Who led what army, just when Li Sheng and Xu Shu were discussing Ma Dai and their Liangzhou army, the 200,000 troops that Ma Dai and Pang De had combined were already facing each other on the line between Bird and Mouse Mountain and Gaochengling: leading troops to be stationed in Weiyuan City, based on Gaochengling, guarding the source of Taoshui; Ma Dai led his army to live in Tingnan Valley and the army went down the river to the village, joined forces for more than ten miles, cleared the weeds around the camp, cleared a huge flat land, blocked the passage under the Gaocheng Ridge, and put on a posture of wanting to trap the recruit in Weiyuan City. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Of course, this is only a superficial thing, in fact, Ma Dai and Pang De clearly know that as the side of the expedition here, they are really conducive to quick battles, and clumsy in siege. Although the transport team sent from Liangzhou continuously sent grain and grass to the front of the army, so that they did not have the distress of lack of materials, it would take two or three years to make the guys above surrender through the siege. According to the intelligence, as the largest gateway in front of Shouyang County, the grain and grass in Weiyuan City was enough to pay for the 50,000 troops recruited in the city for three years, and the water on the edge of Weiyuan City made Weiyuan City not suffer from water shortage at all - there was no shortage of food, a lot of water, and there was a large army stationed there, which made the siege a matter of almost a joke. Ma Dai is not a fool, how can he stay like this for nothing? You must know that in the hearts of these Liangzhou people, there is another thing that they remember, that is, to go to Luoyang as soon as possible and arrest the people of the Cao family, so as to repay the hatred of the old master Ma Teng who was killed by Cao Cao.

"I wonder if we're trying to find a way to bypass Gaocheng Ridge and attack Shouyang City directly?" Ma Dai whispered his opinion, although he was the chief general in the army, but in this major matter, he did not dare to act arbitrarily, fortunately, as a deputy general, Pang De was once an old man in his army, of course he had to discuss it with him.

"Bypassing Gaochengling? Wouldn't that leave the people behind us there? Not to mention that Shouyang still has his son Zhaojia leading an army of 30,000 to defend, just putting the people behind him there and ignoring them is already very worrying, and no one knows if their side will quickly follow up and kill directly from behind us once we retreat. What if we go to Shouyang with this? Can you continue to attack like this, I'm afraid that this will not work. At the very least, you'll have to wait until the damn nail is pulled out. Pang De thought for a while and said, his experience is there, and he once accompanied Ma Chao to the CD Martial Arts Academy to study for a period of time, but in terms of strategy, he is better than Ma Dai. But he didn't want to rush forward, he just wanted to come little by little. Although the current strategic requirement is for the soldiers and horses of Liangzhou and the soldiers and horses of Hanzhong to converge as soon as possible, he knows that he still can't be "fast" at this time: "It must be stabilized, and if you want to hurry, you can't reach it!" In the face of Ma Dai's anxiety, Pound looked like an old god.

"And for the enemy's stubbornness...... What's your opinion? Ma Dai looked at Pound in surprise, but there was a lot of reluctance in his eyes. He seems to realize that the army in his hands is the guarantee of his status, but he does not want to sacrifice his army casually. “…… It's not going to be an assault, is it? That's stupid! Ma Dai said.

"The assault is certain, but it's not quite what you think." Seeing that Ma Dai had a bitter face as soon as he said about the strong attack, Pang De naturally knew what was going on, he smiled lightly and waved his hand, but he said with a smile: "Zhong Yue, I guess I rarely used the equipment of the rear camp to attack all the way - it is true, all the way from Liangzhou is a flat river, and there is no need to use it if I don't meet a few dock forts." But it's precisely because of this that you don't understand much about those things in the back camp. In fact, our current assault is to be achieved with the equipment in the rear. As soon as the cannon sounded, no matter how strong their city defenses were, they would be reduced to ruins in the sound of the cannons. ”

"Can this really be done?" Ma Dai's eyes widened in disbelief. Although he fought bravely and has always been out of the "outside" place, his own personality is still introverted, and for those newly invented things, the new armament itself has a somewhat undesirable appearance in it. As for the artillery battalions assigned to his own army, he completely lined them up with the baggage troops, and he didn't care about them at all. The strongholds he encountered along the way, such as the checkpoint city fortress, were solved by projectile weapons such as fire and thunder, but he didn't use cannons once. Naturally, as Pound said, he did not know the power of artillery.

