Cao Jun's tentative attack on the side of Xiangyang City, which Li Sheng defended, had to end after Li Sheng's defender Pang Tong used a thunderbolt to trigger a fierce counterattack. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 After the reverberating and long-lasting crisp sound of gold dissipated, Cao Ren ordered someone to count his own losses. When Cheng Yutie, who was in charge of this aspect of the matter, reported the statistics to Cao Ren's side with a blushing face, Cao Ren was immediately stunned: in just one tentative attack, the 30,000 people who went out of the battle lost more than 7,000 people, and the 100 cloud ladders created lost 30 times, 30 catapults, 12 catapults, and 6 of the 50 bed crossbows were also scattered. "Xiangyang City, with Pang Tong as the defender, has an extremely strong defensive capability." This view has been accepted as a fact revealed by the series of figures. Cao Ren and the people under his command all felt that the battle of Xiangyang was not so easy to fight. Even if he is an intact army of 100,000 here, even if there is no step by step approach of Jiangdong's wolf strings, everything will not be much easier than now.

"Xiangyang is very strong. But we will not be easy to take. Mr. Chung Tak, should we send someone to the rear to urge them to send us more war supplies and equipment? Including more bed crossbows, more arrows. Cao Ren read today's battle report, and his brows furrowed tightly. To be honest, he couldn't accept such a result, and although he knew that his army had done its best, and that the enemy was too strong, he still didn't intend to give up the battle for such reasons. He still wants to keep fighting. Of course, he was going to make some additions to his heavy equipment before he could fight.

"Oh?" Hearing Cao Ren say this, Cheng Yu sighed softly. Of course, he knew that Cao Ren had a new perspective on today's enemy, and seemed to have sensed that the enemy's strength was not something that he could defeat now, and he needed to further strengthen his strength. Cheng Yuzi agreed with Cao Ren's view, and he further suggested to Cao Ren at the moment: "We don't just want the rear to further transfer war materials. We should send someone to report our situation here to the lord, so that he can understand our current troubles, and let him send a large army to support us. We need not only supplies, but also troops. ”

"What? Do you want to ask the lord for help? Cao Ren's voice became unnaturally louder, "No! He flatly refused.

"Why not?" Cheng Yu looked at Cao Ren with a determined light in his eyes, but there was a bit of-for-tat.

"The lord is still recuperating. He handed over this army to our command, and it was a sign of trust in us that we came to conquer Jingzhou. We can't afford to live up to this trust, and casually ask the lord to send troops when he only encounters some minor troubles. In this way, the lord will be tired, betray the trust of the lord, and make us generals lose face, and from then on we will become the laughing stock of the world. You must know that the defenders of this city have only about 40,000 men, and we have 70,000. Although we are a little inferior in siege equipment, I think as long as we can replenish a certain amount of siege equipment, there should still be a way to deal with such a small Xiangyang City. Cao Ren defended his own reasoning.

"Just for those two reasons?" Cheng Yu frowned tightly, and his face was full of mockery: "General Zixiao, you may not take our faces too seriously, but take the great cause of the lord and the lives of soldiers too lightly. When and what can be done, this is what we need to grasp. Years of war have exhausted us, and if it weren't for the fact that Xiangyang City was too important to the lord, we wouldn't have started a war with Li Sheng quickly after destroying Liu Bei. Even though we have a strong army, the largest in the world, there are so many places where we need to use our forces. So much so that even with our current troops, we feel that they are stretched thin. General Zixiao, under such circumstances, do you think the Lord Guild wants you to waste these 100,000 elites in vain under Xiangyang City? I don't think so, even if the lord values Jingzhou, he won't want his 100,000 soldiers to be consumed in the end and achieve a crushing victory. If we really want to get Xiangyang City, we must invest more troops and mobilize stronger strength, only by beating Li Sheng with heavy punches and fast punches can we have a chance to get what we want. This is also the lord's consistent combat style, protracted battles and heavy victories, these are not things that the lord expects. ”

"This ...... You have a point. Hearing Cheng Yu say this, and after really seeing the solidity of Pang Tong's defense of Xiangyang, Cao Ren thought for a long time, and finally nodded helplessly and admitted this. He was persuaded by Cheng Yu, so he asked Cheng Yu: "Since you said that we need reinforcements now, where do you think our reinforcements should be mobilized from?" You yourself said that there are many places in our Central Plains that need soldiers and horses. I'm afraid it's not going to be easy to get reinforcements. ”

"Generally speaking, that's what the lord has to think about." Cheng Yu shook his head and said like this. He didn't want to say more, but when he saw Cao Ren's eager eyes, he was a little helpless, so he had to think about it and said: Actually, in my opinion, although there are many places for us to use troops at the moment, it is not impossible to gather a support army. ”

"Oh? Where did the reinforcements come from? Since Cao Ren had already approved Cheng Yu's statement, he was naturally very concerned about this reinforcement, and he asked eagerly at the moment.

