems because of the strict supervision of the three major secret guard yamen to which the predecessor of the Shadow Guard, the Flying Eagle Guard and the Jinyi Guard belonged. Therefore, even though most of the officials were taken down, it did not make Zhao civil unrest.

Of course, the replacement of so many officials still has a great impact on Zhao State. At the very least, Zhao Guo will devote his energy to the replacement and rectification of internal officials in the next few months. Even the five secret guard systems also need to be reorganized and expanded. At the same time, Zhao Guo also has to investigate the cases involved in these officials, which is cumbersome and naturally difficult to explain.

In a certain situation and situation, it still makes sense. After all, if there is internal instability, how can we defend ourselves against external enemies? As the saying goes, powerful fortresses often fall from within! Powerful empires also began to disintegrate from within. However, this does not mean that Zhao is now incapable of dealing with a big war with the southern princes.

Because the flanks were threatened, the king of Hanzhong, who had no choice but to stop his northward movement, arranged men and horses to strengthen the defense of the flanks, and hurriedly urged the king of Qi and the king of Shu to speed up the support. In addition, he also asked the Shu army to make a move north in Yangzhou to contain the Zhao army in Yuzhou.

Whether it is Murong Cheng, the king of Qi, or Situ Che, the king of Shu, they all hope that the Jingzhou coalition army can consume each other with the Zhao army, but they definitely do not want Xiyongzhou and Jingbei to fall into the hands of the Zhao army. Therefore, after learning that the Zhao army in Chunling Mansion in Jingbei and the Zhao army in Yuzhou began to act, the two did not dare to delay any longer, and urgently ordered the army under their command to go north to support the march to speed up.

…………

Xiangyang City, since then the king of Luoyang retreated Jingnan people, most of them are concentrated in Xiangyang Mansion, Bei'an Mansion and Jingling Mansion. However, Xiangyang was the center of Jingzhou, and after the civil and military officials under Situ Hao evacuated from the south, they were all concentrated in Xiangyang City.

Of course, Situ Hao did not simply let his officials evacuate the school from Jingnan, but also conducted an inventory of these officials. Don't forget, the officials and generals that the Shu army bought in Jingnan are mainly under their own command. Although Situ Hao knew that this was a rumor spread by Zhao Jun, he also knew that many of the Jingnan officials and generals really had a lot of connections with the Shu army, and their secret guards and Wang Dao, who participated in the Jingnan Alliance, had found out some problems.

Therefore, after Situ Hao, the king of Luoyang, threw the affairs of Jingbei to the king of Hanzhong, he began to rectify and clean up the generals and school officials under his command in Xiangyang Mansion and other prefectures. Suddenly, among the Luo army, the officials who were attracted by various princes were replaced by Situ Hao. Even Zhao Jun's plan to continue to buy and win over the officials and generals of the Luo Army was also blocked because of this.

"Your Majesty, this time the king ignored the battle between Jingbei and Hanguguan, turned around and returned to Xiangyang Mansion, I don't know ......"

Seeing that Zuo Cheng Wang Dao, who participated in the Jingnan Alliance and was responsible for the evacuation of Jingnan officials, had a strange face, Situ Hao understood that he was doubting in his heart whether his move had anything to do with Zhao State.

"In this battle, the Jingzhou coalition army and the princes' coalition army basically have no chance of winning, or in other words, the purpose of Zhao is Xiyongzhou rather than Jingbei. Therefore, the Jingbei War will not happen, and Xiyongzhou will be difficult to preserve. Since this matter is about the land of Xiyongzhou of the king of Hanzhong, what is the point of this king's involvement? The alliance of the princes, whose hearts are not aligned, how to deal with the step-by-step pressure of the Zhao State? Okay, let's sort out our internal problems first, as for the rest, it's not our turn to think about it. Situ Hao said slowly.

Although Situ Hao said so, Wang Dao still felt that his king was a little different from before. If it had been before, it would never have paid too much attention to the military officials and internal affairs under its command, but now, it ...... However, as a courtier, he naturally wouldn't speculate too much about what his king was thinking, although he still suspected that it had something to do with Zhao Guo.

…………

At the head of Hangu Pass, Zhang Ling, the chief general of the Han army, was covered in blood and stood with a sword.

I don't know if it was the black smoke from the burning oil on the city wall or the black smoke from Zhao Jun's earth-shattering thunder, which smoked his whole person black. On Zhang Ling's face, there were also traces of blood, that is, the earlobe of the right ear, which seemed to have been cut off by something, making his right ear obviously smaller than his left ear.

And above the city wall, there are potholes everywhere, and the female wall is now not one in ten. On the ruins on both sides of the inner wall, there are small round holes everywhere.

At this moment, Zhang Ling's heart was cold, and the strength of Zhao Jun outside the city had already made him feel frightened. Zhao Jun's rigorous military formation, without the momentum of a military order to die rather than retreat, and the perfect coordination of various arms made Zhang Ling feel powerless.