"Don't worry. If you're willing, let me take care of it. I promise to let you go up to the city of Weiyuan within another ten days. Pound patted Ma Dai on the shoulder, smiled and said confidently. At this moment, he is already an official general under Li Sheng, but he is not a general of the Ma family, and the momentum of this opening is naturally less but much more humble than before. Listening to Ma Dai, who didn't take this matter very seriously, was even more pleasant to hear.

"That's a good idea!" Ma Dai smiled and patted Pound's shoulder enthusiastically, "This matter will be left to you." Destroying the enemy as soon as possible and advancing eastward as soon as possible is what we have to do. What you need, you can order it directly, and from now on you will be the commander of the entire army. ”

"Thank you, General!" Pound bowed his hand gratefully. He was not a man who could make tricks, so he quickly took over the general from Ma Dai and adjusted the defense of the entire army: the troops on both sides remained unchanged, and the army was closely defended so as not to let the enemy escape; As for the front, the artillery battalion is in the middle, and the artillery units are covered by various arms and arranged under the enemy's city, and then the 200-kilogram runner runs in front of the column, and the 1,000-kilogram field artillery is in the center, and the field artillery defense array is opened, and at the same time, the 2,000-kilogram siege artillery is lined up behind the field artillery, and each is adjusted, and the black muzzle is coldly facing the opposite direction.

Everything was set up before noon. Under the comments of the soldiers on the other side who did not know what to say, in the protection of the left and right armies, Pound after completing this, he greatly let all the soldiers take turns to feast. Immediately began the bombardment of Weiyuan City.

The time was the end of noon, and the location was in the rear camp of the artillery position of the Liangzhou Army, and the protagonist was the dozens of 2,000-pound siege guns in the rear camp of the artillery, which looked very thick and majestic. As the red flag in the commander's hand waved heavily, the gunner, who had already adjusted his bearing, lit the fuse behind the gun with the torch in his hand. A string of sparks flashed, and the cannon began to roar, and in the dull sound of the cannon, a little dazzling flower burst out, and a cloud of green smoke came out of the cannon, but it was already the scene after the cannon was fired. As for the city of Weiyuan on the other side, everything was decided after the dull sound of cannonballs - when dozens of cannonballs with earth-shattering cannonballs smashed on the loess city wall of Weiyuan and the clouds of smoke and dust dispersed, all the defenders were surprised to find that in what should have been a flat place, a pit the size of a basin suddenly appeared in it, three inches deep, and the end was terrifyingly tight.

“…… If you are hit by this kind of thing, I'm afraid that your whole person will be smashed a lot shorter. It's really terrifyingly tight. Under the blow, the soldiers who held his hands were very frightened. They are not afraid of face-to-face fighting, but they are very jealous of this method of dying far away without knowing it. Like all those who saw the cannon fire for the first time, they all regarded this astonishing technique as a trick of the gods.

The first shelling was just a test shot and didn't really kill many people. Taiban's cannonballs either hit the city wall itself, or directly crossed the city head and smashed into the city, and not many of them hit the city head, and there were not many that directly smashed the defenders on the city. It can be said that the effect of this first shelling was absolutely unsatisfactory. However, the shock caused by such an unsatisfactory to the soldiers of the defenders was by no means under the shelling of "ordinary" ideals. The moment the shells fell, everyone felt the ground tremble slightly under their feet, and they felt that it was no different from an earthquake. Although the real result is not as shocking as the real shaking of the mountains, as long as you look and think about it, and understand that all this is caused by the other party, you will also be shocked by the strength of the other party.

"What should I do......?" The methods that people came up with were basically the same, Hao Zhao from Hebei came up with that way, and the tricks here were the same. They were also quite formidable figures, and they all saw through the slow rate of fire of firearms at a glance, and they all made the same decision: "The cavalry assault destroyed their artillery positions." ”

The sound of horses' hooves sounded, and with the accompaniment of rumbling cannons, with the opening of the city gates, they brought their posture to everyone's eyes. Because of the enemy soldiers surrounded by a circle outside, and because it was impossible for him to send a large army out of the city because of the defense of the city, the number of enemies outside was far above his own, so he sent a few thousand people to his death without daring to lead the way. In order to raid Pang De's artillery position, he ordered 10,000 Xiliang iron cavalry, all of which were fully armored, and only came out the moment the city gate was opened, and rushed towards Li Tang's formation with great momentum. In order to prevent the enemy from breaking through, he arranged all his cavalry at the foot of the ridge to encircle him, and as for the front of the ridge, in addition to the artillery battalion, there were only 10,000 pikemen and 10,000 archers.