"At present, our army has about 400,000 elite soldiers, which can be roughly divided into Yecheng part, Chang'an part, Jingzhou part and Xuzhou part. The Chang'an part was now to prevent Li Sheng's surprise attack on Guanzhong, and there was an attempt to spy on Hanzhong, so it was absolutely impossible for reinforcements to appear from them; Yecheng is the capital of the lord, and its troops are commanded by the eldest son, which is regarded as our reserve, and naturally cannot be transferred casually; As for the Xuzhou part to the east, it can be considered. I think if the lord has to take Xiangyang, then he will definitely send the troops from Xuzhou as our reinforcements. Cheng Yu thought about it and analyzed it, and came to such a conclusion.

"Oh? What do you say about that? I remember that the lord sent his troops to Xuzhou mainly to guard against the Jiangdong Army's surprise attack on Xuzhou. Mr. Zhongde should understand what the real relationship between us and the Jiangdong Army is. For such an ally who may be biting you secretly anytime and anywhere, we can't take it as lightly as Liu Bei. Cao Ren reminded Cheng Yu that because he thought of this, he didn't agree with what Cheng Yu said.

"Heh, you can't take it lightly." Cheng Yu chuckled and said. Although he said so, everyone in the military tent knew that he didn't actually mean it. "What the hell is going on with him?" Everyone was curious and wanted to get to the bottom of it, but they didn't ask any more. Because Cheng Yu over there spoke again, he asked everyone: "Our troops in Xuzhou are used to defend Jiangdong." ”

"That's right!" Cao Ren nodded heavily.

"How many soldiers and horses are there in Jiangdong?" Cheng Yu asked again.

"I don't know, but I guess it used to be between 60,000 and 70,000." Cao Ren said the answer he knew, but his eyes were a little strange when he looked at Cheng Yu: "Mr. Zhongde should be very clear about this matter." How can you knowingly ask? ”

He was puzzled, but he heard Cheng Yu over there ask again: "So how many troops is there in Jiangdong this time facing Jingzhou?" ”

"The figure announced by the Jiangdong side is 100,000, but according to our observation, the strength of the Jiangdong Army is roughly around 60,000, and they may have sent all their own troops." Cao Ren replied honestly.

"It's impossible for them to send out all their troops. After all, most of Jiangdong still has some problems that need to be suppressed. But they do have that many troops. Wen He always estimates that there is always a little bit of an estimate of our enemies in the south. It's just about Jiangdong, just as Zixiao said, they did their best. Cheng Yu smiled and said what he thought of Cao Ren's answer.

"So?" Cao Ren didn't react for a while, and looked at Cheng Yu very strangely, he didn't know what Cheng Yu was talking to him about now.

"What else? Jiangdong has already mobilized all their forces. The men and horses in their territory themselves are absolutely incapable of attacking Xuzhou. In such a situation, can't the part of Xuzhou still be drawn? Cheng Yu rolled his eyes and explained directly to Cao Ren. He squinted at Cao Ren, looking like you were too stupid.

"That's ......," Cao Ren touched his head and suddenly realized. He smiled innocently for a while, and then asked Cheng Yu: "So what are we going to do now?" What should we do on these days to get the news to the lord, then to go to the lord to make a decision, and then to ask the lord to send reinforcements to us, even if it is the fastest speed, it will take days? ”

"Attack, keep attacking. We have to show our strength with offense, and we can't let Pang Tong on the other side realize that we have fallen into a dilemma of insufficient troops. Cheng Yu suggested to Cao Ren. This is also a very realistic thing, they really have to do this, Cheng Yu believes that Cao Ren can understand this - he just didn't think of it for a while.

"That's exactly what it does. Until then, though, we seem to have a problem that needs to be solved. Cao Ren frowned and said, he thought of a huge ** annoyance.

"What's the problem?" Now it's Cheng Yu's turn to be puzzled.

