This obstacle is the tall and sturdy Shouchun City, and it is Cao Cao's old subordinate Manpet who guards Shouchun City. Shouchun is not only the seat of Yangzhou, but also a strategic place, but Zhang Zhao, the assassin of Yangzhou, is now in Wu County in the south of the Yangtze River, so it is particularly important who will serve as the Taishou of Jiujiang and sit in Shouchun.

Because Man Chong was originally a general under Cao Cao, and his martial arts were mediocre, he asked him to guard Shouchun, and everyone objected, but Liu Xinli overrode public opinion and firmly handed over Jiujiang to Man Chong. Manzhong got Liu Xin's trust, was excited, got up early every day, and devoted himself to the city defense of Shouchun.

Originally, Liu Xin transferred 8,000 men and horses from the Fifth Army to him, plus Shouchun's original 2,000 local troops, which was enough for 10,000 people, and then relying on Shouchun's strong city wall, it would not be a problem to hold it for ten days and half a month.

Suddenly, one day, Man Pet received an order to send the 8,000 soldiers of the Fifth Army to the north, and the strength of Shouchun City suddenly became empty. Although Shouchun was still some distance from the front line, and the situation at that time was not particularly tense, Man Chong was still keenly aware of some dangers.

Man Chong immediately sent someone to inform Runan Taishou Kuaiqi and asked him to strengthen his vigilance. Runan is the barrier in the northwest of Jiujiang, as long as Runan is not lost, whether it is Cao Cao or Yuan Shao, they will not be able to fight here for the time being. But Kuai Qi is a child of the Xiangyang Kuai family, and he doesn't care about the full warning of his own identity, so he lost Runan in just one day, and he almost lost his life, and fled back to Xiangyang in a hurry.

At the same time as sending people to warn Kuaiqi, Manzhong also strengthened Shouchun's garrison, and the first thing he did was to recruit Minzhuang. Liu Xin has always opposed the conscription of Minzhuang to defend the city, transport and other work, first, these Minzhuang have not been trained, and it is easy to cause large casualties, and on the other hand, except for the agricultural slack season, if the Minzhuang is recruited at other times, it will inevitably affect production. But now the situation is urgent, relying on only 2,000 local troops will definitely not be able to hold Shouchun, and Man Chong can only risk being punished by Liu Xin and order the conscription of Minzhuang.

The people in the Shouchun area used to live quite hard, since Liu Xin came, they gradually solved the problem of food and clothing, so their love for Liu Xin is from the heart, I heard that the Taishou recruited the people, they enthusiastically signed up, and the front of the Taishou Mansion was crowded, and more than 13,000 people were recruited in half a day.

The second thing that Man Pet did was to clear the wilderness. The favored Jianbi Qingye did quite thoroughly, not only withdrawing all the people from the countryside around Shouchun City into the city, but even ordering the people of Xia Cai County, more than 50 miles northwest of Shouchun, to withdraw all the people into Shouchun City, leaving only an empty city for Cao Cao. In this way, although there are many more people in Shouchun City, and food and housing are a big problem, there are also 500 more trained local soldiers, and these people will become the backbone of the city.

Next, Man Pet began to integrate the forces defending the city. He broke up the local army and the people and reorganized them, with a team of eleven people, the captain was a local army soldier, and the team members were ordinary people. The soldiers were armed with bows and crossbows and swords, while the minzhuang were armed with spears and pushers. The use of bows and crossbows requires a certain amount of training, and they will not use them even if they are rationed to the people. Minzhuang's task was to throw rolling logs and rocks under the city, pour gold juice and red-hot iron sand, and then use push rods to knock down the enemy's long ladder.

Now that the weather is hot, the soldiers of the Fifth Legion have left behind some winter armor and baggage, and now they have put them to good use and distributed them to the people. Although it is very uncomfortable to wear these armors, the protection of the armor is first-class, which can well protect these people who have little combat experience, and greatly reduce casualties.

Man Zhong also divided the mixed formation composed of 1,500 local army soldiers and 10,000 people into three pulls, one to defend the city, one to train, and one to rest, changing every two hours, day and night. Another 1,000 local soldiers served as reserves, ready to fight to the death against the enemy who climbed to the top of the city.

Such intense preparations began after the soldiers of the Fifth Army were transferred, and many officials in Shouchun City were very unimpressed with Man's favored approach. But yesterday, the news of the loss of Runan came, and the whole city suddenly became nervous.

Manzhong put on heavy armor and went door to door in Shouchun City to pacify, mobilize everyone, and ask them to support the defenders on the city in time in case of war. In fact, Manpet does not need them to go to the city to fight, as long as they can provide some logistical support, such as transporting supplies, cooking and delivering meals, ambulating the wounded, and so on.

Because Liu Xin had purged the scholars here after capturing Shouchun, many scholars who supported Yuan Shu and Liu Miao were raided. And these nobles have been married to each other for a long time, and they have long been one with each other. Therefore, those surviving scholar families also adopted an attitude of disobedience to Yang and Yin for such a simple request for full favor, and some people even began to secretly collude and want to be Cao Cao's internal response.