As normal, a cavalry assault is an absolute nightmare for infantry. So can this nightmare be reproduced now? Listening to the sound of horses' hooves ringing in his ears, he looked at the black cavalry that rushed out of the other party's city gate. Everyone in Li Tang's army felt what it meant to be imposing like a rainbow, and what it meant to be boundless with thousands of people and horses.

"It's amazing." Except for Pound, who could still laugh, almost everyone had their faces tightened, and they all felt the invisible force that almost crushed them from each other's momentum.

"There are few people who can stare at the charge of the cavalry army with their eyes wide open." It is a truth that not many people can disobey it, not even Pound. The reason why he was able to laugh at this time was purely because he knew what was going to happen below, and he was very confident in his artillery, so he knew that as long as he calmed down and gave orders according to the methods taught in the martial arts, the enemy on the opposite side, this menacing cavalry, would never be in front of him at all. "Yes, as long as you are calm, they will not be your opponents." Pound secretly admonished himself, then his eyes widened, and he quickly gave an order: "The field artillery is fired intermittently in three batches; Attack with intermediate revolvers fired by field artillery fire; The rest of the archers can only fire a salvo if the enemy advances within thirty feet of them; As for the pikemen, be prepared just in case. ”

"No!" The soldiers roared. In the chorus of tens of thousands of people, everyone's apprehension disappeared almost instantly. Although they were still a little uneasy and frightened in the face of the enemy's cavalry at this moment, somehow, their hearts were calm, and they were finally able to carry out one step after another according to the original drills.

The artillery fired, and nearly 300 1,000-pound field guns were divided into three levels to fire in turn. One by one, the flowering bullets flew towards the cavalry team with lit fuses. They fall in the middle of the running crowd and then explode the moment the fuse burns out. The force of the impact unleashed in the small space unleashed the iron filings, iron balls, iron tips, and gravel hidden inside the pinball, turning them into deadly weapons, enveloping all life within its reach, cutting through their skin, burrowing into their vital points, and tearing their limbs.

For a time, countless wails, screams, and roars, both of the horses and the cavalry, sounded around the drop point. Under the explosive lethality of the flowering bomb, any formation is useless, and it is simply impossible for people to maintain the stability and compactness of their formation under such power. They fled and scattered, not only for themselves, but also for the mounts under them. This is a normal thing, if they don't want to die, they can only choose to run.

"Damn it! Can't stop, rush over, rush over me! Facing such a situation, he was helpless, he could only shout loudly, trying to reverse all this through speed. At this moment, he intuitively thought that the enemy's "artillery" at the moment seemed to be very similar to bows and arrows, but they were all attacking the enemy from a distance. For such an attack, it is useless to spin in place, only by quickly approaching the opponent and rushing to the blind corner where the opponent shoots, can everything be reversed. "The bow and arrow have the blind corners of the bow and arrow, and this thing at the moment also has its own blind corners. Only when we find it can we achieve the final victory. So said Lead-and-I have to say, in general, he was absolutely right.

However, what is generally true is wrong here. Artillery is intermittent, but people can compensate for this intermittent by other means. Of course, new weapons need new tactics to make up for all this, although such things as artillery were vigorously developed under the intervention of Li Sheng, but compared with the complete exploration of artillery tactics on the part of Eastern Wu and Cao Wei, Li Shengjun's artillery seemed to be organized because of the little insight that existed in Li Sheng, a later generation. Using artillery with different calibers and fast and slow rates of fire is a trick that Li Sheng taught his subordinates in artillery combat.

When he ordered his cavalry to launch a surprise attack during the gap between the Tang artillery, hundreds of revoltainer guns, which had been prepared for a long time, also began their continuous shelling. The revolver is a kind of small-caliber artillery, the size of its shell is only the same as the fire and thunder bullet used by ordinary soldiers, and compared with the regular field artillery, its range is much shorter, but only half of it, only the same as the bed crossbow, its biggest feature is that it uses the same ammunition mechanism as the revolver, and uses the flint strike to directly carry out rapid-fire artillery fire, but its firing speed is much faster than the musket equipped by Li Shengjun. At this moment, under the orders of the artillery battalion officer, they continued to fire continuously, and for a time the shell fell like hail. Not to mention that these falling shells will still explode after they hit the ground, even if they don't explode, in terms of the frequency of this revolver, this cannonball will kill many people even if it is a stone.

