Xiahou Yuan is not an idiot, the Han army has been besieged for so many days, the water source has been cut off, and it should have collapsed without a fight, but he has persevered energetically so far, then there must be another dark water source to supply water to the mountain.

So he once again carefully inspected the surroundings of the mountain, and finally he realized that the partial camp stationed on the mountainside of the east side of Nanshan seemed to be a little weird.

This battalion seems to be at odds with the main camp of the Han army on the top of the mountain, but its back is against the cut wall to the east, and the connection between it and the top of the mountain can only be climbed by ropes, and if it is attacked, the Han army on the top of the mountain will not be able to provide timely support.

Such a partial camp is also unable to provide any support for the main camp, which is still a burden. If it were Xiahou Yuan, he would rather send troops to defend the small city of Jieting than waste thousands of men and horses stationed here.

Unless, for another purpose.

Xiahou Yuan's keen sense of war made him deeply suspicious, and that night, he personally watched the camp again and stayed up until late at night, and finally let him discover something strange.

In the middle of the night, when Cao Jun who was surrounding the mountain did not pay much attention to the situation on the mountain, many wooden barrels hanging from ropes were suddenly stretched out from the top of the mountain, and the empty barrels went down the mountain, and the full barrels were dragged up. Xiahou Yuan could even hear the sound of water swaying out of the bucket and splashing on the cracked stone wall.

"Damn, it turns out that these thousands of soldiers are guarding a mountain spring, no wonder. Come on, go to the main camp quickly, and ask Guo Sima to quickly dispatch 5,000 elite soldiers here, and tomorrow Lao Tzu will have to capture this water source. ”

…… After taking a cool shower, Fang Shao spent the night relaxing all over, but when the sky was still cloudy, Fang Shao was woken up by Ah Shan.

"Sir, sir! Wake up, the enemy seems to be planning to attack us. ”

Fang Shao jumped up, only put on a long shirt and ran out of the tent, he stood on the side of the slope, put his hand on the canopy and looked at the enemy camp under the slope, but saw that the Cao army in the camp got up early, it was to sort out the clothes and armor, wipe the weapons, the number seemed to be a lot more than before, and on the road not far away, a group of Cao Jun was still rushing here, and the number was about more than a thousand people.

Seeing this situation, Fang Shao's eyes became solemn, he muttered for a long time, turned around and walked towards the tent, leaving only an order for Ah Shan: "Pass my general's order, the whole army is ready to fight." ”

At dawn, nearly 7,000 Cao troops gathered at the foot of the hillside, and 3,000 Han troops were also on full alert.

The terrain of the partial camp is not as steep as the top of the main camp south of the mountain, although it is also located on a hillside platform, but the slope of this hillside is extremely gentle, if Cao's army swarms up, the 3,000 soldiers and horses are really not easy to defend.

Therefore, the most important thing is to hold the rocky valley under the hillside, the towering and messy boulders form a natural annular arch wall, and only a valley mouth more than ten zhang wide can be passed.

Earlier, Fang Shao ordered two antlers to be set up at the mouth of the valley, and three trenches were dug in front of the antlers, and the barbs inserted in the trenches were all cut from the solid wood of the nearby poplar forest. And in the wide area on the outskirts of the valley, Fang Shao ordered to scatter a large area of iron tribulus, this kind of gadget was shaped like a peach pit with four thorns, and if he threw it down, one side would be up. All these measures were aimed at weakening the shock advantage of Cao's cavalry and gaining more time for the crossbowmen after the antlers to shoot.

When the sun rose, in the enemy camp, the iron cavalry of the Cao army of the brigade began to drive out of the camp and assembled into a military formation hundreds of steps away from the valley, but they did not immediately attack as Fang Shao expected.

"Xiahou Yuan, why haven't you attacked yet, what are you waiting for?" Fang Shaoyuan looked at the black pressure under the mountain, the cavalry formation of the Cao army like a cloud, and he was vaguely uneasy in his heart.

The sun was still rising, and when it passed over those boulders, a dazzling light shone directly on his face, Fang Shao immediately felt very dazzling, and involuntarily raised his hand to block the sun. And at this time, the Cao army in front of the valley began to act.

The first to be dispatched were not cavalry, but a dozen parallel squads of ten, these foot soldiers scattered out, holding roughly bound wooden shields in front of them, and slowly marched under the cover of wooden shields, sweeping away the iron tribules scattered everywhere along the way.

It seems that Xiahou Yuan is not a reckless man.

Seeing this, Fang Shao immediately ordered the crossbowmen to launch an attack to block the enemy's sweeping detachment.

At the order, arrows were fired from the mouth of the valley and flew towards the enemy in an elegant arc, but the hit rate was extremely low.

Xiahou Yuan's troops came lightly to grab the street pavilion, and they were not as good as carrying heavy equipment such as iron shields, and the shields used by those sweeping troops were only made of rough woods nearby, and their defensive energy was extremely low. And half of the thousands of men and horses led by Fang Shao were strictly trained crossbowmen, but at the moment, when no one interfered, the hit rate was so low, which really made Fang Shao feel a little incomprehensible.