"How do we protect our catapult positions? The range of the catapult is not as far as that of a bed crossbow, and if it is not pushed closer, there is no way to pose a threat to Xiangyang. But if it costs thousands of people to get closer every time it gets closer, then it's not worth it at all. I would have liked to leave the catapult directly in front, but if the problem of defense is not solved, it will be easy for them to destroy it. Cao Ren's brows furrowed, looking distressed.

"What's so hard about that?" Cheng Yu thought about it and said with a laugh.

"How?" Cao Ren was curious about this, and hurriedly asked with concern.

"It's simple." Cheng Yu shook his head and said his own solution: "We can build a dirt mountain, use the earth mountain to suppress the attack in the city, and use the earth mountain to provide defense for the catapult." ”

"With dirt mountains?" Cao Ren pondered for a moment, "This is a good method, but it is not so easy to build under the nose of the enemy." There is a lot of manpower needed. Cao Ren said what was the trouble with this method.

"Is this something to worry about? It will be a few days before we get reinforcements, and in the time before the reinforcements arrive, we might as well build these dirt hills. You know, these fortifications, even if our reinforcements arrive, are needed to have the ability to directly attack Xiangyang City. Cheng Yu didn't think there was anything to take into account about this inappropriateness, in his opinion, these things were completely needed to be done by himself, at least before he conquered Xiangyang City.

"Well, since that's the case, then ......" Cao Ren nodded and agreed.

The army soon had a change in this, and they began to build a large number of shield carts, and under the escort of the shield carts, they built a dirt mountain under the north gate of Xiangyang City. They started building less than fifty zhang from the Xiangyang city wall, and although it was completely within the penetrating range of the crossbow on the head of the Xiangyang city, with a large number of shield carts to buffer it, everything was still going well.

Letters calling for help and orders for the mobilization of supplies were issued. There is no news from Xuchang in the north, and a large number of siege equipment has been transported to Xiangyang in the direction of Xinye and Wancheng one after another. As a result of occupying the north embankment of Xiangyang and controlling the port outside Xiangyang, Cao Jun also obtained several river boats. With the help of these river boats, coupled with a large number of rafts, Cao Jun's supply has been relatively smooth.

At this point, a few more days passed. The reinforcements that had been sent had not yet arrived, and the siege equipment on the Xiangyang side had been almost replenished, and the mound had been built, so everything seemed to be going well. Cao Ren naturally prepared to launch a continuous attack on Xiangyang City according to the prior plan.

"Let's use catapults and bed crossbows on the mound to attack those guys in Xiangyang City for three days. I think we need to demoralize them a bit. After receiving the good news that "everything is done", Cao Ren simply gave an order. At this moment, he seemed to have some understanding of what Cao Cao said before attacking Ma Chao: "Even if we are anxious to defeat the enemy, we can't be the slightest impatient when we are engaged in a specific battle. Our actions must be decisive, but our style must not be reckless, and the battle must be carried out slowly. We've got to put on a bit of a laid-back posture. ”

Regarding Cao Ren's order, Cheng Yu also felt that it made sense, and he had no objection at all. For a time, Cao Jun's activities began: the roar of catapults began; The chord of the bed crossbow kept coming to mind; The archers were gathered and constantly threw their arrows; The infantry, on the other hand, were ordered to stand in place, forming formations to guard behind and to the right and left of catapults, bed crossbows, and archers. Everyone seemed to make their own movements, but no matter how noisy they were, they were not as strong as the cavalry that Cao's army had just recovered. Due to the smooth river transportation, the war horses were naturally also transported. Cao Ren mixed the tiger and leopard cavalry with the general cavalry to form a new cavalry unit, led by Xiahoudun and Cao Chun, and roamed around Xiangyang nearby.

"Cut off the connection between Xiangyang City and other places, and let Xiangyang City completely become an isolated city." This is the order that Cao Ren gave them. Although Cao Ren himself knew that this order could not really be fulfilled in this territory of Li Sheng, Cao Ren still gave the order. He believed that the wandering of Xiahoudun and Cao Chun, even if it could not really cut off Xiangyang's external contact and completely isolate Xiangyang City, would also make Xiangyang City's intelligence collection encounter great trouble, and it could also cause strong pressure on the people in the city because of the huge momentum caused by the cavalry's wandering-it can be said that the last point is Cao Ren's real purpose in this regard.

This is where the attack begins. In the face of Cao Jun's bed crossbows, trebuchets, and archers, Pang Tong, who also has heavy equipment, is of course impossible to let the other party hit him casually. He launched a confrontation with Cao's army, and in order to deal with Cao's army's dirt mountain, he even used a rare thunder rocket in the army to bomb it. For a while, between Xiangyang and Tushan, the arrows came and went, but the fight was not lively.