Such a dense number of shells were falling, followed by new shells, and even if there was a distance between them, they became completely unnoticeable in several waves of continuous fire. As soon as the artillery bombardment fell, the frontal battlefield was covered with smoke and dust, and the gunpowder smoke and countless flying dust from the explosion of the shells covered the entire frontal battlefield. People don't know what's going on, they just know that they have to keep doing what they do, like an indispensable part of a machine, doing their own thing and making the whole machine work. As for the result, that's not what I'm concerned about now, and it depends on it after the smoke clears. However, in the present situation, it seems unlikely—people cannot see what is under the smoke of gunpowder, but they can faintly hear the roar in it, but this roar is blurred by the roar of the cannons, and finally it is completely muffled. Because after the revolver fired three times in a row, hundreds of field guns once again burst out with their roar, but this roar was much louder than the revolver gun in front.

By the time Pound finally waved his hand to stop the shelling, it was all over. Thousands of shells were fired down from an artillery bombardment, and few of the 10,000 cavalry who left the city could stand. Blood, scorched earth, stumps, a whole hell scene was presented to everyone: countless soldiers and their horses were reduced to bloody mud, and the mixture of red and black was incomparably fertile. The luck of the lead is undoubtedly good, he stayed in the middle of the military formation, he is still alive, although his body is already scarred, but after all, there is still life. When the smoke cleared, he got up from a pile of dead bodies alone, stared blankly at Pound and the others opposite, and immediately laughed out loud. The laughter was desolate, and though it could be called laughter, all of them heard the bitter taste from the laughter.

He smiled, but deep down he was crying. If there really is such a thing as blood and tears, then what he is flowing now is undoubtedly blood and tears. Thinking so, Pound waved his hand lightly, stopping the artillery battalion's request to continue the shelling, "Don't waste our shells!" Let them go back. The courage to pull the lead in this battle has already dissipated, and even if they let them go back, it will not do us any harm. Maybe we'll send a messenger later, and we'll be able to do it all. Pound said with a smile.

"Is that so?" There were still some doubts in everyone's hearts. But what happened next was a complete proof of Pound's words. Not long after Zhao returned to the city alone, a white flag was waved in the wind on the head of Weiyuan City, but the people in Weiyuan City were about to surrender.

"Surrender with just one blow? This is too hard to fight, right? This trick is said to be a famous military general of the Wei State. Actually ...... like this" Pang De reported the news of Weiyuan City's request for surrender to Ma Dai, which caused Ma Dai's opinion to be so popular. In order to show his trust in Pound with full authority, and in order not to put too much pressure on Pound, Ma Dai lived in a big tent under the high city ridge at the beginning of the whole battle. Because he was far away from the battlefield, although he also heard the loud rumbling noise, after all, he had not seen the power of the artillery and the soldiers of Weiyuan City who were hit miserably by the artillery, so he naturally did not understand why the people of Weiyuan City actually gave up the fortified city and surrendered after such a blow.

“…… Either way, that's a good thing! Originally, it was planned to take the city in ten days, but now it only took one day, which shows that the power of this artillery is indeed amazing. Ma Jian on the side said with a smile. At present, his identity is that he is a member of the Liangzhou Legion, and he has to take on the responsibility of giving advice to the main general.

"That's ......" Ma Dai nodded lightly, still with some doubts on his face: "This so-called artillery thing really has such power?" ”

"Hmm...... It's possible. Anyway, we should go up and take a look, the battle is over anyway. Ma Tan suggested and said, but his idea was very simple, it was nothing more than that since there was no way to judge all this in the rear, it was better to go directly to the battlefield and see the real situation on the battlefield.

"Good!" Regarding Ma Yan's suggestion, Ma Dai felt that it was very reasonable, and he nodded and agreed at the moment.

Under the protection of a thousand guards, Ma Dai and Ma Jian came to the position in front of them, and they looked at the cannon that was speechless but exuded incomparable momentum, and the shock in their hearts was needless to say. There is nothing frightening about a cannon, but when nearly a thousand cannons are put together, it can really make people feel frightened.