However, the people in Shouchun City, including those who were evacuated by full favor, were very active, and many people offered to go to the city to defend against the enemy. They had just had a good life for more than a year, and they didn't want to lose it. Of course, the full favor did not agree to their request, and if these untrained people were allowed to rush forward, not to mention the casualties, it would also disrupt the original defense. However, Man Chong also made two plans, organizing the young and strong men among the people, and letting them be responsible for transporting supplies and wounded in the city, and by the way, let them feel the atmosphere of war, and if necessary, they can be used as reserves.

Cao's army came quickly, and the war began as soon as it began, without any warning in advance. The black army appeared under Shouchun City, and attacked the city almost without a formation. Although this elite army suffered a great loss in the battle of Tiger Pass, the battle of Runan restored some confidence to them, and the empty city of Shangcai gave them a new view of the Han army.

Seeing the Cao army rushing over like ants under the city, both the local army and the people on the city began to show timidity, and some people's legs and stomachs had begun to tremble. Seeing this, Man Chong snatched the bow and crossbow, and shot an arrow at the Cao army under the city, and with a "whoosh", a Cao soldier who was charging fell down.

There was a cheer from the top of the city. Man Zhong casually threw the bow and crossbow to the soldier next to him, and said loudly: "Look, Cao Jun is only flesh and blood, and he doesn't have three heads and six arms, so there's nothing to be afraid of!" An arrow down is still death! For your family to be protected from the bullying of the enemy, kill! ”

The local soldiers and the people at the head of the city shouted in unison, and the feather arrows were shot at the enemy like flying locusts, and from time to time the soldiers of the Cao army fell to the ground with arrows. However, more Cao soldiers stepped on the corpses of their companions, braved the rain of arrows, and continued to rush forward.

Soon, Cao's army approached the moat. Some Cao soldiers jumped off the moat and braved the rain of arrows from the Han army to erect pontoon bridges over the moat. Man Pet sneered and shouted in a deep voice: "Change the rocket!" ”

Rockets were fired at the pontoon, and fire dragons soon appeared on the moat, and some Cao soldiers who had just run onto the pontoon bridge screamed and rolled into the moat. Now the river is rising sharply, the moat of Shouchun City is more than two zhang deep, most of the soldiers of the Cao army are from the north, they are not accustomed to water, and many people sink to the bottom of the river after a few flutters.

Cao's army, which has been through a hundred battles, will not be stumped by a small moat, and if the pontoon bridge is not successful, then fill it with earth. The 200,000 Cao troops gave full play to the advantage of being large in numbers, and sandbags filled with dirt were thrown into the moat. The water in the moat barely flowed, and sandbags would not be washed away if they were thrown in, and the higher they were, the higher they were, and soon the water was exposed.

The Han army relied on the advantage of the range of bows and crossbows to constantly strike at the enemy. Many of Cao's soldiers carrying sandbags collapsed before they rushed to the moat. The companions behind simply pushed them into the moat with the sandbag. Cao Jun was outnumbered, and in the blink of an eye, dozens of embankments made of sandbags and corpses appeared on the moat, and this moat could no longer be a barrier on the periphery of Shouchun City.

This time, Cao Jun did not recklessly rush directly to the city wall, but lined up on the other side of the moat, holding a large shield and pressing towards Shouchun step by step. Although the Han army's bows and crossbows were sharp, they could not penetrate the Cao army's big shield, and they could only watch the Cao army get closer and closer to the city wall.

Suddenly, there was a shout from the Cao army, hundreds of long ladders were erected on the city wall together, and countless Cao soldiers held the long ladder in one hand and the ring head knife in the other, desperately climbing towards the city. The Cao soldiers who climbed the long ladder immediately lost the cover of the big shield, and the Han crossbowmen had a place to use again, and they were so close to each other that they could almost shoot arrows. It's just that there are too many Cao troops, and there are only 500 crossbowmen in the city, so how many Cao troops can be killed even if they keep shooting?

At this time, Minzhuang, who had been hiding behind the crossbowmen, began to exert his might, and the rolling logs and stones were thrown off the city, and the Cao soldiers on the long ladder were smashed to the point that their heads were bleeding, and they fell down screaming. What's even worse is that he was drizzled with gold juice and iron sand, and his skin was suddenly scalded. Both the gold juice and the iron sand are extremely poisonous, and after being drenched, it is not only difficult to cure, but also the pain is unbearable, and the terrible howl is terrifying. Cao's offensive was also stalled.

Suddenly, a group of Cao crossbowmen rushed across the moat and launched a counterattack from below the city. Many inexperienced civilians were shot one after another, but with their heavy armor protection, the casualties were not very large. After all, the power and range of the Cao army's bow and crossbow cannot be compared with the Han army, and Shouchun City is several zhang high, and the power of the arrows has been greatly reduced when it reaches the head of the city, and the armor made of high-quality iron by the Han army can be completely prevented. Some of the wounded soldiers and people were quickly carried down from the city by the people of the city and treated for treatment, and these people also really felt the cruelty of the war.

The entire Shouchun offensive and defensive battle lasted for two hours, and Cao Jun used various means, all of which were resolved one by one. At the same time, in order to ensure that the soldiers and people defending the city have sufficient physical strength, the rotation time is also adjusted to one hour.

Cao Cao couldn't help but be furious when he saw that a small Shouchun city was so tenacious, and he personally beat the war drums. Another wave of Cao troops rushed towards Shouchun City.