In the intertwining of each other, both sides have suffered a lot of losses. But compared with the "few soldiers" on Pang Tong's side, it seems that in such an attack, Cao Jun has the "upper hand". After three consecutive days of attack, the northern city wall of Xiangyang was already very damaged, and the entire city wall was covered with gaps and cracks, as if it was about to fall when the wind blew. The walls were beaten like this, and the defenses of the city were naturally no better than this. Of the 150 bed crossbows that dotted the walls, 70 were destroyed in a few days of attack, and the crossbowmen who defended with the bed crossbows suffered more than 3,000 casualties. Perhaps because he was afraid that Cao's army might launch a surprise attack from other places, Pang Tong did not replenish his troops from other places, which made the entire northern part of Xiangyang City the weakest defensive force in Xiangyang City.

The continuous bombardment was so effective that Cao Ren wanted to continue the bombardment, but he finally hesitated to stop. Because he thought about the time consumption of this situation: "Although the attack is effective, you still have to spend time on the attack, and this is not what we are best at. Cao Ren thought about it and felt that time was more precious at the moment, he was not sure how many days it would take to completely hit himself with only bombardment, let alone how many days Pang Tong would not transfer their troops in other directions to defend in front of the formation. There was no way, after estimating that the defense in the north of Xiangyang City had been almost consumed, Cao Ren planned to tentatively attack Xiangyang City according to the predetermined plan.

"Ready, ready. We're going to launch an attack on Xiangyang City tomorrow. At the end of another day, Cao Ren gathered his generals and said.

"Yes." Cheng Yu bowed his head slightly, and then asked Cao Ren: "I don't know what the general's plans are for tomorrow's attack?" ”

"I'm going to use a wave-style attack." Cao Ren said, "I plan to let Zilian and Junyi each bring 10,000 people to attack tomorrow. In terms of concrete actions, we can divide these 20,000 people into big waves of 10,000 people, and divide the big waves of 10,000 people into small waves of 1,000 people. My idea is to let these waves cooperate with each other to attack continuously, and if one wave is blocked, it will retreat a little and be supplemented by the second wave, like a wave that is constantly hitting the coast, shattering the defense of Xiangyang City. Of course, with Pang Tong's ability, we can't do anything to crush them even if we defend against the impact. But at least we can use this tactic to exhaust the defenders of Xiangyang. There are not many defenders in Xiangyang, and if they are tired, it will undoubtedly reduce their defensive capabilities, which is exactly what we want to see. ”

"Well, that's a brilliant tactic. So be it. Cheng Yu listened to Cao Ren's explanation, thought about it well, and immediately nodded in agreement. Obviously, he also felt that after the three days of bombardment, Xiangyang City's defense power had dropped significantly, and he definitely didn't have much spare strength to resist such tactics. "Maybe everything is as Zixiao said, under such ups and downs, even if Pang Tong can barely defend it, it will be a misery for their defenders. Such a large weakening of Xiangyang's city defense is just to pave a golden avenue for our attack after the arrival of reinforcements. Cheng Yu thought about it and laughed: "That's good." ”

Seeing that Cheng Yu also agreed with his idea, Cao Ren immediately raised the token and prepared to issue an order. However, just outside the tent, a very rapid sound of horses' hooves suddenly sounded, and it stopped outside the tent, and then a raised shout was raised: "Report to the general, the Jiangdong side has an urgent alarm for eight hundred miles." ”

"What?" Hearing the news suddenly, Cao Ren patted the case in front of him with both hands and stood up suddenly: "Eight hundred miles of urgent alert from Jiangdong? What's going on here? Cao Ren was shocked by what was reported outside the door, not only that, but also everyone in his account. Eight hundred miles in an expedited? It must be something big besides the Jiangdong side. Most of them thought so.

Cao Cao was born in the Han Dynasty, and all his rules, in the case that he has not completely replaced the Han family, are naturally generally in accordance with the rules of the Han family. In the intelligence system mastered by Cao Cao, there is a difference between ordinary information and urgent intelligence. Needless to say, ordinary information is divided into: 400 li expedited, 600 li expedited, and 800 li expedited, with the degree of urgency being the lowest and 800 li being the highest. Since the establishment of Cao Cao's forces, there have only been a few times when the intelligence has been used for 800 miles: Lü Bu's sneak attack on Yanzhou was once, Jiangdong Sun Ce's death was once, and Cao Cao's defeat from Chibi was another time.