Pang De was still on the position, and when he heard that the chief general and the army were coming, he immediately ran over and followed, all the way to the Chinese army tent. It is said that it is a Chinese military tent, but in fact, it is a small shed with four long guns, just to facilitate command, so in addition to a desk with a few documents piled up in the Chinese military tent, there is only a big chair standing behind the desk and a short table on both sides before the desk, and the whole arrangement is also simple.

Because it was a visit from Shangguan's colleagues, Pang De naturally didn't dare to sit on the big chair above. At that moment, he gave the chair to Ma Dai to sit down, and he and Ma Jian divided the civil and military sides, and sat side by side on the two low tables under the handsome seat, and sat down. Immediately, Ma Dai asked about today's battle situation.

“…… The battle was simple, but it was just a bombardment of the enemy city with heavy artillery, which made them frightened, forcing them to go out of the city to fight, and then using light artillery and infantry to defeat their 10,000 assault cavalry. Pound first briefly explained the course of the battle, and then explained in detail in the very interested eyes of Ma Dai and Ma Tan, and it was half an hour, during which Ma Dai and Ma Tan each had questions about artillery combat, and Pound also answered what he knew. Although he is very willing to explain everything clearly, because in the martial arts, he is most interested in cavalry, and he only dabbles in artillery things a little, and many things are only known for what they are, and they don't know why, so he talked for a long time, but he could only answer the last part. Of course, for Ma Dai and Ma Yan, who don't know how to fight artillery at all, it is part of this area, and it also changes their original view of despising artillery: "...... Artillery, what a good thing! When they heard this, they couldn't help but sigh again and again.

After determining the authenticity of the results, the next discussion is naturally the authenticity of the other side's surrender. Ma Dai listened to Pound tell the story of the battle, and also learned about the cruelty of the battle from Pound, and also heard from Pound about the reason for the other party's surrender: "Maybe that guy was frightened by the news that a cavalry team was wiped out!" - Is that so? After all, Ma Dai had not seen all this with his own eyes, and he was always skeptical about it. "Will they have the idea of surrendering? After all, if they suddenly attack when we are going to surrender, we will not be able to stop it. Ma Dai here was suspicious, and Ma Jian over there even put forward his own speculation about this. What he said seems to be something that is very likely to happen, you must know that at this moment in Weiyuan City, there are still tens of thousands of soldiers and horses who have not suffered any losses. If they want to fight, they still have the strength to fight.

"This can't be ignored either." Hearing this, Pound, who was not stupid, soon came to his senses, he frowned tightly, and then stretched out again: "We can't just give up the current surrender for this one possibility." Of course, it will be very bad for us if the other party uses deception, but if not, we may become a laughing stock if we are too cautious at the moment. In fact, I think there is still a great possibility that the other side will surrender, and anyone who witnesses artillery fire for the first time will be frightened by its formidable power...... Even I was no exception. ”

"Is that really the case?" Ma Dai and Ma Jian were still skeptical when they heard this. After thinking about it, Ma Dai suddenly made a decision: "Take us to the front to have a look." I wanted to be able to trample on the shelled land and see the walls that had been shelled in front of me. When we came in front of us, it was so far away that we couldn't see it. ”

"This ......," Pound visibly hesitated.

"What? Is it inconvenient? Ma Dai looked at Pound strangely.

"It's a little bit." Pound was slightly stunned, but he laughed, and he whispered to Ma Dai: "You haven't stopped listening to the sound of cannons in front of you!" It seems a little inconvenient to just pass like this! ”

"Oh? It's nothing. Ma Dai waved his hand lightly when he heard this, "I know you think that there is still a war ahead, and there is a certain threat to my safety in the past." But you should also understand that I am also a general, and if I don't come forward just because of an inexplicable threat, I'm afraid it will be an insult to me. ”

"Hah...... Forgive me for being rude. Pound had a down-to-earth attitude towards this.

At this time, Ma Tan on the side raised his own questions about the continuous shelling ahead: "Isn't the other party going to say surrender?" Why do we keep attacking their cities? ”

"Because...... I'm afraid they're cheating, huh? I must use our strength to intimidate them. Pound said that Ma Jian thought of the problem, as an old soldier, he was naturally no stranger to it.