He raised his eyes again to observe the enemy's situation, but at this time, the sun from the east was even more dazzling, and he could hardly open his eyes.

In an instant, Fang Shao understood.

He finally understood why Xiahou Yuan lined up early in the morning, but did not act, it turned out that he was waiting for the sun to rise.

When the oncoming sunlight illuminates the crossbowmen of the Han army and can't open their eyes, how can they aim accurately, the hit rate of the arrow will naturally drop significantly, and at this moment the Cao army can easily complete the cleaning work without worrying about the greeting of the Han army's strong bow and crossbow.

"Okay, you Xiahou Yuan, no wonder you have been standing still, so that's the case."

At this moment, Fang Shao paid more and more attention to Xiahou Yuan's ability, and he blamed himself a little for his slightest mistake. The reason why a famous general is a famous general is that he can apply the time and place of the battlefield to a divine effect, which is one of his necessary conditions, and this is obviously a considerable gap between himself and the battle-hardened Xiahou Yuan.

However, Fang Shao didn't worry too much, you must know that he is just a strategist in the final analysis, a famous general has the ability of a famous general, and a strategist naturally has the ingenuity of a strategist.

Therefore, Fang Shao decisively ordered to stop shooting, and there was no need to waste arrows unnecessarily.

Half an hour later, the sweeping troops retreated, and the road to the valley was unimpeded.

In the middle of the Cao army, the flag was called, and a military formation of more than 1,000 people on the left flank moved. The horse's hooves flew, kicking up billowing dust and sand, and galloping like black electricity.

As the enemy cavalry approached, the ground trembled more and more violently, and if you closed your eyes, you would think that an earthquake was happening on the ground beneath your feet.

The impact was coming, Fang Shao galloped down the hillside, standing behind the soldiers at the back of the valley, he shouted: "Don't panic, all stand firm for me, we have secret weapons and hands, and the enemy has no need to be afraid." ”

As he spoke, the enemy cavalry had already taken nearly a hundred steps, and Fang Shao gave the order, and the crossbowmen in the first row quickly carried out a long-range attack with strong crossbows. It's just that, because of the dazzling sunlight, the first wave of more than 100 crossbow arrows did not cause much damage to the enemy.

In the blink of an eye, more than seventy were approaching, the strong crossbowmen in the first row stepped back, and the two hundred archers in the second row stepped forward, drew their bows and opened arrows, and launched a mid-range blockade. Dozens of enemy horsemen were shot to the ground, but the enemy was undaunted and was rushing forward at an increasing speed.

Between breaths, fifty steps were close, horses' hooves were flying, leaping over the trench, and many war horses stumbled, and even men and horses were planted in the trench, and immediately stabbed to death with barbs, but this did not affect the overall situation, most of the enemy horsemen jumped over the trench smoothly, and the black pressure pressed the last line of defense at the mouth of the valley.

It's time.

"Crossbowman, prepare!"

Fang Shao shouted loudly, and the five hundred Zhuge flying crossbowmen, divided into three rows in front and back, entered the firing position.

Fifty steps, forty steps, thirty steps, Fang Shao shouted: "Release the arrow!" ”

The first row of more than 100 crossbowmen began a simple push and pull action without interruption, although the sunlight affected the vision, but the advantage of the Zhuge repeater was its dense salvo rather than accuracy, the crossbowmen did not need to aim carefully at all, just maintain a general direction, monotonously repeat the same action.

Within fifteen seconds, a total of more than 1,500 crossbow arrows were fired like flying locusts.

On a transverse plane that is only a dozen zhang wide, more than a thousand arrows are shot in more than ten seconds, which is such a terrifying density.

The first 300 cavalry of the Cao Army, without exception, were shot by the dense crossbow arrows, whether it was a man or a horse, once stained with such crossbow arrows soaked in poison, they lost their combat effectiveness in an instant, so before the antlers, a tragic scene of people turning over on their backs.

Cao Jun did not expect that when he was about to break through the enemy's defensive line, he would suddenly face such a violent blow, and when the comrades in the front platoon fell to the ground, the cavalry behind could not be stopped at all because of the momentum.

At this time, the crossbowmen of the second and third rows stepped forward in turn, and shot more than 3,000 crossbow arrows in one minute, so that the 1,000 elite cavalry completely collapsed in less than a minute. A thousand cavalrymen were not killed by Zhuge Lian's crossbow, but they were trampled to death under mutual pressure, and less than a hundred horsemen fled back to their own camp in embarrassment.

Xiahou Yuan, who was a few hundred steps away, witnessed the tragic situation of his elite iron cavalry being "ravaged", but he couldn't do anything, he wanted to order a retreat at the first time, but the whole process of defeat was too short, and before his Ming Jin's order could be conveyed, a thousand men and horses had already received the lunch.

"How can this be, what kind of weapon did the thief army use, how could they shoot such a dense rain of arrows!" Xiahou Yuan looked at the embarrassing battlefield in disbelief, how shocked he was in his heart, however, as the commander of the first army, the more he faced defeat, the more he showed a calm appearance.

However, there was already a faint sense of foreboding in his heart.

"Fang Shao, Fang Shao, well, it seems that I underestimated this person."

(To be continued)