If these are the only ones, Zhang Ling will not be afraid, he can rely on the Hangu Pass natural danger as a means to deal with it, and his self-confidence, the more than 10,000 soldiers under his command will not be afraid because of this. However, Zhao Guo's sharp weapons and powerful logistics baggage team gave Zhang Ling a blow to the head, allowing him to see the other side of Zhao Jun's strength, that is, the advantage of weapons.

Hundreds of catapults have suppressed the threat of Hangu Guantian to the Zhao army. In addition, hundreds of crossbows made it impossible for the defenders on Hangu Pass to raise their heads, but were pressed and beaten by the Zhao army, so that the soldiers defending the city could not rely on the advantages of Hangu Pass too much. If it is said that these are the only ones, but the earth-shaking thunder used by the Zhao army is a fatal blow to the defenders of Hangu Pass.

Although the Zhao army only used it twice, it brought more than 5,000 casualties to the defenders, of which the casualties of the soldiers were only more than 3,000. However, the impact on the defenders of the city is indeed incomparable. The weapon of the earth-shattering thunder makes it impossible for the soldiers defending the city to dodge at all, and the middle one dies, and the injured cannot be cured. As a result, the morale of the Han army defending the city plummeted, and the Zhao army almost broke through the city.

If it weren't for the fact that there were new reinforcements in the land of Tongguan, and if it weren't for the fact that the Zhao army had not used it many times, I was afraid that Hangu Pass would have been lost at this moment. In seven days, the Zhao army attacked the city for seven days, and the soldiers defending the city lost more than 7,000 people, and the young men who assisted in defending the city also lost more than 2,000 people. Among them, more than half were casualties caused by the two Zhao troops using the Heaven-Shaking Thunder. Because of the Zhao army's earth-shattering thunder, the soldiers at the head of the city were in a dizzy situation for a long time, and then they were shot by the Zhao army's crossbowmen.

Although there are many supports from Tongguan and temporary support from Chang'an, the defenders on Hangu Pass are now only more than six or seven thousand, and there are only more than five thousand young and strong. However, Zhang Ling felt that he was no longer able to defend it.

"Woo woo woo ......"

The siege of the Zhao army ended suddenly, the desolate horn of withdrawal sounded, and the soldiers of the Zhao army who were crowded under the wall retreated in an orderly manner.

"Whew...... Zhao Jun retreated! Many of the defenders breathed a sigh of relief. But Zhang Ling did not relax in the slightest, he knew that the Zhao army did not do its best to attack the city, and his own soldiers did not bring too many casualties to the Zhao army.

"General, Zhao Jun is hitting the morale of our soldiers. At the same time, it is also consuming our soldiers and supplies. Zhao Jun's strong bow and crossbow are too lethal for us, but we have no countermeasures, and the arrows and crossbow arrows in the pass have long been used up. In addition, our bed crossbows were also completely destroyed under the onslaught of Zhao Jun's catapults. The deputy general said to Zhang Ling with a solemn face. One of the adjutant general's arms was also shot by Zhao Jun's crossbow arrow, and now it was also Yin Hong, but he couldn't care about it anymore.

What the adjutant general said, how could Zhang Ling not be clear? But what can he do? Even if he privately promised to be promoted and make a fortune, he could not raise morale or turn things around.

"Huh......" Zhang Ling looked up to the sky and let out a long breath of turbid air full of blood, looking at the western sky, looking at the sky that was finally gradually dimming, his heart was flooded with a sense of relieved exhaustion, and this was something that had never happened before.

"Immediately send someone to Chang'an to report the emergency, the offensive of the Zhao army is far beyond our expectations, according to the current situation, Hangu Pass can't be defended, let Lord Lin prepare early!" Zhang Ling was silent for a while, and said lightly to the deputy general beside him.

For Hangu Pass, Zhang Ling has lost hope. Now, he can only inform Chang'an of the situation and let Chang'an prepare for defense.

Adjutant General Su Zilin said in a deep voice: "The cavalry will be arranged to report at the end, but is there no hope here at all?" Chang'an does not mean that reinforcements and support will arrive in the near future. In addition, the king also began to act in the land of Jingbei, attacking the Zhao army's Henan Mansion in order to pull the Zhao army's siege team back. ”

Zhang Ling pointed to the city wall, pointed to the expression of the rest of his life after the catastrophe on the city wall, and said in a muffled voice: "You are right, whether it is Chang'an or Jingbei, they still make support actions." However, we are no longer able to support the arrival of support here. And the army of Zhao attacking here is only half of Dongyongzhou. Therefore, the reinforcements in Jingbei could not effectively contain the Zhao army here. ”

Su Zilin said in a deep voice: "The king should not have arranged most of his men and horses in the north and northwest of Chang'an, now, we have received the most fierce attacks here, and the north and west are very small. ”

"Well, don't complain. The north and north-west were attacked less, not least because of the large number of garrisons there. In addition, it is also close to the land of Hanzhong. What everyone really expected was that Zhao Jun would attack at this time. It seems that the internal situation of Zhao Jun is not as important as we imagined. Okay, go and arrange for people to deal with the city, stock up on supplies, and prepare to meet the Zhao army at any time. ”