As for the moment, "what happened to the intelligence organization that came to the Koto side to use such an urgent eight-hundred-mile expedited?" Could it be that Sun Quan is dead? Shouldn't that be? Thoughts of crankiness grew in their hearts, and they both fidgeted a little. And Cao Ren stood up even more quickly, and while ordering the spy to be put into the account outside, he couldn't wait to step down from the handsome position and meet the spy. "Where's the intelligence?" Because it was an eight-hundred-mile rush of information, Cao Ren didn't have much of a sense of concern about the spies' exhaustion, but just asked.

"Please take a closer look, General." The very tired spy sweated profusely and took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Cao Ren, and then fell to the ground, but he didn't even have the strength to stand up.

For him like this, although Cao Ren was a little unbearable in his heart, he didn't have time to care about him for a while. After all, for him Cao Ren, what kind of information in front of him is the most important thing. He quickly cut open the envelope and took the thin end of the letter paper from it. However, the more he looked at the information on the letter, the more surprised the look on his face became: "How can this be?" How could this be? His eyes widened, and when he saw the end, it was as if all his strength had been drained, but he sat on the ground, and the whole person became tired. He took a few heavy breaths, but he didn't have much strength to say to the people in the tent: "Everyone, I'm afraid we can't fight this battle anymore." We must immediately withdraw our troops and return to Wancheng. ”

"Why?" Seeing that Cao Ren had changed so much, everyone was immediately surprised. They looked at Cao Ren, who seemed to be a few years older suddenly, but they were very puzzled in their hearts: "What happened?" Why retreat? Is it over there in Koto? ”

Before they had time to ask, they saw Cao Ren raise his hand and hand the letter to Cheng Yu: "Zhongde, you have to give me an idea for this information." ”

"I understand." Cheng Yu nodded and took out the letter from Cao Ren's hand, and looked at it carefully. Everyone looked at Cheng Yu's face, and they watched Cheng Yu's face turn blue as they browsed the letter. "Withdraw!" These are the words that Cheng Yu said through gritted teeth after reading everything. After reading the information, he came to a decision similar to Cao Ren's.

"Why?" The crowd finally asked the question. They were really surprised that Cao Ren and Cheng Yu would come to such a consistent opinion. After all, as far as their observation of these two people is concerned, the personalities of these two people seem to be very different, and their ideas are naturally very different. "It's ...... that there should be such a big difference in this matter! Could it be that this new piece of information is really that bad? But even if it's not good, it's a problem on the Koto side. For us at the moment, it probably won't have that much impact. But why ......" countless questions swirled in their minds, making them more and more confused. They all looked at Cao Ren and Cheng Yu in a daze, looking forward to the answer they gave them.

"Alas, Sun Quan in Jiangdong is in trouble, and this difficulty will completely affect our side." Cheng Yu sighed heavily and spoke.

"What the hell is going on?" The crowd asked again.

"Five days ago, a fleet under the banner of Li Shengjun suddenly appeared under Jianye City and attacked Jianye City with extremely strong force. After they leveled the Jianye defensive forces, a large number of ships came with infantry troops and besieged Jianye City. At present, Jianye and Xiangyang, which we are surrounding, are in a precarious situation. Cao Ren briefly summarized the content of the intelligence.

"Oh? I see. It's a big deal, but what does it have to do with us? Jiangdong is in danger. Although everyone was a little surprised when they heard what Cao Ren said, they still didn't realize the deep meaning, and they even felt that it seemed a bit too much to pass on such a thing as an eight-hundred-mile expedited.

"You're all wrong." Seeing that everyone's eyes were a little superficial, Cheng Yu shook his head lightly and explained: "Generally speaking, no matter how Jiangdong declines, it really has no effect on us. But right now, it's not that simple. Jianye is the foundation of Jiangdong, and if there is a problem there, the Jiangdong Army will definitely transfer back the fleet here in Jiangling. Once Jiangling's fleet was repatriated, Li Shengjun's power on the Yangtze River would inevitably increase. At that time, no matter how many troops we have in Xiangyang, as long as Xiangyang can withstand our blows, and Li Shengjun's fleet will seal the Han River. Then for us without a water army, Xiangyang has completely become a Jedi. We're going to be locked up here. ”

"Ah......h So what to do? When Cheng Yu said this, everyone suddenly became nervous. They all thought something was wrong.